Exactly What Is Happening Here??
[guest post by Dana]
I don’t know, maybe I’m still in a post-Thanksgiving-leftover stupor, but several peculiar things seem to have happened today. Maybe you know have some good ideas about what they mean, who is behind them, or what the end game is.
Today, on the heels of Trump’s camp calling on Mitt Romney to make a public apology for his attacks on Donald Trump during the campaign, Kellyanne Conway made a not-so-subtle attack on her boss’s potential selection for secretary of State:
President-elect Donald Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway attacked former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, now a contender for secretary of state, warning him, “This is Trump’s party now.”
“I think that there was the ‘Never Trump’ movement and then there was Gov. Mitt Romney. He went out of his way to hurt Donald Trump. He gave two speeches that I can recall in this calendar year, and they were both about Donald Trump,” Conway said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We’re all for party unity. I don’t think a cost of admission for party unity has to be the secretary of state position,”
Conway also reinforced this “betrayal” of supporters:
“It’s just breathtaking in scope and intensity the type of messages I’ve received from all over the country … the number of people who feel betrayed to think that Gov. Romney would get the most prominent Cabinet post after he went so far out of his way to hurt Donald Trump.”
In spite of this, Conway said she would “support 1000%” whoever the President-elect decided upon.
Keep in mind that last week it was reported that Romney is Trump’s preferred choice for the coveted slot:
The New York businessman views Mr. Romney as the prototypical choice to be the nation’s top diplomat, and a group of advisers inside the transition are pushing him to select the 2012 Republican presidential nominee. Two people said Mr. Trump is inclined to select Mr. Romney.
Several theories are being floated about motives for Conway’s public hit on Romney: One being, perhaps Trump sent Conway out to do a public bashing of Romney before he is selected, just to remind him of his place. Or, maybe she undermined Trump with this attack as part of a collaborative effort between herself, Guiliani (who is lobbying hard for the coveted position), and Steve Bannon, who reportedly believes that Romney will not be “loyal” to Trump. Leading the group effort may have been major GOP donor and Trump supporter Rebekah Mercer. Mercer has a seat on the Trump transition team and is said to wield immense power and influence over the President-elect. And yet one more possibility might be that Conway went rogue: Given that Romney has not apologized (or removed himself from consideration), perhaps this attack was designed to push him harder in that direction. Romney steps down and Trump is free to select Guiliani, thus pleasing Conway and her faction of Trump’s team as well as pleasing the President-elect’s loyal supporters at large.
Anyway, hopefully Trump received some sage advice at his Thanksgiving dinner party where he allegedly solicited opinions from his guests on the vexing matter of Romney and Guiliani.
The next item making the rounds today has to do with the Jill Stein’s efforts for a vote recount. As you know, millions of dollars have been raised for the effort, and the Clinton camp announced it will be participating. Yesterday Donald Trump seemed to take this seriously, and released a statement pushing back against recount efforts:
“The people have spoken and the election is over, and as Hillary Clinton herself said on election night, in addition to her conceding by congratulating me, ‘We must accept this result and then look to the future.’
“It is important to point out that with the help of millions of voters across the country, we won 306 electoral votes on Election Day – the most of any Republican since 1988 – and we carried nine of 13 battleground states, 30 of 50 states, and more than 2,600 counties nationwide – the most since President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
“This recount is just a way for Jill Stein, who received less than one percent of the vote overall and wasn’t even on the ballot in many states, to fill her coffers with money, most of which she will never even spend on this ridiculous recount. All three states were won by large numbers of voters, especially Pennsylvania, which was won by more than 70,000 votes.
“This is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded, and the results of this election should be respected instead of being challenged and abused, which is exactly what Jill Stein is doing.”
Today, however, his fast Twitter trigger-finger may have caused him to unintentionally indicate that he supports a recount after all:
–Dana
In the time it’s taken me to write this post, I half expect that Romney has issued an apology, Trump has selected Sen. Bob Corker for secretary of State, and Hillary Clinton has announced she will indeed run in 2020 if this recount doesn’t give her the presidency!
Dana (d17a61) — 11/27/2016 @ 6:38 pmSoap opera.
Or clinical confusion due to Vitamin B-12 deficiency? In Trump’s case, from lack of absorption which often afflicts the elderly; in Kellyanne’s case from just plain not eating enough.
nk (dbc370) — 11/27/2016 @ 6:43 pmSigns and wonders. It’s not the one thing, there are too, too many.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/27/2016 @ 6:52 pmPersonally I prefer ingraham, Conway is far too trusting, priebus really thinks every query is worth an answer?
narciso (d1f714) — 11/27/2016 @ 6:52 pmMercer would a reassuring element, inspire of the tea leaves being sorted through.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/27/2016 @ 7:04 pmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp5JCrSXkJY
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 11/27/2016 @ 8:31 pmTrump is counter punching. He will ask for a recount in states Hillary won!
As for Dr. Jill, she was the spoiler. Hillary might have won but for her. So maybe she is making amends and snagging the ambassador to Cuba position she might desire by sponsoring the recount request. There is little time left for her to still serve in Cuba while it is still a glorious Castro Commie state!
Patricia (5fc097) — 11/27/2016 @ 9:10 pmTry this on for size: DT likes Mitt for the job and did not realize how much push back he would get based on those earlier speeches. DT now wants to drop Mitt, but thinks it will make him look uncertain, or give the media more ammunition for the “transition in disarray” stories. DT asks for the Romney apology knowing Mill will never do it, that he will withdraw from consideration rather than issue an apology. But Mitt does not respond either way, so Conway is sent out to stimulte Mitt into action, preferably that he drop out of consideration. This saves DT having to back away from his initial choice… allowing him the freedom to appoint John Bolton as SedState.
Gramps (8a87b4) — 11/27/2016 @ 9:20 pmNot bad Gramps. I like it.
felipe (023cc9) — 11/27/2016 @ 9:57 pmWell lets think this logically, who in tramp’s inner circle who is for mitt, priebus maybe, kushner unlikely, Conway maybe behind closed doord
narciso (d1f714) — 11/27/2016 @ 9:57 pmMeanwhile Mitt does this:
He should keep up exactly that, and maybe whistle audibly ever so often.
Patterico (115b1f) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:00 pmRe: Trump claiming (with no proof whatsoever; not that he would ever let that stop him) that the election that he WON was rigged — Yes folks, he IS really that stupid. On a subject which he should totally ignore, he is doing nothing but tweeting about it all day long.
Icy (9a733c) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:01 pmThe news is either absurd or insulting to our intelligence, he should have just picked Rudy and gotten on with the business of governing. But magic eightball never rolls that way for democrats, Minnesota, Alaska, tecad decapitation whatever is needed.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:19 pmPowell was a family retainer of the medicis, and he still stabbed w in the back.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:22 pmThey’ll cherry pick the right judge and then you have a recount in Pennsylvania, you watch.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:25 pmPatterico, thank you for posting the Romney tweet.
Folks can think that Romney wasn’t a good choice for POTUS (although now, really?).
But he is a good person. Especially by current standards.
Still…every time we see him, the nonsense and crudeness get dumped on him. My prediction will be even here.
I suspect he is having the best revenge on the haters.
Simon Jester (c63397) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:53 pmDJT would be a fool to not go with Rudy, who has been among his staunchest and most effective supporters for years. Romney? A squish and globalist by nature.
Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 11/27/2016 @ 10:59 pmHow much of what we are seeing (not including Trump tweets) are the AP and the major media stirring the proverbial effluent pot ?
Alastor (3c246a) — 11/27/2016 @ 11:11 pmNo Romney tweeting about spending time with the grandkids at this particular is pure spite and poison.
Mittins stands with the uniparty.
He’s not even a good ambassador for Mormonism intra-country.
papertiger (c8116c) — 11/27/2016 @ 11:56 pmPowell was a family retainer of the medicis, and he still stabbed w in the back.
Powell went to the UN and stated, on his honor, that there were WMDs in Iraq. And then they disappeared somehow. He felt like it was Cheney doing the stabbing and never forgave W.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 11/27/2016 @ 11:57 pmAccording to wikileaks Secretary Powell has a case.
Due to the Bush admin’s silence, it’s a solid one.
papertiger (c8116c) — 11/28/2016 @ 12:12 amcan we count on a perverted climate change pansy like Mitt Romney to approve Keystone?
doubtful
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/28/2016 @ 2:08 am“The election was rigged.” — Donald Trump
“Serious vote fraud.” — Donald Trump
“Millions of illegal votes.” — Donald Trump
Trump should not be certified as President by the Electoral College, the House or the Senate.
nk (dbc370) — 11/28/2016 @ 4:01 amthere were millions of illegal votes that’s how a diseased criminal piggy got so many (duh)
president food stamp himself was all about nakedly encouraging illegals to vote
problem is
most of the illegals that got the message to vote all live in the same places where the food stampers and pig sniffers live
this is a conundrum for daddy soros
happyfeet (28a91b) — 11/28/2016 @ 4:42 amIf you cannot trust the process, you cannot trust any result, even one you like. It’s the scientific consensus.
nk (dbc370) — 11/28/2016 @ 5:30 amJill Stein is a regular on Russia Today and the Obama admin insists that the election was not rigged or hacked.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/28/2016 @ 5:44 amHeh? http://ace.mu.nu/archives/Cl-Ca.jpg
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 11/28/2016 @ 5:46 amLook, I think these tweets at least help us reach consensus/”healing” re: Trump being an idiot.
Leviticus (efada1) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:20 amLooks like a coup in progress. We have finally been dragged across the line into a banana republic by the democrats (with some help by the neverTrumpers). Where is Fidel now that we need him?
Rev. Hoagie® (785e38) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:21 am“Romney tweeting about spending time with the grandkids at this particular is pure spite and poison.”
– papertiger
Yeah, how dare he?! He should spend more time tweeting about himself and how tasty his taco bowls are.
Leviticus (efada1) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:22 amI just don’t get the H8, Leviticus.
You would think folks who didn’t like Romney would applaud his spending time with his grandkids instead of in politics.
But we live in a weird world.
By the way, I think you will get your idea of multiple parties after this dumpster fire election.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:26 am“Powell went to the UN and stated, on his honor, that there were WMDs in Iraq. And then they disappeared somehow. He felt like it was Cheney doing the stabbing and never forgave W.”
Powell made a point of stating that he spent three days at the CIA reviewing the intelligence data. If you know anything about inter-agency politics at the time, Cheney had little control over the CIA. Additionally, CIA director Tenant is on record as stating the WMD claims were a slam dunk.
Powell did his due diligence, and later the CIA’s data was found wanting (The particular data relating to the trailer borne WMD production facilities, he showed photos of at the UN, was provided to the CIA by an Iraqi who was a German asset.)
Instead of being a man and later stating the data was wrong, Powell chose instead to add fire to the conspiracy theories.
Davod (f3a711) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:28 amYes, this is explainable though I dont think she is on Team Romney necessarily (though I could see a Christie connection vis a vis her South Jersey upbringing, which I didnt expect)
http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/28/trouble-in-trump-land-morning-joe-says-kellyanne-is-striking-out-because-video/
Admittedly I’d much rather have her than nasal girl Ingraham at the podium.
Of course the whole Romney dalliance could be an Apprentice-like elaborate “test” in which case she is found wanting.
urbanleftbehind (5eecdb) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:42 amExactly what is happening now?
Probability zero?
Maybe the explanation is that Donald Trump is the only person who is really in favor of Mitt Romney as Secretary of State (after all Barack Obama named some would-be presidents as Secretary of State)
But Vladimir Putin doesn’t like Mitt Romney for Secretary of State, and so he encouraged people he can influence in or close to the Trump camp to demand Mitt Romney not be named, and ginned up all those e-mails to Kelly Anne Conway.
And meanwhile also got Jill Stein to demand a recount, anmd got someone to tell Donald Trump maybe he could be edged out somehow, if not by a recount, then by faithless electors?
I’m not ready to say that.
Sammy Finkelman (dcc9ca) — 11/28/2016 @ 8:03 amI agree with NK. Trying to attach meaning to the Trump Show ad hoc, ad lib soap opera is time ill spent. Why does a two year old bang his sippy cup on the high chair?
Rick Ballard (d17095) — 11/28/2016 @ 9:30 amThe problem is, whoever said this may be right. What’s going on is inexplicable. It looks like Trump is trying to give actual conservatives the finger.
Whatever else it means to be alt-right, it stands for alternative right. And Bannon identifies as such.
As I said, inexplicable.
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/11/28/hmmm-trump-meeting-with-david-petraeus-today/
Apparently Trump is interested in Petraeus for SecState despite the fact as the article points out he’ll still be on criminal probation for violating the Espionage act.
Even meeting with him is a betrayal of the country. He plead guilty to violating national security laws, the same thing Hillary! clearly did. Except for the copping a plea, like Petraeus did, to avoid prison. He copped a plea so he’d be charged with a misdemeanor instead of a felony.
Both of these people should have been charged with felonies. Both of these people would have been easily convicted. And both belong in prison.
But only one of them has any sort of criminal record for violating the Espionage Act, and Trump is considering him for a position in his administration where he’ll certainly have access to classified material again. So he can, I suppose, impress his next mistress with it.
We’re a banana republic all right, but that’s what you get for insisting on a liberal NYC democrat or you jerks would take your ball and go home. You Trumpkins were the ones threatening to hand the election to Hillary! at the GOP convention unless you got your way despite the fact Trump didn’t have enough delegates.
So if you want to know why we’re a banana republic look in the mirror. The #NeverTrump will have a clear conscience now that Trump is proving them right and you wrong. So look in the mirror and tell yourself you’re just like the Democrats who insisted that national security is not big deal. They don’t give a sh*t about national security, clearly neither does Trump. Everything he said about “Crooked HIllary” was a lie including the debate retort about “you’d be in jail” and his promise to appoint a special prosecutor to look into her “situation.” If he’s even meeting with Petraeus he never cared about her “situation.”
He never cared about national security and clearly neither do you and the rest of the Trumpkins. Trump is making the #NeverTrump case right now. That Trump would be just as bad as Hillary! and now both parties are in on the Make American
Great Againa Banana Republic! project. They didn’t want it and you did.So throw your hissy fit, Trumpkin. A lot of people never supported Trump, they just despised Hillary! more. I was for HIllary! for Prison 2016. Now I’m for Impeach Trump 2017.
Say goodbye to any more Congressional investigations of Hillary! because Trump just cut them off at the knees. The fact that he’s even considering replacing one criminal who mishandled classified with another criminal who mishandled classified means Trump agrees with the Dems. That they were right all along; the Congressional investigations were just partisan, election year hit jobs to torpedo HIllary!s election chances. The #NeverTrump crowd warned you about this. I warned you about this. We’re not the ones agreeing with the Dems. It’s Trump and his fanbois agreeing with the Dems about Hillary! And the Trumpkins are just fine with it.
The only way we’re not turn this ship of state away from that port in the banana republic is if the congressional GOP tells El Commandante Maximo “No, this isn’t your party” and gives us President Pence. And if you Trumpkins have a problem with that it means you don’t have a problem with turning the US into a banana republic as long as it’s not Hillary! who does it, just as long as it’s your cult leader who is always brilliant.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/28/2016 @ 11:22 am@Steve57:and Trump is considering him for a position
Do we even actually know that? With all the chaff that’s been posted from anonymous sources?
Gabriel Hanna (64d4e1) — 11/28/2016 @ 11:29 amThere were WMDs. It’s amusing that you’re trying to pretend that you know something about what you’re talking about. I highlighted the part that demonstrates you know nothing. You actually are willing to say, in front of God and everybody, and thereby demonstrate your ignorance that the photos Powell showed the dictator’s club known as the UN that those photos constituted the “CIA’s data?”
Like, we didn’t have anything else, but it never occurs to you that we just didn’t want to show it to a bunch of Thid World dictators? Amazingly pathetic.
http://www.newenglishreview.org/Jerry_Gordon/Syria%27s_Bio-Warfare_Threat%3A_an_interview_with_Dr._Jill_Dekker/
And, yes, she is who she says she is. She wouldn’t have been speaking at a CBRN conference with the likes of Dr Kerry Kartchner if she wasn’t.
http://www.smi-online.co.uk/defence/europe/conference/cbrn#tab_programme
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/28/2016 @ 12:33 pmAs I said, she wouldn’t be speaking at the same conference as Dr. Kartchner if she isn’t who she said she is.
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA540271&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/28/2016 @ 12:52 pmWe can start down the road of making America great again by nominating Mr John Bolton to become Secretary of State.
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 11/28/2016 @ 1:18 pmExactly What Is Happening Here??
Television. The Beast needs fed.
Conway is pitching the narrative of this week’s Presidential Apprentice. Stein is surrogating w/Clinton support to ebb at the legitimacy of the Trump win. Shades of Bush/Gore. There’s more air time to fill than high profile government jobs between now, Christmas, New Year’s–and the inauguration.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 11/28/2016 @ 1:38 pmCurveball was a an asset of of the bnd, he had been recruited by a German AMD inspector, the late Mr drumheller, lied to drogin of the la times as Stephen Grey discovered.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/28/2016 @ 2:24 pmThere’s presidential transition planning to be done. There’s not time to waste on trivialities. If all Trump wanted to talk with Petraeus about was “Is Broadwell a good f**k” and “Let me have her number” he would have just told an underling to give him a call.
This is hardly anonymously sourced, and clearly it was about more than just shooting the breeze about mistresses.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/803343150907617284
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 11/28/2016 @ 11:54 pmAnd David Petraeus was interviewed outside after leaving the meeting and he described it something like as Donald Trump giving a tour around the world and seeming to be well informed. That could be the truth. Of course, with Donald Trump picking what to tallk about he could seem well informed about everything. You wouldn’t notice the gaps.
Trump probably actually has been becoming more informed, and he probably learns by chewing things over repeatedly with other people.
Trump is a;so going to meet woth Senator Bob Corker and Mitt Romney tomorrow (or today by now) It would seem like Giuliani is out of coniseration for this job.
It was said that Mike Pence was the person who recommended Romney. Note: Mike Pence is now head of the transition.
Sammy Finkelman (032a0d) — 11/28/2016 @ 11:58 pmSteve57 (0b1dac) — 11/28/2016 @ 12:33 pm you are overthinking my Davod (f3a711) — 11/28/2016 @ 7:28 am comment. I was responding only to your comment ““Powell went to the UN and stated, on his honor, that there were WMDs in Iraq. And then they disappeared somehow. He felt like it was Cheney doing the stabbing and never forgave W.” Instead of laying blame at the foot of the intelligence community for his perceived embarrassment, he chose to blame VP Cheney.
The photos of the portable WMD production facilities were later shown to be not WMD facilities. Any evidence that this statement is wrong?
I don’t dispute there was WMD. My comments relate to Powell.
Davod (f3a711) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:04 amYes they were wrong, was a German asset, who the bnd did not allow the CIA to vet. That doesn’t mean there no wmds
narciso (d1f714) — 11/29/2016 @ 6:18 amPaul pillar, who widlansky points out has a track rrcird fir getting thing wring, put together the 2002 nie on Iraq, he also did the 2007 one on Iran, relying almost entirely on ashghari who back in the day, may have mugniyeh’s handler in hezbollah.
narciso (d1f714) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:06 amThere were no portable biological warfare research labs or storage facilities. The trucks were something else. Supposedly, biological warfare material was put there to escape the possibility of bombing. Nobody ever thought Saddam Hussein’s biological warfare program was anything more than a research program.
Chemical weapons they thought he had, and he certainly had had them at one time, but it wasn’t known how readily available they were. Saddam had never accounted for it. He probably 1) got rid of them and 2) wanted Bush – not just Iran – to think he still had them and 3) didn’t want anyone else to think he still had them.
Why? Because he never believed WMDs was the reason Bush was contemplating war, and he knew that so long as Rumsfeld and Bush thought he had chemical weapons, U.S. troops would wear chemical protection gear, and he knew that so long as that was true the United States would not start a war in the summer, in fact after the beginning of April, and he also knew Bush would wait until the last minute, and he knew Bush’s plan involved invading both from Kuwait and from Turkey….and he probably bribed members of the Turkish PParliament to pull the rug out from under him at the last minute…
…and it didn’t work.
Bush went ahead without Turkey, because, in truth, the use of its land as a staging area wasn’t needed, any more than say, in 1944, the Allies really needed that second landing in the southeast of France.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dragoon
Sddam Hussein had probably calculated that Bush would not keep an army there for six more months doing nothing, and that Bush’s true motives were something like revenge for attempting to kill his father, or finishing a job uncompleted in 1991 or soemthing like that.
The nuclear program was clearly in mothballs. The false intelligence about wanting to purchase uranium from Africa – the 16 words – actually made it look even more in mothballs because it made it look like he was all the way back to Square One and didn’t have any enriched uranium, and also made it look like he wasn’t relying on uranium mined in Iraq.
It was probably originally Iraqi disinformation, which somehow worked a little bit against Iraq because in the Bush administration they were interested in motive and what Saddam Hussein would do if the sanctions collapsed. Sept 11th had shown nobody needed ICBMs as a delivery system. Saddam Hussein had some interest in co-operating or even running terrorist groups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Nidal
Saddam Hussein killed him in the run-up to the war.
The forgeries that said Iraq had tried to uranium was disinformation that the CIA would not retract when asked to double check by Vice President Cheney, but instead sent Joe Wilson on that absurd trip to Niger in the beginning of 2002. Wilson reported back that it would not be possible to actually sell yellowcake to Niger wthout detection. But that was not teh question.
Which is what led Judith Miller to question who picked him. Which is what caused to CIA to circulate false information throughout the U.S. government that it was because Joe Wilson’s wife wife worked at the CIA. This was not true at all. Actually, it was a way to avoid the addressing the question Cheney’s office had asked.
Sammy Finkelman (a1f34f) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:15 amActually they did need operation dragoon as a pincer movement, cutting across vichy territory, the uranium was still at tammuz 16, the chemical weapons had been dispursed, as cj chivers discovered
narciso (d1f714) — 11/29/2016 @ 8:38 amI am not saying that Operation Dragoon did not serve any purpose, nor even that it didn’t reduce casukaties or shorten the war, or at least that it could have (although a landing northern Italy might have been better) but it wasn’t crucial.
Sammy Finkelman (a1f34f) — 11/29/2016 @ 9:44 amRe chivers
Yes, here’s one of the articles by C. J. CHIVERS in the New York Times about the chemicals that were really there: That’s actually raw chemicals, though not chemiical weapons ready or set up to be used.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/us-casualties-of-iraq-chemical-weapons.html
Part of the reason is they were paying money for it, but part is…how would you explain it?
Sammy Finkelman (a1f34f) — 11/29/2016 @ 9:46 am