Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

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

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

The revolution will be supervised.

In my day, never was longer.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Russiagate Open Thread: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III Finds Himself in A Tough Spot

Russiagate Open Thread: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III Finds Himself in A Tough Spot

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On the one hand, Trump and his enablers are very angry that even Fox News is losing interest in HRC’s emails (now that the details of Trump kissing up to Putin are becoming much better click-bait). And Sessions doesn’t want Trump to fire him, when he still has so many dark-skinned people, poor people, and ‘sexually irregular’ people to abuse!

On the other hand, Robert Mueller just refuses to go away. Sessions is a bad man, but he’s not a stupid one, and he knows that his every word and action is being weighed and stored for future use. He doesn’t want to go to jail, or even to lose his profession… which looks to be the end result for anyone and everyone who gets too close to Donny Dollhands, Lord Smallgloves.

What’s an elderly, entitled, self-important bigot to do? Here, throw the rubes a Mormon!…

Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected calls from Republican lawmakers for a second special counsel to look into potential misconduct by the Justice Department and the FBI in past investigations of Hillary Clinton, saying that the issues were already under scrutiny.

In a letter to three Republican committee chairmen, Sessions disclosed Thursday that he has assigned John Huber, a U.S. attorney based in Utah, to conduct an internal probe into complaints of FBI bias and wrongdoing.

“I am confident that Mr. Huber’s review will include a full, complete and objective evaluation of these matters in a manner that is consistent with the law and facts,” Sessions wrote to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy…

Gowdy and Goodlatte, in a joint statement released Thursday night, said that “while we continue to believe the appointment of a second special counsel is necessary, this is a step in the right direction.”

They added: “We expect that U.S. Attorney Huber, given his reputation, will conduct an independent and thorough investigation.”…

Goodlatte and Gowdy have both said they’re retiring when their current term ends — they probably have the same interest as Sessions: Dragging out this latest snipe hunt in the hope that Trump might implode, Mueller might indict, or the horse might talk something genuinely incriminating the Clinton campaign might turn up, after all this time and effort. Grassley’s immovably stupid, but he’s also old enough that the actuarial odds might turn against him at any moment.

Meanwhile, the Repubs will posture mightily in all their favorite media outlets!

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  1. 1.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    I moved to Albuquerque 3 months ago, Has there ever been a New Mexico Meetup? I know a front pager or two live in the state, plus a bunch of regulars.

  5. 5.

    Garbo

    FUUUUCCCCKKKKK. Just realized with this Roseanne Show reboot the f’n NYTimes is going to spend months interviewing show fans, polling show fans, turning the OpEd page over to show fans….

  7. 7.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @NotMax: Yep! flew over on New years night, and am working for my old dissertation adviser as a post-doc. I’ve gone car less since there is a decent bicycle trail system in Albuquerque, and didn’t want to drop more than a thousand dollars on shipping my old Prius back to the mainland.

  9. 9.

    mai naem mobile

    One of the Justices(liberal) on the 9th Circuit,Stephen Reinhardt died unexpectedly today. Orange Fartcloud, I am pretty sure,will nominate some unqualified RW asshole to fill the vacancy. Jeezus, can we get some good news from the judicial branch at some point soon. Like,tomorrow, soon.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    Dang, am sort of in the market for an older used car. Not in any crucial sense, more an if one happens to show up on the radar sense as have ready access to someone else’s spare vehicle which I can use at will, and drive well under 100 miles per month at this point.

    Enjoy the new job and the new digs.

  16. 16.

    Jager

    My mom was a smart, well read, unreconstructed Roosevelt Democrat (daughter of a Republican Judge, who would be a left winger by today’s R standards) she would rage at the Sunday Shows, she’d call me up and give me a play by play of right wing BS every week. Mom died of cancer in 2005. If mom was around today, trump would be responsible for her death. She used to call W, “that ignorant little son of bitch” and then go off on W’s mother, “you know where she got her nick name don’t you?” Damn I miss her.

  17. 17.

    sdhays

    It’s kind of interesting how the Republicans are playing this. They already got the FBI to waste their time on their witch hunt, and the FBI Director even threw the election to the sack of shit the Republicans nominated. And yes, they’re essentially punishing the FBI for investigating Hillary Clinton. Sure, they don’t like that they found nothing, and they’re trying to punish them for not finding what they were supposed to, but the lesson the FBI might take from this is to be much less cooperative in the future since they can expect the Republicans to treat them like shit no matter what they find.

    I bet at least some officers are thinking this.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: Simon Maloy @ SimonMaloy
    my man looking like he’s about to trick some fat little German kids into climbing into his cauldron

    as I remember, Hansel and Gretl were tricked into an oven, but I’m guessing Maloy’s version is closer to the Grimms’

  23. 23.

    Feebog

    Sessions knows there is no there there in the Clinton emails. This is strictly a delaying tactic. That said, it’s a pretty smart move, he buys time and now has a scapegoat to throw under the bus.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I never actually watched any of that stuff. I didn’t find Ren and Stimpy to be enjoyable at all. I thought the art was terrible and so was the attempted humor. And I never bothered to watch anything else under that block of programming.

  27. 27.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: Welcome to New Mexico! There are indeed a few of us here. I am going to be insanely busy for the next couple of weeks, though.

    Might as well do a commercial for part of what will be making me busy.

    The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum will be holding a symposium on April 9 and 10 in Santa Fe. The theme is “Values, Myths and Interests: Debating American Foreign Policy in an Unstable World.” It’s open to all, and you can sign up at the link.

    Speakers are Daniel Baer, Ambassador (rtd), Diplomat in Residence, Josef Korbel School of International Affairs, Denver University. US Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (2013-17); Michael Battle, US Ambassador (rtd) to the African Union, academic, university provost, military chaplain and most recently Executive Vice President/Provost at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (Overview); Ralph Begleiter, founding Director of the Center for Political Communication, University of Delaware and former world affairs correspondent, CNN (media and social media); Beatrice Camp, Senior Foreign Service Officer (rtd) and former US Consul General Shanghai (Chinese values); Laura S.H. Holgate, Ambassador (rtd), Senior Nonresident Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs,Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Dr. Elizabeth Manak, South Asia and nonproliferation specialist, 30 year plus CIA officer and Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia in the National Intelligence Council (Islamic values); Dr. James L West, Professor of History and Humanities. Middlebury College 1995-2011 (Russian values).

  28. 28.

    Mary G

    Adam, please release my last comment, or put up the tweet itself. (too many links) LeBron James has filed a defamation suit against Laura Ingraham. Boy, her Holy Week is not going well at all.

  30. 30.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Adam L Silverman: I liked the original run, and it’s probably one of the few good vulgar-humor-oriented animated series (something very few series since have pulled off). Adult Party Cartoon aired on Spike! rather than Nick in the early 2000s; its decline in quality can be more-or-less pinned on Kricfalusi being able to go buckwild with the content).

  31. 31.

    StringOnAStick

    @Feebog: I agree, this is delaying tactics. Keeping the FBI busy burning up copy machines reduces the number working on actual investigations, so there’s the risk they’ll miss something important about anything other than R mandated busy work.

    ETA I didn’t mean to imply that actual agents are chain Ed to copy machines, obviously that’s support staff stuff. Cold medications, I’ve been using them and its getting fussy.

  32. 32.

    randy khan

    I’m sure that eventually they will find that Ms. Clinton neglected filed some report in duplicate when the rules plainly called for it to be filed in triplicate, and that she used the wrong color paper to boot. Lock her up!

  33. 33.

    mai naem mobile

    @Mary G: good,that’s karma biting her Nazi ass for outing gay kids when she was at Dartmouth. Glad it’s LeBron who has deep pockets. Hope somebody similar goes after her co conspirator at Dartmouth, DinDin D’Souza when he talks shit about people.

  35. 35.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Adam L Silverman: I thought it was both funny and subversive. But then again I liked Zap Comix too, and I suspect that material wouldn’t go over that well here in 2018 either.

  37. 37.

    MoCA Ace

    “I am confident that Mr. Huber’s review will include a full, complete and objective evaluation of these matters in a manner that is consistent with the law and facts,”

    Damn you little rancid garden gnome! If we wanted objective we wouldn’t be asking for a Republican special prosecutor… Duh

  40. 40.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Sessions disclosed Thursday that he has assigned John Huber, a U.S. attorney based in Utah, to conduct an internal probe into complaints of FBI bias and wrongdoing.

    So when the investigation shows that sections of the FBI plotted against Clinton in co-ordination with elements of the Trump campaign, (cough Giuliani, cough), does Sessions then clean out the corrupt elements of the New York office of the FBI, or promote them?

  41. 41.

    Suzanne

    I have been really busy with the new gig and have been paying less attention to Dampnut. It’s kind of awesome.

    Was supposed to hear today if we got shortlisted for a big project. It would be a really great one. Haven’t heard yet, but the owner’s rep called us yesterday and asked if we had any problems with the contract. So I’m hoping that’s a good sign.

  43. 43.

    joel hanes

    @mai naem mobile:

    One of the Justices(liberal) on the 9th Circuit,Stephen Reinhardt died unexpectedly today.

    Damn.
    One wishes that the Dems were in a position to delay consideration of Trump’s nominee until after the new Congress is seated next year …
    sauce goose etc.

  44. 44.

    oatler.

    @Viva BrisVegas: Clinton and Giuliani were on the same page regarding MJ legalization. I won’t cut that dixie cocksucker any slack for greenlighting drug-testing shit, to say nothing of DADT.

  45. 45.

    Mary G

    @mai naem mobile: I don’t see how LeBron can really win, but I only heard the “shut up and dribble” comment, so she may have said something malicious? IANAL. It’s still amusing that she’s getting piled on. She was really evil about the Dixie Chicks, so karma is due.

  53. 53.

    Geeno

    @EBT: That was great – Aeon Flux, the Head, the Maxx, Beavis and Butthead before “Beavis and Butthead” – great stuff.
    Same shop turned out Daria which I loved dearly.

  56. 56.

    scav

    Speaking of Holy Week non-appologies and weak sauce justifications, FB’s in the running as well: Facebook VP wrote site’s actions were ‘de facto good’ – even if they led to deaths

    Bosworth said in his statement on Thursday: “I don’t agree with the post today and I didn’t agree with it even when I wrote it.”

    With the Zucker flinging about the traditional rote “provocative!” defense.

    Jebus I can’t keep up anymore. Still, seeds being in homer-made paper pots probably a better use of my time.

  61. 61.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @oatler.: You made a comment. Defend it. Don’t fuck off by calling me a hipster b/c my ‘nym is in Latin. That is bullshit.

  64. 64.

    LosGatosCA

    @sdhays:

    Just like the military votes Democratic after Bush/Cheney used and abused them as human political shields.

    The tribalism is deep in the lizard brain.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @oatler.: I am very straight. That’s just where i fall on the scale. So no. I decline your offer. But thank you for asking.

  71. 71.

    jl

    I admit I have trouble following the plot on GOP accusations against the FBI regarding HRC. When are they accusing FBI of prejudiced acts against HRC as an excuse to get rid of someone they don’t like, and when are they accusing the FBI of being prejudiced in favor of HRC so they can demagogue about putting her in jail?

    This is the latter, right? I think it is but the GOP and the media are so far down a rabbit hole maze that is hard to follow on this pair of scams, I thought I should double check.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m not trying to dump on anyone else’s tastes or preferences. It didn’t work for me. If it worked for you: excellent.

  77. 77.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @Cheryl Rofer: Thank you for the welcome. Although I haven’t organized a symposium, I’ve been on the edges of enough of them to get a glimpse of the madness. I’ve got a deadline about May 1st, so I’m going to be busy next month too.

    Its nice to be back in the land of enchantment!

  78. 78.

    Jay

    @jl:

    It’s both, a massive crack or meth addiction makes you inderstand how it can be both,

    Also known as conservatism.

  82. 82.

    jl

    @Jay: OK, thanks. I guess some topics can achieve just a certain degree of clarity, but no more. I’ll work on the assumption that this is the former, later, both, and neither scam, and do the best I can. Understanding it’s all a scam is probably enough.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    It is important to remember that Mueller is now investigating AG Sessions, as well as what exactly went on at the RNC.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-convention/mueller-probing-russia-contacts-at-republican-convention-sources-idUSKBN1H52VT?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5abdb65704d3015d90dd8eae&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    Mueller’s team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia’s U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions, the first U.S. senator to support Trump and now his attorney general, said one source, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.

    Another issue Mueller’s team has been asking about is how and why Republican Party platform language hostile to Russia was deleted from a section of the document related to Ukraine, said another source who also requested anonymity.

    Mueller’s interest in what happened at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, is an indication that Trump campaign contacts and actions related to Russia remain central to the special counsel’s investigation.

    Investigators have asked detailed questions about conversations that Sessions, then a Trump campaign adviser, had at a convention event attended by then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, said the first source, who was questioned by Mueller about the event.

    The same source said Mueller’s team also has been asking whether Sessions had private discussions with Kislyak on the sidelines of a campaign speech Trump gave at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel in April 2016.

  84. 84.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: So, Mueller is persecuting poor ol’ Jeff, just because poor ol’ Jeff lied his ass off and perjured himself about Russian contacts during his Senate hearings?

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @joel hanes: They’ve gotten 12 district and 6 appellate judges through. And that’s setting up an entirely new process where they do them in groups before the committee, rather than one by one when it comes time for them to go for their public testimony/Q&A. That’s in 14 months. There’s a backlog of about 58 more they still haven’t gotten to. Even if McGahn has a candidate for nomination in his hip pocket, they’ll be lucky to get to him or her (and most have been hims and white hims – hoocoodanode?) during this session of Congress. They come back from there 2 weeks at home and are then are in session for only 3 weeks in April and 3 weeks in May. They do all of June, 3 weeks of July, 3 days in August, 3 weeks in September, 3 weeks in October, 2 weeks in November, and 2 in December. And remember these are week days. So those 3 work weeks are actually 14-16 days, not 21.

    Calendar is here:
    https://www.rollcall.com/news/policy/2018-congressional-calendar-senators-plan-sessions-house-mid-term-year

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: They’ve created, or rather bought into the mainstreaming of a conspiracy theory that started out in the white nationalist/alt-right (r/thedonald, r/pol, Gabai, InfoWars, etc) extremist social media space, which was amplified by the Russian trolls and bots and then Wikileaks/Assange and then RT and Sputnick and Breitbart and Gateway Pundit, John Solomon and Sara Carter at The Hill, etc until Hannity and Tucker and Fox and Friends and Limbaugh and Mark Levin, etc were pushing it as well. The conspiracy theory is that President Obama working in collusion with FBI Director Comey, Andrew McCabe, Supervisory Special Agent Strzok, other senior FBI officials in the HQ building, Bob Mueller back in the early part of Obama’s term of office, and both Clintons to sell Russia all of America’s uraniam, peddle influence into US policy and strategy from Saudi and the Gulf emirates and other state leaders and notable/elite non-state actors through donations to the Clinton Foundation. This was then picked up by the less intellectually stable members of the House GOP caucus like Meadows, Jordan, Desantis, Gaetz, Goehmert. And Senator Grassley’s senior investigator on the Senate Judiciary committee. Who then went on Fox and talk radio, and occasionally MSNBC and CNN to rebroadcast it. Including on the shows the President is known to watch.

    Meadows has been pushing one of these threads all day from a Fox News online report that includes the words “suggest a possible coordination between high ranking officials” in the lede. What that reporting does is take the fact that the FBI’s National Security Division, which is where the counterintelligence work is done, was tipped based on legitimate intercepts of foreign nationals combined with intercepts provided by GCHQ that showed folks in the President’s business and campaign were in regular communication with Russians connected to Putin or his senior oligarchs. This led to the creation of the counterintelligence investigation and task force and while keeping the details compartmented, was briefed to the FBI Director (Comey), the AG (Lynch), the DCI (Brennan), the DNI (Clapper), the Director NSA (Rogers), the AP-NSA (Rice), President Obama and VP Biden. This is actually how this is supposed to work!!!!!

  101. 101.

    Jager

    @Gretchen: Apparently the Bush family had a horse on the compound in Maine named Bar Bar and it had a big ass just Barbra. The old man started calling his wife Bar. Kind of a horseshit thing for a husband to do, but….

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    What an asshole! And a shonda for the goyim too!
    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/far-right-activist-thrown-out-of-courthouse-at-pulse-nightclub-trial_us_5abd1882e4b06409775e48cb

    ORLANDO, Fla. — A far-right provocateur on Thursday was escorted from the federal courthouse where the Pulse nightclub shooter’s widow, Noor Salman, awaits a jury’s verdict on charges of aiding the mass shooting.

    Laura Loomer’s media credentials were revoked the previous day after she harassed the defendant’s family outside the courthouse with questions about Muslims, jihad and Easter. She returned on Thursday and was removed by a U.S. marshal.

    Loomer, a conspiracy theorist who was banned from Uber and Lyft in 2017 after she went on an virulent tirade about Muslim drivers, was among the gaggle of reporters.

    “You said her son wants to color Easter eggs ― but isn’t Noor Salman Muslim? Why is she celebrating Easter?” Loomer asked.

    “We believe in all religions,” Salman’s cousin, Susan Adieh, said.

    Loomer continued pushing. “Do most Muslims color Easter eggs?” she asked.

    “I’m a Muslim and my kids, they color Easter eggs,” Adieh replied.

    As the family walked across the street and into the parking lot, Loomer followed, recording with her phone. She repeatedly asked them if jihad means an act of Islamic terrorism. Clary, the family spokesperson, said they weren’t making any more comments.

    “She stuck her phone in their faces,” Clary said of Loomer.

    An email from the court later in the day said a reporter had lost their media credentials and was banned from the courthouse after engaging “in highly inappropriate behavior with the Defendant’s family members outside the courthouse.”

    Loomer, who previously worked for conservative activist James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, is best known for interrupting a New York production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” last year that featured a President Donald Trump-like character who was assassinated. Loomer has a documented history of preaching anti-Muslim hate speech. Just last year, Loomer, who calls herself a “proud Islamophobe,” photographed random hijab-wearing women in New York and tweeted that Muslims were “out in full force”

  104. 104.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @Adam L Silverman: the deplorables have let the right wing pour shit in their ears for decades, Is it really that surprising that they turned into shitheads?

  107. 107.

    guachi

    I read the article but there isn’t a definitive list of every social media site they want information for.

    If it’s known what sites you must put down it’s easy enough to just use some other site. I’m online all the time but the only “social media” site I use is Facebook.

  108. 108.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: Srsly? Or are you making this shit up as high as a kite right now and need to sleep it off?

    Are the Congressional GOPers repeating this madness out loud, or are they being vague about what they are looking for in order to dog whistle it to the Trumpster dupes? Why are our worthless news media reporting this crap as if it, in some possible world, could be legit?

  111. 111.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: I am not making this up. Since I’m potentially subject to random drug screenings for work, I am not high or stoned. And since I don’t drink, I’m not drunk.

  112. 112.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: OK, I’ll take your word that you are not stewed or stoned…. for now…

    Shows how out of it I have become since I decided I didn’t have time to follow the details. I thought it might be about Comey’s announcement of re-opening the HRC email investigation, over something that was almost surely nothing just before the election. Like, find that some guy the Trumpsters want gone who Comey asked to proof read the announcement, so they have an excuse to fire him. I didn’t know the GOP decided to mainstream Alex Jones level demagoguery and BS.

    But if youre drunk as a skunk and making this up, dammitall, I’ll find out one day and make you pay. Somehow. I haven’t figured that part out yet.

  113. 113.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl: I’m not. Basically they’ve rolled a whole bunch of stuff, some of which is completely made up, some is taken out of context, some they just don’t understand – included by the members of Congress – and made it into this huge conspiracy theory. And they keep adding to it.

  115. 115.

    Adam L Silverman

    @BillinGlendaleCA: That’s actually not part of this one. It has, however, metastasized into what is called the Q Anon conspiracy because it was first enunciated by a reddit poster using that nym.

  116. 116.

    frosty

    @Gin & Tonic: I still have my old Zaps. I’m afraid to look at them now, but the one that really spoke to us in college was R Crumb’s Despair

    “See if there’s anything good on.”
    “Why bother?”

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