Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

In after Baud. Damn.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

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

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Russiagate Open Thread: First Bannon, Then Gates? Or the Other Way Around?

Russiagate Open Thread: First Bannon, Then Gates? Or the Other Way Around?

by | 246 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Anybody less prone to hyperbole want to extrapolate here? From the Washington Post:

House Republican leaders are weighing “further steps” to force former top White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon to answer investigators’ questions in their probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election — including potentially declaring him in contempt of Congress — after a Thursday interview they called “frustrating.”

Bannon came to speak with the House Intelligence Committee under a subpoena the panel issued on the spot last month, when he refused to answer questions related to the transition period and his tenure in the White House. The interview came after Bannon met with investigators in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe on Monday and Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the sessions…

The intelligence panel’s probe is not supposed to overlap with the objectives of Mueller’s investigation, but several events and people are common to both efforts. Bannon has not yet met with the Senate Intelligence Committee in its probe of Russian meddling in the election.

But in the House, Republicans and Democrats alike have been angered by Bannon’s repeated attempts to dismiss questions based on a claim to executive privilege that Trump never formally invoked, even when served with a subpoena.

Intelligence Committee member K. Michael Conaway (R-Tex.) said Thursday that he, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and a few others would decide whether to accept Bannon’s legal arguments against answering the panel’s questions or take punitive measures such as declaring him in contempt. The decision-makers will not include panel chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Conaway said…

Republican leaders are not expected to decide on a course of action until late February, after they return to Washington following a one-week recess, he said.

Schiff, however, demanded that the committee move to hold Bannon in contempt as soon as possible.

“I think contempt is the only road left open to us,” the Democrat said…

It sure sounds like the Repubs suspect Bannon is no longer loyal to La Familia GOP — but they don’t wanna risk raising his profile, either, just in case. And Rep. Schiff is needling them.

Then there’s this, per Vox:

… Rick Gates — Paul Manafort’s longtime junior business partner, and a 2016 Trump campaign staffer — is “finalizing” a plea deal in which he’d cooperate with the Mueller investigation, CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Sara Murray report. Gates has been in negotiations with Mueller’s team about cooperating for over a month, their report says, citing sources familiar with the case.

Back in October, Mueller’s team indicted Gates and Manafort on a combined 12 counts that mostly focused on alleged money laundering, failure to disclose financial assets, and false statements regarding their work for the government of Ukraine and a Russia-affiliated Ukrainian political party — matters that didn’t have anything specific to do with Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. (Both pleaded not guilty.)

But apparently, Mueller didn’t intend to stop there. The special counsel’s team had prepared superseding indictments that would add to or replace the original charges against both Manafort and Gates, per an earlier CNN report. Facing an expensive legal defense with no end in sight, Gates signed a new lawyer who has been working on cutting him a plea deal.

The biggest question, though, is whether Gates’s possible flip is mainly bad news for Paul Manafort concerning those lobbying and money laundering charges … or whether it would have even bigger implications for the investigation into Russian interference as a whole, and into President Trump specifically…

We’ve all been trained by years of watching/reading police procedurals: First to flip gets best terms. Presumably Gates and Bannon are just as aware of this truism as the rest of us.

Reader Interactions

246Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    We’ve all been trained by years of watching/reading police procedurals: First to flip gets best terms.

    The Prisoner’s Dilemma from game theory is also applicable.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    “Guys. You see that it’s not a subpoena, right. It’s an interview. Meaning, it’s time for some Game Theory, y’all!”

  3. 3.

    Amaranthine RBG

    Okay, was that picture of Bannon at the top of him leaving the Mueller interviews?

    I ask because he looks (COMPARATIVELY) great in that photo. Relaxed, well-groomed, not dyspeptic.

    You know the old adage that guilty people easily fall asleep in the back of cop cars after arrest because they know “Okay, I’m caught now – no need to worry about that anymore.”

    Just a little speculation.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    Mueller already knows where all the money went/came from. At this point, having Bannon pile on is probably akin to giggin’ a frog.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    whether to accept Bannon’s legal arguments

    Otherwise known as the You’e Not The Boss Of Me defense.

  9. 9.

    JPL

    Will Gates plea cause Manafort to rethink his silence? Tomorrow’s morning tweets should be interesting.

  11. 11.

    efgoldman

    The flipping will be so fast as to be invisible. They’ll all turn, every fucking one. On their best days they’re weasels and that’s what weasels do.

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    “So, Mr. Bannon. Thank you for coming in this morning. Would you like some coffee? Or maybe a soda?”
    BANNON: “Alright, ok! They did it! They did it all!! There were Russians and mobsters and offshore bank accounts! They knew everything about the underage sex and the tapes. And everything!”
    “Ok. So decaf it is, then?”
    BANNON: “Yeah, I guess. That and a deal. Thanks.”

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    Just a quick note/important point regarding Rick Gates: Gates did not, I repeat did not, leave the campaign with Manafort. He jumped over to the RNC and served as RNC liaison to the campaign. So he was involved all the way to through the end of the campaign. So if he’s cut a deal for testimony, he’s not only giving Mueller Manafort, he’s potentially giving Mueller details on the campaign all the way through to election day. After the election he, along with Brad Parscale (who was the campaign digital director) and Nick Ayers (a long time Pence aide/staffer) formed American First Policies, which was funded by Rebekah Mercer. So he also has the potential to deliver Parscale, Pence, and Mercer.

  19. 19.

    John Revolta

    I dunno from the Graham Nash equilibrium but I’d enjoy watching Bannon go a couple rounds of interrogation with Det. Sipowitz

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: Gates has been Manafort’s partner for a very long time. If he’s taken a deal, Manafort is not going to get one.

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    I ask because he looks (COMPARATIVELY) great in that photo. Relaxed, well-groomed, not dyspeptic.

    I read something in the past week or so that Bannon had shed something like 30 pounds since being fired from the WH, and IIRC had quit, or at least cut way back on, the booze.

    In that picture, it also looks as though he’s wearing only one shirt. Whatever’s going on, I agree with you, he does look more kempt than he used to.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m sure we’ll learn soon enough that he was just a random guy whose duties were limited to fetching coffee and making photocopies and Trump never once was in the same ZIP code as him.

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: Nice! That would help explain why Rebekah Mercer had that anodyne, repellent “I’m just a humble patriot from the heartland” op-ed in the WSJ today, yes?

    I’d wondered why she suddenly decided to “speak out for herself”…

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    So [Gates} also has the potential to deliver Parscale, Pence, and Mercer.

    Do I hear just a slight tinge of delight there, Adam? An-ti-ci-pation, like the old ketchup commercial?

    An-ti-ci-paayy-ayy-tion is…making (us) wait…

  32. 32.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @MaddowBlog
    8m8 minutes ago
    “[Gates has] had what criminal lawyers call a “Queen for a Day” interview, in which a defendant answers any questions from the prosecutors’ team, including about his own case and other potential criminal activity he witnessed.

    So, he sang, is what we’re saying.

    Something from the Freddy Mercury catalog it sounds like.

    I never even knew they had karaoke in court

  33. 33.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @Corner Stone:

    That is fantastic. Grow up to be sweaty, balding, foul-mouthed detective — then it’s perfect.
    And if you grow up to be anything else – it’s ironic.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    @Adam L Silverman: Manafort was the campaign manager for awhile, so he might still be able to provide inside info. It does appear that Mueller is looking at money laundering and since I watched Ozark, I know a little about money laundering. lol

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    @Anne Laurie: Whaaaaat? I can’t read more than the 1st paragraph but…that IS intriguing!

    “I normally prefer a lower profile” (SERVED WITH A BIG OL’ SIDE HELPING OF FUNDY-MENTALISM, RANDIAN LUNACY, and TREASON, that is!)

  44. 44.

    Doug R

    Don’t know what y’all are on about. The best interrogations in my opinion were in Homicide:Life on the Street delivered by Andre Braugher as Detective Pembleton.
    Something about that one camera technique…..

  47. 47.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: I absolutely love it that she is getting hers. Talk about the ultimate businesswoman taking …um…down the ultimate fake ass no businessman.
    I hope she either spills it all in a multi-million dollar book deal or gets straight paid and secretly tips Farenthold off to where to find the cash flow.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: Gates was Manafort’s deputy. If he can get Manafort, that’s great. But if Gates is cutting a deal, he doesn’t need Manafort.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: Wait…why would she do that if she never had an affair with The Donald? HOW could she do that if she never had an affair with him? And if they did…geez…didn’t ‘so smart’ Cohen get some sort of commitment for all that moolah he so generously put up for his friend (who MOS DEF did not have an affair with her?) He’s a lawyer…he didn’t include a “don’t have the gold dress that my friend Donald definitely didn’t bang you in DNA tested” clause?

    On second thought, forget that “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” that I and so many others have been pushing for once Don the Con is out one way or another. It’ll take too long and be too gross. Also: unnecessary as we are all Americans and forget our own kids’ names much less any lessons from history.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: Stormy Daniels saved a dress she wore during sex with Donald Trump — and plans to test it for his DNA: report

    As I believe Daniel Webster said, Sweet Dancing Moses!

    I’m a little embarrassed by how much I hope it’s true.

  56. 56.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: Setting aside her professional oeuvre, she is not a stupid woman. I remember when she was considering running against Senator Vitter (R – Wiped and Powdered). She was very articulate in the interviews.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jeffro:
    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/stormy-daniels-saved-dress-wore-sex-trump-plans-test-dna-report/

    A new report claims that porn star Stormy Daniels for years has held onto a dress she wore during a sexual encounter with President Donald Trump — and now she plans to get it tested for his DNA.

    Celebrity gossip site The Blast, which first broke news that Daniels planned to break her silence on her affair with Trump, now claims that the adult movie actress is in possession of a “Monica Lewinsky dress” that she will use as proof of her claims of her affair with the president.

    “Sources close to Daniels tell The Blast the shimmering gold mini dress with a plunging neckline was kept in pristine condition after her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump at the Lake Tahoe hotel suite,” the publication writes. “We’re told Daniels is planning on having the dress forensically tested to search for any DNA that proves she isn’t lying about her tryst with Trump, including samples of skin, hair or… anything.”

    The article notes a potential complication with the dress, however — proving it has Trump’s DNA on it would require Trump to submit some of his own DNA so it could be compared to any DNA found in the dress.

    Nonetheless, the publication writes that “any DNA that may be extracted from her dress that could possibly prove Trump was with her in the hotel room will be a big deal.”

  62. 62.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    She can write as many op-eds as she likes, she owns that mess.

    Yeah, but the average WSJ reader wouldn’t approach Breitbart no matter how good their internet security. Why would Rebekah suddenly be asking Rupert for a self-defense platform, if she didn’t sense she might need to start defending herself in front of a media jury of her (well-to-do, Repub/libertarian-leaning) peers?

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    I wonder how the ultimate Xtian VP Pence and Mother feel about the fact that Trump cheated on his current wife with a pr0n star. For money. Maybe someone could ask him?

  64. 64.

    efgoldman

    @Doug R:

    The best interrogations in my opinion were in Homicide:Life on the Street delivered by Andre Braugher as Detective Pembleton.

    Damn, that was a GREAT show!
    Trivia: Richard Belzer’s continuing John Munch character appeared on more different series over more years than any other in TV history. Besides Homicide and Lawnorder SVU,

    Munch has become the only fictional character, played by a single actor, to physically appear on 10 different television series. These shows were on five different networks: NBC (Homicide: Life on the Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, and 30 Rock); Fox (The X-Files and Arrested Development); UPN (The Beat); HBO (The Wire) and ABC (Jimmy Kimmel Live!). Munch has been one of the few television characters to cross genres, appearing not only in crime drama series, but sitcom (Arrested Development), late night comedy (Jimmy Kimmel Live!) and horror and science fiction (The X-Files).

    [wiki]

  65. 65.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    The phone interview for the job went fine today. It was only six minutes long and was pretty cut and dry. A position I was asked if I was interested in was cashier/lot attendant. Hours would be 15-20 a week with a starting pay of $8.55. A second interview with a “team member” is set for tommorow at 10 am. I’m looking forward to it.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Mueller’s racking up a lot of plea bargains. There is someone up the line he wants to nail to the fucking wall, and he’s willing to let all the lesser fish go to do it.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @Chet Murthy: @Adam L Silverman: @Gravenstone:

    On second thought, a very focused “Truth and Reconciliation Committee” dealing with whether or not Trumpov is trying to kill us with irony poisoning might be a good idea. Let us know what you think, evangelicals? Also, would like to hear more about the Cohen payment (NOT REIMBURSED NOT NOT NOT!) for services not rendered once the dress pants-es these guys.

    Hillary tweet: “DNA on a dress? Are you fucking kidding me??!? Jesus what a dumb motherfucker…”

  73. 73.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    new report claims that porn star Stormy Daniels for years has held onto a dress she wore during a sexual encounter with President Donald Trump

    The way it read when first posted here, it hinted she had one of Monica’s actual dresses. This is both more plausible and sweeter.

  80. 80.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    @Jeffro: Make it so. I want that gold digger Melania to be publically humiliated. She’s defended Twerp in the past. She’s fair game.

  86. 86.

    Percysowner

    @efgoldman: I have a dream that for the next big L&O:SUV/Chicago whatever crossover Beltzer will come out of retirement and make a tour of all the Chicago shows, just to up his numbers.

  89. 89.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Irrefutable evidence that her husband cheated on her being covered over a news cycle? Her filing for divorce on Trump (while still in office) and going for an interview with Mueller’s team would be the only way to top that.

  91. 91.

    efgoldman

    @John Revolta:

    Dennis Franz turns up a couple of times on Hill Street too.

    He was just an actor then, of course; NYPD Blue wasn’t on yet.
    Adam and i were discussing the ubiquity of some Lawnorder actors befire they got regular parts, notably Epatha Merkerson (Van Buren) and Jerry Ohrbach.
    It’s unnerving when two networks are showing rerunsd on the same day, and you can click around for a couple of hours and see the same actor/actress as a judge, a defendant, a lawyer…. it can be unnerving

  92. 92.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Archon: Eric. And Sean Hannity.

    Sam Seder brought up on national TeeVee (okay, MSNBC, but still….) the thing I’ve been wondering about: Could Spanky McJigglybottom have violated whatever artsy prenup deal he had for his merger with Melania. Besides the increased political stakes, does he have the cash to pay up?

  99. 99.

    Emma

    Hilary won’t say anything in public, but I am sure she’s toasting the fireplace in her library with a good glass of wine… or even a wee dram of Laphroaig.

  100. 100.

    John Revolta

    @Chet Murthy: She’s got Trump’s balls in a garlic press. What are they gonna do? Sue her? Put her on the witness stand? FSM doesn’t love me that much.

    @efgoldman: Yeah, if I recall it right Franz plays some kind of perp in one of the Hill Street episodes. He goes nuts at the end and it’s like Sipowicz dialed up to 12. Weird but great.

  101. 101.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Ahh, the old photocopier as lie detector. Simon recycled that from Homicide.

    Also showed up on The Unusuals (speaking of a show with many great character actors). Damn, I wish that show had gotten more than 10 episodes! — but they’d never have been able to afford Jeremy Renner now…

  112. 112.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: If I’m that lady I already had a few different passports and shell bank accounts ready for this day. I’m not giving Melania or her RIS handlers shit back.

  113. 113.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Emma:

    Hilary won’t say anything in public, but I am sure she’s toasting the fireplace in her library with a good glass of wine… or even a wee dram of Laphroaig.

    ¿Porque no los dos?

  115. 115.

    p.a.

    I’ll take a ‘fuck em any way you can’; money laundering, tax evasion, emoluments, yadda yadda, but dear FSM if the Rethug Pooty can get tarred with treason/sedition via charges against this congerie of creeps…???

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    You know it’s going to happen, though. Don’t make that a hill to die on, because every pundit, columnist, and headline writer in the country is going to use it. And use it. And use it.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    Apparently the President is upset with Senator Graham.

  119. 119.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    In that photo she really does look like Ivanka… never thought so before.

    Hoping the dress story is true, hoping the DNA works out too. So many things to hope for!!!

  120. 120.

    John Revolta

    @Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, I looked him up- Norm Buntz! Even had his own spin-off. But a couple of years before that he was a crooked cop who ends up getting killed.

    Does anyone remember Steve Landesberg playing a priest on Barney Miller before he turns up as Dietrich?

  121. 121.

    mai naem mobile

    @Adam L Silverman: you’re probably right but it could be Kelly and Nielsen too. I have no idea why Lindsay is bothering. He will never lose his seat and they’ve obviously got something awful on him.

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: somewhere in, I imagine, a dark paneled library in Sussex, or one of them sexes or shires or sets, Christopher Steele sips his port and smiles

    ETA:

    He will never lose his seat

    He might not lose his seat, but I think he could face a hell of a difficult primary, maybe one willing to talk about his personal life, or lack thereof. I think that’s why he jumped on Benghazi so early

  123. 123.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: Who knows with these folks. This also looks highly dubious:

  124. 124.

    Millard Filmore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I was thinking more current, like a guest at Mara-loco or Mrs. Trump.

    If reports start leaking out that Trump has become very picky about trash disposal, then we know what’s up.

  125. 125.

    mai naem mobile

    @SiubhanDuinne: if I was Hilary I would be going on some super luxury vacations with Bill, ofcourse with just the right celebrities. You want to wind Dolt45 up… let him watch you having fun with famous rich people. It isn’t like the Clintons don’t have the money and it’s not like they haven’t earned it.

  126. 126.

    John Revolta

    @SiubhanDuinne: ¿Porque no los dos?

    I like a wee dram of Laphroiag…………and I love a good glass of wine………………….but I’m having trouble thinking of a combination that would work.
    Of course, I’m always willing to learn.

  129. 129.

    Brachiator

    @Archon:

    Is there anyone on Earth that doesn’t believe Stormy Daniels?

    Trump supporters don’t believe her. Or don’t care.

    Evangelicals are even more pathetic. Since Trump could never play the “Jesus forgives me” card, they have to tell themselves that God chose the imperfect vessel Trump to make America great again.

  130. 130.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    We watched Spielberg’s Lincoln a few weeks ago and two “ER” alumnae showed up in it: S. Epatha Merkerson and Gloria Reuben.

    Plus Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) played a Union telegraph operator, which was a little weird. I think he had to sit down the whole time so it wouldn’t be obvious that he was taller than Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln.

  131. 131.

    Millard Filmore

    @John Revolta:

    Does anyone remember Steve Landesberg playing a priest on Barney Miller before he turns up as Dietrich?

    Yes and no. Not the original showing but it was rerun a few weeks ago. Church of the Street Corner or something, with a box of Gideons Bibles.

  132. 132.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If Melania’s friend actually shared some of that $25,000,000 with her friend Melania… the pre-nup might not matter so much. It isn’t a billion dollars, but as we now know, neither is Donald’s billion dollars a real billion dollars.

    I could live on half of $25MM dollars, personally, along with my parents and only son. Had I a son and living parents, which I don’t.

  133. 133.

    Redshift

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Apparently the President is upset with Senator Graham.

    Yeah, he keeps working on these bipartisan deals they have to reject. If it wasn’t for that, their “give us everything we want in return for nothing” plan would totally work.

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Millard Filmore: Harry Morgan played a crazy general during the Henry Blake years of MASH. And Garrett Dilahunt played to smallish but very significant, and very different parts on Deadwood.

  137. 137.

    Tenar Arha

    @Adam L Silverman: I’ve been avoiding any news from Florida, as I can. So my brain’s self-defense is apparently happier spinning off Stormy divorce theories, because otherwise it’s really really mean up in here.

  139. 139.

    Trollhattan

    Watching the Sounders but no Dempsey tonight. Skill level rift between MSL and USL duly noted. 2 hours of no politics, priceless, even if it is cold as hell.

    Remember to hydrate.

  143. 143.

    Mnemosyne

    @zhena gogolia: l

    IIRC, Sipowicz was supposed to die in the first episode of NYPD Blue, or possibly at the end of the first season, but I think David Caruso was already getting a little squirrely, so the showrunners changed their minds and let Sipowicz live. And when Caruso left, Franz became the star.

  145. 145.

    mike in dc

    Mueller going 3 for 4 should scare the hell out of everyone in the Trump team, and every Republican in the House and Senate. If Paulie Walnuts flips next, they have to assume the worst about the allegations and factor that a lot more heavily into their craven political calculations. If Mueller goes 4 for 4, a lot of the President’s team, and his supporters in the Congress will decide it’s time to cut and run.

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Guess this thread will do to throw in my little bit of inside dirt.

    I had lunch yesterday with the media-connected friend I’ve known since J-school. One of my friend’s other friends is currently covering the White House for a major publication. That person says that the relationship between Trump and Melania is now so toxic that White House aides and interns have to perform elaborate “traffic management” so that the two of them don’t even meet accidentally in the halls. Good times.

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    @B.B.A.:

    Oswalt does a ton of local, non-televised awards shows, like the Annies (animation) awards and the Writer’s Guild awards. This year, he opened the Writer’s Guild show by saying, “Welcome, fellow Disney employees!” since Disney just bought Fox’s movie and TV divisions.

  149. 149.

    efgoldman

    @John Revolta:

    Does anyone remember Steve Landesberg playing a priest on Barney Miller

    Yup. Given his standup and obvious ethnicity it was an inside joke. Another gfeat amd underrated show.
    Brent Spiner (SSTTNG Data) appeared a couple of times as a combination street person and con man.

  157. 157.

    dmsilev

    @Mnemosyne: It’s been a while, but I think Jimmy Smits got top billing for a while after Caruso left, and it was only after Smits also left (much more amicably) that Dennis Franz became the headliner.

  159. 159.

    Adam L Silverman

    @chris: The IG investigation will go a long way to getting a Federal court to stay any ruling on the Sinclair-Tribune merger.

  162. 162.

    Mnemosyne

    @dmsilev:

    Weird as this may sound, billing doesn’t necessarily determine who the lead character of a show is. Smits got top billing because he was a bigger name than Franz thanks to “LA Law,” but Sipowicz was the lead character of the show.

  168. 168.

    efgoldman

    @chris:

    FCC chairman Ajit Pai of net neutrality fame is under investigation

    My daughter the journo hates him with the heat….
    But she could never let it show in her writing.

    ETA: Couldn’t fool Dad

  169. 169.

    Ruckus

    @Archon:
    I want to believe her. I think it would be one more thing to nail him on. Because you know that the money was not handled in any way correctly. But to be honest I don’t really care, but if she’s willing to be in any way close to or naked in the same room with him, that’s a six figure day minimum in my book. So that $130K seems not at all unreasonable.
    OTOH,
    ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww……….

  173. 173.

    mai naem mobile

    I can’t stand Ajit Pai and want him to go down but this administration has so many scumballs I want to see go down that I am not even sure he makes my top ten. Probably the top fifteen. Tom Wheeler, Obamas FCC guy said Pai didn’t even show up for the meetings and basically refused any attempts Wheeler made to reach out to him. Wheeler wasn’t even any hippy dippy liberal.

  177. 177.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @mai naem mobile:

    [. . .] so many scumballs I want to see go down that I am not even sure he makes my top ten.

    You’re bumping into the BJ tumbrel paradox. By my calculation, we currently have 189 people with single-digit tumbrel numbers. Got to be some triage done, or else we need a TARDIS-like tumbrel— bigger on the inside than the outside.

  178. 178.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Brian Fucking Williams running down the NRA donations on thots-and-prayrs Republicans. Even St McCain.

  181. 181.

    efgoldman

    @GregB:

    I WILL INDICT NETANYAHU WITHOUT HESITATION IF NECESSARY

    Tick tock tick tock

    But they’ll just replace him with another RWNJ approved by Adelson.

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Money is everything to them, more important than air and water, so of course they are going to accept the NRA’s money. It doesn’t hurt that they agree with the NRA either.
    thoughts and prayers are the absolute very least they can do, but in their world it is doing something. Of course they don’t ever intend to do anything at all so that’s a pretty high wall for them.

  196. 196.

    sdhays

    @mai naem mobile: Wheeler is an interesting guy. I remember reading an interview with him where he made the argument that people would look at him and say that he was “an industry lobbyist” and conclude that he would side with his former employers, but those people would fail to look at exactly who his former clients were. They actually tended to be the smaller players (not Comcrap or Verizon or AT&T) who would benefit from a more active FCC. He was no socialist (what does that even mean anymore?), but he believed in creating fairness in the market place.

    His subsequent actions, I think, backed up that view.

  198. 198.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Suzanne: Olenna is just wonderful. Only she could fret about the impropriety of the killing of your rivals at the Red Wedding as she’s preparing to poison Joffrey.

  205. 205.

    Yutsano

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I call foul good sir. Lady Olenna Redwyne was far too noble and intelligent to be compared to those two foul creatures. Hell it wouldn’t shock me if she faked dying just to come back to troll Ceresi.

    Plus Diana Rigg. How the fuck do you kill Diana Rigg?

  206. 206.

    sdhays

    @efgoldman: But will the successor be able to hold it all together? Netanyahu’s strength has been his ability to remain at the center of Israeli politics despite the fact that almost everyone despises him because politics have gotten so screwed up there (it’s a big club). If he gets removed, does that start some tectonic forces that shift Israeli politics in (possibly dangerous) ways it hasn’t been able to for years?

  207. 207.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @sdhays:

    If he gets removed, does that start some tectonic forces that shift Israeli politics in (possibly dangerous) ways it hasn’t been able to for years?

    Let’s talk about that.

  209. 209.

    efgoldman

    @sdhays:

    will the successor be able to hold it all together?

    I haven’t followed Israeli politics except to note that Bibi and his crowd are as bad as our domestic RWNJs.
    If he steps down, my guess is that elections come pretty quickly

  214. 214.

    lamh36

    Dont’ know who’s still up, but I just made it home from my viewing, and I’ll talk more after work tomorrow, but…

    #BlackPanther ?????OMG…It was even better than I expected!! That’s all I’ll say for now, but everything reviewers have said about it it true. It is like NO Marvel movie you’ve ever seen.

    Ryan Coogler, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Guaria…Lupita all were great, but MICHEAL.B.FUQ’N.JORDAN was a revelation!!! And Leticia Wright STOLE every scene she was in!

    I’ve already told my peeps on FB and twitter, that y’all got 1 week (or maybe the weekend) and all bets are off for spoilers!!!

    Even if you’ve never seen a superhero film you’ve ever liked…this one might just be the one to change ur point of view. Like I said, it is like NO OTHER Marvel, DC or any other superhero film you seen in a long while!

    I highly recommend it…
    #WakandaForever

    ETA: Also too, the trailer left out ALOT…there is MORE there!

  218. 218.

    John Revolta

    I don’t know but I’ve been told that there’s been a lot of Russians moving to Israel. But I haven’t heard anybody talk about the politics involved.

  219. 219.

    Mary G

    @lamh36: I almost bought really expensive tickets for the 3D showing at the luxury theater, so I guess I will now. They still have wheelchair seats open for Sunday and Monday.

  220. 220.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: Given my job, it will be awhile before i can see it. Please don’t do spoilers. Or if you must, please label them. This is one of the few Super Hero movies I want to see in the theater.

  223. 223.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: I won’t be doing any spoilers on here…no worries. I can’t promise the same on my FB or twiiter after the weekend, but I swear I’m gonna try to hold out until at least Monday or later! But no promises past Monday…

  233. 233.

    dmsilev

    @lamh36: Glad it lived up to your expectations. I’m planning on seeing it next weekend (have family in town this weekend and already have a fairly full schedule) and everything I’ve heard so far is very very good.

  234. 234.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    One of my friends was disappointed to hear that Michael B. Jordan was playing the villain because she loved him so much in Creed, but everyone is raving about how good he is in the part, so I think she’ll get over it. ?

  236. 236.

    patrick II

    Don Lemon had an interview with a young lady, Carly Novell, who attended Parkland High and was a friend of many of the young people who were murdered there. Her mother, Merri Novell, had to hide during a shooting in the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. Merri’s father was present at the first American mass shooting in 1949. Our first three generation public shooting potential victim family. We should be so proud.

  237. 237.

    J R in WV

    @lamh36:

    Lamh, should we see it in 3D, or stick to normal vision? I hear it’s really well done 3D, with amazing scenes the nearly depend upon the 3-D…??

  239. 239.

    piratedan

    so…just trying to make the required updates to the scorecard thus far….

    if the speculation that Gates has flipped is true…. for those following the moneyball aspect of things, doesn’t this put us squarely astride the financials for both the Trump campaign and the RNC? The same RNC which also appears to be a major one stop shopping mall of all things politically dirty…
    … the money
    …. the political hacking
    …. the social media angle
    …. and the voter rights shenanigans.

    Is it really possible that every single one of these folks are dirty, tainted complicit… at one point in time, I would have been incredulous (I know, that’s so 2015 of me) but as Adam has been saying over and over again, multiple lines of penetration at multiple levels….

    As I watch our country under this kind of assault, politically, economically and ethically I kind of feel like we’re at that scene in that old late 70’s classic The Warriors when the new leader of the Grammercy Riffs (now recast as Bobby Three Sticks) starts barking out orders….

    Who ARE the GOP?
    I want the GOP, I want all of the GOP…
    I want them alive if possible, if not… wasted….. send the word…..

    and then we get the tunage playing on the radio…..

    Nowhere to run now baby, nowhere to hide……

  240. 240.

    Zinsky

    @Steeplejack (phone): It doesn’t surprise me, steeplejack. Can you imagine being married to this sexist pig? Disgusting! I wouldn’t even want to even be in the same room as this creepy pervert!

  242. 242.

    Procopius

    @Corner Stone: I think he’s over interpreting that. If I get an “invitation” from a special prosecutor I know damned well that if I politely decline I’m soon going to be getting a subpoena. If I spend 20 hours being “interviewed” by a special prosecutor, how does that differ from being interrogated for 20 hours? If the special prosecutor subpoenas me, can’t it still be called an Interview? Why is this jamoke so sure it’s NOT a subpoena? There’s been so much gaslighting going on since November 2016 I try not to put too much weight on the meaning of words, which have become very plastic.

  245. 245.

    RobNYNY

    @Corner Stone: She might be able to compare it to DNA on the dress of that Playboy model who just came forward. If it matches, that would be something, though not conclusive.

  246. 246.

    WaterGirl

    @efgoldman:

    tI’s unnerving when two networks are showing rerunsd on the same day, and you can click around for a couple of hours and see the same actor/actress as a judge, a defendant, a lawyer…. it can be unnerving

    Just one question: when that happens, do you hear music playing? Like maybe the twilight zone music?

Comments are closed.