Then, when we had an actual functioning executive branch:
President Barack Obama plans to replace a “batch” of U.S. Attorneys in the next few weeks and more prosecutors thereafter, according to Attorney General Eric Holder.
“I expect that we’ll have an announcement in the next couple of weeks with regard to our first batch of U.S attorneys,” Holder said Thursday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing which stretched out over most of the day due to breaks for members’ votes. “One of the things that we didn’t want to do was to disrupt the continuity of the offices and pull people out of positions where we thought there might be a danger that that might have on the continuity–the effectiveness of the offices.But…elections matter–it is our intention to have the U.S. Attorneys that are selected by President Obama in place as quickly as they can.”
Now, under Dolt 45:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked for the resignations of 46 US attorneys, igniting anger from officials who say they were given no warning about their dismissals.
The Justice Department announced the firings Friday afternoon, and many prosecutors had not been formally notified or even told before they were fired, according to a law enforcement source. Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente was in the beginning stages of calling each US attorney individually to tell them they had to resign when the DOJ issued a statement.A law enforcement source charged that “this could not have been handled any worse” because there was little warning. Many prosecutors found out through media reports that they had to resign today.
A Justice Department spokeswoman explained that forced resignations are a matter of course when turning the agency over to a new administration.
“As was the case in prior transitions, many of the United States attorneys nominated by the previous administration already have left the Department of Justice. The attorney general has now asked the remaining 46 presidentially appointed US attorneys to tender their resignations in order to ensure a uniform transition,” Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur Flores said.
It is common for administrations to ask holdovers to step down, but what is less common is the abruptness of Friday’s announcement. Two sources familiar with the Justice Department tell CNN they were unsure for some time whether such an action would happen and had been looking for some type of announcement — but received radio silence.
It’s just a shitshow all the way down:
Preet Bharara, one of the most high-profile federal prosecutors in the country, was fired Saturday after refusing to submit a letter of resignation as part of an ouster of the remaining U.S. attorneys who were holdovers from the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter.
“I did not resign,” Bharara said on Twitter. “Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.”
On Friday, acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente began making calls to 46 prosecutors asking for their resignations. Such requests are a normal part of a transition of power from one administration to another, and about half of the 94 Obama-era U.S. attorneys had already left their jobs.
But Boente’s call to Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears to have left some confusion in its wake, in large part because President Trump met with Bharara soon after the election and had asked him to stay on.
During Friday’s call, Bharara asked for clarity about whether the requests for resignations applied to him, given his previous conversation with Trump, and did not immediately get a definitive answer, according to a person familiar with the exchange.
I have no idea how this country is not going to be a smoking ruins in four years.
Corner Stone
They are deconstructing the administrative state. There’s nothing unusual about asking a political appointee for their resignation, even if it can sometimes raise eyebrows.
But the way this is being done is another way to create and stoke chaos.
LurkerNoLonger
If there’s one thing that bothers me the most about this lying, corrupt, kleptocratic administration it’s the incompetence. Movies have mislead me to believe the myth of the criminal mastermind, when in reality it’s just a bunch of not very bright, amoral thugs.
Corner Stone
I think one day, hopefully in the not too distant future, we are going to see holding wagons with bars and secure doors roaming the streets in states rounding up elected R officials who stood by and didn’t give a shit about their country because they were cowards.
I’ll be happy to ride shotgun as needed.
Corner Stone
@LurkerNoLonger:
It doesn’t matter at this point. If they throw enough pipe b0mb$ into all the rooms after a while it won’t matter which room they start in.
BlueDWarrior
@Corner Stone: yeah, this is a case less about the content of the order; but just saying you need everyone’s resignation now with no run up or transitory process is about the most asinine way to do it.
Mnemosyne
The few conservatives I can still see on Facebook have now straight up admitted that “drain the swamp” wasn’t about getting rid of corruption. It was about getting rid of Democrats and liberals, plus anyone who might oppose Trump and Bannon.
This is another step in that project.
SiubhanDuinne
That photo of Clusterfuck Caligula is TERRIFYING!!
Joyce Harmon
I’ve got CNN on and Daily Beast is reporting that Bharara had a conversation with Sessions just this week and Sessions confirmed that they wanted him to stay in. Just this week.
Ruckus
@BlueDWarrior:
Well sure, if your idea is a functioning government. But if it is destruction, this is one of the best ways to go about it. The people in charge now Do. Not. Want. A. Functional. Government. It gets in their way of stealing everything. And how many of these people who were so badly fired will want to work in government again, no matter who is at the top of the heap? Another plus for the assholes, don’t just wreck the current government, make it uninhabitable for a long time.
Corner Stone
They all just lie about every single thing. I think Bannon is the only person in this admin who actually speaks the truth.
And, yeah, what he says is horrifying, or at least it should be, but he’s at least being honest with us to some degree. He wants to burn the entire world down and expects white people to come out on top in the US and EU with everyone else subjugated or dead.
BlueDWarrior
@Joyce Harmon: there is no telling what is motivating any of this, but I’m in the camp of it being less a supervillian’s master plan, than your basic smash and grab operation.
J R in WV
I’ve had to fire a guy, once. I did it face to face, told him why, he had been with us a week and couldn’t do the job. Federal Prosecutor Preet Bharara was not only capable of doing the job, he was told by the “president” that he would be kept on to complete his underway investigations and prosecutions.
But then they just decided to tell everyone they were fired, via a news release!
No balls, to fire people in a news release. Not even the courage to call the people you decided to fire and tell them, in person. These weren’t low-level staff, these were leaders in the Justice Department. Fuck them all, they’re fire
Way to go, “president” Trump. Ass.
Renie
this all sounds like part of bannon’s plan to create chaos and burn it all down
pk
@Joyce Harmon:
Bharara has probably learned a good lesson. Not to trust the word of a racist southern man.
gene108
@BlueDWarrior:
They still have not appointed any replacements.
The number of unfilled positions maybe a blessing in disguise, as it limits the damage.
Edit: I hope it limits the damage… lord, I hope so…
raven
@Renie: ding
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV:
He was overruled by UberPresident Bannon.
Mnemosyne
Am I being overly conspiracy-minded if I wonder if this has anything to do with the NYC FBI guy who had accused Hillary of taking bribes admitting that Flynn paid him to make the accusation? ?
Aunt Kathy
Was watching last night’s Rachel Maddow, she was talking about Russia connections, and it struck me. Has anyone ever seen exactly HOW Paul Manafort came to be on the campaign? I found a Maggie Haberman/Alex Burns article announcing his hire. He was described as a “veteran Republican strategist.” But do we know who facilitated that hire? Trump wouldn’t have come up with him all by himself. As far as I know, Manafort is the first guy to show up with overt Russia connections. Who helped put him there? Anybody know….? I’m on a mission…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Probably not.
But this is what Dolt 45 said before the election, he thought the job was being the Chairman of the Board, he choose Bannon to be CEO.
Patricia Kayden
@Joyce Harmon: I wonder if they fired him because several watchdogs asked him to investigate whether Trump had violated the Emoluments Clause.
efgoldman
@gene108:
Ah, but what’s that going to do to thousands of routine criminal prosecutions?
If I were the successor to the drug lords that have been caught and jailed, I’d be dancing and celebrating non-stop.
Mike G
You see this a lot in flailing, dictatorial organizations. Sweeping broad orders come down from on high that must be obeyed to the letter with no feedback and no discussion, regardless of how destructive they are. Obedience uber alles.
Mike in NC
@SiubhanDuinne: The Marmalade Mullet appears to be drooling on himself.
efgoldman
@Mike in NC:
Score!
Gin & Tonic
@Aunt Kathy: Manafort and Roger Stone have worked together since at least 1980.
randy khan
So there’s a theory that the mass firings of the U.S. Attorneys resulted from the President seeing Hannity talk about all the Obama holdovers and how bad they were. I find that entirely credible. The funny thing is that the deputies who are stepping in might be more likely to pursue cases the Administration doesn’t like because they’re career officials; the holdover USAs might have some concern that they would be seen as acting politically.
That said, and as others have noted, the firings themselves aren’t really noteworthy, except for Bharara. The Bharara situation is just bizarre. It’s beginning to look like he said “Wait, Sessions said I can stay,” and instead of communicating to him that the situation had changed, they just axed him.
This all fits with something I’ve been thinking about the Administration for a while. The Trump Organization actually historically has been pretty small – unlike, say, an Exxon or a GM, it probably actually has hundreds (or fewer) employees and really was run like a smaller family business. The scale of the Presidency is much, much different, and I don’t think the President can handle the difference. One reason so many of the people being appointed are Pence people (DeVos, for instance) is that Pence has a better handle on this than the President.
randy khan
@efgoldman:
That stuff happens more or less automatically. The U.S. Attorney may hold the press conference for a big indictment or conviction, but the actual investigation and prosecution is done by the career people, and it’s very rare for a U.S. Attorney to get involved in a decision to prosecute somebody.
Aunt Kathy
@Gin & Tonic: Aaah. Thank you.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: I hadn’t heard that. groan
glory b
@Aunt Kathy: I had the same question about how Tad Devine landed in charge of Wilmer’s campaign. Didn’t he work with Manafort for Yanukoich? His firm worked for Goldman Sachs. Why did Wilmer hire him?
glory b
@Mnemosyne: Really? When did that come out?
sukabi
@Corner Stone: pretty sure this is part of their cover-up / obstruction ploy… Replace any and all honorable, qualified personnel with brown nosing lackies and voila, no troublesome investigations.
debbie
@Corner Stone:
It’s rude and it’s disrespectful. They could have been courteous and provided them an amount of time to look for another position.
sunny raines
the fact that trump is POTUS means it already is; just not as many symptoms of trumpism in full display yet as will be revealed in due time
Felonius Monk
What makes you think it’s going to take four years?
ceece
And now we have a bunch of really sharp attorneys with extra time on their hands. Hope they can find an administration to investigate!
Calouste
@randy khan: IIRC Trump Org has about 25,000 employees, but considering the business they are in, at least 20,000 of them are manual labor. Cleaners, bar tenders, landscapers, cooks, etc.
Gin & Tonic
@randy khan:
I’d be surprised if it has more than a couple of dozen. He was a real-estate developer – they have contractors, not employees. Project is over, and you’re gone.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in NC:
No drool! No drool! YOU’RE the drool!!
jl
@Aunt Kathy: Look through recent posts of Talkingpointsmemo blog. Trump has a long history of dealing with slimy Russian Ukrainian connections to get financing and business for his sketchy real estate projects. The connections to shady operators (Manfort) and lying lunatics (Flynn) may have come through those channels.
Here is an interview with the author of a history of Trump’s connections to shady and dirty Russian mega-cash
The Josh Marshall Show Episode 14: On The Bizarre Book At The Heart of The Trump/Russia Story
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/podcast/josh-marshall-show-episode-14
Or you can just scroll through the editor’s blog at TPM over last several weeks and find a number of stories, and many links to other blogs and news organizations investigating the ties.
FlipYrWhig
@glory b: I think it was because the candidacy was such an obvious symbolism-only loser no one credible particularly wanted the gig. Kind of like Pence getting tapped for VP. But then in both cases the nature of the gig changed dramatically.
(Never acknowledged in discussions of the runner-up D campaign: how a guy whose whole shtick was about the corruption and risk-aversion of establishment insider blah blah blah ended up with a manager as identifiable with hackish Democratic loserdom as anyone other than Bob Shrum.)
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
@glory b:
One of the front pagers referred to it yesterday (or the day before?) but of course I can’t find it now. ?
germy
germy
jl
@glory b: The proportion of big time US political managers and consultants who work for major political campaigns who also have done business with shady authoritarian foreign leaders and multinational corporations is alarmingly high.
Spanky
@Ruckus:
More than you think. They’re not idiots.They can see the goal here. And they’re patriots* enough to want to come back once we’re rid of this gaggle of shitstains.
(* – trying to recapture that word from its recently corrupted meaning.)
Mike J
@Joyce Harmon:
Sessions said one thing, Fox said another. Who do you think Trump will listen to?
Emerald
@glory b:
I’ve wondered about Devine for a long time. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he turned out to be part of this. I doubt that Wilmer himself was–he more likely was just easily swayed by Devine telling him he could win if he trashed Hillary.
But it all dovetails nicely to get Russia’s preferred result in our election. Greenwald (yeah, I’m sure he’s been in Putin’s pay for years, otherwise no Snowden) and Stein (also at the RT dinner) both constantly trashing Hillary, and Devine pushing Bernie to trash Hillary.
And it worked, if I’m right. Or is Twitler driving me actually mad and that’s just a little bit too much CT?
Sam
@debbie: It’s definitely rude and disrespectful, but trust me when I say that Bharara (and really all of the us attorneys) will be flooded with job offers from top tier firms come Monday morning, if that’s what they want – they’re the cream of the crop, and any major fir will drop major $$$ to get the cache of hiring them.
It’s not like you or me looking for a job and needing time to get our resume in shape.
jl
@germy: I think the District Attorney General nominations require Senate approval. Democrats should make a big stink and filibuster the worst. Certainly point out the potential conflicts of interest and publicize them.
During W’s term, became clear that a similar clean out as revenge for refusal of certain District AGs to go along with voter suppression efforts. That is why this wholesale sacking is worrisome. Someone remembered that they have to get the voter suppression efforts going. One tool will be persecution of voter registration organizations under color of federal law.
Edit: US President does have a right to remove and appoint own District AGs. But I think usually it is a gradual process, and done in a orderly way so as not to disrupt ongoing business. So a sudden wholesale action like this one draws attention regarding why the rush and why so many at once.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
When Bannon is the most honest member of your administration……
I don’t even know what to say. Caligula is rolling over in his grave at this insult.
The lying is a feature though, not a bug, and the fact that the lying media has taken to calling them lies and untruths falls into their trap. See I told you they were liars and now they are calling me a liar, they’re projecting. The people who don’t pay attention are saying the media is too hard on him! There is no excuse for not paying attention, these same people claim not to have know he lies and is clueless, and yet they are right back to not paying attention. A pox on them they deserve everything they get.
Mnemosyne
@Emerald:
As I’ve been saying, what I think happened is that Putin pushed his agenda and his advocates forward on multiple levels all at the same time, and he was able to get all of those bets to pay off. He’s the guy at the racetrack who successfully bet the Perfecta.
Spanky
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s pretty enjoyable once you start imagining him being garroted. But maybe that’s just me.
Baud
@jl: Dems can’t filibuster.
germy
@hovercraft: If Obama had a staff member in 2009 who said the stuff bannnon has been quoted, the staff member would have been out on his or her ass the next day. This is beyond a double standard.
Aleta
Seems like sudden actions, shock announcements and sweeps are a way someone might choose to operate, to counter a resistance that is already organized and also to wear down the unorganized. The more confusing, the more sudden the changes, the more citizens will become withdrawn or uncertain.
Also Tp only thinks in headlines. And he needs drama to maintain our total attention. I think it’s his method for ruling. Then he’s indifferent to detail and structure and sequence.
Mnemosyne
@Sam:
Particularly with Bharara, I’m guessing that the city and state of New York are also calling with offers.
jl
@Baud: Thanks for reminding me. The filibuster was eliminated for these positions. OK then, they should at least make a big stink and put up a fight.
germy
@Aleta:
And Ryan/McConnell fill that void
hovercraft
@pk:
He’s not stupid, I’m sure he hoped Twitler would keep his word, but didn’t expect him to. Preet is a New Yorker and everyone here knows he’s full of shit. I figure he kept doing the job he loved for as long as he could, always knowing he could be canned at any minute. Even if he wasn’t a holdover, he would have eventually said something to piss Twitler off.
Aleta
@Spanky: ha very funny.
Mike G
DAY 1: Spicer says there’s no DOJ/FBI investigation of Trump.
DAY 2: DOJ refuse to confirm Spicer’s statement
DAY 3: All US Attorneys fired with no prior notification.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I believe I read somewhere he was in the middle of several investigations of the NYC mayor, so perhaps not.
Found it.
liberal
@Corner Stone: I don’t get that. If Bannon really wants to help the White Race, how is getting rid of government going to further that mission?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
We’ll make it–at least as a society. I know a lot of us will get fucked and more than a few will die. But overall, we’ll muddle through this. The one thing that worries me is that the Republicans might somehow wiggle out without having this shit show fail parade hung around their necks for all time. That, right now is–aside from just getting through this as a country–the biggest goal: These guys have to be made to wear this albatross around their necks forever.
We have two big undertakings right now. The first is to help the many who will get fucked over. The other is see that Republicans live this down until the end of time. I don’t altogether know how we’ll do that, but we have a little time right now to work it out. We need to get going on that.
Corner Stone
@germy:
Oh come on! That is too easy! Shirley Sherrod was fired in her car by cel phone after someone miscued a decades old tape of her saying something to white people.
And Van Jones, Broder love him, was forced to get gone for basically saying petunias are prettier than marigolds.
randy khan
@Calouste:
I’ve always assumed the lower-level people worked for the entities that were being managed, so I stand corrected on that point, but in practice it’s more or less the same thing, since there’s no way the TO would get involved in picking the blue collar folks.
glory b
@jl: Ain’t it though?
Gin & Tonic
Bharara, of course, was persona non grata in Russia (literally, barred from entry), probably for getting Viktor Bout 25 years of US Gov’t hospitality. But I’m sure that is entirely coincidental here.
ruemara
@Corner Stone: Basically. And too many white people want to ignore it because it’s so horrifying that he’s in power and he looks a lot like them and their families have people who agree with him. They’re gonna get people like me killed.
Corner Stone
@liberal: If I had to guess? Whites are superior as a whole, more wealthy, better educated, better prepared and more motivated to drive down the mongrel hordes.
They are only taking back their natural place as top of the genetic food chain. Through chaos comes order, and a superior realignment.
Mnemosyne
@liberal:
The government is impure and must be purged. If it dies during the purging, then a better, stronger, purer system will rise in its place with Bannon at the top.
Basically, he wants to drown it in a bathtub on the assumption that he and his will win the resulting civil war.
jl
@liberal: Their stupidity and multitude of ignorant delusions may save us. We can’t rely on it alone, we need to fight and protest them vigorously, but we should have confidence that they will be hurting themselves with the incompetent and self-destructive policies. They are not invincible.
One trick that nationalist authoritarian ethnicity-based governments around the world, from Hungary, to Latin America to Asia, know is that you use your office to help your base, not to fatally damage them and kill them off.
Most older white bigot Trumpsters,, after they realize that they have better ‘access to care’ when they can drag themselves to the ER after they have a stroke, or heart attack, or diabetic crisis won’t be so enthusiastic for Trump or the GOP for a few cycles. They might take a flyer on a Democrat, or sit it out, or support another bigot GOPer who will dilute Trump’s support.
There are few dumbass racist fascists who will gladly die in impoverished agony for the sake of having a soul mate in the WH. But not enough of them to win any elections. No voter suppression effort can be big and quick and wide enough to stop the backlash.
hovercraft
@Ruckus:
I think something like this is less likely to deter good people from wanting to serve than McTurtle and his senates tactics over the last few years are, keeping nominees in limbo for years is the bigger more long term problem, while one party controls everything right now, what happens when power is once again divided, is that the new norm? People like a Kal Penn or a Caroline Kennedy who had better things to do, and joined not to plunder or to pad their friends pockets, will always be willing to sacrifice for the good of the country given the right leader. Twitlers crew are a bunch of billionaires who joined to destroy the government they hate and enrich their friends. The question is will regular people want to become career public servants, places like the EPA,Justice and State Departments are being decimated, peoples life’s work is being destroyed, will those people stay or come back, or even join?
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne:
W-I-N there.
Oh how I wish Hillz had really twisted the knife right after that exchange.
WereBear
Next on my reading list: Libertarians on the Prairie, the TRUE story of how the daughter of the author of the Little House books took her mother’s unpublished manuscript and rewrote it to conform to her own propaganda needs as an acolyte of Ayn Rand.
It started early and it goes deep.
jl
I can’t believe the brass balled con the GOP and Trumpsters are attempting with their TrumpCare BS.
Check out minute 8:45 and following in this clip. Astonishing BS.
The Creators Of TrumpCare On TrumpCare: ‘Don’t Call It TrumpCare’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIjxV9QsYGU
These people are such shameless slime. Heard Price blathering about how TrumpCare will be so much better as he acknowledged that some people ‘will be moved’ to policies that are ‘better for them’. Sez hoo? Sez Tom Price.
And Trump today, sullenly and quietly bellowing with a threatening voice like a thuggish swindler about how great his TrumpCare BS is. Swine, all of them.
ruemara
@Emerald: No. you’re right. Both left & right factions of the US has been part of a targeted set of campaigns for a couple of years.
Oatler.
Meet the PressVerified account @MeetThePress 2h2 hours ago
More
Tomorrow on MTP:
HHS Secretary Tom Price
Former HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius
OH Gov. John Kasich
JPL
President Bannon wanted chaos and it appears that he will get it.
JMG
US Attorneys are subject to Senate confirmation process. Until Trump nominates another, all those offices will just keep on keeping on — except they might leak a bit more.
Jeffro
@liberal: @Corner Stone:
I think Bannon’s take on things is that government has been equalizing opportunity (both here in the U.S. and also around the world through globalization) and therefore white (+male) (+christian) privilege has been steadily eroded to the point of not being “privilege” anymore. I mean, just look at the madness that has been unleashed in the past 80 years: progressive taxation, civil rights, social security, medicare/medicaid/obamacare, the EPA, OSHA, marriage equality, and so on. And that’s just the surface stuff – the policy things he doesn’t agree with. Add to it that he’s a psycho who loathes himself (much like Trump) and yeah, he wants it all to burn down and reinstate the ‘natural’ (read: feudal) order of things, in his mind.
jl
@JMG: Might be a lot to leak about. Roger Stone was forced to admit he communicated with a hacker who fed material to Wikileaks. I don’t know whether ‘forced to to admit’ is best way to characterize it. Hard to figure how to characterize it.
Stone is now reluctantly admitting to connections he bragged about during the campaign earlier this year, after being reminded about them. I have no clue about Trump’s knowing involvement, but I think some of the shady stooges in the Trump campaign will live through their own legal interesting times sooner or later. I hope sooner.
max
Clusterfuck Caligula
Meh. Orange Caligula!
I have no idea how this country is not going to be a smoking ruins in four years.
Ahem: Bush administration. (Think back – or go read your old posts.)
max
[‘Wait until he gets the Senate to resolve that his horse is a God.’]
lgerard
Manafort’s son-in-law and business partner seems to have the same high ethical standards
Jeffrey Yohai
hovercraft
@liberal:
Government according to white supremacist thinking is what has brought the white race down to the level that they are now on a lower level than people of color. It was the federal government that waged the war of northern aggression, it was the government through the courts that forced school integration and stopped lynchings, and basically gave those people all the rights they have, so much so that the oppressed people are now the white race. POC no longer know their place, all because of the government, so if you destroy it and go all law and order, throw in some states rights, you’ll go back to a time when white people could force black people to know their place. Stand your ground is about reinstating the old mores, black people needed to be lynched because you couldn’t reason with them you needed to put the fear of god in them, they should fear and respect their betters. People who claim to love freedom have no problem with police violence because it is mostly enforced against those people. Destroy the feds, and the good ole boys in town will maintain order.
Bannon and co. are engaged in the civil rights fight of our time, freeing white people from the twin yolks of political correctness and oppression.
liberal
@Jeffro: right. But then the solution is to have a pro-white Herrenvolk democracy, not burn the government down.
joel hanes
@randy khan:
it’s very rare for a U.S. Attorney to get involved in a decision to prosecute somebody.
Unfortunately for Don Siegelman, there are sometimes exceptions.
efgoldman
@debbie:
No, they couldn’t. Scorpion/frog – it’s in their mature.
lollipopguild
@JPL: Bannon wants to be King Turd of Shit Island.
jl
@hovercraft: Ethnic and racial bigots in the US sure have drawn the shortest stick ever in world ethnic and racial bigot history. They elected their own ethnic and racial bigots to rule. Too bad their saviors are too stupid, greedy, vengeful and butt ignorant to help them, and seem to be trying to harm their own base as much as possible. They are going to get beaten to a pulp economically, far more than anything they feared under any Democrat, and particularly under Obama.
Mnemosyne
@liberal:
There’s 50 years of civil rights legislation that needs to be reversed before Bannon can have his herrenvolk democracy, and Bannon is impatient. He’d rather burn it all down and take his chances.
Corner Stone
@liberal:
Problem being we have a 21K+ DJIA and 4.7% unemployment. We also have strongholds like CA and NY. You have to break the backs of those places as well as stoke fear and hatred among people who are already primed to accept that message.
Chaos gets you at least part way there. No one knows anything about governance. The only law that is enforced is against your enemies. The insider threat is all.
joel hanes
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
the Republicans might somehow wiggle out without having this shit show fail parade hung around their necks for all time.
That’s what I expect.
The nation let Watergate slide down the memory hole without learning anything about Republicanism.
Ditto Iran Contra.
For a while, it looked like W43 + Afghanistan + Iraq + Terry Schiavo + Katrina would be enough that the voters might have an epiphany, but apparently eight years is beyond the memory horizon.
Any of the above were opportunities for the Dems to draw and quarter the Rs, put heads on pikes.
The Dems gave the Rs a bye.
The Rs repaid that by impeaching WJC, swiftboating Kerry, and stonewalling Obama.
So I don’t expect the Rs to reap the political whirlwind this time either.
Ohio Mom
@WereBear: I remember when I first heard about LIW and Rose, how shocking and disappointing that was. IIRC, it was a New Yorker article.
I was such a fan!
Jeffro
@liberal: I think Bannon’s take is, he can’t get there from here…can’t just start stripping non-whites of government services, voting rights, all of it. There’s too much blowback, and our institutions, god bless ’em, are too strong. So for now he’s pushing hard around the edges (like with the Muslim ban, with appointing “deconstructors” to head federal agencies, proposing crazy shit like Trumpcare,etc). But he’s hoping for some great upheaval (what does he call it…a “fourth turning”?) that shakes everyone to their core and sends them scrambling for strongmen (billionaires, generals, etc) while there is a ‘reset’ to zero, and then benefits can be restored as the white christian power structure sees fit, not democratically.
I think that’s how he sees it anyway…I’m not going to try and be in his head for any length of time…
Jeffro
Btw folks stories breaking out all over how Preet Bhara (sp?) the US attorney in Manhattan, was actually fired because he was looking into Russian gangsters connected with Putin. At one point back in 2013 Preet was actually banned from coming to Moscow because he was pursuing Putin allies too aggressively.
So hey, we get to kick off the coming week’s Trump/Russia scandals a day early!
Also, Devin Nunes (R-Putin) is trying to claim we should be thanking Mike Flynn for talking with Russia and working for the Turks. I can’t WAIT to see what they’ve got on that guy.
jl
@Jeffro: Too many competent federal and state judges (even the ones appointed by HW and poor Dub). So little time.
Our hope is that they are great fools, and well as being vile knaves.
WereBear
@Ohio Mom: While I loved the books when i was a child, I never thought they were anything but stories sanitized for children. So i was also shocked at how much was made up.
amk
didn’t the whiteys vote for lah un order? now they get neither.
guachi
This should make you guys feel better. Trump is below 50% disapproval in the Gallup 3-day tracking poll for the first time since January 26.
efgoldman
@Oatler.:
No Grandpa Walnuts?
Producers falling down on the job!
Baud
@guachi: Beneficiary of good news not of his doing.
kindness
Trump isn’t going to last 4 years.
How long is a good betting line I imagine.
Keith P.
Jeff Sessions is on it!
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
Nope. All they need is racist assholes like Evil Leprechaun in position to decide to “re-prioritize” enforcement.
JPL
@kindness: Why not? As long as the repubs are in power, they don’t see the need to remove the doofus.
jl
@guachi: Approval still below 50% too, at 44%. Lowest Trump’s been underwater since, last week!
JPL
Trump reached out to Bharara on Thursday. Bharara alerted Sessions office given protocols re contact.
Bharara and Trump did not speak. WH did not answer 3 emails seeking comment
Nothing to see here folks, move along til the next conflict of interest.
Gin & Tonic
When and where was it decided that there are two national anthems? The Norte Dame – Duke game was preceded by the singing of “God Bless America” and the usual butchering of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. Why?
Ohio Mom
@WereBear: Yeah, lots of fudging — the government paid for Mary’s schooling, for one. And as a child, I didn’t get how exasperating Pa’s wanderlust must have been for Ma, always dragging her to an even more god-forsaken place.
The part of the story that was the real curve ball was how that young fellow Rose more or less adopted went on to use the money from the Little House series to help found the Libertarian party. As you said, it goes deep.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@guachi: fake news, comᴙade
Citizen_X
@Jeffro:
But that’s the thing: his three other “turnings” or whatever were the revolution, the Civil War, and WWII. So, in those, America kicked the shit out of, in turn, the monarchists, confederates, and fascists. How is this supposed to work out for his cause?
Another Scott
@Aunt Kathy: (Someone may have already answered you, but in case not…)
Donnie has known Manafort a long time:
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Aleta
glory b
@Emerald: And still waiting to see Wilmer’s tax returns too.
weaselone
@Citizen_X: The monarchists, confederates and fascists win this time?
randy khan
@joel hanes:
So you’re saying the longer the career folks are in place, the better, right?
PST
I don’t know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but Preet Bharara is on a list of persons banned from entering Russia because of “human rights violations.” In his case, the offense is prosecuting shady Russians, of which there is not shortage. Here is the Russian side of the story. It makes you wonder if canning him was a special objective of the sudden demand for resignations.
The problem with what Trump has done isn’t that he has disrupted lives on short notice by firing people. The U.S. Attorneys all understood that it’s a political appointment. They should all do just fine. They will be in great demand in private practice. Bharara, in particular, is a superstar. He should be making ten times what the government paid him in a few weeks after he chooses among competing offers. He may love what he does and want to keep doing it, but he has a brilliant legal career ahead of him.
Aunt Kathy
@Another Scott: Thanks!
Corner Stone
@glory b:
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Adam discussed it in the Corned Beef and Cabbage thread yesterday. Start there and scroll down.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
@PST: Bharara refused to resign and made them fire him, then tweeted a public farewell that included a cute humble brag about being fired. He ain’t worried about a thing, at least in terms of his professional future.
Corner Stone
@PST:
They are all going to make a fucking fortune in private firms. Other than that, I am missing your point here.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
I love Hillary, and she was great with lines that were crafted in advance of the debates — but I don’t think she, or anyone on her team, anticipated Caligula’s unhinged “Puppet!” response, so she was struck dumb.
I’m not saying a snappy response would have changed the outcome of the election, but I agree with you, I would have loved to see her stick in the shiv and twist it, twist it.
Laura on Kaua'i
(Tweet is from Alex Altman @aalman83 Washington correspondent for Time Magazine)
I have been telling my husband this for the past few weeks, that I think this whole thing with Trump and Russia goes far deeper than we can imagine, and has been going on for far longer than we imagine, and the GOP is involved up to its eyeballs. Although I do not buy into conspiracy theories, and I know this is going to make me sound crazy, but it’s almost as if Hillary HAD to lose in order to get this out in the open and cleaned out. Everything looks bad now, but I think there is a reckoning coming, the likes of which has never been seen before. Or at least I hope so because if not we are so screwed.
Corner Stone
I’m a big fan of Daniel Craig. But the Bond movie Skyfall is just fucking awful from start to finish.
PST
@Corner Stone:
I was picking up on someone’s earlier comment that the people forced out should at least have been given “time to look for another position.” My point was that that’s not the issue.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
If she had Sid Caesar skills she could have rattled off some faux Russian then paused as though expecting a response.
No, I couldn’t have either but it’s fun to imagine.
Jeffro
@Citizen_X: Um, I dunno, Bannon and Trump and Ryan are all just underpants gnomes, when you think about it. I wasn’t advocating for what he wants, or even saying it has an internal logic, however evil that logic might be.
Some people just want to watch the world burn, is the relevant quote here. Hard to overestimate how much Bannon and Trump loathe themselves and how that fuels their desire to drag everything else down into their mental cesspool.
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: They may have run some ads off of it afterwards…that, or his psycho grimace as he tried to rip up his notes at the podium immediately after that debate…what a nut.
Has there ever been a more loathsome human being in the office (loathsome from the start, I mean)? Jesus, what a – pardon me Mark Cuban – jagoff.
amk
yet another difference between no drama obama and it’s all about me shitgibbon
never did I hear the kenyan whine about wh intruders.
Lyrebird
@jl: Was in a hotel this week and saw a headline on USA Today or something like that: “WV Will Never Forget… T promised new coal jobs and highways…”
I hope the penny drops for many more. SOON.
Corner Stone
@PST:
Their personal fortunes and futures are not the issue. They have huge, long tailed investigations and complex negotiations going on. Getting gone in 6 hours may not hurt their ability to pay the rent but it sure as hell can cause disruption and chaos in how ongoing situations in their respective offices are handled. Or mis-handled. Or not handled.
efgoldman
@amk:
I don’t recall him ever whining about anything.
Oatler.
@Jeffro: This Milo Whosis article really said it:”Stripped down to its essentials, the new far right is an ideological vacuum calcified in a carapace of pain. Hurt people hurt people. That’s nothing new. These hurt people are hurting other people deliberately, in order to up-cycle their uncomfortable emotions, reselling the pain they can’t bear to look at as a noble political crusade.”
zhena gogolia
@Corner Stone:
But how about “Where Eagles Dare”? We watched it last night, damn good.
Mnemosyne
@Citizen_X:
Fourth time will be the charm?
randy khan
@Corner Stone:
I’ve said something similar upthread, but I think you’re overestimating the impact. U.S. Attorney is a management job. They set direction and certainly approve resource-intensive investigations, but there’s someone in charge of each of the existing investigations and prosecutions, and those people remain in place. And the people stepping in are the principal deputies, who likely are read in on most of it already.
efgoldman
So, the Utah tourist board, or whatever it’s called, is running TV commercials about their five national parks (which I’d love to see).
Meanwhile, their RWNJ flying monkey congresscritters keep pushing legislation to have the eebil fedrul gummint sell them off.
They ought to at least get on the same fucking page.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
Aha! Thank you.
Adam L Silverman
@Aunt Kathy: Manafort lives in Trump Tower. He’s Roger Stone’s long time lobbying partner from Stone, Manafort, and Black. And Stone is a long time Trump advisor. That’s the obvious connections.
J R in WV
@liberal:
The white supremacists believe that the government protects the mud people, and keeps the white men from taking charge of their nation. Genetic testing might show that the fascists aren’t a pure as they assume they are, and according to the one drop rule, many people would suddenly turn mud after being tested.
Of course, in the world of reality, we all came out of Africa, except for those who remained there.
I saw a great bumper sticker yesterday:
amk
colbear breaks down that danged wall. literally.
Aleta
Five articles (2011-2017) about Bharara’s efforts to prosecute of political corruption in New York State and Wall Street crime are linked here: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-preet-bharara-firing-a-reading-list?mbid=social_twitter
Trump’s picks for US attorneys should be rich, and rotten.
Corner Stone
@randy khan: I think that is largely true, from my quite limited exposure to people at that level.
But really beside the point. You have a range of management styles and peoples and directions all gone over a weekend. As you say, it’s management at it’s heart. Good management doesn’t go away in 6 hours. Or whatever nonsense they gave them. Not everyone can go from 3rd to 5th gear over a weekend. And there is no cavalry in sight.
Adam L Silverman
@Emerald: Devine ran a smal PR operation in Ukariane that counted the Yanukovych government as a client. It was a small contract in comparison to Manafort’s and with significantly less influence and access.
J R in WV
@hovercraft:
Glad to see your post, glad I’m not posting alone about this supremacy crap.
schrodingers_cat
@efgoldman: I am never a fan of Bush II or his politics but I have not heard him ever whining about being criticized. As a public figure and a politician it goes with the territory.
Another Scott
@amk: Well done. :-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: The deserting coward had an entire TV show dedicated to mocking him (and, in the process, mocking the conventions of the sitcom genre in general). He never once complained or even commented on it, to my knowledge. He certainly never threw conniption fits.
Aleta
Huh. Russian spies in New York City: Preet Bharara announces espionage charges against 3 men
randy khan
@Corner Stone:
It’s not good management, for sure, but it’s not actually that unusual for Presidents to fire U.S. Attorneys en masse, so I can’t get freaked out about it.
Honestly, my real focus here is on the specifics of Bharara’s firing, and on the apparent trigger of the firing – the Hannity rant about Obama people still in positions of power – although that’s just another sign of the President’s status as an emotional two year old.
J R in WV
@efgoldman:
Well, think about it. if those parks are sold to Marriot Corp, for example, for pennies on the dollar, the advertising campaign doesn’t need to change a bit. It will still bring people to Utah, and to the parks. Only the money will flow to Marriot rather than to, well, us.
See how good that is? ME neither.
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
I’m sure it’s just another coincidence, comrade. Move along, nothing to see here.
amk
@Another Scott: His opening monologues have been torching the twitler from day one.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: And from the looks of things, not only is Stone under FBI investigation, but he’s trying to play it off as “innocuous conversations” with Russian agents (Guccifer 2.0 aka GRU).
How exciting! I’m going to have to spread my bets around…I had been thinking it would be Page that was the first under indictment and the first to flip on the whole thing…but Stone looks like an equally good bet.
Villago Delenda Est
@hovercraft:
The terrible burden of having to treat other human beings as you yourself wish to be treated. Didn’t some wacky hippie guy in Palestine have some thoughts on that a couple of millennia back?
tobie
As we’re all scratching our heads wondering why all 46 remaining AGs were fired without warning yesterday, I thought I’d throw another theory into the mix. Sessions’ big project in the Justice Department will be finding new ways to suppress the vote and inventing–oops, investigating–voter fraud. For that he needs a staff. Bush fired AGs who were unwilling to search high and low for voter fraud on a case by case basis. Trump fires them all at once in the hope of securing a permanent majority for goons like him.
hilts
Cole,
Your photo of Trump brilliantly captures his unprecedented cosmic buffoonery. Whenever this raging neanderthal finishes his term as President, his administration will go down in history as a crime against reason, rationality, and decency.
Jeffro
@hovercraft: @Jeffro:
So I see we were pretty much aligned here…ugh, I hate even knowing that I get where Bannon’s diseased thinking comes from.
@Villago Delenda Est:
There may be a phrase or two from said hippie that need to be branded on the Randians when their Galtian paradise doesn’t magically end up with them on top. Maybe a few phrases. The more the better.
Chet Murthy
@Villago Delenda Est: Sometimes the age calls out for a certain kind of man. A man with what it takes to express the spirit of the people …. this age calls for
Jesus’ General!
Anybody remember that blog?
Much love.
Chet Murthy
@Jeffro: Kafka hada good idea about what to do
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Penal_Colony
But it’ll never happen.
Eric S.
@efgoldman: Watching Planet Earth II?
Aleta
@jl: @Jeffro: Here’s an article about the tie between stone and guccifer that you mention, and other grime.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/us/politics/roger-stone-trump-adviser-russia.html?_r=0
Corner Stone
@randy khan: It’s not a tough decision as you can see. I can blow you away or you can ride with me.
efgoldman
@Chet Murthy:
He’s still twittling.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
Honestly, your theory is probably the correct one. But the fact that Bharara was already investigating alleged Russian spies just shows how deeply entangled the Russians are in our country right now.
efgoldman
@Eric S.:
Did I forget to turn off my webcam?
Yes, the photography is beyond incredible. And of course, Attenborough is a treasure.
hovercraft
@efgoldman:
You LIE !!!
Remember that one time he “whined” about FOX news and the media turned it into the biggest assault on the first amendment in the history of the nation.
Lapassionara
@Mnemosyne: OT, but how is your knee?
schrodingers_cat
@efgoldman: Is a BS supporter and GGG, castigating Democrats with Republican lines of attack. In other words an idiot.
GGG= Glenn Greenwald Groupie
Another Scott
@J R in WV: I’m no expert, but I’ve read (probably here, in an an ancient thread during the Malheur incidents) that the western states effectively begged the US to take the huge tracts of land out there because they couldn’t afford things like fire-fighting, development, water distribution, etc. I know there were were some plans early on to turn El Capitan into a quarry, but I don’t see how a company like Marriott would be interested in buying Yosemite or Bryce or Glacier even on the cheap. Yosemite gets lots of business, but it hard to imagine that it or the Grand Canyon or similar would suddenly see a $1.5B casino / condo complex be built on the South Rim or overlooking Half Dome.
I imagine if all the constraints on the new Yosemite contract were suddenly removed, that more people would be interested in bidding, but there would be a huge outcry over the changes as well. California would sue over the water, the Sierra Club and every other nature and national park advocacy group would be on fire. There are similar constraints in the other parks.
No, it’s easier to argue that the contract rules need to be changed. They don’t want to have to pay for rebuilding places destroyed by fire or rock slides or all the rest. And they couldn’t get insurance without the federal government providing the national support backstop.
Donnie and his minions want easy money – this doesn’t fit.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Aleta
(Read from bottom up)
ETA The open case involving FOX is this one: “Feds probing Fox News Channel for not disclosing sex harassment payouts, attorney for Ailes accuser says”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/feds-probing-fox-news-undisclosed-criminal-investigation-article-1.2973631
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Ack. I didn’t do the hidden HTML magic with casino. Can someone empty the bin where our posts go to die?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eric S.
@efgoldman: I’ve no idea about the status of your webcam. I was watching it as well and it was the first time I’ve seen the Utah commercial.
The first Planet Earth was tremendous. This one has even better cinematography.
PhoenixRising
will be served over easy.
joel hanes
@randy khan:
So you’re saying the longer the career folks are in place, the better, right?
Didn’t intend to say anything of the sort.
Wasn’t making any kind of generalization, as nearly as I can tell.
Leura Canary and Alice Martin, corrupt US Attys, were instrumental in jailing Don Siegelman, primarily for the crime of being a popular and successful governor of Alabama.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eric S.:
That’s what they all say.
hovercraft
@J R in WV: @Villago Delenda Est: @Jeffro:
That’s because we are the real racists, they don’t see color, it’s our side that insists on seeing race.
Jesus did not mean what he said about loving, and compassion, he was speaking figuratively, the old testament must be taken literally, the new, not so much, except when it agrees with them, then it’s literal.
Mnemosyne
@Lapassionara:
So-so. It doesn’t seem to be getting worse, though I probably need some more ibuprofen.
efgoldman
@Eric S.:
The technology advances. I don’t remember which was the first Attenborough nature series, but it was done on film.
Omnes Omnibus
@hovercraft: So we can eat pygarg, but cotton/cashmere sweaters get us killed?
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
A long flight is not going to do it any good (sorry) unless you’re going in first class.
Villago Delenda Est
@PhoenixRising: I read that as “yokes” which was what I’m sure hovercraft meant, but spell check of course can’t read context.
randy khan
@joel hanes:
Do we need a joke tag? (I know, I could have written “j/k.”)
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Utes?
Lapassionara
@Mnemosyne: sounds like a plan to me. It really does help the inflammation. Not to mention the pain. Keep us posted.
hilts
@Aleta:
Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump are 2 halves of the same cancerous tumor infecting our country.
hovercraft
@Omnes Omnibus:
There you go again being all literal, when I say the old testament, I only mean the portions that conform to my prejudices. I guess real christians know that what we really mean is a la carte, we get to pick and choose, if only you see the light, you too will know which words. It’s like the whole “prosperity gospel” stuff, you guys are still hung up on the whole helping the poor stuff, we’ve moved onto getting rich and ensuring our leaders live like kings here on earth.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
I am, actually. ? I decided to splurge since I have to take a red eye.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: Yoots.
Omnes Omnibus
@hovercraft: Can I or can i not eat the fucking pygarg? My evening depends on it. Jebus!
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: Oh, you’re going somewhere?
Chet Murthy
@efgoldman: Oh, interesting. Uh, he seems a little more …. how to say? …. unhinged than last he updated his blog?
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: You are right.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
Haven’t I mentioned it? ?
hovercraft
@hovercraft: @Omnes Omnibus:
Can’t edit.
What the hell is pygarg?
efgoldman
@Chet Murthy:
I don’t go over there for months at a time. I just never deleted the bookmark.
Omnes Omnibus
@hovercraft: Pygarg.
Jim
@Aunt Kathy: Of course it was the Russians who recommended Paul Manafort.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Never, or a play about one of the founding fathers.
hovercraft
@Omnes Omnibus:
pygarg (plural pygargs). (biblical) An unidentified large animal with horns, possibly the addax, mentioned in the Bible (Deuteronomy 14:5) as one of the animals permitted for food.
If you can find one, knock yourself out. It’s game so I think we’d approve, it’s endangered, even better.
hovercraft
@hovercraft:
Still can’t edit !! If it’s endangered.
Omnes Omnibus
@hovercraft: I read my King James.
joel hanes
@randy khan:
I still don’t get it. Apparently what’s going on here is that I’m obtuse.
Not the first time this has been brought to my attention.
A Ghost to Most
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thus spake St. Sturgill:
“Have a glass of wine, and a seat to dine, go ahead and eat the whole damn pygarg”
Comrade Misfit
I am so going to steal “Dolt 45”.
By the way: PharmaBro was being prosecuted by Bharara. PharmaBro supported Trump.
Lyrebird
@hovercraft:
You are, as always, so right, but if I may –
anyone who starts throwing around elements of the Hebrew Scriptures to justify, say, homophobia, should imMEDiately be asked what fibers they are wearing, whether there is a speck of mildew in any of their bathrooms, and whether they turn on any machines on Saturdays.
I know that “hypocrisy” is too small a word for these creeps,
and that (as usual) Omnes found a funnier way to make the point,
but This Stuff Makes Me So Mad!!!
randy khan
@joel hanes:
I didn’t say it was a *good* joke.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne:
This is about the Narcissist in chief looking to punish others for his failures.
Mnemosyne
@Lyrebird:
No, but, see, when Jesus came along, he gave us a whole new deal with God that said we didn’t have to do any of that Leviticus stuff anymore. Except that we have to keep hating homosexuals. That we still have to do, because … of, like … uh, so, yeah, that’s why.
Oh, and don’t forget the Christianists who have decided that all that peace and love stuff in the New Testament is wishy-washy bullshit, so they have now declared themselves Jews who follow the Old Testament. It’s a weird cult. One of the guys who was killed in the San Bernardino massacre was a cultist who kept needling the perpetrator at work about Islam.
neldob
@Mnemosyne: These folks are not conservatives, they are right wing extremists. They need to not be called conservatives. Democrats are the real conservatives.