Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This really is a full service blog.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

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

I was promised a recession.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Bark louder, little dog.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Come on, man.

You are here: Home / Politics / Goddamned Traitors / “Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked…

“Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked…

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…have been sacked:

Jesus, what a fucking shit-show. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

353Comments

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein is being fired for contradicting the account of Rex Tillerson’s dismissal

    I just figured the whole crew was going to have to go. A decapitation strike, if you will.

  5. 5.

    Yellowdog

    Does anyone have turnout estimates for PA 18? Especially for Allegheny county,where Lamb is supposed to have strength

  9. 9.

    Kay

    Mueller has to hire more people. This is what, the third person who has been kicked out of there for national security reasons?

    I think there’s a problem here! I don’t pretend to know anything about national security but I think it’s bad when you hire criminals.

  11. 11.

    Cermet

    @LAO: LOL; so true. But then for the goobers that voted for that orange fart cloud, lying to themselves is the only way they can keep any belief in their phony christianity and not shoot themselves in frustration about what losers they have become.

  12. 12.

    different-church-lady

    Just in case some of you don’t look at Cole’s Twitter feed:

    Entire Trump administration fired, replaced with Alex Jones, a MAGA hat, three russian twitter bots, and Steve Bannon’s third shirt.

  14. 14.

    MomSense

    @Corner Stone:

    Was PA one of the states Russia successfully infiltrated?

    I’m thinking I need a wool lined tinfoil hat. Does anyone know if the wool would interfere with the reception?

  15. 15.

    scav

    How can one contradict an incoherent chaos of random verbiage?

    “Stop the presses! Pull this car over! Release the Erinyes! Someone inadvertently made sense!” I guess.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    Well, if Rex were a real patriot he would spill the beans. But he won’t.

    They’re useless at work and they’re even useless as disgruntled employees. It’s such a lie that these people are working for this asshole as some kind of Double Agent of Liberty. Stormy Daniels is a better patriot than any of them.

  20. 20.

    MJS

    There has to be at least one of the recently shit-canned who have both the decency and balls to take their story public, right? Right?

  21. 21.

    GxB

    My sister was once bitten by a moose…

    To topic, I do believe this is critical mass for the dotard. Strap in everyone, it gonna get really rough.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    Rex’s wife said God wanted Rex to be Secretary of State. Ergo, Trump is now on the wrong side of God.

  23. 23.

    Miss Bianca

    Betty, i literally, honest to God,literally *just* had that image flit thru, my head as i was reading down the previous thread, thought i’d b clever and post it, and there you are!

    And where the hell is Ralph the Wonder Llama when you need him? At this rate, he’ll be the only one left to take a position in the WH.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @MJS:

    They’re all afraid of Trump. Stormy Daniels appears to be the bravest among them. Oddly enough.

    I worry about her a little. I hope she has a security detail.

  30. 30.

    Chip Daniels

    @Kay:
    I think Stormy Daniels is the safest because I really don’t think anyone on the Trump side takes a woman, much less a porn star, seriously.

  33. 33.

    Corner Stone

    @MJS:

    There has to be at least one of the recently shit-canned who have both the decency and balls to take their story public, right? Right?

    I know, right? “Who will be my Nunberg? Get me my Nunberg!”

  34. 34.

    condorcet runner-up

    @Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): … along with 40 specially trained Ecuadorian mountain llamas, 6 Venezuelan red llamas, 142 Mexican whooping llamas, 14 North Chilean guanacos (closely related to the llama), reg llama of brixton, 76000 battery llamas from “llama-fresh” farms ltd. near Paraguay …

  36. 36.

    Chyron HR

    @Kay:

    Interesting point. If Stormy Daniels has a flagrantly Russian accident, will the media unquestioningly repeat the White House line that Hillary did it, or would they more fairly report that Republicans and Democrats disagreed on the culprit?

  37. 37.

    Davis X. Machina

    Trump’s a pimp. He never could’ve out-fought Hillary. But I didn’t know until this day that it was Putin all along.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    @MomSense:

    Was PA one of the states Russia successfully infiltrated?

    Voter rolls I am not sure about. But infiltrated with mind warping ads and bot conversations? I would have to say definitely as we see how PA’s vote for president went.
    Also, Big Money supposedly just dropped a ton of cash into PA-18.

    Norm Eisen
    ‏Verified account @NormEisen
    6h6 hours ago

    This is not democracy: “Republican outside groups are trying to pull Saccone across the finish. outside spending in the race currently stands at $12.5 million, with vast majority of that, more than $10.6 million, coming from GOP-aligned groups.”-Playbook

  42. 42.

    TenguPhule

    @Chyron HR:

    If Stormy Daniels has a flagrantly Russian accident, will the media unquestioningly repeat the White House line that Hillary did it, or would they more fairly report that Republicans and Democrats disagreed on the culprit?

    Yes.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat:

    How is garbage times reporting this?

    A quick look at their headlines:

    Tillerson Is Out, Replaced by Pompeo

    Secretary of State Was Often at Odds With Trump

    Rex W. Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, had been among President Trump’s most well-regarded cabinet choices.

    The last one really takes the cake. I don’t know if it’s really true- there were a lot of questions about Tillerson before his appointment and even more for how he did/failed to do his job- but to the extent it’s true it’s more of a sign of how awful Trump’s other picks were than an indication of Tillerson’s competence.

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    @chris:

    Of course this exists on the internet. I think wool may be a problem but I have no idea what velostat is.

  49. 49.

    Gin & Tonic

    Apropos of nothing, if you’re on Instagram, the account of the British Royal Family (theroyalfamily) is pretty neat, but they have a pic today of Prince Charles greeting a security dog at Heathrow that is charming – and who knows whether he’s a jerk, but Holy Moses, he has a fantastic tailor.

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    @MJS:

    There has to be at least one of the recently shit-canned who have both the decency and balls to take their story public, right? Right?

    There is no Santa Claus.

  52. 52.

    Corner Stone

    @Roger Moore:

    but to the extent it’s true it’s more of a sign of how awful Trump’s other picks were than an indication of Tillerson’s competence.

    I think, as is the case with most CEO’s, Rex’s former company XOM was successful despite his incompetence. Massive drain of talent, smarts and experience from our Foreign Service that we may never get back. Relationships that took decades to build don’t just spring back up.

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @LAO:

    in previous administrations you got fired for lying; in this one, you get fired if you are caught telling the truth

    Isn’t that the truth!

  56. 56.

    Leto

    So RexXon’s top spokesman who was fired along with him today, Steve Goldstein, was a senior vice president of BP Global Solutions before joining the State Department. Is there anyone at the upper levels of State who wasn’t a former oil exec? Was that a pre-requisite to being named? I mean, we’re continuing to shed highly qualified diplomatic personnel, but we still have the oilmen in charge. ><

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I think there’s a problem here! I don’t pretend to know anything about national security but I think it’s bad when you hire criminals.

    You are so brutal, Kay.
    simply telling the truth…..you are brutal.

  59. 59.

    scav

    @Gin & Tonic: How does the Doomsday Clock adapt to DST and who was it that was in charge of adjusting all those White House Clocks? Could very well be that we’re currently at 12:58.

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Well, if Rex were a real patriot he would spill the beans. But he won’t.

    1. He was the Secretary of Exxon.
    2. He got his $71 million dollar tax break.

    He is NOT a patriot.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    Stormy Daniels is a better patriot than any of them.

    Hell, Aldrich Ames is a better patriot than any of them.

  63. 63.

    TenguPhule

    @Amir Khalid:

    Who follows Donald Trump worships a trickster God.

    Loki, Crow and Murphy strongly object to that discriminating labeling.

    Tricksters are not chaotic evil.

  64. 64.

    ? Martin

    @MJS: No. Anyone with anything to tell is going to get snapped up by Mueller before they can tell their story. That might be the best long term approach anyway. Let Trump battle the porn stars in the public space.

    This isn’t about ‘winning’ public opinion, it’s about holding people accountable. I don’t want to win, I want people to go to prison.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow: I could use some calming down. I would like to place an order for about a dozen tick, tock mutherfuckers. Please.

  67. 67.

    eclare

    @Gin & Tonic: That is a great suit…at this point, I would be fine with the royals in charge, at least they believe in climate change. Plus as opposed to Cadet Bonespurs, some of them have actually served.

  68. 68.

    Roger Moore

    @LAO:

    in previous administrations you got fired for lying; in this one, you get fired if you are caught telling the truth

    In traditional America, you fired for lying.

    In Trump’s America, lying fire you!

  71. 71.

    bystander

    If nobody has used the deck chairs/Titanic cliche, let me interject it here in all jocularity.

  72. 72.

    Mike in DC

    We’re somewhere north of 43% turnover. Has to be closing in on 50% if not there already. 67% by year end seems achievable. Any company with turnover like this would see an exodus and everyone would short or sell the stock.

  76. 76.

    Corner Stone

    @? Martin:

    This isn’t about ‘winning’ public opinion, it’s about holding people accountable. I don’t want to win, I want people to go to prison.

    Actually, I could do with some winning right about now.

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    @father pusbucket:

    The beatings firings will continue until morale improves America is Great Again.

    I would suggest starting with Trump. No faster way to make America Great Again.

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @Corner Stone:

    Actually, I could do with some winning right about now.

    Personally, I’m so fucking tired of all the winning, I want to stop winning all the time.

  82. 82.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I think there’s a problem here! I don’t pretend to know anything about national security but I think it’s bad when you hire criminals.

    That thinking is SO last millennium last century last decade 2015! O-bot Hill-bot!

  83. 83.

    Leto

    @Aleta: Prosperity Gospel, which I think all oilmen subscribe to, says it is. This reminds me of the PetroBaptists from The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood. If people haven’t read her MaddAdam series, I highly recommend it.

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    If I’m not mistaken, every male royal has served in the armed forces.

    What, none of them had bone spurs? Or “other priorities”?

    ETA: By the way: did you save me any of the smoked salmon? I put in my request about five threads down, you might not have seen it.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

  87. 87.

    kindness

    In keeping with the spirit of this administration, tonight’s headlines will read:

    Republican Rick Saccone Sacked By Trump After Losing Election To Connor Lamb.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    Tillerson Is Out, Replaced by Pompeo

    Every time I see this headline, I keep thinking, “What, the actress from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is Secretary of State?”

    Rex W. Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, had been among President Trump’s most well-regarded cabinet choices.

    The last one really takes the cake. I don’t know if it’s really true- there were a lot of questions about Tillerson before his appointment

    I went back and looked at the WaPo stories around the time of Tillerson’s nomination. Back when Republicans pretended to care about the Russians. Well regarded? Not really.

    Going into Wednesday’s hearing for President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state nominee, Rex Tillerson, all eyes were on Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who could choose whether to give deference to Trump’s pick — or try to tear him apart.

    In the opening hour of the two-day hearing, Rubio went on the attack. [Notably, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) let him go on that attack before many other senators had a chance to speak, and before Trump’s news conference was going to suck up all the political oxygen.]

    No matter when it happened, Rubio’s bull-dog approach could spell trouble for Tillerson’s nomination and signal a larger rift within the Republican Party about whether to work with Trump on sensitive issues like Russia.

    Rubio signaled that he has no intention of deferring to Trump on the issue of Russia. He came out in full bulldog mode about Tillerson’s economic and personal ties to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin….

    Rubio’s time for questions had run out, but he had broadcast his message loud and clear: He has no intention of playing nice with Trump’s pick for secretary of state and, perhaps, with Trump himself when the two disagree on foreign policy.

    It’s not just the NYT. Up and down, news organizations can’t seem to remember their own stories about Washington politics. It’s freaking ridiculous.

  89. 89.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore:

    Personally, I’m so fucking tired of all the winning, I want to stop winning all the time.

    I want boring back. I want a government and a nation that doesn’t generate humiliating and horrifying headlines EVERY FUCKING SINGLE DAY.

  90. 90.

    TenguPhule

    @Betty Cracker:

    Nikolai Glushkov, close associate of Putin critic Boris Berezovsky–and someone who testified against Putin ally Roman Abramovich in a court case–has been found dead in his London home.

    Well fuck.

  91. 91.

    MJS

    @? Martin: They’re not mutually exclusive. If someone legitimately knows nothing about what Mueller is investigating, but does have first hand knowledge that Trump is a fucking moron, that information needs to be shared. Regardless of whether Mueller is finished with his investigation or not, there will be elections in November and before (even today) that remain important. The more credible “Trump is a moron” stories there are, the better.

  94. 94.

    LAO

    Oy vey:

    Hearing lots of reporters saying Trump finally feels like he understands being President, how to do it, some sense of mastery. If that's true, by the look of his actions, it's the kind of 'mastery' you feel during a manic phase. Euphoria.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 13, 2018

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It was very tasty, I can tell you that.

    Yeah, rub it in, why dontcha?

    Glad you enjoyed it. Considering you mentioned it around 1 AM, and my request was around 10 AM, I figured as much.

  96. 96.

    Nelle

    I try to work on my list of the day. I really do. Then I get sucked back in. And if we go back to boring, how will the 24/7 news cycle ever adjust. They are on a crack high with all this chaos. The rest of us want to live our lives according to our personal choices, without an eye over the shoulder to see if crazy president has lit the match yet . No? Not yet? How about now?

  97. 97.

    Aleta

    @Kay: She and the other women with stories aren’t safe. The others haven’t felt safe since the campaign, I think, especially those who came forward in early fall 2016.

    Daniels showed his operatives that the nondisclosure agreements some (or many) have signed can’t be counted on.

    Most of the internet and the comedy guys are still focused on headlines and jokes about ‘pn star’ and ‘pn pcs,’ but I think they overlook Daniels’ actual situation. And the probability that many women have been threatened and coerced.

  99. 99.

    Fleeting Expletive

    I’ve been in a ridiculous comedy for the last week or so. Cox Communications (ptui!) raised my cable to an absurd $$, so I went into AT&T knowing that they’re the debil but a lot cheaper at least for a while. The process involved almost ten actual people visiting my house–sales and trainees, a random supervisor, and three installers one of whom had his drill torque out on him and slash his finger and blood and oh damn. Now I’ve got it more or less working, figuring out how to do the stupid remote control. I’ll live with it.

    When I turn it on though and the picture comes up it is pink, like through a pink filter. ?? I was told by them to halfway pull out the HTML cord on the box and then reinsert it, and then the picture is OK. Do I have a bad connection or is this like the IT all purpose advice to unplug/plug when your computer is wacky, maybe a bad cord?

    This, and I did a swan dive in my living room onto my knee, failing to see a brown 5 lb sack of potatoes that slid onto my brown wood floor. Shoulda put all the groceries away. My knee and my dignity are offended.

  101. 101.

    mai naem mobile

    I thought the Dolt45 admin was going to be bad but even for me he’s tens times worse than I had ever imagined. What an asshole. When you have me feeling any sympathy for Rext there’s something awful with Orange Asshole. I don’t honestly understand how treating other Republicans like this is okay with his base. Forget the policy implications. I am just talking about treating another person.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    @eclare: Good memory! Yes, Tucker comes home tomorrow. Henry is off all his meds, and the first couple days without painkillers was hard, he looked so sad and his eyes weren’t clear, but we’re a day past that and he is doing pretty well.

    Still not using that leg much because it hurts. He sleeps a lot in the crate and barks constantly if I leave the room. He is happy and relaxed when he gets to lie next to me on the sofa or with me on the mattress on the floor. He’ll start the water treadmill 2x week next week.

    Tucker is coming home for one night on Wednesday so I can gauge what the challenges will be with Tucker back home and Henry most certainly being wound up about that. Then he’ll go back for one or more nights, depending on how things go with the two of them here on Wednesday and Thursday.

    thanks for thinking of us!

    edited

  111. 111.

    Tom Levenson

    @Gin & Tonic: This is true. I was once at a wedding where Charles was the official witness. He’s a little man with a kind of funny body-shape, but his morning suit made him look like a million bucks. The capper was his yellow silk waistcoat. (Also, his bespoke yarmulke, blue velvet embroidered w. his coat of arms, was a hoot.)

  113. 113.

    trollhattan

    Beeb op/ed on Tillerson ends thusly.

    And the end was a perfect metaphor for the relationship. The odd couple of politics had been yoked together for too long. Men of different temperaments, demeanour and style had reached a parting of the ways.

    The secretary of state landed back at Joint Base Andrews to have a member of staff inform him that the president had tweeted.

    Because Mr Tillerson is not on Twitter, the tweet had to be printed out. Fancy being the one tasked with handing that over to the boss. Fired by a tweet. The career of a one-time giant of corporate America had come to an ignominious end.

    And the response of President Trump as he spoke to reporters this morning: “I think Rex will be much happier now.”

    Overjoyed, I’m sure.

  114. 114.

    ? Martin

    @MJS: No, I agree, but Tillerson would be front and center in any kind of collusion/obstruction investigation, and I’d rather he tell all to Mueller than to the WaPo.

    I wonder if Pompeo will be confirmed. His fondness for torture really doesn’t play well in a soft power position, and while the GOP seems intent on not being critical of Trump, it’s also apparent that they’re internally freaking out. One way to split that baby is to show oversight over confirmation and leave it to Trump to dig his own hole.

  115. 115.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Brachiator:

    Rubio signaled that he has no intention of deferring to Trump on the issue of Russia. He came out in full bulldog mode about Tillerson’s economic and personal ties to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin….

    And, in the end, voted “aye” on the nomination, as did every single Republican.

  116. 116.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @TenguPhule:
    Agreed. Putin is out of control. How long before he orders the killings of foreign civilians who stand in his way?

  119. 119.

    Corner Stone

    Haven’t seen this mentioned too much:
    ICE spokesman resigns over Sessions’ ‘misleading’ raid comments
    ” “I quit because I didn’t want to perpetuate misleading facts,” Schwab told The San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported his resignation. “I asked them to change the information. I told them that the information was wrong, they asked me to deflect, and I didn’t agree with that. Then I took some time and I quit.”

    In a speech last week to the California Peace Officers’ Association, Sessions said “ICE failed to make 800 arrests” because of Schaaf’s actions, citing a briefing from Homan. “

  121. 121.

    low-tech cyclist

    @TenguPhule:

    I want boring back. I want a government and a nation that doesn’t generate humiliating and horrifying headlines EVERY FUCKING SINGLE DAY.

    This. A thousand times this.

    I want no-drama Obama back. Or at least someone who can do a reasonable impression of being a grownup every day.

  124. 124.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone: Its been mentioned a couple of times so far in other threads today.

    But the shitshow at the Whitehouse is simply taking up more space.

  127. 127.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    I want boring back. I want a government and a nation that doesn’t generate humiliating and horrifying headlines EVERY FUCKING SINGLE DAY.

    This. I think in the long term, though, this hurts the Republicans. They do better when people feel comfortable ignoring politics, because it lets lazy thinkers go back to their old imaginary ideas of what the parties support and occasional voters feel it’s safe to stay home. When the government is in the news every day, especially when it’s in the news every day for bad reasons, even low-information voters get the point that the Republicans are bad news.

  128. 128.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    it’s also apparent that they’re internally freaking out.

    They really are fucked aren’t they? Can’t impeach Trump because it’ll piss of their base, they’ll lose anyway this November. If they don’t they’ll probably still lose.

  129. 129.

    Barbara

    @Corner Stone:

    Also, Big Money supposedly just dropped a ton of cash into PA-18.

    Dropping a lot of money right at the end has minimal impact. It’s the big money they have been dropping all along that should have made the difference. I was in Pittsburgh about a month ago and there was saturation coverage of the election with repetitive ads playing on most channels. My sister practically cried when she realized that the election was more than one month away.

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    @trollhattan: @Mike in DC: This strategy if “we can’t go after Putin for murdering our people because he’ll do something terrible in retaliation” makes me want to scream:

    They are already murdering your citizens!!!!!! It will only get worse from here. If the world does nothing then Putin wins. Forever.

  132. 132.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Another tie-breaking vote by Pence! What does that make it now? 3 or 4 by now in a little over a year? Not normal.

  133. 133.

    MJS

    @? Martin: Agree on Tillerson. I was thinking more along the lines of the guy who just got whacked for saying Tillerson didn’t know he’d been whacked until he saw the tweet.

    Re:Pompeo,I’m sure he’ll be confirmed. Noise will be made, but the R’s will fall in line.

  134. 134.

    Mandalay

    @Chip Daniels:

    I think Stormy Daniels is the safest because I really don’t think anyone on the Trump side takes a woman, much less a porn star, seriously.

    If that were true he’d be going after her on twitter but he hasn’t dared to say a word.

    Rubio’s “small hands” jibe was pretty effective, but if there is photographic evidence to back it up Trump’s manly tough guy persona will be destroyed. I think is Trump is absolutely terrified about what she may reveal.

  136. 136.

    SFAW

    @Aleta:

    Was this some special kind of smoked salmon?

    No, but good bagels-and-lox are worth a snowy drive. Although G&T probably had salmon that was actually smoked, instead of brined (i.e., lox, even though lox is sometimes called “smoked salmon”).

    Probably more info than you wanted.

    ETA: Although, I have to confess, pumpernickel bagels — which is what G & T had, I believe — are not my fave.

  137. 137.

    TenguPhule

    @eclare:

    And who would normally have the UK’s back in this war?

    France.

    The UK has alienated all their traditional allies in Europe.

    Sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it?

  141. 141.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @WaterGirl:

    I know. It is maddening. But take heart and sorrow at the same time in this simple phrase: “This too shall pass”.

  142. 142.

    WaterGirl

    @trollhattan:

    And the response of President Trump as he spoke to reporters this morning: “I think Rex will be much happier now.”

    What an offensive, arrogant pig. This makes me want to smack the smirk off his face.

  143. 143.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore:

    even low-information voters get the point that the Republicans are bad news.

    Trump found a solution to that. He convinced them that all news is either good news or Fake News.

    Almost half of this country has turned rabid.

  144. 144.

    trollhattan

    @eclare:
    Up is down, magenta is blue, fat is fit…I have a rulebook for how the world works dated 2000 and nothing in it applies to 2018.

  147. 147.

    Leto

    @Brachiator:

    Every time I see this headline, I keep thinking, “What, the actress from ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is Secretary of State?”

    “Ronald Reagan? The actor? Ha! Then whose vice president? Jerry Lewis?!” – Doc Brown

  148. 148.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Aleta: Nothing special, actually, just a nice thing for breakfast when I knew I wasn’t leaving the house.

  149. 149.

    TenguPhule

    @SFAW:

    Although, I have to confess, pumpernickel bagels — which is what G & T had, I believe — are not my fave.

    Smoked Chedder Cheese Bagels or go home.

  152. 152.

    Corner Stone

    @Barbara: I didn’t read the story linked in the tweet, it may have detailed amounts over time. The tweet and quoted part, IMO, led one to believe a desperate last minute effort to “pull Saccone over the line”. Plus, $10M+ of the $12M+ of the outside spend came from GOP outside groups is a Big Biden Deal.

  153. 153.

    schrodingers_cat

    This is the President being in charge, according to his pet steno at the Vichy Times

    The narrative of Trump unglued is not totally wrong but misses the reason why – he was terrified of the job the first six months, and now feels like he has a command of it.

  154. 154.

    SFAW

    @TenguPhule:

    Smoked Chedder Cheese Bagels or go home.

    You know, I tolerated all your “prep for civil war” etc. stuff, but now you’ve gone TOO FAR!! Pied.

    No, not really, of course, but I think you might need to seek professional medical help re: your bagel choice.

  155. 155.

    The Dangerman

    Trying to knock the fact that the R is going to lose the PA special election today off the front page. Or Stormy Daniels off the front page. If I were Sessions, I’d watch my back. Rosenstein, too.

  156. 156.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    : “I think Rex will be much happier now.”

    Jesus. That sounds like someone comforting the kids after putting down the family dog.

  158. 158.

    condorcet runner-up

    @Corner Stone: It’s amazing how otherwise leading and concerning stories get pushed under the fold based on the sheer volume of terrible things happening all at once.

  159. 159.

    catclub

    @Corner Stone:

    Big Money supposedly just dropped a ton of cash into PA-18.

    But apparently the first half of that big money was spent on telling people they should love their new low taxes – and that did not move the dial at all.
    So the second half had to go in with the usual fear and racism and Pelosi.

    We shall see.

  162. 162.

    Fleeting Expletive

    @different-church-lady: Hey, no. I’m not them, I’m an old lady who lives in OK and I’ve been here for a long time. There’s more to my tale but I thought that would be enough for today. Or are you complimenting me? If so, should I be flattered?

  166. 166.

    sherparick1

    @schrodingers_cat: The Guiding Principle of Village Media and Faux News: IOKIYAR

    Trump is replacing Tillerson with the Anti-Iran hawk Pompeo, and is supposedly planning to replace McMaster with John Bolton who is practically screaming for a war against North Korea and Iran at the same time. But when Russia actually carries out an attack on the UK, our closes ally for 100 years, its “attack, what attack, round up the usual 400 pound suspects.”

    If were not all going to die in a nuclear holocaust within a year, I say pass the popcorn.

  169. 169.

    TenguPhule

    @SFAW:

    but I think you might need to seek professional medical help re: your bagel choice.

    Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it with lox, cream cheese and kippers.

  172. 172.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @sherparick1:

    If were not all going to die in a nuclear holocaust within a year, I say pass the popcorn

    Pass the ammunition, you mean, for after the holocaust?

  177. 177.

    OGLiberal

    @Leto: I wouldn’t call him an oil guy. The BP stint was recent and short. He’s a PR/public affairs/corp. communication guy who worked in government (Interior) a while back during the GHWB presidency. Also worked at the WSJ, TIAA-CREF and was the head of my department a few years back at my company, an NYC-based asset manager. Kind of a strange fellow. He lasted about 2-years before he was shown the exits. I don’t know if he’s a Republican but he’s worked only for GOP admins. He’s gay, married and pretty cosmopolitan – and a former teacher – so not exactly a good fit for this crew, especially with his air cover gone. Surprised he lasted through the early AM.

  178. 178.

    TenguPhule

    Wapo reporting that Roger Stone had contact with Wikileaks in 2016.

    I thought this was already known?

  181. 181.

    Brachiator

    @? Martin:

    I wonder if Pompeo will be confirmed. His fondness for torture really doesn’t play well in a soft power position, and while the GOP seems intent on not being critical of Trump, it’s also apparent that they’re internally freaking out. One way to split that baby is to show oversight over confirmation and leave it to Trump to dig his own hole.

    The GOP may be freaking out internally, but they don’t show any sign of standing up to Trump, or opposing him. And Trump talks about applying the drug penalty to drug dealers. He loves playing tough and talking tough. He has no problems with nominees who use torture, and will expect the Senate to rubber stamp his nominees.

  183. 183.

    Corner Stone

    As I was reminded from somebody on Rick Wilson’s twit feed:

    Kouka Walker
    ‏ @idiot3qu3
    5h5 hours ago
    Replying to @TheRickWilson

    Well..he was one of the three in that Suicide Pact, so let’s see what Mattis and Mnuchin do now.

  185. 185.

    ruemara

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I honestly don’t see how this ends without a near world war. You cannot gin up insurrectionists in major nations, conduct assassinations on their soil and essentially mock them through your embassy’s social media without consequences.

  186. 186.

    SFAW

    @TenguPhule:

    Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it with lox, cream cheese and kippers.

    Make up your mind. Lox, or kippers, not both. Or are you one of those turducken “gourmets”? [“One is good, so more must be better, amirite?”]

    Valgame Dios de estos payasos!!

  187. 187.

    efgoldman

    @Nelle:

    if we go back to boring, how will the 24/7 news cycle ever adjust.

    There are always missing, potentially murdered, young blond women.
    And shark attacks.

  188. 188.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, it’s that bad and worse. He fires the guy and then acts like he did him a favor. I truly want to smack him. And I am not a violent person.

  189. 189.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Brachiator:
    If not because of being compromised themselves with Russia, then it is because they are between a rock and a hard place.

  190. 190.

    Betty Cracker

    @TenguPhule: About a third, I think, which makes getting the apathetic off the sidelines so damned important. I fervently hope Roger is correct about the constant chaos and anxiety pulling low-info people into the process. We’ll soon see.

  192. 192.

    Fleeting Expletive

    @catclub: Yeah, well, spell check wouldn’t let me keep the latter, and I don’t know one from t’other anyway. But why is the picture pink?

  195. 195.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    There are always missing, potentially murdered, young blond women.
    And shark attacks.

    And when all else fails, a fake Democratic scandal can always be invented.

  197. 197.

    Corner Stone

    @Leto:

    I’ve got a few extra chairs in case anyone isn’t sitting down.

    Would that require one to put on pants first?

  200. 200.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Gin & Tonic: Sort of, Edward joined the Royal Marines but flunked out of basic training, he never wanted to serve in the first place but was pressured by Dad. He was always the more theatrical type and has done very well with those endeavours since. Joke among the Royal Marines at the time “you can turn a frog into a prince but you can’t turn a prince into a Royal Marine”. As for the others not only have they served but have actually put their lives in danger when the Queen could quite easily have intervened. Andrew in the Falklands as a helicopter pilot is one notable example and Harry in Afghanistan was another.

  203. 203.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @ruemara:
    They have nukes. And they have thoroughly compromised the upper echelons of several nations’ governments apparently. In a conventional war with no election shenanigans Russia would go down hard. Russia should have been made to give up its nukes when the SU collapsed. How I don’t know but they should have.

  206. 206.

    patrick II

    @chris:
    When I first read that the helmet stopped alien abductions, I though the helmet worked against I.C.E.

  207. 207.

    The Moar You Know

    When the government is in the news every day, especially when it’s in the news every day for bad reasons, even low-information voters get the point that the Republicans are bad news.

    @Roger Moore:

    Nixon
    Ford
    Reagan
    Bush
    Bush Jr.
    Trump

    disprove this hypothesis pretty conclusively.

  208. 208.

    TenguPhule

    Completely predictable and depressing

    In a major test of UK diplomatic heft in a post-Brexit era, the UK has been putting out feelers to sense what countries would be prepared to do in a show of solidarity.

    Three guesses how this has gone and the first two don’t count.

  210. 210.

    WaterGirl

    If Tillerson comes out and says, it was mutual, I wasn’t really fired, and I knew about it in advance, I swear I am going to throw a tantrum. After his second-in-command lost his job for speaking out for Tillerson, it would be a total betrayal of he does this.

    But they are all pieces of shit, so why should I be surprised? I guess because if Trump shivs you, there has to be something wrong with you if you try to help Trump after he does that.

  211. 211.

    catclub

    @Corner Stone:

    so let’s see what Mattis and Mnuchin do now.

    I have zero faith in Mnuchin doing anything good. He sure seems like just a toady. Maybe he will surprise.

  213. 213.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @The Moar You Know:
    How does Trump disprove it? He’s had consistently bad approval ratings for over a year. The others were either more competent (Nixon, Ford) or had the veneer of competence (Reagan).

  214. 214.

    SFAW

    @TenguPhule:

    Sorry, meant capers.

    Capers, fucking awesome. That’s for wedding receptions, bar mitzvahs, shindigs in general — but without bagels.

    Sorry, you’re still an amateur. Better you should stick to politics.

  220. 220.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Death. Pretty sure you meant to use death in there

    Yeah. Crazy day trying to keep up with Trump.

    @catclub:

    And Death talks about applying the Trump penalty to drug dealers. Tweeted to insanity.

    Ha! Yeah, that too.

  221. 221.

    TenguPhule

    Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked…

    Betty, pretty sure you’re obligated to have the Monty Python clip on the top when you invoke the line.

  222. 222.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @catclub: I don’t expect anything from Mattis but some leaks about furrowed brows and another youtube of him subtweeting trump with a heartfelt talk with serving military, that trump would probably never see and definitely wouldn’t get unless Hannity or Rudi explained it to him. And I honestly don’t know if his resignation would shift the great lumpen middle, much less Congressional Republicans, out of their stupor.

  224. 224.

    Corner Stone

    @WaterGirl: Tillerson is going to say exactly what you think he will.
    “It was a great honor to serve this president and this country. Blah, buh blah, blah. Thank you all and God Bless Petro Extractors all over the world.”

  229. 229.

    different-church-lady

    @TenguPhule: Did you know you can watch the entirety of MP& The Holy Grail just by stringing together 4 minute YouTube segments?

  230. 230.

    cosima

    I don’t know how to do those fancy block quote things that you all do, so……….. Another dead Russian in the UK:

    ‘In the 1990s, Glushkov worked for the state airline Aeroflot and Berezovsky’s LogoVAZ car company. In 1999, as Berezovsky fell out with Vladimir Putin and fled to the UK, Glushkov was charged with money-laundering and fraud. He spent five years in jail and was freed in 2004.’

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/russian-exile-nikolai-glushkov-found-dead-at-his-london-home/ar-BBKaJIe?ocid=spartanntp

  235. 235.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cosima: I don’t know how to do those fancy block quote things that you all do, so………..

    Highlight the text you want quoted and click on the “quote” button underneath “Leave a comment”

  237. 237.

    jl

    I heard on the news that two administration officials either resigned or fired because they decided, or inadvertently, lie for the miserable Drumpf administration. The undersecretary of state, and an ICE official who said he would not ‘deflect’ questions about lies that Sessions and Trump told about recent ICE raids in California.

  238. 238.

    MomSense

    Tillerson is freaking me out. He’s reminding his colleagues of the oath of office they all swore to uphold.

  239. 239.

    Yutsano

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I will say that I massively respect Harry for defying the wishes of the Home Office (I think that’s who was having the fit about him serving in Afghanistan) and actually getting in the dirt. I know someone who actually got to work with him and he had great respect for him as both a soldier and a human. They’re both Diana’s kids, and I would LOVE it if succession could just go to William directly. Unfortunately I know it doesn’t work like that.

  241. 241.

    JPL

    @MomSense: He is talking about the importance of diplomacy. Interesting that Trump finally called him this afternoon, and he’s turned over to the reins to Sullivan.

  243. 243.

    zhena gogolia

    @MomSense:

    Why do I have a feeling things are coming to a head, for better or worse?

    Now I’m going to try that block quote thingy Jim just taught me.

    If bad people can bond together and constitute a force, then good people have to do the same. It’s as simple as that.

    L. N. Tolstoy, War and Peace

  247. 247.

    TenguPhule

    The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) called the use of the nerve agent novichok “extremely worrying” but stopped short of ordering an investigation. But, claiming that Theresa May’s ultimatum to Moscow breached OPCW protocol, which he said allows nations 10 days to respond, Russia’s ambassador to the OPCW, Alexander Shulgin, accused the UK government of making “unfounded accusations” and “pumping hysteria”.

    via the Guardian.

    Everyone is afraid of the bear.

  249. 249.

    MomSense

    @JPL:

    It had to be Sullivan because trump fired Goldstein.

    @zhena gogolia:

    That’s how I feel, too. He didn’t mention trump once and quoted quite a bit of the oath of office. That was a highly unusual speech for a departing SoS.

  250. 250.

    smedley the uncertain

    @different-church-lady: Hmmmm, I always thought the tinfoil was to keep the alien signals out, a kind of Faraday/RF shield. A wool lining would be very effective in keeping heat radiation to a minimum though.

  253. 253.

    bystander

    Tillerson just sang his swan song. My hearing about matters twitleresque is selective but I think he spoke without ever mentioning twitler’s name.

  256. 256.

    CarolDuhart2

    @efgoldman: Celebrity News and wholesale stealing from YouTube. We will have celebrity divorces covered down to the most minor detail and the most minor celebrities. YouTube stunts just for the coverage. The weddings of the most minor royals. Car crashes, car chases and car stunts. They will fill the slots.

  257. 257.

    bystander

    I liked the part where Tillerson’s voice cracked as he referred to SOS-nominee Pompeo. Good stuff. :-)

    Also looking forward to seeing Pompeo after Shit Midas waves his wand a few times.

  258. 258.

    JPL

    @MomSense: Technically he did because he was included among the 300 million.
    It appears that asshole called him to tell him to step aside now.

  261. 261.

    Corner Stone

    Hahahaha!

    Peter Wehner
    ‏ @Peter_Wehner
    15h15 hours ago

    It’s been pointed out that this weekend a Republican president who paid hush money to hide an affair with a porn star campaigned in a district where the Republican resigned because he asked a woman with whom he had an affair to get an abortion. The party of family values.

  262. 262.

    zhena gogolia

    Poor old Bruno Ganz is going to have to prepare for a million more Untergang parodies. Or non-parodies.

  264. 264.

    TenguPhule

    @bystander:

    Also looking forward to seeing Pompeo after Shit Midas waves his wand a few times.

    Pretty sure having the Pumpkin turn the fairy godmother into a rat wasn’t in the original screen play.

  265. 265.

    PaulWartenberg

    What’s interesting is that, under normal circumstances a high-level Cabinet person does NOT get fired or leave that administration within the first two years. Most Secretary of States stay at that job for the full four years of their President’s first term. You only get turnover like this if the Secretary had to quit for health reasons or political scandal. Most Presidents don’t even fire such high-ranking members of their Cabinet (especially this early): it points to bad judgment on their part hiring them in the first place. This is why most Presidents talk their underlings into resigning “for the good of the country.”

    Thing is, as BAD as Tillerson was at the State Dept., he wasn’t exactly breaking any laws (that we know of or can prove in court). Yes, he was mismanaging the department, downsizing it to an obscene degree, and making it harder for the US to promote any coherent foreign policy outside of “fuck you, pay trump.” But none of that was on the scale of stuff like bribery or kickbacks or illegal covert ops or even a sex scandal like paying off a porn actress you had an affair with during your third marriage to keep her silent for the 2016 election.

    So for trump to fire Tillerson now, like this, with such suddenness that trump is firing other people who are pointing out how sudden and out of the blue this firing was, points to something Tillerson did that got trump angry.

    And the thing Tillerson did right before getting fired was publicly making statements in support of UK Prime Minister May’s accusations of Russian assassination attempts on British soil.

    So that’s where we are at.

    trump is more upset about protecting his buddy Putin’s global reputation than upset about one of our most important allies of the past 100 years (CHURCHILL! D-DAY! THE BEATLES! MAGGIE! SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS IN SUPERHERO MOVIES!) being under attack by Russian assassins.

    If May cuts off all diplomatic ties with Russia, she better be prepared to cut off all ties to trump’s administrations too.

    Say hello to the true end of NATO.

    I hope you foreign policy Conservatives are thrilled about that.

  267. 267.

    trollhattan

    @Corner Stone:
    Yup. What’s he got for himself going forward: spending all that damn money he has stashed away, serving on N boards of directors to sweep up more of same and getting invited to the Best Parties. That bridge, he ain’t burning it.

  269. 269.

    TenguPhule

    @PaulWartenberg:

    But none of that was on the scale of stuff like bribery or kickbacks or illegal covert ops or even a sex scandal like paying off a porn actress you had an affair with during your third marriage to keep her silent for the 2016 election.

    That we know of.

  270. 270.

    The Moar You Know

    Everyone is afraid of the bear.

    @TenguPhule: They fucking well should be. Mother Russia is getting very good at targeted murder and walking away without getting caught.

  272. 272.

    HeleninEire

    @eclare: All of them have served. Queen Elizabeth fixed trucks during WWII. While it’s not a requirement, it’s a tradition.

    ETA: Liz served when she was a Princess.

  273. 273.

    trollhattan

    @The Moar You Know:

    getting very good at targeted murder and walking away without getting caught.

    I think it’s “better” than that–they perform targeted murder in almost virtually in broad daylight and go all honey badger when someone says, “You just killed that dude in broad daylight.” They don’t give a shit.

    Where do we think Trump got his line about shooting a guy on 5th Avenue?

  274. 274.

    Corner Stone

    @eclare: Tillerson was clearly rattled. Whether from recently being ill or the abruptness of his termination or the realization that he was being fired because he said something negative about Russia. Or some of all of that. But he was shook.

  275. 275.

    Mart

    @smedley the uncertain: @different-church-lady: Hmmmm, I always thought the tinfoil was to keep the alien signals out, a kind of Faraday/RF shield. A wool lining would be very effective in keeping heat radiation to a minimum though.

    For some foil is for amplification. These type of folks only wear wool in winter; extra stactic helps the signals.

  276. 276.

    smedley the uncertain

    @chris: Clearly an alien Bot. That’ll never work. Electrostatic shielding is insufficient and may encourage electrostatic discharge between your ears.

  279. 279.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Yutsano: I think he only caved when it came some light that some twat had given away his location and his presence was therefore not only a danger to himself but to his fellow troops and that he could not tolerate, from what I understand his was seriously pissed about that. @Leto: Yes I know, from what I understand William is a great helicopter pilot, but I was pointing out the male Royals who have served in war zones as opposed to general service, although there is nothing shabby about being an SAR pilot, and believe me I knew many of them. Andrew was a friend of mine when I served in the RN (he followed me around the fleet :)) and I heard nothing but praise of his actions during the Falklands war, his commanders were told time and time again to pull him out of dangerous situations and Andrew put his foot down and said if his other pilots were doing it then so would he, he never wanted to be seen getting special favours.

  281. 281.

    ET

    @Corner Stone: He has head of the biggest company, with the appropriate sized ego, in the world and likely treated quite well by heads of state so has likely never been treated in such a way.

  282. 282.

    MomSense

    @Mart:

    Yes it depends if you are blocking out the cray cray or if you are drawing it in. I can’t tell which I’m doing anymore. Three years ago, I would have considered the opinion that the POTUS is a Russian agent to be a wild conspiracy theory. Now I’m very confident that he is.

  283. 283.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @? Martin: my understanding/assumption has been that Stone was the middleman between the trump campaign and Assange. And I think there are text messages or emails between DJTJ and a wikileaks account, if not Assange specifically? Such a shitstorm, I hope Meuller is or has a hired a good writer who lay it all out when the time comes

  284. 284.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @HeleninEire: I loved that bit in the movie where she is driving her land rover and it breaks down and she just lifts up the bonnet and starts fixing it.

  285. 285.

    TenguPhule

    @MomSense: Any of us trying to explain the present to the past 3 years ago would be automatically committed to an insane asylum.

  286. 286.

    Dave

    @trollhattan: We, as in the west collectively, haven’t adapted to the fact that Russia under Putin doesn’t give a shit about norms. They will get away with it until that changes. And that change will have to be extremely painful for Putin, Russian security services/organized crime (because let’s face it that’s what they are), and Russian oligarchs. Obviously Trump squatting in the Whitehouse is not helping this. And the natural class solidarity and cowardice of oligarchs worldwide isn’t helpful either. Russia under Putin is not strong but is radical and we aren’t responding to that at least not yet. These are very dangerous times.

  287. 287.

    different-church-lady

    Christ, people… THE SIGNALS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE FOIL WHEN THEY MANUFACTURE IT!

  290. 290.

    trollhattan

    @Dave:

    These are very dangerous times.

    Completely agree and if Trump-Putin continue eroding NATO I only see the danger ratcheting up further. It does not help one bit that Bannon and his henchmen are simultaneously flouncing across Europe stirring up the Nazis with some success.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    ETA Remember when Bush the Lesser “Looked into” Putin’s heart and was thus impressed by his new friend? We can’t forget Trump isn’t the first Republican to drop his guard against the new Russia.

  291. 291.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ET: yeah, I was thinking today that trump hired him because he, trump, wanted to surround himself with Masters Of the Universe, the kind he knows have always looked down on him, and it’s pretty clear Tillerson did look down on the fucking moron, and probably thought he and Mattis and Mnuchin would run the world while trump gave incoherent speeches to the sort of people one barely condescends to nod to as they perform the menial tasks for which they are overpaid. A lot of people thought that. And now he’s been tossed aside like a used Kleenex by (to borrow Josh Marshall’s phrase that is zipping around twitter) a louche, two-bit New York City shyster, who isn’t even (to borrow Andrew Carnegie’s legendary phrase about J.P. Morgan) a wealthy man.

  292. 292.

    randy khan

    @HeleninEire:

    All of them have served. Queen Elizabeth fixed trucks during WWII. While it’s not a requirement, it’s a tradition.
    ETA: Liz served when she was a Princess.

    One of my favorite British stories from WWII is how the entire Royal Family stayed – there was a proposal to move Elizabeth’s mother and the children to Canada, and her mother said, more or less that the children wouldn’t go without her and that she wouldn’t leave her husband, so everyone was staying. Very British, very stiff upper lip.

  296. 296.

    WaterGirl

    @HeleninEire: I googled “instagram theroyalfamily” and it came right up.

    Just like I can see twitter in a web browser by googling “twitter preet” or something of that nature.

  297. 297.

    ? Martin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No, previously it was Trump -> Stone -> Credico -> Assange. Stone has denied ever talking to Assange, and said that the information communicated through a 3rd party (now identified as Credico). This news is that Credico wasn’t always involved, and that Stone and Assange did communicate directly. That eliminates Stone’s ability to claim he didn’t know where it came from, etc. or that Assange didn’t know who he was giving it to.

    More specifically, it’s more concentrated lying around the issue of the DNC hack, where you have the Trump campaign being offered the hacked info both directly from Russia and from Assange. Their ability to claim they had nothing to do with it keeps getting undermined. The fact that everyone keeps lying about it only points to the fact that the individuals involved know that they’re in trouble.

  298. 298.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Nahal Toosi @ nahaltoosi
    As others note: Tillerson lost his father a few days ago, too. It’s been a rough few weeks for the guy.

    ETA: Tillserson’s father worked for the Boy Scouts of America. Trump’s disgusting speech to the jamboree was said to be a low point for him. My sympathy is limited, anyone should have known what they were signing on for.

  299. 299.

    Adria McDowell

    @randy khan: “The children will not go without me, and I will not leave, and the King will never leave.”

    Something like that.

    ETA: Here it is! “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave.”

  304. 304.

    ? Martin

    @GregB: Federal pens are pretty safe for inmates. Baloney sandwiches are probably better than eating nerve gas.

  306. 306.

    trollhattan

    Russia, the gift that keeps grifting.

    A self-described Belarusian “sex-huntress” has requested asylum in the United States in exchange for information about “Russian government crimes” after she was arrested in Thailand.

    Nastya Rybka was arrested in Thailand on Monday with her partner and eight Russians for running an illegal “sex training” course. The Belarusian national was a key figure in opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s video investigation released last month that claimed that Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska had acted as a messenger between U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort and a top Kremlin foreign policy official.

    Rybka, whose real name is Anastasia Vashukevich, and her partner, who goes by the name of Alex Leslie, reportedly relayed a letter requesting asylum to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok after their arrest, the independent-leaning Dozhd TV news channel reported on Wednesday.

    “We ask for political asylum, help and protection, as soon as possible, because we have very important information for the U.S. and our lives are very much at risk,” Dozhd TV cited Leslie as writing in the letter.

    Leslie and Rybka wrote that they “fled” Russia after the political scandal surrounding Navalny’s investigation and were ready to provide video and audio evidence of “Russian government crimes” in exchange for U.S. assistance.

    The two sex educators were released on bail, then re-arrested and relocated to a migrant holding center in Bangkok, the independent-leaning Dozhd TV news channel reported.

    Ms. Vashukevich, meet Ms. Daniels. Let’s do talk.

  307. 307.

    WaterGirl

    @GregB: Let’s see if that changes Manafort’s tune. Heartening to see the judge saying what he said in no uncertain terms.

  309. 309.

    danielx

    @trollhattan:

    As I recall, Dubya said he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul*, which Putin dismissed as sentimentalist horseshit.

    *Presuming he had a soul, as an ex-KGB colonel it would probably be a damned ugly sight..

  310. 310.

    TenguPhule

    @GregB: What gets me is that the judge is POINTING OUT that he’s a serious fucking flight risk and the fucker is still only under HOUSE ARREST.

    Normal people aren’t given the kind of opportunities these fuckers get even when they’re fucking arrested and being tried.

  314. 314.

    Jay S

    @Fleeting Expletive:

    But why is the picture pink?

    a bad connection or bad cable. Given that unplugging and plugging it back int worked it is most likely a bad connection, not completely plugged in.

  315. 315.

    Mnemosyne

    @TenguPhule:

    If you knew that a dozen people that Russia didn’t like had been killed in the UK, would you risk putting Manafort into a US jail in NYC, where the Russian mob is very active?

  316. 316.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @randy khan:

    The other story I love from those days is after Buckingham Palace was bombed. The King and Queen were surveying the damage, and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) said “Now I can look the East End in the face!”

  317. 317.

    scott (the other one)

    @trollhattan: And the thing is…I really truly don’t see how the Koch Bros et al see how this ends well for their bloodline, should things really truly go south. Or, at the very least, they’re taking some very dangerous bets, when they could just be happy, you know, being 80 years old and with billions of dollars more than they’d ever be able to spend no matter how hard they try.

  318. 318.

    zhena gogolia

    @TenguPhule:

    But I saw it all on the night of Nov. 7, 2016. I lay in bed shaking and saying to my husband, “I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to live through what he’s going to do.” I didn’t see the details, but I knew it was going to be BAD.

  320. 320.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    If you knew that a dozen people that Russia didn’t like had been killed in the UK, would you risk putting Manafort into a US jail in NYC, where the Russian mob is very active?

    I’d want him in a federal prison rather then risk 1) him running or 2) Putin’s agents dealing with him at home.

  323. 323.

    TenguPhule

    @scott (the other one):

    I really truly don’t see how the Koch Bros et al see how this ends well for their bloodline, should things really truly go south.

    i don’t think they really care. They seem to be IGMFYA and really do seem to believe the world will end when they die, so fuck everyone else afterwards.

  324. 324.

    Aleta

    @SFAW: tmi about salmon? not at all!

    I can recommend (if you have good bagels) the incredible
    lox from Ducktrap. It’s from wild salmon, cold smoked and seasoned, + some cane juice, fired w/ hardwood and apple wood from in-state.

    Can be ordered directly from the Ducktrap company. I think the label may read as ‘wild smoked salmon.’ It’s lox, tender and delicate.

    Another package that (I think) they label as ‘wild salmon’ is also cold smoked, but not lox. It’s more intense, deeper color, gamey in the good way. I like it in bits in scrambled eggs too, and it lasts a long time that way.

    If you have a recommendation, I’m always interested.

    eta Agree that w/lox, pumpernickel bagels are overpowering.
    I like them but they should be classified differently than some other bagels.

  326. 326.

    catclub

    @trollhattan:

    Leslie and Rybka wrote that they “fled” Russia after the political scandal surrounding Navalny’s investigation and were ready to provide video and audio evidence of “Russian government crimes” in exchange for U.S. assistance.

    It is not at all clear how that gets them arrested in Thailand.

  327. 327.

    James E. Powell

    Reposting this from a dead thread:

    Schumer tweets:

    If he’s confirmed, we hope that Mr. Pompeo will turn over a new leaf and will start toughening up our policies towards Russia and Putin.

    Lame remarks like this are one of the reasons that even insanely loyal Democrats, like me, are constantly bitching about the leadership. How about, “Like nearly all of Trump’s cabinet choices, Pompeo is not a suitable choice. He has neither the experience nor the character to represent America.”

    They need to condemn him, vote to reject him, and make a loud noise about it. It’s not like kissing his ass or giving him the benefit of the doubt is going to do anyone any good.

  328. 328.

    Mnemosyne

    @TenguPhule:

    IANAL, but I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to put an accused criminal in federal prison. Convicted, yes. Accused, no.

  329. 329.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: Wait, the Ducktrap New York Style Nova is at the top though I haven’t compared them directly. They lightly cold smoke all their lox after brining I think.

  331. 331.

    SFAW

    @Aleta:

    Wow, thanks for all the good lox (etc.) info.

    If you have a recommendation, I’m always interested.

    For “regular” lox, outside of a place — the name of which I can’t remember — on Middle Neck Road in Great Neck, not much. When I was a wee bairn, I think we used to get lox from Tabachnick’s (also on Middle Neck Road), but that’s just a guess.

  332. 332.

    No Drought No More

    If by chance anyone named Fegelein is currently working anywhere within the Trump administration, I’d advise that person to leave now, while the leaving is good..

  333. 333.

    SFAW

    @Mnemosyne:

    IANAL, but I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to put an accused criminal in federal prison. Convicted, yes. Accused, no.

    Maybe someone should accuse Jarvanka and Uday/Qusay, and try it out as a test case? Especially if that Federal prison is in some “black” site. Couldn’t hurt.

  334. 334.

    Aleta

    Glushkov has died. This is so sad, I’m so upset for his suffering and for the fear in Britain.

  335. 335.

    MomSense

    @Aleta:

    Everything from Ducktrap is delicious.

    For the non bagel eating people this is a yummy treat or hours d’oevres for a party.
    Thinly sliced cucumbers
    Cut lox into thin strips
    Mix cream cheese fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh dill, and black pepper together.
    Then assemble a cucumber slice with a thin layer of cream cheese mixture. Twist the salmon into a little roll. I like to put a little spring of dill and a caper on the top. You can skip the caper or add a thin slice of green onion.

    They are really pretty and tasty.

  336. 336.

    The Simp in the Suit

    @? Martin:

    This isn’t about ‘winning’ public opinion, it’s about holding people accountable. I don’t want to win, I want people to go to prison.

    Toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh.

  339. 339.

    Gin & Tonic

    @MomSense:

    You can skip the caper

    I’ll always remember the line from Nick Danger, “stuffed, like an anchovy, with last night’s capers.”

  342. 342.

    geg6

    @catclub:

    Can’t remember where I read about this woman (Slate maybe?), but apparently she was plying her trade without authority or something. She claims to be some sort of “sex coach” or something. She does seem terrified for her life, so I hope someone comes through for her.

  344. 344.

    Feebog

    @MomSense:

    That sounds incredibly delish. And for the record, lox and cream cheese should be served on salt bagels. Capers optional.

  345. 345.

    PST

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The best, both smoked and brined, is, of course, from Russ & Daughters.

    I tried to have lunch at the cafe there the day before yesterday while visiting NYC. The wait was over an hour and a half on a cold Sunday afternoon. They must have the best.

  349. 349.

    joel hanes

    @MomSense:

    We could use Firesign

    I know it’s not what you mean, but youtube has much of it,
    and Amazon has most of the albums, in your choice of download, streaming, CD, or vinyl.

    The way things are going, I expect that the next President will be named either Tirebiter or Schickelgruber

  353. 353.

    Tehanu

    @joel hanes:
    Tirebiter would be a definite improvement over Dump. Besides, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the Drumpf family actually has some Schickelgrubers in their family tree.

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