It's an action figure. It signs things and tweets. pic.twitter.com/pyutX4CueJ
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 13, 2017
Today, we are all Justin Trudeau. (Explanation of actual news photo here)
***********
Apart from remaining extremely skeptical, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
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This is how senators from the president's party now talk about him IN PUBLIC. Imagine what they say in private https://t.co/zPH2ron83w pic.twitter.com/7qpWGiIQUy
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) February 13, 2017
This is the decision-making process of a depraved group of people https://t.co/Kb9NXglS1C pic.twitter.com/TXtahhhwXM
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 13, 2017
Shorter version: We are willing to endanger the country as long as Trump lets us make rich people richer https://t.co/tNgjsOqyCW
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 13, 2017
They're also weirdly confident they'll get their end of the "deal" given, eg, Trump has announced he intends to write the tax plan at the WH https://t.co/NVkzIobuC0
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 13, 2017
Trump constantly screws over people he has deals with — and he never even explicitly promised to give the GOP congress what it wants.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 13, 2017
People assume Trump wants to give his rich friends tax cuts, but he doesn't have any friends and he already doesn't pay taxes.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 13, 2017
Roger Moore
Wow. That last tweet is a thing of beauty.
? Martin
The reports that the WH staff are frustrated because each morning they need to figure out how to write policy to match his rage-tweeting is simply beyond belief. I bet Kim Jong Un has more reasoned policy planning than we do right now.
scuffletuffle
Waiting for the moment when a head of state reaches for the Purell in his/her pocket after Dolt45 lets go.
Ruckus
Josh Barro
Probably one of the most truthful things ever said.
Feathers
@Ruckus: It’ll be like the WWC and welfare and the ACA – sure it would help ME, but are you serious about the fact that THOSE ASSHOLES will benefit. Just forget the whole thing.
Or… he could see handing out enormous tax cuts as the thing that will finally make him popular with the actual rich people.
danielx
Generally speaking, when a president feels compelled to say publicly that he “has full confidence” in somebody, the translation is “better update your resume and start packing your office, and start now”. In the case of this administration, I suspect such is not the case, ’cause ain’t nobody gonna tell lord shortfingers who to fire.
Conway: Trump still has confidence in national security adviser Michael Flynn
geg6
@Feathers:
Sad. The actual rich people won’t like him or socialize with him because of it.
Ruckus
@? Martin:
First, not going to take that bet because while Kim’s direction is not good, he does have one. Of course it really isn’t that much different in the end than the Republican president’s, enrich one’s self and fuck over every one who doesn’t at least act like they like him, at least Kim’s is a coherent ethos rather than a floundering mess.
Major Major Major Major
@? Martin:
Oh, did they figure out the light switches?
Cacti
So, Anne Laurie. You were definitely on the Greenwald/Snowden as heroes bandwagon.
What do you make of GG’s complete 180 now that a Republican is in office?
John Cole and Mistermix, feel free to answer too.
Ruckus
@Feathers:
You are giving him too much credit. He only reacts to those things happening right in front of him. That are good for him. Not even bullshit ideas about taxation because if he lowers other rich fuckers taxes and he still doesn’t pay any then they will be getting richer and he will gain nothing. Him gaining nothing is a non starter. Him moving up in the world he thinks he belongs in is the only thing that matters.
Baud
@Cacti:
Gotta link? I associate that with Cole and MM, not AL.
XTPD
@Cacti: Don’t know about mistermix and Anne, but if you’ve read John’s Twitter at all in the past few months his comments about Glenn have been more or less uniformly negative.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: Figure out the light switches? I wouldn’t be too sure about that: they are still waiting for morning to attempt to figure out what the hell’s going on. If they had access to artificial light, they could put more time in.
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
No on the light switches. That’s why they have to wait for daylight.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
No, they’re using lights on unsecured cell phones.
Baud
@Ruckus: But don’t they then burn up?
JPL
@Baud: Over a decade ago, even I thought Greenwald was working on all cylinders . Cacti will still be mentioning the same thing, decades from now.
It’s probably time to let it go. just sayin
scav
@Baud: Must be a special breed. Cheneys seem to be unaffected by sunlight as well.
Baud
Speaking of Canada, reddit has this gif up of Trudeau resisting the Trump “pull them in” move.
Baud
@JPL: That’s before my time here!
I’m actually not very opposed to GG as far as policy goes (to the extent I know them), but he always rubbed me the wrong way as a person and with respect to his tactics. (But then most people do.)
randy khan
@Cacti:
I remember reading Greenwald at Salon, and even when I agreed with him (which was often in those days), I sometimes found myself thinking he was a bit too convinced of his own importance. (And I also thought he desperately needed an editor, which still is true.) It was something about the multiple, long updates to the pieces in which he would respond at great length to the most trivial criticism, treating anyone who disagreed with him as acting in bad faith or worse. It was just odd.
lapassionara
@Baud: He had definitely practiced that move! Good to see.
Svensker
Yes, but the only people he admires are rich people and he doesn’t think they should pay taxes. You think he’s gonna try to help the slobs beneath him?
Baud
@JPL: BTW, I’ve never really followed GG, but he came here one day and called this community Muslim-hating or something like that. That was the final straw with respect to any possibility that I would respect anything he ever said.
Aleta
Perhaps T is afraid there are voice recorders and cameras in the WH. So some meetings on the golf course, and the story about the lights not working in a couple of rooms. I don’t believe they can’t get help for the lights if they want them on.
Svensker
As a Canadian, I gotta say that while Trudeau’s centre-left schtick chaps my leftie butt, he shore looks good next to the dumpster fire. At least he’s not nucking futz.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
is it true that Trudeau is very pro-extraction, including tar sands oil?
Kay
Gosh, what a nice way to put it!
Remember- these are the same people who screamed about the security risks of the Clinton emails every single day for 16 months.
It’s a ludicrous double standard. Where the heck is Number One G Man Mr. Comey? National security is at risk! Get to a FISA court and start searching cell phones!
God almighty they would have had Clinton in a prison cell by now for ANY of this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and what I came here to say,
Li’l Jasey wants to save the country from Sid the Science Kid, of whom I have never heard. Money quote
efgoldman
Right. A trick they learned from Grandpa Walnuts, Lindsay, and Suzie Creamcheese from Maine, among others. They’re all “concerned” and “expressing doubts” and “not understanding” – until the time comes to, you know, actually vote. Then it’s right down McTurtle’s line.
Fuckem
Jeffro
I’m not sure why Josh Barro thinks there’s even the slightest possibility that Trump will screw over the Randian wing or the Religious Right wing of the GOP.
As long as he keeps the Randian wing (Ryan and MoCs like him; Kochs/Mercers/big donors like them) on track to get their tax cuts in place and get costly environmental laws rolled back, they’ll – ALMOST – never waver in their support.
As long as he keeps the R-Right wing (Graham Jr, Falwell Jr, Reed, and all their ground troops) appeased with approved SCOTUS noms and other such nonsense, they’ll – ALMOST – never waver in their support.
I say “ALMOST” because both groups would waver in the face of hard evidence that Trump’s campaign folks were colluding with Russia/Putin, and they’ll waver if the GOP gets creamed in 2018.
Eric S.
@? Martin: of course he does. He planned the missile launch for a time Trumplethinskin is meeting with Japanese PM Aneb
Kay
Can we get some phone calls to Senators on this low quality Trump hire? They’ll rubber stamp him anyway but maybe we can completely and utterly discredit him like we did DeVos. She’s not even welcome in public schools and she’s the Secretary of Education. No one wants to host her.
Baud
@Kay: Unpossible. They let Sessions go because they don’t need his vote. All the Republicans will vote for this guy.
HeleninEire
I gotta go over to Wonkette to see if Evan is losing his shit over how hot Trudeau is. BRB.
XTPD
@randy khan: His butthurt commenting about the LGM readership helped the “Glenny Gonna Glenn” thread break the mythical 2 TBoggs.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Wow, just like every vampire movie ever.
Brachiator
@randy khan:
Greenwald had delusions of thinking that he was Ralph Nader.
trollhattan
@Baud: The LGM folks still get under his skin and he sheds just to show up in comments. SAD!
Kay
@Baud:
It’s worth it though. They did real damage to DeVos. The US Department of Education IDEA website went down, maybe innocently, and all those parents of kids with disabilities went immediately into protective mode. They’re convinced she pulled the site down. As they should be barring proof she didn’t do it. Assume the worst with Trump hires.
Hungry Joe
Trump — only second-generation rich — knows that the blue-blood 400 consider him a lout. He craves THEIR respect above all. If that means cutting their taxes, consider it done.
Of course, he’s also nuts and liable to do anything. So there’s that.
trollhattan
@randy khan:
Yup, I’d read a GG piece and he’d make his point then after ten minutes more reading I’d realize, holy hell he’s still writing. And that’s without the updates. Happy fingers.
Baud
@trollhattan: Good for them.
@Kay: Absolutely. Be relentless.
XTPD
@trollhattan: Any word on whether galactus–2-867530whatever was a sock puppet of his?
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: Yep. Even while you’re reading it, he’s probably still updating it.
My CNN alert says Trump is “evaluating the situation” around Flynn.
XTPD
@Baud: Arguing with (or at least pissing off) Greenwald and/or Freddie deBoer is considered a rite of passage on LGM. My only interaction with him was last month, when I called him a glorified eXiled Online columnist.
Kay
It’s always been assumed the US Department of Education would be able to enter public schools but it’s kind of an interesting LEGAL question because no one has ever had to assert the right to visit schools.
I’m not at all sure she has one, just based on “a visit”. Obviously there are federal laws but they don’t make these visits based on federal laws- they’re not there with a clipboard checking for compliance with federal law- they make them based on “we want to work cooperatively and help you” and schools are usually on board with hosting them because it’s good PR for everyone.
It won’t come to that- assertion of a legal RIGHT for her to come “help them” but it’s amazing that it’s even a remote possibility.
chris
@Svensker: I voted NDP my whole life until this last election. Justin will do until someone better comes along.
Aleta
Who are Jill Stein’s influences? And who does she consult on economics and social policies?
Kay
But only if they’re that bitch Hillary Clinton. Anyone else can do anything they want and we’ll call it “unconventional” and “open source”.
debbie
@Kay:
I can’t see Trump keeping Flynn on, but then I can’t see Trump acknowledging he may have erred in appointing him. It’s a quandary.
Kay
Ha Ha Ha. He’s a delightful scamp, that Trump! Who knows what he’ll do next?
What happened to the stern national security risk scolding press corps of yore? Now they’re all Easy D.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: Trump will rage tweet about this – I fear for my country now
Kay
@debbie:
The only difference between Flynn lying and Trump lying is Flynn can be fired. I don’t believe Flynn didn’t ask permission from Donald Trump before contacting Russia to discuss sanctions. I don’t believe that. It’s literally unbelievable. Trump is lying. Flynn is the least important part of the whole story.
Brachiator
@Kay:
This doesn’t matter. I think that DeVos, the Labor Secretary nominee, Perry at Energy, a couple of others, are put in place to dismantle the departments they oversee, and to eliminate as many employees as possible.
DeVos doesn’t have to visit any schools to do what she has been hired to do.
laura
@HeleninEire: Our Editrix beat Evan to it!
She was warned. Never the less, she persisted.
Jeffro
Jon Oliver buying ad time on Fox News to educate “president” Trumpov is the funniest, smartest thing since sliced bread.
More than a few American males are going to benefit from finding out where, um, “it” is located, too ;)
Turgidson
@randy khan:
And then when it came to the Snowden saga, Greenwald would do his characteristic 10,000 word treatise, but he would structure it so that the headline and first few grafs give the reader the impression that “THE NSA IS PROBABLY DOING THIS, TO YOU, RIGHT NOW! THE FBI WILL BE BUSTING DOWN YOUR DOOR BEFORE YOU’RE DONE READING THIS” and then burying deep within the labyrinth of his writing a bunch of key facts regarding the history of the NSA program at issue, the NSA’s actual capabilities, and/or any pertinent oversight mechanisms, that contradicted his scaremongering.
And of course his Snowden work was constantly marred by his blatant (but furiously denied whenever pointed out to him) need to make himself an equal billing co-star in the saga with ol’ Eddie.
Greenwald is a smart guy, but he lost the plot and got high on his own farts long ago. I thought Gelman did a pretty good job reporting the Snowden leaks. I thought Glenn totally boned it almost from day one.
trollhattan
@XTPD: Dunno, but it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
ChrisB
@Eric S.: It’s China’s doing.
Jeffro
@Kay:
I can see Flynn doing it, knowing full well that his boss would be pleased with what he’d done…now, how & why Flynn knew that Trump would be pleased, THERE’s a story.
Trump was briefed very shortly after those calls, and he was pleased, and both of them thought they were going to get away with it. Pin Trump down on when he was told and that’ll be a lie right there.
Roger Moore
@randy khan:
My biggest problem with Greenwald is that he’s an advocate pretending to be an investigator. As I see it, journalists (as opposed to opinion columnists) are supposed to be engaged in a search for truth. Ideally, they’re supposed to go in without preconceptions and go wherever the facts and evidence take them. Their writing is then a way of letting readers in on their journey. Obviously this is a difficult ideal to live up to, but the primary goal is to search for truth regardless of what one originally believes.
That’s not what Greenwald does. He is primarily an advocate for a position he established before starting. He goes on a search for facts and evidence not to determine what the truth is but to find support for the argument he’s trying to build. His writing is an attempt to persuade people to support his position.
I don’t want to argue against advocacy, even within journalism. There is a real need for people who have strong opinions and who do their best to advocate for them. The problem is that Greenwald is deliberately misleading about what he is. He pretends to be an impartial investigator while primarily being an advocate.
It’s a particularly dangerous role when, as with the Snowden stuff, he has privileged access to a trove of information. There’s no way the end reader can see the whole thing, so they’re counting on the reporters to filter it for them. The ideal person for that is a good investigator, who will find the most relevant information and present it even handedly. An open advocate will mine it for support for their position, but it’s easy for a reader to remember that they’re trying to prove their point. An advocate masquerading as an investigator will pretend to be looking for the most relevant information while actually burying anything that disagrees with their preconceived notions- the worst of both worlds.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
FTFY.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Unfortunately, no.
It would be nice if they did, save us a lot of pain and would be a wonderful tale that might just get a good portion of conservatives to pay fucking attention.
Iowa Old Lady
Trump seems pretty dependent on Flynn. It might make it hard to let him go.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
GG isn’t fit to wipe RN’s butt. Of course that’s all that RN is fit to do.
Ruckus
@Aleta:
She found an old broken Ouija in a dumpster out behind a closed KMart and she’s been using that for a couple of decades. Of course the pot scrubber she uses for the hand glide has worn off all the print on the board so she’s just winging it now. Couldn’t you tell?
debbie
@Kay:
I think it was more bumbling incompetence than nefariousness. Unlike Nixon and Hanoi in 1968 or Reagan and Iran in 1980.
Mike G
Satirical but amusing —
Trump Supporters To Ignore Dam Evacuation Order As Climate Change Isn’t Real
http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2017/02/13/trump-supporters-to-ignore-dam-evacuation-order-as-climate-change-isnt-real/
efgoldman
@XTPD:
I’ve managed to ignore both of them for my whole life; I can probably manage for a few more years.
I tried to read deboring once, when he was here. An hour of my life I’ll never get back. Might as well have smoked a cigarette – at least there’s some pleasure (if I remember correctly – it’s been decades) in that.
? Martin
@Kay:
We’re pretty clear on the fact that only certain federal agencies have the right to enter our school. The Dept. of Ed is not one of those agencies. I do not need to interact with anyone from the Dept of Ed and can escort them from the premises just as with any other member of the public. I don’t think doing so it a good idea and I’d probably get fired for it, but we can legally do it.
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
It would also scare Putin if Trump were left without a FSB minder.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
OTOH reading the boor (or GG) might also give you cancer and so ignoring them does seem the healthier option. And at the very least not reading the output of morons makes the day a bit brighter.
XTPD
@Ruckus: Now whenever Fredneck derp BONERBro comments on LGM it’s just in the form of one-off “neener neeners,” though I wouldn’t be surprised if he put up a sockpuppet account.
randy khan
@Roger Moore:
That’s an interesting point. I never thought he was anything but an advocate – heck, he used to a litigator before he started writing for a living, and it shows in everything he write.
Roger Moore
@randy khan:
I’m not saying I’ve been fooled by his pretending to be an investigator, but that’s how he’s presenting himself to the public.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
Bannon & Miller would pick up the slack, if they aren’t already.
mapaghimagsik
@Roger Moore:
Funny, I just saw him as a scold in search of a moral.
boatboy_srq
@mapaghimagsik: More like a BSDI totebagger who got willingly played by a disgruntled Paulbot IYAM.