It looks like it’s going to be a cage match. Devin Nunes’s committee says “No collusion, Hillary’s the puppet.” That contradicts an intelligence community finding. Lots of people are irritated. This will get worse.
BREAKING: GOP just shut down House Intel investigation, leaving questions unanswered, leads unexplored, countless witnesses uncalled, subpoenas unissued.
If Russians have leverage over the President, GOP has decided that it would rather not know. The minority's work continues: pic.twitter.com/oOf13n75Vo
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 12, 2018
.@ODNIgov: "The Intelligence Community stands by its January 2017 assessment, 'Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections.' We will review the HPSCI report findings." – @jimsciutto reports
— Adam Levine (@cnnadam) March 12, 2018
NEWS: GOP on House Intel reach conclusion: No evidence of collusion between Trump camp and Russia. GOP draft report will also contend that evidence does NOT support intel community assessment that PUTIN tried to help Trump win. Ds yet to see report. https://t.co/jeFAQc1hi2?amp=1
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 12, 2018
Also: House GOP does NOT plan to hold Bannon in contempt; and Conaway defends lack of subpoenas to Trump associates by saying “we are not entirely confident” that the subpoena process would get them more info than they already have
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 12, 2018
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says he's "not surprised" by the House Intel Committee concluding that Russia didn't meddle in the 2016 election. "This is not bipartisan by any stretch" https://t.co/URKWcE1lIg pic.twitter.com/D4KU7WndMx
— CNN International (@cnni) March 12, 2018
Here's the 1-page summary of House Intel majority's final report on the Russia probe pic.twitter.com/NU4rd2vb5Z
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) March 12, 2018
ruemara
I sincerely hope the NYC FBI is shunned by every other FBI office. Who’s running this government now? Trump, 4 jellybeans and a meth-addled penguin?
schrodingers_cat
The new question is how compromised is the Republican party? Is that why they smoothed the Russian asset’s way to their party’s nomination?
N. M. Norton
They’ve also discovered that Hitler had no ambitions in Czecho, it was all overblown. Despite the tanks.
Frankensteinbeck
@ruemara:
A whole lot of people painfully aware that their boss is too stupid to know what orders to give to stop them.
Mary G
They have no shame. What is our country coming to? I hope Lamb wins tomorrow or I will go into a major depression. It’s funny, now that Issa is out I am having trouble figuring out the best way to resist, other than donating more money than I can afford to spend to Doug’s funds and other candidates that impress me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“If it’s what you say it is, I love it! Especially later in the summer”
I want someone to make a Republican explain how that sentence isn’t “collusion”.
For fuck’s sake
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
Who leaked that to you?
? Martin
“We talked to these folks and none of them had ever heard of Russia.”
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Completely and utterly.
People keep telling me this will somehow end without one side having to kill the other.
I find that harder to believe on days like this.
jl
” GOP draft report will also contend that evidence does NOT support intel community assessment that PUTIN tried to help Trump win. ”
And Burr leaning that way too? And blatantly contradicting himself while saying so?
I guess the silver lining to this shit cloud is that they want to go a bridge too far and completely discredit themselves. My thoughts jump to possibility that GOP campaign finance machinery itself is deeply implicated, and the GOPers are desperate to shovel it all under the rug. I won’t type any more hopeful things about what Burr might do on the Senate side.
Baud
@Mary G: I’d like to hope that this cover up attempt energizes our voters in that district.
hellslittlestangel
Intelligence committee vs actual intelligence.
Frankensteinbeck
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t recall them doing that. I recall the Republican primary voters preferring Trump over a field of the most pathetically weak candidates ever to assemble. The party tried to give it to Jeb, a man SO BAD at campaigning that he had to beg his audience to clap. Now, once Trump had the nomination, absolutely anything was worth it to take and hold power.
MisterForkbeard
Wow. So, issued a report disregarding all FBI findings, didn’t let the Democrats on the committee see it, blamed all collusion on Russians, attacks the Clinton campaign for getting information “from russian sources”, meaning…. the Steele Dossier, which wasn’t even used. Oh, and blames Obama for a lackluster response. Also also: decided not to subpoena anyone or punish flagrant lying by Trump-friendly witnesses, or even compel testimony by Trump witnesses that improperly made up Executive Privilege claims.
Well, that answers that question. They’re bought off. Now I’m curious as to what happens to these fuckers when the lid is inevitably blown off. Can we get criminal prosecutions? (no)
JGabriel
Adam Schiff via Cheryl Rofer @ Top:
Or, the Russians have leverage over Nunes, et al., as well as Trump, and the House GOP has decided it would rather not reveal that it’s a co-conspirator with Trump and Russia.
Cheryl Rofer
@JGabriel: I was kind of amazed that Schiff would say that so plainly.
ruemara
@TenguPhule: Nunes.
@JGabriel: That’s the truth.
El Caganer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “What is the sound of one collusion clapping?” HTF can you have collusion only by one party? This is gibberish.
Shalimar
That 1 page summary includes way too many words, no pictures. They must not want Trump to read it.
JGabriel
@schrodingers_cat:
Utterly.
Baud
@JGabriel: Indubitably.
MisterForkbeard
@jl: You know, I missed that. Burr simultaneously says Russia tried to collude with Trump (but it wasn’t reciprocated, totally!), and also that Russia wasn’t trying to help Trump win. Right.
Roger Moore
It’s worse than that. They agree with Trump that it’s desirable to leave the door open to further attacks on the electoral process because that’s their best hope of victory going forward.
FlipYrWhig
What a humiliating display.
Mike in DC
I hope the next HPSCI, chaired by Schiff, subpoenas the Republican members of the last committee.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: I agree. The final GOP effort to stop Trump in late primaries fell down and couldn’t get up. It was such a pathetic disorganized effort, and so hopeless in the face of overwhelming GOP primary voter preference that it is hard to remember now.
I do think that after foreign assistance was offered to Trumpsters, and, apparently from what we know so far, they were too disorganized and incompetent to do much about it, the offer could have been redirected to GOP operatives and financiers, and allied interest groups like NRA, who were able to organize effectively and make good use of it.
Cheryl Rofer
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@JGabriel: At all levels, as Adam would say.
efgoldman
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’m not. I’m amazed that the Dems have shown so much restraint for so long.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
these asses don’t know their asses from their elbows
ETA: just double-checked, Rooney is on the committee
MisterForkbeard
@Cheryl Rofer: Is this when the IC starts leaking classified intercepts for the greater good? We’re getting closer and closer to it all the time. And that would be bad. >_<
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So… the Russians didn’t have a preference for Trump, but helped him. Oh, and hated Hillary and attacked her. But they totally didn’t prefer Trump.
The mind, it boggles.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer: If the IC doesn’t push back a lot harder, they’re gonna lose the credibility gap to those assholes with the public which isn’t paying attention.
Mary G
Some good news:
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
It hasn’t been helpful, that’s for sure.
All we seem to get in return for restraint as a party is punches to the face.
Adam L Silverman
The issue is not collusion, it’s conspiracy. And all the real action is in Mueller’s investigation.
Given the CBRN attack in the UK last week, I expect we’ll start to see some strategic leaking from our historic allies and partners to counter the Lajes gambit.
Cheryl Rofer
@MisterForkbeard: I’m seeing people speculate that on Twitter. The Mueller investigation continues, and the IC wouldn’t want to damage that.
JGabriel
@Cheryl Rofer:
I wish I was. It should be amazing. The level of corruption in the GOP is breathtaking.
And, yet, it’s also become entirely predictable.
WaterGirl
@efgoldman: I’m not surprised, either. I’m not on twitter, but I do keep Adam Schiff’s twitter page open in my web browser, and i look at it daily. He’s pretty good at calling out Trump, on a regular basis, in no uncertain terms.
VeniceRiley
I need republicans impeached, removed, voted out, disgraced, and imprisoned by the dozens before I will be mollified.
Baud
@Adam L Silverman:
I see what you did there.
jl
Are there any Congressional Committees looking into meddling and collusion with regard to future elections?
Baud
@WaterGirl: Schiff is awesome.
JGabriel
@MisterForkbeard:
Of course Russia attacked Hillary. She was their puppet.
GOP Logic – the logic that isn’t.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: it js
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
May went public in such a big way (public speech to Parliament). What retaliatory recourse does she have? It’s a little late to re-activate 007.
JGabriel
@VeniceRiley:
And Putin disgraced or dead. Preferably both.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Well the R’s see the handwriting on the wall. They are going to get their asses kicked this year. Shut it down now, so that when the Dems start a new investigation they can spend all their time yelling “Witch hunt !” And the MSM will help the R’s all the way. I hope Adam’s right, lots of leaking from Stormy to the UK and beyond !
debbie
@JGabriel:
Putin needs to be kicked out of the UN for war crimes in Syria, along with all this other crap.
Baud
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Agreed.
patrick II
@El Caganer:
Nice. I was trying to think of the proper metaphor, but ” one hand clapping ” is perfect.
JGabriel
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
Maybe, but I suspect most Republicans are hoping that Russians will hack the elections again and steal it for the GOP.
Patricia Kayden
@Mary G: It’s shameful that Republicans are all in with Trump and will protect him at all costs. I assume that they are either covering up for Russia because they believe Russia will help them in future elections and/or Russia has dirt on them since it is known that Russia hacked the RNC at the same time it hacked the DNC.
But yes, resist we must. Marching with the students on March 24th is a good start as well as participating in organized acts of resistance whenever possible. Donating to organizations which promote voting rights is also another way to keep our democracy alive.
MisterForkbeard
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: I expect to see a lot of “Democrats attacked Republicans for repeatedly investigating Benghazi and called it a witch hunt. Aren’t you a hypocrite for wanting to investigate Trump about Russia again?”
NotMax
Is it co-signed by Sgt.Schultz?
WaterGirl
I would like to think that Putin and the republican traitors are all overplaying their hands. Both are behaving as if they are invincible – Putin with the obvious public murder in London and the Republicans in every way possible.
I feel like we’re missing something because there is no plausible deniability at this point. We need to reign in the Republicans and the world needs to reign in Putin. Somehow.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@JGabriel: Nothing would be surprising at this point.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: MI6 knows it’s business.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
If it were anyone else but May and the Conservative Party, economic and counter-espionage.
As it stands now, words. Just empty words.
TenguPhule
@debbie: Russia is sadly a permanent member. Just like the USA.
Cheryl Rofer
TenguPhule
@WaterGirl:
But who will bell the cat?
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: I just had a terrible thought. Just like the Republican obstruction on the supreme court vacancy – where we couldn’t really see what they would gain because we thought Hillary would win and they would someone worse than Garland but they KNEW the election was being stolen – what if the Republicans KNOW that we are being hacked for 2018 and beyond, so they are confident that if they can stonewall long enough, they win forever?
patrick II
@MisterForkbeard:
If they actually believed that they would take this opportunity to correct it.
And also, If there is no Russian conspiracy, a lackluster response to what?
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Are they capable of wetwork inside Russia?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Look for Rooney to issue a “Donald Trump is the greatest winningest president and kindest warmest bravest…” statement first thing tomorrow
TenguPhule
@patrick II:
Not doing enough to stop Hillary’s collusion with Russia to hurt Donald Trump.
I wish I was joking about this.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: I thought all the Republicans on the committee were in lock step with their majority report. Not so? If not, I’d like to see names named and Republicans taking sides.
Never mind. I didn’t read carefully enough. He’s GOP but not ON the committee.
Baud
@WaterGirl: That’s what they want us to think.
JGabriel
OT, but, wow, the Trump administration actually did something I agree with: Trump Blocks Broadcom’s Bid for Qualcomm:
I do suspect, though, that Trump probably jumped the gun and the offer would have failed anyway.
Mike in NC
Is there a (very) short list of Republicans in Congress that aren’t on the Kremlin payroll? Asking for a friend.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Well, if they think we are just going to roll over this time, they have another think coming.
MisterForkbeard
@Cheryl Rofer: Please tell me he’s referring to the House Republicans on the committee, and not “America” or whatever at large. If so, props for mild self-awareness but dude forgot to mention that they’re trying to cover up potential conspiracy and are flouting current law to do it.
efgoldman
@WaterGirl:
What if the Volusians come down and eat all of us for dinner?
We have to proceed on the assumptions that (1) the election will be more or less on the up and up and (b) the anticipated blue wave is coming.
Baud
Chris Hayes is giving Kasich air time on guns. Why?
Mary G
@WaterGirl: According to my twitter, which may or may not be accurate, Rooney is waffling back and forth between “nothing to see here” and “the Russians did try to help Trump, but nothing illegal happened.” Seems like Nunes jumped the gun before they got their story straight.
In the end, based on past performance, they will all fall in line, because the base loves Trump and will vote out doubters.
ETA: Never thought I’d find myself saying this, but I wish John McCain was healthy and around, because I can’t see him putting up with Devin’s nonsense.
jl
@WaterGirl: ” I feel like we’re missing something because there is no plausible deniability at this point. ”
The GOP probably hopes that there will be plausible deniability with a substantial portion of independents who believe that the Democrats are hyping the Russian collusion story for partisan gain. How that will pan out depends on whether Democratic Party gets out its own constructive alternative to unpopular Trump and GOP policies, and what else turns up on Russian front in the news.
rikyrah
They need to start dropping shyt on the Republicans – period.
Don’t hold back.
They’re in war, in case they don’t know it.
Start with that phucking Nunes.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Because we’re living in the Darkest Timeline.
I blame Baud.
NotMax
@WatergIrl
Putin’s trump card (no pun intended) is ferreting out and knowing where bodies are buried, what the skeletons in the closet are and how to utilize such information to his advantage. Aside from his own time immersed within the secret police, runs in the family. His grandfather was a cook for both Lenin and then Stalin; one doesn’t successfully outlast such employers without keeping a sharp ear to the ground.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I always wonder if Hayes has all those R’s on because of orders from Lack and Griffin, or his desire to be such a pleasant and earnest young man. His show is the reason I know who Mo Brooks is, fercrissake.
I think Maddow has said on the air she can’t get any elected Rs to come on her show (which is fine with me).
Cheryl Rofer
@MisterForkbeard: Hard to say. I’m just getting fragments on Twitter.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Because the alternative isn’t pretty.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They know she won’t roll over for them.
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC:
No. SATSQ.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s the worst part of his show.
WaterGirl
@jl:
I think that ship has already sailed. The only independents who would fall for that are Republicans who don’t want to admit to it publicly.
TenguPhule
And Trump completes his walkback for the NRA on gun control.
As predicted.
TenguPhule
@WaterGirl:
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the gullibility of the American public.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Hmmm. If looking like traitorous fools seems like the best option for them, then maybe things aren’t as grim as I think they are.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember when Maddow embarrassed the hell out of Rand Paul. That was fun.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: If the had coalesced behind one person, they could have kept the current President from getting the nomination, I remember that he did not do all that well in the early primaries, he got around 30%.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I LOVED Hayes on his weekend show, but he became unwatchable about 45 minutes after he got his evening show.
Ella in New Mexico
I wanna be calm, positive and rational and say that this event is actually just an expected and isolated situation, one in which a bunch of really corrupt political folks on the HSPCI who are in some kind of cahoots desperately need to get Trump off the hook because either someone has them by the balls or they simply want him there, regardless of what it does to the country.
But there’s this sinking feeling inside me that says “Buckle up. This is the way it’s ALL gonna go down. No one can stop him or his family, no one can stop the people behind the scenes who are REALLY benefitting by allowing Sir Orange Clownballsack to be the President while they rape, kill, pillage and burn the entire Federal government. Enjoy 8 years of Donald J. Trump, the Koch/Mercer/DeVos/Ayn Rand cabal and the last days of the Great Republic we once knew.
For once I’m actually glad it was spring forward week, cuz it puts me one hour closer to my strict rule of no alcohol before 7pm.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
The problem was that they had so many candidates that 30% was a commanding lead.
B.B.A.
@JGabriel: It’s on “national security” grounds rather than antitrust like any reasonable person would think of. Broadcom has its nominal headquarters in Singapore, therefore it’s a bunch of eeeevil furriners trying to steal our national greatness and impurify our bodily fluids. But if they move their registration back to the States, they’ll be Real Merkins again and their monopolization of microchips will be just dandy.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Same here.
TenguPhule
@Ella in New Mexico:
I fully expect that if Trump is declared the winner on Nov 8, 2020, Canada invades us the next day out of self preservation.
Patricia Kayden
@VeniceRiley: Voted out in November would be a nice start.
JGabriel
TenguPhule:
… Aside from the makers of Cutthroat Island.
WaterGirl
@Baud: It’s sad when people like Hayes and 538 sell out as soon as they make it to the big league.
DissidentFish
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’ll admit that how it seemed — but looking back the rapid evaporation of Walker, Bush, Kasich, Fiorina, and later Rubio and Cruz kind of stinks. Walker it might have been a conversation with his funders, but the others were at a minimum hurt badly by social media, and that’s raises a red flag. I have been thinking that the Russians were part of that, and lets face it, it’s hardly a bridge too far for them. I don’t know we’ll ever know the truth but honestly, that the Russians were at the heart of Trump’s rise in the primaries is a possibility. Others might have defeated Clinton — only Trump would do Putin’s bidding, give Putin veto over appointments, and coddle the financial interests of the oligarchs.
Patricia Kayden
@patrick II: Good catch. It was McConnell who threatened President Obama when President Obama wanted to jointly make a bipartisan announcement about Russian interference in our presidential election.
RAM
@schrodingers_cat: Actually, that’s the old question. The new question is how deep the rot goes.
TenguPhule
@JGabriel:
To be fair, they were probably ahead of their time by 23 years.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Totally OT, did you ever start watching Black Lighting? If so, what do you think of it?
Pseudonym
@schrodingers_cat: And the strongest alternative to Trump was Cruz, who everyone already hated.
Baud
@WaterGirl: I will never sell out!
@WaterGirl: Yes, I watch it. It’s good but I’m getting concerned about the plot getting complicated. I’m a simple man who likes simple stories.
WaterGirl
@Baud: That’s why I will always support you!
I still like it and watch it, but I think the first two episodes were the best so far.
JGabriel
@B.B.A.:
Yeah, I know, but this is one of the rare times I’m okay with the right thing, wrong reason, dynamic.
Recently had a situation where a Broadcom-based router wouldn’t work – couldn’t connect to an 802.11 ac Wave 2 router despite advertised specs saying it was compatible. Had to replace it with a Qualcomm router which worked perfectly. So I really don’t want to see Broadcom take over Qualcomm and screw them up. Plus, of course, I share the anti-trust concerns you mentioned.
WaterGirl
I like that Connor Lamb hasn’t been hounding me for more donations since I first donated. He has written twice tonight, though, so I finally pitched in for one last donation just now. He said it will make a difference. :-)
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
The goal isn’t to make sense. It’s to throw up enough different theories to keep everyone confused and unable to follow the truth.
Aleta
JGabriel
@Pseudonym:
Maybe in the primaries. In the general election, Kasich probably would have been the strongest – but the GOP base hated him for not hating the ACA.
JMG
Just call them the party of treason. Each Dem candidate should call each Republican a traitor to their faces. Make them own it. Fuck civility. Fuck the Village fainting couch. Just say it. Treason. Traitors. Over and over and over.
TenguPhule
@Aleta:
At this point, I’ll go for the lesser of the two evils available please.
Aleta
Jay
@Ella in New Mexico:
Both the House and the Senate, ( less so) were/are partizan political theatre.
The real investigation is Meuller,
and probably after this event, the IC and Allies.
In their willingness to throw US National Security under the bus, for Trump, Putin and Tax Cuts, the Republican House just made themselves permenent life long targets.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: That’s kind of sobering.
El Caganer
Speaking late this afternoon for GOP members of the committee, Devin Nunes announced that “we have seen no evidence” of gambling in Rick’s Cafe.
WaterGirl
I am hoping, praying, begging for a Connor Lamb win tomorrow.
On a different subject, whatever happened to the conflict for the Mall for March 24? I haven’t heard of any resolution, and the last stories I find on google are from March 1 when the conflict was first announced. Anybody know what’s happening there?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@JGabriel:
They won’t be able to credibly overcome it. People will see through it and demand new elections and refuse to seat those aided by foreign interference.
cmorenc
Now the House Intel committee has freed itself to investigate the REAL Russia scandal: Hillary’s collusion with Russia via the missing emails from her server. If only they had listened to Sean Hannity earlier that their focus on Trump was nothing but a smoke and misdirection operation driven the Democrats, and Hillary was the Manchurian candidate, but from Hell rather than Russia or China.
WaterGirl
@El Caganer: I believe that should be “We have seen no evidence that supports our lies, therefore no evidence exists.”
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@WaterGirl:
That only works until the bullets start flying. And no I’m not advocating that.
mad citizen
@DissidentFish: This is a very interesting hypothesis–thanks!
celticdragonchick
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Kurt Schlicter sure is.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
As 2016 taught us, a few carefully flipped areas can have an oversized impact on the rest of it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they’re gonna cling to trump to the bitter end
Stewart sounds like a junior mormon version of Erik Prince
also, too, a junior version of Tom Clancy/Tim La Haye
I think the Stewarts are one of the families I’ve seen referred to as “Mormon aristocracy”, connected to the Smiths. And the Udalls.
TenguPhule
@El Caganer:
Your winnings, sir.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
But more people are onto that shit. It won’t wash.
ETA: That is to say this isn’t 2016. Things are different and people are fired up.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I think you are very close but I think the real thing is to have so many conflicting stories out there that no one can find the truth in the first place.
Corner Stone
I don’t know why Rep Adam Schiff doesn’t punch Nunes in the face and then arm bar him into admitting how fucking corrupt he is.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I’d like to think so. But the money to protect the elections is going unspent. The Republicans are ramping up their voter disfranchising. The gods only know what happens if Trump is authorized actually to deploy goons at voting sites (I realize this seems almost impossible, but they didn’t add this to the bill for nothing) and their base appears to be falling in line like good zombie nazis. As long as they can get it close enough to seem remotely plausible, that’s all they really need.
It shouldn’t be this tight, but they’re doing their best to shape the field this way.
Cheryl Rofer
No statement from the president on the nerve agent attack in Britain, but a few minutes ago:
Hoodie
The hope is that this will come back to bite them in the ass, as it generally is not a good idea to make an enemy out of people who have more information than you do. It wouldn’t be surprising if there is a lot of info on DJT’s mob connections and other criminality that the IC has been sitting on for a while. There are signs that the Russians were cultivating Trump long before he ran for president. The IC may have been aware of that all along and have been all too happy to let that go forward to gain intelligence on Russian methods, thinking that Trump would never be president. Now that the House GOP has shown they’re not going to do anything about Trump, what’s to keep that info from going to Mueller and/or the media? If Trump is in the bag, what’s the point of protecting sources and methods if they’re going to be burned anyway when Trump’s people gain control of the IC?
NotMax
@<a href="https://balloon-juice.com/2018/03/12/house-permanent-select-committee-on-intelligence-vs-the-intelligence-community/#comment-6793424"Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Yet you fail to cease repeatedly injecting it into the blogosphere.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer: Its remarkable how practically every word in his tweet is a lie.
Cheryl Rofer
TenguPhule
@Hoodie:
I wouldn’t trust our current media to know what to do with it.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
The president’s party historically gets clobbered in the mid-terms. If that doesn’t happen, then that’s proof right there something is terribly wrong.
Jager
Dduring one of the primary debates, when trump was tossing out his insults, if one of the other candidates had walked over and punched him out he would have folded like one of his shitty, foreign made, trump branded suits and dropped out whimpering like my baby sister did when I ripped the voice box out of her Chatty Cathy doll.
Corner Stone
@Cheryl Rofer: They never left.
Corner Stone
@Jager: I maintain that if any one of the candidates had physically braced him on stage he would have been done.
Cheryl Rofer
@Hoodie:
There’s a remarkable article in BuzzFeed today on Felix Sater. He worked with Donald Trump and at the same time was an informant to the FBI. I’m not sure I believe everything in the article, but if he was informing on Trump, well…
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: There’s clobbered and then there’s clobbered.
So far all the wins we’ve racked up haven’t actually shifted control of Congress yet.
We’re getting closer, but they win even if we gain seats as long as at the end of the day we don’t get the absolute majority of seats.
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s the longer version of Swalwell’s statement.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they’re laughing at us
“inadvertent… whatever”
Gravenstone
@MisterForkbeard: Depending on the depth of Mueller’s findings and the corresponding indictments, that argument isn’t likely to hold much water – aside from those in the Deplorable base. Even the MSM would (should) be hard pressed to support Republican whining about “witch hunts” under those circumstances.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer: Treason must not prosper.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That won’t be laughing for long. What comes around goes around.
TenguPhule
@Gravenstone:
That doesn’t sound like the media we’ve all come to know and love. //
Oklahomo
@TenguPhule: I suspect we are in the Derpest Timeline. In the dark one, Trump would be svelte with a goatee and competent.
Steeplejack (phone)
@N. M. Norton:
Slightly OT, but I read recently that “Czechia” has been okayed as the “short” name for the Czech Republic. Thanks for letting me work that in.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ros-Lethinen and Gowdy are retiring, I think her district’s considered winnable for the Dems, and I think I’ve seen LoBiondo listed as vulnerable. What about that lunk-headed embarrassment King? Long Islander, isn’t he? All ethnic white people who didn’t want to ride the ferry to Staten Island?
TenguPhule
@Oklahomo:
Rotating tag needed, stat!
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@NotMax: Worth noting. Odd, that, isn’t it?
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Somebody missed a bet if there’s not an online dating service (or app) there called Czechmate.
TenguPhule
Fuckity fuckity fuck.
Economic Mad Max crash, here we come.
/via Wapo
mike in dc
Sen. Burr’s statement to the effect that he’s seen no evidence of collusion so far and no evidence Russia favored Trump does not fill me with hope for the relatively “bipartisan” Senate Intel Committee. I suspect that there will be a last minute split on the findings and we’ll wind up with two reports there as well. Already going to happen with Grassley and Feinstein in Senate Judiciary. Ultimately will need a do-over starting in 2019.
B.B.A.
Meanwhile in the Great White North, by a cruel twist of fate the leading candidate for Premier of Ontario is Doug Ford – brother of the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford. And from what I’ve seen of him, being fat, drunk, and stupid runs in the Ford family.
Gravenstone
@Cheryl Rofer: Someone’s going to get taken to ZEGS’ woodshed over that public dissing of his ‘colleagues’.
Mnemosyne
Am I really the first one to have the paranoid thought that this announcement was made shortly after the chemical attack in England? As in, was there a message to Congressional Republicans embedded in that, perhaps the public nature of it that potentially endangered innocent bystanders?
Gravenstone
@Mnemosyne: No. Nunes has been working diligently to undermine this investigation from the outset. That this is what the majority chose to do to close it out was nearly a foregone conclusion. What becomes of the parallel Senate investigation will be the tell.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
First and probably only.
joel hanes
@TenguPhule:
All we seem to get in return for restraint as a party is punches to the face.
And self-respect, without which we are lost.
Mr. Kurtz lacked restraint; so does Trump. Their methods are unsound.
Jay
@B.B.A.:
It’s not a cruel twist of fate, PCO voters were never going to support:
– a competent Woman,
– an overt religious bogot,
When they could have a fat, white Mini-Trump who sticks to dogwhistles.
randy khan
Well, the good news is that the adoption of the House majority report proves that there was collusion.
mike in dc
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66b26b60e8d888c22ffd5cb27576a0d046374e000128a2fcec55aab666f80fbe.jpg
[stolen from LGM]
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
If you’re so fucking sure the game is rigged, why don’t you drop the fuck out and leave the rest of us alone. This kind of defeatism can make a difference in a close election.
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: @NotMax: No, I thought the timing was suspicious, too. Wrap it up unless you want to be dead on a bench with your daughter, that is not beyond Putin’s MO.
Ella in New Mexico
@rikyrah: totally agree. But we/they gotta do it better, cleaner, backwards and in high heels or we’ll get the hammer thrown at us. Cuz IOKIYAR and we’re always the grown-ups in the room.
But seriously, it’s time to let some major monkeys fly…
Tokyokie
@Corner Stone: Similarly, I think Hillary would now be president, if, during the final debate, she’d poured a cup of water on his head then laughed at him. “How can you have the courage to lead this country if you don’t even have the courage to admit you’re as bald as a baby’s ass?”
Lyrebird
@rikyrah:
My guess is, the only reason we don’t know more embarrassing or incriminating details about Nunes is that he’s so thoroughly compromised that he’s going to be part of Mueller’s main-course report, & no one wants to leak things that would harm sources or steal thunder…
ETA: he isn’t flailing as spectacularly as Nunberg did, but does he ever look relaxed? Calling Yarrow… I know that this isn’t how justice is done, but Nunes looks guilty as guilty gets to me.
japa21
@Mary G: Actually, I think the timing of this is because they know something is about to drop and they wanted to set the narrative first. This, they think, will diminish the impact of whatever comes out because they will be able to say it was just political. And if whatever does drop comes from an IC leak, they will be able to say that the IC just was being spiteful and they have already shown the IC can’t be trusted. In a sense, this is just an extension of the Nunes memo.
chopper
@JGabriel:
it’s like “negging”. the Russians clearly were attacking hilz cause they wanted her so bad. it’s science.
Ella in New Mexico
@Jay: Clinging to that hope. Clinging tightly. And the hope that at least a few Trump voters actually take in some other news than Fox propaganda. Amazing and frightening how 38% of the electorate could be so easily propagandized to that they will willingly follow this party off the cliff simply because they are loyally refusing to change a channel on their TV…
ET
House GOP leadership knows that most non brain dead Americans who care won’t belive the report. And to a large degree they don’t care because of the make of the committee/Nunes and because this report seems designed mostly to pacify the base which is mainly composed of tRumpers. Now tRump will be touting this if he is already doing it.
That being said, I wonder that some GOP House leadership want this investigation over not only to solely to pacify the assets but to shut Nunes down with the thought that he is bad for the “serious” GOP brand. This won’t shut Nunes up of course but his leadership of the committee has likely caused a few headaches in GOP circles if for no other reason than all the complaints and the joke it had become.
Jay
@Mary G:
Nope, Putin’s MO is to not back down, challange back, escalate, gloat and punk. He knows who will stand up to him, (Clinton), who will fold, ( Yurtle the Turtle), and where Western Democracies are “compromised” by internal divisions.
The “message” was for May and the Brits regarding their relationship with the US, and the upcoming Russian Elections.
Aleta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Rep. Chris Stewart just told @andersoncooper that the intelligence community “misinterpreted key intelligence” when it concluded that Putin had a clear preference for Trump. He did not elaborate ”
From a link on Cheryl R’s twitter earlier:
Lapassionara
@DissidentFish: My thought too. Everyone is focused on the main election, but I think the primary should be examined for Russian influence.
Corner Stone
@Tokyokie: If when Trump was air humping that chair during the debate, HRC had turned and walked right at him he would have tripped over himself backing away from her. She would not have had to touch him even with her pinky finger.
But as always, it’s on Hillary to do the entire media’s job for them.
MomSense
Well now we know with certainty that the rot runs deep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Watching Fredo trump campaign in PA, I wonder what the reaction of the pros on the Saccone campaign was. I wonder if it was “Oh, fuck. Well I guess we can’t say no”
ETA: @Lapassionara: also, Tad Devine and Jill Stein
Omnes Omnibus
@ruemara: If only there was a meth-addled penguin in the mix.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
one of the GOP members of HIC is Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, about whom nevertrumper Ana Navarro frequently tweets with such syrupy affection you get the impression she would type it pink with glitter scattered over it, with big hearts and unicorns and glittery stars, if twitter allowed such
Steeplejack (phone)
@TenguPhule:
If we are going to reign in people, we should belt the cat to be consistent.
Aleta
AP news
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
Well, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen until the mid-terms under any circumstances.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): I’m not even sure who you are anymore.
Jay
@Ella in New Mexico:
Watergate took over 3 years to play out, and almost 2 years for Nixon to be abandoned by the Country Club Republican base.
We’re not even a year in to Trump/Russia, and it’s a ‘yoouge investigation, ranging from Trump, all the way down to individual races at the House and Senate level.
Meuller’s methodically building his case, in 2019 it’s going to “blow up” with dozens to over a hundred arrests, with Right White Racist Fratboys shiving eachother to take a plea.
Patriotic American’s “job” between now and then, is to take the House in the fall.
danielx
Without factoring in future electoral shenanigans, Republican political calculus is fairly simple. Whatever their views on how Trump slithered into office, the thinking goes something like this: we’re going to ride this as far as we can, as long as we can and during that time we are going to put effect every motherfucking policy priority we have. We have all three branches of government and we are going to keep them, whatever we have to do to maintain our possession, for as long as we can.
Gin & Tonic
Wow, go out to dinner with phone off, and shit blows up.
randy khan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
LoBiondo is retiring, too. He announced on Election Day. By the bye, I heard him at a meeting in October, and he’s about as unhappy with the Administration as any Democrat, except of course about tax cuts. (And as for them, he mostly thought it was a political imperative to pass them.) It was quite something.
Aleta
Someone says no to the administration that expects everyone to lie:
burnspbesq
Re Putin: it only takes one “Chechen” truck bomb on the road from the airport to a G-20 meeting, but the OpSec has to be perfect, cuz that is sure as shit an act of war.
Jay
@Aleta:
https://snarkypenguin.wordpress.com
“In 2017, however, after Trump unleashed them for an overall war on immigrants, ICE sent a whopping 1,526 detainer requests to the NYPD claiming that immigrants were felons who needed to be deported upon release — or basically one for every single immigrant slated for release. After the first few dozen didn’t pan out as being felons, the NYPD basically started waste-binning these requests. The NYPD investigated the first few, and after a few dozen proved to not have criminal records the NYPD started returning the detainer requests wholesale rubber stamped “Unable to verify criminal record.” Because really, if ICE lies to you a dozen times, why bother validating that they lied to you the other 1,500 times?!”
“
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
Even the grammar police can have a dark night of the soul. I don’t know, man, sometimes I just feel like packing it in.
I’ma go play my harpoon for a while.
NotMax
@Jay
Not quite.
The break-in was discovered in June of ’72. Nixon resigned in August of ’74.
SFAW
@Mary G:
I thought I read that Arson Issa was considering running in a nearby, redder district, because he knew he’d lose in his “home” district. Am I remembering incorrectly, or has he changed his mind, or what?
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
So it’s your fault? Goddammit, am I going to have to send efg over to your place to straighten your ass out?
JR
@burnspbesq: the power vacuum is going to be bad enough when he dies of natural causes, why unleash one prematurely
Aleta
Homeland Security and children and ACLU suit:
Wapo
SFAW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think DuWayne Gregory is running against Peter “The IRA Can’t Be Terrists! They’re Irish!” King. I think I sent him some money awhile back. (Gregory, not King, of course.)
It’s kinda sad when Peter King is the most reasonable name on that list.
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: You’re not going to hang Nunes on me, no sir.
NotMax
@SFAW
Sadly, Suffolk county is redder than magma.
Fair Economist
@NotMax:
Peter King’s district is R+3. VERY winnable.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Putin better hope the next Democratic President doesn’t follow the Ryan Doctrine, or he’ll find a couple of 500 lb laser-guided bombs going through the front door of his dacha.
Jay
@NotMax:
“Charles Colson pleaded guilty to charges concerning the Daniel Ellsberg case; in exchange, the indictment against him for covering up the activities of the Committee to Re-elect the President was dropped, as it was against Strachan. The remaining five members of the Watergate Seven indicted in March went on trial in October 1974. On January 1, 1975, all but Parkinson were found guilty. In 1976, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Mardian; subsequently, all charges against him were dropped.
Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell exhausted their appeals in 1977. Ehrlichman entered prison in 1976, followed by the other two in 1977. Since Nixon and many senior officials involved in Watergate were lawyers, the scandal severely tarnished the public image of the legal profession.[82][83][84]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
It wasn’t just about Nixon.
Think of the long list of Republican scandals, ratfucking and the current crop of “Ususal Suspects” we wouldn’t be dealing with today if “scandal fatigue” hadn’t set in.
Rot this deep requires you clean the whole house.
BCHS Class of 1980
@Steeplejack (phone): So The Bohemian-Moravian Confederation is no longer in the running?
Just one more canuck
@B.B.A.: Doug is a nastier version of Rob. Rob was a good councillor- if you needed a stop sign or a speed bump on your street, he would get it done. He was just way in over his head as mayor. Doug is just an asshole
NotMax
@Jay
Will bend to agree if one wants to include protracted court proceedings. Mueller, however, is charged with investigating and bringing indictments if warranted and his job is complete once he delivers indictments made by the grand jury to the justice system. By that metric (from break-in to indictments) it is still less than 3 years.
Aleta
Probably posted already but:
Ksmiami
@VeniceRiley: dead works too
Pseudonym
@Cheryl Rofer: Wait, a guy spying for the US named Felix
LeiterSater?Steeplejack
@BCHS Class of 1980:
They tried “BoMo,” but that didn’t work out because everyone thought they were talking about a trendy part of New York City.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone):
Don’t you mean “for a whale”?
Hmmmm…
JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo
@NotMax: it did vote for Obama twice, as well as Kerry, Gore, and Clinton. It also has a Dem county executive and Democratic legislature. Before the 1990s, it was definitely super Republican though