Hold the presses

Was the trading card hype not, in fact the "big announcement"? 

Come on.  If he didn't mean the grift to be the announcement, he shouldn't have posted it when he did.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  "MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT"    Nice try, Dinesh.

It would be hilarious if this stupid grift was the thing that breaks Trump mania.

I mean, he couldn't have hinted any harder...

UPDATE:

Surprise, surprise, more Trumpist lies

The film, released in May and thoroughly debunked by experts and media organizations, claims mobile-phone data obtained by the group shows a coordinated effort by hundreds of people around the country — deemed "mules" — to stuff election drop boxes with ballots for candidate Joe Biden in 2020. True the Vote's representatives said they would use their findings to make elections more secure.

But the moviemakers have since refused to release any of their supposed data to law enforcement groups even after promising to do so.

[...]

Grigsby's letter accuses True the Vote founder Catherine Engelbrecht and its contractor Gregg Phillips of providing misleading information to his office and other law enforcement groups. He also mentions some of the bogus information the group has previously put out related to the movie, such as the false claims that the group helped solve a murder in Atlanta and break a ballot-harvesting case in San Luis, Arizona.

  AZ Central

And Republican candidates for office in 2022 are still pointing to the film as proof of the Big Lie.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

MAGAland won't recognize the contradiction

They'll just call him a socialist, or communist, or corporate shill without any shame, depending upon what fits the story they're telling at the moment.  There is nothing they do in good faith.

Fox News guy taking his ball and going home

Too many people on Twitter disagreed with him apparently.

Snowflake.Maybe you ought to move to grammar school for some spelling lessons.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  And there goes dipshit D'Souza, as well.

Schadenfreude, indeed

Major Trump lickspittle, Dinesh D'Souza three days ago:

I think so, Dinesh:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Also...

Dinesh D'Souza is more than a convicted criminal - he's a nutjob

He's been going for two days on defending Trump's pronunciation of Thailand as Thighland.

Maybe the best part of this is that right after Trump mispronounces it, he corrects his pronunciation.

(I think this is proof that he doesn't read.  He heard himself and realized what he was saying after reading Thailand.  He's never seen it in print before.)

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Christ, he's still going.

The morning after

Really, do I want to look?

It's mostly a litany of retweets of people praising Trump and remarking on the crowd size, along with some pictures.

And this:



Thanks for the reminder.

And this:

Trump's hair is so ridiculous even Dinesh D'Souza had to make it look normal.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.

Are they pretending it's not raining, or is the (presumed) bullet-proof glass dirty? Surely he'd be under an umbrella if it were raining to protect that ridiculous hair. Or...

According to the reports I'm readaing, His Lardship managed to get through his speech only going 15 minutes overtime and avoiding trashing Democrats.  Pretty good, little man.  But, he did have his moments of ad lib error in the Trump tradition:

Trump, speaking to a massive crowd during a rainstorm in Washington, D.C., spoke of the forces winning various battles against the British [in 1775].

"The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown,” Trump said while reading the teleprompter in the rain.

"Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket's red glare it had nothing but victory,” he continued. “And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant."

  The Hill

It took over the airports? In 1775.

The mistake led to the hashtag #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories trending on Twitter late Thursday night.

And a twofer:

Much, much more here.

Historians ⁠— at least the ones fact-checking the president on Twitter ⁠— were not impressed. One likened the speech to “an angry grandpa reading a fifth grader’s book report on American military history.”

[...]

“On this day, 243 years ago, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to declare independence and defend our God-given rights.”

As most history undergrads could tell you, this isn’t quite true. The Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776. On July 4, they approved the final text of the declaration. They signed it with their John Hancocks on Aug. 2.

There were inaccuracies like this peppered throughout the speech ⁠— the president still seems to not know exactly who “Douglass, Frederick Douglass, the great Frederick Douglass” is ⁠— but Trump was especially befuddled when he described the creation of the U.S. Army.

[...]

"In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our army manned the [unclear], it [unclear] the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry, under “the rockets red glare,” it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant."

[...]

[I]t’s clear the president was having some issues reading the teleprompter, which led to a number of errors. For example, British General Cornwallis was of London; he was defeated at Yorktown. The Continental Army wasn’t named after Washington; it’s possible Trump substituted “named” for a different verb in the text of the speech.

But that doesn’t explain the apparent conflation of two wars fought three decades apart. In the first part, Trump mentions Valley Forge, crossing the Delaware and Yorktown, all of which occurred during the Revolutionary War. Then he says, “And at Fort McHenry ...” and describes the battle in which the national anthem was written. This battle was fought in 1814 during the War of 1812.

  WaPo

Sad. His speech-writers are as ignorant as he is.

Then there’s the claim the Army — in either 1775 or 1814 or some time in between? — “took over the airports.”

[...]

Was it another ad-lib born of too-small teleprompter type? Who knows?

Inspired by the exhibition of French military strength he witnessed while attending Bastille Day in Paris in 2017, the Republican president turned the event into a celebration of the US military.

[...]

Trump's speech to the nation centred on the US's military strength, lavishing extensive praise on each branch of the military, touting the armed forces and their history as the example of strength and unity to which ordinary citizens should aspire to.

"There will be nothing that America cannot do" as long as Americans remain true to their history and "never stop fighting for a better future," said Trump. He also promised to plant the US flag on Mars.

  alJazeera

The US president’s unique interpretation of the declaration of independence was on full display on Thursday when he staged a militaristic, jingoistic and untraditional jamboree at the Lincoln memorial in Washington to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Trump did not fulfil his critics’ worst fears of a politically partisan, campaign-style rally with his “Salute to America” event. Indeed, in a rare plea for unity as he spoke beneath the statue of Abraham Lincoln, he told the crowd: “We are one people chasing one dream and one magnificent destiny. We all share the same heroes, the same home, the same heart, and we are all made by the same almighty God.”

  Guardian

No we don't share the same heroes or the same heart or the same dream.

Trump now has the world’s most fearsome arsenal at his disposal – and he showed it off.

He relished introducing F-22 Raptors and a B-2 stealth bomber that roared loudly over the Washington monument, the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial. The rain-soaked crowd whooped, clapped, waved hats in the air and chanted: “USA! USA!”

Sad.

The showman president, speaking behind rain-streaked bulletproof glass screens, grinned widely and declared: “Great country!”

There were several more flypasts in the cloudy sky by the plane known as Air Force One when the president is aboard, as well as army, navy, coast guard and Marine Corps aircraft and, climactically, six Blue Angel F-18s. The controversial event also included two Abrams tanks and two Bradley fighting vehicles.

What? They weren't grounded because of the weather like he claimed as an excuse not to go to Arlington in a drizzle?

In a speech that lasted 47 minutes, Trump laboured over a heroic version of American military history, telling stories not only of the revolutionary war that won independence from Britain but the civil war (“Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”) and the second world war. He summoned military leaders to the podium, paid tribute to gold star families and at one point referenced his proposed space force.

The president sailed close to one of his campaign lines when he claimed, “our nation is stronger than it ever was before”, but otherwise swerved past party politics for once.

He'll be anxious to get back to throwing feces then, won't he?

UPDATE:

It's worse than in print.

Also, "Fort McHendry."

Jesus, what a maroon.

Very interesting!

In 2014, D'Souza was convicted and sentenced to eight months in a community confinement center and five years of probation for federal campaign election laws, and Trump pardoned him, because he was "treated very unfairly by our government!."  A little hint of how he's going to treat anyone under Mueller's investigation?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Roger Stone admits the Trump pardon plan

President Trump granted a full pardon Thursday to conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza and said he was strongly considering clemency for other celebrity felons, signaling his willingness to exercise his unilateral power to reward friends and allies while undercutting the work of his nemeses in law enforcement.

[...]

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate and his former political strategist, who has come under scrutiny by Mueller’s team, said the president sent a clear message.

“It has to be a signal to Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort and even Robert S. Mueller III: Indict people for crimes that don’t pertain to Russian collusion and this is what could happen,” Stone said. “The special counsel has awesome powers, as you know, but the president has even more awesome powers.”

[...]

D’Souza, Blagojevich and Stewart had been convicted of such crimes as campaign-finance violations or lying to investigators — charges similar to those brought against Flynn, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and other Trump associates indicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation. Cohen, meanwhile, is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York for possible campaign-finance violations and other possible crimes.

Another pattern in Trump’s granted or potential pardons is their connection to the president’s perceived enemies. Former FBI director James B. Comey, whom Trump fired last year, prosecuted Stewart in her insider-trading case, while Comey’s close friend, former U.S. attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, prosecuted Blagojevich. Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara — who, like Comey, was fired by Trump and has since been an outspoken critic — prosecuted D’Souza.

[...]

Trump’s pardon of D’Souza was his sixth act of clemency as president. Each was issued unilaterally, subverting the traditional Justice Department process of reviewing thousands of pardon requests.

[...]

D’Souza is an author, filmmaker and provocateur who became a cult figure on the right in part because of his conspiratorial polemics about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He pleaded guilty in 2014 to illegally using straw donors to contribute to a New York Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, telling a judge that he knows what he did was “wrong” and “I deeply regret my conduct.”

  WaPo

Which isn't what he's saying now.

D’Souza tweeted that he was grateful to Trump for his pardon and said of his prosecution, “Bharara & his goons bludgeoned me into the plea.”

[...]

Earlier this spring, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) brought up D’Souza’s situation to Trump and personally lobbied him to consider a pardon, according to White House officials.

[...]

Trump, however, told reporters that “nobody asked me to do it” and claimed that he had never met D’Souza, although he said he has seen him on television.

“I called him last night, first time I’ve ever spoken to him,” Trump said. “I said, ‘I’m pardoning you.’ ” He added that D’Souza “almost had a heart attack” during their three-minute phone call.

But Sam Nunberg, Trump’s former political aide, recalled that D’Souza visited Trump at Trump Tower in New York in 2012, shortly before releasing his film, “2016: Obama’s America,” which was based on his earlier book, “The Roots of Obama’s Rage.”

Nunberg said that Trump agreed to help D’Souza promote the film. Trump sent three tweets about D’Souza’s movie that August, including one calling it an “amazing film.”

A White House spokesman said he could not immediately square the conflicting accounts of whether Trump had previously met D’Souza.

They must be running out of steam at the White House trying to square conflicting accounts.

Trump also signaled Thursday that he is considering commuting the remainder of the sentence of Blagojevich, who was convicted in 2010 on charges relating to the attempted sale of Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat.

“What he did does not justify 18 years in a jail,” Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One. “If you read his statement, it was a foolish statement, there was a lot of bravado. But . . . plenty of other politicians have said a lot worse. And . . . he shouldn’t have been put in jail.”

Trump overstated the duration of Blagojevich’s prison sentence, which is 14 years.

Another example of his need to lie whether it advances his argument or not. Why would 18 sound so much worse than 14?

Trump also cited the case of Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale.

“I think to a certain extent Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated,” Trump said. “And she used to be my biggest fan in the world . . . before I became a politician. But that’s okay. I don’t view it that way.”

Another example of his need to make everything about himself.

A senior White House official said that as many as a dozen other pardons are under consideration by Trump, adding that most are likely to happen. “There are going to be more,” said the official.

I have no doubt. One of his most pressing needs after self-aggrandizement is to thwart the law and exercise power over other people.

Trump has used his clemency powers in a more haphazard way, spurred by personal connections or political calculations. Most of the pardons are impulsive, according to a person familiar with the process, and are driven by his “seeing something on TV, reading something in a newspaper, hearing from a friend or someone lobbying him personally.” The president then usually asks White House lawyers to review the cases and prepare actions.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Pardon power

President Donald Trump's announcement that he was pardoning far-right commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to campaign finance fraud, caught many in Trump world by surprise Thursday morning, but they insisted it was not indicative of possible pardons for Trump allies ensnared in the Russia probe.

  Buzzfeed

Sure it's not. Who imagined it was?

D'Souza isn't that well-known of a figure among Trump's base of supporters, leaving many confused about the reasoning behind the pardon, especially since it came at the same time the White House announced major new tariffs.

Not everything is about his base. Everything IS about him, though. The pardon is not needed to assure his base - they're with him no matter what. The pardon is to assure his criminal colluding cohort who are going to need pardons. Of course, they're having to bet on him still being in office when they get sentenced. And what's even more risky: bet on him actually giving a shit when they get sentenced. For his purposes, the pardon is to encourage them to keep lying and to not give him up. (Although I think he's probably missed that boat on several people.) There's no risk to him tossing out winks and nods. The risk is assumed by those who rely on the clues.

The president told reporters Thursday on his way to Dallas he made the decision to pardon D’Souza on his own. “I don’t know him, I never met him, I called him last night, first time I’ve ever spoken to him,” Trump said, according to White House pool reports. “I said, ‘I’m pardoning you.’ Nobody asked me to do it.”

“I’ve always felt he was very unfairly treated,” the president explained.

[...]

D’Souza, Trump said, was shocked to hear from him. “He almost had a heart attack.”

D'Souza's wife on Twitter gave credit to Sen. Ted Cruz for the decision, saying he put a pardon on Trump's "radar." Cruz, retweeting D'Souza's wife, called the pardon "a terrific day for Justice."

[...]

There’s been some speculation that Trump’s pardon of D’Souza — like his earlier pardon of Scooter Libby — could be a signal to others that he’s willing to use his power to help people he deems “unfairly” treated, especially people who might be in the sights of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Well, that's just crazy talk.

[A] former official said he doesn't think Trump is playing "the sort of three-dimensional chess people ascribe to decisions like this. More often than not he's just eating the pieces."

Very likely. But sending constant reminders as to his pardoning powers, and particularly noting the types he pardons, isn't three dimensional chess. It's a typical Trump move. More like Uncle Wiggly.

D'Souza's account of the pardon:

My wife and I had dinner with Sen. Ted Cruz about a month ago and he told me he was going to press for a pardon. Then he called me a couple weeks later and said he spoke to the president and he was very receptive. There needed to be a legal review but he told me I should expect a call from the White House. I got that call midday yesterday and spoke to Trump for 10 minutes. He told me that it’s done and I’m tweeting it out in the morning.

He said I was a great voice for America, then he says: “You were screwed,” his word. He said these people went after you for a mere technicality, I’m going to set that right and clear your record so that you can be an even more visible voice for the country than you are now.

[...]

He was with (chief of staff) Gen. Kelly calling from the Oval Office and we just spoke about when the pardon would take effect and when it would be public.

He knows it was politically motivated. I don’t want to put words in his mouth because I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he said: “They went after you, and they shafted you.” Why would they do this? Obviously because I made a movie critical of Obama.

  Hollywood Reporter

Obviously.  It's the Kenyan's fault.

No American has been prosecuted, let alone locked up, for doing what I did. There’s a very clear record of this that my lawyer put into a legal brief a few years ago. Prosecutions occur under two conditions: When a donation is corrupt and the donor is seeking a quid pro quo from the candidate. Like a political appointment or tax break. The second time is for repeat offenders, like Rosie O’Donnell, who admits she did it five times. But for a single offense for a person with no prior record? To go after them for a felony and essentially try to destroy their life? That’s unprecedented. It’s like going 90 miles an hour on the freeway and being sentenced to five years in prison.

[...]

In the old days, a guy like Jimmy Carter would no more want to lock me up than George W. Bush would want to lock up Michael Moore. But there was a gangsterization of America under Obama where he’d punish dissidents. If they’re going to do it to us, then we should do it to them. That’s the only way this will stop. In a world where Dinesh is prosecuted for one violation, why isn’t Rosie prosecuted for five?

It was an overnight confinement center in San Diego. It was eight months and I’ve already done that. What’s still ongoing is five years of community service and I’m on probation, so I have a officer visit me and I need permission from a judge to travel outside the country. The pardon brings all this to an end and, most importantly, clears my record. So I can vote, own a firearm, all my rights are restored.

[...]

People who plead guilty voluntarily are not doing so “voluntarily.” In my case they filed a charge that carried a maximum penalty of two years and another that carries five years and said they’d drop the second charge if I pled guilty to the first. So the whole thing is a sham. They positioned it like a show trial where I broke down and confessed when actually I was bludgeoned.

[...]

I have a somewhat providential view of life and look at things as if they serve a purpose. I’m a better man for it, so in that sense I don’t regret it. But it’s been an ordeal and emotionally painful and financially expensive.

He can own a firearm now!

So now he knows how the system works with pleas. Maybe he can work for prison reform with Kim Thong Un. But, poor baby, he's had an emotional hurt. Can we lock him back up for being a fucking idiot?



God, this asshole is disgusting.  No wonder Trump likes him.



 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



Bingo.

Memo to Co-colluders & Crooks

Kiss his ass, get a pardon.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Holy Mother of Pearl, Batman!

Dinesh D'Souza has made a remarkable movie.  Here's the trailer...

This Tweet from Glenn Greenwald previewing this amazing work has lots of commenters saying, in essence, "The man is off his ever-loving rocker."  But, this one is my favorite:

No kidding! And the other thing...

Have a look at Dinesh D'Souza.  Does he think Trump's base is going to give him a pass when they round up and trounce "the other" amongst them?  They couldn't tell the difference between Indians and Arabs on September 12.  I hope he has some skin whitener.

To paraphrase latter-day poet and philosopher Kimberly Denise “Li’l Kim” Jones: you can’t keep a good firebrand conservative commentator down. That message probably rang loud and clear in the ears of devoutly conservative Republican ideologue Dinesh D’Souza back in June, as he made the long walk out of the community confinement center (a halfway house, essentially) that he had called home for the previous eight months. Having been convicted of campaign-finance fraud and sentenced to five years of probation along with an extended stint in the facility, the man responsible for such thought-provoking films as America: Imagine the World Without Her and 2016: Obama’s America—the thought most frequently provoked being “wait, why am I watching this again?”—made the most of his sentence. While he was left to think long and hard about why it was wrong of him to dupe well-meaning folks into donating their money under shady pretenses, he successfully gathered the funds for his next project, which has now surfaced like the glowing eyes of an alligator from murky, polluted waters.

  Vanity Fair

Yes, Virginia,  D'Souza is a neocon Christian.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 3/12/2016:

This from CBS reporter Sopan Deb, also an American of Indian descent...