I didn’t expect this from from Congressman Joe Walsh of all people:
Trump said he fired Comey because “he wasn’t doing a good job. Very simply.” According to the Justice Department’s memo that went along with Comey’s termination letter, the administration lost faith because of the way Comey handled the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton. But to believe that’s the real reason, you have to believe that Comey — the guy overseeing the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign — was let go for doing the same things Trump praised Comey for six months ago, when Trump said the FBI director had “guts” and “did the right thing.”
There’s nothing normal about that. That’s tin-pot dictator territory. It’s an abuse of power.
Cracks are starting to form in the Republican wall on this.
burnspbesq
Fox News is reporting that the shortlist is Giuliani, Christie, and Gowdy. Haven’t see that confirmed anywhere else yet.
Doug!
@burnspbesq:
I heard Mike Rogers, a former Republican Congressman, is the front-runner.
Rathskeller
They can start to see that the Trump stench will stick to them. The calls, the protests, the poll numbers. It’s adding up.
They certainly know what the poll numbers are for GOP voters, but the intensity of the opposition is starting to become real to them when they see people get all up in McCarthy’s grill
This is all on top of the imbecile and self-serving story that we’re supposed to believe for eliminating Comey
NeenerNeener
Which probably means Gowdy. Rudy would be tough to confirm and he’s just messing with Christie again.
And speaking of pissed off voters, someone paid for a billboard in Buffalo that says:
Chris Collins to voters – Drop dead
burnspbesq
@Doug!:
Bloomberg is saying Rogers is the guy. But since it’s Trump making the decision, who the hell knows.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
OTOH, leaks about other trump appointments have been very inaccurate, so anything people are saying should be taken with an enormous grain of salt.
gratuitous
The Nitwit Brigade is churning and churning, wondering why all the leftists and commies aren’t rejoicing over the firing of Comey. I keep responding that if the responsible voters of America are supposed to be happy about Comey getting cashiered, why isn’t the alt-right upset about it? That’s their standard position: the opposite of whatever the dirty fucking hippies are saying/doing/feeling.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@burnspbesq: @Doug!: I’d say those two differing answers are the conflict between trump’s id and Priebus/Pence
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ian G.
@gratuitous:
If we knew we were getting an impartial law enforcement professional with 100% dedication to his job, I’d be fine with the Comey firing. But with Shitgibbon, that’s as likely as OJ finding the real killer. The outrage is that we’ve entered banana republic territory, where law enforcement is a tool for settling vendettas for the above-the-law tin pot strongman.
rob!
I stopped reading at I’d vote for him again.
opiejeanne
A minor quibble, but shouldn’t that be ex-congressman Joe Walsh? Tammy Duckworth currently has that seat.
Ian G.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is there any waking hours where this basket case ISN’T obessively flipping between CNN and Fox to hear what everyone is saying about him? Christ almighty, it’s not like there’s work to do, right?
GregB
McCabe throws the White House under the bus on the lie that FBI rank and file had no faith in Comey.
ted mills
It’s a slow morning for me because it took a web search to get your lyric-based title. And it was the first 45 I even bought!!
GregB
The piece of American literature that best describes Trump’s behavior in regard to Russian election tampering: Edgar Allan Poe’s, Tell-tale Heart.
bystander
Coming from a would-be tin-pot dictator, I hope Trump takes this as the compliment it is.
chopper
what a fucking shitshow with these guys.
Tim C.
Don’t get your hopes up that the GOP will do anything but toe the line. Right up to election day 2006 and really till 2008 they held the line and stuck with Bush despite him being even less popular than Trump is now. They are right proper fascists and never abandon a leader.
The Dangerman
@burnspbesq:
It’ll be Gowdy because of his fine work on Benghazi.
ETA: …and the splitting of the USA will continue. Half of the country will cream their clothing over Gowdy/Benghazi.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
If Trump were smarter and not a mentally ill impulsive manbaby (which would mean he wouldn’t be Trump) he’d be better at coordinating actions and the lies necessary to rely on, but it’s chaos – so many lies to keep track of, and the lies contradict earlier lies, which contradict the lies they various spokespeople will lie about today. If you’re a Republican you can’t figure out which lie to promote.
Roger Moore
@The Dangerman:
It sure as hell won’t be Christie. Even more than other trump picks, this is going to be based on personal loyalty, and the trump inner circle clearly has no faith in Christie’s personal loyalty. I seriously doubt it will be anyone who’s been suggested for a previous appointment.
DougJ
@opiejeanne:
You are right
DougJ
@ted mills:
It took me a while to think of it too
Jim, Foolish Literalist
from what I’ve read trump still likes Christie, and still remembers that Christie was the first mainstream Republican to back him. But we know about the Kushners, which presumably includes Ivanka, so that right there makes it unlikely. And IIRC Preibus and Christie had some kind of beef over the latter’s spotlight hogging and self-serving grand-standing in 2012 and right after, when he thought he was destined to be the 2016 nominee. I think Christie and Giuliani are arrogant enough to think they can take on the job and survive, I wonder if Gowdy’s, and Rogers’ instincts aren’t a little more fine-tuned. Cause I think this job is the most poisoned chalice in US politics in a long time.
@opiejeanne: She did, until she got promoted to the Senate. I don’t know who has that seat now, too lazy to google it.
The Dangerman
@Roger Moore:
Nope. IIRC, Christie jailed Daddy Kushner.
Fuck, I need a program to keep up with who is and who isn’t a crook among this MalAdministration.
amk
@burnspbesq: the three snarly ghouls. peak wingnut will never be achieved.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, but the second thought would be “Fuck that arrogant jackass, thinking he can threaten me.” Congress already knows Trump is a paper tiger, and they hate being treated as inferiors. Any loyalty they seem to demonstrate to him is actually to the party itself.
GregB
Mike Rogers is a partisan Republican but doesn’t seem like an abject moron.
Death Panel Truck
@opiejeanne: Tammy Duckworth is a senator now.
Kay
I’m sorry, I can’t “count” Walsh. He’s just a bottom-rung grifter.
Kay
I feel like anyone who takes this job is saying “yes, I’m willing to be completely subservient to Donald Trump”
Taking it excludes them as a normal person.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
it won’t lead to impeachment but this is going to cause a lot of GOP Senatorial teeth to gnash
they know how to manipulate him, because he’s a simpleton
Gelfling 545
@Rathskeller: It was apparently funded in a couple of hours on gofundme by a voter in his district. Things are lively here in WNY.
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think there’s also a political dimension. The appointment requires Senate confirmation, and given the furor around the case it’s going to draw immense public scrutiny. trump absolutely has to appoint somebody who gives Senators who are wavering in their support no pretext for voting no. The criminal charges hovering over Christie’s head provide not just a pretext but a genuine, publicly spirited reason for rejecting him.
Patricia Kayden
@Doug!: Even if it’s Jesus Christ, Democrats need to make sure no one is confirmed until a Special Prosecutor is appointed and in place. We’re sliding away from democratic principles too quickly under this regime and we need to put the breaks on now.
A Ghost to Most
Gowdy I think. They want a pure apparatchik.
Ian G.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Seriously, I’m old enough to remember the Cold War, so I assume most of these GOP senators remember it well. I suppose John McCain is not-so-privately seething right now as he remembers that Putin’s beloved Soviet Union built the missiles that shot him down.
But where the fuck are the rest of them? We’ve got the foreign minister of a former KGB intelligence officer laughing at us as he goes to receive tribute from the deranged vassal occupying the White House. How does this not make the guys from the Party of St. Ronaldus of Hollywood not want Drumpf’s head on a pike?
Immanentize
I don’t think any politician can run the FBI — including (especially?) Gowdy.
If they have any one awake there (I know) then they would find a federal judge with prior prosection experience. But deep Republican cred. Someone like ninth circuit judge Jay Bybee who wrote some of the famous torture memos?
Patricia Kayden
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: LOL! Top WH aides were scrambling after Comey’s firing. Spicer was literally hiding in the bushes. Bizarre!
Living through this is tough but I’m sure we’ll all have a good laugh when the movie is made under a Democratic President.
TriassicSands
Speaking of “assholes,” there is a report in the Post this morning that says that Republican Senate “hard-liners” are calling for major reductions in Medicaid rolls in order to “help reduce health-care spending, prevent tax-credit dollars from paying for abortions and expand access to health insurance by lowering premiums….”
Anyone on the political left hoping for health care sanity from the Senate may end up being sorely disappointed. There are no true moderates left in the Republican Party in Congress. There are only crazy, crazier, and bat-shit crazy Republicans left in the party. There is another spectrum along which to rate Republicans in 2017 — honesty. Suffice it to say none fall on the point on the spectrum labeled reliably honest. The best description of the average congressional Republican in 2017 would be crazy liar.
Note: An intelligence spectrum designed to encompass the current GOP would stretch from dolt and dunce through moron to complete idiot.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
That’s true of anyone he appoints to anything. It’s clear that for trump, personal loyalty is the first, last, and only consideration. Anyone who accepts a role from him has been judged by a keen judge of character and found to lack it.
Gin & Tonic
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lavrov got a full audience and a sit-down with Trump. The same day the FM of Ukraine, ostensibly an ally, only got a sit-down with Pence and was led into the Oval for a quick photo with Trump during which he was not offered a seat and Trump did not stand up to greet him. The contrast was not lost on Ukrainians.
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I agree.
This inside baseball talk about a new FBI Director is premature. Until a full and serious investigation is underway, no cooperation whatsoever on a new Director.
Hold that line.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: Didn’t Christie go after Princeling Jared’s dad? Yeah, not happening.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
Does the Hoover Building have a barber? Because Director Gowdy would keep him very, very busy.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Christie isn’t impossible if we are doing Kremlin Watching – Mr Ivana Trump seems to be in distrace this week and since it would be mindboggingly stupid for Trump to do nominate Christie after Bridgegate, Trump will likey nominate Christie
dmsilev
@The Dangerman:
Here’s your program:
function is_Trump_person_a_crook(string name)
return yes
end
trollhattan
@TriassicSands:
Yeah, I don’t know that person but I suppose he/she could exist. The Josh Marshall rule applies without fail: “Moderate Republicans always fall in line.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Ian G.:
It’s about priorities. A black man was president. Hillary got 2.8 million votes more than Trump. Republicans hold power now entirely by cheating the system, with things like voter suppression and gerrymandering. Did I mention a black man was president? We only see they won. They see an existential war where they are more outnumbered every day.
Ghost of Fitzmas past
Joe Walsh only thinks about what will get him invited on TV each night.
I ran him out of congress with the help of Lt Col Duckworth. Me. (I also made her a Senator). While you Bernie humpers are playing your holier than thou games and shining your silver medals I am turning Illinois soild blue again. Get off the internet and get to work.
A Ghost to Most
Major Major Major Major
What exactly are the qualifications for being FBI director? It seems like your evil:incompetent ratio has to be either very low or very high.
clay
@Gin & Tonic: Not only Lavrov, but mother-effing Kislyak was there.
You would think that, guilty or innocent, Trump and his team would bend over backwards to avoid closeness with Russia — if only to let the heat die down for a while. But it’s like every got-dang thing they do simply reinforces the narrative that they’re so desperate to change.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Agreed. I’ll believe that a person of integrity has joined Team Trump when that allegedly upstanding person uses his or her inside position to publicly expose this band of incompetent, malevolent grift-mavens and bring the administration down so we can try to put the country back together. Until then, it’s safe to assume that anyone who accepts a position with the Trump administration is an incompetent fool or self-interested power-grabber.
Gin & Tonic
@A Ghost to Most: Unfortunately, Amy Klobuchar seemed to think that was a great idea.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Happy to Google it for you. The current representative for IL-8 is a businessman named Subramanian Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Zach
@burnspbesq: Fox News is reporting that the shortlist is Giuliani, Christie, and Gowdy. Haven’t see that confirmed anywhere else yet.
This has to be a head fake to hope that folks will accept what will still be some other unprecedentedly political appointee…
Gin & Tonic
@clay: https://twitter.com/IndivChi_South/status/862691787906973696
burnspbesq
Immanentize:
Somebody like this?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Seibel
amk
Barbara
@gratuitous: The answer to why Democrats aren’t happy is pretty simple. We didn’t like Comey politicizing the FBI but we sure as hell don’t think the antidote is for Trump to politicize the FBI.
Frankensteinbeck
@Zach:
Trump does not head fake. He does forget what he was doing and change his mind every thirty seconds.
A Ghost to Most
@Betty Cracker:
Give McMaster some time. He must be seeing some things that will come out at some point.
@Gin & Tonic:
Diversion or honest idea?
rikyrah
Trump claimed Comey told him three times he’s not under investigation. Comey associates tell the WSJ that’s nonsense https://t.co/lAzKUyUaOd pic.twitter.com/MCpmZn50eV
— Mark Berman (@markberman) May 11, 2017
Jim, Foolish Literalist
another question for lawyers or anyone who knows: People on the TV and elsewhere are using the terms “independent/special prosecutor” and “independent/special counsel” interchangeably. Would a counsel have a broader scope than a prosecutor? David Frum has raised the red flag that a prosecutor would be limited to looking for specific, indictable crimes, and that brings back memories of “Fitzmas”– not that I ever felt Fitzgerald threw me under the bus.
rikyrah
From TOD:
Gindy51
@Ian G.: As long as their constituents are cool with low taxes, no brown people or women in the lead, and their portfolios doing well nothing will be done. Cold war or no cold war, what matters is the bank accounts, low taxes, and white male privilege.
Dave
@Frankensteinbeck: Twice! They were willing to accept once. Get it out of our systems “look we are post racial so no talking about race ever again” but he won twice with actual majorities not just pluralties. He wasn’t supposed to do that. And then as you pointed out HRC who is a literal monster to them won significantly more votes. Their victory celebrations have had the underlying stench of fear since day one.
Wag
From TPM
Barbara
@Ian G.: The expression “golden handcuffs” describes a real phenomenon. It’s often contemptuously lobbed at “limousine liberals” but it definitely fits the bill for most of the Republicans who are churning inside but who are afraid of saying anything out loud. They like their money, their perks, and their power.
Zach
@Frankensteinbeck: Well if Trump really wants to go full-on banana republic he’ll appoint his bodyguard when the Senate goes into recess on May 29. I bet Graham/McCain will go along with it if we bomb Syria at least a little and the rest of the GOP will get on board as long as tax cuts aren’t derailed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: every time I hear that story, I think back to the time Trump claimed Elijah Cummings told him he was going to be the greatest president in history
to say nothing of the myriad “many people tell me… [whatever pathetic delusion I need to feed at the moment]”
amk
So, he is admitting there is/was political interference now?
SiubhanDuinne
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m actually (seriously) thinking grand opera. After all, there’s an opera about Nixon, and an opera about Anna Nicole Smith. (There’s a wonderful Italian comic baritone, Ambrogio Maestri, who sang the title role in Falstaff a few seasons ago at the Met. He’d be brilliant as Trump.)
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost to Most: The minute he does, I’ll revise my opinion of him. Until then, I’ll assume the Trump Taint is operative. (Ewww!)
pamelabrown53
@Gin & Tonic: #42.
Very telling G&T. Not questioning your word but would appreciate a link. Thanks!
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Trump reportedly objected to Comey’s lack of “loyalty”. What do you think “loyalty” means to Donald Trump? Conducting a legit investigation into his administration? Of course not.
He wanted also to “preview” Comey’s testimony. He wanted to coach the FBI Director on what he should say.
They have the job description. If they take it they fit the requirements.
burnspbesq
@SiubhanDuinne:
Domingo as Trump. He was awesome in Simon Boccanegra, so he knows the role already.
Chris
@gratuitous:
I can’t figure out if this is just them trolling us, as they love to do, or if they sincerely expected that Democrats would be happy with Comey’s firing and are bewildered that we’re not. I’d normally lean towards # 1, but in this day and age # 2 is entirely plausible.
A Ghost to Most
@rikyrah:
They are spending big money fighting something they can’t stop. Stubborn and selfish to the end.
Served
Things just got VERY real at the Intelligence hearing: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was seen arriving at the Senate Intelligence Committee’s secure office spaces Thursday afternoon. Sources told POLITICO Rosenstein had requested to meet with the Intelligence Committee leaders, Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), who both hastily left an open, televised committee hearing for what Burr said was a meeting “we can’t push off.”
Kay
I feel like by the end of this Sessions will be the most infamous Trumpster, by a mile. He’s just warming up. He’s a real threat.
burnspbesq
Just a reminder: for all we (justifiably) rag on them, McCain, Collins, and Graham showed up yesterday and voted to save the EPA methane collection rule, if a blind squirrel can find one nut, it can find a second one.
SiubhanDuinne
@burnspbesq:
Yes he was, and LOL.
Kay
@Served:
Maybe he’ll say “I almost RESIGNED but then I …went ahead and did what they told me to do” :)
Anti-climatic, that “almost resigned” bit.
Served
@Kay: It’s really the Republican MO right now, like their conscience bubbles up a little bit, but they manage to clap their hands over their mouths and shove it back down.
Gin & Tonic
@pamelabrown53: One example.
Chris
@TriassicSands:
A moderate Republican is a Republican with a shyer-than-usual idea of what he can get away with.
rikyrah
@Kay:
TELL IT, KAY!!!!!
pamelabrown53
@Ian G.:#38.
The reasons I’m gleaning for republicans “not wanting Drumpf’s head on a pike” is that Russia has been infiltrating far right organizations and constituencies with their courtship of the NRA, Christianists who are anti LBGTQ and abortion and the white supremacists. For a party who can’t shut up when it talks about FREEDOM, they are slipping into a deeper authoritarian mode. Like because that’s the only way they can cling to power.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
“You know, MacGyver, that’s why you’ve always been so difficult to counter. Nobody knows what you’re going to do next. Including yourself.”
/with apologies to Richard Dean Anderson for the comparison.
waspuppet
It won’t happen, and it wouldn’t make up for all this even if it did, but I so badly wish Lester Holt would make Trump say the words “I fired Comey because I thought he treated Hillary Clinton unfairly and broke the rules regarding the allegations against her.”
Gin & Tonic
@pamelabrown53: For more on the relative optics, do a Google Image search for “lavrov kislyak oval office” then “pavlo klimkin donald trump”
waspuppet
@Chris: A moderate Republican is a Republican who thinks shutting down the government to get what they want is too much.
That’s it. The differences are only tactical. Not strategic at all.
clay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yup. He hears exactly what he wants to hear, and it’s always something positive towards himself.
A Ghost to Most
@Chris:
This was all over WaPo comments yesterday; Fox talking point?
Chyron HR
WTF I love the Eagles now.
SiubhanDuinne
@A Ghost to Most:
Damned bloody stupid NPR just reported that, and described Merrick Garland as “President Obama’s failed Supreme Court nominee.”
Dammit to hell, NPR! In no sense of the word is Garland a “failed” anything. This really pisses me off.
Barbara
@Kay: It would not surprise me if it turns out that Rosenstein was told the memo was going to be used to conduct a review or some such nonsense and was not told that it would be used as the justification for an immediate firing — that he was not dealt with honestly. His mistake is believing that he would ever be dealt with honestly.
Chris
@SiubhanDuinne:
I wonder if Fox News refers to John Bolton as “George Bush’s failed ambassador to the UN.”
Heck, I wonder if NPR does.
(Just kidding. I don’t wonder).
EdTheRed
I have a mansion it’s big and it’s white
Ain’t never been there, they tell me it’s nice
I live in a hotel, gold-plated walls
I have the taxpayers pay for it all
They say I’m crazy but I have a have a good time
I’m just covering up clues at the scene of the crime
Life’s been good to me so far
WestTexan70
@Barbara: He forgot the Iron Law of American Politics —
Republicans always lie.
Always.
clay
@Gin & Tonic: Okay, yeah, I can see that. The problem (for Trump) is that, as much as he wishes it were so, we’re not an autocracy. So if the blatancy is the point, if he’s trying to tell the public that there’s nothing we can do about it, then this latest uproar is just the most recent example of why he’s wrong.
A Ghost to Most
@SiubhanDuinne: Nice Polite Republicans.
I think efgoldman has a word…
GregB
Trump and most Republicans are coming to realize yet again the fly in the ointment with the Rove dictum about creating their own realities.
Other people are not obligated in joining them in their fantasy world.
SatanicPanic
@Served: huh, what’s that mean?
clay
@Chris: According to reports, Rosenstein and Sessions were both in the Oval when Trump told them to write up a justification for Comey’s firing. So he’d be hard pressed to claim ignorance of intent.
Silverman was saying that a close reading of the Rosenstein memo indicates that he never actually recommended firing Comey. And that may be true — and it may be that Rosenstein was intentionally walking that line to save some personal integrity — but he it seems he certainly knew what he was being asked to do.
germy
ET
Happy early mothers day from the Atlanta Human Society.
pamelabrown53
@Kay: #83.
I agree that Sessions is in contention for the “most infamous Trumpster by a mile” award. He was a sleazy back bencher senator who probably embarrassed some republicans by his inability to couch his racism in a dog whistle instead of a fog horn. His puny, racist mind making decisions about US rule of law is terrifying.
clay
@germy: Hmm… there’s a big difference between ‘neutral’ and ‘support’. (‘Neutral’ may as well be ‘no statement’.) I wonder what the actual split is.
A Ghost to Most
@GregB: bubbles within bubbles?
Frankensteinbeck
@Chris:
I consistently hear that Trump used to be smart enough to use tactics. Maybe he was never bright, but he could think in a straight line. I can only assume it’s Alzheimer’s. It horrifies me that anyone should have their brain degenerate, but I admit it’s hard to feel sorry for him. Especially since his incoherent stupidity is the major obstacle to his destroying the government and oppressing the US people.
pamelabrown53
@Gin & Tonic:#88.
Thank you so much, G&T.
ETA, saw your subsequent links too; you’re a mensch (assuming you’re male)!
Timurid
@Zach:
Yep. Gaslighting 101.
TenguPhule
Oh come on. Don’t fall for the Reasonable Republican gag again.
They ALWAYS do this.
Lots of “very serious, Harumph!” followed by no action, or worse, full participation in the coverup.
When they actually allow an impeachment vote in the House, then come and tell us about the cracks in the wall.
Mnemosyne
@Ghost of Fitzmas past:
My mom’s House district in northeastern Illinois (nearish Gurnee) went blue this year, so thank you! ?
SFBayAreaGal
Nice title Doug. Joe and the Eagles. Love this song.
Keith P.
@TenguPhule: Yep, exactly right.
TenguPhule
@The Dangerman:
There’s someone who’s not a crook?!
Who?
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost to Most: They may be polite but they sure as hell aren’t nice.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Chris:
I wonder if Fox News refers to John Bolton as “George Bush’s failed ambassador to the UN.”
I wonder why anybody wants to refer to Bolton, period.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
When even a Bushie calls you an asshole, you know we’re looking at the scrapings at the bottom of the bottom of the barrel.
SFBayAreaGal
@Chris: I’m stealing this one Chris
hovercraft
@GregB:
I disagree, when he was Chairman of the House Intelligence Cmt. he was a regular on the Sunday shows and on after every terrorist attack, I believe he’s a former FBI agent, but he’s as smart as say Rubio, he may understand “intelligence”, but he is as dogmatic as Rubio and just as prone to twist information to reach the conclusion he wants to arrive at. He’s good at spouting talking points, but if you try to get him beyond them he spouts nonsense.
Twitler’s stupidity is causing us to lower the bar for what is moronic.
clay
Welp, it’s not exactly a surprise, but it turns out the White House was lying all along. Trump confirmed it:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-says-he-planned-to-fire-comey-regardless-of-recommendation
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh
How’s those votes turning out for you….
……………………
Cooper: Trump administration denied 99 percent of amount recently sought by N.C. for Hurricane Matthew help
Journal staff and wire reports May 10, 2017
Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday expressed his “shock and disappointment” in the small amount of federal disaster money the Trump administration and Congress have authorized in the latest round of funding for Hurricane Matthew recovery in North Carolina — less than 1 percent of what the state requested.
Cooper had hoped for more than $900 million in federal relief, an amount he said was a conservative request made in consultation with U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., U.S. Reps. David Price, a Democrat from Chapel Hill and David Rouzer, a Republican from Johnston County, and others in the state’s congressional delegation. Just $6.1 million in federal money was approved.
The funding request was in addition to $1.4 billion in federal and state money the state has already received, Cooper said. The storm caused an estimated $4.8 billion in damage, Cooper has said.
Cooper expressed his dismay at the latest round in a letter sent to President Donald Trump, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Cooper also invited Trump to visit North Carolina to see storm damage firsthand. An official in the Trump administration didn’t immediately respond to an email request for comment Wednesday.
“Families across Eastern North Carolina need help to rebuild and recover, and it is an incredible failure by the Trump Administration and Congressional leaders to turn their backs,” Cooper said in a statement.
“North Carolinians affected by this storm cannot be ignored by the Trump Administration and Congressional leadership, and I will continue to work with our Congressional delegation to get North Carolina residents affected by the storm the help they deserve,” he said.
Taylor Holgate, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Wednesday that hurricane recovery has been and should continue to be above partisan finger-pointing.
“The bipartisan North Carolina congressional delegation worked to secure more than $300 million in federal assistance for Hurricane Matthew and is committed to making sure the people of North Carolina have the resources they need for hurricane recovery,” Holgate said. “Sen. Burr encourages both Democrat and Republican leaders to work together to ensure that those suffering as a result of a natural disaster get the support they need.”
germy
@clay:
good point, I thought it was odd to see those combined.
Could it be the “neutrals” support him, but are too cowardly to admit it to a reporter? Like the critters who vote for TRyanCare but avoid townhalls?
schrodingers_cat
@Chris: I refer to him as lolrustache.
Gin & Tonic
@pamelabrown53: I am, and thanks. I follow Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine and Russia, closely.
TenguPhule
@waspuppet:
And only because it has bad optics.
If they could figure out how to blame the Democrats for it, they’d let it stay shut down forever and a day.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Cue the world’s tiniest violin. And complete lack of surprise.
WE TOLD YOU SO, YOU FECKING MORONS!
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
It’s the narcissism. People don’t realize that, as far as the narcissist is concerned, they never lie, because they really believe the things they say.
Trump isn’t lying when he says he doesn’t have ties to Russia, because he genuinely believes what he’s saying when he says it. And when he says the opposite thing 10 minutes later, he genuinely believes that as well.
For a narcissist, the only reality is what’s inside their head. There is no objective reality. This concept is so bizarre to most people that narcissists get away with a whole lot of shit, because normal people expect them to admit to a lie or acknowledge when they’re wrong. But doing either one of those things is so threatening to the narcissist’s self-image that they will never admit either one.
I guarantee you that Trump believes 100 percent that Comey told him he was not under investigation and then Comey went out and lied to everyone else by saying there was an investigation.
Based on the firing letter, I’m also betting that Trump believes 100 percent that Comey told him that Hillary was guilty but that they couldn’t or wouldn’t prosecute.
So, yes, I expect Trump to pursue an attempted prosecution of Hillary. He believes that she’s guilty, and if he believes it, facts don’t matter. Only the narcissist’s perceptions matter.
amk
@clay:
I am not a crook redux.
JMG
Two points. Dana Houle, the Democratic campaign guy who used to live and work in Michigan, tweeted that rumors in that state were that Rogers left the FBI under a cloud that looked like rain. If so, that is the sort of thing hearings tend to expose.
Also, Trump told Lester Holt in the NBC interview he was going to fire Comey no matter what Rosenstein recommended, thus demolishing his own previous defense.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Would you write the libretto or the musical both? I love opera, but no way would I attempt to write one!
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah:
Well I feel bad for all the Democrats in that state, but the rest deserve to suffer in homelessness
GregB
@hovercraft:
The floor has fallen out of the expectations racket.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Wait, what changed your mind from yesterday?
I remember you saying it would be stupid of Trump to do so (and I agree with you).
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Well, North Carolina elected a Democrat for governor, so what did they expect? If they wanted aid, they should have elected a Republican.
TenguPhule
@West of the Rockies (been a while): The first Rap Opera. Because, why not?
? Martin
I’m surprised that he would nominate anyone. So far, Trump has been eliminating anyone that actually has the authority to act against him. We have no USDAs, we have no FBI director. He got his own people in for Atty General. He’s effectively crippled the House Intelligence Committee.
His best bet is to just keep firing FBI folks until there’s nobody left to challenge him. He’s got hundreds of other positions vacant, why not that one too?
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
I didn’t say that he wouldn’t want to do it. I did say that it would be very difficult to do anything halfway legal, and that even the New York Fucking Times would freak out if Hillary was arrested without an indictment or warrant.
Gin & Tonic
How do you like these apples?
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
True. But this increasingly applies not just to T, but to any Republican who’s even moderately politically aware/active.
JMG
@? Martin: Almost all the FBI are covered by civil service law.
A Ghost to Most
@schrodingers_cat:
I was thinking the southern “Bless Your Heart!” nice.
Barbara
@TenguPhule: I don’t know that this can be attributed solely to politics or stinginess. Having lived in North Carolina, even 20 years ago a large contingent of the eastern part of the state and more than a few people in other parts of the state are in a complete state of denial about the long term outlook for hundreds of square miles of sea level property that is ecologically fragile and unstable even without a rise in sea levels. I don’t know what they were asking for — loans or grants — but I wonder how much of it was geared to making the affected areas less vulnerable as opposed to just going back to the way things were without a thought for the next “500 year” storm that somehow seems to roll around every 15 or 20 years.
GregB
@Gin & Tonic:
The whole fucking house of cards is going to collapse fast and furious.
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Oh goodness, I wouldn’t write either one! My talents lie in quite other directions.
If I win the PowerBall, I’ll give money to the Met to commission it.
LurkerNoLonger
@Mnemosyne:
Both of these sound like delusions. Are you saying he wants it to be true so it is true to him? Or are you saying he has convinced himself that these events took place?
raven
@Barbara: The 1-85 bridge collapse rebuild in Atlanta is going o be done a month ahead of schedule mostly due to huge incentives being paid to the contractors. Guess who is paying 90% of the bill?
Jeffro
@GregB:
You betcha!
Once stuff like “Donald Trump Was Bailed Out of Bankruptcy by Russian Crime Bosses” and “Donald Trump’s Many, Many, Many, Many Ties to Russia” hit the broader public, there will be even more pressure to get those tax returns and look into his money laundering activities.
Thanks GOP! You can slip the apology note under the door.
Barbara
@raven: I don’t see that as being comparable. Different agencies, different underlying events, and Feds almost always pay a high percentage of the costs of constructing interstate highways. I hate Trump with the fire of a thousand suns but that doesn’t mean a state that suffered from a flood deserves to get every single penny it asks for from the federal government. Or maybe you’re right, maybe it’s totally political, in which case, Trump might have used one of his election victory overlay maps and would have found that THIS part of the state of North Carolina was probably among the most likely to vote for him.
Mnemosyne
@LurkerNoLonger:
I’m saying that, to a narcissist, the only reality is what’s inside their heads. If they believe something, it’s the truth, and objective facts can be ignored.
It sounds like it must be delusions, but IIRC it doesn’t qualify according to the DSM because it’s an ever-shifting target. It’s more like Cleek’s Law applied on a personal level — whatever the narcissist believes at that moment is true, until it’s more convenient to believe that something else is true, at which point they do a 180 and insist that they never believed anything else.
Note: I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, just a layperson who’s had to deal with narcissists in her family and has done a lot of reading on the subject.
Mnemosyne
Slightly OT, but Teen Vogue (!) continues to say what “serious” news outlets are afraid to say:
White Male Terrorists Are An Issue We Should Discuss
TenguPhule
@? Martin: We’re going to wake up soon and find we have no federal government. Just a military.
Trump is a dictator. And needs to be treated as one hostile to American interests.
/Yes, I’m well aware of our sad history of treating with dictators.
Jeffro
And oh my lord, I don’t even know what to make of this…I haven’t heard of this blog before, but it says it’s “pro-Russia, anti-Putin”
Russia probe will result in President Hatch (undated)
Ryan knew the GOP was taking Russian funds?? It would be irresponsible not to speculate…
Nickel bet says that in the end either Ryan, McConnell, or both says that they were facing an existential threat – after all, History’s Greatest Monster was about to win, fair and square. What else could they do??
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
So I did a bit of casual googling for
Republican consulting Annapolisand found a list of all the GOP consulting firms in Annapolis.Well, actually, the list consists of one entry: Strategic Campaign Group. Have to say I’ve never heard of them (I was so hoping it’d be Frank Luntz or Kellyanne’s old shop), but anyhow, here’s a link to their website: http://strategiccampaigngroup.com
raven
@Barbara: Who said it was comparable? When the fucking governor of this redneck ass state stands up and declares the “ahead of schedule” rebuild is the result of the “can-do” attitude of Georgians and the bill is paid by the feds it’s worth noting and I noted it.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: So we should all be prepared to freak the fuck out?
/After Comey came out of left field, I have given up on trying to figure out if Hillary is in imminent danger of illegal arrest
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: When Trump says that Comey told him he wasn’t under investigation that doesn’t mean Comey used those words. Basically, Comey said something that Trump processed through his narcissomatic that translated into “he said I am not under investigation.” This is how narcissists operate. They channel everything that is ever said as being about themselves, and will channel even the most neutral statements as compliments or otherwise validating what they want to hear and believe about themselves.
AnotherBruce
Good God, Trump is a fucking mess. He’s absolutely amoral, and he’s a fucking idiot because he has no moral guidance in his life. I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking about the day to day business of doing the right thing. So he always does the wrong thing.I know this is nothing new, but I’m amazed how fucked up he is. He’s falling apart in front of our eyes. Again, thanks Republicans.
TenguPhule
@Barbara: Trump would turn “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation” into “You are not being investigated.”
Its who he is.
ET
I have been thinking on this Comey thing. My initial thought on an earlier thread still holds:
So Comey gets Trump elected and now it is rumored he is getting fired a day after his testimony. I guess that testimony wasn’t to Sessions or Trump’s liking.
But I couldn’t stop my thoughts from swirling.
1. While that letter from Rod J. Rosenstein may cite Comey’s violation of FBI rules/regs/protocol and a certain lack of trust as a reason for removing Comey, there is no way that is why Trump pulled the trigger. He lauded Comey for standing pat against that nasty woman and likely thought that what Comey did helped Trump to win. But time passes and the Russian thing got to the point that even the FBI decided to get into the investigation – particularly since the election was over. Comey took the investigation seriously and likely Trump was angry at best, and thought Comey was being disloyal. Add to that, Comey wasn’t going to investigate the leaks to the degree that Trump wanted because Comey could see that Trump wasn’t so much worried about the leaks as a matter of security, but because all the leaks just made him look bad. At least Comey wasn’t stupid enough to become Trump’s hatchet man and rightly recognized that this could put the FBI in an even worse position than it already was. Trump just used Rosenstein and his letter like use uses everyone and everything.
ET
2. Given all that is going on there may actually be not have been a good time to fire Comey if you want him out, but still the timing of the smells and smells bad. Trump may have been thinking of this for a few weeks but to do it just as subpoenas are going out regarding the Flynn investigation and just a day after Hill testimony? The optics of this suck hard.
3. I knew Trump was a coward, but to not do this to Comey’s face and instead send his lackey to do it? And he waited until Comey was in California? This is the real Trump. Not the straight talking fantasy from The Apprentice.
4. Just a word for Trump, just because Comey is gone doesn’t necessarily mean that the investigation is going to stop or be sidelined. Yes it might, but that opens a can of worms no one but Trump wants (and that is only because Trump is an idiot on this – thought he is an idiot about a lot of things).
ET
5. I call bullshit on the he was considering firing Comey from day one. That is not remotely believable. But, I do believe he had “lost confidence in him. He had reason to believe Comey would be if not an ally, at least someone sympathetic. If Comey was anything less than utterly obsequious he would have lost the President’s confidence. All of his is even more the case if what the FBI source is saying is right – Comey didn’t give any assurance of personal loyalty.
6. Trump now saying Comey is a showboater and grandstander???????? Maybe a bit true I mean Trump would know wouldn’t he.
7. Now for a question. Now that Comey doesn’t have to play nice, what does he say and how does he say it? Obviously, he is likely going to be bucking for his next job so a certain level of circumspection is to be expected (particularly given how he has acted up until now), but he likely has personal thoughts he would have liked to put on the record or at least would have preferred to say things certain ways at various points while he was FBI director, but thpose imposed and self-imposed restrictions may be loosened. And now they have called him over to the Hill to talk.
AnotherBruce
@Barbara: Technically, his campaign is under investigation. So Comey could have said he was not under investigation at the time he said it. But one thing leads to another in investigations.
pamelabrown53
@TenguPhule: @TenguPhule: #165.
Exactafuckinglutely!
artem1s
Doing the Happy Dance! Been waiting to break this out since about June of last year. May have to put it on hold again, gonna be a long, long process, but yes, the dumbass may have finally broken the wall of SeeNoEvil, HearNoEvil, SpeakNoEvil, ThinkAllTheEvil that is the GOP
clay
From the NBC inverview, via TPM
Only Trump would think that {Trump} ⊄ {Trump campaign}.
SiubhanDuinne
@AnotherBruce:
Hold on a gosh-darned second there, Sparky. I have it on very good authority that he does too have moral guidance in his life:
LurkerNoLonger
@Mnemosyne: I’m not a psychologist or psychiatrist either, but it’s fascinating stuff.
SiubhanDuinne
@ET:
Not to mention keeping all but a couple of staffers completely in the dark, having his personal goon deliver the letter to FBIHQ, and releasing the news to the press before Comey had been informed or even given a heads-up so that he ended up learning the news in front of a roomful of colleagues.
ETA: Now I have to laugh at myself, because you said EXACTLY this in your third point! Note to self: Read the entire comment before weighing in.
sherparick
@Roger Moore: The Usual Suspects. I especially like Christie’s name being mentioned. Trump like twisting him in the wind. I just don’t think the guy who his son-in-law’s Dad in jail is going to get any appointment no matter how much he brown noses.
But we are entering tinpot dictator territory. However, despite Trump being a moron, he is absolutely brilliant compared to most of the Republicans. And the 35% of the population that is 80″% of the Republican primary voter base loves him acting as a dictator when those getting it jammed up their backsides sideways are the Blahs, and the Browns, and the Chinks, and Muslims, and the dirty hippies, and the snooty city folks that look down on their country ways. And the Republican donor class is more than happy with a dictatorship as long as they get their tax cuts and the police support they need to crack down on workers and protesters that make it hard to make a buck. So they will be okay with every kind of abuse of authority.
I have a rather heterodox and dark theology. We appear to be here chiefly to give God a laugh. Destroying the United States through the morons electing Trump , while we bright folks could not figure out how to beat Trump must have him rolling in the aisle.
AnotherBruce
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh, I stand corrected! (Hangs head in shame.)
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
Nope. Because what Trump wants to do and what he actually can do are two very different things.
Plus, given his narcissism, he’ll forget all about it tomorrow.
? Martin
@LurkerNoLonger: To a narcissist, when presented with contradictory evidence to what their brain tells them must be true (that they are a genius, or they are the most talented, etc), their brain will rewrite or create other evidence out of thin air to reconcile the contradiction. And one of the ways that routinely gets reconciled is by inventing some new information that allows you to cast the new information as a lie, or fake news.
To regular people, it’s inconceivable that someone could work this way because if any of us tried it, it would fail in short order. None of us are able to fabricate reality on the fly that way, push aside our own statements and actions as if they never happened, and attack people with the kind of conviction necessary to convince. We have shame and guilt and remorse. He doesn’t. I know when I’m lying. He doesn’t. He is polygraph proof.
The ‘convince’ himself that it’s true sounds more active than it really is. It’s subconscious. Narcissists basically have no ego – it’s so far removed from their consciousness that they’re no longer in touch with it. The work of the ego is outsourced to the world around him. That’s why they need the constant attention and adulation. And because there is no ego, there is no conservation. If the nature of the adulation changes, thats fine so long as its reinforcing. Narcissists have a false self – what you see on the surface, what they project to the world, and a true self, which is deeply repressed. In healthy people, those two things interact. Facebook is your false self, and the source of guilt or shame or remorse is your true self. None of us have those perfectly aligned – we all inflate our false selves, we all hide away part of our true selves (vulnerability) but we keep them connected and balanced. His are utterly disconnected – particularly at his age with no treatment his entire life.
His only regulating function is the feedback he is receiving right at this moment because he has no inner voice. That’s why his ‘beliefs’ are nothing more than whatever the last person told him. When he can’t reconcile the information he’s getting right now, he fills in the gaps (as we all do). We fill in information vacancies with theories. Some of us deny information for more elaborate theories (conspiracy theories). He has the capacity to deny any and all information and substitute new invented information in order to form a theory that reinforces the false self. In that way, he can call someone quoting him verbatim a liar, if that quote creates a conflicting narrative for him. To normal people, it’s simply unfathomable that someone could actually function in this way.
That’s why I would vastly prefer Pence (odious as he is) over Trump. Trump is impossible to predict. In order to do so, you actually have to look at all of the stimulus feeding into him – what he chooses to watch on TV, who his advisors are, etc. and predict their actions in order to predict Trump. I suspect that Ivanka plays a unique role in his life. She has learned how to be his moderating function and to get him to trust her in that role. She knows how to feed information to him to lead him to non-destructive results. She’s probably the only one on earth who can. And that’s completely terrifying.
? Martin
@ET:
There is no real Trump. Trump is nothing more than what he gets the most praise for. If you want him to be an environmentalist, then praise him to the ends of the earth about what a great environmentalist he is and make sure that message gets in front of him. That’s all it takes. He doesn’t like firing people unless he gets praised for it. About the only time that happens is when it’s the plot of your reality TV show. Just look at his response here – he genuinely thought he would get praise from the beltway for firing Comey. He’s astounded that he’s not. And he didn’t fire Comey directly because Comey sure as shit wouldn’t be praising him.
dww44
@SiubhanDuinne: Can you direct me to the program and host?. I plan on weighing in with them. I challenge others to do this.
Gravenstone
@Gin & Tonic: I’m trying to decide if Lee didn’t quite think his brilliant suggestion through, or if he’s trying to play evil genius with an eye towards opening up Garland’s seat on the DC Appeals Court. Either way, thanks but no …
sheila in nc
@Barbara: In the case of Hurricane Matthew, it was a lot of damage in the river basins, not the coast. News reports said there was more than a foot of rain 100 miles inland. The flooding impacts were in smaller, economically depressed towns along the eastern rivers, places like Tarboro, Princeville, and Lumberton. Lots of poor people and minorities. I’m sure that’s why my awesome congressman David Price is in on the relief request — he probably sees it as an economic/environmental justice issue.
Steve in the ATL
@raven:
Fuck that shit–what about states’ tights? I demand that the bridge be re-destroyed and re-rebuilt using only Georgia scrip!
Mnemosyne
@LurkerNoLonger:
Yeah, narcissists get away with an amazing amount of shit because they just don’t react to things the same way normal people do.
Raven Onthill
I would venture the guess that the fascists in the House are now looking forward to having one of their own in the Whitehouse.
gammyjill
@opiejeanne: No, she doesn’t. She’s now Senator. Raja Krishnamoorthi has the seat now.
SiubhanDuinne
@dww44:
So sorry, I just saw your question. Once I was finished with this thread I went on and got caught up in the big thread upstairs.
Anyhow, it was during “Here and Now.” They do headline drop-ins at, I think, roughly :20 and :40 past the hour, and I think this was at around 12:40 pm EDST today. Have no idea who the newsreader was, but not any of the program hosts.
HTH.
ET
@SiubhanDuinne: to be fair I did break it up into different comments (it did seem awfully looooooooon.
Steeplejack (phone)
@TenguPhule, @pamelabrown53:
“I’m not being investigated.”