President Trump says "nobody I know of" talked to Russia during the campaign https://t.co/JUhH83L9Oe https://t.co/9sZpie1lve
— CNN (@CNN) February 16, 2017
But, Mr. President: If "the leaks are real," as you just stated, then there are people that you know of who talked to Russia. https://t.co/F4c84ipSb6
— Ali H. Soufan (@Ali_H_Soufan) February 16, 2017
POTUS, asked to say definitively that no one in his campaign communicated with Russian intelligence: "i had nothing to do with it"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 16, 2017
Asked 3 times by 2 different reporters, Trump declines to say definitively that no one on his presidential campaign had contact with Russia.
— Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) February 16, 2017
Trump on leaks "all of a sudden people are finding out exactly what took place."
Is he supposed to admit that?
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) February 16, 2017
This is the #1 story. He moved the legal goalposts from 'nobody in my campaign' to 'I had no knowledge.' Big. https://t.co/Ks0TElccTP
— A Finely Tuned ?????? (@ZeddRebel) February 16, 2017
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!!!…
The Democrats had to come up with a story as to why they lost the election, and so badly (306), so they made up a story – RUSSIA. Fake news!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2017
…tweets are well-planned strategic moves. I doubt this is. But I do think he’s lumping all who don’t agree w him together as “enemies”
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 16, 2017
The Trump we are seeing now is fully consistent with the Trump that was losing bigly before the Russian Wikileaks and the Comey letter.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 16, 2017
@CharlesPPierce pic.twitter.com/a3E9PMbIg9
— Fred Harris?? (@FredCHarris) February 17, 2017
What's the difference between Nixon's Plumbers breaking into DNC headquarters and Trump's Russians hacking into the DNC emails?
— Mark Rector (@markwellsrector) February 16, 2017
Nixon didn't go on TV and say 'hey Liddy be sure to steal shit from McGovern too I'll let you have a Virgin Island' https://t.co/wRP9yrQCN8
— A Finely Tuned ?????? (@ZeddRebel) February 16, 2017
Villago Delenda Est
If the shitgibbon is breathing, he’s lying.
It’s his nature.
Villago Delenda Est
“I am not a crook” – Richard Nixon, 1974
“I am not really a bad person” – Donald Trump, 2017
lollipopguild
Is John McCain still upset?
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…
lollipopguild
@Villago Delenda Est: He also the least racist person on the planet.
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).
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…
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
The The Tar Tar Pits, you mean. :)
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.
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?
Hunter Gathers
This presidency goes to eleven.
Villago Delenda Est
@lollipopguild: No one has more respect for women.
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.
Villago Delenda Est
@lollipopguild: Not upset enough to break Partei discipline on confirmations.
Angrifon
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
ICWutUdidthar
lollipopguild
@Villago Delenda Est: And no one can love the Jewish people more than him!
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.
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…
Mike J
@Hunter Gathers:
https://twitter.com/McJesse/status/824722071657836544
Yarrow
Is John McCain going to issue a strongly worded letter? Or is he going to tell Trump to cut it out?
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”
Major Major Major Major
Nixon, alas, never said that.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Fake news!
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.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Hungry Joe:
That’s exactly why the Trumpistas believe Obama was weak and a cuck.
Teh Deplorables loves their bombast.
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major:
I didn’t know anybody actually thought he did. The cartoon is meant to point out how absurd it would have been.
Hungry Joe
@Thoroughly Pizzled: Every time I see “The La Brea Tar Pits” I get an obsessive-compulsive urge to say (or at least, mutter) “The the tar tar pits” out loud: … …. …. … … — There. I feel better now.
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: He did, however, on national television, say “I am not a crook”. It’s his signature utterance, competing with “Republican cloth coat” from the Checkers speech.
Roger Moore
@Hungry Joe:
Are you a member of the Association to Eradicate and Stamp Out Redundant Pleonasm Society?
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: If it’s not meant to suggest he said it then why is the punchline “sound familiar?”
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Anne Laurie is an enemy of the American people.
TenguPhule
When Donald Trump is executed after his trial and conviction, let it be by having an actual goalpost being rammed down his spine.
TenguPhule
@XTPD: Screw you. Some of us actually like American cheese.
TenguPhule
@lollipopguild: Which planet though, he doesn’t say.
rikyrah
@jl: you might have seen it on Maddow
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.”
TenguPhule
@Josie:
Corrected for accuracy.
rikyrah
@jl:
that’s why he is the Secretary of EXXON
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.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Is this the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? Or maybe the end of the middle of the beginning of the end of the beginning of the middle?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Oh, Gavin Newsom. Sigh.
XTPD
@TenguPhule: The second part of the comment was a reference to this thread.
Ian
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
I recall uttering similar words 8 years ago (and sixteen). The pig people do not care. As long as they get what they want (which is often simply Cleek’s law) They. Do. Not. Care.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
It’s pretty crazy. My boss let the people with long commutes leave early.
TenguPhule
@XTPD: Oh. My apologies then.
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.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: what’s Gavin got to do with anything..?
@Yarrow: well, fuck them.
I say that of course in a mid-tier blog comment thread. I welcome their help voting out the Trumpists they installed, and THEN I’ll tell them fuck you to their faces.
@Mnemosyne: I ride the train!
PaulW
@lollipopguild:
About not getting Lieberman as his Veep choice in 2008? Yeah.
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?
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Its the end of the beginning of this farce. The Republicans are going to double down on him. They’re in too deep to back out now and their only hope at this point is victory. Because all other roads lead to painful deaths for them.
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.
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.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Snopes says the meme started with a tweet by him.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
OMG, I’d hate to see the bottom tier.
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.
Ian
@mai naem mobile:
We will hear them, but will anyone else?
PaulW
@TenguPhule:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: 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.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: no it doesn’t.
@Yarrow: well I didn’t mean fuck him obviously.
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.
lollipopguild
@Ian: The correct answer is trump should do nothing to help the russians with anything. But…..
Baud
@Yarrow:
They know he’s the real racist.
TenguPhule
@PaulW:
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.
efgoldman
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.
divF
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Not too far from Pico and Sepulveda .
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.
germy
@Baud:
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.
Jeffro
I must have missed this yesterday: even Trump’s commerce secretary pick is on the hook to Russian interests.
Geez. Maybe we should cash in an aircraft carrier for a warehouse full of hackers and some kompromat experts!!
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yup, in answer to a direct question by Dan Rather
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.
Aleta
In a rage about Republicans all day. It cut me up like a knife. What kind of people are these ghouls.
But I did read this essay about dog love. Opening the Heart’s Floodgates, With a Paw. Some good humans. (from the NYT).
Major Major Major Major
@philadelphialawyer: the snopes article makes it pretty clear that it probably started as a fake Nixon quote.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
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.
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: The Snopes article MISSES THE FUCKING POINT.
Major Major Major Major
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ve seen it being passed around as a real Nixon quote. That is what the snopes article is about. I am sorry that you wish the snopes article was about something else. I thought mentioning it here would be helpful so nobody made that mistake.
lollipopguild
@divF: Thanks for that-reminds me of Spike Jones.
hovercraft
@lollipopguild:
And the least anti-Semitic, just ask Bibi.
schrodingers_cat
@Villago Delenda Est: Snopes is not infallible.
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.
amk
@Major Major Major Major:
someone is wrong on the internet.
amk
putin: now would be a good time to rebuild the iron curtain.
Ian
@TenguPhule:
Let us just say I look forward to it more than nuclear war.
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.
Baud
@amk: And make Mexico pay for it.
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?
Roger Moore
@amk:
You should at least cite the original.
dm
@TenguPhule:
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 ….)
HRA
@Major Major Major Major:
Here is a video in which Nixon says it :
http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/richard-m-nixon/videos/nixon-i-am-not-a-crook
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…
danielx
Trump’s Russians succeeded beyond their wildest dreams?
ETA:
Fixed.
germy
(cosmopolitan)
amk
@Thru the Looking Glass…: I don’t know about other teevee comedians, but colbear does not flinch from using the T word. When will the emmessem will grow some backbone to do that?
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.
amk
@Roger Moore: what can I say? I wuz wrong.
Major Major Major Major
Fucking jackals. Fine, I’ll never try to be helpful again.
amk
@Baud: Their president seems to have more balls than the lil fingered vulgarian.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: There was a first time? ;-)
@amk: Trump is a coward. Never forget that.
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.
NotMax
“The so-called iceberg is FAKE NEWS.”
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: They’re all slime, down to elected dog catchers.
Wipe them out. All of them.
germy
@Villago Delenda Est: I think he’d warned her but she persisted.
danielx
@Major Major Major Major:
Yup. You are surprised by this why, again?
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…
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.
EBT
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Might be tomorrow.
oldster
I’m so old that I remember when the enemy of the American people was Russia, not the free press.
rikyrah
David Fahrenthold Verified account
@Fahrenthold
After working for Trump campaign, British data firm eyes new US govt contracts. By @mateagold and @FrancesSSellers
rikyrah
Don Moynihan Verified account
@donmoyn
Trump WH telling career economists to make up budget numbers based on inflated revenue estimates
? Martin
@Another Scott:
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.
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…
Baud
@rikyrah: 10% growth, here we come!
rikyrah
Betsy DeVos’s Brother, The Founder Of Blackwater, Is Setting Up A Private Army For China, Sources Say
The controversial Blackwater founder says he is setting up two bases in China, but his company says “this does not involve armed personnel.”
posted on Feb. 16, 2017, at 6:22 p.m.
Aram Roston
BuzzFeed News Reporter
SiubhanDuinne
Paging George Orwell. Mr. Orwell, your presence is urgently required. George Orwell, please decipher the linked survey.
Keith P.
@rikyrah: Jesus Christ, her brother is frickin’ Erik Prince?!??!
Roger Moore
Nixon probably would have won without the plumbers.
? Martin
@Keith P.: I love the reaction when people learn that…
chris
@Another Scott: And the rest of the world backs a little further away from the crazy person.
Which I think is part of the plan too.
rikyrah
Media Alert:
debbie
@amk:
He also used the ‘sedition’ word.
Villago Delenda Est
@Keith P.: You didn’t know that? The rot is approaching Game of Thrones levels, n’est ce pas?
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?
? 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.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: I’d say it was near certitude. McGovern was exactly the opponent they wanted, but Nixon’s paranoia knew no bounds.
Mike in NC
So tired of not winning under the fake president. Sad!
Baud
@? Martin: I didn’t know. Jeez.
Major Major Major Major
@? Martin: medium drizzle up here. It’s early but so far my boots are holding.
chris
@SiubhanDuinne: No way!….holy shit!
Ryan
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Miss the part about the snark? Like the laugh in despair snark? Why would you think I disagree with you?
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.”
? Martin
@Major Major Major Major: Hopefully it stays that way there. Oroville can use a break. We’ll take this one.
Baud
@rikyrah:
To be fair, they probably thought she’d feel at home there.
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.”
amk
we need a better term than cabal when it comes it this corruptest admin.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith P.: Yes. Nice family, huh?
? Martin
@rikyrah:
Welcome to being a public sector employee. Be thankful you aren’t a front line employee at the DMV.
Omnes Omnibus
@amk: Clusterfuck.
? Martin
@rikyrah:
What the CIA staffers heard: “The Director does not have our back. Cut him out as well.”
amk
@rikyrah: paranoid prezinent.
? 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.
rikyrah
Get your tissues….you’ve been warned…
Great Big Story Verified account
@greatbigstory
How do you celebrate a lifetime of love? LaLa Evans created a museum dedicated to his late wife Louise after nearly 60 years together.
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.
Major Major Major Major
@? Martin: like they haven’t already.
Omnes Omnibus
@? Martin:
With an internal “because we instructed people to make sure we are unaware.” Plausible denial. Nelsonian blind eye. Etc.
rikyrah
NBC BLK Verified account
@NBCBLK
Susan Rice says Trump’s @OfficialCBC remarks were ‘offensive.’
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:
I’m flabbergasted… are they serious? Did they never hear Chinless Mitch McConnell say,
… or told Obama,
?
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…
geg6
@? Martin:
I think that’s right.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
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…
HeleninEire
Jeffro
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Yeah, I clicked through that “survey” as well…very helpful and scientific!
Love how it ended on a donation page to Trump. What a master of understatement that PT Barnum was…
rikyrah
Townhalls happening this weekend
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Ryan: I’m not sure what you’re referring to?
What did I say that makes you think that?
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).
Mike J
WSJ says Petraeus has withdrawn his name from consideration for NSC because Trump wouldn’t let him choose his own staff.
Baud
@Mike J: Damn. I wonder if Trump will tweet something about his infidelity now.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Why the fuck would he be under consideration? Wait, forget I asked.
HeleninEire
@SiubhanDuinne: He’s now calling his own poll rigged.
rikyrah
Chico Harlan Verified account
@chicoharlan
An important story on the links between the White House and ACT for America, a fringe anti-Islam group.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: Wouldn’t he require a pardon to get a security clearance?
Of course all you have to do is say, “Obama wouldn’t have the guts to pardon him.”
Mike J
And still in the running:
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
SiubhanDuinne
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
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.
? Martin
@HeleninEire: Well, to be fair, Trump wanted Americans to do the survey, not Democrats. He’s very clear about that.
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.
SiubhanDuinne
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
You must be new here….
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.
Aleta
Sometimes a big piece of population in a country or colony goes mad from misunderstood fear or an unidentified substance.
? Martin
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
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?
Baud
@? Martin: That’s why I didn’t take it.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@SiubhanDuinne:
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…
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.
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.”
? Martin
@Aleta:
Or maybe they all have syphilis. Occam’s Razor and all that.
efgoldman
@Roger Moore:
No “probably” about it. McGovern was toast even before the conventions.
AnotherBruce
@Villago Delenda Est: The flip side of this is if the shitgibbon stops lying, he will stop breathing.
Baud
@? Martin: Is there any word an umlaut can’t class up?
chris
@Aleta: Ergotism would explain a lot.
? 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.
dmsilev
@rikyrah: To be fair, if we take this part in isolation:
he’s got a point.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
Whom, Donald.
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.
dm
@Jeffro:
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.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@chris: So would willfully eating a shit sandwich…
Baud
@raven: Neoliberal.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Nöpe.
? Martin
@Baud: Well, that’s true, but it’s important to be contextual. I most like the visual onomatopoeia of penîs.
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.
amk
@Mike J: who I have known? ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the free world.
HeleninEire
@SiubhanDuinne: LOL
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.
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.
? Martin
@Mike in NC: Says the guy without a felony. Elitist!
Baud
@Mnemosyne: Since they regard liberals as intrinsically corrupt, it’s not a distinction they draw.
? Martin
@Another Scott:
No question.
rikyrah
Dan Lopez
@4danlopez
Here’s why the 2018 Senate election will be crucial for President Trump and his Democratic foes
Major Major Major Major
@raven: don’t forget what they did to Kerry.
SiubhanDuinne
@HeleninEire:
Hahahahahahaha. Love that!
efgoldman
@dm:
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.
Regnad Kcin
@Major Major Major Major: Ahh, but that no longer matters, in today’s new and improved fact-free world. The more that we can put out there for them to run around and fruitlessly try to deny, the better.
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.
amk
can’t wait for the much predicted fucking demography bomb to kick in.
efgoldman
@Mike J:
Am I misremembering? Wasn’t Odierno one of the senior officers that W [Darth] fired for telling the truth about Iraq?
Major Major Major Major
@Regnad Kcin: try to keep up, I’m Double Hitler for even mentioning it or something.
efgoldman
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
See there’s your basic error, right there.
dm
@efgoldman: re: Muskie: that’s why I mentioned melting snow.
MomSense
@Aleta:
That was great. Thank you.
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.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
They hate the gummint. Until their social security checks are late.
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.
Another Scott
@Keith P.:
:-) But wouldn’t General “Betray us” be his 3rd choice at this point?
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin Verified account
@kylegriffin1
Rep. Joaquin Castro says GOP Judiciary Cmte. chair Bob Goodlatte wants to deport all 11MIL undocumented immigrants.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes you can. I used your name, email and zip.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@efgoldman: Or something farks w/ their Medicare…
SiubhanDuinne
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
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.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Now I understand why my inbox is blowing up.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m gonna have a hard time ever eating meat loaf again after that…
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
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.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
I’m bowing as deeply as I can. That was elegant.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
No worries. Adam Silverman used yours.
You must admit, when BJ does a circle jerk, it does it with panache.
efgoldman
@SFAW:
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.
SiubhanDuinne
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Donnie’s preferences, culinary and otherwise, do that to me.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
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…
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
amk
@SiubhanDuinne: mine is a dead e-mail account. phew.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, very well played.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
QFT
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
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?
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for that. Had an enjoyable 15 minutes freeping that joke of a “poll”.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
My tiny brain is vacillating between “Shit! No way I’m gonna fuck with Adam!” and “Bullshit! Adam is too classy to do that.”
SFAW
@Jeffro:
SUCH a kidder, you are.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Adam, IIRC, has dealt with axe-wielding Scots.
Aleta
@MomSense: It helped, after today and the week.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@SiubhanDuinne: Aw geez… now there’s even more I’m gonna have a hard time doing again, after that…
Thanks a lot…
SFAW
@amk:
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.
dm
@SFAW:
But it would have the culinary taste to be National Security Advisor.
Aleta
@SiubhanDuinne:
Science of the finest kind.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Which is why I wrote the first option.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: One suspected as much.
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne: Sad! Not surprised though. Guess some poor unpaid intern has been spared indignity of transcribing my helpful suggestions.
Scamp Dog
@Roger Moore: If not, he should at least report it to the Department of Redundancy Department.
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.
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.
Ksmiami
The GOP needs to be utterly destroyed. The party is literally ruining America
Aleta
Polls are the plaything of the devil science, President Heathen.
J R in WV
@Mike J:
Don’t you mean his probation officer wouldn’t allow him to pick his own staff??
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.