This is a scary time politically. Trump may fire Mueller and if he does, it’s unlikely that Republicans in Congress will do anything about it. I think this would hurt Republicans a lot politically, but it would also be a major setback for the rule of law, and that would be bad. So I half wish a motherfucker would fire Mueller and half wish a motherfucker wouldn’t.
The best thing would be is if Republicans were scared out of blindly backing Trump by brutal electoral realities. A lot of places have odd-year local elections coming up a week from Tuesday. If you have one, please vote in it. Vote Democrat down the line even if your local Democrats are awful. I don’t normally recommend this, to the contrary I think party politics are very different at the local level, but in this case, we need as much evidence as possible of a looming Democratic tidal wave to send a message to Republicans in Congress.
Giving money to Dems running for federal races helps too. You can donate here to a fund that is distributed equally to the eventual Democratic nominee in House districts currently held by Republicans.
And you know what would really scare Republicans? A victory for Doug Jones in Alabama. You can give him money here.
swiftfox
My exurb ballot is local and will be blindly voting all D.
BC in Illinois
I can be sacred and scared at the same time, to be sure.
But I think you meant one or the other.
Frankensteinbeck
My understanding was that Trump can’t fire Mueller. Only Sessions can. For some reason Sessions won’t, and Trump won’t fire Sessions. Since I don’t know why those things are true, it’s hard to say how stable the situation is, but it’s held up so far. Also, congress has said they have no intention of letting Trump replace Sessions if he’s fired.
Am I wrong about any of that?
Doug!
@Frankensteinbeck:
Apparently it’s unclear. But it sounds like if Trump fires enough DOJ people in the line of succession to AG, he can find one who will fire Mueller for him.
Tom
@Doug!: Ah, the Richard Nixon gambit.
mike in dc
I don’t think he does anything before elections next week, and probably not before the Rs get at least one shot at tax reform. After that, he may feel that he has a free hand. Even then, if Congress does nothing, there is still media pressure and public action. Camping outside the WH, Capitol and Congressional office buildings, swamping Congress with phone calls and protests inside the building, massive street rallies in cities, etc. might have some impact.
Anyone think the Steyer ad for impeachment may be more effective with casual voters than people may realize? He just looks at the camera and makes a fairly sober case for removal. The way Trump and Trumpites freaked out when it showed up on Fox News advertising suggests they are concerned about it, just a tad.
LaNonna
Gave to Doug Jones, that assh#le Moore is just the worst. Looking on with modified delight and relief that shoes are dropping. I hope they all (and I mean the whole rethug list all the way down) are starting to lose as much sleep as we have since last November. We just voted by absentee ballot in our local upstate NY elections, but yet again in north huckleberry some lines were lacking a D.
WereBear
When Nixon did it, it was the Saturday Night Massacre and it made him look all the more guilty.
As it would.
We are at an intersection where Republicans, who have gotten away with everything, have, I HOPE, finally started stepping on actual dragons here.
Ohio Mom
@Frankensteinbeck: That is what many commentators told me yesterday. On the other hand, I don’t think Trump cares about/has any knowledge of what he is allowed to do.
On a different topic, anybody from Ohio have any feelings at all about the Democratic primary candidates for governor? I guess I have to stop wishing Corday will step in. The final selection is not doing anything for me.
Don’t get me wrong, I always vote the party line. Just trying to figure out which primary candidate will have the best chance in the general has me stumped.
Betty Cracker
@Doug!: I heard that it’s unclear too, and I wonder how on earth that can be. It’s not like we haven’t already had one rogue president who tried to shut down an investigation into his own malfeasance. You’d think that would have been a clear signal that a process needs to be codified beyond legal dispute.
msdc
This is an important point. I’m volunteering for the Democratic slate in Virginia, where we do have some excellent candidates, but we need all the help we can get. I don’t just want to squeak past Ed Gillespie, and god help us if he wins after his race-baiting, fearmongering, pro-Confederate campaign. I want him to lose by a landslide. I want people to be shocked by how early the networks call that race. And I want Congress to pay attention.
So please, give us any help you can – donate, volunteer, but above all vote for the only party that will put a check on Trump.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Bunk’s not having it with Kelly:
Turgidson
If the massive shitshow that marked the end of the Bush era, followed by the party’s complete descent into demented, malevolent insanity, didn’t send the GOP into the wilderness for a generation (and obviously it didn’t since they occupy more elected offices now than they have in a century), nothing Hair Furor does will hurt them for more than a cycle or two either. I’m convinced the GOP is a fucking cockroach mixed with a phoenix mixed with a fucking evil moron with a bottomless shitload of dirty money. It could cause a nuclear holocaust and worldwide depression and be back winning elections within a few years.
Frankensteinbeck
@Doug!:
I do know Trump already pitched a public fit a few months back that Sessions should resign for not firing Mueller. Nothing happened. That suggests the ‘fire Mueller’ crisis is already passed. Maybe someone has told Trump Mueller has enough stuff already to dump on prosecutors, there’s no point. Or Senate has told him they’ll stop playing defense and launch their own prosecutor if he does. A big chunk of the Senate Republicans truly hate Trump’s guts.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Frankensteinbeck: I thought Sessions couldn’t fire Mueller because Sessions recused himself from anything having to do with the Russia investigation. I thought Sessions did that because he lied to Congress about Russia contacts during his confirmation hearing, but I could be wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Doug!: It is my understanding that, since Sessions recused himself, only Rosenstein can fire Mueller. And he isn’t going to do it. It would thus take a Saturday Night Massacre type scenario to remove him.
mike in dc
@Turgidson:
It took a Great Depression and a World War for the Democratic Party to hold the White House for 20 years, and they held the House and Senate for less time than that(though they did control the House from 1954-1994, an impressive feat somewhat undermined by the fact that Dixiecrats were part of the Dem coalition for at least the first decade of that).
Yarrow
@Doug!:
Technically that’s true. But in reality who’s going to be brave enough to fire Mueller? They’d be in the spotlight and everything they’d ever done would be under scrutiny. Would it be worth it?
germy
low-tech cyclist
You know what would scare them a month earlier, and probably just as badly? A Dem wave in the Virginia state legislative elections a week from today.
The GOP currently holds a 66-34 majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, the lower house of the legislature. But every one of those seats is up for grabs next week, and Dems have candidates in all but a dozen or so districts.
mike in dc
@Yarrow:
If they all refused, Trump would probably try to invoke his “constitutional authority” and fire Mueller directly. Seems like the kind of thing that would force a constitutional crisis and push Congress to “DO SOMETHING”. They might not, but then it becomes incumbent upon the 4th estate and the public to act.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: We are always supposed to start any analysis with the supposition that Rs have an upper hand and we have already lost.
Even T’s current approval rating means nothing because people don’t like Ds, or so the cynically hip tell me.
low-tech cyclist
@Yarrow:
Robert Bork got denied the Supreme Court, but other than that, firing Archie Cox didn’t seem to hurt his career.
ET
538 has an interesting run-down on looking at who-is doing/saying what. The bi on Rosenstein was the most interesting.
But with tRump who knows.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Frankensteinbeck: That’s my take on it.
Again, keep in mind Trump is a bully, bully will abuse when they can get away with it but have no stomach for a fight.
gvg
Nixon wasn’t exactly a lone wolf but the whole republican party wasn’t corrupted then. We didn’t foresee that so we didn’t make plans that we are sure of working now. Nixon got kicked out when his own party turned on him. they still lost a bunch of seats next election but I think they were back the one after. We complain about that now but I think it is an important carrot now for at a certain point, the Republican politicians will take their medicine and get it over with instead of escalating even more dangerously. this time it’s even more serious so I think they need a longer time out, but i guess we can’t hope for total ending. I just came to this realization while typing this reply. I had been indulging in hoping they would get finished off. I still think they need to reinvent themselves significantly. the demographic dead end they looked like they were in is I think some of the cause of their going along with extremists.
Turgidson
@WereBear:
Nixon didn’t have the Fox News-led echo chamber to convince tens of millions of voters that Watergate was all McGovern’s fault and the real scandal was that he isn’t being tried for treason. Hair Furor does.
I don’t think Watergate turns out the way it did if it happens today, because of the faux news noise machine’s at-this-point-victorious assault on reason, empiricism and truth, and today’s (asymmetric) partisan polarization. Today’s GOP is looking the other way or actively running cover for Donald Fucking Trump and his merry band of deeply corrupt bootlicking morons, who quite obviously played footsie with ol’ Shirtless Vlad. You think they wouldn’t have been able to make a “third rate burglary” go down the memory hole? There’s no way that is a story for more than a few weeks.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: He is a fucking racist. It was obvious since he unleashed a reign of terror as the DHS secretary. If people didn’t see it then, it is because they didn’t want to see it.
Wjs
Rod Rosenstein can fire Robert Mueller if there is cause to do so. Mueller is never going to expose himself to that possibility. His team doesn’t leak and they’re running the single most important counterintelligence investigation in US history.
Anyone heard from Rosenstein lately? The dude seems pretty quiet right now, especially since Dana Boente’s shock resignation last week.
ET
On another note, if anyone hasn’t read Ta-Nehisi Coates takedown on Kelly’s idiotic comments about the Civil War on Fox, you should.
A few things seem clear. 1- that people saying he was one of the grown ups over there to reign in tRump spoke too early. 2- Kelly knows absolutely nothing about the founding of the country and the events before the Civil War regarding slavery. 3-. he is all in on the tRump train of not-so-couched racism 4- white man-ism is on full display…. wrong on a lot a lot of things but is never gonna admit it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@low-tech cyclist: I’ve been wondering if Michelle “The Closer” Obama is going to campaign in VA, or if she’s done with that. I hope she does
Bobby Thomson
@Yarrow: oh please. There are plenty of good Germans in this country, and NIMBY fuckers like Mr. I usually vote Republican in local elections, who won’t do a damn thing about it if it might raise their taxes.
schrodingers_cat
@ET: People are impressed by the uniform, the rank, and the medals, including our brave media overlords.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Northam, Northam, Northam. If you live in Virginia, get your ass out next Tuesday and vote for Northam, Fairfax and Herring. It’ll take ten minutes at the most. You can afford it, so get out and cast your vote. He’s leading, but that won’t mean anything if people don’t show up and vote.
gvg
@Omnes Omnibus: My worry is that this last week Sessions was saying he wasn’t recused from any other issue than Russia during the campaign. I can’t recall the exact wording but it was a change in a prior condition and gave the impression he might unrecuse himself. Some of yesterday’s revelations pointed at Sessions himself. I worry that he might fire Mueller or even Rosenstein. He probably understands better than Trump how guilty that makes him but how many men can watch investigators get closer and closer to getting them and do nothing?
Kay
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
It’s making me nervous. Good job reminding them.
Yarrow
@low-tech cyclist: Yes. However Watergate was small compared to Trump/Republicans/Russia. This situation involves espionage and possibly treason. Who wants to be the person who fired the guy investigating treason? Seems like a bad career move.
Matt McIrvin
@Yarrow:
Instant Fox News/wingnut echo chamber hero status, though. That’s worth it to some. They made heroes out of G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North, and a fabled martyr of Robert Bork.
Turgidson
@schrodingers_cat:
The BothSides media, and NeverTrump GOPers in exile in particular, needed desperately to believe that the military men in Trump’s cabinet were holding things together and providing a clear-headed, sober check on Hair Furor’s dipshittery. That seems to be somewhat true of Mattis. But as you point out, Kelly outed himself as a Trumpist true believer in his short time at DHS, where he weaponized their rank and file and unleashed them to be the racist thugs many of them were itching to be. And now he’s offering up word vomit about the Civil War and selling the “Democrats are the real colluders” nonsense.
He’s a full on lollygagging Trumpist goon and should be treated as such, no matter how impressive and honorable his military career may have been. He’s left that era of his life in the past.
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
My understanding is that there are legal protections for Mueller’s position that require he can only be fired for very good cause. That makes it a lot harder to get rid of him without the whole thing blowing up. I assume that the Republican campaign to throw mud at Mueller is an attempt to build a case for firing him. There’s also the matter of Sessions having recused himself, which means firing Mueller should be Rosenstein’s job, not Sessions’s. I also wouldn’t put it past Mueller to have protected his positions with booby traps, like a sealed indictment of Sessions that is unsealed if/when he’s fired.
Kay
I actually don’t think it’s that degraded yet. Someone will step up if asshole fires Mueller if for no other reason than government is their life’s work so has personal value to them- is tied to their sense of themselves.
It could get that bad, though. I never felt immune from it – “it can’t happen here” was never an assumption I made or relied upon. I never thought we were uniquely good, it always seemed somewhat fragile to me. So much of it depends on consent- agreeing to comply with norms.
ET
@schrodingers_cat: seems like he may have tarnished that luster a bit. Of course there are so many who won’t if for no other reason than they bought in the Lost Cause fantasy.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: A bit OT, I saw this article the other day and thought you might be interested in it since you highlight immigrant issues a lot here.
Deeper Underground
Businesses feel the pinch as undocumented consumers limit shopping expenses. I hope it’s not paywalled. Wasn’t when I ran across it. It’s a good piece highlighting how a quinceañera store has been affected by the new administration’s policies.
It’s the second in a series:
So there could be more articles on the way.
Turgidson
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I’m freaked out about that race after Terry Mac barely beat that knuckle-dragging freak Cucinelli and Mark Warner almost fucking lost his reelection when polls showed him up 10+. If Dems can’t be bothered to show up in big numbers now, we’re all totally fucked. I’ve long since abandoned any hope that any amount of evil or incompetence will persuade the less-batshit GOP voters to switch sides (though maybe some will stay home). I very much hope my pessimism is proven wrong.
mainmata
@Frankensteinbeck: Sessions can’t fire Mueller because he is recused from anything to do with Russia. Dpty Attorney General Rod Rosenstein could fire Mueller but probably wouldn’t Trump could fire Sessions but Sessions has a lot of dirt on Trump about Russia so Donald is too scared to do so.
martian
I’m already intending to vote Dem straight down the ticket for the foreseeable future. I now think the Greens are a corrupt sham and won’t support them even locally unless and until they get their shit together. Libertarians, I don’t vote for anyway. Socialists will just have to wait until the system stabilizes to get another vote from me. When actual fucking fascists are here, it is time to unite for the fight.
Davebo
@Doug!: And if history holds whoever does agree to fire him will get an appointment to the Supreme Court!
Peale
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Yep. At the very least if you don’t want the 2018 election to be about protecting Confederate History from those Liberal Crybabies, VA citizens need to stand up and vote, or the GOP will be running on it from North Dakota down to Panama.
J R in WV
So Doug!
I’ve signed up for regular periodic donations to the Dem in Alabama, Jones, via ActBlue.
I was monthly during the primary race, have upped it to weekly during the rest of that odd election cycle, same for the other plan for multi-democrats in congressional races.
I wonder if those weekly/monthly auto-pull donations will be reflected in your thermometer accumulators?
FlipYrWhig
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Gillespie has been running for office the way sewage runs from a leaky pipe. It’s really appalling.
For those of you unfamiliar with this fuckery: he just started a new thing about how Northam believes in restoring felons’ rights, including THIS CHILD PRON MUGSHOT GUY! Not mentioned: that Northam means VOTING RIGHTS YOU LOATHSOME DISGRACEFUL OOZING SHITPILE. A truly vile campaign.
We need to step on the faces of everyone who greenlighted it; and everyone who lent him their support, like cretinous local cops; and everyone who votes for it. Really, truly, fuck that guy from one orifice to the next nonconsecutively placed orifice, or maybe a new one opened for the occasion.
Peale
@Turgidson: Yep. If the Dems don’t start showing up in this enviornment, I’m not certain what will motivate them. “I’m not an immigrant so don’t bother me with these immigration issues”. “I’m not black so don’t bother me with these confederate statues issues.” “I’m not gay so what business is it of mine if those guys still can’t get a license to marry from the county clerk.” “They are all a bunch of crooks anyway, so who cares who is looting the treasury.” I know OUR voters don’t like negative campaigns. But come on.
Shalimar
If Trump fires Mueller, my guess is he will have Kelly do it. Who says he can’t do it that way? He will let lawyers argue in courts whether he had the authority or not. Trump himself clearly doesn’t care about chains of command or limitations to his authority.
Gin & Tonic
@mike in dc:
The American public is too lazy to “act” in any meaningful way. I know how much time and commitment was involved in the “Maidan” action that led to Ukraine’s President Yanukovych abandoning his post and fleeing the country, and will bet everything I own that the US public (especially the centrist or leftist anti-Trump public) will never rise to that level.
Yarrow
@Shalimar: If Trump tries to fire Mueller via someone like Kelly, who is not a person who can fire Mueller, why would Mueller even leave? He’s not fired unless Rosenstein fires him. Trump can try to do it that way but Mueller is under no obligation to go.
Omnes Omnibus
@gvg: You either are recused or you are not. It is rather like pregnancy that way.
Peale
@gvg: Based on the hunch that its always projection with the GOP, I bet Meuller will uncover a child sex ring in a Pizza Parlor linked to Sessions and Priebus, and since that won’t be connected to Russia, Sessions will fire him. (Sigh)
Yarrow
@gvg:
A man who knows that if he does something it’s going to be a lot worse for him than if he does nothing.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@FlipYrWhig: @Peale: @Kay:
Yeah, I think we’ll be all right. Virginia has shifted fairly steadily toward the Democrats in the last ten or twelve years, and we have that going for us. But, as I said, and all of you have put in, none of that means anything if people don’t show up and vote. We should sweep this year, but, as always in an off year, getting voters off their asses and out to the polls is going to be the hitch.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
I think you’re overestimating the political impact of Sessions firing Mueller. Politics is tribal now, and it doesn’t matter what your tribe does because it’s still your tribe. It’s not like there’s some huge block of persuadable, middle-of-the-road people who form their judgments based on what good ol’ Walter Cronkite tells them.
If Mueller was fired, republicans will be thankful the “Deep State will no longer be able to use this fake investigation to protect Hillary” or whatever the hell. They won’t furrow their brows and worry about the firing’s lasting effect on our institutions. We already know they’d burn the entire country to the ground if it protects their tribe and pisses off Democrats.
And the people who would be most upset with Mueller’s filing–Democrats and the .0003% of independents who really are independent and aren’t just hiding their party identity–would still despise Trump with or without the investigation.
So gaming this out, is there really that much of a net difference one way or the other if Mueller is fired?
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: Thanks, however I have been wondering whether I should continue doing so.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: Yep. I could email Mueller and tell him that he is fired and that would have the same legal effect as Kelly doing it.
Ian G.
Lucky for me on the local level (Nassau County) the GOP is as hopelessly corrupt as the worst urban Democratic Party machine. Incumbent County Exec Ed Mangano has been indicted. So a local vote to kick the bastids out is a vote for the Democrats.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: I think you should continue doing so. It can time time and effort for issues, even important ones, to break through. You have made an impact here by your comments. We all have to keep bashing away on certain issues before they finally break through. Thank you for your focus on the immigration issue that should get more attention but doesn’t.
ruemara
@Betty Cracker: We’re not good (humans) at dealing with very large disasters. They scare us so much as a glimpse into the human psyche that we believe they’re aberrations. They aren’t.
Nice shout out to Duran Duran, Doug.
On a lighter note, I got the kitten torture out of the way early and terrified the cats with my new silhouette.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: So cute! Both you and the kitteh. I squeed.
mike in dc
@Gin & Tonic:
I’m not that skeptical. I look at the spontaneous response to the travel ban and the massive phone call campaign re ACA repeal, and I’m not so sure that there wouldn’t be a strong public response to the perfect storm of firing Mueller, pardoning everyone, and the Republican led Congress refusing to act.
low-tech cyclist
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
And the Dem running for House of Delegates in your district!
Elizabelle
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): I think you’re wrong.
Time will tell, won’t it? Not everything is horse race and politics. There is “good” and “bad.” It’s not hard to figure out what we are looking at.
I am betting they don’t get their massive tax cuts through. People are woke.
Elizabelle
@low-tech cyclist:
AND: you can probably vote absentee in person this week, up until noon on Saturday.
Beat the lines. Bank that vote.
And then go knock some doors on Tuesday. Call all your friends. Lots of people the campaigns can’t reach, but you can.
Aleta
@schrodingers_cat: It’s a fetish, which in the 80s, 90s was widened by Soldier of Fortune (magazine) types and military contractors. In 2001 was exploited by Cheny-bush for political dominance and profit, and now people running for Congress display military attitude to symbolize that they will dominate the federal government. IMO
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus:
oh really? Then why did Sessions get involved in firing Comey? I think Sessions could un-recuse himself any time he likes. Is there really law on recusing
and not-recusing?
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: My ears completely freaked him out.
@catclub: Violating the recusal because he’s the Chief Law officer of the land doesn’t change the law. He is recused. The fact that no one will hold these people accountable is just the reason why voting is fucking important and everyone who ever claimed differently deserved to be slapped.
Thoughtful David
@Turgidson:
As I recall, McAuliffe beat the Kook Cucinelli reasonably well. Warner’s near-loss to Gillespie was Warner’s own fault, though. He ran away from Obama and Obamacare, and cozied up to every right wing idea he could. He gave Democrats no reason to vote for him–he was just Gillespie lite.
He’s acted a bit like an actual Democrat in the last 10 months, but before that he was again just republican lite. If he keeps up the next 3 years as he has the last one, I’ll vote for him again. But I don’t trust him.
Omnes Omnibus
@catclub: I am sure there is law on recusal. I am on my phone right now so I can’t look into it. In any case, it only makes sense.
Thoughtful David
@Elizabelle:
You can vote absentee until 4:30 pm on Saturday, not just noon.
Don’t wait till then though. VOTE!
TenguPhule
@mike in dc:
Which is worth a bucket of warm spit when facing a fucker with no moral compass.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
We had that stupid “must look forward, not backward for the good of the nation” mindset longer then most people realize.
Its time to fuck that shit and have some fucking consequences for bad behavior actually enforced on the guilty parties.
Treason is supposed to be a capital offense.
And Trump may have been just dumb enough to meet the exacting legal standard necessary to get his head on a pike.
Elizabelle
@Thoughtful David: Yes, confirmed. 4:30 p!
Vote, Virginians. To the polls.
New Jersey: this means you too.
TenguPhule
@Turgidson:
That’s because nobody who should have been jailed or shot from the Bush regime received what they so richly deserved.
Dick Cheney should be in a hole being pissed on. Not breathing and free.
We lost a lot a norms when the rule of law became a suggestion, not a standard.
mike in dc
@TenguPhule:
Not so much. So long as elections aren’t actually rigged, media and public pressure can move reluctant legislators to act. If they are rigged, then you go to the courts. If those are rigged, then extreme civil disobedience. If that doesn’t work, then and only then do you get to the final recourse.
mike in dc
Cynicism and apathy are the greatest enemies of positive change.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@low-tech cyclist: I just sent 20 GOTV postcards yesterday for Kelly DeLucia in the 96th. If anyone wants to help, go to Tonythedemocrat.org and you can get approval to receive addresses and help try to increase turnout in Purple state elections.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
They do have an upper hand at the moment. Its increasingly shaky but pretending it doesn’t exist doesn’t help anything.
And our current position relies on democratic processes and institutions that have not performed as well as expected for the last 20 years or so.
So stop being an asshole about this.
MCA1
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s right. The questions are (a) whether, since he’s been weaselly about it, Sessions actually thinks his recusal is robust or can be worked around somehow in order for him to step in and shut Mueller down himself, (b) whether one of those sealed indictments has his name on it, (c) whether anyone below Rosenstein would be willing to be the Robert Bork of this whole thing if Sessions can’t/won’t step in, (d) what, if anything, R’s in Congress would do about it if the special counsel’s investigation is shut down, and (e) how much shit would hit the fan in the form of intelligence agency leaks the moment that happened.
My guesses re: (a) Secessions is not that reckless when directly in the spotlight, (b) Secessions is exactly that reckless when out of the spotlight and will be going down, (c) probably, yes, but it would take a few dance partners to get there, because at this point it’s pretty clear to just about everyone outside the hardcore true believer bubble that this show is tanking so there’s no upside to be had, (d) the Senate would convict if given the chance, but the House wouldn’t do a damn thing on impeachment; further, the Senate would probably try to run its own investigation but without being shielded from the bomb throwers and saboteurs and political concerns it would go nowhere; and (e) much shit would hit many fans.
Omnes Omnibus
@TenguPhule: Aside from proclaiming doom and despair, what do you propose as a course of action?
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: Stop bullying me. This was not directed at you. I have the right to express my frustration too.
ETA: If that makes me an asshole, so be it.
FlipYrWhig
@Thoughtful David: Do you really think Warner did something to offend or ignore people? IMHO it’s more likely that Virginia Dems got so used to the idea that Mark Warner can take care of himself — I mean, he pretty much _made_ the blue-shift in Virginia — that they just kind of “meh”ed the whole race in 2014. There was no urgency to vote for him because he always wins! That was a mistake but it was a reasonable mistake to make. I honestly don’t remember that Gillespie was even trying that hard either, at least ad-wise. This Gillespie 2017 edition has had his sniveling face plastered everywhere. He’s not under the radar this time. Speaking only for myself, this Gillespie campaign has me seething, teeth-clenching mad, in ways I don’t remember feeling with other Republicans. Even the gross ones like Cuccinelli and McDonnell at least weren’t running on how dismantling Confederate monuments ensures that brown people will rape your children.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: The GOP had that cinderblock brain Ford push that trial balloon out to the public and probably shit themselves in disbelief and joy when the public bit on it.
I have always thought that of all the mistakes made in this country, this was the absolute worst – we said flat out presidents are immune from the rule of law. Which completely undermines the notion of “rule of law” for the entire society.
I don’t think you get a mulligan on a mistake like that. It was fundamental.
TenguPhule
@mike in dc:
The original supposition was that Congress wasn’t acting despite all the public pressure.
And as we’ve seen on the ACA and tax cuts, those Republicans are very resistant to public pressure when their donors feel otherwise. And their donors only concern about Trump is him being able to sign off on what they want.
Which is where we are now. And which Trump is trying to pack with Republican help.
Gorsch was just the tip of the iceberg of loonies they’re lining up.
And while we’d probably win at district and even appeals level, Kennedy is still the fucking wild card on the SC.
We’ve been in here be Dragons territory since 1/20/17. We have several Constitutional crisis which need to be faced and dealt with in a manner that doesn’t make things worse. And half the people responsible for dealing with it are traitors to the country.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
And we have the right to express our frustration with you when you keep making inaccurate propositions.
The “praised” generals thing, the GG “hero” of BJ thing, the “gloom and despair” thing, you just keep pushing people’s buttons.
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus: We need to know just how bad it is and how broken the institutions are.
The justice system needs to be given its chance. When Congress fails to act, present the case to the court.
If that fails, then we know the rule of law is truly dead and all bets are off.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: Could you put a sock in it?
You are demoralizing. Maybe you are right, but maybe you are not. I agree, we do have too many traitors in the mix. But not everyone is complicit. We have to find and empower those who can help extricate us from this.
Nobody here misses the shit that went down last November, and is ongoing. But stop throwing water on people who are trying to encourage us.
Maybe you want us all to blow our brains out?
Tone it down, fucker.
mike in dc
@TenguPhule:
I will stipulate that the threshold for acting against Trump in Congress is 2/3 majorities in both Houses. That’s an uphill climb. It’s also the threshold in the Senate for removal from office. So a vote to reinstate Mueller is effectively a “test vote” for impeachment. Our best bet to shift Congress on Trump is to defeat tax reform. If they can get absolutely nothing done with Trump in office, they will turn on him, bit by bit.
The next inflection point is the elections next week, then the tax bill vote. After that, there’s no decisive point for definitive public input until the midterms. But in the interim, the Senate Intel committee will issue a report and recommendations re Russian interference; more indictments are likely to come from Mueller; and more damaging news stories about various problems, Russia stuff, and gaffes by Trump. We also will get a chance to present an alternative agenda in advance of the midterms–minimum wage increase, infrastructure spending, student debt relief, voter protection, etc. Ultimately it may turn into a referendum on impeachment, and if the results are decisive, then a lot of R senators up for re-election in 2020 may feel pushed up against the wall.
We’re not at the end of our rope just yet. :)
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus:
Republicans understand recusal about as well as they understand female biology.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you, SC, for consistently pushing back against any normalization of racist, fascist John Kelly.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle: Ignoring the realities of the situation is not going to help or change anything. We had the biggest protests in history and they achieved exactly nothing. They made those who participated feel good, but got very little relative coverage and became lost in the news cycle within days.
Repeating the same while hoping for different results is supposedly a sign of insanity.
We are where we are at right now because the GOP has abused the norms and unspoken rules of society like the scam artists they are to the point that we’re facing an existential crisis as a country.
We can’t rely on shame or their better natures to make them change course. Because they don’t have them.
We are rapidly running out of options available to stop this.
Mueller is probably the best bet available in the legal system. So there’s still hope.
ETA: And fuck you too, asshole.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
All of those things have been pushed here at some point. I remember the fights over Glen Greenwald and Snowden 3-5 years ago when I was just lurking.
And what’s your solution? All you ever seem to do is “doom and gloom” without offering any hope to offset it. Nor any plausible solutions.
TenguPhule
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner):
Yes, it increases the probability that extra legal means of justice come into play.
And it makes the battle lines that much clearer.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: Where do you get the sense people are ignoring realities? I think folks here are pretty woke.
I am hearing your scream; what do you suggest?
I think it’s a mistake to see the Republicans as that monolithic. Play on the fact that many of them are cowards. And some may have some vestigial good nature; if we can find it, or make common ground, that’s a strategy.
Cool down. Let people breathe a sigh of relief over Mueller time. No one needs to be bludgeoned over the head, all the time. People start leaving the blog when too much of that happens.
Bobby Thomson
@FlipYrWhig: I think white people are just beginning to own and become comfortable with their racism. BTW, the latest poll I saw had Gillespie up by almost 10 points.
gvg
@Omnes Omnibus: It doesn’t really sound like it totally sure thing. First, Sessions’s was involved with the Comey firing which some say was a violation of the recusal, but that didn’t get a lot of attention and hsn’t stuck with the public. then a few days ago he evaded answering whether the recusal applied to the Clinton-Uranium One case.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Elizabelle:
I agree. And this:
is really true.
Applejinx
@mike in dc:
I think it’s not unreasonable to suggest that it took a FDR, a New Deal, trustbusting and a massive and more or less socialist realignment for the Democratic Party to hold the White House for 20 years and the House for a really long time. It seems to me that economic depression and war is just as capable of pushing things into the hands of the Republicans and we’re seeing that now and could continue seeing it for a long time.
Depends on whether the Democratic Party takes an FDR-ish attitude and goes all New Deal, trustbusting, socialist to cut off the fake ‘populist’ rhetoric of the Republicans. They’re lying when they claim to be for the working/regular person, but it shouldn’t be that easy to get away with it.
It seems like Democrats are trying to seek ever higher thresholds for flipping that switch, and then flat out not wanting to do it. It should not be possible to out-Left Democrats on the subjects FDR owned lock, stock and barrel. Why is this even hard? It is a potential electoral goldmine. Democrats need to be class traitors since every single person in the government is staggeringly wealthy, Vermonters not excepted. This should not be hard.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Bobby Thomson:
Look at poll averages. RealClearPolitics has Northam leading by 3.3 points.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
A lot of things have been said on this blog. People have actually changed their minds too. Rubbing people’s faces into old mistakes and inaccurate positions isn’t exactly conductive to a healthy atmosphere here, now is it?
I don’t have any quick or easy solutions. They don’t exist. I think our best bet for now is the Mueller cases he’s bringing forth. At this point criminal convictions are the only viable way to take out this treasonous regime with our current system, provided that the necessary people in our institutions have the moral courage to do their duty in the face of certain Republican opposition.
But the elephant in the room has always been that the Republicans have not and do not follow the law or even basic fucking rules and have not suffered the consequences for a long time. Democracy doesn’t work that way.
Yeah, its a scary thing but its something that has to be faced if we want our country back.
Either we start punishing Republicans for breaking the rules or we stop pretending the rules apply at all.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Applejinx:
Decide to show your face around here so soon, I see?
Elizabelle
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I don’t have anything personal against Tengu. I recognize someone in pain, and anxious.
But lighten up, Francis. Sheesh.
germy
catclub
This seems like a ‘wow’ and then disappointment. 1. First GOP senator to even consider keeping the estate tax – repeal of which is PURELY a gift to the ultra wealthy. 2. Still the only one – so disappointing. 3. Not lowering the top rate but lowering the other brackets si still a tax cut for the $1M income bracket – just smaller. 4. The real money is in the pass through cut from 39 to 25% on ‘small businesses’. No mention of that – but that is what killed Kansas tax receipts in the Brownback tax cut disaster.
catclub
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
OT one hand: close enough to steal.
OT other hand: small lead in an off-year election that Democrats typically do not turn out well for.
OT other other hand: VA has a way of going against whoever is President in their Governor’s elections.
Matt McIrvin
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Wow, the recent polls in that one vary from Gillespie +8 to Northam +17. I don’t think I’d believe any of them.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
When SC is mocking people with, “We are always supposed to start any analysis with the supposition that Rs have an upper hand and we have already lost.”
It got old after the first couple of times she did it. Now, its just fucking irritating, especially after Mueller gave us the first good news in a long time.
You’re the one who was going off in the first place.
I was enjoying Mueller time. If you’d actually read my original post before jumping off half cocked you’d notice I’m not saying its hopeless, but that we can’t rely on media and public pressure to do what Congress doesn’t.
Criminal cases have greater pull.
Doug!
@J R in WV:
Yes, they do show up, I’m pretty sure.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle: I apologize for my language. I really was enjoying the first good news we had in awhile and you and SC both managed to hit the wrong nerve at exactly the wrong time.
ETA: Donald Trump is in my state and fucking up traffic too.
Aimai
@ET: WOW. I need a cigarette after that.
Aleta
@Elizabelle:
Been thinking about the importance of talking with 18-26 year olds (general, not exact ages), partly bc I went to a talk by some writers aged 60s-70s years old, who’d met as college freshmen. Most came from conservative Republican families and were Vietnam War supporters. They talked about getting exposed to people with other views, having the chance to talk and argue into the late night, and how their thinking changed over time.
Chet
We (NJ) have gubernatorial elections and I will be voting Murphy. Hope he does better than Corzine. I am pretty sure he is going to win–the race has no traction in local news.
I will vote straight D on county and state elections. We also have some borough council elections. I am friendly with one of the R candidates, and the local Democratic committee is mostly inept at governance. So I will have to vote R in that race. Sorry.
Also, I am taking my second crack at running for school board (non-partisan). Last time I missed election by 19 votes. This year there are three candidates for three positions, and I am first on the ballot. So I feel pretty confident about my chances.
Yarrow
@germy: Hensarling is one of the Texas Reps who voted against funding after Hurricane Harvey.
Applejinx
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: The dirtbag left is useless on this Manafort stuff: they want to think nothing Russian was happening, because neoliberals want to use the Russian manipulation as an argument Clinton’s third-wayism was functional (which it wasn’t).
It doesn’t matter HOW horrible some of you folks are, I can still correctly identify who’s going to understand what’s going on better. Because it’s like a get-out-of-responsibility-free card for Clinton and her people, the crew here can be expected to know EVERYTHING about the Manafort/Mueller/Russia thing, therefore when that stuff blows up this is the correct place to get a dose of reality.
I don’t ask you folks to have the faintest clue about the global economic situation (read Mark Blyth for that, I needn’t tell you a thing about it), and I don’t ask the dirtbag leftists to have the faintest clue what’s really going on in Lanyard Heaven. And this Russia thing is real, it’s relevant, it’s almost certainly hitting both Republicans and hard-leftists because Russia will happily mess with totally opposing sides (see Adam Curtis’s Hypernormalization), and Balloon Juice is a better place to work out what’s really happening.
I admit I can’t resist sniping over the FDR thing. If you want another New Deal, which we all desperately desperately need more than you know, promise one and get elected. I’m really freaked out when I see Dems trying to set boundaries saying they won’t do anything like that. These are trustbusting, norm-shattering times and there’s no reason Dems can’t win hugely if only they include class war in their arsenal.
TenguPhule
@Applejinx:
Ronald Fucking Reagan, may his soul be consumed by demons for all eternity.
He sold the “The most terrifying words are I’m from the government and I’m here to help” and that led to three decades of government being hollowed out.
Convincing people that government can be a force for good has been an uphill struggle ever since.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
you really have no idea of the role race played, and plays, in both the New Deal and post-New Deal politics, do you? Not just no idea of the weight of race in American politics, but no concept whatsoever of the fact that race plays a role in politics.
Applejinx
@TenguPhule: But it was a lie, Tengu. It was a lie. And nobody trusts anybody in government anymore, it’s all a sham on either side of the aisle.
It’s easier to see how much of a lie it was when corporations and employers are hosing you left, right and sideways. It’s easier and easier to see how totally amoral, toxic and doomed late capitalism is, and it’s exactly that which Reagan idolized, and it’s that he held up as a savior when he said that line, and he was wrong, totally wrong.
Government not only can be a force for good, it inevitably WILL be a force for good again because these things are cyclical and we’re in another Gilded Age, one that’ll prove worse than all the rest I think. We just can’t fight the battles on terms given by Reagan. He was an asshole and he was wrong and there are enough people who understand that. FFS, even without being especially plausible (‘retraining’ is no solution for a population) Hillary clobbered Mister Capitalism in the popular vote. The left, which may as well be the Democrats, will prevail. It takes a very large amount of illegal bullshit to even briefly hold back that tide.
We’re seeing the re-establishing of some societal rules and norms. I think people will find that to be a relief.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Applejinx:
Your boy Bernie, dog whistling to the white working class. The guy has learned NOTHING.
Elizabelle
@TenguPhule: Quite OK. Cheers.
cain
@mike in dc:
That won’t happen unless the economy is an absolute slump and there is nothing to lose. Chaos is not something anybody likes because you don’t know what happens afterwards.
TenguPhule
Nice to see the Congressional Democrats are standing together for Mueller.
So the system holds, for now.
Aleta
@Elizabelle:
Is this readership numbers or commenters? I’d like to know if there are more or fewer readers or views since the election. For commenters, there seem many reasons someone might stop or take a break, but still be reading. The change in political climate is probably one reason — like Internet privacy, or a decision to spend less time on blogs and more in local action.
My experience of BJ is that it’s been a rare place where it’s OK to talk about depression and anxiety; Also, using it to rail against what’s going on politically or express despair at atrocities seem (to me) not that different from before here. I miss a lot of the nuance though, so this is just one perception….
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Shorter Applejinx always and forever: WHY ISNT ALL OF AMERICA VERMONT DO THEY EVEN TRY
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule:
You never do give up on the gloom and doom do you? LOL
The Republicans control the ENTIRE government and they’ve gotten NOTHING done beyond a no brainer Supreme Court justice and Trump’s half assed, amateur hour executive orders. Wonder why is that…? Tax cuts, Immigration, Voter Suppression, Heath Care, you name it, all of that should have been a done deal the first month Trump was in office.
The press spends most of it time mocking Trump, a REPUBLICAN Congress just warned a REPUBLICAN president not to interfere in an investigation into that president committing treason, Jesus Christ dude, maybe you are the one who needs the reality check.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: he’s so on-the-nose I still wonder sometimes if he isn’t spoofing the parochial ‘B-Bro, eternally righteous and eternally adolescent. But wouldn’t anyone put that much effort, and typing, into an unfunny spoof?
StringOnAStick
I pie trolls, but there is just one name here that I have yet to pie but I refuse to read and scroll by every damned time because JFC, the last thing I need is this guy and his need to be an endless well of gloom, doom, why bother and they have an endless well of win so we are eternally screwed. That’s why people quit coming here and I’m about to do the same; I can pick up my weekly depression needs elsewhere.
TenguPhule
Actually they done a lot more, just not on the legislative level.
EPA, State & Energy are going to take decades to repair. Keep in mind, these assholes have only been in control of these Departments for 9 months.
We’ve lost the Pacific trade agreement to unite against China.
NAFTA needs fixing, our Intelligence sharing agreements are currently shit thanks to the Traitor in office and they’ve repealed the rule that banned mandatory arbitration in contracts. And that’s just off the top of my head.
They’ve fucked up on passing legislation because they have no experience at actually doing work, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t done anything. They’ve broken a lot of shit which will take a lot longer to rebuild.
TenguPhule
@StringOnAStick: Perhaps if you actually read instead of relying on the voices in your head, you’d realize you’re wrong.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
We’ve been discussing who the next Robert Bork is in this thread — maybe instead we should be thinking about who the next Mark Felt is.
TenguPhule
Marc A. Thiessen at Wapo has his tongue so far up Trump’s ass that he’d have to be surgically detached.
Not linking, but man he’s a fucking Republican.
TenguPhule
Paging Adam, What the hell is going on with our Pentagon?
Applejinx
Or not, I guess.
You can be part of it, or you can be not part of it. I’m only saying that NONE of our failing institutions are set in stone. There is no reason to conclude the end is a right wing junta unless you really need it to be. If you do, I won’t help: I don’t like right wing juntas, no matter what they’re called.
No Drought No More
“.. A Republican close to the White House told CNN that Trump was “seething.”.
Good. This day keeps getting better. A few hours ago I got word a friend’s house did not burn down after all in the Sonoma county fires, as I had feared. He did, however, come as close as he possibly could to losing it, but for the grace of god and the sweat of the firefighters. The firefighters poured in from all over America, too, and their efforts turned the tide. I speak for everyone hereabouts when I say thanks again from all the people of Napa and Sonoma counties, Ca. For what it’s worth, you’ll live the rest of your lives with our endureing gratitude.
Boatboy_srq
@Turgidson: There’s a pretty defensible argument that Fauxnews (and of course the end of the Fairness Doctrine) was a reaction by the conservatists to Watergate. If their guy hadn’t faced a hostile, liebrulsoshulist media, the theory goes, he wouldn’t have been forced to resign; so, remaking the journalistoc space to prevent future occurrences would insulate Rethug leadership from future Watergates. Iran/Contra played a similar part. One of the reasons Katrina was so astounding was that despite all the maladministration-friendly coverage there was still enough ugliness on display to make everyone involved look bad.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Another reason why we shouldn’t give two shyts about his voters.
Poll: Vast majority of Trump voters say he should stay in office even if Russia collusion is proven
Nearly 80 percent of Trump voters said they think the president should stay in office even if collusion is proven between his campaign and Russia, according to a survey released Tuesday, even while support among all voters for his impeachment hits a new high.
According to a new poll from the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling, 79 percent of people who voted for President Trump say he should remain even if collusion is proven, and 75 percent said the entire Russia story is “fake news.”
However, the poll found that 49 percent of all Americans support impeaching Trump, a record high result for the firm.
Jack Straw Man
For what it’s worth, I pretty much agree with TenguPhule’s assessment of the situation. Shit’s bleaker than most on the left are willing to admit. Realizing that has to be part of any solution; failing to realize how bleak shit was getting is a large part of why we’re here. So (as a looongtime lurker and first-time commenter) it always pains me a bit to see people taking TenguPhule to task for pointing this out.
msdc
@TenguPhule:
I think you can credit The Left with an assist on that one.
Boatboy_srq
@catclub: Collins is an odd one. More conservative than Snowe or Cohen, and hardly Margaret Chase Smith, she’s still among the Maine Republicans, and they’re a different breed than your run-of-the-mill Sessions/Lott/Ryan whackjobs. Every now and then she actually says something not thoroughly offensive to the other side of the aisle. Trouble is she’s 95% talkwhich does not help her voting record much.
Bard the Grim
@StringOnAStick: Well put. And I’ve now run out of patience with him. Pied! (And thank you for setting that up, Alain!)
Miss Bianca
@Applejinx: Oh, Christ, it’s you again. Your “ha ha you neoliberal BJers really need wonderful, brilliant lefty MEEEEE to tell you how wrong wrong wrong you are!” schtick is not only painfuly untrue, and pathetically tone-deaf, it’s goddamned annoying. It always makes me laugh when white lefties start braying proudly about how awesome FDR’s legacy was. Back in the 30s, you would have been one of the guys screaming about what a neoliberal sell-out traitor to the working class FDR was, because he didn’t singe-handledly tear down capitalism and usher in the socialist paradise.
For Christ’s sake, just go back to Mom’s basement and wank off to Jacobin articles and leave us the fuck alone.
Miss Bianca
@Applejinx:
Oh, Christ, it’s you again. Your “ha ha you neoliberal BJers really need wonderful, brilliant lefty MEEEEE to tell you how wrong wrong wrong you are!” schtick is not only painfully untrue, and pathetically tone-deaf, it’s goddamned annoying. It always makes me laugh when white lefties start braying proudly about how awesome FDR’s legacy was, and how Democrats need to just embrace it. Because back in the 30s, you would have been one of the guys screaming about what a neoliberal sell-out traitor to the working class FDR was, because he didn’t single-handledly tear down capitalism and usher in the soshulist paradise. And berating the rest of us for supporting him.
For Christ’s sake, just go back to Mom’s basement and wank off to Jacobin articles and leave us the fuck alone.
Edited to eliminate the naughty spelling FYWP thinks is a dirty word.
Yutsano
@Roger Moore: Mueller has civil servant protections. In order to terminate him it has to be done by OPM procedure. Oh and he can fight every step of it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@StringOnAStick: That’s what the pie filter is for.
ruemara
@Chet: Best of luck. Let us know if you’re collecting for your race.
@Applejinx: OK, FDR was wonderful. Except for the Japanese internment thing. Except for being slow to allow Jewish resettlement in the US at the numbers needed. Anne Frank ring a bell? You’re not looking at the whole picture on FDR.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Miss Bianca:
FYWP is such a prude.
rikyrah
@catclub:
Virginia went back to paper ballots.
rikyrah
When are we getting an Afternoon Thread?
The Moar You Know
@Jack Straw Man: Highlighted the really important part, for me, anyhow. The left did not arrive at this pass because we did everything right and God is on our side. We’ve fucked up badly in a number of ways. None of which are being pointed out by the Bernie supporter on this thread, just to be clear.
I agree with you in entirety.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: I think the FPer’s are still getting over their “Mueller Monday” hangover.
John Fremont
@Boatboy_srq: Another one was the liberal media stabbed us on the back and lost us the war in Vietnam.” We won every battle!”
Elizabelle
We’ve been abandoned.
Le sigh.
catclub
@Boatboy_srq:
My point was kind of: Collins is the only one. It will take three and I have doubts that there will be three to stop it.
With Health Insurance they could say that taking it away from too many of their constituents was too much ( and still only three did).
But with taxes, it is only taking money and services ( not identified) away from their constituents to cut taxes for biliionaires – no kitten strangling to worry about on the TV. And they all WANT that.
TenguPhule
OUR AUTHORITARIAN TEST IS UPON US
Trump and his allies are laying the groundwork for a Saturday Night Massacre
StringOnAStick
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Just applied it.