The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding hearings today about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. WaPo has an overview, but it’s nothing we didn’t know or suspect.
Summary: The interference was aggressive and unprecedented. At least 21 states were targeted — maybe more. There was also a massive propaganda element designed to sandbag Clinton and promote Trump, who naturally isn’t concerned about it.
When news like this makes me want to reverse engineer a shop-vac so I can shotgun several gallons of bourbon, what I do instead of that is either go traipsing around in the woods or listen to music like this:
Highly recommended!
Oatler.
Saw the title on your Youtube and thought “great, more manic pixie Gaelic waifs.” Then I clicked it and understood it to be that Spanishey language they speak in Brazil. Gal Costa anyone?
The Dangerman
Sign me up; I happen to be in SoCal today and NOT at the beach (think closer to Palm Springs, where it might hit 120). I’m about to go off in search of the perfect* Margarita and it’s not even 10:30 local.
*reigning champion, a place across from Cal State Fullerton during graduation back in the 80’s; Holy Hell, I think it was straight tequila, and the goooooooood stuff, with a little salt and ice.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Oatler.:
Truly, our educational system has failed us horribly.
Jeffro
Just noting once more for the record: Trumpov’s lack of concern about, and/or lack of actions to protect our democracy from further attacks, and/or lack or actions to punish Russia for those attacks, are all that are needed to prove he’s not upholding his oath of office. Full stop. Even if by some miracle collusion was never proved, money laundering didn’t happen, and obstruction of justice charges are never brought.
It’s like letting Pearl Harbor go unanswered. Actually it’s worse – it’s like if Pearl Harbor happened, we didn’t retaliate against Japan, AND we still continued to leave our battleships as sitting ducks with no stepped-up recon or even air cover.
Jerry
I need to know more about this bourbon through a shop vac thingie.
Ian G.
@Jeffro:
Honestly, I don’t see the parallel to Pearl Harbor, since Trump was clearly the intended beneficiary of this. It’s more like a soft version of the 1973 Chile coup, where a foreign power does it’s part to ensure a friendly government comes to power by any means necessary.
And sadly, Putin is right that the US has a history of doing this shit. Of course, it was reprehensible when we did it, and it’s reprehensible now that it’s done to us.
amk
wtf does she even mean?
hovercraft
@Jeffro:
Right there you have the beginnings of a speech to launch your primary challenge against him.
azlib
Meanwhile, David Brook’s sees the Whitewater (non) scandal as more substantive than the Russian interference.
Major Major Major Major
There’s an image.
Hey, I have a question for a story I’m writing. This is super random. If you thought a vampire had just moved into a house in your neighborhood, how might you try to sabotage him by doing things to the property (outside of house and grounds)?
Teddys Person
@amk: Yes, because problems with our elections and our voting are things you want to keep under wraps. How can state officials – who work for the people of their state – sign a confidentiality agreement regarding the election process? I’m sick of this shit getting normalized by the people benefiting from the ratfucking.
Major Major Major Major
@amk: Changing actual ballot results vs. stealing registered voter rolls, fucking with precinct lists, etc.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Plant garlic?
hovercraft
@amk:
The republicans who do actually want to get to the bottom of the Russia shit also want to make sure that everyone knows that two things can be true at the same time, Russia hacked our system and fed anti-Hillary shit to targeted voters, BUT, they did not change any actual votes, as far as we know, so Twitler won fair and square, he is 100% legitimate. Even if we suspect something more, we can not prove it, The Twitesident is an insecure buffoon so we will try to sooth his feeling by making sure that there’s no proof that votes were changed. The lack of proof definitely means there’s nothing nefarious about the ‘win’, just like since no body was found, we know that Jimmy Hoffa is living in Vegas under an assumed name.
bemused
Snickering after reading “Jared and Ivanka’s Guide to Mindful Marriage” in The New Yorker. Hard to pick a favorite of the ten tips but I lol at tip #6 romantic post-it notes, “Tonight, I want you to wear your navy blazer, crisp white shirt, khakis, Weejuns, bulletproof vest…and nothing else”.
Roger Moore
@amk:
I think this should be taken quite literally. They haven’t found evidence that the Russian hacking actually changed votes. That could mean they were only testing their ability to get into the systems undetected. It might mean they were going after information so they could target propaganda but not trying to tamper with the election directly. It might mean they were following Republican practice and trying to disenfranchise Democrats by tampering with the voting rolls. Or it might mean they were successful in tampering with the vote totals and in covering their tracks. We don’t know, and we’re unlikely to find out unless it’s treated as something worth investigating in detail.
hovercraft
@azlib:
Josh Marshall’s headline about the column pretty much covers it.
David Brooks, Derp and the Poverty of Trump-Russia ‘Hot Takes’
smintheus
Some good news for a change. There’s no longer even a single state left where a majority thinks businesses should be allowed to discriminate against LGBT customers. That has been a rallying cry for Republican bigots for the last several years.
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: Plant garlic?
ETA> SC beat me to it
trollhattan
@azlib:
Brooks’ lack of concern re. Russian hacking is powerful evidence the Republican prion disease (stolen from Charlie Pierce) has spread far beyond the Trumpian core. “Civilized, moderate” Republicans are fully infected. It’s a really fvcking big deal that the desire for tax breaks and a dismantled regulatory system is so great that it has overpowered the desire to defend the country. And our targeted proxy special elections are all falling to those same Republicans regardless of what Trump and his henchmen do.
Catherine D.
@Major Major Major Major:
Sic the homeowner’s association on him?
aimai
@Ian G.: Who cares what Putin thinks? And who cares what the US has done in other countries? That is such a bizarre way of thinking about this. Russia’s interference isn’t some form of cosmic karma that we just have to stand around and shake our heads over, muttering “guess we had it coming.” Putin AND RUSSIA have been interfereing with elections and invading countries around the world as long as they have been able to. The US is not the only political actor in the universe who has had some bad acts with respect to other countries. There’s no such thing as karmic retribution. Putin did what he did because he could–and he did the same thing in France, Germany and the UK because it suited him. This has nothing to do with the US’s previous actions and is not some kind of justified payback for them.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: I also thought garlic — but what about those solar powered lights for walks and driveways — but somehow powered up to sun light levels?
Also, invite werewolves to move in next door?
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Since they’re imaginary do something imaginative that none of the eight gazillion vampire movies and teevee shows has thought of before, than assert “Vampires are too afraid of blenders!”
Mike in DC
According to a recent CBS news poll, half of Republicans don’t even believe that Russia interfered with the 2016 elections. 16 percent of Democrats don’t either. I will not speculate about whom the latter supported in the primaries. Nor whom they follow on Twitter.
schrodingers_cat
@trollhattan: There are no moderate Rs, they just have better manners than the mouth breathers.
Major Major Major Major
@Catherine D.: I actually already have that one down.
@eclare: @schrodingers_cat: I’m wondering about installing holy symbols above doorways/windows, but that would be good for the front yard too.
trollhattan
@Catherine D.:
We have a winnah!
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
I’d start by planting garlic anywhere I could reach. Maybe put some of those memorial crosses into the green strip between the house and the street as if somebody had died in a car accident in front of the house.
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
Yup. The RINO isn’t endangered, it’s extinct.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@amk: I think she meant that there was no evidence actual vote totals were changed
khead
@Major Major Major Major:
Call Peter Vincent. Stat.
Immanentize
@amk:
I want to know what THIS means.
amk
@Mike in DC: yup. fucking orangegutan is the fucking new normal.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Mike in DC: All according to Putin’s plan.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
BTW, I assume you’ve seen “What We Do in the Shadows”?
Teddys Person
@Major Major Major Major: You could do rock gardens like those optical illusion pictures/books that were popular several years ago where you’d have to squint to see a dolphin or a number 8 in the picture of seemingly random colors and dots/shapes. I tried a google search to see what they were called but don’t think I used the right search terms to be successful.
ETA An outdoor hologram of Buffy might work.
Michael Bersin
@Major Major Major Major:
Dress up as Abraham Lincoln and carry an axe…
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: Hang garlic in random places. Crosses too. Maybe rig a gun to shoot them with a silver bullet in their mailbox. The last is sketchy because you might end up shooting the mailman instead
Just One More Canuck
@Catherine D.: I’d rather deal with the vampire
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
Reminds me of a bit of dialog from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Ulysses Everett McGill: I am the only daddy you got! I’m the damn paterfamilias!
Wharvey Gal: But you ain’t bona fide!
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: Well then buckets of holy water are always a good idea…
phein55
@Ian G.:
I think it might be best to see this as a continuation of the Republican voter suppression/manipulation efforts by other means.
The Republicans got away with openly manipulating the 2000 election (Texas sends names to Florida, and only Florida, to be purged), and this is either ignored or pooh-pooh’ed, with a large measure of whistling past.
They’ve been successful instituting voter suppression measures via voter ID related legislation.
They have to be careful about actually altering vote tallies (although I think Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 may indicate otherwise), but if the Russian do it for them, there’s not much they can do about it, is there?
The nexus here is that although the Russians may be able to hack voting machines, they won’t know which ones to hack to be effective and discrete — that takes an insider in American politics. (I think we’ve already seen evidence of similar collusion in 2016 in Florida, where a local campaign welcomed the assistance of Russian hackers.)
What I’m afraid of is that evidence of direct coordination will be uncovered, and no one will be willing to confront that ugly truth.
LurkerNoLonger
@Major Major Major Major: I would cut the trees down so more sunlight would hit the house.
D58826
@bemused: Well don’t make the rest of us read it or leave us in suspense was that from him to her or her to him?
Either way I think Betty is gonna need a bigger shop-vac
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: I have not, looks funny.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
If that were to happen, civil war would be guaranteed, with the all the misery that would bring
Jeffro
@phein55:
I think McConnell and Ryan are pretty much there already, aren’t they? They were told: Mitch said, “better not let everyone know or I’ll accuse you [PBO] of trying to swing the election for HRC”
D58826
@Ian G.: I think the analogy is to an act of war. What we did in Chile wasn’t meant to be an act of war against Chile (even thought the citizens of Chile probably view it differently)
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: One of my favorite movies.
Chris
@Major Major Major Major:
There was a book I read not too long ago in which, after a nasty encounter with a vampire, one of the wizards retaliates by drawing an obsolete satellite out of orbit so that it plummets to earth right on top of the vampire’s mansion, killing him and everyone else there instantly.
If you’re looking to damage vampire-affiliated property values, that might do the trick.
Teddys Person
@Teddys Person: Just found what they are called – Magic Eye.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Crucifix?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: tell my mom’s priest I’ll match him ounce for ounce, Jameson for holy water, if he comes and shakes it around my property line? Go to Fountains of Wayne and get me some good religious lawn art? How do vampires react to brightly painted statues of Our Lady. Maybe with a consecrated water feature.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: Whoops, I completely misunderstood.
Playing really loud music on their property every night? Mess with their plumbing and cause massive water damage?
MJS
@Major Major Major Major: Everyday, stick something in the doorbell so it rings constantly. The vampire can’t get up to answer it, but also can’t sleep, and will be too exhausted to feed at night. Sure, he might figure it out and remove the doorbell, but then just get yourself a fence and constantly barking dogs.
SiubhanDuinne
@amk:
So citizens/voters in twenty-fucking-one states are precluded from knowing that Russian hackers went after the voting systems they use? What kind of “confidentiality agreement” is this woman talking about? Listing the targeted states should be the most open, easy, transparent points of information. What am I missing here?
Roger Moore
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
No, Rosenberg, that is a werewolf.
ETA: Sprinkling sand on the sidewalk might be another good idea. Arithromania (ala Count von Count) is a traditional problem for vampires.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Funniest movie I’ve seen in the last few years. Droll in the manner of “Flight of the Conchords” and skewers pretty much every vampire movie convention in the process.
Major Major Major Major
@MJS: Oh, wow, that’s amazing and hilarious.
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Indoor plumbing is an interesting question since in a lot of tellings vampires can’t cross running water. I don’t think that bit has been updated to reflect the existence of sinks and showers and whatnot. But I wonder, yeah, if some broken basement pipes wouldn’t really screw things up since they maybe couldn’t get down there to shut off the main.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: The synopsis reminds me of a Three Flavours Cornetto movie.
slakko
@Major Major Major Major: Get the city to send out the gritters. Even if it’s midsummer. A nice layer of salt on all the roads and sidewalks should work wonders.
amk
@SiubhanDuinne: Yup. I am losing confidence in so called IC aka ‘deep state’ unseating the current derp pos.
amk
jl
@Teddys Person: The purported 3-D pig looks more like a turtle, IMHO. But it was fun to try to see it. Nice deep 3-D effect. Except, turtle not a pig.
Shell
How about that Flow-bie thing, that vacuum hair cutting device ?
ThresherK
@amk: Something like, “Their frogman got onto our aircraft carrier but failed to disable the propulsion system, ignite the ammuntion hold, get the nuclear codes, or steal a jet fighter. Nothing to see here.”
Kayla Rudbek
@Major Major Major Major: holy water or garlic-infused water/oil applied with a super soaker to the suspected vampire’s property to start with
Tony J
@Major Major Major Major:
Call the Police (from a public phone) just after dawn telling them you saw a heavy-set man of swarthy complexion dragging a bound and gagged blonde girl in through the back door?
Cut the power lines to the house? I have it on good authority insomniac vampires love their daytime soaps and need fridges to store bodies pre-disposal.
Why can’t you do anything to the house or property? Is your protagonist doing a ‘Rear Window’?
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Interesting question. It’s been 201 years since the June days during the Year Without Summer when John Polidori came up with the tale of the Vampyre.
Of course, you would have to be careful not to trespass the vampire’s property, but if I could I would get a big tank and run holy water through the vampire’s sprinkler system.
Otherwise, I would just annoy him by inviting him over to the house for some steaks and Bloody Marys.
Mike in DC
@phein55:
Direct coordination = treason, straight up. It delegitimizes the election results, and casts a shadow over the entire Republican establishment –including big money donors and right wing media.
The fundamental problem is that half of the Republican base might never find out about it, and some of them wouldn’t care.
eclare
@Mike in DC: And the other half of Republicans believe Russia interfered, but they don’t care
Major Major Major Major
@amk:
One, it’s been five months as of today, these things take time, even Watergate took two years and that was just a third-rate burglary. Two, the IC has to use a very light hand in order to preserve their own institutional legitimacy. Three, I mean, those aside, you may also be right.
Chris
@Ian G.:
@trollhattan:
It’s mind-boggling how quickly we’re turning into a banana republic. Our elites are pretty much openly leaning on foreign intelligence organizations to make up for their own shortcomings with the public. Like the freaking Pahlavis in Iran, or Khalifas in Bahrain, or the old landed aristocracies in Central America.
D58826
@Brachiator: Wasn’t that the same year that Mary Shelley came up with Frankenstein? I wonder what they would make of this year with the walking Dumpster fire
trollhattan
@ThresherK:
Heh. “The test-landing at Normandy went well, the Germans even invited us in for coffee and crullers. I say we should go for it!”
smintheus
@Major Major Major Major: Install a have-a-heart trap shaped like a coffin.
Or you could move a well dressed werewolf in next door. Used to be able to find lots of footloose werewolves in Soho and Mayfair.
Teddys Person
@jl: When these were all the rage, I could never see anything in the pictures.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator:
Minor tactical error, there.
@Tony J:
I mean, you can, I thought that was the point of the question. Although this is in the context of a sillier story, and “burn it down and salt the ashes” is kind of unamusing.
germy
Here’s the headline the low-info conservatives in my neck of the woods are seeing on our local TV news station website:
Congress hears sinister tale of Russia election meddling
(Well, at least they didn’t call it an “outlandish” tale. But kudos to the headline writer for choosing the word “tale”)
And then to the gist of the article (reprinted from their usual AP source):
Chris
@Mike in DC:
scav
@Immanentize: Buckets of Holy Water? Why not those large permanent misters of Holy Water, like you hear of outside in Palm Springs making outside dining both feasible and vampire safe.
ETA. putting the water into Rainbird raingun sprinklers would have a very suburban flair, or soaker hoses if it’s a water-conscious neighborhood.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Shouldn’t that be “stakes and bloody Marys”?
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major: @Immanentize:
I’m thinking some fountains hooked up to a sprinkler system that you could turn up to bloc all the windows and doors into the house. Obviously unbeknownst to them they would contain holy water. Also too some kind of hose that yo could use as a holy water cannon.
scav
Install a lot of driveway security mirrors along the sidewalks near his house inscribed “If you cannot see the neighbor in this mirror, he is too close.”
Kay
We will pay and pay and pay for Donald Trump. Probably for decades. Such a bad deal. He smears everything he touches with shit.
The Moar You Know
@amk: There was never any chance of that ever happening. Nor any real means of them doing so.
The Dildo Of Consequences rarely arrives lubed. In this case, Dems and Dem voters (and the rest of America) are going to pay an awful price for not having kept the downticket races a priority, choosing to focus on the presidency to the exclusion of everything else.
D58826
Cop stabbed at Flint Airport. FBI is looking into the terrorism angle. Unfortunately Europeans aren’t the only people with access to knives. (sigh)
Brachiator
@D58826:
Same time, same place. Polidori was Lord Byron’s personal physician and accompanied him on the vacation trip that Byron took to Switzerland, along with Byron’s friend Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Because of persistent bad weather (a story in itself) they stayed home and came up with the challenge to tell scary tales. Polidori came up with the Vampyre, Mary Godwin with Frankenstein. They later expanded their tales into the novels that inspired the horror movies we love.
They might throw their hands up and declare that the reality of Trump was more horrible than anything that they could imagine.
D58826
I think it’s called what is good for the goose is good for the gander. I hope they also flipped him the bird NATO jets buzz plane carrying Russian defense minister, deny wrongdoing http://thebea.st/2rSmMRk
Chris
@Brachiator:
Since you seem to know about this stuff –
Any idea how the notion of “vampires and werewolves as each other’s mortal enemies” cropped up? I don’t believe it’s got much basis in European folklore, but it’s everywhere in today’s pop fiction.
Chris
@D58826:
I notice they don’t say which air force the NATO jet was from? (Lots of countries fly F-16s).
gene108
Tried listening to NPR today. I couldn’t stomach it for more than a couple of minutes. It was a victory lap for the Republicans, who face crushed the Democrats, which shows Democrats suck, their message suck, and something, something blah blah blah.
HeleninEire
@azlib: Here’s how bad Brooks is now. I LOVE Driftglass. I think he is one of the best bloggers writing today. But I am at the point where I cannot even read Driftglass when he writes about Brooks. Too many quotes. I scream at my screen.
Kay
I wish I had more confidence in the FBI since the whole thing falls on them with Republicans in power. Maybe it’s unfair but I just keep thinking about failing to catch the abortion clinic terrorist, and the Atlanta Olympics fuck up, and the blatant lying under oath and corruption in Whitey Bulger. Maybe I should look for a successful investigations and of course no one ever gets credit for prevention. I wish I felt like “oh, they’ll get to the bottom of this!” but I could easily imagine “we never found out what happened in that Russian thing, did we?” It’ll go into the ever-expanding “unknowable, matter of opinion” category
trollhattan
@D58826: With a flint knife? (somebody had to)
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
TRUTH
Timurid
@trollhattan:
Tezcatlipoca Akbar!
Steeplejack
@Chris:
I first noticed it as a big theme in the Underworld movies (first one in 2003).
D58826
a few choice observations from Stonekettle
https://twitter.com/search?q=stonekettle&src=typd
and
in response to David Bossie claiming that the current obstructionism is unprecendented and poor POTUS is the victim.
Chris
@Kay:
I long felt that even in an intelligence/security community where everyone had skeletons in the closet, the FBI was in a league of its own. 2016 pretty well confirmed it for me – it’s still J. Edgar Hoover’s bureau and it always has been. Whether that means it can bring down Trump or expose what happened is still up in the air – I suspect there are at least a few agents and bureaucrats who have no interest in either.
germy
@Brachiator: In the old “Bride of Frankenstein” 1935 film, Elsa Lanchester plays Mary Shelley, before settling into her main role as The Bride.
Major Major Major Major
@Chris: @Steeplejack: Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s extremely recent. Sounds like the sort of thing that would have come from 80’s comic books but I also didn’t notice it until Underworld.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s almost funny. No one paid attention to real election interference because the idiot loudmouth was screaming so loud about fake election interference.
trollhattan
@Chris: The Beeb has video taken from the passenger plane’s window. Doesn’t have any “buzzing” but does show some badass Russian escort fighter shooing it away.
rikyrah
TPM LIVEWIRE
Lewandowski: Investigation Into Trump Ties To Russia ‘Should End Immediately’
By NICOLE LAFOND
Published JUNE 21, 2017 9:56 AM
A former campaign manager for President Donald Trump says it’s time to “move on” from investigations into whether the President’s campaign associates worked with Russia to swing results of the 2016 election, especially now that one New York Times writer has admitted he’s uncomfortable with the “whole deal.”
Appearing on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, New York Times columnist David Brooks discussed his recent op-ed about special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, saying he thinks “we may be getting ahead of ourselves.”
“I’m bothered by the lack of emerging evidence about the underlying crime that there was actually collusion or coordination with the White House,” Brooks said Sunday.
On “Fox and Friends” Wednesday morning, Corey Lewandowski called the Brooks commentary “amazing” and said “people in Washington” should drop the investigation.
D58826
and another adventure in sexism
I think we know the answer to that one
https://twitter.com/SarahLerner/status/877556876984033280
Chet Murthy (chromebook)
@Catherine D.: That’s it! Schedule HOA meetings during daytime (weekends!) and when he doesn’t attend, put a lien on the property. Double every N meetings. Eventually you foreclose and the contractor taking possession finds his coffin, etc, etc.
D58826
@rikyrah:
On the other hand just wait for it:
“I’m bothered by the leaking of evidence about the underlying crime that there was collusion or coordination with the White House,”
rikyrah
David Brooks, Derp and the Poverty of Trump-Russia ‘Hot Takes’
By JOSH MARSHALL
Published JUNE 21, 2017 10:47 AM
This morning I had the chance to read David Brooks column pooh-poohing the Russia probe and the scandal engulfing the Trump administration. There are many things I could say about it. But I’ve resolved to be nicer and less cutting in my writing, or to do the contrary only when it is inextricably tied to explaining and conveying points of substance. Certainly this is a resolution that won’t last long.
Suffice it to say that Brooks framing proposition is both glorious and parodic: that is, that his own ring-side seat on the Whitewater probe gives him a special insight into the politics of scandal, how scandal frenzy can quickly get overblown and how these episodes poison our public life.
It is now plain for basically everyone to see what was fairly clear at the time: that the ‘Whitewater’ scandal was the grand parody of DC scandals. I don’t think Brooks ever had the bile or moral blindness that characterized the true hatchetmen at the Journal oped page – the deep driver of so much of that charade. But even a sideline presence there is something to answer for. (Yes, I’ve already failed.) The Whitewater scandal was truly a scandal about nothing which managed to bag a handful of associates in smallbore white collar crimes unrelated to the Clintons. It’s only final ‘success’ was getting Clinton on his real fatal flow – impulsive and reckless sexual behavior. In that case for an assignation that was years in the future when the investigation kicked off. Even the label given the ‘Whitewater’ scandal captured its essence: a Potemkin scandal inextricably tied to payback and projection over the Watergate scandal of a decade earlier.
………………………….
Here Watergate is in fact instructive.
The politically catastrophic Watergate scandal was devastating for the Republican party. After a landslide reelection for Nixon in 1972, his party was decimated in the 1974 mid-terms, which saw the arrival of a new generation of young, technocratic liberal Democrats who are only now retiring from the scene. That was followed in 1976 by the election of Jimmy Carter, on what amounted to an honesty and purity platform. But the political or rather ideological fallout of Watergate was ephemeral and fleeting. Republicans had a strong midterm election in 1978, coming after the harbinger of California’s Prop 13 in June of that year. 1980 saw the election of Ronald Reagan and a sweeping congressional victory which placed Republicans in charge of the Senate for the first time in more than a generation and gave Republicans working control of the House. In other words, Watergate created a relatively brief Democratic resurgence on the road to what we now recognize as the beginning of an era of broad conservative dominance of American politics which lasted at least a generation and by some reasonable definitions continues to this day.
Yet scandal, even if it is no substitute for the politics of ideology and coalition-making and campaigning, is nevertheless its constant companion, as it should be. The mechanisms of scandal are the republic’s antibodies against its own destruction. Yes, scandals can be overblown and destructive. But they don’t come from nowhere.
Just consider the late lamented Obama administration. Unlike Clinton’s, Bush’s and now Trump’s administration it was likely as scandal-free as you can ever expect to see in a country in which the President oversees an administration made up of – depending on your definition – hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. It was no accident. Obama was different. He’s clean and he was temperamentally inclined to hire clean people. That isn’t the only metric by which we judge presidents. LBJ was, let us say, a very different kind of character. But we owe him for Medicare and Medicaid. Politics, like life, is complicated.
In any case, it is silly to say that there doesn’t seem to be a there there in the Russia story. While Democrats are now fully on board trying to thrust it forward, its key developments have been pushed forward by career government officials who are either apolitical or in most of the key cases actually Republicans. They thought there was something important there to look at. We should heed that counsel.
Brachiator
@Chris:
I think it comes from the movies, some of Universal’s monster mashups of the 1940s and the imagination of later writers. It’s just a natural, kinda like Predator v Alien.
I think that in some of the 1930s movies and later, a vampire transforms into a wolf, which kinda complicates any idea of some natural enmity between the two monsters.
StringOnAStick
@Major Major Major Major: How about making the yard one of those Victorian garden replicas, complete with the mirrored “gazing balls” that were the rage then and have made a comeback in some garden catalogs now? The ones I’ve seen are about a foot or so in diameter, made of glass and highly reflective/mirrored.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@D58826: I don’t want to wade through a Brooks column. Does he address the part where trump went on TV and bragged about obstruction of justice because he was afraid the cover story he and Sessions had arranged would make him look weak for taking advice from some pencil-necked weenie with a law degree?
rikyrah
Hannity: A ‘Sinister,’ ‘Soft Coup Is Underway’ Against Trump
By NICOLE LAFOND
Published JUNE 21, 2017 11:03 AM
Fox News host Sean Hannity touted a conspiracy theory on his show Tuesday — that President Donald Trump may soon be the victim of a “soft coup.” Hannity alleged “sinister forces” are aligning to remove Trump from office.
In his opening monologue, Hannity said he believes the country is facing a “clear and present danger” as key forces unite against the President.
“A soft coup is underway right here in the United States of America, in an attempt to overturn November’s election results and forcibly remove a duly elected President from office,” he said.
He said Americans are facing five “dangers,” including the “destroy Trump media that has been lying to you now, provable lies for 11 months, nonstop” and the “deep state,” which has been selectively leaking information to damage Trump and his administration.
He called special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, into whether the President’s campaign associates worked with Russia to swing results of the 2016 election, “mission creepy” and an “out of control, political witch hunt” that needs to be stopped.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brachiator: Grandpa Munster could change into a wold, and Lily wore him as a stole
rikyrah
What Isn’t a Secret About McConnell’s Health Care Bill
by Nancy LeTourneau
June 21, 2017 12:30 PM
One thing that McConnell’s strategy of keeping his health care bill a secret accomplishes is that reporters like Ed O’Keefe can say ridiculous things like this:
“If there’s enough in there that people like, all this chatter about it being secret won’t matter, ” @edatpost says on GOP health care bill pic.twitter.com/eldDLfARGP
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 21, 2017
There are two problems with that analysis. The first is that it gives McConnell a pass for what Steve Benen called “a legislative heist.” In other words, it dismisses the problems posed to our democratic processes. To the extent that secrecy works, it will be repeated and the Senate ceases to be a deliberative body. Why not just let all the opposing party go home and allow the majority to legislate?
But this idea that there will be “enough in there that people like” is a complete fantasy (unless, of course, you happen to be a one percenter who will get a huge tax cut as a result of this bill). Kevin Drum did a good job of explaining that a few days ago.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Squeal, little piggy, squeal! It’s music to my ears.
Kay
@Chris:
I just don’t know. We all thought the secret service were super-good until an intruder ended up at the bottom of the stairs.
I once went to an airport when Obama was coming in as part of a group of political people they were rewarding with “up close and personal”. I had to send my driver’s license info ahead and I watched local police and Secret Service get ready. They shut down the interstate. They checked every car with dogs. I guess I don’t know how an armed intruder gets so close to that family. We were pre-screened and we had to wait for permission before we could even approach him- I mean get anywhere near him. It makes you doubt what you’re told about competence and rigor and, I don’t know, evaluating threats? Shouldn’t the house where they live be just impenetrable if there’s this elaborate security elsewhere? I wouldn’t have guessed “their house” as the unprotected area.
Chet Murthy (chromebook)
@aimai:
This. So this. People who think this way, might oughta have their patriotism examined. Sure, we do bad things. ONLY WE get to interrogate and decide whether we should change those bad things. Other countries can boycott us, embargo us, wheedle, plead, etc. But if they decide to interfere, that’s an act of war. And an *American* who thinks that it’s justified (or even a single iota exculpated) b/c we did it to others …. yeah,needs to examine their patriotism.
Tony J
@Major Major Major Major:
Ah, right, got you. I took “outside” to mean “not including”.
Graffiti, plenty of it. Of course everyone will just point and laugh at the ” VAMPIRE NEST!!” “BLOODSUCKER CENTRAL!!” and “NOT SAFE – MONSTER!!” scrawlings. At first. How long until the whispers start? “It’s silly, of course… but have you ever seen anyone there during the day?” People love to gossip.
You could always post threatening letters to the White House with the vampire’s return address. Let the Secret Service deal with it.
Aleta
germy
@rikyrah: Hannity. Inciting violence in his usual subtle way.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Paul Waldman on Nancy Pelosi and the Culture War in GA-06
on a somewhat related note, I wonder more regular Fox viewers could identify Kathy Griffin from a photo than MSNBC or CNN
D58826
@rikyrah:
To quote one of the great philosophers of western History – I don’t think that means what Hannity thinks it means.
Tony J
@Chris:
White Wolf’s World of Darkness RPGs from the late 80s\early 90’s. They had the vampires and the werewolves (Kindred and Garou, to be exact) at each others throats, physically and metaphysically. I’m pretty sure that’s where Underworld lifted the idea from.
Chris
@D58826:
If this is a coup, 2000 and 2016 definitely were.
Brachiator
@germy:
Yep. She’s part of a short scene that sets up the sequel. From the Wiki:
I haven’t seen anything about possible casting in Universal’s (so far) crappy attempts to reboot their horror franchise films.
Origuy
@Major Major Major Major:
Rig full-spectrum lights to a motion sensor and point them at all the exits, including the windows in case he flies out as a bat.
I’m presuming that there is a frequency in sunlight that affects vampires, which isn’t in artificial light.
germy
@Brachiator: From what I’ve read, they made a fatal error with The Mummy by letting their star take over the production.
Elsa Lanchester was so great in the Bride, and I loved her small role as Mary Shelley.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
How traditional of a vampire are we talking about? In some Eastern European countries, you scatter seeds or pebbles around, because their vampires have OCD and have to stop and count each one.
Chris
@Kay:
I’m inclined to go easy on intelligence/security agencies for at least some security breaches, because the simple fact is that no system is foolproof and something’ll always get through (and yes, that means I go easier on them for 9/11 than many).
Serious misbehavior and/or neglect is something else again. Unfortunately, they’ve done plenty of that, too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the FBI spokesman talking about the VA shooter just said, “obviously, there was some prescription medication involved, which I’m not going to get into”
How “obviously”? And, you just did.
ETA: @Mnemosyne: that’s hilarious, is that the “stregoi” (sp?)?
D58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: always get a kick when Laura Ingram or the Sage of Wasilla complain about the uppty b**** Nancy or Hillary.
I equally enjoy listening to all of the women on Faux news complain about the career oriented women in the Democratic party. If being a stay at home mom is so fired important, what the **** are they doing on TV? the most outspoken practitioner of this was Phyllis Schlafly. I always felt the world would have been a better place if she had practiced what she preached and stayed home baking cookies. Then again maybe her cooking was so bad that the kids kicked her out of the house.
rikyrah
Why Moral Victories Matter in Special Elections
by Nancy LeTourneau
June 21, 2017 9:47 AM
I can guarantee you that any Democrat who claims a “moral victory” in any of the special elections that have happened this year will be drowned out with claims that winning is all that matters. There is some truth in that. As in most competitions, coming in second doesn’t count for much.
But special elections don’t matter all that much in and of themselves. The reason they garner so much attention is because they are seen as harbingers of what is to come in midterm and general elections. Beyond winning, it is important to keep that in mind when analyzing the results.
So what can we learn from the special elections in Georgia and South Carolina yesterday, combined with what happened in Kansas and Montana earlier this year?
The first thing to keep in mind is the reason there was a special election in the first place. All of these seats opened up because the representative was chosen by Donald Trump to serve in his administration. In other words, they were previously held by Ray Zinke, Mike Pompeo, Mick Mulvaney and Tom Price. That makes all of these districts solid red in their leanings. Here’s a look at the history in Georgia’s 6th:
GOP margins in GA-6 House races:
1992 +16
94 +28
96 +16
98 +42
99 *
00 +50
02 +60
04 *
06 +45
08 +37
10 *
12 +30
14 +32
16 +24
17 ?
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) June 20, 2017
We can now fill in that last number. Karen Handel won by 4 percent. A lot of people will point to the fact that Ossoff performed worse that Clinton in the presidential race, where Trump won the district 48-47. But that is the point. In 2012, Obama lost this same district by 23 points. Donald Trump and the Republicans are hemorrhaging support in a district that not only elected Tom Price, but Newt Gingrich for years. Looking at the forest instead of the trees tells us that doesn’t portend well for them. Here is how David Wasserman captured that when it comes to all four special elections this year:
Chris
@Brachiator:
Is “The Mummy” as terrible as I fear, then?
(I’m biased – I’ve never seen the classic Universal movies, but I loved the nineties/2000s movies growing up. Well, the first two at any rate).
rikyrah
@germy:
Uh huh
Uh huh
rikyrah
GOOD
Congressional Black Caucus Refuses To Meet With Trump And Be His Publicity Props #TheResistance https://t.co/qSYz98K92R
— Jasper (@JSavoly) June 21, 2017
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: I think vampires need to be invited into a house. They just can’t cross a thresshold without an invitation. So on the inside of the door, place a post it note to remind yourself that you shouldn’t let them in no matter how much they beg. I’d say place it on the ousdie of the door, but that wouldn’t be neighborly.
rikyrah
UH UH UH
Ah of course. A nanny tax break. Perfect. https://t.co/oghkArDepE
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 21, 2017
Ivanka’s child tax credit will cost $500 billion over a decade and favor wealthier families with two working parents who use paid help… https://t.co/q2pj98IIcr
— Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) June 20, 2017
Party constantly whining about Nanny State will use ur hard earned tax $ so State can pay 4, wait 4 it, nannies 4 the rich.#MaryPoppinsTax
— Douglas Connors (@calmecam) June 21, 2017
Leave your kids at home to go and look after the rich people’s kids so they can get a break & a tax break. You know it makes perfect sense.
— Salim Pickens (@SalimPickens) June 21, 2017
Because people who can afford to hire nannies are burdened by their taxes #whereisRobinHood
— Joanne Cone (@jordangel2981) June 21, 2017
Who among us isn’t struggling to afford that second au pair?
— AngelSil (@angelsil_tpa) June 21, 2017
Meanwhile those nannies will have no healthcare.
— Josh Polanski (@BipedalPrime8) June 21, 2017
rikyrah
The Parliamentarian hasn’t yet decided the House bill complies with Senate rules. So the Senate GOP is preparing to blow up the rules. https://t.co/zNifzCnq1H
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 21, 2017
gvg
@Chris: I first noticed it in Pratchetts diskworld series. Men at Arms 1993. i don’t read regular Horror so I am not sure if something else preceded it. I just assumed it was British folklore but now I question that.
D58826
(sigh) Milwaukee jury joins a long list in acquitting a cop in killing a blank man. Going forward maybe the money spent on a useless trail should be put in a scholarship fund for the victims kids. AT least it would be doing some good.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, mostly the Slavic, Greek, and Italian-style vampires. Haven’t decided if these ones have arithmomania yet.
Peale
@Chris: The mummy reboot wasn’t as bad as the reviews said. It’s just a very standard action movie. Its really meant to launch a sequel with a kind of anti-hero 1/2 man 1/2 mummy. I don’t know where they’re planning to go with this, but it was a just the kind of things young men want to see – explosions, guns, a somewhat nude, sexually predacious female with stuff glued to her face. It doesn’t have much to recommend it, but that doesn’t make it awful.
rikyrah
GOP falsely claims Dems did ‘exactly the same thing’ on health care
06/21/17 10:46 AM
By Steve Benen
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has raised concerns about his party’s approach to health care and the process in which the GOP bill is being crafted, but he felt compelled to tell reporters yesterday that congressional Democrats did “exactly the same thing” when putting together the Affordable Care Act several years ago.
Reminded that his claim is ridiculously untrue, Paul replied, “I’m not going to debate you.”
That’s not surprising. People caught in a lie rarely welcome an in-depth discussion of the topic on which they’re trying to deceive people.
To be sure, if Paul and his Republican colleagues were correct – if Democrats really did write “Obamacare” in secret, bypass committees, refuse to hold hearings, shut out industry stakeholders and subject-matter experts, shield the proposal from any kind of public scrutiny – then GOP officials would be justified to pursue their current strategy. Indeed, everyone involved could credibly blame Democrats for creating an awful standard for American governance.
Reality, however, is stubborn. The Huffington Post’s Jonathan Cohn explained yesterday:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris: goes back at least till 1945. I saw all these movies when I was a kid, a regular weekend show called “Creature Feature”, I loved it. This wiki entry has the plot of House of Dracula, but I got bored reading it
bemused
@D58826:
Ha, ha. Now I’m imagining Ivanka in a $50,000 flower flak jacket pretending to walk in slow motion (tip #7) with Jared across WH lawn.
So I walk in the house just in time to hear msnbc reporting Jared is in Israel to make peace. The awesome Jared, technology one day and Israeli/Palestine peace the next. I can’t even. The arrogance and stupidity of that family. Not a peep of skepticism from Republican voters that I know of. Now if Hillary was prez and Chelsea was minister of fixing everything……
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And Grandpa Munster was a vampire, while Eddie Munster was a werewolf. A very mixed family.
Also a couple of fun Munster facts, from 28 Facts You Might Not Know about The Munsters:
D58826
@rikyrah:
I suspect it will be a moral victory if it helps lay the basis of lessons learned on the way to flipping the house in 2018. If the GOP keeps control of the house then it is just one more in a long line of election day failures. I remember a Phillies coach, trying to console a bunch of fans, that at least the beer is colder in the basement/last place. Since in our two party system you can say the D’s are in the basement, I really hope that the beer is colder. Because always coming in last has nothing else to recommend it
Peale
@rikyrah:
Bah. I’m sure with the tax break, they’ll be able to pay minimum wage and social security for their help and won’t be bringing in foreign help illegally. Seriously, what the hell does this tax break even do?
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Emails still circulate screeching that Madelyn Murray O’Hair is pushing her atheist propaganda in our schools, despite the fact that she’s been dead for 20 years.
EVEN IF Pelosi retired tomorrow, she would STILL be the object of the 5 Minute Hate every damn day on Fox News.
Roger Moore
@Peale:
Time to replace your “Welcome” doormat with one that says “Come Back With A Warrant“.
Brachiator
@Chris:
No, just supremely ordinary, and ultimately lifeless and dull. I like Tom Cruise. I think he has been great in a lot of films. I think he is miscast here (as is Russell Crowe, more spectacularly).
And people forget, or mercifully don’t know that “Dracula Untold” was supposed to be part of this reboot. These films have made money, when you look at worldwide box office. But there is no compelling reason for any of them to exist.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
Should it matter? Unless vampires are common, the neighbors are depending on myth and legend about what will and won’t work against them. The story might be funnier if some of their attempts are bumbling and unsuccessful because the legends are wrong.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
One of the background plot points in the aforementioned series I was reading (Dresden Files) is that different vampires are vulnerable to different things. There’s one vampire court that’s exactly as described in “Dracula” mythology… and that’s because the “Dracula” mythology was mostly released to the public by rival vampire courts in the first place so that the humans could wipe them out. (The vampires who survive to the present day, of course, are not vulnerable to these things).
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Fun fact: Lon Chaney Jr was the only actor who played Laurence Talbot/the Wolf Man in the Universal movies. All of the other monsters would switch actors, but Chaney loved the role and insisted on playing it.
Peale
@Origuy: do the motion sensors rely on reflected light at all to trigger them? I think that might be a problem. Kind of like a SLR camera – if the light that the motion sensor is detecting needs to bounce off of mirrors and lenses inside the detector, it will be useless in detecting vampire motion.
Chris
@Brachiator:
That’s what I figured. Sad. I like Tom Cruise, and I actually like the lead actress too (or did in “Kingsman” and “Star Trek Beyond.”) But I don’t think I’ll go see it in theaters.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: That’s a good point, and it actually does matter to a degree, but not entirely, either.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Chaney also played Dracula. Or Count Alucard (“Dracula,” spelled backwards).
I also see this little tidbit from the Wiki: “Chaney is thus the only actor to portray all four of Universal’s major horror characters: the Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, and Count Dracula.”
D58826
@Peale:
progress of sorts from the 1990’s
zhena gogolia
@Chet Murthy (chromebook):
What makes you think that guy is an American?
D58826
@Roger Moore:
If we could only say the same for the Trump supporters.
Roger Moore
@Peale:
“Will be able pay” and “will pay” are not the same thing, especially when talking about our MOTU.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore:
That is hilarious and I will use it.
Brachiator
@germy:
No. The basic motivating premise of all the reboots is kinda dumb. Frankenstein, the Mummy, even the Wolf man is about the creatures, not the human protagonists. The idea of hiring big name stars to front these films is dumb.
Also, Cruise has served as the creative force or actual producer for many of his films. And he is usually smart and generous, not ego driven (I’m looking at you, Johnny Depp). And as I noted, “Dracula Untold,” which also was supposed to be part of this Universal reboot, came and went without much of a trace. I think that Cruise has been gentlemanly to take the blame for the relative failure of this film. But I don’t think there was ever much interest in this film, or the films to come. Every movie isn’t a “brand” that can be exploited.
Tony J
@Major Major Major Major:
One of the legendary attributes I haven’t seen explored much outside of the 1920’s Nosferatu version is that vampires bring pestilence and disease with them. Your vampire neighbour wouldn’t have to do much, just sit tight for a few nights until everyone is laid up with medieval plagues then go make house calls.
He doesn’t have a medical licence, does he? Could come in useful.
“Are you in there, Mrs Smith? It’s me, Doctor Von Fangoff. Come on in? Don’t mind if I do.”
efgoldman
@rikyrah:
Oh, OH! Where’s my fainting divan? Where’s my triple clutching string of the best plastic pearls…..
Next thing you’ll tell me is hyenas act like hyenas. How can I cope?
hugely
@Oatler.: I prefer CeU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxf5qF0KnEg YMMV depending on age etc
D58826
Now I’m not up on all of the details but my general approach in these kinds of cases is the kids should be allowed to put in their yearbook what that want, short of porn or threatening images..
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-yearbook-photos-edited-funding-627974
In the meantime he has ignored the events in Portland, the murder of a black ROTC graduate and the rape murder of a young Muslim girl in VA. And to add insult to injury
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/877597808014098436
More and more I am disgusted to call myself an American
Ella in New Mexico
There’s more than enough information out in the public domain right now to make connections between Russian hacking and data stealing and Brad Parscale’s (Trump Campaign IT Guru’s) multi-level IT firm’s willingness to pull it all together to “target” vulnerable voters in “easy” districts to flip.
We all know the traditional “in person” schemes for suppressing voter turnout–try the same things, just digitized.
Imagine them unleashed in emails and ads, news stream preferences and telephone surveys based on pulling together all the data from the hacked voter rolls + Twitter/Facebook activity + Credit Reports + Stolen data from Federal Employees or Amazon or your health insurance company + your Neilson TV scorings + any and all other easily obtained public information about you and me into sketchy Cambridge Analytica’s “political preference” generators which were then passed on to Parscale…
and Jared Kushner’s “War Room” during the last weeks of the campaign. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2016/11/22/exclusive-interview-how-jared-kushner-won-trump-the-white-house/#71b379c33af6
And BTW, these people need to be told to STFU when they say “There’s no evidence a single vote was changed”. The only reason we don’t have evidence of actual vote tampering in the key states is because no one is actually trying to find out if it happened. http://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-never-ran-audit-to-see-if-votes-were-hacked?source=twitter&via=mobile
Roger Moore
@Tony J:
It would be a more plausible approach if doctors still made house calls. Also, FWIW, he can claim to have a medical license whether he does or not; it’s not as if vampires are incapable of lying.
JR in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
You askin’ the right guy now!!
I used to read horror all the time, starting with the original Count Dracul. Pools of holy water. Patches of long wooden thorns, like on locust trees. Actually, that’s about it, wooden stabbing and holy water were the major things to nail a vamp. I guess you could plant garlic all around, but that might just be annoying and piss him off. Or piss her off.
seaboogie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Major Major Major Major: Get Jim’s Mom’s priest to consecrate the local water reservoir and then everyone run a long hose from their property to the the vampire’s joint with sprinklers constantly on. Oh – and tell the local Jehovah’s Witness congregation that V is just on the verge of converting, and simply needs moar literature and conversation. Don’t forget rain slickers for the JW proselytizers (and zip-loc baggies for the Watchtower booklets – fine writing is in the details).
Tony J
@Roger Moore:
During a major outbreak of supernatural icky-sicky plague? With most people clogging the hospitals or bedridden at home? A house-calling Doctor wouldn’t seem so odd then, would it?
Though yeah, he or she wouldn’t actually – need – a genuine qualification. They might have picked one up over the centuries though, out of boredom if nothing else.
JR in WV
@JR in WV:
WOW, I’m obviously in over my head. I knew about but totally forgot about arithmomania, counting grains of tiny stuff. Gold Dust would come in handy there. I’ll stop while I’m only embarrassed, and not killed by Vampiric wiles.
Origuy
Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate steampunk novels have vampires and werewolves as uncomfortable allies. They’re set in Victorian England; the vampires see the werewolves as brutish and uncouth, the werewolves see the vampires as effete.