Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Comey Hearing Livestream — with Bonus Questions!

Comey Hearing Livestream — with Bonus Questions!

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Comey owes us an explanation. Will we get it? Probably not! But here’s a preview of some of the questions the senators plan to ask, via CNN:

Senator Blumenthal: “The American people really deserve answers about why he did release his comments and letter, and I think he may want to be more forthcoming and he may want to use this forum as an opportunity to tell the American people his side of the story.”

Yes, let’s get to the bottom of that, Senator Blumenthal!

Senator Coons: “The most important investigation the FBI is currently conducting is into Russia’s interference in our last presidential election. This isn’t just about understanding Russian interference and potential coordination of some kind with the Trump campaign. This is about defending our next election as well.”

Thank you for keeping future elections in mind, Senator Coons! It’s important to note that the Republicans who are obstructing this investigation haven’t just sold out to Putin as a one-off for the demented Circus Peanut; they are imperiling future elections too. Maybe someone will remember to mention the Russian interference in House races in 2016. Eh, probably too much to hope for…

Senator Graham: “I just want an answer. I just want to know what is going on here. You had (former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper say there was no surveillance of the Trump campaign or Trump Tower. You’ve got press reports a FISA warrant was issued for Carter Page because of his ties to Russia. I just want to know what happened. And if we can’t do it in an open session, let’s do it in a closed session.”

This signals that Huckleberry Hound is on the Trump Train. He’s giving cover for Twitler’s ridiculous Twitter accusations and worrying about surveillance instead of addressing the possibility that Putin keeps Trump’s balls in a tiny specimen jar on his mantel at the Kremlin. Worthless sack of shit.

And speaking of worthless sacks of shit…

Why are our tax dollars funding advertisements for this vapid dilettante’s crappy book of ghost-written, faux-feminist platitudes?

Just in the last week or so, we’ve seen that Trump is using U.S. embassy websites to pimp his shitty private club, and Ivanka is setting up some sort of global fund — which she will run from the West Wing! — and collecting donations from rich and powerful people and organizations. And now this Voice of America thing.

The Trumps are notoriously corrupt — just ask any business, municipality or individual who has ever dealt with them. The orange fart-sack himself had to settle a multi-million dollar fraud case for his scam “university” upon taking office. And now they’ve got all the resources of the US government to facilitate their cons.

Is anyone watching them? Will any government office hold them accountable? Or is this just the way we do things in America now — this gang of tacky-ass grifters can just hijack our institutions for their personal gain, and no one even notices? Someone check the Department of Agriculture site — they’re probably peddling Trump Steaks.

Reader Interactions

172Comments

  1. 1.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    That photo of Lucretia is amazing. She looks like somebody who WANTS to fuck him.

  2. 2.

    satby

    The Trump crime family is living the dream of most Republicans: living large and bullying people without cost or consequences.

  3. 3.

    feebog

    Comey isn’t going to say much at this point. If it is true that there are two grand juries impaneled and working this is a critical period of the investigation. And yes, Huckelberry is providing cover for the Orange Shitgibbon.

  4. 4.

    Immanentize

    The Trumps are notoriously corrupt

    This has been eating at me for a while — Not all, but most?, in Congress is corrupt in big or small ways. Trump is the final expression of the insider stock dealing, pay for play, kickback kulture that is Congress. And I am certainly including Democrats, but fewer Dems than Repubs I think.

    Is this not a moment for a serious anti-corruption campaign. A trust busting movement that starts with unethical political behavior? Isn’t that what at least some Trump voters (and Sanders voters as well) were really trying to articulate? That politicians do not work for their constituents, they work in their own self-interest. Forget economic anxiety, even the racism of the republicans is placed in the corruption frame — Democrats just give free stuff to those people? Anti-corruption campaigns have resonated in other countries. Brazil. Look at Slovakia today — a youth anti-corruption campaign.

  6. 6.

    JMG

    @feebog: Nobody thought Comey would say much the last time he testified. They were wrong. That’s when he confirmed the Trump investigation and said it dated back to July. At a minimum, a Democrat will ask him about Trump’s tweet last night, forcing him to go on the record saying the President is wrong, and if he feels like it, phrasing that answer in a way that implies the President is a delusional liar.

  7. 7.

    Ian

    I think our constitution and country are broken. More specifically I think one political party is badly broken, but our system was designed to have good faith actors. This is no longer the case.

    Hail president Taco Bell Grande Camacho!

  8. 8.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Ian:

    I think our country is broken too – it was coming. All empires fall, and so is ours. The media has failed us, and there are too many ignorant, misinformed hateful people to have the kind of citizenry we need for self correction.

  10. 10.

    A Ghost to Most

    Oh goody; a new episode of The UnAmericans. I wonder what surprises are in store for us this week.

    Eta: not just you, Chris

  11. 11.

    hovercraft

    Is anyone watching them?

    The people who know him best after being forced to watch the publicity hound in the tabloids for the last 30 years tried to warn you all, but #realAmerica gave us a big fuck you. So now you all get to experience what a conman he is and we all get a display of how well he’s trained his spawn in the myriad ways he has of separating fools from their money. The fools not only gave him the keys to the vault, but they also elected enough republicans to ensure that no one will hold him and his spawn accountable.
    My hope is that this lack of push back from the GOP will continue to embolden them and they will go so far that even the goppers will have to take notice. Failing that, the flailing and incompetence should bring a huge democratic turnout next year and Nancy Smash will give him the Darrell Issa treatment. Cummings is a prosecutor, not just a political hack, he’ll know what to do.

  13. 13.

    JMG

    It is starting to look like AHCA plus God knows what is passing the House. If/when it does, calls to Rep offices can be national. Just say you’ll be donating to the opponent of a yes voter in 2018.

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize:

    Is this not a moment for a serious anti-corruption campaign. A trust busting movement that starts with unethical political behavior?

    Yes. Yes it is. And with the Trumps, it’s not even necessary to explain complex grift schemes; they’re open about it!

  16. 16.

    Waratah

    First questions from Grassley on leaks the most important one of all questions to him.

  17. 17.

    feebog

    Grassley is asking questions about an email from or to Loretta Lynch. Distraction and deflection all in the same question.

  18. 18.

    hovercraft

    @feebog:

    Huckelberry is providing cover for the Orange Shitgibbon.

    I know that the media will never stop saying that Collins, Huckleberry and McGrumpy are “moderates” , but can we at least stop acting as if they ever stand up to a republican party. They go on TV to express their concerns and then vote the party line. They get to pretend they aren’t party hacks while their actions show that’s exactly what they are. Russia is supposed to be the “hawks” biggest concern even more so than “Moolems” and yet they all fell right in line and accepted the legitimacy of the shitgibbon, and none of them are doing anything about making sure that there is a real investigation, they may make noises about their concerns but Huckleberry and his boss could be on TV 24/7 demanding an independent prosecutor to get to the bottom of this but they’re not. It’s all Kabuki.

  22. 22.

    hovercraft

    @Chris:
    Not just you, we have a party that has spent the last 40 years creating an alternate reality and it worked so well that the inmates took over the asylum and in order to survive the old minders have become as insane as the inmates. How do you run a country with a system that was built to force compromise, operate when half of it lives in a fantasy world. You can’t use facts because unless they conform to their delusions, they are just discarded as “liberal” propaganda. Experts are elitist and biased against them.
    Half of our electorate is broken. OK not half, but 43% at least.

  23. 23.

    SenyorDave

    @hovercraft: My hope is that this lack of push back from the GOP will continue to embolden them and they will go so far that even the goppers will have to take notice.

    Its a nice pipe dream, but I now believe this GOP would have turned this country in the 1930’s to the nazis in a heartbeat if they were allowed to be the puppet government. There is not a single person of integrity in the GOP congress. They are traitors, all of them.

  27. 27.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I agree — that is why it is a good moment. The defense to all the corruption is “I did nothing illegal,” as if that is what defines corruption. The campaign must start with a re-claiming of what is corrupt. It is intuitive to most people what is corrupt — it’s the stuff that they can’t do and not get in trouble. The answer to “It’s not illegal” is — the people who are corrupt have written the laws to protect their corruption.

    This could work.

  29. 29.

    Immanentize

    @Major Major Major Major: Luckily for everyone, the President does not have a say in this matter — the Courts do. State Courts as well as Federal Courts

    ETA — The executive order could allow certain agencies to consider “religious belief” as a basis but only as far as Hobby Lobby has already allowed.

  30. 30.

    Immanentize

    @schrodingers_cat: Josh Marshal says that if they had the votes, they would rush it to the floor immediately lest anyone waiver. And the Trump admin. is saying “as early as Saturday” so I surmise so far not enough votes.

  31. 31.

    Neldob

    Isn’t there a March in June for an investigation into Russian election interference?

  34. 34.

    hovercraft

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Sad how the crazy people who’ve been denied the “freedom” to discriminate against you are also watching this anxiously.
    As Trump prepares order on religious liberty, Pence’s credibility with evangelicals is at stake

    NASHVILLE — As evangelicals gathered here last week, expectations were high about the upcoming announcement of an administration executive order on religious liberty. But so were anxieties.

    Christian author Rod Dreher made no effort to hide his skepticism about President Trump. “I don’t think he cares about the thing that matters most to us, and that is religious liberty,” Dreher said from the stage.

    The marriage of evangelicals to Trump, Dreher added, will not end well. “I think it’s going to be a bitter harvest for us,” he said.

    No one seems to know what Trump’s executive order will say, because it has been so closely held by Vice President Mike Pence and a few aides. A draft version that was leaked to the Nation magazine soon after the inauguration was broadly worded to create “wholesale exemptions [from anti-discrimination statutes] for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity,” according to the magazine.

    But there is reason for religious conservatives — including Pence, a deeply conservative Christian — to worry about how the final version will read. The president’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are more aligned with gay, lesbian and transgender groups on the issue. In fact, some observers believe the leak to the Nation was orchestrated by someone in Jared and Ivanka’s orbit to sabotage the process

    “The Jared and Ivanka thing, that’s real,” said one congressional aide.

    One Senate aide said the rumor on Capitol Hill was that “President Jared has it on hold. … I haven’t seen any evidence that Pence has the pull to trump Jared.”……………..

    I guess for just this one time I’m rooting for Lucretia and Jared to influence Twitler. But I really hate these people each and every one of them. Apparently Dense sees this as an opportunity to redeem himself after he was forced to back down in Indiana.

  35. 35.

    hitchhiker

    I have to say, if I were just a random noob to politics watching this, my takeaway at this point would include the observation that the Democrats are fucking fossils.

  37. 37.

    Mike J

    Carlos Curbelo ‏Verified account @carloslcurbelo 5 minutes ago
    I just reiterated to @HouseGOP leaders that #AHCA in its current form fails to sufficiently protect Americans with pre-existing conditions

    Curbelo shows up on most whip counts as “lean no”, not “confirmed no”.

  38. 38.

    James Powell

    @Immanentize:

    Luckily for everyone, the President does not have a say in this matter — the Courts do. State Courts as well as Federal Courts

    Unluckily for everyone this president and the current ruling party have demonstrated that they are brazen in their disregard for all political norms and, from time to time, the constitution and laws of the nation. They will do whatever they like and anyone who objects can spend the next two or three years winding their way from wherever they started to the US supreme court which may well have another RWer by the time the case gets there.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @hovercraft: I’ll believe Javanka have a “moderating” influence on Twitler when they are actually successful in stopping him from doing an awful thing he proposes. So far, nada — the only brakes on his awfulness have been the courts and citizen uprisings that frighten the GOP.

  40. 40.

    hovercraft

    Speaking of “leaks”

    Trump Was ‘Directly Involved’ In Hunt For Rogue National Park Service Retweeter

    President Donald Trump was “directly involved” in the hunt for whoever retweeted a comparison of the crowds at his and President Barack Obama’s inaugurations to the National Park Service’s official Twitter account, according to internal emails.

    Trump was “concerned” about the post, according to an email obtained by CBS through a Freedom of Information Act request.

    “Obviously, this has become a very sensitive issue, especially since the President has gotten directly involved and contacted Acting Director Mike Reynolds concerned about one of the images that was retweeted,” the agency’s digital strategy chief Tim Cash wrote on Jan. 21 in an email to National Park Service chief information security officer Shaun Cavanaugh.

    CBS also obtained a memo indicating the agency “suspected that this incident was an accidental cross-posting from a personal Twitter account,” a mishap which it said “has happened on multiple occasions in the past with other NPS social media accounts.”

    The National Park Service apologized a day after Trump’s inauguration in January for retweeting an unflattering photograph comparing Trump’s crowd size to Obama’s in 2009………….

    No wonder presidenting is so hard, trying to keep track of who is sending out tweets that contain information that makes you look bad is hard and exhausting.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Major Major Major Major: And the ACLU is already teed up to get it blocked in Federal court. You’d think even the dimmest of bulbs like our Vice President would have burned enough of his fingers doing this over and over in Indiana that he would finally learn. Unfortunately he’s not capable of that.

  42. 42.

    tobie

    @hitchhiker: I’m at work today, so can’t watch. Are the Dems ‘fossils’ because they’ve visibly older than Republicans, stone silent, or ineffectual in their questions? Just want some clarification…

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    @hitchhiker: They are. So are the repubs. That is why the idea that Liz Warren and Bernie S. — maybe even Joe Biden — ought to be our standard bearers in 2020 makes me so nuts. And I am an old.

    ETA — I am a HUGE Warren fan and would walk on glass to support her, but I think she probably is best off in the Senate for the rest of her career.

  47. 47.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    But I thought they said that the reason he’s “been more presidential” is because of their moderating influence, it’s because of the that the WH isn’t in full Breitbart mode. Do you mean to say that their PR department, I mean the media lied about their influence?

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: Unless he’s going to formally call the House back into session, nothing is going to happen if it doesn’t happen by Thursday at 4 PM EDT or so. They’re scheduled to go back into recess and I don’t see them sticking around just in case.

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    @manyakitty: I used to teach at the lawschool in Texas where Cornin got his degree — St. Mary’s University School of Law. He was widely regarded as one of the stoopidist graduates and people wondered how he managed to pass the bar. Your Senate at work!

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks, Adam, did not know that. Then the administration is either talking out their ignorant asses or they already are planning to pass for a while. This is not a binary choice.

  53. 53.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Immanentize:

    The executive order could allow certain agencies to consider “religious belief” as a basis but only as far as Hobby Lobby has already allowed.

    Allowed, yes. Mandated, no. It’s an extreme instruction to the relevant powers.

  55. 55.

    D58826

    Comey is justifying the Oct. memo on the basis of ‘what if they had found something?’.

    I thought at the time and still think there are a couple of ways it could have played out.
    1. Say nothing/find nothing – no harm no foul no matter who wins the election.
    2. say nothing before the election but find something and announce it after the election
    a. if Trump wins then again no harm no foul
    b. if Hillary wins there were three options:
    (1) she resigns under pressure and kane becomes POTUS
    (2) congress impeaches and kane become POTUS
    (3) she servers but her presidency is crippled from day 1.
    3. say some/but find nothing and tip the election to Trump
    4. say something and find something is just a variation of option 2

    The point is if option 2.b happens the system has a way to self correct. If by saying something the election is tipped to Trump there is no do over. The system can’t self correct.

  58. 58.

    SatanicPanic

    @Immanentize: I don’t think this is a great idea. Kids today already think all of government is corrupt, I don’t want to reinforce that. That’s at least part of the reason we have President Orange Fart-bag.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: That’s what all the arm twisting is for. The House, and I think the Senate, goes out on recess for home district office work, starting Thursday evening. Once they come back they’re past the rules window time hacks that allow certain things to be done solely through reconciliation at the beginning of each Congressional term. So if it doesn’t get done in the next 30 hours or so it becomes structurally and temporally almost impossible to get it done. Is it possible they may still do a vote? Yes, but only if they’re sure they have the votes. Is it possible Ryan will try to hold the House in session beyond the adjournment on Thursday afternoon? Possible, but only if he thinks by doing so he can actually get the votes he needs to hold a vote. If he just holds the House in session passed the recess start in an attempt to twist arms he’s going to burn up a decent amount of whatever political capital he actually has with his caucus. Would the President call them back in to session? Possible, but doing so unless Ryan is sure he has the votes would also be counterproductive.

    I’m not being pollyannish. This could very well come to a vote and squeak through. But if it does it will not be an easy thing.

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    @SatanicPanic:

    Kids today already think all of government is corrupt, I don’t want to reinforce that.

    Kids today think that because there is so much evidence that it is true. The reinforcement would not come from fighting corruption, it comes from observing corruption. An anti-corruption movement is a good fight for young people because it is a version of “get off your cynical asses and take back control of this country.”

  62. 62.

    hitchhiker

    @tobie:

    Feinstein and Leahy were the people I was referring to. Specifically, Comey answered a Feinstein question about why he felt that he just HAD to inform the congress about re-opening the investigation with a statement that they found THOUSANDS of emails on Weiner’s laptop, some of which were classified, and which could have been the smoking gun that proved HRC’s intent to break the law. He was clear about how this stash came from her first months in office at State, and that this would have been the time she made the decision to break the law … he didn’t say at any point that they were all duplicates of things the FBI already had & which had already been dismissed vis a vis her “criminal intent.”

    I really wanted a followup from her, because the impression he left was that we still don’t know for sure.

    And then came Leahy, looking like he was about to go back to his room at the retirement center. Amy Klobuchar was a bright spot — clear, forceful, prepared.

  63. 63.

    ruemara

    @Major Major Major Major: Nah, I think they’ve had an inappropriate relationship. Not necessarily sexual, just over boundary lines and unhealthy. Even if she didn’t look at him that way, he looks at her that way and they’re both execrable human beings.

    @tobie: I’m guessing this is concerned ageism.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hovercraft: A lot of the problems we are facing are the result of penetration by the extremely wealthy. Doesn’t matter if it is the Kochs or Sheldon Adelson or Putin or a sovereign wealth fund from Dubai or the PRC’s princelings. Every piece of what we’re seeing on the open source side of this whole mess is about the money. And the way to understand it is to follow the money.
    https://zembla.vara.nl/dossier/uitzending/trump-business-partner-accused-of-involvement-in-dutch-based-money-laundering-scheme

  66. 66.

    Major Major Major Major

    @ruemara: they’re not mutually exclusive, but that’s not at all an uncommon expression for the type of person who leans heavily on their body for enrichment, as opposed to qualities that are relevant outside of sex work, such as competence. Though they say the most important quality in a sex worker is communication skills…

  67. 67.

    hovercraft

    @hitchhiker:
    The senate in spite o the fact that the media has tried to brainwash us all into thinking that they should be a bunch of young whipper snappers, is supposed* to be a slow deliberative body full of experience and steady hands. The House is supposed to be the dynamic branch where there is more turnover and new ideas, the senate is supposed to slow them down and resist impulsive changes to our laws. They get a six year term so that they can be less concerned about the next election. New blood is good, but the GOP is moving it’s so called bright young stars in simply as a platform to run for president, the Blah guy did it so why can’t their leading lights? Cotton, Ernst, Gardner, why not?
    Notice I said supposed.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @Villago Delenda Est: I think many of us are wondering if quite a few GOP reps and senators are also compromised themselves w/ Russia…I know they are already compromised just by knowing about Trumpov & Co’s collusion and ignoring it…but there are just too many connections w/ Russian money, businesses, and so on.

  69. 69.

    Immanentize

    @Cheryl Rofer: Agreed, a huge flaw. It goes like this — I (Comey) told the world in an inappropriate news conference that there was no evidence Clinton committed any crime. I did it in a way that suggested wrong doing and misfeasance, but hey, I exonerated her. Then, maybe something new was learned, so, I had to come out and say maybe all those aspersions were more right than I thought so I had to tell the world to wait for further information about her criminality because I really didn’t have anything at that time. Of course, I then told people there wasn’t anything different after we actually took the care to investigate, didn’t I?

  70. 70.

    hovercraft

    @D58826:

    ‘what if they had found something?’

    If that’s the basis for his Hillary bullshit, where was his what if bullshit letter on Twitler and his cohorts ties to Russia, this doesn’t pass the smell test.
    He is a hack pure and simple. He’s had it in for the Clinton’s for years and he couldn’t stomach that she/they were going to get away with… something again!

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You’d think even the dimmest of bulbs like our Vice President would have burned enough of his fingers doing this over and over in Indiana that he would finally learn. Unfortunately he’s not capable of that.

    “Stop hitting yourself”
    “Stop hitting yourself”
    “Stop hitting yourself”
    – Pence, in front of a mirror

  75. 75.

    SatanicPanic

    @Immanentize: How much evidence is there? The Trumps aren’t normal. They’re a level of corrupt that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. I hate for people to get the idea that they are representative.

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    @ruemara:

    Nah, I think they’ve had an inappropriate relationship. Not necessarily sexual, just over boundary lines and unhealthy. Even if she didn’t look at him that way, he looks at her that way and they’re both execrable human beings.

    Yes, yes, and yes. Hope they end up like Rasputin & Ilsa in HELLBOY (the movie), undone by what they have unleashed.

  78. 78.

    hovercraft

    @Adam L Silverman:

    investigation suggests that Bayrock siphoned off $1.5 million dollars by setting up a corporate structure in the Netherlands in 2007. In New York, Bayrock also stands accused of large-scale tax fraud. This incriminating information could place Donald Trump in an extremely difficult position, claims attorney F. Oberlander, who is prosecuting Bayrock on behalf of the State of New York: “The maximum jail term would be 30 years. So you’re in really serious trouble.”

    In 2005, Donald Trump became 18% owner of an hotel-condominium known as Trump SoHo. Bayrock, the other owner, is accused of perpetrating fraud on a grand scale through, among other things, Trump SoHo. According to US law, this means that Trump is jointly liable for Bayrock’s criminal activities. Oberlander concludes:
    “Anybody running a business through a pattern of crime is guilty of racketeering. Anybody knowing what they’re doing and are helping is guilty of racketeering conspiracy. They go to jail.”

    All Bayrock wants is to make clear to ZEMBLA that the Dutch corporate construction was established on the advice of an external legal counsel. ZEMBLA discovers that the firm in question is Bracewell & Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and part owner of the law firm at the time, is also a Trump confidante. ZEMBLA has access to correspondence between the law firm and the Dutch director of a trust company in Amsterdam, which leaves no doubt as to the ultimate beneficiary owners of the Dutch business construction: the director of Bayrock and the Khrapunov family from Kazakhstan………….

    This is why he will never ever willingly release his tax returns or fully disclose his companies finances, everything he does is steeped in corruption.

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    Q: the President just said, again, that it could have been anyone who hacked the DNC

    Comey: it was Russia

  83. 83.

    hitchhiker

    @Immanentize:

    The average age was climbing over time, with the exception of a big dip in the 1974 midterm election — a true throw the bums out moment, for obvious reasons. I think we might see something like that again in 2018.

    I don’t mean to say that people over 80 can’t work, but I’m 65 and I can remember 55 very well … big change. Things get harder. There are exceptions, or course, but the impression you get watching these people try to interrogate Comey is that they’re just not at the top of their game.

  84. 84.

    Oatler.

    Every time I check out the hearing on CSpan I hear a Repub trying to lead Comey into making an admission that journalists should be prosecuted for reporting.

  86. 86.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: As the Daily Beast did in a couple of articles from last year and early this year and and the WaPo did in an article just last week, what we’ve seen is about a 15 year effort by various Russian interests, all of whom tie back one way or another to Putin/the Russian government, to establish connections between Russian interests and movement conservatism (religious, business/economic, social, etc) and the GOP that serves as the host for movement conservatism. As well as even more extreme groups that are now being lumped under the alt-right label. The NRA? Check. Conservative Christians? Check. Pro business groups? Check. This is why you have the NRA sending a delegation to Russia. This is why you have Grassley taking pictures with Duma members at the National Prayer Breakfast. This hasn’t been done in the shadows, it has been done right out in the daylight. Business as usual. And when it comes to the politics component, now completely legal because of Citizens United.

  87. 87.

    JPL

    @Oatler.: I interpreted that differently. I thought that ?Sasse was trying to get Comey to admit that the blame was with the person who leaked.

    Also.. I just lost my feed what was the answer to Franken’s question?

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @AnonPhenom: No argument here. At all. I’ve been involved with training US military personnel to advise and assist partners in dealing with corruption. Someone always says we don’t have corruption like X in country Y. That’s the point where I basically say: we have corruption because everyone has corruption we just call it how we fund campaigns. And we’ve made it legal so we don’t lose sleep about it.

  89. 89.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I disagree with wholesale violence as a solution. It inevitably harms more of the innocent than the guilty… and sooner or later it rebounds on its instigators.

    Eliminationist rhetoric is an incitement to violence. David Neiwert has some very interesting essays on the phenomenon.
    http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/

  92. 92.

    hitchhiker

    @hovercraft:

    I know how the senate is supposed to work. I was just making a comment that if I were a political noob looking at this hearing, one takeaway would be that some of these elderly people don’t seem very sharp.

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Goku: I also think he is in favor of, at least, drumhead trials first. To keep up appearances.//

  96. 96.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Hey, Mike Pence is plenty smart! You can tell by his furrowed brow and constant expression of Neanderthal-like concentration.

  97. 97.

    D58826

    @hovercraft: OH I agree on Comey. He goes all the way back to the Starr ‘investigations’.

    My point is if he remained silent, i.e. the medical dictum first do no harm, and they did find something criminal there were several ways to remove a POTUS Clinton. But by opening his mouth he titled the playing field in Trump’s favor long enough for the GOP to win. There is no constitutional way to reverse that harm.

  98. 98.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I think you got my comment out of moderation. Thanks! I didn’t realize the tweet had that stupid number of links in it. I HATE this new twitter thing where everyone is linked in a reply.

  99. 99.

    Immanentize

    @manyakitty: I love both of them very much. In November, 2020 Franken will be 69 and Whitehouse 64. Not exactly the NOW generation.

    ETA — I think that is one reason that Macron is doing so well in the French election — even though he is really a centrist of the most ordinary kind, he was born in 1977!

  104. 104.

    Goku

    @H.E.Wolf: also tbh i think this may be unavoidable in the not too distant future. The future of the free world is at stake

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    a 15 year effort by various Russian interests, all of whom tie back one way or another to Putin/the Russian government, to establish connections between Russian interests and movement conservatism (religious, business/economic, social, etc) and the GOP that serves as the host for movement conservatism. As well as even more extreme groups that are now being lumped under the alt-right label. The NRA? Check.

    And one that has been very effective.

    I still don’t get how this kind of stuff from the NRA :

    Folks, our long nightmare, it may not be over. The fact is, it may be just beginning. Right now, we face a gathering of forces that are willing to use violence against us.

    Think about it. The leftist movement in this country right now is enraged. Among them and behind them are some of the most radical political elements there are. Anarchists, Marxists, communists and the whole rest of the left-wing Socialist brigade.

    Many of these people literally hate everything America stands for. Democracy. Free-market capitalism. Representative government. Individual freedom. They want to tear down our system and replace it with their collectivist, top-down, global government-knows-best utopia.

    And they’ve got money. Billions from George Soros to a vast network of leftist organizations.

    And they all have different agendas, complaints, motives for what they do. But they all share one thing in common. They are angry, they are militant and they are willing to engage in criminal violence to get what they want.

    didn’t ring some major alarm bells. It certainly warrants being pointed out by Dem leaders.

    I realize that it’s hard for the NRA to keep The Fear going out in the hinterlands when the GOP controls all 3 branches of government, but just, wow. Over and over, Wayne capital-P projects progressives as some sort of rabid, violent cult or something. That is some Alex Jones-level crazy time there. And from the head of an organization that in theory is about promoting responsible gun ownership and gun owners’ rights. Who knew there was an anti-Soros angle to be played there?

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: I do not use twitter to use twitter. I use twitter to source social media network data and information flows. So I have no idea how the reply functions works. All of that said: you’re welcome.

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That’s from the saltpeter Mother laces his food with.

    Let’s be honest: Pence is the kind of guy who would saltpeter it himself. He’d INSIST on it.

  111. 111.

    Yarrow

    @Immanentize:

    Is this not a moment for a serious anti-corruption campaign. A trust busting movement that starts with unethical political behavior? Isn’t that what at least some Trump voters (and Sanders voters as well) were really trying to articulate? That politicians do not work for their constituents, they work in their own self-interest. Forget economic anxiety, even the racism of the republicans is placed in the corruption frame — Democrats just give free stuff to those people? Anti-corruption campaigns have resonated in other countries. Brazil. Look at Slovakia today — a youth anti-corruption campaign.Is this not a moment for a serious anti-corruption campaign. A trust busting movement that starts with unethical political behavior? Isn’t that what at least some Trump voters (and Sanders voters as well) were really trying to articulate? That politicians do not work for their constituents, they work in their own self-interest. Forget economic anxiety, even the racism of the republicans is placed in the corruption frame — Democrats just give free stuff to those people? Anti-corruption campaigns have resonated in other countries. Brazil. Look at Slovakia today — a youth anti-corruption campaign.

    Saw this upthread and wanted to comment on it. I agree with you. I think an anti corruption campaign would get a lot of support. Maybe after indictments are handed out it might gain some momentum.

  113. 113.

    The Moar You Know

    That’s from the saltpeter Mother laces his food with.

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s fucked up in the best of ways, dude! First genuine laugh for my day, thank you for that. Gonna be giggling about that one for a while.

  117. 117.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jeffro: It’s all projection. Every last bit of it. There are no “left wing militias.” There are only rabid right wingers armed to the teeth but brainless to the max out there.

  121. 121.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: Read the comments in almost any thread, on any topic, here:
    http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/

    They quickly devolve into this stuff. LaPierre is just mirroring his base. He’s telling them the same things they say and believe. Validating it and them.

    LaPierre isn’t a gun guy. From everything I’ve read he can’t shoot to save his life – or at least he couldn’t, he may be able to now after over 20 years with the NRA. What LaPierre is, however, is a marketing and branding genius. The same sources all state the same thing: LaPierre turned himself, and the NRA, into what it is as a money making venture. But you should check out the literature from NAGR or GOA – they make the NRA’s stuff, including LaPierre at his most hyperbolic, seem tame.

    You can see some of the background, including the remarks on him being a salesman, not a shooter in this Frontline documentary on the NRA:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsrK6V9OcQM

  122. 122.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: Twitter recently changed the default reply function. Even if you don’t have a twitter account and just view a feed you can see the difference. There are more @ names at the top of a replied tweet. Previously a reply wouldn’t default to “reply all.” Now it does. You can see how it does that without being logged in.

    I saw users bitching about it when it happened and even read an article about how it has changed how twitter works. People don’t seem happy about it. I hadn’t tried to embed a tweet with so many @ names before. I should have looked more carefully. Next time I’ll just copy and paste.

  124. 124.

    The Moar You Know

    I realize that it’s hard for the NRA to keep The Fear going out in the hinterlands when the GOP controls all 3 branches of government

    @Jeffro: It’s not hard and your post points out how easy it is. I used to get all kinds of mail from them, the most fucked-up stuff they ever put out was when W had all three branches under his thumb and they’d let the “assault weapons ban” sunset. Clinton, Pelosi, Kennedy. They’re coming for your guns and to turn America gay. The rhetoric was unreal, totally over the top, and it worked. By now the “ammo shortage” is going on 15 years and counting, as buyers keep hoarding and grabbing anything they can get their hands on, as they’re convinced that the government is coming for their guns and ammo, but never did I see it as bad as in 2004, right before Bush won his second term. You couldn’t buy any caliber of ammo for any amount of money. The gun shows had become full on low-level riots at the ammo dealer’s table.

    They owe the Clintons, Pelosi, and Kennedy’s estate royalties, far as I’m concerned. They made so much money off those bogeymen.

    The NRA’s propaganda works very, very well.

    ETA: as Adam points out, go to a gun site and read the comments. You’ll probably spend the rest of your life huddled under your bed. There are a lot of bad-crazy people out there.

  126. 126.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Jeffro:

    And to be fair to Mother Pence, how would you like to see Big ol’ Mike and lil’ Mikey staring at you with a come hither look.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Villago Delenda Est: I call my aikido training weapons the arsenal of freedom. But I also call my big, yagyu ryu shinai (I have the largest one you could get) Winona. So what do I know…

  130. 130.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @The Moar You Know: The reason they can’t buy ammo is that the ammo manufacturers are defying the law of supply and demand to rake in the big bucks. They’re deliberately not increasing production to keep the prices high, knowing full well that the morans will blame Obama for it.

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Villago Delenda Est: I was making both a Star Trek the Next Generation (Arsenal of Freedom) and a Farscape (Winona) reference/joke.

    Yes, your recommendations would be more appropriate if I was into naming my weapons.

  134. 134.

    The Moar You Know

    The reason they can’t buy ammo is that the ammo manufacturers are defying the law of supply and demand to rake in the big bucks. They’re deliberately not increasing production to keep the prices high, knowing full well that the morans will blame Obama for it.

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yep. They started this the day Obama won his first term and have never stopped. I am considering dumping all of my 5.56 rifles and getting replacements in some of the more oddball/underused calibers (30-06 seems like a good idea) just because maintaining my small target shooting inventory is getting to be a real pain in the ass. When I’ve got to go to four different stores to find .22LR I know goddamn well that’s not the result of natural buying patterns by the public.

  135. 135.

    Betty Cracker

    @Keith G: I hate that motherfucker with the white hot heat of 10,000 suns and sincerely hope he has a household accident involving his testicles and a panini press someday.

  136. 136.

    D58826

    So according to Comey Huma would send Hillary’s e-mails to Weiner’s PC to print off. The FBI looked into trying to build a criminal case over that but decided not to proceed.

    Sure sound like they shook every tree, law book and legal tablet back to the Babylonians to find something to charge Hillary with.

    I wonder if Comey is more upset about Trumps winning or the fact that he could not prosecute Hillary?

  137. 137.

    Adam L Silverman

    @The Moar You Know: SGAmmo.com. Stuff is always in stock, good quality. They don’t rip you off. It is where I get my ammo for quarterly tactical training. They’ve always got a variety of .22lr.

  138. 138.

    The Moar You Know

    SGAmmo.com. Stuff is always in stock, good quality. They don’t rip you off. It is where I get my ammo for quarterly tactical training.

    @Adam L Silverman: Why thank you, good sir! Now for the exciting part…DO THEY SHIP TO CA? I’m about to find out.

  139. 139.

    Chris

    @Jeffro:

    Many of these people literally hate everything America stands for. Democracy.

    We’re not a democracy, we’re a republic. Didn’t those twits get the memo?

  140. 140.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:

    a household accident involving his testicles and a panini press someday.

    I think that would cause anyone to long for Lorena Bobbitt .

  141. 141.

    Adam L Silverman

    @D58826: What they needed to do was 1) determine if the emails were ones previously reviewed and 2) if not was there anything problematic at all and if there was was it spillage (accidentally/unintentional passing of classified information) or a violation of the rules and laws for handling classified info. They determined that the answer to question 1 is no. What Senator Graham was blathering about, and which he should know, but doesn’t seem to, is that anything that made it to Weiner was likely spillage.

  142. 142.

    hovercraft

    @D58826:
    Definitely that he couldn’t prosecute Hillary.

    They are Ahab and the Clintons are the whale, they did manage to impeach him, but he became more popular, he didn’t have to slink off into obscurity like Trick Dick did, and she went on to become a senator then SoS, and then run and almost win the presidency, while Shrub is buried out in the Dallas suburbs as he tries to rehab his image. The Clinton’s have remained in their faces, every time they think they’ve finally gotten them, they reinvent themselves, why won’t they just die already?
    The world looks back at the Lewinsky affair and sees it as a partisan witch hunt, and now his behavior during the election is a huge blemish on his record, he thought that he’d finally gotten her, but once again she walks away unscathed, yes he stopped her from getting elected, but many people see him not as an honest broker but as one of the villains of the campaign. He has to live with that. So do the rest of us as agent orange destroys everything he touches.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    Did he explain anything? Probably not,right?

    My fear is this ends up in the “unknowable” category which we now use for just about everything: “no one knows what happened and no one will ever know, so just pretend it didn’t happen”

    Can we have an investigation with a conclusion and findings?

  147. 147.

    JGabriel

    Betty Cracker @ Top:

    Is anyone watching them? Will any government office hold them accountable? Or is this just the way we do things in America now — this gang of tacky-ass grifters can just hijack our institutions for their personal gain, and no one even notices?

    Nixon, Agnew, Reagan, Bush 1, Gingrich. Delay, Hastert, Bush 2, Cheney, McConnell, Ryan, Trump …

    I think maybe it’s not so much the way we do things in America now as it is the way Republicans have been doing things in America since at least 1967.
    ______

    Edited to Add: Actually, I suppose people still noticed and did something about it in the era of Nixon and Agnew – so I guess it’s the way Republicans have been doing things only since 1980.

  148. 148.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro: Here’s NAGR’s website:
    https://www.nationalgunrights.org/

    If you sign up for email from them they share their email lists with Senator Paul and Congressman Massie. They also have a state level org/subsidiary you’ll get daily hyperbolic spam from every day in addition to from NAGR main. Here’s a sample from one of last week’s NAGR emails:

    Without the IMMEDIATE support of good folks like you, we’ll come up short.

    Since we launched the FRONTLINE DEFENDER monthly contributor program, tens of thousands of Second Amendment supporters have signed up.

    But now we’re in danger of falling short of our April membership goal.

    Members needed 391
    Adam L, won’t you please help us reach our goal by signing up as a FRONTLINE DEFENDER monthly contributor today?

    The truth is, no one will play a bigger role in protecting our Second Amendment rights over the coming months than FRONTLINE DEFENDER monthly contributors.

    FRONTLINE DEFENDERS’ monthly support ensures the National Association for Gun Rights can:

    1) RESPOND TO ANY ANTI-GUN THREAT AT A MOMENT’S NOTICE.

    Legislative fights move fast in today’s Washington, D.C. But the money it takes to mobilize the millions of Americans necessary to win legislative fights can take weeks to raise!

    FRONTLINE DEFENDERS’ monthly support ensures I’m always ready for whatever the gun-grabbers in Congress — or your state legislature — throw at us;

    2) LAY LONG-TERM PLANS FOR VICTORY.

    Anyone who’s ever run a business knows it’s flat-out impossible to plan for the future without having any idea of future resources.

    Knowing I have a solid base of support from month-to-month not only helps the National Association for Gun Rights better stand up to anti-gun assaults, but also helps me lay the groundwork to take back freedoms we’ve lost over the years;

    3) STAND UP TO THE GUN-GRABBERS’ BILLIONS.

    With the media, politicians in BOTH parties and BILLIONAIRES like George Soros and Michael Bloomberg all on their side, gun-grabbers start off with some huge advantages.

    But thousands of FRONTLINE DEFENDERS — giving $10 or $25 a month — helps create a snowball effect enabling you and me to make a “big money” impact, which can be absolutely critical during election years like 2016.

    If you were still on the fence, please act right away.

    The deadline to sign up and be automatically entered to win the Beretta A300 Outlander shotgun is tomorrow at midnight!

    Please click here to access our secure FRONTLINE DEFENDER sign up page >>

    Sincerely,

    National Association for Gun Rights staff

    click here to sign up
    as a FRONTLNE DEFENDER

    The National Association for Gun Rights is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, single-purpose citizens’ organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the Constitutionally protected right-to-keep-and-bear-arms through an aggressive program designed to mobilize public opposition to anti-gun legislation. The National Association for Gun Rights’ mailing address is P.O. Box 7002, Fredericksburg, VA 22404. They can be contacted toll-free at 1-877-405-4570. Its web address is http://www.NationalGunRights.org/

    Not produced or e-mailed at taxpayer expense.

    To help the National Association for Gun Rights grow, please forward this to a friend.

    To view this email as a web page, please click this link: view online.

  149. 149.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: This is happening. It’s classified and happening behind closed doors. When indictments are handed out we’ll know more.

  150. 150.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    LaPierre turned himself, and the NRA, into what it is as a money making venture.

    Essentially, Trump, but more competent and more patient.

    He milks the rubes over the long term, not just a one time scam and run.

  151. 151.

    TenguPhule

    @Yarrow:

    It’s classified and happening behind closed doors. When indictments are handed out we’ll know more.

    With only a renegade AG and the House and Senate Committee heads standing in the way.

    I don’t like those odds.

    We need new odds.

  153. 153.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I’m working so haven’t watched it, but my husband is in the other room watching it, and he’s cursing a lot. Comey is a smug, preening asshole, apparently!

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: The AG has recused himself. The CI investigation, as opposed the the Federal criminal investigations, are completely compartmented within the FBI’s National Security Section and being done by career investigators, analysts, and prosecutors. And NY State AG Schneiderman is running his own investigations, which can’t be interfered with by the US AG.

  156. 156.

    Betty Cracker

    @JGabriel: I despised Reagan and the Bushes, but I don’t believe they sank low enough to use U.S. government assets as a platform to hawk their tacky-ass wares. They relied on bid-rigging and shell corporations, which is much more dignified.

  157. 157.

    TenguPhule

    @Immanentize:

    Is this not a moment for a serious anti-corruption campaign. A trust busting movement that starts with unethical political behavior?

    No, its not.

    The name of the game is simply survival at this point. The Democrats can’t afford to lose any seats or governorships anywhere. Hold your nose and pull that lever.

    “Vote for the crook, its important.”

  158. 158.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The AG has recused himself.

    And we should believe him because? We both know there are ways to influence an investigation without officially being part of it.

    The CI investigation, as opposed the the Federal criminal investigations, are completely compartmented within the FBI’s National Security Section and being done by career investigators, analysts, and prosecutors.

    The same FBI riddled with partisan Republican traitors. And we don’t know who they are or where they are.

    And NY State AG Schneiderman is running his own investigations, which can’t be interfered with by the US AG.

    Now this appears to be most promising, but enforcement of any indictments is gonna be a copperplated bitch.

  161. 161.

    JGabriel

    @Betty Cracker:

    I despised Reagan and the Bushes, but I don’t believe they sank low enough to use U.S. government assets as a platform to hawk their tacky-ass wares. They relied on bid-rigging and shell corporations, which is much more dignified.

    LOL’d! Danke.

  163. 163.

    Soprano2

    It’s amazing to me how the news about Ivanka’s fund sank beneath the waves with barely a wimper from the press. All she had to do was say that the World Bank would be involved, and the whole Beltway press said “OH, never mind then” and completely ignored it. Imagine if Michelle Obama had tried to do such a thing – the howling would have been epic!!

  165. 165.

    D58826

    OT but looks like there is now a third ,or is it 4th WH –
    will soon bid adieu to his favorite hangout, Mar-a-Lago, while it closes for the summer season after Mother’s Day.

    As Politico first reported, Trump will likely replace trips to the “winter White House” with visits to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. According to a Federal Aviation Notice spotted by the Palm Beach Post, the president is planning on residing there as early as this weekend after a quick trip to New York City.

    Before the federal government decides to officially promote the golf club (like it did with Mar-a-Lago), we rounded up a few photos and facts about the president’s new favorite escape.

    And just in time for Melania/Barron to move into the WH.

    BUT Hillary didn’t say e-mails yesterday and she did not burn herself at a stake after a ritual tar and feathering

    hmmm the quotes didn’t go in the correct place(sigh)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/one-of-trumps-golf-clubs-might-become-the-summer-white-house_us_5908df5be4b0bb2d08729314?jrp&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

  168. 168.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t think all the Republicans in the FBI willing to tank an investigation are limited to New York. I suspect, given what I know of their office culture that there’s a strong possibility that the taskforce has at least one (but probably more) moles who can damage that investigation to the point where it fizzles into a nothingburger.

  169. 169.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: The folks in the National Security Section are a very different breed than those in the field offices.

  172. 172.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: Yes. That means they’re looking at the Russian organized crime components. Felix Sater, Bayrock, etc. He also announced in response to questions from Democratic senators, without saying it explicitly, that there is an ongoing investigation into the NY Field Office, Giuliani, and Kalstrom.

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