ETA: Given Betty’s post immediately below, this should settle any last doubts that this blog is not a member of any organized political party…(a gazillion quatloos to all those (many here) who nod to the illustrious forebear who put that opening to such good use). I’ll leave this one up for the Rose-Mary Woods photo, which is worth the price of admission. But Betty got there first in all the relevant detail, so that’s where I’m heading for the fun of the discussion.)
———————————–
…the flashbacks seem so real.
At 8:32 this morning, the usurper occupying the Oval Office tweeted this:
I have several reactions.
First, this:
(For all you kids out there, that’s Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods, demonstrating how she managed to “accidentally” create an eighteen minute gap in the Oval Office tapes, perfectly placed to eliminate some very interesting discussion of Watergate matters.)*
Second: A question for the legal minds here: Bob Bauer has an interesting piece over at the Lawfare Blog assessing where Trump has reached on the obstruction of justice spectrum, clearly written before the shitgibbon released the tweet at the top of this post. He argues (as I, a non-lawyer, read him) that there is an emerging fact pattern consistent with obstruction, but further focused inquiry would be needed to generate an actual case. So, does this new tweet, explicitly threatening a potential witness in such an obstruction, advance the argument that the president is engaged in an actual, legally-jeopardizing attempt at obstruction?
Third: “Subpoena” has such a lovely ring to it, doesn’t it. I shouldn’t still be surprised, but I am: how dumb do you have to be to announce the possibility of evidence that one had no prior reason to suspect might exist? This tweet from Garry Kasparov is so spot on:
And with that, it’s back to the 18th century for me! (Isaac Newton, musing on the virtues of government debt…) Have at it, y’all.
*Ancient tech nerd that I am, I am totally grooving on the IBM Selectric there. What fabulous machines… ETA: So — you can retire my tech-nerd creds. That’s not a Selectric. Ahh well….
Major Major Major Major
Trump’s defense will probably be that he didn’t know people can read his tweets. Fucking digital, you have to be Albert Einstein (that well known computer genius).
burnspbesq
The relevant statutes are 18 U.S.C. 1501-1521. Two days ago, my position was that I didn’t see an obvious violation. Now, it looks like (with the caveat that I am not a specialist in this stuff) he’s not just flirting with 1503 and 1512, he grabbed them by their pussies.
craigie
Just to pick up on something posted earlier, I have long thought that Kamala Harris will be our next President. Assuming we are allowed to have another one.
?eric
@burnspbesq: golf clap.
Here is the simplest answer: obstruction violations are not always crystal clear. So, you have to ask the more meaningful question: Is this an act for which the EXISTING prosecutor (the House) would seek an indictment? Now, as a lay person, feel free to answer. My sense: we are getting closer to Trump grabbing the wrong pussy, but he is still safe with his merry band of enabling traitors.
?eric
Burnsie….i have walked into your carefully laid trap to get everyone in moderation….please help FPers.
randy khan
Totally worth it for the photo. I remember it in black and white, though, since that’s how all newspaper photos were printed in those days.
The stupidity of some of Trump’s tweets continues to fascinate me. He really doesn’t think about them at all.
Feebog
Hahahahaaaa. By all means you moron, bring on the tapes, or as they will be described later, Prosecution exhibit 12.
Anonymous At Work
I find the fact that Nixon took a break from criminal conspiracy to listen to “Alice’s Restaurant” to be very uplifting.
clay
Given that he will deny that he said something, even if it was recorded on camera, I feel preeeeettttttyyyyyyy confident that any hypothetical tape would be unhelpful to his case.
David Anderson
@?eric:
I am so not a lawyer as a preface.
POTUS can only be impeached so the House is the relevant body to determine obstruction, correct?
But other individuals who work in conjunction with the POTUS are at criminal risk, correct? So their relevant body is FBI or other law enforcement agencies are the ones whose opinion on whether or not their investigation is being obstructed?
Again, IANAL, but it sure as shit sounds like an organized effort, a collusion, a conspiracy, to obstruct an investigation is occuring in the White House at this time. It is being led by a potential unindictable co-conspirator but there are several people at risk here who can be indicted. Am I leaping too far, or should anyone who has a political appointment to the White House lawyer up?
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
I know you’re being a smart ass, but when the proof emerges that Andrew Jackson would too have stopped the Civil War if he hadn’t been shot at Fords Theater that night, we’ll see who’s laughing then. Einstien was like Da Vinci he invented computers years ago, and it was him not Al Gore who invented the internet!
Gin & Tonic
Since Il Donaldo is the topic, this is absolutely revolting. It’s like saying to a rapist and his victim “hey, let’s work out your differences.” One of these countries was invaded by the other. 10,000 people are dead. And the representative of the victim gets the shaming pose.
Fuck this fucking fuck.
rikyrah
Trump threatens Comey in new tweet
By Eugene Scott, CNN
Updated 9:52 AM ET, Fri May 12, 2017
(CNN)President Donald Trump issued a thinly veiled threat Friday to fired FBI Director James Comey, an extraordinary development in the ongoing feud between the President and the agencies investigating alleged ties between his campaign and Russia.
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press,” the President tweeted.
When he fired Comey earlier this week, Trump garnered comparisons to President Richard Nixon and his infamous decision to remove the special prosecutor investigating Watergate crimes in 1973. The Watergate scandal accelerated drastically when it was revealed Nixon taped conversations in the White House. Trump didn’t provide further details Friday on whether he was taping conversations.
?eric
@David Anderson: the magic word is “conspiracy.” In civil cases, it is the last refuge of scoundrels, but not so in criminal cases. The problem is that you will need an agreement, and I am not convinced that you could prove that Trump agreed with anyone before he made his threats. I bet the evidence is the opposite. He is as close to a rogue actor as one might find.
clay
@David Anderson: I am also not a lawyer. But impeachment is a political process, not a criminal one. BUT, I think (IANAL!) that a president can be charged and tried for criminal acts, without Congress getting involved at all. This wouldn’t remove him from office, but he is not immune from the criminal justice system just because he’s president.
rikyrah
Quick Takes: Bombshells From Trump’s Interview with Lester Holt
Today’s picks are what we’ll all be talking about tomorrow.
by Nancy LeTourneau May 11, 2017 4:35 PM
All of today’s “Quick Takes” will come from the bombshells contained in this clip of Donald Trump’s interview with Lester Holt.
* First of all, it’s interesting to note that at the beginning of the clip the president is talking about former FBI Director James Comey and refers to him as a “showboat” and “grandstander.”
I was reminded of all of the reports about how Steve Bannon was reigned in by Trump when the press began referring to him as the guy who controlled the president. So this is part of why Trump was angry with Comey—he was threatening the president’s dominance.
* Secondly, Trump just went against everything the White House has said (including what was in his own memo to Comey) about the process of deciding to fire the FBI director. Several times he reiterated that he had already made the decision to fire Comey before he got the recommendation from Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein.
Trump’s statement he “was going to fire regardless of recommendation” contradicts every on-the-record statement from WH aides in past 2 days
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) May 11, 2017
Once again, listening to Trump talk about that it is impossible to escape the fact that he needed to assert his own dominance as “the decider.”
* Those statements from Trump expose the fact that VP Pence has been lying.
schrodingers_cat
T and his party, T-party disgust me.
Ten Bears
I passed my high school typing class by learning to clean and maintain those old Selectrics.
Funny how (not necessarily brown) acid popped up in conversation elsewhere.
El Caganer
@hovercraft: We should go back to using steam tweets, like Frederick Douglass did.
AliceBlue
I have fond memories of the IBM Selectric from my first job. Beautiful machine.
Spanky
To all the IAALs out there: When the time comes that indictments have been handed down and Jeffie-Bo Sessions refuses to prosecute, what can happen? Can Sessions be charged with Obstruction of Justice? And by whom?
Geez, everything looks so weird on this side of the looking glass.
JCJ
Those were the best!
hovercraft
@clay:
His denials work with the rubes and the villagers who choose to give him the benefit of the doubt, claiming that his framing or phrasing is “inelegant”, but so far the courts haven’t given a shit about his clumsy use of the English language, they’ve been calling hi on his bullshit, and he keeps losing. This shit is going to end up in a real court not Judge Jeanine Pirro or Napolitano’s courts, this will not end well for him, this in not bankruptcy we’re talking about here, these are the big leagues.
rikyrah
It’s Time to Investigate the President for Possible Obstruction of Justice
by Nancy LeTourneau May 12, 2017 10:03 AM
Last night I wrote about the bombshells in the clips released from Trump’s interview with Lester Holt. To recap, the most significant being that the president admitted that, on three separate occasions, he asked the former FBI director if he was under investigation. That alone was jaw-dropping because it points to a possible obstruction of justice.
When the entire interview was released, it became even more so. Here is the significant exchange:
The President of the United States just admitted on national television that, when he made the decision to fire Comey, he was was thinking about the Russia investigation and implied that he wanted to end it.
Meanwhile, the president isn’t the only one dropping bombshells. Friends of James Comey are starting to talk too. Michael Schmidt reports that a couple of them said that Trump invited Comey to a dinner in which he asked the FBI director for loyalty.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
Corner Stone won’t like this but there’s no other way: Меня тошнит от этих подонков.
David Anderson
@?eric: Sessions, Sanders-Huckabee are the two that I would have thought would be shitting their pants and speed dialing a lawyer if they are smart. But again, IANAL
@clay: Agreed, as long as the House is led by spineless Randian jellyfish out to loot, Trump is safe in the House.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: one thing that I do find very amusing (limned well in Gleick’s The Information) is just how much of modern technology usage did originate much earlier than you’d suspect. Vannevar Bush and the “memex” being a great example, and of course Doug Engelbart. (And then there’s the dystopian things that all the sci-fi authors came up with first.)
Which has fuck-all to do with Twitter and steam catapults and all else, but I do find it amusing.
clay
@Gin & Tonic: Ugh. I’m sure his only information about Russia/Ukraine relations came from Kislyak and Manafort.
His signature is insane. “Trump” is only five letters, but his scribble looks like it has about fifteen.
zhena gogolia
@AliceBlue:
I held onto mine until I just couldn’t find the ribbons any more.
rikyrah
Trump threatens Comey with provocative reference to ‘tapes’
05/12/17 10:12 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump had the latest in a series of Twitter tantrums this morning, which wouldn’t ordinarily be especially notable, except this one included what appeared to be a provocative threat:
“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
As 19-word presidential missives go, this may be prove to be quite consequential.
On the surface, Trump’s tweet appears to be a not-so-veiled threat against the former FBI director, whom the president fired this week because of Trump’s opposition to Comey’s investigation into the Russia scandal. This, in and of itself, is outrageously inappropriate and of dubious legality.
Indeed, the fact that the president is publicly warning a potential witness to remain quiet only adds to concerns about Trump possibly obstructing justice. Norm Eisen, the chief ethics lawyer in the Obama White House, characterized the president’s tweet this morning as a possible crime.
But then there’s that reference to “tapes.”
The word admittedly appears in quotes – and we know that the president hasn’t the foggiest idea how quotation marks work – so it’s possible that Trump wasn’t being literal. It’s also possible that Trump just revealed the existence of recordings he has of private conversations.
AlbertZ
@rikyrah: It’s funny and even probable, given his remarkable ignorance of US history, that Trump has never even heard of the Nixon Tapes.
FlipYrWhig
“Subpoena” has such a lovely ring to it, doesn’t it.
Grab ’em by the subpoenas.
clay
@hovercraft: Yeah. One of my biggest joys of the last four months has been seeing Trump’s on campaign words used to strike down his executive orders.
Keep on babbling, asshole!!!
rikyrah
Trump struggles to explain Michael Flynn controversy
05/12/17 09:24 AM
By Steve Benen
Perhaps the president could explain what he considers an “emergency.”
Hmm. President Obama had warned Trump about Michael Flynn; there were multiple news accounts on Flynn receiving money from Russia; and then the acting U.S. Attorney General warned the White House – multiple times – that the White House National Security Advisor had been compromised by Russia and was vulnerable to a foreign adversary’s blackmail.
Trump heard this and thought it “did not sound like an emergency.” In fact, the president decided to do nothing and continued to provide Flynn with access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets.
In yesterday’s interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, Trump added, “This man (Flynn) has served for many years, he’s a general, he’s a – in my opinion – a very good person. I believe that it would be very unfair to hear from somebody who we don’t even know and immediately run out and fire a general.”
Even for Trump, this is bizarre. The person “we don’t even know” referred to Sally Yates, who happens to be the Justice Department official that Trump named as acting Attorney General. She’s also the one who told Trump’s White House that Flynn was not only compromised, and not only lying about his Russian contacts, but that the “underlying conduct” Flynn was lying about was itself problematic.
And yet, at this point, Trump is still defending Flynn.
JMG
Someone on Twitter said the tapes remark was typical Trump projection. He’s afraid Comey has such evidence of their conversations. Which, BTW, would be perfectly legal for Comey to do. D.C. allows one-party consent tape recording, something to think about if your caller ID shows a 202 area code.
clay
@David Anderson:
I’ve been wondering where Sean Spicer’s been in all of this, and why the PR has been tasked to his (even less competent) assistant. Maybe he realized how quickly the WH story would fall apart and decided he wanted no part of it?
Vhh
@clay: It is big, illiterate, and incomprehensible, just like the man.
marv
One possible area for compromise in all this: Keep the daily press briefings, open to Russian media only
Calouste
It’s pretty obvious that the shitgibbon just hears what he wants to hear, no matter what is said. He literally things that Comey told him he was not under investigation, where Comey most likely said something along the lines of “I can’t say…”. Even when the tapes show up and get played 20 times, the shitgibbon will still hear what he wants to hear.
Brachiator
Holy Special Prosecutor, Batman!
I was skimming the news about this late last night and this morning during my commute, stories about Trump demanding that Comey declare his loyalty and baldly state whether Trump himself is being investigated.
Along with everything else, is Trump here confessing that he has tapes of conversations? Could we be headed toward a constitutional showdown over such materials and Trump invoking executive privilege?
Emperor Manicula (Little Hands) certainly seems to be invoking Olympian declarations of his personal divinity. If Trump announces a White House wedding of himself and Ivanka, and appoints a horse to be FBI director, it will be a sure sign that this shit has reached Peak Ego Levels of Depravity.
Just as there were more days in Trump’s Hundred Days than any other president in history, there are more letters in his signature than any of the feeble presidents that came before him.
rikyrah
Mike Pence gets caught making yet another bogus claim
05/12/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
There’s room for an interesting debate about who’s ultimately to blame for Mike Pence’s public falsehoods, but there’s no denying the fact that the list of the vice president’s bogus claims is getting longer. Politico reported yesterday:
In fact, Pence was rather specific when talking to reporters on Wednesday, saying, “Let me be very clear that the president’s decision to accept the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to remove Director Comey as the head of the FBI was based solely and exclusively on his commitment to the best interests of the American people and to ensuring that the FBI has the trust and confidence of the people this nation.”
We now know these comments weren’t true – because Pence’s boss has now admitted as much. Trump acknowledged yesterday that his decision to the FBI director wasn’t related to the Justice Department’s recommendations, and wasn’t “based solely and exclusively” on the national interests. On the contrary, the president said it was Comey’s investigation into the Russia scandal that served as the motivation for the firing.
Pence also said Wednesday that it was Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who “made the recommendation” on Comey, which Trump accepted. We now know that’s not what happened: Trump told Rosenstein to write the memo to justify a decision the president had already made.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday that it’s “a terrible thing to watch” the vice president undermine his own credibility this way. That’s true, but let’s not forget that it’s also a terrible thing that Pence keeps doing this.
dmsilev
Set your Trump-tweet-o-meters for high alert tomorrow evening: Melissa McCarthy and Sean Spicer’s podium have been spotted out and about in Manhattan.
NotMax
Kind of laughing that the Selectric is “ancient.”
Loved the trusty turquoise and white electric Smith-Corona which got a hefty workout during high school and college. Selectric was far, far beyond my price range at the time.
Jim Parish
@Major Major Major Major: Have you ever read Murray Leinster’s 1946 short story, “A Logic Named Joe”? Leinster damn near predicted the Internet!
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/11/17
Rep Swalwell: Sessions obviously not recused on Trump probe
Rep. Eric Swalwell, member of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about the challenge of getting an honest investigation into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia and interference in the 2016 election.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: maybe he’s signing Donald F’in Trump.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/11/17
Sen Wyden: I don’t feel Mike Pompeo was straight with us on Flynn
Senator Ron Wyden talks with Rachel Maddow about his feeling that CIA Director Mike Pompeo was not being forthcoming about Mike Flynn, and challenges the investigation has had getting information from the CIA.
Jim Parish
@NotMax: Hah! I learned to type on a manual Royal. I was thrilled when my parents bought me a (still manual) Olympia.
rikyrah
No lie…always follow the $$$$$
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/11/17
Sen Wyden: Trump investigation should follow the money
Senator Ron Wyden, member of the Senate Finance and Intelligence Committees, talks with Rachel Maddow about why he thinks the Trump-Russia investigation should focus on Donald Trump’s business ties.
rikyrah
Yep….knew it…
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/11/17
Exclusive: DoJ won’t say if Sessions is recused on Manafort
Rachel Maddow reports that contrary to popular belief, former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has not registered as a foreign agent, and the DoJ won’t say if A.G. Jeff Sessions is recused on Manafort matters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Rick Wilson, GOP flack, being very anti-Trump on MSNBC right now, and I believe he has been much more supportive in the past. FWIW. Not much, probably.
One thing: I realize that certified letters have some significance in legal matters, establishing timelines, proof of receipt of documents, etc. Does that really matter at this level? at the level of presidential politics and international business transactions?
rikyrah
White House connects Comey firing, ‘conclusion’ of Russia probe
05/11/17 04:40 PM
By Steve Benen
This was probably not a smart thing to say given the circumstances.
CNN’s report characterized this as a “surprising admission from the White House that Comey’s sudden dismissal on Tuesday may have an effect on the Russia probe.”
That’s right.
In terms of the context, the White House’s contradictions reflect a degree of internal chaos. Two days ago, in a Fox News interview, Sanders, the president’s principal deputy press secretary, said the White House wants the investigation into the Russia scandal to end. “It’s time to move on,” she argued.
A day later – which is to say, yesterday – during the White House press briefing, Sanders changed direction, saying the president wants the investigation to keep going. Trump, she said, wants Justice Department officials “to continue with whatever they see appropriate and sees fit, just the same as he’s encouraged the House and Senate committees to continue any ongoing investigations.”
And today, she changed back, saying the White House wants the investigation to “come to its conclusion.”
But looking past the inconsistencies, the more serious concern is the White House linking Comey’s firing to Team Trump’s desire to see the probe end.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim Parish: I have not, I’ll have to check it out.
LAO
LOL:
Tom Levenson
@Jim Parish: I still have my grandmother’s 20’s era Smith Corona, though it would take a fair bit of cleaning to get going again. My first real typewriter was a 60s manual S-C, followed by my dad’s late ’60s electric Olympia in college. I cannot tell you of the joy I felt when I first got my hands on a CP/M computer keyboard in the early eighties. Never looked back.
rikyrah
With Comey firing, Trump delivers ‘a gut punch’ to the FBI
05/11/17 12:42 PM
By Steve Benen
Throughout much of the last year, before and after Election Day, Donald Trump took jaw-dropping shots at U.S. intelligence agencies, questioning their competence, judgment, and professionalism. At one point, the Republican even compared American intelligence professionals to Nazis.
For a president to launch these kinds of rhetorical attacks was outrageous on its face, and it creates a dangerous governing dynamic. But Trump’s tantrums were also at odds with his own self-interest. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Rachel earlier this year, “You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you. So even for a practical supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this.”
The comment came to mind reading the Washington Post’s report on Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, and how the news was received by Comey’s former colleagues.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah:
Notice how Trump’s kids and son-in-law have been no were to be seen in the last week or two?
YellowDog
That’s not a Selectric. That typewriter has a movable carriage. From their beginning, Selectric’s had a movable type ball and a fixed carriage. I used first and second generation Selectrics for years, and owned a third-generation machine.
rikyrah
Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Russian officials grows more alarming
05/11/17 10:11 AM—UPDATED 05/11/17 10:18 AM
By Steve Benen
At face value, it looked ridiculous. The day after Donald Trump fired the FBI director overseeing the investigation into the Russia scandal, the president welcomed Russian officials into the Oval Office for a chat. Soon after, the world was treated to photographs from the Russian Foreign Ministry – not the White House or U.S. news organizations – of Trump shaking hands with Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
It wasn’t long before many started wondering why American journalists were barred from the event, but Russia’s official news agency was allowed in.
The Washington Post took this a step further, highlighting the possibility of a security breach.
hovercraft
@clay:
He was on his Naval Service Reserve duties at the Pentagon this week, they said he’d be back today.
rikyrah
This commission is designed to impugn the integrity of Black and Latino participation in the political process. t.co/pPCBAQGIUM
— Legal Defense Fund (@NAACP_LDF) May 12, 2017
LAO
@?eric: I agree with your conspiracy analysis — with one caveat — you can assist a conspiracy without being an actual member of that conspiracy. In my fantasy world, ie. our laws and institutions aren’t politicized — Sessions is probably an active member of the obstruction conspiracy, while Rosenstein was a useful idiot. But I would be shocked if anyone was held legally responsible for this behavior.
rikyrah
Every single word of this: t.co/h3Afk2B5S1
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 12, 2017
NotMax
@Jim Parish
The average Royal may not have been elegant but it sure was a workhorse.
To paraphrase the Timex slogan, it took a lickin’ and kept on clickin’.
mdblanche
@craigie: By now I’m beginning to wonder if Mike Pence might be the next president…
@rikyrah: Or maybe not…
rikyrah
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.
GOP senators propose Merrick Garland as replacement for Comey at FBI t.co/1jfBn3gTHl pic.twitter.com/s3Sl4TTahD
— The Hill (@thehill) May 12, 2017
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No Rick Wilson was never on board, he’s been a die hard NERVERTRUMPER from the get go. He hates him, really really hates him, I’d put him right up there with whatshername, the Cruz social media director who was fired for inappropriate tweets, Liz Mair (sic) ?
rikyrah
SAVE LIBRARIES TODAY!Super easy to check if your Senator or House Rep. has signed and/or send the letter. Just go to t.co/VgUoPsavBZ pic.twitter.com/XyqF4oBkBu
— y davis (@davisym00) May 12, 2017
FlipYrWhig
@rikyrah:
Trump clearly has a man-crush on Flynn and really, _really_, I mean, REALLY likes the idea that an Army Man wanted to be his friend.
rikyrah
Judge orders Trump to share Giuliani memo on crafting “legally sound” Muslim ban t.co/yszfdymOZ6 pic.twitter.com/p3LNvgchnO
— The Hill (@thehill) May 12, 2017
PAM Dirac
@NotMax: When I bought my first car (~1974), the title transfer was done at an office that sold used Selectrics for more than the price of my car.
ArchTeryx
@NotMax: I remember the Selectrics clearly. Them and their typeballs. :-)
I went to college during the very early days of the word processor; my HS graduation gift was essentially a typewriter with a 5-line fold-down early LCD screen that let it act as a word processor. It used daisy wheels for fonts.
It was quickly rendered obsolete by Microsoft and Lotus, sadly, but I kept it well into my college years.
rikyrah
Can some judge demand Dolt45’s tapes?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: sorry, Rick Tyler, who looks like Jack Nicholson’s long lost son. Not Rick Wilson, ur-neverTrumptweeter who looks like Mike Ehrmantraut’s chubbier, more cheerful younger brother.
hovercraft
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Lucretia and Jared I think are lying low because they were amongst the very few people who knew this was coming and they supported the decision. Given their vast experience they like Twitler were shocked by the explosive response this dumbass move generated. Since we know he’s been infuriated I suspect they chose to lay low and spend more time with their kids this week.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
didn’t Rick Wilson coin ‘ Cheeto Jesus’?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Major Major Major Major: Regarding his idiotic comments on the catapult upgrade program, I’ve been wondering whether a POTUS has the capability to cancel a major acquisition program on the basis of a casual remark like that. He’s not the Program Manager, but they’re certainly in his chain of command as everything in the military is part of the Executive.
As a tiny cog in the acquisition machinery myself, I have been trained to be cautious about saying things to a vendor that they could take as instructions to change what they’re doing (and subsequently bill for it). I’m the government, no matter how small a cog, and so my understanding is that, if acting as a member of the government in any capacity, I were to visit a vendor and say, “I dunno, I would think you’d want the flushing levers on those toilets to be made of titanium, but that’s just me”, they have the right to switch to titanium and bill for it, and justify it as “the government required it.” At a handsome profit of course. Hence, we are cautioned to put disclaimers on our communications like “nothing I say carries any contractual weight”. Maybe I’m exaggerating, perhaps a random HHS employee on a tour doesn’t have the capacity to commit that kind of oopsie on a DoD contract, perhaps there has to be a more direct relationship to the program. But we are definitely cautioned about the legal damage that can be done by those kinds of casual remarks.
As for working the other way, causing contract disruptions or cancellations, I’m not sure. A POTUS can certainly decide to review and cancel a program based on that review (as Obama did to a NASA launcher program, based on a review that I think was started under W). But those are deliberate decisions. Surely Trump is not the first VIP visitor to make idiotic comments on a tour, and surely there are *some* safeguards against program disruptions caused by such comments.
Been scanning the defense news here and there and people aren’t dismissing it outright. All I’ve found so far is “General Dynamics says ask the Navy, and the Navy isn’t answering”.
All of this must be really helping (insert sarcasm font there) Trump with the Republicans in Congress, since “support the military”, their mantra, means “make sure the money spigot to the defense contractors stays wide open”, and General Dynamics is one of the biggest and most powerful.
clay
@rikyrah:
I saw that one. Wyden also said to follow the trail of dead bodies. He’s taking it seriously.
The Moar You Know
@NotMax: Last time I saw one was junior high typing class. Almost 40 years ago. 5 years later, first year of college, we were all on computers or standalone dedicated word processors.
Ancient but not necessarily obsolete.
I’m an IT guy, in charge of the company’s assets and disaster recovery, and an argument I’ve been making for years is that we should have an old-school electric typewriter in every one of the company’s offices. Can’t get anyone to bite on that.
Humboldtblue
SNL is going rogue as Melissa McCarthy as Spicer tours Manhattan on mobile podium.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@ArchTeryx: It was a pain in the neck to be switching them out all the time when you needed new fonts (for equations for instance) or italics. On the other hand, I always thought it was cool to watch them do boldface, which they did by striking twice, slightly offset.
I’m easily amused where technology is concerned.
Our university used Selectrics as terminals to the campus mainframe (IBM-370), and all students got free accounts.
lamh36
They need to go ahead and get Melissa McCarthy’a #Emmy ready!!
clay
@FlipYrWhig: More like Flynn pushed all of Trump’s buttons what with his being fired by Obama, and his “Lock her up” chant.
Hell, even the week after Flynn was fired (er, sorry, “resigned”), Trump was talking about how “unfair” Flynn was treated, and basically giving no indication that he understood why Flynn had to go in the first place. And, apparently, he still wants to call Flynn, but his staff prevents it.
I think it’s likely that he wasn’t the one who forced Flynn to resign. (Bannon? Preibus?) And he certainly doesn’t give two craps about the “official” explanation (lying to Pence) even if it were true (which as we now see, isn’t likely). So in Trump’s mind, Flynn never did him wrong, and he doesn’t know why he had to leave. He’s like a damn child who doesn’t understand why Daddy doesn’t live at home any more. But you would expect it of a child…
Timurid
@rikyrah:
I’m guessing this is where Trump explicitly disobeys a court order for the first time…
LAO
Call me crazy — but I think Trump is going to call a press conference. He truly believes he can talk his way out of anything and he’s upset with Spicer and Huckabee-Sanders. How awesome would that be?
NotMax
@The Moar You Know
The later model Selectrics with the correction ribbon and backspace/erase key were the bee’s knees.
But one couldn’t play Space Invaders on them as one could on the early Wang word processors. :)
Trivia: Tennis for Two was one of the first video games, developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958. Play was displayed on an oscilloscope.
Dread
I think my reaction to that tweet is… how fucking stupid do you have to be to piss off the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA five months into your administration?
Apparently, TRUMP-level stupid.
Tom Levenson
@YellowDog: Erk. My mistake.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Ha! Ya know, you might be right.
@lamh36:
Oh, hell to the Yes! Baldwin’s Trump impersonation is very good, but Melissa McCarthy’s “Crazy Spicer” is a glorious thing of beauty. She’s got the slow burn down, and the bits of physical comedy elevate it.
MJS
@Ten Bears: Youngster. My typing class used manual typewriters. God, I hated that class. It did teach me keyboarding relatively well, but hitting those keys with the right amount of force so that the print wasn’t too light, but also didn’t cause a double image (because I was hitting them too hard) was beyond my abilities.
clay
Josh Marshall points out that IF there are tapes of Trump and Comey and EVEN IF they verify Trump’s version of the conversation… that it still is bad for Trump because he’d be on tape interfering with a federal investigation..
Maybe instead of having this “prestigious law firm” send certified letters, they should be getting him to shut the hell up.
tobie
@rikyrah: Apparently Mike Murphy has suggested Leon Panetta for Special Prosecutor. I think this is a good idea. Life-long Republican strategist and friend of the Bush clan recommending Panetta…just think about this. The few sane Republicans left know the party in its current incarnation is rotten and has to be abandoned.
hovercraft
@LAO:
You’re not crazy, he believes he’s smarter, more charming than anyone he can put out there. Remember he thinks that earlier unscheduled presser he gave that sane people thought was a train wreck was a big WIN!
Jim Parish
@MJS: Did they have a ‘1’ key? (That’s why I was so happy to get an Olympia. Lower-case ‘l’ for ‘1’ and period-backspace-apostrophe for exclamation point, GAH!)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lamh36: I can’t believe this late in both our lives watching SNL has become something I look forward to for the first time since Belushi left (slight exaggeration since I was a big fan of a few other people in between– but I can’t remember looking forward to it like I do now, maybe for Fey’s Palin).
Ridnik Chrome
“If I had a friend like Miss Rosemary Woods
How simple my life would be
I’d just give all my problems to Rosemary Woods
And she would erase them for me
Each time I was wrong or each time that I lied
Or somebody made me scared
I would simply report them to Rosemary Woods
And she’d make them disappear…”
tobie
@clay:
Does anyone know what happened to the Russian fellow who supposedly fell out of a fifth floor window and miraculously survived? Wasn’t he supposed to testify in a case involving Deutsche Bank in New York? I can’t recall the specifics but it seems connected to the trail of bodies (in this case hopefully a still living body).
amk
MoxieM
@Jim Parish: Me too– the big tall black one from the late 1940’s. And the ‘a’ stuck. (Damned querty keyboard). My mom typed my dad’s dissertation on it, in the late summer of ’56, with her feet in a pan of ice water (she was pregnant.) Old times, not so great times?
NotMax
@clay
Have the distinct feeling that the use of the word tapes (quotation marks be damned) was deliberate after having seen the press go off on a tangent to the exclusion of much else for an extended period after he said wiretap.
ArchTeryx
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The Internet is wonderful. I found the model I used: The Smith-Corona PWP 6 BL. It was one of the very early LCD backlit displays, something we take for granted now.
It was a pain in the butt to shift the wheels around, and you could only do one font at a time, but I still thought it was the bee’s knees when I had it those first few years of college – a computer in a typewriter. It even had floppy disks – 3 inches in hard plastic containers, a precursor of the 3.5″ floppies.
eclare
@clay: Read somewhere that he is fulfilling a Navy reserve requirement.
Brachiator
@Dread:
Reminds me of a Roman Emperor deliberately pissing off the Praetorian Guard.
And as always, the crazy thing is I hear Trump supporters calling in to local talk radio (and sending Twitter messages to the hosts) blaming the media for making Trump look bad. But the formerly impenetrable wall of support is starting to crumble a little. You have a few people starting to ask WTF is going on with Trump, why is he picking fights with the FBI?
germy
Jeffro
1) It’s Friday, Trumpov’s embattled and fired up, the FBI (and IC) are on the warpath…you just KNOW we’re going to get some BREAKING NEWS this afternoon!
2) When Jennifer Rubin and Paul Krugman are in 110% alignment – not just on Trumpov’s corruption, but actively and loudly noting that Ryan and McConnell are covering up his crimes in order to give huge tax cuts to the rich – you know we are living in interesting times.
(the funny thing is, you could switch the names on those two columns and never notice)
(except that Rubin’s is actually shriller, if you can believe it!)
germy
@eclare:
I can totally see drumpf firing him while he’s on Navy reserve duty.
hovercraft
Poor FOX has a sad.
WATCH: Fox News Reporter Accidentally Interviews Informed Voter, Promptly Runs Away
Griff Jenkins when he went to the Tastee Diner in Bethesda, Maryland. Jenkins was on hand to ask “regular” people what they thought of the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The Fox News hosts in the studio chuckled about how Comey is now “looking for work” as they tossed to Griff live in Bethesda. But when he sat down with Pat Flaherty, a 25-year employee of the Veterans’ Administration, he got more than the folksy answer he was expecting. Asking Pat what he thought of the current situation in America, Flaherty laid it down.
I think people are starting to care now and realize we’ve got some pretty weak promises made by somebody who doesn’t understand we’re not in the golf business. We’re not building buildings. He’s working for me now.
“Not to be too Machiavellian about it”
Maybe Griff was thrown off by not getting a “Hail Trump” type of response, but he soldiered on. Pressing the elderly diner on the Comey firing, Pat once again left Jenkins’ jaw on the floor.
Why does it take such a long time for these guys to arrive at this conclusion? Is it because we’re getting too tight in finding out too much information linked to Putin?
That was just about enough for the no-longer-smiling Griff Jenkins. “Well, we’re tight on time,” he said, moving quickly to a patron across the aisle.
Jeffro
@germy: It’ll be exciting to see what’s buried in all those hundreds of shell companies…in some cases, separate companies were created for each condo that Russian oligarchs bought from Trumpov (h/t Adam)
Ian G.
There’s a scary thought I keep having: the Trump administration is doomed. The kind of incompetence that leads one to bankrupt a casino is not going to win a war with the FBI.
But what happens the next time an authoritarian loon decides he wants the presidency, but is far smarter and more capable about it? I look at a guy like Allen West and think he could be our Erdogan if he wanted it [insert joke about Republicans passing over a talented black man in favor of an incompetent white man].
I’m afraid that someone is going to learn the lesson that the right in this country wants dictatorship, and they’ll learn from Shitgibbon’s fail parade, and next time, we won’t be so lucky.
Tom Levenson
@germy: Or, as Charles Pierce puts it at the end of this piece,
clay
@germy:
Setting aside the obvious contradiction between “no income of any type” and “with few exceptions”… Trump’s tax returns don’t SHOW us anything until he actually SHOWS us the returns.
Did this lawyer produce the returns? No? Then he can STFU.
Gin & Tonic
@tobie: Nikolai Gorokhov. AFAIK still alive. He was due to testify in something related to the Magnitsky/Hermitage issue, not DB. Can’t easily find any recent reports on his condition.
hovercraft
@germy:
Are loans income?
Plus are we talking about just his personal tax returns, or have they combed through the tax returns of the five hundred or so companies and shell companies that he “owns”? If true that he has no business with Russia why have his sons been telling people the exact opposite for years. Are they liars?
Yes I do know water is wet.
Gin & Tonic
@clay: The letter was from this firm:
No, I am not making this up.
Baud
@germy: What about debts?
Another Scott
@clay: I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but Trump always uses one pen for his signing ceremonies. Most presidents that I recall usually/often used dozens (look at Obama’s signature (especially the O) on the PPACA) to hand out as souvenirs to people who made it happen.
Of course, since Donnie has mostly only signed EOs, maybe it’s not that different.
But I won’t be at all surprised if he trashes that tradition/convention as well if he ever does sign some important legislation. (I can’t find any pictures of him signing the FY17 spending bill.)
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
LAO
@clay: My favorite thing about this claim, is that the lawyer doesn’t define what “income” means (loans aren’t income) or what “Russian sources” means (does he only included official Russian State actors and entities)? It is a weaselly lawyer response. Trust the media to run with it.
Baud
“White House tapes show that Trump did not obstruct justice…with few exceptions.”
clay
@Gin & Tonic: I believe you, because I don’t think anyone COULD make this up. Is the firm based in Russia? How in the hell did they win a Russian award?
EDIT: And is this the same firm that’s sending out “certified letters” saying he’s innocent?
Baud
From the AP article
hovercraft
@Another Scott:
Not just a pen, a black sharpie, it was one of tidbits from the TIME fluff piece. He was ever so charming and hospitable and he can’t understand why his charm offensive is not working on America and the world for the matter if only we could all see what the TIME reporters saw, a wonderful host who just wants to make America great again, we would all love him. It’s the lying media that won’t simply disseminate his words that’s responsible for all his problems.
Another Scott
@rikyrah: Getting him out as chief judge of the DC Circuit would be something that the Teabaggers would love to do (to try to swing that important court to the right as well).
They’re so transparent…
Eyes on the prize.
Cheers,
Scott.
amk
clay
@Baud: Those, notably, are the two exceptions Trump mentioned in the Lester Holt interview. So they probably felt they HAD to include those. And also feel they can get away with omitting the rest?
Baud
@clay: AP hasn’t posted the copy of the letter yet.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud:
Should say “a property bought by Trump in 2005 for $41 million and sold to a Russian billionaire in 2008 for $95 million.”
We all get that kind of return when selling our houses into the teeth of a worldwide financial crisis, no?
clay
@hovercraft: A sharpie, criminy. Who uses a sharpie to sign important documents? Even without all of the grift, incompetence, and narcissism, he’s still a strange, strange man.
Matt McIrvin
@YellowDog is right: that’s not a Selectric. I’m not sure what it is.
NotMax
@Baud
Let ’em go back 20 years to when Russian money bailed him out. Lot of chits building up interest over that time frame.
Major Major Major Major
@Tom Levenson: reminds me of a Seth Myers joke about the AHCA. Ryan sent an angry email saying that it had too been read by people and available for public comment, except for a three-page amendment. And Myers said that would be like somebody saying “here, I made you a cappuccino out of espresso, water, sugar, milk, and one other ingredient.” If that happened you would ask “and what ingredient would that be, mister Cosby?”
FlipYrWhig
@clay: IIRC there was an earlier thing with him supposedly writing his inaugural address or convention speech while sitting at a desk that turned out to be a hotel front desk and holding a blank pad and… a Sharpie.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: That would give that Circuit a Republican majority and put Garland (who now has lifetime tenure) into a position from which he could be fired a week later.
Amy Klobuchar publicly supported this, so if you live in Minn, pick up the damn phone.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: ok, I’d been uncharitably assuming it was a black sharpie, but… it actually really is? Jesus Christ.
Ruviana
@El Caganer: Steam tweets are getting known more and more.
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
LOL @ Fox News being aghast at finding alert voters.
Walker
@Gin & Tonic:
Depending on when in 2008, people were seeing that kind of return.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@burnspbesq:
Sorry guys, but as much as I hate Trump, I still don’t see even smoke with regard to the firing itself or that Comey tweet. I may be a dumb shit street lawyer with a primarily family law practice now, but I did long ago have a much more active criminal trial practice, and did a five week Federal white collar fraud trial that had obstruction and witness tampering/intimidation as one of its major components.
ETA – I now feel filthy and need to cut off my fingers for writing that.
clay
@Gin & Tonic: It only matters if Garland wants the job. I’d have to assume that, given how he’s been treated by Republicans, and given the inherent perils of the job that you outlined, that his answer would be a double-fisted middle finger.
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
You just almost got me in trouble at work, because I had to stop myself from laughing hysterically at this.
Brachiator
@craigie:
I’m hearing that there is a recent Paul Krugman column about us seeing the possible end of democracy.
Maybe Kamala Harris could be a future Empress? Sometime after Empress Ivanka I.
hovercraft
@Baud:
You mean this tiny little deal?
Trump makes $60 million dollars from Russian Oligarch and rewards intermediary Wilbur Ross
By False equivalency
Monday Feb 27, 2017 · 10:26 PM EDT
This is just being reported on the Rachel Maddow show. A Russian Oligarch, known as the King of Fertilizer (KoF), settled a divorce claim for close to $5 billion. To hide his assets from his wife, KoF bought multiple real estate properties throughout the world. One of which he bought for 100 million dollars (corrected thanks to two alert readers). Donald Trump had purchased this place in an auction for $40 million dollars two years earlier.
Both Trump and KoF claim they never met or interacted with each other. The intermediary was one Wilbur Ross.
Wilbur Ross is now our Secretary of Commerce (thanks to an alert reader for pointing out an error on my part). A reward for helping KoF and Trump? No. Just a coincindence.
Rachel had a Rachel like deep dive through the particulars if you’d care to imbibe.:
The Rachel Maddow Show, Transcript 2/27/2017
Baud
Here’s a copy of the letter.
washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/politics/trump-lawyer-letter-on-his-taxes/2204/?tid=a_inl
Timurid
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Threatening somebody in a public forum with the release of damaging information if he does not comply with your demands is not extortion?
NotMax
Just looked it up – Rose Mary Woods’ typewriter resides in Box 20 of her materials at the Nixon Library.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: IBM Model D Executive according to the Google machine.
Cheers,
Scott.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Timurid:
Reread the statement.
rikyrah
Another day, another threat
Liberal Librarian
May 12, 2017
Instability-in-chief Donald Trump had this to tweet out this morning:
……………………………………………………..
The longer the GOP allows this to go on, the more the Republic is in danger. The Constitution is merely a piece of paper unless all stakeholders uphold it. Right now, Republicans are not abiding by the spirit of the Constitution, and are abiding by the letter of it only by the skin of their teeth. We can argue whether or not collusion with Russia is treason. But what Trump is doing now in upending Constitutional norms as the noose tightens around him is treason. We pledge loyalty not to men or women, but to this 200 year old document. Once we betray it, we betray everything.
The GOP, in its quest for absolute power, has allowed a viper into the nest. This snake threatens to kill us all. Only the GOP has the power to stop him at this moment. By the time Democrats retake the House and Senate and remove him post-2018, the damage, though not irreparable, will take even longer to fix. It’s time to excise this cancer. Now.
ThresherK
@YellowDog: That’s the first thought I had, from when a Selectric was my family’s first typewriter.
tobie
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for this info.
rikyrah
Trump ‘would not be well-received’ at FBI headquarters
05/12/17 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen
There was quite a bit of chatter yesterday morning that Donald Trump would stop by FBI headquarters as a way of signaling support for the bureau in the wake of the president firing its director. It’s easy to imagine the scene Trump envisioned: he’d stop by, shake a few hands, tell a few jokes, maybe hand out a few electoral maps, and win the FBI over with some presidential charm.
I was eager to see what kind of reception he’d receive, but the plan was apparently scrapped. NBC News explained why.
geg6
My godfather worked for IBM and got me a Selectric II for my high school graduation. I was the envy of everyone I knew in college. He also kept me supplied in ribbons and balls for it. He’s a great guy.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: The tarmac meeting wasn’t a conflict of interest. We’ll see what shakes out.
Timurid
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s basically the stereotypical Mob extortion line… “Nice business you got here… it would be a shame if something happened to it.”
(So you’re saying it’s juuuuust vague enough to offer him cover?)
clay
@Baud: Willie Nelson?!? How could he???
Baud
@clay: Weed makes people do strange things.
LAO
Please let this headline be true! Because the article doesn’t really support the claim that Comey is prepared to publicly respond to Trump’s smear.
clay
@Baud: Jeff Sessions is right!!!
geg6
@clay:
He’s in the reserves and, apparently, had a reserve obligation this week. I heard he’d be back today, I think.
bystander
@LAO:
Except when they are actually income in the guise of a loan. Don’t think there’s nothing Trump won’t try to avoid paying taxes.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
A black sharpie is bigger and thicker and it dominates all other pens, especially skinny black ones! Graydon Carter really has a lot to answer for. Paging Dr. Freud!
geg6
@YellowDog:
Just took a good look and you are right. That is most definitely NOT an IBM Selectric.
Major Major Major Major
@bystander: Isn’t there also the thing that people like Warren Buffett do where you put up your own assets as ‘collateral’ for a ‘loan’ and basically have your own private dividend fund that’s taxed stupidly?
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Well we should be glad its not a gold sharpie with glitter. Elitist that I am I like to write with a fountain pen, have a collection of Lamy (from Germany), Parker, Shaffer, Hero (from China) and Wilson (from India) pens
hovercraft
@schrodingers_cat:
Elitist!
Brachiator
@germy:
This has inevitably set off a new meme:A few selections
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: With a much better handwriting than the TV personality in the WH.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: I have never dressed my cat except to put a scarf on her so that she looks like a babushka and I call her Olga.
scuffletuffle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: IANAL, but no. In fact, I would think such a letter would flirt aggressively with malpractice.
LurkerNoLonger
RE: The missing 18 minutes in the Nixon tapes. Has there been any speculation about what was in them? Was it him directly ordering the break in at the Watergate?
Taylor
@Tom Levenson:
Oh man. WordStar. Talk about taking me back.
Kids today, all they know is autocomplete.
rikyrah
@LurkerNoLonger:
He was talking about Rittenhouse….
Don’t mind me..just a bitter Timeless fan here….
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Only on special occasions, I presume.
Bruce K
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A “certified letter” doesn’t mean jack as far as the content of the letter goes. What gets certified is that the letter was sent by someone and received by someone else. It’s a guard against someone saying “I never got that document you said you sent me”.
What the cheeto would need in place of a “certified letter” is a sworn statement – a statement made under oath, on pain of prosecution for perjury. There are a scarily large number of people willing to enable the cheeto, but I suspect the number who are willing to go to prison for him is a lot smaller…
LurkerNoLonger
@rikyrah: I watched Timeless too!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: On special occasions I add a string of pearls.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Good show. Didn’t realized it had been cancelled. Loved the episode featuring Bass Reeves, the “real” Lone Ranger.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Are you tellig me that all this time we’ve been blaming Comey and Putin, it was Rittenhouse? Or do you mean that Rittenhouse made them…..
LurkerNoLonger
@Brachiator: Timeless was cancelled!? Rittenhouse strikes again!
burnspbesq
@LAO:
Show me the form 1116. Let’s see what foreign taxes he’s claiming a credit for.
But the larger point is that he could be owned by Russian banks and it wouldn’t necessarily give rise to any foreign-source income. It’s a non-denial denial.
burnspbesq
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I certainly understand where you’re coming from, but the situation is fluid and evolving rapidly. Stay tuned.
Immanentize
@clay: Also, who is to say that the returns that the lawyers reviewed accurately reflected his income from Russians. A further dodge….
AWJ
I’m very late to the party, but it occurs to me that Trump is likely so utterly ignorant and narcissistic that he thinks that if a tape were to be released of him demanding personal fealty from Comey and Comey refusing, that that tape would look bad for Comey and vindicate Trump.
TenguPhule
Someone explain to me again why Donald Trump would not try to silence Comey because it would be a stupid thing to do.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
no convert is as loyal to the cause as much as a disillusioned former believer.
Ksmiami
@Another Scott: You simply cannot trust the Republicans on anything. Period. Why can’y Middle America wake the fuck up and realize this?
Ruckus
@Ksmiami:
Because they are republicans?
Ed Darrell
@geg6: It’s an IBM Model D Executive. At least, according to Ben Batchelor at etypewriters.com. I trust him (and I checked it out later).
timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/typewriter-of-the-moment-white-house-rosemary-woods/
Joe Miller
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wilson has hated Trump for a LONG time.
AWJ
Rick Wilson is the dude who was quoted during the primaries saying that Trump’s base was childless men who masturbate to anime. He’s an unwavering NeverTrumper.
Jonathan Holland Becnel
This blog may not belong to any official party, but it most certainly parrots the DNC establishment.
When will this blog make a stand for the working people it supposedly represents and stop supporting Democrats that suck Wall Sts Dick?
YellowDog
@Tom Levenson: But you’re right about nostalgia for Selectrics.
Theodore Wirth
Indeed Tom it appears that the pictured typewriter is a Model D wide-carriage. It used type bars instead of the single-element “golf ball” used in the very-complicated Selectric models. I exhaustively tested all forms of typewriters until their demise and the beloved Selectric was not the most reliable, nor did it outperform the abilities of other foreign makes such as the Hermes 808 which was an absolute Swiss jewel. Problem is when it came to the typist tests and surveys, it had to be an IBM because they did not like the “feel,” even though others did a far better job with carbon sets, cards, envelopes, lift-off correction and ribbon changes ad nauseum. Remember that those were the days when “nobody got fired for buying IBM.”
Ed Darrell
@Gin & Tonic: No, a federal judge can’t be fired. Impeachment, for bad behavior — but not fired.
Ed Darrell
@schrodingers_cat: Which of the pens do you recommend? Which is your favorite?