Republicans are having a hard time coalescing around a version of their “tax reform” abomination. They all know it’s a terrible bill that privileges donors over citizens, but the immorality of that isn’t the snag. They’re trying to hit on a palatable balance between deficit hypocrisy and donor service.
Odds are they will succeed — they’re amoral pricks, after all. But massive push-back has stymied their evil plans before. Make your voice heard to try to stop this steaming pile of shit bill:
U.S.Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
I’ve generally had better luck reaching a person by calling my senators’ local offices. You can find your senators’ in-state contact information here. Email and fax them too!
If you prefer text, here’s an option:
Text “RESIST” to 50409
Resistbot will walk you through the steps of sending a message to your senator. They will ask for your address and email. I gave them mine quite some time ago and haven’t been bombarded with spam (any more than usual, anyway).
BREAKING NEWS — FLYNNDICTMENT: Got a CNN alert a few minutes ago about Mueller charging Mike “Lock Her Up” Flynn with “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI regarding conversations with Russia’s ambassador. If I’m Hillary Clinton, I’m making my morning OJ a mimosa after reading that.
Flynn is due in court this morning. Before the “we hardly knew him” spin starts, let’s recall that Flynn was 1) a serious contender for Trump’s VP spot, 2) appointed to the highly sensitive National Security Adviser position by Trump, and 3) kept in Trump’s inner circle after acting AG Sally Yates warned the Trump people that Flynn was compromised.
What does this charge mean in the context of last week’s speculation about Flynn flipping and cooperating with Mueller? I’m not a lawyer, but from what we know of Flynn’s conduct, this charge seems more like a love tap than a hammer swing.
My guess is Flynn has flipped to keep his deranged son out of prison and agreed to plead guilty to this lesser charge and cooperate with the investigation, like George Papadopoulos before him (relative scale — whale : guppy).
Anyhoo, post your meatiest theories in comments — but only after you eat your vegetables / call your senators! :)
Miss Bianca
ResistBot for me, I have crappy cell service in the mountains which means lots of dropped calls, and I don’t feel comfortable making political calls from my office landline, so yay, technology! Will be faxing my crappy GOP rep, my crappy GOP Senator, and my milquetoast-but-turning-out-OK Dem Senator again today.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m just sad that there are no cameras allowed in Federal Court. I got wood over the thought of the Flynn sad face as he delivers his plea and experiences the crushing humiliation.
Delicious thoughts about Mr. Lock Her Up going from last year’s glee to this year’s crash.
randy khan
Multiple reports say Flynn will plead guilty, so definitely cooperating.
But call your Senators anyway. Collins, in particular, needs some reinforcing.
Corner Stone
Ok, since this thread dropped right after my comment:
Will this speed up the GOP’s Tax Scam attempt? Any bets on someone scribbling a full pardon out in crayon about now?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Listening to Ruhle now – the reaction of the White House is going to be “Mike Flynn? He was just a volunteer and brought in coffee and doughnuts.”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Corner Stone:
He’s trying to figure out a Flynn pardon in 280 characters. It’ll be done by tweet.
Corner Stone
@Miss Bianca: You mention relocate in the other thread. Am I wrong or didn’t you just spend a bunch of time fixing up a place in CO area?
mai naem mobile
Uh oh today is Friday so Dolt45s big babysitter won’t be around tonight so I see a massive cray cray tweetstorm.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: They may try that, but unlike Papa Doc and Carter Page, Flynnie has the actual goods on Trump. No running from that.
LAO
@randy khan: looks like the reports are correct. The charging document is an information not an indictment.
Villago Delenda Est
I still want the Army to recall him to active duty and court martial his treasonous ass.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Should we get a pool going about when the president makes his first state visit to Russia? Do presidents have to go through customs and immigration when they go to other countries? If so, I’d say the Russian immigration guys might want to be sure that the president has a round trip ticket when he gets there, if you know what I mean…
Frankensteinbeck
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Too late, I’d say. Flynn no longer needs the pardon, so Trump has no real power over him. I’m guessing Flynn is also personally angry that Trump hung him out to dry.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I did a resistbot text last week and they said they were emailing my senator. Is that their new system? I thought the whole point was that emails were all but useless and faxes took up time and space and effort in the offices?
chopper
@randy khan:
if lying to the FBI is the only charge, most definitely cooperating. hope the details about the rest come out reasonably soon.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Frankensteinbeck: I swear I heard somebody say on MSNBC— Nick Ackerman? the caffeinated former watergate staffer– that Flynn can be targeted by NY state laws, so trump can’t protect him from that
mai naem mobile
Called McCains office. The aide was rude. Must be getting a lot of nasty phone calls.
Suzanne
I love the smell of Flynndictment in the morning. Not as much as much as I wank to gifs of Jared Kushner scrubbing a metal toilet in his orange uniform, but it’s definitely great.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They address it in their FAQ here.
Corner Stone
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
If I was one of those guys in Russia, I would keep my ears open. When the sound of the shoes click-clicking on the tile turns to clickety-click and then clickety-clickety-clickety!!! I’d get the hell out of the way.
NickM
I was settling in to read a long and juicy list of crimes until I the second page and the charging document ended. All the juicy stuff is being held back, apparently. Wow. They left out a lot of stuff he could have been convicted on that’s in the public record. He must have sang like a buzz cut canary.
Yarrow
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Frankensteinbeck:
He does seem to be a grudge-bearer, doesn’t he? He could give my paternal relatives a run for the money.
Suzanne
@mai naem mobile: I can never get through when I call McCain. At any of the offices. They must have my number blocked.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@NickM:
He was sparing his slab-headed son from a prison term.
Trumpspawn should take note – their father wouldn’t do the same for them.
randy khan
@Yarrow:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
chris
This Twitter feed from Maine, @CollinsWatch, is interesting to say the least. Who knew Susan Collins was such a shitweasel?
Major Major Major Major
I can’t wait to learn how Flynn is Obama’s fault.
Yarrow
Keep calling!
Immanentize
@LAO: Hi LAO!
It almost always works — threaten the family member, get the target. I’m kinda lovin’ this whole drama!
Barbara
@randy khan: My Maine relatives replied to my email sending Collins’ contact information that they routinely call her office and will keep doing so.
Immanentize
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): If you are starting the pool,. I want the odds (and play) on: “Trump will take no official overseas trips in 2018.”
ChrisS
I can’t wait to move to a red state so that I can start calling shitty senators instead of ones who have a soul and act in the best interest of the American people.
Idaho probably wouldn’t take too many people to flip.
ETA: 250-300k, a couple of hundred thousand from NY, CA, and PR … voila – 2 more senators.
germy
Waynski
@NickM: “buzz cut canary” Nice.
SiubhanDuinne
Ha! I was just wondering what kind of verbal contortions SHS is going to go through during today’s press briefing. Should be pretty epic.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: “if I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.”
raven
Here are the charges from the NYT, skip giving me some bullshit about the Times, I don’t give a fuck.
Chyron HR
@Yarrow:
OTOH, any smart Democratic challenger is going to conflate voting the bill out of committee with “voting for the bill”, so what does she have to lose? (Don’t tell her that.)
Barbara
@ChrisS: I don’t even have to call my senators, because they have both emailed me repeatedly about what an awful bill this is. In some cases I do call just to thank them for taking difficult votes. I have also emailed or sent communications “on behalf of” my relatives living in more relevant states, like Pennsylvania. But Toomey is a lost cause. I would say that Pennsylvanians deserve what happens to them on SALT deductions for reelecting Toomey, because that was probably determinative for giving Republicans just enough cover to pass bills like this one, but my mother lives there, so . . .
Gravenstone
@chris: Everyone? Would that be an acceptable answer?
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: “Slab-headed” — perfectly stated! I’m sorry to see that deranged shit-weasel get off the hook, but it’ll be worth it if it results in a Trump or two get nabbed instead.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ll believe it when I see it, but…
LAO
@Immanentize: Hi! Back at ya.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s true, but that is not Flynn’s problem — if he is pardoned, he has no 5th amendment right to be free from self incrimination, because he can’t be incriminated…. It’s like immunity from the Grand Jury. Anyway, the threat to Flynn is not his own sorry ass. He’s a soldier, he knows how to keep his mouth shut and martyr himself. It’s his even more sorry-ass son who is probably looking at a couple of stacked life sentences minimum for some of the stuff he was involved in. I just can’t see Trump pardoning the idiot offspring — no loyalty there and so far below his Majesticness.
Yarrow
Also, from John Cornyn:
That means they don’t yet have the votes. Keep calling!
Frankensteinbeck
Point to consider: Trump has sent an unmistakeable message to all conspirators that he will not protect them. Loyalty will not be appreciated or rewarded.
Extra note: Putin has actively kept things simmering. Anyone whose true loyalties lie with Russia has more reason to implicate Trump than keep quiet. Putin’s main goal is delegitimizing American politics, after all.
Major Major Major Major
@raven: shh, we’re not allowed to acknowledge anything good the entire 1,300-writer publication does…
Immanentize
@LAO: @LAO:OT Q.: Did you once recommend a hotel near the High Line in NYC? I am still trying to get a trip in with the Immp.
GregB
According to America’s tweetheart, TeaPain, Mueller has blown the third trumpet of the Trumpocalypse.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: But I thought this was also Good News Friday — I just won $25 bucks from a 10 dollar scratch ticket!
germy
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
That doesn’t seem like any way to run a mob family.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: thanks
IANAL but the whole plot to, basically, kidnap a Turkish dissident on the orders of a foreign gov’t sounds like it would be (if true, etc) a helluva conspiracy charge.
Barbara
@Immanentize: The other thing about Flynn and his son is that, depending on what kind of evidence is out there, conspiracy to commit kidnapping is not only a federal offense. I believe that Gulen lives in Pennsylvania, but heaven knows where Flynn and company were holding meetings to arrange the deal. I think that at least one of those meetings might have taken place in New York City. No state law pardon for you Mr. Flynn! And unlike “failure to file” statutes, kidnapping carries big penalties, and being a violent crime, incarceration would not necessarily be in minimum security facilities. Like I have said repeatedly, I am completely in shock that Flynn would have been involved in that kind of activity, but apparently he was.
Immanentize
@Yarrow:
My non-insider whatthefuckdoiknow observer whip count yesterday was that they had 48. Looks like I was pretty close.
NickM
I’ve never called a senator from outside my state before, but I will today. Do staff generally ask you where you’re from?
PST
Perhaps yesterday’s interview with Kushner was mostly to give him the opportunity to risk telling more lies before he could know for sure Flynn had flipped.
Uncle Ebeneezer
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/936602442996813824
LAO
@Immanentize: wasn’t me. Sorry.
tobie
My Floridian mother is traveling today so I took the liberty of contacting Rubio via Resistbot to urge him to vote no in her name. She’s been calling him herself so I know she’s a-okay with this move. My message won’t move Rubio but it will add to the log of the number of calls and messages received against the bill.
lgerard
The only thing that can make this better is a large crowd outside the courthouse chanting “Lock him up”
Please jeebus make this happen
Major Major Major Major
@Chris: Trump is bad at literally everything.
@Immanentize: nice! I’m not currently anxious so it’s a win for me.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@NickM: Don’t. Call their constituents. Indivisible has a system that allows you to do this through your computer.
https://www.trumptaxscam.org/calls-to-kill-the-tax-scam/
dr. bloor
@chris: Um, everyone?
Barbara
@PST: Kushner is an amateur at this. He does, however, have a good lawyer in Abbe Lowell, so who knows.
Betty Cracker
@NickM: They’ll ask for your ZIP code.
Yarrow
@PST: Ding, ding, ding! Kushner is dumb. Cannot WAIT to watch Jared and Ivanka get charged. Lock them up!
Immanentize
Next semester, I am once again teaching, “International Criminal Law.” I go from US-centric issues (International Jurisdiction, Grand jury practice and defenses, Money Laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with some drug dealing and gun running thrown in. Then to international crimes — mostly “terrorism” and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Then I end with a small bit of International criminal tribunals (from Nuremberg to the ICC in one week!)
My stated learning objectives for the students include: “When you successfully complete this course, you will be the most interesting guest at most cocktail parties. As such, I am seriously considering ditching my hugely expensive textbook and just teach from the headlines….
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: Kushner is very dumb.
Yarrow
Fuuuuuuuck.
LaNonna
Thank goodness for skype, we’ve been calling, even from Italy, just to re-assure our NY reps and senators that they are doing the right thing. Okay with me if the rethugs do a shutdown, I do not want any Dem rollovers.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Barbara: I hate “conspiracy” as a crime with a burning white hot righteous anger. But if it’s on the books, hey, why not in this matter use it?
schrodingers_cat
@raven: Do they deserve a fucking cookie for doing their job, for once?
But her emails!!!
@Yarrow:
If this passes, maybe Trump should be given his hugest crowd ever.
Chris
@Yarrow:
Well, that sucks.
I’ll take the Flynn silver lining, but that sucks quite a bit.
tobie
@Yarrow: This is discouraging but Cornyn could be bullshitting to try to get reluctant Senators on board.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: @Major Major Major Major: Sadly for the profession, so it seems his lawyer might be as well. K-Joke was not subpoenaed, probably not under oath — but lying to Federal investigators is a crime often prosecuted. My guess is that the interview was about missing documents more than anything else.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: If this is true, they will vote on this bill in the next half hour.
germy
@Yarrow:
Yarrow
Okay, maybe they don’t have the votes. Conflicting messages so probably don’t have the votes yet.
Immanentize
@Barbara: Hmmm — I will take your word (beloved as you are) that Lowell is good — I just don’t understand her play here? It does not seem smart at all. Is it all about appearances of cooperation? Or has she been able to limit the scope of the questioning so far?
Suzanne
@Yarrow: UGHHHHH.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: Read further. Cornyn seems to be bluffing.
Also, Collins mailbox at her Washington office is supposedly full. Try the local offices.
Roger Moore
@NickM:
I would assume they can still charge him with that other stuff if he changes his mind about cooperating. BTW, can I coin the term schadenfreudelicious, or is it already taken.
Mike in DC
@Yarrow:
Let’s wait to see if that holds up.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
The intriguing part of all of this is this insistence of a clear minority government operating government as of it has a mandate, then getting puzzled as to why the majority hates you.
Through voter suppression and the ratfuckery of burgled documents, a minority eked out an electoral college win. That same minority has a gerrymandered majority in the proportional legislated body even though the majority consistently performs 5-8% better in elections. Roughly 45% of the National population controls 70% of the senators, again, disproportionately overrepresenting conservatives.
In light of that, governing as if you have a mandate for structural change saps legitimacy, and this is what Putin is exacerbating, to great effect.
germy
Yarrow
tobie
Out there…but it would be friggin weird if the Pence cast a deciding vote and was indicted later. I so want to see the sanctimonious prick in cuffs. I find Pence and Gorsuch particularly loathsome for their holier than thou attitude when they are amongst the most corrupt and hypocritical people.
Chip Daniels
@chris:
Anyone who witnessed the ACA.
germy
Thoroughly Pizzled
If there is a benevolent God, the next Democratic president will appoint Hillary Clinton to direct the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
lgerard
@NickM:
Mueller can’t speak for the military, and I sincerely hope they pursue this issue.
You can;t let a retired general who had national security responsibilities go off and work secretly for foreign governments.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chip Daniels: for me it was her gushing introduction of AG nominee John Ashcroft to the Senate in 2001. Way back then, the “Northeastern Moderate Republican” was still very much a thing– Chaffee, Spector, Jeffords,, Roth, The Queens of Maine and a handful of MoCs.
Major Major Major Major
@tobie: I find Gorsuch loathsome because unlike the rest of these fucks, and the laws they pass and regulations they issue, we can’t really get rid of him.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore:
Cooperating is not just an agreement to tell the prosecutor what you know, it is a very finely crafted and documented proffer that the defendant has to give to the prosecutor before any deal will happen. It is testimony, really. It is also the agreement that you will continue to cooperate if you learn or remember anything new, that you will testify where and when asked, and that if your profer turns out to be untrue — even sometimes in the smallest of details, the deal is off. There is no one more vengeful than a prosecutor whose cooperating witness burns them.
germy
Immanentize
@germy: The WH (per Josh Marshall) is already spinning that “Everyone lies, no biggie” as if this is the only possible charge available to Bobby III.
Chris
@Yarrow:
Hmm. I’m not sure if this desk is wood, but I just knocked on it just in case.
It’s difficult to work with my fingers crossed, but my toes are crossed, too.
And ::makes adjustment:: some of my hair, too.
Yarrow
Donnie, meet bus.
Putin is done with him. Done.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: lol
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: I (7/8+ Irish) always refer to Hannity as “that slab-headed mick”. Always happy to explain to folks who ask who that refers to.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: I said on Tuesday that I thought Tillerson’s rather strongly worded anti-Russia speech was gonna be a big problem for Trump (and Rex). This is probably more play from that — pressure to get rid of Tillerson from Russia?
Yarrow
@germy: As I said in a thread below, remember that Manafort was key to bringing Pence into the campaign. He even had the plane fake mechanical trouble to force Trump to spend another night in Indiana with Pence. Manafort is in the mix too and may be happy to give up Pence in return for consideration at sentencing. Bad new for Paulie is that Flynn got the best deal.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: Agreed…there’s the lifetime appointment thing, too.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
A query for Adam on the human terrain side (this gets back to the Maskirovka stuff last year):
To me, it appears that this is a deliberate plot to destabilize the structure of American society. It appears ambitious and long in the planning. Was this plan something left over from the Cold War and dusted off, or drawn up anew, with multiple volumes of sociological and economic studies? Would the Russian Federation have had the independent expertise and assets to create such a plan, or did they have active high level help in the planning?
Yarrow
@Immanentize: The media seems to think this one charge is the only thing Flynn can and will be charged with. I would think that is a premature assessment.
Chyron HR
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t condone murdering Republicans for their attempts to destroy the country, but we’ve already had at least one person try this year. Lifetime appointments only last for one’s lifetime.
rikyrah
Sources with direct knowledge tell ABC News the President & his legal team learned about the Flynn plea via news reports this morning.
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) December 1, 2017
trollhattan
@ChrisS:
Idaho=purdy but Idaho winters=do not want.
Suppose if Boise really grew the state could be flipped.
Betty Cracker
@Yarrow: As you know, stopping it was always a long shot — the Republicans know they’re toast if this shitty bill fails. The consolation prize is that if it passes, we can hang it around their goddamned necks like a flaming tire. That’s cold comfort for the millions this bill will hurt, but it’s reality. In the meantime, keep calling, faxing, emailing, tweeting. It ain’t over til it’s over!
randy khan
@NickM:
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It never hurts to have a large city in the state at the tip of your tongue, if you’re so inclined.
Barbara
@Immanentize: I am okay with the concept of conspiracy, but the issue is how low the bar is for determining whether the participants have taken an overt act. That’s what frequently makes conspiracy charges unfair — you’re basically prosecuting people for talking about what they would like to do.
Immanentize
@Yarrow: It is not clear that Flynn got the best deal — we don’t know yet. But this really puts the pressure on Manafort to try to cut a deal if he hasn’t already. At some point, the prosecutor no longer needs what you know. But when Manafort finally struck a bail deal with the prosecutors, I thought a deal may have happened. remember, Manafort knows more about the Russians — and money laundering — from inside the gang in a way that Flynn never could. Both very useful
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow:
Jared also pushed to shitcan Comey. The Kushners are in this up to their scrawny necks, and neither seems smart enough to not leave fingerprints
Barbara
@Immanentize: Abbe Lowell is a he. Remember, no attorney is good enough to protect every client, but Lowell was the best attorney Bill Clinton hired during the impeachment proceeding. He questioned Ken Starr and more or less made mincemeat of him. That was quite some time ago, but Lowell is not just a fixer, he understands how to keep people from stepping on their own feet. That, of course, assumes they listen to him and he has enough leverage to use that kind of strategy. Sometimes the prosecutor just has the goods on you. No one is a miracle worker.
Amaranthine RBG
@Yarrow:
The NYT was correctly reporting this morning that the single charge actually signals that Flynn is cooperating which is much more important than the specifics of what he was charged with
Another example of competent, knowledgeable reporting that the NYT haters would like to see go away
Yarrow
@rikyrah: That is HILARIOUS. Tick tick, motherfuckers. They’re going down. All of them. Trump, Pence, top GOP leadership. They’re all traitors. No wonder they’re desperate to pass this tax bill. They know what’s coming.
Immanentize
@Barbara: I guess that is true — if the overt act requirement was significantly changed (like to an overt criminal act, or a model penal code-type preparatory act for attempts?). But I once worked on a case in West Texas where the drug dealer’s wife was charged with conspiracy for answering the phone when another drug dealer called and passing the phone to her husband. Overt act in support of the conspiracy!
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wouldn’t it be fitting if Christie is the instrument that sends the next generation of Kushners to the fucking pen?
Served
If this is true, it’s the ballgame. https://twitter.com/joyindc/status/936626652284620800
Joy LinVerified account
@joyindc
Follow Follow @joyindc
More Joy Lin Retweeted This Week
ABC News’ @BrianRoss reports that Flynn is prepared to testify President Trump directed him to make contact with Russians
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@chris:
Outside of the Courtier Press and their enablers, just about anybody who follows politics. She’s skated on her unwarranted reputation for years, not unlike how Gramps McCain has done so with his “maverick” persona among the Villagers.
Yarrow
@Immanentize: Agreed. Mueller likely has been playing Manafort and Flynn off each other for awhile now. The bail deal yesterday was a signal. I bet Manafort is desperate to get some kind of deal now given what he sees with Flynn.
glory b
@Barbara: I’ve said this before, I still smell a rat in the PA 2016 election. The ONLY repubs who won statewide elections in the last four elections were Trump and Toomey. ALL of the other statewide races, including the ones running in 2016, won. PA dems have been way overperforming in every other statewide race.
ETA: I forgot, one repub justice won, so the dems have a 5-2 advantage in our Supreme Court.
Roger Moore
@Yarrow:
As long as they’re still meeting with people, they don’t have the votes. The moment they’re sure they have the votes, they’ll head to the floor for a vote so they can lock it in before anyone can change their mind.
piratedan
I sit here digesting all of this and I’m sitting at my keyboard and type here with the thought that we had a major political party candidate coordinate with a foreign power to gain the Presidency. Not just that, but that his party willingly knew that this was the case and went along with it. At what point did these guys stop being Americans? At what point did they stop believing in America itself or did they never understand what it means to be an American?
eric
@Immanentize: where are you teaching that?
Yarrow
Flynn gave up Trump.
Immanentize
@Barbara:
Truer words never spoken! I KNOW Trump doesn’t listen to his attorneys. I would have thought that Jared would — but maybe Trump is demanding that Jared not Listen? Then again, Kushner is an egotistical jerk. How’s that peace in the Middle East comin’ along?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Listening to Eric Prince stumble and bumble his way through an interview with Velshi and Ruhle, it’s clear that what we have here is a bunch of heirs (Jared, all the trumps, Prince) born in the clubhouse after the game was won and thinking they hit the game-winning grand slam, who were dumb enough to believe 1) that the Russians were helping trump cause they like trump, not because trump was (and remains) a means to weaken and destabilize the US gov’t 2) that they were dealing with the Russians as peers and equals in smarts
Barbara
@Immanentize: Prosecuting spouses is tough. On the one hand, spouses often have little leverage over the other spouse’s activities, on the other hand, they often benefit greatly from the financial gains and are at least aware of some of the tax implications and do small things, like provide information and messages. Think of the wife in Breaking Bad, doing the accounting. I think most prosecutors prefer not to go after passive spouses.
Chyron HR
@Amaranthine RBG:
You must be quite excited that the Senate is on the verge of passing Bernie or Bust. Grats!
Immanentize
@eric: I teach at a lawschool in Boston — wanna sit in? You may.
Robin Gittelman
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yeah, I’ve been chanting (to myself) “lock him up!” for the past few weeks.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: even then there’s the possibility of somebody pulling a McCain.
Matt McIrvin
@Served: It’s not the ballgame if Trump shuts it all down first. It doesn’t mean Trump wins, but it shifts it to different arenas. I think we’re still early in a long slog.
bemused
@Yarrow:
Wow. Finally great Friday news.
Oh please, let our good news continue with tax scam bill fail.
Immanentize
@Barbara: In this case, the spouse was passive, although there was a nice house and a few cars…. But they just indicted her to pressure the principal. It wasn’t the wife the prosecutors used to finally get him — it was taking away the kids from the wife (criminal!). He gave information, he plead, his wife was nolle prossed, and one of my old students got about 70% of the non-cash property back. Don’t pass a phone!!!!!
Barbara
@glory b: You underestimate the amount of misogyny alive and well among the voting population. The other way to look at it is, every statewide election was won by a male. In three out of five cases, that male was a Democrat (running against other males). The only losing Democrats were female. A much more likely explanation.
glory b
@Barbara: PA has a dem governor ad Attorney General (elected in 2016 BTW)!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: also, they still have to go to conference with the House. I think more than one R voted for the SALT changes thinking the Senate would save them from it. And once the Senate votes, there are specifics they have to defend. I still can’t imagine they won’t pass something, and it will suck. But maybe not. And maybe we can make it suck less.
Amaranthine RBG
@Chyron HR:
Keep reliving the 2016 primary! Political instincts like yours are why Trump is now president.
lgerard
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says President Donald Trump did not know he was spreading messages by the deputy leader of a far-right British group when he posted a series of videos on social media this week.
A better question would be who brought these videos to trump’s attention in the first place (cough, Stephen Miller). I hope the white house press corps wakes up from their slumber long enough to pursue that question.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow. The dow was down a bit, then up a bit, now diving again, down 200 +… I wonder if Wall St is hearing bad whispers from the Senate
Barbara
@Immanentize: Yeah, sure. That’s how tax evasion prosecutions work too. The primary malefactor does not want to see their loved ones go to jail for wrongdoing they might have barely understood.
Tom
Surely I can’t be the first to say: “Lock him up!!!”
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: shiiiiiiiiiit
eric
@Immanentize: yes. very much…..i would be quiet as a church mouse :)
Amaranthine RBG
@Immanentize:
Boston? Well that’s near Cambridge, I suppose.
bemused
I just read that the WH Christmas party is this afternoon. That should be fun.
Barbara
@glory b: Also male, replacing a female. I actually think Kathleen Kane poisoned the well for the female candidates running statewide. Wrongdoing of one person should not be held against others who are completely unrelated, but I believe that is what happens to candidates who are other than white and male. They carry the burdens of every single bad actor in the group. It’s infuriating.
Tom
And by the way, regarding Flynn’s son – he was instrumental in spreading the “Child sex ring in the basement of a pizza parlor” lie that almost got several people murdered. Fuck him! Lock him up and let him rot.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Both House and Senate passed pretty much the same reduction in corporate taxes (35%-20%) That could be stripped out as a stand-alone and sent for the President’s signature.
Matt McIrvin
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s a deliberate plot to destabilize the structure of Western civilization, like a fascist international.
It does seem a lot like the same stuff the USSR was already doing during the Cold War and earlier. Only then, because of their stated ideology, they had to work mostly through Western left-wing organizations, and I think too few left-wingers were willing to stick with the Soviets once it was clear what Stalin was really all about–they lost a lot of influence then and never really got it all back. The Democrats in the US became loudly anti-Communist and Cold War hawkish under the mildest of pressure. And in the later, 1980s phase, with the nuclear freeze movement and such, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because the Democrats were locked out of the Presidency.
Turns out the far right (and some anti-party leftists) are easier marks.
Immanentize
@Amaranthine RBG: OK, that was funny.
Immanentize
@bemused: Happy WhatTheFuckmas! There will be crazy rantings galore. I assume he set the party for today to pressure the Senate into voting NOW!!!!
Amaranthine RBG
@Immanentize:
I’m glad you got the joke. I realized after the edit window that it could have been interpreted not as poking fun at a certain … type
Tom
@chris: Everybody.
chopper
@Frankensteinbeck:
makes sense, trump has never shown any loyalty to anyone else so far.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: not if they want it to be permanent.
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: “It was to be announced at the Party congress on Monday. As you know, the Premier loves surprises.”
Manyakitty
@Immanentize: Woohoo!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
When it goes down, Trump has the plan in place to escape the only place Trump is sure doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US; The Virgin Islands.
Immanentize
@Barbara: I was just thinking about that this morning — you “take a chance” on a new hire who is white and if they don’t work out — entirely up to personal flaws. You “take a chance” on a new POC hire and if the don’t work out, it is entirely because of their gender/race/etc. We had three candidates yesterday for one position —
all women, two people of color, one white. Everyone agreed that really the white candidate and one of the black women were pretty much equally solid. But for small discretionary reasons, the white woman won the position. I pitched a little public fit. Then I later told one of my colleagues, who went with the more “Likeable” candidate, that I never wanted to hear her say “Black Lives Matter” ever again. Ever.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Generally speaking, the center left (certainly in the West) has been very willing to be a rampart against left-wing authoritarianism; heck, the CIA recognized this and worked with anticommunist-left parties and unions in Western Europe, with the help of their counterparts in the U.S. (to the point that there were times and places where the AFL-CIO was nicknamed the AFL-CIA because they were so willing to help it by providing cover for its agents, matching funds for its financing, etc), to build up a consensus against the Reds.
The center-right’s record of doing the same against right-authoritarianism is, shall we say, much more of a mixed bag. To the point that Paxton’s theory of fascism can state with some confidence “it only wins when the center-right is willing to embrace the fascists.” Unfortunately, that’s a thing.
No Drought No More
Given the stakes, if I was Mueller, I would approve letting Jr. walk if daddy talks. And the more he talked, the less time he’d spend in prison.
Ben Stone and Jack McCoy taught me well.
Immanentize
@Manyakitty: That’s right! I am now soggy with cash!
Yutsano
@Yarrow: Aww did Vladdie make a bad investment?
glory b
@Barbara: I’ll grant that, but I also like the group of lady dem judges we have now.
Erin in Flagstaff
@mai naem mobile: I called McCain’s local office and no answer and the voice mail box was full. I think that office is getting some calls!
rikyrah
“AS A CANDIDATE” https://t.co/dIERfYD7uz
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) December 1, 2017
Just now: @BrianRoss on @ABC News Special Report: Flynn promised full cooperation to the Mueller team and is prepared to testify that candidate Trump “directed him to make contact with the Russians.” https://t.co/E0tA37GOo0 pic.twitter.com/PmNEO7eekt
— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) December 1, 2017
rikyrah
Mrs. Flynn told that muthaphucka that HER SON wasn’t going to jail for Dolt45, so his azz better start singing arias to Bobby Three Sticks.
BWA HA HA HA HA H HA HA HA HA HA
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What would be “bad whispers” here–they’re going to pass the bill, or they’re NOT going to pass the bill? (Knowing Wall Street people I’d suspect the latter…)
glory b
@Barbara: Infuriating, yes.
Immanentize
And now we have the news that Tillerson is saying that reports the he is going to be pushed out are “laughable.” This miniseries is just too much! It’s like Twin Peaks without the laugh lines.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Matt McIrvin: yeah, bad news for McConnell is bad news for Wall St
Still, as long as the Turtle has McCain and Collins, I think they’re arguing about the color of the drapes on the Titanic
Manyakitty
@lgerard: Medium sized crowd with lock him up signs.
Sab
@randy khan: Better pronounce Boise correctly. Most Americans get it wrong. The “s” is not pronounced like a z.
Manyakitty
@Immanentize: You’re nowhere near Ohio, are you? I would freaking LOVE that class.
Gin & Tonic
My daughter just asked me how this feels in comparison with Watergate.
She was largely uninterested in politics until about November 9, 2016. Now she is obsessed.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: I saw yesterday that they were just rumors released to publicly humiliate him, not real plans.
Yutsano
@Sab: Yup. Think French, although the S would be silent in bois.
EDIT: started my college career at Boise State University. Mormons are polite but oh man will they correct you on this.
Immanentize
@Major Major Major Major: How can that be? I mean, they had all the replacement people named, those guys went on the air with support and statements of interest. It sounds like, Kelly wanted to do this, but maybe Trump changed his mind at the last moment? Tillerson is not without rich and powerful friends.
Immanentize
I wonder what Flynn has to say about the leaks from the NY FBI regarding Hillary (and with Giuliani?). It seems that there is a there there that General F. might know something about….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: trump only likes to say “you’re fired” if it’s scripted and blocked out for him by Mark Burnett. he wants Tillerson to tell Pence he’s quitting
MCA1
@Yarrow: Reading through that Seth Abramson twitter stream on what this all means, an idea that a few months ago I thought seemed preposterous re-appeared in my head. What if Drumpf knows the gig is up, and he refuses to sign the tax bill because he realizes the moment he does his likelihood of getting impeached goes up 1000%?
If Abramson’s reading is right, the shit is about to hit the fan at rapid speed – Flynn has delivered the goods to take down the President, the Vice President, or both, and probably several other subordinates. I could see Twitler trying to cut a deal with McConnell and Ryan: hey, make this investigation stop where it is, we get rid of Mueller and you stay strong in the face of the pressure that would come your way for not removing me, and I’ll sign this tax bill; but you know and I know that it’s a piece of shit for regular Americans and I’ll get out there and demagogue against it and veto it if I have to.
I know the result would probably be Ryan laughing while he licked his chops thinking of how awesome his P90X workout will be in the White House basement. But I could see Drumpf threatening to blow him out of the water, too, and basically poison everyone below him.
Matt McIrvin
@Immanentize: Those “small discretionary reasons” are always the wiggle room where biases can slip in without anyone even admitting it to themselves.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin: white men are just so much more of a “culture fit” though.
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: I report, you decide.
Matt McIrvin
@Yarrow: That is hilarious. The guy did a list of crimes as long as my arm.
Manyakitty
@Immanentize: That’s a liiiiittle gross. ??
cosima
My book of faces feed says that Flynn says that the orange fart cloud’s transition team directed all of his communications with Russia. YESSSSSSSS! More orange jumpsuits!
chopper
@piratedan:
when they became republicans. the GOP doesn’t believe in a fair system. they want a one-party state where they’re the one party. no means is too shitty or shameful to achieve that end. this is why it was so easy for putin to burrow his way into these guys; he knows they desperately want to be just like him.
Gretchen
The line was busy at Jerry Moran’s DC office, but I got right through to the Olathe one.
cursorial
Is it possible that somewhere in the President’s addled mind he’s decided that if he and Congress shut down the entire federal government over the budget, Mueller’s office will close up shop and go home for the duration? Idiotic as it is, I can see this appealing to him as a cunning and brilliant strategy.
chopper
@bemused:
everybody’s gonna be fighting over who gets to commit suicide by eating the mistletoe.
TenguPhule
@randy khan:
Is that what we’re calling beatings these days?
Miss Bianca
@Corner Stone: Not fixing up, no – scouting for locations for my new business venture. Will need to be fixing up my little house to sell if I don’t end up back on the Western Slope.
bemused
@chopper:
lol
chopper
@cursorial:
“I have a cunning plan that cannot fail”
Kay
hah! The asshole that chanted “lock her up” for a year
it’s delightful
Miss Bianca
@chopper: A cunning plan? Doesn’t involve turnips, does it?
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: Well we could, but you all insist on doing this by the book instead.
Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog
@piratedan:
These guys are Republicans.
TenguPhule
@Chyron HR: And life can be unexpectedly short.
TenguPhule
@Miss Bianca: They forgot the turnips. That’s why they failed.
burnspbesq
I suddenly had an image pop into my head of Trump and Snowden sharing a one-bedroom apartment in a really crappy place a long way from Moscow (Ekaterinburg, or someplace similar).
Huge, shit-eating grin lit up my face.
tommyintx
@raven: The Statement of Offence https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4318153/Flynn-Statement-of-Offense.pdf