Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The willow is too close to the house.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

This really is a full service blog.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Second rate reporter says what?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

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“Executive Time” Open Thread

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Here are Twitler’s bunker babblings so far today:

Taking the tweets in chronological order from the bottom up, the ill-informed gibe about the UK’s NHS was apparently inspired by yellow-fanged fascist-coddler Nigel Farange’s appearance on Fox & Friends, which further inspired Twitler to slobber over the three vapid sofa squatters on that program. Is this unprecedented in U.S. history, a president* acting as social media director for a partisan cable news morning program? As far as I know, yes!

Congrats to Congressman Schiff for getting under the creature’s skin in a big way to earn a “Little” nickname. Is it unprecedented in U.S. history for a president* to relentlessly drag members of congress on social media and issue vague, blustery imperatives like “Must be stopped!” about an elected official to an army of heavily armed, brain-dead cultists? I believe so, gentle reader, and let’s hope Congressman Schiff has robust security!

If Trump were a rational actor, one might be tempted to read hope into the tweet about DACA since it doesn’t explicitly mention the nonstarter demands to drastically curtail LEGAL immigration. But since we’re dealing with a clown who has already rejected a bipartisan bill that meets the named conditions, the probable explanation is that Stephen Miller simply isn’t in the golf cart this morning. Is this unprecedented in U.S. history, a president* who’s such a spongy amalgam of malice, ego and cluelessness that elected officials of both parties and people whose lives depend on policy outcomes just have no idea what to expect? Eh, maybe not.

And finally, the valorization of the stooge Devin Nunes. The only ray of sunshine in that black hole of stupid is that Twitler seems to be aware, if dimly, of the controversy surrounding the slam-dunk “vindication” memo. I guess even Fox & Friends can’t hide that.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

171Comments

  2. 2.

    Barbara

    The only ray of sunshine in that black hole of stupid is that Twitler seems to be aware, if dimly, of the controversy surrounding the slam-dunk “vindication” memo. I guess even Fox & Friends can’t hide that.

    Admitting that I don’t watch F&F, I would be willing to bet money that they can indeed hide that. My husband has a much stronger stomach than I do and he occasionally will deliberately compare coverage of a “big event” on networks, CNN, MSNBC, and then Fox. He assures me that Fox is like an alternative universe. And the thing is, he isn’t even particularly liberal in his instincts and he is just amazed by Fox.

  3. 3.

    Spanky

    Is this unprecedented in U.S. history, a president* who’s such a spongy amalgam of malice, ego and cluelessness that elected officials of both parties and people whose lives depend on policy outcomes just have no idea what to expect? Eh, maybe not.

    Well then, which of our other Dear Leaders kept both parties guessing what the next thing would be to emerge from his pie-hole? Not even Nixon was that bad. Not in public, anyway.

  4. 4.

    eclare

    I will not be traveling overseas while he is president* as I don’t want to have to apologize to everyone I meet. Gawd, what an embarrassment. And, WTF is “non-personal medical care”?

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    Can someone explain how Trump’s tweets aren’t considered to be interference in the Mueller investigation? This is not normal. He’s using his bully pulpit to attack an investigation into his administration. I don’t understand how this is okay.

  10. 10.

    donnah

    Just look at these tweets. I mean, we can say we’re “getting used to” Trump’s ridiculous messaging, but when you read these, how can you not think he’s: a) insane, b) hugely inappropriate, c) completely insane and totally inappropriate?

    That an actual president of the United States is tweeting this is terrifying and infuriating.

  11. 11.

    germy

    Can someone from the UK help me out here? Aren’t thousands of people marching because their “U System” was deliberately broken by British conservatives, exempli gratia Trump’s counterparts?

  13. 13.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    @Barbara: I do the same thing as your husband. I also tune into Hannity’s radio show on the way home from work. Granted, my record for consecutive seconds before angrily turning the station is about 45 seconds.

  14. 14.

    Nicole

    @Barbara: The mom of a friend of mine mentioned the same thing to her- that watching the news on MSNBC and Fox was like observing parallel universes. Another friend of mine said the same thing about seeing CNN and Fox on, side-by-side, at the gym. And they both hid behind, “I’m not being political, but…” And I want to shout, “So you’re okay with the idea a major network is lying to the public?” But everyone is so sure they, themself, can see through the bullshit. Yeah, if that were true, advertising wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar industry.

  16. 16.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    Is this unprecedented in U.S. history, a president* who’s such a spongy amalgam of malice, ego and cluelessness that elected officials of both parties and people whose lives depend on policy outcomes just have no idea what to expect?

    Trump believes he’s Imperator instead of President. Policy outcomes only matter when they make him look good to his fans howling for blood.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    He doesn’t seem to realize we already know he’s a treasonous sack of shit. He doesn’t need to keep reminding us that he is.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: It’s the best practical argument of conservatives everywhere: “Don’t rely on government services for anything, because I hate you and I’ll hurt you at my earliest possible convenience if you do.”

  20. 20.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Matt McIrvin:
    The only possible, reasonable response to that argument is: “I hate you more and I’ll hurt you worse if you do.”

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    Aren’t thousands of people marching because their “U System” was deliberately broken by British conservatives, exempli gratia Trump’s counterparts?

    I think that’s correct, but it still speaks to the basic Republican talking point: we shouldn’t trust any essential service to the government, because you never know when Conservatives might get elected and destroy it. I only wish I were joking.

  22. 22.

    cain

    When we get back in power and you know we will. When the Republicans start doing their bullshit about fairness and what not, the president of the United States, should simply respond with Trump tweets from here on in. To remind them who did all those things to the minority party at the time. Trump has ruined the party completely and utterly. There is no saving it. They have gone down the well and whatever comes out will likely kill everyone so better to mortar it up and let it die.

  23. 23.

    Waldo

    What exactly has Nunes “had to endure” — other than his self-inflicted wounds?

    Ah, never mind.

  25. 25.

    cain

    @donnah:

    Just look at these tweets. I mean, we can say we’re “getting used to” Trump’s ridiculous messaging, but when you read these, how can you not think he’s: a) insane, b) hugely inappropriate, c) completely insane and totally inappropriate?

    HIs followers think this is a feature not a bug. They love that he is inappropriate that he’s shaking things up. Not realizing that when you have no class, nobody is going to look at you. There are no deals. It’s like you have a low credit score and thus you don’t get a great interest rate. Morons.

  26. 26.

    trollhattan

    Jezus, he lashes out as though he’s thirteen. I know that’s not an original thought but it seems to be getting worser and worsier. WTF does any of that even mean? And whatever Schiff is doing to get under his skin and harvest a Trumpian adjective, keep it up man, it’s working!

  28. 28.

    The Dangerman

    Every morning I wake up, do my thoughts/prayers for Muellermas, and then turn on the TV as the coffee is getting ready (priorties, doncha know).

    It’s only one year; I’m so tired of Trump.

  32. 32.

    Sloane Ranger

    I know Obamacare was a massive improvement on what went before but, given the choice between that and even our current NHS, I would go with the NHS every time.

    I have recently been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis and the Consultant has listed me for a total hip replacement. Yes, I will have to wait a few months but it will be done to the same standard as in the US and I will not have all the worries about what is and isn’t covered in my plan. All I will have to do is turn up when and where they tell me and do what the surgeon and physios tell me.

  33. 33.

    Big Picture Pathologist

    If anyone here has the inclination, I would appreciate an opinion/takedown of Justin Raimondo’s latest column at Antiwar.com. Thomas Knapp, who always struck me as a mostly reasonable libertarian, has a blog post that also has a very…um, unconventional take on the Nunes memo.

    I used to feel like I had a reasonable grasp on the events thanks to this site as well as MSNBC coverage, but the points they make require a sharper mind than my chronically sleep-deprived brain can process.

  35. 35.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @bemused:
    Just googled it and the first result was a Townhall article crowing about how Jimmy Kimmel was “Trumped” by Trump’s fascist supporters. I didn’t have the heart to actually watch it.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @bemused: Saw that last week, and yes, it was nauseating. Here’s hoping that hateful creep with the beard and the MAGA hat gets his nuts caught in a panini press.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    @bemused:

    I just watched Jimmy Kimmel DACA panel segment and it turned my stomach.

    But, only fortified by disgust with his voters. STOP saying that we need to understand them.
    We don’t.

    When the muthaphucka pursed his lips to say that the BABY could stay, but that HER MOTHER had to go….I would have literally leapt at that muthaphucka.

  38. 38.

    kindness

    Twiter is a bane to humanity. While I appreciate a good mocking, too many use it as an actual news source. Including little Lord Smallgloves.

  40. 40.

    eclare

    @Sloane Ranger: And you probably don’t have a deductible of around $5,500 as I do. I lived in London for a while twenty years ago, fell one day causing a pretty big gash in my leg. I figured I’d get it checked out, so I walked down the street to the hospital, and I was in and out of the ER in three hours. No bills, no questions other than name, address, and religious affiliation (in case I died?). Seemed to work pretty well to me.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    Health Secretary responds:

    H/T: Adam S.

  42. 42.

    mozzerb

    @germy: You are indeed correct. Many British conservatives have had a longstanding beef against the NHS and argue that a properly privatised healthcare system like they have in the USA would produce much better care.

    (Hey, I said they were conservative, not sensible. It’s not a position many politicians want to defend in public, even Jeremy “Services to Rhyming Slang”, but Conservative governments have introduced a whole lot of privatisation by the back door in the form of “internal markets” and the like.)

  43. 43.

    FlipYrWhig

    Remember when Obama said that Cambridge Mass PD had behaved “stupidly” in L’Affaire Gates and it led to a massive media conflagration?

  44. 44.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @MomSense:
    Every time I see those stupid red hats I just want to rip them off their heads and wipe my ass with them. That’s what they’re worth.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Patricia Kayden:

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    Here is Britain’s Health Secretary’s response to the President:

  53. 53.

    dww44

    Betty, reading your posts is a great way to add caffeine to my morning without actually drinking any. Thanks for the tonic, particularly after EVERY single LTE in yesterday’s paper was from a blind Trump supporter haranguing Democrats for being non-respectful during the SOTU and another haranguing future Dem voters who DON”T vote for Trump as being anti-american and idiots. But, at least there was the guest editorial from a military guy talking about the need for moderation, particularly in the Congress and how Dems need to be able to make the economy better. You know, chock full of both siderism as was one of morning hosts on CNN who used to know better. such is the state of local journalism, a McClatchey outlet, that is literally surviving by a thread. The way its going, within a year there won’t be a local news outlet worthy of the name. Even tho I tell the 40 and 30 somethings that they need to subscribe!

  55. 55.

    Ella in New Mexico

    These Twittler rampages get far too much coverage on cable and every where else for that matter.

    What he says matters NOTHING to anyone doing the actual Koch-dirty work in his executive branch right now. His incompetence and ability to distract the masses gives them the cover they need to dismantle pretty much everything good we’ve accomplished over the past few decades.

    I have no idea if he’s in on the con, or if he’s just sitting in his bed for the first 4 hours of the day watching Fox and Friends then blurbling out his electronic diarrhea storms. At some point I don’t care, and I wish the networks, the last bastion of education on current events for the masses, would stop making him sound like he’s making huge pronouncements on social media like he’s the frigging Oracle of Delphi and it’s their job to spend the next 12 hours figuring out his true meaning. Fucking mock him and move on.

    Oh, and please, while everyone’s getting up in arms about yet another Trump insult tirade online, do NOT forget that it’s highly likely that the practices the Koch-Mercer-Russian cabal got in shifting our elections–and you can bet it went beyond just pushing inflammatory Facebook fake news posts–is going to be shifted into the next gear this fall. In any other time in American History, there would be a giant flipping of our government to Democrats in November. I for one worry that it will be physically tampered with and halted, while we all just sit there and go “WTF?”

    We need to be incredibly vigilant in the run up to this fall in demanding election protections–we should care about that more than almost anything else right now short of rumblings of war with North Korea in order to give us a Trump engineered “good old fashioned crisis” to help Republicans.

    Jesus H. Christ this has to end. If we can get them out, we can fix practically anything they do to us between now and then later on. We’ve got to get these people out of power, and fast, or they’ll finish the job of keeping them selves there in perpetuity. Eyes on the Prize. Eyes on the Prize.

  57. 57.

    dww44

    Why can’t I edit my comment above? Tried to correct a couple of punctuation and capitalization errors and insert a couple of paragraphs?

  58. 58.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Ella in New Mexico:
    If there isn’t a great flipping of seats then we’ll know something is wrong and the election was tampered with. At that point, the GOP will have to be violently removed from power, if they refuse to step aside.

  60. 60.

    Snarkworth, short-fingered Bulgarian

    I have no idea how tall Schiff, but assuming he’s short, isn’t there something … pathetic … about a tall man mocking another for his height?

  61. 61.

    scav

    Not so much twitter as twaddle (if, in fact, there is a bright line distinction. Or even a dimmer-switch distinction.)

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

  65. 65.

    patrick II

    I don’t think everything Trump does is the rambling of an idiot. I think much of it is studied. It is known he studied and had the speeches of Hitler at his bedside table. From all appearances he has studied the mannerisms of Mussolini when giving speeches. Much of what he is doing, most notably not accepting the results of an “unfair” election or the more recent support (backed up by Russian bots) of Nunes weakening the FBI, and his undermining of the media, follows a script written by Russia, from whom I think he takes advice. Some little boys want to grow up to be Steph Curry or Aaron Rodgers or Martin Luther King. Then there are those little boys who hope of someday being like Mussolini, so they can tell everyone else what to do and they have to do it. Although crudely implemented and not entirely self-directed, I think Trump is actually has a plan.

  68. 68.

    PeakVT

    What a horrid human being.

    I hoping he dies of shame but that, sadly, will never happen because shame requires self-awareness, and he has none.

  69. 69.

    Cacti

    So glad that the New England Trump Fluffers lost the Super Bowl.

    The TD pass to Nick Foles after Brady dropped his might be the all time greatest troll of Bill Belichick.

  72. 72.

    Capri

    @Ella in New Mexico: To this point. Rachel Maddow has made an explicit point of covering what people do and not what they say. She never discusses tweets unless they are tied to a bigger story. She has the number 1 rated cable news show. You’d think the folks at other cable news shows would get the message.

  74. 74.

    Fair Economist

    @Adam L Silverman: The Philadelphia “celebrations” were yet another reason I was happier when LA had no football team. Your team can’t win if you don’t have one. Yes, I know for the most part there’s no damage but still…

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @divF: Moss and his law partner have been suing DOJ on behalf of a reporter to get FOIA action on FISA requests pertaining to the President’s claims that he was electronically surveilled. Or as the President refers to it: “a tapp”. The DOJ’s responses have been Glomar responses. This means we won’t confirm or deny or really say anything. What Moss and his partner are now doing is trying to leverage the Nunes memo and the President’s tweeting about it to get the course to force DOJ to stop shrugging their shoulders as a response. That’s the effect this is having.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dww44:

    Why can’t I edit my comment above?

    Could be any number of reasons:

    1. Perhaps your edits took too long and you overran the allotted time.

    2. Perhaps you got everything edited in a timely way but forgot to mash the “save” button.

    3. Perhaps FYWP.

  79. 79.

    Fair Economist

    @patrick II:

    I don’t think everything Trump does is the rambling of an idiot. I think much of it is studied. It is known he studied and had the speeches of Hitler at his bedside table. From all appearances he has studied the mannerisms of Mussolini when giving speeches.

    Trump hasn’t always been an idiot, he’s just losing his mind to dementia. Like Reagan, he is retaining his acting skills better than his cognitive ones.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    Interesting that his family says they didn’t approve Ram’s use of MLK’s voice. I BLAME TRUMP!

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: The organization that controls the use of MLK’s voice and likeness is not the King Center or his daughter, Bernice A. King who runs the center. Rather it is controlled by his son Dexter King, who was next to the President when he read the proclamation for MLK Day a couple of weeks ago.

  83. 83.

    Fair Economist

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    These Twittler rampages get far too much coverage on cable and every where else for that matter.

    What he says matters NOTHING to anyone doing the actual Koch-dirty work in his executive branch right now. His incompetence and ability to distract the masses gives them the cover they need to dismantle pretty much everything good we’ve accomplished over the past few decades.

    Indeed. Basically all the Republicans are pathological liars, plus a number are deluded and/or demented as well (Nunes and Trump, for starters). With normal people there’s a purpose to figuring out why they lie so you can determine when they’re lying but with Republicans you’re just wasting your time. There’s no truth to ferret out.

    A great example of the distraction was the latest ZEGS attack on the safety net under cover of the Loony Nunes memo absurdity.

  84. 84.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:
    @Betty Cracker:
    @MomSense:

    Painful, enraging, disgusting, nauseating…I don’t know how the family and Kimmel kept it together. I would have had to be gagged and restrained from doing those cretins harm.

    The thing is with hideous people like this panel. It wouldn’t matter if they were instead asked to comment on white American citizens who are on Medicaid or any other government help programs. Their attitudes would be pretty much the same. No soup for you freeloaders and then they howl how tough they have it.

    Years ago I came upon something Tim Pawlenty said when he was Minnesota Majority leader in late 1990’s to about 2002 about aid to children whose parents are at or below poverty level. He said something like he had no responsibility to those children who have irresponsible parents. I could never find it again but have a memory it came from small MN town newspaper article. Down the memory hole, I guess. Pawlenty is considering running for governor again.

    That’s been the Republican selfish, vicious mindset as long as I can remember.

  87. 87.

    FlipYrWhig

    BTW, if Trump wants to give a guy named Schiff a nickname, it’s SUCH a sin against the gods of insult comedy (Lord Rickles, hallowed be thy name) for that nickname not to be “Shifty.”

  90. 90.

    manyakitty

    @debbie: That’s reasonable, since the Rolling Stones have repeatedly asked him to stop using “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at his rallies and he ignores them. Some people might let it slide, but I bet the Stones have lawyers. Why aren’t they suing him over this?

  92. 92.

    Humdog

    @FlipYrWhig: Ooh, Schiffty, that is good! Too clever for Shitstain. (I love my autocorrect knows I want Shitstain and capitalizes it after I type “shi”)

  93. 93.

    Big Picture Pathologist

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yes, I did cut some corners there. Raimondo’s a libertarian/paleoconservative who, ever since Dubya’s War in Iraq, has had IMHO principled and consistent critiques of U.S. interventionism, even when he occasionally makes shoddy arguments.

    I know the numbers pale compared to the deplorable/fundagelicals who voted for Trump, but there appear to many voters who voted against Clinton because of her hawkish credentials.

    Latest column here:
    https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018/02/04/fisa-gate-plot-destroy-republic/

    Thomas Knapp’s blog post here:
    https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2018/02/04/the-nunes-memo-only-partially-vindicates-trump-but-it-fully-indicts-the-fbi-and-the-fisa-court/

  94. 94.

    Humdog

    @schrodingers_cat: it is horrifying to read comments onWaPo articles from women of color or any dealing with immigration. Most of the comment section there is not a cesspool, but on these articles it feels like I’ve gone to brietbart on accident.

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    @divF: The term that developed for the “we won’t confirm or deny” response. Originated with an information request regarding the Glomar Explorer.

  99. 99.

    Misamericanthrope

    Shouldn’t Paul Ryan at least be asked to defend a member of the House of Representatives from unfounded attacks from Trump? Yeah, I know, he will espouse some weasel-words about being concerned, but he at least needs to be put on the spot over this.

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @Capri: Rachel has her good points, and she does often dig into stories.

    But TV ratings are abysmal these days, and MSNBC is 9th (though they did have substantial growth from 2016).

    IndieWire for December 2017:

    THE MOST-WATCHED NETWORKS OF 2017 (BY TOTAL VIEWERS)
    TOTAL VIEWER RANK

    NETWORK 2017 VIEWERS 2016 VIEWERS % CHANGE

    1 CBS 7,996,000 8,845,000 -10%
    2 NBC 7,284,000 8,494,000 -14%
    3 ABC 5,592,000 6,315,000 -11%
    4 Fox 4,733,000 5,068,000 -7%
    5 Fox News Channel 2,423,000 2,424,000 0%
    6 ESPN 1,904,000 1,855,000 +3%
    7 Univision 1,666,000 1,933,000 -14%
    8 USA Network 1,662,000 1,771,000 -3%
    9 MSNBC 1,615,000 1,079,000 +50%
    10 The CW 1,590,000 1,768,000 -10%
    11 HGTV 1,530,000 1,580,000 -3%
    12 TBS 1,500,000 1,648,000 -9%
    13 Telemundo 1,379,000 1,507,000 -8%
    14 Discovery 1,352,000 1,423,000 -5%
    15 History 1,326,000 1,364,000 -3%

    [...]

    Even with MSNBC's growth, they're still way behind Fox News.

    I'm all for progress, but realistically cable news continues to be a small segment of the TV universe. All of TV is shrinking as a commonly-shared mass-market medium. Decades ago 50+M people would regularly watch the big networks. Over 100M watched the finale of M*A*S*H...

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Big Picture Pathologist: The articles you linked fully support my decision several years back not even to check out what Raimondo was writing. Before that, I had thought of his critiques as leftish, but seemingly (to me anyway) he took on a full RWNJ approach. His article you link could have come from Devin Nunes’s pen, or whoever is writing stuff for him. Same with Knapp. If you want a more reasonable combination of critiques of government surveillance with assessment of the Nunes material and Russiagate more generally, I recommend Emptywheel. I don’t always agree with her, but she isn’t in the bag for Nunes.

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    @manyakitty:
    Lawsuits against a POTUS in office are difficult even in the best circumstances, I would imagine, especially for a foreign plaintiff. I’m pretty sure the holding company de Los Rollings is not incorporated in the US. Plus, with this one guy, you might win damages but it’s not a sure thing that you’ll ever collect.

  103. 103.

    Tenar Arha

    @bemused:
    Re: the Kimmel segment. I’m glad that someone is documenting the absolute depths of their moral degradation. I’m glad that other people are willing to summarize for me. I’ve also stopped watching or reading these “Trump voter” panels or interviews.

    The obsession with how these people feel rather than what harm they’ve caused, and are continuing to cause, simultaneously turns my stomach & makes me feel like I’m being a supercilious, superior, condescending a**hole by even knowing about all these profiles. They make me feel like I’m watching a body horror movie, or just thinking about one.

    There’s also a tinge of “look upon the results of our works you liberals and despair” with how prevalent they are in the networks’ news, talk shows, or comedies. Almost like the programmers are trying to make me hate our fellow citizens even more than I already do for putting us in this position. Someone is engineering my moral disgust for people who’re like this, to either make me feel better about myself, or about the little we can do.

  104. 104.

    HumboldtBlue

    Well it’s post Super Bowl Sunday and the Eagles won so I am gonna ignore Trump for another day.

    Bought my first de-criminalized marijuana two weeks ago, need to hit the shop again, that Lemon Meringue was really good.

    Hey, youse hear? The Iggles won the Super Bowl!

  105. 105.

    germy

    A secret document that officials say played a key role in then-FBI Director James B. Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation has long been viewed within the FBI as unreliable and possibly a fake, according to people familiar with its contents.

    Current and former officials have said that Comey relied on the document in making his July decision to announce on his own, without Justice Department involvement, that the investigation was over. That public announcement — in which he criticized Clinton and made extensive comments about the evidence — set in motion a chain of other FBI moves that Democrats now say helped Trump win the presidential election.

    But according to the FBI’s own assessment, the document was bad intelligence — and according to people familiar with its contents, possibly even a fake sent to confuse the bureau. The Americans mentioned in the Russian document insist they do not know each other, do not speak to each other and never had any conversations remotely like the ones described in the document. Investigators have long doubted its veracity, and by August the FBI had concluded it was unreliable.

    washington post

  106. 106.

    tychay

    @FlipYrWhig: because he’s losing his mental faculties. I noticed how he calls anyone “little” now. I imagine it’s the only thing he can come up with at this point because he’s constantly re-living the success of “little Marco”

  107. 107.

    Big Picture Pathologist

    @Adam L Silverman: @Cheryl Rofer:

    Thank you both.

    I was very despondent this weekend for our country’s future when the implications of the Nunes memo painted a very bleak state of affairs,
    especially if you count on the GOP Congress to do the right thing or for their base to care.

    That anyone out there could reach a different conclusion on the implications made me need some reassurance that those of us who seemed to be grounded in reality weren’t missing some important point.

    ETA: Emptywheel looks like a good source, thanks for the tip

  110. 110.

    Walker

    @Adam L Silverman:

    My wife works in software security. So this means a lot of DARPA/defense contracts and a lot of DHS contracts. From what she has seen (what she can say), the DHS are not a very bright organization. The quality of work is laughably bad when compared to military contracts.

  112. 112.

    Fair Economist

    @schrodingers_cat:

    “Centrist” columnists are nothing but pimps for R ideas.

    FTFY.

    At this point the real centrists are moderate and conservative Democrats. Anybody not grinding an axe for the Republicans knows they’ve gone crazy and whatever one’s policy differences with the Democrats, the two sides aren’t equivalent.

  113. 113.

    patrick II

    I have just visited Adam Schiff’s twitter account and there are a large number of Trumpies warning him that leaking classified information is a crime. Evidently that is the latest rote thing they have been taught to say without thinking about context or equivalence.

  115. 115.

    Fair Economist

    @Another Scott:

    Even with MSNBC’s growth, they’re still way behind Fox News

    There’s an important difference though. Fox News has gotten itself as part of most “standard cable” packages. MSNBC is usually on some kind of upgrade. In a free market the numbers would be quite different and in favor of Fox.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @cain:

    There are no deals. It’s like you have a low credit score and thus you don’t get a great interest rate. Morons.

    His credit score is so low he doesn’t get the loan. He’s left going to the russian pawn shop and selling off assets he doesn’t own. With no idea what he’s going to do when they come looking for their markers.

  118. 118.

    Boatboy_srq

    @Roger Moore: Generally speaking, NHS is a typical large service org that doeS some things well and others less so. Also generally speaking complaining is the British national sport. Ask the average Brit what s/he thinks of NHS and you’ll get a litany of its various failings; ask if s/he would do away with it and s/he will likely suggest you are insane. THAT is the distinction that the US does NOT understand.

  120. 120.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: Comey acknowledged this publicly during his Senate testimony last March shortly before his firing. He indicated that he knew that material purporting to be communication between himself and AG Lynch was provocative disinformation, which was a contributing factor in his decision making process to act. That it wouldn’t matter that he knew, that the AG knew, that senior personnel at both the FBI and DOJ knew that this was doctored and fabricated, once it was circulating it had to be treated as if it was real. In the media ecosystem we have been in for several years the existence of something, even something false, doesn’t matter. It is real because it exists. In this he is not wrong. Whether he should have acted the way he did because of it is a different issue.

  122. 122.

    Manyakitty

    @Amir Khalid: No question about that. He’s been using that song since his campaign started in 2016, and they just want him to stop. Seems like they SHOULD be able to get what they want as far as that goes.

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    @Sloane Ranger:
    I am fortunate that I have the VA. It is as you describe. The service isn’t instantaneous or often even close but it is very good and if you have an issue that actually requires instant response you get that. It’s under funded yes but the people are good, the service is good and the results are good. Everyone should be so lucky. Of course the snobs would hate it because it puts everyone on the same footing, just like the NHS, and they are much better than everyone else. It’s cheaper because there is no profit, no profit motive and no one is getting rich. Can’t have that in the good ole USA.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Walker: One of the other issues is that DHS had been funding, via contract, a high speed team of highly credentialed and experienced folks to function as sort of an in house strategic consultancy. My boss had this contract. It was put out for rebid because someone decided it was too expensive. The winning bid, on the rebid, was lowest bidder. All the high speed, highly credentialed and experienced folk where gone replaced by the lowest common denominator. 18 months later the whole contract was cancelled because someone correctly determined that the deliverables being produced were terrible.

  128. 128.

    Monala

    @Humdog: One of the few good things about the FTFNY is the way they organize their comments sections. You can choose all comments (the typical cesspool), NYT Picks (both sider-ism at its finest), or Readers’ Picks (the best option, because good, sensible comments–often challenging the BS in the paper–come up at the top).

  131. 131.

    Origuy

    @manyakitty: If you want to play a song at a public event, you don’t call up the artist. You go to a licensing agent like BMI or ASCAP with the list of songs you want, pay them the royalty fee, and they give you a license. Then they distribute the fee (after taking their cut) to the artists. The Stones may not even hold the copyright, especially for songs produced early in their career. They can ask Trump not to play the song, they may not have the right to stop him.
    Note, IANAL.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @Big Picture Pathologist:

    I know the numbers pale compared to the deplorable/fundagelicals who voted for Trump, but there appear to many voters who voted against Clinton because of her hawkish credentials.

    And those people are fucking morons. Seriously. Trump is running around threatening North Korea to the point that an experienced diplomat withdrew his nomination for ambassador to South Korea because he was asked to have plans to evacuate when the US bombs NK and its Hillary who was the warmonger?

    Fucking morons, every fucking one of them. The Republicans and Russians fed them a diet of anti-Hillary propaganda and they lapped it up and begged for more.

    Fuckem.

  133. 133.

    bemused

    @Tenar Arha:

    I’ve stopped reading profiles about those whiny, vile subhumans. I see enough of their bile without even trying. I hesitated to watch the Kimmel segment knowing it would probably upset me but it was Kimmel and I wanted to see how he handled it.

    It’s been really difficult for me and our liberal friends to feel the same way ever again about many of our relatives, friends and acquaintances since trump came on the scene even if they are not rabid rightwingers. Across the country, I think almost every liberal is experiencing this. We’re all exhausted.

  136. 136.

    PaulWartenberg

    with trump starting to rail against specific Congresspersons and Senators – something that I can’t recall any other previous President doing in public, not Obama and not Dubya and not even Clinton (even when Newt was trying to make it as personal a fight as possible) – I am starting to hark back to my World History / British History studies on the failures of one Charles I, who decided to deal with unruly Parliamentarians by raiding the House of Commons and trying to arrest them. When he failed, and it became clear he lost the support of the whole Commons, that started the English Civil War.

    What will we do when (not IF) trump tries that stunt on Congressional Democrats?

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @bemused:

    That’s been the Republican selfish, vicious mindset as long as I can remember

    Read up on conservative ideals since the founding of the country. It goes back a lot farther than anyone alive can remember. The public just has better access to the rot than they used to. And that works both ways. Informative and destructive.

  140. 140.

    Big Picture Pathologist

    @Mnemosyne:

    This is where the fact that Trump had zero political experience before running for president gate allowed him to be graded on a curve by low-information voters.

    It seems obvious to me that a person who was such a despicable human being wouldn’t turn things around once he became president.

    To be fair, though, Trump did that idiotic move after he became president. Don’t forget during his campaign he portrayed himself as having been against the Iraq war and adopt an anti-interventionist stance in general that appealed to these folks.

  141. 141.

    Yutsano

    @Betty Cracker:

    NHS may have challenges but I’m proud to be from the country that invented universal coverage

    Methinks Madam Secretary will be getting a call from the German Embassy here soon.

  144. 144.

    Barry

    @Sloane Ranger: “I have recently been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis and the Consultant has listed me for a total hip replacement. Yes, I will have to wait a few months but it will be done to the same standard as in the US and I will not have all the worries about what is and isn’t covered in my plan. All I will have to do is turn up when and where they tell me and do what the surgeon and physios tell me.”

    BTW, hip replacements take months in the USA, as well. Mine took seven months, when I had great health insurance.

    It’s been a remarkably effective BS campaign.

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    @bemused:

    We’re all exhausted.

    As much the point as any other possible outcome. They don’t need you to DIAF, they just need you to be so tired of the bullshit that you don’t fight any more. They know it’s bullshit, they don’t care it’s bullshit, their whole point is to shovel it upon you until you relent. And the ones that think it’s all true are their enablers. The entire republican party is now a cult. Like every cult it’s the cult that’s important, not the message. The message doesn’t have to be real it just has to support the cult.

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    @eclare:

    Thanks for providing the link into Twitter where Rep. Schiff’s response was located. I don’t use Twitter (nor Facebook) so needed the help. He did well.

    But those Russo-Republican replies, they were indeed from Mars, where there is no Oxygen to fuel their brain. Scary that human beings can believe wholesale the Russo-Republican sales pitch…

    Leaves me wondering what they will say and do when the vast majority of the current executive branch is indicted, and a little scared as well.

  149. 149.

    germy

    Nunes just went on Fox this morning and said Trump never met Papadopoulos.

    “As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even knew who Trump was — never even met with the president.” Nunes said, and of course they didn’t contradict him by showing the photographic evidence.

  150. 150.

    No Drought No More

    The Trumpster: “Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!”.

    Which, of course, also means Nunes may not be so recognized by a grateful posterity. I truly wonder if The Man From California understands that, i.e., if Nunes is smart enough to discern the flip side of Trump’s stirring witness of his fidelity to duty. Or rather, isn’t entirely the dumb shit that he otherwise looks to be.

    It’s almost amusing to hear virtually every talking head on MSNBC- journalists, guests, and democratic party spokes-folks alike- avoid addressing the complicity of congressional republicans in Putin’s attempted overthrow of the government of our inheritance, by completing the destruction of the Constitution of the United States of America. Leon Panetta referred to that plot just this morning as a “partisan” issue, for example.

  151. 151.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Yutsano: Germany has several different healthcare coverage systems requiring enrollment and judgements about how much or how little you earn, how much your employer pays as a contribution, that sort of pointless time-wasting bullshit.

    The British NHS is universal. “You’re covered.” No paperwork[1], no enrollment, no contributions, no judgements about earnings or capital. A lot of the other European healthcare systems have things like copays, charges for doctor visits etc. as well as requiring enrollment and the like.

    [1]The last time I registered with an NHS general practitioner’s office after moving I filled in a one-page form to give them my name and address, some personal details and who my last GP was to help them get my medical records, such as they were. That was back in… let me think, umm 2005? Since then, bupkis on the paperwork front.

  157. 157.

    dww44

    @Ruckus: Yep, there is an entire professional class largely invested in the profitability of our health services, and I’m not talking about the insurance professionals. The richest people in this small city are doctors. A fact easily verified by the sizes of the homes they build, the private schools that their children attend, and the huge gas guzzlers that their wives drive the kids to school and soccer practice in.
    Since 2000 most real industry in this town up and departed for greener pastures outside the country and the only growth industries are the Air Force base down the road in a really pro GOP/ Trump county and individual and institutional medical providers. Interestingly, the latter don’t want the ACA, Medicare, and Medicaid to go away as their incomes will drop and their facilities will simply shutter their doors as they have done in nearby, smaller communities.

  158. 158.

    Bill Arnold

    @patrick II:

    I have just visited Adam Schiff’s twitter account and there are a large number of Trumpies warning him that leaking classified information is a crime.

    An interesting recent development is that there are now plenty of secure ways[1] to leak that are pretty strong, unless active measures are taken like making all copies of a document per-instance-unique watermarked in a hard-to-detect way, e.g. by changing wording slightly in each copy. (Probably Congress isn’t doing this.)
    [1] e.g. https://securedrop.org/directory , or Signal on a burner phone, or … – sample contact page: https://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2016/news-tips/

    It would be best IMO if the US didn’t go down that road, but it will, if a serious attempt is made to shut down Trump/Russia investigation.

  160. 160.

    Amir Khalid

    @Origuy:
    To my knowledge, the Stones’ own publishing company owns all their songs from the Sticky Fingers sessions onward. But You Can’t Always Get What You Want is from the album just previous, Let it Bleed. And the Jagger-Richards songs to that point are owned by ABKCO, which was set up by their then-manager Allen Klein for his profit and control, rather than theirs. So that makes for less-than-ideal circumstances in which to sic lawyers on Trump.

    (Come to think of it, this is similar to the circumstances that let the copyright holder of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song catalogue sue John Fogerty the solo artist in the 1980s for plagiarising from John Fogerty who wrote nearly all of that band’s songs.)

  161. 161.

    Origuy

    @Amir Khalid: Thanks. I didn’t know the details of the situation. So ABKCO would have to take the action, not the Stones. I think the case is similar to that of a lot of artist who don’t own the rights to their early work.

  162. 162.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Nunes is as real an American hero as the Kentucky National Guardsmen who lost their lives at the Boweling Green Massacre.

    Did Trump Jr babble on about how the FBI probe is full McCaurthyism witch hunt, and pure communism?

  163. 163.

    MisterForkbeard

    @patrick II: The current given is that Schiff and Mueller both constantly leak classified information.

    There’s never any proof to any of this, and usually not even any specific accusations. He just, you know, DOES. And then they ignore Nunes’ actions, Trump’s actions, etc.

  164. 164.

    J R in WV

    @Big Picture Pathologist:

    If anyone here has the inclination, I would appreciate an opinion/takedown of Justin Raimondo’s latest column at Antiwar.com. Thomas Knapp, who always struck me as a mostly reasonable libertarian, has a blog post that also has a very…um, unconventional take on the Nunes memo.

    I used to feel like I had a reasonable grasp on the events thanks to this site as well as MSNBC coverage, but the points they make require a sharper mind than my chronically sleep-deprived brain can process.

    I’m compulsive about politics, have been since wife and I watched the Saturday Night Massacre come over the news-wires more than 45 years ago. We both worked at a small-town newspaper publisher with, at that time, AP. UPI (then very competitive with The AP), Wall Street Journal (IIRC) and NYTimes wire service.

    Back then the wire teletypes printed out news on fanfold paper, and when a big story was sent, the news bureau would assign a number of bells to ring, the more important the story the more rings, from 1 to 5. D-Day was probably a 5, as was the murder of John F Kennedy. As was the resignation of the AG, then the Deputy AG, then when the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, agreed to fire the Special Counsel.

    So lately I’ve been OCD about following the news.

    Raimondo is pretending the Nunes Memo is all we know about the FISC warrants, all we know about Page, all we know about Trump, all we know about the Russian attacks, and that every word of the memo is revealed truth. None of that is true or proper discussion.

    I do not recall any news about Carter Page prior to the election, unlike one of Raimondo’s assertions. The memo doesn’t mention anything about the FISA warrants from as early as 2013, but assumes there was no surveillance prior to 2016. Raimondo and the memo pretend that the FBI didn’t hear known Russian intelligence operatives talking about Page before the sought a FISA warrant, which is falsehood by omission.

    He seems to be whipping up a farrago of assertions and falsehoods into a resounding defense of Mr Trump and an attack on some of the roots of the nation [FBI, Justice Dept Judiciary, etc]. The distortions of time sequence to aide and abet his propaganda can easily make one dizzy, as well as his claim to be a patriot while pushing Russian lines of propaganda and hate for the majority of the nation.

    I believe this guy is one of the moles being used by Russia to attempt to destroy our Democratic way of life. Don’t go there any more without being prepared to face the barrage of lies, distortions, and Russian propaganda.

  165. 165.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And if you were a DoH officer jetting around the nation with that package of highly sensitive information about anti-terrorism strategy, who would be the worst possible person to your mind to find the package you left in your airline seat???

    A CNN staff member? Perhaps worst than a Democratic operative or even an ISIS mole. I was amazed and LOLed a lot.

  166. 166.

    WaterGirl

    @Adam L Silverman: Without knowing the names of the people involved or having context for that tweet, I can’t tell whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Who are the “investigators”?

  167. 167.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

    (Come to think of it, this is similar to the circumstances that let the copyright holder of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song catalogue sue John Fogerty the solo artist in the 1980s for plagiarising from John Fogerty who wrote nearly all of that band’s songs.)

    Actually, it was worse that mere plagiarism. The guy who had bought the Creedance Clearwater Revival catalog sued John Fogarty for his post-Creedance work because it sounded like the work he did with Creedance. In other words the purchaser attempted to stop Fogarty from sounding like himself, forever. So as to not interfere with the populatiry of the works he had bought.

    Even worse than the situation Prince found himself in. At first when Prince started playing as the “Artist Formerly Known as Prince” I thought he was having mental problems (as in egomaniac), until I learned that his recording company wanted to exert total and complete control over his music, and he was having none of it. But they couldn’t really control his work if it wasn’t work by “Prince” so he became not-Prince. Smart guy, as well as one of the best guitarists in the history of the electric version of the instrument.

  169. 169.

    J R in WV

    @Big Picture Pathologist:

    You’re welcome. I am an amateur, but a passionate one.

    There was a lot more wrong than my brief rant covers.

    I grew up in that small-town newsroom, and love the news business. I didn’t go into it as a career as it seemed too easy to me. I worked as a reporter/photographer a little bit, and then in the hot-type composing room, which I knew was a disappearing craft, which was why I wanted to learn it, before it was gone.

    I know several disappeared crafts and arts, including winding photo film onto spools to process exposed film into negatives or slides, which could then be used to create prints of photographs. Now we just push the buttons to make a print with a printer.

  170. 170.

    debbie

    winding photo film onto spools to process exposed film into negatives or slides, which could then be used to create prints of photographs

    Probably one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve gone through, especially when I was trying to get multiple rolls developed and printed the night before a final crit at art school. At one point, the instructor looked at me and asked if he’d ever get a group of photographs from me that were actually dry.

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