NBC News has confirmed that Sally Yates warned the WH last month that Flynn had not accurately recounted his talks with Russian ambassador.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) February 14, 2017
Sooo… let me see if I have the timeline correct… when Acting Attorney General Sally Yates ordered her Dept. of Justice lawyers not to enforce Trump’s totally-not-a-Muslim-ban Executive Order, she already had a pretty good idea his minions were looking for an excuse to fire her? As they did?
How many of us expected the Trump Administration to reach Nixon-post-Watergate levels of corrupt incompetence during its very first month?
A more competent administration might have been able to deduce this was gonna come out. https://t.co/uecw3O746V
— Rogue Rogue One Acct (@ZeddRebel) February 14, 2017
And the leading lights of the GOP Congress step forward to cover themselves with… well, it ain’t glory…
Speaker Ryan: "As soon as" White House realized they were being misled, Gen. Flynn was asked for his resignation. https://t.co/G1fBv2ENFd
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) February 14, 2017
You know what's a great way to get more information before you make judgments? AN INVESTIGATION YOU COLOSSAL FUCKWIT https://t.co/rzlgqBzpaP
— Rogue Rogue One Acct (@ZeddRebel) February 14, 2017
.@SenOrrinHatch says Flynn resignation doesn't "deserve" investigation. "I think highly of him, he's a hero of this country for many years"
— Jacqueline Klimas (@jacqklimas) February 14, 2017
Spicer now blames the Obama DOJ for not notifying the WH quickly enough about Flynn.
— Matt Ford (@fordm) February 14, 2017
Rep Jason Chaffetz R-UT tells reporters there's no need to further probe Flynn. "It’s taking care of itself"
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) February 14, 2017
dmsilev
We’re going to have to dig out all those ‘see no evil’ monkey images that we last used during the Bush administration, aren’t we?
debbie
When you hear “no rush to judgement” from a Republican, you know a whole lot of horseshit is poised, teetering, over your head.
hellslittlestangel
Trump likes to brag about breaking records. Here’s hoping he breaks William Henry Harrison’s.
Baud
Since that’s how they acted during the campaign, count me among those who expected it.
scav
When does American Business Practice leap into action and explicitly disown this demonstration of self-declared inerrant brilliance in all contexts? I meet any CEO at this point I’m likely to collapse in a puddle of giggles.
Roger Moore
Isn’t the point of an investigation to get more info? Or is this an admission that Republican investigations are not actually intended to gather facts, just to persecute people they don’t like?
Major Major Major Major
OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK
Mike in DC
@scav:
Anyone who’s actually worked a few months for a large corporations knows this is bullshit. Most large companies are plagued by waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, office politics, incompetence, etc.
debbie
@scav:
This definitively proves that a CEO would not make a good president. Hopefully, they won’t try this again.
rikyrah
@Major Major Major Major:
?????
trollhattan
@debbie:
We probably shouldn’t rush to judgement on Gorsuch; two years of hearings sounds about right.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
Surely he could have sent a message to Trump during the biggest Inauguration EVER!
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: It’s Spicer. You’re reaction would be more appropriate if he said something true.
Brachiator
Benghazi, muthafuckas!
Wag
Speaker Ryan declines to call for congressional investigation into Gen. Flynn; says need to get more info before rushing to judgment.
This shows the typical GOP approach to investigations. The GOP only investigates when they are sure of what they will find. In other words, only investigate if your pre-ordained conclusions are certain to be confirmed.
Note to Ryan–the PURPOSE of investigations is to get MORE information. An investigation does not necessarily mean that someone has been convicted.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Spicey needs his big-boy nap.
maurinsky
Rand Paul says it makes no sense to investigate fellow Republicans! There you have it!
scav
@Mike in DC: I’ll admit to assuming that based on evidence, but hell did I low-ball the scale and scope possible. Their sense of tribal PR and self-preservation is usually a little better.
PPCLI
@trollhattan: Well, we shouldn’t have any hearings at all until we get more information, according to the Ryan rule.
Lapassionara
I still remember the brief news article about the Watergate break-in. We were in NYC, and it was on the bottom right of the front page, NY Times. That was June 17, 1972. It took a while to get perking, but when it did, the story never quit and we were riveted by the hearings, testimony, etc. I am now at that same spot I was before Nixon resigned: non-stop jaw dropping disclosures of treachery, mendacity, and stupidity, on a daily, even hourly basis. And it hasn’t been a month!
Redshift
Paul Ryan says “I think we need to get all of that information before we prejudge anything,” hoping we don’t know that “getting all of that information” is the entire purpose of a congressional investigation.
Rand Paul says “I just don’t think it’s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party. We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense.”
It’s appalling enough that they used government resources for purely partisan “investigations.” But somehow it’s even worse that they can’t conceive of any other purpose for a congressional investigation, even one they would conduct themselves.
debbie
@Mike in DC:
You’re right; I work for one, and it is unbelievable. I don’t understand how they manage to make profits.
Ridnik Chrome
If the response of the reporters to that statement was anything other than howls of laughter they should be ashamed of themselves.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: But… I mean…
“The obvious Russian mole that Trump picked as his National Security Advisor is a Russian mole? THANKS, OBAMA!”
WTF??
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: @Wag: Remember how often Republicans would say that since Hillary Clinton may have done nothing wrong regarding Benghazi, let’s not go crazy rushing into some sort of an investigation? I assume they must have said that, given their strong principled stances about such things.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: “You fucked up by not stopping us from fucking up!”
Redshift
@dmsilev:
Monkeys flinging poop seems more apropos.
Thru the Looking Glass...
Ooooh ooooh!!! Call on me!!!
(waving hand in air)
I did! I did!
Wag
By this does Rep Chaffetz mean that Flynn is going to meet the sharp end of poison dipped umbrella while out waling the streets of DC, and we don’t need to worry out pretty little heads about anything?
FlipYrWhig
@Major Major Major Major: “This is the administration LEAST connected to Russian chicanery IN HISTORY, PERIOD!”
Kay
Watch this 7 minutes of Trump talking about himself at a “parent teacher listening session” today. He’s reading off sheets of paper and what hits you is what a bore he is. You would be dying if you had to sit thru a dinner with this old man. It’s not just the fact that he talks about himself incessantly, it’s that he’s boring. There’s no humor- just that smug half-smile. Those poor people have to sit there smiling as he goes on and on and on.
He’s a crashing bore.
MCA1
Not in the right geographic areas myself, but we need about 10,000 loud, sign-bearing people outside the offices of Nunes, Chaffetz, Ryan and McTurtle pronto, and daily, until they relent.
Expect the Gallup numbers to be into the 30’s for approval by Thursday at the latest. This train is off the rails.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I can’t believe Obama skipped over the chapter on “Don’t Hire Russian Moles” in the “Presidenting for Dummies” textbook.
trollhattan
Not ending my ten-year spurning of cable news but damn it, they’re tempting me. From the “I know you are but what am I?!?” file.
LOVE the name Schlapp. German eroticism.
Jeffro
KEEP UP THE PRESSURE…and here’s why, folks: presenting the response from my somewhat-renowned RWNJ dad, after I did an email ‘victory lap’ over being right about Flynn, Trump, and Russia today:
(don’t worry – I’ll be sure to remind him that if Chaffetz would just do 1/100 of the number he did on HRC, we wouldn’t need a “third party investigation”! BUT STILL!)
This story has legs for days…it has more legs than a centipede…it has legs and arms and tentacles and disgusting orange appendages we don’t even want to know about…
Remember: there are still people for whom this is all new information. Send ’em links, make the case, help ’em see how it all fits together. And be happy warriors ’cause sometimes even RWNJ dads can put 2 and 2 together!
Yarrow
The longer the Republicans slow walk this investigation, the more of the top GOP leadership Trump is going to take out when he goes. They don’t seem to understand this.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@FlipYrWhig: What truly astonishing here is that while they were busy going batshit over Hillary’s emails, at least some of them KNEW this was going on at the EXACT same time…
Did they NOT expect this to come out, sooner or later?
Simply amazing…
Jeffro
@Mike in DC:
This is one of the things that always bugged me: people complain about government doing all of that, but big business does it equally well, without FOIA and sunshine laws and everything else trying to keep it on an even keel
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: The world is full of them.
trollhattan
@Kay:
Keep reflecting on the campaign in which not a single “Charming, humanizing personal anecdote from a regular person or old acquaintance”–the fodder of presidential campaigns–came forward. It’s simple: there are none.
Kay
This is the scary part: Trump thinks he’s doing a great job. He’s smugly self-satisfied with his performance. He actually believes that people love him.
He’s 70. Is it likely that delusional grandiose view of his accomplishments will change? No.
germy
@trollhattan:
sounds like a wet fart.
Baud
@Kay: White people still do. That’s all he cares about.
Redshift
While it’s far from the most egregious aspect of this maladministration, the top-to-bottom Dunning-Kreuger effect is quite striking. That’s the only explanation I can imagine for why a supposed intelligence professional (Flynn) would fail to realize that communications with the Russian ambassador on an open line might be monitored; that he was sure he was smarter than his opponents and couldn’t recognize his own incredible incompetence.
Well, I suppose another alternative is that he was enough of an authoritarian to believe that once they were in power they would be able to squelch anything inconvenient, and no one would ever know about it. Evidence of incredible incompetence either way, though.
efgoldman
@Mike in DC:
And those are the GOOD ones.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: The FBI interviewed Flynn shortly after Jan 20! Sometime in the first week of the administration Trump & Co knew Flynn lied about his phone call with the Russians, or if you prefer was caught red-handed. This all happened in Trump’s time and he decided that having his NSA chief collude with the Russians was no biggie. The Republicans need to be hounded with this day-in, day-out.
Gin & Tonic
@Wag: Maybe a nice cup of tea.
Frankensteinbeck
I expected the intelligence community and especially the CIA to have hard evidence within days of his inauguration of Trump committing treason by giving state secrets to Russia so that Russia could use them against America. How fast that would be acted on or come out, I wasn’t sure. The only thing that surprises me is how the non-deplorable public have exploded, and thank goodness.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major: RE: Spicer now blames the Obama DOJ for not notifying the WH quickly enough about Flynn.
This is the new Standard Operating Procedure. Previously, I heard a conservative law professor claim that Obama holdovers in the State Department and other agencies deliberately enforced the immigration executive order incorrectly in order to embarrass the Trump Administration.
Ridnik Chrome
@Major Major Major Major: Well played, sir.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So not even twelve hours before Flyn an Obama admin issue. ROFL.
Cacti
Trump’s Nat Sec Advisor was likely colluding with a foreign government against the sitting administration, and the thing Trump is most concerned about is…
Leaks.
This whole thing is growing more Nixonian by the hour.
Spaniel
I am so confused. I just read Matthew Boyle’s 14 FEB 2017 article in Brietbart, and the first sentence says it was the GOP establishment that had LTG Flynn ousted as NSA director.
So is ‘dirty liberal trash’ now code for GOP establishment?
Kay
@trollhattan:
It hadn’t hit me before though that he’s just a regular country club bore. If this person had inherited real estate in Little Rock Arkansas instead of NYC no one would have ever heard of him. He’s completely unremarkable. He’s like middling-to-bad at reading off a piece of paper. and he’s even more dull when he’s riffing.
This is someone who has been sitting at tables boring people for 40 years and he knows they;re trapped. They have to sit there until he stops talking. It’s just AMAZING how over-rated he is.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: Blaming Obama for everything Republicans do was SOP before January 20 too, so I don’t know if I’d characterize it as ‘new’.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@debbie:
If California is the future them it’s CEO canidates here on out for the GOP.
debbie
@Yarrow:
Yeah, Nixon thought he could outlast it too. That ended well.
efgoldman
@Kay:
No thanks. I’ll go over there in the corner and whack myself with a claw hammer instead.
debbie
@Kay:
Just like a Dale Carnegie believer. If you believe, it will be so.
jl
The third episode of that new Melissa McCarthy show promises be a lot better than the second one.
Edit: are you guys watching? It’s a hoot.
efgoldman
@Kay:
Yes it is.
Shoulda’ stopped right there.
debbie
@Baud:
I don’t think they do. They’re just not willing to admit it yet.
Spaniel
The California GOP congressman, Nissan (sp?) is making a lot of noise to why an American citizen is having his phone tapped. Could it be talking to a foreign representative the grounds for listening? Or it will be ironic, don’t ya think, a warrant was sought and given to watch Flynn?
cmorenc
@trollhattan:
Even if against the grain of having far more Dem-held Senate seats than GOP-held Senate seats up in 2018, we manage to win a majority – even if Gorsuch hearings did drag out all the way through the Nov 2018 elections, you can count on the GOP to rush his confirmation through in the lame duck period before the incumbent’s terms expire on Jan 3rd (when the newly elected Senators take office).
Kay
@Baud:
I genuinely believe it’s an imposition to invite those nice people there and then make them listen to this boring braggart.
No one should go. Don’t encourage this.
jl
@debbie:
‘ Just like a Dale Carnegie believer. If you believe, it will be so. ‘
Drumpf skipped the chapters on how to win friends and influence people. He should go back and read those now. Or maybe not, probably way too late.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan: I am amazed at the number of adult men involved in this who don’t know how to talk to a woman. –
MCA1
Just a random thought: has anyone approached Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY, 18th District) about what it might take for him not to run for re-election in 2018?
Perhaps y’all see where I’m going with this?
joel hanes
@Kay:
He’s reading off sheets of paper
This is actually interesting news to me.
I had been forming the idea that he was functionally illiterate. Seems I was wrong.
Can you characterize the text he’s reading ?
debbie
@Brachiator:
Were there holdovers?
jl
@Kay:
‘ He’s 70. Is it likely that delusional grandiose view of his accomplishments will change? No. ‘
Are there any good (have to be really really good) retraining programs for elderly professional rich man’s sons who are making a change in career?
Uncle Ebeneezer
@Kay: One of the only saving graces, psychologically of this whole mess is the fact that 45 will NEVER be amongst the cool kids (Hollywood, elites etc>) no matter how desperately he wants to be. Even from the Oval Office, he’s still Trash and is a joke to everyone. This is why I’m all for the repetition of “2.9 Million votes” over and over….
Baud
@Kay: It would be nice to put the country in a cone of silence.
hellslittlestangel
@joel hanes: “See Spot run. Run, Spot, run.”
scav
@efgoldman: “Trump thinks”
Does it count as thinking if it’s a hard-wired neural response to indiscriminate stimuli?
Yarrow
@debbie:
Yep. Nixon couldn’t outlast it. Neither can Trump.
lollipopguild
@trollhattan: He is the type of boss at work that Nobody likes or has one good thing to say about.
Baud
@Uncle Ebeneezer:
I think even the A/V club rejects him.
Turgidson
@Major Major Major Major:
“[Trump goon] blames Obama for [anything they don’t like, up to and including paper cuts and rainy days]” will be a go-to move for these insufferable braindead dolts for the foreseeable future.
Literally
@debbie: I just heard on the radio (Hannity, I think?) that the entire problem with Flynn is due to “holdovers” from the “liberal bureaucracy” – “the Great Society” was mentioned (anathema, evidently, since it’s not MAGA) – leaking information, just to “get” Flynn, Trump, etc.
Baud
@Literally: Meh. Works for me.
Kay
@Baud:
And DeVos is completely comfortable with it because she’s one too. She’s a country-clubber too. She has been sitting in nice rooms at tables with men like this her entire life, smiling and nodding.
She might be a little smug. She’s richer than Trump.She’s richer than all the Trumpsters. She might think he’s a little sleazy.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major:
You know, it would be funny if it weren’t so damn shameless and pusillanimous.
No, I take that back. It *is* funny, *altho* so damn shameless and pusillanimous.
As Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant, once so memorably noted: “I’m too old to cry, I might as well laugh.”
Major Major Major Major
@scav:
Good question; does the person in the room know Chinese?
jl
@Literally: Damn straight. What’s with the delay on the Yates’ investigation? Should be hearings now.
Edit: Sorry, I forgot that Chaffetz is looking into a nefarious cartoon character. Inquisitive Sid, or Curious George, or whatever. That is more important. Sorry.
scav
If those dastardly elements of the outgoing administration hadn’t left all those keyboards intact in govt offices, than none! of these evil evil leaks could ever had occurred!
Baud
@Kay:
And here I thought I would never agree with her on anything.
japa21
@Literally: One the arguments from the GOP as to why the Russian hacking and leaking of DNC stuff was no big deal is that we learned the truth so who cares how it came about. When the shoe is on the other foot the how suddenly matters more than the truth.
Shell
Not to go all “To Eleven”, but my first thought reading this was “Yeah, so was Benedict Arnold.”
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@efgoldman:
Can I borrow it when you are done?
Mike in NC
I had every indication that Trump/Pence would go the way of Nixon/Agnew, but thought it would take on the order of 6-12 months. Now I’m betting on 3-6.
lollipopguild
@efgoldman: I worked at a large corporation where people high up would send out e-mails with words misspelled, sentence structure that left you wondering which college gave them their masters degree and with instructions for us minions to do things that would have gotten us fired if we had done what the e-mail told us to do. There were a lot of “ignore my first/previous e-mail” messages in our e-mails.
Mary G
That is an impossibly young Kevin Bacon in that clip, you know.
ETA: According to IMDB, it was his first movie role, at 20.
MisterForkbeard
@Spaniel: The dumb thing is, they don’t even need a warrant to spy on the conversations of foreign nationals, ESPECIALLY foreign government officials on unprotected phones. We keep track of that shit for a reason.
@Literally: Yeah, well. It’s always liberals fault for everything. I just had a mostly sensible conservative friend who voted against Trump (not sure for who, though) tell me that Trump’s wall is exactly like he promised, and any deviations from the oft-repeated “Large Wall and Mexico Will Pay For It” are democrats fault, NOT Trump’s. He had no answer when I said that the reasons literally all policy analysts said Trump was lying is that there was no way to do it and that Democrats wouldn’t go along with it. So Trump had to be lying when he insisted he would do it, over and over again. But no, I was informed wistfully that it was clearly our fault for making Trump wrong.
Hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
When the doj told them he was lying, they didn’t believe them, so it’s Obama’s fault for not forcing them to believe that it was serious.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard: I’m happy to take he blame for stopping that monstrosity.
scav
@MisterForkbeard: Democrats clearly control the free-market price of all raw materials (labor goes without saying) and their iron first on the Mexican National Budget is legendary.
lollipopguild
@Mary G: Everything goes better with bacon, including crowds of people stampeding. Maybe the trump administration should be put on double secret probation.
efgoldman
@Literally:
They NEVER get over shit, do they. Still hippie-punching, except all the hippies and anybody that worked on LBJ’s Great Society are long dead or in the home.
They can’t even flail properly, which is what’s saving us.
Redshift
The other thing that’s appalling about Ryan’s statement is how he equates an investigation with a rush to judgment. Even if he’s running it.
Brachiator
Dear Purity Ponies:
Please explain to me again how, Trump and Clinton, no difference…
cc: Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, Julian Assange
bcc: Glenn Greenwald
Mike in DC
Trump is a continuous serious of bad-to-terrible news cycles for the GOP. Sooner or later they have to break ranks as a matter of political survival. It might be later rather than sooner, though. I’d like to see Evan McMullen challenge Chaffee, to put more pressure on him to really investigate Trump.
Redshift
@MisterForkbeard: Sure. Just like the reason that Reagan and W’s “starve the beast” tax cuts caused deficits is because Democrats something something mumble.
Yarrow
They can’t even keep their stories straight.
The controversy is all made up! No, wait…Trump told him to discuss sanctions. No wait! Trump doesn’t know anything!
Hovercraft
@FlipYrWhig:
I think they are convinced that they were too the most corrupt administration in history, but they got away with it. The media and democrats jumping all over this are doing so because they are biased against the Shitgibbon and republicans. It’s not fair, this was a setup.
Redshift
@Brachiator: Greenwald has been saying that the only reason for all of this talk of treason is “hysteria” in DC about Russia. Which, by complete coincidence, is the same line coming from Russian officials!
Gin & Tonic
@Brachiator: What amazed me was when Noam Chomsky came out for HRC. Fucking Chomsky knew the stakes in this contest.
Baud
@Brachiator: They will.
joel hanes
@jl:
retraining programs for elderly professional rich man’s sons who are making a change in career?
See _Captains_Courageous_, by Rudyard Kipling
or Army boot camp
Oh, you mean the guy who is to be retrained is himself already elderly ?
Well, there’s an old song by Spirit: “It’s Nature’s Way”, which in this case might best be taken to refer to pneumonia, once known as “the old man’s friend”.
Other than that: you need Gandalf to come into the hall with his staff to smite Grima and speak in a voice like thunder.
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow: If there’s anybody more in Putin’s pocket than Manafort or Flynn, it’s Rohrabacher.
Brachiator
Does this mean that the Trump/Putin Bromance is over?
Breaking up is hard to do.
MoxieM
Darn It @trollhattan, you made me go to LEO to look up Schlapp…it means floppy or flabby or nerveless…. in other words, I do not think that word means what you think it does…or does it?
Peale
@Shell: seriously? When did generals become saintly priests?
Redshift
@Brachiator:
Since “better relations with Russia” has only ever seemed to mean “letting Putin do whatever he wants, as long as he says I’m great,” I’m not sure this is as big a challenge as they think.
debbie
@Yarrow:
No, that just shows what an idiot Rohrabacher is. I remember watching him on Bill Mahr’s old show. He insisted Bill Clinton dyed his hair gray so people would take him more seriously.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Can’t wait for him to be part of the investigation. Not on the side of the table conducting the investigation, mind you.
Miss Bianca
@Brachiator: I’ve been reliably (!) informed by a Democrat-turned-Independent/Purity Pony that even tho’ Trump sucks, Clinton and the Democrats suck ALMOST AS MUCH, because REASONS (did you know that DNC shenanigans threw the primaries?? It’s true, apparently! Never mind those damn primary voters who deprived the good Senator of the nomination WITH VOTES!) and that he expects the Democrats to straighten up and fly right with new ideas, fresh blood, etc etc before they will be Truly Worthy of his vote.
Major Major Major Major
@Gin & Tonic: Chomsky said in 2012 to vote for Obama if you lived in a swing state.
joel hanes
@Miss Bianca:
Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant
It’s so rare to find someone who has read _all_ the OZ books. You don’t meet Kabumpo until you’ve exhausted Baum and moved on to Ruth Plumly Thompson.
Yarrow
@Brachiator: Trump must be terrified. He fired Flynn hoping it would make all this mess go away. But Putin is angry. And he’s got plenty of kompromat on Trump, plus the financial investments. Trump can’t go too far criticizing or pushing back against Russia or there will be a few things leaked to the press….
Cacti
@Redshift:
It’s all hands on deck in Moskva.
Comrade Greenwald has been deployed to dupe gullible lefties.
And yesterday he was talking about how leaks that undermine “the elected government” are bad, mmmkay. A position he’s held…for approximately 24-hours.
Ruskileaks is making similar noises.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: Make sure it’s in your big list of accomplishments in your convention’s nomination video in 2020.
Redshift
@Shell: Does “hero” mean anything to wingnuts other than “a uniform makes my heart flutter”? I just looked through Flynn’s bio, and I challenge anyone to identify anything “heroic” in it.
Brachiator
@Mike in DC:
The Republicans still have Trump’s back. For example,
So, now. Just supposing… nothing but a rumor, but you know …. might there be something in those tax returns that could link Trump to Russian financial interests?
Someone should ask and look into it.
Hovercraft
@Redshift:
He rewrote the rules during the campaign and got away with it, so why not as president. You people suddenly expecting him to follow the law and stuff are being very unfair to him.
Yarrow
Ha! This made me laugh.
Miss Bianca
@joel hanes: I haven’t actually read *all* the Oz books – there are authors even beyond Ruth Plumly Thompson whose works I’ve barely scratched – but Kabumpo and I are old, old friends.
Millard Filmore
@Baud:
That could be your campaign slogan: “I stopped Trump’s wall!”
jl
@Baud: 2020 is your year. Doing absolutely nothing but sitting in a WH window sipping a cold one, and waving the passers-by in between naps will look like a damn good platform by then.
Hovercraft
@tobie: you are assuming he was briefed about it himself, remember he said he prefers to have his DNI, Flynn get the brief and them give him a summary. I am being facetious, I assume that they would brief him directly about something like this. At least I hope so.
danielx
Jason Chaffetz will not investigate anything Trump-related short of video showing Trump fucking a pig, and I’m not sure that would do it.
Miss Bianca
@Cacti: Damn, it’s just like watching the Republicans flail around with regard to “investigations” – suddenly leaks are a BAD thing to Wikileaks and Greenwald? Whatever happened to “information wants to be free”, little tovarischii?
Yarrow
Well, well. This is interesting.
jl
@danielx: What is the name of that subversive little cartoon punk Chaffetz is investigating? Inquisitive Sid, Insidious Sid, insubordinate Sid? I forget. Anyway, Sid take priority, clearly.
Miss Bianca
@jl: Sid (the Subversive) Science Kid. Since science is inherently suspect, natch.
jl
@danielx: He has a point. All the great scandals, Teapot Dome, Credit Mobilier, Watergate, would have been much bigger and better if busybodies had just kept their noses out and let them grow and ripen.
Brachiator
@Miss Bianca:
It must be nice to live in a fantasy land where there are no problems or people suffering or about to lose their rights.
Cacti
Here’s what I’m wondering now:
Was Sally Yates fired over the immigration EO, or was that just a ruse to get rid of her because she had the goods on Flynn?
randy khan
@debbie:
In the State Department, there was basically nobody in any appointed job within 24 hours of the Inauguration. I think there maybe was one person in the first three layers of the org chart. Someone posted a copy with all of the people who were gone crossed out – it was impressive in a certain way.
I don’t know about DHS, but if any of the reports are accurate, DHS specifically asked for and got guidance on how the order would work. (Or, more specifically, DHS interpreted the order and got told by the WH that they wanted it to be interpreted much more harshly.)
quakerinabasement
[raises hand]
Brachiator
@Redshift:
The wingnuts had a stiffy for Flynn because he had bad mouthed Obama.
piratedan
@Literally: well if so, then they did a wonderful job, mission accomplished.
randy khan
I got an email from Tim Kaine:
That, as they say, pulls no punches. Senator Dad Jeans is getting pretty tough. I called his office and thanked him.
zhena gogolia
@Yarrow:
I so want Pence to be taken down along with Trump. Then Ryan.
trollhattan
If the Donald thinks he’s going to “save coal” then he’d best hightail it to the Southwest.
Economics have killed coal; the rest is gravy (e.g., clean air and water).
randy khan
@Redshift:
FTFY.
Cacti
@trollhattan:
China also scuttled plans for 104 coal-fired plants.
geg6
@Uncle Ebeneezer:
Yup. Nothing gets under his skin more than that. Hit that hard and constantly and, if we’re lucky, he’ll stroke out during a 3am tweetstorm.
GregB
Who is next into the metaphorical woodchipper?
SRW1
@MoxieM:
You missed ‘flaccid’ as a possible meaning of ‘schlapp’, though for the amorous conotation most Germans would use ‘schlaff’ as the adjective.
MCA1
@zhena gogolia: T’would be a great thing. I alluded to it upthread, but how’s this fantasy scenario:
1. GOP keeps slow walking this while leaks continue to mount, but by the time they get around to realizing impeachment is necessary it’s too late for at least 24 of them in the House.
2. Somehow Pence gets as tied up in this as Drumpf, so it’s possible both of them are taken down.
3. Sean Patrick Maloney in NY’s 18th (home of a certain Chappaqua) decides not to run for re-election, paving the way for a certain former Senator/Sec’y of State to run for that seat.
4. Said former Senator/Sec’y of State wins, Democrats retake the House in midterms, and guess who unanimously wins a race for Speaker when Pelosi yields?
5. Drumpf and Pence both impeached.
6. Karmic satisfaction so great spontaneous orgasms occur all over the country.
Yes, it’s ridiculous and farfetched. But that it’s even approaching possible in the real world if someone chose to pursue it is pretty astounding.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: @Cacti: I saw an article the other day that solar is now cheaper than natural gas or coal in India. I know the devil’s often in the details– cheaper than new coal fired plants, for example– but I’ll take good news where I can get it these days.
dmsilev
@GregB: There was an interesting story over at Vox parsing some recent emanations from Breitbart, coming to the conclusion that Bannon and his band of maniacs have their knives out for Reince Preibus.
scav
Pence is so clearly a bit of forgotten belly-button lint in this administration. And it’s a so clearly a step up from where he was headed.
JMG
Here’s the problem. Trump has one card left to play that’ll keep him on top — please his supporters with acts of vicious cruelty against non-white people anywhere on earth. They’ll let him sell Arizona to Putin if he does that.
dmsilev
@MCA1: Step 3 is actually unnecessary; there’s no requirement that the Speaker be a member of the House. It’s always been that way, true, but there’s no actual law or rule requiring it.
debbie
@dmsilev:
Amazing these guys find any time for “governing.”
debbie
@randy khan:
Thought so, thanks.
danielx
@Brachiator:
There is such a place, as explained by TBogg a while back….
Your Mumia sweatshirt won’t get you into heaven anymore
A comment left over at digg regarding Ralph Nader:
The Democrats really hate Nader because he points out the fact that they are asking those of us on the left to vote for them but they aren’t doing anything for us. Did they end funding for the Republican’s crime spree in Iraq? No. Have they moved for UHC? No. Have they tried to stop corporate crimes? No. Have they tried to reform the tax code to be progressive? No. Have they tried to protect homeowners from predatory lenders? No. Have they defended our constitutional rights? No. Take back the FDA from the corporations? No. The FCC? No.
The Democrats don’t deserve my vote. They aren’t helping the left, why should the left help them?
Let me see if I can explain it this way:
Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.
You don’t live there.
Grow the fuck up.
Corner Stone
God damn fucking David Ignatius. What a piece of shit apologist.
Fair Economist
@MCA1:
That part’s not necessary, actually. The House can vote anybody as speaker. Kind of a backdoor Prime Minister if the Pres and VP can be impeached.
Edit: dangit, ninja’d
Edit #2: But, yeah, amazing that that’s no longer absurd.
efgoldman
@lollipopguild:
I worked for a REALLY GREAT large company, treated employees well, encouraged moving up, paid decently, really good bennies, non-public, so no stockholders reading the quarterlies, really good management philosophy…..
And we still had most of the typical large organization problems.
danielx
@JMG:
They’d let him sell Florida to Putin if he does that, and throw in DC in the bargain. They’re both full of brown people, after all.
lamh36
I won’t link to it, but apparently some jackass conservative cartoonist published a cartoon of Betsy DeVos depicted ala Ruby Bridges…
Lordt…these folks are trying Black folk for real…smh
if you haven’t seen it you can google DeVos and Bridges…
Ugh…that muthafucker!!
Corner Stone
@GregB:
I will be happy to pay for the rental of a real one.
MCA1
@dmsilev: Oh, right! Even better. I don’t know that Pelosi or anyone else would go along with it, but the schadenfreude would be so incredible if Dems poked the GOP with that. Even if impeachment wasn’t on the table it would be cool.
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
Whatever else is or isn’t true, that last sentence is absolute honesty. First time Rohrbacher has been right in this lifetime.
bemused
Instead of people gathering at republican town halls and congressional offices chanting “shame, shame”, isn’t time to be yelling traitors and treason?
Corner Stone
@danielx: I am having a bit of a time figuring out what your message here is. IMO, anyone who invokes Mumia in a derisive manner as some slam against people on the left can go fuck themselves.
Sloane Ranger
We still don’t know what was actually said during this conversation. I assume that if it was just the Russian Ambassador sounding off about the sanctions and Flynn saying something soothing about Trump reviewing them once he took office there wouldn’t be this level of ho ha from those who have read the transcript so what he said must be juicy.
Unless Flynn is suffering from dementia the only way someone as experienced in Intelligence work as he is would think that he would suffer no consequences is if he had reason to believe he was acting on the President elect’s instructions.
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
Ding, ding, ding, much like being a well known black neuro surgeon who attacked Obama to his face on national TV, elevated Ben Carson to superstar status among republicans, a General who was forced out and was then willing to bad mouth his old boss made Flynn the best General in the past century other than Petreaus.
Pogonip
@debbie: I didn’t work for one but I’ve sure seen some of their management decisions! New Coke to go with your Zantigo, anyone?
Zantigo was a taco chain, with a product much superior to Taco Bell, but the management were idiots. In the early ’80’s, I was doing market research; we had a contract to recruit people for a test group. They wanted 50/50 male/female. The male slots filled up within a few hours. We never did get the female slots filled. Why? Because we could not recruit women for the evening slots–those were reserved for men, “because men work.” I guess Zantigo was uninterested in guys who worked the 2nd shift.
This, I say again, was in the early ’80’s, a time when even women who could afford to stay home would have been embarrassed to do so. So if you’d never heard of Zantigo, now you know why!
Taco Bell swallowed them up. They kept some of the Zantigo menu items–the Chilito, for example, was a Zantigo product (and when they made it, it was good).
There’s also the sad case of Big Bear, an Ohio grocery chain bought out by idiots. They’re now Giant Eagle. Failed grocery chains should be ample evidence that businessmen aren’t geniuses–some of them manage to go broke selling food, for God’s sake.
Baud
@bemused:
предателях!
предательстве!
Gin & Tonic
@Sloane Ranger:
Some Russian media now apparently saying Wikileaks will be releasing that call. I wonder who “leaked” them the audio. I’m sure it will be complete and unedited.
Mnemosyne
@Mike in DC:
I’m sitting at my desk at a large corporation reading this comment, so, yeah.
dmsilev
@debbie: Look on the bright side. The more time they spend trying to shiv each other via various right-wing media orifices, the less time they have to do actual damage.
joel hanes
@Miss Bianca:
Have you seen the Books Of Wonder reprints of the first editions of the first few Baums ?
Gorgeous.
sigaba
@Baud: Your “traitors” appear to be declined into the locative case.
Jeffro
@randy khan: that’s awesome! Go Tim!! Or as Sara Benincasa calls him, “your nice dad”
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: The plural is “предатели”.
joel hanes
@Pogonip:
some of them manage to go broke selling food,
The grocery business is actually a difficult way to make money.
Much of the stock is extremely perishable.
Many of the suppliers are unable to guarantee timely delivery of product with known characteristics.
The margins are very low, and in profitable markets, the competition extensive.
The opportunities for automation are limited.
Baud
@sigaba: It’s because I’m angry and I mean business.
Jeffro
PS. Tweety just played a clip of Flynn ranting about HRC at the convention noting the irony of Flynn’s chanting “lock her up!” As well as the utter disdain with which Flynn spits out “she” each time
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: probably just Flynn and his Russian buddy swapping borscht recipes
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Baud would have to wear clothes to do that, otherwise…think of the children.
hueyplong
The GOP’s flat-out admission that they don’t use investigations for fact gathering only highlights the apparent theme and governing principle of our ruling party:
“The GOP: Avoiding the appearance of propriety.”
Patricia Kayden
@debbie: And you know that they will do their best to cover it up for as long as possible. By the time this administration completely collapses under all of its misdeeds, it will drag the entire Republican Party down with it. Deservedly so. Ryan, McConnell and the rest of the gang can continue to look away and pretend that there’s nothing to see.
SiubhanDuinne
I guess the fact that Obama fired Flynn’s ass in 2014 wasn’t a big enough notification.
lamh36
@lamh36: Someone on another site tried to say this
bullshit… he didn’t depict some random 6 year old scene in a school yard. That Rockwell painting is an iconic painting…and instantly recognizable to a large number of people,
Add to that his cartoon background work, and you he knew exactly what he was doing by using this depiction
geg6
@lamh36:
I saw that earlier today. Horrible.
sigaba
@Baud: ладно
scav
Rather loving Rand Paul so perfectly illustrating that all that investigating congress did was purely along party lines and had more to do with obstructing other actions than any pursuit of truth or evidence. Detect Obvious, but it’s nice to get these things nailed down.
CNN for no particular reason
Patricia Kayden
@hueyplong: Republicans only use investigations to harass Democrats. That’s quite obvious after the multiple, useless Benghazi/email server witch hunts that Secretary Clinton was forced to endure. Looking back, I wish she had just ignored them and not participated. Didn’t benefit her.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I read an article a few months back that European wind energy producers now expect to hit their 2030 targets for kWh price in 2020, 10 years ahead of target.
We might be heading to a new era of cheap energy, it won’t be fossil fuel.
Patricia Kayden
@lamh36: **blood pressure rising sharply** Just cannot with these people. This cannot go on for four more years.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
I do love the fact that one of the most prominent Never Trumpians out there is a mouthy, shouty, take-no-fucking-prisoners Latina.
Patricia Kayden
@JMG: According to a comment on this BJ from one of yesterday’s threads, Trump’s favorability rating is 53% among White voters so they must see something in what he’s doing which pleases them. But you’re right that that rating may go up if he starts a war with some non-White (hopefully Muslim) country or goes after minorities here.
Emma
@lamh36: For real? I don’t know whether to laugh or pitch a hissy.
Turgidson
@Mike in DC:
The Congressional GOP won’t really turn on Hair Furor until the Trumpist base that they also rely on for electoral viability also shows signs of turning on him. And given that those dipshits trust Dolt 45 to be truthful over the media by a 90/10- type split, it’s going to be a while before that happens, if it ever does.
I think Dolt 45 is going to survive a dozen or so impeachment-worthy scandals that get dutifully ignored or explained away by the Congressional GOP before he is in any real danger. The soonest I can imagine the GOP starting to turn on him is once all the incumbents are safely past the filing deadlines for potential primary challengers in 2018 – and even then only if they look like they’re at risk of losing the House. Because no matter how idiotic Dolt 45’s actions seem to us and to the comparatively sane parts of the electorate, 27% or so of the electorate will love every second of it, or at least convince themselves that any trouble Trump is in, or has caused, is entirely Obama’s Schumer/Pelosi’s, or the media’s fault. If rank and file GOPers desert Dolt 45 before the base gives permission, they’ll pay.
SaneMD
I read on Twitter a little while ago that Kelly Ann Conway has been un-followed on Twitter by DJT, POTUS and White House Twitter accounts. Pass the popcorn.
lamh36
Hm…devil’s advocate…is Kellyanne a rat trying to find a way to jump ship?
A way to be let go before any prosecution…cause I suspect they all (except Reince and Bannon) did NOT expect just how demanding any part of this job is…especially when you have a Prez who BARELY does the minimum so you have to do the most!
MoxieM
@SRW! thanks– since I’m working on my German due to my young adult daughter’s residence there, some things are frequent topics of conversation…others, not so much! Especially with der Freunde in the room. (OT: although as a translator/editor she had several penis device instruction manuals to work with–hilarity ensued.)
lamh36
@Emma: yes…really really…you can check HuffPo or google but it was published yesterday in some conservative paper…fuckers
as a NOLA native who was born and raised in the neighborhood where Ruby Bridges intergrated Frantz…it pissess me off even more
Patricia Kayden
@GregB:
It’s a tie between Kellyanne Conway (who looks exhausted from all the lying she’s had to do) or Spicer (whose blood pressure must be dangerously high). Or hopefully both.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
” Baud would have to wear clothes to do that, otherwise…think of the children. ”
Don’t be so silly. I never imagined President Baud wandering around the WH in clothes. Whether Baud sits in front of full or half length window sipping his beer and waving between naps depends on how much his genius can reshape our society, which is in big trouble, very big trouble.
MAFA caps: Make America Fun Again. All you need is the cap.
Edit: President Baud will not leave America guessing with all this ‘small hands’ BS. He will advocate for full disclosure through his deeds.
Patricia Kayden
@Cacti: Looks like the Trump administration used Yates’ opposition to the Muslim Ban EO as an excuse to get rid of a critic who knew about Flynn’s misconduct. Dumb move.
dmsilev
@Patricia Kayden: I have zero sympathy for either of those two, especially Conway. They made their choice to work with him, they get to live with the consequences of that choice.
dmsilev
@jl: Look, if Winston Churchill could wander around the White House stark naked, so can Baud.
lamh36
Oh…but lets be honest…does anyone think it will matter to enough GOP senators? I mean, it’s not abuse of his GAY lover after all…smh
@dailykos
Oprah lets senators see video of Trump labor nominee’s ex-wife alleging abuse
jl
@lamh36:
” White House, Donald Trump & POTUS twitter accounts just unfollowed Kellyanne ”
Maybe they’re just punching random buttons trying to get the WH lights to work.
Baud
@dmsilev:
if the American Republic lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
lamh36
So called Liberatarians…nothing but GOP Wolves in sheep’s clothing…
Rand Paul: Republicans shouldn’t waste time investigating other Republicans
SiubhanDuinne
@joel hanes:
NMgal
@trollhattan: Wow, thanks for posting about the Navajo Station decision. I remember the first time I drove out there. When the stacks and a column of emissions first appeared on the horizon (of the gorgeous landscape) 30 miles ahead of me, I exclaimed out loud to no one, “What in the fuck is THAT!” A stark manifestation of the choices in our society: huge, ugly, stinking, requiring more ugliness and danger to feed it… producing cash for people who desperately need it and cheap electricity that we desperately want. And just up the road from Glen Canyon Dam impounding Lake Powell, another choice made — cheap electricity, cheap water, horrific environmental and cultural destruction. Extricating ourselves from what modern society has wrought will take much thought and work, no easy D’s or clever slogans.
Tokyokie
@Lapassionara: I saw Frank Mankiewicz, McGovern’s press secretary, speak at my college back in probably sling 1974. He said then that Nixon would be leaving office prematurely because the news reports were never getting better for his administration. He nailed it, and I think his reasoning probably applies today as well.
Captain C
@Brachiator: It’s amazing how the Party of Personal Responsibility never seems to take responsibility for its own actions.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: @sigaba:
Google translate doesn’t do too well with cases.
Iowa Old Lady
I think Trump was surprised by all the fuss because he genuinely doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal. He knows nothing about law, normal expectations, and ethics. So he concludes he’s just being picked on.
debbie
@lamh36:
I’m not Twitter-literate enough to track it down, but she apparently tweeted “love you” to some white nationalist.
Here: https://twitter.com/donaldjorwell/status/831624142642253825
lamh36
I’ve always contended that Trump NEVER wanted to do the work of Prez, but he did want to win.
Think about it…he picks Pence cause that’s who base would like…then he leaves office somehow…for something he didn’t directly do but he authorized…and bam…goodbye Prez Cheeto…hello Prez pray the gay away.
Also if that was the ultimate game plan…also explains why the kids are doing all they can while they can to get the money for the Trump “brand” any news is good news after all.
lollipopguild
@Captain C: Personal Responsibility is for the little people just like honesty and paying taxes.
Otis Freeman
@hellslittlestangel: I was just thinking the same thing.
I think the whole thing has been masterminded by Mike Pence.
Yes, that’s a joke…
lollipopguild
@Iowa Old Lady: A very nice summation of trump.
Shalimar
@lamh36: I thought the DeVos cartoon was hilarious in the unjustified victimhood of it. As long as we’re painting evil people in a positive light by comparison, someone needs to do one with a young Joseph Stalin and “Communist” on the wall behind him.
Chris T.
I think this demonstrates it well: tell Trump Admin the truth, and you’re fired (Sally Yates). Tell Trump Admin lies, and you’re golden (Flynn), unless enough truth leaks, and then you’re still not fired.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Patricia Kayden:
Yeah, I suppose metaphorical is better than an actual wood chipper… I suppose. I guess. Maybe. Kind of….
Gravenstone
@debbie: Fucking Trump himself favorably retweeted white supremacists multiple times in the past. For that fact alone, the allegation against Conway should be a bullshit excuse. But if they seize on it as an excuse, more power to them.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@dmsilev:
I’ve read that LBJ wore just a bathrobe frequently. A very loose-fitting bathrobe. The belt was sort of an afterthought. Yuck.
Just One More Canuck
@Miss Bianca: It’s hard to laugh when you know that she’s been lying, but you got to laugh to prevent yourself from crying
Shalimar
@Patricia Kayden: I think of the Muslim ban EO as strike 2 after the Flynn warning. You can’t really blame the administration* for not waiting for a strike 3. Yates has ethics. She was going to be a thorn in the side of the shitshow for as long as she retained her job.
*By which I mean if you were in their shoes as an evil asshole, what other choice was there? Not that I think it was ok. Nothing about this whole administration is ok.
Starfish
SiubhanDuinne
@danielx:
Only among Mooslins, and they already hate him, so no harm, no foul.
amk
You libtards don’t get it. It’s all part of draining the swamp and winning bigly.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
So Trump let his VP go out there to lie (presumably inadvertently) for a fucking week and a half? Is this some kind of high-stakes fraternity “loyalty ritual” for pledges or something?
SiubhanDuinne
@Cacti:
Yes.
lamh36
So Joe & Mika ready to let their relationship flag fly
ew… and ugh
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
So, theoretically, there could be a Speaker Baud, is that what you’re saying?
Jeffro
Hayes: not winning quite as much as we thought, eh?
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ve always been more of a Listener.
SFAW
@lamh36:
One of the comments was “looks like an Abercrombie ad for AARP.”
Elizabelle
@SFAW: that’s hilarious.
Yarrow
@SiubhanDuinne:
I don’t know. I watched NBC Nightly News to see what a main stream news outlet was saying. A couple of things. They led with, “What did the President know and when did he know it?” Yes, really. They also made the point that the way this is playing out it looks like Pence is not in the inner circle at the White House. They said that Pence was one of the things that made Congressional Republicans more comfortable with the WH because they felt he would be a check on the craziness. So if Pence is out of the loop he probably isn’t the check on things they thought. And that could in turn make Congressional Republicans more reluctant to cooperate with the administration.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Et voilà! There’s your bumper sticker!
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: I wonder how CBS covered it.
I don’t trust anything from NBC corporate.
Mike J
How will trump leave office? Ladbrokes will take your action on that.
Yarrow
@lamh36: Oh….yuck. Orange pants? And what is up with that weird shoulder leaping? Has to be fake. And how old is that photo? He doesn’t look like that anymore, not at least in the clips I’ve seen recently.
GregB
CitizenTrump……………Roseneft!
SiubhanDuinne
@Yarrow:
WOW. Wow wow wow.
Took ’em 5-1/2 years to ask the same about Nixon.
It’s been fuckin three and a fuckin half fuckin WEEKS, folks.
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
So did CBS
Yarrow
@SiubhanDuinne: Yep. I’m sure they used it because it’s such a well known phrase, but it also carries a lot of meaning. I mean….wow.
@efgoldman: Interesting….
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
LOL!!
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
CBS has been doing Dan Rather’s classic “I don’t know, Mr President, are you a crook” heritage proud.
They’ve been calling out the whole merry band regularly, without equivocation. They prefer “falshehood” to “lie”. but they clearly mean the same thing, no mistake. .
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Always like you to take the easy way out.
lamh36
@Yarrow: joe tweeted yesterday evening. Its real
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne:
The buyers’ remorse, it can be intense…
Seriously, though:
1) Trump’s behavior just since the election, and especially since the inauguration, has been unbelievably horrible
2) It’s also been that much more real…for some, he was just this reality-show guy who was going to “shake things” up…then he was a horrible PEOTUS, and an even more POTUS
3) The media and the average American have seen quite clearly that despite the noise they made during the campaign, the GOP MoCs have no intention of reining Trumpov in unless absolutely forced to do so
4) Despite all of us inside-baseballers here, the average American knew next to nothing about the Russia connections before the election, or even up until very recently.
This is it, this is everything we’ve hoped for since 11/8: that Trumpov and his gang of goons would finally be revealed for the traitors that they are. We’re getting close. KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!
lamh36
@SFAW: LOL
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: This is from Dan Rather’s facebook page:
I was struck by the “long ago” and “far too long.” To Rather too, 3 1/2 weeks feels like forever.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Pogonip: Zantigo came back about a decade ago. It’s just in the Twin Cities, though I have no idea what the geographic spread of the first incarnation was, as that’s the only place I ever saw it. I have no idea if the current management is stupid, but the food is still pretty good as far as fast food goes.
raven
Ruckus
@Baud:
She might think that he’s a little sleazy.
He’s not a little sleazy.
He’s mega fucking over the top sleazy.
So even if she’s going in the right direction, she still would have it wrong.
amk
Result of having the gnat’s memory disease: A repeat of dumbya’s inept and corrupt regime multiplied x times.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Hahaha!
debbie
@Gravenstone:
Can we be sure one of his minions wasn’t Tweeting for him?
debbie
@raven:
Great!
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Noam Chomsky may be about as far left as one can get but he isn’t an idiot. He understands politics and how shit works, He’d just like it to work a lot farther to the left.
Another Scott
In the spirit of women and their allies coming together for love and liberation, we offer A Day Without A Woman. #WomensMarch – Wednesday March 8
It’ll be interesting to see how well this does, being in the middle of the week.
Cheers,
Scott.
lamh36
@nytmike
EXCLUSIVE: Trump aides and associates communicated with Russian Intel operatives in year before the election
https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/831688054326906881
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
I’ve been a fan of Rather’s for half a century or more. I thought he was treated abominably over the Dubya “Killian Documents” thing. Recently began following him on Facebook. He’s not right every time — who is? — but I trust him more than I trust most current politicians and “journalists.”
PsiFighter37
@lamh36: But EMAILS!
Gravenstone
@lamh36: Yeah, just seeing this on Maddow. This is getting uglier and uglier, and the fucking Republicans will try harder and harder to sweep it all under the rug. This is the shit future demonstrations will need to focus on. Force these bastards to do their fucking jobs and investigate!
amk
@lamh36: the worst kept secret ever. congrats, nyt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
two of John McCain’s closest advisors
think they still have his phone number, or is this like Trump aides who feel they have to go on TV to get his attention– they have to tweet until Andrea Mitchell or Brian Williams get their weekly fawn on with the would be Great Man
Keith P.
@SiubhanDuinne: The NYTimes now has that as their top headline, and Maddow just did the “breaking news” bit. This is getting very interesting very fast. Seems like all the antagonizing Trump has done towards the NYT, WaPo, and CNN is starting to pay dividends.
Patricia Kayden
@zhena gogolia: That would be too good to be true.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
A privilege of age, as you know
Miss Bianca
@joel hanes: I have not, but I love Neill’s illustrations!
Lizzy L
NYT: doing its job.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html?emc=edit_na_20170214&nl=breaking-news&nlid=20900995&ref=cta
tobie
@lamh36: Well, if the Trump campaign communicated with Russian intelligence a year before the election, I wonder who else did. Seems like Tad Devine should be brought in for some questioning. This election was stolen through the relentless assault from all sides–left, right, FSB and FBI–on the Democratic Party’s candidate.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: Seen “Captain Fantastic”?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
BOMBSHELL
efgoldman
@Lizzy L:
Only a fucking year too fucking late.
Another Scott
@Patricia Kayden: Dunno.
Gallup:
Donald Trump Job Approval by Party Identification, 2017Weekly averages from Gallup Daily tracking
Republicans Independents Democrats
2017 Feb 6-12 87 35 11
2017 Jan 30-Feb 5 86 41 8
2017 Jan 20-29 89 42 13
As long as those GOP numbers hold up, the Teabaggers in Congress aren’t going to run too far from him.
Cheers,
Scott.
TriassicSands
Breaking News at the Times:
Uh, oh. Tsar Donald the Terrible is getting in deeper and deeper — couldn’t happen to a more miserable human being.
Elizabelle
This all breaks my heart for Hillary. If and when Trump and Pence go down, the presidency should not be handed to the GOP. Stolen goods. Poison fruit of a treasonous tree.
geg6
@Elizabelle:
My John had CBS News on tonight, so I watched to see how they played it. Let me start by saying that I caught the start of the broadcast a few times over the past week and even that small exposure showed that Scott Pelley seems to have no more fucks to give and he called Drumpf a liar multiple times within my hearing over that time. As for tonight, I didn’t check it exactly, but at least the first ten minutes of the show was all about connecting the dots on this entire episode, timeline, videos of previous statements, written quotes, etc. from all the principles here and in Russia. The words “what did the president know and when did he know it” came up early and often. Kind of surreal to see them doing their jobs for once.
TriassicSands
Jeebus, both the Times and Post are wall-to-wall Trump incompetence and malfeasance. This
maymust be the first administration to have had its first major scandal before it even took office.Hey, Donald, are you sick of all the winning yet?
TriassicSands
@Elizabelle:
Sadly, there is no way for justice to be done in this case. Idiots like Tom Friedman are still calling Trump a “legitimate” president.
zhena gogolia
@efgoldman:
I just threw the damn thing across the room because of this headline: “Democrats’ Dilemma on Gorsuch: Appease the Base or Honor the Process?”
Honor the process! Honor the process! They have the nerve to use the words honor the process!
Gin & Tonic
@TriassicSands: Might have been nice if they’d done this last October.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: The NYT is garbage.
Elizabelle
This might be worth eventually taking to the 8 person Supreme Court. It is worth having a huge Constitutional crisis over. Fake complicit president from a hacked election.
Clean house. Sweep them out.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Sorry, went to the gym. But no, haven’t seen it.
sukabi
@Yarrow: and that’s a problem? Seems like it’s the absolute least he could do.
burnspbesq
But wait, there’s <a href="
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share"”>more!
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: it infuriates me that the cool kids were sitting on the Trump allegations while they were masturbating to emails, emails, emails.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Rathers led me to become a telecommunications major long ago. (I switched, for good or ill, to English literature.)
He hasn’t the stature of Cronkite. No one will say, “If I’ve lost Rathers, I’ve lost America.”
But Rathers still leaves a pretty big wake.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
My heart has broken for her in thousands of little shards pretty much every day since last November 8th. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be her, knowing what she knows, watching this shitshow go down and realizing how close we all came to NOT FUCKING HAVING TO HAVE IT HAPPEN.
Poor Hillary. My belief in karma is strong enough that I think she will, eventually, be vindicated, although it may not look like what we expect or happen when we think it should.
geg6
@TriassicSands:
Think of it this way, this is how far they had to go to beat her–a complete and utter betrayal of the country and the Constitution. We may or may not live to see it but they will go down in history as some of the most vile creatures to ever crawl on land. I don’t know how things will play out in the short run, but I have no doubt about that. Not just Drumpf, but the entire GOP. And I take comfort in knowing that Hillary knows that, too. She’s a martyr now, a role she would never have chosen but one she has in history nonetheless. She will
be the protagonist in that history, a tragic heroine. The spontaneous organizing among women, so extraordinary, is proof of that. Find the silver linings where you can. They are there.
TriassicSands
@Gin & Tonic:
Agreed.
You look at what is going on now with Trump and it’s no surprise. Countless people said he was unfit and unqualified to be president and every day he gets up and proves all over again just how unfit and unqualified he is.
The cowardly Republicans have all they need to impeach Trump. All they need is a little integrity and a whole lot of spine. Both are absent in the GOP today.
sukabi
@Spaniel: flynn may have been one of the subjects of the gods warrants issued in July? to monitor the interactions between drumpf campaign and Russia…but part of what was gathered was the Russian embassy…e should have known NSA was listening, it’s what they do.
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
He does indeed. I always much preferred him to Tom Brokaw — even long before Brokaw became the AARP-babbler he has become — and hope he sticks around a while longer with his “not-working-for-a-network-NMSTG” attitude.
TriassicSands
@Elizabelle:
I’m not sure what you mean, but the Supreme Court has no authority to remove a sitting president. That’s up to the House and Senate.
jonas
Mike Pence’s full transformation into a Trump Dignity Wraith (h/t Josh Marshall) is complete. He is largely invisible in human form now, flitting about the halls of power as a shade, a shadow given occasional form to the human eye by Trump’s gregarious backslap or handshake or comment about that chick over there obviously being such a fat lesbian or whatever — a tortured, ghoulish soul now subsisting entirely on occasional tweets of affirmation from his overlord and the tears of homeless Planned Parenthood patients.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
@SiubhanDuinne:
I agree, and while it’s odd, I think I that a variation on a solution I proposed leading up to the EC vote is actually an even better step for the country now.
Back in the interval between Nov 9 and Dec 19, I proposed that the EC do its duty to avert catastrophe, do the only thing it’s supposed to do – be a check on the election – and vote for HRC. But then, with everything that had happened, Trump winning the EC but losing the PV, the Trumpistas being so rabid, the perception of HRC somehow manipulating this and “stealing” the win (and thus, being unable to govern the country)…I suggested she should take the oath of office and immediately resign. Tim Kaine would be sworn in, and he would nominate any moderate R he chooses (Kasich being a prime example) to be his VP.
We would have the first national ‘unity’ government in quite some time, and then with some soul-searching (and hopefully a ‘truth & reconciliation commission’ to look at Russian involvement and voter suppression efforts), both major parties would commit to some guiding principles going forward. Boom, take that, Russia! Take that, Tea Party nutcase! Boom – see, you few principled conservatives, we progressives don’t really want to take every last dime of yours or force you to have gay abortions.
Anyway, the plan still works even now. With Russian interference clearly established, Pence is not any sort of legitimate successor once Donald is forced from office. IN fact, Russia’s actions could be construed as an act of war (for rhetorical purposes). This renders the whole Trump campaign…and short-lived administration…invalid. But again, if HRC were to become president for more than a day, however rightfully she might deserve it, it will unite quite a few on the right with their mouth-breathing Tea Party brethren and keep us in this cycle we’ve been in since 1992. We can say “well tough, lump it, motherfuckers” and in one sense we’d be right. But in practice, we’d get right back into the same old same old back and forth.
So…take it to the 8/8 Supreme Court, and have them rule that the Trump campaign was essentially an act of war by Russia, and therefore, HRC is duly elected the 45th president of the United States. Trump is reduced to being the footnote, the pawn of Russia that he is – he wouldn’t even get to “keep the number”. Hillary goes down in history as not only the first female president, but the person who chose to step aside of the good of bringing the country together (and she gets to just keep hiking and posing for selfies). Kaine serves a term as the 46th president, almost certainly to be succeeded by yet another moderate Dem. Kasich is also a hero to history for showing that it’s possible to work with those you don’t completely agree with.
Standing for taking it to SCOTUS? Any given citizen who feels that their 14th amendment rights to equal protection were violated when Russia interfered with our election.
Jeffro
@TriassicSands: I disagree – see above. It would be the same as removing an occupying force, and/or removing a barrier to equal protection under the law.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: Great minds and all that – please see #302 above!
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I am ready to be in the streets for months to overturn this election, and I would think there are a lot of us. In pink hats or however.
I don’t like that only men be considered for president. This is HIllary’s seat and Hillary’s win. If she wants to say she’ll only serve until 2020, that would be fine. But she won the popular vote by a healthy margin, and this was an election stolen by Republicans who even now
don’twant to put party before country.Slow walk the Gorsuch nomination in the meantime.
Scott Alloway
@quakerinabasement: Tomorrow.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
My apologies if my offbeat plan was perceived as being about keeping men in power – I was only being expedient in that Kaine was HRC’s running mate, and then selected the most nationally recognized ‘moderate'(!) R – Kasich – as his VP for the “unity ticket”. I agree with you completely that it should be her presidency and that it was stolen. And yet…here we are…”through the map and off the looking glass” as Adam puts it…and yes, your “only 1 term” solution works well too. My “1 day” solution gets her the technical win and lets her get on with enjoying the life she’s practically already leading. Either would be great (and preferable to what we have now!)
Oh HELL yes…without a doubt!
Chris T.
@Captain C:
You’re misreading their claim. They are not the Party of Personal Responsibility as in “each person is reponsible for his or her own actions”. They’re the Party of Personal Responsibility as in “
Obamaother handy Democrat is personally responsible for any illegal or unethical action of any Republican.”The Lodger
@Jeffro: The last attempt at a national union government didn’t work out all that well; the president was assassinated less than three months into his term and his successor was the first president to be impeached. Sometimes, the best of plans just go wrong.
Another Scott
@Lizzy L: I’m Shocked, Shocked, I am.
NY Times, from last July:
Duh!
Ya suppose Donnie is on some of those taped phone conversations? I mean, who expects that he isn’t….
Cheers,
Scott.
TriassicSands
@Jeffro:
You may disagree, but I think you’ll find there are only two mechanisms for removing a sitting president — 1) Impeachment in the House and conviction in the Senate or 2) Removal via the 25th Amendment (vote of the VP and a majority of the cabinet officers). What you suggest has to be found in the Constitution or its amendments. Search, I don’t think you’ll find it.
I read your comment above and it is fanciful and there is nothing in the Constitution that gives the Supreme Court the right to remove the president in the way you suggest.
There is no foundation for what you suggest.