Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Books are my comfort food!

“woke” is the new caravan.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

A consequence of cucumbers

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Rust GRIFT Never Sleeps

Open Thread: Rust GRIFT Never Sleeps

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I know, I know, but… can you imagine the screaming if a Democratic president had even suggested that grifting this blatant might theoretically be acceptable, in some legalistic reading of an alternate-universe scenario?

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The main question is why the Justice Dept thinks it has the power to grant permission to violate the Constitution.

    that was the question I had: Why is the Justice Department spending time and weighing in on this? shouldn’t it be trump org lawyers making this case? putting aside the question of whether the questions need/should be fucking asked in the first place.

  2. 2.

    SRW1

    When Trump said hes was gonna ‘drain the swamp in Washington’, he meant ‘drain’ in the sense so that his was the only game in town.

  4. 4.

    clay

    I am not a lawyer… do courts like being told that they don’t have jurisdiction over a subject?

  9. 9.

    Raoul

    @Gravenstone: Sessions replacement will be just as grifty.
    There is no moral bottom to this admin, nor, seemingly, to the enabling GOP in Congress.

    And when Trump said “drain the swamp” he meant directly into the gaping money maw of the Trump Organization. Same way “To Serve Man” was a cookbook in Serling’s devious mind.

  11. 11.

    amk

    Remember all that jeff o’racist’s I will quit drama just before comey testimony? And the 3rd rate media never questioned that and will not question this either.

  12. 12.

    Camembert

    I understand why Establishment Republicans went along with this — their whole schtick for the past 30 years has been dismantling norms in search of turning this country into a banana republic, either for ideological or grifting reasons. Or out of pure hate for most of our citizens.

    What I don’t understand is how we reestablish norms. The whole “Only Democrats have to follow rules thing” needs to end, obviously, but how do we get back to a system where the elites at least somewhat self-enforce?

  13. 13.

    Keith P.

    Anyone else reading @kellyanneleaks on Twitter? Apparently, she was at a party the other night dishing on WH staff rather loudly. She was speaking off-the-record, but so loudly that someone put it on Twitter. Reince didn’t come off well, and some sr. staff member (either Jared or Stephen Miller) says “dude” a lot.

  14. 14.

    SFAW

    @Camembert:

    What I don’t understand is how we reestablish norms.

    Villago and TenguPhule might have some suggestions.

    And I gotta say, sometimes it’s hard to disagree with them.

    To paraphrase something my brother recently said regarding ZEGS: he spends his day trying to figure out ways to hurt people.

    ZEGS and Turtle, and most of their caucus, and most of Shitgibbon’s maladministration, are unremittingly evil.

    ETA: Yes, I know TenguPhule has been going all sweetness-and-light — in a relative sense — recently.

  16. 16.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Trump and his grubs seriously don’t get one day Trump won’t be president. Go look up Caesery Borgia life post death of Pope Alexander to see how that goes.

  17. 17.

    lollipopguild

    I want to see Sen. Turtle and all other REPthugs stand in front of a bank of TV cameras and say that it is perfectly legal for an American President to accept bribes.

  18. 18.

    HinTN

    @SFAW:

    Yes, I know TenguPhule has been going all sweetness-and-light — in a relative sense — recently.

    Back on meds?

  19. 19.

    Politically Lost

    @clay: In any federal court, the Plaintiff and the Defendant have to tell the court why the court does or does not have jurisdiction and why the Plaintiff or the Defendant have a right to bring a case in the first place.. i.e. “Standing”

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Trump and his grubs seriously don’t get one day Trump won’t be president.

    He’ll either have stroked out, or Uday, Qusay, or Javanka will have been named King/Queen, so he has nothing to worry about.

  21. 21.

    Keith P.

    @lamh36: Oh, man, that one stings. I’m going to watch “Lookwell” right now in memory; it’s probably the most Adam West performance I can think of. He was pretty good as himself on “Family Guy”, too. Supposedly a genuinely quirky-weird dude…very well-liked but eccentric.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @lamh36: Awww. He had a good long ride.

    I always like that Adam West never seemed to take himself too seriously. And he was a great Batman.

    Leukemia, though. RIP.

  23. 23.

    lamh36

    @Keith P.: One of my fav to play Batman ever…probably my #2 behind Micheal Keaton if I’m being honest.

    Never much a fan of the “dark knight” realm of Batman, but as a kid i vividly remember watching Adam West as Batman when it made its way to syndication. It’s literally how i was first introduced to Batman and all the villains.

  24. 24.

    O. Felix Culpa

    We’re off to see Wonder Woman. A little escapism is in order. I’ll rejoin the Resistance tomorrow.

    ETA: RIP Adam West, my favorite Batman.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Joy Reid:

    If Trump’s presidency is dead, his party’s soul is buried in an unmarked grave. Their moral authority has withered with the Republican president who willfully disregards every American norm. Their base is rife with self-righteous evangelicals who stand with a crass serial adulterer and peeping Tom against the elderly and the poor; supposed followers of a loving Christ with their defiant demands that LGBT people, women and those of the Muslim faith be persecuted through the power of the Supreme Court, and working stiffs still standing by their man in hopes of getting their worthless wall.
    Like Trump, the GOP may linger in power for years to come. Gerrymandering has locked them into majority rule for a time undetermined. But the party’s identity and character will forever be fused to the man they tolerated as their leader, come what may.
    …
    Meanwhile, the presidency may have been permanently diminished by the attachment of a charlatan to its prestige. After Trump, how can we credibly say that our process for choosing a national leader yields the best possible result, or even someone capable of uniting the country, let alone running it? If a Democrat wins in 2020, the Republicans will surely seek to pay back Russiagate tenfold, by inventing faux scandals out of sheer vengeance, as they sought to impeach Clinton from the moment he took the oath, in a vain attempt to avenge Nixon, and then unleashed total obstruction against Barack Obama. Does anyone doubt that Republicans today would be impeaching President Hillary Clinton for some invented crime?

  26. 26.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @SRW1:

    he meant ‘drain’ in the sense so that his was the only game in town.

    ‘Drain the swamp’ meant ‘Liberals will no longer be allowed to lobby for minorities’. That is what the vast majority of his voters heard, and what he delivered. ‘Special interests’ to them means ‘minorities’, and as insane as this is, they believe there is a vast pro-minority corruption system.

    @SFAW:

    ZEGS: he spends his day trying to figure out ways to hurt people.

    From everything I have read about the man, and everything I have seen of his public appearances, that is exactly what he does.

  29. 29.

    Keith P.

    @lamh36: I’ll be honest – I hate the Adam West Batman. It was before my time, and the campiness was just way over my head when I was a kid (or below it…I thought it was stupid) Keaton will always be my favorite Batman, and I barely even think about Batman and Adam West together. For me, Adam West was always more famous for being Adam West. And I can’t say enough about “Lookwell”. If you have 22 minutes free, do yourself a favor and watch it on YouTube (it was a pilot written by a pre-fame Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel)

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    @lamh36:

    Headline fail. “‪Adam West, Deadpan Star of TV’s ‘Batman,’ Dies at 88” would have been much better.

    Also the mayor(?) on Family Guy. RIP.

  32. 32.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    Obama’s strain with Trump? What else could be expected? Trump has been demonizing Obama since the moment the helicopter disappeared over the horizon. Leave it to that whining asshole to blame Obama for his current unhappy situation.

  34. 34.

    Jim Parish

    @Raoul: With all due respect to the awesome Rod Serling, that episode was based on a story by Damon Knight.

  35. 35.

    Aleta

    can you imagine the screaming if a Democratic president

    At this very moment fake newsmen are imagining those stories. Obama profited, the Clinton foundation took money from sick children, friends of Clintons and grift.

    Since that’s how you make lawbreaking legal, unless blackmail is available.

    I’m waiting for the next bad press about Ivant-that and Kushy and Melly to bring us attacks on the Obama women and Chelsea’s husband.

  36. 36.

    Hal

    https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/06/05/number-reasons-ive-depressed-lately/

    A Number of Reasons I’ve Been Depressed Lately
    By David Sedaris June 5, 2017

    Four. I talk to a longtime friend of the family who tells me with great authority that Hillary Clinton is a member of the Illuminati and that she and her husband have killed scores of people, including children, who they also sexually molested.

    “You’re kidding, right?” I say.

    He’s not, and within minutes words are shooting from his mouth like water from a fire hose. It’s hard to catch it all, but I do grab hold of, “You think it’s a coincidence that Prince was murdered on Queen Elizabeth’s birthday?”

    “Who said he was murdered?” I ask.

    “Oh, please,” this person says. “You honestly believe he died of an ‘accidental drug overdose?’ ”

    The guy speaks to me like I’m an idiot. “And the queen had him killed … why, exactly?” I ask. “Because his name was Prince?”

    I later look at one of the websites this person relies on for information. On it, an anonymous source close to the royal family—a “Palace Insider”—reports hearing the queen saying to another Illuminati member at a tea party that before the year ends, three more world famous musicians must die.

    None of the websites my friend looks at say anything bad about Donald Trump. Rather he is hailed as a man of peace. The ones they hate are George Soros, of course, and, surprisingly, Bill Gates, who has murdered more innocents than even the Clintons, apparently. My friend gets almost feverish when he talks about these people and the way they’re all connected: Queen Elizabeth leads to Jay Z leads to the Centers for Disease Control leads to the faked Sandy Hook shooting and the way the government staged 9/11.

    I want to laugh. Then I want him to laugh and say, “Just kidding!” But he honestly believes all this, and is frustrated that I won’t believe it as well. “Wake up!” he says.

  38. 38.

    Felonius Monk

    The main question is why the Justice Dept thinks it has the power to grant permission to violate the Constitution.

    Really? You don’t understand that the DOJ is now run by KuKlux Keebler – Garden Gnome of Racism & Grift.

  39. 39.

    lapassionara

    Here is the text of the Emoluments Clause:

    “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” As I understand it, there has been one president who asked Congress for permission to accept a gift (maybe a sword) from a foreign state. That is the only example I have heard of. I would argue that the “consent of Congress” has to be sought prior to accepting the “emolument,” and that it would have to be sought in each separate instance that an “emolument” was to be received. The other argument is that Congress has impliedly consented, given its inaction on this topic. I don’t like that argument myself, but I can imagine someone making it. Trump could also argue that he can retroactively seek consent of Congress, after receiving the emolument, and do so for every emolument received, instead of for each one separately. I also do not like that argument, given the only precedent that I know about. There is a standing question to be raised, and I do not know how it will play out. As I understand it, Professor Tribe has found some competitors of Trump’s who can argue that they have suffered a real “injury-in-fact” and this may be sufficient. I apologize for the geeky post, but I think someone who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution ought to actually take that oath seriously.

  40. 40.

    Kelly

    Seems we’ve spent more on our military them most of the rest of the world combined for decades. The latest news that Trump was even worse in private to our NATO allies has me feeling it may finally be useful. By 2020 we may be on our own.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @lollipopguild:
    He sold his soul for ONE piece of gold plated lead. A piece so small that he figured that it must be worth more than a truck load, because he’s an idiot. A bigoted, small minded, hateful idiot. Elected by other bigoted, small minded hateful idiots. Who would rather hurt themselves than help anyone.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @lollipopguild:

    ZEGS sold his soul for 30 pieces of silver a long time ago, there is nothing there but an empty shell.

    I disagree: I envision him more like Remnick in the “Conspiracy” episode of ST:TNG — except the it’s not an alien parasite inside Ryan, it’s his own “soul.”

  45. 45.

    brendancalling

    I had been planning a move to a real banana republic but when Trump won, I decided to stay for a variety of reasons.

    Once our national nightmare is over, I’m leaving for good. This is exhausting, and I’m a 46 year old man with a life to live.

  46. 46.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Charles P. Pierce‏Verified account @CharlesPPierce

    My lawyer pals all tell me that Mueller is assembling The Avengers Intiative on that staff of his. #goosecooking

    Late summer blockbuster coming, sounds like. Please please please put anus mouth under oath.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    Wow, that’s a real Time magazine cover. Thought it might be a parody.

    Good on Time. Here are their covers from 2017. Aside from anything not der Trump, the least appealing is a photoportrait of Steve Bannon. Yuck. Worse than the “pandemic” cover.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    It’s the day our cleaning people come by, so I took the cats in to get their nails trimmed and now I’m sitting on the patio at a cafe waiting for my scrambled eggs. The cats are inside the car in our parking garage because it’s a cool and cloudy day, so they’ll be fine.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @Hal: I continue to be bemused that so many of our people haven’t internalized the fact that these other types of people exist.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    Charles P. Pierce‏Verified account @CharlesPPierce
    My lawyer pals all tell me that Mueller is assembling The Avengers Intiative on that staff of his. #goosecooking

    As long as we can get Hulk to SMASH Shitgibbon, ZEGS, Turtle, and a host of others, I’m OK with that.

  52. 52.

    Shalimar

    @Felonius Monk: Sessions really hasn’t shown any signs of being personally grifty before now. He is proving he has nothing against enabling the grifts of others if it gets him the racism he yearns for.

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    @lapassionara: He’s treating the Constitution and B of R the way developers and casinos treat local laws. Ignore the laws, see if anyone stands up to you. Tie the town up in court, make it cost the opposition than they can afford. Use the press + threats. Keep breaking the law until the damage is done and profit extracted. Smoke machine, shell game, leave town.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    be·muse
    bəˈmyo͞oz/
    verb
    past tense: bemused; past participle: bemused
    puzzle, confuse, or bewilder (someone).
    “her bemused expression”

  56. 56.

    Kay

    JohnCornyn‏Verified account
    @JohnCornyn
    Very troubling indeed that he leaked confidential communications as FBI director

    What should be even more troubling to ordinary people is that it sounded to me like he did that because he didn’t trust the attorney general. Ideally, one shouldn’t have to go around the attorney general regarding law-breaking, fearing he will cover it up.

    I love how fucking nutty this is. The attorney general left the room so Donald Trump could obstruct justice. It’s so childish. “I didn’t see that! You can’t say I SAW IT”. It’s like how little kids don’t know how to hide. They hide behind like a skinny pole. “I am hiding!” Yeah, but we can see you. Technically hiding, they are. In the strictest sense of the term.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Hal:
    And people wonder why I’m angry.
    It’s not just spiteful anger, it’s also disgust.
    That there are this many deranged, cultists.
    That there are this many bigots, egged on by elected “leaders.”
    It’s not just spiteful anger, it’s from real danger.
    To our country, to us, both liberals and conservatives.
    It’s not just anger, it’s also real danger.
    To those of us who are weaker, because of illness or ill health. To those of us who are older. To those who are young and have a shitty future. To those in the middle who have something and have a risk of it all being taken away to make a very few a lot wealthier.
    Damn right I’m angry.
    Aren’t you?

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I’m glad he got to have renewed popularity for the last decade or so of his life thanks to his animation voiceover work. He seemed to really enjoy being in the spotlight again.

  59. 59.

    TriassicSands

    @geg6:

    Hate is simply not a strong enough word to describe my feelings. Despise and loathe both fall short, too. English needs a new word. I hatedespiseloathethismuthafukkahwitheveryfiberofmybeing might be a start.

  60. 60.

    germy

    @Keith P.:

    Anyone else reading @kellyanneleaks on Twitter? Apparently, she was at a party the other night dishing on WH staff rather loudly.

    And Bob Costa was at the same party. And some WaPo people.

    The villagers and the monsters all drink cocktails together.

  61. 61.

    JMG

    @germy: It was the Election Night party of the British Embassy. Not many villagers can resist an election night party. Also, it’s Costa’s job to cover the administration. He should’ve been there.

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: as Josh Barro pointed out, the President of the United States accused the former Director of the FBI of committing perjury before the Senate, and Senators of his own party aren’t even pretending to believe him, or to have noted what he said, cause they know it’s all just pointless babble to feed a pathological fusion of insecurity and ego (I never though anybody would out-do Dumbya on that score).

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Whatever else we can say about Comey, he’s responsible for the special counsel so if we ever find out anything real about this it will be because of Comey. Almost exclusively.

    The press conference was still really bad, and not his job but the special counsel, I would say, makes up for that. We had no shot of finding anything out without his pretty extraordinary actions and how scary is it that he knew that he had to do that? I didn’t know it. He’s the big DC insider and he was damn sure it wasn’t going anywhere w/out a special counsel.

  64. 64.

    clay

    @Kay:

    JohnCornyn‏Verified account
    @JohnCornyn
    Very troubling indeed that he leaked confidential communications as FBI director

    But he didn’t. He leaked the information after he was fired, i.e., as a private citizen. And, from what I understand from his testimony, he deliberately wrote the memos in an unclassified way so that they could later be made public.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    That hearing was surreal, because of the Republicans. There are two governments- the real government and the Trump Administration. The GOP Senators at the hearing were speaking on behalf of the real government. Later, they spouted some bullshit in defense of the Trump Administration.

    This is becoming a theme. The former President of Mexico is doing it, France is doing it, Canada is doing it. They are making a distinction between the United States and the Trump Administration. Wow.

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @Keith P.:

    Adam West was my first Batman, because all of the episodes showed in syndication on local TV when I was in grade school.

    I got them on Blu-Ray from Amazon and they hold up surprisingly well. Everyone’s tongue is firmly in their cheek the whole time, but the episodes are well-written by top TV writer Lorenzo Semple Jr and they have a firm vision of Batman as Chief Goody-Goody to compensate for the fact that he’s basically a vigilante.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @Keith P.:

    Apparently, she was at a party the other night dishing on WH staff rather loudly. She was speaking off-the-record, but so loudly that someone put it on Twitter.

    We need our own James O’Keefe.

  68. 68.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Hal:

    David Sedaris “I want to laugh”.

    So speaks a coward. Laughing at these people until they are to humilated to speak up is the only solution. Silent aquistion only enables it.

    None of this crap is new, I mean we live in a society were it’s considered the sign of a closeminded bore to point out that Chariots of the Gods and Holy Blood, Holy Grail are hoaxes and Stone’s JFK is considered proof of an assassination conspiracy. We have never had a standard of truth and ignorant stupidity is the inevitable result of that. If anything has changed it’s the skeptics have been able to make their voices heard in the last decade or so and David here got his eyes opened and is noticing how much BS is going on around him.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @clay:

    Right, facts. But. Cornyn is lying because it’s a-ok to lie constantly. We have to go some other route than “not true” because “not true” doesn’t matter.

  71. 71.

    pamelabrown53

    @Kay:

    I’m thankful that some of our allies are making the distinction between Trump and the United States. Means that they haven’t yet written us off completely.
    As far as Mueller’s special counsel, it’s the one area that allows me to feel hopeful. There’s just way too much smoke, so many dots to connect and so many lies on official vetting forms for everything to be “innocent”.

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: she is apparently very focused on the DC social scene and wants to be a doyenne. I’m sure her mocking of Priebus and others gets lots of laughs and feeds her ego, and sooner or later someone will get it on video. Maybe, coincidentally, around the time KAC and Rebekah Mercer decide it’s time to get off the SS Trump. Whatever happens, attaching herself to trump at the right time will have moved her from Bill Maher’s back up list to the top of Chuck Todd’s A-list. She’s be snarling and preening and sneering and smirking on your TeeVee (or hologram Meet The Press, or whatever the fuck is landing on my lawn next) for the next thirty years.

  74. 74.

    Immanentize

    @clay: most importantly, there were no confidential communications. In fact, once you say anything to anyone, it isn’t private unless both people agree to keep it that way. Or so.e privilege exists. Criminals ways forget this.

  76. 76.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    OK, thanks. “Distracted” is also an acceptable def.

    I asked because, in context, it seemed as if you meant “amused.” Considering how many people misuse the word, to mean just that, I hadda ask, etc.

    I can now vote for you with a clear conscious.

  77. 77.

    hovercraft

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    At what point will you people realize that on November 9th the Twitler Corporation completed a hostile takeover of the United States of America. The DOJ is now the legal department of the corporation, so it is their job to facilitate the enrichment of the board of directors, the Twitler family. The Constitution is not the governing document for this corporation, in fact it does not have one, it is run based on the whims of it’s mercurial CEO, President Dunce. We are no longer a democracy, we are a privates family company with no shareholders outside the family, we are merely the workforce here to maximize the profits for the family, hell they don’t even have profit sharing for us peons, just for the most senior executives, and right now they are in the process of stripping away our benefits. Apparently we should just be grateful that we still have jobs and are not out on the street. So shut up America, you’ve been taken over, and now you either get with the program or you will be fired.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @hovercraft:

    At what point will you people realize that on November 9th the Twitler Corporation completed a hostile takeover of the United States of America.

    I don’t think that’s true. Trump isn’t a good enough business man to pull that off. Now if you said he morally bankrupted the nation….

  79. 79.

    Gravenstone

    @Ruckus: I have a constant level of anger. It’s my new emotional baseline. It is simply the lens through which I view the world now. Normally it’s a quiet anger with no real outward signs (afaik). But I can go from zero to frothing rant in the blink of an eye given the right stimulus. Even worse, all those people whose answer to life seems to be screaming ‘just kill yourself’ to anyone and everyone who crosses them? Yeah, I’m finding I can almost sympathize with their point of view. I don’t like that, not one fucking bit. I hate that I’ve become like this.

  80. 80.

    Gravenstone

    @Mnemosyne: Probably my favorite Adam West role was the Grey Ghost from Batman:TAS. A knowing homage to his role as Batman and a great story within a seminal series.

  81. 81.

    Suzanne

    @Camembert:

    but how do we get back to a system where the elites at least somewhat self-enforce?

    I would have thought that the elites would self-reinforce as a way of virtue signaling and regaining status—because all the real elites consider Dampnut a short-fingered vulgarian. But I’m not surprised to see that they still consider him a useful idiot.

  84. 84.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @SFAW: I can be the new Tenguphule if you want? I’ve been so furious lately the only way I have been able to calm myself is by imagining Turtle, Ryan and every Republican politician meeting horrible, bloody ends.

  85. 85.

    Biscuits

    @Camembert:

    This is my concern too. The Trump “administration” will end eventually. But, what about afterwards? My hope is that there is a full accounting of how this train wreck came to be. I’m 53 years old and during my lifetime, each successive republican administration has gotten more corrupt and incompetent. They are never held accountable for their actions. I want them behind bars this time. le sigh, a girl can dream.

  86. 86.

    geo

    Why is anybody surprised. Treason is just like any other crime. It is only a crime when poor people do it.
    Treason and limits of constitution do not apply to the ultra rich.

  87. 87.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:
    It’s all about the con, he’s competent enough to complete the con, and with the help of Comey, the Media and Putin all the elements came together. His one talent is bullshitting his way into “deals”, he just has no idea what to do with whatever it is once he has it. I guess he’ll do to us what he’s done to all the other things he’s taken over and slapped his name on, bankrupt and destroy us.

  88. 88.

    TriassicSands

    I feel I should point out that I don’t hatedespiseloathethismuthafukkahwitheveryfiberofmybeing Trump for petty reasons. Rather I feel that way because of what he is doing to the rule of law, the DOJ, the environment, minorities, women, poor people, and much, much more. He is truly setting himself as above the law and Republicans are supporting him every step of the way. Oh, and don’t forget what he’s doing to the rest of the world.

  92. 92.

    Gelfling 545

    @lamh36: Yet I’m sure that President Obama would for the good of the country. I’m also sure that Trump won’t ever want to speak to him and be reminded of the man he will never measure up to

  93. 93.

    germy

    Martha Jackovics‏ @BeachPeanuts 3h3 hours ago

    Trump’s “I have no ties to Russia” claim continues with his attorney, who, of course, has ties to Russia

  95. 95.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Immanentize: And unless there is some agreement that it’s confidential between the parties, Comey could have gone home and tweeted the encounter. And if he was of a different generation, he could have both written the report and tweeted it. A person can always tell their side of the story, either written or spoken.

    Trump is used to bullying small businesspeople, minor officials, and aspiring celebrities who are not all that skilled in politics and the law with his celebrity. He has been a whale in a sea of minnows. Now he’s in the Shark Lake, and about to be harpooned by skilled whale hunters who can’t be intimidated by anything. They will be there long after he’s taken the helicopter ride to a sinking Mar-A-Lago. And now:

    A Personal Cat Bleg

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    @lamh36:
    Am imagining that phone conversation as done by Bob Newhart.

    “Don hi, it’s Barack. [Pause] Obama. [Pause] O, b, a, m, a.”

    etc.

  97. 97.

    Shalimar

    @Kay: If you accept that “not true” doesn’t matter, then we have lost everything. That is a line we have to get back. It isn’t acceptable to lie in the country we want to live in, and fuck them for trying so hard to change that.

  99. 99.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    “Remember Robin, it is the prime duty of every citizen to obey traffic laws.”

    The archvillins and cameos were compelling reasons to watch. A college buddy grew up in the Pasadena neighborhood of stately Wayne Manor, which I got to see during visits there.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    Re-watching as an adult, I was even more impressed with Frank Gorshin, and he was always one of my favorites. He really had the perfect blend of humor and genuine menace.

  103. 103.

    SFAW

    @trollhattan:

    “Remember Robin, it is the prime duty of every citizen to obey traffic laws.”

    One of my ex post facto favorites was him pronouncing “El Jefe” as “El Jeef.” It wasn’t until I took Spanish, a few years after, that I realized how it had been mAngled.

    @Mnemosyne:

    I was even more impressed with Frank Gorshin, and he was always one of my favorites.

    Me too.

  104. 104.

    germy

    @trollhattan: I’m so old I remember waiting and waiting for the premiere of the show. One of the magazines (was it Life or Look magazine?) had him on the cover as Batman. As a comics collector, I couldn’t wait to see the show.

    Funny thing is, I was too young to recognize all the celebrity cameos. Recently, I watched some old episodes and thought “Anne Baxter! Edward Everett Horton! Francis X. Bushman!!??”

  106. 106.

    Mnemosyne

    The people in the apartment above us moved out, and the guys who are (I assume) installing the new carpeting are VERY LOUD. The cats are not happy with all of the hammering.

  108. 108.

    BCHS Class of 1980

    @Shalimar: Yes, Bilbo Bigot reminds me of the ZEGS: they just want to be left alone to consummate their particular evil; no extra graft required.

  109. 109.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    Agree, he plumbed something legitimately threatening in his psyche while playing a cartoon character. Burgess Meredith’s Penguin was the most fun to mimic, though.

  111. 111.

    nightranger

    By far the biggest buckets of horsesheit being flung was trying to portral Oompa Loompa’s electoral college presidency as a “drain that swamp” thing.

    The reality, of course, is that it’s the exact opposite, turned up to 11, on steroids.

    Anyone who legitimately believed (believes) that is too stupid to vote, or drive, or use power tools.

  112. 112.

    germy

    @trollhattan: I saw Gorshin on a talk show in the ’80s and he talked about how he came up with the Riddler laugh.

    He said he experimented with a variety of laughs (he was a talented nightclub impressionist) including a hoarse Richard Widmark laugh (from the film where he throws the old lady down a flight of stairs) … but finally settled on the loud giggle.

    Late in life, Gorshin did a great theater performance as George Burns.

  113. 113.

    BCHS Class of 1980

    @CarolDuhart2: An important point is that Trump has always been in a world of employment agreements and NDAs. He’s used to enforcing the privacy of his ramblings. And since he and his advisors are morons, he is still adjusting to the reality of DC.

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jinchi: Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted Friday that the Clintons’ continued acceptance of those dollars during the presidential campaign is a “massive, ongoing conflict of interest.”

    Others questioned why Clinton had now decided that the foundation should rule out donations that she apparently thought were acceptable during her tenure as the country’s top diplomat. “Is it ok to accept foreign and corporate money when Secretary of State but not when POTUS???” Donald Trump Jr., son of the Republican nominee, tweeted Thursday night.

    head, desk, etc. This is exhausting.

  116. 116.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    No shit.

    STFU Rancid, you anti-American aider-and-abetter (Hey! Five “A”s in a row!) of fascism, grift, and treason. If this country were running right, you’d be in Alcatraz right now, waiting for the next tour of gawkers to come through.

    Uday/Qusay: that goes double for you, you moronic little fuck. In a true meritocracy, you be cleaning out the inside of outhouses, while they’re in use. That goes double for Qusay/Uday, who has the look of someone who couldn’t spell “cat” if you spotted him the C, the A, and the T.

  117. 117.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @BBA:

    Did Obama talk to Bush in ’09? Did Bush talk to Clinton in ’01?

    Yes in both cases, according to the linked CNN piece. From the article:

    In early June 2001, George W. Bush encountered his predecessor Bill Clinton at a Boston funeral in their first in-person meeting since the handoff of power months earlier. The two men sat in the same pew of St. Brigid’s Church alongside Al Gore — Clinton’s vice president who Bush ultimately defeated after a prolonged court battle the prior year.

    As Bush’s presidency wore on, he and Clinton developed friendly ties, speaking by phone with some regularity about the aspects of the job only they could understand.

    Days before taking office, Obama convened all the living presidents to solicit advice about the job. Bush hosted the session in his private dining room. Historians said it was the first time all living presidents had convened at the White House.

    About a month after later, Obama placed an unusual phone call to his predecessor to inform Bush he was planning to announce a withdrawal of troops from Iraq — a conversation Obama’s aides said was a “courtesy” to the man who began the war that Obama ran vowing to end.

    The phone call, made from a holding room at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, was brief, but it did reflect open lines of communication between political and ideological opposites — a channel that thus far hasn’t been dug between Obama and Trump.

  118. 118.

    Jinchi

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    My guess is that most people assume it’s rhetorical when the Trump clan write questions like:

    “Is it ok to accept foreign and corporate money…”

    or

    “Is is legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’..”

    Their actions make a lot more sense when you read them literally. They want to know what they can legally get away with.

  119. 119.

    D58826

    going to post this here as well since I think laughter is the best medicine
    What we really need here is a moment of levity. The link is to a twitter stream about a demonstration in Texas to protect the statue of Sam Houston from ah from ah well I’m not sure from whom exactly. But never mind they are protecting Sam Houston. Apparently they are afraid some liberals will take the statue down because of historical cleansing of Confederate statutes.
    Buried in the thread is the fact that Houston was opposed to the Confederacy but you know this is the alt-fact universe. The photos are hilarious of these guys armed to the teeth, some in battle rattle, one looks like he belongs in one of Julius Cesears Roman legions defending the Empire along the Rhine. Of course the beer bellies make it a bit more………..

    https://twitter.com/evan7257/status/873565225869598720

  120. 120.

    Tehanu

    @Aleta:

    He’s treating the Constitution and B of R the way developers and casinos treat local laws. Ignore the laws, see if anyone stands up to you. Tie the town up in court, make it cost the opposition than they can afford. Use the press + threats. Keep breaking the law until the damage is done and profit extracted. Smoke machine, shell game, leave town.

    You’ve called it, exactly. What amazes me is the number of people who think that this is not only all right, but a good thing — who think that all the things we were taught as children about helping others and respecting the law are just meaningless garbage and the only thing that really matters is getting rich.

  121. 121.

    D58826

    @Jinchi:

    My guess is that most people assume it’s rhetorical when the Trump clan write questions like:

    “Is it ok to accept foreign and corporate money…”

    DOJ just said it is and the emolument clause does not apply to business transactions like room rents at the Trump hotel in DC.

    oops missed the leadin. That;s what you get when you start in the middle of the thread

  122. 122.

    Boatboy_srq

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I can see tRump having a debilitating stroke before 2021 and spending the remainder of his term on a PVS. So it won’t matter any to him.

    What it means for the kids and the hangers-on, though…

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: The Google Machine and MJ says it was Ezra.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“I thought Donnie came up with that expression???!”)

  124. 124.

    sukabi

    @clay: Cornyn should be answering the question “Senator, having taken the oath of office to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, why aren’t you concerned that the potus and or his aids have been contacting foreign (hostile) people who have been actively engaged in cyber warfare?”

    And “Why are you more concerned about a former FBI director releasing his unclassified, personal notes about this issue (election tampering) than you are about the election tampering?”

  125. 125.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jinchi: And the Clinton Foundation was a charity, too. The Clinton’s didn’t actually see any of that money themselves.

    So we know that donating to a charity (which will help others and which Clinton won’t benefit from) is currying favor and not okay. Literally giving money to the President’s business is totally cool, though. What utter fuckbags.

  127. 127.

    dogwood

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    I didn’t read the article, but W was the first outside of the small circle involved to be informed about OBL’s demise. W said he and Laura were out to dinner with friends when he was called to a secure phone to take a call from the President. He said he was pretty sure that it would be about OBL because Presidents don’t just call out of the blue. They usually set up a time in advance to discuss something.

  128. 128.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Whatever else we can say about Comey, he’s responsible for the special counsel so if we ever find out anything real about this it will be because of Comey. Almost exclusively.

    That crazy woman Louise has sworn that Comey will wind up being the hero, when it’s all said and done.

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