Good lord, this Trump-Russia thing is not necessarily developing to the shitgibbon’s advantage, is it? Here are three current WaPo headlines:
Trump administration sought to block Sally Yates from testifying to Congress on Russia
Nunes admits meeting with source of Trump surveillance documents on White House grounds
23 people ask the Justice Department to launch a criminal inquiry into its chief, Jeff Sessions
I’ve been out slogging through literal swamps for the past few days, so I’m catching up on the news, which tells of yet more swamps of the figurative variety. The craving for popcorn is damn near irresistible!
Has there ever been anything like this cascading clusterfuck in the history of the republic? Sometimes it’s necessary to avert one’s eyes, hence the swamp trek. We’re gonna need a bigger boat…
Open thread!
Emma
Not enough popcorn in the world.
germy
The whole thing feels unreal.
I remember when durmpf first announced his candidacy and everyone was all “Ha! Ha! Ha!” It seemed as plausible as Herman Cain announcing a run, or Gary Johnson.
Corner Stone
Will they pull the Perjuring Elf out of the magician’s hat again today to scream more about brown people killing lily white women?
Elizabelle
This is why Dems must not allow GOP to speedwalk Gorsuch onto the USSC.
What’s the rush? I feel safer with the 8 seat USSC we have now.
And who knows what Trump’s status will be, in 12-18 months.
Stop that appointment. Hold the line.
magurakurin
White House in lockdown for suspicious package… should we believe it? post truth life is hell
schrodingers_cat
Will you be popping corn when the new AG is enacting his version of the final solution, also? I am sorry, I cannot see the humor, even the dark kind in this situation.
germy
@Elizabelle:
WaPo
Neldob
But he wears an American flag lapel pin.
dexwood
Some days, I don’t know if I should snack on popcorn or hemlock chips. Kind of an optimist, though, I guess popcorn for now.
hovercraft
No.
He did tell us he would be a different kind of president. Those headlines you cite are the reason Twitler went on his Twit-rant last night. He was probably watching “the shows” and saw that it was all TRussia all the time on all the networks and so he tried to divert attention back to the Clintons. As much as he keeps reminding everyone, he won, in a tremendous victory, Hillary lost, and now no one cares what she and Bill are up to. They do care what the TPOTUS does however. SQUIRREL doesn’t work anymore, it may get a mention, but they’ll keep coming back to TRussia.
Doug!
Love that vintage GIF.
Dolly Llama
@schrodingers_cat: Lighten up, Francis. We’re not nearly to “Final Solution” territory yet.
cervantes
The problem is there isn’t any institutional lever to pry open this can of worms. Somebody has to do a Daniel Ellsberg, or we’ll never know.
hovercraft
@magurakurin:
Who pissed off President Bannon?
Are we sure it’s not a horses head, warning everyone to keep their mouths shut? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
If Trump’s men and their allies weren’t acting so squirrelly about this Russia stuff I’d think that there wasn’t much there. But innocent people don’t do what they’re doing.
Dolly Llama
@cervantes: You know how our War on Terror spawned thousands of new terrorists? Trump’s War on the IC spawned a thousand Ellsbergs. Just wait. It’s coming.
danielx
@hovercraft:
Why horse around with an equine head? If you want to create an effect….
Betty Cracker
@hovercraft: I vacillate from optimism to pessimism on whether or not this Russia thing will really pan out. But it’s hard to imagine what Team Shitgibbon would be doing differently if the very worst assumptions were true.
schrodingers_cat
@Dolly Llama: My name is not Francis, Dolly. AG Sessions and the current President have created an atmosphere that threatens me and mine. You want to laugh about it, please go ahead.
germy
Humboldtblue
Here’s a timeline of Trump and the Russians.
Dolly Llama
@schrodingers_cat: I’m not laughing, and did not mean to pick at a sore spot for you personally, for sure. It’s just my way of saying “Don’t give up hope, we can win this thing and momentum is on our side,” expressed very poorly. Peace.
JMG
@schrodingers_cat: They’re bad people sure enough. But they’re also stumblebums. You can’t ignore either side of the picture.
Corner Stone
I say we start crowdfunding a new initiative. Hire people to act as journalists/reporters and send out requests to do interviews with people who voted for Trump. Doesn’t matter if they are still behind him or are now wavering. Have them gather in local VFWs or similar. Tear gas the whole place, round up the Trump voters and send them off to cattle pens where we can water and grain them a couple times a day.
amk
The Soul-Sucking, Attention-Eating Black Hole of the Trump Presidency
germy
@Humboldtblue:
And here’s a list of all the unfortunate accidents (including bathtub)
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-epidemic-of-russia-scandal-deaths.html
bystander
@schrodingers_cat: The more we disrupt them, the more illegitimate and tainted they become. So what if Sessions replaced? You think there’s somebody worse than Sessions? I don’t. Equal to but not worse.
Corner Stone
@germy:
Did anyone ever figure out where that smell was coming from? Hope they got that repaired.
Waldo
@germy:
Now that we’ve seen Trump in action, a lot of the fake candidates seem more plausible. If not Ben Carson, at least M. Bachmann or The Rents Are Too Damn High Guy.
Humboldtblue
@germy:
That’s what I was thinking of that this morning as I was on my way to work and I could not recall where I had seen it. Thanks.
germy
@Corner Stone: Won’t work. They don’t trust journalists.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Dolly Llama: As will his war on US Attorneys. Anybody know what happened with Preet Bharara or the office he was fired from? Rachel Maddow was speculating on the things he could have set in motion in the 24 hours between his refusing to resign and being fired. I think there are more shoes to drop from that quarter.
bemused
You can’t swing a dead cat in the WH gang without hitting a Russian link. When the dust settles on this Russian invasion, I wonder how many GOP’ers will be counted among the sellouts. The swamp grows bigger every day.
schrodingers_cat
@Dolly Llama: No apology necessary. I am not giving up hope. Sometimes the news just gets to me
(AG’s announcement about sanctuary cities)
@JMG: I know they are pretty incompetent and that is what will ultimately save us.
Raoul
Our new “innovation” Czar also met with an embargoed Russian banker. Don’t forget that news dropped this weekend too!
I mostly believe that the Trump family is too stupid to be intentionally trying to install a Russian style autocratic oligarchy here. Rather, I think the theories about the deep Russian financial ties to Trump’s fragile and unsustainable financial empire is the root of the blossoming evil.
That doesn’t mean the result might not be a Russian style autocratic oligarch here. But I think it has far less to do with political sympathies than billions in poorly documented and risky loans that are coming due.
Corner Stone
@germy: I disagree. They may not trust journalists but they seemingly can *not wait* to get in front of one and tell their story. For those in still strong Trump country you tell them you want to hear about how they see all the Russia hoax BS, and what they think of the Muslim Ban. The ones who recognized they actually need their health care, or had a loved one deported, you hook them with the question of do they feel let down or betrayed.
We could ship them all to the Bundy Ranch and let that fucking freeloader finally be good for something for once.
Humboldtblue
@schrodingers_cat:
If you are unaware the “lighten up, Francis” line comes from the movie Stripes
If you are aware, well, just shut up! That’s why!
And if it can help even a little, we have seen local pushback against the wannabe war on immigrants and sanctuary cities. Our local police chiefs and the Sheriff don’t want our Latino community members scared of calling 9-1-1.
schrodingers_cat
@bystander: No one is worse than Sessions, he is an unreconstructed Confederate.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: The Russia thing is just… disorienting. It’s extremely weird that the whole project of looking for suspected Russian moles in Government offices has migrated from the political right to the political left. We may be in ‘first time is tragedy, second time is farce’ territory. It would be farcical if it wasn’t, y’know… actually happening.
amk
The Soul-Sucking, Attention-Eating Black Hole of the Trump Presidency
GregB
Circus Peanut Ceasar is now publicly targeting Chicago again.
We can assume that as the vise tightens he will ramp up the witch hunts and turn loose the brown shirts, or red hats as it would be.
He needs to change the narrative from the fact that the 35 Chancellor of America who is his son in law is in the news for talking business with Russian banks.
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker:
If they are innocent they are doing everything in their power to make themselves look guilty.
In addition to the headlines you highlighted, the Sally Yates story is also all over the place, why try to muzzle someone if you have nothing to hide?
The Shitgibbon is incapable of learning. His last several forays into court have resulted in judges telling him that his and his staffs public statements are admissible, in court, and yet he’s still trying to silo his comments about issues and people so he can claim privilege. I’m not optimistic that the GOP will hold them accountable unless they are forced to, but I’m optimistic that the judiciary will. Right now the GOP is going along, but as the swamp gets murkier and smellier, Twitlers approval ratings will continue to decline and self preservation may kick in. 2018 gets closer every day, watch those approval numbers.
different-church-lady
Never get out of the bigger boat.
schrodingers_cat
@GregB: That’s what he does when he is in trouble, unleashes the haterade.
tobie
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I would love to know what Bharara did in the 24 hours between the call for his resignation on Friday and his firing on Saturday. Someone speculated that he impaneled a grand jury and I wanted to ask if that could be done on a weekend. I’ve done federal jury duty and the court was most definitely closed on weekends.
Corner Stone
@Raoul:
I also agree they are all too stupid to have survived on their own without an amazing amount of support from foreign funds. They are also all intensely greedy. Trump is the kind of guy who complained to one of his ca$in0 managers to stop doing their once a year $1000 giveaway to local charity. He gives fake checks and takes credit where he has none. I would bet he has never left a tip in his life.
Intensely stupid, insanely insecure and disgustingly greedy. This is why I will never forgive the people who voted for this pathetic attempt of a human being.
randy khan
The Yates story is very interesting. A lot of what she knows comes from before the President was inaugurated, so the privilege argument doesn’t really apply the way it might otherwise.
schrodingers_cat
@Humboldtblue: I was aware that it was some movie dialog. Thanks for the clip. I am not in a light mood and I refuse to shut up.
randy khan
@tobie:
Grand juries are different, and judges will work the weekend if necessary.
GregB
@bystander:
There won’t be anyone worse than Sessions. He has the veneer of legitimacy having belonged to the Senate club. He knows all of the people and institutions. He knows how to do the job in his own vile and racist way.
And yes, he is an uncreconstructed neo-Confederate.
hovercraft
@Betty Cracker: @hovercraft:
Can’t edit.
Trump’s Approval Rating Drops to New Low of 36%
President Donald Trump’s job approval rating fell to 36% for the three-day period of March 24-26, following Republican House leaders’ failed effort to pass a new healthcare bill that would have replaced the Affordable Care Act.
Trump’s three-day reading prior to Friday’s events was 41%. His previous low point was 37%, recorded March 16-18. His highest reading was 46% in the week following his Jan. 20 inauguration, and he has averaged 42% for his term to date.
Trump’s current 36% is two percentage points below Barack Obama’s low point of 38%, recorded in 2011 and 2014. Trump has also edged below Bill Clinton’s all-time low of 37%, recorded in the summer of 1993, his first year in office, as well as Gerald Ford’s 37% low point in January and March 1975. John F. Kennedy’s lowest approval rating was 56%; Dwight Eisenhower’s was 48%.
Presidents George W. Bush (lowest approval rating: 25%), George H.W. Bush (29%), Ronald Reagan (35%), Jimmy Carter (28%), Richard Nixon (24%), Lyndon Johnson (35%) and Harry Truman (22%) all had job approval ratings lower than 36% at least once during their administrations.
I guess that last paragraph will give the Shitgibbon some comfort ;-)
germy
@schrodingers_cat: Don’t ever shut up. I know how you feel. My family is “swarthy” (as described by Coulter) and I worry about my sons every day. The local uniforms have been emboldened by hair furor and are eyeing everyone suspiciously.
Doug!
@Corner Stone:
Obama already did that. That’s what the FEMA concentration camps were for.
Raoul
@germy: Any sitting Republican Senator (or any damned journalist or pundit!) who thinks Democrats will just go meekly along with Gorsuch as the recipient of a stolen Supreme Court seat is both a fool and an asshole. They played smash-mouth destructive politics with Obama and Garland. So this is what comes out of that decision. Fuck ’em.
LAO
@randy khan: I read the letter from Yates’ attorney and their argument is, parties to the conversations at issue have already spoken publicly, which vitiates any privilege.
Humboldtblue
@schrodingers_cat: Sorry, man.
Betty Cracker
BTW, if you’ve wondered where tech-illiterate goons are getting their Trumpwear, including the China-made red hats, Trump flags, “Hillary for Prison” swag, etc., it turns out it’s the same place they’re buying arsenals off the books: rural flea markets! I visited a large one recently and was surprised to find no less than three booths devoted to Cult45. Unsurprisingly, these same booths appeared to do a brisk business in Nazi memorabilia. I wish I were joking.
@Raoul: Agreed. Regarding Mr. Ivanka’s remit to transform government while he’s solving the Middle East conundrum: I read an article somewhere — Vox, I think — where a woman who had been involved in Al Gore’s “reinventing government” initiative during Bill Clinton’s presidency commented on the unfolding “innovation” fiasco. When asked how they’d pull it off, she said, “I have no fucking idea. THEY have no fucking idea!” I’m paraphrasing, but she did include the f-bomb.
? Martin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: One of the most powerful things he did was to get himself labeled as ‘the fired US Attorney’ in every story that involves cases his office was investigating. It and other statements he’s made suggests that he felt he was being fired due to cases he was pursuing against and around the Trump admin. That alone is enough for Dems in Congress to put him on a witness list.
Humboldtblue
Here is California Governor Jerry Brown warning Trump about his war on Brown people. It’s not going to go well for him, not with Brown and now new AG Xavier Becerra in office.
LAO
@Raoul: Republicans are so used to Democrats playing by the rules and acting in accordance with the norms of governance — I’m sure the’re surprised. But, after 8-years of Republican refusal to do so, they shouldn’t be.
Corner Stone
@Raoul:
Conventional Wisdom is already trying to gel into the theme of, “Well, this won’t tip the balance of the court. So D’s need to not blow up the filibuster with Gorsuch so they have a chance to stop *the next* appointment.”
“Yes, yes, harumph harumph. The D’s need to know the fight is for the next one something something mumble.”
sherparick
Starting the end of February 1973 when Nixon’s Watergate Cover-up started coming undone, particularly after Mr. McCord sent the letter to Judge Sirica. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Watergate_scandal
At some point one of these slippery eels is going to be facing big time and won’t fall on his sword for the Trumpster.
hovercraft
@Humboldtblue:
My small city, Perth Amboy, NJ
Has pushed back hard, the Mayor and City council have refused to cooperate with any crackdowns. Interesting side note, our Hispanic/Latino population is split quite evenly between Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, so I’m not sure how large the undocumented population actually is. Most actual sanctuary cities know the important contributions immigrants make, and will resist any efforts to hunt them down. The GOP just spent 8 years in court fighting Obama, it’s our turn to fight them.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s why I’m hoping that Sessions gets taken down in the whole Russia scandal. He has a plan for voter suppression, and we can’t let him implement it.
japa21
A thought has occurred to me relative to the administration going after sanctuary cities. Many of those cities have large Trump properties in them. There are very few large buildings that could really survive an in depth inspection by the building departments. If the administration tries to do something to the Chicago’s, New York’s, San Francisco’s of the country, the mayors of those cities should unleash an army of building inspectors to each Trump property, write up all the code violations and declare the buildings closed down immediately.
germy
@Corner Stone:
The powder’s dry enough.
Sab
@Dolly Llama: Tell that (lighten up) to the 30 years legal Hispanic family in Chicago whose father just got shot by ICE for no reason.
hovercraft
@schrodingers_cat:
Always remember that Sessions was Bannon”s first choice for president in 2016. He only switched over to Twitler after he spoke at CPAC in 2015, he saw how that rabid band of haters responded and he saw the potential.
Sessions is a klansman pure and simple, he doesn’t wear the robes or burn crosses as far as we know, but other than that he’s one of them.
Bruce K
Who was it who said that it isn’t the crime that gets them, it’s the cover-up?
schrodingers_cat
@Humboldtblue: No apologies, necessary.
randy khan
@LAO:
That, too, but they literally have no argument at all as to events before January 20.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Mnemosyne: It would appear that Sessions is dirty as hell behind the scenes…
Jeff Sessions Likely Met Russian Ambassador A Third Time
So far, Sessions has lied twice about meetings w/ Russians… how many other meetings has he had that he refuses to divulge? Like Kushner only now admitting he met w/ the head of VEB, the Russian bank controlled by Putin?
Voter suppression coming up? I don’t doubt it in the least…
Adam keeps saying we’re 1) under attack, and 2) we’re in a constitutional crisis…
Dolly Llama
@Sab: Memo to myself: Lurk. Keep lurking, always. Never get out of the boat.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bruce K:
AOT,K
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Corner Stone:
In Sessions, Trump certainly selected an uncharismatic, uninspiring little hobgoblin. That wimpy southern accent (he sure ain’t McConaughey), freaky little ears, and manifest racism… how does anyone fi ND him appealing or authoritative?
debit
@schrodingers_cat: Not that you need it, but I totally support you and understand where you’re coming from. Sometimes I can laugh at the shitstorm, but mostly I just feel a black, oppressive fury.
Sab
@Dolly Llama: Didn’t mean to attack you. Sorry.
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: Hey hey, c’mon. Just ‘cos we laugh at ’em, doesn’t mean we forget for even an instant that they’re fascist white supremacists and traitors. Not for an instant. Resistance isn’t all dour and gloom, tears and anger. It’s also laughing at ’em. One day, Angry Spice will be met with peals of laughter. One day, Dampnut will be met with the same. That’ll be a sign that they’re on the way out.
Betty Cracker
@Dolly Llama: FWIW, I value your comments, so I hope you won’t just lurk.
Bruce K
Just because we’re finding things to laugh about, that doesn’t mean we’re not scared as all hell (and in many cases, more angry – nay, enraged – than scared).
Me, I won’t stop being scared until, FSM willing, Pence gives his concession speech on November 3, 2020.
Tom
@Raoul: What Raoul said.
rikyrah
With Trump, the buck always stops anywhere but with him
03/27/17 04:30 PM
By Steve Benen
When Donald Trump’s Muslim ban failed miserably in the courts, the president was quick to assign blame – to everyone but himself. Now that the health care plan Trump wanted has also collapsed, he’s desperate to avoid responsibility, though he seems unsure who to point the finger at first.
Trump’s first instinct, evidently, was to call the Washington Post to blame Democrats.
Don’t brush past those last three words too quickly: “It’s unheard of.” Republicans pushed a bill that would have stripped tens of millions of Americans of their health coverage, slashed Medicaid, and handed massive tax breaks to the wealthy. Democrats were unanimous in thinking this was a ridiculous plan, and Trump thinks it’s “unheard of” for a party to stand together in opposition to legislation they find offensive.
The president occasionally offers us a reminder that he’s quite new to politics, and has no real familiarity with recent history.
Trump was, however, quite intent on giving Democrats credit for derailing the wildly unpopular GOP plan that House Republicans couldn’t pass despite their largest majority since the 1920s. In relatively brief White House remarks on Friday afternoon, Trump said, “We had no Democrat support. We had no votes from the Democrats. They weren’t going to give us a single vote, so it’s a very difficult thing to do…. With no Democrat support we couldn’t quite get there…. This really would have worked out better if we could have had some Democrat support. Remember, this, we had no Democrat support.”
In reality, no one in the Republican leadership even tried to earn Democratic support; Democrats weren’t consulted before the bill was crafted; and there was nothing in the bill Democrats could tolerate. The GOP plan was to rely on its massive Republican majority, ignoring Democratic concerns, which (a) didn’t work; and (b) makes it kind of hilarious to hear Trump whine incessantly about the one group of people in Washington who didn’t have any real power over the process.
Corner Stone
@Bruce K:
I believe that would be one Abraham Lincoln.
rikyrah
Trump wants a Russia investigation … directed at Clinton
03/28/17 11:22 AM
By Steve Benen
As the Russia scandal involving Donald Trump and his team advances – we learned last week that the FBI is conducting an ongoing counter-espionage investigation into the Trump campaign – the president has a creative response to the allegations. Let’s call it the “Hey, look at Hillary Clinton” tack.
Last week, apparently unable to think of a compelling defense, Trump declared via Twitter, “What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaign and the Russians?” In reality, of course, there’s no evidence of meaningful contact between Vladimir Putin’s government and the unsuccessful Democratic campaign, but Trump seemed to think it was important.
Last night, after going nearly the entire day without tweeting, Trump returned to the subject. The Washington Post reported:
“Why isn’t the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia,” the president declared, adding, “Russian speech money to Bill, the Hillary Russian ‘reset,’ praise of Russia by Hillary, or Podesta Russian Company.”
For good measure, Trump also urged his followers to watch Fox News this morning, in advance of a segment on Russia and Clinton’s former campaign chairman.
On the surface, little tantrums like these point to a shrinking president, lashing out with pitiful, almost child-like, responses to a serious international controversy. It’s easy to grow inured to the stream of nonsense, but having the sitting president of the United States call for a congressional investigation into his defeated opponent, for no credible reason, is alarming.
It’s also worth noting that Trump doesn’t appear to have any idea what he’s talking about: there was no “Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia.”
rikyrah
Republicans can’t even agree on whether to give up on health care
03/28/17 10:28 AM
By Steve Benen
Irreconcilable divisions within the Republican ranks doomed the GOP’s health care plan, leaving Donald Trump and Paul Ryan with brutal setbacks. Complicating matters, party leaders now can’t agree on whether the health care fight is actually over.
Friday afternoon:
It was an admission of defeat that House Speaker Paul Ryan probably didn’t expect to make just three months into a fully Republican government: “Obamacare is the law of the land…. We’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.”
Saturday afternoon:
Vice President Pence on Saturday reaffirmed the Trump administration’s commitment to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, saying President Trump “won’t rest” until the law is dismantled.
Sunday morning:
On Sunday morning’s Meet the Press, President Donald Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney declared that the White House is no longer trying to repeal Obamacare. “We’ve moved on to other things,” Mulvaney said. “The president has other things he wants to accomplish.”
Monday afternoon:
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan told Republican donors Monday that he intends to continue pushing for an overhaul of the nation’s health-care system by working “on two tracks” as he also pursues other elements of President Trump’s agenda. “We are going to keep getting at this thing,” Ryan said….
Later on Monday afternoon:
The chairman of the House tax committee declared Monday he is “turning the page” from health care to tax reform….
For those keeping score at home, Republicans aren’t giving up on repealing the Affordable Care Act and implementing a conservative alternative. They’re also moving on. Except they’re not. But maybe they are.
Attapooch
The thing that I’m looking forward to is when the Trump-Russia story finally explodes people will begin to wonder what I’ve been wondering: since the odds of randomly picking a large group of people and having them *all* be in bed with the Russians is astonishingly small who was it that was telling Trump whom to pick for his government?
At that point it becomes the job of every Congressional Democrat to force an investigation into the backgrounds of each and every single person Trump has installed into the US Government for ties to the Russians – including the Congressional Republicans like Ryan and Nunes who seem to be doing their best to become active co-conspirators.
debit
@Dolly Llama: Naw, you’re fine. We may snap and snarl, but don’t hold grudges for an innocent comment.
tobie
@Dolly Llama: People are on tenterhooks right now. Don’t take it personally.
Like @Chet Murthy: I think there’s a lot of value to laughter. You lose that and you lose the will to keep fighting.
Immanentize
@randy khan:
Not true. The client is the “Government,” not Obama or Obama’s administration. It is the U.S. Government and the President gets to decide when the privilege is invoked or not). And the President is Trump. That’s how our government succession works — thankfully in most cases.
That said, as the attorney wrote, the information as to certain conversations has been revealed by the keeper of the privilege, so privilege is waived. But there is plenty of decision stuff that Yates could discuss that has not been waived and the privilege probably survives as to her decision making processes and discussions.
rikyrah
Republican failure in DC changes the game on Medicaid expansion
03/28/17 09:27 AM—UPDATED 03/28/17 09:42 AM
By Steve Benen
Once Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) took office last year, one of the very first things he did was embrace Medicaid expansion through the Affordable Care Act. It’s worked out beautifully for the state and its residents.
In the national picture, Louisiana became the 31st to implement the Medicaid expansion policy, and it seemed for a while that the remaining holdouts would succumb to arithmetic and do the same. Then Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election – and everything changed, at least initially.
South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R), for example, was moving forward with plans to bring Medicaid expansion to his own state, but Mike Pence reached out to the Republican governor personally, and persuaded him to abandon the idea, since GOP officials were gearing up to destroy “Obamacare.”
Now that the Republican plan has itself been derailed, interest in the Medicaid policy is suddenly on the rise once more. The Kansas City Star reported overnight:
A final vote in the state Senate is expected today, where it will pass with bipartisan support, thanks to cooperation between Democrats and more moderate Kansas Republicans.
The news coincided with news out of Georgia, where Gov. Nathan Deal (R) is suddenly showing an interest in the ACA’s Medicaid expansion policy, and in Virginia, where Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) is renewing his push for the same idea. In Georgia, the change would bring coverage to roughly 300,000 low-income people, and in Virginia, the number is closer to 400,000.
Boatboy_srq
@Emma: ConAgra will have another bumper year. Time to buy more shares.
Immanentize
@Dolly Llama: No no no. We don’t lovingly refer to ourselves as jackal for nothin. Engaging is sometimes rough and tumble but always, well, engaging.
Also, besides, how did “Never leave the boat” work out for Chef, huh?
mai naem mobile
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: If you saw the video of Preet Bharrara shaking everybody’s hand at his send off I would bet he’s got loyalty there and Dolt 45 and Sessions aren’t going to be able to replace all those staff that was sa ying goodbye to Bharrara. Stuff is going to come out,if nothing else, there are going to be some ambitious Dem attorneys in there trying to make a name for themselves.
GregB
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Sessions is my central casting choice for a bitter little racist from a 1970’s docudrama about the KKK in the 1950’s.
schrodingers_cat
@Dolly Llama: Comment away. We all don’t always have to agree. Just because I am in no mood to laugh doesn’t mean I want everyone else to be dour as well.
Immanentize
@Corner Stone: I thought It was Jesus
Lizzy L
@rikyrah: An excellent reminder — not that we at BJ need it — that Trump doesn’t understand politics, not at all. He thought the presidency would be rather like a dictatorship. He’s not only disappointed, he’s baffled and confused, and the people he’s surrounded himself with aren’t helping.
PaulW
BARTOW PUBLIC LIBRARY in Polk County FL is having its 120th BIRTHDAY on Wednesday tomorrow!!!
And YOU’RE ALL INVITED!
(you’ll have to pay for your own airline tickets to get here though)
WE WILL HAVE CAKE!
Hope to see you all! :)
Also, thanks to Tampa Bay Library Consortium we now have a promotional video: https://youtu.be/wCaLzZ0iJTk
schrodingers_cat
@debit: Thanks, support helps. Husband kitteh tells me I have been too angry since the election. He thinks all I am doing is hurting myself. He is right in a way.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: Went to my local gun show a couple of weeks ago and someone there has been reading Balloon Juice.
Brisk trade selling T-shirts printed with “AMMOSEXUAL” in big letters on the front. The maniacs love ’em. Think it’ll piss all us libtards off. I just moved on.
Immanentize
@mai naem mobile: And Preet isn’t going far — he took at job at NYU Law, in Columbus Square. Lunch with the old office mates!
Dolly Llama
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you. And everyone above. I ought to have a thicker skin, but I hate to offend people, even inadvertently. Unless they’re Trump people. Then fuck ’em.
CM
Don’t government employees such as Yates take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution? How does any claim of privilege by Hair Furor and his minions even arise?
Sab
@Dolly Llama: Saw your subsequent comments and I am even more sorry I criticicized. I agree with my original comment but I also agree that your original light-hearted comment did not reflect your overall views, as your subsequent comments reflected. Don’t de-lurk because of me!
germy
Raoul
@Waldo: Disagree. Mme La Bachmann would be well on her way to thermonuclear war right now in the middle east. Trump is likely to try and drum up some bullshit war if he isn’t booted from office first. But Bachmann is a crazy-eyed true believer in the Second Coming and believes that a war for Israel is part of unlocking the seals.
rikyrah
Is the House Intelligence chairman trying to discredit himself?
03/28/17 08:55 AM—UPDATED 03/28/17 09:12 AM
By Steve Benen
Yesterday was not a good day for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). The beleaguered Republican publicly acknowledged that the day before his bizarre press conferences last week, which was intended to bolster an odd Donald Trump conspiracy theory, Nunes made a secret trip to the White House.
In other words, a top Trump ally, eager to defend the president, quietly visited the White House and talked to a Trump administration source. He then leaked ambiguous and secret information intended to help Trump to the media, then briefed the president on the findings before sharing it with his own committee colleagues.
A growing number of officials have decided they just can’t work with this guy anymore.
Other Democrats on the Intelligence Committee have reached the same conclusion, as have the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, who also believe Nunes’ gavel should be taken away. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee described Nunes’ bizarre antics as “more than suspicious,” which seems quite fair given the circumstances.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of Nunes’ committee, went so far as to say this morning, in reference to his panel’s chairman, “[T]his is what a cover-up to a crime looks like. We are watching it play out right now.”
randy khan
@Immanentize:
I’m not convinced by that argument, frankly. And, of course, the claimed privilege is limited to things involving the President.
The Moar You Know
@West of the Rockies (been a while): The Heinrich Himmler of the Trump administration. Most people who met Himmler thought he’d wandered into a government building and gotten lost.
But Himmler was responsible for more deaths during the Reich than anyone else.
Don’t underestimate the little nerdy guys.
debit
@schrodingers_cat: You feel what you feel and will continue to do so until you feel something else. FWIW, I think sustained anger is better than despair. Hugs to you. We’ll get through this. It’s going to suck in all sorts of horrific ways, but we will get through it.
Raoul
Scheduling conflict = Trump knows he’d be boo’d like a MF-er so he chickened out.
randy khan
@Immanentize:
Uh, Washington Square. A lot closer to the U.S. Attorney’s office than Columbus anything in New York.
bemused
@rikyrah:
Great news! It’s amazing that Kansas is moving on medicaid expansion just a few days after the ahca vote was pulled and other states heading in same direction. Hope they all succeed until we have the entire country with expanded Medicaid.
randy khan
@Raoul:
Yeah, that would not have gone well. I’m not sure he could throw a decent pitch, either.
mai naem mobile
@Attapooch: I was watching Chris Matthews a while back and he had a Democrat on who was talking about the Russian issue. Matthews asked him “Have you ever been to Russia?” You can kind of see the wheels turning in the Reps head – I am on MSNBC and they’re going to be tough on me? WTF? Matthews immediately follows up with how Americans travel to the UK aND other parts of Europe but not Russia but somehow Dolt 45 has managed to surround himself with so many people who’ve traveled to Russia. Matthews managed to make the point in a nice clever way.
CM
@rikyrah:
“The chairman of the House tax committee declared Monday he is “turning the page” from health care to tax reform….”
To which, I say: No Trump tax “reform” without Trump tax returns!
rikyrah
As his presidency falters, Trump’s support hits new lows
03/28/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s only natural to wonder whether the public at large is noticing Donald Trump’s failures as president. For people who follow current events fairly closely – folks, I assume, like you – the Republican’s many troubles probably seem obvious, but what about the electorate in general?
The latest report from Gallup suggests Americans are, in fact, noticing.
……………………………………………………………
What’s more, the trend isn’t the result of a national crisis or an economic collapse; this is solely the result of the American public disapproving of what they’re seeing from the White House. And under the circumstances, it’s not hard to understand what’s driving those attitudes: Trump’s health care push was a fiasco; his campaign team is under an FBI investigation; his misguided Muslim ban has flopped in the courts (twice); his National Security Advisor was forced to resign; the Russia scandal continues to raise questions about the legitimacy of his presidency; he’s alienated a wide variety of U.S. allies around the globe; and his assorted conspiracy theories have contributed to questions about his stability.
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told the Washington Post the other day, “This is the most failed first 100 days of any president…. I don’t know how it can get much worse.”
As much as I respect Brinkley’s work, I happen to believe it can get worse. Not only is the Russia scandal moving forward apace, but there are additional hazards on the horizon, including a possible government shutdown next month, the unraveling of Trump’s regressive budget plan, and a fight over tax reform that’s likely to end badly for the president and his party.
germy
@randy khan:
He would make a dramatic throwing motion and the ball would fly up over his head and then land behind him.
bemused
@Raoul:
The only way he would do this if he had total control to limit all the fans attending were his supporters. He can’t be totally unaware he’s unpopular if he won’t risk hearing boos, a lot of booing.
Chet Murthy
@germy: I was heartened to hear Schumer, and to read that Feinstein’s been saying all the right things. After N calls, at least one of which was a little outraged (“we shouldn’t be having to call you like this, week after week; our Senator should make a public statement, and she should know where her constituents are on this issue; this is California, fer pete’s sake”), I was able to call today to say “Keep up the good work, Senator”.
Nice change of pace.
If there’s -any- warning on the Dems caving on this, I think the -deluge- will be so torrential that they’ll firm up. So the thing I worry about, is that they’ll cave without warning. If that happens, whoever caves, needs to be primaried, and the entire state party organization needs to take up the cudgel.
Raoul
@Corner Stone: As I think on it, I also wonder if Trump knows that once the lid is off, he’d be on the hook for 100s of millions in taxes and fines. Possibly the threat of jail time for tax evasion. I’d bet that he’s had loans forgiven that would have generated huge tax bills but that he ‘forgot’ to file since they were offshore loans and never publicly acknowledged. Now, what the traded for those loan forgivenesses? More deep scandal, probably.
Betty
Sort of OT: So Trump proposes cutting 18 billion dollars in social programs to fund his wall.
I guess there won’t be much resistance to that, right?
germy
@bemused:
I believe there’d be more than a few drumpf fans in the bleachers, along with the folks booing. Would there be fistfights? I can imagine it getting ugly.
Tokyokie
@Corner Stone: You know, Denmark is just across a bridge from Malmö……
mai naem mobile
Lumpy cancelled because he knows he would look as bad as Chris Christie did in that one famous pic throwing out a pitch.
germy
@Chet Murthy: Schumer paid attention to the people protesting outside his offices. “Do your job!” Some of them waved toy skeletons at him (“Grow a spine!”)
Raoul
@Corner Stone: I cannot tolerate the filibuster/nuclear argument some are making.
Let’s save a useless ‘weapon’ for later, when it will also be useless? There is zero thought behind those who promulgate it.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Raoul:
Well, plus the fact that he’d look terrible throwing a ball. Remember Chris Christy in his ludicrously ill-fitting uni? Gack.
Chet Murthy
@Sab: Yes, and there are Sikhs being attacked in *California*. In *California*. Even still, crying all the time helps nothing. Anger, yes, that’s useful. But jeering is also useful. Inventing new names for Dampnut and his pyrite horde is useful. “Uday/Qusay/Daughter-wife” should all become common parlance.
Part of resisting is not allowing them to control the discourse. And laughter is part of that.
Corner Stone
@Immanentize:
Nah, pretty sure it was Honest Abe. You can’t believe everything you read on the interwebs.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/27/17
Icahn, as Trump advisor, aims to help himself to millions
Rachel Maddow notes that Carl Icahn, appointed by Donald Trump to the unaccountable position of “special advisor,” is advocating for a regulation rule change that would benefit his bottom line by hundreds of millions of dollars.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 3/27/17
Embattled Nunes paralyzes House Intelligence Committee
Congressman Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has not kept the committee updated on intelligence he talked with the media and White House about, and has postponed hearings, leading Himes to call for his recusal. Duration: 11:35
sigaba
@rikyrah: Denial, Anger, Bargaining…
bemused
@germy:
True. Not going to happen. He’s not going to appear at any events where there’s the slightest chance he would get booed and he couldn’t throw the booers out.
I wouldn’t mind seeing him in that position though, powerless and forced to take it.
Immanentize
@randy khan: Well, unless you have some amazingly powerful position, whether you are convinced or not….
For example, US Attorney’s Manual 1.6100:
That is why the waiver argument is important.
rikyrah
Wow: Former Fox News CFO offered immunity to testify before federal grand jury https://t.co/ppDhQ64N8V
— Gabriel Sherman (@gabrielsherman) March 28, 2017
Immanentize
@randy khan: That’s what I meant — Washington Square — thanks for the correction.
Immanentize
@Corner Stone: But I saw J.C. Superstar…. Wasn’t that in Herrod’s Song?
hovercraft
@Dolly Llama:
Nah, that’s half the fun of BJ, getting into skirmishes. Stay, jump into the fray, it’s safe, we don’t actually bite ;-0 see no teeth!
Kay
Nune’s tv appearances are laugh out loud funny. OMG. So guilty. You can feel the sweat beading on his forehead.
I love how they all say he “jumped” out of the car, too. I picture him flinging himself out as they round a curve.
Getting involved with Trump is a mistake. It won’t end well for any of them.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@rikyrah:
Do you run your own blog? You sure have a lot of interesting links that show up in the threads; do you consolidate them somewhere? I read a lot of them, but sometimes scroll by so I can stay more focused on the subject at hand. (Are BJers allowed to plug their own blogs? I don’t want to suggest something that goes against the rules.)
dm
I’ve been reading Tom Snyder’s On Tyranny: 20 Lessons from the 20th Century, which was written after the election, and is directed at “the President” (who goes unnamed throughout the book).
One of the things it mentions is that the fake news hacking was tried on Ukraine in 2014 about the time of the invasion. The Ukrainian media recognized it for what it was and dealt with it directly. Two years later, the American media repeated it. A good book, short, and inexpensive. Worth it for Snyder’s insights drawn from his career as an historian of Eastern Europe in the 20th Century.
By the way, when you mention the bank Jared Kushner was meeting with, always be sure to mention that it was under sanctions at the time in response to Russia’s election hacking.
WereBear
@Corner Stone: I have never understood the “powder dry” reasoning.
It’s like your doctor telling you, “Oh, we’re aren’t giving you antibiotics for that rampant septic infection. But rest assured we’ll use it next time!”
Corner Stone
@Raoul:
The argument is false on its face in any event. It starts from the premise of, “How do we stop Trump’s “next” pick from being seated?”
That assumes there will be another pick during Trump’s normal term. While actuarial tables suggest that is likely, it’s not how the D’s should approach this fight. It also assumes Trump will survive in office for a sustained period with enough support to get another nominee through. Or even stay in office at all.
randy khan
@Immanentize:
Not to pick nits, but that’s not the President deciding.
Raoul
@rikyrah: Trump: “you need almost 100 percent of the votes and we have no votes, zero, from the Democrats. It’s unheard of.”
Just fuck right off, Donnie Dumbleass. Getting zero votes fro Republicans was de rigueur for the entirety of Obama’s presidency. But history, WTF is that??
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Like someone trying to escape from police officers or something. “Tuck and roll, kid! Tuck and roll!”
Nunes is toast. If he isn’t arrested soon, just for his own mental health safety, he is going to melt into a full on puddle of flop sweat.
rikyrah
How a Tricky Tactic by Congressional Republicans Destroyed Trump’s Agenda
by Martin Longman March 27, 2017 1:01 PM
You’ll be hearing a lot about something called the budget reconciliation process this week. My colleague is already on it. It’s wonky, confusing, and probably boring to most people, but if you want to understand it (and you should), the best place to start is by reading this explainer by David Reich and Richard Kogan of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. I refer you to them, in part, because I don’t want to have to explain it all myself but I need you to understand some basics in order to follow what I have to say about the resulting politics.
One part of the Republicans’ legislative plan for this year involves something that has never been done before. Back in November, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a press conference to announce that he and House Speaker Paul Ryan would be passing two budget resolutions in one year. Forbes headlined this as “GOP To Use Previously Unheard Of Tactic To Slam Dunk Trump Agenda.” It looked like some kind of mad genius Jedi mind trick stuff, and it was hatched because the Republicans were trying to figure out how to enact things through the Senate without having them filibustered by the Democrats. The only way to do that is to attach instructions to privileged budget resolutions that only require a simple majority to pass. The instructions will tell one or more committees to figure out how to (usually) improve the budget by reducing spending. Then later in the year, those changes can be voted on again with a simple majority. It’s the second vote that is the reconciliation, because it reconciles the budget with what was intended at the beginning of the year. I can feel your eyes glazing over already, so let’s just put it this way: if you want to get around a filibuster, one way to do it is to attach your bill to the annual budget resolution.
But there are a bunch of limitations to what can be included in a budget reconciliation bill. It has to affect revenues, for example.
…………………………..
As I wrote over the weekend in my Trump Built His Own Prison piece, it’s not going to be a simple pivot for the president from his original plan to enact his agenda with nothing but Republican votes to asking the Democrats to join him on things like infrastructure and tax reform. In fact, I don’t think he’s capable of making that pivot and the Democrats are in no mood to welcome him with open arms.
In fact, I want to reiterate this point:
His administration had a plan. That plan is not going to work. The problem is, the way they pursued their initial plan has blocked them from finding a viable Plan B.
bemused senior
@Humboldtblue: Our San Mateo County hotline “1-800-NO-MIGRA” went live yesterday, and over 1000 of us have been trained by lawyers paid by the Archdiocese of San Francisco to be texted to go immediately to the site of a verified ICE raid to witness, take videos, pictures and notes, be prepared to help remaining family members if there is an arrest, and provide information to immigration lawyers supporting detained people. I don’t know how many volunteers they have in SF, and Santa Clara County is gearing up also. Folks in the East Bay counties are working to get towns to pass support resolutions to deny support to ICE raiders. SB54 is about to be up for its 3rd reading.
schrodingers_cat
@debit: Thanks! FWIW I do feel closer to my roots, especially the art, poetry. The politics in India is another unholy mess which only serves to give heartburn.
rikyrah
TEE HEE HEE
Quick Takes: Will Trump Face a Government Shutdown On His 100th Day?
by Nancy LeTourneau March 27, 2017 6:07 PM
* While we’ve all been focused on the disaster of the Republican failure to repeal Obamacare and what that means for tax reform, a deadline is fast approaching. Last December, Congress passed a continuing resolution to keep the government funded. The trouble is, it runs out on April 28th. That means that Congress has exactly one month to figure out a budget, pass another continuing resolution, or face a government shutdown. The timing is interesting. Trump’s 100th day in office hits the very next day – April 29th.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: Yah, that whole it’s the government that’s the client thing fucks things up. It will require a comprehensive analysis of who talked about what and when to create a waived list of putatively privileged discussions.
And, w/r/t her decision-making, she’s the holder of work product privilege so it can get really tangled up. Good times. (If only.)
Thru the Looking Glass...
@rikyrah:
Yeah but this meme has been circulating for quite a while… even though it’s been disproven pretty conclusively, that doesn’t stop a desperate idiot like Trump form trying to flat it once again…
let’s face it… Trump’s in trouble and is starting to lash out in all directions…
Chet Murthy
@Dolly Llama: DL, don’t go away, and don’t mute yourself, eh? Yeah, this is a bad time. But we all need a safe space to vent. Even you.
I get where schrodinger’s cat is coming from (I’m of south asian birth). I’ve known no other home than the US, and until now have been fiercely patriotic. And now, I’m wondering and scared. And unwilling to go to red states, nor, frankly, to red parts of CA. I cling to the Castro like Linus clings to his blankie. I read about that family that got attacked by ICE (for a f**king civil offense ffs) and see red. I have family in a deep-red state, and I want ’em out — out here and safe. I’m that scared. I’m not even sure we’re going to make it thru. Maybe there’ll be a civil war.
But we won’t make it thru this without laughter and derision. It’s an essential tool of the resistance.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@rikyrah:
Of course, there’s always the distinct possibility they never had a viable plan B in the first place… do you really believe these idiots could think that far ahead?
Betty Cracker
@Raoul: Damn right he chickened out, and I don’t think it’s because he was afraid the pitch would land halfway between the mound and home plate, which it probably would since Trump is a lumpy old tub of lard now. But as a narcissist, he probably still thinks he’s the best athlete who ever laced up a pair of cleats — he used to brag that he was the best player in NY when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were NY Yankees! He’s afraid of the boos, period.
rikyrah
How the Failure to Repeal Obamacare Is Affecting Wall Street
by Nancy LeTourneau March 28, 2017 8:30 AM
Most people who work in corporate America don’t have to worry about health insurance. So the failure of Republicans to repeal Obamacare was not likely to affect them directly. But Matthew Zeitlin says that it has Wall Street investors nervous.
Kay
You wonder if any of them are worried about the Russian end of this, whatever it is they’re up to. These people don’t fool around. It’s like one a month meets with some tragic and completely bizarre accident.
Congress could be the least of their worries if they get on the wrong side of these Russian….friends they seem to have.
rikyrah
Sigh….
Judge Gorsuch and What Could Have Been
Since the 1970s, I spent my career hoping to one day witness the return of a liberal Supreme Court. Now I’ll never have the chance.
by Thomas Geoghegan March 28, 2017
The conservative judge Neil Gorsuch is very likely soon to be a Supreme Court justice. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, has declared his intention to filibuster. But even in the unlikely event that the Democrats rally behind him and Republicans don’t simply respond with the “nuclear option,” whoever replaces the late Justice Antonin Scalia will be to the right of center—guaranteeing that a majority of the Court continues to be conservative, as it has been since the 1970s.
As liberals face this reality, how many grasp how much the country would have changed with a left-of-center Court? For the first time in my adult life as a lawyer, the liberal moderates would have outnumbered the conservatives. Now that opportunity is gone, forever, in my lifetime. During the presidential campaign, it often depressed me how many of my friends thought of Hillary Clinton as the status quo candidate. Yes, there would have been the same Obama-type gridlock between the White House and the Congress. But while the Supreme Court may be the passive branch, it is also the one branch that is free of gridlock. Indeed, it is in some respects the most powerful of all branches, because it can change the Constitution.
As Democrats agonize over Gorsuch’s confirmation, let’s think for a moment just how much we lost. With a five to four majority of liberal justices, how would the country have changed?
By a five to four vote, gerrymandering of congressional districts would have been struck down. Even more than “money in politics,” gerrymandering decides who controls the House of Representatives. A center-left Court might have made a redistricting system based on independent, non-partisan commissions the law of the land
Of course, a liberal Court, would have been likely to reverse Citizens United. More importantly, it might have revisited an earlier, even more pernicious precedent, Buckley v. Valeo, the 1976 case that established that money is a form of speech. Now, if the Democrats ever do regain legislative majorities and pass campaign finance reform — say, at some point in the next twenty years — a conservative Court will cite Buckley and Citizens United to strike it down.
hovercraft
@Raoul:
That poor beleaguered man, the FAKE hatred people feel towards him is preventing him from venturing to places that do not bear his name. I think that the fact that everyone on his properties is beholden to him, or has paid for the privilege of being there is as much as him wanting to promote his brand. They are safe spaces where he won’t be confronted with the depth of contempt people feel towards him.
Thru the Looking Glass...
Btw… tweet from Malcolm Nance about Nunes’ undisclosed source of his SHOCKING discovery of Trump transition team surveillance:
opiejeanne
@japa21: The Health Department can take care of that in a flash. They can find code violations in just about any building on the planet because they’re just not that hard to find.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Wall Street hates uncertainty, DT regime is nothing if not volatile. The initial rally was a mirage.
Chet Murthy
@germy: Voila voila (as the Frenchies say “there you see it!”) I just LOVE those articles from self-described libs, insisting that all this protest is “all wrong, all wrong”. Love that tripe, just wanna eat it up!!
Keith P.
Spicey sounds more pissed off than usual today. I give him another month.
Thru the Looking Glass...
Interesting article from The Observer:
The 9 Russian Words That Explain KremlinGate
I think we gonna need a bigger boat…
Kay
Is anyone who isn’t a Trumpster surprised that Donald Trump did business with Russian mobsters? That’s shocking to people? Because he’s always shown such impeccable character and high standards, right?
I would be surprised if he ever turned down any potential profit opportunity of any kind, with anyone.
This is the Dean of Trump University. They knew what they were getting. If they didn’t they’re fools.
GregB
Former Deputy CIA Director McLaughlin is declaring that an enormous Russian cyber operation was conducted against America, that it is time for people to decide country over party and that he has never seen behavior among a Congressman on the Intelligence Committee that was displayed by Devin Nunes.
McLaughlin is a classic non partisan, served both parties type of government functionary.
Much worse than Watergate. MWTW.
Kay
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Why was he chosen? He’s such a bad, bumbling liar. They can’t even conduct competent criminal conspiracies.They gave the weak link the tv role?
Corner Stone
@Keith P.:
Everytime I see his name I think about Dora the Explorer.
“Spicer no spicey. Spicer no spicey! Spicer no spicey!!”
“Awww, man!”
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Kay:
Trump is saturated in corruption. His half-wit followers can’t see it or choose to ignore it. They don’t want to admit they’ve been taken.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@GregB:
The chorus grows. Excellent.
Corner Stone
@GregB: I saw some of that. He was very matter of fact about it. And very, very certain. Which is something real pros like him almost never get to and feel like they can state it out loud on the record.
If I were in Trumplandia I would be making plans, post haste ex facto delirium.
Kay
@GregB:
It’s key to me that this was conducted against American voters. The whole discussion has been around Clinton and Trump. The people who were manipulated were millions of voters.
This was hidden from them and it’s information they should have had. The offense is against THEM. Us. No one should give a shit about Trump. He’s one goddamned person. He’s nothing compared to the larger offense.
If this were a case caption it would be United States versus… whomever. It isn’t Clinton v Trump. The frame is wrong.
Waldo
@Raoul: Fair point, but if I had to bet which candidate was most likely to usher in armageddon, I’m still giving the edge to Trump.
germy
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I blame balloon-juice for getting me hooked on Bob Schooley’s tweets, but here he is
Bex
@PaulW: Nice video. It’s a great-looking building! Have sent this on to relatives in the area.
Corner Stone
Speaking of Malcolm Nance. When asked about Louise Mensch:
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
That would apply just as well to the boss:
“Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, no swiping!”
HeidiMom
@Lizzy L: “Separation of powers” is not something Donald Trump can begin to comprehend, let alone favor. Thanks, A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R and company.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
Ouch!
schrodingers_cat
Sahiba.
One of the most romantic and melodious songs I have come across in a long time. From the recently released Phillauri.
Tere bin saas be kaanch si kaate re,
Zindagi raakh si laage re
Translation: Without you , every breath cuts like glass
Life feels like ashes.
ETA: Ladies, check out Diljit Dosanjh, you won’t be sorry.
Kay
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
There are genuinely people who believe that the world consists of people who bend rules and get away with it and people who follow rules and are suckers. This is a real thing. It’s a fake, horrible kind of ” cynicism” or “savvy” that IMO covers fear- weakness. They want the person who screws other people because they imagine that will work in their favor and they think everyone has an “edge” – a way to cheat- and they want one, too.
O. Felix Culpa
@rikyrah: It ain’t over till it’s over. My two Senators have committed to voting “NO” on cloture. We need to keep calling our Senators to do the same, whether R (fuck’em) or D.
schrodingers_cat
The Rs win not because they are bright or smart, because they cheat and they have their rich donors and the media to cover for them. Not everyone spends a lot of time on understanding politics, many still rely on the media.
ruckus
@rikyrah:
Drumpf is a massively immature 70 yr old. Massively immature like a spoiled rotten 3-4 yr old
hovercraft
I think they’re rattled and trying to say and do anything they can to get the focus off the TRussia stories.
Bill O’Reilly Goes After Rep. Maxine Waters For Her ‘James Brown Wig’ (VIDEO)
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly dismissed Rep. Maxine Waters’ criticisms (D-CA) of President Donald Trump Tuesday because of how her hair looks.
“Fox and Friends” played a clip of Waters’ speech railing against Trump, in which she called the President “dangerous.”
“We stand up for America oftentimes when others who think they are more patriotic, who say they are more patriotic, do not,” she said. “When we fight against this President, and we point out how dangerous he is for this society and for this country, we’re fighting for the democracy.”
As the clip played, O’Reilly shook his head at Waters and smirked, mouthing “right on” and raising his fist. When the clip was over, a host asked O’Reilly what he thought.
“I didn’t hear a word she said. I was looking at the James Brown wig,” he said.
As the male hosts laughed, host Ainsley Earhardt defended Waters, saying that she doesn’t think it’s fair to go after a woman’s looks.
Kay
I’m also sick of this clown with his amiable Andy Griffith bullshit. He minimizes everything. Shut up and do your job. Take it seriously. His amused observer routine gets on my nerves.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: How many companies has Icahn destroyed. They want to do the United States what Romney did to the companies Bain Capital bought out.
Davebo
Watching Spicer walk the plank in the White House press room is hilarious! Trump can’t put Russian dressing on his salad?
Davebo
@Kay: Epic link fail.
Quinerly
@Davebo:
He’s particularly bad today….and so disrespectful to April Ryan. If you recall, she is the journalist that Omarosa threatened a few weeks back.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: The situation can wear terribly on the spirits. I struggled with deep despond for a long time after the election. Everyone’s different, but I find getting involved in political action helpful, both for the camaraderie and the sense of doing something. We have some great Indivisible and OFA groups here and (you’re in MA, right?) I’d guess there are active groups in your area too.
Other friends who are less politically inclined have turned to volunteering in inner city schools and with ESL programs for immigrants. Whatever works for you. Indian music is good too. :-)
Bess
@Raoul:
Perhaps Obama might be willing to stand in for the Donald.
bemused
@hovercraft:
Guys like O’Reilly are all just immature and obnoxious middle school boys.
Kay
Jared Kushner wakes up every day believing he is uniquely qualified to solve the opiod crisis, among other things!
Can you IMAGINE the parental coddling he got to end up like this? He came down to breakfast and they gave him a trophy. That went on for years.
MCA1
@germy: I don’t think it would result in fisticuffs. On the contrary – half his supporters are dead sheepishly quiet right now and I think it would be good for the remaining Trumpanzees to be surrounded by thousands of people lustily booing their hero, to make clear to them the depth of disapproval that’s out there. Seeing that they’re now in a sad minority of deadenders might tamp down their enthusiasm. The more their guy’s shown to be a loser and unpopular the more the spell is broken.
hovercraft
Oh lookie here, I wonder how this is going to go over with the chumps who voted for this moron.
The federal government is trying to seize private land from Americans for Trump’s wall
By Gabe Ortiz
Tuesday Mar 28, 2017 · 1:20 PM EST
….. Even before President Trump was inaugurated, U.S. citizens who own land along the border reportedly began receiving letters from the Justice Department informing them that the federal government wants their land to build a fence (i.e. the president’s border wall), that it intends to acquire their land and the amount of compensation the government is offering.
Yvette Salinas, a Texan whose ailing mother owns a small parcel of land with her siblings near the Rio Grande was informed by the “Declaration of Taking” letter sent by DOJ that her 1.2 acres was worth $2,900, according to a story in the Texas Observer. She told the Observer that the family’s 16 acres has been in her family for five generations. The government’s letter asks recipients to sign in order to receive compensation, acknowledge that they “do not have an interest” in the case or do not intend to make a claim. It doesn’t really say what landowners should do if, like Salinas, they don’t want to sell their land.
Salinas called the letter “scary” and said “you feel you have to sign.” Her family is consulting a lawyer about its next steps……………..
Her family is consulting a lawyer about its next steps. If other border landowners have the same reluctance to sell as Salinas, the government may have a long battle ahead to secure all the land necessary for the wall, given that the federal government doesn’t own most of it. The nearly 2,000-mile southern border is composed of federal, state, tribal and private lands. There are 632 miles of federal or tribal land — 33 percent — and the other 67 percent, most of which is in Texas, is private or state-owned, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The Washington Post points out that the president would need Congress to pass a bill to acquire the tribal lands for his wall……
Trump hoped to jump-start construction of a massive wall on the U.S.-Mexico border with money in a must-pass government funding bill. But Democratic leaders are vowing to block any legislation that includes a single penny for the wall.
With the GOP consumed by its own divisions, the White House and Hill Republicans will have to rely on Democratic votes to avoid a government shutdown next month in what would be another disaster for Trump’s fledgling presidency.
Republican leaders, wary of this, are considering a plan that would not directly tie the border wall money to the April 28 government funding deadline. Some Republican insiders worry that the president cannot afford another major legislative setback — and they believe a shutdown showdown would result in just that.
While no decision has been made by GOP leadership, Republican lawmakers may decide to decouple the two to avoid a confrontation with Democrats. If they do, the chances of getting Trump’s wall funding passed this spring become slim.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: We moved just before the elections and then I was a bit sick. Getting more involved IRL is on my agenda for the next month.
Bess
@West of the Rockies (been a while): IIRC Donald was a fairly good baseball player. I doubt the problem is his being able to get one over the plate.
Elie
What will finally sink the Trump ship (IMHO) is its sheer incompetence. They are going to cause so many disasters that we will be holding on for dear life. After listening and reading Rex Tillerson’s “ideas”, I truly believe the man has absolutely no clue about what he is doing. Mattis is escalating Yemen while having no staff, no deputies to help with planning. Sessions will burn a ton of political capital with his plan to go after sanctuary cities and voting rights. The consequence of all this plus a ton more is complete chaos. The pus on the Russian gangrene will be unstoppable. They will not have the means to stop it because their whole fucking house will be on fire by then. In other words, all will emerge — it is unstoppable because these people are so completely chaotic and incompetent, that they will not be able to cover that issue or any other. They haven’t figured out in the slightest how to manage their risk and grandpa keeps making more mess. My worry is how to facilitate our country’s survival through this — and my own.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Kay: Maybe they were looking for someone dumb enough to take it on? Any half-bright person would have probably run screaming from this…
Nance’s prediction makes so much sense…
1. WH under fire… needs a distraction NOW…
2. Hit the Deep net, find ANYTHING that seems plausible…
3. Find SOMETHING you think will work, immediately call Nunes to initiate action Tuesday night… Nunes goes to ‘secure location’ at WH to meet w/ undisclosed person/s about discovered ‘recently discovered’ surveillance…
5. Wednesday morning Nunes calls for press conference BEFORE going to WH, then goes to WH to brief Trump and tells NO ONE on House Intel Committee any of this is happening…
As of today, Nunes has still not shown the intel to any other member of the House committee he chairs nor told them who his contact is/was…
So when Nance says he thinks Nunes’ source was someone w/in the WH googling names on the Deep Web, it sure makes sense…
Mosaic theory at work…
The Moar You Know
@Kay: I don’t know if that’s a majority of Americans, but it’s assuredly a majority of people where I live. And it’s irrespective of politics. I live in a blue part of the bluest state in the Union.
What it is NOT irrespective of is class.
WereBear
When you give a coward, power…
germy
Sometimes these pigs can’t help themselves:
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
It’s truly astonishing, the twinned hubris and ignorance of this administration. But in the end, that might be what saves us. They’re too incompetent to enact their evil plans and too stupid and arrogant to get qualified help.
Brachiator
@Kay:
His father was a crook. He raised his son to be as crooked as he is. Not a lot of coddling going on.
Trump is impress because the little shit’s family has more money than he has, and has fooled or cajoled or bought its way into a degree of respectability.
But basically a bunch of crooks.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@hovercraft:
And if they’re going after Waters’ looks, that means they don’t have anything else to go w/…
This is junior high level shit…
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
Moving is such a huge stressor, even if desired, and being sick doesn’t help. Take good care of yourself!
Bess
@Raoul:
I doubt that Donald knows that happened. If he does it’s likely something he has been told in the last couple months. There’s no indication he paid any attention to how the government was functioning until after the inauguration.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Filibuster. No Garland. No Gorsuch. Simple.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@The Moar You Know:
Hmmm… sounds suspiciously like Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in GoodFellas:
Just sayin’…
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Bess:
What makes you think he’s paying attention now?
bemused
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
To do such a stupid thing makes me wonder who or what Nunes is most scared of.
hovercraft
@Elie:
This quote from the link @amk: posted up thread is so telling.
NorthLeft12
@Kay:
The first thing is that those people don’t actually “bend” rules they flagrantly break/ignore them to their own benefit.
The second thing is that some of these “rules” are actually laws or regulations that are required to be followed for the common good. The Randians of the world don’t believe that regulations that infringe on their ability to make money are worth following, and unfortunately our governments have mostly gone along with that belief.
Lastly, this is leading [as you pointed out] to a vast cynicism that our systems of government and justice are corrupt and failing, when it is not the system that is failing, but the people currently running the system that are not living up to their responsibilities.
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
I didn’t watch the proceedings. I just saw a few brief clips here and there.
Can anyone tell me if Gorsuch™ was asked about Garland? If Garland should have gotten a hearing?
pamelabrown53
@Kay: #167.
I don’t think it was a matter of being chosen. More likely based on availability and susceptibility. Putin as his oligarchical mob bosses gambled that they might hit the Trifecta…and if they didn’t they’d be a no worse position. So far, given the republicans utter depravity-party over country-it’s easy to see why they went for the not-so-longshot.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Yup… Jr high level insults. It’s the stock and trade of these privileged, misogynistic a-holes.
Stan
@mai naem mobile:
Oh believe me, those of us in New York LOVE Preet.
germy
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
And O’Reilly refuses to admit his privilege. Remember the debate with Al Franken? O’Reilly still insists he comes from a blue collar, Levittown background. When in reality he grew up in a posh town and his father’s salary was something like 100 grand a year in today’s dollars.
LAO
@Stan: Well not all of us!
***slinks off to confer with fellow defense attorneys***
Elie
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
What they do not understand is that their paradigm does not square with reality. They will keep acting on this but more and more it will result in disaster for them. They will have so many disasters and interrelated and cascading outcomes that they will be unable to manage. They aren’t managing NOW all that well. Alls they’ve done is make mess and chaos with very little in the accomplishments column. They have Kushner and Ivanka doing different things — moving around the chessboard — and Nunes running around the WH grounds, but its just noise — no one is in charge. The agenda is ad hoc and reactionary and we are two months into the administration. We seriously have to think about how to protect our institutions and key strategic abilities from this wrecking crew. I seriously wonder if even the antiques in the WH are safe with this crew — especially if they get kicked out.
schrodingers_cat
@Stan: Preet == Love
/Your Hindi lesson for today.
Brachiator
@Kay:
@The Moar You Know:
and
This has been the way of the world for a long time. And so, as the wise man once said,
Never give a sucker an even break
— WC Fields, 1941
A little more from the Wiki
Trump treated the GOP like a bunch of chumps and they ended up making him their standard bearer. Now, they have to protect his grifter ass from investigation by the feds and the intelligence agencies or look even more foolish, and also risk stirring up Trump’s idiot supporters.
The problem is that the rest of us have to suffer for the GOP’s cowardice and stupidity.
Because, as Jane Austen wrote, “it is a truth universally acknowledged that you cannot smarten up a chump.”
Stan
@The Moar You Know:
I hate to get into this but – not really. The German Army killed several times more people than the death camps ever did. Not that we should have a competition for World’s Worst Person or anything.
rikyrah
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
I do, but I post a lot of the stuff there that I do at BJ. I do post more Black-centered material there, that I don’t at BJ.
TriassicSands
Yee Hah! Trump’s approval rating in the daily Gallup tracking poll is down to a new low 36%.
The self-proclaimed “ratings machine” (TM Donald J. Trump) is really cranking out those ratings, isn’t he? I assume his target is 26% so he can set a new GOP record. We’re rootin’ for you Donnie. We’re rootin’ for you.
JMG
@MCA1: There are probably fewer Trump voters in a circle with a ten mile radius extending from Nationals Park then in a similar circle extending from LA City Hall. Wouldn’t be many Trump fans in the stands except Republican Congresspeople, staff, etc, who scored tickets.
germy
@Brachiator: Sometimes when I see Trump turn on the fake charm I think this would have been a perfect script for a W.C. Fields movie. Something from the Universal Pictures years, early 1940s. He plays a grifter who jumps into a presidential race for publicity and then wins. He seats himself at his desk and barks orders at his “staff” and appoints his beloved daughter the office next to his.
Grady Sutton plays his assistant (“President Whipsnade, the reporters won’t leave me alone!”) and Franklin Pangborn plays a Democratic senator who keeps sniffing around his russian connections.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Scientific American has a piece about blue lies, lies that benefit the group that tells them. It’s not unlike knowing your team cheats, but you’re winning, so who cares? How long the lies last when you finally realize you’re not winning though… I guess we’ll find out.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat:
Bharara == Naked Twister
Soooo…
cain
@Humboldtblue:
Portland just voted to become a sanctuary city, and now everyone up and down the west coast is now at war with Sessions. I don’t think Sessions is going to win against the combined might of California, Oregon, and Washington. Of course, if they want, we can raise the price of all the produce and blame it on Sessions. (it’s likely already happening anyways)
We recently had a fight with ICE and won with our House rep all over them. Of course, the person in question had a DUI once.. and of course that makes him a bad hombre.
SFBayAreaGal
@schrodingers_cat: Heart be still.
NR
@Elie:
You mean being an oil company executive doesn’t prepare someone to be Secretary of State? Color me shocked!
germy
So how does this all end?
Any predictions?
I personally haven’t the slightest idea. Every morning I wake up, turn on the news and wonder “What’s next?”
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@rikyrah:
Cool. Knowledge is power. Gotta expose cretinous behavior wherever it shows.
Elie
@Brachiator:
I actually believe that some of the GOP Congress are involved in the Russian mess — particularly Nunes but there are probably others. That is going to make it damned hard to expose this but not impossible. As I argued upstring, they will not be able to manage this as the overwhelming volume of their chaos management will not allow it. Very dangerous times cause they are also reckless and unthinking… they will literally do anything to keep from being found out without any strategic weighing of the risks to other strategic issues. Desperation makes for exacerbated chaos… My belief is that things are going to swirl into more and more chaos…
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Wait whut?
hovercraft
Late-night hosts on Trump: ‘How to Lose Friends and Influence No One’
Comics, including Jimmy Fallon and Trevor Noah, discussed the collapse of the healthcare reform bill and the president’s inability to accept responsibility
Late-night hosts discussed the embarrassing collapse of the proposed healthcare reform and Trump’s ongoing difficulty with accepting blame.
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah spoke about the president’s attempts to shift the attention and responsibility on to others rather than “the carrot cake commander himself”.
He played footage of Trump’a apparent surprise that the opposing party wouldn’t help to pass the bill. “He’s legitimately mad that the Democrats wouldn’t vote to repeal Obama’s healthcare bill,” he said.
Noah then brought up Trump’s tweet urging his followers to watch Fox News show Judge Jeanine which was focused on Paul Ryan’s failings. “Wow, that Fox News shit was insane,” he said. “No, in fact it sounded just like North Korea’s propaganda news.”
On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert also spoke about the failed bill, referring to Steve Bannon as “White House adviser and pre-existing condition”…..
On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host also ridiculed Trump now claiming that he didn’t say he would fix healthcare in his first two months. “That’s right, Trump never said 64 days,” he said. “He said one day.”……….
On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon brought up the investigation surrounding Jared Kushner’s ties to Russia. “If they find out he did anything illegal, he’ll be sentenced to still being Trump’s son-in-law,” he said.
He then spoke of a rumor that Paul Ryan got down on one knee to beg one member of the Republican party to vote yes to the new healthcare bill. “You think that’s bad?” he said. “He showed up at another guy’s window with a boom box.”
Fallon then listed new book titles set to come from Trump: How to Lose Friends and Influence No One, The Giving Up Tree, To Kill a Healthcare Bill and Oh the Places You’ll Golf.
germy
@hovercraft: Even James Corden is doing political humor. Everyone’s woke!
hovercraft
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
This.
As scary as it is that he knows nothing, the fact that the people he’s relying on also know nothing is he biggest problem. I know Grover Norquist said hey just needed someone with a functioning hand to sigh tax cuts, but the problem here is that you could put virtually anything in front of him and he’d probably sign it.
Elie
@NR:
LOL (sadly)
In one article (the one he allowed with the one “reporter” on his Asian trip), he was described fooling around with an org chart — moving around deckchairs when its the situations and interrelationships that are key to running our State Department. Only a business CEO comes in and fires everyone then reorganizes whats left. If his company looses millions for a while, so be it… got to get your people in and control everything. Unfortunately, the State Department and our foreign policy cannot be run like a bankrupt business that was just acquired by another widget maker. I truly believe that he does not want to brief the press or hold interviews because he is hiding his clueless incompetence and is so arrogant that he thinks no one will notice…. We are in so much shit with this incompetent asshole and a Dept of Defense without adequate support staff and Preying Manttis wanting to send more troops to Yemen. What could go wrong?
dm
@rikyrah:
The problem is that Trump views bankruptcy as a solution to financial problems. You go bankrupt, your debtors are forced to take pennies on the dollar, and you walk away. He mentioned this in a radio interview before the election.
In a month, we may be looking at Paul Ryan hoping he can act like a grown-up, and hope that Trump doesn’t do something like veto a continuing resolution…..
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Elie:
Aaaaaaaaaaayup….
We members of the Fact-Based Reality Contingent™, as opposed to make-believe
b.s., are in damage control mode for the foreseeable future…
It appears the current Republican governing philosophy is indeed ‘Smash and Grab Everything You Can Carry Out the Door.’
Gravenstone
@schrodingers_cat: So, you’re all the time chiding people here about “doom and gloom” scenarios; yet here you are today talking “Final fucking Solution”? Seriously, heed your own advice sometime.
hovercraft
@germy:
Obama was a very hard target for them, they thrive on being able to ridicule people. Obama made some mistakes but he was never ridiculous, Twitler and his merry band of incompetent fascists are ridiculous, so it’s like shooting fish in a barrel for comedians. We are in for some good comedy for the next four years, (hopefully less).
rikyrah
@Kay:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA
I love the way you put things, Kay.
hovercraft
Speaking of ridiculous, do these people really think at this point that everything they say and do will not be scrutinized?
Chris
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
I can never tell the difference between organized crime and legitimate business anymore.
Attapooch
@germy:
My prediction is that it’s money laundering for the Russians that is the criminal act that brings Trump down along with the son-in-law and Manafort. Any influence that the Russians have over Team Trump stems from the initial criminality of the Trump-Russia business dealings.
I wouldn’t be surprised to also see Ryan and Nunes found to be demonstrably dirty because 1.) the RNC was certainly hacked in the same way the DNC was and 2.) they certainly are working hard to be charged as co-conspirators/accessories after the fact.
Elie
@cain:
What this does is add to this administration’s (and our country’s) chaos. They are burning through political capital at 1000 miles and hour and constantly reacting to the chaos they make by displaying more aggression. There is not one contemplative or thinking instinct in this crew. Its all action — half baked, uninformed, impulsive action. They are sooooo dangerous! Yes, they will fail on this issue but it will stir up other problems that they will react aggressively to quell and on goes the spiral. What kind of people have a fire in the cockpit then go start a fire in cabin? These folks do just that! There is no overt sense of conserving resources, avoiding multiple fights on multiple fronts — Russia in the winter time with Napoleon and Hitler. Nothing or no one has the reigns to sanity and balanced responses to ANYTHING.
schrodingers_cat
@Gravenstone: Guilty as charged. I am having an off day today.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
I am assured by respectable BJ commenters that it will never come to that and that any talk of a Civil War or genocide/mass murder by Republicans is blood libel pron.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@dm:
Isn’t it your creditors are forced to settle?
And yes, he did talk about this on the campaign trail… I believe he said he’d negotiate with the Fed’s creditors and get them to settle for less… the Art of the Steal… one problem, and I doubt that Donnie understands this… is that something like 2/3rds to 3/4ers of our national debt is owed to… us… a lot of it is owed to the Social Security Trust, which has been continuously raided by Presidents of both parties for decades to make up for short falls in the budget… in shorter form, they borrow from the Trust and then write IOUs to it…
I believe I have that straight in basic form…
So when Don
CorleoneTrump talks about bargaining w/ ‘our creditors’, he’s talking about bargaining /w us… what a fantastic way to get rid of Social Security…So much winning…
TenguPhule
@Dolly Llama:
We’re two steps from a Riechstag Fire though.
germy
@Attapooch: Interesting scenario.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Chris: Apparently the criminals and the legitimate businessmen can’t either… and let’s not even get started on politicians or the clergy…
TenguPhule
@bemused:
All of em, Katie.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Attapooch: I agree completely… money laundering…
jeannedalbret
@bemused senior: @bemused senior:
I think area code for that number is 203 — 800 gets a police supply house. Only link I could find was on book of faces …got any other with more comprehensive information? Thanks!
cain
@LAO:
They will soon learn what a pissed off Democratic base is going to look like. Even my own family have started calling their own senators and reps and they aren’t all that activists… (they are a lot of talk though. :P I’ll probably be pushing all of them to continue to talk to their reps and senators and put the pressure on them, bigly.
Ksmiami
@West of the Rockies (been a while): I just want to beat the shit out of his monkey head every time I see his pic
TenguPhule
@dm:
He tries that and the Secret Service might as well throw up their hands and give up any hope of protecting him and his family.
Destroying the full faith and credit of the US dollar would destroy trillions in value.
Very serious people with very serious resources would make it their goal to exterminate the one responsible for their losses. And their family, to make an example of them.
hovercraft
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
And waste all that potential labor?
20 years indentured involuntary servitude for Trumpsters on farms. Overseen by Hispanic overseers with bullwhips. Mandatory production quotas. No exceptions for age, if they don’t work, they don’t get to eat.
And they have to march to those farms on foot, overseen by armed Native Americans mounted on horses, who get to mock their crying as they walk down the trail.
hovercraft
Spicer: Media Would See Conspiracy If Trump Ate ‘Russian Salad Dressing
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that the press would see “a Russian connection” if President Donald Trump “puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight.”
“How does this administration try to revamp its image, two and a half months in?” American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan asked Spicer during his daily briefing.
She cited a report by the Washington Post that the Trump administration attempted to block former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying in a House Intelligence Committee open hearing. The White House on Tuesday denied that it had attempted to block her testimony.
“You’ve got the Yates story today, you’ve got other things going on, you’ve got Russia, you’ve got wiretapping,” Ryan said.
“No, we don’t have that,” Spicer replied.
“You have investigations on Capitol Hill,” Ryan began.
“No, no, I get it. But you keep — I’ve said it from the day that I got here until whatever, that there is no connection. You’ve got Russia,” Spicer interrupted. “If the President puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight somehow that’s a Russian connection.”
He accused Ryan of having an “agenda.”
“Oh, hold on. At some point report the facts,” Spicer said. “The facts are that every single person who has been briefed on this subject has come away with the same conclusion, Republican, Democrat, so I’m sorry that that disgusts you. You’re shaking your head.”
He said that “every single person” who has been briefed on the “situation with Russia” has reached the same conclusion, though he did not specify what that might be.
“At some point, April, you’re going to have to take no for an answer with respect to whether or not there is collusion,” Spicer said.
Ryan pointed out that her question was about how Trump’s administration plans to “change the perception” resulting from those investigations and reports.
Spicer replied: “We’re going to keep doing everything we’re doing.”
Brachiator
@Elie: I actually believe that some of the GOP Congress are involved in the Russian mess — particularly Nunes but there are probably others.
lgerard
@hovercraft:
The border is the middle of the Rio Grande. Are they going to build a wall on the US side and cede the river to Mexico?
That will not go over in Texas at all.
I have yet had anyone explain to me how you can build a wall when 800 miles of the border is a river.
TenguPhule
@sherparick:
But he’ll be pushed on to it. /Serenity
Humboldtblue
@bemused senior:
That’s fantastic (and I’ll refrain from saying anything harsh about the goddamn archdiocese because they have always been spot-on when it comes to immigration) and I will have to look into any local programs.
ICE accompanied a heroin bust about a month ago, ostensibly to provide language support and translation, but it immediately had the growing Latino community in fear. That led to pronouncements from local law enforcement that immigration status isn’t their beat and that they don’t want a vulnerable segment of the community to live in fear of reporting real crime.
P.S. Assemblymember Jim Wood authored 254. He is turning out to be a damned good egg (which is why we elected him) and has his fingers in a lot of pots including health care and marijuana legalization.
Elie
@Brachiator:
Local? Explain…
TenguPhule
@lgerard: Simple. Global Warming to destroy the river, build in the hellish desert that remains.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
I suffered some depression in December, some of that is due to being unemployed and going through a depression, but the election of Trump is what really kicked me in the shins. I think in some way I am still affected by it than my personal problems. But there is no point being angry. We can’t change our circumstances by being dour. Instead.. reach out, build connections, organize and be active in your local community and for godsakes take only a temperature on politics because this stuff can really put you through the grinder because the news is always negative and that has an effect on our mental health.
A famous autobot once said, “Transform..and roll out!”
TenguPhule
@hovercraft:
In a nutshell, the entire Trump method of Operation.
Bald faced lying. Repeatedly, without shame.
Elie
This Wapo article does a good job in explaining the current US “China Policy” or lack of it:
Brachiator
@dm:
This is going to be interesting. Didn’t Trump recently say something about the “arcane rules” that the government runs under?
I don’t know if he understands the concept of continuing resolutions or much of the mechanics of governance. I’m not sure that Pence has mastered the challenge of being speaker.
@hovercraft:
Good point. Trump is very comfortable doing simple stuff like signing an executive order or signing a piece of legislation put in front of him. But the detail work of governing has eluded him.
I don’t know if he can learn, or wants to. I don’t know if he can get out of the way of his own ego. This all makes for great uncertainty. Stay tuned.
Elie
@TenguPhule:
I actually now believe that they may not actually know what reality is. How do you lie like that and keep anything straight? Purposely lying requires a little planning and strategic planning to guard your interests. These people constantly step on their own dicks, continuing to destroy their credibility and political capital. That is why (in part) Trump is down to 36% approval and continues to drop. They can’t figure any of this out! More and more it feels as though no one is in charge — everything is ad hoc and no one is putting together any coherent plan on anything…
gex
@Dolly Llama: See. That right there shows you belong here, commenting away.
Attapooch
@TenguPhule:
People only fall on their swords if they think the person they’re taking the hit for will show reciprocal loyalty which is something Trump has never once demonstrated. Going further, if he does have NPD he’s actually incapable of being loyal to another.
A good example is Flynn: talking to the Russians probably was something Trump had him do and he was thrown under the bus at the first opportunity by the President. Now the Feds come to talk to Flynn and point out that it would be a shame if something were to happen to his really nice military pension and suddenly he’s likely talking to the FBI.
schrodingers_cat
@cain:
Anger motivates me.
Shana
@mai naem mobile: “Mathews managed to make the point in a nice way”? Well that’s a first.
TenguPhule
@Attapooch: You missed the reference. Nobody is going to fall on it willingly, but some of them may find themselves suddenly silenced by natural causes as gravity will naturally kill you if you are thrown off of a highrise building.
hovercraft
@TenguPhule:
They lie like they breath, effortlessly.
@Brachiator:
He wants the government to be as simple as running his company was. The great man sees something he wants, he cajoles and or bullies his way into getting it. Once he has it, he runs it into the ground, declares bankruptcy and walks away leaving everyone else holding the bag. Presto successful businessman! His ego is the driving fore of his existence, so he’s doomed to keep repeating his mistakes, and so are we. The goal now is to try and mitigate the damage he does.
cain
@Chet Murthy:
I haven’t been getting much bad vibes.. but who knows? I haven’t ventured out to east Oregon in awhile so not sure what to expect. However, I am very well adjusted than most 1st generation Indians. Coming from a small town in Indiana (albeit a university one), I act, talk, and walk like a white person from Indiana and I develop an accent when in small town.
Let’s hope for the best.
Villago Delenda Est
Five words in, he’s already told a blatant lie that anyone with more than three working synapses, to include my cat, will see through and know it precisely for what it is.
hovercraft
@Elie:
They do have certain lies that seem to be coordinated, but as you say a lot of the lies are shortsighted and so ridiculous it’s a wonder the questioner doesn’t just burst out lying. The republican agenda for the last 40 years has been a pack of lies. GHWB was right way back when, when he called Reaganomics, voodoo economics. So for all these yeas they’ve had to lie about everything. Twitler on the other hand, I’ll leave it to Mark Cuban:
schrodingers_cat
@cain:
Aah so you are the good immigrant, unlike those filthy savages.
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
say it to her face, muthaphucka.
Aleta
@hovercraft: Spicer wouldn’t admit to anything amiss if Trump poured Russian salad dressing on his head tonight.
Elie
@hovercraft:
When you combine this inability to resolve contradictions borne in their multiple lies, with their extreme propensity to act aggressively in an ad hoc way, to me you just get ongoing chaos. Imagine these tendencies handling an external emergency such as a foreign policy or natural disaster.
Brachiator
@cain:
I like that! Very cool. Thanks for the rallying cry.
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
if you say so. I don’t think it is a particularly healthy emotion unless it is channeled. I come from a family of people who have temper issues. (I don’t, I’m a bit of a black sheep)
cain
@schrodingers_cat:
The flip side of that is that, a number of those “filthy savages” as you so quaintly put it, seem to either believe me an empty shell with no Indian culture worth noting nor worth associating with. I think they think I’m the bad immigrant. I’m proud to be who I am, a person who loves his country, cherishes his and his adopted culture, and still maintains his ties to his birth place.
Brachiator
@cain:
Interesting pun there. An Indian from Indiana….
cain
@Brachiator:
;) Yeah I get that – btw that quote you made, comes from this
schrodingers_cat
@cain: I am bad hombre no matter where I go. In India according to husband kitteh’s family, I am that bitch with no Indian culture who stole their sonny boy. They never tire me of telling what good Indian girls do and don’t.
I have met some annoying people of Indian origin and some wonderful. Same as anywhere else I guess. I pretty much don’t care what they think of me. But AG Sessions and T have power of the state, that’s different.
Stan
@lgerard:
In the words of our President*, “Don’t worry about the small sh*t”.
Brachiator
@cain:
Fun clip. Thanks.
Chet Murthy
@cain:
AHAHAHAHAH! When I grew up in Texas, I had a thick, thick Texas accent. During grad school (in Ithaca, NY), it slowly faded, but would invariably come back on the plane flight home for holidays …. over Tennessee or thereabouts. I used to call it my “linguistic protective coloration”. Finally during 3yr overseas postdoc it went away for good. B/c yaknow, when you’re speaking English to furriners, it helps to speak clearly and without accent! Ha!
So yeah, I know what you mean about acting, walking, talking, drinking, thinking, like a white person. Took me a lotta years before I realized that that wasn’t enough for those f**kers.
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat:
Per Bannonazi, there are no “good immigrants”. Esp. not those Sili Valley CEOs who’ve achieved the American Dream. No way, mang.
schrodingers_cat
@Chet Murthy: Indeed and while those Indian mamas and mamis may annoy the shit out of you, they are but a nuisance that can be ignored. T regime on the other hand is a threat to our continued existence.
Uncle Cosmo
@Stan: Not to mention that most of Himmler’s body count was amassed by essentially following the process orchestrated at the Wannsee conference by Reinhard Heydrich, a massively more competent sonofabitch. IMHO the world dodged a bullet when Heydrich failed to dodge one in Prague in 1942.
J R in WV
@Attapooch:
This is one of the better comments from anyone about this particular scandal. If you pick out 30 or 40 random Republicans, how many will have financial and political connections to Russian organizations, politicians/FSB operatives, Cayman Banking groups laundering money, etc. etc.
Two? Three? How about:
What are the odds???? A million to one, I say. Busted, all of them. Gitmo bound!
ETA: The more I think about it, the better I like Gitmo as the place of future residence for members of our government who have worked for the overthrow of our Democracy. They are as guilty as bin Laden ever was!! Put them in cells right beside the few remaining terrorists down there. Where they belong!
Miss Bianca
@lgerard: @hovercraft: Not only 800 miles of river, but hundreds and hundreds of miles of fucking COASTLINE…how you supposed to build a wall around that?
To say nothing of the fact that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants arrive on AIRPLANES.
I just can’t.even. with the stupid anymore when it comes to Trump and Trump voters. None of them appears to possess the critical thinking skills it would take to fight their way out of a paper bag.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
And we’ve all enjoyed the music and video from your home in South Asia that you’ve posted over the past few years. Don’t worry about you personally being supported here at B-J, we know who you are.
If you need to rant or rave, go jump on it hard!! And if part of that flies around at people standing by watching, well, that will be OK too after things settle down a little. I know what you are talking about in your home nation, politics there always seems to be a bit odd in some states, but especially lately at the national level.
The tyranny of the majority might take hold there… not the way it is supposed to work out.
ETA: And being from WV, I know from odd states!!
J R in WV
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
So Google gets to spider through our government’s classified data systems? Wow, I bet the Russians are glad to learn about that!
Give me a Fuqn break, these guys appear to have no sense of security what-so-ever. That’s crazy~!~!~!
Or maybe Chief Nance is a little off on how the WH staffer found those names? Other tools for searching private data systems also exist. We may never know…
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
No! Gitmo is an abomination that needs to be closed!
Tumbrels, followed by the heads mounted on pikes. Its the only way to be sure.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
I remember that move, how you talked about what you liked and didn’t like about each house you considered. You picked out a great house that you liked, too.
But I’m still not a bit surprised you had stress, moving is horribly stressful, and then the terrible horror movie that “president” Trump is producing… I had a terrible time in November myself.
I’m still not really over it, although the completely incompetent job they’re doing helps. And the amusement of watching that bully fail on a daily basis is OK too. At least if they destroy the nation, it will have been fun watching the idiocy…
Chet Murthy
@schrodingers_cat:
Wait, wut? I was quoting Bannonazi on how Asian-American CEOs aren’t sufficiently American. His words, his beliefs, not mine fer sure.
ETA: How -could- I agree with him? I’m in his basket of un-Americans (and I’m not even a CEO!)
No One You Know
@amk: @rikyrah: Is anyone else tempted to say, “They’re movin’on it. They’re movin’ on it like a b–, but they couldn’t get there.”
Somehow seems…appropriate. If vulgar.
Tehanu
@hovercraft:
@Immanentize:
Silly me, I thought the Attorney General’s “clients” were the American people.