Trump, who delivered a speech on rebuilding the military while wearing a get-up that made him look like the obnoxious VFW drunk the whole town wishes would just drop dead already, proclaimed his “total confidence” in Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionski as calls for the resignation of the malignant house-elf AG grow. Also today, Trump claimed he “wasn’t aware” of Sessions’ meeting with the Russian ambassador.
At this point, it’s easier to tally Trump cronies, operatives and family members who DON’T have fishy ties to Russia than to identify those who do. That these ties exist at all is disturbing enough, but they keep lying about it, which is far more troubling. I think Josh Marshall has it right here:
My biggest takeaway is that this scandal has all the attributes of the vast and shattering scandals in which people who at least appear to have only indirect or limited roles themselves keep getting pulled under or compromised by it. I know “vast and shattering” is a pretty portentous phrase. Certainly, this revelation itself doesn’t shake anything to its foundations. But why did Sessions have this meeting at all? It seems at best ill-conceived, coming in the heat of allegations of inappropriate connections between Trump and Russia last Fall. Far more baffling, why did he choose to conceal it?
…Why are there so many unforced errors? Why conceal this meeting? Frankly, why lie about it? As I said, big, big scandals work like this. People who don’t even appear to be that close to the action keep getting pulled under for what seem like needless deceptions. The answer is usually that the stuff at the center of the scandal is so big that it requires concealment, even about things distant from the main action, things that it would seem much better and less damaging simply to admit.
Anyhoo, Sessions is making a statement about this right now. He’s offering to recuse himself from probes related to the 2016 campaign. It’s too late for that.
tobie
Who takes over the investigation now? Dana Boente is the Deputy AG. He was the guy who (gladly) took over after Sally Yates was fired and vowed to fight for the Muslim ban. Don’t think he can be trusted either.
XTPD
My conjecture that Blithering Butthole leaves office before 2018 is looking better by the hour.
dmsilev
Didn’t Trump have “total confidence” or something similar in Michael Flynn just a day or two before he “voluntarily resigned”?
schrodingers_cat
How many R Congress critters are compromised is what I want to know. Starting with Paulie Blue Eyes and Turtle McConnell, all the way down to their backbenchers.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: why yes, he did.
trollhattan
“Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionski”
Slathered in win!
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA AH HA
Wag
Thanks for linking to the TPM article. I read it earlier and I think the closing paragraph deserves emphasis
misterpuff
We want pics.
I’m imagining Ralph Kramden in the Raccoon getup with epaulets.
low-tech cyclist
Pretty much. Even Wilbur Ross, our supposedly nothingburger conservative new Commerce Secretary, has a bunch of fishy Russian connections through a Cyprus bank he was involved in. Like Josh said, one can only estimate the size of the underlying scandal by the number and variety of people sucked in at this point. But that suggests one hell of an impressive scandal.
tobie
Ari Melber is implying Comrade Sessions is playing a semantic game, recusing himself from investigations into the campaign but not the transition team. he also seems to be using his membership on the Senate Armed Services committee as a shield, though he was not the chairman of that committee and hence an unlikely person for an ambassador to contact. Why o why can’t we have a better press corps when it comes to these Q and As?
germy
@misterpuff: Here’s a pic:
https://twitter.com/Rschooley/status/837412299623170049
Mike J
Je recuse!
Marcopolo
Called my senators (1D 1R) and congressman (D) about 11 this morning to say I had no confidence in an AG who lies under oath during his confirmation hearings. I said he should resign and we should have a special prosecutor appointed. Asked the R to stop putting party before country. Closed by asking both what is the Trump administration hiding & why are they so worried about the truth coming out.
If you haven’t done so yet today, call your congresspeople now!
germy
Keith P.
Let’s see that list.
tBone
Sessions:
No worries, he’s going to write the committee to explain!
These fuckers are nerrrrrrrrrvous, based on the frantic whip-sawing between denials and half-hearted explanations over the past 12 hours. It’s almost like they have something to hide.
patroclus
Well, even though he “lied under oath” which (in connection with sex) was enough to warrant Bill Clinton’s impeachment, he didn’t resign like he should have. But, the recusal, partial though it may be, is actually significant in that he won’t be able to stop the investigation into Russian interference, which may mean that we’ll see some indictments and trials (and probable commutations). So, although he’s not behaving properly, he at least took a partial step towards ensuring that the investigation won’t be completely stonewalled. This is like Nixon being forced to appoint Elliot Richardson after the Kleindienst/Mitchell lying, so it’s at least a first step towards forestalling a Saturday Night Massacre and, when it occurs, likely generating appropriate outrage about it. This is a partially good sign that our country isn’t going to completely abrogate the rule of law during Trump’s Presidential usurpation.
TriassicSands
I wasn’t aware there were any. I hear Barron has a pen pal named Vlad whose address is The Kremlin, Russia. Sounds innocent enough.
Note: I haven’t heard any such thing but I’m just following the example set by Premier Trump.
Betty Cracker
@misterpuff: Picture here. And I thought Dubya looked like a farkin’ idiot in the flight suit…
XTPD
@trollhattan: Джефферсон Джеффриович Борегард Сессии III!
MCA1
@Wag: I thought that was a great analogy, as well.
Humorous that, of all people, ol’ Tweety himself made a similar point last night, although not quite as elegantly. He said this whole thing is like we’ve now put together the edge pieces of a jigsaw puzzle but have no idea what the picture in the middle’s going to turn out looking like. If someone as dense and bewitched by the mystique of the presidency as Chris Matthews has started to figure this out, this may be gaining critical mass.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@germy:
The new Commander Cuckoo Bananas
germy
@Certified Mutant Enemy: Deeply unsettling.
Thoroughly Pizzled
I can’t see this scandal getting buried anymore. I feel like the die has been cast.
aimai
That quote from JMM is typical of his bloviating, roundabout style. I can’t fucking stand it. Its so full of itself and so preening. This scandal is typical of what happens when a presidential candidate of no particular morality or intelligence is wholly purchased by a KGB agent running a competing country for buckets of money. There has never been another political scandal like it in the history of the US. And a shit load of people were involved in making it happen, and covering it up, and just generally getting their hands in the till to get some of that sweet sweet moscow gold ++ whatever white supremacist goody bags they had going.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: Why does he think that he will look thin if he wears oversized clothing. It just makes you look fatter.
44 looked like a model
W was pretty trim too
Now we have Fatty McFatson
Barbara
@Certified Mutant Enemy: He should have stuck to a suit and tie. Seriously, nothing says you don’t belong like an ill-fitting uniform and a stupid hat.
Archon
What’s the most benign, pro-administration explanation (but not a fanboys reasoning) of what’s happening with Trump and Russia?
I honestly can’t think of one that counters the idea that Trump and Russia are on the same team.
Baud
An immigrant can be stripped of his or her green card by committing fraud during the application process. I think the Attorney General should be held to the same standard.
bystander
@germy: @Betty Cracker:
If they remake McKeever and the Colonel, I have a candidate for school cafeteria lady.
germy
@Barbara: cosplay
Ian G.
I just want Sessions gone. When I called Schumer and Gillibrand’s offices, I told them to fight his confirmation tooth and nail. Even more than DeVos. He’s the worst member of the Trump cabinet by a country (full of plantation slaves) mile.
I want him gone. And if he ends up chowing down on some polonium a la mode because Vladdy is having buyer’s remorse, well, I’ll shed some years for a child killed by a barrel bomb in Syria.
aimai
@tBone: But, technically, even if he argues that he didn’t talk about the campaign he was still
I mean that is literally what he was: Manafort, et al + Sessions is definitionally part of a continuing exchange between trump surrogates and intermediaries and the russian government. Doesn’t matter what they talked about.
schrodingers_cat
@aimai: I thought I was the only one who found him pompous.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: LOL. At least Dubya was in decent shape.
randy khan
@Keith P.:
Here it is:
Baud
Not to distract from this important topic, but I hope there will be a post up later about Ryan’s shenanigans with the Obamacare replacement bill. Sounds like a Keystone Kops film set to the tune of Yakity Saks.
MCA1
@low-tech cyclist: The poetic justice of this bullshit administration being brought down in part due to ties to the “king of fertilizer” is so cosmically wry, I think I’d reconsider my agnosticism if it were to happen.
tBone
@tobie:
I noticed the weasel-wording around “campaign” too. If Sessions thinks he can wriggle out of perjury AND a full recusal from any and all Russia investigations with that kind of semantic horseshit, he’s in for a rude awakening.
dm
@schrodingers_cat: I think it’s just that the Republicans believe in holding on to power. They don’t have to have Russian carrots and sticks to behave the way they are.
I know someone got in trouble for suggesting this the other day, but if we start assuming that Republican members of Congress are compromised, we really have to assume the Russians at least tried to compromise Democratic leaders as well.
Of course, the Democratic leaders aren’t covering for the Russian-tainted Trumpeviks, so they aren’t acting “guilty”. Perhaps the compromise is mostly Putin-era stuff, in which case maybe the Republicans were more attractive targets since they’ve had control of Congress for much of the Putin-era. Or maybe Democrats, because they value public service, are less easily bought than Republicans who value greed, and are thus harder to compromise (Wiener and Bill Clinton aside, aren’t there fewer sexual scandals involving Democrats than Republicans?). And maybe Democrats, who are used to being falsely accused of being “pinkos”, are extremely careful to avoid anything with the whiff of Russian involvement.
But I still think it’s just Republican venality at work, outside of Trump’s immediate circle.
Barbara
@aimai: The failure to appreciate when you are about to be overtaken by a tsunami must be a common occurrence. “I went down to the beach because the water was so unusually still, it reminded me of the ocean before other storms I had seen before, but somehow this was different, I just couldn’t understand why,” and then before you know it, 250,000 people are dead or missing.
David Anderson
@Keith P.: Betsey Devos
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@germy: /hurl/
Actually, the sailors behind Dolt 45 look like they’d rather be anywhere else..
Also too, tick tock, motherfuckers.
Mike J
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
We’ve crossed the Volga?
Bar Mitzvah
If he was “Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionski,” he would be Polish.
To be the true comrade we all know him to be, he would more likely be “Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionsky.”
And his wife (he did find someone who would marry his little garden gnome self, right?) would be Mrs. Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionskaya.
tBone
@aimai:
Yeah. Again: semantic horseshit. Protip, JB Sessions: you’re no Bill Clinton.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Didn’t they arrest an old doddering German guy because he lied about his Nazi connections on his I-140? Many many years after the fact. He also stood trial for war crimes IIRC.
*I-140 is the form you file when you declare your intention to immigrate. An important step in the GC process.
MattF
Like father, like son (via ABC news):
Also, too.
Iowa Old Lady
@MCA1: Speaking of fertilizer, apparently the new Secretary of the Interior rode his horse to work today. Mr IOL’s has spent his life working to lessen engine emissions, and his first comment was, “That’s a lot of particulate emissions.” I’ve never heard it called that before.
TriassicSands
@XTPD:
Or, rather than submit to the humiliation of being forced from office, Donnie may decide that nuking the world is a better option. Four years of Trump may be the functional equivalent of nuking the world so it may not really matter.
Nuked if you do; nuked if you don’t.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: The guy is probably scum just like the rest of them, but objectively speaking, that’s actually pretty neat.
Feebog
@Ian G.:
Second that. A whole lotta folks are going to be calling his offer to recuse a win and taking down their tents. No. He lied under oath. What’s becoming clearer is that he knowingly lied under oath, this was not some oopsie moment. Resign you racist little Fvcker. Resign
randy khan
@Iowa Old Lady:
Very large particles, too.
MomSense
I want to know just how deep and wide in the GOP this fucking Russian collusion goes. Schiff is now accusing Comey of withholding information from the Congressional intelligence committees. Schiff is a serious person. He is not prone to exaggeration.
It’s starting to feel like this is going to ensnare mutiple layers of GOP pols and operatives.
Incredible.
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
What’s missing in that photo is a view of his mid-section — the end of his tie is probably hanging out several inches below the jacket (unless he’s got his tie tucked into his pants).
schrodingers_cat
@dm: I am not so sure, they are acting mighty guilty if you ask me. Also too, BS and his run that went on and on.
Frank Wilhoit
Something to bear in mind, constantly, is that Trump’s people are all lightweights. This may not be fully explanatory, but (as they say of the spaghetti sauce) it’s in there. Sessions’s reactions, as this plays out, will be, first and foremost, those of a person who is out of his depth. So will Trump’s.
Taylor
@MCA1: For all his political stupidity, Tweety understood the importance of the Plame affair.
schrodingers_cat
@Frank Wilhoit: These people remind me of an old saying found in many Indian languages (Hindi, Marathi etc), which I can paraphrase:
Those who can’t dance blame the yard for being crooked.
aimai
@schrodingers_cat: Mero Sati! Nope–you and me both, though we seem to be the only two.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan:
Вот это да!
aimai
@schrodingers_cat: Ha Ha! We say that in Nepal too.
schrodingers_cat
@aimai: It always gives me a headache whenever I read one of his longer pieces. I go, wait, what?
trollhattan
@germy:
I didn’t know they made Army pup tents in that size.
germy
MCA1
@Archon: I think it goes something like this:
– deep dependence on Russian financing sources which have been floating TrumpCo since the Atlantic City debacle
– as a consequence of this, Trump knows where his bread’s buttered and is excessively deferential to Putin and his cronies,
– because he’s afraid his business interests will be undermined if he’s not, and those business interests take precedence over national security or U.S. foreign policy interests,
– because Trump’s a narcissist with no interest in government or policy
So, he’s craven and driven by his business interests that he refused to divest himself from in any meaningful way, and as such he unwittingly is a tool being used by Putin but is unaware of that basic fact because he’s a know nothing idiot with respect to realpolitik. He honestly thinks it’s no big deal, because he’s an incurious blank slate advised by an anarchist clown who appeals to his narcissism, and he invariably treats any criticism as personal rebuke and doubles down as a matter of personal constitutional necessity.
That’s damning and contemptible, but it’s not “knowingly committed treason.”
schrodingers_cat
What about NYT and Ruski connections, before the election they gave T campaign a certificate of not being seriously involved with Russia.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Cannot read. Can’t get past the first sentence.
Kay
We have a local real estate family who remind me of the Trumps. They’re always getting sued because, well, they’re horrible and they cheat people. I was thinking the other day that I like them better now because they know they can’t be like The Mayor or The Prosecutor or A County Commissioner. The whole reason they’re not in jail is they have the good sense to stay under the radar. They stick to their knitting- small time white collar crime- and that works out better for everyone.
Mnemosyne
@dm:
The reason people keep pushing back on the notion that the Democrats are just as involved with the Russians is that it buys into the bullshit “both sides do it, but the Democrats are worse” narrative.
Also, given the fact that the Russians worked really hard to prevent the DEMOCRATIC candidate from winning, I think it’s hard to make a logical argument that both sides are equally compromised.
Now, if you want to argue that there are people inside the Democratic Party who might be compromised — like, say, longtime Democratic strategist Tad Devine — that’s a different matter. But to say that elected officials from both parties are equally compromised is pretty self-evidently bullshit at this point.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Good golly!
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@germy: So much coming out, and so much more to go.
Iowa Old Lady
@germy: What does that mean? I see these various facts, but I’m too ignorant to understand a pattern other than “That looks bad.”
XTPD
@TriassicSands: Oh FFS. If you’re really that pessimistic, then go jump off a cliff.
germy
@Betty Cracker: Is it “drip drip drip” or “tick tock tick tock”? I can’t decide on the appropriate sound effect.
chris
@aimai: No you’re not. I started reading JMM around the turn of the century. He’s grown too many other hands since then for my taste.
Hal
I feel incredibly naive to still be thinking this, but I’m honestly mind boggled that all of these conflicts do not matter to more Republicans. Maybe on some level I thought party ID couldn’t be that strong, I mean sure, when it comes to black lives matter is the real Klan, or Obama is the real racist, or LGTB people are the real oppressors, war on Christmas etc etc.
But this is just seems like the kind of thing Republican voters would care about regardless of who is President. It’s like they are all full of shit after all. Shocking!
germy
@Iowa Old Lady: Obama was still president.
zhena gogolia
@MCA1:
I think you left out the part where they helped him get elected POTUS.
Michael Bersin
@misterpuff:
No need for the raccoon, the hair does the same thing.
zhena gogolia
@MCA1:
Sorry, I missed the fact that you were trying to give a benign explanation!
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@schrodingers_cat: My occupational superior talks like JMM writes, but with more corporate buzzwords. If not for the company letting me work from home, I’d quit.
George Spiggott
The squirming dog who’s just had his day.
You’re UNDER MY THUMB, Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionski!
zhena gogolia
@Kay:
We have a lot of folks like that in my town. I thought that was what was going to save us from Trump.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I am not sure but dm may be a follower of the one and only Tribune of the Masses, St Sanders of Vt. One man against the corrupt establishment.
Baud
@germy: And still no one has seen Trump’s tax returns.
Villago Delenda Est
Jay-uff has no choice in the matter. He must resign. He is hopelessly compromised as a cabinet officer and an attorney. In fact, he should be prosecuted for perjury in light of his Senate testimony.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Kay:
One summer during college I worked for a family that fit that description exactly. They were also staunch Republicans…
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Hal: It’s not a party, it’s a cult. Any criticism from outsiders just reinforces the cult leader’s warnings that outsiders are bad.
zhena gogolia
@Villago Delenda Est:
As he said in 1999, no one is above the law.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
And yet Sanders is the one with a campaign manager with ties to Russia, not Hillary. Funny, that.
Mike in NC
Somebody should have handed Trump a Purple Heart to pin on the jacket.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: How are the preparations for the expedition coming along, Shackleton?
misterpuff
@germy: Flight Line Jacket XXXL
MJLiberal
I fear Dense Pense – rather have a neutered Trump.
cgp
@tobie: Dana Boente cannot be trusted either, he was responsible for giving a pass to the hackers that likely trapped Anthony “i’m an idiot” Weiner and dragged the Clinton campaign down just enough to lose the race.
MCA1
@Hal: I’ve come to honestly believe that a significant portion are either so uninformed, or so misinformed, that they truly don’t comprehend why any of this is a big problem. Combined with the programmed reaction of swallowing whatever minimizing and denial and projection is thrown at them by every Republican elected official in concert, they just shrug their shoulders and refuse to do the hard work of thinking through why it might not be a good thing if American foreign policy is being driven by kompromat in service of the interests of our greatest foreign adversary over the last 75 years.
It’s outrage fatigue combined with total ignorance or misunderstanding of the big, complex world of tangled national interests.
Baud
@MJLiberal: Trump can’t be neutered. If we have the opportunity, he must go.
The Moar You Know
@germy: Christ, he looks like an issue duffel bag stuffed full of laundry, with a baseball hat perched on the top.
germy
@The Moar You Know: He looks like a decoy an escaping prisoner leaves in his bunk to fool the guards.
germy
@Baud:
Not even Trump.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
I can’t believe that people on BJ can still make me laugh about this shit.
Baud
@germy: Good call.
MCA1
@Baud: Wholeheartedly agree. Pence is not near the existential threat. Plus, he would himself be pre-neutered, so to speak, by disgust at the GOP generally and the whipsaw effects of an impeachment. His only mandate from the public would be to restore order to democracy and try to reconcile the country. He’s not particularly qualified to do that, of course, but that’s about all the rope he’d be given by the public.
Mikefromarlington
Russians probably hacked the hell out of republicans and have such devastating kompromat on them it would lose them all their jobs or worse, land them in jail. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. They know if what the Russians have on them gets out, they lose power for decades
Patricia Kayden
@tobie: Someone over at LGF suggested that a Russian Embassy agent take over the investigation. Might as well happen since there is no way that anyone in Trump’s regime is going to hold a fair investigation.
Roger Moore
@low-tech cyclist:
As far as I can tell, there’s a huge amount of dirty money sloshing around in Russia in the hands of the oligarchs who stole it all when the Soviet Union collapsed. That much money in that few hands has let them worm their way into many, many places. Putin has put himself in the center of all that by imprisoning anyone who doesn’t do his bidding and expropriating their wealth. Anyone who wants to climb in the financial world and doesn’t care how many rules they break along the way is going to get involved in that scene. It should be no surprised that a two bit grifter like Trump would be hooked up with them, and that people who work in the same circles would be, too.
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
LMAO! He’s got his Tom Clancy look on (overweight cosplaying civilian).
evodevo
@Iowa Old Lady: Srsly? And where does the horse stay while the Sec is at work? Are my tax dollars paying for a livery stable accommodation now?
Patricia Kayden
@MJLiberal: A Dense Pense probably won’t win in 2020 so he’s a better Prez for our side to beat.
japa21
@germy: And what did they talk about? And does anybody know if Kushner received security clearance? What about the sons, did they?
Patricia Kayden
@evodevo: You probably don’t want to know what all your tax dollars are paying for under Trump. Ironic since Trump himself pays no federal taxes.
Barbara
@Hal: They are this close THIS CLOSE to pulling the sword out of the stone in all of the ways they have been dying to do for more than 50 years, nay, more than 70 years. Taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and of course the ACA. They need Donald Trump way more than he needs them. I know that Pence could be just as bad, but they probably realize that if that were to happen the drama would suck all of the oxygen out of both the House and the Senate and the ensuing chaos would be hard to control. Yes, it is contemptible.
schrodingers_cat
Totally OT:
Only in a Hindi movie:
From Rangoon, Hitler chased by Churchill on a gigantic map of Europe.
Mere Miya Gaye England
Inspired by the 1949, Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon ( My loved one went to Rangoon), its kinda corny and retro.
Kangana plays a 40s era action queen at the Burma theater to entertain the troops.
Shahid Kapoor is her body guard and an enlisted man in the British Indian Army
Saif Ali Khan is the studio owner and Kangana’s mentor.
Bill
My prediction: Sessions resigns within the next two weeks.
Trump/Bannon will force it in hopes that it will cut off further digging in the Russian ties.
sunny raines
perhaps putin’s plan all along was to get a total group of imbeciles running the US government so the US spends a few years tearing itself apart – very cagey that KGB-guy.
Patricia Kayden
@Mnemosyne: It’s especially difficult to argue that Democrats are as equally linked to Russians as Republicans given the tense relationship between President Obama and Putin. I don’t think they could stand each other. Their contentious relationship was pretty well known.
XTPD
@sunny raines:
germy
@japa21:
“We talked about the mating habits of the wallaby”
No, wait. That was W.C. Fields.
piratedan
@MCA1: and you know what… that could very well be the case…
except the implications are damning…
Now we know why he refused to reveal his taxes
Now we see the ties between the alt-right and the Russians
Now we have an idea that Trump truly is simply being manipulated by others
Now its revealed just how venal the GOP is because they apparently knew this too and wouldn’t even bring it up in the debates
Even if Trump is “innocent” of being nothing more than a tool, that in and of itself ought to be damning enough to bring down not only this administration, but the entire party that allowed this travesty to unfold.
… and we haven’t even gotten to the Media part of the story yet….
Patricia Kayden
@Bill: That would be a huge win for the American people — although I assume Trump can easily find another racist to put in his place.
Patricia Kayden
@MomSense: And Trump hasn’t even been inaugurated 2 months yet. His administration is imploding before our very eyes. I guess a well read speech may not be able to save him.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: I guess a relatively well read speech may not be able to save him.
Bill
@Patricia Kayden: Trump’s ability to do something worse is seemingly endless. But every resignation, every scandal, every fuck up weakens him. Which in turn makes it less likely he’ll do the big damage I fear. (I know the danger is still enormous, but I’m gaining a flicker of hope that we might get out of this alive.)
Iowa Old Lady
@evodevo: I thought maybe he was still in Wyoming, but I have no idea.
Chris
@Bill:
Oh my God, I hope so so much.
The three worst and most utterly unacceptable members of the Trump government to me were Sessions, Flynn, and Bannon (probably in that order). We already lost one in the first month. Losing the second would be awesome. At that point, even if the third isn’t dropped, I’ll be far happier than I was last January.
Baud
@Baud: Blockquote fail. Can’t edit.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@MattF:
Why would anyone pay a penny to hear that charmless chump prattle on about anything?
Millard Filmore
@MCA1:
Also, Bannon would be gone. Pence may keep some of Trump’s cabinet. Is there any indication that Pence would eject the “take it all apart” appointees? I think he would fill the other 1500 or so lesser appointed slots to keep the departments running.
Then in the tussle to impeach Trump, a number of Congress critters may get stained enough to leave. That would impede the Crazy Caucus.
We only dodge this bullet if Trump goes.
oops, fixed a typo.
schrodingers_cat
@Bill: Did Putin bump off Brietbart so Bannon could take over? It would irresponsible not to ask.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I just want to say here that a dude on a friend’s Facebook page just claimed with a straight face that Jeff Sessions is an honest man and Obama’s birth certificate was proved to be a fake.
That thunderous clap you just heard was me slapping my forehead.
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
aka Russian bot.
bystander
Right now on Sundance, a 1991 Law & Order, Violence of Summer, costarring a very young Phillip Seymour Hoffman. (And funny man Sandy Baron, too.)
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Wag:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA… kind of like a political roach motel… they keep coming in but they can’t get out… or the La Brea Tar Pits…
As far as that outfit Comrade Drumpfski was wearing…
I KNEW that dolt would start turning up in military drag one of these days…
I’m waiting for the faux medals next…
MCA1
@piratedan: I completely agree. There’s no explanation that makes them look good. Just lesser and greater levels of venality and criminal culpability, balanced against lesser and greater levels of idiocy and selfishness.
The only result that lets them become winners at this point comes through successfully convincing enough hardcore/ignorant Republican partisans and uninformed middle Americans that this is Democratic overreach, a partisan witch hunt and not a big deal because they just wanted to pursue a “better relationship” with a country we have a crappy relationship with. But that gets harder and harder with time and more drips.
Brachiator
So, does Jeffersoff Beauregardovich Sessionski commemorate the Lost Cossack?
We’re only 40 days into this administration and its already a farce.
Sessionski should do the right thing and fall on his scimitar .
Thru the Looking Glass...
@sunny raines:
Well… if that was his plan, it’s working to perfection…
Villago Delenda Est
@Bill: Hopes that will be dashed. Tricky Dick could have stopped Watergate cold, but elected not to.
schrodingers_cat
@Wag: Sessionski is not a black hole, he is a white dwarf.
lollipopguild
@schrodingers_cat: According to the right wing Obama used his Heart Attack Machine(TM) to kill breitbart.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m contemplating an expedition to Downtown Disney to get a green Mickey shirt I’ll need for St. Patrick’s Day. ?Because neither of my other two green Disney shirts will do, of course.
And as anyone who lives in LA can tell you, driving from the San Fernando Valley to Anaheim is pretty much the local equivalent of a polar expedition. ?
ETA: Also, you made me LOL at work — thanks a lot! ?
Villago Delenda Est
@lollipopguild: The spinoffs from time travel technology are truly wondrous!
Thru the Looking Glass...
@germy: But… but… he’s looks so Presidential…
japa21
@piratedan: I think that Trump may very well be unaware of a lot of what others were doing. Like you said, that in itself is damning. Obama was held to account every time one of his people sneezed.
Also, a common mantra of the right is that if you didn’t do anything wrong then why should you be worried about whatever (phone data, wiretapping, investigations) So if the GOP hasn’t done anything wrong, why should they be afraid of an open investigation.
Also, we know the Obama administration spread a lot of information around. I wonder if some of that was declassified just lo it could be leaked if necessary. If so, then in a way, Obama is behind some of the leaks.
Hal
Today is also an illustration in how the Trump administration fucks up repeatedly. One day of good news followed by this Sessions shit storm. Which now means Trump is going to once again go into distraction mode soon. I’m convinced he has some draft memo regarding abortion, lgtb rights or some other social issues hidden in case he needs a political hail Mary.
George Spiggott
@schrodingers_cat:
dm
@Mnemosyne: I’m not arguing “both sides do it”, I’m suggesting that being compromised isn’t necessary to explain (Congressional) Republican venality in this. Koch money driven by Koch greed works just fine for that. Trump’s circle, on the other hand….
In other words, it’s more, “their side doesn’t do it as much as people like to bandy about”. I’m just saying that, if the Russians have penetrated the Republican leadership, it is because they set out to do so. We must assume that the Russians also set out to do the same to the Democrats. Maybe they were less successful with the Democrats? Maybe they had reasons for not trying as hard? Or maybe the Republicans are just assholes without needing to be придурки.
I agree that Ted Devine might qualify as someone to suspect. (Though I think you people are really silly about ‘the primary campaign went on too long’ — I suspect the primary campaign went on long enough to accumulate political power, mailing lists, and organization in more states. I’ll give you the indefensible purity pony/”but her emails!” useful idiocy among the Bernie-bros, though.)
It’s not important. I don’t think it does any harm if you think Mitch McConnell is doing what he does because the Russians know what’s really in his Army discharge papers and you just happen to be wrong about that (I’m agnostic about that, myself).
CarolPW
@Iowa Old Lady: I saw somewhere (don’t remember where) that it was a Parks Service horse, so he probably just gave it back.
chris
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Epaulettes with gold braid.
Mike in NC
TV just showed a still of Trump sitting at a table in the carrier’s wardroom talking with senior officers. He was wearing his trademark stupid MAGA cap. Wearing a cover in the wardroom is a major breach of naval etiquette. Oaf.
SgrAstar
@misterpuff:
Aaaaaaah, that’s it!
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Apparently the Hindi movies in the late 30s and early 40s were inspired by westerns. In the mid 40s they began to be explicitly anti-Brit and with a nationalist fervor because even the movie wallahs could see that the tide was turning against the Angrez (Anglo) ruling class and their minions.
My question to you, what were the Hollywood movies of that era like? Since you is the expert.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@japa21:
I believe I read something about this just the other day, and yes, I believe it WAS declassified just it COULD be leaked… and when you factor in anything coming from European intelligence people that routinely monitor Russia and just happen to overhear things…
This is just gonna get better and better, at least for a while…
Gary K
Josh Marshall’s phrase “keep getting pulled under” reminded me of this video.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@SgrAstar: Anybody good w/ Photoshop?
Go at it!
Chris
@schrodingers_cat:
Where would you like your Internets delivered?
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
I would LOVE for that thought to have legs. For me, getting Bannonazi completely out and away from the administration would be almost as good as Shitgibbon resigning or getting the boot.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@chris: See my comment above at 155 & hit the link…
Perfection!
germy
WaPo:
Chris
@dm:
I keep saying that the scary explanation here isn’t that the Russians compromised Republicans, it’s that they didn’t need to.
Gary K
@XTPD: You can buy a $1 contract for this at PredictIt for 22¢. In other words, quite a few people agree with you!
Thru the Looking Glass...
@SFAW: What are the odds that Bannon has his own Russian baggage he’s hiding?
George Spiggott
@George Spiggott:
And the white dwarf is about to get schooled on gravity
? Martin
I think it really says something about the current GOP that they hate American Democrats so much that they see Russians as a more reliable partner to protect American conservative interests.
SFAW
Not really. It’s about the same degree of difficulty as tallying Rethugs who put country before Partei.
ETA: As in: good luck with that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mike in NC: Like this draft dodging asshole has the slightest clue about any sort of military etiquette.
Debbie1
@Betty Cracker: I take it from that get-up that Tr*mp’s feeling “presidential” after all that good press. Where is Tr*mp’s codpiece? That’s what I want to know. Or are his fingers too small?
bystander
@Hal: And it’s Friday, his favorite distraction day.
I was hoping there was going to be a big pushback against the fawning media response to his one speech that didn’t sound crazy on its face. But once the Sessions thing started breaking, any pushback became irrelevant. If there’s one thing they like better than asskissing the powerful, it’s tut tutting about palace intrigue while trying to pretend it doesn’t signify what it clearly signifies.
zhena gogolia
@bystander:
First you remind me of McKeever and the Colonel, and now Sandy Baron?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy:
Soon…
Pundit 1 “Yes, the AG had his hand on the dead child’s throat, but the way the AG denounced child murders as a blight on society was so moving. So righteous, so stern! That was when I knew the nation had the AG we need!”
Pundit 2 “Indeed, and plus let not forget the child’s grandmother is an illegal”
dm
@Mikefromarlington: Okay, having just irritated people by blathering about how I don’t think we have to assume the Russians are pulling Republican Congressional strings, this:
makes a lot of sense to me. Silly me, I have been thinking the old-fashioned sort of subversion (encounters, discussion, compromise, blackmail (e.g., Mitch McConnell’s discharge papers)), and hadn’t considered this sort of thing.
The Republicans have been using private email servers for a good long time (back at least to the Bush years), and applying the “it’s all projection with them” rule, they might have been excited by the DNC and Clinton email because they know what dirt shows up in their own email streams.
germy
TriassicSands
@XTPD:
Relax. Stress must be getting you down. Does every facetious comment have to be accompanied by a grinning emoji or a big “LOL” for you?
Debbie1
@aimai: Don’t forget Flynn, who resigned to spend more time with his family _ in Russia.
Shell
It would have been a given that Sessions had to recuse himself from any investigation, so why the initial stonewalling?
chris
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Hahaha! Is that Rand Paul?
efgoldman
@Bill:
I wonder if he’ll be gone before this week’s Sundae Showz get taped.
Chris
@? Martin:
That’s just it, though: they’ve spent so many years with Democrats, not communists, not jihadists, not the Chinese, as the Focus Of Evil In The Modern World of their universe, that this is what it leads to. Their reaction, even to something as over-the-top insane as a president who gets along better with Putin than his allies of sixty years, is to shrug and go “meh, but liberals are worse.”
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I had no luck finding a full-length photo of Trump in his get-up, but he’s clearly broad of beam.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So let’s get this straight, Josh is saying this “Treason with the Russians” is a cover-up to something much worse. What is next? We find out Trump and company are into ritual child murder?
Spicer at some future press briefing “Look, President Trump is a business man and only Isis was willing to adduct the kind of young girls the President likes killing. The weapons grade plutonium was merely part of the deal, I mean who seriously believes the President supports radical Islam? As far as the Mexican Drug cartels involvement, well you can’t exactly Fed Express a Syrian Orphan to New York City, can you? And oh yes, those girls were brought into to this country illegally so President Trump is the real victim here. ”
Is this in the future?
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
As John Dean reminded in a tweet last nite: The coverup is always worse than the crime.
schrodingers_cat
@Chris: @George Spiggott: Thank You, Thank You, nothing pleases me more than a physics joke that works!
Shell
Pashw, its all because Democrats are still a bitter about Hillary losing Wisconsin.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@chris: If it’s not, it should be…
The photo is Art Carney w/ Jackie Gleason…
Given that Drumpf continually seems to be wearing some sort of drowned mammal on his head, the raccoon hats become even more appropriate…
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Which is amazing, because on the map it looks like it should be a straight shot down the 5.
Debbie1
I just saw a headline (maybe in the Federalist) stating in response to Comrade Jeff Sessions, w/ a warning to Democrats, of course, that if Dems are not careful Tr*mp’s Russian connections could become the Democrats’ Benghazi.
Yeah, you heard right. At least 9 investigations, lasting 4 years, many of those televised for maximum potential embarrassment to H. Clinton, and repeated depositions by the Republicans are now equivalent to 5 weeks of questions and requests for inquiries by the majority party. Who says our media is not learning.
TriassicSands
@debbie:
But he thinks he looks good in his new jacket and hat. On a scale of 1 to 10, he gives himself a 10+.
Roger Moore
@dm:
At the very least, I expect there’s lots of illegal coordination between the RNC and right wing SuperPACs. Come to think of it, that’s really the dog that didn’t bark in the DNC emails. That’s exactly the kind of actually illegal activity that would have turned up in the email hack if it had been happening. That there’s no evidence of it at all is a sign that the Democrats actually are pretty clean that way. I would put up a large stack of money that the RNC hack would not be clean in that department.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
God, he looks like the barfly at the local VFW chapter than even the other barflies can’t stand.
SFAW
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
I’m sure he’s as fine and upstanding an American as Robert Hanssen.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
germy came up with the best one, #101.
SFAW
@TriassicSands:
You’re pathetic. He thinks he’s AT LEAST a 20, on a bad day.
SFAW
@Baud:
Well, he COULD be, if the surgeon had an electron microscope and the right tools.
chris
@Thru the Looking Glass…: I recognised them (dog I’m old) and laughed although I don’t remember the context.
No doubt there will be a generalissimo hat (with eagles to go!) along with the epaulettes.
zhena gogolia
@chris:
It was a really good episode.
zhena gogolia
@SFAW:
I knew somebody could turn that into a good joke!
dm
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
“It’s all projection with them” —> child slavery ring under a pizza parlor?
I think Josh is “just” saying that the least-bad interpretations of the Trump/Putin connection (“look at this dirt we dug up on those dastardly Democrats, comrade. You interested?”) are giving way to, as you say, actual treason and espionage.
Miss Bianca
@CarolPW: @Iowa Old Lady: As it happens, I have some information on that head – from a FB group I am part of:
In major news this morning, :), ex- fieldhunter TONTO, formerly owned by Jessie Swan of Markham VA, carried the newly appointed Secretary of the Department of Interior Ryan Zinke of Montanna to his first day of work Thursday morning in downtown Washington, DC. Tonto, an uniquely coloured lemon sabino gelding standing 17.2 hands, was imported from Ireland and hunted with the Blue Ridge Hunt by owner Clay Smith prior to his purchase by Jessie where he continued his career following hounds with the Casanova Hunt. Upon his retirement from the field, she donated the Irish gelding to the police unit of the Washington Park Service. Normally only ridden by Maria Sabate, he made equine history today when selected for the ride due to his outstanding disposition. Tonto is certainly continuing his winning ways as a tried and true Virginia fieldhunter who continues to touch the lives of those fortunate enough to meet him.
Kathleen
@bystander: I have it on but was at the store. Amazing how many stars appeared on that show “before they were big” and even a few after, like Julia Roberts. I’ve seen just about the entire cast of Scandal on L&O.
ETA: Trump is crashing and burning and I’m fixated on L&O. As Elaine said to Jerry in Seinfeld, “Every time I think you can’t get any more shallow you manage to drain the pool a little more”.
TriassicSands
@SFAW:
I’m sorry, but there was a typo. I meant to type 100+. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Pinacacci
@Mike in NC: Once he puts a hat on, it can’t come off before he’s away from cameras. Imagine Trump hat-head.
ETA hat-hair. Hat-hair, I mean!
scott (the other one)
@? Martin: Spot damn on. Sadly.
Kathleen
@dm:
And donations. Lots and lots of donations. And I agree with you about Devine. There are Democrats and then there were “Democrats”.
Millard Filmore
@Roger Moore:
Well, its the miles and miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic traveling at 70mph, interspersed with intervals of bumper-to-bumper parking lot.
scott (the other one)
I’m starting to wonder if we have not a Manchurian Candidate, but a Manchurian Party.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@TriassicSands: It goes to ELEVEN, man… it goes to ELEVEN…
Roger Moore
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
No. What he’s saying is that the “treason with the Russians” business is so big that it’s warping everything around it. That’s why it shows up all over the place, even in places like DOJ and Commerce where there’s no particular reason to expect Russian influence. Any string you pull on in the Trump administration winds up attached to Russia one way or another.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
I wish, but he’s an actual dude that my friend works with IRL. Sad!
bystander
@zhena gogolia: Samuel L. Jackson was in that episode, too.
XTPD
@TriassicSands: You must not know how to tell a joke, then.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@chris: Well… not surprisingly, someone’s already gotten there…
Starfish
@Mnemosyne: Let him know that the moon landing was fake also.
Mnemosyne
@dm:
Ah, okay. As with the election itself, I think there are multiple causes. Some people (like McConnell) are compromised, but the true believers like Ryan just want to wreck the New Deal and don’t care who they have to ally themselves with to do it. Not surprisingly, they’re on the same side as the “pro-life” people who don’t care what Trump does as long as he makes abortion illegal. He could cannibalize a live baby on national TV, hit as long as he signed a bill to outlaw abortion, they will defend him to the death.
Kathleen
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
This.
I cannot shake the feeling that there is something/someone else behind this and that the Russians are the tip of the iceberg. Many powerful people in the USofA have been playing footsie with Fascism since at least the 30’s.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I can email you late tonight or tomorrow with a more comprehensive answer, but the short answer is that Hollywood movies were gearing up for the approaching war in Europe and picking sides (usually against the fascists, but they had to be circumspect). By the early 40s, the film noir movement was starting, which was a lot more dark and cynical and conspiracy-minded. That really blossomed after the war, though.
AxelFoley
????????
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
A group of us from work went down there Tuesday night and it took us 2 hours to get there.
different-church-lady
Well, yes, it is fairly easy to count to zero.
different-church-lady
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Based on what we’ve so-far seen of this lot, adhering to an actual ritual might be beyond their capacities; more likely it’s “haphazard child murder.”
chris
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Priceless!
Aleta
@The Moar You Know: @germy: You two…mighty funny
TriassicSands
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Sorry, but with Trump his personal scale is more likely to start at eleven. Nigel would be confused.
After all, he gave himself an “A” for his performance in the first few weeks of his presidency (or residency is more like it).
TriassicSands
@XTPD:
Of course, it couldn’t be your problem could it? Does the “D” in your nym stand for Donald?
XTPD
@TriassicSands: It’s a Greek pun written as an abjad and then transliterated, peon. And it’s not like the original statement has any indication that Donald literally nuking the world is hyperbole (In fact the second sentence is generally considered plausible).
So either step up your sarcasm game, or use the
codetags.TriassicSands
@XTPD:
Oh, now I’m taking orders from you. Right. I’ll tell you what. I’ll ignore you and you do whatever you want to do. End of transmission.
XTPD
–TriassicSands
LongHairedWeirdo
I suppose part of the issue is, the Trump folks don’t have courage. If there’s nothing major to this, they should have come clean, and ridden it out.
Frankly, I’m now sure that Trump thought he could play Let’s Make A Deal with Putin – and didn’t realize that *he* was going to be Monty Hall.