The last 24 hours are so full of stories that this one appears to have fallen through the cracks:
One of the Trump administration’s first decisions about the fight against the Islamic State was made by Michael Flynn weeks before he was fired – and it conformed to the wishes of Turkey, whose interests, unbeknownst to anyone in Washington, he’d been paid more than $500,000 to represent.
The decision came 10 days before Donald Trump had been sworn in as president, in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, who had explained the Pentagon’s plan to retake the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Syrian Kurdish forces whom the Pentagon considered the U.S.’s most effective military partners. Obama’s national security team had decided to ask for Trump’s sign-off, since the plan would all but certainly be executed after Trump had become president.
Flynn didn’t hesitate. According to timelines distributed by members of Congress in the weeks since, Flynn told Rice to hold off, a move that would delay the military operation for months.
It looks like Chuck Schumer’s advice not to pick a fight with the intelligence community is right: every major news organization got a scoop yesterday. This one went to McClatchy. The Times’ allotment was that Trump’s team knew that Flynn was under investigation before he came to the White House. The Wall Street Journal learned that the Israeli source Trump burned was the most important source we have on ISIS. Reuters has an exclusive on the 18 contacts the Trump campaign had with Russia. And of course the Post got a recording of Kevin McCarthy saying that Trump and Dana Rohrbacher are on Putin’s payroll. I don’t know if that last one was from the “deep state” but the rest were sure leaked by someone from a national security agency. That’s just in one day, which leads me to believe that they have a lot more (otherwise they would drip, drip, drip it out).
GregB
ISIS First!
GregB
In NH news: Reddit redpill anti woman, pro-rapey guy quits NH House of Representatives.
It’s a bad day for fascists.
janelle
So…off topic, but Roger Ailes just died.
And he can still go fuck himself, even in death.
David Anderson
I wonder if today is a good day for the leaks to go quiet… Wait for wheels up on Air Force 1 before the next round
Roger Moore
And it gets worse when you put the information together. For example, look at this quote
By itself, that’s terrible. Put it together with the FTNYT segment saying that the transition knew he was under investigation for his Turkish ties, and it’s clear that it wasn’t “unbeknownst” to anyone in Washington. It was known to the transition team, and they kept letting him make critical decisions in the area anyway.
ETA: Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go insane.
sherparick
Just another slow news day in Trump land. Ailes death won’t even be the lead story. His death is a bit of surprise because I thought his deal with the Devil promised him immortality.
Ryan
And if you have been watching Rachel lately, you know that Friday is the day when all the news happens! Are we sick of all the winning yet?
Ryan
@David Anderson: Can Trump tweet over the Atlantic? To be completely impotent in the face of more leaks. Ah, now there is good retribution.
Major Major Major Major
I saw a headline that pence is starting to prepare a war chest. I didn’t read the article because my power is out and I read slowly on my phone and there were too many other scandals to read about first!
Cacti
Chris Cornell of Soundgarden is dead.
Damn it.
The years have been cruel to the icons of the grunge scene.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Roger Moore: And that is how Mike Pence loses his deniability. Pence was in charge of the transition team.
sigaba
@Ryan: I’m mildly nauseous of winning.
AnonPhenom
@janelle:
Let’s not attend the funeral, but send a note saying we approve…
Cermet
Speaking of health issues: a news item that a significant outbreak of Ebola has occurred in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo.) Both WHO and Doctor’s without Borders have advanced teams helping the locals. The US is on alert with 700 K dose’s of the new experimental vaccine that can stop the illness. That country has already handled seven past outbreaks successfully without these resources so with the current aid, this should not become a significant problem. But already, facilities and teams are on site and ready to handle the vaccine (requires being held at -80 C!) and they have methods to get it to front line healthcare workers and people. Amazing but it looks like the world has developed the ability to start handling Ebola outbreaks in Africa in a manner that can contain and drastically reduce any deaths and completely isolate and stop this illness. This just proves that both world health procedures and making advanced medical treatments (Read $$$) available to all (even the poorest people) saves not just the lives of these people but protects all of us!
Mary G
Wow, when you lay it all out like that, it’s impressive. That tape of Kevin McCarthy and Ryan, yucks about Rohrbacher and Trump aside, is striking that they recognized how effective Russia was being in manipulating opinion in Ukraine. So it’s even more heinous that they opposed the Obama administration’s reporting about Russian interference in our election. Proof they put country before party. Scumbags.
People on Twitter are speculating that Evan McMullin was behind that one, as he was working in Congress at the time.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Cacti: Eddie Vedder and Jerry Cantrell are the only big names left.
Zach
Haven’t seen anyone point this out yet: Trump’s statement that his campaign didn’t collude with any foreign agent is directly contradicted by the fact that Flynn (the third most prominent member of the campaign) published his OpEd defending Erdoğan on the morning of the election… it called out the Clinton foundation and Bill and Hillary Clinton and Obama… it was part of the Trump campaign… it was paid for by pro-Erdoğan foreign agents.
Major Major Major Major
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: his excuse is that he was too stupid to know he was a stooge, which unfortunately for us has an accurate first half, making it harder to disprove.
Mary G
@Mary G: Whoops, can’t edit on tablet, I meant party before country.
The Moar You Know
I’m not going to bitch because they’re the last line (and not a perfect one) between America and the Orangepocalypse, but at some point after this is dealt with we really need to dial back the powers these agencies have. Isn’t healthy for a real democracy.
Then again, maybe we just need that, since when left to our own devices we make real shit choices.
Davey C
I’m just praying that Trump manages to take Pence down with him.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Zach: The Turkey connection is weird. What did Flynn expect to happen? How could the world not find out?
Cacti
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
It’s depressing as shit.
Chris always seemed to be one of the ones who had it together. Huge shock for me.
Major Major Major Major
@Thoroughly Pizzled: it’s entirely possible that Flynn is an idiot.
Peale
Can we make sure that Rohrbacher is probed until he can’t hypocritically sit his hind den on a church pew any longer?
The Moar You Know
@Davey C: Republicans who stay attached to Team Trump are going to go down. Period. So that’s really Pence’s decision. Were I him, I’d be talking to a lawyer every damn day.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Major Major Major Major: The combined IQ of this particular duo would have to be lower than any in years and years. Maybe Reagan/Bush as the Alzheimers kicked in, or the post-stroke Wilson administration, but geez, most other pairs have had at least one member with a fully functioning brain. It might be what saves us from some of the worst, at least in policy terms. Crisis management though, look out
dmsilev
There’s so much coverage of Trump here that the ad-bots are starting to serve up Trump International Hotel adverts to me.
Umm, no.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Peale: I’d rather the distinguished gentleman from California take a field trip to La Brea and asphyxiate on dinosaur fart bubbles. That dude is Louis Gohmert class stupid.
Thoroughly Pizzled
@The Moar You Know: At least we made it to 45 presidents. The Roman Empire only had three emperors before the Praetorian Guard flexed its muscle.
Roger Moore
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Most of the corrupt actions of the trump people make sense if they believed they’d be able to prevent any investigations once they were in power. This wasn’t nearly as bad an assumption as it should have been; their allies in Congress have done yeoman’s work running interference for them.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Cacti: Yeah the claim about his death being investigated as a suicide sounds odd to me. Hope that ends up not being the case.
Barbara
Well, I don’t want to be sedated, but this amount of news is making my head spin. And I do wonder not just who released the recording of that GOP meeting, but who made it and who had access to it or knew about it.
Jake the antisoshul soshulist
The Bette Davis response works: Roger Ailes is dead… Good!
LAO
You know what else is interesting here, with respect to Flynn — according to various reports last night, it was Ivanka and Jared that pushed for his hiring. Coupled with the news that Jared was the senior adviser pushing Trump to fire Comey, it sure seems like the “golden couple” is losing the right to claim that they are moderating Trump. I find this very very satisfying.
Immanentize
@Thoroughly Pizzled: We’ve sold out the Kurds before. In fact, it is something of a Republican sport. (see e.g. Iraq) It would not have been an issue had Flynn not turned out to be in Erdogan’s pocket.
Turkey is a sticky wicket. We are still treating them as if Attaturk’s principles still governed. More like strong man dictatorship than secular democracy now. Makes me sad because I wanted to see Santa Sophia before I died.
Barbara
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: If this were a play by Shakespeare, McCarthy would definitely be playing the role of the fool — the apparently stupidest guy in the room who somehow manages to express the truth when others can’t.
Immanentize
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: H. W. Bush was a very smart and savvy man.
dmsilev
@LAO: Both Daughter and Son-In-Law have been keeping a low profile the last couple of weeks. Wonder whether Agent Orange is pushing them away as well.
Immanentize
@dmsilev: When I see those ads I am happy because they are paying Cole to tear Trump down. Bad PR!
Immanentize
@LAO: saw your note yesterday. Thanks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the innate pessimist in me keeps thinking trump is going to be pushed out and the Village is going to convene a bipartisan panel of respected elder statesmen– John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp– to tell us all to come together and give President Pence time to lead the nation in healing. Then I find that the Republicans are even dumber and more self-destructive than I thought they were twenty seconds before having that thought
Comey’s memo– if it even exists!– is the real problem!
LAO
@dmsilev: This is very sad — clearly there will be no peace in the Middle East.
Anyone think Chris Christie might make a comeback? I think Jared is on the outs. Who else would take a job with this administration other than Giuliani?
hovercraft
@David Anderson:
I’d love for them to hold off for today, give them the impression that they’ve weathered the storm and now they can jet off for a series of glorious photo ops with world leaders, and then bam, when they touch down in Riyadh they are greeted with the next round of shoes dropping. Their obligatory two questions are all about the latest shitburgers hitting the fan.
Immanentize
@Barbara: But Will’s fools were actually very smart — the omnipotent observers. McCarthy is just, well, a fool.
Barbara
@dmsilev: If firing Comey was Kushner’s idea, let’s just say that was such a spectacular fuck up that even the most thick-skinned plutocrat unaccustomed to being held accountable must realize that he, ahem, misjudged the situation. Whether he has been banished or whether he is afraid to light any more matches for fear of starting even worse fires because he doesn’t know what he is doing, who can say.
Aleta
Barbara
@Immanentize: We think the fools were smart because that is how we interpret the plays, but it’s not so clear that they were “actually” rather than “accidentally” smart.
D58826
@Major Major Major Major:
AKA a legal defense fund
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Immanentize: I agree. But if you combine him with either Reagan or Quayle you still only come out average because he carries the load.
Elizabelle
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: I don’t know that I believe the suicide thesis. He’d just played a great concert, before appreciative fans. Although: it’s reported that his wife Vicki asked someone to go to his room check on his welfare. Not sure if that was in response to something she’d received or seen, or that he did not check in when expected …
Roger Moore
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
Since he’s proud of his surfing credentials, I’m imagining the final scene from Point Break.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Here you go.
Pence Takes Steps to Build War Chest as White House Stumbles
Pence launched Great America Committee, a leadership PAC, a move that will enable him to channel money to congressional Republicans ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. The political action committee’s registration was posted Wednesday on the Federal Election Commission website.
“The Vice President is playing a leading role in passing legislation on the Hill,” said Nick Ayers, a senior adviser to Pence in the 2016 campaign who will be running the PAC. “He wants to support House and Senate members who are helping pass the president’s agenda.”
It’s unusual for vice presidents to set up their own fundraising vehicles. Neither Joseph Biden nor Dick Cheney, the two vice presidents who preceded Pence, had one while in office. It’s not entirely unprecedented, though: George H.W. Bush formed the Fund for America’s Future when he was preparing for his 1988 presidential run.
“Launching a leadership PAC sometimes signals an intent to run for higher office, which in Pence’s case, has been a topic of public interest ever since he was first nominated,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsible Politics, which studies money in politics.
The moran seems to think that he can walk away from this tsunami of shit unscathed, HA!
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Aleta: I’m not sure that he’ll ever get the chance to use those funds in a campaign. If I were him I’d be more worried about legal defense right now.
Immanentize
@Aleta: This is the kind of story that needs to be embellished and pushed everywhere —
Pence DISLOYAL! Plans secret take over. PENCE PALACE PUTSCH!!!
it will drive Trump cra cra!
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Well, I would definitely wait for the autopsy. My uncle’s wife, who was admittedly older, took her usual afternoon nap and when she didn’t come down after an inordinately long time, they tried to wake her and couldn’t. She was still alive but was on life support from the moment she entered the hospital and died very soon afterwards. Sudden death could be the result of a cardiac event (most likely) or other things. I don’t know enough to know whether he had a history of depression or attempts on his own life.
Immanentize
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Ha! The old average intelligence problem. Me like. In that world, Nixon/Agnew was pretty marginal.
amk
@D58826: yup. it sure is.
hueyplong
McCarthy seems to be like Fredo in the room, saying aloud stuff everyone knows not to talk about. Would love to find out who recorded Fredo giving away the game while talking about Johnny Ola.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft:
What, he’s gonna build a fucking amusement park? What a fucking idiot.
amk
ouch.
ArchTeryx
@Cermet: And yet I, an RNA virologist who has all the skills to work with Ebola in the field, sit unemployed and idle. If ever there was a statement of America’s twisted priorities, it’s that – and we’re still the only country that does that to our medical research PhDs. Best country in the world, baby!
…bitter? Moi? Why ever would you say that?
Aleta
from Chicago Tribune
Hope they keep him out in the sun for hours. (Not at all likely.)
“It will also feature an Arabian lute player.” Brotherhood! White cowboy hat shares stage with white keffiyeh!
Immanentize
@Barbara: Hmmmm. But wasn’t the role intended to wink at/with the crowd — both in the seats and in the pit? That would suggest intentional. But maybe you are thinking of what happens in the play not as craft but as a narrative about which one suspends disbelief? Like we generally talk about films I’m interested. Thanks for these ideas to ponder.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Aleta: Oh, let’s hope Bannon can get three minutes to explain to trumpy what this means
amk
at least beebs is doing some plain speaking in its FP on the sucm’s death.
The ex-chairman of the right wing channel was pushed out in the wake of sexual harassment scandal.
Immanentize
@D58826: Yes, campaign contributions can indeed be used for “non-personal (like a divorce)” legal defense costs. Hmmmm.
Bruce K
@The Moar You Know: There’s a lot about our system that’s going to have to be rebuilt once we’re out of this storm – a lot of unwritten rules enforced only by gentlemen’s agreements have been shredded and may have to be codified into law. But first we’ve got to get out of the storm.
LAO
@Major Major Major Major: Well, Trump/Pence already “made ‘America Great’ again” and he just wants to continue their fine work should Trump be removed from office. Pence may be dense, but he surrounds himself with some sharp political sharks. Here’s hoping he goes down with the MAGA ship.
Mnemosyne
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
What’s Dave Grohl, chopped liver? Though he was not the front man at the time.
LAO
From the Times: Glenn Thrush
How Trump found out
Mr. Kushner — who had urged Mr. Trump to fire James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director — was one of the few dissenting voices, urging the president to counterattack, according to two senior administration officials. After a brief discussion, however, calmer heads prevailed, and Mr. Trump’s staff huddled over a computer just outside the Oval Office to draft the statement that was ultimately released, asserting the president’s innocence and determination to move on.
By the end of the process, Mr. Trump was calm, determined to push his agenda and uncharacteristically noncombative, according to people close to the president.
ETA: obviously I can’t block quote for my life, sorry!
ArchTeryx
@The Moar You Know: Yeah. It’s way too easy to just treat the Constitution like toilet paper, once you’ve decided that norms, customs and the rule of law are all for little people and marks, and you stuff every branch of government with personal partisans.
To be fair, though, this is a problem for a lot of Western democracies. All democracies run not just on the rule of law, but these unwritten, uncodified norms. All it takes is one demagogue coming in at the right time to shred them all. Forget Nazi Germany – look at what was done in Italy, both pre- and post-WWII, and current-day Hungary. (Turkey is technically in that category too, but it’s something of a special case, having both Eastern AND Western influences).
(Apropo of nothing, that’s also, IMHO, why a lot of the fledgling democracies in Africa failed so horribly – they had so little experience with democracy they had NONE of these uncodified norms to fall back on. What they DID have experience with was naked tribalism, and that’s exactly what quickly swallowed their fledgling democracies whole).
hovercraft
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Since they believe in their hearts that Clinton and Obama were criminals who got away with everything, they thought they could come in and do whatever they wanted and get away with it too.
This is where the still dead Ailes did the GOP a huge disservice, his audience is convinced that Obama and Clinton were lawless, so when the media points out Twitlers law breaking, they think what’s the big deal, you never made a big deal about their crimes so why is this a big deal.
These people really believed that they could get away with all this shit because FOX told them that Obama and Clinton already did.
Immanentize
@LAO: Which of those people in that meeting is the source of this news? Whoever it was is the one who advised a conciliatory response. My guess is Jared. He is always writing his own biography. And he is technically a”Senior White House Official”
hovercraft
@LAO:
Wait what? But everyone told me that Javanka was the voice of reason, the people who would temper Twitlers impulses! I has confused.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so much for that moderating voice and the “whispery tones” (I know, ew, but it was in one of the pre-election write-ups). He’s not just Mr Ivanka, he tells the Rough Beast what it really wants to hear.
Elizabelle
@LAO:
Former Fox Fembot Kimberly Guilfoyle is salivating over replacing Sean Spicer. If there’s better indication that one is unsuited for the job with an actual presidency, that would be it.
LAO
@Immanentize: The WH staff as turned on each other like a bad version of Lord of the Flies. At this point, I’m not sure anyone is getting out alive.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: If Jared is feeding the flames, put my money on Priebus, or even Conway, who’s wretched but knows how the media should be played, and now is not the time for a tweet storm of victimhood
artem1s
@Immanentize:
But incredibly corrupt and craven too. Deep State corruption behind brain dead Raygun. Masterminded the biggest S&L failure thru spawn Neil. Sold arms to our enemies to enrich his friends. Probably propped up Noriega regime and helped him run cocaine into the country. And W was probably helping with that. HW got W’s cocaine indictments expunged so he could run for Governor of TX and the WH. And thru Rove put JEB in place in FL so they could install C+ Augustus in the WH to enrich more of their war contractor friends. The whole Bush CABAL sent the country down this road of corruption and craven grifting. Direct line from him to this disaster in the WH.
LAO
@hovercraft: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Apparently, being married to Trump’s favorite daughter does not actually qualify an individual to be a senior WH adviser. Hoocoodanode?
Peale
@artem1s: Yep. They actually brought us Ailes.
Immanentize
@artem1s: All true, but that takes some wicked smaht guy to pull off. Don’t forget pardoning himself by pardoning Casper Weinberger. Friggin genious
/s/
Matt McIrvin
@The Moar You Know: On the one hand, yes; on the other hand, what we’re really talking about in this instance is the relative power of political appointees and the experienced career civil-service people under them, and tipping that balance more toward the political appointees doesn’t seem like a great idea.
artem1s
@ArchTeryx:
Romania too has been threatening to go down this road. But lately their people have been taking to the streets to shed a light on corruption in the ruling party. Maybe pertinent that they have a living memory of a truly corrupt regime. We don’t really. It’s been building since at least Reagan but the media has been helping cover up the stench because The Village loves their insider status. We either step back now or we go further down the rabbit hole toward reliving the pre-civil war partisan split. Our brand of know-nothings is being backed by a whole lot more money, so who knows how that is going to turn out.
Corner Stone
@Immanentize:
“Hello, Americans! This is your allies, The Kurds!”
“It is great to be talking to you after our glorious victory together! Now, let us meet up to continue fighting for a secure – ”
“The reinforcements aren’t coming? The supply line is ending?”
“Oh well, that’s too bad. But as long as you continue to supply air cove-”
“The No Fly is ending and air cover has stopped? Ok, I have graves to dig. Will be talking to you later when you need us again, my American friends!”
LAO
Give me a break — where I come from, we call this “witness tampering.”
Fair Economist
@artem1s:
(re HW Bush)
Quoted in its entirety because it bears repeating.
The really scary thing is that in spite of ALL that, he’s still the least bad Republican President in almost 60 years.
Immanentize
@LAO: It included the sentence “Know that whatever personal decision you make, your family will be in our thoughts.”
(actual phone message in one of my friend’s drug conspiracy cased)
amk
@Elizabelle: googled that name. gud gawd. that permanently plastered ‘smile’.
Corner Stone
@LAO: It’s hilarious. Kush is like 13 years old. All of his real estate deals appear to be going south on him, he’s never talked to a normal person before who didn’t work for him, all of his instincts are ass awful.
He’s the perfect version of a younger Trump except he isn’t quite as loud yet.
Raoul
WSJ also had a piece up yesterday Russian State-Run Bank Financed Deal Involving Trump Hotel Partner
It seems even Murdoch is ready to go there. Not quite yet with Fox, but for his more well-heeled
markscustomers.Aleta
@Immanentize: My thoughts exactly. SNL skits.
Photo captions: What Is Pence Waiting For?
Tabloids: 5 Signs Pence Is Plotting Presidency Push.
Polls: Favorability rating for Pence’s hair up 17% in red EC states; Trump’s hair stagnant.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: The defense here will no doubt be, again, “he’s not smart enough to know this was obstruction of justice”
his lawyer was in negotiations with Congress– probably the same committee Nunes had recently stepped down from?– when trumpy felt the need to reach out and tell him to stay strong. I wonder if all those staffers, down to the 23 year old who makes copies and gets coffee and whose dad plays golf with somebody, have legal counsel.
ETA:
LAO
@Immanentize: I’m not complaining but could the WH make Mueller job any easier?
hovercraft
Flynn’s Job Was to Set Up Back Channel Access Between Putin and Trump
by Nancy LeTourneau
“Why did the president go to such lengths to both hire and protect a man like Flynn?” Another bombshell from Reuters this morning might give us at least a clue about that.
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters…
Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.
Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
………….They were about setting up a back channel of communication between Trump and Putin “that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy.”
In case that sounds familiar, a couple of months ago the Washington Post reported that Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater and sister of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, held a secret meeting in the Seychelles islands with a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin “as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump.”
Keri Geiger and Michael Riley followed up on that report with the news that Prince had been a regular advisor to the Trump team – particularly Michael Flynn.
In the very public, post-election parade of dignitaries, confidantes and job-seekers filing in and out of Donald Trump’s marquee Manhattan tower, Blackwater founder Erik Prince was largely out of sight. And yet Prince was very much a presence, providing advice to Trump’s inner circle, including his top national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with his activities.
Barbara
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My assumption is that Kushner is socially moderate or at least totally indifferent to social issues, but his animating force is loyalty, which manifests itself as extreme anger at anyone who tries to hold anyone he loves accountable. “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that to you!”
Immanentize
I’m on mobile today and I can’t edit it seems. Sorry for all the mistakes….
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, it should at least be paired with a megasupermarket.
GregB
Breaking from Rueters on the Twitter.
BREAKING: Top Republican on Senate intelligence panel says Michael Flynn’s lawyers say he won’t honor subpoena.
Iowa Old Lady
@LAO: How would he counterattack other than firing Mueller? I suppose he could send out a tweet storm.
Corner Stone
@LAO: “the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.”
Roger Moore
@ArchTeryx:
I don’t think that’s entirely true. The longer a country has been democratic, the stronger its democratic norms tend to be and the more work it takes to shred them. It was only possible for people like Hitler and Mussolini to shred the democratic norms in their countries in such short order because they were not well established. That’s not to say that we’re in great shape- we obviously aren’t- but it’s taken half a century of continued attacks to degrade our democracy as far as it’s been degraded.
Immanentize
@LAO: I know. He is going to be a busy man. And the way it’s been set up, even Sessions can’t screw it up, although I suspect we will see FBI leaks for a while in the beginning. I wonder is Mueller will ask Preet to join the team?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“Daddy!…. wait, what?”
(I wonder what Jared calls him? Mr T, since he’s almost family? )
amk
@LAO: dig deeper donnie dick
Boatboy_srq
If only there were only twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go…
Immanentize
@GregB: This is problematic and I saw it coming…. Who has the power to seek a contempt citation to enforce a Congressional Subpoena? Why, the DOJ of course….
LAO
@Iowa Old Lady: Tweet storms are forecast.
@Immanentize: Preet may be a witness. Remember he was overseeing a Russian Money Laundering investigation/prosecution when fired.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft: I personally think Trump has taken tons of money from Russian sources. He is only afloat now because they dumped cash into him. He doesn’t want the world to know that because it’s embarrassing or whatever.
But that does not explain why Trump is going 100% all out to link even more closely with Putin and Russia. WTF is going on?
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Which explains why we got one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@GregB: this is coming from fucking Burr? All righty Mr Chairman, waddaya gonna do about it?
ETA: also, too
this explains his remarkable comments on Comey today– he’s never going to face voters again
Humboldtblue
@GregB:
And he may be facing perjury charges as well.
Corner Stone
@Barbara:
I would find it hard to believe that Kush knows anything about any social issue.
maryQ
One of my Facebook friends: This is like binge-watching House of cards while they are still writing it.
GregB
@Immanentize:
The deeper they dig down, the more it collapses in on them.
Yet they persist in digging deeper.
They can’t dig to Russia.
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Papa.
amk
as long as we are not stopping the digging
burnspbesq
@LAO:
If Flynn has the intelligence of a can of tuna and is competently advised, he’s sitting in Mueller’s recepion area tight now, waiting to make a proffer. The first rat gets the best deal, amirite?
LAO
I like the “good grief,” very folksy and midwestern.
LAO
@burnspbesq: I actually think that’s happening as we speak, and is the motivating factor behind Flynn’s decision not to cooperate with the Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
I think he’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Putin. Uday and or Qusay have said on camera that they only way they survived the great recession was through Russian money. All serious money in Russia is controlled by Putin’s cronies, that’s why he can’t release his taxes, because if he did the trail would lead us right to Putin. It doesn’t matter how many shell companies are in the way, the financial crimes unit at the Treasury would unravel it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
how hilarious would it be if Chaffetz’s ratings tank and he winds up running out his contract in Huckabee’s old mid-afternoon Saturday spot
Aleta
@LAO: “After they cleared out, Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Bannon along with Roger Stone, and vowing to “fight back” in tribute to Roger Ailes, authorized a smear campaign aimed at Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Comey, Lieutenant General McMaster, and Mr. Spicer.”
dmsilev
@burnspbesq:
I’m not sure which of those two ifs are more plausible. Neither seems particularly likely at this point.
MCA1
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Can they actually tank if they never get off the floor in the first place? Are there really people in the Faux audience pool of brainwashed zombies who have any appetite for Jason Chaffetz? He’s got a face made for radio and no discernible personality, to boot.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: you don’t think he has a good lawyer? I personally think he’s nuts, but he was a high-ranking military officer in intelligence, I’m sure he’s got great contacts and IANAL, but I’m guessing this would be a great case for a DC lawyer, especially with so many very rich people gonna need lots and lots of lawyering dealing with Mueller, Congress and god knows who else
hovercraft
I guess Melissa needs a new side gig.
Are White House Press Briefings About To Get A Lot Less Spice-y?
So I guess he’s following through on his threat to nix the daily press briefings. On the one hand they level of cowardice is funny, but sadly I can’t say that him giving the WHPC the big fuck you doesn’t send a tiny thrill up my leg. They all rooted for him and now he’s fucking them over. The one thing is that while this may eliminate the clips of his flacks lying to us everyday, the written statements will still be full of lies.
amk
@hovercraft: remember the butthurt of whp corpse over the kenyan not giving them access on every little thing they wanted. good ole days.
manyakitty
@Mary G: I’m willing to bet it originated with Ukrainian intelligence, but I was shocked to see McMillan confirm it. That man is NOT fooling around.
SFAW
@hovercraft:
Hot damn.
Hey, LAO!! You were asking how they could make Mueller’s job any easier? Ask and ye shall receive.
For your next request/observation, can you focus on Pence and Ryan being incriminated? Turtle, too, if you’re up for it.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft: Not having Spicey do the on air briefings may be a good decision. But anyone who actively chooses to have Sarah Huckabee Sanders be the face of your admin’s press office is fucking demented.
hovercraft
And now for your entertainment, here are the thoughts of your cranky old racist uncle, for those of you who have one. For the rest of us an opportunity to point and laugh ; )
Pat Buchanan: It’s ‘Un-American’ To Question Trump-Russia Links
………..While once again positively comparing Trump to Richard Nixon, Buchanan stated that the same media “hysteria” over Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre is now hounding Trump.
“Yet that was not a constitutional crisis then, and the mandated early retirement of Jim Comey is not a constitutional crisis now,” he said. “And that the mainstream media are equating ‘Russia-gate’ and Watergate tells you what is afoot. Trump is hated by this city, which gave him 4 percent of its votes, as much as Nixon was. And the deep-state determination to bring him down is as great as it was with Nixon.”
Buchanan said that the people questioning the Trump-Russia relationship are practicing “McCarthyism” and wondered if “the endless airing of unproven allegations” is “inherently un-American.”
LAO
@SFAW: I’ll get right on that, pronto.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: righties are whinging that SNL made fun of SHS’s weight– what I remember is the reporter characters talking about her being “charming and articulate”. Like when she said Comey had committed “many atrocities”. That was some word salad a la Palin.
SFAW
@LAO:
Wow, he reached the Acceptance stage already? Outstanding.
Go toward that white light, Shitgibbon.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Reposting from the dead thread to what I hope is a not-yet-dead thread.
So I was pondering the question of who would have had a recorder going for the Ryan-McCarthy conversation that was “just a joke” about Trump being on Russia’s payroll.
And the comedy-spy version of this mess is starting to take place in my head (I insist Melissa McCarthy be in it somewhere, perhaps multiple roles). Ryan is meeting with his Russian bagman the first time. “Oops, so sorry. I spill wine which I just heppen to be carryink on jacket. Pliz let me take to my cleaner, my expense.” Jacket comes back a week later with bug in one of the buttons, which is a totally different color. Ryan doesn’t notice.
A week later a Ukrainian requests a meeting. In the middle of it.. “Oops, I spill coffee, etc.” A second button changes color.
Followed shortly after by NSA, CIA, FBI, MI5, Mossad, etc.
mdblanche
It would be very interesting if that last one was as well, since that one’s about congressional Republicans rather than Trump. A little message from the “deep state” to stop carrying Trump’s water unless they want to become a target too?
@GregB: I assume Flynn doesn’t know what subpoena is Latin for.
hovercraft
Conservatives whisper “President Pence”, Republicans and Democrats whisper back “hahaha, oh wait, you’re serious? hahahahahahahahahaha” POLITICO
While Pence may not be as commanding a figure in Trump’s White House as Dick Cheney was in George W. Bush’s, Trump has leaned on him heavily. Lobbyists who set up meetings between Pence and their clients must warn them that the vice president may be an hour and a half late or have to leave after 10 minutes because Trump is constantly calling him into the Oval Office to confer with him, according to one Republican lobbyist.
But that doesn’t mean a Pence transition would be smooth. In the unlikely event that Trump is removed from office, Pence would assume the presidency amid a constitutional crisis. He could also be considered tainted by his past devotion to Trump.
Only once in American history has a president been forced from office by scandal, when Richard Nixon resigned amid Watergate. Ford assumed the presidency and sparked controversy by pardoning Nixon, a move that may have cost him the 1976 election but one that historians have since praised.
Ford, like Pence, had enjoyed a career in the House of Representatives and rose to a leadership position. There are other echoes, too.
“It’s almost an eerie comparison that a more mild-mannered, religious conservative Republican Gerald Ford came in,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “He’s much like Pence in temperament and personality. He doesn’t have that acerbic side that Nixon and Trump had.”
SFAW
@LAO:
Thanks, I knew I could count on you.
By the way, after you fix that situation, can you please fix the Mets as well? Start by getting rid of Terry Collins and Ray Ramirez. [Actually, please make it Ramirez first, since Collins isn’t going to fuck up Mets players’ health too much on his own. And you will have the thanks of millions [sic] of Mets fans.]
hovercraft
Hey looks like the asshole is ready to jump, it’s not like he hasn’t been telegraphing it for weeks, but I guess the heats too much.
Chaffetz to announce early departure from Congress POLITICO
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is expected to announce Thursday that he is resigning before the end of this congressional term, according to three sources familiar with his plans.
mdblanche
@hovercraft: Buchanan must be feeling very nostalgic these days.
SFAW
@hovercraft:
FOAD Pat, you evil, Nazi-loving fuck. It would have all been a good deal if you stroked out when you heard about Ailes’s death.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@mdblanche: the kind of nostalgia where he shows up at the white house gate in his bath robe and one of Bay’s church hats and tells the guard he has an urgent message for President Nixon from W Clement Stone, in a shoe box?
rikyrah
Rick WilsonVerified account @TheRickWilson
Dear Trump Folks:
You’re either a cooperating witness…or a target.
Choose wisely.
Peale
@hovercraft:
Edit that from “devotion” to “stupid and potentially criminal things he did on behalf of Trump”
GregB
So funny to see Republicans embracing the term McCarthyism as a pejorative.
LOL.
Fuck off Grampa Pat. Go fill your tiki torch.
hovercraft
Poor ZEGS must be gazing longingly across the Atlantic, thinking if only………..
Tory manifesto: more elderly people will have to pay for own social care
More elderly people will have to pay for their own social care in the home and lose universal benefits under a new Conservative policy which, Theresa May will say on Thursday, is difficult but necessary to tackle the crisis in funding.
Introducing the party’s election manifesto, the prime minister will say it is the “responsibility of leaders to be straight with people about the challenges ahead” as she unveils a controversial policy that would reduce the value of estates that many people hope to pass on to their children.
The policy will be a flagship measure in the Tories’ election manifesto, which the prime minister will pitch as a programme for solving some of the challenges facing Britain. It means wealthier people with more than £100,000 in assets will have to pay for their own elderly care out of the value of their homes, rather than relying on the council to cover the costs of visits by care workers.
The Conservatives will attempt to soften the blow by promising that pensioners will not have to sell their homes to pay for their care costs while they or a surviving partner are alive. Instead, products will be available allowing the elderly to pay by extracting equity from their homes, which will be recovered at a later date when they die or sell their residence.
These are the same fuckers who are so concerned about death taxes for the rich, but for us peons it’s just fine that the one asset they could leave for their kids will have to be mortgaged to the max ans sold upon your death to pa back the government for your healthcare. ZEGS eat your heart out. France truly does have reason to feel superior to Britain and America.
D58826
@hovercraft: Well that explains why he seemed to grow a bit of a spine in the past day or so.
And somewhat related – wall street tip of the day – buy popcorn futures:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/expect-more-trump-press-conferences-with-spicer-in?utm_term=.psEmRw0v5#.osNANwxEQ
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: also, too, President Pence could be just the comeback vehicle Chevy Chase is looking for!
amk
@GregB: Rethugs are always about projection.
hovercraft
@SFAW:
Now you know that emotions rule the shitgibbon and any state of “mind” at any given moment is fleeting, this is what gives him the ability to state three contradictory things in a single sentence whilst maintaining complete equanimity*.
* What passes for equanimity in the mind of a fruit fly. I know yesterday I agreed to not compare him to any group or species other than white male, but sometimes needs must.
mdblanche
@GregB: Of course. Like Grampa Pat said the real victims of McCarthyism are Nixon and Trump.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I must have missed the time Grampa Pat did that.
amk
@hovercraft: And the oldies will vote for them ‘cos immigrants.
D58826
@hovercraft:
But Ford wasn’t tainted with a connection to Watergate. Pence is up to his eyeballs in this. His handling of Flynn might be enough to result in an impeachment of Pres. Pence immediately after the impeachment of Der Fuhrer.
StringOnAStick
Sorry John, but the mistake here may have been the “used” part. We’re on Outback #2 and we buy new then do all the required maintenance on time, and so far have been trouble free for over 18 years. The mechanic warned me once that not doing that risks bad things due to the complex nature of the oil cooling channels potentially getting clogged, etc. Then again, the Corolla we bought used keeps ticking along though before we sold it to a friend I thought the suspension was as bad as an old Buick. We inherited my late BIL’s Prius and I love the sporty suspension, plus we know he took meticulous care of it. The trouble with used cars is you have no idea what it’s previous life was like, did they change the oil, drive it like they knew they were ditching it soon, etc.
So, here on the west side of Denver it is snowing like the middle of winter, and won’t stop until Friday night. This is happening just 10 days after widespread hail storms trashed this side of town (roof, gutters, paint for us) and did so much flooding damage (via broken skylights, and other things) to the big CO Mills mall that it has been reported that it will not reopen until November. I’ve been out once with my bamboo pole to knock off snow, though the hail stripped so much of the leaves off that it isn’t as bad as it could have been, The Pinyon pines are needing help every few hours though. Usually the rule here is that Mother’s day is when it is safe to put your tender plants outside and get the veggie garden going; uh, not this year.
laura
@Mnemosyne: Here ya Grohl:
https://youtu.be/fhdCslFcKFU
rikyrah
Exclusive: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: sources
Thu May 18, 2017 | 7:19am EDT
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.
The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.
Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-contacts-idUSKCN18E106
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow. From what I’ve been reading about shopping malls lately, I wonder if somebody will just pull the plug
amk
@D58826: also. too. mikey did not rise to a ‘leadership position’. twitler threw him a lifeline in his sinking fucked up govnorship.
LAO
@SFAW:
As a lifelong Mets fan, I must admit that fixing them is outside my power, basically we need an act of God.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@amk: and Jared and Ivanka didn’t want Christie to get that lifeline
Peale
@D58826: Pence was picked as VP by a corrupt Manafort. There are probably connections there that will probably be brought to light. But corrupt people don’t tend to pick incorruptible people, especially if they think they’ll get away with everything that they do.
? Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They almost certainly will. Malls only work properly around the concept of the anchor store, and that’s the part of retail that has been almost completely destroyed (by Amazon). With no anchor, the rest of the mall becomes largely untenable. That’s particularly true for indoor suburban malls. Outdoor malls seem to be doing better, but that might be because they tend to be in much more affluent areas, and also because people go to them for a wider range of reasons. Urban malls are holding on better, but that may just be a matter of time.
Retail is in a world of hurt and they’re doing almost nothing to address the problem. It’s kind of astonishing to watch an industry just stick their head in the sand.
hovercraft
Twitler is going to have so much fun in Israel.
Former Israeli spymasters rip into Trump, say Israel must reassess intel sharing
Ex-Mossad head Shavit: US president is like a ‘bull in a china shop… If tomorrow I were asked to pass information to the CIA, I would do everything I could to not pass it to them’
D58826
@Aleta: One of the things that amazes me about this trip, and Der Fuhrer’s speech on Islam, is that the very conservative Wahhabi interpretation of Islam is at the root of much of the jihad phenomenon. The Saudi government funds Wahhabi mosques and madrasas all over the world spreading the theology. They also exile their trouble makers, like Ben Laden, to cause trouble in other countries. Why Der Fuhrer thinks the Saudi’s are our friends is beyond me. They might be allies but only because of oil and maybe being the lesser of two evils.
? Martin
@LAO: As a lifelong Mets fan, you should know that the Mets are supposed to be broken. That’s their job – to be the antidote to the asshole Yankees. If they were truly successful, the Yankee fans would change allegiances in a hot second and then the Mets would be the asshole team. For the sake of the franchise, we need them to reliably suck at least a little bit.
D58826
@? Martin: take heart Mets fans, you could be a Phillies fan:-) (sigh)
rikyrah
Pesach ‘Pace’ Lattin @pacelattin
Betsy DeVos wants to cut funding for Special Olympics.
That’s just fucking sick.
SFAW
@hovercraft:
I do NOT think any less of you for doing so, so have at it.
Gretchen
Aleta: Is Toby Keith going to sing his “We’ll put a boot in their ass” song to further American diplomacy in the Middle East? Do they have anyone who knows what they’re doing working for them?
? Martin
@D58826: We don’t care about the oil, but Europe does, and we care about Europe. But SAs real job is to be a political counterweight to Iran. That’s really the choice being made here – would we favor SA or Iran?
Obama tipped that scale hard toward Iran with the deal. It gave them the opportunity to get their shit together and rejoin the global community, with the suggestion that the US might back them in favor of SA for exactly the reasons you note – they are a more reliable partner against ISIS than SA is. Trump and his team couldn’t find that nut if their life depended on it, and it’s not clear whether Iran is willing or able to grab the opportunity in front of them, but that’s where things now stand. Israel doesn’t much care – they’ll side with whoever is least likely to want to blow them up, but they play with everyone so long as it benefits them. They don’t even bother with the luxury of choosing allies based on human rights. It’s all about self-preservation.
? Martin
@rikyrah: Well, those disabled kids should have made better decisions in life…
? Martin
@D58826: I’m not that much of an asshole to be a Philadelphia franchise fan.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Of coarse she does, you know that republicans are all about the children and education.
Betsy DeVos Wants to Kill a Major Student Loan Forgiveness Program
As part of its plan to slash the Department of Education’s budget by some $10.6 billion, the Washington Post reports that the White House will propose ending the federal student loan forgiveness program for public sector and nonprofit workers, and lengthen the amount of time Americans will have to spend repaying their debts on income-based plans if they borrowed to get an advanced degree.
And not wanting to be left out the numbers on the ACAH are starting to come in:
STUDY: House GOP O’Care Repeal Bill Cuts $43B From Children’s Medicaid
Evil fuckers.
SFAW
@LAO:
Two things:
1) Based on your earlier Mueller-related comment, I’m thinking you may have a direct line to Up There, so don’t sell yourself short.
2) Getting rid of Ramirez and Collins might be the Magic Elixir which creates (or starts to create) a reversal of fortune.
I would have also copped to the “lifelong” fan thing, but I’m older than the Mets. But at least I got to see Nolan Ryan pitch; I was sitting behind home, in the Loge/Mezz area (with my brother and father).
I seem to remember you saying something about living in Queens, maybe Bayside?
ETA: If I were really bold, I’d ask for Granderson to be thrown into that deal.
D58826
@? Martin:
Iran was the other evil that I was thinking of.
Tenar Arha
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Computer networks are soooo hard!
SFAW
@? Martin:
Yeah, no shit.
Peale
@D58826: Iran. and Oil. This ARAB NATO Devoted to fight (Iranian) terrorism has Mattis and Tillerson all over it. Trump probably hasn’t given it much thought. Mattis is not just an Iran Hawk, he’s an Iran Nutcase. Cementing an alliance to perpetually fight Iran probably makes him drunk. Tillerson was the head of Exxon, which has a very special relationship with the Saudi Government. Think of this as an alliance that makes it difficult to ever do what Obama did – say No to the Saudis every once in awhile (he still said “yes” too often), which might put that special relationship with Exxon at risk. What if the Saudis decided in response to deteriorating relationships with the US that it was bringing in a non-US oil company? This “alliance” cements our interests to Saudi interests such that Exxon can feel more secure.
That simple.
hovercraft
@LAO:
I am sorry to have to tell you that I have a severe aversion to all things ending in “ets”.
Nets
Jets
Mets
and for the ensure I have all the major sports covered, Devils and Islanders.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m generally a skeptic as to how much the US, especially our domestic politics, influences the domestic politics of foreign countries*, but I can’t imagine “Axis of Evil” wasn’t a boost to hard-liners in Iran, and the election of trump another one.
* I mean things like “France rejected LePen because the saw what happened with trump!”, not Allende or the Shah
D58826
@? Martin: The other thing that we keep forgetting (or maybe never learned in history class) is that Iran, AKA Persia has been a major player in that part of the world for at least 2000 years. SA is what 100 or so years old as a nation. Take away the oil and the Saudi royal family would still be a bunch of camel drivers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Peale: I wonder what ever happened to Prince Bandar Bush. I know he sold the house in Aspen, but I’m sure he still has Condi’s cell number (she helped promote Tillerson), and Tom Friedman’s– Arab NATO sounds like something right out of one of his books.
D58826
And a bit of history from wikipedia
What a mess./ and some things never change ‘claimed that was due to “the pro-Israel lobby and the difficulty of obtaining Congressional Approval.’
hovercraft
@D58826: @? Martin:
A lot depends on the upcoming elections in Iran, if Rouhani wins, and Twitlers extending the sanctions relief was a boost for him, then there is more of an opportunity for Iran to stay on track. I find it funny that the Sunni leaders are all so excited because they think Twitler will help them force Iran back into isolation. Did no one tell them that you have to be the last person to speak to him, why the hell did they schedule Saudi first, what ever anti-Iran crap they whisper to him will be undone by the Europeans and our NATO allies who want no more mid-east entanglements.
LAO
@hovercraft: Thankfully, I was spared Jet fandom, I’m not from Long Island! (I am the product a of a mixed marriage — a yankee fan and a mets fan –but both were united in their love of the NY football Giants.)
hovercraft
@LAO:
I’m with your Yankee half and go Big Blue!
MJS
@D58826: You won a World Series in 2008. Quit yer bellyaching’. Think what it must be like to be a Pirates fan. 1979. 19 fucking 79!
D58826
@MJS: True and in 1980. But the great fade in 1964 was painful. And then there are the Cub fans. look how long it took them to make it to the promised land.
But a Phillies fan would not be happy if they went 162-0. it’s genetic
LAO
@hovercraft: Lol. We shall agree to disagree about the Yankees. My mom won the battle for my baseball soul. (My dad got my brothers).
D58826
As if the US hasn’t offended enough folks – ABC is reporting
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-intends-renegotiate-nafta-early-august-letter-congress/story?id=47488860
The sad thing is that Obama, as part of TPP, did renegotiate NAFTA and cleaned up many of the issues. The leverage was allowing Mexico/Canada to be part of TPP. That’s gone now
SFAW
@hovercraft:
And I had such high hopes for you! Damn.
@LAO:
I, on the other hand, am. If I were a religious sort, I’d say the last 15-plus years (i.e., post-Parcells) have caused enough suffering that I would get a Free Pass into Heaven. But since I’m not religious, I just gotta deal with it. Looks like I picked the wrong decade to stop doing drugs.
I’m also a Giants fan, by the way, but if there were a “Subway Series” in the Super Bowl, I’d root for the Jets.
SFAW
Re: youse Yankees fans:
Before “FTFY” stood for “fixed that for you,” Steve Gilliard used it as an abbreviation for something else. [Hint for the advanced students: think of how schrodinger’s cat and Elizabelle (among others) refer to the NYTimes.]
Almost 10 years since Steve left us, hard to believe.
Vhh
@Mary G: party b4 country, mean
Peale
@D58826: In the end, it didn’t matter. TPP was a non-starter on the left because (not surprisingly) business interests were consulted on what they wanted. It became a non-starter on the Right because the anti-globalist one-world paranoiacs won the primary.
D58826
and for a laugh
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-cancels-visit-ancient-masada-site-after-israel-blocks-helicopter-landing-611287
Steve in the ATL
@MJS: when I first moved to Atlanta, Willie Stargell’s daughter was my banker
LAO
Alright, all of you (closet) Housewives fans — the greatest twitter thread ever!
Miss Bianca
@Fair Economist: yeah, it says something when the former head of what is essentially our secret police was the least corrupt of the bunch, doesn’t it?
(well, don’t forget Ford. I don’t think Ford was personally corrupt, altho’ the Nixon pardon was wrong, wrong, wrong, IMHO.)
frosty
@MJS: You bastards! We had you, up 3-1 and the our bats went to sleep like they did periodically that whole season.
PS the 7th game was my first date with the girl I married.
#Oriolesfan
TenguPhule
@hovercraft:
Maybot wants to make reverse mortgages official retirement policy for the Conservatives.
Prime Minister Corbyn suddenly looks a lot more plausible.
TenguPhule
@LAO:
And this is a problem how?
PAM Dirac
@frosty: I still feel sad when I hear “We are family”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@LAO: Kushner not the flavor of the month with Trump. Must suck living on your knees like that.
Miss Bianca
@StringOnAStick: Usually if there’s snow around, we’re getting it, but the Western Slope is getting hammered and so far, we’re only getting fog and rain. Which is fine by me, we’ve had our share of spring blizzards so far!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Roger Moore: It’s incrediably difficult to get cultures to change – the Jacobines resorted to out right terrorism and mass murder during the French Revolution only to end up with Napoline.
sukabi
@sherparick: looks like the devil rescinded his deal…when you suck too much for the devil….
Uncle Cosmo
@frosty: Cosign enthusiastically! Yeah, they were family–the Manson family. #FuckAllPissburghSportsTeams
Groucho48
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
He probably never thought Trump would win, so, never bothered to fill out the forms he had to. I suspect there are dozens of Flynn-types out there that are doing the same thing but at a low level so no one pays attention to them.
Fair Economist
@Miss Bianca: