Every little Wonder Woman I saw trick-or-treating down 4th ave tonight added a year to my life.
PS. A woman won the 2016 election.
— Neko Case (@NekoCase) October 30, 2017
Originally the Celtic holiday when the veil between this world and the afterlife was thinnest, and unquiet spirits liable to roam in the dark. Then came the New Year!
Front page of tomorrow's #Halloween edition of the the @nydailynews. pic.twitter.com/5PqHgj6l9H
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 31, 2017
.
Apart from the Inescapable Topic, what’s on the agenda for the Night of the Lit Pumpkins?
There's a lot of competition, but Trump just had his worst day in office and it's obviously going to get worse: https://t.co/SZW63TEHNN
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 30, 2017
Is Trump smart enough to know what Mueller pulled off today or is he just taking Fox’s nothingburger word for it?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 31, 2017
Adam Schiff, top Dem on House Intel, lays out how today's indictments of Trump campaign officials are directly related to collusion. pic.twitter.com/Glxz6n7Rdr
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) October 30, 2017
"It is very distracting for the president to be investigated for something" – Chief of Staff Kelly on #Mueller investigation on Fox
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) October 31, 2017
Wait I thought he wasn’t under investigation https://t.co/udF7Hp7ZSh
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) October 31, 2017
Trump is worried special counsel's investigation will "hamstring" his ability to negotiate with world leaders, senior WH official says
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) October 30, 2017
Official adds: "World is less safe because of this investigation and it will remain less safe until it is over." No evidence on this front https://t.co/yV7JJkfPZc
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) October 30, 2017
Shouldn’t have hired all those criminals, done all those crimes, and told all those lies, then. https://t.co/9cVbPCllf2
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 30, 2017
Can the Secret Service be instructed to not allow Trump to leave the country, or does Mueller need to request US Marshals travel w Trump?
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 30, 2017
Where are Trump’s allies? @DavidFrum, speaking on MSNBC, says “it’s striking to me that there are no Republican lawmakers on TV” tonight…
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 31, 2017
I think Congressional Repubs have as much hope in Mueller delivering the kill shot to the Trump presidency as Dems do. https://t.co/YMmosInHe5
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) October 31, 2017
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???????
rikyrah
Did Gates really not have a lawyer? A private lawyer?
Cermet
Do most people get the severe danger to our Democracy we are facing now? If the sex predator and liar called dump blanket pardons these people, his family and himself, then the law and our manner of government is in the sewer. The thugs will never (spineless) cross him by following the law and impeach/remove that idiot and criminal from office. Putin will win – do the idiot fools that voted for this moron realize what that will do?
Peale
In personally unhappier news, I think I’ve messed up adulthood. My car was declared a total loss after an accident Sunday. I need to give the insurance company the title to get my check so I can buy a new car. I have the title and the note from the finance company discharging the lien, but I never got the replacement title. Why do I have the feeling I should have done that administrative task? It takes about a month to get a new title in New York State. I think I’m going to end up being charged for car storage fees and rentals while I wait for this to be cleared up.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I thought that was weird too! You’d think he’d have lawyered up ages ago. Maybe he squirreled away all his assets in hopes of shielding them? Fat chance.
Speaking of lawyerless people, I can’t believe that fool Carter Page appeared on Chris Hayes’ program again. I assume he has no lawyer because a competent attorney would have duct-taped him to a swivel chair and ball-gagged him months ago.
lowtechcyclist
They just don’t want to have their fingerprints on bringing Trump down, because they’d be killed in primaries.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: Carter Page thinks he is the smartest man in the room and doesn’t need no lawyer. Unfortunately for him, this is not the case.
Arm The Homeless
@Cermet:
The GOP has been a post-policy, post-politics party of White resentment and a healthy dose of authoritarianism, pretty much my entire life.
The GOP and its cultists don’t want a politician, they want a Punisher. Welcome to Amerika
Arm The Homeless
@Betty Cracker:
Page is what an idiot thinks an innocent person sounds and looks like.
What he did last night is the IRL equivalent of Twitter trolls strolling into a conversation to scream, “Fuck Me, Daddy.” It’s attention he wants, from whom I couldn’t say, but it has the stench of a dude ho didn’t get a call back about a plea bargain.
OzarkHillbilly
Ok everyone, especially all you journalists out there covering this mess of an administration (I’m talking to you too Josh), write this down on a piece of paper:
G-E-O-R-G-E P-A-P-A-D-O-P-O-U-L-O-S
Now take that piece of paper and tape it to your monitor so that every time you write it you can spell it correctly. Better yet, get a fucking tattoo. I know it’s Greek to you, hell’s bells it’s Greek to every one, but you can still spell the man’s name correctly.
Haysoos Crispo, the idiot at the Guardian can’t even decide which way he wants to misspell it. Goes from one to another to another, then goes back again.
Montanareddog
@?BillinGlendaleCA: what’s the saying? “A defendant who represents themselves has both a fool for a lawyer and a fool for a client”?
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, hell, they’re still trying to spell George Stephanopoulos correctly and he’s been around the innertoobz since the 90’s. Some have a problem spelling “George.”
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Mustang Bobby: And all these years I’d thought it was spelt George Snuffleupagus.
Bruce K
@Cermet: Yeah, we’re all in deep, deep trouble, and have been for years, but there are still a few safeties left before we go off the cliff. There’s a reason Mueller let slip that he’s keeping NY AG Schneiderman in the loop, for one thing.
(I keep saying it: the cheeto might be able to pardon his way out of Leavenworth, but that won’t keep him out of Sing Sing…)
sm*t cl*de
Trump has no ability to negotiate with world leaders because every word is a lie and every promise is worthless trash. In addition, every world leader knows by now that Trump does not speak for the Trump administration.
rikyrah
@Peale:
You can’t go directly to the DMV and get a copy of the title?
OzarkHillbilly
Halloween costumes cracking me up:
Little Old Ladies
The Walking Dead
Rosy the Riveter .
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s spelled “Heyzeus Krispo!” Get it right!
bystander
@Betty Cracker:
Do we have to drag their sex lives into this discussion, too?
Peale
@rikyrah: not in New York State apparently. I can drop off a form at the dmv but I won’t get the title. That has to come from Albany.
Sanjeevs
I think Mueller completely blindsided Team Trump with the Papadopoulos reveal yesterday.
All last week they and their media friends had been gearing up to trash the dossier. But then Mueller lays out a damning case which has nothing to do with the dossier. Papadopoulos isn’t mentioned and was never speculated to be one of the unnamed protagonists.
Papadopoulos has already admitted the charges and they haven’t even had the chance to smear him.
Mueller runs a hell of a tight ship.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: You say tomato, I say tomahto…
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
The Republican Party is responsible for Trump. All those egomaniacs who stayed in the primary – all they had to do was present a united front, drop out and rally around ONE of the others but they couldn’t do it because they were all thinking they’d be last man standing. That primary was ridiculous and they knew it going in because the 2012 primary was also ridiculous. They have to exert some discipline over their candidates. Some of those people were not winning primaries at all and they all stayed in like it’s a job unto itself. “Never Trumpers” is ridiculous. What does that mean? ANY of those other people? This is how they pick a President? By not doing anything until the last 15 minutes and then panicking?
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ???!
OzarkHillbilly
@Peale: It’s the same in Misery but it only took about 2 weeks on my latest title transfer.
Cermet
@Bruce K: But my worry is that NY has no legal authority in DC or anywhere outside New York State. They can indict and even convict but it achieves zero since the dump is immune to arrest. Only congress has the power to remove him and we know the odds of that are zero. Our country will be both crippled and irreparably damaged if that ass-clown pardons himself and everyone.
Tony J
@OzarkHillbilly:
The Guardian, in common with most British media of the not far-Right or Murdoch owned variety (looking at you, BBC) has an annoying habit of basing its American political coverage on whatever its correspondents picked up at the bar the night before while standing near – but not actually with – the ‘savvy’ paladins of mainstream bothsiderism. It drives me mental when they slather every story of Republican malice and criminality with thick dollops of sour cheese from “independent voices who have been following these events closely” i.e. talking heads from some Wingnut think-tank or another. It’s not – quite – as bad as US Media, but that’s like saying CNN isn’t as bad as Fox, true but meaningless in context.
So I’m not surprised a Guardian writer couldn’t be bothered to spell Papadopoulos’ name right. Why should he? None of the smart, well-paid guys in nice suits over in DC think he’s important enough to base their coverage on, and they’re always right. Right?
mai naem mobile
John Kelly turned out to be a real racist RWNJ POS. Hope he goes down too. This makes me wonder about Mattis. Would Dolt45 have hired Mattis if Mattis was a decent human being and not a RWNJ racist pig?
satby
I love that Daily News cover. And the two Drumpf voters at work haven’t had a word to say about politics at all for weeks now, while the rest of us were openly high-fiving the news yesterday. Especially the Papadopolous reveal.
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
They’ll do it again, too. They’ll have 15 candidates in 2024. 30. Now that the bar is even lower it could literally be anyone. Bannon will probably run. Why not Sean Hannitty? He’d probably win a primary. John Kasich will still be running for President and Chris Christie is unemployed and rested. Mike Pence is a given and of course Ted Cruz and Rubio.
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
It’s a shame he started talking, right? He had a great fictional narrative being spun around him until he opened his mouth.
All he had to do was shut up and look leader-ly. Oh, well.
OzarkHillbilly
@Peale: Also I’m thinking when I sold my old truck I took the title and the lien release with the buyer to his loan office and it was no problem at all. I’m fairly sure I remember that correctly but it was 5 years ago.
So you may be OK.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cermet:
Your first statement is true, however is there case law saying a President cannot be arrested? New York state could seize assets in New York state, I’m sure that would get his attention.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Tony J: Let’s be honest: this newspaper earned the nickname The Grauniad for a reason. (To be fair, this is partially because they used to be based in Manchester, so London audiences generally got a copy of the paper that hadn’t been subject to thorough copy editing and thus had a lot more typos. Once they moved to London, this lessened somewhat.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Cermet: NY can not indict a sitting president but he’s gotta come out and shit sometime.
Cermet
@?BillinGlendaleCA: As you correctly point out my last statement isn’t really correct; he can’t be arrested outside NY is what I should have said. However, seriously doubt any NY cop or group of NY cops would try if the dump ever showed up in NY. Most Cops are most interested in protecting #1 (can’t blame them for that; only them being a thug towards people without power.)
NotMax
Happy Halloween.
Additional treat: it’s never a bad time for Satchmo.
Kay
I love Josh Marshall – he was one of the first liberal sites to promote voting rights- Talking Points Memo were early on it, when it was still fashionable and sophisticated to say voter suppression was a conspiracy theory – but Marshall doesn’t understand Twitter in some fundamental way. It’s not an essay broken into chunks. That’s not what it’s for :)
Betty Cracker
I watched a couple of clips of the three grinning ninnies on Fox & Friends this morning to see what story state-run media viewers are getting. Basically, the sofa-squatting trio are reenacting Trump’s Twitter feed and Huckabee-Sanders’ lie-a-thon from yesterday. They repeated Trump’s falsehood about the indictment of Manafort and Gates only covering years before the men joined the campaign — a bald-faced lie that is vaporized by the most cursory glance at the indictment document.
I’m sure millions of rage-grandpas nationwide are lapping it up — including the rage-grandpa in the White House. So-called “Never Trumper” Erick Erickson showed up to regurgitate Trump’s lie about the Democrats focusing on Russian meddling to excuse Clinton’s loss. The implication being, there’s no need to investigate Russian interference — it’s all a demonrat plot! I figured Erickson would come crawling back to the Trump tent eventually since Trump is dispensing what so-called Christian Erickson loves most: hatred of his enemies.
Not really sure how we move on as a country when about a third of us are completely detached from reality and another third can’t be bothered to get involved. Maybe a constitutional crisis is the kick in the pants we need. I honestly don’t know.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
The Russian agent who claimed to be Putin’s niece has an amazing resemblance to Vladimir (photo)
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Kay: I agree, but this does seem to be how at least 30% of the people on Twitter use it these days. I still don’t fully understand it either.
debbie
I wonder if it’s dawned on Trump yet that maybe those instincts he’s always relying on have failed him and should no longer be trusted. No vetting of Manafort’s shenanigans; firing Comey; etc.
Kay
@(((CassandraLeo))):
I’m just a Twitter lurker but if you’re expounding a whole theory just write an essay and link to it. Why make it so hard for the reader? I feel the same impatience I get with Rachel Maddow. I want to kill her halfway thru her explanation. We can do some things ourselves! We’ll be FINE without all this hand-holding and LEADING us.
Patricia Kayden
@Cermet:
Why do you think the idiot fools who voted for this moron care about the severe consequences of Trump remaining in office despite Mueller’s investigation findings?
sibusisodan
@(((CassandraLeo))): Fun fact: grauniad.com redirects to the correct home page.
MomSense
So what did I miss?
Just this minute got power back.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Trump is really unpopular though. I feel like liberals and Democrats don’t recognize that enough. This “Teflon Don” stuff is bullshit he probably fed media himself. He’s approaching 27%. Historically unpopular and there’s a huge chunk of the country who loathe him so it’s not even apathetic dislike. It’s because he’s nasty and petty and mean-spirited.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Hi everyone! Headed home after a week at the homestead and homecoming at the alma mater. Turned an ankle in the process, but luckily not the driving one.
Yesterday was interesting, from the very good (Mueller) to the abysmal (Kelly). Feels good to see some movement in the “book ’em, Dano” department; hopefully there’s more coming.
Patricia Kayden
@Sanjeevs:
Definitely. Pretty much everybody thought that Manafort was going to be indicted so that really wasn’t much of a surprise but I don’t recall Papadopoulos’ name coming up in any speculations on who else would be indicted. Plus, Papadopoulos goes directly to the Russian interference discussion and the fact that he’s pled guilty means that he has already turned and is giving evidence to Mueller to indict others connected to Trump.
I don’t see how Trump squeezes himself out of this one and I anticipate that Donny Jr. will be indicted soon.
SFAW
@Immanentize:
The Beatles, right? Their last big hit?
“Hey Zeus, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song, and make it better“?
That one?
debbie
@MomSense:
Nothing but great stuff! I can’t stop singing the Pointer Sisters’ I’m So Excited!
NotMax
@Patricia Kayden
Beware of Greeks bearing grifts.
;)
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: You’re absolutely correct. Trump’s historically low approval rates mean that he won’t be given the benefit of the doubt (except among his shrinking base) by the majority of Americans as Mueller’s indictments move their way up the WH chain of command. Plus, Trump is on record lying like a rug on multiple occasions to the point where his word is mud.
I’d go as far as to say that if there is a terrorist attack in this country, there will be no rallying around Trump like there was around Bush the 43rd. We don’t trust him and I for one would wonder if he had any involvement in the terrorist attack in the first place given how slimy he has proven himself to be.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
He got credit for that addiction event he did but no one actually does what he did with addicts. Normal people don’t lead an event about addiction and tell their story about avoiding addiction completely. Obviously HE doesn’t need treatment for heroin addiction. He can’t even do the “personal anecdote to make me seem human” thing. He turns it into a story about how he’s better than his brother. This story is just irrelevant to the whole issue.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cermet: The interstate compact requires all states to honor the indictments of other states. trump can’t hide from NY indictments in FL.
ETA: not indictments, WARRANTS. needs more coffee.
MomSense
@debbie:
I’m about to lose control and I think I like it.
Imagine being a news junkie without news yesterday!
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@MomSense: You’re probably going to want to sit down…
Montanareddog
So COS Kelly “both-sidesed” the Civil War. In general, that is an attempt to auto-justify sympathies for the objectively-wrong side. He clearly is a white nationalist, too.
debbie
@MomSense:
Glad you’re okay. The photos I saw of Maine were astounding. I can’t imagine winds like that with all those huge trees.
OzarkHillbilly
@MomSense: trump ordered a nuclear attack on Berzerkistan.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
I haz a puzzled. Surely Julian Lennon was never nicknamed Zeus as a child.
Patricia Kayden
@satby: Your two Trump work colleagues may not have gotten their talking points from higher up as yet. Trump’s Attorney, Jay Sekulow, was on Good Morning America lying through his teeth about Papadopoulos not having any connection to the Trump campaign despite evidence to the contrary. And Kelly’s assertion that Mueller’s investigation will end shortly because the “witness pile” has been completed is nonsense. Mueller is just beginning with what I expect to be a number of indictments.
Amir Khalid
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Gaaah! Brain bleach! Brain bleach!!
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: LOL. How pathetic that he used his speech on helping drug addicts to boast about himself. Lawd!! I’ve never come across anyone so cocky and prideful. Every dang thing has to be about him. And from what I’ve read, his administration is not planning to spend any funds to help drug addicts so I’m not sure exactly what he’s going to do about that problem.
randy khan
@Cermet:
I’m not sure why you think he’s immune to arrest.
rikyrah
@Peale:
Wow. We have to go in person to the Secretary of State’s office and pay for a whole new one, but, we can get it same day here. I thought with technology, it was that way everywhere.
randy khan
@Cermet:
Plenty of people get arrested outside the state where they are charged. There is interstate cooperation on these things, and New York can issue a fugitive warrant.
rikyrah
@Sanjeevs:
They arrested him at the airport, and it didn’t leak. He entered his plea at the beginning of the month, and it didn’t leak.
rikyrah
Information found out on Maddow’s last night.
Trump campaign knew about hacked emails two months BEFORE the first story about them in the Post.
Kay
It just amazes me how they piss away credibility like it’s worthless. There was no reason for Kelly to tell that lie about the congresswoman. The speech would have been better without the personal attack. That he didn’t even consider that there was probably video and he should get his facts straight before launching a national attack on this person goes to this idea they have that trust and credibility are like an endless account that they can draw from without ever making a deposit.
It’s a gift. People GIVE you the benefit of the doubt. They can (and will) withdraw that. He’s standing up there drawing on the authority in the word “general” and he thinks he doesn’t have to earn trust- that it’s endless- something he’s owed without modeling it, forever.
It’s the HEIGHT of privilege. They CAN devalue these concepts, “President”, “general”- that’s possible. There isn’t an endless spring of trust and good will they can draw on. They can deplete it. They ARE depleting it. Just the recklessness of thinking “I can say or do anything and show up tomorrow and I’ll still be trusted”- it’s breathtaking.
Montanareddog
@Patricia Kayden:
. My money’s on Kushner: lying on his clearance forms, back-channels, the Trump Tower meeting, Kislyak meetings, money-laundering, ad infinitum. Maybe there is lying to the Feds in there, too.
MJS
@Kay: I don’t believe coalescing (sp?) around one non-Trump candidate would have worked in the Republican primary. No one was going to out-racist, out-misogynist Trump, and Republican voters are always up for racism and misogyny. They had had their fill of phony “compassionate conservatism”, and “political correctness”, and only candidate could give them what they want.
MomSense
@debbie:
Really tall pine trees and hurricane force winds don’t mix well. Lots of lobster/fishing boats were smashed, too.
I’m amazed we have power today because there were soooo many trees and power lines down. Some big trees came down on the next street so we couldn’t leave our neighborhood. When I finally could drive out of the neighborhood I couldn’t go anywhere else because all the roads were closed.
Tony J
@(((CassandraLeo))):
This is true, but I’m being petty. Their general coverage (like that of the Independent and BBC) leans way to far in the direction of “Whatever they’re saying on the morning politics shows, just with a bit of extra snark” for my comfort.
MJS
@mai naem mobile: Until they come out and specifically repudiate Trump’s racism and then resign, all who are willing to work for Trump must be assumed to be racists.
Baud
@Montanareddog: I think it’ll be Ivanka. Ten counts of impersonating an expert at official governmental events.
Montanareddog
@rikyrah:
This is very telling of their criminal mindset. They don’t go to the Feds with evidence that a hostile Foreign power is hacking the election, but instead look to exploit it. The media and the Dems and patriotic Republicans (Ha!) should be hammering them on this. Mueller’s team should (and may) be using this as evidence in conspiracy indictments.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I rather suspect it never occurred to him that video would not back him up. There was the speech that was video taped, and then there was the speech he saw and heard and that exists only in his head. That the 2 would not coincide at all was beyond the realm of possibility in his mind. Hence all the “the speech wasn’t everything she said” after his lies were discovered because he just knows she said those things, somewhere, some time.
Baud
@Montanareddog: Flake is on it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Wow, now I feel better.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He’s very heroic.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Peale: I think the insurance company will accept the lien release with the title. They do in Maryland – my 17 year old SUV died so we donated it to the local H.S. auto program using those documents. We’ve NEVER asked for a replacement title once the lien was paid off. Worth a call to the insurance company to find out if New York is stricter.
Amir Khalid
I expect the President to have a shitty Thanksgiving and Christmas thanks to people close to him getting arrested and indicted. But I wonder when the self-inflicted damage to the Trump administration will reach a level serious enough for Trump to acknowledge.
Humboldtblue
The Redwood Valley fire destroyed more than 300 homes and claimed nine lives just to the south of us in Mendocino County. On Sunday night, 17-year old Kressa Shepherd was removed from the ventilator that was keeping her alive after she was severely burned and she became the ninth fatality. Kressa’s 14-year old brother Kai was one of the first confirmed fatalities. The parents of the kids, Jon and Sara, both suffered severe burns and remain in separate hospitals and neither parent has recovered sufficiently to be told of the death of their children.
Fuck all this motherfucking bullshit that’s fucked up beyond all motherfucking sense.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Kay: White male.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
He didn’t get the facts straight before attacking and he’s a general. Who did that speech help? It just divided people further. It sure didn’t help the widow. What’s the difference between Kelly saying what he thinks should happen with military deaths and the widow saying what she thinks should happen? Why is his opinion important and credible and hers not? He’s the only one who gets to weigh in? These people have choices. They have choices even within in that sick, corrupt organization they chose to join. They consistently choose to make things worse.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Her husband was just a sergeant who made the bad decision to get shot. She needs to sit down and appreciate everything Donald J trump is doing for her and her family.
hueyplong
Kelly is (currently) in Trump’s inner circle of trust. What additional negative information do you need about his “character” in order to make the call that it is bad?
danielx
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
It’s too early to start backstroking through a river of schadenfreude, but I’m thinking about it.
Kay
I guess the plan is to parrot what the defendant’s lawyer says. Because you can take that to the bank! I don’t even know why we have courts at all. The defendant’s lawyer says the defendant is innocent. Everyone go home! Our work here is done.
Next Donald Trump will cite his own lawyers- they think he’s a great guy.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
You all seen TNC’s tweets about Kelly’s Civil War nonsense ? Wow.
Kay
Since Jeff Sessions has made a personal decision not to do the part of his job that involves protecting the right to vote I suppose we should all donate to these private sector lawyers who ARE doing his job. Picking up his slack.
But they shouldn’t have to do his work. What else doesn’t he do? Which other US citizens don’t get the benefit of the work they’re paying for? He should get 3/4’s of a paycheck and 3/4’s of a staff if we’re all going to have to go around him to get to federal court. He can take 5 out of every 20 days off. A part-timer.
Matt McIrvin
I don’t actually understand this quote. Do Dems have hope in Mueller delivering the kill shot to the Trump presidency? About half of the ones I read are convinced the country is just too fucked, he’ll figure out a way to shut it down and nothing will come of it.
Kay
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
It was probably deliberate. They’re clearly running the VA race on racism. He’s another slimy, lying operative now. On Message.
Elizabelle
Boo, y’all. Happy last day of October. Second day of Mueller time.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire)
@Cermet: If you think for a second that Dolt will stay away from NYC forever, I have a bridge to nowhere in Alaska to sell you. This is a man who gets grumpy if he’s not sleeping in his own bed, and Trump Tower is his haven.
@mai naem mobile: As far as I know, Mattis is an Iran hawk. Anyone who signs on to this fuckery is going down with the ship. Recall how other generals/admirals flat out told the administration no to any positions. They’ll be vindicated.
My personal theory:
Trump will try and have Mueller fired if one of the two sealed indictments remaining are for one of his kids or Kushner. Then, he will pressure Rosenstein to fire Mueller, and he will probably say no. He’ll get fired, then Rachel Brand is next in the chute. She’ll probably say no, too. And be fired. Then, if Boente is still at Eastern district of Virginia, they’ll ask him to fire Mueller, or they’ll just wait him out until they get his replacement confirmed by the Senate (is it the Senate?). It’s part of the reason why they asked for Boente’s resignation. They will get their Bork one way or the other. The Republicans in Congress will do nothing about it, and Dolt 45’s base won’t care at all.
And then Schneidermann comes in. No way Cuomo grants any state level pardons.
Back to school work. Have a great day everyone. Happy Halloween!
Kay
@Elizabelle:
We have trick or treat tonight. I have to buy candy at lunch because I love cheap kid’s candy and I can’t have it around. The more neon-colored and fruity the better. I make my son hand it out because little kids like big kids more than they like adults- also- my mouth is full :)
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Self fulfilling prophesy. Fix that, and you fix a lot.
Matt McIrvin
What’s the endgame, though? At some point, if we’re talking about Trump getting impeached, he needs to lose half of the House and two-thirds of the Senate. If the federal investigation is shut down and we’re just talking about New York State trials, they can get all the underlings they want but they probably can’t touch Trump directly as long as he’s still in office.
So is it a matter of the trouble just rising to the point that Trump finally becomes politically radioactive to Republicans? Can’t they just say it’s biased New York Democrats on a McCarthyite witch hunt, fake news, nothing to see here?
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire)
@Matt McIrvin: It doesn’t matter. Eventually, Trump will NOT be president, one way or the other.
Matt McIrvin
My town had trick-or-treat on Saturday. My daughter often double-dips, trick-or-treating with a friend or family member in a town where they actually do it on Halloween. She was going to do that today with a friend from school, but it appears most of the towns around here have postponed to Friday after getting whacked hard by yesterday’s storm–there’s still no electricity in large areas across the region. (And it makes me think again of what Puerto Rico must be going through–a few days of this is hard enough for us. I’m lucky enough to live on a block with buried lines.)
jds09
@Kay: I’ve been lurking forever….I just had to say Thank you! This is so true. I wonder if it will ever run out, the benefits of the doubt that these guys get.
low-tech cyclist
@Kay:
True, but I think there are a decent number of Republicans in Congress who realize how dangerous he is, and would be relieved if by some divine intervention, Trump was out and Pence was President.
But if they cross the base, not only will they be successfully primaried, but they’ll probably lose access to the right-wing gravy train post-Congress.
Both parties have this problem, it’s just that more voters on the GOP side will vote for a Trump or Carson without a lick of political experience who talks a good game.
You’ve got this structural problem where the Presidential race really starts in earnest right after the midterms, but (a) the first primaries aren’t for over a year, and (b) the race is over within a few months of the first primary.
So in the upcoming cycle, the race will be fully underway in January 2019, the first primary won’t be until February 2020, and it’ll likely be over by March or April 2020. So for over a year, the candidates are on TV and in debates, arguing with each other, and there’s no way to knock any of them out. Then boom, it’s over within weeks. Crazy system.
This will be the fourth cycle I’ll make this suggestion which nobody will hear: move the early primaries/caucuses back into the year before. Iowa in June 2019, NH in September, SC and NV in October and November. Then business as usual beginning in February 2020.
The idea is, this will give each party some tangible grounds for voting some of these idiots off the island early on. After Iowa, they can push everyone who got <1% off the stage, and treat them like they aren't there, at which point there's <10 people on the stage. By Thanksgiving, there's only a few serious contenders in each party, and still time for people to choose between them, and for any of the survivors to win.
If the Dems had done this in the 2008 cycle, we'd have been down to Obama, Hillary, and Edwards by the fall, which would have been a pretty good conversation to have for a few months, rather than having a ton of Mike Gravels cluttering up the stage.
This will never happen, of course – everybody seems to be all about shortening the race, when the only thing that can be shortened is the primaries – the weeding-out process – when a more gradual weeding-out process would lead to better outcomes.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Handing out candy with a friend who lives in a neighborhood full of little kids and liberals. Yea! And we will order in Chinese.
I love Halloween; camera at the ready to see the costumes.
I hope he’s got good candy on hand. Might have to ask him what the confectionary offerings will be. Adults like chocolate; you’re right that little kids love the neon-colored fruity (and sour) stuff.
OzarkHillbilly
@Matt McIrvin:
Impeachment is a political act carried out by a political body, so the answer to your question is “Yes.”
PAM Dirac
@OzarkHillbilly: I did that in Maryland a few weeks ago when I got rid of my old car by selling it to CarMax. They were fine with the old title and the lien release on separate pages.
rikyrah
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
got a link?
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: TNC on twitter
rikyrah
I told you – they’d sell their mothers to Lucifer for those tax cuts.
Congressional Republicans shrug following Trump World indictments
10/31/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 10/31/17 08:10 AM
By Steve Benen
……………………………………………..
What they’re “doing in Congress,” of course, is pursuing massive tax cuts – which for Ryan and his allies, have to remain the party’s principal focus.
If that means averting their gaze, pretending not to notice the crisis overwhelming their own party’s president, so be it.
This often goes overlooked, but in all likelihood, congressional Republicans have no idea what it is Trump World may have done, and by all appearances, they don’t much care. As Vox’s Matt Yglesias noted last night, the “crazy thing about this situation” is that GOP leaders “have no idea what it is they’re really covering up.”
Alas, this isn’t new. Over the summer, when we learned that top Trump campaign officials hosted a private meeting in the hopes of obtaining anti-Clinton dirt from Russia, congressional Republicans shrugged then, too.
As we discussed at the time, many observers keep waiting for the moment at which the bow breaks. There’s an apparent expectation that there’s a cumulative effect to Trump’s troubles, and at a certain, undetermined point, congressional Republicans will feel compelled to pull their support and put his presidency in peril.
But this point almost certainly doesn’t exist. Most GOP lawmakers are comfortable with the idea of Trump and his team facing consequences for their actions, so long as Congress has nothing to do with the process.
I’m reminded of something the New York Times’ David Leonhardt wrote in February.
Are tax cuts really worth it? For GOP officials, the answer still appears be yes.
Tenar Arha
@OzarkHillbilly: Some wag on Twitter yesterday said point blank that their colleagues were going to have
“P-A-P-A-D-O-P-O-U-L-O-S”
tattooed inside their brains after this, or they were never capable of spelling anything at all in the first place. ?
rikyrah
George Papadopoulos Can Unlock Part of the Puzzle
by Martin Longman October 30, 2017
Probably the most stunned people in the world in March 2016 were the members of the Washington Post editorial board after they got done interviewing Donald Trump. Of course, if you read the transcript of their interview at the time, you were probably left almost insensate from your close contact with 151 proof Stupid. Things didn’t start out in an obviously ridiculous manner, however, or at least it wasn’t immediately obvious how insane things were from the moment Trump opened his mouth.
…………………………..
The folks at the Post’s editorial board are fairly connected people, but they didn’t know who the hell Carter Page and George Papadopoulos were. I kind of doubt that Donald Trump knew who they were, either. Apparently, he just pulled a card of his suit coat and started reading names. With the breaking news that Papadopoulos has been a cooperating witness for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and who has possibly been wearing a wire, we may be getting closer to finding out who was responsible for putting his name on that card.
It’s been known for a couple of months that “between March and September [2016], the self-described energy consultant [Papadopoulos] sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials,” including Vladimir Putin. For the most part, though, much more attention has been paid to how Carter Page got on Trump’s list. Was Page introduced to Sam Clovis by Corey Lewandowski, as the Daily Caller reported in April? Was the Washington Post right when they reported that Page volunteered his services and Clovis did no more vetting than a Google search before welcoming on board? We know that Lewandowski and Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, were also in attendance at the meeting with the editorial board. We know that Clovis had a role. But we also know that it was ultimately Sen. Jeff Sessions and some of his top aides who were responsible for putting together a foreign policy team for the candidate.
Why were two minor, unknown people with major Kremlin ties on that list?
rikyrah
What’s Hard For Republicans When it Comes to Tax Cuts
by Nancy LeTourneau October 31, 2017
Recently Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said this in an attempt to explain why the Republican tax cut plan favors the wealthy:
Bless his heart. He’s really trying to not cut taxes for the wealthy, but it’s just so hard.
Here is a clue Sec. Mnuchin: Just do it!
If you are too mathematically challenged to be able to figure out how to design a progressive tax code, we can make it even easier for you: Don’t repeal the estate tax. Currently people can inherit up to $5.45 million tax free ($10.9 million for a married couple). If you simply left the estate tax alone, it wouldn’t be so hard to avoid giving the wealthy an even bigger tax break.
What I’ve been noticing lately is that, when it comes to trying to figure out how to pay for all these tax cuts, it hasn’t been hard for Republicans to come up with ideas that mostly affect people in the middle class. Here are the ones we’ve heard about:
eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes
eliminate the mortgage interest deduction
tax income contributed to a 401(k) retirement account
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay:
I have never seen the US press tear into a president like they do with Trump. Sure Fox remains the good courtier, but even their interviews feel like it’s some kind of bet among the Fox anchors over who can get Trump to agree to the stupidest thing. I think it feels to us like they covering for Trump because the press is merely contemptuous of Trump as opposed to outright hatred.
rikyrah
How Big Medicine Can Ruin Medicare for All
A single-payer system will degenerate into corporate welfare unless we take on health care monopolies.
by Phillip Longman
Many of us still remember the moment during the debate over the Affordable Care Act when a powerful Democratic senator not only blocked supporters of single-payer health care from testifying before his committee, but even had some arrested. Well, reports are that Max Baucus has been born again. “My personal view is we’ve got to start looking at single-payer,” the now-retired senator recently told a political gathering in his hometown of Bozeman, Montana. “We’re getting there. It’s going to happen.”
Not long ago, politicians advocating for single-payer health care were taken to be on the lefty fringe. But now Democrats of every stripe, including some with plausible presidential aspirations, are using the term to describe what they think America needs now. In 2013, Bernie Sanders couldn’t find a single cosponsor for his single-payer plan, which would replace private insurance with Medicare-like coverage for all Americans regardless of age or income. Today the roll call of supporters for his latest version includes Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren. Others embrace what they describe as alternative single-payer plans, like Senator Chris Murphy’s legislation that would allow any American to buy into Medicare instead of getting their insurance through their employers or the individual market. It’s enough to make an exasperated Dana Milbank publish a column in the Washington Post under the headline “The Democrats Have Become Socialists.”
But have they? Actually, no. Real socialized medicine, as we’ll see, might work brilliantly, as it has in some other countries. But what these folks are talking about, often without seeming to realize it, is something altogether different. And it could lead to disastrous outcomes unless we get smart about what’s really going on.
rikyrah
In moderation, please help
clay
@Kay: As Chris Matthews pointed out last night, Manafort’s lawyer didn’t sound like he was defending Manafort, but rather Trump. He asked his guests why, and the reply was one word: “Pardon.”
So this is a coordinated defense, the one they prepared for (they weren’t prepared for Big Papa!), and it’s more concerned with protecting the “president” than the lawyer’s nominal client, because they have a literal “get out of jail free” card.
But, as someone pointed out on Morning Joe, the fact that Manafort’s crimes happened BEFORE he was Trump’s campaign manager (even those that’s not entirely true) isn’t a defense. It just means that Manfort was a known criminal and they STILL hired him. Which either means a) they didn’t vet him at all or didn’t care, or b) they hired him BECAUSE of his criminal connections, not despite of them.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/30/17
Mueller flipped Trump camp adviser who relayed offers from Russia
Rachel Maddow reports on what has been learned from the unsealing of indictments against Donald Trump campaign staffers Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos, the latter having agreed to cut a deal to work with special counsel Mueller.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/30/17
Mueller follows the money to charge Trump campaign staffers
Greg Farrell, investigative reporter for Bloomberg News, talks with Rachel Maddow about the thoroughness and detail of special counsel Robert Mueller’s charges against Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and adviser Rick Gates.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Matt McIrvin: In that scenario Trump mine as well resign because he would just be warming a seat in the White House and nothing more. Congress would have all the power since the Republicans could impeach him the second Trump annoyed them, and Trump is really annoying. And this is Trump were it’s all about personal dominance.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 10/30/17
Papadopoulos may have worn wire as part of Mueller deal
Paul Fishman, former U.S. attorney, talks with Rachel Maddow about what it means that Donald Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was a proactive cooperator and how special counsel Robert Mueller might have used his help in investigating Trump.
Tenar Arha
@Kay: Irony. They did this to themselves. In both large and small ways they gave away the power to steer their caucus.
I’m thinking of the combination of killing earmarks in Congress, the think tanks & news organizations that spouted only campaign slogans, the billionaires some of them sued so they could give unlimited money, solid GOP gerrymanders, and even parliamentary tricks like the Hastert rule…. It all gave the party zero leverage against recalcitrant candidates. There are no more incentives for a Senator or Representative to drop out, and thus no intra-party loyalty.
rikyrah
Trump’s ouster of U.S. Attorney Dana Boente matters
10/30/17 04:04 PM
By Steve Benen
In March, Donald Trump summarily fired 46 U.S. Attorneys, without warning or explanation. Of particular interest was Preet Bharara, who had jurisdiction over Trump Tower, and who’d been specifically told he could stay on at his post.
Then, for reasons the White House hasn’t shared, the president and his team changed their minds, and showed Bharara and dozens of his fellow federal prosecutors the door, without having any of their successors lined up.
Trump did not, however, replace literally all of the Obama-era U.S. Attorneys: Dana Boente was allowed to stay on. Late last week, as NBC News reported, that changed, too.
…………………………..
But there’s more to this one: Boente, like Bharara, was in a position to investigate the president when Trump decided unexpectedly to fire him.
Rachel noted on Friday’s show, for example, that Boente was the person former FBI Director James Comey reported to when, according to Comey, Trump was trying to pressure him as part of the investigation into the Russia scandal. It’s led to some speculation that Boente could even be a potential witness in the matter.
rikyrah
Emails show that senior campaign people encouraged Papadopoulos to set up a private back-channel communication with Putin’s office while Russia was attacking the US election. That is collusion. Trump is conning his base. Sad! https://t.co/186WQUmwhD
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) October 31, 2017
rikyrah
John Kelly: Robert E. Lee was “an honorable man” https://t.co/MuIJKnzHEf pic.twitter.com/XOUFIkqLar
— The Hill (@thehill) October 31, 2017
It’s irresponsible & dangerous, especially when white supremacists feel emboldened, to make fighting to maintain slavery sound courageous. https://t.co/qb2X7QhG7M
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) October 31, 2017
tobie
@Kay: Someone posted here yesterday that among the vehicles Manafort used for money laundering was Trump’s SoHo project. I don’t have the indictment handy but will check later to see what US entities Manafort paid with his ill-gotten gains. That’s one clear Manafort-Trump-Russian money link. On top of that the whole money angle shows how much Manafort as campaign manager was indebted to Russian and Ukrainian interests.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I keep expecting the government to bring the hammer down somehow and put an end to it, turn everybody into Fox News by force, but it never quite happens.
One of the more disturbing things that happened in the last several days was Roger Stone ranting on Twitter about how CNN’s new owners were going to purge all the anti-Trump people. Josh Marshall was wondering if it was more than just bluster, if he might have been tweeting on the basis of inside information about the administration putting pressure on them to do it. The wingnutosphere seems to be positively drooling over the prospect.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
So were they all, all honorable men.
I guess I’m a little amazed that KKKelly is never caught on camera with his Grand Kolossal Kleagle hood on. Maybe it’s always at the dry cleaner. And is that a picture of Nathan Bedford Forrest on Kelly’s desk? The picture frame with the votive candle next to it?
Or is Kelly just economically anxious?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@rikyrah: TPM has it, but they left off this tweet.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Hopefully at least now, Kelly as a savior meme, dies the death it deserves.
Kay
I love how Trump thinks Democrats care about Podesta. I’m thrilled. I hope they round more lobbyists up.
Mueller can have all of them. Does he want that lawyer who represented Ivanka? Take her too if she’s corrupt. He can have anyone who appears more than once a month on Morning Joe. And the hosts.
rikyrah
Ok…Remember, when this Facebook/Russian ad stuff began..
” We don’t think there was any Russian ads on Facebook”
Then..
” It was too few to notice..”
Then..
” It was a few thousand dollars.”
Then…
” It was maybe a few hundred thousand dollars..”
Then….
” Maybe, it was a few million that it reached.”
Now yesterday, from NBC
Kay
Joe Leiberman. Broader. Anyone who has not held elected office for more than 10 years but still appears as a pundit.
rikyrah
Twitter: Did we say 201 Russian accounts? We meant 36,000. (For now) https://t.co/SlmHbCiEgm
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) October 31, 2017
rikyrah
@Kay:
I SOOO want Devine…..I SOOO want Bobby Three Sticks to snatch him up.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Yes. That would be genuinely cleansing. Wake up the fools who cannot see Russian interference targeting the left as well.
I don’t care if some Democrats get ensnared. If they’re doing awful stuff, we are better off without them.
Unlike the Fox News sheeple who defend egregious behavior of their partisans, we did not stand behind Anthony Weiner. John Edwards does not have a future in Democratic politics. We expect better behavior.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: And don’t forget G2.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Yes.
Take out the rot in the Democratic party as well. A principled person would not be defending Ivanka. Self-imposed wound by Jamie Gorelick.
clay
@Kay:
Mmmmm…. I’d say 3/5’s of a paycheck.
Elie
@mai naem mobile:
You have that right I think. Mattis, Kelly AND McMaster CHOSE to link themselves to this trash. Mattis was the First aboard and has said nothing to differentiate himself from Trump. It is sad and appalling that so many senior generals have bought into such a horrible administration. Underscores the necessity to keep military leaders away from leadership in governance. They cannot be trusted to know what they should be about which is to uphold the Constitution.
JR
If we’re hoping for longshot indictments I’m rooting for Lanny Davis
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
It’s partly because he was also really unpopular in 2016 and he won anyway. Mostly what’s happening now is Trump losing the support he gained as a result of winning the election.
Almost everyone I know hates Trump, but many of them still won’t say anything good about a Democratic politician. The Bernie lefties just blame the Democrats for losing because they ran horrible, horrible Hillary. The situation just has people down–there’s not a sense of drive to take it back. So I am reserving judgment about whether Trump’s unpopularity bodes well for us.
rikyrah
Republicans lose interest in bills to protect Mueller from Trump
10/31/17 10:17 AM
By Steve Benen
As recently as August, a bipartisan group of senators were working on legislation intended to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller in case Donald Trump tried to fire him. Now that members of Trump’s political operation have been charged by Mueller and his team, perhaps it’s time to take those measures more seriously?
Apparently not. GOP senators, including some who’ve been publicly critical of Trump, argued yesterday that it’s simply unfathomable that the president would try to oust the special counsel before the completion of the investigation. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was prepared to co-sponsor one of the bills to protect Mueller a few months ago, suggested yesterday his own bill isn’t needed.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: They think Tony Podesta is the same person as his brother John, or they’re deliberately trying to blur the distinction by just saying “Podesta”.
Elie
@Matt McIrvin:
I truly believe that at some point the citizens are going to have to hit the streets in mass demonstrations like Venezuela. I expect all kinds of shenanigans from the Trumpites including firing Mueller and mass pardonings. They will try to burn everything down so the citizens will have to get involved in view of the paralysis afflicting the Repubs and Dems.
Gelfling 545
@Peale: My daughter needed to get a title when she sold her old car. It took a couple of days. We’re in NY too. They express mailed it – for a fee, naturally.
Origuy
In Irish, Oíche Shamhna Shona Duit!
Origuy
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s why it’s called the Gruaniad.
opiejeanne
@Montanareddog:
Steve Schmidt was yelling this last night on Lawrence O’Donnell and he was adamant that on all of the campaigns he’s worked on neither the Republicans he’d worked for nor their Democratic opponents would have behaved this way, not all the way to the top. He was red in the face he was so worked up about it.