Trump’s exchange this morning with Fox News “reporter” Ainsley Earhardt (approximately one minute in) is fascinating, in the sense that the visual effects of the aerodynamic heating of an asteroid hurtling toward the planet would be briefly interesting:
WATCH: @FLOTUS talks her move to the White House, @POTUS explains Comey 'tapes' tweet and weighs in on Mueller | @ainsleyearhardt pic.twitter.com/PCMK9W7Uei
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 23, 2017
Not gonna click? I don’t blame you. I wish I hadn’t seen it. To summarize, Trump brags that he tweeted about non-existent tapes to intimidate a witness, James Comey. As we know, Comey subsequently cited that incident as the reason he arranged the release of memos in a successful bid to get a special counselor involved in the investigation of Russian election meddling.
We know this investigation, which grew exponentially more serious once a special counselor became involved, is eating Trump up. It has prompted White House aides to take extraordinary measures to keep Trump from exploding, including morning play-dates to distract Trump from cable news coverage and keep him from obstructing the investigation even more.
But in the clip above, Earhardt calls the witness intimation tweet “smart,” and Trump agrees that it “wasn’t very stupid.” Even though it blew up in his fucking face worse than any Acme product ever maimed Wile E. Coyote.
I guess Earhardt was this morning’s play-date. And really, you couldn’t have found a more likely specimen if you created an amalgam of every woman Trump ever hoped to grope.
I sincerely hope the folks who are orchestrating these charades are as rattled, anxious and enraged as their boss.
bystander
I’ll watch it but only after it’s an SNL sketch. Or Sassy Trump. Or Mr. President.
cervantes
Well, anxious and enraged he may be, but it isn’t stopping the Republicans from murdering people to further enrich the Koch brothers. And it isn’t stopping people from voting for them. Until all of this starts making the slightest difference I won’t pay much attention to it.
Corner Stone
Tom Tomorrow did a transcription. I am unable to look at Trump, much less hear his voice if possible. So I tried skimming the transcript. As expected, I am still trying to thumb a ride back from Fucking Crazytown.
schrodingers_cat
Not going to watch. Clowns in orange make-up scare the crap out of me.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Me too. I haven’t seen any TV news since last October.
Corner Stone
He straight says that he thinks Comey’s story changed after he heard that tapes may exist. ISTM this would be a good start at making a case for witness intimidation.
CaseyL
@cervantes: Bingo. Nothing will change until voters wake up, and I’ve seen nothing to indicate that they have.
Laura
That man just ain’t right in the head.
I could spend the entire day diagramming his statements given enough white board and colored markers.
Instead, I’ll call my Senators and rant about the it’s BCRAP bill.
OzarkHillbilly
Does nobody in the GOP (I almost added FOX news but that goes without saying) understand that witness intimidation is a crime?
Doug!
I like Melania’s Mondrianish dress.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Six months.
El Caganer
@OzarkHillbilly: No.
Elizabelle
@Corner Stone: Yeah. Trump: I’m not the liar. Comey’s the liar. He started telling the truth once he thought tapes were out there.
And he tells the Fox babe in the short hot pink cocktail dress that she and her network can do the investigative reporting.
It is an alternative universe.
One visual point: the crystal chandelier-like wall sconce in the background. Did Obama do many interviews standing in front of one of those?
With crystal and the gold portrait frame, it looks like Trump’s natural milieu. Does not look like “man of the people.”
Trump looks like a past his prime businessman talking with two rich women or highly expensive escorts.
Chyron HR
So Comey “stayed honest in the hearings”? Is that your final answer, Donald?
Hoodie
A friend sent the transcript this morning. It reads like a character played by Dennis Hopper.
OzarkHillbilly
@El Caganer: I guess it’s IOKIYAR again.
germy
@Doug!: She reminds me of a R. Crumb cartoon, only less muscular. He seemed to specialize in eastern European, heavily-mascaraed women.
Chyron HR
TRUMP: It was a lie, see? I said it to intimidate a witness. (Taps temple with index finger to indicate smartness.)
I dunno, I think this Trump character was miscast. Definitely should have been Jon Lovitz rather than Alec Baldwin.
Mike in DC
Washington Post @washingtonpost
The CIA captured Putin’s specific instructions – defeat Clinton and help elect Trump (link: http://wapo.st/2tB7BJk) wapo.st/2tB7BJk
Well, that removes all the ambiguity. Kinda feel like the Obama administration made the wrong call not to go public over Republican objections. But hindsight is 20/20 etc.
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle:
“Which was a lie. By me. No liar, you’re the liar!”
Aleta
a single shot by Tom Tomorrow
https://mobile.twitter.com/tomtomorrow/status/878022379917778944/photo/1
(btw, I saw that he’s been dropped by lots of papers because of cutbacks. I don’t know for sure, but might need donation support?)
Kay
Comey deserves a ton of credit for that, getting the investigation. I don’t know if we;ll ever find out what happened but there’s a fighting chance and we didn’t have one before. It’s kind of amazing what one person can do when they set their mind to it. He got the big machine to move and there was probably push-back inside the FBI because they have Trump partisans and they’re pretty clearly covering their ass on what seem to me to be obvious fumbles. Leaving messages for the tech guy at the DNC is not good or sufficient work. It’s just not. It falls short.
It was genuinely self-sacrificing. There’s no guarantee this investigation will make the FBI look good. It’s more likely it makes them look bad. He sort of fell on everyone’s sword. He took the whole burden. Remarkable.
ruemara
I can’t be bothered with the Slovakian Mannequin & her orange furby. Has anyone read about this north Carolina law that once you consent to sex, you can’t rescind it? Unless you get beaten? I’m just blown away by how far this country has fallen.
mai naem mobile
I’ve watched Fox more during the last six months than ever before – maybe a total of 6 hours. . I know Dolt and the GOP is damaging this country deeply and the only solace I find is Fox trying to cover him with a straight face. I just lIke to laugh at them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: It is no where near enough to make up for his October surprise about Hillary’s emails. No where near enough.
Mike in NC
We’re vacationing at Tampa Bay for a few days, so paying scant attention to the stupid antics of the bloated First Groper and his miserable family.
mai naem mobile
@ruemara: So Putin can continue to fuck Dolt 45 over and over again?
ding7777
I think there are (or were) tapes. How else would Trump “remember” that there were three and only three incidents of Comey telling hm he was not under investigation?
Corner Stone
@Kay:
As I have stated here before, to the opprobrium of some, and I saw you recently comment something similar – what does it say about our Republic that it all hangs on the balance of what one man is willing/able to do?
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: True, but after that horse was out of the barn, Comey was in a position to do something about it, and he did. He was almost certainly motivated more to protect his own reputation than to do the country a service, just as he was when he made the catastrophic decision to insert himself into the final days of the 2016 campaign. But no Comey, no Mueller. That’s something.
JPL
@Mike in DC: The secretary of state of GA, comes across as a partisan hack. After reading the article, I was sorely tempted to call his office.
tobie
@Mike in DC: It’s hard to imagine what would have happened if Obama had gone public with the CIA’s info that Russia was disrupting the election. Civil war? Half the Republican party is already unhinged. It would not have taken much to push them over the edge.
But what he SHOULD have done is go ahead with the digital offense planned in response to Russian hacking. That Obama let Trump decide whether to respond is just mind-boggling.
Kay
I love how Trump has shifted the burden. Now he says the Obama Administration should have prevented or fixed it. But no one ever said he should prevent it or fix it because that’s ridiculous- the question is was he part of it or benefited by it. He was definitely benefited by it, so really it’s just was he part of it. There isn’t any investigation into whether Donald Trump The Candidate should have stopped Russian interference, although weirdly the DNC tech guy was identified as the person who failed, and that’s equally ridiculous.
The Wikileaks emails were HUGELY beneficial to Trump. Obviously. I’m sort of curious what the reaction will be to the next batch of stolen emails, in the next campaign. I suspect there will be a grave and serious effort to examine the ethical considerations.
Corner Stone
@Mike in DC:
I continue to be furious about this issue and hindsight has nothing to do with it, IMO. This was a national security issue and it was viewed through a lens of domestic politics.
NorthLeft12
And the general consensus is yes. Yes they are.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
But that’s often the case. It’s terrifying how often huge, life-changing results for individuals turn on one person in the court system, for example. There’s the one person who says “no, that is NOT how this works and I will be the authority since the rest of you clowns are ducking”.
It always seemed fragile to me because it is fragile. When other people are like “how did this HAPPEN” I always think “it’s wild that it doesn’t happen more often, as incompetent and selfish and distracted as we all are”.
My daughter works in healthcare and they use checklists. They’re trained out the wazoo and they still check a box that says “I washed my hands, I marked the eye we’re taking out with a Sharpie”. It works, too. Checkety-check check! People are bad. Often :)
Major Major Major Major
@Mike in DC: @Corner Stone: that article’s on my to-read list. I am also furious at Obama for the same reasons.
It’s completely in line with his personality, which makes me all the more upset since we valued him for that but it may have been his downfall in the end.
Of course, the most culpability is with the deplorable Trump voters.
jharp
“Not gonna click?”
Nope.
Not a chance.
Cannot stand even the sight of that fucking asshole let alone listening to him speak.
Jeffro
@Mike in DC: It’s a bombshell of an article for most. Most BJers have been following this quite closely – glad to see it all laid out for the general public.
That drumbeat ain’t gonna get any quieter, Trumpov. You’re betraying the country with every single day that you try to pretend Putin’s attack on our country didn’t happen.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: My take is that Comey dropped his famous letter to try and limit Hillary’s impending blowout victory (and possibly a D House and Senate, too).
Lo and behold, other forces were at work, and here we are in the aftermath of a perfect storm of stupid.
Captain C
@Mike in DC:
FTFY
O. Felix Culpa
@Jeffro:
It wouldn’t be so bad (and worrying) if it were only stupid. Trouble is, it’s stupid and malicious.
Just One More Canuck
@Mike in NC: Are you staying with Betty?
germy
In other news…
“The attorney of Vermont, who will be handling the prosecutor’s case, is yet to be appointed by President Trump’s administration.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I have to mute him when he comes on TeeVee, have all but had to give up on radio news, but reading him is at least interesting
I’d love to know which tweet(s) he’s responding to there. I bet he could name half a dozen at least.
he has a ferocious, if comically selective*, memory when it suits him. I can’t remember specifics, but there were a couple of instances in the campaign, IIRC, when he quoted stories back at reporters that had been written long ago.
* everyone talks about how Comey told him he wasn’t under investigation “at this time”. Like when Elijah Cummings told him, all but sarcastically, if you do everything you promised to do, you’ll go down in history as one of the greatest presidents in history. What the Rough Beast remembered was the last clause, ignoring the “if” bigger than his own delusions.
Major Major Major Major
@O. Felix Culpa: it’s evil tempered by incompetence, to mangle Hanlon’s Razor.
Kay
I know quite a few Trump voters and they’re mad about Russia because they think it takes away from Trump’s win and the winning was the thing.
They’re mad because it does take away from his win and they know it and he does too, which is why he’s more obsessed with Russia than any Democrat. He had help. Hell, he crowed about it. He was thrilled with the Wikileaks thing. Good timing for him. He benefited from Russian interference. The only question is whether he coordinated it.
Major Major Major Major
@germy: forgive me if I take investigations by Sessions’ DOJ into Democrats or Democrat-adjacent Independents with a grain of salt.
@Kay: the more accurate question would be whether he knew his campaign was coordinating it, I suspect.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@ruemara:
This wins Teh Interntezez for today.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Well I’ve been told that the reason the AHCA is going to pass is because the Democrats are too focused on Russia. Russia is not a thing at all, and Trump rope-a-doped the Democrats with Russia while stealing our health care. This proves that Dems suck worse than Republicans, or something. Now I will go drink some battery acid.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, too, you gotta love this strateegery
-“Let’s troll Comey about his honesty, let’s suggest he would have lied if we hadn’t tricked him!”
– “Won’t that just piss him off even more, and Mueller, and the FBI? Maybe even the guys in New York who helped us win?”
– “What are you? A democrat elite?”
– “Um.. MAGA?..”
Jeffro
@Kay: The funny thing is, if Republican voters…if Trumpov himself…wants to put this behind them and celebrate his awesome, special, yuge victory, then all they have to do is let the investigators do their work. If it’s bullshit, if Trumpov’s totally innocent…then why not pound the table for a thorough investigation and then rub THAT in the damn librulz faces’? Right?
Once indictments start to drop, then it’ll be the work of a few ‘bad apples’…(or even a few sad attempts by Manafort and Page to say they were the ones playing the Russians, you know, all triple-agent-style and what not)
I’m just hanging in there for the money laundering and RICO counts. Roger Stone has a big Nixon tattoo on his back…well, the day Trumpov gets hit for his money laundering activities with the Russian mob over the years, I’m at the local parlor getting a Bobby Three Sticks Special inked.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
I don’t think it was better in the past either. I’m reading this book about Depression-era criminals. There was a kind of crime spree because institutions broke down and people were like “fuck it- I can’t make any money so I’ll steal it”
Bonnie and Clyde returned home to Texas to visit their families regularly in the midst of their crime spree. No one could catch them although they were IN the place they grew up like once a month. They’d pull up in a car riddled with bullet holes and the mighty Texas Rangers could not seem to track them down. It just wasn’t working, “the system”. It fell apart.
Villago Delenda Est
Donald’s main problem is he can’t fake innocence.
He’s always acting as if he’s guilty. Which leads people to draw the logical conclusion.
GregB
Trump’s Tell-Tale Heart of his campaign’s direct collusion with Russian intelligence agencies and their efforts to propagandize American voters and to cage and manipulate actual vote counts us beating louder and louder in his ears.
His Scooby-Doo villain moment of admission us inevitable.
Peale
@Kay: I still think it will turn out that he didn’t do much (but will be in plenty of trouble over trying to get Flynn off). I’m also not going to be shocked at all if a dozen or so GOP operatives aren’t going to end up in jail. Among other things, it seems that someone somewhere should have been responsible (I have no idea where) in unregistered foreign lobbying. It seems like there are a lot of people in Washington who just make money collecting money for foreign governments and not bothering to register as lobbyists. If poor areas are going to be expected to forego their hospitals because federal government cash in the form of medicaid, can we figure out how to take money out of the political operative community in exchange?
smintheus
Interesting body language. Trump, head cocked, looks at his wife as if he were examining a display case in an insect exhibit. Then he turns to the Fox nitwit and sizes her up with a sexually predatory stare.
Roger Moore
@tobie:
The only thing that might possibly have worked would be a campaign of leaks. This would have done several things:
1) Made it look less like Obama playing politics with the thing.
2) Gotten the attention of the media, who seem to take leaks far more seriously than straight-up news.
3) Let Obama act angry about the leak of such sensitive information as a way of keeping the whole thing in the news.
Gretchen
I love “play-dates”. So true.
Elmo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s even worse than that.
“We totes tricked Comey into telling the truth at the hearing!”
But his testimony was horribly damaging to you.
“Like I said, Comey lied out his ass at the hearing!”
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@germy:
Crooked Jane. The only one who wasn’t under investigation by the FBI during the election was Hillary.
Gretchen
My Senator Roberts went before the cameras yesterday and claimed that the process of the health care bill. I called his office and said I’d appreciate my Senator not lying to my face. The aide insisted that people knew what would be in the bill, he knew somebody who’d read the bill, there would be hearings and amendments. My voice was shaking with rage by the time I was through talking to him. I ended up just saying “this bill is going to hurt millions of people. Why would he do this? Why? The only reason is to shovel more money to his donors?” Enraged.
TriassicSands
After saying he didn’t tape, Trump says there may be tapes “out there.” He just can’ t stop trying to manipulate and intimidate Comey and others. I don’t think it will work with Comey because he’s telling the truth and Trump is lying. I don’t even hold out the possibility that Trump is telling the truth. I doubt if Trump even knows when he’s lying. He’s spent so many years lying about virtually everything, the truth has become whatever he says. I doubt there were ever tapes, but if there were they’ve been destroyed by now. They were never going to support Trump’s version of anything.
Can we just stipulate that Trump lies about everything, all the time, and if he tells the truth it is inadvertent and he will set the record “straight” in due course? Note: Where straight is inaccurate, dishonest, or some version that is untrue and totally self-serving.
GregB
@germy:
Democrats under investigation: Guilty!
Republicans under investigation: Witch Hunt!
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Gretchen: This was posted over at Vox. This is what they think of you, it’s a quote from a Republican Congressman:
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: The IC people almost never want to release information – they think the most important thing is preserving “sources and methods”. If Obama said that he had evidence that Putin directly ordered actions to defeat Hillary and elect Donnie, then the press and the Teabaggers would be screaming, “show us the evidence!!11” and no evidence released would be good enough (because the IC would never want to release how they got the information).
It was a no-win situation unless the GOP was willing to agree (Obama and Jey Johnson proposed in August), and they refused.
Obama did what he could. He couldn’t save the country if the GOP majority in Congress refused to act.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elmo
@ruemara: For what it’s worth, I understand that the law isn’t being accurately reported at all – it’s all Zowie Bam outrage for clicks. The law doesn’t say that. Instead, the law in North Carolina – as in many other states – defines the crime of “rape” solely by reference to the act of penetration without consent. So the Court found that, if the initial act of penetration was done with consent, what followed wasn’t rape as defined by law. It could be sexual assault, it could be aggravated assault, it could be battery, it could be kidnapping if she was confined against her will – but it wasn’t “rape” because rape requires penetration without consent. Just because it can’t be called rape doesn’t mean it isn’t a crime.
This is not at all unusual, for the law to be so defined, and it’s a matter for the legislature to fix.
smintheus
@Mike in DC: Obama blew it big time, and that would have been obvious in 2016 to anybody with a pulse. He always tried to protect his self-image as the politician who stands above the partisan fray, sometimes to our detriment.
Villago Delenda Est
@GregB: “If it wasn’t for those meddling kids!”
Cermet
The tRump apparently made an extremely serious mistake of attacking and belittling the CIA early in his clown show administration. They, unlike the large group of clowns at the fbi, are striking back and hard. Good for them!
Of course, before he did that, seriously doubt the CIA would have been this helpful so, not likely leaks would have occurred before the clown took office and then attacked the agency …
Jeffro
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
In all fairness to Gary Johnson, he was only being looked at for a misdemeanor possession charge.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL:
BASED ON GEORGIA 06?
zhena gogolia
@Mike in DC:
Yes, I expected this to be front-paged by now.
smintheus
@TriassicSands: Trump’s weird statement that ‘there may be tapes out there’ sounded to me like he may know that there are tapes. The rest of his tweet was extremely carefully worded like a Nixonian non-denial denial. Trump said that *he* did not tape Comey and that *he* did not possess tapes; that could just as easily mean that Trump appointed somebody else to take charge of installing mics and taping people.
LurkerNoLonger
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: That kind of thinking will get him or her thrown out on his or her ass. The people who voted for him or her probably didn’t think he or she would want to kill them by taking away their health insurance.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
He says his “smart” strategy changed Comey’s testimony and he tells the Foxbot that with a little investigation, which by the way will be very easy, she should be able to find out that his ploy, forced Comey to change his story and tell the truth. It’s jarring that he still thinks that Comey’s testimony was a “win” for him. I’d sa it’s spin, but Robert Costa is pretty good at getting the inside story, Twittler thinks it was a win, the people with brains around him, not so much. Now if only they could set up a powerpoint diagramming how his tweets caused this shitstorm.
tobie
@Roger Moore: This is the kind of tough play that Democrats are going to have to learn if they are going to reclaim power. Oddly enough, the one person everyone’s ragging on right now (Nancy Pelosi) knows how to play hardball. There’s something in our character that makes us always want to be perfectly transparent and upstanding. I’m convinced, for instance, that it was a Republican operative who sent Handel’s campaign the envelope with white powder and leftist note. Can you imagine a Democratic operative doing anything remotely like this? Nope.
(To be clear, I’m not recommending the latter gimmick, which was bone stupid.)
Immanentize
@germy: My classmate was the US Attorney for New Hampshire — only an acting there too. In fact — hey look! There are no appointed US Attorneys in any State in the country. Nice job, Sessions.
Betty Cracker
I’ve basically adopted the Le Comte position on Bernie Sanders now. Jesus H. Christ. Maybe Schumer needs to haul his ass in and let him know that he has some nice committee assignments, and it would be a shame if something were to happen to them…
Tokyokie
@Kay: The examples of Raoul Wallenberg and Ho Fang-shan come quickly to mind. Nobody in the GOP with the courage they exhibited.
TriassicSands
@Mike in DC:
The articles in the Post this morning really do raise questions about Obama’s handling of the Russian interference. However, it is not that difficult to imagine what the response of Republicans would have been. Since evidence doesn’t matter to them, they would have denied the whole thing, maybe backing Trump’s claim about 400 pounders on couches, who I understand may be behind climate change, too.
Evidently, McConnell did claim to not believe the Russians were interfering. He’s not just cruel, he’s incredibly stupid.
Of course the intelligence didn’t support the White House’s claims, Mitch, they’re just like you — they play politics with everything, even national security. They just made the whole story up — like you would have done.
Idiot!
Bess
@Doug!: But her age is starting to show in that photo.
Time for some more work….
Immanentize
@tobie:
The crazy thing is that is Nacy actually walked away, there is no doubt in my mind that Steny Hoyer would become minority leader. And for all the “Nancy is an old bag” complainers, Hoyer is a year older than Pelosi. And he is a blue dog creep.
hovercraft
@Elizabelle:
He’s not anymore, remember he’s a self made man who worked with his hands and his worlds best brain to work his way up to where he is, which is why the “elites” won’t accept him. His tackiness is proof that he’s just like them, if they hit it big, they too would flaunt it and go with all the gilt, and they too would be shunned by the elites because they weren’t to the manor born.
Nobody point out that the Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Michael Boomberg and so many others really did start with nothing and are now bona fide billionaires who are fully accepted by the elites, I wonder what makes him different.
Shalimar
@Mike in DC: If a full investigation had started last August using all the resources of the federal government, they would have discovered a lot more about the Trump campaign’s involvement by the election. It seems like Obama refrained from doing more because he was worried about being perceived as acting to help Clinton. Republicans would not have worried about that had the situation been reversed.
So yes, he should have ignored their objections rather than let them gain the presidency with Russian help. This shouldn’t have even been a tough call.
germy
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Betty Cracker: Well yeah, when “America’s Most Popular Politician” says the Democrats are bad you better believe it. Don’t plan on a 2018 wave with this poisonous shit being slung day in and day out.
eric
Trump voters and GOP voters, in general, “want” to win. They “know” that democrats are captured by special interests so that all democrat[] legislation is a give away and corrupt. Period. There need by no analysis, and if there is, then the messenger will be discounted as captured by democrat[] self-interest. They “know” that liberals hate the free market so all democrat[] legislation has some marker of socialism. They “know” that democrats do not swear fealty to the flag, and, thus are not patriotic. They “know” that democrats hate guns because liberals think that people that own guns are rednecks. They “know” that liberals hate the America they love. This is the epistemic closure that allows the GOP to believe that this grotesque “health care” bill is an improvement over the prior democrat[] Law.
PS. They are right only about that last one. We do hate a land of inequality with racial and gender injustice. We do hate a land where bigotry is ordained from the lord above.
Doug R
@CaseyL: Trump disapproval ALREADY at record lows, I think some are waking up already.
Mike in DC
I think there’s a quid pro quo arrangement, a sort of arms length coordination (possibly including data sharing and message coordination and voter targeting), and of course the post facto efforts to deny, minimize, and obstruct. Plus the efforts to water down or tie up the sanctions bill in the House.
The only questions are:
1. How much can Mueller prove?
2. How deep and wide does this go? Was the RNC and/or GOP leadership also involved at some level?
3. Can the Republicans be forced to impeach one of their own?
4. Can Mueller file an indictment against Trump, to be acted upon when he is no longer President?
5. How long will all this take?
Tokyokie
@Kay: Similarly, Choc Floyd was never going to be taken down as long as he stayed in Oklahoma’s Cookson Hills. Melvin Purvis ran him to the ground in Ohio.
Hill Dweller
@Another Scott: Jeh Johnson and Clapper did release a joint statement in early October saying the Russians were using “active measures” to tilt the election. Comey was suppose to put his name on the statement, but backed out because he thought it was too close to the election. Obama was obviously trying to get the info out there while making it look non-partisan(more credible), but it was never going to work. McConnell told Obama in August what he already knew, the Republicans will sell out the country if it means them keeping power, and their base will continue voting for them.
Betty Cracker
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Tom Perez did his best to appease Sanders. Went on that “unity tour.” Put Sanders people in key positions within the party. Changed planks of the party platform to accommodate him. But Sanders is still directing his streams of urine inside the fucking tent. It has to stop.
Peale
@hovercraft: As a point of order – the three self made men started from upper middle class families. O.K. Bloomberg’s family was probably just standard middle class. But these aren’t rags to riches stories. More like mostly we shopped at Penny’s but mom had some nice stuff from Bloomingdale’s for special nights out to riches stories.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Betty Cracker: It won’t. He’s got the Dems by the balls and he knows it. We’re fucked.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
“The Study Committee on Gathering Potential Names to Consider for Inland Locks, Rural Post Offices and Department of Agriculture Fecal Test Labs needs a new permanent, full time member”.
Millard Filmore
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
“I represent only the people that voted for me. Anyone else is simply an expendable serf.”
cmorenc
@Corner Stone:
Well, it actually has depended far more enormously in several past instances than the current dire situation – only with vastly more historically prominent figures.
– Lincoln during the Civil War (without him, it’s likely the Confederacy would have effectively won a war of attrition to secede).
– George Washington – not just keeping the Continental army together and narrowly avoiding defeat at several precarious moments, but as President, firmly determining to only serve as the initial President for a limited time, when his popularity was such that he could easily have chosen to become an entrenched autocrat.
– John F Kennedy’s successful unflinching stare-down of the Russians over the Cuban Missile Crisis, against the knife-edge risk of a nuclear war.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the “great man” theory of history is always or necessarily the dominant force in key events or developments – but there are definitely moments when the resolve and decisions of one key actor are absolutely crucial to history taking one very different outcome over another. UNFORTUNATELY, this dynamic can operate in reverse as well – one key actor’s bad decisions can lead to disaster as well. We can all be very grateful with Adolph Hitler’s counterproductive meddling in military decisions at key moments – such as, allowing the British Army to escape at Dunkirk rather than crushing them on the beach, and being asleep at the wheel for a critical interval when the D-Day invasion happened…plus others, but you get the drift.
tobie
@eric:
I think all partisans want to win. The difference between Dems and the GOP is that the GOP is quite content thinking they’re winning by showing someone else (read: minorities) are losing.
Could some enterprising young filmmaker do video interviews with recently laid off workers at Carrier and other plants in Indiana and put together a nice 45-second spot to circulate online? Maybe local TV in Indiana could pick it up. If we’re so concerned about wooing working class voters, this would seem like a no-brainer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I had Wilmer’s number the third or fourth* time he made his “I’ll release the transcripts of all my Wall Street Speeches… There!” /wild “Wooo!”ing and cheers from his earnest adolescent and suburban one-time and/or would-be hippie crowds/. But at this point, what can Perez, Schumer et al do?
* I chuckled the first time, gave him a pass the second, then it became the centerpiece of his campaign against Clinton. Remember when one of the reasons we were supposed to gaze in awe at St Wilmer was that he had never run a negative campaign ad?
Peale
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: My guess is that if his wife is indicted, all we’ll hear about is entrenched deep state neo-liberal dem holdouts trying to stage a DLC coup within the party.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
If the legal unpleasantness with Jane proceeds to an embarrassing conclusion for him, maybe he’ll find it’s all he’s asked about whenever he pops his head up? He’s already irritated about having to answer questions about it, and it’s still early.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@GregB: Trumpov: And I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for you meddling libtards and Deep State spooks!
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: it’s an indefensible cult of personality at this point. Not having supported him in the primary, that I don’t care about.
Jeffro
The simple fact is, everyone thought Hillary was going to win. And so it wasn’t treated like the full-scale assault on our democracy that it was…
“Take nothing for granted” = just one lesson among many learned from this crap fest.
tobie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They can ignore him. Propose initiative after initiative and not invite him to the rollout. I’m pulling at straws but there’s got to be some way to steal his thunder. The cooler heads and wiser minds here can think of better strategies.
Another Scott
@hovercraft: OT – Bill Gates started from nothing? Don’t think so. FTFNYT from 1994:
Bill had lots of help along the way, and crushed and stole from his competition along the way, also too. His father’s law firm helped as well…
Cheers,
Scott.
Peale
@eric: The GOP wants to win by pissing on democrats. The Democrats expect to win by pissing on democrats, too, apparently.
germy
@tobie:
Depends. is local TV owned by sinclair or fox? If so, then “memory: meet hole.”
Immanentize
@Mike in DC:
Ii have been looking at a bunch of the legal opinions on this and I now think the following (which, as I am not in charge of justice, don’t mean shit). Everyone who talks about this issue seems to quickly conflate “indictment” with “prosecution.” It is true that either arrest or indictment generally means the beginning of a prosecution (for some sixth amendment purposes). But that is not the bright line as to indictment it once was. For example, the right to counsel generally begins once “adversarial proceedings have begun.” An indictment is one such event, but…. The Supremes have said you can indict someone, not tell them they are indicted, and just give them Miranda warnings and if they do waive their right to counsel, that this is fine for 6th amendment purposes. The courts also allow crazy indictments, like indicting a strand of DNA instead of a person in order to prevent the tolling of a statute of limitations that might run (the courts also allow a John Doe indictment for the same purpose).
So, I am in agreement with the general body of authority that says you cannot prosecute a sitting president (which is pretty wise, IMHO) I am pretty certain that a President can be indicted and tried after leaving office. Whether that indictment must be kept secret is unclear. For example, I can imaging a President complaining that f s/he only knew about the indictment at the time it was issued, it could have been easily settled, but the time has prejudiced his/her defense. But regardless of an individual case, I see no reason that a President cannot be indicted while in office.
PS — I am referring to conduct done before becoming President or conduct wholly outside the role of the office (like killing your spouse’s lover) if done while in office.
tobie
@germy: Well, send the work to the Post. They’ve had so many articles on Trumpov’s heartland supporters. Tales of those who voted for him and are now losing their jobs and their healthcare would make a great story.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: And the sooner they cut Wilmer off, the better. A little short-term pain for long-term gain. Wanna talk about what the party ought to do? Then you have to a) join it, and b) direct your primary criticisms at the opposition, not your fellow Dems. Politics 101.
germy
@Another Scott:
And his platform was garbage. But he was clever enough to put it in every office in the country.
It’s the heroic white man version of Starting From Nothing™. Upper middle class kid enjoys every advantage, creates a shit product, and then profits.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale:
Much like women can internalize mysoginy or LGBT folks can internalize homo- and trans-phobia, so too can democrats internalize the pervasive cultural idea that the enemy is the democrats.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@cmorenc: Speaking of counterfactual history and Adolf Hitler, imagine if FDR had been assassinated in 1933, or had never been elected at all. The US could have gone a very dark path that may led to communist revolution or even military dictatorship.
While America was not the big damn hero we have been taught to believe, our land lease was pretty important for the Allies and later the Soviets in helping beat the Axis
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: I couldn’t agree more, but his rhetoric is a gift to a Democrat-trolling media and the Republicans, has been for well over a year now. He was the second most frequent guest on the “Sunday Shows” (FW that’s W) in 2016, the first non-Republican to crack the top five (if you don’t count BiBi N as a Republican, which I actually do). He and the Tim Ryan types will probably make common cause against “the Establishment” for reasons they’re too stupid to realize contradict each other. The schadenfreude junkie in me would love to to see the oppo files released, but it would just enrage his followers– a small but electorally significant group– and feed the “Dems in disarray’ narrative. Maybe people will get bored with him. I don’t see another way out in the near term
Villago Delenda Est
@TriassicSands: Party before Country. Always the case with the GOP.
Cermet
@cmorenc: Uh, wtf relative to that stupid move by Kennedy? We were never in danger from those missiles even if deployed (and frankly, are we safe from the thousand or so ICBM’s in russia then?) but that asshole kennedy almost set off WW III over really stupid shit. WE were only in danger when that asswipe confronted them and threaten a military assault upon their ships. That was, is, and remains stupid.
Corner Stone
@cmorenc:
Let’s not get too far away here. I don’t think these are very fair comparisons to the situation we are currently facing. Those men were chosen to lead. They were expected to be asked to make crucial decisions in difficult or even existential situations.
Mueller is an outlying attachment to our failed institutions. We are not in a “Great Man of History” situation. It’s coming down to one functionary to determine if our republic is intact and our institutions capable of being revived.
Immanentize
my ability to edit has been disappeared?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Peale: Absolutely.
Brachiator
@Laura:
Hah! Very true. Good imagery in your metaphor.
And Trump loves being his own press agent and being out front with the small minded, mean spirited pugnacious jabs. It no doubt fires up his supporters, but it is tiring to watch if you value your sanity.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: yes, and fuck him and his cultists.
p.s. The preferred nomenclature is Tim “Dago Red Wine” Ryan.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: This should apply to Ryan as well who needs to STFU
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Immanentize:
What would happen if the Donald killed Melanoma in the Oval Office with the candlestick?
Immanentize
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: He would secure even more anti-immigrant voters?
Villago Delenda Est
@Shalimar: Obama’s problem is that he has ethical bones in his body.
Rethuglicans have theirs removed before they run for office, if they ever had them in the first place, of course.
D58826
OK just a few snips from Tweeter. on the signing of the VA reform bill Stonekettle @Stonekettle ·
If they fix it the way they’re “fixing” healthcare, we ought to have 20 million less veterans to pay for here shortly
Trump just admitted to tampering w/a witness. He says he claimed there were tapes with the intent to impact Comey’s testimony. #TrumpRussia
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-suggests-he-was-trying-to-keep-fbi-director-honest/ar-BBD48JN?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
But her emails!!!
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
The reason it will pass is because voters gave Republicans complete control of both the Legislative and Executive branches and Republicans have no scruples about blowing up institutional norms and rewriting the same rules they used to obstruct legislation. All the Democrats can do is stall to the best of their ability. That’s it. It can’t be stopped.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major:
This cannot be repeated enough. I hear/read a lot of sorta insulting insensitive stuff — like “gypped” or “ragging on” someone — which often are the product of ignorance or misunderstanding but Dago is straight up racist shit. I am sure the guys he drinks Dago Red Wine with back home are just fine with other fun words like Nig{CLANG}.
MCA1
@Hill Dweller: Sounds about right. In hindsight, I would have liked Obama to have been more assertive on this. I understand the reticence, and I shared the same fundamental miscalculation that at least in part underpinned his decisionmaking on the matter – that Clinton was going to win, anyway, and easily. I give him demerits nonetheless for, at least in this instance, acting contrary to his general m.o. of finding a way to make the politics work but leading with the best interests of the country, not being guided by how the politics and appearances might look.
Someone above outlined what the right play might have been here. Have someone leak what the FBI had told the President, to get it out there in a very public way. Then have the President respond and throw McConnell under the bus, saying yes, we had credible intel and have been trying to figure out the best way to alert the country to the fact it’s under attack, but we had to figure out the best way to do that in the current environment when the Republican Senate Majority Leader refused to bring it forward in a bipartisan way because he put party before country. In fact, if I had been Obama, after the Garland affair, I probably would have gotten McConnell on tape, showered him with an orgy of evidence that Putin specifically instructed his minions to get Trump elected, have Yertle hem and haw and brush it off, and then just leaked that to the press.
None of that would likely have changed anything, though. The idea that Russian hackers could have a legit impact on our presidential election was inconceivable to too many to really get their dander up in time. Combined with the idea that this foul-colored animatronic shit for brains could win being so inconceivable to many, and the fact that, as we’ve seen, nothing will stop rabid partisan Republicans from voting for a Republican no matter what, Obama could have put out live video evidence of Putin meeting with Trump and telling him the specifics about which districts in Wisconsin he’d hacked into, discussing the dropping of sanctions and giving him instructions on how to bash NATO on his behalf, and it wouldn’t have mattered.
Corner Stone
@Another Scott: Again, this is through a domestic politics lens. I am tired of arguing about what the GOP wanted or what they threatened to do. Obama knew who his opponent was, and he knew damn well in August that McConnell was going to filibuster releasing a bipartisan bill. Set it up so the second he threatens Obama, the trap is sprung and he’s dropped in it.
Then move forward with the focus that it is a national security issue, we are being attacked by an adversary, and employ/deploy countermeasures. How about disappearing Putin’s $200B in his bank account(s), for starters?
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Immanentize: Haha. In reality that should be the end of a President’s career if their was really solid evidence of wrongdoing, leading to impeachment.
But knowing today’s GOP:
Ryan: Let’s not rush to judgement he might have killed her accidentally by bludgeoning her repeatedly.
McConnell: And even if he did do it intentionally, she might have been a cheating bitch who deserved it. Did you libtards ever think of that?
Redneck Gestapo Goon: Trump’s my man, globalist cucks! He was just protecting this great nation by murdering an illegal.
burnspbesq
On the day he’s released from prison, he still won’t understand what all the fuss is about.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: the best part is for me he said it while describing the difference between Snobby Coastal Elites and Real Heartland Americans. That Pelosi, she drinks wine from Napa, but out here in the hard working hardscrabble heartland America, we use ethnic slurs and also need to focus less on identity politics. Complaining about identity politics while using an ethnic slur casually!
ETA: wait, what’s wrong with ragging on?
Immanentize
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: But to answer seriously — my opinion now is:
1) He could be and would be indicted for the murder but
2) He could not be prosecuted (tried or even perhaps brought to court) until after his term(s) ended but
3) He could be swiftly removed from office under the 25th amendment and then impeached and therefore able to stand trial sooner than later.
D58826
andthe latest RW freakout
My first reaction was that it was a rhetorical question
My second reaction was the answer is John Wilkes Booth
And my third reaction is that unlike Ted Nugent and his multiple threats against Clinton and Obama, Depp will not get an invite to dinner at the WH nor an opportunity to post disparaging photos in from of a portrait of Mrs. Lincoln.
The Moar You Know
I gotta say, finding out that Obama knew this was going on, didn’t say anything (caved to threats from Mitch), set up retaliation and then left it to Trump to decide what to do is the most disheartening thing I have read in years.
It’s going to completely change my opinion of the man, and not in a good way. I feel crushed.
Emma
I am so sick and tired of “blame Obama,” “blame Hillary,” “blame Pelosi.” Did they make the perfect choice each and every time? Probably not. But they did (and do) their damn best against a tidal wave of foreign interference, venally evil elected Republicans, third party lunacy, and the hatred of the brainwashed.
There comes a time when you have to stop killing your own.
(added) And any of you who think they can do better, please do. Plenty of offices to run for. I’m sure John will let us set up ActBlue collections for you.
Boatboy_srq
@Chyron HR: I swear, Lord Dampnut is Warlord Zsinj.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I had to pledge not to shit on Democrats to secure my august position as a party precinct captain.
hovercraft
@Kay:
Donnie Deutch (?) has know Twitler for decades, says that this is why no matter what the IC says, no matter what is in the intercept with Putin personally directing his goons to fuck with Hillary, Twitler will never acknowledge that he had help. He is the greatest smartest President in the history of the world, and nothing will be allowed to taint that in any way. The man is delusional, he believes that the only way Hillary won the popular vote is because of illegals.
He believes the whacko conspiracy theories because they validate what he wants to believe about himself. When Obama was first elected, he was actually complimentary about the recovery act and the steps he took to stabilize the country. I read somewhere that he was offended because he offered to advise Obama on economics and wasn’t taken up on his offer, I know shocking. That slight combined with flagging ratings for his show, made the birther shit the perfect vehicle to raise his profile and get revenge on Obama for having the audacity to reject him, and the rest is history.
rikyrah
I am sure that Bobby Three Sticks has already catalogued this interview as evidence.
Major Major Major Major
@Emma: i don’t know why people forget that the ultimate responsibility is with the people who voted for Trump (and to a lesser degree anybody but Hillary). They’re adults, they have agency, these votes don’t fall out of the sky.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: It is maddening!
I grew up in upstate New York where the Slovaks called the Italians “Dagos and Wops and Greasy,” and the Italians called the Irish “drunken Mics and wife beaters and animals,” and the Irish called the Slavic folk “hunkie and machine parts and smelly beasts.” All of them Catholic and none of them were allowed really to live in the same neighborhoods, go to the same restaurants or even churches! But in the end, they all worked out their differences (as Alexander Dubcek said about the Czechs and Slovaks) in bed.
burnspbesq
@Betty Cracker:
It was true when Will Rogers said it, and it’s still true.
Emma
@Major Major Major Major: I think it is partly politics as a game of thrones, partly a way to exorcise the demon by finding a scapegoat. We humans do that a f*ucking lot.
TriassicSands
@Villago Delenda Est:
Country? We don’t need no steenking country.
Forget it, Jake. It’s GOPtown.
D58826
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Well as far as impeachment over murdering poor Melania the GOP established that president with impeaching Bill over a BJ. As for things done before he was elected, that was hotly debated during Whitewater. For what a common man in the street would understand the answer should be no. Impeachment for high crimes involves abuse of power by the president. Most of what Starr looked at were activities before he was president. But I’m totally confident that if they had found evidence of Bill stealing cookies from the Ark. gov. mansion kitchen they would have recommended impeachment and the Goopers would have followed along. IIRC the GOP was on hands and knees begging Starr to return a referral on ANYTHING but sex. Unfortunately all he had was SEX.
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: Just because we didn’t hear much about it, doesn’t mean that Obama didn’t do anything. E.g. BBCNews:
To be clear, I don’t know that our IC was behind it, the extent of it, how real it was, etc. I don’t know anything more than is in that story… The point is, if Obama were to retaliate, we might not hear much if anything about it.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Something that came to me…these breaches were voter purges. We thought that they came from good old Voter ID voter suppression. I no longer believe that. I believe that these voters were purged from Russia.Yep. You can’t do it in a state that isn’t close. But one that is close and has Voter ID for reasonable cover? Yes
Major Major Major Major
@Emma:
Yeah, you’d really think we’d have gotten rid of Azazel by now…
Emma
@rikyrah: Agreed! That is why whatever little money I have left over from now on will go to any group fighting vote suppression.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: It is so hard to know if Obama’s efforts were too little, or if this was a Johnson moment (fuck LBJ), or something else. Luckily for many people just starting kindergarten in the fall, they can earn their PhD’s exploring the issue….
C. Pierce has a piece up about in which he claims Obama choked….
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, but don’t tell N(R) that personal responsibility pablum. They’ll snap back about how no party is “owed” votes and the voters aren’t reponsible at all. Almost like they feel a little guilty or something
Emma
@Major Major Major Major: He’s not bad. It is Penemue we should fear. He tried to cure us of stupidity by teaching us to read and write. Me, I think he was the original snake in Paradise
Shalimar
In totally off-topic and unrelated to anything revelations, after watching a CNN interview with Kellyanne Conway, I have come to the conclusion that Conway is really Baba Yaga in disguise, and this explains her reality-twisting powers.
Heidi Mom
@cmorenc: And let’s not forget (in Bruce Catton’s words) “unobtrusive Sam Grant, the firm-jawed little ex-army captain with no luck and no prospects, as unlikely a candidate for the loftiest pinnacle of fame and success, probably, as any American then living.” He knew how to win the war. And Sherman — Lincoln’s re-election in 1864 looked doubtful, until Sherman telegraphed “Atlanta is ours and fairly won.” We lucked out, finally.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@Another Scott:
It’s not anti-Russian, so much as it’s anti-Russian government. But sure paint your critics as rabid Russophobes, that’ll get you far
hovercraft
@Peale:
I think that still qualifies them as having started from further down the food chain than the Shitstain, he inherited millions. You’re correct about their pedigrees:
Buffett, son of a congresscritter
Gates, son of a prominent lawyer
Bloomberg, son of an immigrant bookeeper
Boatboy_srq
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Putin wins at Clue.
rikyrah
@Kay:
If, in the end, we wind up getting all of this out into the open because of Comey, then that crazy azz Louise woman was right – she said that Comey would wind up the hero.
Major Major Major Major
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: all I ever see him talk about is pie.
@Emma: I’m at work so I don’t have my occult reference materials but wiki says the scapegoat started with Azazel.
Mnemosyne
@cmorenc:
To add to your point, one thing all of those “great men” had in common was that they hired really good people who got their shit done. Washington hired Jefferson and Hamilton; Lincoln had his “Team of Rivals” and insisted on keeping Grant as a General; FDR and his cabinet.
Another Scott
@Immanentize: I think Charlie is a great talent, but he’s always been hard (harder than I think is justified) on Obama. I’ll check out the piece later, but I suspect I won’t be persuaded by it.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Immanentize: Yup. It should apply from top to bottom.
@Betty Cracker: see above…I’m in total agreement here. Ds can disagree, but first they have to be Ds, and then they have to note that in the end the defeat of the traitor party overrides any quibbles we have within our own party.
Emma
@Major Major Major Major: It did. But I was thinking of “what was the worst damage done?” Considering the trouble we get ourselves into when practiced improperly, literacy might be the all-time winner.
hovercraft
@Another Scott:
Interesting, I had no idea about his parents influence helping him screw the competition. I knew he stole from Steve Jobs, but not the rest.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: His premise seems to be that Obama didn’t tell people what Russia was doing. Adam’s post above links to Adam’s piece from July, 2016, citing obscure insider outlets like CNN and The Daily Beast, pointing out that Russia was interfering in our election to help trump. There was a big AP story about it in September. Johnson and Clapper released a statement about it in October. Hillary Clinton calle him a Russian puppet in a nationally televised debate two weeks later. This was not a secret. People knew. The water was there, the horses didn’t want to drink
Major Major Major Major
@Emma: I don’t know, I rather like scientific progress (even if it does go boink sometimes). Greed is far worse than knowledge.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
Ew.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: I agree with you — sharing. Pierce is a born iconoclast — loves to dig at those in power, support those not. Including in his sports stuff. Which makes him clever but often wrong.
cmorenc
@Cermet:
This is a stupendously incorrect evaluation of history – were you alive back then as I was, vividly recalling how terrifyingly paranoid-distrustful, tense, and overtly threatening the Soviet Union and the United States were toward each other during that period? And how deeply afraid US leaders were of Russian intent to create a global communist empire (which assumption also directly led to another enormously expensive, counterproductive blundering misadventure in Vietnam). The possibility of nuclear war was VERY real and imminently possible at the time, and Russian leaders were far more insistently aggressive toward the US back then than Putin is now. You are completely full of bullshit.
Jeffro
@Villago Delenda Est:
I totally, completely dig Obama’s ethical bones. You can have those even when dealing with slimy, soulless Republicans (and attacks by hostile foreign powers)…you just have to be prepared to go ‘all in’ and punch back. For various reasons at various times, he didn’t do that. Having said that,1) hindsight is 20/20, 2) I certainly would have fucked up a lot more decisions than he did, and 3) he’s still been the best president we’ve had in my lifetime.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: And that’s not to say we can’t and shouldn’t criticize the party and its leaders — dog knows I don’t always agree with them! But there’s a time and place. You don’t yank the engine out of the only firetruck when the town is ablaze, even if your intent is to tune it up so it runs smoother.
Major Major Major Major
@cmorenc: really it’s just good that the X-Men were there to save the day.
hovercraft
@D58826:
Even Morning Joe and Mika noticed that this morning. Why aren’t his lawyers following him around monitoring his verbal eruptions at this point? It was FOX FFS, they would have been willing to give him a do-over, sure the original would have eventually leaked, but he could claim that it was highly edited. Maybe he really wants to be kicked out, is his subconscious is trying to help him escape? He would be the biggest draw evah on the wingnut welfare circuit, he could just spend all his time bragging about imaginary accomplishments in front of adoring crowds. That is as long as this ends in just impeachment, rather than Mueller testing the theory that the Justice Department cannot indict a sitting president.
SiubhanDuinne
@smintheus:
Trump, head cocked, looks at his wife as if he were examining a display case in an insect exhibit. Then he turns to the Fox nitwit and sizes her up with a sexually predatory stare.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Corner Stone: If an old VW bug full of clowns stops, don’t get in.
Another Scott
@hovercraft: The history of MS-DOS, CP/M, and all the rest is interesting and there are several competing versions. But the main point is that Gates didn’t build up MS from nothing, and once he got big enough he did everything in his power to crush his competition.
Cheers,
Scott.
Corner Stone
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio):
Trust me. VW bug full of clowns or VW Bus full of pandas. Getting The.Fuck. Outta There.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
Gates is something slightly different — a wealthy scion who eventually figured out that money isn’t everything and is now at least trying to give back. Given the highly competitive family that Gates came from, I suspect that his wife was able to convince him to re-direct his hypercompetitiveness into philanthropy and try to outdo all of the other billionaires in how much he could give away.
Which, ironically, makes him even more of a rebuke to Trump. You don’t have to be a complete asshole just because you started life on third base.
wuzzat
@Major Major Major Major:The “scandal” isn’t exactly new. Seven Days caters pretty heavily to the Bro contingency (with the exception of one opinion columnist), so here’s an article they wrote a couple of years ago after the loan scandals, but before the complete financial collapse of the college and the lawsuit from the estate of a faculty donor.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Sounds about right. And this has also been the story of any number of successful companies in America and other countries.
Consider I.M. Singer and the Singer sewing machine:
Singer ended up paying Howe a royalty for every machine sold. And Singer was a hell of a scoundrel, who deserves his own mini-series (Singer fathered at least 24 children with various wives and mistresses).
Also people should watch the recent film The Founder, that offers a wonderfully compelling look at how McDonalds was essentially stolen from the guys who invented that burger joint and turned into a fast food behemoth.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s considered misogynistic. Stems from the expression that a menstruating woman is “on the rag” and from the belief that a menstruating woman, ever the victim of her uncontrollable hormones, may attack and snap at you for no good reason.
(Personally, I find it a useful and relatively harmless expression. But many people do take offense.)
Tbone
Is that a sleeveless dress that flotus is wearing?
To the fainting couches!
The Thin Black Duke
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Again, the bottom line is that over 60 million idiots voted for the asshole in the White House and anybody who tries to pretend that choosing either Hillary or Trump was a difficult decision is full of shit. White America had one job to do and it failed.
ruemara
@The Moar You Know: I’m in the camp of feeling crushed that Republicans are treasonous as a whole body rather than ragging on Obama.
D58826
@Another Scott: And remember the GOP was not going to get on board with a public stmt. Anything that Obama did in public would have been labeled as trying to tilt the election in Hillary’s favor. Comey’s conduct was fine as long as it was goring a democrat
No Drought No More
Nixon blew it with millions of Americans who still had his back when he announced, “I am not a crook”. Naturally, they concluded that he was.
And they were right. He betrayed his oath of office and his supporters before, during, and after a landslide victory. In that sense, he ranks among the greatest thieves in American (and world) history.
But when Nixon made that statement he was still months away from drunk talking to the presidential portraits. Watergate unfolded over the course of a year and a half, but that denial marked a turning point for him. From that point on, he was no longer accorded the benefit of the doubt in the minds of millions of his erstwhile supporters. Conventional polling results could not capture or gauge the profound sea change that occurred in the public’s perception of Nixon as a consequence, but it was a very real.
Trump is as good as finished. A majority of Americans had his number the day he was elected, and tweet-by-tweet he has been leaking oil in public support every since. He’s doomed and knows it, and if he were a drinking man he would have already built a bonfire of the presidential portraits and burned the White House to the ground.
Now is the time for patriots to pile on and kick the vicious bastard and his party into that “ashcan of history” which Reagan once lauded. Some would even dare cite another line from the Gipper, and proclaim the fall of Trump actually portends the dawning of a new morning in America, wherein those who sat in darkness first began to first glimpse a great light…
D58826
@Brachiator: And most, if not all, of the first Apple was off the shelf technology developed by others (ah mostly government others). Jobs just had the inspiration to put it all together in a non-technical user friendly way and at a price people could afford. and Orville and Wilbur did not invent the heavier than air flying machined. They were just the first ones to actually make it work.
ruemara
@Immanentize: Fuck Pierce. It’s like it’s down the memory whole how anti-Hillary he was. Will no one ask yourselves why most POC didn’t fall for this shit? ALL OF THIS WAS OUT THERE BY SUMMER! Really. AND WE STILL WEREN’T CONSIDERING TRUMP BECAUSE HE WAS UNFIT THE MINUIT HE RODE DOWN THE DAMNED ESCALATOR.
You’re all too busy trying to excuse the inexcusable. A treasonous party in power in greater numbers due to stupid fucking liberal smugness – death to white centered liberalism – and a dumbass population of conservatives more than willing to destroy their country rather than share it. Jesus. Trump was always unfit. It shouldn’t even have been close. It shouldn’t have been a question. Fucking Lord Buckethead was a better choice than that fetid vomit sack. Stop blaming anyone else but voters and the party of treason.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
Trump might be the first president who gets a divorce during his term in office. On the other hand, I wonder if he has reached the stage in his life where his money no longer can get a woman to overlook his unattractiveness.
D58826
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And Malcolm Nance wrote an entire book about it that came out in the late summer of 2016 – HACKING OF AMERICA
D58826
Dave Weigel on a twitter comment :The real Dem crisis iIMO : they deliver services to poor people (medicaid) then watch them sit out elections or vote R.’
But Nancy is from SF and Hillary writes e-mails.
Brachiator
@D58826:
But that was the whole freaking point, and made all the difference in the world.
To paraphrase (and mock Trump), I like people who make airplanes that don’t crash.
No Drought No More
“The reality is that he wanted to make sure the truth came out and by talking about something like tapes it made people have to—made Comey in particular think to himself, ‘I’d better be honest, I’d better tell the truth about the circumstances regarding the situation,’” Spicer said..”.
To repeat myself, when Nixon was being cornered he disastrously attempted to rally his troops with the cry “I am not a crook”. Times change. With Spicer today regurgitating his own drivel, Trump has cut to the chase by insulting his wavering supporters in far more blatant fashion. Even those blind and deluded Americans who recklessly voted him into office will resent being asked to eat that big a shit sandwich while smiling like idiots as they chew. Soon all but the most stupidly stubborn will see Trump for who & what he is, and he will be judged accordingly..
JR in WV
@Corner Stone:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Guys, Comey isn’t a witness in most senses of that word, he was managing the investigation at the time, so obstruction of justice, sure. Witness intimidation, not so much.
Witnesses are those with personal knowledge of criminal acts or conspiracies. Like Flynn, Trump, Kushner, Manafort, etc. Comey may have become a witness to obstruction at some point there, as Trump tried to interfere with the investigation, and later on DID interfere with the FBI.
Traitors to the right of me,
Traitors to the left of me,
Stuck in the middle again…
is that an old song? Unsure if I’m quoting or paraphrasing now.
TenguPhule
@Boatboy_srq:
I don’t think he’s pretending to be fucking stupid while actually being a diabolical genius.
Bess
@Mnemosyne:
Gates didn’t start on third base like Trump (the Walton sperm, the Koch sperm,…).
One could legitimately argue that he was born on first base. Into an educated family that valued learning. And his family might have helped him steal a base but he had to do the actually running.
Having run a business using Windows (after abandoning Apple because they were not business friendly) I experienced almost no problems with the operating system. Of course, I was using mainstream software (Microsoft, dBase, Visicalc) and not some of the not-well-done software that caused Windows to lockup/crash.
The problem was not Windows, IMO, but in some of the poorly written and tested after market programs that were sold by independent companies.
Betty Cracker
@JR in WV: He’s guilty of both, IMO. He attempted to obstruct the investigation while Comey was still FBI director, then after Comey had been fired and was scheduled to appear before the committee as a witness, Trump attempted witness intimidation.
No Drought No More
Ironic, isn’t it? “Wasn’t very stupid” is essentially the same lame defense for now-and-forever of the bloody minded, rock ribbed supporters of the 2003 Bush-Cheney plot to war. It was the last hill they had left on which to plant their flag, a cursed ground on which they even yet thrive. I look forward to the day- which I hope will be soon enough- when that last hill is stormed & all of them are non-violently ground to electoral powder (a happy event that has already happened in California), if only as a testament to the enduring will of this generation of Americans to maintain the Republic they inherited as their birthright.
No Drought No More
Digby on Trump: “Lovely guy. A real pip. Makes me so proud to be an American”.
She will be proud once the American people are through with him.
Ohio Mom
@Another Scott: Bill Gates also had incredibly lucky timing. Had he been a little older or a little younger…either there wouldn’t have yet been anything to steal or someone else would have got there first.
I can’t remember much about it but there is a great documentary about that era I once saw on public TV, with stuff like an interview with the two professors who invented the spreadsheet and never made any money off of it, all the ideas IBM’s research division came up with, like the mouse, and then IBM let everything go because the suits couldn’t see the value in what their researchers had come up with up, and the whole detailed story of how Bill Gates leveraged all his advantages to get to where he got.
@Mnemosyne: Gates’ philanthropy has come under a lot of criticism. His efforts to improve education stink, in a word — Diane Ravitch has written a lot about that. And Dissent magazine ripped apart his public health efforts.
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s what they do. My surgeon autographed my breast with a Sharpie (a half hour or so later, she made me walk into the operating room and climb up on the table).