Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Steve, a couple days ago, completely happy and content:
Steve, tonight, after I finished that box of cd’s and closed it, giving me straight up stinkeye, seething with contempt and plotting my demise:
Looks like I need to go get a box for Steve tomorrow.
Late Night Open Thread: The Wrath of CatPost + Comments (92)
Allow me a three part joke. First, this:
FBI agents have repeatedly questioned former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page about his contacts with Russians and his interactions with the Trump campaign, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Over a series of five meetings in March, totaling about 10 hours of questioning, Page repeatedly denied wrongdoing when asked about allegations that he may have acted as a kind of go-between for Russia and the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with Page’s account.
The interviews with the FBI are the most extensive known questioning of a potential suspect in the probe of possible Russian connections to associates of President Trump. The questioning of Page came more than a month before the Russian investigation was put under the direction of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Page confirmed Monday that the interviews occurred, calling them “extensive discussions.” He declined to say if he has spoken to investigators since the March interviews.
He said the FBI agents “acknowledged that I’m a loyal American veteran but indicated that their management was concerned that I did not believe the conclusions” of a Jan 6. U.S. intelligence report describing Russian government interference in the U.S. election. “Our frank and open conversations gave me confidence that there are still logical, honest individuals at the bureau who respect civil rights and the Constitution,’’ he said.
Next, here’s Carter Page just having a conversation:
Sorry for the long setup, but trust me, this is worth it. And now, the punchline:
Because it is against the law for an individual to lie to FBI agents about a material issue under investigation, many lawyers recommend that their clients not sit for interviews with the bureau without an attorney present. Page said he spoke without an attorney and wasn’t concerned about the risks because he told the truth.
I say again, the firmest evidence I have seen that there is no Russian involvement in the 2016 election is that Carter Page hasn’t taken a nose dive out of a hotel window.
The White House has just released the following statement:
It went up at 10:04 PM EDT on Sean Spicer’s official twitter feed, but is not yet up on the Office of the Press Secretary Statements and Releases page.
Unless someone’s been reading the Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Handbook*, which presents publicizing mass atrocities/potential mass atrocities as having a potential deterrent effect, I have no idea why this information would be released right now. It is possible that LTG McMaster thinks this may actually deter a forthcoming action. It may be something else entirely. But this is a type of public strategic communication I’m not used to seeing out of any administration – Democratic or Republican.
While we wait for more information: Open Thread!
Update at 10:45 PM EDT:
CENTCOM officials told @BuzzFeedNews they have "no idea” what prompted the White House’s Syria statement tonight https://t.co/BQKoPVyqNZ
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) June 27, 2017
* The author of the handbook is a friend and former colleague.
Breaking: White House Statement on Syrian Chemical WeaponsPost + Comments (105)
welp. im in DC at the pro-Trump rally for peace w/ ppl like @Cernovich. They're using rally to emphasize split btwn them and the alt-right pic.twitter.com/VrtiuWEMwg
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) June 25, 2017
Per the local paper, the Washington Post, which has seen better rallies protesting product changes at neighborhood coffee shops:
A group of white nationalists and right-wing activists descended on one of America’s greatest venues for political speech Sunday — the area in front of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial, near where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of his dream — and it was essentially just another day in Washington.
Some on both the right and left had voiced fears of violence. But the National Park Service reported no arrests or significant incidents. Instead the day saw some speechifying, some counterprogramming, some counterprotesting and a searing argument about free speech and political correctness.
The Lincoln Memorial rally was headlined by white nationalist Richard Spencer…
Some in the crowd waved Confederate or green “Kek” flags identified with what is sometimes called the alt-right. More than one member of Vanguard America, a group that left white nationalist fliers at the University of Maryland last year, donned masks…
The gathering, dubbed the “Rally for Free Speech,” was held as another group of conservatives Spencer criticized as “losers and freaks” held a competing event in front of the White House, seeking to distance themselves from Spencer’s racial rhetoric. Spencer had referred to them as “alt-lite.”
The second rally was emceed by conservative provocateur Jack Posobiec, who recently disrupted a New York production of “Julius Caesar” that featured the bloody slaying of a President Trump-like Caesar. Many participants argued that the recent shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., was a product of left-wing rhetorical excess…
“We’re standing for an end to both political violence and violent rhetoric in the media,” said Posobiec, who also was a player in the false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory.
Kenneth Lane, who wore a “CNN Terrorist” shirt depicting comedian Kathy Griffin posing with a severed “Trump” head, told a crowd before the speakers began: “It’s time to put George Soros in the gas chamber.”…
At least Posobiec, unlike Richard Spencer, didn’t just get busted for violating state non-profit laws in Virginia.
Corey Stewart is speaking at the alt lite rally. Crowd cheers idea of him running against Tim Kaine in 2018 pic.twitter.com/0dUxfAiTG2
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) June 25, 2017
Justin Rosario’s report for the Daily Banter is pretty funny, too — “A whole whopping three hundred angry white men showed up to whine about how persecuted they are”:
… To be fair, the counter rally further up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial wasn’t awe-inspiring, either. The usual anti-fascist crowd was holding a protest across the city at the DC police headquarters so the white nationalists drew a much smaller protest crowd than normal…
As Spencer was finishing up with the news cameras, a couple of dozen white nationalists, mostly dressed in white polo shirts like a gaggle of Yuppies, marched in like they were on parade. They even had a soundtrack, some kind of vaguely Kraftwerk-sounding song on a loop. Several were carrying various flags and they seemed quite puffed up with importance…
Lighter Fare Open Thread: Sad ‘Supremacists’ on ParadePost + Comments (29)
Here is the state of play as of my kid’s bath time:
Collins puts hammer down. 3rd GOP senator to oppose proceeding to the bill.
The #Ruleof3 means that it's STALLED (but not dead). https://t.co/zoEWJlkVys— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) June 26, 2017
What does this mean?
1) Keep on calling. Targets are Murkowski, Cassidy, Portman, Capito-Moore, Cotton, Cruz, Lee, Johnson. Adjust your asks per your Senator. What might work for Murkowski won’t work for Cruz and vice versa.
2) Time for some analysis. The ideal situation for any Republican Senator is it either passes without Vice President Pence’s vote so that no single Republican Senator can be blamed as the decisive vote or it fails miserably so there is protection in numbers from primary challenges. Everything else is an intermediate outcome. Given Heller and Collins statements, I don’t think the first preferred option is available. I am betting and speculating that the internal dynamics of the Republican caucus will push the bill to a bare majority if there are 48 Yes votes as it is introduced on the floor. Again, no one wants to be the decisive vote.
So the objective of everyone is to determine the size of the swing factions in the Republican caucus and see which way Senators who are ideologically/pragmatically/politically close to the Senator in question are leaning. The isolated buffalo gets taken down by wolves while a herd of deer working together offers protection to everyone. Everyone is trying to figure out where their herd is and not get too far in front. Signalling and raised eyebrows will matter.
3) Fundamentally we are probably at the equivalent place as Thursday afternoon in March as the House was considering their bill. There was rumbling that the votes weren’t there as both sides of the caucus were pulling apart. That was probably true at that point. But seven weeks later, they pulled something that was even worse and cobbled together a bare majority.
So keep on calling!
I want to work w/ my GOP & Dem colleagues to fix the flaws in ACA. CBO analysis shows Senate bill won't do it. I will vote no on mtp. 1/3
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) June 26, 2017
Rand is also a no on motion to proceed and Heller seems to be too. If they all stick to it, then the bill’s as dead as Dillinger.
I don’t what’s the dealio with Murkowski and Capito, but they probably aren’t anxious to vote for this POS either.
I’m in a shit mood but here are two signs I saw today that made me laugh:
Blech. This is a townie bar in Morgantown that I used to go to all the time (especially during the summer) back in the day:
Some of my running buddies still own and operate the place.