“Now Team Trump is out for vengeance: It’s crucial that Democrats push back, hard”

“It’s not just Lindsey Graham: Trump’s flunkeys are trying to flip the script on “treasonous” Obama administration”

By Heather Digby Parton, Salon Magazine.

“It seems clear that Trump’s philosophy of life is zero-sum primitive domination and not much else. And there is one credo in “The Art of the Deal” he does live by: “I fight when I feel I’m getting screwed, even if it’s costly and difficult and highly risky.” Over the years that’s evolved into something a little bit more elemental. It’s no longer about just fighting. It’s about vengeance.”

“Back in 2005, he told a Colorado audience, ‘If someone screws you, screw them back 10 times harder. At least they’re going to leave you alone, and at least you’ll feel good. I believe in screwing people when they screw you.'”

“Trump has spent his life on the edge of being discovered as a fraud. Character assassination and revenge, or the threat of it anyway, is how he dances his way out of trouble. It’s like a magician’s misdirection, done with the impact of shock and awe. Whether it’s siccing his lawyers on people he believes have wronged him, siccing his “fixer” on reporters who write things he doesn’t like, or publicly humiliating a subordinate he feels has disrespected him, this is how Trump believes he has become the most powerful man on earth.

“When a politician sees some daylight after having been under a cloud for a long time, the usual response is to tell the country that it’s time to pull together and get back to doing the work they were sent to Washington to do. They don’t want to wallow in the scandal because all it does is remind people it was there. They want to be positive and optimistic and put the whole thing behind them. Not Donald Trump.”

“By “never let it happen again,” he is saying, “get even so they’ll never mess with you again.” By “evil people,” he of course means the Obama administration.

“It’s tempting to say that this is just Trump being Trump, but his family and his henchmen in the Congress are taking him seriously and they are running with it.”

“This isn’t just the president sounding off. So far, the Democrats don’t seem to be too spooked by the Republican threats. They are too busy fending off the high-velocity spin about the Barr letter that Salon’s Amanda Marcotte aptly compares to the Iraq WMD propaganda. But the mere fact that the president and high-ranking members of Congress are pushing this ugly idea of wreaking vengeance should sharpen the Democrats’ own survival instincts and allay any inclination to ease off on oversight. They cannot allow the country to be held hostage by this authoritarian “lock her up” mentality.” Read more