Here’s an urban animal rescuer in Germany removing a hook from a swan’s leg and releasing a rehabilitated fox:
Did you notice the little fuzzy cygnets paddling around the pair of adult swans before Stefan Bröckling so deftly captured the injured party? So cute!
My daughter and I rescued an injured seagull from a supermarket parking lot several years ago. It had been hit by a car (I think) and lost the use of a wing.
I called a local seabird rescue place to report it, and they said they couldn’t send anyone to capture it, but told me if we brought it to them, they’d give it medical attention.
The thing about seagulls? They’re FAST! It took us the better part of an hour to corral the critter, which we chased between parked cars, under shopping carts and over median strips. We finally cornered it in a flower bed, threw a towel over it and placed it gently in a cardboard box for the hour-plus trip to the seabird rescue.
My daughter sat in the backseat cradling the box, with the gull shrieking and raising hell inside. At one point, as we neared the top of a very tall bridge, it nearly escaped. I pictured it leaping over the seat and pecking at my eyes, causing me to lose control of the car and plummet over the guardrail into the bay 400-plus feet below.
But luckily, my daughter was able to contain it, and we delivered it to the rescue place without further incident.
Anyhoo, hope your Friday is going well.
rikyrah
DNC Chair Candidates ‘Debate’ on CNN for No Discernible Reason
by Josh Alvarez
February 23, 2017 5:47 PM
……………….
rogressives’ lingering (and justifiable) distrust of the DNC and the Democratic establishment has led some, like Glenn Greenwald, to portray Perez v Ellison as analogous to Clinton v Sanders. But what exactly makes Ellison, who has held his congressional seat since 2007, not part of the establishment whereas Perez, who first entered the national scene in 2009 when he was tasked with rebuilding the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, is left unsaid. “Establishment,” it seems, has become a term of derision that applies only to your political enemies. There is no discernible difference between Perez and Ellison’s capability, intelligence, or politics. They are both left-of-center and have the accomplishments and credentials to prove it. The job of the DNC Chair is first and foremost to help Democrats win elections nationwide and organize party apparatuses to work effectively in local, state, and national races. Given that, it seems Ellison’s success of running for office and helping other Democrats in Minnesota gives him the edge over Perez.
But don’t leave it to a cable news business to not exploit any possibility for a manufactured debate. Dana Bash and Chris Cuomo tried their best to stir contention between the candidates, though there was nothing to disagree about. Everybody on the dais and everybody who bothered staying up to watch the show knows what has to be done. National success is built on local success and the DNC has to regain trust as a competent institution that can channel progressive energy towards tangible political victories. But CNN was determined to make the situation fit the story they already had in mind and which was published this morning: “Democratic divisions on display at DNC debate” the headline reads. The candidates, in the network’s telling, “struggled during a debate sponsored by CNN Wednesday to define a vision of how they would effectively counter Trump’s administration and break through in clear opposition to his message.” This was corporate gonzo journalism at its most boring.
Why did the DNC ever agree to this? Nothing in those two hours bolstered confidence or even created a discernible gap between Ellison or Perez. Why put the two contenders for DNC leadership, who are really fighting for the votes of 447 people in a private gathering, in a situation that risks a loss of confidence among Democratic voters?
The DNC Chair election can’t come soon enough.
rikyrah
So, who will ask Spicer about this?
This is what happens when our leaders demonize brown people.
A 51-year-old Olathe [Kansas] man was charged Thursday in a Wednesday night shooting at an Olathe bar that left one man dead and two others wounded…
At least one witness reportedly heard the suspect yell “get out of my country” shortly before shooting men he thought were Middle Eastern. Both men, engineers at Garmin, appear to be originally from India.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Only a neoliberal would say something like that.
LAO
Thanks Betty, that was awesome — he’s awesome. Although I have to say that swans are, by far, the most vicious animal I have ever encountered in person. So my hat’s off to him for capturing that swan.
rikyrah
Trump Kicked Off His Presidential Aspirations at CPAC in 2011
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 24, 2017 8:00 AM
Watching Reince Priebus and Steve Bannon at CPAC yesterday, I noticed that they referred several times to the speech Donald Trump gave to that gathering in 2011. So I decided to watch it for myself. In one sense these two White House staffers were right — way back then Trump was saying a lot of the things he says today.
It’s clear that Trump was considering a run for the presidency in 2012. It would be interesting to know why he delayed those plans until 2016. More about that later, but much like he has been saying over the course of the last year and a half, he talked a lot about “winning” and ended the speech with a promise that he’d make America great again.
A couple of other things stood out to me. Perhaps least important is the fact that in 2011 gas prices were around $4/gallon. At CPAC, Trump predicted they would go up to $7 because this country didn’t talk tough enough to OPEC. Obviously he was wrong about that.
…………………
If Trump’s appearance at CPAC on February 10, 2011 was his initial trial balloon about entering the 2012 presidential race, it is important to know that a little over one month later he appeared on The View to talk about a possible entry into the race. It was on that show that he launched his foray into the whole birther movement. A little over a month later, on April 27th, President Obama released his long-form birth certificate and three days after that he roasted Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner. There have been those who speculated that perhaps it was that roasting that inspired Trump to run for president. Simply based on this timeline, I’m guessing that the opposite is true. Trump was planning to run in 2012, but decided not to challenge Obama — holding out for 2016.
rikyrah
Bannon’s Goal: A Deconstruction of the Administrative State
by Nancy LeTourneau
February 24, 2017 10:33 AM
……………………………………………….
Many of us noted as we watched the Cabinet nominees unfold that a lot of them had spent their careers trying to undermine the very departments they were being tasked with leading. Bannon was clear that this was intentional. They have been brought in to deconstruct the administrative state.
The language Bannon used indicates that this goes way beyond what we’ve seen from Republicans in the past on the issue of regulatory reform. As I’ve written before, liberals too often forget that, under the separation of powers in our Constitution, the Executive Branch of our government is tasked with administering the federal government. We saw that on display during the last two years of Obama’s presidency with his “pen and phone” strategy. But this goes well beyond the kind of executive orders the president issued.
We depend on the functioning of the federal government for things like product safety, public health, veterans care, a response to national disasters, environmental protections and a defense of civil rights – to name just a few. That is the administrative state that Bannon wants to deconstruct.
I have often said that the best defense of liberal values is a government that works. Those of us who believe there is a role for the federal government to play in a functioning society should be focused on the pragmatic task of making sure that is done effectively. While there is often plenty of room for improvement, liberals have too often either ignored how presidents function in that arena or have joined conservatives in complaining about it.
As we watch the Trump/Bannon administration deconstruct the administrative state, we’re likely to get a good lesson in just how important it has been all along.
Betty Cracker
@LAO: He was so quick! And yeah, swans can be mean as hell. One of my earliest memories is of my mom and grandma using their handbags to fend off a swan that was trying to attack me; I was around three years old, and I’d probably gotten too close to its babies or something. But man, that was a terrifying, hissing, HUGE thing coming at me! :)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Love your seagull story. This is kinda OT except the connection is seagulls.
I’m used to seeing a fair amount of aggression from seagulls at the beach where people food is involved. For instance, if someone (me) is foolish enough to throw scraps at them, you’ll often see one of the gulls get very territorial. “Back off! These are my suckers and nobody else gets food from them!”
But one time at the Jersey Shore, we watched as a couple got up to go swim, and immediately afterward a gull landed near their blanket, stuck his head into the beach bag, hauled out a styrofoam container, pecked through it, and made off with the sandwich therein. It happened too quickly for me to intervene, or even think how to intervene. I was still busy picking my jaw off the ground by the time he flew away.
I think Jersey seagulls might be just a little tougher than your average seagull.
The depiction of gull speech in Finding Nemo was perfect. “Mine! Mine! Mine, mine, mine!”
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: You know something this sharpest spork in the white supremacist drawer apparently forgot to account for? He was shooting at brown people he presumed were Middle Eastern and therefore, presumably, Muslim…at a BAR.
Let’s let that one sink in for a moment….
Dog Mom
I think that I am going to refer to my cowardly congressman as a Yellow Snow Republican and see if it catches on.
Baud
Glad that didn’t happen.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
No one, he’s a crazy white man, an individual,, not representative of any group.
If they did ask the logical question about the neo-Nazi’s in the WH ginning up hate, Spicey would fob them off with some BS about Twitler being the least racist person ever the walk the Earth, and that this was the action of one crazy individual. Now a real reporter would follow-up and ask, given the actions of this one crazy person, is the president going to sign the GOP/NRA bill from last week allowing crazy people to buy guns? But this is the real world, there are no white terrorists, so why ask the WH to weigh in?
Mike J
@Betty Cracker: swans are mean because they know only the queen can eat them.
lollipopguild
@Miss Bianca: They were drinking Shirley Temples, and stop calling me Shirley.
Lapassionara
@rikyrah: thx, rikyrah. I hate the word “deconstruct” and all its variant forms. Reminds me of grad school, where people sat around talking about how no body could really know anything and nobody could communicate the not knowledge to anyone. WTF?
Anyway, what Bannon means is “destroy.” That is a better word for him because destruction is his guiding principle. And, unlike the pretentious “deconstruction,” it communicates to the average citizen.
AnderJ
I just read this article about someone who was born a girl but is far into the process of becoming a boy being forced to wrestle in the girls league due to cruel Texas regulations. He is (lawfully) taking steroids (to transition) so it may not surprise you that he actually wins. Now there are complaints about him competing in the girls league.
This made me wonder, wouldn’t that school who forces a transgender to go to the bathroom of its original sex, also come to regret their ways if transgender males (who were born girls) start flocking en masse to the girls bathroom? Not sure whether there are enough transgender activist groups to make this happen though…
MattF
@rikyrah: It’s called a ‘Let’s you and him fight’ story.
Oatler.
@Betty Cracker: @Ceci n est pas mon nym: In Florida one of those sea-rats flew into my car through the sunroof , took it’s sweet time flapping around and then left.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@rikyrah:
I so look forward to my next visit from my old friend Sal… you all know him as Sal Monella…
hovercraft
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
We breed them tougher here. Shore rules, no Styrofoam or plastic baggies, Tupperware all the way, never try to between a seagull and it’s food. I first saw The Birds when about eight, birds are pretty to look at in pictures, but I’ve never had the desire to get up close and personal with them. Thanks Tippi/ Alfred.
Baud
@AnderJ: Major Major Major Major referred to this in the morning thread.
A tragic issue, but it always amuses me when people who think they are as valued by the GOP find out they are much lower in the hierarchy. Sessions is more valuable to Trump than Jenner will ever be.
hovercraft
@Miss Bianca:
That’s the thing though, they are so fucking ignorant they don’t know that they are ignorant. We mustn’t make the mistake of thinking that he failed though. Even if they were the “wrong” religion, they are still heathen brown invaders, so they message was still sent. They may be more vocal about barring Muslims, but that’s just because they have “terrorism” to hide behind, they want us all gone.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: I actually do know Muslims who drink, Jewish ppl who eat pork and Hindus who eat beef. That’s not the issue. He didn’t know and didn’t care about their ethnicity or religion.
gex
@rikyrah: It became part of my job today, as a software developer who is working with contractors from India, to press my management and HR department to address the political environment for these contractors to try to keep them safe.
@Miss Bianca: He was mistaken sure. But I don’t think it would have changed the outcome if he could tell a difference.
Jerzy Russian
There is a bridge 400 feet high there? At least you will have somewhere to go as the ocean levels rise due to warming.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker
Tippy Hedren on line #3 has some tips.
Jerzy Russian
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: seagulls apparently don’t need to chew their food, which makes them even faster food thieves.
Iowa Old Lady
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Hey, that’s the market at work.
rikyrah
@Miss Bianca:
Expecting folks like this to understand Islam and its tenants…..
of course not.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Once a Republican, always a Republican, he may have modified the box he came in, but that has not modified who he/she is.
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
oh yeah..that lone wolf……
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: How long before a Fox News report calling him a Democrat?
rikyrah
Key congressman: It’s ‘a good thing’ if more Americans lose coverage
02/24/17 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Rep. Mike Burgess (R-Texas) chairs the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee related to health care, which makes his perspective on the issue rather important. If Republicans ever present their alternative to the Affordable Care Act, for example, Burgess’ panel would be among the first to tackle the policy.
It was therefore rather striking yesterday when the far-right congressman appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and shared an unusual insight. BuzzFeed reported:
It’s a fascinating perspective. It doesn’t matter if the ACA is helping bring health security to millions of Americans; what matters, in Burgess’ mind, is conservative ideological principles.
U.S. News’ Robert Schlesinger noted in response, “If you listened to Burgess, you’d think that all or most of [the 20 million people insured by the ACA] were dragged kicking and screaming into the system and that they yearn for liberation from the tyranny of being able to afford catastrophic illness.”
Burgess, however, isn’t the only one reading from this script. Vice President Mike Pence said this week he wants to gut “Obamacare” in order to bring back “freedom.” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) added that his anti-ACA plans is based on a single principle: “Freedom is the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need. Obamacare is Washington telling you what to buy regardless of your needs.”
Humboldtblue
Little Russian flags with Trump’s name on them quickly confiscated by CPAC staffers as Trump goes on another bizarre rant
SenyorDave
@Baud: @Baud: “Everybody looks at the Democrats as being better with these [LGBT] issues. But Trump seems to be very much for women. He seems very much behind the LGBT community because of what happened in North Carolina with the bathroom issue. He backed the LGBT community. But in Trump’s case, there’s a lot more unknowns. With Hillary, you pretty much know what you’re gonna get with the LGBT community,” Jenner said at the time.
Based off Trump’s history with women, what could go wrong? Plus he’s such a trustworthy guy. JHFC, some people really are as dumb as a box of rocks.
Baud
@rikyrah:
There’s no explanation of why they think that the shooter thought that the victims were Middle Eastern. “Get out of my country” would apply to Indians and others.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ve learned that “Establishment” means you supported HRC in the primary(and, of course, means you’re neoliberal scum of the earth).
Miss Bianca
@lollipopguild: OK, you made me laugh. I can’t believe anyone is making me laugh right now.
@SenyorDave: Hey, Jenner changed some parts out, augmenting here, snipping there…but I don’t think brain augmentation was part of the sex change operation.
hovercraft
Trump: We’re Repealing Obamacare Because It Covers ‘Very Few People’
President Donald Trump implied Friday that a replacement for Obamacare would cover more people than the law currently does.
During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, Trump said the Affordable Care Act “covers very few people.”
“Obamacare covers very few people. And remember, deduct from the number all of the people that had great health care that they loved, that was taken away from them,” he said. “Millions of people were very happy with their health care*. They had their doctor. They had their plan.”
“Remember the lie? 28 times. ‘You can keep your doctor. You can keep your plan.’ Over and over and over again you heard it. So we’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Trump said.
The Congressional Budget Office, in an analysis published last month, estimated that repealing the Affordable Care Act would result in an increase of 32 million Americans without health insurance by 2026. They based the analysis on a 2015 bill to repeal the law, passed by Congress and vetoed by President Barack Obama, which would have immediately eliminated the individual mandate and phased out Medicaid expansion and subsidies to people buying insurance through the marketplace over two years.
Trump also repeated his now-frequent line that the most prudent decision, politically, would be to let the law stand as it is.
“I tell them, from a purely political standpoint, the single best thing we can do is nothing. Let it implode completely,” Trump said, referring to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price.
“It’s already imploding completely. The carriers are leaving. I mean, it’s a disaster. Two years, don’t do anything. The Democrats will come to us and beg for help. Beg. And it’s their problem. But it’s not the right thing to do for the American people. It’s not the right thing to do,” he concluded.
* Does this moron not understand that the reason for Obamacare was to cover the people who were NOT insured, and to improve the coverage of those who had it?
He talks about the people who voted and what they wanted, reform was what they wanted right up until the GOP started lying to them.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’ll be over tomorrow. Then we move on to the next phase of beating each other up.
cope
After a day of fishing offshore (mmmmmm….fresh dolphin….) my friends and I were cleaning our fish at Port Canaveral amongst the huuuuge cruise ships when a pelican wandered up to us looking for handouts. We noticed that he had a fish hook in his bill and about 100 feet of fishing line wrapped around him. Two initial observations were that 1) pelicans can be pretty big birds up close and, 2) it’s amazing how light they are.
One of us picked him up, one of us held his beak closed and the third of us used pliers and a knife to remove the hook and fishing line. When we were done, we gave him a few scraps of fish innards and bid him (her?) a fond farewell.
Observation #3: pelicans are ungrateful for being rescued and fed…they never call back, they never write.
dm
This should really be in an Adam thread, but:
Check out the March 6 “The Нью-Йоркер” cover.
hovercraft
@SenyorDave:
Perhaps she wants him to grab that, oops am I being insensitive, sexist, transphobic, but I thought we were all cool with “locker room talk” now?
MattF
OT. I’ve recently discovered the webcomic SMBC, and it’s a nerd’s delight. Today’s strip is a little lesson on how humans can implement the ‘r’ option in the choice between r and K reproductive strategies.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: I think the point I was making is that white “supremacists” suffer the disease of white America in general – they are too ignorant, and complacent in their ignorance, not only not to know what they don’t know, but not to care. Any random brown person is “scary Mooslim Middle Eastern terrorist” by default, regardless of any other evidence to the contrary. And, of course, they don’t have to care. White America will make excuses for itself endlessly – we are all lone wolves, not a pack of lone wolves.
But perhaps that’s a point that really doesn’t need repeating here.
gvg
@rikyrah: Trump DID run in 2012 by my recollection, it’s just that that time he got no traction and it was obvious he was considered a joke candidate by the voters that time. he quickly dropped out. I don’t know if he officially filed papers..Romney courted him the way front runners who have a chance negotiate the minor characters out of races to prevent too much splitter effect leading to the unelectable getting a nomination. It looked this time as if the usual processes hadn’t happened due to how crazy and minor all of them were…..but this time the crazy won.
Guardian “Trump bows out of 2012 Presidential race”
http://mashable.com/2012/11/06/trump-reacts-to-election/#9fHRg_Yf5uqP found this where Trump “freaked out” on Twitter after Obama won the election. Trump had the impression it was just an electoral college victory not also a popular vote win, and condemed the electoral college, called for a revolution. Isn’t that nice and ironic?
there are stories about the fake campaign trail, stories about how frustrated he was to get no attention when he tried for NY govenor with his staffers soothing him “maybe they think you are past that”…funny except now this has happened. he looked pathetic then. wonder why he got traction now when he definitely didn’t then.
gex
@rikyrah: Freedom to die does seem to be one of our most cherished freedoms. See also the gun debate.
hovercraft
They keep telling us to move on the election is over, but C-PAC is sending mixed messages.
Twitler : “How Many Elections Do We Have to Have?”
the attendees:CPAC Crowd Breaks Out Into ‘Lock Her Up’ Chant During Trump Speech (VIDEO)
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: Would it have been better if they were middle-eastern or Muslim? I fail to see what this parsing is supposed to achieve.
ETA: This man killed two people who he thought didn’t belong, were not worthy, does it really matter which country they came from or their religious background.
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
That’s part of what makes it a terrorist act — killing the wrong people still makes his racist point that all brown people look alike to him.
MattF
@hovercraft: One supposes that the ‘Lock Her Up’ chant was nostalgia. But it suggests that we should be doing a ‘Lock Him Up’ chant at town halls, etc.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: He wants to bring back feudalism.
He must be stopped. And he needs to be made an example for anyone else with the same ambitions.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: NO, IT WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER, Jesus Chicken-Fried Christ. And trying to pursue this line of thought any further is obviously not going to make anything better either, so I’m going to exercise my prerogative of shutting the hell up now.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Humboldtblue:Isn’t that a hoot? Like Malcolm Nance, I want one! I’m sure he’ll get one, since he announced that on Twitter. I probably won’t. ::pouts::
A Ghost to Most
Fuckin goose-steppers
Villago Delenda Est
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I started out supporting Bernie, until it was clear that he was nothing but slogans and wishful thinking, and had no substance behind his rhetoric. No clue as to how to get from point A to point B. That’s when I switched to Hillary, who actually DID have a plan, although you’d never know it because all her policy papers were tl;dr by the vermin of the Village, may they burn in hell forever.
Betty Cracker
A mosque was damaged by arson not too far from where I live. My guess is we won’t hear any condemnations of anti-Muslim violence coming from the White House.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
PS – great seagull story with a happy ending. Thanks for sharing out, B Crack.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost to Most: Did they get pranked? If so, well played!
Karmus
Thank you, Betty. That was moving. My hat’s off to this guy.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: This man meant to send a message, and I heard it loud and clear. You don’t belong and here and you are not safe here.
Baud
@A Ghost to Most: I’d like to someone put together a flash mob at one of these things of a 100 shirtless Putins. That would be fun.
Humboldtblue
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Was “peak wingnut” ever reached? if not, it’s been reached now.
Not only that, Trump is fucking crazy, stone cold crazy.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Expect praise not condemnation.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
To me, there’s something extra poignant when innocent people are murdered due to a mistaken identity, like the Sikh temple in Wisconsin that was attacked by a moron who thought it was a mosque.
SiubhanDuinne
@Humboldtblue:
Someone actually thought that was a good idea?
Someone actually thought that was a good idea.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: You care, Miss Bianca cares. The people who do it, don’t. Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Indians, Arabs, Mexicans. We are all fungible.
amk
twitler’s gem at kkklowns show: “But there’s no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag. “
Origuy
My niece works at an animal rescue place near Indianapolis. She is planning to study hippotherapy when she graduates high school. She finally was allowed to keep one of the rescues. Meet Snoopy; he’s blind in one eye and loves to snuggle.
hovercraft
Someone call Soros, we all need Russian flags, everywhere Twitler goes, we should line his route and the sidewalks outside with Putin flags, it will drive him nuts. maybe he’ll throw a tantrum and diss his boss.
hovercraft
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m assuming they were trolls, not fans.
hovercraft
@Humboldtblue:
Like infinity, peak wingnut can never be reached. Sadly, the 87% of the GOP who approve of this person tells us that there is no peak. At this point I think he could pull an Ozzie Osborne on stage and they would lap it up. SAD!
Humboldtblue
@hovercraft: I’m not, but I do think it was done in jest.
eclare
@Origuy: What a cutie! Amazing how just seeing a dog makes me smile, no matter what else is going on. Thank you.
Humboldtblue
@hovercraft: He nailed it during the campaign when he said he could murder someone in the middle of 5th avenue and not lose a single supporter.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I get that. And that’s why I called it terrorism — because it means that people who don’t even belong to the group that was supposedly the target now have to take precautions, because they never know when they’re going to be murdered by some moron who doesn’t know and doesn’t care what the difference is between a Sikh and a Muslim.
And while it should make the racism behind the attack even more apparent, it somehow never gets talked about that way in the media.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@schrodingers_cat: I care too, and of course the people who do those things can’t spell fungible, much less define it. But they know “not white” when they see it, and they think they see too much of it.
When will Putin’s Circus Peanut use the actual term that applies: radical right wing terrorism? And, how sad is the suggested word list on a phone keyboard after radical? It reads: “Islam, change, way” on mine. I want to cry.
tobie
I take back everything I said earlier about Reince Priebus possibly lying when he said the FBI told him the stories about the Russian investigations in the NYT were untrue. It ends up not only McCabe but Comey personally contacted the White House to say the stories were bullshit but they can’t respond to all stories publicly. The FBI is colluding with the White House in its illicit ties to Russia. We’ve had a coup. Who by the way was tasked with verifying there was no ballot stuffing in the election? Each and every day makes me more and more skeptical that tRump got those 70,000 votes in MI, WI, and PA that pushed him over the edge. The only authority we have to rely on for the validity and security of the ballot process is an agency that has proven itself to be woefully partisan and corrupt, if not criminal.
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
I almost (almost!) feel sorry for Russia. They probably really do want to be friends with us but, like all bullies, they have trouble relating to other people as equals. It’s like, they probably could have kept Ukraine in their orbit by being nice and offering the same kind of benefits that the EU was offering but, no, they had to be asshole bullies and force the issue. And they did the same thing with the US election.
laura
@rikyrah: I’m going with no one. Another question willing to bet won’t get asked is about the border patrol demanding identification from passengers on a domestic flight.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie:
The FBI doesn’t oversee elections.
SenyorDave
https://www.yahoo.com/news/emboldened-by-trump-republicans-aim-to-halve-legal-immigration-160727871.html
Make American WASP again! One of my New Year’s resolutions was to stop wishing terrible things for Trump and his people. My wife pointed out is against Jewish values. Well, I’m back to wishing terrible things for shitgibbon, his advisers, and most of his brood. the world would be better off if he slips into a quiet state of dementia (besides, I think it would be apropos if one of the Trump kids had to have the Donald wiped down once in a while). These people are fucking evil!
hovercraft
Friday’s Campaign Round-Up, 2.24.17
02/24/17 12:00 PM
By Steve Benen
* With control of the state Senate on the line, Delaware will host a special election tomorrow. Though television ads in state legislative races are unusual, former Vice President Joe Biden is the star of a new ad in support of the Democratic candidate, Stephanie Hansen.
* Senate Democratic leaders announced this morning that after Donald Trump’s presidential address to Congress next week, the Dems’ response will be delivered by former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. Astrid Silva, a DREAMer and immigration activist, will deliver the party’s Spanish-language response.
* Despite some chatter to the contrary, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) has decided not to run for president in 2020.
* American Bridge, a Democratic super PAC, is launching a digital ad campaign targeting Republican Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Dean Heller (Nev.) – both of whom are up next year – urging them to support an independent investigation of Donald Trump’s Russia scandal.
* Speaking of progressive advertising, the “Save My Care” campaign has launched new television ads in support of the Affordable Care Act, featuring a Trump voter who explains that the reform law saved his life. The spots are set to run in Tennessee and Ohio, in the hopes of putting pressure on Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander and Rob Portman.
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: I know they don’t oversee elections. But we were assured by Obama that officials at the highest level of government had confirmed that there was no tampering with the actual ballot process. Whose word was he relying on? That’s what I’d like to know.
TenguPhule
Let’s get ready to rumble!
Round one of Mexico vs Donald Trump.
Fight!
*Cheers for Mexico*
Baud
@hovercraft: Beshear is an interesting choice.
Seems really early for Hickenlooper to be making decisions like that.
LAO
@tobie:
I’m no great fan of the FBI or Comey — but Priebus is the one claiming this. Any particular reason we should credit it as truthful.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: He heard you were running again.
Baud
@TenguPhule: I’m so tired of winning.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: Let me ask you this: How would ballot tampering work? In, let’s say, Wisconsin?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My plan to clear the field is working better than I expected.
Humboldtblue
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I told you guys last night Baud was in Humboldt County trying to drum up support for the next campaign.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Humboldtblue: Dude’s wearing clothes, not Baud.
SiubhanDuinne
@hovercraft:
Could be. I’m assuming that the hundreds or thousands of people who were waving them are too ignorant to know what the Russian flag looks like. They saw red, white and blue (patriotic!) with the name TRUMP (dear leader!) and happily waved them. Morans.
hovercraft
@Baud:
My thought exactly, my guess is that he will talk about the success of Kynect, and how Bevin and the republicans are dismantling it. He can give America a preview of what the GOP has in store for them.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: To be fair, I’d wear the hat.
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: Good grief. I’m a citizen, a voter, a frequent canvasser, and a news consumer. I note discrepancies between polls on the eve of the election as well as exit polls and the actual results. I note documented efforts of a foreign government to access voter rolls. These reports cause me concern. It’s not my job to monitor elections but as a citizen I’d like to feel our balloting process is secure. I don’t.
Baud
@tobie: Hillary’s GC has made clear he does not believe the votes were hacked. Absent credible new information, I don’t see this as being a fruitful line of debate.
japa21
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Actually, the correct phrase should be “radical Christianist terrorism” which I, as a devout Christian condemn.
hovercraft
@Humboldtblue: @BillinGlendaleCA:
See, (gets ready to hide), I would have guessed that was @OzarkHillbilly .
No I’m not stereotyping anyone, he just looks like a Ozark hillbilly.
ETA: Oh and I thought @Corner Stone was the one with an aversion to clothing and an affinity for garlic?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: You can Leave Your Hat On, heh.
tobie
@LAO: I was of this mind too until I read via Laura Rozen Dan Freedman’s report that there were witnesses to the conversation between McCabe and Priebus, and it was McCabe who apparently used the word “bullshit” to describe the NYTime’s report on FBI investigations. Who knows. We’re all in the dark.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@hovercraft: You might be right, my dad’s from the Ozarks; I’ve met the family that stayed there.
Baud
@hovercraft:
We are legion.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: I have worked for the agency that oversees elections in WI. I can assure you that ballot tampering is not an issue. Besides why try to do something that is virtually impossible what you can simply prevent people from get a ballot in the first place?
SiubhanDuinne
@hovercraft:
I know very little about Beshear, but always assumed he was a bit of a Blue Dog. He doesn’t have a high national profile. He may do a great job with the response, and I hope he does, but I kind of wish the Dems had picked someone more prominent. That said, I wish him well. And I don’t suppose anybody but C-SPAN will carry it anyhow.
ETA: Wrote and posted this before seeing the comment about Kynect. Of course that’s the reason, and a good one.
This sounds like a very good choice.
TenguPhule
@Baud: In less then 2 months, Trump has turned Mexico from a reliable ally to possibly neutral/coldly hostile border.
American ex-pats and tourists are going to have to pay for the checks Trump is writing more likely then not.
hovercraft
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I was thinking the Full Monty version was more apropos .
tobie
@Baud: You need not worry. Given that my only soapbox is an occasional comment on this blog, it’s not like my concerns are going anywhere.
LAO
@tobie: We shall see. From Rozen’s twitter feed 10 minutes ago:
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: I certainly agree that it should be at the top of the party’s agenda to fight voter suppression. I wish I felt the effort were sufficient but I don’t for any number of reasons, including the dumbing down of political discourse in this country.
dance around in your bones
Regarding seagulls/animal rescue …. when we lived in Baja on the beach, seagulls screaming Mine!Mine!Mine! abounded. We started seeing a seagull perching on a nearby condo – we called him Spike because he had a large day-glo orange spike stuck through his neck – the kind of spike people shoot from a crossbow. We called Wildlife Rescue but were told it was illegal to try to capture him or help him – we’d end up getting prosecuted for it in some fashion.
They couldn’t do anything either. So we watched him day after day with that horrible spike in his neck until one day he just never showed up. The End.
(P.S. Major props to the Rescue Guy!)
tobie
@LAO: Thanks for the update. Lest I seem like a total conspiracy theorist, this is what I wrote in the morning open thread:
I don’t ever recall a time where we were all filled with such doubt about whatever the executive branch says. It’s crazy-making.
Humboldtblue
Democrats just fucked up on the state senate floor
Nothing like making these assholes sympathetic victims. Just fucking stupid.
Miss Bianca
So, from that article about the white supremacists’ goal of curtailing legal immigration, as well… comes the heart-warming tale of one such activist, a “former journalist”:
(emphasis mine)
Isn’t there some white dud(e)bro who pops in here to meep about how advocating “population control” and curbs on immigration is *totes* not motivated by racism, but such deep, deep concern for the environment? Wonder if it’s this guy, or one of his followers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: The reduce the population to 250 million guy?
J R in WV
The German guy was really good, and doing good work. Twice as capable to be President as Trump, easily, except for that natural born citizen thingy.
Mrs J once was in NYC for work, and on an afternoon off, some of them went to Battery Park. She was having a food-cart hot dog, when a sea-gull dropped out of the sun and snagged the hot dog right out of the bun! I wasn’t there to witness, but I know she was P.O. at the bird!
Stephan was really good with the swan. Many years ago Mon and Dad were on a driving vacation, and in Delaware there are many duPont estates turned into museums. They were driving up the long road, and passed a pond with stately swans, and stopped to watch them gliding back and forth on the water.
Then one of the swans came out of the water, and started towards the car ( a convertible, though the top was thankfully up ) gaining speed. Mom said “Dead, maybe you should raise your window!” just as Dad hit the switch. Then the swan smacked into that window, HARD. He left swan spittle spattered all over it, which remained there for the rest of their trip.
Wish they had had a smart phone/video gadget, but this was years before cell phones were common. Swans are mean, violent birds. I suspect they are eaten up with jealousy of the raptors.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Bullseye – that guy. Will you be taking your kewpie doll now, or should we have it delivered? : )
@J R in WV: My half-sibs are related to the Duponts, and actually grew up outside one of the estates, in a house in one of the “workers’ villages”. I’ll have to ask them if they remember the swans!
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Now! Damn it.
hovercraft
@Miss Bianca: @Omnes Omnibus:
That’s the one, I can’t remember his name though.
He’s like most people who want to do stuff that just so happens to impact POC more, but they are totally not racist, they can prove it too, because they have a black friend, or in this case they voted for a black man.
LAO
Wow — this seems crazy, no?
hovercraft
@LAO:
CNN has been making noise about not attending the WHCD in addition to pressing Twitler surrogates much harder than normal on TV, NYT does not attend, I’m surprised WaPo was not excluded too. The gaggle will be reduced to just crazies if they keep this up, everyone is all over the lies and the scandals. Buckle up everyone, were about to hit even more turbulence.
J R in WV
@LAO:
Well, it seems obvious to me. You have to be interested in reporting only the facts as pre-determined by the White House in order to report fairly on the government!
What would it be like if any news org was to publicize just any facts they wanted to cover? That way lies chaos and anarchy. All of that is un-American. We don’t need to be learning facts that Teh Donald doesn’t know.
Those facts don’t matter because Teh Donald is going to be making all of America’s decisions based upon the facts he knows. Facts other people know won’t matter at all, so who cares about those facts? Why would anyone care about a fact that Teh Donald doesn’t know? I mean, really??
/snark
J R in WV
My comment went away. It was long and snarky about Teh Donald’s facts. and other facts aren’t important, because teh donald will be making decisions based upon the facts he knows. Can someone find my lost snark?
please help? I’m out of work and can’t afford many keystorks…
Thanks, dawg bless!!
PS: here’s who I was replying to:
@LAO:
LAO
@J R in WV: I hope they find it — your comments are usually entertaining!