Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Morning Open Thread: Got Plans for Next Weekend?

Friday Morning Open Thread: Got Plans for Next Weekend?

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Trollin’, trollin’, trollin’…


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As we brace for the predictable Friday News Dump, what’s on the agenda for the day?


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And if we ever get a break from the cascade of healthcare / Russiagate newsbursts, let’s not forgot Kansan Kris Kobach’s openly fraudulent Voter Fraud Commission…

Reader Interactions

199Comments

  2. 2.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax: RT= ReTweet. In other words, spread the word further on the social platform.

    It’s an important metric, enough so that it’s represented by the second icon (the double-arrow box) along the bottom of every tweet. This particular tweet had been RT’d 2,620 times by the time I embedded it here.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A feel good story to start the day with:

    Pat McGee noticed her daughter had not returned to the oral surgeon’s waiting room shortly before her surgery was supposed to start. She walked to the nearest bathroom and found Jessica McDaniels, 32, outside the stall, crying. Pat took her daughter into her arms.

    “We are going to say bye to the old Jessica,” she said. “And hi to the new Jessica.”

    McDaniels, a hairstylist in St. Louis, had been praying for this day since high school, when the taunting about her misshapen teeth started. Now that it was finally happening, she was a nervous wreck. She hadn’t slept well in days. This day, she stood up at 4 a.m. and looked around her bedroom. “Today is July 11,” she said, a day that was going to change everything.

    She began to get ready. As she sat in the tub in a daze, tears started running down her face. She had been having dreams of not waking up after the surgery, or getting up during the surgery. She needed to take her mind off what was ahead. She got her two boys up for camp, did the dishes, started another load of laundry.

    She posted on Facebook at 5 a.m.: Surgery Day.

    It was a Facebook post on May 2 that started this whole journey. Someone cropped McDaniels out of a friend’s engagement picture and wrote an insulting post about her extreme overbite and teeth. The post went viral, which unleashed a torrent of ugly remarks about her appearance. McDaniels apologized to her friends who had gotten engaged and worried that she had ruined their special moment. One of her high school friends created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her dental treatment. McDaniels had been trying for years to get her teeth fixed, but it was always too costly.

    When her story ran in the Post-Dispatch, dentists reached out, wanting to help her. Dr. Maryann Udy, with Northwest Oral Maxillo-Facial Surgeons, could tell from the picture in the paper that McDaniels’ case was going to be complicated, requiring multiple procedures and months of visits. She asked to be connected with Jessica and offered her a new smile — free of charge.

    McDaniels was skeptical. She called her mama. “You need to do it,” McGee told her daughter. She told McDaniels that Udy was her angel. Still, McDaniels waffled about it until two days before the first procedure. The morning of the surgery, Udy tried to calm McDaniels’ nerves.

    “Hey, girl,” Udy greeted her, giving her a hug.
    “I’m so nervous,” McDaniels said. “I’ve got butterflies.”

    …….

    It could take weeks for the swelling to go down and several months before her new smile will be complete. Even after the painkillers wore off, McDaniels waited two days before she looked in a mirror. A different face would look back. She looked at old Snapchat photos.

    “I loved her,” she said, about the old Jessica.

    She’s grateful to be in less pain, to be on the path to a new smile. Sometimes, though, it feels like something is missing from who she was. Still, she loves taking selfies and admiring the progress so far.

    “I looked good before,” she said. “I look even better now.”

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh:

    I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe [Shinzo Abe of Japan], who I think is a terrific guy, and she’s a terrific woman, but doesn’t speak English. – Donald Trump, on his G20 dinner

    She does speak English

    Jessica Valenti
    ✔
    @JessicaValenti

    Looks like the First Lady of Japan pretended not to speak English for nearly 2 hrs to avoid talking to Trump twitter.com/samthielman/status/887987198146097152 …

  15. 15.

    Yoda Dog

    Good morning.

    I was just thinking it had been too long since the last march. I’m rready to stomp and yell some more, i dunno about everyone else.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    Trump’s not dumb enough to fire Mueller is he? He realizes he has Mueller because he fired Comey?

    If he fires Mueller he gets an even scarier person :)

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    New NIN ep out today – probably not a bad soundtrack to this afternoon’s coming epic document drop and attendant media frenzy! (Or just for blasting on the way to work =)

    Excited to see how GOP leadership, voters, WWC, etc all explain why Donald “Innocent Man” Trumpov is looking into pardoning himself and everyone around him. I’m guessing it’s Hillary’s fault.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Attention all origami aficionados, Uncle NASA wants you:

    If you know your crane from your bishop’s mitre, Nasa needs you. The space agency is launching a challenge to crowdsource origami-inspired ideas for a foldable radiation shield to protect spacecraft and astronauts on voyages to deep space, such as missions to Mars. With the challenge open for entries from 26 July, innovative designs can be submitted through the website, Freelancer.

    “The theory is that there will be a lot of people who have expertise in folding techniques or origami and [Nasa] want to find a very efficient way to pack a radiation shield,” said Matt Barrie, founder and CEO of Freelancer.

    Helen O’Brien, a space engineer from Imperial College London who is not involved in the project, said that radiation shields – typically made of aluminium – are a crucial component of both manned and unmanned spacecraft. “Essentially cosmic rays and other solar radiation can be very damaging to both people and electronics,” she said, pointing out that it can cause cancer, as well as triggering faults in circuits. But, she noted, mass means money when it comes to space missions, and bulky items take up space that could be used for instruments – or people.

    “Nasa want something that is sufficiently packed and compact so that when you actually land on a planet you can expand it and it will provide maximum efficiency and protection from radiation,” said Barrie.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It feels like he’s panicky, though, doesn’t it? Boy those tax returns and business records must be bad.

    I saw that piece where Trump takes advice from the Fox and Friends crew. That’s going well for him. Good choice of advisers.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @Kay: I’m confident WikiLeaks will release them any day now.

    #AntiDemocraticInformationWantsToBeFree

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    You know, a normal person would step back, think, and realize the choices he’s made haven’t been working out. A normal person would then think he ought to try a different way. Not Trump. Wear ’em down with outrage.

  31. 31.

    Fester Addams

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    the First Lady of Japan pretended not to speak English for nearly 2 hrs to avoid talking to Trump

    Perhaps she understands that in a diplomatic setting, no one should talk to him without a note-taker and a translator present. Hell, even a native English speaker should have a translator–moron to English.

  32. 32.

    trnc

    I am looking forward to having Jeff Sessions & Rod Rosenstein as colleagues @nyulaw soon.

    Sessions would probably not resign under any circumstances because literally the only thing Beau needs from DT is to not be fired. Beau can carry out his agenda just fine with zero confidence from DT. None of us would be a bit surprised if DT just up and fired him in a fit of pique, regardless of the consequences, but I suspect it would have already happened and there may actually be someone able to get it through his thick skull that there may not be anyone else willing to take on the job.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @trnc: Agree completely. Sessions has an agenda that he’s not giving up, and that agenda is why Trump can’t fire him. And Sessions knows this.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: In approximately 5 billion years, the sun will begin the helium-burning process, turning into a red giant star. When it expands, its outer layers will consume Mercury and Venus, and reach Earth. That too, will be Hillary’s fault.

  35. 35.

    NorthLeft12

    Up here in Canada I was amused to hear the new US Ambassador [Ms. Kelly Knight Craft] to Canada talk about the “shared environmental goals” of our two countries. I have no freaking idea what she is referring to as our two federal governments are far apart on most everything……except pipelines.

    I wonder if Ms. Craft is actually the Ambassador from California?

  39. 39.

    Aleta

    @Kay: Until now the question hasn’t been how dumb he is. It’s been “are these people dumb enough to get taken.” Before it wasn’t voters with blown backs on pain pills, it was bankers and the NBC and CNN news divisions and NYT reporters and investors, because they thought they would get something. How smart the other person is relative to him didn’t matter because the person he was conning could be manipulated by displays and connections. Ivanka and Kushner operate on that too.
    Even now he can’t stop bluffing, trying to win the con even though his lawyers and aides are telling him to cut it out.

  44. 44.

    NorthLeft12

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I was watching a CBC segment from Kentucky about the health care issue. They interviewed a couple in their late sixties [maybe a little younger] who are completely dependent on Obamacare. He has black lung disease and could barely croak out a sentence, and she has diabetes. They fully credited the ACA with his ability to stay alive, but when asked if they voted for Obama, they said no. And when asked about voting for Hilary, she said “Oh no, not for Hilary.” with a disgusted look.
    Yeah, they voted for Trump and now they are reduced to begging him and the other Republicans they voted for to somehow save them from the choice that they made.
    The Party of Personal Responsibility, amen.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I do love that Attorney General White Citizens Council has no self respect. It was silly of Dolt45 to think that he would resign.

  49. 49.

    NorthLeft12

    @Immanentize: Actually, the chemical plant I work at is completely dependent on the fracking taking place in Pennsylvania. We were one of the first companies to sign up and we built a pipeline to connect to the new pipeline built to distribute the lighter ends from fracking.
    I would not have a job, along with hundreds, if not thousands, of others in this area.

  50. 50.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: That is a lovely story. I wore braces as a kid because of crooked teeth and luckily wasn’t teased about it. It’s a shame when folks mock perfect strangers because of how they look. Juvenile.

  51. 51.

    Aleta

    @NorthLeft12: I guess the “shared environmental goals” she has in mind would be clearcutting, destructive mining practices and polluting waterways wherever our countries can get away with it.

  55. 55.

    hueyplong

    My wife and I tried an experiment last night. At four separate points when what people were sayiyng on MSNBC (about the WaPo and NYT stories) had us thinking there was no way FoxNews could credibly spin that, we switched to FoxNews on the theory that they’d be talking about a Hillary Clinton Scandal. Two of the four times they mentioned her by name in under 60 seconds. The other two times they were in commercial breaks.

    Each of the four channel changes was during Hannity’s show, so the sampling might not have been totally fair (or balanced).

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    Well let’s see how Republicans try to wriggle out of this mess. Will they be concerned? Troubled? Will they reserve judgment until they know all the facts? Wish they were that interested in the facts of climate science but of course they are not scientists.

  59. 59.

    Robert Sneddon

    @NorthLeft12: Re: fracking.

    Fracking is an extractive industry and there’s not a lot of gas to be extracted that way, it’s a process which is kept afloat by the demand for gas for rapid-response electricity generation to cover intermittent renewable production and figleaf the reduction in coal-burning that is slowly occurring in the US (now down to less than 3 tonnes per capita per annum). Once the fracked gas is gone, in ten or fifteen years or whenever it’s gone and the jobs that depend on it will go away too but the CO2 that fracking adds to the atmosphere will still be there.

  61. 61.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Not sure if he would really get a scarier person. If he fires Mueller, wouldn’t that be the end of the investigation. Who would appoint anyone else to conduct an investigation? I hope you’re right but with the way this regime has gotten away with everything so far, I’m really not sure. Trump is nothing if not a fascist and the GOP is fully behind him and they run everything in Washington, D.C. right now.

  62. 62.

    NorthLeft12

    @Baud: It’s like a car wreck, people just can’t help but stop and stare.

    Our two countries attitudes towards health care could not be more different. I think the best analogy I can think of is Canadians feel about our health care system like the rabid 2ND Amendment American gun owners feel about their guns.
    Any attempts to privatize parts of our health care system [Thanks Conservatives!] have been met with howls of outrage and a quick retreat by the proposers.
    I was hoping that your system had a chance to grow and become as cherished and valuable as ours.

  63. 63.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    He seems very panicky. He’s spinning about this. He can’t control the process and he’s also emotionally and physically exhausted. Let’s hope they can control him enough to prevent him from doing something catastrophic as he seems to turn all his emotions into anger and direct them outward.
    ETA This is a person who is incurious to an extreme degree. He doesn’t even like to learn new things with his favorite hobby golf, preferring only to play on his own courses where he feels comfortable and in control. Right now he is in the worst possible situation. He doesn’t know his job, doesn’t know how to play the game, let alone win it. He can’t retreatto get away from the pressure. Not knowing what Mueller and team are doing is as stressful for him as not being able to control what they do.

  64. 64.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Prestige is one of those rare instances in which the movie is vastly better than the book it’s adapted from. And whoever had the idea to cast David Bowie as Nikolai Tesla deserves a fucking medal.

    Besides, it delves into the eternal question of who would win a fight between Batman and Wolverine.

  68. 68.

    NorthLeft12

    @Robert Sneddon: I’ll not argue with you, but the Ethane, and some Propane, that we receive are the lifeblood of this plant. Will it run out that quickly? Maybe, but until we can convert our industries and economy away from hydrocarbons it is what it is.

  69. 69.

    satby

    Question for the hive mind: if a newly installed outlet (one of those circuit breaker ones) constantly clicks off and shows a red light even with nothing plugged into it, is it reverse polarity or something worse? This is the second time I have had one installed (and at a lot of $$) and the thing lasted only about two hours.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: That’s a GFI outlet. While it is possible you have gotten 2 bad ones in a row, I rather suspect you have a bad breaker in the main panel that is causing voltage surges. Any competent electrician should be able to figure this out for you. Maybe you can hire Kay’s son.

  77. 77.

    Central Planning

    @OzarkHillbilly: and, that GFI outlet protects everything else past it (away from the main panel) so you could have a bad device elsewhere on the circuit.

  79. 79.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I figured my next step was an electrician. Thanks.

    Edited to add: this is the second house I have purchased where the previous owner knew just enough to be dangerous. Expensive hobby fixing stuff they’ve done. ?

  81. 81.

    Oldgold

    Is that the Chatenooga Choo Choo pulling into Trump Station?

    If so, it is bringing with it a potential Constitutional crisis the likes of which we not seen since Fort Sumter was fired upon.

  83. 83.

    bystander

    @Iowa Old Lady: Happy Birthday and think about how strange it might be if you weren’t 70 today.

    Looks like the First Lady of Japan pretended not to speak English for nearly 2 hrs to avoid talking to Trump

    Who wouldn’t if they could get away with it? Melania just finished her ESL course. Drug her feet for 14 years.

    ETA “Ficky fick” and “multi dinero” can only take you so far.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Central Planning: You are correct. I had not thought that one thru.

    ETA: but then, I’m not a competent electrician, just a half assed one who knows just enough to get himself into more trouble than he can get himself out of.

    Satby: try unplugging devices further down in the circuit one at a time, CP is right.

  87. 87.

    bystander

    @Elizabelle: By “one” do you mean “birthday”? If so, Happy Birthday, Elizabelle.

    If not, how about sharing that one with me, too? My birthday’s coming up.

  92. 92.

    danielx

    @Jeffro:

    Nope. Still Obama’s fault. After all, he knew all this and made no effort to stop it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

  94. 94.

    Central Planning

    @OzarkHillbilly: that was directed more to satby, not you. Probably should have responded to her comment instead of yours.

    ETA – learned that from my brother-in-law, a master electrician. I never actually read one of the installation guides close enough to catch that bit.

  96. 96.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have no idea what else is on the same circuit though I suspect the dishwasher might be. Sigh. I just wish yesterday hadn’t cost me almost $300 since I now need to call another guy.

  99. 99.

    Central Planning

    @satby: push the test button and you’ll see what doesnt have power. You can easily check appliances by unplugging them from other outlets on that circuit

  102. 102.

    Central Planning

    OT – Interesting observation about FYWP – all comments are left justified, except the ones that are still editable. They are indented a little bit. At least on my iPhone. Weird.

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Easy enough to figure out, flip the GFI and see if the DW runs. If not, there you go. That said, the dishwasher should be on a dedicated circuit. Older homes suck in that way. Things get added (DW, refrigerator, etc) to old wiring that was put in with a 60 amp service (for reasons), that now a days require dedicated circuits. Even after the service has been upgraded to 100 amp or 200 amp, the old wiring remains and is reminiscent of an MC Escher drawing. It can be difficult to figure out.

  114. 114.

    Cermet

    The the right-wing rag known as the NYT, they have an article on the increasing popularity of ACA in a conservative area of Pennsylvania; this caught my attention:

    But Democrats and independents have rallied around it, and many of those who opposed it now accept the law, unwilling to see millions of Americans stripped of the coverage that it extended to them.

    “I can’t even remember why I opposed it,” said Patrick Murphy, who owns Bagel Barrel, on a quaint and bustling street near Mr. Brahin’s law office here in Doylestown.

    “Everybody needs some sort of health insurance,” Mr. Murphy said. “They’re trying to repeal Obamacare but they don’t have anything in place.”

    He thought Democrats “jammed it down our throats,” and like Mr. Brahin, he worried about the growing deficit. But, he said, he has provided insurance for his own dozen or so employees since 1993.

    This guy runs a small business AND started providing healthcare to his employee’s and now realizes his employee’s deserve healthcare! WOW; talk about a change in attitude and view of this topic by some conservatives! That is a major and important sea change when conservative small business owners decide that healthcare is a right, not a privilege (and some of that cost is coming out of his bottom-line) – amazing!

  115. 115.

    Baud

    @Cermet:

    “I can’t even remember why I opposed it,”

    Did anyone show him a photo of Obama to refresh his recollection?

    ETA:. BTW, Toomey don’t care..

  116. 116.

    Quinerly

    @Central Planning:
    How cool is that? I’m originally from Pitt County (ECU undergrad, go Pirates!). Family place here at PKS since 1977; place at Salter Path prior going back to 1965. I might even know your family here. I’m usually here off season, so know a lot of the permanent residents. We are on the oceanside. Is your dad on the golf course side like most of the permanent folks? Had the time for a break, so took it. Back in October for a month.

  125. 125.

    MomSense

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    How terribly strange to be 70.

    Happy birthday even though you gave me an earworm that is almost impossible to get rid of.

    @Elizabelle:

    And a very happy birthday to you.

    Hope you both have some fun today. We’ll point and mock at agent orange for you if you want to take a day away from the mess.

  129. 129.

    MomSense

    @danielx:

    That’s the thing about good music. It just fills you with life.

    ETA: My kids will all be home tonight and the deal is that I make dinner and provide the drinks and they play music. My kid has been writing some really good songs the last few months.

  130. 130.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly: Ta. It would be compleat with a Poco photo, later today or whenever beach dog decides to pose for you. Enjoy!

  131. 131.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: The July effect begins to assert itself in late June (my granddaughter’s b-day is June 30th) and bleeds over into early August (my mother’s b-day- August 2nd). Of course, I’m the exception that proves the rule.

  132. 132.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Cermet: To Republicans “the deficit” always means “welfare.” “I was worried about the deficit” means “I was worried that black and brown people were getting free stuff at my expense.”

  133. 133.

    rikyrah

    I agree. Democrats were phucking idiots not to jam this muthaphucka up. He simply CANNOT BE TRUSTED.

    Trump’s FBI pick gets treated as if these were normal times
    07/20/17 04:45 PM—UPDATED 07/20/17 07:19 PM
    By Steve Benen

    …………………………………………………………………..

    Christopher Wray, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, easily cleared a key Senate committee Thursday – even following an explosive Trump interview in The New York Times that prompted Democrats to raise renewed concerns of political interference with the Department of Justice.

    The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 20-0 in favor of Wray, a former Justice Department official who has been in private practice for the past dozen years. His nomination now goes to the Senate floor, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated he intends to have Wray confirmed before the August recess.

    What we’re witnessing is a process in which the Senate is treating Trump’s nominee as if these were normal circumstances – but they’re not.

    In theory, there’s a vacancy atop the FBI; the White House has chosen a qualified nominee; and the Senate Judiciary Committee was pleased with how the confirmation hearing went. The next obvious step in the process was a favorable committee vote, to be followed by a floor vote.

    But the current circumstances are anything but normal. The most recent head of the FBI was fired because Trump disapproved of an ongoing investigation the director was leading into the president and the election assistance he received from his foreign benefactors. By some accounts, Comey’s dismissal was itself evidence of obstruction of justice.

    Trump then chose Wray – rolling out his nomination in a bizarre and highly disorganized way – before suggesting that the new FBI director would be more cooperative to the White House’s plans than the old FBI director.

    I generally approve of the idea of the Senate considering a nomination on the individual’s merits, and if Wray is capable and qualified, it’s understandable to think that should effectively end the conversation. But there’s a context here that’s being overlooked: there shouldn’t be a vacancy in the FBI director’s office right now. Trump’s decision to fire Comey was an unprecedented abuse of dubious legality, and the president’s recent comments suggest his vision for Wray’s role falls far outside what should be acceptable.

    msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-fbi-pick-gets-treated-if-these-were-normal-times

  135. 135.

    father pussbucket

    @satby:
    I would check the polarity (black or red is “hot”); from what I know of how they work, that could cause this behavior.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @satby:

    this is the second house I have purchased where the previous owner knew just enough to be dangerous. Expensive hobby fixing stuff they’ve done.

    Hang in there and next time buy a house from me – I guarantee you there won’t be a thing that has been tinkered with, as I can barely hang a picture frame! ;)

    (Around our house we have a saying, “We don’t do maintenance…we just move”. LOL. )

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    I was really glad that Maddow spelled this out last night. It was good for her to connect the dots.

    I’m still amused that Dolt45 thought that Attorney General White Citizens Council had any:
    a) self-respect
    b) honor

    Resign? After he’s getting to fulfill his White Supremacist fantasies?
    Phuck outta here, Dolt45.
    You wanna get rid of the KKKeebler Elf, you’re gonna have to man up and fire him.
    LOL

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/20/17
    If Trump wants to fire Mueller, he’ll have to fire Sessions first
    Rachel Maddow looks at some of the background of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort that is being looked at in the Trump Russia investigation and notes that if Trump is afraid the investigation is getting to close, he’ll have to fire Jeff Sessions before he can fire Robert Mueller.

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    if Wray is capable and qualified, it’s understandable to think that should effectively end the conversation. But there’s a context here that’s being overlooked: there shouldn’t be a vacancy in the FBI director’s office right now. Trump’s decision to fire Comey was an unprecedented abuse of dubious legality, and the president’s recent comments suggest his vision for Wray’s role falls far outside what should be acceptable.

    110% spot-on. At this point we have a president* at war with the rule of law itself…no nomination he makes should be voted on until the Russia investigation is completed. You listening, Democratic senators? (Of course not)

    Speaking of a president at war with the rule of law itself: Josh Marshall at TPM sums it all up quite nicely

    …there are lots of details. But each has the same effect. President Trump will define the scope of Mueller’s investigation. Mueller will continue his investigation only as long as President Trump wants: Trump and his spokespeople have now repeatedly said that the President reserves the right to fire Mueller. The President is also prepared to pardon some or all of the people under investigation. Again, many details, one upshot: Mueller can only do what the President allows. That amounts to saying that the President will not allow the law to operate with respect to him or his family.

    From a different perspective, we are beginning to see what everyone who’s studied Trump’s business history knows: to paraphrase the Army maxim, Trump’s business would not survive first contact with real legal scrutiny. So he made clear in yesterday’s Times interview that any review of his or his family’s business history would be unacceptable.

    This paragraph from the Post is particularly striking: “Trump has been fuming about the probe in recent weeks as he has been informed about the legal questions that he and his family could face. His primary frustration centers on why allegations that his campaign coordinated with Russia should spread into scrutinizing many years of Trump dealmaking. He has told aides he was especially disturbed after learning Mueller would be able to access several years of his tax returns.”

    It is quite remarkable that in a wide-ranging investigation into his campaign and himself Trump could have any expectation that his tax returns would remain off limits to Mueller. These are after all government documents. Highly confidential, to be sure, subject to many restrictions. But they’re not like a military service psych profile or years of private medical records. It’s an amazing admission…

    What it all comes down to is this. As I’ve written before, President Trump has been in crooked business for decades: money laundering, mob partnerships, various straight-up swindles. Statutes of limitations will have run out on most of those infractions but not all of them. This has always been obvious to me and everyone else who’s looked closely at Trump’s record. What recent weeks has made clear to me is that there’s almost certainly lots of dirty laundry tied to money deals and connivances with the Russia government.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    Only Maddow seems to be focusing on this, and she’s absolutely right.

    THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/20/17
    Donald Trump threatens to turn back clock on FBI ethics
    Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about the unprecedented nature of Donald Trump’s queries about pardon power and his “blood-chilling” intentions toward the FBI that would undo decades of ethical standards and independence.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: Thank you, valiant Ms. Cat. It’s started off a good one. Pretty much celebrated Bday Eve.

    OT: Spanish authorities DID exhume Salvador Dali yesterday. They took a tooth, hair sample, and two long bones for DNA testing. Woman claims to be his daughter; if proven true, she is eligible for a quarter of his estate (left to his Foundation and the state of Catalonia; estimated at hundreds of millions). If no match, she is responsible for the costs of the exhumation. Results will come back in “a few weeks.” Stay tuned.

    It’s reported Dali’s remains were mummified, in good shape, and that his mustache was still perfect.

  147. 147.

    tobie

    @Jeffro: What’s frustrating is that every Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted for Wray’s nomination to go forward. Following Trump’s comment that the FBI should report to him, the Democrats on the committee should have insisted that Wary come back for additional questions. I don’t understand how they could give any Trump nominee to lead the FBI a pass.

  148. 148.

    rikyrah

    Trump-Russia scandal developments raise the prospect of a crisis
    07/21/17 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    There was no shortage of striking developments overnight in the Trump-Russia scandal, but perhaps the most important was the Washington Post’s reporting that Donald Trump and his lawyers have had conversations about “the president’s authority to grant pardons.”

    Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the probe, according to one of those people. A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.

    Trump’s legal team declined to comment on the issue. But one adviser said the president has simply expressed a curiosity in understanding the reach of his pardoning authority….

    Ah, yes, our “curious” president. Trump hasn’t decided to start handing out pardons like candy on Halloween; he’s just interested in learning more about whether he could – you know, in case the circumstances should arise.

    The same article added that the president was “especially disturbed” after learning that Special Counsel Bob Mueller “would be able to access several years of his tax returns.”

    It’s almost as if Trump has something to hide.

    Also overnight, the New York Times reported that the president’s team has begun “scouring the professional and political backgrounds” of members of Mueller’s team, “looking for conflicts of interest they could use to discredit the investigation – or even build a case to fire Mr. Mueller or get some members of his team recused.”

  150. 150.

    schrodingers_cat

    Yesterday we had two friends over for dinner. The wife was husband kitteh’s neighbor in Mumbai. She was recounting how their next door neighbors in Connecticut have gone full bore cray cray for T.

  151. 151.

    mapaghimagsik

    @Iowa Old Lady: Happy Birthday. Hope it surpasses all the others.

    My plans for the weekend involve rebuilding the led lights in a shelving unit in our Tiki Bar. The old set just can’t be used to play shows like I want, but that’s what I get for thinking I could use cheap connectors instead of solder. Clearly, Rangitoto was displeased.

    Still, it should be fun, fixing the lights with the help of a friend who wants to learn how to solder more.

  152. 152.

    rikyrah

    Republicans’ health care process is ‘staring to feel incoherent’
    07/21/17 08:57 AM
    By Steve Benen

    To appreciate the scope of the Republicans’ mess on health care, consider this quote from a high-profile GOP senator – who happens to support his party’s regressive plans.

    “Things are starting to feel incoherent,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, reflecting on the health care efforts, which have turned many Republican senators against one another as efforts to negotiate the future of the Medicaid program have caused large rifts.

    With no small measure of understatement, Mr. Corker conceded, “There’s just not a lot of progress happening.”

    “Things are starting to feel incoherent” is a fair and accurate summary, though I’m inclined to take issue with the “starting to” qualifier. The Republicans’ health care gambit has felt incoherent for quite a while.

    I’ve heard from more than a few readers with questions about where things stand, so let’s dive in with a Q&A.

    Everyone said the Republican effort was dead. Then everyone said it’s alive. I no longer know what to think.

    And neither does anyone else. The original Senate Republican plan, unveiled last month, failed. Mitch McConnell then tweaked his proposal last week, only to discover this week that it didn’t have the votes, either. The Majority Leader then said he’d bring an even-more-radical “repeal and delay” plan to the floor, and more than enough GOP senators almost immediately balked.

    ………………………

    What will the Senate vote on?

    That’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer. In fact, Senate Republicans themselves concede that they have no idea what bill (or bills) will be considered when the floor votes begin in four days. Asked yesterday if his own members have been notified of what overhaul legislation they’ll consider early next week, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters yesterday, “That’s a luxury we don’t have.”

    It sounds crazy to think the Senate will vote in four days on overhauling one-sixth of the United States economy, and they don’t yet know what bill will be considered.

    Yep.

    How many possible options are we talking about here?

    It depends on how you count the bills. There’s McConnell’s original plan, McConnell’s tweaked plan, McConnell’s tweaked plan minus the Cruz Amendment, the “repeal and delay” plan (also known as the “Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act”), and even some plans pushed by individual members, such as the Graham/Cassidy plan.

  153. 153.

    Jeffro

    And since this is an open thread, here’s the weirdest thing you’re likely to read today: What Football Will Look Like In the Future (hint, it’s not really about football).

    Wyoming vs. Iowa in tornado football, game #3887, field of play = Nebraska. I was blown away by the first ‘chapter’s discussion between ‘Nine’ and ‘Ten’ (but I figured it out before I got to the end!)

    (h/t Austin Kleon, whose newsletter I actually do subscribe to…=)

  154. 154.

    hueyplong

    @rikyrah: It’s made all the more ominous by the fact that Trump exceeds even G W Bush when it comes to being generally “incurious.”

    In a normal White House, allowing the “pardon research” story to get out would be a deliberate attempt to gauge reaction to the contemplated act. With this leak-happy White House, you can’t be sure whether the story was put out there for that purpose or, instead, was leaked by someone who opposes the concepts.

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    Google Doodle informs that today is Marshall McLuhan’s 106th birthday.

    And, FWIW, it was also Robin Williams’ bday. His loss still haunts. Rest.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    WSJ: Special Counsel, Congress Probing Possible Money Laundering By Manafort
    By ESME CRIBB
    Published JULY 20, 2017 6:12 PM

    The special counsel and congressional committees investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election are looking into possible money laundering by President Donald Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.

    The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a single unnamed source familiar with the matter, that special counsel Robert Mueller, who is overseeing the federal probe into Russian meddling, began an inquiry several weeks ago into possible money laundering by Manafort.

    The Senate and House intelligence committees are also looking into the matter, unnamed sources with knowledge of the congressional probes told the Wall Street Journal.

    According to the report, those sources also said the Senate Intelligence Committee is looking into whether any of President Donald Trump’s businesses have financial ties to Russian interests. The panel has received reports from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the Treasury Department, per the Wall Street Journal.

    Spokespeople for Manafort and Mueller declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal.

  157. 157.

    NorthLeft12

    @satby: When I was invited to visit houses that my SIL and daughter were looking at buying, I was horrified by the terrible quality of some/most of the DIY renos. At least three of the houses would have required substantial work to undo all of the awful “improvements” that the previous owner(s) had done. One house actually scared me. The electrical work was mostly DIY, and I would not have even thought of putting an offer in without a thorough electrical inspection.
    The house they did buy was far more expensive than I thought they could afford, and the previous owner did a fair bit of his own work, but the quality was okay and nothing screamed “fix me/rip me out!” .
    My SIL and his Dad are fairly handy, and I can do grunt work, so they have a long term plan to upgrade the house.

  159. 159.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Patricia Kayden:

    If he fires Mueller and pardons himself, 2018 shapes up pretty much the same as 2016, given the white Christian gerrymander. We have to count on massive civil unrest AFTER a crisis to bring it home to white suburbanites that their champion is a fucking asshole and their faith leaders are fucking jokes.

  161. 161.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh

    This is no trivial matter. Americans now lose more property to civil asset forfeiture than to burglary each year. pic.twitter.com/562sBSoRUS
    — John W Lettieri (@LettieriDC) July 17, 2017

  163. 163.

    rikyrah

    NBC News: Multiple US officials familiar w/ Mueller probe say he’s “finding the strike zone”, continuing to gather potentially relevant docs pic.twitter.com/n9cap1qW4S
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 21, 2017

  164. 164.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: It was Tuesday, the day my wife decided to give me a 4 hr tour of the MO Baptist- Sullivan ER as a present. Not like I haven’t spent enough time there already. Altho I do have to say her nurses were cuter.

  166. 166.

    rikyrah

    .@NormOrnstein As you’ve said, the core of this crisis is & will be the #GOP. It’s a Death Star orbiting our future t.co/UwtleKio5U pic.twitter.com/SC16JNBaYZ
    — Shoq (@Shoq) July 21, 2017

  168. 168.

    rikyrah

    Eric Holder: If Trump tries constrain Mueller, “this creates issues of constitutional and criminal dimension.” pic.twitter.com/lZTfM64LgL
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 21, 2017

  171. 171.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Hola!! Good morning rikyrah! Belated as it is.

    I got up early, but immediately got dressed and went outside with my new electric weed wacker – battery-powered by Milwaukee tool. Went through the entire battery, took nearly an hour, got maybe a quarter of the edges of the driveway whacked. It’s a nice took.

    Yesterday I went for my annual physical. All good, mostly. Lost 15 pounds over the past 4 months according to the nurses… I think more like 10 or 12. Still 6′ 250ish, but part of that is burly muscle.

    Evidently I have some sinus thing going on that has my left eardrum indented a little bit, explains odd sounds, forehead headaches. Doc prescribed a nasal spray, pharmacy tech tell me there will be $100 co-pay !!! but it’s my head so I get it. Reading it, it is an inhaler intended for COPD type illnesses…? WTF? So I call the Doc’s office, he’s still in, WRONG DRUG, supposed to be up my nose, not into my lungs.

    Called the Pharmacy, tech (a very nice guy) was oh, OK, bring it back. Then the Pharmacist called the Doc, calls me back, will be a $95 refund since it was their mistake.

    Second time I got the wrong medication. Last time (January?) it was another Dr’s assistant who picked the wrong drug off a pick list on her computer app. Very different dosage regimen was how I caught it, odd antibiotic. But I got home with a very normal antibiotic, so I knew something was wrong. Everyone said, no, no can’t be!

    You gotta watch out for yourself !!! But I”m glad about the 15 pound weight loss. Trying to be more active, although with arthritis it’s hard! Lots of me wants to be very, very still.

  172. 172.

    Central Planning

    @Quinerly: that’s cool. You might know him if you know the locals. Lives off of Loblolly. Been there since the early/mid 90s. People tend to know my dad, or of him. He likes to hang out on the beach with his buddies, and pretty much laugh at everything.

    Have one of the FPers give you my email address and we can figure out if you know each other :)

  174. 174.

    low-tech cyclist

    Speaking of the best people being born in July, my son’s birthday party is on July 29. So as much as I’d like to join the Rally for Health Care, I’ve got a previous engagement.

    Y’all go, and make enough noise to make up for my absence, okay? I realize that’s a high bar, but Juicers are up to it.

  176. 176.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s NYT comments revealed he has zero sense of obligation to public.
    In the last 24 hours, it’s gotten worse.t.co/njIceXS9GJ pic.twitter.com/gP8vS74tRF
    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 21, 2017

  178. 178.

    rikyrah

    “#Trump’s deeply worrisome New York Times interview reveals a lawless president.”@ThePlumLineGS gets it right–alashttps://t.co/H6sMsGgciR
    — EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) July 20, 2017

    “The ominous threats emanating from the White House are that of an administration mobilizing for war against the rule of law” @jonathanchait t.co/mAYQqJm6hn
    — EJ Dionne (@EJDionne) July 21, 2017

  179. 179.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah:

    Americans now lose more property to civil asset forfeiture

    Why don’t they just call it what it is? Theft.

  180. 180.

    Immanentize

    @Iowa Old Lady: @Elizabelle:
    Happy Birthday to you both! Another successful trip around our friend, the sun!

    As OzarkH and I previously discussed — mine is conveniently scheduled for this Sunday so I can celebrate Saturday night and recover on the day itself…. I am hoping to smoke some killer ribs on Sunday (weather permitting).

  181. 181.

    Jeffro

    One more good link and then I gotta get some work done for once: “How Russia Mercilessly Played Trump for a Fool”

    …Any American suspected by the Soviets of being a mole would have been shot or exiled or locked in a Siberian hole. Just to be safe. The Russians would not have been bothered by things like justice or the truth. They would never have trusted, and this would have made them worse human beings and better spies. This was characterological. It was central to the Russian condition. It was not a result of Sovietism but an enabler of it. It was born of a peasant-like distrust, violence, rot, a bloody, sweaty, mud- and manure-splattered wariness. The Americans were not made this way. They could study the ways of other people, but they could not be them. The best Americans, the ones who grasped the cognitive-cultural oceans separating America and Russia, entered into combat with Moscow with a great chariness. They understood that, when it came to subterfuge, they were at a disadvantage. They tried to inoculate themselves.

    All this seems to have been lost on Trump, his retinue of loyalists and hangers-on, and the odd assortment of tertiary characters, like Russian recruitment target Carter Page, who peopled Trump’s campaign. These are not the best Americans. They are nihilists à la Steve Bannon, “idiots” like Page, neophytes like Trump Jr., or opportunists like Manafort. They have acquired, over many months of politicking and quasi-governing, the language of the patriot without understanding what they are saying. Not only that. Their pretend patriotism, their ignorance of American history, its poetries and injustices, its constant existential confrontation with itself, leaves them especially susceptible to the allure of the authoritarian. There is a logic and clarity to the authoritarian, with his shiny toys and Potemkin bullet trains and airport terminals. The authoritarian knows how to put on a good show, and these people love to be dazzled. They are vulnerable to Putin because they admire him while not understanding where he comes from nor who he is. They have no idea whom they are doing combat with. They do not even know that they are engaged in battle, and that the battle is already won.

  183. 183.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize: Yea! Another July bday. Proving Ozark’s theory.

    Think I will treat myself to reading some Octavia Butler and Philip K. Dick this week. See some good books available at the local library.

    And bday gift to self is a National Parks annual pass, when I’m next in the vicinity. Very tempted to head up to Shenandoah, which is in the balmy low 80s (with scattered T storms) vs. central Virginia with its triple digit forecast.

    @Iowa Old Lady: If you don’t already have one, this is the time to buy a National Parks Senior pass. Lifetime access for those over age 62, for $10 one time charge, through late this August. Fee goes up to $80 at that time. Still a bargain but $10. Seize the day; get the pass!

    I am not senior yet, but that’s on my bday list for age 62, when I get there. Our National Parks are treasures.

  184. 184.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @J R in WV:

    You gotta watch out for yourself !!!

    Amen to that.

    Trying to be more active, although with arthritis it’s hard! Lots of me wants to be very, very still.

    Too true, all too true.

  187. 187.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Not long ago I had a ” random ” circuit in our kitchen go out, but the circuit breaker wasn’t flipped! After a day of puzzling and testing, I was stumped, and called the company I use to do complex maintenance for us. Told him, the manager scheduler, I had a dead circuit in the kitchen first thing he asked was could that circuit be a GFI protected curcuit? If it is try resetting the GFI outlet.

    Saved me the cost of a service call !! That was it. Forgot all about that wrinkle !! Duh !

  188. 188.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: Surely you meant to say all the summer months that begin with the letter J? And yes, I was born in June, why do you ask?

    P.S. Read about your wife’s fall in a thread that was too late for commenting. That’s a kick in the teeth, hope she can see progress day by day. Happy belated birthday, as well.

  190. 190.

    Doug R

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: There’s two 70MM engagements in the Metro Vancouver area. The Park, which has a crappy old school design with almost no curve in the floor and way out in Langley at the IMAX
    Local IMAX here about 5 miles away is a digital print.
    Road trip!

  191. 191.

    WaterGirl

    @Iowa Old Lady: At some point, I started giving my age using something other than base-10. You are 55 in base-13. You are 60 in base-12.

    It’s really not my fault if people are making the assumption that I am using base-10, is it?

  193. 193.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:

    Did anyone show him a photo of Obama to refresh his recollection?

    Why am I laughing when it’s so sad that it’s true?

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    Apparently the thread is dead, but wishing a happy day/week/month/year to the birthday girls!

  195. 195.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Patricia Kayden: Boy, can I related to her situation. At 11, half of one of my (very new) permanent front incisors was broken off. Our dentist advised against a permanent crown until the rest of my mouth matured. Instead he installed a tri-tone monstrosity that would have embarrassed Soviet wartime dentistry: Stainless steel with a window in front through which could be seen part of the tooth remnant above & yellowish packing below.

    I was a morose teenager to begin with, but some people still wondered why I never smiled. Until I showed them. =:^$

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That too, will be Hillary’s fault.

    LOL. I dare say though that if she’s that powerful, that causing a nova is up to her, why couldn’t she just have a meteor, of just the correct size, fly in and…………

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    Ouch!
    I do check everything that is prescribed to me. There is a lot of information online (I mostly use the NIH website) about what which drugs are for what and as importantly what they are not for. I also keep a note on my phone when something is prescribed so I can check to make sure I get the right drug.

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