I just sent a cease & desist Presidenting letter to Trump.
— Grudge (@grudging1) January 4, 2018
Discovery will reveal he’s doing almost none of the Presidenting https://t.co/8gtSgUhOU6
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 4, 2018
Never let it be forgotten: This is exactly what the entire Republican Party wanted.
Washington Post “Style” reporter:
I am at Kramer Books where there aren’t any people lined up for Fire and Fury yet but there are a bunch of journalists posted up at the bar waiting for people to line up
— Ben Terris (@bterris) January 5, 2018
“It’s like Harry Potter for adults.”
“Is it though? I feel like that’s giving Michael Wolff too much credit.”— Ben Terris (@bterris) January 5, 2018
Sold out (73 copies). I did not get one. I’ll wait for the movie
— Ben Terris (@bterris) January 5, 2018
Unfortunately it's too late to print a blurb from Trump's cease-and-desist letter on the book jacket for Fire and Fury, but they could sticker one on.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) January 4, 2018
Now usually I don’t do this but… pic.twitter.com/zVLxnL8EZs
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 5, 2018
Work towards a better future…
In every midterm election since the Civil War, the president's party has on average lost 32 seats in the House and 2 in the Senate.
In 2018 Democrats need 24 seats to flip the House and 2 to take the Senate.https://t.co/If2EaAI2nI
— Swing Left (@swingleft) January 5, 2018
GOP strategist: Republicans will turn on Trump, impeach him if party gets "wiped out" in midterms https://t.co/WVGttvPKIF pic.twitter.com/lIHsdAfvEb
— The Hill (@thehill) January 4, 2018
lowtechcyclist
Yeah, just like what happened to Shrubby after the 2006 midterms.
Nah, they’ll double down in their defense of Trump, just like they did for Shrub. Just like fundies, Republicans never admit they’re wrong. (There is of course a pretty heavy overlap there.)
Spaniel
What I am having a hard time grasping about the various lawsuits is highlighted in this quote by the Washington Post,
How does the POTUS, the leader of the US government, have a non-disclosure employment agreement with the people working in government itself? Then Cheetos Benito and his band of toadies then want to press that type of logic onto the actual government employees, otherwise “they are running a deep state”. Freaking banana republic mentality!
Amir Khalid
The Republican party never expected of Trump that he.be a President. They were expecting an Autopen in a suit, and they would have been content with that. So now they (and you) have a national leader who combines the worst of Zaphod Beeblebrox, Pius Thicknesse, and Mundungus Fletcher.
Citizen Alan
@Amir Khalid:
That’s actually grossly unfair to all three of those characters. Mundungus Fletcher, for all his many flaws, was at least on the right side. Pius Thicknesse was, IIRC, one of the good guys until he got Imperiused. And Zaphod was an incompetent boob but was at least likeable. I would describe Shitgibbon as the bastard lovechild of Gilderoy Lockhart and Walburga Black.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spaniel:
He doesn’t. His lawyers are either too stupid to know this or have worked for trump long enough to know they have to do something even if it’s stupid.
@lowtechcyclist: If DEMs take they house, the GOP can’t impeach trump. And why in Dog’s name would DEMs want to remove the trumpian cement shoes from the GOP’s feet when they can weaponize him instead?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
So he doesn’t get us all killed?
rikyrah
@Spaniel:
The NDA is ridiculous ?
Dolt45 doesn’t pay their salaries. The American people do
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: You understand that, I understand that, but Trump thinks the American People are his employees.
Jeffro
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Eh, we’re practically used to that dread, that feeling of skating on thin ice…let’s let the Repubs feel that cold chill down their spineless spines for a while too.
(kidding, mostly)
Hey, here’s a fun excerpt from “Fire and Fury” that’ll start your morning off with a laugh: Trumpov was considering…wait for it…Rudy Giuliani for SCOTUS. “Why should I give* the job to someone I don’t know?” asks Trumpov. Why indeed?
And his nomination would have just sailed through the Senate, right Donnie? LOL
*”give” “give”(!!!) The guy really is just an amateur Mob boss and I sure wish our lamestream media would point that out more often…
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Today.
You’re assuming the House and Senate won’t pass a Law declaring all (soon-to-be-former) US citizens with a net worth under $10M, or an AGI of less than $500K, to be property of The Shitgibbon Organization.
Of course, the public outcry would be horrendous, but when has that stopped ZEGS and Turtle from doing what they can to fuck over America?
Manyakitty
@Amir Khalid: Don’t forget all that orc blood in his veins.
Manyakitty
@Spaniel: I wonder if they sent a standard letter from their files. OR was Bannon employed by Trump Org before the white house?
Manyakitty
@rikyrah: Good morning!
MattF
Talk about spinelessness always reminds me of the line about Kurt Waldheim: “He doesn’t need a spine because he has an exoskeleton.”
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He won’t.
Amir Khalid
@Citizen Alan:
I’ll concede on Thicknesse, or at least the guy in the book who was indeed Imperiused. (In the movie he’s a Death Eater, and thus more perp than victim.) But Dung Fletcher was an irredeemable petty crook who wound up betraying the Order of The Phoenix. And Zaphod is amusing in small doses, but I don’t find him likeable — his likeability is the kind that wears thin once you realise what an arsehole he is.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Manyakitty: He was employed by the campaign prior to the White House.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t share your confidence in Trump’s rationality.
Jeffro
Here’s some shade from David Corn on Twitter: “I’m old enough to remember when Steve Bannon was on the National Security Council”.
Oh yeah, hey, how about that, Trumpov??
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Trump doesn’t have the constitutional kowledge or the humility to understand that the American people are his boss.
Shalimar
@OzarkHillbilly: If Democrats win a wave election based on saving the country and world from Trump, they don’t really have the option of sitting back and letting him continue to do whatever he wants afterwards. Voting for impeachment in the House is a minimum step. There won’t be enough Republicans in the Senate to kick him out of office anyway.
bjacques
@rikyrah: Therefore, as one of the White House staff’s 300 million employers–job creators, if you will–I hereby release all of them from their NDAs. If I can’t get a copy of the book, I’ll wait for the sequel.
Or watch it on the Gorilla Channel.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: He’s been in charge of an organization where everybody reports to him and he reports to nobody, I doesn’t understand that this job is different. There are shareholders, the American People.
MattF
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Donald reports to Vlad.
Shalimar
@Jeffro: Rudy Giuliani would be a sign that Trump is no amateur at being a mob boss. Rudy has been a paid-off cop doing work for the family for nearly 30 years.
gene108
@Jeffro:
Holy crap! Corn’s right. And it has been less than a year. A long, long year.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: trump has no rationality, hence your fear. The people around him do (a twisted rationality to be sure). Hence I do not worry too much.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: My fear is based on having family and friends close to a country whose leader Trump seems to delight in taunting.
ETA: You seem to think that the system will protect us from the worst, I’ve seen the system break down in the last year and a half; over and over again.
OzarkHillbilly
@Shalimar:
And they won’t. If they get the house they will hold the purse strings and trump will be able to do very little with out their support.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
I assume that is a “bat signal”. If the GOP is in the minority the GOP can’t impeach unless the Dems are on board. If the Dems are then it is not the GOP that is impeaching anyone.
It is either a bat signal to their batshit brigade in hopes of exciting them to GOtV or just furthering the belief that nothing happens in DC unless they day it does.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Wow, “Fire and Fury” is sold out in hardcover and audio cd on Amazon. Kindle orders will d/l on the 9th.
JPL
@Jeffro: Do we know whether or not Bannon had security clearance?
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel: I think they are just bullshitting. There is no point to it.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: It’ll depend on where Mueller is in his investigation. There will be impeachment hearings.
The Thin Black Duke
@OzarkHillbilly: After everything that has happened, why do you assume these goddamned clowns are rational?
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
Of course they are bullshitting, thats all the do. The question to me is, WHY? There is always a reason
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: There WILL be investigative committee hearings, both open and closed. I doubt there will be impeachment hearings.
@The Thin Black Duke: Because of everything that has happened. Incompetence is not the same thing as IRrationality.
ETA
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m not sure of the difference if they hearings are focused on Trump’s actions.
Kay
This will be incredibly unpopular, hopefully unpopular enough they’ll have to do a humiliating reversal.
They want everything. They won’t stop until they take everything. It’s like a free for all. No one is in charge so they’re just looting mindlessly.
A good corruption investigation might look into who got paid off for this one, which low quality Trump hire took the bribe.
Patricia Kayden
@Jeffro: What makes anyone think that if there are more openings for SCOTUS, Trump wouldn’t nominate Rudy or someone just as outrageous? And if Republicans are in control of the Senate, the nominee will be confirmed.
Patricia Kayden
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Good. Now Trump’s favorable ratings can dip below 30%. He can continue to make history as the worst President since modern polling began. At least he’ll be Number 1 in something.
debbie
@rikyrah:
It goes along with Trump’s thinking he can do anything he wants with the DOJ.
Bruuuuce
Since this is an OT, let me say that I’m shocked — SHOCKED! — to see that a white man (a Nazi, no less) is actually being charged as and called a terrorist when he committed an act of terrorism. I mean, doesn’t he deserve the same kid-gloves treatment as all the other nice white male terrorists and rapists, murderers and other pillars of society? [/sarcasm]
Seriously, that’s one pustule popped, and all the rest of his Nazi scum brethren, up to and including the one in the Oval Office, to go.
Sloane Ranger
BT (before Trump) I would not have believed that any politician in a democracy would offer such a blatant lie as to say that there had been zero access to the White House and no interviews when there will be visitor logs, taped interviews and testimony from colleagues all proving the opposite and the existence of these must have been verified by the media before they ran with this story in such a big way.
Now, after watching this shitstorm for so long I just shrug my shoulders and think he’s at it again. This is not a good thing.
Unfortunately Fox and the other propaganda outfits will go along with it and his cult members will scream fake news at the top of their voices.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemazel:
No, there isn’t. trump lies because that is what pathological liars do. They are incapable of telling an unadulterated truth. Same with bullshitters. Bullshitters bullshit because that is what they do. They are incapable of shutting up. They have to say something.
Baud
@Bruuuuce: Holy crap! Why is this the first time I’m hearing of this dude?
That was a rhetorical question.
debbie
I’d love to know how many pre-orders Amazon has for the book. That would be a great counterpoint to SHS’s insistence that no one had ever heard of the author and wouldn’t be interested in the book.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The difference is one is focused on removing him from office (and ending with a President Pence) the other is focused on winning in 2020 while constraining him. Doesn’t matter anyway. My bet is he resigns 6 months into 2019.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: Maybe a younger Rudy type person.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sloane Ranger: Trump reversed the policy of releasing visitor logs.
Jeffro
Today’s dead-tree edition of the Post has a picture of Mnuchin, Cohn, and Ross all standing together (with Mnuchin and Cohn laughing).
Talk about the value of a well-placed grenade…sigh…
Kay
When there’s a Democratic majority in either chamber we’ll have to push them to pass some ethics rules for the Presidency.
Bar nepotism hires, ban NDA’s, ban the President or the President’s family personally profiting from any government business conducted, require disclosure of taxes and business records and debt. We also need transparency rules in the executive branch- the Trump Administration members regularly hide their official schedules- DeVos (for example) releases her scheduled meetings after they have occurred.
Obviously we need a whole code of conduct because none of these people can be expected to police themselves now. The rules themselves will stop sleazy people from running because they won’t want to abide by them.
After Watergate there was a kind of national house-cleaning that occurred. Sunshine laws went in all over the country. That needs to happen again.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That was Obama’s policy. W. never released them either.
OzarkHillbilly
@Bruuuuce: From the great state of Misery. Figures.
Jeffro
@gene108: I know, right? Just think of all the clowns who have already come and gone: Spicer, Priebus, Scaramucci…LOL. I still remember when my RWNJ dad told me that hiring Scaramucci was a good call because “…the Mooch doesn’t mess around.” Um, ok.
Baud
@Kay: Agree.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I think Judicial Watch sued to get Obama to release them, they don’t seem to care about Trump, funny that.
Jeffro
@JPL:
Oh absolutely.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Amazon says it will take 1 to 2 months to fill a new order!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Yup, hope you got your copy.
ETA: Guess there’s always the Kindle version.
Kay
I imagine there will be some challenges to ethics rules for the executive- two branches, sep. of powers arguments- they’ll want to keep the grift running- but people love sunshine laws- they’re popular.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Actually, I read about this incident when it happened. Can’t remember where it was. Did NOT expect terrorism charges tho.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Somehow, I don’t think Trump would sign that bill.
Jeffro
@Kay:
Kay I hear you on this, but…just as an example…the Emoluments Clause is in. the. Constitution. The GOP doesn’t care. They waived the rule about generals serving in the cabinet or whatever. They certainly don’t care about all of these clowns who lied during their confirmation hearings, and they don’t care about all the billionaires who keep voting themselves and their buddies all kinds of tax breaks.
If we’re going to set up ethics rules with teeth, we’d need to figure out how to set up some sort of independent watchdog, staffed by career civil service folks, with rules that can’t be waived by Congress. I don’t see that happening, unfortunately. I still think Dems should run on these sorts of ideas, though (and stick to them while in power, of course).
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Yes.
Quinerly
Good morning from Poco and his tribe!??
Kay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Doesn’t matter. This is one they get points for trying and the next President will sign it. The Trump Family should not be profiting off holding government events at that hotel in DC and people should not be paying the Trump Family for access at the country club in Florida. This is ridiculous. It has to stop.
debbie
@<a href="#comment-6702689″>Bruuuuce:
From your link:
Nazis now have business cards???
Kay
@Jeffro:
Oh,it will be hard, I don’t think you can do anything about rich people in Congress voting themselves tax breaks, for example.
We did do it after Watergate, though. There was a “sunshine revolution”- it’s when a lot of the sunshine laws that exist now went in, both state and federal. It was a reaction to Watergate. Corrupt countries collapse. They don’t just become more and more corrupt forever. They get so rotten they fall down. It’s a matter of national survival.
debbie
@Bruuuuce:
WP won’t let me post the quote from your link, but I cannot believe even N*zis now have business cards!!!
Kay
Trump said yesterday about Bannon “that’s a misnomer”. He can’t talk. He makes no sense. What I love about it is how all the media people stand there and have to act like he’s tracking when he’s just mouthing random words. It’s all slightly garbled, like he’s been bellowing bullshit for so long he can ALMOST recite the lines, but he misses.
debbie
FYI, for writers: Writing advice from Jesmyn Ward (a freakin’ good author in my opinion).
Sloane Ranger
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Fair enough. I’m sure that White House/political reporters have sufficient sources who can confirm Wolff’s presence in the White House over an extended period of time.
debbie
@Kay:
I laughed when I heard that “misnomer.” I guess words like “misconception” have too many syllables for him. Too troublesome, what with those dentures.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@debbie: It’s a little expensive, but you can make custom business cards with home printers.
Bruuuuce
@debbie: The better to jail them with, we may hope!
Patricia Kayden
Why did ABC just waste time talking to Liar Spokesperson Sean Spicer about the Wolff book? Of course, he defended Trump to the hilt and claimed that there was no collusion with Russia and that the President had the absolute right to fire Comey. This is why I usually don’t watch morning shows. Arghhhh.
Quinerly
Nothing really new here. We have all heard about the Sally Yates/c*nt remark. Still a well written piece. I have always liked Margaret Carlson. Would like to see more of her on “the shows:” https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-worst-thing-donald-trump-says-in-michael-wolffs-book
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Make-up? I’ve never heard of a grown man wearing make-up to a party (unless he was wearing a costume). He must be hiding something really grizzly.
Kay
@debbie:
I got a kick out of the book not because of the “revelation” of money laundering- anyone who has been reading anything assumed the issue would be money laundering- it’s because Trump is so vain and the book and has so many unflattering personal details. It must be killing him.
Money laundering is actually a serious crime because it’s used in the drug trade and terrorism funding. I love the media reaction- “it’s not treason, it’s just money laundering!” Jesus CHRIST. The standards could not go any lower.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: Wait, I thought there was collusion, but it’s OK. These folk need to get their stories straight.
Quinerly
@Kay: I caught that yesterday. Did a double take and then I moved on. I fear I’m becoming so jaded that so much of this just slides past me. I need a solid day of Obama speeches to bring me back around. How long can this go on?
OzarkHillbilly
Anybody else hear of this?
(Zoe Williams in the Guardian) Damn. 100 lbs in less than a year? The man is going to eat himself to death.
Kay
@Quinerly:
It’s funny how it works because Obama is such a careful speaker – chooses every word- and they used to seize on his every utterance. Trump’s up there just babbling nonsense and no one says anything. The trick seems to be to set REALLY low standards.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Quinerly
@Patricia Kayden: I never watch those morning network shows. I’m ashamed to admit that I have become hooked on Morning Joe in the last month. Please don’t tell anyone. I would be so embarrassed.?
Baud
@Kay:
This will be the key to Baud! 2020!’s success!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@OzarkHillbilly:
TS
Despite calling out trump – Morning guy just HAS to drop in a dig at the Clinton/s every time he mentions wrong and stupid acts – and very nicely current pundit is attacking trump for wanting to jail his political opponents – ole Joe looks a little stunned – someone just supported Hillary Clinton – on his show.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
You can tell he’s gained a lot. The oversized suits are getting bigger and bigger and his chin has disappeared. That’s probably the reason for the truck they hired to hide him while he’s golfing. Harder to hide in a golf shirt. His hair looks ultra-puffy now too- like spun sugar- maybe he’s losing the last 200 hairs. Bush and Obama got thinner and more severe looking- lines in their faces. Trump just gets puffier and softer. Blurrier.
Bruuuuce
@OzarkHillbilly:
From your pixels to His Noodly Appendages!
Patricia Kayden
@Quinerly: I decided to watch the morning shows just to hear what they had to say about Wolff’s explosive books. Am watching Morning Joe right now but I’ll forgo ABC from now on. Could news programs stop interviewing known liars for breaking news stories? Spicer started with the “most attended inauguration in history” lie and has zero credibility. Stop talking to him.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly:
Whatever works.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: He’s going to be the biggest President ever, move over W. H. Taft.
Patricia Kayden
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, I thought the Rightwing argument was that collusion was not a crime so suck it Libtards. Guess not (at least for today).
satby
Good morning morning crew!
Kay
@Quinerly:
I listened to it on the radio for about a year when I had sat. radio in a used car I bought, but it wasn’t healthy. It was hate-listening. I’d be driving along and I’d realize my face was all tensed up. Hate listening is tempting but clearly bad for me. I was glad to get rid of the car so I wouldn’t be tempted.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: First time hearing this for me. The Guardian has had some great pieces these last few months. I just don’t see Trump surviving the presidency. Literally. He looked horrible yesterday on that screen in the press room. He’s deteriorating before our eyes. I feel no sympathy.
Percysowner
@OzarkHillbilly:
Because the Dems would just as soon not end up in a nuclear war with Korea? Plus worst case scenario they get Mike Pence, who is uncharismatic at best, while still espousing the social attitudes that are pulling Trump down. Best case scenario, Pence is as corrupt as Trump, goes down first and we suddenly get President Nancy Pelosi.
OzarkHillbilly
So when a cop walks up to my car with his hand on his weapon, ready to raise it up, I can perceive that as a threat and shoot the cop in an act of justifiable self defense.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp….wheeze…
Sometimes I just crack me up.
satby
@Percysowner:
That would be awesome.
Edited: and then in a happy coincidence, RBG decided to step down and HRC is named to the SC.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: OK, that genuinely made me laugh.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@debbie: Thanks for the link. That was good advice.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
She’s too old. You want someone who will be there for 30 years or longer.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: A jury will absolve Williams within a couple of minutes of deliberations and he’ll be able to live his life in peace and ease. Shooting Black folk in this country has been a-ok for cops (and citizens like Zimmerman) since Day One.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay: Along with the governors’ dislike of offshore drilling, Republicans are speaking out on Jeff Sessions’s war on marijuana.
So far, Washington Post has quotes from four senators, four representatives, and two governors, all Republican, all against Sessions.
Quinerly
Solid read: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/michael-wolffs-withering-portrait-of-president-donald-trump
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: It’s a significant undiscussed reason Hillary lost.
Cheryl Rofer
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Steve Bannon is Trump’s picture in the attic.
Kay
“Watch what happens to him”. The asshole is lashing out with threats again. Oh, we’ll be watching. We’ll be watching what happens to those two and the rest of the sleazy Trump crew. It’s like a train wreck. You can’t stop watching.
Bannon had the Mercers paying for a security detail. They actually believe they are the leaders of some revolution. They all travel with these ridiculous authoritarian leader security details. Has there ever been a group of people who more richly deserved a stay at a federal prison?
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I just enjoy the fantasy of exploding wingnut heads.
And then we impeach Gorsuch and name Garland because that should have been him anyway.
randy khan
@SFAW:
I’m pretty sure the 13th Amendment would make that a bit tricky.
Kay
@Cheryl Rofer:
You probably know this but there was a quiet move away from draconian sentencing on drugs generally and pot specifically.
It simply costs too much. It’s a huge waste of money. This county went 70% for Trump and we have a drug court. Trump and Sessions are outside the mainstream- throwbacks to the 1980’s and 1990’s. The country has moved on from their old-fashioned approach.
Baud
@Kay:
I kind of don’t watch. I find out what’s going on second-hand, mostly from you guys.
Kay
@Cheryl Rofer:
Sessions will turn out to be the worst Trump hire. He’s a disaster. They never should have confirmed him. He’s out of the mainstream on issue after issue. He stopped learning anything in 1986.
Baud
@Kay: Sessions is there and stays there for one reason only — Trump’s racist base, the only people who will stay with him until the bitter end.
Kay
@Cheryl Rofer:
Kasich revamped sentencing guidelines on a whole category of crimes by executive order. Dropped them down. No one outside the crim justice system even noticed, it was that much of a no-brainer.
Bruuuuce
@Kay:
I am so looking forward to Wolff releasing his tapes, or at least to them leaking. Unless Mueller takes them, in which case I look forward to their being used at his various trials.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cheryl Rofer: Sessions fight against Mary Jane was on the local news last night, it’s not popular in a state that just legalized recreational use.
Cheryl Rofer
Quinerly – I was sad to read about Ivan yesterday, but flitting from one thing to another. The time they are with us is too short.
Kay
@Baud:
I think he’s a genuine threat on voting rights- a threat to normal civilians. I hope he has to resign at some point.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay:
They’d have a security detail there, 24/7.
Baud
@Kay: If we get back Congress, then he can resign. Anything sooner threatens the Mueller investigation.
Matt McIrvin
And just when Trump had gotten his best poll numbers in months, probably because people stopped thinking about politics so much over the Christmas break.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Also, Trump hasn’t been in the news as much since the news was focused on Congress and the tax bill.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay: Yes. People have started talking about releasing all those who have been jailed for marijuana offenses. Starting to look like Trump and his boys are going too far and that people have had enough.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and his tribe ??
Quinerly
@Kay: Actually, the federal pokey is too good for them. The need to serve their time in an over crowded, chaotic state prison. Had a boyfriend once whose father went to the federal pen in TN on a big rigging conviction. He took piano lessons and came home fit and trim.
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer: The people have had enough when they vote Republicans out of office. Until then, it’s premature celebration.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: @Baud: Yep.
Ken
@Amir Khalid:
I’ve been thinking of it as the actual worst of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and the Bushes, and the worst things said about Carter, Clinton, and Obama.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Yep. Definitely part of what motivated Deplorables to vote for the Orange Bigot.
@Quinerly:
randy khan
@Kay:
If it weren’t for the capital Z and the alliterative insulting nickname, I might not be sure this was Trump. It’s a bit more coherent than usual. He must have worked on it for a while.
eclare
@Kay: And shares of private prison companies have soared.
Ken
@Jeffro:
We could take a page from Terry Pratchett and create a Society of Assassins.
(There used to be a conspiracy theory claiming that the CIA showed each new President the other footage of the Kennedy assassination, as a warning… Someone must have forgotten to show it to Trump.)
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Thank you! Strange morning. First time in a long time that little Ivan didn’t greet me in the kitchen. We had our little morning routine. He had that funny little walk from his little bed in the dining room to his bowls on the kitchen. Always one morning “meow” and that was it for the day.?
eclare
@Cheryl Rofer: What happened? I missed some threads yesterday.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
That would do it.
Personally, I think a DEM congress should investigate him as deeply and relentlessly as the GOP has HRC. I doubt he’d survive.
eclare
@Quinerly: Angola works for me…
Lapassionara
@Cheryl Rofer: This. If Sessions goes after people in states where marijuana is legal, he and Trump will be toast.
I think we need the 25th Amendment remedy, and fast. We are losing so much ground internationally, I am not sure the US will ever be seen as a leader again.
satby
@randy khan: dementia patients are often more coherent in the morning, but decline as the day goes on, hence the term sundowning.
Quinerly
@Patricia Kayden: Gotta love the term “post literate.” That’s buried somewhere in all these excerpts I’m reading. I SO MISS OBAMA.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: He was just the National Security Council’s coffee boy.
Quinerly
@eclare: Good choice. Plus, Ivanka would think it sounds exotic. Maybe she could do a line of bracelets….cuff style.?
Cheryl Rofer
The whole interview for those who missed it.
trnc
@debbie: Doesn’t really matter, though. Everyone knows who the hell he is now, thanks in no small part to SHS and the whole crew.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: If I recall correctly, Trump’s numbers were actually down while the tax bill was in the news–it was seen as Trump screwing up, whether he “won” or “lost”. This was a sudden jump up by two or three points in the Gallup and a few other polls once people went on Christmas break, which is probably just a sign that the time resolution of polls is now high enough to indicate completely irrelevant things.
eclare
@Quinerly: So sorry about Ivan
eclare
@Quinerly: I so want her in prison if for no other reason we find out her real hair color. Meow!
randy khan
@satby:
Even by morning standards this was pretty coherent for him.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s so indicative of Trump’s character that he believes Holder was there to “protect” Obama. He sees the world like a criminal sees the world. A corrupt racket, where people spend all their time gaming something or other. The defining quality of Trumpism is how cynical it is- they’re just poison.
trnc
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think the media would report it as craven payback and ignore any actual findings. Clinton Rules still apply.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: Thank you for your kind words. It was time. His kidney function numbers were terrible. I think he was barely holding on. I’m leaving in about 10 days and heading your way. I just couldn’t put the responsibility of a sickly kitty on my friend (and Ozark’s friend?!) who checks in here when I’m gone. I felt guilty when I took him in yesterday…like I was doing it because I was leaving. The vet was great. She was sure he had already reached the suffering stage. Decision became easier.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
I’m thinking more like Jabba the Hut plus Gilderoy Lockhart.
Quinerly
@eclare: Meow, meow.?
MomSense
@Quinerly:
I hate the idea of animals feeling pain or suffering and not knowing why so I usually think it’s best not to wait. I waited with my Maine Coon to try a course of antibiotics and he really deteriorated in that time. I regret putting him through that week of feeling so terrible.
Cheryl Rofer
@Quinerly: Maybe we can do a meet-up when you’re here. I know you’re in contact with O. Felix Culpa.
Jeffro
@Kay:
Ok, that is a great point (seriously) and something Dems can run on. Not just ‘let’s clean up this Republican mess (again)’ but ‘we have to do this or we’ll turn into a banana republic for real’
Jeffro
@debbie: I have “Sing, Unburied Sing” in my to-read pile, near the top. Currently reading “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond, what an eye-opener.
Vhh
@Kay: Ditto conspiracy—-which put a lot of Nixon’s henchmen in jail.
OzarkHillbilly
@Quinerly:
It’s a package deal. No matter how obvious the time has come, one feels like “I should have done more.”
eclare
@Jeffro: Evicted looks good, on the library list.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: Would be great. I’m in Bernalillo for the month this trip…actually in a cute casita with small yard for Poco, right down from The Range. I’ll do several trips into SF…friends there and several friends in Madrid and Cerrillos. Putting together a chick gathering at an Albuquerque winery on 2/15. O Felix is interested. Will stay in touch. Hope to meet.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, Ozark.
Waldo
@Kay:
Sloppy Steve? That’s the best nickname he could come up with? He’s definitely losing it.
Quinerly
@MomSense: My guilt yesterday was when I questioned myself on whether I was putting him down out of convenience…because I am leaving town for 5 weeks. The vet was great. She really felt it was time.
Jeffro
@Waldo:
Sez you! (j/k)
Fox News dot com LOVES it…it’s their headline right now. “Sloppy Steve: President tags unkempt ex-adviser as explosive book lands” For real. Subhead: book is “full of lies”
De bubble, it is strong!
satby
@Quinerly: @MomSense: @OzarkHillbilly: I’m almost at that stage with my oldest dog, who has epilepsy, immune system issues, and tumors. She’s not obviously suffering consistently, but she’s starting to go downhill. I’m leaving in three weeks, and the idea that she’ll suddenly deteriorate and die while my less than optimal dog sitter is with them haunts me. But taking her sooner seems like robbing her, even if it’s of only a couple of days.
sherparick
@lowtechcyclist: The people who write crap like this are constantly shocked when they go out to the country and meet actual Republicans. You know, the sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters of those sticking with Richard Nixon and cried at his resignation, who voted for Goldwater, Reagan, Buchannan in the 1992 primary, voted for Shrub twice, and who were thrilled to bone by Trump’s march through the Republican Party and his victory over Hildebeast in November. These are the folks who send Devin Nunes, Matt Gaetzs, Frank Meadows, Steve Kings, and John Jordans to congress to lie through their teeth and and defame individuals for doing their duty to enforce the law. Trump is of the Republican Party, is from the dark hole in the soul of the Republican Party, and expresses the essence of the insanity and greed of modern Republicanism and Movement Conservatism.
eclare
@Quinerly: I lost my cat two years ago to kidney disease, it goes south very quickly. You made the right decision.
MomSense
@Quinerly: @satby:
I think it’s a sign of how much we care and how seriously we take the responsibility as caretakers that we struggle with the decision. I absolutely think you did the right thing, Q. Ivan was with his person. That’s important. S, I remember looking at a photo of my kitty from the beginning of his illness and being struck by how much he had deteriorated and wondering why I hadnt noticed how dramatic the change was. I think I was seeing what I wanted to when I kept thinking he was improving.
gvg
@Kay: Just a point, but Florida passed it’s “Government in the Sunshine law in 1967 2 years before Nixon was elected. The article I looked it up in said it was a decade in the making and wasn’t possible until enough urban legislators were elected, breaking the monopoly of a rural group called the porkchop gang. It also said that by the early 1960 26 states had some kind of Sunshine laws. Florida’s are considered among the toughest. I went and looked because my recollection from family stories is that it involved a corrupt govenor. It makes sense to me that State anti corruption laws would be driven more by state scandals, not Federal ones. I love florida’s sunshine laws and states that aren’t as tough don’t know what they are missing. Obviously it still takes popular will to make the laws actually get enforced. I don’t see how you could have a lot of the Federal stuff as open because military, diplomacy and espionage have legitimate reasons for secrecy, but some things could be opened up. A cute detail i just found is that we have a sunset law that all laws about exemptions to open records automatically expire unless specifically reviewed and re passed which keeps the exceptions from growing forever.
If Florida and maybe just one other big delegate state passed a law that all Federal candidates had to release their tax returns to be on a ballot (both primary and actual election) I think we could have dodged this bullet.
VOR
@Cheryl Rofer: Wolff sounds pretty credible in that interview with Savannah Guthrie. He says he has recordings and notes, like any other journalist. He admits to saying whatever he needed to, including flattery, to get in the door to get the story. He responds to one of Trump’s attacks by saying he spent 3 hours with the Trump over the campaign and after inauguration (I noted he didn’t claim 1:1 access). Gotta say, I believe Wolff more than Trump.
Quinerly
@VOR: Must read: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/04/donald-trump-michael-wolff-book-216245
laura
@Quinerly: I’m so to hear about the loss of your little Orange Boy. It sounds like he had a rough start and was saved by the love of a good woman. (((((Hug)))))
bjacques
This is even funnier than National Lampoon’s “Mrs. Agnew’s Diary”, from over 40-odd years.ago. You can find most of the columns collected in a paperback called Would You Buy A Used War From This Man? It turns up in used-bookstore humor sections from time to time.
satby
@MomSense: I got a bit of a realization she had aged more than I noticed when a friend who hadn’t seen her for a few months walked in and said how ancient she looks. She’s never been 100% well her entire life, but she’s still happy and playful every day. The span between convulsions is getting shorter though. We’re going to have a discussion with the vet next week but I think the time is coming.
sherparick
@sherparick: I also should have added that they are completely in the Right-Wing Infotainment Bubble of Fox News, Fox Business, Talk Radio, and the Internet sites of Newsmax, Drudge, Red State, Instapundit, and Breitbart. Also, in the grifting world of the Evangelicals, Trump is the flaw instrument of God who is enabling the second coming by bringing about Armageddon.
El Caganer
@Waldo: Isn’t that some sort of sandwich made with spiced bullshit?
Just One More Canuck
@Quinerly: That was the same feeling we had when our wonderful Scully passed – the vet simply said that it was her time to go. Didn’t make it any easier, and I was a mess for a while (I had her for 17 years).
Scout211
Kindle version of Wolff’s book is being sold now on Amazon.
Quinerly
Here’s a Twitter feed to follow. Min corroborates Wolff: https://mobile.twitter.com/janicemin?lang=en
Quinerly
Thanks for all the kind words about Ivan. Much appreciated.
O. Felix Culpa
@Cheryl Rofer: @Quinerly: I’m late to the show, as per usual, but I would love to meetup at the ABQ winery and in SF and wherever else works (would love to meet dexwood too). My condolences too for the loss of Ivan kitty. It’s hard, even though you did the right thing.?
chopper
@Spaniel:
it’s the basis for yet another episode of “can you imagine if obama or hilz did this?” i mean seriously, the president of the goddamn US has NDAs with his own staff. this is the world we live in.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
First bill passed with a veto-proof majority would be to remove the football and the weapons it controls from the President’s sole control. Then we’re safe to run the process normally, as long as Trump can’t destroy the world in a berserker spiteful rage over being called names by the leaders of the Legislative Branch of government.
I can see all kinds of progressive legislation being moved out with veto-proof majorities to stop Trump’s willful destruction of our government’s formal structure, to require re-districting that is fair and balanced on its face, to legalize cannabis nationwide, to require police to be trained in crisis management without the use of violence, to implement mandatory background checks for ALL firearms transfers, even gifts to the kids, repair of the nation’s water systems, waste systems, power systems, rail systems, highway systems, airports, locks and dams…. I’m going to stop there, before I wake up.
Neldob
@MattF: I always thought it was “skin so thick he doesn’t need a spine”.
No One You Know
@MomSense: I thought I was doing the right thing, putting my awesome female ginger, Peanut, down. She was stalking the house for two weeks after she died. My spouse heard her, I kept seeing her…She wasn’t ready to go. I learned there’s a difference between taking care of her, and taking care of me. I’m still ashamed.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
I believe Pence will be indicted on numerous felonies prior to the next election. And Trump will be found to have been a (temporarily while in office, unless Mueller goes ahead and indicts him just for the saving the nation of it) un-indicted co-conspirator.
Getting rid of Trump prior to getting rid of Pence is almost pointless. Pence believes that nonsense about Armageddon being the first step of the Rapture, and would far more likely to launch Missiles of Hell just to be the one who started Armageddon. Go down in History, albeit only for the 5 years the Great Harrowing lasts before the True Christians are raised up from the dead to fly to Heaven where they will sit on the Lord’s Right Hand, all 144,000 of them.
Wife, back in the First Gulf War, had perfected the sermon for the beginning of the Great Battle of Armageddon between Gog and Magog, who were Iraq and Iran, Russia and the US, Muslims and Christianity. She ranted it in best Tent Revival style, and people who didn’t already know the plot line were horrified, thinking that she invented it and believed it, instead of stealing it from every low-life revivalist pushing hard for another $0.50 from every seat in the tent to fund the Christian side of that Great and Holy War.
Remember that Gary Hart’s girlfriend (Jennifer Flowers?) was eventually found to have run to ground in West Babylon… obviously the Whore of Babylon foretold in Holy Scripture of Revelations. Right? These people have taken the Good Book and turned it into their Special Heresy that Dooms them to Hell..!! WE don’t dare let one of them have their hand on the Nuclear Football of real Armageddon.
LongHairedWeirdo
@lowtechcyclist: There may be a difference here. Morally and ethically, George W engaged in many criminal actions, but they were all good wedge issues: lying us into a war, pushing and condoning torture, etc were hideously evil things to do, but they played well with the base.
Trump is likely extremely dirty, in many ways, and if the Democrats gain control over investigations, the GOP may see which way the wind is blowing.
It’s kind of sick, when you think about it; right and wrong aren’t an issue, but political liability *is*; do you also realize that Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and Trump – every single GOP President for 40 years has engaged in behavior that is 100% criminal, and only got in trouble over it if the political fallout grew too large. Whereas Clinton gave a non-perjurious answer in a deposition, and there was no evidence of perjury before the grand jury, but he was impeached, because it seemed like it would be politically advantageous.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I have a nook and it downloaded as soon as my order went through. B&N is totally sold out locally of the hardback. I didn’t check to see if it’s sold out on the site.