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You are here: Home / Communication, a telephonic invasion

Communication, a telephonic invasion

by DougJ|  February 23, 20179:50 am| 215 Comments

This post is in: Good News For Conservatives

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Nothing to see here, folks:

A purported cyber hack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman last summer.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to “bulletproof” evidence related to Manafort’s financial arrangement with Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub.

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Previous Post: « What’s going on in Kansas
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Reader Interactions

215Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve!

    February 23, 2017 at 9:53 am

    And still Jason Chaffetz’s beautiful mind is untroubled, unless a park service employee sent an ill-advised Tweet or something.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:00 am

    @Steve!: “You’re not going to like the answer. You’re not going to like it. Folks, by law the President is immune to anything I could possibly ever consider doing. He just is!”

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:01 am

    Somebody put up the G&T alert! And at 9AM CT at that.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:02 am

    “Oh, I wish I was in the land of Tom Cotton! Little folks there are all forgotten. Look away, look away, look away Senator Cotton.”

  5. 5.

    tBone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:05 am

    Some things in life need to be mysterious. Sometimes you need to just keep walking.

    It’s hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, oh, much good will come of that.

  6. 6.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 23, 2017 at 10:05 am

    Haven’t read the linked article, but Leshchenko is not the blackmailing type. He made a career as an investigative journalist before being elected to the parliament in the post-Maidan cleanup efforts. The established power structure has been trying to slime him in various ways since.

    As to the “evidence”, that came out last summer and was reported on in the West, although didn’t seem to stick around in the news. It was a copy of a ledger showing $12M in cash being paid to Manafort – who denied it, of course. But nearly everyone in Ukraine accepts it as true.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 23, 2017 at 10:06 am

    @Corner Stone: You rang?

  8. 8.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:07 am

    I’m just gonna leave this here:
    Russia accuses Western media of spreading ‘fake news’
    “President Vladimir Putin’s government has a problem with fake news.”

  9. 9.

    bystander

    February 23, 2017 at 10:07 am

    @Corner Stone: What’s a G&T alert?

    Birds of a feather apparently get compromised together. I want to know if this is tied to the sale of interest in one of Putin’s petrol cos.

  10. 10.

    clay

    February 23, 2017 at 10:08 am

    “Victim”. Right.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    February 23, 2017 at 10:09 am

    That second paragraph is a goldmine of weasel words: ‘undated’, ‘allegedly’, ‘appears’, ‘seeking’, ‘claims’. I think a teensy bit of skepticism is appropriate. Also, the first paragraph describes Manafort as a ‘political consultant’, which covers enough claimed appearances of alleged sins to populate a new edition of the ‘Inferno’.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 23, 2017 at 10:10 am

    @bystander: CS knows I have some knowledge of Ukraine/Russia, I think.

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 23, 2017 at 10:11 am

    @bystander: Oh, and the sale of 19% of Rosneft is *way* out of Manafort’s league.

  14. 14.

    Bruce K

    February 23, 2017 at 10:13 am

    @bystander: My first guess would be a call for emergency supplies of gin and tonic, lemons optional depending on the alert level.

  15. 15.

    Mike J

    February 23, 2017 at 10:22 am

    Matt McDermott Verified account @mattmfm
    While you were all focused on John Podesta’s risotto recipe last year, Trump’s campaign chair was being blackmailed.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    February 23, 2017 at 10:23 am

    House of Cards called, they’d like their unbelievable plot back.

  17. 17.

    lollipopguild

    February 23, 2017 at 10:24 am

    @Gin & Tonic: You need your own version on the “Bat signal”. A giant martini glass in the sky?

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:29 am

    Shell companies bought 60% of condos in Trump’s Florida property-Ukrainian money launderers called it home @Kegan05

    — Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) February 23, 2017

  19. 19.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    February 23, 2017 at 10:30 am

    @Corner Stone: It’s very annoying that they don’t even bother to differentiate their language. Surely there’s an elegant, quintessentially Russian term for “fake news.”

  20. 20.

    kindness

    February 23, 2017 at 10:31 am

    WTF is going on with the comments? It keeps cycling out of allowing me to input anything and jumps out of the thread.

    Anyway, What is needed is an Independent Prosecutor. Unfortunately Democrats can’t do that without Republicans agreeing and they won’t for obvious reasons.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:31 am

    This is a good thing.

    10 months after we began the fight for #VaRoR, I’m proud to announce that we have restored #votingrights to 151,897 Virginians

    — Terry McAuliffe (@GovernorVA) February 22, 2017

  22. 22.

    Gelfling 545

    February 23, 2017 at 10:33 am

    Off topic but I wanted to share something about my city that isn’t snow or (pathetic) football. We made the Times.

  23. 23.

    The Moar You Know

    February 23, 2017 at 10:33 am

    Surely there’s an elegant, quintessentially Russian term for “fake news.”

    Pravda. Still seems to exist, oddly enough.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:34 am

    This is big: Sen. MURKOWSKI (R-AK) to vote against repeal of Medicaid expansion – which the House bill will repeal.

    — Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) February 23, 2017

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    February 23, 2017 at 10:34 am

    @lollipopguild:

    I’m thinking Granyonyi staken.

  26. 26.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 10:35 am

    @Corner Stone:
    The phrase “plausible deniability”, contains the word plausible for a reason. How are the media supposed to keep pretending that there’s no connection between Twitler and Putin if they both keep rubbing it our faces?

  27. 27.

    Mike in DC

    February 23, 2017 at 10:37 am

    Still a step removed from direct evidence of collusion…this is one long, drawn out, excruciating c*** tease of a mega scandal.

  28. 28.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 10:37 am

    @rikyrah:
    Yeah, but only the best money launderers.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:38 am

    No, The Resistance Isn’t Working Quite Well
    by Martin Longman
    February 22, 2017 2:50 PM

    …………………….

    That’s why I think Jonathan Chait overstates the case:

    It is worth noting that, so far, normal political countermobilization seems to be working quite well. “The Resistance,” as anti-Trump activists have come to be known, has already rattled the once-complacent Republican majorities in Congress, which Trump needs to quash investigations of his corruption and opaque ties to Russia. Whatever pressure Trump has tried to apply to the news media has backfired spectacularly. His sneering contempt has inspired a wave of subscriptions that have driven new revenue to national media, which have blanketed the administration with independent coverage. Popular culture outlets, rather than responding to Trump’s election by tempering their mockery, have instead stepped it up, enraging the president.

    As I have tried to make clear in two recent posts, I don’t think it’s really possible to rattle the Republican majorities because they are too ensconced in power to have a need to worry about accountability. Maybe some congresspeople are avoiding town halls that are guaranteed to do them more harm than good, but that doesn’t mean that more than a handful of them are actually more worried about getting beaten by Democrats than by primary challengers from their right.

    And the press may not be going docile on Trump, but that doesn’t mean that their reporting is more effective now than it was during the campaign.

    As for popular culture, we saw what that was worth on November 8th.

    I don’t want to discourage anyone from their efforts to resist, but I also don’t want people to think that what’s being done so far is “working quite well.” It’s not.

    What’s working more than anything is what Trump and his team are doing and not doing. Their incompetence and overreach are limiting their effectiveness and creating divisions on the right. Aside from modestly effective obstruction by Senate Democrats, the only thing slowing down Trump and the congressional Republicans is their radicalism combined with their amateurish grasp of how to use the tools they now own.

    They will start to figure these things out. They’ll get their people in place. And they’ll begin to really hammer and disempower their political enemies.

    Keeping them divided and fighting among themselves is the best strategy for now, but the political resistance needs to be geographic in scope and focus. Local Democratic organizations that have been dormant for years need to lead this charge from below, but the messaging at the top needs to change, too.

  30. 30.

    Calouste

    February 23, 2017 at 10:41 am

    @The Moar You Know: Pravda is ‘Truth’ in Russian. Izvestia means ‘News’. Which led to the Soviet-era joke that there was no truth in the news and no news in the truth.

  31. 31.

    RandomMonster

    February 23, 2017 at 10:43 am

    Clearly this calls for a new investigation of Benghazi.

  32. 32.

    JMG

    February 23, 2017 at 10:47 am

    @rikyrah: A post that says “the message on the top” has to change without proposing what said change might be is of less than no use to anyone. Longman has fallen into the trap that all political analysts and participants fall into, no matter how smart they are — the assumption that what happened in the last election is a permanent change that will determine all future elections.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:47 am

    I’m Still Bearish on an Infrastructure Plan
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    February 23, 2017 8:16 AM

    Almost immediately after the election in November, I began going against the grain to predict that Trump would not follow through on his promise of a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. But something Johnathan Cohn wrote recently reminded me that in making that case, I had failed to articulate very clearly an assumption I was making about why it would never get off the ground.

    Trump has no apparent patience for the boring, slow work of politics ― like developing detailed policy plans, or working them out with congressional leaders. And without that kind of unglamorous work, getting stuff done turns out to be awfully difficult.

    It all comes back to something that has been clear for a long time now. Trump wanted to win the presidency, not BE president. That is why, almost four months after the election, he still spends an inordinate amount of time bragging and lying about his great victory. It was the winning (and defeating his opponents) that mattered.

    We have also known for a long time now that Trump has no self control and a very short attention span. The grueling work of putting together actual policies and working them through Congress is not something he is ever going to do. That would be one thing if he was a good delegator. He could simply provide his thoughts and hand the implementation off to others – something that many of his predecessors did. But as Cohn points out – the whole idea of paying attention to actual policies is anathema to this president.

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:51 am

    @hovercraft:

    How are the media supposed to keep pretending that there’s no connection between Twitler and Putin if they both keep rubbing it our faces?

    I actually think it is a delightful little paw day dew by Putin and his team. Trump and his lackeys come out and strenuously deny reports of collusion, the following days two or three Russians casually confirm they had multiple contacts. Trump calls the media the enemy of the people and everything is fake news, a little bit later an article is placed describing how Putin and his team are collating what they consider “fake news”.
    There are multiple examples of this but I am enjoying Trump trying to squirm away from ties/links to Russia and then having Vlad gently remind everyone how deep in the pocket Trump actually is.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:52 am

    Ezra Klien suggests that “Donald Trump is dangerous when he’s losing.”

    In the aftermath of Trump’s election, I spoke to top liberals terrified that Trump would outflank them, and quickly. If he had given a conciliatory inaugural address, named some compromise candidates to key posts, filled his administration with competent veterans of government, and began his term by working on an infrastructure bill that Chuck Schumer could support, he would be at or above 60 percent in the polls, the media would be covering him positively, and the Democratic Party would be split between those who wanted to work with Trump and those who wanted to resist everything he did. In that world, Trump might be a big fan of America’s political institutions right now.

    Liberals aren’t afraid Trump will outflank them anymore. He launched his presidency with a series of speeches, appointments, and executive orders that have made him radioactive among congressional Democrats. He’s running an understaffed, inexperienced government even as he provokes our enemies and alienates our friends. Trump is burning both political capital and time. It is significantly less likely now than it was a month ago that he will be able to replace Obamacare or pass a tax reform bill.

    This is the hard part about failure in American politics: It feeds on itself, perpetuates itself. Trump’s low poll numbers make it harder for him to win Democratic support on, well, anything. The inability to get anything done feeds his low poll numbers. The same goes for how Trump runs his White House. The Trump administration is a chaotic, leaky place, and that leads to negative press coverage of the Trump White House, which leads to more chaos and leaks as scared aides try to push blame for the disaster onto their rivals.

    It is easy to imagine Trump, in a year, cornered in his own White House, furious at the manifold enemies he blames for his failures, and cocooned within an ever-smaller and more radical group of staffers and media outlets that tell him what he wants to hear and feed his grievances and resentments.

  36. 36.

    Emma

    February 23, 2017 at 10:52 am

    @Jeffro: My father says if he bought a spy thriller with this plot he would return it for a refund for being too unbelievable. AND write a nasty letter to the author.

  37. 37.

    Mike in DC

    February 23, 2017 at 10:53 am

    @kindness:

    Bipartisan commission…with congressional subpoena powers and the ability to recommend appointment of a special prosecutor.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 10:56 am

    I briefly glanced up and saw the chyron read “Trump Meets With Malfunctioning Chaos”
    And I was like, “Yeah, pretty much.” Then I looked again and it said “Trump Meets With Manufacturing CEOS”
    And i decided either one could be accurate at any given time.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:56 am

    @Mike J:

    I love the pointed bitterness in that…CAUSE IT’S TRUE!!!

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 10:56 am

    Abandoning policy plans, Trump’s ‘fine-tuned machine’ stalls
    02/23/17 10:41 AM
    By Steve Benen

    When Donald Trump unveiled his Muslim ban, the president made it seem as if he were responding to a national security crisis in need of immediate attention. When the administration’s policy failed in the courts, Team Trump scurried to come up with a quick solution.

    More recently, however, the White House’s schedule has slowed quite a bit. After Trump vowed he’d see his opponents “in court” – a phrase apparently intended to signal new judicial appeals – Trump’s lawyers quietly moved in the opposite direction. When the administration decided to move forward with a new, revised policy, Trump said we’d see his executive order “toward the beginning or middle, at the latest” of this week.

    Yesterday, the White House said the new policy would be unveiled next week.

    In the meantime, Team Trump’s plans to unveil proposals on health care reform and tax reform haven’t just been delayed; CNBC reported yesterday those plans have been scrapped altogether.

  41. 41.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 10:56 am

    gak! What the hell is going on in Arizona?

    https://twitter.com/edroso/status/834770855934705666

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 11:00 am

    The Role of Morality in a Pluralistic Democracy
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    February 23, 2017 10:53 AM

    As I mentioned previously, it was interesting to watch conservative Christians wrestle with the fact that the party they have been loyal to for years nominated Donald Trump to be president. A few, like Russell Moore, chose not to support him. But for the most part, both the leaders and their followers got behind one of the most immoral men who has ever run for president.

    Those who actually struggled with that decision reached their conclusion based on one or both of the following:

    The most important issue is abortion and Trump promised to appoint a pro-life justice to the Supreme Court.
    God can use imperfect men to accomplish his will.

    I’ve already discussed the moral challenges to only being pro-life when it comes to a fetus. But I know what some of my conservative Christian friends would say in response to my argument. Their position would be that they support the lives of gay teens, people with HIV and drug addicts. They just don’t see it as the government’s job to intervene – that should be left up to private individuals and the church. Except when paired with the dismal record of most churches on filling the void, that argument ceases to be about morals and becomes one about the pragmatism of politics.

    On the other hand, I’ve been told that, contrary to what the Bible says and what Jesus taught, the only real work of Christians in the world today is evangelism. That’s because if people die before they are “born again,” they will spend eternity in hell. Rick Santorum even went so far as to suggest that there was something redemptive in suffering.

    During a town hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa Friday afternoon, Rick Santorum argued that Americans receive too many government benefits and ought to “suffer” in the Christian tradition. If “you’re lower income, you can qualify for Medicaid, you can qualify for food stamps, you can qualify for housing assistance,” Santorum complained, before adding, “suffering is part of life and it’s not a bad thing, it is an essential thing in life.”

  43. 43.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 11:01 am

    @rikyrah: At this point in time spreading negativity and saying no matter what you do you are doomed is supposed to achieve exactly what? What does this Longman person want us to do? Commit mass suicide?

  44. 44.

    lapassionara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:04 am

    @rikyrah: It is working for me, and that is what I care about just now. Tired of feeling depressed, and doing something that gets my congress person’s attention on the issues I care about is better than doing nothing.

    And it sure worked for the Tea Party, and they actually had financial backing.

  45. 45.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 11:07 am

    @Mike J: Which is why the purge of the Village needs to be thorough. I’m looking at scum like Tapper, the Toddler, Ms. Greenspan, and every so-called “reporter” at the New York Times.

  46. 46.

    Woodrow/Asim

    February 23, 2017 at 11:07 am

    @JMG: Agreed. I read this piece, and the one he mentioned in it, yesterday.

    I think Martin is pessimistic more because we’ve not seen such a change in our lifetimes, and it’s also a “safer” position, esp. after his prognostications in the past election, than anything in terms of actual data — which is, honestly, still scarce. We’ll know more about how much change we’re actually seeing once these 1st set of elections, like the State one in DE and the GA Special Election, play out.

    It could all be useless, but I think we know very, very little about the impact of whatever changes we see in the grassroots, so far.

  47. 47.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 11:08 am

    @rikyrah: These people ARE NOT Christians. They are Mammon worshipers.

    As for Rih Santorum, he needs to suffer in the more traditional sense of being the object of Ramsay Bolton’s attention.

  48. 48.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 11:09 am

    @lapassionara: They want to destroy us, we can either make it easy for them or hard for them. We have to fight first without worrying about the end result.

  49. 49.

    Alain the site fixer

    February 23, 2017 at 11:10 am

    @kindness: what browser/device?

  50. 50.

    Just One More Canuck

    February 23, 2017 at 11:11 am

    @LAO: you could ask the same question for just about every issue you could imagine

  51. 51.

    Yarrow

    February 23, 2017 at 11:12 am

    Schumer suggests the GOP will drop Trump.

    Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) predicted on Tuesday that Republicans will split with President Trump within months unless the administration changes course.

    “My prediction is he keeps up on this path…within three, four months you’re going to see a whole lot of Republicans breaking with him,” Schumer said during an interview with ABC’s “The View.”

    Wasn’t Schumer in on that secret security meeting? The one with Comey?

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 11:12 am

    @Thoroughly Pizzled: “Izvestia”.

    Calouste beat me to it! Yay Calouste!

  53. 53.

    different-church-lady

    February 23, 2017 at 11:12 am

    @rikyrah:

    If he had given a conciliatory inaugural address, named some compromise candidates to key posts, filled his administration with competent veterans of government, and began his term by working on an infrastructure bill that Chuck Schumer could support, he would be at or above 60 percent in the polls, the media would be covering him positively, and the Democratic Party would be split between those who wanted to work with Trump and those who wanted to resist everything he did.

    But if he were temperamentally capable of any of that he never would have gotten “elected” in the first place — probably wouldn’t have made it out of the primaries. He got his voters because he was an asshole, and the country was in the mood for an asshole. Had he backed off the asshole, someone else would be president right now.

  54. 54.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 11:13 am

    Things I have little patience for
    1. Doom and gloom and how we are all going to do die
    2. Another piece about T voters, trying to understand what motivates them
    3. Anything about Milo Y.

  55. 55.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:15 am

    @Just One More Canuck: True, but I still find it odd that the Arizona legislature is seeking to criminalize the exercise of constitutional rights.

  56. 56.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 23, 2017 at 11:15 am

    @LAO: where have you been lately? It’s only been like 60% lawyers here for a couple of weeks rather than the usual two-thirds.

  57. 57.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 11:16 am

    @Yarrow: BS or bust supporter will come and tell us right about now how Schumer is a neo-liberal corporatist Wall Street sell out.

  58. 58.

    tBone

    February 23, 2017 at 11:16 am

    @LAO:

    The competition is fierce, but wow, Arizona is really making a strong run at America’s Worst State Legislature.

    From the linked story, this is just too good:

    Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said the new criminal laws are necessary.
    “I have been heartsick with what’s been going on in our country, what young people are being encouraged to do,’’ she said.

  59. 59.

    lapassionara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:16 am

    @schrodingers_cat: This!

  60. 60.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:17 am

    @Steve in the ATL: I’ve been lurky, feeling down about politics. FFS, I can’t enjoy the 2 Bundy related trials. Sad!

  61. 61.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 11:17 am

    @tBone: Someone’s National Socialist ass needs to be kicked.

  62. 62.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:18 am

    @tBone: I LOL when I read that. What a shit show, though.

  63. 63.

    A Ghost To Most

    February 23, 2017 at 11:19 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    These people ARE NOT Christians. They are Mammon worshipers.

    From what I have seen in my life, that is a distinction without a difference.

  64. 64.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 23, 2017 at 11:19 am

    @LAO:

    I still find it odd that the Arizona legislature is seeking to criminalize the exercise of constitutional rights

    In other words, you haven’t paid any attention to Arizona politics in the last twenty years

  65. 65.

    Tazj

    February 23, 2017 at 11:21 am

    @rikyrah: That Santorum, what a wonderful Christian example he is. He seems to not understand Matthew 25:31-46 or the fact that people can still suffer even if they receive Medicaid and food stamps, and that we should lessen that suffering.

  66. 66.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 11:22 am

    @rikyrah:
    We are one month into this shitshow of a presidency, his supposed honeymoon phase.
    As of yesterday, this is where he is:

    Quinnipiac Approve 38, Disapprove 55 Disapprove +17

    McClatchy/Marist Approve 41, Disapprove 49 Disapprove +8

    Gallup Approve 42, Disapprove 52 Disapprove +10

    Reuters/Ipsos Approve 45, Disapprove 50 Disapprove +5

    Economist/YouGov Approve 48, Disapprove 48 Tie

    Congressional Job Approval
    Economist/YouGov Approve 19, Disapprove 56 Disapprove +37

    Direction of Country
    Economist/YouGov Right Direction 34, Wrong Track 53 Wrong Track +19

    McClatchy/Marist Right Direction 39, Wrong Track 55 Wrong Track +16

    Reuters/Ipsos Right Direction 31, Wrong Track 54 Wrong Track +23

    Just like trying to figure out what one thing caused Hillary to lose, there is no teasing out what has made the biggest impact in hampering him, apart from the fact that he’s incompetent and crazy and doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and……….

    My point is we know that he hates the protests and constant critical coverage, and that congress is nervous about fulfilling their biggest pledge to their base. So are we stopping his nominees, no, but we made sure that their lack of qualifications penetrated into the American psyche, most do not believe them to be qualified, his daily incompetence is on full display. Who thinks that as his frutrstion grows over his inability to rule by decree grows he will calm down and and stop tweeting, not me. He will get worse, congress may not be overly worried about being beaten by democrats now, but how will they feel a year from now? I think by then most of the public will be beyond exhausted with the antics of the shitgibbon and his compliant congress. They will be an extension of him, and by then they will be running scared. Writing a piece on he “resistance’s” effectiveness a month in is stupid. By the same token normally one would assume that a year in the new administration would have settled in and gotten their shit together, but this man has not demonstrated in his 70 years on the planet that he is capable of learning anything, so I predict it will still be a shitshow, Oh and he’s insane.

  67. 67.

    Hal

    February 23, 2017 at 11:22 am

    My favorite thing is one of my conservative Facebook friends, someone who never met a conspiracy theory against Obama or Clinton he didn’t like, completely dismissing any and all suggestions of a Russia connection with Trump. It’s all “liberal media” and total nonsense. Meanwhile, do you know how many people Hillary has had murdered?

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    February 23, 2017 at 11:22 am

    @LAO: Wouldn’t last 30 seconds in court, no worries…

  69. 69.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:23 am

    @Steve in the ATL: Fair point.

  70. 70.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:24 am

    @Jeffro: Agreed but it’s the mindset of the legislators that’s problematic.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 11:25 am

    OT: Mr Silverman? I don’t know if you’re taking requests, but…. I don’t even know how to describe this audio of a phone call between Sebastian Gorka, official counselor on national security to the Only President We’ve Got, and Michael Smith former (?) advisor to Republican legislators on terrorism. They fight over each other’s tweets, argue that “TV hits” represent qualification as expertise on terrorism, and Gorka of course threatens Smith a lawsuit. The audio is long, but it’s car-wreck fascinating, Gorka is barking fucking mad, as well as apparently being three or four kinds of fraud.

    Updated | An embattled White House terrorism advisor whose academic credentials have come under widespread fire telephoned one of his main critics at home Tuesday night and threatened legal action against him, Newsweek has learned.
    Sebastian Gorka, whose views on Islam have been widely labeled extremist, called noted terrorism expert Michael S. Smith II in South Carolina and expressed dismay that Smith had been criticizing him on Twitter, according to a recording of the call provided to Newsweek

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    February 23, 2017 at 11:25 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    These people ARE NOT Christians. They are Mammon worshipers.

    Wait…you mean Jesus didn’t throw the sick and poor out of the temple, and welcome in the moneychangers? He DIDN’T tell the multitudes to get their own damn loaves and fishes??

    Dang, I never realized it before but now I see it right there on the cover, I’ve been reading the King Koch version of the Bible. My bad.

  73. 73.

    randy khan

    February 23, 2017 at 11:27 am

    @rikyrah:

    McAuliffe has turned out to be a really good governor. I know a lot of people had doubts when he was running, but I think he’s answered those doubts for nearly everyone. If only he had a Democratic majority in the General Assembly . . .

  74. 74.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 11:27 am

    @Corner Stone:

    here are multiple examples of this but I am enjoying Trump trying to squirm away from ties/links to Russia and then having Vlad gently remind everyone how deep in the pocket Trump actually is.

    It’s funny to watch, but I’m not sure the shitgibbon has the self awareness to see he’s the puppet. We need more reporting on it in the media so he can see that is what’s being said. Afterall he’s a great fan of “that is what is being said”, when confronted with his lies. And the media should use the word puppet, he doesn’t like the word puppet.

  75. 75.

    Aimai

    February 23, 2017 at 11:28 am

    @Yarrow: i think he is trolling trump. Bunker trump fighting with the senate and house republicans is the best outcome.

  76. 76.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    February 23, 2017 at 11:29 am

    @LAO: I haven’t either, but now I know not to ask you to fill me in. SAD!

    Of course we’re kind of proof that a severe shock to the system can drive a junkie to hop on a wagon.

  77. 77.

    Jeffro

    February 23, 2017 at 11:31 am

    Speaking of loons, it looks like some folks want Sebastian Gorka out, like, yesterday.

    Sebastian Gorka, whose views on Islam have been widely labeled extremist, called noted terrorism expert Michael S. Smith II in South Carolina and expressed dismay that Smith had been criticizing him on Twitter, according to a recording of the call provided to Newsweek.

    “I was like a deer in the headlights,” Smith, a Republican who has advised congressional committees on the use of social media by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and al-Qaeda, tells Newsweek. “I thought it was a prank. He began by threatening me with a lawsuit.”

    Gorka apparently used his personal cell phone, with a northern Virginia area code, rather than making the call from his White House office or government-issued cell phone, where it would be officially logged, Smith says. The terrorism expert says he suspected Gorka “was trying to conceal the call.”

    Smith says he did not begin recording the call until after Gorka allegedly threatened to sue Smith. In an email to Newsweek, Smith said that, “Gorka asserted my tweets about him merited examination by the White House legal counsel. In effect, he was threatening to entangle me in a legal battle for voicing my concerns on Twitter that he does not possess expertise sufficient to assist the president of the United States with formulating and guiding national security policies.”

    Gorka did not respond to an email requesting comment.

    And for that, I applaud them.

  78. 78.

    Lapassionara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:31 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: please proceed, Mr. Gorky

  79. 79.

    Yarrow

    February 23, 2017 at 11:31 am

    @Aimai: Or a long, drawn out impeachment process that pulls in all the top GOP leadership. They knew. They knew well before the election about Trump’s Russian ties. They knew and they said nothing.

  80. 80.

    tBone

    February 23, 2017 at 11:32 am

    @LAO:

    Yeah, the fact it’s even being considered is incredible. And where were these pearl-clutchers when the Tea Party dopes were on a tear in 2009? That Republican memory hole is voracious.

  81. 81.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:32 am

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I feel like a part of me has died. ;-(

  82. 82.

    LAO

    February 23, 2017 at 11:33 am

    @tBone: The hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness is chilling.

  83. 83.

    randy khan

    February 23, 2017 at 11:34 am

    @rikyrah:

    I’m not entirely sure I agree with this, but I’m not exactly in disagreement, either. From my perspective, “working well so far” does not contain an expectation that we’ll get a lot of Republicans to vote the way we want. Early victories will be minor and incremental, at best. What’s working well is the mobilization of the people we need to revitalize the Democratic Party and lay the groundwork for 2018.

    The key, I think, is to make sure that defeats are turned into anger and action, not into depression. I’ve been emphasizing the point that we’re not going to win a lot early in my action posts on Facebook, kind of as a way to managing expectations.

  84. 84.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 11:35 am

    @Tazj:
    Suffering is good for the poors, they must be shamed, humiliated, and deprived of the basic necessities, but the rich are fragile, they not only always need more money, they are very hurt and discouraged by criticism, so handle them with kid gloves.

  85. 85.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:35 am

    @Woodrow/Asim: I have not been able to read Washington Monthly since the election. I liked Ed Kilgore, who is now writing for New York Magazine, but the propensity for the people now at Wa Mo to write very long data free opinion pieces masquerading as factual information just really got to me. It’s not that everything was like that, but too much of it was. I’ll give it another look see in a bit, I suspect.

  86. 86.

    lollipopguild

    February 23, 2017 at 11:35 am

    @Hal: Killery has killed hundreds nay thousands not to mention all of the millions of people she Would have killed in the nuke wars that she would have started the second that the became president. Obama has his Heart Attack Machine(TM) which he used to kill Breibrat and hundreds of others.

  87. 87.

    SatanicPanic

    February 23, 2017 at 11:38 am

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t want to discourage anyone from their efforts to resist,

    He seems oddly silent on what else we could be doing so I’m going to file this under not helping.

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 11:40 am

    @lollipopguild: Obama has his Heart Attack Machine(TM) which he used to kill Breibrat and hundreds of others.

    Don’t forget how he tricked Scalia into being morbidly obese diabetic smoker with a fondness for good food and good red wine (not that I’m judging…. I’m actually a little jealous)

  89. 89.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:41 am

    @rikyrah: Rick Santorum took money from my public school district (the one I attended as a kid) that he was not entitled to. He received nearly $100,000 in tuition assistance for his litter of kids so that they could be home schooled by his wife but backstopped by an on-line education that the state pays for if parents decide to enroll. He signed a statement saying that his kids were eligible to enroll in those public schools so he could get that money. That money comes directly from the public school district. It just happens that Rickie’s brood lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia (no vouchers, no charters at all) even though he “owned” a property back in Pennsylvania — which was being rented to a relative. The school district was able to force the state to repay the money once the facts came to light but Rickie boy avoided paying back the state because the statute of limitations had run. As far as I am concerned, when he says things like this, someone in the audience should be prepared to ask when he plans to pay back the state of Pennsylvania for $100,000 of tuition assistance he wasn’t even entitled to. Being hit by a car is too good of a fate for him.

  90. 90.

    MCA1

    February 23, 2017 at 11:41 am

    @Aimai: I think he’s trolling John and Lindsay and Susan, and simultaneously opening arms to any defecting Republicans. But I like it either way. He’s also setting up a narrative line of “It’s not if they break with him, but when” so everyone can start speculating about the when and takes the discord as already having been sown.

  91. 91.

    tobie

    February 23, 2017 at 11:43 am

    @randy khan: Is Tom Periello challenging McAuliffe or has McAuliffe said he doesn’t want to stand for election for Governor again? I really don’t get why we’re eating our own. I know Periello claims he’s the true progressive battling a neoliberal party and incumbent but that’s just bullshit.

  92. 92.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 11:45 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: most Republicans want to overturn the New Deal, some Catholics want to overturn Vatican II. Santorumarola wants to overturn the Renaissance. He’s a sick little man.

  93. 93.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:45 am

    @tobie: Virginia does not permit governors to serve successive terms. Perriello is challenging the lieutenant governor, Ralph Northam, in the primary. Perriello is a good guy but I am supporting Northam as being a lot more likely to succeed against Ed Gillespie, but who knows.

  94. 94.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 11:46 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Isn’t threatening to use the power of the government to harass a critic illegal?
    A bigger band of delicate snowflakes you couldn’t find if you tied. Where the fuck are these people from, they spent the last eight years criticizing every goddamn thing Obama and his administration did, and yet somehow they thought they cold come in with their obvious lack of experience and fuck up one thing after another and not be criticized? WTF ! Not to mention the Putin fiasco, I know that we live in an IOKIYAR world, but even a moron could have foreseen that there would be questions. Bullying works when you are an obscure crank out there, in the White House on a global scale, it’s just plain stupid.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 11:47 am

    @tobie: VA has one term limit for governor. McAuliffe as I understand had more or less endorsed his successor and that’s who Pierrello– who’s got a good reputation and is one of Obama’s favorite pols– is challenging

  96. 96.

    Yarrow

    February 23, 2017 at 11:47 am

    @rikyrah: I’ll choose to take this as a “Don’t get complacent” type of article and that its intent was to keep people fired up. Otherwise, I don’t see the point.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    February 23, 2017 at 11:49 am

    @rikyrah:

    During a town hall meeting in Ottumwa, Iowa Friday afternoon, Rick Santorum argued that Americans receive too many government benefits and ought to “suffer” in the Christian tradition. If “you’re lower income, you can qualify for Medicaid, you can qualify for food stamps, you can qualify for housing assistance,” Santorum complained, before adding, “suffering is part of life and it’s not a bad thing, it is an essential thing in life.”

    What a stupid, twisted, pointless, ugly distortion of Christianity.

  98. 98.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:50 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just a small correction, a governor can serve more than one term in Virginia, they just can’t be successive terms. Linwood Holton served twice (Tim Kaine’s father in law).

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 11:51 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Mr Silverman? I don’t know if you’re taking requests, but…. I don’t even know how to describe this audio of a phone call between Sebastian Gorka, official counselor on national security to the Only President We’ve Got, and Michael Smith former (?) advisor to Republican legislators on terrorism. They fight over each other’s tweets, argue that “TV hits” represent qualification as expertise on terrorism, and Gorka of course threatens Smith a lawsuit. The audio is long, but it’s car-wreck fascinating, Gorka is barking fucking mad, as well as apparently being three or four kinds of fraud.

    Da Hail?

  100. 100.

    Iowa Old Lady

    February 23, 2017 at 11:56 am

    @Brachiator: Why was Santorum in Iowa? We have enough problems of our own without importing them.

  101. 101.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 11:56 am

    @Brachiator: Seriously. I always say that if you think people should suffer, start by depriving yourself and your own family and see how well it works out for you. And some people do this — they go off the grid or get back to the basics, whatever they call it. Engaging in self-inflicted “suffering,” or self-deprivation theoretically might help you focus on things that are not material or earthly. But imposing suffering on others “for their own good” is arrogant and cruel, and lacks any spiritual justification. In addition to being corrupt and self-serving Santorum is also stupid and cruel.

  102. 102.

    tobie

    February 23, 2017 at 11:57 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve always been opposed to term limits because I think it denigrates the experience needed to govern even if it’s couched in anti-corruption rhetoric. A one-term limit on the governor’s position is bat-shit insane. How can anything significant get done if you’re playing musical chairs in the governor’s mansion?

  103. 103.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 11:58 am

    GOP’s risky delusion about town hall protests
    Errol Louis
    By Errol Louis, CNN Political Commentator
    Updated 9:54 AM ET, Thu February 23, 2017

    White House spokesman Sean Spicer is kidding himself if he truly thinks the wave of protesters swarming Republican congressional town hall meetings from coast to coast represent a flash in the pan, or some less-than-authentic paid lobbyist campaign.

    “Protesting has become a profession now,” Spicer said on Fox News. “They have every right to do that. Don’t get me wrong, but I think that we need to call it what it is. It’s not these organic uprisings that we’ve seen through the last several decades. You know, the tea party was a very organic movement. This has become a very paid, Astroturf-type movement.”

    Wrong, Mr. Spicer. The town hall protests appear to be driven by an authentic concern about the future of health care reform and troubling reports about Russian meddling in the November elections. Reporters who investigated allegations that paid protesters disrupted a recent town hall in Utah found none, and even some Republican lawmakers targeted by protesters in Iowa and upstate New York acknowledge the anxiety of their constituents is real.

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    February 23, 2017 at 12:00 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    He got his voters because he was an asshole, and the country was in the mood for an asshole. Had he backed off the asshole, someone else would be president right now.

    He is incapable of backing off the asshole. It’s not in his nature, IT IS his nature. He didn’t grow this way as he got older, he’s been this way for over 50 yrs. And yes, enough pieces of the country were ready for asshole, because they are always ready for asshole. They just dragged along enough of their neighbors to make it work.

  105. 105.

    jake the antisoshul soshulist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:02 pm

    You have to understand that the globalist conspiracy is terrified of Trump.
    Now, I am not sure how Putin figures into it. Since Hitler and Stalin were part of it, one would think that Putin would be.
    But, maybe since Putin is opposed to NATO and the EU, he may be on the side of the angels.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:02 pm

    @tobie: I agree

    @Iowa Old Lady: I wouldn’t be surprised if Santorum is nutty enough to try a 2020 primary challenge, or canny enough to fundraise off the hint of one.

  107. 107.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    @hovercraft: I don’t read Mr. Longman, but I know he is popular on Balloon Juice. Was Mr. L a BS supporter? They seem to be at the forefront of doom and gloom brigade since the election.

  108. 108.

    Kenneth Kohl

    February 23, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    @Gelfling 545: see, fellow Buffalonian, it is The City of Good Neighbors… :)

  109. 109.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    I suspect he thinks he’s still got a shot at becoming president, if the shitgibbon can do it why not him? He is only 58. Even if he never succeeds, it ups his speaking fees, and he just got a new gig with CNN as an analyst, that’s not because of his gig as a conservative filmmaker, it’s because he was a candidate.
    The dream shall never die.

  110. 110.

    Peale

    February 23, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    @Brachiator: He said this, naturally, to a room full of corn fed fatties who haven’t missed too many meals. The idea that the poor need to suffer is the junk food for republican thought for the past 100 years, since its always other people who need to suffer.

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: he used to blog as BooMan. I don’t think he was ever a Wilmerite, but he was very skeptical of both Clintons for a very long time. I believe his roots are in community organizing with ACORN, and he was an early Obama supporter.

  112. 112.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 12:05 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Oh yes, he was. As were most of the other regular writers with the notable exception of Ms. Letorneau.

  113. 113.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 12:07 pm

    @hovercraft: Regardless of what he thinks about his chances, he has seven kids to support, a non-working spouse and no marketable skills that don’t involve having taxpayers foot the bill for his so-called “services.” Professional campaigning is the only way he has to make ends meet.

    ETA: Someone should ask him whether he has held an actual job since he was ousted from office way back in 2006. Nope — just traipsing around the country living off of wealthy donors and dupes willing to put money in the hat.

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    February 23, 2017 at 12:08 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    They changed only two letters of the golden calf saga. N’T.
    As in Don’t Worship the Golden Calf.
    They thought it was instructions, not a warning.
    It’s been downhill ever since.

  115. 115.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 12:10 pm

    @Bruce K:

    “gin and tonic, lemons optional ”

    No, no, true G&T drinkers use limes, and a lot of them. Helps cover up the bitter of the tonic, and the gin.

  116. 116.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    @rikyrah:

    It all comes back to something that has been clear for a long time now. Trump wanted to win the presidency, not BE president. That is why, almost four months after the election, he still spends an inordinate amount of time bragging and lying about his great victory. It was the winning (and defeating his opponents) that mattered.

    A few days after Obama’s victory, I remember an article on some wingnut site that was trying to go for wounded but quiet dignity, and concluded by advising any potential liberal readers that “you will find that having is not so pleasant as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.”

    I have a funny feeling that Trump’s discovering that the hard way.

  117. 117.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:
    As far as I can remember he was more BS than Hillary, but he was not a Bro .
    This is from last May, he’s saying that the BS phenomenon is more about change than BS.

  118. 118.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:12 pm

    @Emma:

    @Jeffro: My father says if he bought a spy thriller with this plot he would return it for a refund for being too unbelievable. AND write a nasty letter to the author.

    Not a fan of “The Manchurian Candidate,” then.

  119. 119.

    Iowa Old Lady

    February 23, 2017 at 12:14 pm

    @hovercraft: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Slaps forehead.” Of course. I’m so dazed by the current R president that I didn’t have a thought to spare for other candidates.

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:15 pm

    @Barbara: I got out of the habit of reading there regularly, but IIRC the weekend crew made your average Wilmerites look like good humored pragmatists

  121. 121.

    Ruckus

    February 23, 2017 at 12:15 pm

    @Barbara:

    Being hit by a car is too good of a fate for him.

    Being repeatedly run over by an M1 tank is too good for him. At full speed. For 2 days.

  122. 122.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 12:18 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I sometimes think of a short and pithy way to respond to Bible vomiters like Santorum. “Real Christians deprive themselves for the sake of others. Fake Christians only like suffering when it happens to other people.”

    I don’t like making a virtue of suffering for anyone — myself or others — and I think the elevation of suffering as Christian concept is wrongheaded and just generally a misreading of either the OT or NT. Elevating virtue over other things is not the same thing as making a virtue out of suffering. It is a willing sacrifice of material wealth in favor of a greater priority. It might entail suffering at times, but it does not glorify it.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:18 pm

    from CPAC

    Dave WeigelVerified account‏v@vdaveweigel 4m4 minutes ago
    More
    Dana Loesch just waited for applause after saying “fake news” and like 4 people clapped

    is “fake news” already joining the joke graveyard of “… NOT!” and “1997 called,…” Or “Dana Loesch”

  124. 124.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep. I stopped reading on weekends before I stopped reading altogether.

    ETA: I think that Longman and others had useful insight into what made Hillary Clinton potentially weak, but the problem for me was that whatever weakness Clinton had did not translate into Sanders being stronger than Clinton. Their desperation for an alternative turned into a kind of denial that the only alternative was seriously underwhelming.

  125. 125.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Rick Santorum even went so far as to suggest that there was something redemptive in suffering.

    There’s a fairly good if long LGM comment that I saved that describes the phenomenon of the religious right’s obsession with making people suffer: http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/02/race-class-and-the-tea-party#comment-1878167

    On a less serious note, this explains much about the otherwise inexplicable love that every right wing Christian I’ve ever met has for “Les Miserables.” It’s the story of a guy whose journey through misery eventually turns him from a despicable criminal to a saved and redeemed man. The fact that Hugo was trying very hard to say that no one should have to go through that kind of misery, and that the entire process was jump-started by a punishment that was egregiously disproportionate to the “crime” just kind of gets left out.

  126. 126.

    Lapassionara

    February 23, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    @Chris: the trouble is, he has found that being president will make him very rich indeed. So he will hang in there, even if he does not like the job. This admin is a case study in corruption.

    A little OT, but I just got word that there is some sort of issue with the internet today. Has anyone noticed anything funky?

  127. 127.

    aimai

    February 23, 2017 at 12:22 pm

    @Chris: That was all fake CS Lewis, I think. Its one of those things said with wounded dignity in the Narnia books, though I might have that wrong. Might even be in Tolkein.

  128. 128.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    @Barbara:
    Actually yes he did have/does have a job.
    Rick Santorum, CEO of the film production company EchoLight Studios.

    Life on the beyond the beltway for Santorum is now mainly based outside of Dallas, Texas, with occasional trips to Los Angeles, where he meets with networks, such as the Hallmark Movie Channel. He said like campaigning, he traveled across the country following the November release of “The Christmas Candle,” the studio’s first film since he became CEO last June, to build up grassroots support at screenings.

    The former lawmaker said the new gig helps him develop communication skills, much like another notable Republican who saw success in Hollywood.

    “The whole creative process has really been a wonderful experience for me,” Santorum said. “One of the things I think is important and Ronald Reagan showed is being able to tell a good story and communicate with people on that level is a great skill to have and so this is, if you will, helping me in my other craft by maybe becoming a little better storyteller.”

    I didn’t watch the little table debates so I have no idea if he acquired any “Hollywood polish”.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    Charles Blow today:

    ……………

    Compassionate conservatism is dead; Trump and his band of backward-thinking devotees killed it.

    Trump is rushing headlong into Muslim bans and mass deportations, wall building and Obamacare dismantling. Indeed, it feels like the campaign promises Trump is keeping have to do with cruelty and those he’s flip-flopping on have to do with character.

    For instance, it is now abundantly clear that Trump had no intention whatsoever of draining the swamp in Washington. He is simply restocking it to his liking.

    This is why I have no patience for liberal talk of reaching out to Trump voters. There is no more a compromise point with those who accept, promote and defend bigotry, misogyny and xenophobia than there is a designation of “almost pregnant.”

    Trump is a cancer on this country and resistance is the remedy. The Trump phenomenon is devoid of compassion, and we must be closed to compromise.

    No one need try to convince me otherwise. The effort is futile; my conviction is absolute. This is a culture war in which truth is the weapon, righteousness the flag and passion the fuel.

    Fight, fight, fight. And when you are finished, fight some more. Victory is the only acceptable outcome when freedom, equality and inclusion are at stake.

  130. 130.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 12:24 pm

    @Barbara: These are subtle ideas that muffinheads like Rih are incapable of processing.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:24 pm

    @Chris: I gather LM was Ayn Rand’s favorite novel and her most fervent followers read it because she told them to, or at least buy it (something tells my Paul Ryan and the Pauls never did). I’m pretty sure they don’t get it, but I’ve never been curious enough to read what AR said about it.

  132. 132.

    tobie

    February 23, 2017 at 12:24 pm

    @Barbara: I think you’re confusing him with Atkins who blogs at the Washington Monthly over the weekend. Longman/Booman didn’t support Wilmer during the primaries. He was in the HRC camp but following the defeat in November he has reevaluated his position on the Democrat’s outreach efforts, appeal to the working class, etc. I may not agree with him but he’s definitely not a ‘buster. Atkins is.

  133. 133.

    aimai

    February 23, 2017 at 12:24 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Stop trying to make Fake News Happen! Gag me with a spoon. 23 skidoo! Yowza!

  134. 134.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:25 pm

    @lollipopguild:

    Obama has his Heart Attack Machine(TM) which he used to kill Breibrat and hundreds of others.

    You’ve got to wonder why he doesn’t use the same time machine he used to go back and plant his birth certificate to find people like Breitbart and strangle them in the crib.

    Ah, well. Sure there’s a rational explanation.

  135. 135.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 12:26 pm

    @Chris: The other part they miss is that “Les Miz” is plural. Javert is just as miserable as Valjean, in his own way, with his obsessive pursuit.

  136. 136.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 12:29 pm

    @rikyrah: He’s right, you know.

  137. 137.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 23, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    @Barbara: Matt Yglesias is the last passenger on the Martin O’Malley train. Trouble is, Martin O’Malley couldn’t rally the professional white liberals like Sirota, I don’t know how he was gonna beat the Thing.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    @LAO:

    So pig ignorant they haven’t ever read that pesky First Amendment, skipping straight to the Second.

    If these peaceful demonstrations make them so nervous, and if the various Repug assministrations continue to become even worse, and the resistance turns violent, what will the republicans attempt to stop that? Deep state indeed!

  139. 139.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:32 pm

    @jake the antisoshul soshulist:

    Somebody needs to write a history or maybe an anthology of the Global Conspiracy. It would involve heavy use of a revolving door as various people and factions go in and out of the conspiracy according to the conservative theory of the day. You start out like two hundred years ago when the Conspiracy inexplicably starts out all-Masonic and then within a couple of decades it’s become all-Catholic for some reason… Eventually you get to the present-day, where the Assad regime is simultaneously part of the conspiracy (because he hid all of Saddam’s WMDs that we couldn’t find) and not part of the conspiracy (because he’s buddies with Putin who’s a good guy… despite being KGB which for forty years was the heart of the conspiracy…)

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 12:33 pm

    I was a Muslim in Trump’s White House. I lasted 8 days.

    When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days.
    Leah Varjaques / The Atlantic
    RUMANA AHMED 10:09 AM ET

    In 2011, I was hired, straight out of college, to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council. My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman––I was the only hijabi in the West Wing––and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included.

    Like most of my fellow American Muslims, I spent much of 2016 watching with consternation as Donald Trump vilified our community. Despite this––or because of it––I thought I should try to stay on the NSC staff during the Trump Administration, in order to give the new president and his aides a more nuanced view of Islam, and of America’s Muslim citizens.

    I lasted eight days.

    When Trump issued a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all Syrian refugees, I knew I could no longer stay and work for an administration that saw me and people like me not as fellow citizens, but as a threat.

    The evening before I left, bidding farewell to some of my colleagues, many of whom have also since left, I notified Trump’s senior NSC communications advisor, Michael Anton, of my departure, since we shared an office. His initial surprise, asking whether I was leaving government entirely, was followed by silence––almost in caution, not asking why. I told him anyway.

    I told him I had to leave because it was an insult walking into this country’s most historic building every day under an administration that is working against and vilifying everything I stand for as an American and as a Muslim. I told him that the administration was attacking the basic tenets of democracy. I told him that I hoped that they and those in Congress were prepared to take responsibility for all the consequences that would attend their decisions.

    He looked at me and said nothing.

    It was only later that I learned he authored an essay under a pseudonym, extolling the virtues of authoritarianism and attacking diversity as a “weakness,” and Islam as “incompatible with the modern West.”

  141. 141.

    germy

    February 23, 2017 at 12:33 pm

    Stefanik a no-show at citizen-led town hall meeting
    Congresswoman won’t meet in forum format

    As a land surveyor for the state Department of Environmental Conservation who loves the outdoors, Bob Bradley had a question for his congresswoman.

    One of more than 200 of U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s constituents who packed into a room at the Crandall Public Library on Wednesday, Bradley asked how she would vote on a bill that would eliminate the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

    “When this comes up for a vote, will you vote yay or nay?” he asked.

    She wasn’t there to answer him.

    Bradley directed his question to a camera at the town hall meeting, which took place without Stefanik because, according to her staff, she had a conflict. But Sara Carpenter, a Queensbury resident who helped organize the event, said Stefanik is unwilling to address constituents in the “time-honored tradition of the American town hall” meeting.

    Stefanik, R-Willsboro, represents the 21st District, which stretches from Ballston Spa northward to the Canadian border. She won re-election to her second term in November. She was the youngest woman elected to Congress when, at 30, she won the seat in 2014.

    “A number of people have been asking Elise Stefanik when she’s going to be holding a town hall meeting, and we recently received word that she doesn’t plan to hold any, so we decided we would plan a town hall meeting for her and invite her to come,” said Carpenter. “She has, unfortunately, declined to come, and our view is we’re going to hold it anyway.”

  142. 142.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:35 pm

    @aimai:

    No, it’s actually a Star Trek quote. Spock, the episode where he goes back to Vulcan and we meet his wife. Other people may have said it first, but the article was explicitly quoting Trek.

    It then devolved into a butthurt whine about how “the left took the Enterprise” when it replaced all-American manly man James T. Kirk with soft limp elitist Jean-Luc Picard…

  143. 143.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Maybe she liked Valjean before he found salvation.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    February 23, 2017 at 12:37 pm

    @tobie:
    I’ve always thought that term limits is a good idea, just not as it’s normally done. We had term limits for president and that has worked well, if congress had term limits of several terms that would be OK. Yes someone like John Lewis (and the rest of the country) would be negatively affected but so would someone like McTurttle. On the whole that might just be a better thing. Yes we can elect someone else, or can we? Do you live in McTurttle’s state? I don’t but I suffer at his hand, just like you do. I can’t vote for him or for anyone else. We want government of the people, by the people, for the people, we need to let more people into the system. Losing McTurttle’s expertise in government might just not be all that bad an idea. We talk about having a limited amount of democrats to run in lots of places. How many of those places have erected shit statues like McTurttle in place of new and possibly much better blood? If we were supposed to just have a ruling class instead of a changing, representative government then never mind.
    Now on the other hand….. We are seeing, finally a backlash to a horrific asshole being elected. And this has seemingly awoken more than the hardcore democratic faithful which means that if we can find ways to keep that faith going and energized, we can take the entire first part of this post and throw it away. IOW what we really need to change is the involvement in our government of the people, so that we can actually have that government of the people. That is what Betty’s post of yesterday was about, nearly a third of our country doesn’t seem to give a shit. And we need to change that.

  145. 145.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    February 23, 2017 at 12:40 pm

    @lollipopguild:

    Obama has his Heart Attack Machine(TM) which he used to kill Breibrat and hundreds of others.

    Surely not. Obama had a Tantalus Field.

  146. 146.

    The Moar You Know

    February 23, 2017 at 12:41 pm

    That was all fake CS Lewis, I think. Its one of those things said with wounded dignity in the Narnia books, though I might have that wrong. Might even be in Tolkein.

    @aimai: None of the above. It’s from Star Trek, “Amok Time”. And now I really need to get a life.

  147. 147.

    Kay

    February 23, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Obviously I’m bitter about Mr. Comey so I won’t bore you with that again, but I will complain about it because I feel I have a right to the same law enforcement effort that conservatives get.

    I’m not accepting my second class citizen status. He’s supposed to enforce laws, not get some bug up his ass about Hillary Clinton and pursue her unto death while covering for these other people. This is his rock-bottom JOB.

    I don’t think it’s an outrageous request. Do your job.

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    @Alain the site fixer:

    People never tell you the details you would need to know to actually fix something… Been there!

  149. 149.

    JMG

    February 23, 2017 at 12:44 pm

    I really don’t get why Republican Congresspeople are ducking town hall forums. It’s so dumb. Tom Cotton’s views are reprehensible, but he had one, took on all comers, and is no worse for wear today. He gets credit for standing up for himself. The hiders create the impression (not with their base but among everyone else) that they’re gutless. This does them no good. In fact it makes them more likely to be dogged by protesters everywhere they go. They really are both stupid and evil, and it’s a photo finish between those two.

  150. 150.

    pamelabrown53

    February 23, 2017 at 12:45 pm

    @Barbara: #85.

    Re: Washington Monthly. The only person I consistently read there is Nancy LeTourneau. She writes very calm and well thought out opinion pieces. I pretty much ignore the weekenders for the reasons you cited.

  151. 151.

    H.E.Wolf

    February 23, 2017 at 12:46 pm

    @Chris:

    I believe the woman in question was Spock’s betrothed, not his wife. She initiated a huge ritual brouhaha to avoid marrying Spock so that she might marry another man instead. Spock’s comment is addressed to Other Man, and contains, alas (along with the episode as a whole), several layers of 1960s American misogyny. But as a 12-year-old encountering the show in reruns, I thought Spock’s epigram was brill. :)

  152. 152.

    frosty

    February 23, 2017 at 12:46 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Martin (Booman) Longman thinks that long-term it doesn’t matter so much how big a Democratic majority is so much as where it is. In states like PA winning cities and suburbs won’t win the state legislature and without that we can’t fight gerrymanders. He wants to focus on winning getting more D votes and winning rural districts, a tough job.

    Having worked the polls in one of these last November I tend to agree with him. More votes in Philly and Pittsburgh will change the EC but it won’t win back Congress.

  153. 153.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 12:47 pm

    @Chris:

    You’ve got to wonder why he doesn’t use the same time machine he used to go back and plant his birth certificate to find people like Breitbart and strangle them in the crib.

    He can only use it sparingly and in ways that drive wingers nuts because only they can see his malevolence. He knows how to deploy plausible deniability.

  154. 154.

    germy

    February 23, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    @hovercraft:

    He can only use it sparingly and in ways that drive wingers nuts because only they can see his malevolence. He knows how to deploy plausible deniability.

    From what I understand, he let Oprah borrow it so she could go back in time and interview Puzder’s ex- wife.

  155. 155.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 12:50 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    O’Malley is our Santorum, great on paper , (if you ignore the Baltimore shit), but a dud in real life.

    The frothy one is awful all around, but to their side his bona fides are great.

  156. 156.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    February 23, 2017 at 12:51 pm

    @J R in WV:

    Buy some good damn gin (Hendrick’s), decent smaller batch tonic (Fever Tree comes to mind) and slice some cucumbers in. The flavor is phenomenal.

  157. 157.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 12:52 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: O’Malley had spectacularly bad timing, as the former mayor of Baltimore. Living as I do in the DC Metro area, I also don’t think he had what I would call an outstanding presence or record as governor. In contrast, as governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe has exceeded my expectations, but no, I don’t think he is presidential material.

  158. 158.

    Chris

    February 23, 2017 at 12:53 pm

    @H.E.Wolf:

    I thought she was just trying to divorce him, not avoid marrying him. But I haven’t seen it in a while either.

    Spock’s comment is addressed to Other Man, and contains, alas (along with the episode Star Trek as a whole), several layers of 1960s American misogyny.

    Fixed that for you!

  159. 159.

    WereBear

    February 23, 2017 at 12:54 pm

    @Ruckus: The problem I have with term limits is that the Republicans can find any fool and run them; and they do. So it would only hurt Democrats, who lean towards expertise and actual governance.

    What point would it be to “throw the bums out” if we just get another bum?

  160. 160.

    Aimai

    February 23, 2017 at 12:57 pm

    @Chris: thank you! As soon as I posted i began feeling that I was wrong! Of course its that famous scene between spock and T’pring, his former girlfriend.

  161. 161.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 12:57 pm

    It’s a Big world out there. And people have the right to spend their money where they want to. They aren’t forced to spend it in the USA.

    The Travel Press is Reporting the ‘Trump Slump,’ a Devastating Drop in Tourism to the United States
    Experts across the travel industry are warning that masses of tourists are being scared away from visiting the United States, and the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating.

    By Arthur Frommer

    Though they may differ as to the wisdom of the move, the travel press and most travel experts are of one mind: They are currently drawing attention to an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the U.S., pointing to a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income.

    It’s known as the “Trump Slump.” And I know of no reputable travel publication to deny it.

    Thus, the prestigious Travel Weekly magazine (as close to an “official” travel publication as they come) has set the decline in foreign tourism at 6.8%. And the fall-off is not limited to Muslim travelers, but also extends to all incoming foreign tourists. Apparently, an attack on one group of tourists is regarded as an assault on all.

    As far as travel by distinct religious groups, flight passengers from the seven Muslim-majority nations named by Trump were down by 80% in the last week of January and first week of February, according to Forward Keys, a well-known firm of travel statisticians. On the web, flight searches for trips heading to the U.S. out of all international locations was recently down by 17%.

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    OUTRAGEOUS!!!

    Now #Trump can deport spouses & families of US military personnel. Letter: @NinaBernstein1

    — David Beard (@dabeard) February 23, 2017

  163. 163.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 12:59 pm

    Via GOS
    Yelling FAKE NEWS is not helping the orange one.

    Democrats almost uniformly describe themselves as embarrassed. Republicans describe themselves as proud. (According to the pollsters, those feelings are strong among those who describe themselves as stronger partisans, too.) Overall, though, thanks in part to a majority of independents saying that they’re embarrassed, 58 percent of the country uses that term to describe its feelings about Trump’s first month in office.

    WaPo: A majority of Americans are embarrassed by President Trump

    55% say not honest.

    63% say not level headed.

    It’s a start, but we need a positive message to build for change in 2018.

    Dems are the only ones who can and will check Trump’s excesses.

  164. 164.

    Jeffro

    February 23, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    @rikyrah: And he’s exactly right.

    There is no Republican Party – it’s the Trump Tea Party now.

  165. 165.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 1:01 pm

    @tobie: Longman was not a buster, but he supported Sanders. The morning after one of the debates between Sanders and Clinton, he wrote that the game had changed and Sanders now was the favorite and it was not done in a spirit of disappointment. Let me say, I am over who supported Sanders or Clinton in the primary. I am just trying to be factual.

  166. 166.

    tobie

    February 23, 2017 at 1:01 pm

    @Ruckus: Elections are supposed to be the test for whether a politician’s contract is renewed by his constituents or not. In lieu of term limits, I’d suggest pushing for public funding of all elections. That way an incumbent couldn’t use his office to secure campaign donations from certain corporation or lobbies (aka bribes).

    None of this will happen any time soon but I stand by my point that term limits denigrate the experience and expertise that goes with good governance.

  167. 167.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 1:02 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    All those freaks that imagine every Muslim in the world (billions of people) hate the US. All the Muslims I have met and worked with and been aided by don’t hate anyone so much as they do the Islamic nutcases, which are so similar to the Christainist nutcases, like Mr. Santorum, already quoted to good effect earlier in this thread.

    Fanatics of every stripe, especially those already convinced their fanaticism si worth violent support, are the most scary folks around. Anti-Muslim fanatics with an Army and Navy at their disposal are by definition quite scary. Santorum isn’t in that category, he doesn’t have access to military force. Gorka appears to be very close to having military force to work with.

    Scary!

  168. 168.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 1:03 pm

    @Barbara:

    Terry McAuliffe has exceeded my expectations, but no, I don’t think he is presidential material.

    Agree, and though I hate to say it, he would used as an excuse to rehash the Clinton’s legacy. Between that and his own baggage, he would not do well.

  169. 169.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 1:06 pm

    @rikyrah:
    Broken links, fyi ;-(

    ETA: active duty and veterans voted for this chump, I guess like so many of his voters, they assumed that he would fuck with other people not them. Ooops.

  170. 170.

    Peale

    February 23, 2017 at 1:06 pm

    @rikyrah: Yep. Seriously, if you have a spouse on a green card, heck, if you have a green card and you’re eligible to file for citizenship, if you aren’t filing this month, I don’t know exactly what I can tell you. Eventually they will mess with naturalization and their goal is to reduce the numbers of immigrants of all types. Period. Full. Stop. They aren’t going to care if you have US citizen children. They aren’t going to care if you came here legally and followed the rules. They aren’t really going to care much if you end up having to leave the country to be with your spouse. They really don’t care. I don’t know how many signs people need. But is really is up to the 12 million green card holders who have had those visas for 5 years or longer and are eligible for citizenship now to swamp the system with citizenship applications.

  171. 171.

    Geeno

    February 23, 2017 at 1:07 pm

    @Gelfling 545: That would be because we’re not afraid of the refugees. Same thing would work anywhere they tried it.

  172. 172.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 1:08 pm

    @Barbara:

    In addition to being corrupt and self-serving Santorum is also stupid and cruel.

    Barbara, you left out perhaps the most important descriptor, he’s evil, and all else flows from that! Otherwise, a great comment!

  173. 173.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 1:10 pm

    @rikyrah: Their entire worldview is based on faulty reasoning. That everything is a zero sum game, which they are losing, if the other party even benefits a little bit.

    ETA: You can apply this to immigration, statements about NATO, just about anything.

  174. 174.

    frosty

    February 23, 2017 at 1:11 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m in complete agreement with all of them Katie: points 1, 2, and 3.

  175. 175.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 1:11 pm

    @rikyrah: I wonder if Mr. Blow could walk down the hall to slap the absolute shit outta his colleague Nik Kristof for his column “Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy” ?

  176. 176.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 1:14 pm

    @Peale:

    Seriously, if you have a spouse on a green card, heck, if you have a green card and you’re eligible to file for citizenship, if you aren’t filing this month, I don’t know exactly what I can tell you. Eventually they will mess with naturalization and their goal is to reduce the numbers of immigrants of all types. Period. Full. Stop. They aren’t going to care if you have US citizen children. They aren’t going to care if you came here legally and followed the rules. They aren’t really going to care much if you end up having to leave the country to be with your spouse. They really don’t care.

    This is why I listened to the people who signed the alarm bells. They said don’t listen to the bullshyt about illegal immigration. THEY SAID that this was all about LEGAL immigration.
    They used the bullshyt of ‘ they didn’t follow the rules’.

    Well…all these people DID FOLLOW THE RULES AND FOLLOWED THE PROCESS.

    And, you want to do this to them?
    That’s why the most disturbing part of the Muslim ban was the arbitrary CANCELLING OF 100 THOUSAND VISAS -because THOSE had been done according to the processes that the US Government set up.

  177. 177.

    Barbara

    February 23, 2017 at 1:15 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: They can throw out as many people as they seem to want to, it still won’t convert a high school degree into computer science skills or an engineering certification and it certainly won’t cure anybody’s drug addiction or bring a manufacturing plant to West Virginia. Like most people scared of monsters, the source of the problem lies within not without.

  178. 178.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    Maybe he could bring Brooks in on it and knock their heads together. I haven’t read the column but I’m sure between his plea for understanding and Brooksie telling us that the democrats meanness made the republicans lose their minds, a good knock in the head would at least shut them up. They are beyond getting sense knocked into them.

  179. 179.

    trollhattan

    February 23, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    @rikyrah:
    Oh, this Michael Anton.

    “An all out nuclear war is not inevitable, or even likely,” he wrote in a discussion thread he started about nuclear terrorism. “A regional nuclear exchange between two regional powers is more likely, but still not inevitable. A nuclear detonation in a major US or European city (or Moscow) is inevitable.” He added, “Let’s just say the event is overdue. People have been wanting to do it for a long time, and trying to do it for a long time. … As a general matter, anything that human beings have wanted to do badly enough, that it is physically possible to do, they have eventually found a way to do.”

    His concerns were so severe that he provided advice to people thinking of building their own fallout shelters.

  180. 180.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 23, 2017 at 1:19 pm

    @rikyrah:

    They will start to figure these things out. They’ll get their people in place

    Why does anyone think the three different conservative extremist factions that make up the GOP and the Republicans in Congress are going to learn to work together? From Abraham Lincoln the Republicans have been fractured and needed a strong leader to work together and Trump clearly isn’t it.

    More likely I predict this is only the warm up, that the budget and debt cealing is going to be one the biggest crises in American politcal history as all GOP factions declare the election their mandate and fight to the death to get what they want while Trump tweets about some BS news show that didn’t praise him enough.

  181. 181.

    rikyrah

    February 23, 2017 at 1:19 pm

    @hovercraft:

    Here you go:

    Trump’s move to deport more immigrants

    To the Editor:

    I am a member of the National Guard and a lawyer practicing immigration law in Minnesota. In 2013, President Obama, at the express request of the Defense Department, created a program for military families to prevent the deportation of military spouses, parents and children. This program alleviated a major source of anxiety and fear for service members and their families.

    I have personally experienced the hardship of deployments to combat zones, and know the incredible importance of family stability during that trying time. This week, this administration rescinded the Parole in Place program, harming thousands of military families across the country. This is another example of the careless excess of the administration’s immigration policy.

    It is unconscionable to reverse a policy that strengthens our military and our veterans. That the program was not even named in the memo demonstrates either a lack of awareness, or worse, a casual disregard of the effect that this will have on those most vulnerable members of our military.

    DAVID KUBAT

    Lino Lakes, Minn.

  182. 182.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 1:20 pm

    @rikyrah: The only way to reduce the # GCs per year is to stipulate who US citizens can marry because that’s the largest group of GC recipients in a given year. There is also no quota for GC through marriage to a citizen. All employment based and other family reunification GCs are subject to annual per country quotas.
    ETA: I have blogged about this. Just like abortion is a red herring and total control of family planning is the ultimate goal.
    Legal immigration is what is really in their cross-hairs. They want to go back to Reed-Johnson Act.

  183. 183.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 23, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    @rikyrah:

    In the meantime, Team Trump’s plans to unveil proposals on health care reform and tax reform haven’t just been delayed; CNBC reported yesterday those plans have been scrapped altogether

    Case in point – Trump’s lazy, the GOP hates itself as much as it hates the left so no one can take over from Trump.

    This is like some stupid Euro Monarchy were the latest chinless wonder would rather play at being farmer than govern while the rest of the court knives each other in back over who gets to be Protector of the Realm.

  184. 184.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I was kidding. Shoulda added the ;-) at the end.

    I do buy Hendricks, and I enjoy fever tree too. Not going to slice cukes into my g&t, though. Fresh lime works well for us, doesn’t cover up anything, not really.

    A dash of bitters will make a pitcher of g&t look like pink lemonade, we used to picnic on the shady grounds of the state capitol with a quart mason jar of g&t (not allowed to drink alcohol in public!) with our “pink lemonade”. And on the ridges around the farms.

  185. 185.

    bystander

    February 23, 2017 at 1:28 pm

    @Bruce K: You should be running FEMA.

  186. 186.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 23, 2017 at 1:29 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: We are all Russians now. Russians during WWI, that is. The parallels are endless.

  187. 187.

    TenguPhule

    February 23, 2017 at 1:30 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Santorum complained, before adding, “suffering is part of life and it’s not a bad thing, it is an essential thing in life.”

    Obviously Santorum hasn’t suffered enough and needs to be fed into a woodchipper, feet first.

  188. 188.

    Captain C

    February 23, 2017 at 1:30 pm

    @LAO: …and in other news, the Arizona State Legislature passed a plan to give half the annual state budget to protesters who successfully sue them for their stupid, unconstitutional plans.

    Further proof that Arizona is Florida with less humidity and no shoreline.

    (I say that having lived there for 12 years earlier in my life.)

  189. 189.

    bystander

    February 23, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Then what do you make of this story?

    Another discussion I read suggested Manafort was part of the deal making and was paid a commission.

    It would irresponsible and unAmerican not to speculate!

  190. 190.

    hovercraft

    February 23, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    @rikyrah: At some point they will realize that just because Obama touched it does not make it bad, in fact it’s probably good. Things like this though are like the Obamacare repeal talk, great red meat for the base, but a lot more complicated than they understand. Just wait till IAVA or some other organization starts getting these spouses on TV telling their stories. It will not be pretty.

    Jeff Sessions, Stephen Miller, Stave Bannon, have all wanted for years to return us to a nation for white people. Their dream of repealing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, is in sight, lets go back to the way it was in the 20’s. Twitler’s racist ass may not have been plotting the way these jackals have, but his racist ass would just love to get all these POC under control, under the control of the white men who built this country.

  191. 191.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 1:37 pm

    @Chris: Yeah, later on, Roddenberry would have to recant some of his previously held attitudes. Like his late 60’s notion that women could never be starship captains.

  192. 192.

    Mnemosyne

    February 23, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Conservative friends of friends on Facebook have let the cat out of the bag with “drain the swamp” — they admitted that it meant getting rid of liberals, not getting rid of corruption.

  193. 193.

    bystander

    February 23, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    (Santorum hasn’t) suffered enough and needs to be fed into a woodchipper, feet first.

    There you go sweet talkin’ again.

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    February 23, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    @WereBear:
    @tobie:
    Let me be a bit more succinct.
    Term limits work when democracy doesn’t and people who want to destroy it get voted in. A great protection. And they work both ways. The president only having 2 terms keeps us from having to bury as many of them while in office, after the stress kills them.
    They are a necessary evil if only to help keep fresh blood flowing into politics. And even then they need to be structured so that they are not too limiting. VA’s no two successive terms seems, well idiotic.
    They aren’t necessary at all when enough people are involved and willing to participate. When they aren’t willing you have the McTurttles, those who have enriched themselves at the expense of not just their constituents, but at the expense of all of us, including those who can’t vote for or against them. That isn’t government working.

  195. 195.

    SiubhanDuinne

    February 23, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    @JMG:

    One of my Senators (David Perdue) said the other day “Town halls aren’t really my style.”

    “Style”!? I don’t give a rat’s ass about what is or is not his fucking “style.” I’d like him to show up, listen to his constituents’ concerns, and answer their questions. Like a goddamned grownup.

  196. 196.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 1:41 pm

    @rikyrah:

    When we visited the Grand Canyon early one April, many of the visitors were foreign. You could tell with many of them, being from Asia, the Middle East, etc. But many others were European,and until you were together with them on the tourist airplane flight, you had no idea they were Swiss, or Swedish, or German, etc.

    I don’t blame tourists for their reluctance to visit a nation that from their distance must look like a huge mass of idjits, circling a giant drain before flushing ourselves to hell.

    But when you think of the huge number of people who work at tiny rural motels in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, etc who will either lose their jobs or take a big hit in income, thanks to the insane policies and general incompetence of Trump’s advisors,.. just wow!

    Thanks for your compulsive reading of many and various sources which you then share with us!! Great job of informing your fellow B-J’ers!

  197. 197.

    Villago Delenda Est

    February 23, 2017 at 1:41 pm

    @Captain C: “Yes, but it’s a dry dumb.”

  198. 198.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 23, 2017 at 1:42 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, exactly, I watch The Great War on You Tube and they are at the lead up the Russian Revolution now and that’s creepy and I get now why they murdered the Czar and his family. Though France under Louis XVI or the English under Henry VI works too.

  199. 199.

    Captain C

    February 23, 2017 at 1:43 pm

    @tBone:

    Arizona is really making a strong run at America’s Worst State Legislature

    They’ve been a regular in the Top 5 for decades, and always are trying for the top spot. I think there’s a secret clause in the AZ State Constitution that if another state does something especially outlandish, bugfuck, or cruel, the AZ Leg has to top it within 3 months.

  200. 200.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 1:43 pm

    @rikyrah:

    ETA: So you can be a “Special Operator” fighting in the ‘stans, perhaps even in Mosul, risking your life to protect US, and come home to discover you family is just gone. And no one to tell you easily where they went, how come, a way to get them back. Just F U soldier!

    They are just plain old evil, after all. Greed, hate, prejudice, arrogance, all of those things boil down to just plain old evil.

  201. 201.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 23, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    @Barbara: Their front page is their blog. This isn’t standard practice for a reason..

  202. 202.

    Trabb's Boy

    February 23, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    @rikyrah:
    “It’s a Big world out there. And people have the right to spend their money where they want to. They aren’t forced to spend it in the USA.”

    I think this is what is going to finally drive a wedge between congress and SCROTUS. The White House wants to feed the base, but that scares the shit out of all reasonable people and is very, very, very bad for business. Congress being a 2/3 owned subsidiary of business is not going to like it.

  203. 203.

    Jeffro

    February 23, 2017 at 1:44 pm

    @hovercraft:

    Maybe he could bring Brooks in on it and knock their heads together. I haven’t read the column but I’m sure between his plea for understanding and Brooksie telling us that the democrats meanness made the republicans lose their minds, a good knock in the head would at least shut them up. They are beyond getting sense knocked into them.

    I’m good with Brooksie getting knocked around for the rest of this week and into the next. He’s such a disingenuous little snake.

  204. 204.

    Captain C

    February 23, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    @hovercraft: You forgot Rasmussen’s Totally Accurate And Not At All Biased Polls: Approve 98.7%, Disapprove 0.0%, and Can’t Work Phone 1.3%

  205. 205.

    Captain C

    February 23, 2017 at 1:59 pm

    @Barbara: I agree 100%. I call it the “You First” principle of political change: Anyone who suggests a change which will cause a lot of displacement, pain, and suffering has to volunteer to have the negative effects happen to them first, otherwise, they’re not serious about change, just a greedy sadist.

    Note that, say, somewhat higher taxes on high end income or not being able to discriminate against Others does not constitute displacement, pain, or suffering.

  206. 206.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 23, 2017 at 2:12 pm

    @rikyrah: “Life is suffering”–so santorum is a Buddhist?

  207. 207.

    Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire

    February 23, 2017 at 2:16 pm

    @Tazj: He’s down with that Mother Teresa school of thought. I never liked her, and I don’t like him.

    In my mind, it is the moral obligation of any Catholic to MINIMIZE suffering. That’s why I can’t stand Paul Ryan type Catholics. Just go be a Prosperity Gospel evangelical already!

  208. 208.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 2:37 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    “Life is suffering”–so santorum is a Buddhist?

    Or a big fan of The Princess Bride, one or the other.

  209. 209.

    The Lodger

    February 23, 2017 at 2:56 pm

    @J R in WV: So if I understand you correctly, gin & tonic would be a pretty good drink if people could stand the taste of:
    A. Gin
    B. Tonic

  210. 210.

    Geeno

    February 23, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    @Corner Stone: Don’t ruin that movie for me by saying things like that.

  211. 211.

    Corner Stone

    February 23, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    @Geeno: It’s actually, “Life is pain, Highness”
    So consider yourself still shielded. I just thought it was close enough for horseshoes and frothy mixtures.

  212. 212.

    ? Martin

    February 23, 2017 at 3:33 pm

    @rikyrah:

    On the other hand, I’ve been told that, contrary to what the Bible says and what Jesus taught, the only real work of Christians in the world today is evangelism. That’s because if people die before they are “born again,” they will spend eternity in hell. Rick Santorum even went so far as to suggest that there was something redemptive in suffering.

    That’s because evangelical Christianity is dying.

    There was a time when Christian thinkers like Dreher, who writes for The American Conservative, might have prepared to fight for cultural and political control. Dreher, however, sees this as futile. “Could it be that the best way to fight the flood is to … stop fighting the flood?” he asks. “Rather than wasting energy and resources fighting unwinnable political battles, we should instead work on building communities, institutions, and networks of resistance that can outwit, outlast, and eventually overcome the occupation.” This strategic withdrawal from public life is what he calls the Benedict option.

    Dreher’s proposal is as remarkable as his fear. It is a radical rejection of the ties between Christianity and typical forms of power, from Republican politics to market-driven wealth. Instead, Dreher says, Christians should embrace pluralism, choosing to fortify their own communities and faith as one sub-culture among many in the United States.

    Dreher isn’t wrong. Evangelicals are having to push ever harder to maintain power, now to the point of backing Trump and seeing Russia as a country getting it right. At some point it’ll collapse (not the religion, the ability to retain power). The country for the first time doesn’t have a majority in white christians, also known as the white working class. These two things are effectively synonymous. This is hopefully their extinction burst.

  213. 213.

    Goku

    February 23, 2017 at 3:47 pm

    @Chris:
    I preferred Picard as a captain and ST:TNG in general, myself.

  214. 214.

    Ken

    February 23, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    @rikyrah: Some Republican Senators will take turns voting against bills or appointees as long as they have enough votes to get what they want. It will be big when there are enough defections to cause something to fail.

  215. 215.

    J R in WV

    February 23, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    @The Lodger:

    Well, there are different flavors of good gin, not talking about cheap gin. My dad always drank vodka and tonic with a little lime, he loved it that good vodka was indistinguishable from cheap vodka.

    But, yeah, you need to like gin, and tonic, and lime or lemon. Otherwise, stick to a good brown liquor.

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