Must watch: @CNN's @Acosta says the White House is "stonewalling." Briefings are "basically pointless at this point" https://t.co/j6PsdqhkGI
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 19, 2017
POTUS hasn't given an interview in weeks, a full press conference in months. Daily briefing can't be recorded. Senate writing bill in secret
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 20, 2017
This is not the behavior of an administration that feels everything’s going well. Even their own team is irked, per the Washington Post:
… By early June, House and Senate Democratic aides had compiled lists of more than 400 written requests that they said had been ignored by the White House or federal agencies.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) described “an overall pattern of fear of any level of transparency.”
“If they can’t control the message or have it come directly from the president via his Twitter account, I think they’re very fearful of any level of sharing basic facts and how they come to their conclusions and decisions what policy should be,” Heinrich said…
…Lawmakers from both parties have been angered by a Justice Department opinion issued in May that instructed agencies not to comply with requests for information from most members of Congress, including Democrats. The May 1 opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel said that individual lawmakers could not make requests of the executive branch unless they are committee chairmen or participating in a request by a full committee or subcommittee.
“This is nonsense,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote in seven-page letter excoriating the opinion. He said that the OLC demonstrated a “shocking lack of professionalism and objectivity.”…
Indeed, it might be "useful" for TV to broadcast less unchecked lying.
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) June 20, 2017
Waspuppet
Un. American.
When will Dems start saying it? They say it about us as easily as breathing, and it isn’t even true.
Karmus
Meanwhile, in Alternate Reality, Dems are awful, Hillary is still crooked, and Trump is a great man being persecuted. I witnessed a reasonably bright woman nearly melting down on Facebook, defending him and slagging his foes. It’s all amazingly twisted, but she and her fellow believers have been feeding on this stuff for a long time. The extent of that otherworldly ecosystem of information and beliefs appears quite staggering. Orwell would be blinking and throwing it in the trash; no one would believe it. For a not-insignificant number of Americans, I’m afraid, it will never wash. I don’t know if there’s anything that can be revealed that will shake them. Maybe it’s because if any point is punctured, the whole balloon of the belief system pops (on a personal level; I’m quite sure the big balloon could never be popped at once, save a for-real miracle).
If I’m infringing on ip with my balloon metaphor, a house of cards will also do. My point is just that no matter what is shown, with what evidence, it will all be “lies” and a “conspiracy” and the “deep state”, with probably the Illuminati and aliens thrown in.
Villago Delenda Est
Ron Ziegler at least could tell whoppers with a straight face. Spicey and the Fuckabee bitch can’t even do that.
TenguPhule
@Villago Delenda Est:
Its the Grand Unifying Theory of Shit. All Shit is traced to Trump, but the Shit overflows the stack and causes a dump to the Spicey kernel which results in Fucking Shitweasels.
TenguPhule
On a more serious note, what stupid illegal and dangerous shit are they coming up with behind closed doors to try and escape the consequences of all the shit they’ve been spreading around up to now?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Bernie Woulda Held Interviews
hellslittlestangel
No one sees the Great Oz!
Janelle
Is anybody else really nervous about Georgia-06?
I feel like the buildup and hype behind this one has gotten so intense that an Ossoff loss is going to be really demoralizing. Unlike all of the other special elections so far, this is one in which the Democrat has been generally favored to win (narrowly) all along according to the polls. It’s one thing to have lost a string of races where the Republicans were always the favorites, but this one is gonna sting a little more if it doesn’t go our way.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Janelle: The worst thing that can happen is a win by Neo-Liberal Ossoff.
As Susan Sarandon says, Karen Handel is more likely to usher in “the revolution”.
hellslittlestangel
I think lots of us are. Georgia is another damned voter ID state, and if Handel wins it will be because of the votes that she worked so hard to suppress. It will be a heavy blow.
Amir Khalid
@TenguPhule:
“Everything they reckon they can get away with” would be my guess.
JPL
@hellslittlestangel: It’s a conservative district, that wasn’t suppose to be close. That fact is getting lost, imo.
p.a.
We’re all fucked: reality always wins. I’m not being defeatist. Our current efforts are absolutely necessary, but it’s like triage; we’re at the political point where libs are just trying to soften the blow that’s coming. Bad stuff from bad people is outracing their implosion.
Unfortunately we’re also softening the blow on the imbeciles who put us here. They don’t deserve it.
Yoda Dog
@Janelle: I’m bracing myself for massive disappointment. I thought he was going to win until just the last few days ago. Now I don’t think he is and I’m tired of moral victories.
What the senate is doing should hurt Handel. Shitgibbon’s shenaningans should be more than enough to sink her. But they never seem to pay a political price for their bullshit. Meanwhile Ossoff’s numbers drop because some rando fuckstick berniebro in Virginia goes crazy.
John Podesta’s rissotto recipe gets leaked from goddamnn Russia Wikileaks and so our side is fucked and Hillary sucks. Trump’s “I Molest Women” tape drops and absolutely nothing happens in the polls.
It’s fucking exhausting… Hopefully Ossoff can pull this thing out and that would go a long way for my well being.
NotMax
Open thread – R.I.P. Bill Dana.
Most of the cohort here old enough to fondly recognize the name.
@JPL
Yes and yes. Formerly Gingrich’s district.
OzarkHillbilly
@Janelle:
No.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Bill Dana. A name from my childhood; My name Jose Jimenez. I can’t remember what he did after that, but that is etched in my memory.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax:
Nope.
p.a.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Steve in the ATL
@Janelle: it will be super painful if Handel wins because she is such an awful person. Totally retrograde, judgmental, evil, etc.
I’ve been embarrassed by my rep for all the 17 years I’ve lived here. Ossoff is my chance to change that.
Patricia Kayden
@Janelle: The polls I see show Ossoff and Handel basically 50/50 with Ossoff at a very slight advantage. This is a red district so if Handel wins our side should not be demoralized.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: True. But like Steve @ 20 stated, Handel is evil. There’s an ad where she says, he doesn’t share our values, and all I can think of is fortunately you are correct.
Patricia Kayden
@hellslittlestangel: And he ain’t all that great. Neither can he make America great “again”.
aimai
@JPL: Contrast this to the attitude of the left about Corbyn’s loss/win. Its enough for everyone that he did better than expectations–he’s treated as though he won by the press and the commenting public. But if Ossoff gets close to winning in this Republican ++ district it will be treated as a resounding defeat for the democrats, rather than as a bell wether for a tidal wave pro-democratic election. SMDH
polyorchnid octopunch
@aimai: That may be not completely accurate; check out this article from Vice UK. May be that you’re confusing the US media POV with the UK one?
montanareddog
@NotMax: No idea who Bill Dana was so I googled him. As soon as I saw the character Jose Jimenez, I thought, “Aaah! The Right Stuff”