Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Republicans do not trust women.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Warning orders for Sunday morning

Warning orders for Sunday morning

by | 230 Comments

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There are three important things to come of this.

1) I am staying up past my bed time
2) SNL is aiming for monster ratings
3) We’ll see an exacerbation of the rolling constitutional crisis on Sunday morning

I wish I was being hysterical.

Open Thread

Reader Interactions

230Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike J

    I can’t imagine Spicey having a job Monday afternoon. At least he’ll have more time to spend among the bushes.

  4. 4.

    dr. bloor

    Someone commented on Twitter that the Orange Shitgibbon was going to can Spicer today just to take the air out of SNL’s skit.

    It would be difficult to argue against the plausibility of such a hypothesis.

  7. 7.

    clay

    @dr. bloor: It’s live TV. If he fired Spicer, they’d just write it into the sketch.

    Dammit, I am not getting any work done today.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    Two pedantic posts and nobody to correct him on the subjunctive? What a sorry state of affairs.

  14. 14.

    catclub

    @MattF: I was wondering that Ben Sasse is mentioned as being a relatively anti-Trump Republican, but Tom Cotton has disappeared from those listings of senators likely to join the Democrats in the Senate opposing Trump.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @NotMax:
    Rostra/rostrum is a different case from those others. A speaker should always be described as speaking from the rostra not from a rostrum. The rostra was an area for speakers in Rome named that because it was decorated with the rams (rostra, meaning beaks) from captured enemy warships. Because of that, it’s correct to use the plural rostra when talking about the speaking area even though it would make more sense to somebody who didn’t know the story to use the singular rostrum.

  19. 19.

    hovercraft

    I guess they have to at least try to shift the conversation, everything they’ve tried so far has just thrown gasoline on the fire, so why not return to the old standby?

    James Comey Is the Latest Victim of the Clintons

    by Michael Barone May 12, 2017 12:00 AM @michaelbarone
    They leave chaos in their wake and retreat back into their wealthy, privileged existence.

    Oy vey!

  22. 22.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Keep in mind that SNL didn’t debut until 1975…a year after Tricky Dick took his last ride on Air Force One.

    This is an absolutely golden age for SNL. They’re helping to shape the Zeitgeist of Gate-A-Lago.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    We won’t have to wait till Sunday AM. There will be another set of leaks/news dump late this afternoon. The threat to Comey isn’t going to be allowed to stand and the brushback will be timed for tonight’s cable news shows. Sundown is about 8:10 PM in FL. The Kushners will be going offline at least 30 minutes, if not closer to an hour before that for the Jewish sabbath. They will remain offline through Saturday evening around 8:30 PM. If I’m recalling correctly the President is also heading to Mar a Lago for the final weekend gala that is done every year when Mar a Lago closes for the summer. So he will be at Mar a Lago through Sunday night, including for the Mother’s Day brunch/extravaganza on Sunday AM. There will be instagram and tweet activity from his guests. It is not clear if the Kushners are traveling with the President to FL for the weekend.

  27. 27.

    hovercraft

    Samantha Bee Trolls Ivanka (And Her New Book)

    Samantha Bee begins with Ivanka’s bizarre repetition of an invented verb — “architecting” — and charts the downward literary trajectory of the First Daughter’s new book. Given her facility with our language, it’s not surprising that Ivanka relies almost entirely on material “borrowed” from others, tarted up with lots of fancy typefaces.

  32. 32.

    David Anderson

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh I agree, there is another dump coming this afternoon… I am waiting for the POTUS tweetstorm at 3:00 AM Sunday morning

    More serious question — when do NATO intelligence entities with permission of their national leadership start to publicly release intercepts that they most likely have? Or will they just make sure it is shared to the right Americans?

  33. 33.

    MisterForkbeard

    @catclub: It’s like an exorcism, but involves turkey basters. Not suitable for children to see, let me tell you.

    @hovercraft: On one hand, this is incredibly stupid. On the other hand: Michael Barone knows his audience.

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodingers_cat: It won’t be from the White House folks. Every Friday we get a news dump, usually based on well placed sources or strategic leaks, that just completely eat up whatever the Administration is saying, claiming, and/or doing. That pattern has been going on for weeks since the President took office. I expect it to continue.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    @David Anderson: He’ll start tweeting tomorrow in response to whatever is released this afternoon/evening.

    As for Five Eyes, NATO, and other allies and partners:
    1) What has needed to be shared through official channels has been shared. That is why things are moving slowly from everyone who doesn’t need to know (in the classification sense) perspective, because the CI Task Force folks have to find unclassified, or declassifiable, equivalent evidence that can be presented in court without burning methods and sources by the National Security Section prosecutors. This takes a while.
    2) Who is to say that the selective intel based leaks are not already coming from our allies and partners?

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @Elizabelle

    Received a few good laugh responses on WoW a week or so back while one zone was being plagued by intense lag.

    “They ought to rename this area Mar-a-Laggo.”

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Except that there’s only one e in masturbate.

    With all the pedantry erupting here, I wondered whether anyone would put the “u” back in “masturbate.”

  41. 41.

    Felonius Monk

    @NotMax:

    Except that there’s only one e in masturbate.

    Doesn’t that depend on how many hands you have to use?

  46. 46.

    Aleta

    Threadbare shirt and a lilac breeze
    This kinda weather makes you weak in the knees

    Well it only lasts for a couple of weeks
    Floating around on that lilac breeze

    And you leave the city, look at the sky
    There’s a hundred thousand stars up there waiting for you if you like

    Lilac Breeze, the Mammals

  47. 47.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker: Amuse? There is nothing remotely funny about how the T-party is pissing away the hard earned reputation and good will and all that made this country, the envy among nations. He has been aided and abetted by the media (Vichy Times, Atlantic and the like) all through his campaign and even now.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    And so it begins…

  59. 59.

    StringOnAStick

    @Adam L Silverman: I want to be one of the many to thank you profusely for the contributions you provide to this blog, it keeps my optimism reservoir fuller than the pessimism pool!

  60. 60.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: Sorry. I wish i could comment on that. But filling a comment box with hahahahahahahahahahahahalololololololololxdxdxdxdxdxdxdxd55555555jejejejeje, etc. is probably not up to the standards of this fine blog.

  61. 61.

    Peale

    @Villago Delenda Est: In this case “Hillary used the term “superpredator” in 1995! Sessions is using it today. I’m sure Hillary would have appointed the same kind of guy as AG.

  62. 62.

    Doug R

    Finally after about 42years, SNL is live on the west coast. So us left coasters get to watch at 8:30 and no edits. Go Mel!

  63. 63.

    clay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    So he will be at Mar a Lago through Sunday night, including for the Mother’s Day brunch/extravaganza on Sunday AM. There will be instagram and tweet activity from his guests.

    Don’t be silly. Surely the wouldn’t let a random group of people with no security clearance and a bunch of unsecured electronic devices hang around the president for an entire weekend? That would be as silly as letting the state media of a semi-hostile foreign power into the Oval Office with recording devices!

  66. 66.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @NotMax: And when there’s only one of them, it’s a PANINO dammit!!!

    There are actually places in the US that get this right.

  69. 69.

    Miss Bianca

    @hovercraft: Oh, FFS…I can’t *even* with these people…this is a level of delusion that should require sedation and psychiatric evaluation.

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft: That’s good of Michael Barone to knock the “wealth and privilege” of the Clintons. No hypocrisy there, right?

  74. 74.

    schrodingers_cat

    @hovercraft: I used to occasionally check out Clown Hall and K Lo’s Corner of Crazy and Thinking Housewife just to see what the cray cray are saying. Since the election I have totally lost the desire to do so. Since the crazy is coming at us at the speed of light and there is no need to actively seek it.

  75. 75.

    Taylor

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The Kushners will be going offline at least 30 minutes, if not closer to an hour before that for the Jewish sabbath.

    I call BS on the Kushners observing the Sabbath. They didn’t during the campaign when they needed to strategize a reaction to something (the P**** tape?). I think their religion is all theatre.

    Also, if you think of Trump as being the abusive father that everyone in the household has learned to avoid when he’s in a rage, then the recent silence of the Boy King and the QVC Hostess are in character. I’ll bet they knew better than to advise him against firing Comey, even if (if) they privately thought it was crazy.

  77. 77.

    amk

    A massive ransomware campaign appears to have infected a number of organisations around the world.

    Screenshots of a well known program that locks computers and demands a payment in Bitcoin have been shared online by parties claiming to be affected.

    There have been reports of infections in the UK, US, China, Russia, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Taiwan and others.

    Security researchers are linking the incidents together.

    One cyber-security researcher tweeted that he had detected 36,000 instances of the ransomware, called WannaCry and variants of that name.

    “This is huge,” he said.

    Another, at cyber-security firm Kaspersky, said that the ransomware had been spotted cropping up in 74 countries and that the number was still growing.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @StringOnAStick: You’re welcome. But… I want to, as I have stated before, make clear that things are bad. They are likely to get worse even as lots of folks, in lots of ways – big and small – are working to make things better. People that do not deserve to be will be hurt. But we are not done by a long shot. While hope is not a strategy, it is hard to strategize without some of it.

    And remember, we have been through even darker times. I know most of us either never learned the details or have forgotten them, but during WW I the Federal government, under the direction, leadership, and with the full throated endorsement of President Wilson, basically set out to, and in many places and cases, destroyed the concepts of what we now think of as civil rights and liberties. And this wasn’t just for Americans of German descent who were subjected to loyalty oaths, round up and internment simply because of their or their forebears’ national origin prior to immigration. There were Federal, state, and local government supported vigilance committees that took the law into their own hands in order to enforce what they believed to be patriotism and correct American behavior during a time of war. This included lynchings and other extra-judicial murders of German Americans, as well as other Americans – white, black, LatinX/Hispanic, etc – considered to be threats to the Nation and its war footing. Neighbors kept track of and snitched on neighbors. People lost their jobs for not being supportive enough of the war effort or forgetting that Tuesdays were meatless to encourage support for the military’s logistical needs. And President Wilson was both an unreconstructed racist who grew up in the deep South (which is why he Federalized Jim Crow during the war portion of his presidency) and a religious nut who grew up in and adhered to British-Israelitism, which in its American incarnation is the even more bizarre hybrid of the English British-Israelite understanding of white Christianity married to outright American racism. It exists now largely in the warped, racist, and racialized white supremacist offshoot of Pentacostalism/charismatic Christianity we call Christian Identity – the most prominent Christian observance among neo-NAZIs, American KKK, and other American white supremacists.

    We are not where the US was during WW I. While 24/7 news media, the Internet, and social media makes all of this seem overwhelming, they also provide some of the tools to fight back. You can’t stop the signal. And as we’ve seen with the resurgence of some of the execrable historic ideas I referenced above, you can’t kill an idea. Even the worst ones.

  81. 81.

    Spanky

    WaPo article

    Trump’s warning deepens doubts about his respect for the rule of law

    Sadly, I suspect the understatement was not put there for irony’s sake.

  83. 83.

    debbie

    @Taylor:

    I agree. Nothing in their behavior or attitude shows the least bit of piety. In fact, their combined inability to rein in Trump have made Ivanka and Jared liabilities.

  84. 84.

    Miss Bianca

    @schrodingers_cat: for the record, I tend to agree with you. It takes a Stanley Kubrick to even make me laugh queasily at the thought of nuclear holocaust.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    FYI, since I missed this update, and so you don’t have to hunt for it: this is LAST NIGHT’s update on greennotGreen. Open thread/GOP mutters to itself.

    Hoping she’s having a good day today, and that we will hear further from her sister and/or niece. Heck, I hope they all get to watch SNL tomorrow night together. With a little red wine or bubbly, as they prefer.

    FROM LAST NIGHT: greennotGreen
    May 11, 2017 at 10:33 pm
    (gnG’s sister speaking) gnG asked me to blog for her this evening. This is actually a big improvement over last night, when she was in a red fog of pain that was only relieved by a whole cocktail of drugs, which really knocked her out. This morning, the hospice nurse (competent, although wears perfume – not appropriate for nursing – and has a very whiny voice ) doubled the basal level of dilaudid going into my sister’s port, resulting in *much* better pain control. gnG was groggy, but otherwise quite herself. She continues to grope for words and speaks very slowly, but still compos mentis. We had a good discussion about the ethical issues surrounding a family dosing a hospice patient with morphine when the patient is in too much pain to decide for herself, and the emotional burden that places on the family. We also have been discussing the Trump-Comey affair, and the exciting developments with the grand juries in Virginia and New York. At one point, gnG threw up her hands and laughingly said, “This isn’t fair! I really don’t want to linger, but I want to see how this turns out!”
    See why I feel I am so blessed to be able to spend this time with my sister?

    If there’s been anything further, please update us. Cheers. Heading out again for a few hours.

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    Why in the hell would you blatantly threaten someone you just fired in the most embarrassing and shambolic way?

  87. 87.

    debbie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    While 24/7 news media, the Internet, and social media makes all of this seem overwhelming, they also provide some of the tools to fight back. You can’t stop the signal.

    As nervous-making as this is, I prefer this to the shock of waking up to the Sunday papers shrieking about the Saturday Night Massacre.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Taylor: Actually it was reported that Kushner concurred with the firing when consulted.

    As for observance, there is plenty of evidence that during the Jewish sabbath and Jewish holidays, when the Kushners are off social media, as well as often away from the President (even when living within blocks of him as was the case in NY) the President’s social media usage and his behavior on it appear to be completely out of control. What they actually believe and what they actually do in regard to observing their religion, as is the case with everyone else and everyone else’s religion, I do not know. Nor do I care

  90. 90.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud: Sir, there have been many, many truly heinous things said on this blog. And I know because a good percentage of them were typed by me. But this, dear sir, ranks right up there on the “throw up in my mouth” scale.

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I used to occasionally check out Clown Hall and K Lo’s Corner of Crazy and Thinking Housewife just to see what the cray cray are saying. Since the election I have totally lost the desire to do so. Since the crazy is coming at us at the speed of light and there is no need to actively seek it.

    Somehow, I got on a “Stand with 45” mailing list. Their “articles” are pretty fucked up, of course. (I don’t read them, but the titles tell me all I need to know.)

    But I was thinking of you and Mnem this morning: I received some mail from “People’s Action,” screaming “Bernie Was Right!!” and spouting some idiocy about the generic preference for Dems, and how Saint Bernie recently said that people have to do more than resist Shitgibbon.

    I decided to unsubscribe, and explained that Saint Bernie bears part of the blame, with his Nader-esque bullshit about Wall Street speeches.

    I didn’t tell them to go fuck themselves, but I thunk it.

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne

    @dr. bloor:

    Someone commented on Twitter that the Orange Shitgibbon was going to can Spicer today just to take the air out of SNL’s skit.

    Trump is going to try and take the air out of a skit by improv comedians on a live TV show by firing the guy the day before the show airs?

    I bet they wish a motherfucker would. They’re stocking up on Red Bull right now to prepare for the all-nighter they’re going to do if that happens. And I bet Alec Baldwin is already on speed dial if they need him at the last second.

    ETA: The only way to even attempt to take the air out of the sketch would be to fire Spicer after the show starts. And even THEN I would bet on SNL and McCarthy being able to pull a last-minute show-ender together.

  94. 94.

    Gravenstone

    @Miss Bianca: You will note a rough correlation with Reagan gutting the mental health care system and the rising influence of Republicans. Feature, not bug as they might say.

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    Watching the White House daily briefing. McMaster is on talking about Trump’s upcoming trip abroad, speaking as if he weren’t representing a narcissistic madman who is in the process of destroying the republic.

  97. 97.

    Corner Stone

    @debbie:

    In fact, their combined inability to rein in Trump have made Ivanka and Jared liabilities.

    What are you talking about? There have been several clear displays of Ivanka being a moderating and progressive influence on Trump. I mean sure, most of things she does may be behind closed doors and will not be seen by most people. But she’s definitely doing them. And influencing him deeply in a way that empowers women and families. There can be no doubt about that.

  98. 98.

    sherparick

    @Betty Cracker: It was epic, but unfortunately I kept reading it as early copy of next week’s CNN blog.

    1. Krugman was epic today as well.

    2. As is Charlie Pierce. http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a55032/trump-comey-russia-turning-point/

    a. The Republicans and their owners, the 1,000 or so billionaires, near billionaires, and multi-millionaires who write the checks for campaign donations want their tax cuts, their deregulation, and destruction of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, They want their Blade Runner world.

    b. Meanwhile, speaking of rats, Jack, I think speaks for us all. https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-mozilla-004&hsimp=yhs-004&hspart=mozilla&p=Jack+Nicholson%27s+Rat+speech+in+%22The+Departed%22#id=3&vid=3bf1c45e55c279a61508f29e01d174bb&action=click

  100. 100.

    batgirl

    Oh look, Ben Sasse has a book coming out: “The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis–and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance.” Summary:

    In an era of safe spaces, trigger warnings, and an unprecedented election, the country’s youth are in crisis. Senator Ben Sasse warns the nation about the existential threat to America’s future.
    America’s youth are in crisis. Raised by well-meaning but overprotective parents and coddled by misbegotten government programs, they are ill-equipped to survive in our highly-competitive global economy.

    Many of the definitive coming-of-age rituals: learning the value of working, leaving home, becoming economically self-reliant–are being delayed or skipped altogether. The statistics are daunting: 30% of college students drop out after the first year, and only 4 in 10 graduate. One in three 18-to-34 year-olds live with their parents.

    Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse sees an existential threat to the American way of life. In The Vanishing American Adult, Sasse diagnoses the causes of a generation that can’t grow up and offers a path for raising children to become active and engaged citizens. He identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor, travel to understand deprivation and want, the power of reading, the importance of nurturing your body–and explains how parents can encourage them.

    Our democracy depends on responsible, contributing adults to function properly–without them America falls prey to populist demagogues.

    Interesting how he blames parents and the kids themselves. At least in the summary, nothing about the cost of higher education as a precipitating factor in students not finishing. Also, nothing about the loss of decent paying entry-level jobs with decent benefits for new adults entering the workforce. Nope, it’s just coddled kids who don’t want to work hard. Fuck him.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: It is not just that. Because you can’t stop the signal, even through outlets that are full on jingoistic propaganda pushers like Fox News and right wing talk radio, it means you can’t stop everyone, right, left, and center who are pushing back. Who are making clear this isn’t normal. That it isn’t acceptable. That it isn’t American.

  102. 102.

    Corner Stone

    @Betty Cracker: Every thing Trump touches turns to shit.
    McMaster may be the “sane” “mature” voice in the admin now, but obviously that can’t a)be true or b)can’t last.

  104. 104.

    Corner Stone

    I should have also said, threaten in the most empty, vacuous and transparently stupid way possible.

  106. 106.

    MattF

    @Taylor: There’s a lot of theatrics in any conventional religious observance, in case you hadn’t noticed. And, just between you and me, religious observances are sometimes not so very sincere. Personally, I find the orthodox ‘more kosher than thou’ attitude very irritating.

    That said, the Kushners’ political behavior and unspoken support for nepotism is bad enough and damaging enough.

  107. 107.

    schrodingers_cat

    @batgirl: I am sure when he is on the Pure BullShit News Hour Whory Woodruff will give him a tongue bath like she did in her interviews with the Hillbilly phony and the pig castrator Ernst.

  108. 108.

    Corner Stone

    McMaster: Trump will bring a message of “tolerance and hope” on his foreign trip.
    .
    .
    .
    Ok, McMaster is done. He has finished the transformation.

  112. 112.

    mouse tolliver

    Watching McMaster right now. Feels like I’m listening to a telemarketer who’s trying to sell me a timeshare.

  115. 115.

    Bruce K

    @SFAW:

    I didn’t tell them to go fuck themselves, but I thunk it.

    You showed more restraint than I would have. I’ve been tempted a few times to not only tell people to do that, but advise them to use a steak knife and a corkscrew to actually accomplish the otherwise anatomically impossible deed…

  116. 116.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Went out to get groceries and such this morning. Got some new, lightweight cat litter. I’m pretty strong, but lugging a 40-lb box up the steps to my house has been a bit much. I cleaned out the cat box and refilled it with the new stuff. The old was getting kind of stinky. The cats have thoroughly examined the new situation, have not used it yet.

    I’m glad to see we’re all still here.

  117. 117.

    Inventor

    Year: 1940
    Dateline: Europe

    Nazi Germany found to not have invaded any other countries, with few exceptions.

  118. 118.

    clay

    @schrodingers_cat: I think the only hope people had for the brass is that they would stop Trump from doing something phenomenally dangerous and stupid, like bombing North Korea.

    And, so far, they have!

  119. 119.

    Aleta

    Without loyalty, his most effective tool, Trump’s life story never would have happened. Bought it early from NYC politicians for his permits, and bought from state AGs like Pam Bondi. Settles with litigants and wives to get it, threatens for it.

    He badgered Comey to swear it as soon as he took office, just like a don. (Mind blowing.)

    Now he’s depending on it from the Repubs or he goes down.
    But they’re still letting him dictate to them and dictator the country.

    I hope he can be made to turn on Pence. (In the useful sense; pretty sure Pence’s face reveals he’s perpetually turned on by the power ever since the convention.)

  122. 122.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It is not just that. Because you can’t stop the signal, even through outlets that are full on jingoistic propaganda pushers like Fox News and right wing talk radio, it means you can’t stop everyone, right, left, and center who are pushing back. Who are making clear this isn’t normal. That it isn’t acceptable. That it isn’t American.

    Except, as you have pointed out time and again, this sort of shit IS American. Racism, xenophobia, authoritarianism, and jingoism are as American as the proverbial apple pie.

    It’s just that the war for the soul of America – for the interpretation of the idea of America – also happens to include warriors for the other side. The side that believes that the ideal of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” can be expanded to include all of America, not just the white male-christo-fascist element.

  124. 124.

    Aleta

    @Cheryl Rofer: I use cedarific for that reason; it’s so light. It dries out very fast too. Doesn’t track as much as some, works outdoors for other things. I have some reservations about it, but just can’t go back to the heavy stuff.

  125. 125.

    hovercraft

    Clapper: ‘Uneasy’ Comey Told Me Trump Invited Him To White House Dinner (VIDEO)

    Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Friday directly contradicted President Trump’s claim that ousted FBI Director James Comey had asked Trump to have dinner a week after the President’s inauguration to ask to keep his job. He said that Comey told him he was “uneasy” about attending the dinner….

    lapper told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Friday about a farewell ceremony Comey had hosted for him earlier the same day, Jan. 27.

    “And Jim and I spoke briefly before the ceremony and he mentioned that he had been invited to the White House to have dinner with the President, and that he was uneasy with that because of even compromising the — even the optics, the appearance of independence, not only of him, but of the FBI,” Clapper recalled.

    “But he was going that very night to the dinner. Did he explain why he felt he had to go?” Mitchell asked.

    “Well, I think anyone who is serving office in the government, and you’re asked by the President for dinner, I think as professional courtesy, you’re in a difficult position to refuse to go,” Clapper said. “But I do know he was uneasy with it, just for the appearance of compromising the independence of the FBI, which is a hallowed tenet in our system.”

    I know Clapper is just a choker, but most Americans will believe his versions over the Shitgibbons.

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: What did you expect him to say? LTG McMaster is trying to move the President off of the “radical Islamic terrorism” and all Muslims are trying to kill all non-Muslims all the time because Islam stupidity. Given the President’s natural prejudices, as well as those of some of his closest advisors on these issues (Sessions, Bannon, Miller, Kellogg, Anton, Cohen-Watnick, Bolton, Gaffney, and Gorka among others). What LTG McMaster is trying to do here is put oil on the water ahead of time. Set some expectations that he can hopefully nudge the President to meet them.

    If you were expecting him to come and and say: “Next week the President will travel to the centers of the three great monotheistic faiths with roots in the Abrahamic tradition. We expect that he will cause major international and religious incidents by repeatedly stepping on his crank in golf shoes by insulting everyone and everything in sight, in Riyadh, in Jerusalem, and at the Vatican because he is an ignorant, small minded, bigoted doofus who has consistently failed upwards while being protected by his father, his inherited wealth, by toadies and flunkies like Rudy Giuliani, and by Vladimir Putin. I only took this position because I was ordered to do so and I am trying to shield you all from the worst excesses that could result because of a diplomatic and national security mishap if LTG Flynn’s replacement had been Ambassador Bolton.” Then you are delusional. Though it would be epic.

  128. 128.

    Jeffro

    @batgirl:

    Sasse: Our democracy depends on responsible, contributing adults to function properly–without them America falls prey to populist demagogues.

    Yes, that’s what happened…we “coddled America’s youth with misbegotten government programs” and got Trumpov.

    Still waiting on the GOP members of Congress to act the part of “responsible, contributing adults” instead of abetting treason and larceny

  129. 129.

    D58826

    Listening to Gen. Mcmaster describe the upcoming trip by Der Fuhrer. He makes Trump sound like a cross between God and God. He describes an engaged knowledgeable POTUS. A POTUS with a deep historical knowledge and strategic vision.

    And then we have Der Fuhrer’s tweets and the incoherent word salad in things the the Economist interview and the Holt interview. Sad

    And give the WH points for being able to totally change the subject from Comey and Der Fuhrer’s tweets

  130. 130.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Though it would be epic.

    “Epic” doesn’t begin to describe it.

    In the movie version, McMaster’s character will probably drop those exact lines.

  131. 131.

    Peale

    @batgirl: Yeah. I think its the wrong audience to attack. To be acceptable, he needs to attack african american males and their lazy fecklessness, which would allow his readership to remain comfortably smug that they aren’t the problem. He can also blame working whites for their reckless lazy union culture. That worked throughout the 80s and 90s as an excellent excuse as why those hard working Japanse were beating us. But I guess since there aren’t really any unions to kick around any longer, you might as well go after middle class white families who want sit down office jobs for their kids.

  132. 132.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: I did not expect him to say anything. He should have refused, and if ordered to, resigned.

    ETA, there might have been a time where the calculus could be argued that being in the room, making the good fight and generally trying to keep shit on the rails was the right choice for a patriot. We are waaayyy past that point. Trump has repeatedly shown that he is mentally unstable and can not be counted on to say the same thing twice in a row, three minutes apart.

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @catclub:
    It’s the #1 reason penicillin is prescribed for men.

    @SFAW:

    Saint Bernie bears part of the blame, with his Nader-esque bullshit about Wall Street speeches.

    I think it’s his encouraging his followers to think the Democratic Party cheated them deliberately. I can’t imagine a better meme to encourage young idealists to vote third party or not vote at all. The conspiracy theories were THICK during the Primary, and when it came up Bernie would give them nod and wink answers like that he doesn’t condone violence, but that the anger is justified. And he’s STILL DOING IT.

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: One would think that on page 1 (okay, at least by page 4) of the Republican Presidentin’ Manual, it says, “DON’T KEEP SECRET TAPES OF OVAL OFFICE CONVERSATIONS”

  142. 142.

    germy

    @hovercraft: Good ol’ Pat, always on the wrong side of history. I imagine he has less to do nowadays since John McLaughlin died and his group disbanded.

  143. 143.

    Corner Stone

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I’m glad to see we’re all still here.

    Based on your professional opinion, did you…ummm…expect us to *not* be?

  145. 145.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone:

    Trump has repeatedly shown that he is mentally unstable and can not be counted on to say the same thing twice in a row, three minutes apart.

    So leaving him surrounded by sycophants, toadies, and enablers is the right way to go.

  146. 146.

    D58826

    Spicy is good. Really really good. It takes talent to lie so outrageously with a straight face.

    Spicy, McMaster, Der Fuhrer keep talking about the ‘great relationships’ he has established with these foreign leaders. These people are not BFF’s but foreign leaders with their own national interests. Nations have interests not friends.

  147. 147.

    hovercraft

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    The ‘Same Forces’

    Reality, the law, the Constitution, human beings refusal to bend to their will has forced them to behave the way they do. They bear no malice towards anyone, they are honest, so long as you do exactly what they want you to do and don’t force them to bend the truth.

  148. 148.

    germy

    @Adam L Silverman: Anything connecting yesterday’s Annapolis raid to current events, or was it all about a lawsuit from four years ago? (Apologies if this was covered already in an earlier thread)

  149. 149.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Frankensteinbeck: Russian sleeper agent, seriously his Russian ties need investigation. He is destroying the only thing that stands between us and total domination by Rs (you decide what R stands for). I don’t know why everyone assumes benign motives behind his actions to destroy the Dems.

  150. 150.

    germy

    @schrodingers_cat: I really thought he was just an egotistical old man who was used by folks with an R agenda. Jill Stein, as well. I’m not sure they were in on the scheme, although you may be right. These are strange times.

  151. 151.

    Это курам на смех

    @Miss Bianca: My idea for a New Yorker cover is Trump astride a large atomic bomb labelled “GOP,” waving his MAGA hat in the air as the bomb plummets toward the United States.

  152. 152.

    clay

    @Cheryl Rofer: Is he trying the whole “the word ‘tapes’ was in quotes” defense?

    I swear, Trump thinks that quotation marks are some magical incantation that will protect him from his own words.

  154. 154.

    hovercraft

    I gues Betsy De Vos’s reception has scared John Cornyn away.

    Texas Southern cancels Cornyn’s commencement address

    Texas Southern University said Friday that Sen. John Cornyn will no longer speak Saturday during the historically black college’s commencement ceremony.

    The announcement — two days after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was booed during a commencement address at a historically black college in Florida — comes in the wake of opposition to the Texas Republican’s appearance by many graduates. A petition signed by some students expressed opposition to Cornyn’s votes for DeVos’ and Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmations, among other issues. ……….

    The Houston-based university said in a Facebook post that “every consideration is made to ensure that our students’ graduation day is a celebratory occasion.”

    “We asked Senator Cornyn to instead visit with our students again at a future date in order to keep the focus on graduates and their families,” the post said. “We, along with Senator Cornyn, agree that the primary focus of commencement should be a celebration of academic achievement.”

  156. 156.

    dogwood

    Had to stop watching Spicey today. It’s Nicey Spicy, smiling and joking with the ladies. And the stenographers are comfortable again. Only saw about 10 minutes, but there was no real push back. He lies , they ask a follow up, he ignores and lies some more, they thank him and move on. It’s just the way the press corp wants it.

  158. 158.

    germy

    @Gin & Tonic: Well, she got a lovely dinner out of it.

    No one sees her as important enough to investigate, so we’ll never know where some of the donations came from.

  159. 159.

    sherparick

    An important twit.
    https://twitter.com/dhnexon/status/863034101997215744

    I must admit that I have been and remain very pessimistic about the United States and the world. As Pierce and Krugman state, Donald Trump did not hijack the Republican Party, he is the apotheosis of the modern Conservative Movement Republican Party and the American Business Elite in the first quarter of the 21st Century. The Trumps and Mercers and Kochs; Menard, Adelson, DeVoss, and Hendricks, and all the billionaires, near billionares, and multi- milionaires behind ALEC, Heartland, Federalist Society, etc. don’t want a Democratic country. They want an oligarchy where they will be the oligarchs. They also believe in White, Christian, Supremacy. To them the Democratic Party, unions, and minority groups are the “enemy,” and Vladmir Putin is an ally with shared interests and beliefs. They have concocted a weird syncretistic combination of Ayn Rand, John Calvin, and Billy Sunday where the ultra-rich are the source of all wealth and income in society and that everyone else who gets some is guilty of some kind of theft and a violation of God’s will. The American Constitution and Republic, to the extent it is not a White Person’s Republic for the Rich, means nothing to them. And the 40% of the population, which is 80% of the Republican Party has no problem with being as authoritarian and violent as necessary to smite their enemies and sustain Trump in Government.

  161. 161.

    StringOnAStick

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks Adam, I appreciate that and know that we are in dark times indeed even though the sun is shining outside and most of my co-workers are blissfully unaware that most of this is happening; it stuns me sometimes. I’m trying to find bits of hope where I can in public and in my private life. My husband, a lovely Jewish man of 59, was just diagnosed with a chronic form of leukemia. He should be able to live a normal lifespan with it, but between that news and the political situation I’ve gone past my ability to cope a few times recently and gone to some dark, dark places. Your reasoned explanations help me keep me sane on one of these subjects while we await test results that could either calm me down or send me over the edge again. My husband of course is a steady fellow like you and I’m trying to get there myself.

    President Wilson was horrible on so many levels. I read a book on the Spanish Flu that now says it mutated into that very deadly form at Fort Riley, KS, and Wilson refused to stop troop movements from there because of the war so it spread like wildfire throughout the country and then the world. At his order, people (usually women) were dragooned into caring for the sick in the cities; many people simply ran away because it was so horrible. The extent of the destruction of civil liberties by the Wilson administration just for dealing with this deadly epidemic was enough to curl my toes.

  162. 162.

    ? Martin

    @D58826: Not really. It just requires you have a non-functioning superego. It’s the same ‘talent’ that allows one to stomp on kittens or strip 24 million people of their healthcare, or deport a child’s mother in the middle of the night.

  164. 164.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: It is unclear. The follow on reporting seems to indicate that it had to do with this guy defrauding Cuccinelli. However, I have seen the documentation that the same firm set up two Super PACs for John Bolton and one of the primary funders of them was Mercer. So who knows at this point.

  165. 165.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: It doesn’t matter! He isn’t surrounded by anyone! Trump lives in his own head. There is no reality there, no connection to a reality there.
    If you could stack Ben Franklin, George Washington, FDR etc and et al in the Trump cabinet – it would not fucking matter.
    The notion that we have some moderating force in extant is foolish. Not to breach your AdamVDoug! superhero match but Trump has to be removed. I am not a violent person but we are reaching the any means necessary part of our Republic. That is where we are. He is accelerating. To continue to rely on the people embedded in institutions to stop Trump is foolhardy. The institutions have failed. He fired the FBI Director because he was getting close and had not pledged loyalty to Trump, personally. And McConnell shrugged and said, “Meh, fuck you America.” The FBI or other LEO could take until well past the 2018 elections. That will be far too late.

  166. 166.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @schrodingers_cat:
    I do (sort of), because they are consistent with his long-stated beliefs and positions. He’s a Marxist, if Marxist-Lite. He believes everything is a class war, and as an offshoot of that, The People are waiting for a leader who will direct their anger against the true enemy, rich people. When that happens, The People will overwhelmingly vote for that leader.

    This is utter bullshit, as the primary so eloquently demonstrated. But so many of his followers believe it, I find it completely plausible that Sanders believes it. It follows from that, if he lost, it must be because the Democratic Party is rigged against The People somehow.

  167. 167.

    schrodingers_cat

    @sherparick: Yet this is the same country that elected President Obama twice. This is a battle for the soul of America. Its the liberal elements, that have contributed to its success and being the envy among nations. Oligarchic nations ruled by despots are a dime a dozen, nothing unique or special about that.

  174. 174.

    japa21

    @Adam L Silverman: You forgot the snark tag. I agree with you. McMaster is doing the job he is supposed to do, represent the security interests of the US. Part of that is using language to prevent any untoward incidents, specially since it is highly likely that there will be demonstrations when Trump is abroad. Do you know if McMaster will also be on the trip?

    I am sure McMaster is one of those who were furious about the Oval Office Russian meeting.

    Also, we know that McMaster is the one who cooled off South Korea about Trump’s threat to make them foot the bill for our presence there.

    The real question is whether or not is the next to go. If he is, there will be no sane voice around Trump.

  176. 176.

    Miss Bianca

    @StringOnAStick: sorry to hear about your husband’s plight, hoping for the very best of outcomes for him. Waves and virtual hugs from the central mountains!

  177. 177.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Your theory is entirely plausible. I think the tax returns are just that he’s ALSO corrupt and selfish and an asshole, so there’s stuff there that would prove he doesn’t hold himself to the standard he does other rich people. But really, that’s speculation.

  180. 180.

    schrodingers_cat

    @germy: Young people? The two BS or busters I know are not bros nor are they young. They are 2 women in the 60s, one black and one white. They are both crunchy granola types, though. Obdurately stupid and in love with their own righteousness, like their hero. Most of the young BS supporters I know voted for Hillz and even canvassed for her.

  185. 185.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Something I think is really going to hurt Trump – Colbert. Colbert showed the media it’s great for their raitings to insult Trump until Trump lashes out in a tweet. Certianlly almost all of the Yahoo news has turned to nothing but Trump trolling. Trump being constantly mocked as Putins Cock Holster or worse is going to hurt Trump with the WWC types, they don’t like weak. Maybe that Colbert got under delicate Donny’s skin so easily is what really has Trump spooked, made Trump look weak to Trump’s audiance and Comey’s firing was to assert domiance with the Base.

  186. 186.

    schrodingers_cat

    @germy: Nothing against that, but BS supporters in New England has a type. I live close to Vermont, slightly more than half an hour away. They are trying relive the 60s like their hero. Or in the case of my two examples, they just missed peak hippy in 60s because they were too young and are now trying to live out those fantasies of the “revolution”.

  187. 187.

    Roger Moore

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    The problem with ideas like Sanders’ isn’t that he’s wrong about class war being important so much as he is guilty of oversimplifying things to the point of uselessness. Nothing as complex as the political situation of a whole country can be boiled down to a single ultimate cause, even as a useful simplifying assumption. It might be OK for a politician to decide to focus primarily on one issue as their personal cause, but doing it to the point that you treat everything else as subsidiary issues that will be magically solved when your issue is resolved is crazy.

  188. 188.

    D58826

    Breaking news on MSNBC – 12 nations, including Britain/Japan , suffering from a major ransom ware cyber attack.

    Adam is on it in the next thread

  190. 190.

    StringOnAStick

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for your good thoughts. He’s the fittest guy any of us have ever known, never sick, always up for a 10 mile hike or a big bike ride. I just don’t understand how this could happen, and I hope his fitness and dedication to being active will put him on the better side of an average result.

  191. 191.

    FlipYrWhig

    @schrodingers_cat: Re: “they just missed peak hippy,” that guy who used to come around here and talk about how Vermont loved Bernie so much and that we were all too rich to understand the lives of people like him and his friends… he sure gave off that aura.

  192. 192.

    hovercraft

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Speaking of trolling:

    Merriam-Webster’s Trump trolling: 454,000 followers and counting
    Posted 7:40 PM, May 11, 2017, by CNN Wire

    Since Trump’s inauguration, the dictionary’s official Twitter handle has doubled its audience to 454,000 followers.

    At the root of its success is a steady flow of clever tweets by @MerriamWebster directed at the President.

    Some of the Merriam-Webster tweets fact check the president. Some correct his malapropisms or fill in the blanks. It’s trolling heaven for lexicographers.*

    A series of tweets on Thursday provided a case-in-point.

    When Trump claimed he coined the phrase “prime the pump,” Merriam-Webster jabbed back. That phrase “dates to the early 19th century,” @MerriamWebster tweeted.

    Then, Trump insisted in a tweet that “Russia must be laughing up their sleeves” about the FBI and congressional investigations into possible collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in the 2016 presidential election campaign.

    I have a sense that this would is a place certain members of BJ would enjoy, just sayin’ ; D
    * It’s not like we have any grammar or pendant police here. Heh.

  193. 193.

    StringOnAStick

    @Miss Bianca: Thanks, Miss Bianca. I’m just trying to keep from melting into a pool of existential dread these days, and the crazy on the national scene is not helping!

  194. 194.

    Shalimar

    @Mike J: Firing Spicer just makes the sketch better. They have the Spicer character get a note from Trump during the daily briefing saying he’s fired, have him go side-stage and put on a wig and come back out as Huckabee-Sanders to finish the briefing. Baldwin’s Trump would never notice that it was the same person.

  196. 196.

    rikyrah

    @Taylor:

    I call BS on the Kushners observing the Sabbath. They didn’t during the campaign when they needed to strategize a reaction to something (the P**** tape?). I think their religion is all theatre.

    you know how I feel about Kushner.
    He’s a slave catcher.
    Period.

  197. 197.

    StringOnAStick

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah, I work with one of those latter day hippies who wants to relive the revolution, but she’s 40 and has Boulder groovy all over her. I did manage to use the “well, the Left wanted anyone but Hillary, and that’s what we got and it’s not working out so well” line that someone (Jeffro?) mentioned here, plus the idea that all our issues would have been solvable with a USSC that isn’t dominated by the right wing, but now I’ll never see it thanks to that. I think it pissed her off at the time and she was snippy with me for a few weeks, but since she’s heavily wedded to meditation retreats and telling us how she’s the embodiment of seeking inner peace, she seemed to have let it go yesterday.

  198. 198.

    MomSense

    I feel like I missed a lot of news today but I’m not going to try to catch up until we leave the hospital. Too much has happened and nothing much and I’m exhausted. My dad is still being sedated while they get his BP stabilized. While the surgery went really well, the healing part is tough. I haven’t slept and am going to try to just close my eyes for a bit.

    Thanks for all the well wishes last night and this morning.

  199. 199.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike J:

    It also doesn’t help to tell your would be allies their concerns don’t matter.

    He doesn’t think he’s doing that. He appears to honestly believe that all their concerns will be solved if/when his concerns are. That’s the beauty of believing in a single cause for all the world’s problems; it means there’s a single solution. Those other people are just too stupid to see it.

  200. 200.

    Miss Bianca

    @StringOnAStick: if there is anything I can do to help, let me know – even if it’s just a weekend away in the mountains. Adam has my email address, you can ask him for it.

  201. 201.

    Matt McIrvin

    @schrodingers_cat: Vermont is the core of this anomalous sliver of the United States in which the rural areas are more liberal than the towns. It extends about halfway across New Hampshire and southward through the Berkshires. And that’s all there is to it.

    It’s super-white, and very hippie, and Bernie Sanders is from there. I really wonder to what extent political experience gained there can be applied to the US at large.

  202. 202.

    Roger Moore

    @StringOnAStick:

    I just don’t understand how this could happen

    That’s the thing about cancer; it can happen to anyone, no matter how healthy they’ve always been. It’s a bastard because it involves your own body turning on you.

  203. 203.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah:

    you know how I feel about Kushner.
    He’s a slave catcher.
    Period.

    Cato has had a few good moments, though taking Rosalie at the end of the season was unconscionable.

  204. 204.

    Roger Moore

    @hovercraft:

    * It’s not like we have any grammar or pendant police here.

    We’re just monitors. We don’t have any genuine police powers, which is probably a good thing, on balance.

  205. 205.

    Aleta

    @StringOnAStick:

    I hope his fitness and dedication to being active will put him on the better side of an average result.

    I think you’re absolutely right on that. And his way of being engaged and calm helps with effective treatment.

  207. 207.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah:

    you know how I feel about Kushner.
    He’s a slave catcher.
    Period.

    Sometimes they have their moments, Cato has had a couple of redeeming moments, but then he always seems to locate his black heart again. Taking Rosalie was despicable.

  212. 212.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah:
    Some “slave catchers” have moments of humanity, like when Cato was helping escaped slaves, but “catching” Rosalie for the reward was low. The Kushners haven’t shown any glimpses of humanity yet, they just have much better spokes weasels than Twitler.

  213. 213.

    hovercraft

    @MomSense:
    Glad he came through okay, go rest , we’ll still be here when you come back. Well at least as long as the cyber attack doesn’t get us, better get Barron on the case just in case.

  215. 215.

    Aleta

    @germy: Doesn’t clump but doesn’t really need to. The solids get coated and dried out pretty quickly, easy to remove. It doesn’t stay wet unless it gets extremely saturated and even then it’s dry on top. If you take time to stir it up, it stays even drier. Smells good. Supposed to be a forestry byproduct. I like it much better than pine products or clay.

  216. 216.

    laura

    @Elizabelle: thank you for reposting the gnG status update.
    Glad that pain management is adjusting upwards as needed and finding that sweet spot.
    When considering the ethics of dosing in the absence of hospice staff, Terms of Endearment -“give my daughter her fucking shot” is instructive.
    Peace, Grace and ease to greennotGreen and family.

  218. 218.

    laura

    @StringOnAStick: it sounds like CLL, which my dear old dad is living with.
    It cannot be easy coping with sudden, unexpected serious illness and processing the news and figuring out a plan for treatment and work and day to day will demand much of you.
    Take heart, we live in a time of miracles and wonder. Living with cancer is possible.
    Take every opportunity to love; your husband, yourself, and the Mighty Team of care givers, family, friends and the strangers -the everyday saints who reveal themselves in your life when least expected.
    You are not alone. Please let me know if you need anything. I’ve been down this road and you’ve got a friend in me.

  219. 219.

    Millard Filmore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the same firm set up two Super PACs for John Bolton and one of the primary funders of them was Mercer

    What a hoot if this branch of the investigation snares up some evidence of billionaires funding the treason. One of the ideas expressed quite a bit on TV right after the 9/11 attack is that there had to be a support team in place for that to happen. Similarly, for Trump in the span of only one year, to arise as the Republican candidate, win the election, then smother the congressional leadership … there HAS to be more than just Russians behind this. Rich somebodies.

  220. 220.

    Miss Bianca

    @Millard Filmore: and if it turns out that this is the case, would it not strengthen the case for a return to 90% taxation levels on the uppermost income levels? All that money is obviously not good for them, *or* the body politic…oh, who am I kidding??

  221. 221.

    Millard Filmore

    @Roger Moore:

    I believe the correct term is Kapo.

    I object. While I am not an expert, all the books that I have read say that the Kapos were semi-randomly selected from the incoming mass of prisoners. They were not willing workers in the normal sense. Their options were to boss their crew or be dragged off to be killed. “Kapo” is not the word you are looking for.

  223. 223.

    MoxieM

    @batgirl: Srsly. Mine left for Germany basically upon graduation. She did a course in teaching English as a second language (while I grumbled about more tuition, on top of the tuition-loan cake the whole family will be baking all our lives, despite her getting about 50% tuition in FinAid). Shorter version: kiddo now fully employed in German economy, FT job, full German social benefits, entry level job with 6 weeks vacation, unlimited sick time, State medical, subsidized public transport. It’s amazing to see up close what it looks like to work in an economy where the value of a human being qua human is in high regard. It’s just such a stunning contrast; we seem like enslaved gladiators killing each other for scraps by comparison.

  224. 224.

    catclub

    @hovercraft:

    I know Clapper is just a choker, but most Americans will believe his versions over the Shitgibbons.

    I would not be at all surprised if Comey lied to Clapper about being uncomfortable appearing to suck up to Trump – but doing it anyway. Where have we heard that before with Comey?

  227. 227.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: Oh, MomSense, hugs. What a rough day for you and your stepmother. Hope your dad is on the mend; glad he got such speedy medical care. How frightening.

    Rest up.

  229. 229.

    david

    If SNL or NBC isn’t mass-producing those things for the Holiday Season, they’re missing out on a goldmine…

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