Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The words do not have to be perfect.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

When I was faster i was always behind.

People are weird.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: A Millipede’s Worth of Dropped Shoes

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: A Millipede’s Worth of Dropped Shoes

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(Walt Handelsman via GoComics.com)
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Remember when there was such a thing as a “slow news day”?

“CNN Contributor, former Cruz comms director, DeMint speechwriter” asks…

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  2. 2.

    David ?I hope U can let this go? Koch

    ►Trump gave code-word intelligence to Russia

    ►Trump endagers saftey of commerical air travel

    ►Corker says WH in “downward spiral”

    ►WH says Wailing Wall not part of Israel

    ►Trump comprimsed Israeli uncover agents

    ►Trump lashes out at aides, calling them incompetent

    ►Memo on obstruction of justice surfaces

    ►WH reveals James Mattis’ home phone number

    ►Kellyanne Conway issues statement stating she doesn’t hate Trump

    All in 24 hours.

    Jay Cost‏ @JayCostTWS

    Jan: Maybe it won’t be so bad
    Feb: Not great, but maybe he’ll improve
    Mar: He accused Obama of WHAT?
    Apr: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!
    May: Maybe he’ll resign…

    32 replies 321 retweets 747 likes

    “Every time I feel like we’re getting a handle on the last Russia fiasco, a new one pops,” a White House staffer told The Daily Beast on Monday evening. On Tuesday, after reports of the Comey memo began to circulate, the staffer revised that assessment: “I guess I was wrong about the timing,” the staffer said. “We can’t even wrap up one Russia fiasco before we’re on to the next one.”

    A senior official in the Trump administration, who previously worked on the president’s campaign, offered a candid and brief assessment of the fallout from that string of bad press: “I don’t see how Trump isn’t completely fucked.”

    (((Josh)))‏ @Tyrangiel

    It’s almost as if the terminations of Meatloaf and Gary Busey were inadequate preparation for firing the FBI director.

    4 replies 75 retweets 154 likes

    Jon Cooper‏ @joncoopertweets

    White House sources say Trump is cursing up a storm – ranting and raving. Yelling at staffers & using the “F” word. He’s losing it tonight.

    3,705 replies 22,661 retweets 45,123 likes

    ► Hard copy of Comey’s notes leaked (photo)

  5. 5.

    debbie

    I’m beginning to feel a bit like Susan Collins: Can’t we have just one day without a crisis?!?

  7. 7.

    satby

    Keep the pressure up everyone,the constant churn and chaos threaten to cause outrage fatigue and we can’t afford that.

    Love to greennotGreen and her family.

  9. 9.

    David ?I hope U can let this go? Koch

    Where have you gone, Barack Obama
    Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you

    What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson
    Jolting Joe has left and gone away
    Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey

    People flood streets of Milan to catch glimpse of Obama

    (photo 1)

    (photo 2)

  13. 13.

    MJS

    @Baud: Exactly. I want 5 crises a day. I want the stories to be about nothing but the specific crisis, and Trump screaming at his staff about the crisis. This is the stuff even the NYT has to cover. More crises, please.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    @MJS:

    Except that when attention moves on, an issue may not receive the investigative thoroughness it merits.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, all. Peace to Chelsea Manning. She has paid her debt, and suffered enough. I worry more about her taking her own life one day.

    Anyhoo: I think this is the most recent on greennotGreen. If I have missed a post, please share.

    Cheryl Rofer put up a thread dedicated to greennotGreen yesterday, Bulletin on greennotGreen, at 6 pm EDT. If there are more recent updates by green’s family, I have not seen them.

    The update, yesterday, by green’s valiant sister:

    greennotGreen
    May 16, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    I’m sorry for not blogging yesterday, but frankly there’s not much to report. gnG is now sleeping 95% of the time, although she did get up out of bed at about 2 AM before I could stop her. (She’s tethered by oxygen cannula and IV pain pump, so she couldn’t have gotten too far.) The only thing that might interest the BJ community is the discussion we had with hospice nurses over the use of oxygen to raise sats. One nurse favors it, one feels it just prolongs the very disturbing agitation phase. The family is left to make the decision. I couldn’t quite bring myself to lower her sats on purpose, although she might have preferred it. Dying at home is best for the patient, but my god, what a trial to the family.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @David ?I hope U can let this go? Koch:

    Thanks for the aggregation of all that fun stuff.

    I also like the “Comey notes,” may stick around as long as the “Preznit give me turkee” note from W’s fiasco/years.

    My Christmas wish is that somehow Pence and Ryan get snared by the investigations. Let’s hope Christmas comes about six months early this year.

  22. 22.

    MJS

    @debbie: If the issues were unrelated, I’d agree with you. But virtually everything now is Russia connected, and I’m okay with that. It’s true that some of the more idiotic things Trump said in his interview with Lester Holt are now forgotten, but no one has forgotten his admission that he fired Comey due to the Russia investigation. Trump’s idiocy on virtually everything was never going to get him out of office. Hell, it got him elected. But the issues with Russia are finally starting to gain traction, and the press is now in competition to see who can get the latest damaging information related to that.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @MJS:

    This is the stuff even the NYT has to cover.

    Whoa, whoa, WHOA!!! Let’s not get carried away, now. Next you’ll be trying to tell us about the unicorn steak you had last night.

  25. 25.

    satby

    @Elizabelle: yes, it was so good of Cheryl to front page that, and it’s good of you to recap for us every morning! It is so hard on the family, though having their loved one home at the end of their life no one I know has ever regretted. Continued wishes for peace to gnG and her family.

  26. 26.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Greetings from the blessedly CNN-free Madrid airport! Free wifi keeps me connected to balloon-juice and 45’s latest atrocities while I await my flight to Bilbao, which may or may not be a good thing. The connection, that is.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: Unicorn steak is a little too dry and gamey for my taste. Now BBQ’ed hippogriff? That is just to die for.

  34. 34.

    hueyplong

    I didn’t realize that one of the things that would happen if GOP+Putin put an ahistorical fuckstick into the White House is that he would immediately do two things Nixon did to get himself removed from office, oblivious to parallels that jump out at the 80-some percent of Americans who are his cognitive betters. First, Trump fires the guy investigating his campaign, and then we find out that he personally told the FBI director to drop the investigation prior to filing him. At least Nixon had the sense to suggest that an errand boy deliver the latter instruction.

    Better still, he flat out admits to/brags about Thing 1 in a nationally televised interview and does Thing 2 himself to a guy nearly everyone but the fuckstick knew would memorialize the effort. And he personally takes an action (firing the guy in Thing 2) sure to motivate him to air it publicly instead of covering it up. The cherry on top is that every time his minions sallied forth to sell some stupid counterfactual, Trump invariably within 24 hours tweeted a new tale that rendered the old one inoperative, destroying any remaining credibility of everyone on his side.

    Have you in your entire life met anyone who could FUBAR literally everything he touches to the extent that Trump does? All the while single-mindedly bragging about what a great job he’s doing? I now think the Republicans will let him get fried out of basic self preservation.

    And STILL the majority of his rank and file support him because Fox has shielded them from comprehending any of the above. Instead, that rank and file identifies you as part of the evil Librul Elite if you demonstrate any ability to comprehend the unfolding narrative.

    This is seriously messed up, and it’s pretty easy to see a Grand Compromise on the horizon that removes Trump but fails adequately to pursue Russian meddling, the better for the GOP to recover and maintain its majorities in 2018. Less melanin-deprived people know where I’m going. Isn’t this just about its 150th anniversary?

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    I’d rather be reading about President Hillary Clinton trying to move equal pay, expanded health care, a higher minimum wage, college debt relief, etc., through congress.

    But since we can’t have nice things due to the millions of unreconstructed troglodytes with whom we share this accursed land, I’ll settle for munching popcorn as my opponents’ corrupt, unqualified, contemptible man-baby crashes and burns.

    While plotting his party’s annihilation in all upcoming elections, of course.

  37. 37.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: @satby: Thanks! My travels started yesterday at 2:30 a.m. to catch an early flight out of Albuquerque. Only a few hours more to reach Bilbao. So far all has gone well.

    And a good afternoon back to you!

  39. 39.

    leeleeFL

    I am Irish, and other things Celtic/British. The schadenfreude is equally delicious for me. It is remarkable to me that this Administration is dissolving before our eyes and the Republicans are trying to play the angles instead of repudiating incompetence, arrogance, stupidity and treason. May they ALL HANG TOGETHER. SEPARATELY IS OK TOO

  42. 42.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Putin trolls.

    My own assessment is that this is a troll out of weakness, out of the delusion, shared by too many Americans and Europeans, that Russia is in a strong position now, analogous to America in the 1990s relative to what Russia was then and America is now.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    Tom Friedman, of FTF Vichy NYTimes, is rather shrill today. He apparently popped some of Paul Krugman’s courage pills.

    NY Times: It’s Chicken or Fish

    …. There will be no G.O.P. mutiny, even if Trump resembles Captain Queeg more each day.

    That’s why the only relevant question is this: Are there tens of millions of good men and women in America ready to run and vote as Democrats or independents in the 2018 congressional elections and replace the current G.O.P. majority in the House and maybe the Senate?

    Nothing else matters — this is now a raw contest of power.

    I disagree fervently with Friedman’s next sentence: the following is nothing admirable; our culture needs to stop rewarding sheer power plays that are actually harmful to us.

    And the one thing I admire about Trump and his enablers: They are not afraid of, and indeed they enjoy, exercising raw power against their opponents. They are not afraid to win by a sliver and govern as if they won by a landslide.

    He slams the Republicans for obstructing the Merrick Garland USSC nomination, climate change, etc., but it still stands as a terrible idea, and a sentiment that the bad people among us (wingnuts and their enablers, but I repeat myself) can take and run with. Anyhoo …

    Democrats and independents should not be deluded or distracted by marches on Washington, clever tweets or “Saturday Night Live” skits lampooning Trump. They need power. If you are appalled by what Trump is doing — backed by House and Senate Republicans — then you need to get out of Facebook and into somebody’s face, by running for Congress as a Democrat or an independent, registering someone to vote for a Democrat or an independent, or raising money to support such candidates.

    Nothing else matters.

    The morally bankrupt crowd running today’s G.O.P. are getting their way not because they have better arguments — polls show majorities disagreeing with them on Comey and climate — but because they have power and are not afraid to use it, no matter what the polls say. And they will use that power to cut taxes for wealthy people, strip health care from poor people and turn climate policy over to the fossil fuel industry until someone else checks that power by getting a majority in the House or the Senate.

    Applause, applause, applause, Mr. Friedman!

    Personally, I’m not exactly a rabid Democrat. [!] I’m more conservative … I think the country would benefit from having a smart conservative party offering market and merit-based solutions for our biggest challenges …. — that was also ready to meet Democrats halfway. But there is no such G.O.P. today. The party has lost its moral compass.

    …. That’s why for me, in 2018, the most left-wing Democratic candidate for House or Senate is preferable to the most moderate Republican, because none of the latter will confront Trump. And Trump’s presidency is not just a threat to my political preferences, it is a threat to the rule of law, freedom of the press, ethics in government, the integrity of our institutions, the values our kids need to learn from their president and America’s longstanding role as the respected leader of the free world.

    Welcome to the woke, Tom Friedman.

    Personally, I think enough of the creeps in the GOP might wake up and realize it’s Trump’s survival, or their own, and start slowly, slowly turning the wheels for impeachment. To save their own political asses, not because it’s the right thing to do.

    Or Trump could continue deteriorating and this could develop acceleration. I have no idea. Who does?

  45. 45.

    JGabriel

    Amanda Carpenter via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    I want WH to explain how Russians even got an Oval Office mtg after intel agreed they conducted malicious cyber activity during elections

    There’s no mystery here, Amanda. The Russians got an Oval Office meeting because they helped elect Trump. Even without Moscow Piss Tapes, they can blackmail Trump just by threatening to reveal all the ways they colluded with the Trump campaign to rig the election.

    Dana Houle:

    Because the Congressional Republicans let them.

    Because Congressional Republicans were also helped by Russian electoral interference, also colluded with the Russians, and are equally compromised by the threat of Russian blackmail.

  46. 46.

    Cheryl Rofer

    My big question for today is whether there will be another bombshell piece of news before the day is out. Trump leaves for his Unification of Abrahamic Religions trip on Friday.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m enjoying it too. I love that he’s screaming at all of those horrible campaign people he hired.

    They all have to go on his foreign trip because if they don’t the others will all backstab and blame the one who isn’t there. It’s a HORROR of a workplace. It perfectly reflects the boss.

    His biggest fuck-ups have been when the minders weren’t present. They can’t leave him unattended or he does something stupid and/or illegal.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: I think you’re right about Russia’s structural weakness, but Putin sure is winning the soft power game, IMO. He orchestrated the installation of an erratic fool into the Oval Office and successfully baited him into dividing the country internally while alienating allies and destroying America’s moral authority as the keeper of Western democracy (which was always partly bullshit anyway, tbh). This latest offer just makes Trump look like even more of a mark. Well played, Putin, ya bastid!

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    @O. Felix Culpa: Welcome to Spain! We’ve been waiting for you. Enjoy that walk. Incredible that you’re doing it.

    @Betty Cracker: I hate that Hillary Clinton was denied the White House — in my heart, I believe she actually won her race, as did Al Gore — but I’m looking at all of this as a cataclysm that had to happen to exorcise the rot from our political system.

    If we had President Hillary, we would have Jason Chaffetz with a boner, every single day, going after her. We would have unheard of shrieking and ugliness from wingnut world and their media enablers. Republican obstruction would be so ugly, and it’s very possible that Huma Abedin would be defending herself against criminal charges of some sort.**

    I just hope that we can complete the exorcism, that we can cleanse the ugliness and corruption and wake up millions of Americans — you will see that Tom Friedman has dropped his “both sides” schtick, at least for today’s column.

    [** on the other hand, Comey would still find himself fired, much earlier although possibly more humanely, and perhaps President H. Clinton would have cleaned out the rat’s nest in the NY field office but good. With the ringleaders under DOJ investigation.]

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I relish the infighting details to an unhealthy degree! I believe a WaPo report yesterday said that Trump even called Jared an incompetent! And the dilettante who carries the “women’s issues” portfolio seems to have gone into the witness protection program. Good; she’ll be less likely to discourage actually qualified women if her visibility is diminished.

    Also, some Fox fembot is openly gunning for Spicer’s job, and there’s no reason to believe Trump won’t hire her just so he can ogle her cleavage all day. That can’t be encouraging to the shlubs who’ve dutifully told laughably obvious lies for Twitler over the past several months and received little in return aside from ridicule and a ginormous hit to their reputations. Let chaos and corruption reign!

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    Well played, Putin, ya bastid!

    Not disagreeing, but I’m wondering how he plans to stave off China. With the US now in Banana Republic territory, China defaults into the leadership position, and they will eventually overcome Russia. (“Eventually” because I don’t think they’ve been working on it, except in a secondary manner, while the USA was still their primary obstacle.) Maybe Putin thinks he can nuke Beijing, Shanghai, HK, and thus take care of the Chinese threat.

    In the meantime, I may FINALLY buy that popcorn that y’all have been talking about for ages. Although, now that I’ve said it, I’ve probably jinxed things.

  57. 57.

    Divf

    Good morning fellow Juicers / jackals ! I am at sfo about to begin the long trek to Saudi Arabia. I plan on staying connected to BJ as long as possible so that I don’t miss the emerging scandals.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @Divf: Happy jet trails. Do send some photos, if you would, for the early morning On the Road feature. Good luck with your conference.

  59. 59.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Elizabelle: I have seen the possibility mentioned on Twitter by people who are more political operative than crank, but nothing that indicates the White House is considering it. There must be some interesting phonecalls to Israel, though, given Trump’s big mouth with the Russians. Now they are saying that Trump will propose an Arab NATO. That’s along with his speech in Saudi Arabia about Islam. Good times.

    @Betty Cracker: There’s a lot to that. My viewpoint tends to be blinkered by my participation in the interactions of the 1990s, and I’ve just been writing about that, so I’m sort of stuck in that mindset. There were people back then who carried that schadenfreudy viewpoint, but what I saw was much more positive. That’s not what Putin took from it, though, and he’s playing that out now.

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:

    We are one tan suit away from impeachment.

    Tan suit and mustard on a burger in the same day = see you, Donnie.

  61. 61.

    JGabriel

    Putin trolls Trump:

    WaPo: Putin says Russia is ready to hand over records of Trump’s talks with Lavrov to U.S. lawmakers if White House approves [Breaking]:

    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he would be willing to provide the U.S. Congress a record of President Trump’s meeting with top Russian envoys, possibly offering new details on the disclosures of reportly highly classified intelligence information.

    The remarkable offer for the Kremlin to share evidence with U.S. oversight committees came with the caveat that the request for the transcript would have to come from the Trump administration.

    So if Trump says no, he looks guilty; if Trump says yes, he takes a chance that Putin will hand over information that proves he’s guilty.

    So. Fucked.

  64. 64.

    liberal

    @Betty Cracker:

    He orchestrated the installation of an erratic fool into the Oval Office…

    Nah. We did that to ourselves. Not saying what Putin (probably) did is OK, but if you were to look at the impact of things beyond “our” control, done with questionable intent, you’d look at Comey. I think the Wikileaks stuff had negligible effect; to the extent it had any effect, it was because people saw “emails” in the headlines.

  65. 65.

    clay

    @rikyrah:

    It tickles me that Dolt45 really thought that Comey was just another “public employee”.

    Is that a quote from somewhere? I missed it…

  66. 66.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

    I believe a WaPo report yesterday said that Trump even called Jared an incompetent!

    Well, whaddya expect, the guy’s trying to reinvent government + bring peace to the Middle East + hand-hold Nuclear Orange. That’s like trying to be Al Gore, Jesus, and the world’s highest paid child psychologist, all day every day.

    Also, some Fox fembot is openly gunning for Spicer’s job, and there’s no reason to believe Trump won’t hire her just so he can ogle her cleavage all day.

    It would be a shame to give up Spicey…he’s been so offensive on such a constant basis. Nevertheless, if we must view Ms. Guilfoyle spout Trumpov’s lies instead of Captain Red-In-The-Face all the time, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

  67. 67.

    liberal

    @SFAW: We can’t stave off China. Even under competent leadership like Obama, they’re much better set up to do things like take over mineral wealth in the 3rd world, because of the way they can operate. And of course the big thing is that they’re going to be the number one economic power. Period. Nothing we can do about that.

    ETA: Though I appreciate you’re probably talking about the shorter term.

  68. 68.

    amk

    Wow: @CBSThisMorning says it asked 20 GOP lawmakers to be a guest this AM to talk about Trump. And asked the WH for someone. ALL declined.— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) May 17, 2017

    heh cbs, how about asking some dems, at least for fair & balanced shtick, ffs.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    Well, whaddya expect, the guy’s trying to reinvent government + bring peace to the Middle East + hand-hold Nuclear Orange.

    While hawking visas to the Chinese 1%.

  70. 70.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Baud: I hadn’t thought of the Crusades, but I can imagine commentary about how Europe did the Saudis wrong. Although Saladin was a Kurd, so that could get him into trouble with Turkey too.

    Just the itinerary alone provides so much material for fail, I hadn’t had to go that far afield.

  71. 71.

    clay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Now they are saying that Trump will propose an Arab NATO. That’s along with his speech in Saudi Arabia about Islam.

    But… but… but… Trump hates NATO. Anyway, doesn’t something like that already exist?

    *quick Google search*

    Yeah, the Arab League. What’s the difference between that and whatever Trump is talking about?

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @liberal: Agree that “orchestrated” overstates Putin’s role. Had our institutions not been full of rot to begin with, Putin’s gamble wouldn’t have paid off.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    And she’s out. This morning. After “2,545 days in military captivity.” Although Chelsea Manning still faces legal peril. Per The Guardian:

    Speaking from her prison cell as she prepared for release last week, Manning said: “I’m looking forward to breathing the warm spring air again.

    “I want that indescribable feeling of connection with people and nature again, without razor wire or a visitation booth. I want to be able to hug my family and friends again. And swimming – I want to go swimming!”

    Obama’s decision to release the soldier early leaves her with legal challenges still hanging over her. Foremost of those is the fact that her sentence from 2013 under the Espionage Act remains in full force ­– a fact that her lawyers regard as ominous given the current incumbent of the White House.

    As a result, even in freedom Manning will continue to press vigorously for her sentence to be overturned. Her appeal, filed almost exactly a year ago in the US Army court of criminal appeals, argued that her 35 year sentence was “perhaps the most unjust sentence in the history of the military justice system”.

    Manning’s appeal lawyer, Nancy Hollander, told the Guardian: “People keep assuming that just because someone is released their appeal is over. The rest of her case is still out there and we want to clear her name. She was convicted of crimes that I don’t believe she committed and her whole prosecution was unfair.”

  75. 75.

    clay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Also, some Fox fembot is openly gunning for Spicer’s job, and there’s no reason to believe Trump won’t hire her just so he can ogle her cleavage all day.

    What kind of dummy with even the slightest modicum of self-preservation would WANT to join this ship that is not only sinking, but also on fire and overrun with a zombie hoard?

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    They all have to go on his foreign trip because if they don’t the others will all backstab and blame the one who isn’t there.

    And they can’t go because whoever they leave with the keys to the store will backstab them relentlessly while they are gone.

  79. 79.

    Bobby Thomson

    @debbie:

    I’m beginning to feel a bit like Susan Collins: Can’t we have just one day without a crisis?!?

    Crocodile tears. What a shame the Constitution doesn’t contain a mechanism by which a simple House majority and two thirds of the Senate can remove a rogue president.

  81. 81.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @clay: The Arab League is a BAD DEAL because Trump did not negotiate it, and this alliance would be a GOOD DEAL.

    Features seem to be Saudi-led against Iran, and a massive package of arms for Saudi Arabia.

    What could go wrong?

    ETA: I see GregB just beat me to it.

  82. 82.

    Bobby Thomson

    @clay: If your business is government, it’s a no-brainer. If your business is show business, where there’s no such thing as bad publicity, also a no-brainer.

  85. 85.

    Peale

    @Cheryl Rofer: Jesus. The informal relationship with those countries has led to such greatest hits as Libya, Yemen and Syria. Let’s make it a formal relationship.

  87. 87.

    Patricia Kayden

    @hueyplong:

    And STILL the majority of his rank and file support him because Fox has shielded them from comprehending any of the above.

    So true. Fox News is not covering Trump scandals in a way that its viewers can apprehend the train wreck which is the Trump regime. It will be hilarious when Fox News is finally forced to show Trump as he actually is — a know nothing buffoon who will not MAGA. I expect this to happen sooner than later as Trump continues to spin out of control.

  88. 88.

    GregB

    @Betty Cracker:

    Pyrric victory once Trump realizes his entire empire and name are crumbling into the sea and Pres. Low-T decides, fuck it, my world is ending, might as well one final fuck you to my newest enemy, Pooty-Poot. Cue the Slim Pickens clip from Dr. Strangelove.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Rep sitting in a Florida swing district tweeted this out: “If recent allegations are true, they mark the beginning of a new and very sad chapter of scandal and controversy in our *party*.”

    *he said “country” so I fixed it for him.

  90. 90.

    clay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    So less an alliance, and more of a way for the Sauds to consolidate regional power, then? From the article:

    One main objective is to put forth a framework and basic principles for a unified Sunni coalition of countries, which would set the stage for a more formal NATO-like organizational structure down the line.

    No, no, that’s fine. We probably SHOULD do more to increase the divisions within the Middle East.

  92. 92.

    germy

    This morning, 6:30AM I put our local CBS TV news on. As I’ve said here before, it’s a sinclair station. I wanted to see how they’d report the latest comey news. (Last night they ignored it)

    Here’s how they reported it: An associate of Comey claims that Comey took notes. The “claim” is that schickelgruber asked Comey to drop the investigation. They then cut to the front page of the NYPost (they use the NYPost for all their national news, even hired a political analyst from that paper).

    They obviously couldn’t ignore the story, but they’re framing it as a “he said/he said” story.

    And then the CBS morning show came on at 7am, and the reporting was more detailed.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Rep Carlos Curbelo, a Rep sitting in a Florida swing district tweeted this out: “If recent allegations are true, they mark the beginning of a new and very sad chapter of scandal and controversy in our *party*.”

    *he said “country” so I fixed it for him.

    Good! And more of this please folks – I don’t want to hear a single talking head asking how “we” came to this point. “We” didn’t. The Republicans foisted this bastard on the country and then made it worse by enabling him at every step of the way.

    Not. “We”.

  103. 103.

    sherparick

    @Elizabelle: My thoughts are with her and her family. It is very hard (my Mom passed during a similar long stay and struggle in hostage care. It is amazing how some bodies resist death even as they fail.) And there is getting around the awfulness of it, to lose one you love and who you have loved your whole life.

    “The death of a beloved is an amputation.”
    ― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

  104. 104.

    germy

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) is facing more heat after an watchdog group filed an ethics complaint against him over a fundraising letter outing a local bank executive’s activism to her employer.

    The complaint was filed by the Campaign for Accountability, some of whose advisory board members have ties to the Democratic Party.

    The group, in its complaint, requested an investigation into whether Frelinghuysen violated House ethics rules by singling out Saily Avelenda in the postscript of a letter to a board member of the bank.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/frelinghuysen-hit-with-ethics-complaint-over-outing-of-activist-to-her-employer/

  105. 105.

    zach

    @JGabriel:

    So if Trump says no, he looks guilty; if Trump says yes, he takes a chance that Putin will hand over information that proves he’s guilty.

    If WH says no, McMaster might have to resign after saying the convo was all above board and limited to public info.

    Also, presumably Trump said some stupid things because he always says stupid things.

    Even if the revelation was meaningless, Trump will say no to protect his own reputation ahead of McMaster’s; I bet McMaster resigns.

    Having Trump move to his third Nat’l Security Advisor in four months, turmoil in the FBI, foreign intel services afraid to share with Americans, and foreign leaders afraid to treat the US President like an adult is like the Panglossian ideal for Russian geopolitical strategy.

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    @debbie:

    @rikyrah:

    See, that’s my point: Stuff is getting lost in the shuffle!

    I sorta see your point, but they are so desperate to grade this unqualified White Man on a curve, anything less than crisis would mean ‘ he’s making a Presidential pivot’

  108. 108.

    GregB

    @clay:

    We should also empower the most regressive nation on planet that is the locus of the poisonous ideology of ISIS and Al Qaeda.

    Trump is Biblical King of Lies bent on destroying the fucking planet.

    Apparently I’m a believer now.

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ll settle for munching popcorn as my opponents’ corrupt, unqualified, contemptible man-baby crashes and burns.

    While plotting his party’s annihilation in all upcoming elections, of course.

    Amen

  112. 112.

    Debbie(aussie)

    @Baud: absolutely no way he has any idea what polytheism is:) But he has all the best ideas and the best people.vocabulary that is worse than my kids had at 5, SAD!

  113. 113.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Peale: Hush. Trump’s purpose in visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Vatican is to promote the unity of the Abrahamic religions. (Actually, the Trump minions don’t use the word “Abrahamic.” I think they say “great.”)

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    @Divf:

    Good morning fellow Juicers / jackals ! I am at sfo about to begin the long trek to Saudi Arabia. I plan on staying connected to BJ as long as possible so that I don’t miss the emerging scandals.

    Have a safe trip. Please take pics and send them Alain.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Now they are saying that Trump will propose an Arab NATO. That’s along with his speech in Saudi Arabia about Islam. Good times.

    Don’t they already have an Arab League?

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    @clay:

    Is that a quote from somewhere? I missed it…

    Not a quote…just in all of his actions.

    He really missed that Comey was the muthaphuckin’ Director of the muthaphuckin’ F-B-I.

  117. 117.

    geg6

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Yeah, I can hardly wait until Dolt 45 hits the world stage. Most likely by insulting the pope, giving Muslims a lecture on their religion and visiting the country who probably just lost a valuable Mossad agent because of his big fat mouth.

    Oh well. At least it won’t be an apology tour, amirite?

  118. 118.

    geg6

    @rikyrah:

    And one he thought he could publicly humiliate as he fired him with no consequences. LOL! What a stupid, stupid man.

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    @germy:

    They obviously couldn’t ignore the story, but they’re framing it as a “he said/he said” story.

    And then the CBS morning show came on at 7am, and the reporting was more detailed.

    I was very satisfied looking at the headline of the very Republican Chicago Tribune this morning. Made me smile. Big letters – all in caps about Dolt45 asking Comey to drop the Russian Flynn investigation.

  120. 120.

    JMG

    The Congressional Republicans are now at Comey’s mercy. They have to subpoena him and grant his wish to testify publicly simply to find out how much he’s got. Otherwise, he’ll just make more memos available to more reporters on his own schedule.

  121. 121.

    liberal

    @Peale:

    The informal relationship with those countries has led to such greatest hits as Libya, Yemen and Syria.

    I’m sure there are people here who think our actions in Libya and Syria were just fine and dandy, under the Obama administration. And Yemen? You say hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even millions, are under the threat of starvation, and that this started under the Obama admin? What’s “Yemen”?

  122. 122.

    LurkerNoLonger

    Boy I picked the wrong week to quit following politics. Luckily I’m still sniffing glue.

  123. 123.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Here’s more about the Arab League.

    Wikipedia:

    The League’s main goal is to “draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries”.

    BBC:

    The Arab League’s effectiveness has been severely hampered by divisions among member states.
    For example, during the Cold War some members were Soviet-oriented while others fell within the Western camp. There has been rivalry over leadership, notably between Egypt and Iraq.
    Then there have been the hostilities between traditional monarchies – such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco – and new republics, or “revolutionary” states such as Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Baathist Syria and Iraq, and Libya under Muammar Gaddafi.
    The league was severely tested by the US-led attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, with some backing the war, some opposing it and others standing on the sidelines.
    Because decisions made by the Arab League are binding only on members who voted for them, these divisions have in effect crippled the league in the sphere of “high politics”.

  124. 124.

    germy

    @liberal:

    I’m sure there are people here who think our actions in Libya and Syria were just fine and dandy, under the Obama administration. And Yemen? You say hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even millions, are under the threat of starvation, and that this started under the Obama admin? What’s “Yemen”?

    Grrr… damn that Obama. Why didn’t he fix the world?

  125. 125.

    Tenar Arha

    @Betty Cracker: at night (when I’m thinking evil thoughts) I console myself with the thought that neither Jared nor Ivanka have immunity here, and as Senior Advisers (even w/o salary) can be subpoenaed.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    ‘I’m Not There at This Point’: Sanders Isn’t Ready to Jump on the Trump Impeachment Wagon Yet
    by Justin Baragona | 11:16 pm, May 16th, 2017

    This evening, CNN scheduled a town hall debate between Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich. Of course, when they scheduled the thing, the news cycle hadn’t been hit by the one-two punch of President Donald Trump’s classified info sharing with the Russians and the report that Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to stop the investigation of ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

    So, obviously, the two former presidential candidates were asked the big question that has now bubbled up to the surface — is there sufficient grounds for impeachment?

    “I don’t think we’re there,” Kasich answered. “I don’t think we know exactly what happened. The Russian investigation is very, very important.”

    And Sanders pretty much agreed with his conservative stagemate. While acknowledging that there a lot of questions surrounding Russian interference in the election, he doesn’t think it has risen to impeachment just yet.

  130. 130.

    El Caganer

    I have a really bad feeling about Trump’s Islam speech: “Can’t say enough about Mohammed, an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more…..”

  132. 132.

    Peale

    @liberal: oh dearie me. You’re right. I was such a hawk until January 20 and now I’m a peaceful little dove. Or it’s perfectly reasonable to be critical of US Mideast policy for the past 17 years and note that our tendency to listen to our clients in the region under Obama led to our involvement in these disasters that I listed, noting that trying to take a leadership role under Bush led to even worse disasters. This new development under Trump entwines us further into matters we shouldn’t be involved with at all. But hey, I vote Democrat, therefore I’m too compromised to have opinions.

  133. 133.

    clay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Trump’s purpose in visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Vatican is to promote the unity of the Abrahamic religions. (Actually, the Trump minions don’t use the word “Abrahamic.” I think they say “great.”)

    I love the current Pope and all, but the Vatican is not the head of Christendom. I assume he’ll stop by Constantinople to visit the Patriarch, and Canterbury to talk to the Archbishop, and…

    (In other words…. Unity? What’s that?)

  135. 135.

    Peale

    @clay: I’m all in favor of him giving a speech a liberty university one weekend, and calling on the Pope to corral the Christians to serve his nationalist agenda the next. Let Falwell and the Pope figure out whose in charge.

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: BS has always been conservative with respect to guns and immigration. More in step with your Chuck Grassleys and Jeff Sessions. So this doesn’t come as a surprise. He is no friend of the Democrats. If you ask me he is up to his neck in the Ruskie interference of 2016. Bet he doesn’t want that to come out.

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    The president should resign.

    — David Frum (@davidfrum) May 16, 2017

    This is no longer about Trump. We know what he is. It’s about Congress and specifically Republicans in Congress. Who are they?

    — David Frum (@davidfrum) May 16, 2017

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    Buried in our story: Trump said to Comey that he should consider putting reporters in prison https://t.co/7nlT6gaY1G

    — Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) May 16, 2017

    Sorta slick of Comey to make sure that this got out…..

    for all those inclined to give him a pass…

    tee hee hee

  142. 142.

    Theodore Wirth

    Meanwhile, Republicans covertly dismantle U.S. health care using the Trumpster fires as cover. A few whiles ago I would argue that it was a plan but it is now obvious that Trump has no plans beyond the next time he shoots off his mouth.

  143. 143.

    BC in Illinois

    @Betty Cracker:
    @Jeffro:

    Yes, it would be a shame to lose Sean Spicer – – that is, Melissa McCathy.
    But, having seen Kimberly Guilfoyle, I am confident that Cecily Strong can carry on the tradition of the WH Press Conference.

  146. 146.

    Captain C

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Trump will propose an Arab NATO.

    Didn’t they try something similar to that about 50 or 60 year ago (albeit not an exclusively Arab org) with CENTO? I’m pretty sure that didn’t last very long.

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