Things happened fast last night. When Comey was first fired, even the saintly Lindsey Graham was praising the decision, Greta Van Sustern from the liberal MSNBC network was too, and there was a WaPo article from The Fix (now gone) explaining with this was a smart move for Trump. Then the subpoena story broke and by this morning everyone was calling for a special prosecutor.
I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet, though, not by any means. Republicans can still get their talking points straight in terms of defending the firing and get to work on confirming a stooge who will end the investigation. That’s still Trump’s plan:
.@RosieGray Just now: a source close to the president tells me Giuliani is 100% in consideration for the position.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) May 10, 2017
I don’t think Giuliani could get confirmed, I’m not quite that cynical. But it will be interesting to see just how much of a stooge Trump nominates.
Update. This is in Anne Laurie’s post too but it bears repeating:
President Donald Trump weighed firing his FBI director for more than a week. When he finally pulled the trigger Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t call James Comey. He sent his longtime private security guard to deliver the termination letter in a manila folder to FBI headquarters.
He had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia.
It’s on the record that Trump fired Comey to stop the Russia investigation. Full stop.
rikyrah
Eh. We will see.
Yoda Dog
Dude, where’s my country?
Baud
Baud! 2020!
Elizabelle
I don’t see Giuliani being confirmed either. But it would be a nasty and demoralizing thing to do. Cleek’s Law. Is the rule of the land.
EBT
He can still get anyone he wants into any position he wants. The line MIGHT be drawn at say, putting gorka in to FBI Director, but anything short is 100% foregone conclusion yes.
Baud
@EBT: No, he’s had nominees who had to withdraw. I wouldn’t say it’s a foregone conclusion.
Hunter Gathers
Is Bernie Kerik available? The ghost of John Mitchell? Lionel Hutz, Esq.?
EBT
@Baud: Most of them withdrew because they didn’t want to stop being spoiled rich CEOs though right? Besides the homophobic army guy.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
That’s Bannon. Gray’s boyfriend is Bannon stooge Eli Lake.
But confirmation hearings would be fun – grilling Giulianni on why he used public funds on his mistress, his contacts with mobbed up Bernard Kerik, his representation of Iranian money launderer Reza Zarrab, etc.
Shalimar
Giuliani is pretty clearly a stalking horse to win back the news cycle and make the actual eventual nominee seem more palatable. No idea who he really nominates, but it has to be someone loyal if his goal is to control the investigation.
dr. bloor
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
We’re totally fucked, dude.
Booger
Robert Bork?
Baud
@EBT: I think his Labor nominee withdrew because of general ickiness.
Patricia Kayden
When you guys say that you don’t see Giuliani being confirmed, what do you mean? Republicans will do anything to further their agenda and what makes you think that McConnell won’t push through Giuliani’s confirmation in the same manner that he pushed through Gursuch? All that stands between Giuliani and confirmation is a filibuster and McConnell has shown that he has no problem getting rid of filibusters.
The bigger question is whether or not Republicans will be shamed into allowing the appointment of a special prosecutor. Maximum pressure must be applied by Democrats and we the public to make sure that that happens. No way can we trust Republicans to investigate themselves in regard to this Russian mess.
Kay
This will directly harm Trump’s base as much as the health care roll-back. Lower income white people in the rust belt are hugely affected by draconian punishments for small-bore criminal activity.
Sessions is so wrapped up in his racist fantasy he ignores the reality of poor whites and criminal justice. Our “justice” system is fucking killing them. They’re fined and imprisoned and put on probation for years – one conviction and it takes years to recover.
Add this to the long and growing list of “Donald Trump screws his own voters”. Sessions wants to play to the base and he imagines they’ll cheer him cracking down on crime = cracking down on black people but there was “bipartisan” effort on criminal justice reform because the GOP figured out their base was caught in these nets.
Go to any muni court or felony court in a lower income (white) area and look around. They’re the grown children of Trump’s base. This sudden concern for young white men in the rustbelt who don’t work? It’s because we arrested them for the last 20 years. They are as much in this as any “urban” population.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Shalimar: This.
germy
Top story at Politico:
weaselone
He’d be confirmed, possibly by a vote of 50 to 50 with Pence casting the tie breaker, but he’d get confirmed.
SFAW
@EBT:
My, aren’t WE optimistic?
If he thought he could get away with it — scratch that, he thinks he should be allowed to do whatever he wants. It would not surprise me if he nominated Lavrov or Kislyak or Kushner’s father or Conrad Black or Bernie Madoff or Barron or Radko Mladic. Of course, Lavrov and Kislyak already have better jobs than that, and Shitgibbon’s boss might not allow it anyway.
But I half-expect him to nominate Junior G-Man Louie Freeh. The requisite Clinton-hatred is there, he has experience in the job. A question is whether he has the (lack of) integrity to do the job, but I think his behavior last time shows he does.
Or Bernie Kerik! Now that would be an awesome choice!
ETA: Hunter Gathers seemed to have the same thought as I did re: Kerik, which makes me concerned for Hunter’s sanity
dr. bloor
@Kay:
Yeah, he’s not going after white folks, Kay.
Chet Murthy
I wonder whether it’d be a good thing to have a “march to save democracy”, and if so, whether/how it might happen.
Kay
@Shalimar:
If it’s him I’ll know it’s a cover-up. He deserves a much sleazier reputation than he has. He was in this up to his eyeballs and he’s been cashing in on “terror” since 9/11. Gross. A wholly corrupt human being.
Thoughtful David
Slightly OT, but has anyone noticed the almost complete disappearance of Jared since his St. Laurent of Arabia moment a few weeks ago? No appearances, no statements or anything else I’ve seen.
Kay
@dr. bloor:
If that were true the “zero tolerance” of the nineties wouldn’t have trickled down, and it did.
CarolDuhart2
@Chet Murthy: March for Truth, June 3rd.
There is going to a march in front of Trump Tower at 8:30 am today, and in front of the White House at 12 noon today.
Make it big. Make it Loud.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
FBI Director Bill O’Reilly
sdhays
@Patricia Kayden: The filibuster of administration appointees was removed by Harry Reid and the Democrats a few years earlier so that they could actually partially staff the Obama Administration after the McConnell Republicans went all in on blocking all nominees, regardless of their actual support.
I also don’t understand why honorary Klan member Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was able to be confirmed as AG but a former federal prosecutor and Mayor of New York wouldn’t be confirmed as FBI Director. He’s a piece of shit, of course, but that’s clearly not disqualifying for Senate Republicans…
Kay
@Thoughtful David:
I wonder if they’re starting to think of Jared and Ivanka as political liabilities. They are extremely touchy on the issues of nepotism and self-dealing. Trump seems to care about it. It gets under his skin.
germy
@dr. bloor:
I remember a few years back during election season, getting a campaign flyer in the mail from some judge running on the “independent” ticket (read: republican) and one of his bullet-point achievements/goals was something like “knowing the difference between a hardened criminal and a mixed-up kid who’d made a mistake” and I took it as a dog whistle to my republican neighbors that he’d lock up the Blacks and give their thuggish white kids a slap on the wrist.
Kay
Not that they follow what I say but if I were Democrats I would just keep hitting the theme that we need an explanation and an investigation. They look guilty as hell when they insist the whole thing should be shut down, as they did last night. That’s a loser.
SFAW
@sdhays:
Feature, not bug.
Only line needed on his resume’ (as far as the Rethugs are concerned).
Hunter Gathers
@Kay: It’s just more of the only currency that matters to White people – How Bad They Have It.
They wallow in that shit. It’s the only thing that brings them joy. Sure, their buddy Jimmy Jo Bob has it rough: shit job, divorce, lost his license due to DUI and his kids won’t talk to him anymore. But THEY have it worst of all: can’t afford a new luxury truck, house isn’t big enough, wife spends too much money and the kid’s in jail for dealing meth. And they all know who the real culprit is: niggers on welfare.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
I hear Joe Arpaio has a clear calendar these days.
Kay
@germy:
Right, but it isn’t a comparison in white areas. It’s just white kids. Then it’s “give the better-off white kids a slap on the wrist”.
germy
@Kay:
I don’t know… lately democrats have been sounding more and more like us balloon-juice commenters. It gives me hope.
Baud
@Kay: That’s what Schumer did yesterday.
Chet Murthy
@Hunter Gathers: hey, uh, maybe not use that word? I mean, “ni-clang!” works just as well?
sdhays
@Thoughtful David: Well, his family was recently in the news for selling green cards to Chinese investors, so maybe he’s been busy with that side of the business. He may be a super diplomat who will establish peace in the Middle East and reinvent government, but he’s still human.
Well, allegedly…
Edit: I just realized that this might be ambiguous. I mean to say that he’s allegedly human, not that his family was allegedly selling green cards. That’s just a fact.
bemused
@Yoda Dog:
That would be great on a t-shirt.
SFAW
@Kay:
Yeah, but if they don’t staff up in the white areas, who’s going to go after those po’ white kids in the first place? Which is how they roll — pay lip service, then make it impossible for real work to get done, via choking off resources.
Kind of a reverse of Ken Blackwell’s voting machine bullshit in 2004.
germy
@Kay:
True, when the parents are wealthier, the judges always seem more understanding. And of course, nowadays white drug addicted people are being portrayed as victims. A big difference from how addicted people of color were portrayed in the ’90s.
Betty Cracker
My internet and cable are down (supposed to get a service call today), so I missed the unfolding of the narrative. Gotta say I’m surprised anyone in the media, even dullards like Van Susteren or whichever hack wrote The Fix piece, could have thought this was a smart move. It may very well be Trump’s only play, but even a toddler should have been able to immediately grasp the political liabilities of it.
randy khan
@Kay:
I’m pretty confident that any crackdown on drugs will be focused on the inner cities, so no worries for his base.
Kay
@Hunter Gathers:
They do know it’s harder for their kids than it was for them, though. They can do a direct comparison. Their kids are arrested and charged for shit they did and got away with. I’m amazed at some of the sentences- 30 days for trespassing. 30 days means you lose your job. That’s why you saw movement among conservatives on crim justice reform. Kasich reduced a whole class of crimes by executive order early in his first term.
TS
So the GOP are coming out to support Trump – funny about that – why did I think it would be any different – Lindsay Graham making out it was all reasonable, honest and above board. They would vote for satan if he promised them no taxes and no abortions.
dr. bloor
@Kay: Jeff Sessions wasn’t the ringmaster in the 90’s. Every resource at his disposal and every lever he can pull is going to be wholly committed to going after PoC. There are no checks or balances on the Executive anymore.
germy
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
But wouldn’t Sheriff Clarke add some much-needed diversity to the cabinet?
efgoldman
@Patricia Kayden:
If a little birdie whispers in his ear that Rudi 911 is on the verge of, or at risk for, indictment? Just because we don’t know for sure who’s being looked at by federal and NY state grand juries, doesn’t mean leaks won’t happen.
Even for this maladministration, an FBI head under indictment is several bridges too far.
Baud
@dr. bloor: Most of this stuff is still done at the state level.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yoda Dog: It’s on Dagobah.
Cheryl Rofer
A number of Republican congresscritters expressed “concern” last night and found yesterday’s events “troubling.” Others supported the firing. The thing to watch for today is which way the wind blows. The “troubled” and “concerned” statements left room for the critters to turn around. Two things can happen: they can reluctantly find administration justifications sufficient and turn, or those who didn’t speak last night (or even the supporters) can start turning to the “troubled” and “concerned” side.
I think there were five or six fence-sitters. Burr and Amash, as I recall, seemed more than “troubled” and “concerned.” Let’s look for the predominant direction of movement today.
ETA: I see Jennifer Rubin mentions Sasse, Burr, Lankford, McCain. With Amash, that’s five.
sdhays
@TS:
They don’t care about abortions. They care about punishing people who have them. It’s not the same thing.
dr. bloor
@Baud: Point taken, but with respect to Trump’s base and where they live, that reinforces my larger point.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Interesting way to spell “Russia.”
Baud
@dr. bloor: It’s a potential opportunity for Dems. I guess we’ll see how serious the drug legalization movement really is.
SFAW
@sdhays:
I might expand that group to be “wimmins having unapproved sex.” Or have the Rethugs suddenly decided that birth control is OK by them? [Not “FREE FREE FREE birth control,” just the implementation means for it (pill, IUD, whatever. About the only method they might be OK with is the Dalkon shield.]
Chet Murthy
@Baud: Gotta say, I don’t think it plays that way. Instead, it’ll be the old “irregular verb” game:
I/my kids have tragic issues we need help with.
You’re weak and need a firm hand to keep you on the straight and narrow.
They (usu. poc) are hardened criminals.
My understanding is that federal guidelines often are about uniform-izing state procedures and norms. So esp. with KKKeebler Elf in charge at the fed level, I can’t see the states enforcing drug statutes equally on all races of defendants. Just don’t see it.
TS
@sdhays:
They care about punishing women who want to have an abortion. Forcing them to have a child is their dream.
efgoldman
@dr. bloor:
If Evil Leprechaun actually rolls back charging/sentencing guidelines, there will be reporting metrics required of AUSAs about how many arrests made in their district, how many charged with x crime, how many pled, how many jury trials, outcomes….
The rules and reporting will be the same in W Va as in Chicago.
Not that I don’t think prosecution and incarceration of minorities isn’t Evil Leprechaun’s desire – of course it is. Only that the unforeseen consequence of hoovering up rural white assholes will also occur.
Patricia Kayden
@dr. bloor: I assume that was how we got into the situation where Black drug dealers/possessors were punished more harshly than White drug dealers/possessors in the first place. Drugs mostly used/possessed by Blacks (i.e., crack cocaine) attached to harsher punishments than drugs used/possessed by Whites (i.e., heroine). I don’t see why Sessions couldn’t figure out how to ensure that Blacks will be targeted for harsher punishment for drug possession/selling like back in the good old days.
Chet Murthy
@SFAW:
FTFY. Read lots of screeds arguing that contraceptives are really abortifacients.
Patricia Kayden
@efgoldman:
Can Sessions get rid of the reporting metrics? If yes, he’ll go full steam ahead with bringing back the days when sentencing disparities between Blacks and Whites were the norm. No doubt that’s what he’s aiming for.
Thoughtful David
@sdhays: I don’t doubt for a moment that the frat-boy isn’t in the background doing evil shit. I just think it’s telling that he became invisible immediately after the public humiliation from around the world.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Which will get “misplaced” or ignored or hand-waved away, for areas of a certain complexion. As anti-science, anti-empirical-evidence as the RWNJs have been, they have repeatedly demonstrated that they only want to see things that confirm their unhinged beliefs.
sdhays
@Thoughtful David: You’re probably right.
Hunter Gathers
@Kay:
And that’s as dead as disco. White Boomers see the culture as too permissive. We have to Get Tough. Besides, if their kids go to jail, it just gives them something to cry about, especially at church.
I’m smack dab in the middle of rural, White, ‘Real’ america. I’m debating on whether or not to eat 10 grand and sell the house to get my son away from the degenerate rural culture. If I don’t, the odds of him turning into another yokel getting drunk in the Wal-Mart parking lot are fairly high. Rural America is in the process of self-immolation. I refuse to see myself and my family become collateral damage in a meth fire.
Thoughtful David
@SFAW: It’s Cyrilic.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS:
No, watching that child starve to death is their dream.
SFAW
@Chet Murthy:
You might do a quick read on the Dalkon shield.
Outside of that, I agree re: the aspirin-between-the-knees.
Ohio Mom
Geez, I don’t think I’d disagree with an attorney from a rural rust belt area on whether or not white people are ever busted on drug/ DUI charges. Even here in Cincinnati, where there are plenty of AAs, some poor whites (usually but not always of Appalachian descent) get caught up in the criminal justice system.
SFAW
@Thoughtful David:
Cyril who? I haven’t seen that name (much) since Cyril Ritchard.
Jeffro
1) This is absolutely awesome – the only story, the ONLY one between now and Nov 2018 is the Russia story. There’s no way around it. I don’t care how much Trumpov screams at the TV, it’s not going away. “Subpoenas” and “indictments” = music to my ears.
2) And remember folks, no matter what turns up about Russia…at least half of what Trumpov & Co. end up going down for will be the efforts to cover it all up.
3) Finally, w/ Giuliani: there’s a pretty good chance that he will be one of the folks who get indicted here. He was colluding with the folks colluding w/ Russia to take Hillary down; he’s also got Russian money connections.
No worries here…it is the beginning of the end, hallelujah! Day 110.
Applejinx
@Shalimar:
Not at all. If this is all being orchestrated from Russia using Trump as a sort of demented puppet, with certain totally compromised or Putin-loyal people managing things, then the goal is not to establish a powerful Trump regime. It’s to get Trump careening around like a wrecking ball, destroying as many American institutions as possible: to accomplish that they can have Trump do just about anything.
They might have ‘Morning Joe and Mika’: they seem like weak people who could be run by bullies and thugs. They definitely have a bunch of Republicans. The patterns to watch for are not so much ‘setting up a powerful regime’ as ‘disrupting American institutions and making us look like ridiculous dumbasses’. It doesn’t have to be a coherent endgame. We are not Russia. We don’t have to be left in an effective strategic position. You think Putin wants to be just-barely controlling a powerful and effective puppet? That’s stupid. He doesn’t want Trump to retain power over the long run. He wants Trump to demolish our country and then flame out.
Chet Murthy
@SFAW: Yep, I understood the reference. Just noting that it isn’t the use of contraception that they wanna punish. It’s the being-a-wanton-harlot.
germy
@Ohio Mom:
Dolphins caught in a tuna net. The tuna being people of color.
Thoughtful David
@Applejinx: This.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
.Well sounds like Donny got control in the worst possible way, didn’t he.
Oldgold
I think the North Koreans should be on red alert.
Shalimar
@Thoughtful David: Jared Kushner always keeps a low profile. I haven’t noticed any overt Jared propaganda in the last few weeks, which I assume means that meeting really happened with Jared and Bannon telling them to stop sabotaging each other in the press.
As for Jared speaking, on anything, John Oliver had a long segment on Jared and Ivanka a few weeks ago. The only media clip he could find anywhere of Jared Kushner speaking was from 8 years ago. As Oliver asked, do you even know what Jared’s voice sounds like?
hovercraft
@Baud:
So long as you treat pizza better than your predecessor, you can be our savior!
efgoldman
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m not saying that metrics can/will, without demands from the top, change or enforce an urban black/rural white disparity. I’m saying that metrics based on numbers measure an ADA’s production (they have to do it somehow.) That being the case, as a consequence of increasing numbers/production, inevitably they’re going to grab more rural whites, too. By the time the numbers get to whatever office in DC manages the AUSAs adminsitrativly, they won’t be black or white, they’ll just be quantity.
JMG
So when does or even will James Comey speak in public? That might be of interest.
hueyplong
Lindsey didn’t even have the common courtesy to pretend to have the vapors before falling in line. I wish someone he respects would tell him that we already know the subject matter of his kompromat and that’s not the reason we despise him
Baud
@Jeffro: I tend to agree.
Ohio Mom
@Hunter Gathers: Might be either ten grand now or ten grand later in attorney and other fees. My kid’s first daycare provider had to take out a second mortgage to keep her kid out of jail, between the lawyers and pyschologists they sent him to as proof he was working hard to straighten out on his own.
Interestingly, she wondered if the fact that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses was a causal factor. Pretty strict set of rules, no birthday parties, no team sports.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden:
To be honest, Sessions doesn’t have to do a damn thing to ensure that outcome. It is the American default.
ETA: to clarify, doing nothing at all to counteract the natural tendencies of the American prosecutor/jury
Yoda Dog
@SFAW: Oh shit. Get it? Cuz I’m a russian troll… Obviously, cant you see it, ozark?
Fuck you, my friend. Im going back to playing with kids here in Raleigh fucking North Carolina. Not everyone who doesnt post here everyday or hasnt posted for 20 years is a goddamn russian spy.
Kay
One of the things that gives me hope is Team Trump don’t control the other actors in this alliance. Comey said during his last testimony that Putin “hated” Clinton and hinted that was the justification for the interference. I thought the language was weird, to personalize it like that. It’s diminishing, really, to present this as some narrow motive. It also doesn’t make sense, just on the facts we know. We know they also interfered in France. Was that a personal beef too?
We know they also interfered in congressional elections. What was the motive there? Surely not just “hatred” of the she-devil.
But they don’t control all the actors and so it is more likely than not that there will be interference in the next election and then how do they defend not investigating it? It will happen again and Mr. America First will be again insisting nothing happened.
Trump wants what he wants but these other actors? They want something too. They got what they wanted in ’16. No reason they shouldn’t go after more.
SFAW
@Chet Murthy:
Yes, which I noted. But I would not put it past them to push a contraceptive device which actually harms those harlots.
I imagine that we are in violent agreement
Starfish
@Thoughtful David: Jared has been in China selling immigration visas to rich people. What are you talking about?
LurkerNoLonger
Trump couldn’t have handled this any worse if he had tattooed Cover Up! on his fat, white ass.
Shalimar
@Applejinx: The tell is “Giuliani is 100% in consideration”. They lie about everything and this is part of the pattern. Lots of people were 100% in consideration for positions during the transition, including at least 4 I can think of for State. Then they finally announce people who weren’t even on the radar, like Tillerson.
My guess is the nominee will be some sheriff from bumfuck county Montana that Trump saw on FoxNews 4 months ago. He seems to get a lot of his bizarre choices based on their FoxNews appearances.
Chet Murthy
@SFAW:
Ha! You mean like “abortion causes cancer”? Indeed we are in agreement.
D58826
When asked, on camera, about the Comey firing the Sec. of State and the Russian foreign minister laughed it of as a big joke.
And then they were off to the WH for Trump’s monthly status report to Vlad
D58826
@Shalimar: Well Sheriff Clarke is looking for a job in DC.
OzarkHillbilly
@Hunter Gathers:
Your son will take his cues from you. I raised mine in such a culture (which was heart and soul in their soon to be convict mother’s home) and they both turned out to be exceedingly fair minded honest young men. Better men than I, and yes I am bragging when I say that. Of course, they both decided to get the fuck out of here as soon as they could, and did.
SFAW
@Yoda Dog:
I’m trying to figure out what I wrote to earn that response.
Well, I guess if one follows the replies back to the source, but ..
For what it’s worth, the “Russia” comment had nothing to do with you (as a commenter), it was more a comment that Putin’s Poodle is in the Oval Office, and there haven’t been too many policies implemented that would give Vlad heartburn.
There are plenty of trolls here, but I’ve never thought of you as one. I apologize for not writing more clearly and less ambiguously.
Ohio Mom
@germy: When I worked in a low-income Appalachian neighborhood back in the early 1980s, the youth service department of the community’s social work agency put out a periodic newsletter written and illustrated by the neighborhood’s teens.
One regular column was “News from the Farm,” which was letters from their friends serving time. As I recall, lots of tallying of how many reps they were up to in their workout routines.
Since the prison pipeline is so much stronger these days, I can only assume there are going to be a lot more “dolphins” caught. Also, unless you’ve lived in an area with lots of low-income urban Appalachians, you might not appreciate the low regard they are held in. Not saying it’s as bad as what Black people experience as a matter of course, but they are singled out.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay:
Consider Assagi and 4/Chan that’s part of this – trolls who just want to see the world burn.
Yoda Dog
@SFAW: Oh.. shit… my bad then… forget I said all that, I’ve always respected your commentary. I took that the wrong way, obviously.
Carry on, Wayne.
Shalimar
@D58826: If it weren’t for killing so many inmates by dehydration and other means, Clarke would be the no-doubt new FBI director. He practically is the most important law enforcement officer in the nation already if you get all your news from FoxNews. Whether the controversy and bad publicity is enough to cause Trump to pick someone else, who knows.
D58826
Painful watching ‘reasonable’ Gop Rep, Charlie Dent try and explain away what Trump did w/o either supporting it or criticizing it.
SFAW
@Yoda Dog:
OK, now I’m worried about your sanity. “Respected” is not an adjective that generally applies to me, here or otherwise.
But thanks … I think.
Chris
@sdhays:
One of the most revealing things Pat Robertson ever said was when he was asked about the one-child-policy in China and said basically that they were just doing what they had to do to keep their population under control.
Whether what he meant by that was 1) “good, fewer Chinese people in the world” or 2) “I really don’t care about unborn babies’ lives, this really is about being anti-women’s-choice” isn’t clear, but one thing’s for sure, he ain’t “pro life.”
sdhays
@Chris: Yep, that’s really the tell. And I think in Robertson’s case it’s 1 AND 2.
montanareddog
@Shalimar:
As long as he (and it will be a he) looks like a central-casting FBI Director. That, blind loyalty and ability to flatter seem to be the only selection criteria. Competence and honesty are, it goes without saying, irrelevant.
artem1s
The Russian thing is certainly the biggest part of this. But the whole narrative on firing because of the handling of the emails thing… That is grade A narcissism at work. Hillary was back in the news last week and cheered at an event she was speaking at. Obama got an award and the whole twitter verse and media was swooning over pictures of him and Michelle and all the wonderful celebrities who showed up. Ivanka is pretty much mocked and reviled whenever she bumbles into one of these canned meetings with foreign leaders. Twittler had to hide out at his golf course while TWO separate WHCDs raked him over the coals. His substitute rally barely drew a crowd and you can tell that high just isn’t doing it for him anymore.
I think there is a better than even chance that his panicked staffers and insiders rolled this out as a distraction to keep him from completely imploding. Only a complete legal and political neophyte could believe that this would make Russia go away. Only someone who was suffering from Stockholm’s and desperate to appease their abuser would come up with the handling of emails as an excuse to fire Comey. Reprimanding him publicly would have been the usual. Make him walk him back in public. No way does someone normally get fired over this. Was there talk about it anyway? Sure, but given his instability, I imagine just about everyone in his inner circle is on the long list of people whose heads must roll.
Just an hour or so before the firing I saw a re-tweet announcing that Twittler was going to release a recording of Hillary’s concession call. It included a screenshot of the caller ID coming from Huma’s phone number. What was that all about? What did she say to him that he believes would embarrass or damage her? This ‘saving Hillary’ by punishing Comey is a classic backhanded narcissistic attack. The staff offered up a way for him to appear magnanimous so he would feel better and stop the meltdown. He gets to look like the good guy, deflect blame of the hacked election onto Comey, and stick it to Hillary and Obama in the process. After all, he’s doing what weak Obama could never do. Fire a big bad G-man. Guilliani probably pushed Twittler over the edge as it’s likely he at least under investigation by the state AG and may be part of the indictments Comey was processing yesterday. But I don’t think this was some long thought out 11 dimensional chess move. The dumbass lost control again and the staffers panicked and threw out a crazy suggestion to appease him.
He is getting worse. The pressure is working. It will get messier as the walls start to close in on him. The IC saw it before the election and knew it for what is was as they know what unstable dictators look like. He’s pissed off the IC and they still keep leaking info. He’s pissed off the AG staffers and firing them won’t shut them up. He’s pissed off dozens of federal judges. He’s increasingly alienating members of the press and they aren’t covering for him and fawning on him the way they did during the election. Now he has attacked the FBI. The NY office might be in his pocket but that isn’t going to be enough. Even GOPers in the Senate are having a hard time with this as they rely on these agencies too. Destroying this stuff is starting to get a little too close to home for far too many people.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@SFAW: Yup. Cops will always have alot of discretion (legally or not) to look the other way in certain (white) cases and to use their best judgement on where (black neighborhoods) to focus their efforts and resources. Eventually we will see that (SURPRISE!!) it was mostly Black/Brown people who got locked up/killed but it will be no biggie and definitely not racist because something….something…law & order…reasons
NorthLeft12
@Kay: I really don’t understand how you can say this. Yes, what Deadbeat Donald and Sessions are doing will punish a part of their base, but you could say that about virtually everything that Republicans have been doing and proposing for decades. The Republicans don’t care, and the base is too delusional to realize what exactly is happening and who is to blame.
Somehow, someway the Republican/Trump base will continue to focus their hatred for all their misery on foreigners, minorities [almost the same thing in their minds], and those elite liberals.
This is a very sad situation, and I really don’t know how you ever get out of this loop. If the Repubs could come back so quickly from 2007/2008 and the catastrophic damage they did to your country and people, I am not sure what it will take to make a solid majority of Americans realize who is serving their interests and who is trying to impoverish them.
jonas
I say he nominates Jared Kushner. The guy has experience as a high-level White House aide and Mid-East peace negotiator.
Kay
@Hunter Gathers:
It is. And every turn of the screw just makes them madder and lashing out at the wrong people. The young women are dong better than the young men, in my opinion. The young men seem to be so lost, like whatever romantic notions they were telling themselves about “rural self-sufficiency” just crashed and burned and they don’t have an alternate narrative. I listen to country music radio a lot in my car because I like simple music and these stories those songs tell! Like they’re all cowboys. Nothing sadder than a rust belt cowboy with a big truck about to be repossessed. It’s like they don’t know what they are so modeled themselves on southerners or their Wyoming fantasy. It’s weird because these families have been here for generations. They sort of HAD an identity and it was tied to place. Now they’re fake-southerners. Weird.
jonas
This is EXACTLY what my mother, who grew up in a rural California farming community in the 50s, says about what happened to her hometown over the past 30 years. It went from being a close-knit — and fairly diverse — community of people with roots and a sense of identity to a strip-mall scarred faux-suburbia where ranchers wear ten-gallon Texas hats and drive around in the giant pickups with Confederate flag bumper stickers listening to songs about Georgia. WTF?
Applejinx
@Shalimar:
You know, I think you’re right. But you’re not contradicting me, just outlining other ways by which the Trump administration can fuck with peoples’ heads. I have to say I am amazed at how useful Trump is for this purpose: I doubt he needs much directing at all. You only have to wait for him to get pissed off with literally everybody and blame them, and then capitalize on the benefits of sowing chaos among your enemies (i.e. all Americans, Dem and Rep alike). It’s not a downside for these people to have Trump flipping out and acting crazy.
I suspect this is also why Paul Ryan was allowed to get the AHCA past the house. He’s an ideologue who doesn’t comprehend that it’s political poison to do what he wants to do… and Moscow doesn’t want him to have power, either, so the plan is to damned well give him all that he wants and let him (and the population) choke on it. There is no plan to support Ryan in the long term. He’s meant to only push his madness until it gets him politically destroyed.