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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Schadenfreude Read: “Whose side are you on? Separate lawyers defend Trump, aides”

Schadenfreude Read: “Whose side are you on? Separate lawyers defend Trump, aides”

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From the AP:

As the government’s Russia investigations heat up, a growing cast of lawyers is signing up to defend President Donald Trump and his associates. But the interests of those lawyers — and their clients — don’t always align, adding a new layer of drama and suspicion in a White House already rife with internal rivalries.

Trump himself has both an outside legal team and a new in-house special counsel, Ty Cobb, for Russia-related matters. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law, has a pair of high-powered attorneys working for him. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., recently hired his own lawyer. And former campaign aides who expect to be caught up in the expanding probes are also shopping for representation — and dealing with sticker-shock over the price tags.

The result is a crowded group of high-priced attorneys bent on defending their own clients, even if it means elbowing those clients’ colleagues…

In Trump’s inner circle, a group long split into factions, the potential for fueling other officials’ legal difficulties could be high.

It’s all going to get even more complicated as both Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and three separate congressional probes gather steam. Kushner is expected to talk to the Senate intelligence committee soon, and Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley wants to summon Trump Jr. for testimony…

The Trump presidential campaign has spent almost $1 million on legal fees since the beginning of the year, according to a campaign finance report filed Saturday with the Federal Election Commission. That includes a $50,000 charge for the law firm of Alan Futerfas, who is representing Trump Jr. The payment was made nearly two weeks before news reports about the younger Trump’s Russia meeting.

Several former campaign advisers who expect to have to testify before Congress are also hiring lawyers, but they’re picking up the cost themselves. The House intelligence committee had planned to interview longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone and campaign digital director Brad Parscale before the August recess, but both interviews have been delayed…

Before anyone decides to start a GoFundMe for Mr. Caputo, this was just last week:

Reader Interactions

183Comments

  3. 3.

    Amaranthine RBG

    Here are some gems from Caputo’s wikipedia:

    Caputo gained admiration for Ronald Reagan during his military service after the president signed legislation giving him a pay raise of ten percent on his Army pay, and at that point decided he would side with the Republican party.[2]

    Yes, because nothing says you value small government like getting a pay raise from the government.

    While working in Russia in the 1990s, Caputo met a Russian student studying astrophysics and they were married.[2][3] Caputo became a Catholic in 2000, and this religious change helped him find peace.[2] While advising in Kiev, Ukraine in 2007, Caputo connected with a woman who would become his second wife, named Maryna Ponomarenko

    Marries woman, gets Catholic, finds peace, [step omitted], finds new wife.

  6. 6.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Quinerly: My god, Trump is still running against Hillary lol

    The other part of this shows; there is no point in the High Road when the mudsling start. People will just assume bothsides are just bad no matter what is really happening so one mine as well fight back..

  7. 7.

    schrodingers_cat

    The more T’s agenda flails, he goes after immigrants with a gusto, my prediction is that the DACA kids are next. Rounding up and deporting people with no criminal records is what he has been doing. Kelly is implementing this agenda with ruthless efficiency.

  9. 9.

    Droppy

    These people really do eat their own. It is the thing which will save us – they carry the seeds of their own destruction.

  11. 11.

    GxB

    Michael Caputo says he can no longer pay for kids’ college bc of legal fees

    Yeah, that whole “choices have consequences” thing is a real bitch, ain’t it? You’re one of the very few “elite” true believers to actually experience it. Hope this sets a trend.

  13. 13.

    Redshift

    Via Joy Reid, an interesting excerpt from a new PPP poll illustrating how impenetrable the wingnut bubble is, and how anyone who thinks the way forward for Dems is to try to “appeal” to them is delusional.

    Example: only 45% of Trump voters believe Trump Jr. met with Russians about oppo research, even though he has publicly admitted to it.

  15. 15.

    khead

    The Atlanta Falcons were up 28-3 halfway through the third quarter of the Super Bowl. That’s pretty impressive by any standard.

  16. 16.

    Eric U.

    @schrodingers_cat: I always thought that Obama’s bid to push through immigration reform by first cracking down on undocumented immigrants was a losing plan. The contrast between the two administrations looks pretty stark from here, but a lot of immigrants didn’t see it that way before the election. And I’m not sure they see the difference now.

    I know trump is having trouble getting people to work for him, but it looks like a much worse idea than anyone thought

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    Since the country has already been through the wringer with this clown and his gang of Keystone Krooks, with much more ‘wringer’ to come, we ought to at least get to enjoy the spectacle as they all try to pin treason on the OTHER guy…it’s going to be glorious. Especially with lawyers involved.

    It’s like a Pats/Cowboys game: rooting for injuries times elebenty!!

  19. 19.

    MJS

    @A Ghost to Most: “I hate to bring this up, but there is the small matter of my fee.” “Quite right. Now, where is my Secretary of the Treasury and the checkbook?”

  21. 21.

    WTF

    @Quinerly:
    The Trumpian mindset and worldview: Hillary Lost.
    If she had been captured and imprisoned her numbers would even be worse.

  25. 25.

    JMG

    About all Trump has to offer his voters is their belief that as bad as things are, Hillary would’ve made their lives worse. How? By being a woman in power.

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    @Quinerly: That article is still slanted toward Trump. They are within 2 or 3 points of each other, for them to tout that Trump is more popular than Clinton is bullshit.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @Redshift:

    Via Joy Reid, an interesting excerpt from a new PPP poll illustrating how impenetrable the wingnut bubble is, and how anyone who thinks the way forward for Dems is to try to “appeal” to them is delusional.

    But but but … I read something today, in The Atlantic by Noted Liberal Franklin Foer telling me that until the Dems can appeal to the white working class, then something something something. So YOU are obliviously worng!

    Libtard.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @Quinerly:

    I get your point. Still disturbing.

    Just demonstrates the MSM’s demonizing of Hitlary is the gift that keeps on giving.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @Quinerly: It’s depressing, but not unexpected. People aren’t going to blame themselves for what they did when there’s a societally acceptable scapegoat.

  36. 36.

    Quinerly

    @WaterGirl:
    The Hill can be very slanted. .depends on who writes the piece. I still find it disturbing after all that has happened in the last six months that a poll could be so close. Trump’s people ain’t changing. It seems the “double haters” ain’t changing.

  38. 38.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Redshift:

    I’ve decided for my own sanity and bliss to not hope for Trump voters to discover their own stupidity. Oh, sure, some Trump voters regret their vote, maybe even publicly admit it — but the majority could watch Trump filet a newborn, eat its heart, and would argue Trump had done nothing wrong.

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    They are within 2 or 3 points of each other, for them to tout that Trump is more popular than Clinton is bullshit.

    No, the problem is that it’s even close.

    Cyril Kornbluth seemed to have predicted the 2016 US electorate.

  42. 42.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:
    In better news, your running mate for 2020 is all packed for his 10 day exploratory sniff around Carteret County, NC. Poco is well known in those parts. He’ll report back after he goosed some chicks and licked some babies.?

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @Quinerly: I don’t actually care about Trump’s people. I care more that even the Hill is slanting its coverage for Trump. Grrr. (not directed at you.)

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    but the majority could watch Trump filet a newborn, eat its heart, and would argue Trump had done nothing wrong.

    Actually, they’d argue that the newborn must have done something REALLY TERRIBLE to have merited a punishment like that.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @SFAW: I guess I have lowered my exceptions of Trump voters to such an extent that I wasn’t surprised to see that outcome in the poll.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    The Hill seems very right-wing to me. Not Fox-level, but worse than the regular media.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    Btw I know we all hate Chris Cillizza and rightfully so…but this is kind of funny: Trumpov’s Teetering on the Brink of Disaster

    Trump is laying down the tracks as the train is speeding down them. The strategy is survival and, in the broadest sense, “winning.” But the idea that Trump has some sort of long-game strategy on where the track is heading and how to get there is disproved with each passing day.
    Or, to borrow a phrase from my friend Philip Bump, it’s more likely that Trump is playing zero-dimensional chess than it is that he is playing the three-dimensional version.

    OUCH!

    Go read it – go ahead, Chris will never know – just for the “Wallace and Gromit” GIF ;)

  59. 59.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:
    I’m hoping we have put that sneaky piss incident behind us. The people at Grateful Pets haven’t brought it up in weeks. There was no tape…just witnesses.

  61. 61.

    VeniceRiley

    @SFAW:

    but the majority could watch Trump filet a newborn, eat its heart, and would argue Trump had done nothing wrong.

    Actually, they’d argue that the newborn must have done something REALLY TERRIBLE to have merited a punishment like that.

    Like … oh, had been brought to the US by foreign brown parents?

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Quinerly: @SiubhanDuinne: From the article:

    That Trump was not joined in the conversation by his own translator is a breach of national security protocol, according to Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, though one that the president likely would not know about.

    Nothing to see here, just one more breach of national security protocol. Lately, I can’t decide which is more likely to happen first: Is my head going to explode or am I am going to spontaneously combust?

  65. 65.

    Yarrow

    @Quinerly: Hope you have a great trip. Are you going to post some “Poco’s View’ photos? I enjoyed those from your trip out west earlier this year. He’s such a cutie.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes, that point struck me. Also the fact that nobody from the White House saw fit to fucking mention it until today.

  67. 67.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Major Major Major Major: To be fair almost everyone here was in utter disbelief that Trump Jr was both dumb enough to do the meeting and then admit to it. when the story broke.

  68. 68.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl: Neither. Because you’re going to hold on to watch his head explode when he gets carted away in handcuffs for treason. But first we’ll get to enjoy his family doing perp walks as well.

  70. 70.

    Keith P.

    CNN reporting that Trump had additional private dinner meeting with Vladimir Putin, but with none of his staff…just Trump, Putin, and a Russian translator. It makes me wonder who were the other 5 Russians that were probably there.

  73. 73.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Quinerly: Keep in mind that these voters have been conditioned to hate the world “Clinton” since the 90s.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat: That’s interesting to know. But I still wonder why Putin would have his interpreter there then, and we would not have one for the US as well. Besides the fact that Trump is an idiot with no respect for the rule of law, I mean.

  77. 77.

    Jeffro

    Looks like EJ Dionne has teamed up with Ornstein & Mann to write the book…(sob)…the book that I wanted to write: what we’re gonna need to do post-Trumpov.

    I wonder what they call their Truth & Reconciliation commission? Probably something more original than “truth & reconciliation commission”…

    Clever that they’re hustling to get a post-Trumpov book out by September…it’d be even more clever if some Dem politician took that ball and ran with it. 15 minutes of paid airtime (or a well-done YouTube video?) could get you pretty close to the 2020 Dem nomination these days…

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    @Quinerly: I don’t mind The Hill links, I just mind that their article seems slanted.

    OT, I am still feeding my kitties the wet diet of roast chicken thighs and pumpkin, and I am roasting the chicken for this week. I looked up and I see that all 4 of my guys – both kitties and both dogs – are staring at me to tell me that the chicken is ready. They are right, too, because my mom taught me to cook by smell. I guess I handed that down to the guys. Off to feed dinner…

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    @Baud:
    It does, however, present gems like this:

    President Trump’s famous border wall may be less big and beautiful than he imagined, with a House panel on Tuesday advancing a bill that would allocate funding for just 28 miles of new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    The Homeland Security bill, which passed the House Appropriations Committee, has $1.57 billion in border infrastructure funds, including $498 million for 28 miles of new levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley, amounting to $17.8 million per mile.

    Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

  83. 83.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Major Major Major Major: Well I figured they would have some surrogates to do that actual talking – Trump’s Jr friend meets with this lawyer so if it comes out no one in the president’s immedate circle has direct knowlage of what was discussed so it can all be disavowed. Instead; show up to the meeting to expecting talk about treason after sending an email titled “Hey all, we just got an offer to comit treason. I hope the pay off is big because I really want to betray this country like Qisling did to Norway.”

  84. 84.

    Jeffro

    @Keith P.: I’m trying to picture just how many torches and pitchforks would be awaiting President Hillary Clinton later this evening if she’d pulled something like that with, say, the same Chinese leader whose country was suspected of hacking our election (and not even winning a majority of votes to boot).

    (Man, the IC is really going at it in real time, aren’t they? Sorry Trumpov, this ain’t beanbag anymore…)

  85. 85.

    gene108

    @Eric U.:

    I always thought that Obama’s bid to push through immigration reform by first cracking down on undocumented immigrants was a losing plan. The contrast between the two administrations looks pretty stark from here, but a lot of immigrants didn’t see it that way before the election. And I’m not sure they see the difference now.

    Obama made the mistake of thinking the racists in Congress could be reasoned with. He thought, if he was super tough on immigration, they would realize the laws are being strictly enforced and that would get Obama their goodwill to have a comprehensive bill.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The more T’s agenda flails, he goes after immigrants with a gusto, my prediction is that the DACA kids are next. Rounding up and deporting people with no criminal records is what he has been doing. Kelly is implementing this agenda with ruthless efficiency.

    Well, that’s why he got elected: To Deport all 11 million illegal aliens. He promised this. He didn’t make any distinctions etween those building lives here and those breaking laws, and neither do his voters; to them they are all criminal aliens.

    The DACA kids need to get busy finding single American citizens to marry.

    I think that’s the only way they can be guaranteed to stay here. Or return, if they are deported before their GC’s get processed.

  87. 87.

    moops

    At least most of the media is enjoying making hay and moving copy based on an actual scandal. I wouldn’t count on them being able to recognize actual scandals. The IC and Trump’s own incompetent short-bus WH staff keep making sure to throw softballs over the plate for them. Then there is ManBaby there to make everything worse.

    I am actually pretty worried that Trump will manage to shut up for one month and the media will utterly loses interest and moves on to the next story. The IC will have to stay on target if Trump does not participate in his own scandalized sensation.

  94. 94.

    Morzer

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/18/trump-jr-russia-meeting-irakly-ike-kaveladze

    A Russian American businessman once accused of laundering more than $1.4bn into the US from eastern Europe attended the meeting where Donald Trump’s son expected to receive secret information from Moscow.

    Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze was the eighth participant in the notorious get-together at Trump Tower in Manhattan on 9 June 2016, his attorney Scott Balber confirmed to the Guardian on Tuesday. Kaveladze’s attendance was first reported by CNN.

    Kaveladze, 52, is an executive at a Moscow-based property firm owned by Aras Agalarov, a business associate of Trump who is also enmeshed in the controversy over the meeting during last year’s presidential election campaign.

    Follow the money and you’ll find all the dirt that Trump’s been hiding for decades.

  99. 99.

    Ladyraxterinok

    Didn’t GOP have a major fit if 1) they didn’t have complete access to the Obama WH log listing every visitor, their purpose, and how long they stayed?? 2) There wasn’t 24/7 monitoring of every official Obama trip??

  100. 100.

    moops

    The media can barely manage to give appropriate coverage to health care. One actual domestic terrorist attack and all of this might flow away. The media rally behind the President, the WH finally learns how to trade “access” for fawning coverage, antagonistic media are labeled traitors, etc.

    where “access” means just printing what the WH hands you. You know, the “surrogates” Kushner was asking for earlier this week.

  105. 105.

    Quinerly

    @lamh36:
    I don’t know if it really makes much difference but I have to assume Secret Service was in the room during this meeting. To me, this SECRET one hour long meeting with Putin and Putin’s translator is a really big deal. The Dems need to refer to it for what it was…A SECRET MEETING with someone who interfered with our election process.

  107. 107.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    Trump’s not going to be at all happy about a reporter from his favorite network walking out of the press conference.

  108. 108.

    Keith P.

    @Ladyraxterinok: Hell, they had major fits when people on the WH Visitors Log shared the same damn name with someone controversial, and a lot of those times, it was with a different middle initial!

  109. 109.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @zhena gogolia: Putin has been learning English and has spoken a bit of it in public. I recently read that he is getting more fluent. But best practice in diplomatic encounters is to use an interpreter for anything that isn’t one’s native language. Gives another viewpoint of what is said and time to compose what you’re going to say.

  110. 110.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Keith P.:

    Trump had additional private dinner meeting with Vladimir Putin, but with none of his staff…just Trump, Putin, and a Russian translator.

    So literally just a meeting of Putin and his employees, what’s the fuss?

  111. 111.

    Baud

    Paying for the Wall just got easier

    The Mexican peso rose to its highest level against the dollar in more than a year, highlighting the reversal in several trades as President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda has stalled.
    The peso has rebounded from a steep postelection fall and is now up almost 19% this year at $0.057224, its highest level since May 2016. That means one dollar buys roughly 17.48 pesos.
    The currency’s latest surge came after a U.S. road map for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement fell short of Mr. Trump’s protectionist campaign rhetoric, easing fears that a new deal will hurt Mexico’s export-dependent economy

  112. 112.

    patrick II

    @gene108:

    Obama made the mistake of thinking the racists in Congress could be reasoned with. He thought, if he was super tough on immigration, they would realize the laws are being strictly enforced and that would get Obama their goodwill to have a comprehensive bill.

    Instead, the excuse I most heard, from McConnell especially, for not passing the immigration bill was that Obama couldn’t be trusted to enforce it.
    Always that implicit, when not explicit, appeal to racism.

  116. 116.

    Quinerly

    OK, the meeting was held in full view of others present. I guess not that secret. MSNBC reporting.

  120. 120.

    p.a.

    I’m not hoping for a circular firing squad. Too neat. Shovels, axe handles and hand tools are what this misadministration and its lawyers deserve.

  122. 122.

    Ohio Mom

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: It probably isn’t at all true, but I have read that within every seven year period, all your molecules have turned over. I like it as a metaphor. Anyway, by this measure, you are well on your way to being sober on a molecular level.

  124. 124.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:
    I have to admit, didn’t click on full stories. Just reading these snippets. MSNBC has pictures of the dinner with many attending. Trump left his seat to go be next to Putin…to talk for an hour.

  128. 128.

    Quinerly

    @japa21:
    No. It’s terrible. But I had it pictured as a meeting in a room with Trump, Putin, translator. This hour chat was in full view of the entire room. Wonder why it didn’t leak sooner? Bremmer wasn’t there. He was told it happened.

  131. 131.

    different-church-lady

    TRUMP JR: “I’m sorry Dad, nothing could be dumber than my taking a secret meeting with Russian agents during the election.”

    TRUMP SR: “Hold my 5 piece extra crispy bucket…”

    BREAKING NEWS
    Trump, Putin had a previously undisclosed hour-long meeting at the G-20 summit in Germany

    The second meeting, unreported at the time, took place at a dinner for Group of 20 leaders, a senior administration official said. Halfway through the meal, President Trump left his seat to occupy an empty chair next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump was alone, and Putin was attended only by his official interpreter.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @SFAW:

    I like that Wikipedia points out the same problem with that story that I’ve pointed out with a lot of the “population panic” stories: male science fiction writers literally could not comprehend that women who were given a chance to control their own fertility would voluntarily choose to have one, two, or zero children all on their own. And yet, when the Pill was made widely available, that’s exactly what happened.

    Revanchists have been trying to change that reality ever since.

  133. 133.

    trollhattan

    In case anybody thinks congressional Republicans can’t get any stupider let me remind you they include Dana Rohrabacher, congress’ answer to Alex Jones.

    Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (D-CA) on Tuesday raised eyebrows when he asked a panel of space experts if an advanced civilization ever lived on Mars.

    The panel—which included the project scientist for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission, Ken Farley—was testifying in a public hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology when Rohrabacher asked the question.

    “You have indicated that Mars had, was totally different thousands of years ago,” the GOP Congressman began. “Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?”

    “So, the evidence is that Mars was different billions of years ago, not thousands of years ago,” Farley replied. “And there is no evidence I’m aware of that—“

    “Would you rule that out?” Rohrabacher pressed.

    “I would say that is extremely unlikely,” Farley replied.

  135. 135.

    Quinerly

    @different-church-lady:
    Discussion being described as “animated” by those witnessing it. The other leaders being described as being “befuddled” by what was taking place in front of them. Watching Hardball. Philip Rucker WaPo reporting.

  136. 136.

    Quinerly

    Schiff calling the hour after dinner discussion “a secret meeting.” He is just learning of it.

  138. 138.

    Gvg

    @different-church-lady: ahh, I see. The two outcasts sat next to each other. Still not ok.
    Trump really isn’t a real politician because he can’t grasp that when you are suspected of being a Russian puppet, you shouldn’t change your parties positions to be too nice to that country now hang out with the suspicious leader. He doesn’t seem to understand he is acting like a traitor. Doesn’t understand this stuff matters.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    In case nobody has said this yet, check with your vet and see if you need to add vitamin or other supplements to your homemade food. Sometimes there isn’t quite enough taurine and other things that kitties need for optimal health.

    And make sure you include the organ meats like the heart and liver — them’s good eating for an obligate carnivore!

  141. 141.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mike in NC:

    Somebody ought to start a GoFuckYou for Caputo.

    What an ineffable snob, to say that his kids are “unlucky” because they’ll be forced to go to (gasp!) Community College. The poor dears. Not sure how they’ll manage to survive the humiliation.

  142. 142.

    Roger Moore

    @Ohio Mom:

    It probably isn’t at all true, but I have read that within every seven year period, all your molecules have turned over.

    It isn’t literally true. Different parts of your body turn over at different rates. Your water, for example, turns over very quickly. Other molecules turn over very slowly, if at all. DNA turns over no faster than the cells it’s in, so the DNA in cells that don’t divide (like neurons in your brain) doesn’t turn over. Neither do the proteins in the lenses of your eyes.

  144. 144.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The more T’s agenda flails, he goes after immigrants with a gusto, my prediction is that the DACA kids are next

    Didn’t he do that months ago?

    Now its “round them up ANYWHERE if you don’t have papers and look foreign” as proposed by the Nazis.

  145. 145.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    IIRC Putin can speak English.

    Don’t know how fluent he is, but I guarangoddamntee that his English is a thousand times better than Trump’s Russian. I know about six words in Russian, and that’s probably more than DJT.

  146. 146.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gvg:

    It makes sense if you realize that Trump is exactly like his average voters, who voted for the racist to prove they’re not racists.

  148. 148.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Quinerly:

    Too bad she doesn’t take comments. Every now and then, there’s something I just itch to mention in response to one of her posts. But yeah, she’s always pretty solid.

  150. 150.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @TenguPhule:

    Now its “round them up ANYWHERE if you don’t have papers and look foreign” as proposed by the Nazis.

    That’s why I told the wife and kid to get a passport card when they renew their passports.

  152. 152.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:

    WOW! Makes me feel vicariously proud. John Roberts is Canadian, and my Canadian cousin hired him for his very first broadcasting job, at radio station CFOS in Owen Sound, ON, many decades ago.

    I’ve always liked him as a reporter, and when I worked for the Canadian Consulate and he lived in Atlanta, we slotted him in as a luncheon speaker at the Atlanta Press Club. He was sharp and entertaining. A good guy, and I’m delighted to see he has some starchy spine underneath all the Canadian niceness.

    ETA: He is a far cry from being a FOX true believer. I know that for a fact.

  155. 155.

    BruceFromOhio

    Grilling some tandoori-spiced chicken, sipping a martini and enjoying the backyard on a spectacular summer evening while the two-bit soulless ratfuck criminals destroying my country cry the two-bit ratfuck blues.

    For a breath, I tarry.

  156. 156.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Quinerly:

    She writes for Salon, also. Think there is a comment section there.

    Right you are. I honestly never bother with Salon, because she always cross-posts to her own blog.

  157. 157.

    Van Buren

    Totally OT, but in the last few days, a 27 year old woman and a 12 year old boy have been killed in senseless and tragic accidents within a mile of my home.
    Hug someone you love tonight.

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @moops:

    I am actually pretty worried that Trump will manage to shut up for one month

    I’m not. Only if he suffers a terrible accident that requires, simultaneously, a laryngectomy and amputation of all of his fingers.

  161. 161.

    LesGS

    @Gravenstone: Right. Rohrabacher is one of those rare (R-Ca)s. Someone needs a little copy-editing.

    ETA. Actually it looks like they now have it correct at Raw Story.

  162. 162.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ohio Mom:

    It probably isn’t at all true, but I have read that within every seven year period, all your molecules have turned over. I like it as a metaphor.

    I have long heard (and, I guess, believed) the same, that every seven years you have an entirely new physical body. I’m very close to acquiring my 11th body. I feel like Doctor Who.

    ETA: I had originally phrased that as “I feel like fucking Doctor Who,” but because of the attractive ambiguity of the word “fuck” and its inflections, I realized I might be misunderstood.

  164. 164.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat: Are you sure, I swear there were articles about that happening anyway once INS decided that standards didn’t matter. Trump said he wasn’t going after them, but they were still being rounded up anyway.

  167. 167.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    Rohrabacher is someone whose name, I think, may surface with some frequency as this whole Russia Thing unfolds. For instance, a couple of months ago (easy enough to look up the actual date), UKIP’s Nigel Farage visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and had a meeting with Julian Assange. About a week later, he was vacationing with Dana Rohrabacher and his son in California.

    I have always had a hearty contempt for conspiracy theorists of any stripe, but I’m beginning to scratch my head, stroke my chin, and go “Hmmmmm….” quite a lot these days.

  168. 168.

    schrodingers_cat

    @TenguPhule: No ICE hadn’t canceled the deportation orders of some South and Central American children who are now in the final stages of GC approval. So far DACA recipients have been safe from the sweeps but that program hangs by a thread now.

  172. 172.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Quinerly:

    I can’t help thinking of Tillerson. God knows I have no use for him, but relatively speaking he’s a scoche better than, well, just about anyone else in this maladministration.

    At this point, he has been so humiliated on the world stage by the President* he serves, I’m about ready to put down serious money that he will be the first cabinet member to walk out.

  174. 174.

    Quinerly

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I pretty much quit on Salon after Joan Walsh left. Hit or miss now. Digby writes regularly there and my point was if you want to comment/take issue with her, I think there is a comment section.

  175. 175.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @different-church-lady:
    @SatanicPanic:

    It’s probably not that important in the great scheme of things, but would be interesting to know the identities of those seated on either side of Trump at the dinner, before he abandoned them for his hour-long tête-à-tête with Putin.

  177. 177.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Which probably means that the “translator” doubles as an intelligence operative.

    I will be disappoint if our own “translators” are not in the USA IC. Not that Trump of would use them, of course.

  178. 178.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It’s totally plausible that Rohrabacher really believes this shit about Mars. He’s a nut job.

    Yes, I know I keep misspelling his name. I don’t care. ?

  180. 180.

    Edward Zaitz

    I am, and I have worked for, disabled vets all my life and I couldn’t even afford to send my sons to community college. Only one managed a degree. He graduated with high honors and now works as a waiter. Fuck Caputo.

  182. 182.

    Procopius

    @Yarrow: Hillary needs to be seen helping her friends retain control of the Democratic Party and preventing hippies from getting elected. Otherwise the money flow might start to get restricted.

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