Attorney General Jeff Sessions says reports Mueller reassigned top FBI agent in Russia probe over anti-Trump texts 'would raise serious questions of public trust' https://t.co/w5TlRPQz26 pic.twitter.com/7SvtUqcQEh
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 3, 2017
Sessions testing limits of his recusal https://t.co/iczaHz5aYe
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 3, 2017
There’s been talk all week that Sessions “ought” to fire Mueller, and replace him with a (Repub-) “trustworthy” prosecutor. I personally doubt that’ll happen, because the blowback would be intense, and Sessions is having way too much fun pursuing his dreams of returning American society to the Fifties — the 1850s, for preference.
Can’t overemphasize what an unusual, political act this statement from Sessions is – in the middle of an IG investigation, about things he acknowledges aren’t proved, related to an underlying probe from which he is recused. https://t.co/rB5ifWaCrB
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) December 3, 2017
Imma also argue that Sessions *sudden* concern for "questions of public trust" might be more convincing if a) he didn't work for President Obstruction and b) hadn't perjured himself repeatedly in Congressional testimony in the last six months.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 3, 2017
Having remained silent Friday in the face of the Flynn plea, and then silent again in the wake of a new wave of Trump attacks on DOJ and FBI, Session piped up to undermine the Mueller probe. https://t.co/ZMA6w5lboZ via @Esquire
— Andrew Cohen (@JustADCohen) December 4, 2017
.
Besides, Sessions’ own history is against him, in this instance…
During Clinton’s impeachment, Sessions argued that presidents can obstruct justice.https://t.co/MXlxV6za3w
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) December 5, 2017
… which does not mean the sitting Attorney-General is not a dangerous and untrustworthy individual. Been meaning to share this story from the Washington Post — “While eyes are on Russia, Sessions dramatically reshapes the Justice Department”:
…From his crackdown on illegal immigration to his reversal of Obama administration policies on criminal justice and policing, Sessions is methodically reshaping the Justice Department to reflect his nationalist ideology and hard-line views — moves drawing comparatively less public scrutiny than the ongoing investigations into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin.
Sessions has implemented a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible, even if that might mean minority defendants face stiff, mandatory minimum penalties. He has defended the president’s travel ban and tried to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.
Sessions has even adjusted the department’s legal stances in cases involving voting rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in a way that advocates warn might disenfranchise poor minorities and give certain religious people a license to discriminate.
Supporters and critics say the attorney general has been among the most effective of the Cabinet secretaries — implementing Trump’s conservative policy agenda even as the president publicly and privately toys with firing him over his decision to recuse himself from the Russia case.
While critics lambaste what they consider misguided changes that take the department back in time, supporters say Sessions has restored a by-the-book interpretation of federal law and taken an aggressive stance toward enforcing it…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Slab Head Donnie gonna testify before the House Intel Committee. He’s not ready
Jerzy Russian
Christ, what an asshole.
Major Major Major Major
I still think it’s kind of amazing how they’re claiming that the fact that the investigation fired a person who is biased against their boss proves that the investigation is biased against their boss.
Ruckus
@Jerzy Russian:
If I were a tat person that one might, just might be worth doing. It really works on several levels. That might just be me though.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Sessions is a sneaky little possum
NotMax
“Recusal? I don’t recall that at all.”
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
Well I’d bet dollars to donuts that their actual position is that the only people who should be investigating them is someone from their team, who has no scruples, can be bought on the cheap, and doesn’t give two shits about the law or them breaking it. Not being a lawyer or having any legal training would be a bonus.
Ruckus
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
What do you have against possums?
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus: I’d take that bet, since I know their actual position is that nobody should be investigating them.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Ruckus:
(photo)
NotMax
@Ruckus
Joe the Plumber.
(Who wasn’t one of those either.)
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: He also wasn’t named Joe.
Mary G
A Democratic woman just won the special election for a seat in the Georgia state senate, breaking up the Republican supermajority.
All but one of the Democratic candidates in those races were women. Sounds like a winning formula. I would like to see another woman run for president in 2020 and as soon as Trump concedes, call Hillary Clinton up to give the victory speech she was cheated out of. #fantasies
Feebog
Sessions is a sneaky smarmy little coward. Kamela Harris had him whining like a little bitch the last time he testified before the Judiciary Committee. He is up to his neck in the treasonous actions committed by this administration.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Very slight benefit of the doubt leeway given on that, as it is his middle name.
Raoul
Since this is an open thread. What the f-k is wrong with Republican state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Butler County, PA?
The video is amazing. My BF and I particularly loved the woman all the way screen right. But Metcalfe is bad news. I gather he has a history in PA, having tried to block a fellow Rep from speaking about gay marriage during a PA state leg session.
Of course, it sure seems like Metcalf is a bit tooooo touchy about being touched, if ya know what I mean.
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus:
So graduates of Liberty University’s law school meet your test
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: I guess I go by mine.
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: all the cool kids do. As do I.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Which middle name? Major or Major?
;)
(Rhetorical question, not trying to pry.)
SFAW
test
SFAW
@NotMax:
Actually, his father named him Caleb.
ETA: At least, that’s what his father said he did.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: It’s quite easy to figure out my real name :)
NotMax
@SFAW
But you said no pop quizzes!
;)
SFAW
@NotMax:
Why would you believe anything I say?
Steve in the ATL
@SFAW: C-. Lacks capitals and punctuation, and, frankly, the story went nowhere.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Steve in the ATL:
Apparently that’s Trump’s lawyer, the guy specializes in religious freedom cases. So another The Best hires by Trump.
NotMax
@SFAW
Classic scene.
“You did not meet Zathras, you met Zathras.”
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
i was channeling e e cummings
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: I was amused by its presumption.
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: Well, that’s why they are crying about “credibility” rather than making arguments that what the investigation is turning up is poisoned fruit or entrapment. It only actually counts as a witch hunt if there aren’t any witches when all is said and done. “Credibility” is a chant by those who are starting to sound rather green and warty.
NickM
A Republican house committee chair in Pennsylvania goes into full gay panic after a male colleague briefly touches his arm. It’s painfully embarrassing to watch. Peak Republican for today – nasty, fearful and small. <a https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/12/05/look-im-a-heterosexual-pa-lawmaker-brings-meeting-to-halt-after-male-colleague-touches-his-arm/?hpid=hp_regional-hp-cards_rhp-card-politics%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.b7d3e7f8cd03
Steve in the ATL
@SFAW: C-. Lacks originality.
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: it was too subtle and nuanced for a dimwitted Neanderthal like me?
That’s plausible.
SFAW
@Steve in the ATL:
Not only that, but it lacked originality.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
“Brimming with subtext.You’ll read it again and again.”
Smirkus Reviews
Redshift
“Trump’s conservative policy agenda,” hah!
Trump’s “policy agenda” could be written on a post card. This crap is all Sessions.
Villago Delenda Est
Sessions should be disbarred.
Mnemosyne
I am now fully adapted to Southern California: it got to 50 degrees outside, so I turned on the heater.
Then I ate an ice cream sandwich while I was icing my knee.
Duane
Alabama gave us that evil elf, now they’ve got another one. We need to find evilelfville and destroy it. They are disgusting and dangerous. Where’s Sherman when you need him.
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
Should have been a bit clearer. If any one was going to investigate them, that would be the maximum qualifications.
@Steve in the ATL:
Probably the only school past 8th grade that would be acceptable to them. Because I’d also bet that going there strips out any thing that might have been learned in those 8 yrs and replaced it with air. And not that pure breathable stuff, we are talking 1970 levels of Los Angeles smog alert days air. Visibility of less than 4 miles.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
If the weather here is any indication, the Pineapple Sherbet Express ought to be dropping in on you sometime this coming weekend.
Slurping a steaming bowl of freshly made split pea soup atm to warm up the ol’ bod.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Ooh, ice cream, good idea.
It’s 54 here right now apparently, and very cold!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is being treated as a big deal. Personally, next to the child molestation, racism, anti-semitism, embezzling from his own charity, theocratic authoritarianism… what am I missing?…. seems like pretty small beer
eric
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: there is one of those pesky commandments about this one on the stone tablets he keeps putting up everywhere…
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
It has to get into single digits to be very cold. Below zero it’s very fucking cold. Below -25 it’s “Damn, I think important body parts just fell off.”
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
I don’t see it in the forecast yet, but some rain would be very welcome to help with the fires.
@Major Major Major Major:
It was tasty. I’m becoming fond of Blue Bunny’s products — they’re not fancy, but they taste good and are reasonably priced.
danielx
Don’t know if this has yet merited BJ attention, but……
Why, there must be millions of women who were Alabama school girls in the 80s and 90s who weren’t molested by Roy Moore! Well, that settles that. If I am ever accused of murder, I’ll certainly remember to use that as a defense: look at all the people I didn’t murder, much as they deserved it!
But seriously…if I was Roy Moore, I’d have this particular spokesperson dropped down the nearest handy elevator shaft, provided it was at least thirty stories. There have to be a few buildings in Alabama that are thirty stories, right?
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
I once saw a blog post from someone who had moved to Chicago from a somewhat less extreme climate who realized on their first subzero day that the weather was trying to kill them. Coming from a less extreme place, it had never quite occurred to them before that weather could be cold enough to kill you if you weren’t careful.
Anne Laurie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: But, y’see, this involves what Repubs think of as property rights — Judge Roy was messin’ with another man’s (human) chattel. Like joyriding in a guy’s car, it would still be wrong, even if the original owner later lost title to the car and Moore legally acquired it.
Creeping on teenagers is just “taking full advantage of a potential partner’s fertile years”, but “cuckolding” another man is wrong!
Raoul
@Mnemosyne & @Ruckus: I used to have a set of personal weather markers to know the general temp here in MN. I’ve gone soft in my 50s, but it was something like:
Breath-icicles forming on the mustache meant 0 deg F
Ice forming on the nose hairs inside my nose -20 F or colder
Fun times!
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, but all those kids were UNMARRIED, man. Probably.
Mnemosyne
@Anne Laurie:
The 10 commandments have an order against adultery, not pedophilia.
mike in dc
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Okay, so it’s “adulterous pedophile Roy Moore, a disgraced former judge…”
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
“I can fit 10 more on the back for only a few more shekels.”
“We’ll take a pass on that, we’re on deadline.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: maybe “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s underage daughters” was on the tablet Moses dropped.
frosty
@Ruckus: visibility 4 miles? A clear day! I took flying lessons out of OC airport and occasionally visibility was down near IFR. 3/4 mile IIRC.
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne:
Walking around downtown Glendale today I realized that I would never fit in here because my car has stock rims
Adam L Silverman
@danielx: #NotMeTooRoyMoore
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne:
The nuns in my parochial school always said that the “coveting another man’s wife” admonition was about keeping the patriarchal bloodlines “clean”, with a subtext of not stirring up personal feuds within a restricted tribal community.
The Alabamans defending Roy Moore don’t seem to have moved beyond that level of sociological sophistication.
Ruckus
@Steve in the ATL:
You rode in a car last night that had stock rims. Of course I don’t actually fit in here all that well either.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax:
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Best Moses ever.
(Couldn’t find the rest of the scene. “The Lord God has given you these ten commandments … and this six-pack of refreshing beverage.”)
Yes, that’s Soupy Sales as Moses
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Dad and I used to sit and watch Soupy Sales and we would both be just about rolling on the floor. Mom thought we were nuts. It’s possible mom was right in this one instance.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: @Anne Laurie: So a bit of inside Judaic baseball. Or time for some Talmud theory!
Men cannot commit adultery according to the Torah (law). The commandment against adultery only applies to women. The reason for this is that 1) according to the Torah men are allowed to have multiple wives and 2) actually engaging in sexual intercourse is what constitutes a marriage in Judaism according to the Torah. Not a ceremony. Not payment of a dowry or bride price, but the actual sex act itself. So if a married man sleeps with a woman all he’s doing is adding an additional wife. However, because women can only have one husband, if a married woman has sex with a man who is not her husband, then she has committed adultery. The only redeeming part of any of this is that the Torah also requires 4 eyewitnesses, so provided one is discreet… But overall, this is what you’d expect from a behavioral religio-legal code formulated between the iron and bronze ages: patriarchal and male oriented.
As a bonus bit, this is why homosexual behavior is penalized differently according to the Torah. Since the appropriate sexual reality, according to the Torah, is that the male mounts and the female bears, the only one who has engaged in a male to male homosexual act is the one who gets penetrated. And therefore is subject to punishment. As for women and lesbianism. It is forbidden, but there is no penalty specified and therefore, functionally no penalty. Meaning it is illegal, but… according to the Torah.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Did you see the “snow” at Americana@Brand?
Duane
@Anne Laurie: When I heard about Moore years ago, I thought he was a true believer. Now I realize he’s just a con man. After all these years, his supporters still can’t see that.
Adam L Silverman
@Duane: I have long believed that anyone who regularly states that when they pray and ask their understanding of the Deity or Deities what to do and that they actually hear their understanding of the Deity or Deities replying to them should be asked a couple of questions.
1) When you hear your understanding of the Deity or Deities speaking back to you, does it sound like your own voice in your head?
2) When you hear your understanding of the Deity or Deities telling you it is okay to do something or it is not okay to do something do they always affirm the decision you would have made had you not asked for divine assistance?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Talmud (noun) – what the Jews spent the most time zorging about before Hollywood and television.
:)
Duane
@Steve in the ATL: You’re walking around? With pants? I’m beginning to doubt your whole Armenian restaurant story.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Anne Lamott put it best:
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve in the ATL: “Walking around” means you’ll never fit in to LA.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Will never be confused with great cinema but a funny little film. Lotta cheap laffs
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Pretty much. And you all no how tolerant I tend to be about people’s religious beliefs and practices.
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus:
It’s all relative.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Even the liberal Jonah Goldberg:
NotMax
@Ruckus – @NotMax
From Variety‘s review:
Ruckus
@Duane:
I give alternate theories.
1. They don’t give a flying fuck.
2. They think he’s conning liberals, which they like.
3. They don’t think there is anything wrong with his proclivities.
4. They don’t think.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Which of course why Soupy would be perfect to play the part. He was cheap laughs personified.
Duane
@Adam L Silverman: I suppose people need affirmation for their decisions. The voices might be misleading. Self- awareness is helpful.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Villago Delenda Est: I walk around quite a bit and I’m a LA native.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Duane: They should just say: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog gone it, people just like me”.
Duane
@Ruckus: Well, that sums it up quite neatly.
Duane
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That worked for Trump.
Anne Laurie
@Duane:
Take it from someone who grew up in the Catholic Church of the DOUBT era: The distinction between ‘true believer’ and ‘con artist’ is, in actual practice, very much a grey area. Even people who are totally serious about their faith tend to slide into & out of that shadow zone, accidentally or on purpose.
You think I’m exaggerating, read up on shamanism, which is as close to human ur-religion as we moderns can probably understand.
Matt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: IIRC the more disturbing part about that was that he picked a married woman with a young daughter to creep on…
Skepticat
@Major Major Major Major: Alice, meet rabbit hole.
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t actually follow the logic there–it seems to me that those two postulates together just imply “it’s only adultery when a man has sex with a woman who is married to another man.” Not that, when that happens, the woman is committing the adultery but the man isn’t. For that you need an extra dose of patriarchy…
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
When I read that, I assumed you were talking about Trump. No wonder Trump likes Moore – two peas in a pod.
No Drought No More
I look at Jeff sessions and see the flop sweat of an old bigot about to get his head handed him in the here and now; whose only hope to avoid prison rests in the hands of a man who blames him for the jam they’re all in; and last but not least, I see a man who understands his name and historical reputation will be forever enshrined among the ranks of America’s true villains. Is this great country, or what?