The de facto defense these days:
"We tried to collude, but we weren't very good at it, so the Russians went ahead and did stuff without us."— Jacob T. Levy (@jtlevy) July 15, 2017
.
SIX FEKKIN’ MONTHS!
"Don Jr. played a minor role in the Trump family, for a limited amount of time."
— Pedro da Costa (@pdacosta) July 15, 2017
What cherry tree?
That cherry tree is still standing
Hillary chopped it down
Anyone would have chopped it down #CanNotNotTellALie https://t.co/OL1MOw3oNd— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 15, 2017
THANKS, REPUBS!
I wasn't at the meeting btw the Russians & Trump's campaign. If all of Twitter could confirm/deny their attendance it'd narrow things down.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 14, 2017
at some point, i couldn't help but wonder, was i the only person in manhattan who didn't get an invite to trump tower last june? pic.twitter.com/hyZdKlg7PA
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) July 14, 2017
i am including 5 people on skype btw
— darth:™ (@darth) July 14, 2017
People who went from "no collusion whatsoever" to "if it were true, collusion would not be illegal" are complaining about moving goalposts https://t.co/Mn7tczk59Q
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) July 14, 2017
No wonder the White House doesn’t want on-camera pressers; the bullshit barrage is beginning to wear down even the hard-core second-gen Repub professional liars…
He said nothing came of it, ok? pic.twitter.com/eXzljdZ904
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 15, 2017
Jerzy Russian
I think the answer to the question posed in the title of the post is “no”.
The Dangerman
Nyet.
craigie
Ok, so we broke into the bank. But there wasn’t any money in it, so we left. What’s the big deal?
jl
I heard news reporter talking like Trump denied that he knew about the meeting and only learned about it recently.
But I thought Trump said late last week that he ‘might’ have heard it mentioned at the time.
Has Trump flip-flopping and lying about whether he knew about the meeting?
Too much of this crap to keep track of.
This miserable administration is full of moronic liars.
NotMax
Preview of the next on camera presser.
Major Major Major Major
Uggghhghghghg, these fucking idiots.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: No, it will be two simple words.
dm
When I follow the “What Cherry Tree?” link, I end up on some Trump page. At the moment, it’s full of chatter about how “Speaker Ryan” is undermining the One True President using the Russia Collusion story, which is an interesting twist of Trumpletariat thinking.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
The mediocrity of inferred white male superiority – you know what, scratch that. They’d have to have a miraculous turnaround to even get to mediocre.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
I think that’s kind of the point. Trump’s election is a ragegasm of millions of pathetic, mean-spirited white dipshits who had to prove that a pathetic, mean-spirited white dipshit was better than the smartest black man. It’s the white electorate waking up at 3am and tweeting angrily and incoherently because they just cannot handle that we had a black president anymore. Trump was meant to be the lowest common denominator physically and intellectually as well as emotionally.
Viva BrisVegas
Isn’t it more like:
“We tried to collude, but the deal wasn’t very good at first, so the we had to wait until the Russians came back with a better one.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Viva BrisVegas:
They haven’t admitted that yet. Give them until Friday.
Villago Delenda Est
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And if those two simple words don’t work, then there are two other simple words:
EXCUUUUUUUUSE ME!
MattF
@jl:
But what’s your point?
WaterGirl
Who is the foul looking woman in the bottom picture? There’s that ugliness and hate inside, showing through. Yikes. No wonder they say that people deserve the face they have.
WaterGirl
@jl: Yes, that is how I remember it, too. I didn’t know until 2 or 3 days ago, oh yeah, I guess I did know about that at the time, no I did not know about that meeting until 2 or 3 days ago.
eclare
@WaterGirl: Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Yep, there is that saying that by age 50, you have the face you deserve. She’s only 34.
WaterGirl
@eclare: Wow. Those eyes. She looks like a female Saruman from Lord of the Rings. These people just exude evil. It’s frightening.
Anne Laurie
@WaterGirl:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who’s taken over Sean Spicer’s job. Seems like she only has the job because
nobody else wants itshe was born to the right father, which makes her a perfect fit for the Trump mis-administration!WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: I suppose it would be sexist and unkind of me to say that now I understand why they won’t let them record the press briefings anymore. We wouldn’t want to scare the children.
The situation becomes more surreal every day.
jl
@WaterGirl: Your entitled visionism is showing. I note the microaggression.
eclare
@WaterGirl: As someone here frequently says, can’t remember who, come sit by me.
WaterGirl
@jl: I know what all those words mean, but I do not understand your comment.
I am struck by the hateful eyes and ugly sneer. Do these people have no kindness in their hearts at all?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Anne Laurie: Wait, they’ve gotten rid of Spokes Spice?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl:
That’s what most of our reaction to jl’s comments, just nod and smile and he may go away. And don’t, don’t tease the jl.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Sunset in the Chinese Garden @ The Huntington.
eclare
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Beautiful. Love the single tall tree in the middle against the sky.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eclare: My goal of going tonight(I was there Saturday night as well) was to shoot the sunset in the Chinese Garden with the fisheye. Mission Accomplished.
(Plus I got some other good pics, including another pic of that rabbit and a squirrel.)
lollipopguild
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Moose and squirrel?
Anne Laurie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Not officially, that I can find, but Sarah Huckabee-S is fronting the press non-conferences right now.
This was a month ago:
So if the poor bastid’s not in rehab, maybe he’s just busy with an intensive weight-loss regime…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lollipopguild: No moose around here, but you’ll soon find Moose and Squirrel back in West Hollywood.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Anne Laurie: Bannon’s one to talk about appearance, I looked 10 times better than he does when I was on the bottle. And I looked like crap.
Origuy
Isn’t Spicer in the Navy Reserve? Maybe
TrumpBannon got him deployed to a garbage scow in the Persian Gulf.Odie Hugh Manatee
We’ve seen guys like DJT jr who claim that since they failed in trying to commit their crime then there was no crime committed. Ever watch Chris Hansen on To Catch a Predator?
It doesn’t work for those guys, does it?
Odie Hugh Manatee
I think my post was eated up by FYWP.
Amir Khalid
It’s the 17th of July, the third anniversary of the MH17 shootdown and the 56th of my birth. After my laptop came back from the repair shop. (Le hard disk était presque mort.) I reckon I’m finally able to buy online that black Squier Telecaster I’ve had my eye on for weeks. If anyone who’s still up over there knows guitar amps, is the Fender Champion 20 (for RM525) a good buy for a beginner like me? Or should I go for the NUX Frontline 30?
Amir Khalid
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
What I know about American law I learned on TV. And I know that even an attempt to carry out a crime is itself a crime, even if it’s unsuccessful.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Joyeux anniversaire, selamat hari lahir.
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: Happy Birthday! You share the date with my father, who would be 99 today if he were still with us.
opiejeanne
@Amir Khalid: Like attempted murder. No harm, no foul doesn’t cut it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Happy B-day Amir.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Next your gonna tell me is attempted treason is some kind of crime.
Mary G
@Amir Khalid: Happy birthday, AK! ?????
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Congrats on another year.
Mine was a few days ago but I was 56 in 2005.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Amir Khalid:
Yup… and some wingnut legal moron is being quoted over at RedState because he claims that because of the way the law is worded and mens rea, it means that DJT jr had to know of the law itself before he could be considered in violation of it.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Also. Too. :)
Odie Hugh Manatee
Damn, FYWP ate that post too. You guys need to feed this monster better so it’ll stop eating our posts.
Poor thing…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Odie Hugh Manatee: It ate the folk that were trying to feed it.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: Best birthday wishes and many, many happy returns, Amir!
Anne Laurie
@Ruckus: And belated happy birthday to you too, sir!
Patricia Kayden
@Amir Khalid: Happy Birthday, Amir!!! Hope it’s a great one for you.
@Amir Khalid: True. It is a crime to attempt to commit a crime. Trump can’t weasel out of this one. He can keep chanting that anyone would have done the same (not true) and that it was just oppo research (not true) all he wants but what his son did was a crime.
TriassicSands
@Amir Khalid:
Happy birthday!
Unfortunately, I can’t help you with your question about amps. I know a whole lot more about birthdays (too much) than I do about guitar amps.
TriassicSands
@Patricia Kayden:
Sadly, Don Jr. has the ultimate get out of jail free card, a father who can pardon him. The president’s pardon power is almost unlimited. Experts seem to agree that a president can’t pardon him or herself and the Constitution says that he can’t pardon someone who’s been impeached (and presumably convicted). Otherwise, he can pardon his whole administration if he wants to.
Could Congress impeach Trump for pardoning his own son? That’s hard to say. On the one hand the framers left “high crimes and misdemeanors” undefined, but I suppose the SCOTUS could have a say on what qualifies. In one sense charging, trying, and finding Junior guilty of a crime is just a lot of bad theater, since we know what the final act will always be.
As for Trump not being able to pardon himself, he could always resign with the agreement of Pence to pardon him. Still no pardon for impeachment proceedings.
I don’t think the framers believed there was much, if any, danger of our electing a crook like Trump. Like Nixon? Probably. But Trump is outside the range of normal expectations. At least some of the framers would probably be quite shocked at just how stupid more than 60,000,000 Americans can be.
Arclite
Sarah Huckabee Sanders. What’s the over/under before she gets replaced?
sm*t cl*de
Just saying… if foreign agents came to my office, and left a dossier on the table (perhaps containing hacked documents, later to be stovepiped through Wikileaks as a quid for a later quo), I would hang onto that dossier — so I could produce it in the future, to prove that its contents were as anodyne as I claimed.
Or at the very least I would put together a convincing but anodyne replacement for that dossier.
Russian witnesses were quite emphatic that they left the down-payment on the table. Has anyone asked Don Trump Minor to confirm or deny their claim?
satby
@Amir Khalid: Happy Birthday Amir! Many happy returns of the day!???
satby
@Ruckus: Also belated Happy Birthday ? to you Ruckus!
JWR
@Amir Khalid: Do yourself a favor and buy a real Telecaster. (Actually, I’ve heard that some Squires outperform the real thing, but at least it won’t have that “I’m a beginner” logo on the headstock. ;-)
Happy B-Day!
PS. Yeah, I know I’m being a snob, but I’ve been playing all my life, both in and out of bands, and am the proud owner of a (heavily modified) ’59 Tele.
trnc
@Amir Khalid: What style do you play? Do you plan to get any pedals?
trnc
@Arclite: I am consistently amazed at the longevity of any of these clowns, so I have no business betting.
trnc
@JWR: Not for nothin, but I’ve had a real Les Paul Studio that was my main axe for years, but it sits in a corner now and glares at me and the Epiphone LP I bought 9 years ago. To be fair, I put 58/59 humbuckers and all new electronics in the Epi as soon as I bought it, so that gives it an edge.
Amir Khalid
@trnc:
Basically I just want to learn a musical instrument. I have no ambitions to play in a band or any such thing. I’m partial to Springsteen, the Stones, all the old classic rock warhorses, the Disney songbook,old Malay pop, a whole mishmash of stuff.
NorthLeft12
I guess I only have to read about it up here, whereas you guys are living this, but it just blows my mind that the hyper-patriotic/ U S A chanters/ Obama haters are perfectly okay with the ongoing embarrassment in the White House and his treasonous shenanigans.
If you did not believe it before, you have to believe it now……the Deadbeat Donald/Republican die hards hate with a white hot passion that cannot be turned. And who do they hate? Anyone who is not a part of their tribe or stands in the way of their greed.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Happy Birthday, you young whippersnapper!
Amir Khalid
@JWR:
Even a Mexican-made Fender Tele would be too expensive for me. The top Squier range, the Classic Vibe guitars, are the ones reputed to rival Fender’s Mexican and American Standard series, but they cost twice as much here as the Squier Affinity series I’m looking at. Besides, when I do get the guitar I will indeed be a beginner.
woodrowfan
@eclare: Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth I think.
hedgehog mobile
@Amir Khalid: Happy birthday!?
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
I feel you
Wyatt Derp
But then why don’t they bring the video back now that Spicer isn’t there anymore? Oh…never mind.
JWR
@trnc:
I played one of those for a while, and practically begged the girl who owned it to sell it to me. (Wait! Do you mean an original Les Paul Studio, the one with all the knobs and switches, or the modern Les Paul Studio? I once passed up on the former, and regret it to this day.)
hedgehog mobile
@Amir Khalid: Happy birthday!
Eric
@trnc: my les Paul stares longingly at me and my suhr. I never understood having lots of guitars wen I can’t stop playing the one I play best
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
Happy birthday!
Amir Khalid
Thanks everyone for the kind birthday wishes.
@JWR:
I see a lot of grumbling in YouTube comments about Gibson: things like iffy quality control, poor tuning stability, fragile headstocks, unreasonable prices — not just vintage ’59 Les Pauls that cost more than a house, but the regular Les Paul models. Even their cheapest Epiphones cost more than the Squiers made for Fender by the same Asian contract manufacturers.
JWR
@Amir Khalid: Okay, gotcha. Once you get ready to go, perhaps we’ll cross paths again, (I read here far more than I comment), we can get ‘together’ to discuss some groovy Zeppelin-esque barre chords to get you going!
Miss Bianca
Happy birthday, Amir! And Ruckus, too! As for the amp, I’ve never heard of the other one, so I’d probably go with the Fender Champ. Altho’, if you’re truly on a budget, check out some Peaveys. Back in the day when I was playing bass, I had a Peavey amp, and it was a sweet deal. They may be a bit spendier now than they were in the 90s, but I’m betting they are still good quality for a reasonable sum.
SWMBO
@Amir Khalid: Happy Birthday!
Amir Khalid
I’ve heard the NUX Frontline 30 amp demoed on YouTube. A bit cheaper than Fender and the sound seems acceptable.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Amir Khalid: @Amir Khalid: Happy birthday! And happy belated to Ruckus. As for the guitar, I do custom pyrography on guitars, so if you decide you want your axe tatted up, I’ll send you some links to my work.
worn
@Amir Khalid: Amir – Happy Birthday! You might want to take a look at the Yamaha THR series of small amplifiers. They are relatively inexpensive, have a number of emulated amps to choose from as well as some basic effects too. I have the ‘C’ version, whose sounds are more in the classic rock / blues vein. They are not loud enough to gig with in a band situation but are great for an light practice amp for around the home – and they get good sounds a low volumes, which is trickier with larger tube amps (aka a ‘real’ amp). Their having some pretty good sounds dialed in right out of the box is one of the best parts of the rig. That, and that you can power it via D size batteries in addition to line voltage. Best of luck and have fun – because that’s what it’s all about!
Yamaha THR series
Original Lee
@Anne Laurie: So nobody’s actually SEEN Spicer for a while? I can’t believe that things have come to such a pass that I’m worried about him, but it’s true.
Original Lee
@Amir Khalid: It’s all been downhill since they left Kalamazoo.
Heidi Mom
@Amir Khalid: Happy birthday, Amir! This newbie (who is ahead of you by ten years) is very glad you’re here.
Mel
@Amir Khalid: Happy, happy birthday! Enjoy your birthday and your new guitar!!
I second the suggestion about the Yamaha THR amps. Fair warning: this is a suggestion from a former acoustic banjo player, not from a guitarist. However, a couple of friends who play /teach guitar highly recommend those Yamahas as reliable, affordable, basic amps for people who play casually or for people who are learning guitar and want a basic amp that has a few additional features.
No One You Know
Happy birthday Amir and Ruckus!
At chez NOYK we are celebrating 28 years together on Wednesday evening…probably with añejo on the porch, watching dragonflies and hummingbirds dart among the cattails.