Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

In after Baud. Damn.

In my day, never was longer.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: Moving the Goalposts on Leaks, or Rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic?

Open Thread: Moving the Goalposts on Leaks, or Rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic?

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There’s a portion of the Republican Party that’s been trying since the mid-1970s to get a “reset” on Watergate — people convinced that if not for one or two bad breaks, the American people would’ve totally understood that President Nixon only treated us like that because he loved us and knew better than we did what America really needed. The Iran-contra scandal didn’t satisfy those GOPers, because the international criminality involved was so brazen that it needed to be swept under whatever Persian rugs were available. The Cheney Regency wasn’t good, because Dubya was such a blatant fvck-up that everybody laughed at him. But time keeps passing, the original keepers of the flame are gone — President-Asterisk Trump is their last hope, dammit!!!…


Reader Interactions

248Comments

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “I am not a crook” – Richard Nixon, 1974
    “I am not really a bad person” – Donald Trump, 2017

  4. 4.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    Ah yes…

    Donald Trump – the La Brea Tar Pits of Republican politics…

    As painful and destructive as this is gonna be, some real good might come out of it all, like the total destruction of the Republican Party for years and years to come…

    Just as long as he doesn’t end up starting WW lll… or destroying the world economy…

  6. 6.

    jl

    I’m guessing, but I think it was a deal to lift sanctions so Russia could get more foreign investment action going for oil exploration. I read that Exxon-Mobile has a shit load of lease rights in Russia, more than the rest of the its world portfolio combined. (edit: should say I don’t remember where I read that and don’t know if it’s true).

    And Frump is so ignorant and out of it, he probably really believes that juicing the fossil fuel economy (oil! black gold! Texas Tea!) is a key ingredient in winning on the jobs, bigly. (Edit: that is the kind of thing an old weak minded Fox News junkie would believe).

  7. 7.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    Love that video clip at the top…

    “I haven’t spoken to Russia in years…”

    Keep asking him and keep making him deny it…

    Over and over and over again…

  9. 9.

    XTPD

    This rabies superinfection has gone on for far too damn long.

    Though I suspect that’s because his brain and heart were already boiled ‘Murican cheese product, the triangulating neoliberalism of dairy products.

  10. 10.

    lollipopguild

    @jl: So if Russia pumps out more oil and lowers the price of crude which forces American oil companies to lay off american workers?

  13. 13.

    jl

    @lollipopguild: WTF…. Putin has only one economic gimmick that is fossil fuels, he is stuck. I’m not going to waste time trying to figure out what Trump thinks. But, GOP probably eager to suppress any competition to fossil fuels, they are big paymaster for the GOP.

    Desperate measures for desperate people, you know how that goes.

  17. 17.

    Hungry Joe

    Last night I stumbled across a clip of Obama being interviewed. It was about race, but no matter: It was characterized by well-thought-out insights, no mention of enemies, complete and complex sentences, and a bewildering lack of any mention of how many electoral votes he got. After only a couple of months of All Trump, All the Time, I found it relaxing, in that I wasn’t constantly on edge, waiting for something bizarre and stupid; and at the same time depressing, in that You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone.

  18. 18.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Thoroughly Pizzled: That, or a black hole… quicksand… a political roach motel… they check in but never check out…

    I hope this ends like Poltergeist… when the house collapses in on itself and disappears into the ground…

  20. 20.

    Yarrow

    Is John McCain going to issue a strongly worded letter? Or is he going to tell Trump to cut it out?

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    Dana Houle is just now realizing that Der Trumpster lumps everyone who doesn’t agree with him, causes him an issue, or damages his ratings into one big basket called “My Enemeez!!1!” ?

    Dana, that’s why everything these days is “fake news” – if you don’t agree with Trumpov, you’re an enemy and whatever you report is “fake news”

  24. 24.

    Josie

    Let us hope that Trump exits stage left with as little dignity as did Nixon. I watched his exit on television and it was extremely satisfying, at least until Ford pardoned him.

  25. 25.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @Hungry Joe:

    It was characterized by well-thought-out insights, no mention of enemies, complete and complex sentences, and a bewildering lack of any mention of how many electoral votes he got.

    That’s exactly why the Trumpistas believe Obama was weak and a cuck.
    Teh Deplorables loves their bombast.

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    When Donald Trump is executed after his trial and conviction, let it be by having an actual goalpost being rammed down his spine.

  36. 36.

    Yarrow

    Happened to catch a bit of NBC Nightly News tonight. Wow, the weather and flooding in California looks awful! Stay safe everyone!

    They also had a segment, which is evidently recurring, where they go back to places that voted for Trump. This time Kenosha, WI. They talked to mostly white people, although they did talk to one younger African American guy who seemed to hate Trump. One of the middle aged white guys thought the press conference was great. But everyone else was either “full of despair” (yes, really) or didn’t think he was “professional” (that was a woman). Another middle aged white guy says we should “give him a chance,” which looked like was code for, “Oh, shit. He’s awful but I can’t admit that to myself or on camera so I’m going to plead with everyone to STFU and hopefully he’ll improve.” Or something like that.

    We’ve had various discussions here about “Is Trump losing his voters?” From this small segment it looks like the answer is “yes, a bit.”

  37. 37.

    TenguPhule

    @Josie:

    Let us hope that Trump exits stage in a little bucket after the CIA is finished with him.

    Corrected for accuracy.

  39. 39.

    mai naem mobile

    Dolt 45 is not that smart. The only thing he knows which helps him is teevee and teevee ratings. I guarantee there is something that is going to come out – tape/video – which will be proof of him lying and we are going to listen to all these clips on a loop, like we heard the Bill Clinton ‘I did not have a saxual relationship…’ after he admitted to lying.

  46. 46.

    jl

    @Yarrow: I think Frump has already lost a good chunkk of his ‘knucklehead’ vote and will soon lose all of them if he can’t grow up and act normal. The knuckleheads are the voters who thought Frump would be a good way to shake things up, and he didn’t mean all the nasty and freaky shit he did and said.

    Frump will keep his hard core fascist and bigot vote to the very end. And they will be forever bitter about how their brave new world was just within reach, but… was betrayed…

    Again, my guess, about lifting sanctions to get more $ for oil exploration in Russia. Maybe effing with EU to help shore up Russian influence in European energy markets? Kind of loser BS deal Trump would jump at.

  49. 49.

    Ian

    @lollipopguild:
    Ironically, lowering the price of crude does devastating effects on Russia. Increasing the price of crude does a lot for our ‘enemies’ (not my parlance, the administration’s). Whatever will the Ill Douche do to maintain a steady balance?

  51. 51.

    PaulW

    @jl:

    according to that latest Pew Research, there’s still 88 percent of the Republican base thinking Trump is doing a wonderful job.

    that will not drop much, because the Republican voting is motivated by one thing: whatever pisses libruls off.

    it’s going to take Trump doing something so blatantly offensive towards whites before they’ll turn on him.

  52. 52.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: It looked awful! They showed what looked like rivers and said those were roads. They also talked about entire hillsides collapsing as the saturated ground just gives way.

  55. 55.

    jl

    @PaulW: More a comment on who is left in the GOP than anything else. Independents can show up at general election time too. I think that is where the battle will be.Will put GOPer Congresscruds in difficult position, trying to thread the needle between primaries and general.

  57. 57.

    PaulW

    @TenguPhule:

    The Republicans are going to double down on him.

    the sad thing is, who will ever stop them? they’ve rigged the game, they’ve rigged the cops and the DoJ and the FBI, they’ve got their apologists on cable channels and the papers ready to defend every illegal act coming down the pipeline, and the courts can only do so much (and even then we can’t rely on them).

    Keeping up the protests is the only way right now. Keep fighting. Keep telling the bullies NO. Keep resisting until their con game collapses.

    And then we’ll have to clean up the mess they’ll leave behind. Again.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    The last time we had some big winter rains, we ended up having hillsides slide six months later because it took that long for the water to seep down to the undertable. Luckily, we live pretty far from any hills, and we have the freeway between us and the closest ones.

  59. 59.

    XTPD

    @TenguPhule: That said, it is still easily my least favorite dairy product: I soured on in really quickly before I was 10, and the association between it and hamburgers is why it took about six years for me to start eating them. They really should be replace it with (at least) Munster as the cheese topping of choice.

    Also White Castle is the $2 cardboard pizza of fast food.

  60. 60.

    jl

    @Baud: This is a verified almost top 10,000 blog. Don’t you forget that. Major Major Major is an enemy of the Balloon Juice people.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @PaulW:

    If you’re still feeling down, I highly recommend local action, even if it’s just something like volunteering at the animal shelter. Taking some kind of action will help short-circuit the despair cycle.

    And if it’s been more than 6 weeks, consider medication. There’s no need to suffer unnecessarily.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Yarrow:

    The African American guy said he was seeing “more racism than he’s ever seen in his life.” All those white people don’t care, I’m sure.

    They know he’s the real racist.

  66. 66.

    TenguPhule

    @PaulW:

    the sad thing is, who will ever stop them? they’ve rigged the game, they’ve rigged the cops and the DoJ and the FBI, they’ve got their apologists on cable channels and the papers ready to defend every illegal act coming down the pipeline, and the courts can only do so much (and even then we can’t rely on them).

    At this point, the last hope short of actual CW II is the intelligence services. And you don’t know how much it pains me to admit that.

    But given how compromised the entire GOP political leadership seems to be, it would take a small mountain of literal bodies to put a stop to where we’re heading.

    There’s not going to be a clean up as long as the GOP congress critters and their allies live. A change in power won’t do it this time, we saw what happened when they were in the minority with Obama in charge and now they’ve gone full FMJ facist this time.

  67. 67.

    efgoldman

    What’s the difference between Nixon’s Plumbers breaking into DNC headquarters and Trump’s Russians hacking into the DNC emails?

    Tricksie Dicksie Nixie, for all his myriad, fatal to his presidency faults. knew that CREEP (yes, children, their actual acronym for Committee to Re-elect the President) did something illegal, wrong and stupid. That’s why he tried so hard to cover it up.
    Mango Malignancy has no moral compass, no legal training, and nobody to tell him no. He’ll screw up openly on the front end. In fact he already has. If there were a real congress, the investigations would have already started.

  69. 69.

    philadelphialawyer

    @Major Major Major Major: Because that, by analogy, is what Trump is saying now. That is what is “familiar” about the pseudo Nixon quote. IE it is similar to real Trump statements.

    Look, it is not necessarily all that well thought out, but the idea is something like “Can you imagine Nixon getting away with saying that the ‘real’ issue is the leaks, not the substance of the leaks?” Even Nixon didn’t go that far, but Trump is.

  70. 70.

    germy

    @Baud:

    OMG, I’d hate to see the bottom tier

    There are some local blogs I try to follow, but one has white text on a black background, the other has a bright red background with white text.

  73. 73.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @efgoldman: The Congress is dominated by a bunch of GOP apparatchiks. There isn’t a statesman/woman in the entire lot. They’re all low level functionaries elevated to legislators.

    These guys make Charles Sandman look like John Quincy Adams.

  76. 76.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    And if it’s been more than 6 weeks, consider medication.

    There isn’t enough medication or alcohol in the world for the upcoming debt ceiling vote. The teabagger circlejerk have enough votes to torpedo anything sane and the House Democrats would be crazy to cross the aisle. And this time, we have a moron running the Whitehouse who does not know how this shit is supposed to work.

    Welcome to my nightmare.

  82. 82.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    Since people mentioned CA and local action:

    Heads up to all CA residents (and people with friends/family there),

    There are 3 Sanctuary State Bills coming up in the CA Legislature. Contact your Senator and Assemplyperson and urge them to vote “Yes” on all 3.:

    SB 3- would use State funds to create centers for training public defenders and other attorneys on Immigration Law. Call your ASSEMBLYPERSON for this one.

    SB 6- would create a public defender program for Immigration. Call your SENATOR.

    SB 54- (as noted above) would prevent local police from using resources for “immigration enforcement purposes.” Call your SENATOR.

    My SENATOR is Anthony Portantino. His Glendale office # is (818) 409-0400. If you call him make sure to say hello to his District Rep, Dominick Correy who was answering the phone yesterday (very nice guy who also works on police/jail reform) and thank him and Sen Portantino for coming out to support Planned Parenthood two weeks ago.

    My ASSEMBLYPERSON is Chris Holden, and his local # is (626) 351-1917.
    You can find your Sen/Assemblypersons here.

  86. 86.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @schrodingers_cat: They’re showing it here by not noting that while the quote may be something Nixon never uttered, the point of it is to show the absurdity of shitgibbon’s own quotes. That not even Nixon would try such an incredibly lame play, because Nixon was infinitely more intelligent and clever than Donald can ever hope to be.

  88. 88.

    Ryan

    “What’s the difference between Nixon’s Plumbers breaking into DNC headquarters and Trump’s Russians hacking into the DNC emails?”

    Nixon had better hair and more gravitas?

  90. 90.

    dm

    @TenguPhule:

    And this time, we have a moron running the Whitehouse who does not know how this shit is supposed to work.

    Sure he does. He said so during the campaign. You declare bankruptcy, and then negotiate a pennies-on-the-dollar payment of your debt (to social security, to people saving for their retirement, and ….)

  92. 92.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Ryan: What Nixon did was politics… criminal, but politics…

    What the Russians did, and Trump egging them on, is TREASON… IMHO…

  93. 93.

    danielx

    What’s the difference between Nixon’s Plumbers breaking into DNC headquarters and Trump’s Russians hacking into the DNC emails?

    Trump’s Russians succeeded beyond their wildest dreams?

    ETA:

    There’s a portion of the Republican Party that’s been trying since the mid-1970s to get revenge for a “reset” on Watergate…

    Fixed.

  94. 94.

    germy

    A Republican state senator in Texas broke a glass tabletop Wednesday during a hearing on three anti-abortion bills, hitting his gavel so hard during a NARAL Pro-Choice Texas intern’s testimony that the room was stunned into silence as the glass shattered.

    The 24-year-old intern, Maggie Hennessy, was wrapping up her two-minute testimony against SB 415 — a bill that would limit doctors’ ability to perform the dilation and evacuation medical procedure, which is used in about 95 percent of second-trimester abortions — when Senator Charles Schwertner verbally warned her that her time was up. As Hennessy concluded her testimony — surpassing the time limit by several seconds to urge lawmakers to “stop playing with women’s health care as if it’s your own political puppet” — Schwertner hammered his gavel prompting a swift crack that shattered the desk top and echoed through the senate chamber.

    (cosmopolitan)

  96. 96.

    Ryan

    @Thru the Looking Glass…: Snark got a hold of me. I completely agree. Although it’s not clear where that treason is aimed aside from halfhearted attempts to break up the postwar order. Perhaps if he were not such a buffoon, we’d have a more direct challenge against NATO.

  101. 101.

    p.a.

    @amk: We shouldn’t use treason to describe traitors, because the traitors will become upset and respond with doublity double treason, and then we’ll never get the .001% of responsible, open minded traitors to vote Democratic.

  106. 106.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @amk: Good question… mebbe the first time some goons chase a reporter down a dark alley and beat the crap outta ’em, ‘for Donnie’?

    I’m waiting for some sort of Reichstag event that Drumpf can use as a casus belli on the press…

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @lollipopguild: I guess their “thinking” is something like the following:

    1) The US economy used to grow at 4+%/yr. There’s “no reason” why that can’t happen again.
    2) Global warming is Fake News so there’s nothing wrong with burning more coal and oil.
    3) Getting rid of mileage standards, gutting the EPA, raising the Interstate speed limits to 100 MPH, and cranking up oil production will mean that GM and Ford and Studebaker and Duesenberg and Carnegie Steel and ESSO and all of the rest of the giants of the US economy will be going like gangbusters again.
    4) By the time Los Angeles’s and Houston’s and NYC’s air looks like Beijing’s, Trump will be dead and gone, and his kids will be living in Monte Carlo, so it’s all good.

    :-/

    (Needless to say, that’s not my view.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    oldster

    I’m so old that I remember when the enemy of the American people was Russia, not the free press.

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    David Fahrenthold Verified account
    ‏@Fahrenthold

    After working for Trump campaign, British data firm eyes new US govt contracts. By @mateagold and @FrancesSSellers

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    Don Moynihan Verified account
    ‏@donmoyn

    Trump WH telling career economists to make up budget numbers based on inflated revenue estimates

  112. 112.

    ? Martin

    @Another Scott:

    1) The US economy used to grow at 4+%/yr. There’s “no reason” why that can’t happen again.

    That’s actually true. But that kind of growth is primarily driven by immigration. Open up immigration and you can get an additional 2% GDP just on that alone.

  113. 113.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Ryan: Geez… apart from NATO, I’d think the treason on Drumpf’s part would colluding w/ a foreign power to undermine an election and seize control of the country? Sure, Donnie ‘won’ the election, and how much did Russian meddling help? And just how much coordinating was there between the Russians and the Drumpf campaign? Any promises made in exchange?

    It would be irresponsible to not speculate… ya know, like w/ Obama’s birth certificate, or Bengahzi, or Hillary’s emails…

    On the CBS Evening News tonight, when they were reporting on the briefing the FBI gave the Senate today, the final comment said this investigation is more of a marathon than a sprint…

    Gimme a break… they’ve been investigating this for months… they either have concrete evidence/proof or not… when I hear weasel words like ‘marathon’, I hear someone doing everything they can to drag this out, hoping the rest of us somehow lose interest, get bored and move on…

  118. 118.

    Roger Moore

    What’s the difference between Nixon’s Plumbers breaking into DNC headquarters and Trump’s Russians hacking into the DNC emails?

    Nixon probably would have won without the plumbers.

  121. 121.

    rikyrah

    Media Alert:

    Dear Members,

    We are so pleased to announce that on Sunday, February 19, from 6 – 8:30 pm Eastern, C-SPAN’s American History TV (C-SPAN-3) will take viewers inside the National Museum of African American History & Culture for a special look at the Slavery & Freedom, Segregation and 1968 & Beyond galleries.

    This program will have several special guests!

    Judge Robert Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, a member of the Presidential Commission on the Development of the Museum and author of, “Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100-Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History & Culture.”

    Mary Elliott, Museum Specialist, National Museum of African American History & Culture

    William Pretzer, Curator, National Museum of African American History & Culture

    In addition to being interviewed, Mary and Bill will take viewers on a tour of their exhibitions, and take viewer calls and Tweets.

    The entire program re-airs at 10 pm Eastern, February 19, and again on Presidents Day, Monday, February 20, at 8 am and 8 pm Eastern, all on C-SPAN3, American History TV.

    This is the perfect opportunity for members to see inside our Slavery & Freedom, Segregation and 1968 & Beyond galleries and hear special tidbits from experts! We hope you tune in, call, and Tweet about it!

  124. 124.

    Peale

    @Keith P.: yes. He’s chosen his occupation to be like Christ. Like those good Calvinists in Holland Michigan. Dontcha know what Jesus would have done if he wasnt forced to be a carpenter?

  125. 125.

    ? Martin

    Man, haven’t gotten a NWS alert in probably at least a year and we’ve gotten 6 or 7 in the last 2 hours. Fun. If you know anyone who lives in the foothills of SoCal, check in on them – they’re having a bad night.

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    Hey Kay,

    DeVos: Critics want to ‘make my life a living hell’
    February 17 at 9:20 AM 

    In her first full week as U.S. education secretary, Betsy DeVos wasted no time in getting to work to try to explain her vision for education and the U.S. Education Department — and to go after her critics, saying they want to make her life “a living hell.” She also said she has identified people in the department who want her to fail, but vowed not to let them.
    […]
    In a speech and several interviews, DeVos made clear that she is planning to push the expansion of school choice — charter schools, voucher programs and other alternatives to traditional public schools.

    In an interview with Axios, excerpts of which were published on Feb. 17, she said:
    “I expect there will be more public charter schools. I expect there will be more private schools. I expect there will be more virtual schools. I expect there will be more schools of any kind that haven’t even been invented yet.”

    The one thing she said she didn’t expect more of was traditional public schools.

    As far as the role of the federal government in education, she said:
    “I think in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them, there is a role to play. … I mean, when we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren’t allowed to have the same kind of sports teams — I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved.”

    But when asked whether there are any other issues in which the federal government should intervene, she said: “I can’t think of any now.” As to whether the Education Department should be eliminated, she said:
    “It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job, but I’m not sure that — I’m not sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that.”

    In an interview with conservative columnist Cal Thomas published on Feb. 16, the Michigan billionaire blasted protesters for the second time in the same week, saying they are “sponsored and very carefully planned” and not “genuine protests.”

  134. 134.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    and to go after her critics, saying they want to make her life “a living hell

    To be fair, they probably thought she’d feel at home there.

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    Like they’re telling Pompeo anything……

    Trump yells at CIA director over reports intel officials are keeping info from him
    February 17, 2017, 5:28 PM

    CBS News has learned that on Thursday, an angry President Trump called CIA Director Mike Pompeo and yelled at him for not pushing back hard enough against reports that the intelligence community was withholding information from the commander-in-chief.

    The agency then drafted a strongly worded statement rebutting the claim. “We are not aware of any instance when that has occurred,” read Pompeo’s statement. “It is CIA’s mission to provide the President with the best intelligence possible and to explain the basis for that intelligence. The CIA does not, has not, and will never hide intelligence from the President, period.”

  138. 138.

    ? Martin

    @rikyrah:

    Critics want to ‘make my life a living hell’

    Welcome to being a public sector employee. Be thankful you aren’t a front line employee at the DMV.

  140. 140.

    ? Martin

    @rikyrah:

    The agency then drafted a strongly worded statement rebutting the claim. “We are not aware of any instance when that has occurred,” read Pompeo’s statement. “It is CIA’s mission to provide the President with the best intelligence possible and to explain the basis for that intelligence. The CIA does not, has not, and will never hide intelligence from the President, period.”

    What the CIA staffers heard: “The Director does not have our back. Cut him out as well.”

  142. 142.

    ? Martin

    @amk: My daughter and I were were trying to work out what a group of Trumps would be. ‘Murder’ was easy to borrow, but didn’t seem to fit. We decided that an ‘anarchy of Trumps’ had a nice ring to it.

  144. 144.

    Keith P.

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, seriously. For quite a bit now, I’ve started to suspect that I actually died several years ago, and I’m in some kind of personal purgatory tailored specifically to my dislikes. I’d give my little finger to be put into The Medium Place.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @? Martin:

    We are not aware of any instance when that has occurred

    With an internal “because we instructed people to make sure we are unaware.” Plausible denial. Nelsonian blind eye. Etc.

  148. 148.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @SiubhanDuinne: Holy shite…

    I just clicked on that link (I feel dirty now… I think I need to burn these clothes and take a long, long shower…) and scrolled thru the questions in the survey… I especially liked #22:

    Do you believe that if Republicans were obstructing Obama like Democrats are doing to President Trump, the mainstream media would attack Republicans?

    I’m flabbergasted… are they serious? Did they never hear Chinless Mitch McConnell say,

    “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”.

    … or told Obama,

    “Mr President, you will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy…”

    ?

    I’ve learned the hard way… there are three groups of people you can’t argue w/:

    1) the bedrock crazee…

    2) the congenitally stupid

    3) those determined to lie at all cost…

    W/ Republicans, we seem to be dealing w/ all three…

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    [DeVos] the Michigan billionaire blasted protesters for the second time in the same week, saying they are “sponsored and very carefully planned” and not “genuine protests.”

    Yup…they’re all “sponsored” and “not genuine”…

    …could someone, anyone do a little digging and see if there’s any evidence whatsoever for George Soros cutting protester-checks? Voter fraud? Inner-city MAD MAX-style warfare? Jesus…

  151. 151.

    HeleninEire

    A century ago, it took Vladimir Lenin one month after taking power to coin the term "vrag naroda", "enemy of the people", on 28 Nov, 1917.— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 18, 2017

  155. 155.

    dm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Didn’t the plumbers get their start early in the primary season, tweaking things so more centrist candidates had campaign-injuring moments (Muskie’s tears/melting snow on his face), so McGovern became the candidate? Or am I misremembering that part?

    Sigh. Certain bros should sit down with veterans of the McGovern campaign sometime (I’m one — and I wasn’t even old enough to vote).

  162. 162.

    Mike J

    And still in the running:

    “General Keith Kellogg, who I have known for a long time, is very much in play for NSA—as are three others,” Mr. Trump wrote in a tweet Friday morning.

    People familiar with the process say former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, Army strategist Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster and former Army Chief of Staff and retired Gen. Ray Odierno remained under consideration.

  163. 163.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @Mike J:
    Petraeus?
    You’ve got to be shitting me.
    I didn’t think that even Trump would be arrogant & stupid enough to want to appoint a guy who plead guilty to passing classified information to his mistress

  164. 164.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Thru the Looking Glass…:

    I’ve learned the hard way… there are three groups of people you can’t argue w/:

    1) the bedrock crazee…
    2) the congenitally stupid
    3) those determined to lie at all cost…

    W/ Republicans, we seem to be dealing w/ all three…

    Yeah, we are. That’s a nice little summary you put together.

    That “survey” features some of the most manipulative, weaselly framing that I’ve seen in a long time. And although they are, as you point out, crazee stupid liars, they are also blatant AF. It reads as though the author is an intern breathlessly putting together the scandal section of the National Enquirer.

  166. 166.

    dmsilev

    @Mike J: I sense a pattern here. I guess this means that anyone who (a) is sane and (b) has any hope or prayer of doing the job well won’t last beyond the first round interview.

  168. 168.

    Keith P.

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): I’m rooting for Petraeus to be Flynn’s replacement, mainly to torture Sean Spicer, who will have to explain how a guy with revoked security privileges and currently on probably (both for leaking classified information) is the 2nd-best choice for National Security Advisor.

  169. 169.

    Aleta

    Sometimes a big piece of population in a country or colony goes mad from misunderstood fear or an unidentified substance.

  170. 170.

    ? Martin

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):

    I didn’t think that even Trump would be arrogant & stupid enough to want to appoint a guy who plead guilty to passing classified information to his mistress

    Again, to be fair, you can’t really judge until you reveal how hot the mistress was. I mean, if she was like, grab her by the püssy hot, then can you really blame the guy?

  172. 172.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It reads as though the author is an intern breathlessly putting together the scandal section of the National Enquirer.

    Which means the true believers they’re playing to will be snapping and snarling at the red meat they’re being thrown, in addition to pissing all over their own shoe tops in excitement…

  173. 173.

    Mike J

    @dmsilev: The rumour this afternoon was that KT was told to pick her new boss and she wants Bolton.

    Of course I haven’t spoken to any of the people involved, and I don’t think the people spreading the rumour have either. But a lot of times the scuttlebutt turns out to be true. Just use as many grains of salt as you feel are required.

  174. 174.

    rikyrah

    GOP rep: Many career civil servants are liberal
    02/17/17 10:17 AM EST

    Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) says a significant number of career government officials are politically left-wing.

    “When you start getting into the bowels of the bureaucracy, intelligence but certainly the State Department, you have a lot of career officials who are supposed to be nonpartisan, but they really do have a liberal bent,” he said Friday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

    “So you have the president of the United States, they don’t agree with him, so some of them are taking matters into their own hands,” DeSantis added of President Trump. “That is not the way this system is supposed to operate.”

  175. 175.

    ? Martin

    @Aleta:

    Sometimes a big piece of population in a country or colony goes mad from misunderstood fear or an unidentified substance.

    Or maybe they all have syphilis. Occam’s Razor and all that.

  180. 180.

    ? Martin

    @rikyrah: I can speak directly to this, actually. It’s true, most government employees actually believe the government can do good things for the public. It’s a really weird phenomena that people would take a job that they’re proud of.

  181. 181.

    dmsilev

    @rikyrah: To be fair, if we take this part in isolation:

    DeSantis added of President Trump. “That is not the way this system is supposed to operate.”

    he’s got a point.

  183. 183.

    raven

    @efgoldman: I’ve tried to tell Bernie people that if those motherfuckers could do what they did to a combat vet like George they would have made mincemeat out of Sanders.

  184. 184.

    dm

    @Jeffro:

    Love how it ended on a donation page to Trump. What a master of understatement that PT Barnum was…

    It’s the new hotness. All the surveys I get from the bizillions of Democratic Party lists I’m on end up at the donation page, too. I’m guessing that the Sasha Issenberg Victory Labrats showed how surveys were more effective than “what those DASTARDLY not-our-partychiks are DOING NOW!!!” screeds.

  189. 189.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    When Trump fans were chanting, “Drain the swamp!” they meant purging liberals from the government, not getting rid of corruption. They’re pretty open about this.

  192. 192.

    Another Scott

    @? Martin: Sure, an easy way to have more economic growth is to have more people (doing productive things) in the workforce, and one way to do that is via immigration.

    But there are “good reasons” why we shouldn’t expect that to happen – Donnie and his minions railing against immigration, for one thing. But even without that, our national demographics are arguing for 2% growth continuing to be “normal” – unless federal policies about national investment and workers’ compensation are changed.

    And with a GOP Congress, even if Hillary had won, that’s not going to change, either.

    It’s a crime that growth isn’t higher, especially after climbing out of the Great Recession pit. But 4% growth isn’t going to magically happen on its own if “Washington gets out of the way”.

    Donnie isn’t going to get 4% real GDP growth out of the US economy for even 2 quarters, let alone for years. Given the way he’s throwing monkey wrenches into everything, even if he gets some big tax cuts, I don’t think he’ll even do as well as Obama …

    If we want more growth, and sustainable growth, we’re not going to get it with the GOP in power. They’re much happier having a relatively bigger piece of a shrinking pie than a relatively smaller piece of a growing pie…

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  193. 193.

    Mike in NC

    @Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Petraeus liked to grab a little p_u_s_s_y, so why not hire him? Seems like a bunch of Trump picks couldn’t submit a clean SF-86 because they were tainted one way or another. Submitting an SF-86 to get a federal agency security clearance is hardly rocket science.

  200. 200.

    efgoldman

    @dm:

    Or am I misremembering that part?

    Depends whether “the plumbers” was actually the gang that did the break ins (Dem HQ and Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office) or the whole shitty operation. I think Colson and Roger Stone (yep, same guy) were responsible for some of the political tricks.
    And whether Muskie was actually crying is debatable.

  202. 202.

    dm

    @rikyrah: Yikes. I’d heard that the Senate was a tough nut to crack in 2018, but that graphic makes it depressingly obvious. Easy to see Republican gains, hard to see Democratic gains.

  204. 204.

    efgoldman

    @Mike J:

    retired Gen. Ray Odierno remained under consideration.

    Am I misremembering? Wasn’t Odierno one of the senior officers that W [Darth] fired for telling the truth about Iraq?

  209. 209.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    Apparently (according to someone I don’t know on Facebook, which is my own personal standard of reliability) you can’t submit the questionnaire without first having made a donation.

  210. 210.

    efgoldman

    @Mnemosyne:

    When Trump fans were chanting, “Drain the swamp!” they meant purging liberals from the government, not getting rid of corruption.

    They hate the gummint. Until their social security checks are late.

  211. 211.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Thanks, kid. I just filled it out as “Alex Jones.”

    Interesting questions they got there
    A) Do you believe the child-molesters in the media when they dare to question our Dear Leader?
    B) Do you believe the media has [sic] ever told the truth about any Republican?
    C) Are you OK with the media — other than the ones WE approve of — lying all the time?
    D) Which broadcast network would you like to see tried for treason?

    and so forth.

    Restored my faith in humanity and the Republican Partei.

  212. 212.

    Another Scott

    @Keith P.:

    … is the 2nd-best choice for National Security Advisor.

    :-) But wouldn’t General “Betray us” be his 3rd choice at this point?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  213. 213.

    rikyrah

    Kyle Griffin Verified account
    ‏@kylegriffin1

    Rep. Joaquin Castro says GOP Judiciary Cmte. chair Bob Goodlatte wants to deport all 11MIL undocumented immigrants.

  216. 216.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Thru the Looking Glass…:

    So would willfully eating a shit sandwich…

    Wait, I just realized: is that what Christie meant when he was talking about Trump forcing him to eat meat loaf?

    Quote “MEAT LOAF” Unquote. LOL.

  219. 219.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Now I understand why my inbox is blowing up

    If it’s any consolation, I used efgoldman’s e-mail address when I submitted the survey.

    “Back atcha” is not as good as prevention, but sometimes it’s the only thing available.

  221. 221.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SFAW:

    If it’s any consolation, I used efgoldman’s e-mail address when I submitted the survey.

    No worries. Adam Silverman used yours.

    You must admit, when BJ does a circle jerk, it does it with panache.

  222. 222.

    efgoldman

    @SFAW:

    I used efgoldman’s e-mail address when I submitted the survey.

    Thank you. I’m a lonely old man – I’ll take any human contact I can get.
    Oh wait – we’re talking about Republiklowns, not humans.

  224. 224.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) says a significant number of career government officials are politically left-wing.

    “When you start getting into the bowels of the bureaucracy, intelligence but certainly the State Department, you have a lot of career officials who are supposed to be nonpartisan, but they really do have a liberal bent,” he said Friday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

    “So you have the president of the United States, they don’t agree with him, so some of them are taking matters into their own hands,” DeSantis added of President Trump. “That is not the way this system is supposed to operate.”

    funny how people who commit to institutions, careers, their community, how those folks end up being “liberal”…it’s just so weird, isn’t it? It’s almost like the more community-minded (not to mention a lot of these jobs require quite a bit of education and hard work), the more you end up with these damn “liberals”

    Memo to conservatives: if you would suck it up and get more education, work harder, and quit slagging everyone around you, you might get ahead in life. No wonder you don’t want anyone else to even have bootstraps to pull themselves up by…

  225. 225.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: Is that it? I either coasted in on someone else’s donation, or my opinions didn’t go through (sob)

    Someone oughta ask Trump about it, just to watch him explicate: “Well, we have the finest people but when we send out a survey we can’t just have anyone fill out the survey…and those things cost money…and we want to make sure they have some sort of stake in the game…”

    Conservative logic by itself makes my head spin. Trump rationales (even imaginary ones) make me start sharpening the tines on my pitchfork

  229. 229.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    Rep. Joaquin Castro says GOP Judiciary Cmte. chair Bob Goodlatte wants to deport all 11MIL undocumented immigrants.

    That’s IT, I’m moving back to the effing valley and running against this clown next year. Would someone please write an excuse note to Mrs. Jeffro…”duty calls” and all that?

  231. 231.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Adam Silverman used yours.

    My tiny brain is vacillating between “Shit! No way I’m gonna fuck with Adam!” and “Bullshit! Adam is too classy to do that.”

  232. 232.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    Memo to conservatives: if you would suck it up and get more education, work harder, and quit slagging everyone around you,

    SUCH a kidder, you are.

  236. 236.

    SFAW

    @amk:

    mine is a dead e-mail account. phew.

    Not any more — we fed it bra-a-a-i-ns — and it has returned.

    Of course, had we fed it Shitgibbon’s “brains,” it would still be dead.

  237. 237.

    dm

    @SFAW:

    Of course, if we fed it Shitgibbon’s “brains,” it would still be dead.

    But it would have the culinary taste to be National Security Advisor.

  243. 243.

    BC in Illinois

    @efgoldman:
    IIRC, Nixon’s dirty tricks started at the beginning of ’72, when Nixon was trailing in the polls to Edmund Muskie. After they brought Muskie down (a story in itself), McGovern didn’t have a chance.

  244. 244.

    Jeffro

    @SFAW: We need…we need people to hear the TRUTH about these parasitical red states and their welfare kings & queens. It’s irritating, propping them up like we do.

  248. 248.

    frosty

    @dm: IIRC it was Donald Segretti and the ratfuckers in the early stages, e.g. Muskie. The Plumbers came later to stop the leaks. I’m damned if I can recall the leaks they were worried about. Not the Pentagon Papers, I don’t think.

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