According to ABC News, which got its info from a Russian readout of a recent call between Trump and Putin, Trump invited Putin to visit the White House. (The White House’s version of the call readout neglected to mention the invitation.)
President Donald Trump proposed hosting Vladimir Putin at the White House during a recent call with the Russian leader, a Kremlin aide told Russian media today.
“When our presidents we talking on the telephone, Trump proposed to hold a first meeting in Washington, in the White House,â Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, according to the Russian news outlet RBC.
Usually the employee visits the boss’s office for a performance review, so this is a bit irregular, but whatever.
I’ve always been struck by this photo* of Trump’s meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the day after he (Trump) canned Comey:
We know he gushed about removing the Comey problem and blurted out top secret intelligence. But the body language was also strange. Trump usually wears that pursed-lipped, jaw-jut face that he imagines to be tough and statesmanlike when photographed in the Oval. But here, he looks like a supplicant — a junior executive newly admitted to the executive washroom and trying to fit it. He’ll probably invite Putin to sit behind the Resolute Desk.
Meanwhile, Twitler has been on a Twitter rant about DACA, Mexico, Democrats, NAFTA, Sinclair Broadcasting, Amazon, the US Postal Service, etc., this morning. This is going to be a weird week — I can feel it.
*I know Trump’s horrid visage is repugnant to, well, all of us, and I usually try to spare readers front-page photos of him, but it’s material to the point I am making this time.
Elizabelle
Le sigh.
That photo does look like the Russians having a laugh at Trump’s expense. Unsaid: “Can you believe he just said that?!”
The Nameless One
I’ll take your word for it. I use the Make America Kittens Again extension in Chrome so all I see is a picture of a cute sleeping kitten. Lowers my blood pressure drastically.
The Moar You Know
Lavrov and Kislyak are laughing at him. That’s unmistakable.
ETA: can none of these people afford a decent tailor? Jesus. I’ve seen better looking/fitting suits at Sears.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I like this picture of trump...
Major Major Major Major
I donât know what the hell that expression is. Itâs definitely not one humans usually make…
@The Nameless One: that works on this picture? Great extension but Iâve found it usually only works at big news sites.
schrodingers_cat
Is it me or is T looking a lot like Boris Yeltsin in that photo?
Roger Moore
I see you’re going way out on a limb. Any other extreme predictions, like the direction in which the sun will rise or the wetness of water?
MoxieM
Well you just know he’s gonna get a good chewing-out from the Boss, and a bad performance review for going along with that slut Teresa May, right? So he’s nervous, jumpy even.
Betty Cracker
If you click The Post link above to the source of the photo, you’ll see a series of pictures of that meeting. It’s not just the one still — he looks obsequious in every damn one of them, and the source is Tass because Trump wouldn’t allow US journalists to cover the meeting.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well done. I also agree with what Chait says in that article — Trump’s epic corruption must be a core pillar of the Democrats’ case against him.
yastreblyansky
@schrodingers_cat: That was my first thought when the photo came out last year. I even wrote it up:
Amir Khalid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
— Animal Farm
dmsilev
I think I’ve forgotten what ‘normal’ is like.
RandomMonster
I think Putin is now just fucking with him.
dmsilev
@The Moar You Know:
Trump dresses that way deliberately. I think he thinks it hides his paunch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
One of his ranty tweets was sent out at four in the morning. Makes me wonder what news his lawyers got Friday or Saturday
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Indeed. Chilling.
And we are left to one man, Robert Mueller (and his investigative team), with enough power to bring a bad regime down. Republicans in Congress are stonewalling, and the howler monkeys of rightwing cable news are paving the way to a dictatorship.
I want a full housecleaning after this. Including jail terms. (You know I want Mitch McConnell to swing for this. It is treason. He colluded to prevent full and free elections. And who knows what we will see on the financial end.)
MobiusKlein
@dmsilev: Abnormal is the new normal.
rikyrah
Health Department removes breast cancer and Obamacare info from womens health website
Think Progress
Amanda Gomez
April 2, 2018
The Department of Health and Human Serviceâs (HHS) Office on Womenâs Health removed a webpage dedicated to breast cancer and other helpful reproductive health information, including important insurance information for low-income people, according to a new report.
The Sunlight Foundationâs Web Integrity Project first reported the missing webpage. The group has been documenting page or link removals from the OWH website and shared its most recent report with ThinkProgress.
This breast cancer page did serve as a repository of links dedicated to this disease, like âBreast cancer symptomsâ, âScreening and diagnosisâ, âBreast cancer risk factors and preventionâ, and âGovernment in action.â Informational pages and factsheets about the disease canât be found elsewhere on the OWH website, according to the Sunlight Foundationâs comprehensive review.
schrodingers_cat
@dmsilev: It is not working.
No Drought No More
Putin is taunting Trump and insulting each and every American in the process. The writing is on the wall. He’s already written Trump off, and is merely playing cat to Trump’s mouse. Recall that Putin can announce the conclusions of the Mueller investigation at a Kremlin “news conference” this afternoon if he’s so inclined. And who knows, maybe he soon will one of these days. And if he does, I’ll tune to FOX for the coverage. As it is, I’m looking forward to the stupid looks on the faces of all the stupid bastards that got the country in this mess, on whatever day it is that shoe does drop, and Trump’s treason is exposed.. Lest We Ever Forget, either: congressional republicans know it already, yet continue to aid and abet the traitor.
hellslittlestangel
Yes, he looks very junior in that photo. It reminds me of the infamous pic of Chris Christie trying to hug Jerry Jones after a Cowboys victory.
rikyrah
With Easter declaration, Trumpâs confusion upends immigration debate
04/02/18 08:01 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump wished the public a âHAPPY EASTER!â yesterday, shortly before he apparently called off negotiations intended to protect the Dreamers he put at risk when he rescinded the DACA policy.
Given the timing and context, it appears the president was worked up about something he saw on Fox News â a familiar dynamic that explains his outbursts.
Speaking briefly to reporters before entering a church for Easter services, Trump added, âA lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of DACA and we are going to have to really see. They had a great chance. The Democrats blew it.â
There are two core problems to this. The first is that the president appears to have no idea what heâs talking about. The second is that Trump, by declaring his latest position, may not have been declaring his latest position at all.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Agreed. In this entire debacle, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan come out looking the worst.
ETA: Of all the media failures, Vichy Times is the worst. They proclaimed in October that there was no link between T and the Russians.
rikyrah
Why the White House is pretending a fired cabinet secretary âresignedâ
04/02/18 08:40 AMâUPDATED 04/02/18 09:24 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump last week fired his VA secretary, David Shulkin, in the latest major shake-up of the administrationâs team. According to the ousted cabinet secretary, the move was part of a push within the administration to privatize veteransâ care.
According to the White House, however, Shulkin wasnât fired at all â because he âresigned.â
……………………………………………………..
Even for Team Trump this is an odd thing to lie about. Indeed, itâs an entirely knowable thing: either Shulkin was fired or he wasnât. Why make up a story thatâs so easily discredited? Why pretend a cabinet secretary resigned when he clearly did not?
As it happens, we know the answer. Politico reported over the weekend that the fired-vs-resigned distinction âcould have far-reaching implications that could throw the Department of Veterans Affairs, the second-largest federal agency, into further disarray.â
In other words, if Shulkin didnât resign, the presidentâs personnel authority is far more limited. Whatâs more, if Shulkin was fired â and literally every piece of evidence makes clear that he was â then he should be replaced by Deputy Secretary Thomas Bowman until the Senate confirms a permanent successor.
But the White House doesnât like Bowman, an opponent of the far-right privatization push.
And so weâre left with an administration that feels it has no choice but to play make-believe, while Shulkin tries to explain reality.
Thoughtful David
Putin has been having a grand ol’ time making the US respond “how high, sir” whenever he says “jump.” From the attack by his mercenaries on our troops in Syria, to the nerve-agent attack in London, to this announcement, Putin is enjoying showing the world that he’s in charge and the US won’t do anything about it.
Yes, I know about the expulsion of the 60 consulate staff, who will be replaced in a couple of weeks.
Notice also that the announcement of this meeting came from the Kremlin, not the White House. They’re showing they’re the ones in charge.
rikyrah
@No Drought No More:
traitors all
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
Orange jumpsuits for all of them.
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
One more piece of evidence that he’s an idiot. He’d so much better with a bespoke suit; a good tailor would do a much better job hiding his paunch than that.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle:
This keeps me up nights. It shouldn’t be down to one person, but I hope for the sake of the entire planet he’s the right person. I’ve been meaning to do a post about that, but just thinking about it depresses me, so I keep putting it off.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: Well, no. He probably thinks it’s working though.
Let’s all just give fervent thanks that he hasn’t (yet) been inspired by the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. We’d have to resurrect H.P. Lovecraft to properly describe the sanity-destroying existential horror of _those_ images.
rikyrah
@dmsilev:
I haven’t. And, that fuels my rage.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Kay has been saying this from the beginning. Get them on the corruption, and not just him, but, from top to bottom.
pat
@Elizabelle:
My thought exactly.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat:
Via anonymous sources, of course. Did they ever burn those sources, like reporters always piously insist they will if a source gives false information?
Rhetorical question.
rikyrah
New report helps explain Trump Worldâs many vetting failures
04/02/18 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
There are 652 key positions in the executive branch that require Senate confirmation, and as of this morning, Donald Trumpâs White House hasnât nominated anyone for one-third of those posts. Making matters slightly worse, when the president does choose people for vacancies, it often seems as if the White House hasnât made any serious attempt at vetting these nominees before they reach Capitol Hill for consideration.
And why is Team Trump failing so spectacularly in this area? The Washington Post answered that question in amazing detail over the weekend, taking a closer look at Trumpâs White House Presidential Personnel Office (PPO) and its role âhobbling the Trump administrationâs efforts to place qualified people in key posts across government.â
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
I so want a house cleaning with perp walks and mascara streaked faces.
I think Muellerâs got him by his nether comb over and he is starting to figure this out. He has always gotten away with it until now.
The problem is what he may do as he feels increasingly trapped. I hope we survive it.
Snarkworth, short-fingered Bulgarian
@rikyrah: Interesting. Thank you.
cynthia ackerman
Said the Kremlin aid, “When our presidents we[re] talking on the telephone …”
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Trump and his team drained the $wamp alright – right into their own pockets.
rikyrah
Winnie Mandela has passed away at the age of 81.
RIP.
NotMax
Putin can bring along the latest version of The Thing.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Whatâs worse is I havenât forgotten what extraordinary is like and to go from stellar to hell is traumatic.
Spanky
LOLOLOLOL. What week of the last 74 or so hasn’t?
And yet we persist.
MomSense
@cynthia ackerman:
Let me guess which of the double entendres they meant.
rikyrah
âIf either Congress or a court holds that Trump must give up certain parts of his operations (or segregate any monies⊠from foreign governments), he may finally need to decide whether the presidency is worth giving up parts of his financial empire.â https://t.co/6vgRIA97rX
â Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 2, 2018
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
A few unexpected suicides wouldn’t hurt either. Real ones, not the kind Putin arranges.
MomSense
@Roger Moore:
I prefer long jail sentences.
Mike in NC
Those Russians distracted Fat Bastard with a large chocolate chip cookie while they made sure the hidden cameras and microphones were working correctly.
patrick II
He looks like the new kid awkwardly trying to be one of the guys. The supplicant comes out when he meets Putin. At times he looks like he wants to roll over on his back and show Putin his belly like a good dog.
mainmata
@yastreblyansky: Ironically, he has that blotched face, out-of-it look of someone who is a chronic drunk even though he doesn’t evidently drink (but apparently neither did W while President…hmm maybe/maybe not).
Anyway, it is abundantly clear that he is totally owned and controlled by Putin and I interpret this photo as Lavrov and Kislyak as being awkwardly embarrassed by having this unexpectedly really stupid mole they need to handle who is the President of their country’s major rival power and OMG I don’t think that they knew what to do then. Since then, of course, Pooty has been behaving very badly and has handled his mole very well.
Thanks to our GOP Congress for endlessly screwing this country over.
GregB
It is just so demoralizing watching the gross and blatant greed and corruption and outright racist policies that are enveloping the US government.
Then there is the architecture of propaganda that is getting built.
There there are the millions who hope to benefit from this all and when and if they don’t are ready to make others pay for them missing out on the looting spree.
Perilous times.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore:
For a (supposedly) rich guy, he is hella cheap.
You’ve probably heard of body dysmorphic disorder, but Trump has the world’s first case of body eumorphic disorder: the obsessive idea that one’s own appearance is flawless and magnificent.
FlipYrWhig
@mainmata: It really does look like the face of someone who’s struggling not to say, “What’s so funny?”
Major Major Major Major
@mainmata:
IIRC gin blossoms are from chronic capillary issues, easily also caused by hypertension, obesity, diabetes, other things that in any sane universe Trump would have.
Then again, we havenât lived in a sane universe since David Bowie died, as he was singlehandedly holding everything together.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
I fear a nuclear strike. I seriously fear it.
And, because I do…
I mean it when I say it…
Those who put us in this position..
WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN.
Barbara
@GregB: Yes. I just returned from vacation and it’s like I have to rebuild my protective coating for not getting demoralized by the onslaught.
Also, the stock market is tanking, presumably as a result of Chinese tariffs and the general escalation of trade war tactics.
randy khan
Weird by pre-2016 standards or weird by current standards is what I want to know.
I haven’t read the tweets, but I find myself imagining something about how DACA is tied to the deal that Amazon gets from the USPS and that it all could be fixed if the Dems weren’t getting in the way of what Sinclair wants to do.
mainmata
@Betty Cracker: This is what bothers me too. The GOP Congress is a body of treason abettors and their leaders should be, in fact, indicted for treason (when it all comes out) but, of course, they won’t be.
We continue to drift into a state of anarchy somehow combined with autocracy. Bizarre.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Itâs not an irrational fear with him. Iâll never get over the people and entities who enabled him or the voters who inflicted this horror on the world. Iâll never forgive them for this. Never.
Barbara
@randy khan: It’s just bizarro world. There is no logic. It’s an alternative reality that he constructs day to day based on random FoxNews pieces.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
McConnell’s most treasonous act was to install in the USSC the guy who will protect him, so it looks like Turtle is safe for the foreseeable future.
BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Trump only hires the Best People.//
Elizabelle
@mainmata: Don’t say that. They very well could be indicted (convicted, I cannot say) and they will be dealt with harshly.
I would like to see a lot of serious prison for a lot of people. Mercers, politicians, operatives, everyone who fucked with our elections and accepted illegal cash and fomented corruption.
We may not get the media help the Parkland kids did, but this is just as important to march and mass for.
Anyone who cannot get the danger we face is goddamned ignorant. And sadly, we have whole industries working to keep them that way.
trollhattan
@randy khan:
Anybody who thinks Trump has or ever had any intention of preserving DACA has been drinking the TrumpAde. He hates it, hates those it protects, and will dangle it as bait in front of the Democrats so long as they respond. Fund his fucking wall and it’s still gone. This ain’t rocket surgery.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: I hope he is not. I wonder what John Roberts and the others think about this.
Situations can change. See “Parkland.”
That is a stolen Supreme Court seat. It is unprecedented. Cannot let them get away with it, once all has played out.
manyakitty
@rikyrah: Maybe this can be his excuse to cut and run. Uncle Vlady can take him home to Mother Russia after his visit.
d58826
Der Fuhrer going on and on about how great he is and oh yes something about Easter eggs. FLOTUS looks like she would like to be in a galaxy far far away. The stuffed rabbit seemed happy though.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/980819999785811970
manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major:
No kidding. Noooooo kidding.
BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I don’t think Nancy and Chuck will deal with him at this point, they got burned once.
d58826
@Elizabelle:
Between 1994-2004 there was an assault weapon ban. Did we have any mass shootings (school or otherwise) during those 10 years?
manyakitty
@Elizabelle: Round ’em up and send them all to Gitmo.
Thoughtful David
@trollhattan:
True. I think he’s making a mistake with these latest tweets, though. Once you kill the hostages, your bargaining power goes way down.
schrodingers_cat
@d58826: We had Columbine.
trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I hope not. Neither is a fool and any hopes of Trump being moderated by those around him can be tossed into the congressional dumpster. He cans anybody who doesn’t tell him how amazing he is, hourly.
BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan:
Remember his first cabinet meeting?
mad citizen
Trump is Col. Klink from Hogan’s Heroes, only with twitter.
randy khan
@trollhattan:
I agree – if he actually wanted DACA to stay in place, he wouldn’t have done any one of about 25 things he’s done to undermine it, starting with his original announcement that he’d decided it was illegal.
Leto
@d58826: Glad to see Sean Spicer can still find work.
clay
@Roger Moore:
That would require:
a) money. Trump is notoriously cheap, even though he can ostensibly afford better. See: his meal choices, the sorry state of his hotels, etc.
b) patience. He would have to stand still for a fitting. This is a man who (apparently) won’t wait long enough for his self-tanner to work properly, which is why he’s unnaturally orange. No way he’s going to get properly fitted when an off-the-rack suit will “be just fine”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I love this headline from TPM, “swing district”
And if Donovan is who I think he is– a bellowing, cement-headed loudmouth who makes Peter King look like Daniel Webster– I really hope he goes down. One thing that surprises me
I figured Donovan would be a professional Catholic type, and a “child out of wedlock” would still matter to Rs in Staten Island
BillinGlendaleCA
@clay: Apparently his reason for his meal choices is that he likes pre-prepared food that’s anonymous because he’s afraid of being poisoned*.
*Then again, McDonald’s?
rikyrah
Dow down 314
SiubhanDuinne
@d58826:
To quote the inestimable GWB: “Well, that was some weird shit.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: business reporter on NPR says China will be going after soybeans later this week. Maybe trump and Chuck Grassley will be having a demented-old-man twitter-fight by Friday.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Mike in NC: No joke. There is no question in my mind that Trump was told to bug the Oval Office by putting something on his desk. (Not that he knows, to him itâs just a singing snow globe that says âwith love from Vladâ).
The question Iâve been wondering is whether the US has ears in the Oval Office. I hope so, even though keeping secrets from the guy whose ass fills that chair is technically illegal and a very bad precedent.
SiubhanDuinne
@clay:
Similarly, according to Ivanka, with the hair-coloring. From Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury:
BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne:
Cause, if you use the stuff for the ladies your junk will fall off.
rikyrah
I believe that the kids have hit the RW hard because it’s the gun issue.
I have long said that the RW is mad, despite controlling Congress and the White House..
Because, so many of us on this side, said, OH HELL NO.
PHUCK YOU.
We have NOT gotten over the election.
We have NOT forgiven anyone who made this possible.
And, we have been pulling receipts about 44 and his entire family, when they pull that, ‘ but, you should respect the Office of the Presidency’ bullshyt.
They are mad.
The MSM, despite the numerous articles about the deplorables, are shook too.
We tolerate them, at first. Now, we’re telling them, stop with this bullshyt. We don’t give two shyts about these people, and we understand them quite fine.
They are so used to our side turning the other cheek. Not only have we not shown any cheeks, but we’re standing here with a 2 by 4, ready to ‘talk’ to anyone asking us to do it.
It’s not 2000.
It’s not 2004, after Shrub lied us into TWO wars.
This is on a whole other level, and the MSM, along with the RW, doesn’t grasp it.
But now, one of their solid pilars – this gun bullshyt, is finally under attack.
The kids are who we’ve been waiting for – and, we have their backs, and it scares them to no end.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: @d58826: there is inconclusive/negative evidence that the assault weapons ban decreased violent crime or homicide; while it did decrease deaths due to assault weapons, I donât recall whether it decreased overall firearms deaths but Iâm sure that is at the link.
Leto
@rikyrah: 475 and continuing to drop. I honestly hopes this breaks the “we need a CEO to run everything” myth forever. They had their chance, it’s pretty much an abject failure, stop doubling down on the bull$hit mantra.
Felanius Kootea
RIP Winnie Mandela. The obituaries have been brutal but I try to imagine being a 28 year old with two young daughters to raise, banned from working by the same apartheid government that put my husband away for 27 years. I donât think Iâd emerge from that experience as a well-adjusted 55 year-old. I admire her courage and defiance and wish many things had turned out differently for her. She started out as South Africaâs first black social worker, full of promise, unbroken. The apartheid government broke her in a way they didnât break Nelson (she was tortured and beaten while jailed for 17 months, 13 in solitary confinement). My heart aches for her daughters and grandchildren.
rikyrah
Dow down 478
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh well…elections have consequences.
BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: I’m tired of all the Winning.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the guy who’s too nutty for regular Fox
There is no limit to the shit Mnuchin will eat for this man
Thoughtful David
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The Russians haven’t needed a bug in the WH–all they’ve had to do is ask. Jar-Jar had been running around to various meetings in various countries and turning over terabytes of valuable espionage. Vlad just gives Trump a call periodically to get what he needs. No need for high tech–it’s more efficient and less risky to just ask for it.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
I always knew the Obama generation kids would be amazing.
SiubhanDuinne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
This explains so much.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Sometime in the last 12 hours, Lavrov is reported to have stated that the Skripal poisoning was probably carried out by the Brits to make the Russian Federation look bad.
I like to think that Cameron or Blair would have recalled ambassadors and lobbied POTUS for a Russian exclusion from SWIFT.
kdaug
@The Moar You Know: …in the tool department
Jack the Second
Aren’t persons of interest asked not to leave the country until the investigation is complete?
prostratedragon
So, I guess Papadopoulos is just a guy who regularly gets a little tipsy and blabs all kinds of things to any ol’ body who sits by him at a bar. Right.
Frankensteinbeck
@MoxieM:
Like the Syrian bombing, the diplomat expulsion turned out to be a meaningless symbol because Trump did it in a way to make sure it wouldnât inconvenience Putin.
@Elizabelle:
Mueller will save no one. We must save ourselves at the ballot box. We CAN do it. Muellerâs job is to sweep up the trash afterwards.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ve started seeing ambulance-chaser commercials about Just For Men.
rikyrah
Dow down 510
The Moar You Know
@d58826: This is not complete, missing at least one school shooting I know of:
Damageplan show shooting Columbus, Ohio 12/8/2004
Lockheed Martin shooting Meridian, Mississippi 7/8/2003
Navistar shooting Melrose Park, Illinois 2/5/2001
Wakefield massacre Wakefield, Massachusetts 12/26/2000
Hotel shooting Tampa, Florida 12/30/1999
Xerox killings Honolulu, Hawaii 11/2/1999
Wedgwood Baptist Church shooting Fort Worth, Texas 9/15/1999
Atlanta day trading spree killings Atlanta, Georgia 7/29/1999
Columbine High School massacre Littleton, Colorado 4/20/1999
Thurston High School shooting Springfield, Oregon 5/21/1998
Westside Middle School killings Jonesboro, Arkansas 3/24/1998
Connecticut Lottery shooting Newington, Connecticut 3/6/1998
Caltrans maintenance yard shooting Orange, California 12/18/1997
R.E. Phelon Company shooting Aiken, South Carolina 9/15/1997
Fort Lauderdale revenge shooting Fort Lauderdale, Florida 2/9/1996
Walter Rossler Company massacre Corpus Christi, Texas 4/3/1995
Air Force base shooting Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington 6/20/1994
No Drought No More
If Putin really wants to have fun, he’ll order Trump to reverse course on his immigration policies. Or bark like a dog or quack like a duck on an international broadcast. What choice would Trump have but to submit to his master’s command? The defection from his ranks of those Americans who can be fooled “all the time”- as Abe charitably styled them and their their ignorance- can only effect his poll numbers. Putin can expose his treason.
Matt McIrvin
@d58826: Yes, 1999 was a bad year, including Columbine. But the 1990s ban didn’t ban any already existing guns– they were grandfathered in. We can do far better than that.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know: Interesting that they seem to increase from 1997 to 1999 and then fall back to one or less a year.
Kay
They all look gross in that pix. Probably jeering at someone.
I’m so, so sick of these jowly old men. Ugh. Just someone else. Anyone else. I’d literally rather the world be run by high school sophomores.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@No Drought No More:
Or fuck a pig during prime time…
The Moar You Know
@BillinGlendaleCA: The list isn’t terribly accurate, got that from Mother Jones and they definitely missed some that I know about. Point stands: the ban didn’t stop mass shootings. I might further point out that Columbine didn’t even involve an assault rifle; pistols, a shotgun, and a carbine. Neither did the Roof shooting in South Carolina, or Hasan’s Fort Hood shooting, both were done with pistols only.
I have no problem with banning assault weapons, nor any problem with banning any kind of semiauto rifle entirely (long overdue) but you wanna address gun violence in this country effectively, you MUST go after pistols as your primary goal. They kill by far the majority of victims.
If it goes bang, ban it. I’m there now.
zhena gogolia
@Kay:
Me too.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
But he would still be Donald Trump.
? Martin
@No Drought No More:
In the goal for a white supremacist nation, these are the eggs they are willing to break. Any shoe that might drop will be seen as an attack on that goal and they will cast themselves as the victim.
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: I’ve decided we should adopt the ‘Repeal and replace’ approach to the 2nd Amendment. There should be some right to own guns. I wouldn’t want to live in Alaska and not own a gun. But clearly the 2nd Amendment is too vaguely worded to be useful, so let’s repeal it and replace it with something more clearly worded and more restrictive.
‘Repeal and replace’ should be our new mantra. The GOP love that approach after all.
debbie
To me, he looks like a kid who was just invited to sit at the grownups’ table for the first time.
BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know:
Then you’re doomed to failure, that ain’t gonna happen. What’s better is, treat guns like cars(license, registration and liability insurance).
Chyron HR
@? Martin:
Oh, I’m sure you’d get used to it eventually.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Moar You Know:
The less guns, the safer. I do recognize the need for a limited amount of guns in rural areas. Europeans don’t have to worry about dangerous wildlife.
debbie
@The Moar You Know:
Re: Damageplan show shooting Columbus, Ohio
The gunman used a Beretta 9 mm., not usually included in assault weapons. Also, as I recall, the shooting was the result of a fight over Pantera, nothing to do with a school.
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
It isn’t the suits. It’s the dummies the suits are on. Misshapen lumps of shit do not fill out a suit properly. And that’s why they look like shit, it’s exactly what they are, lumps of shit in bags.
The Moar You Know
@debbie: OPs question was regarding mass shootings, not school shootings. Kind of a distinction without a difference, though. Neither one stopped during the 94-04 ban.
Most mass shootings, school or otherwise, don’t involve assault weapons, as I noted above.
Ladyraxterinok
@rikyrah: Did you see that a senior HS girl in Pence’s hometown is organizing a Gay Pride celebration in the town for her required-for-graduation sr project? And David Hogg tweeted congratulations and support to her? There really is a national revolution being led by intelligent, dedicated teenagers. And it’s gaining steam!
BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know: But what assault weapons do give you is a higher body count.
Brachiator
@No Drought No More:
If actual evidence of Trump’s capitulation to Putin ever surfaces, the Republican leadership will beg that it be suppressed “for the good of the country.”
rikyrah
@Ladyraxterinok:
love this!
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
What’s the old saying, can’t dress up a pig?
That’s the problem here. Bespoke, not bespoke, doesn’t matter. I used to know a Savile Row trained tailor. Made some very fine suits. Some/most very, very fine. But he could only do so much with Savile Row camouflaging, the inside had to be at least close to the same level of fine. And these are not fine examples of what insides it takes to make a good suit look good.
rikyrah
Zinkeâs Interior Dept Disproportionately Reassigned Native American Workers
By Alice Ollstein | April 2, 2018 6:00 am
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/zinkes-interior-dept-disproportionately-purged-native-american-workers
rikyrah
Dow down 527
rikyrah
With $538k And Counting, McCabe To Stop Accepting Legal Defense Fund Money
By Matt Shuham | April 2, 2018 11:45 am
Andrew McCabe, the recently fired former FBI deputy director, announced Monday that he would cease accepting donations for his legal defense fund at 7:00 p.m. ET after raising more than three times his original goal.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe last month, days before McCabe would have been eligible for his pension, for making âan unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lack[ing] candor â including under oath â on multiple occasions.â
At press time, the legal defense fund, hosted on a GoFundMe page, had raised $538,246, with donations flowing in every couple minutes.
âThe outpouring of support on GoFundMe has been simply overwhelming and has led to contributions that have left us stunned and extraordinarily grateful,â McCabe said in a statement Monday (read the full statement below). âThe GoFundMe campaign began organically, with generous people spontaneously giving to accounts that others had set up.â
tobie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just got home from the doctor’s office and find out the DOW is in free fall. I guess we have the Trump/Dobbs/Wilbur Ross trade war to thank for this.
d58826
@The Moar You Know: thanks for the research. And yes I was thinking specifically AR15 type weapons. Obviously you can do a lot of damage with a 9mm hand gun and a couple of spare clips/magazines.
All of these killings are the result of a chain of events in the shooter’s life. No way we can protect ourselves from that chain of events. BUT if we pull out the link labeled ‘gun’ we can certainly reduce the damage done.
rikyrah
Scaliaâs Goal Of Unwinding Voter Protections Is Becoming A Reality
By Richard L. Hasen | April 2, 2018 11:07 am
TenguPhule
Future Onion Headline: “Putin asks, why are all these Republicans suddenly sucking my dick?”
rikyrah
Steven Bochco, RIP.
Man, he was a part of my TV Viewing days.
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Hasn’t Melania suffered enough?
rikyrah
Down down 608
TenguPhule
@Chyron HR:
Surrounded by climate-change denying Republicans and starving polar bears?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
Once had to be too many.
Ruckus
@manyakitty:
What possible reason would Vlad want the shitgibbon in Russia? Possibly on a leash as a pet? Possibly to show off how strong he is, because he got him elected and he owns drumpf? None of those are as reasonable to Vlad over keeping him right where he is, fucking up Vlad’s opposition from the inside. And Vlad doesn’t even have to do a lot, drumpf is capable on his own of completely fucking up the US.
For Vlad, keeping his toady right where he is is best.
Ab_Normal (at work)
@MobiusKlein: You rang? ;)
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
And this is just a 3 billion opening shot tariff from China.
Imagine the bloodshed the moment that soybeans and corn are mentioned.
Ruckus
@mad citizen:
That is a low blow. Very low.
Col Klink would like a word about being compared to the utter waste of oxygen in the WH that you libeled him with.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
I think we as a nation are going to have to officially brand the Republican party a terrorist organization going forward.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
uh uh uh
Spanky
Yeah, the kidzz these days are doing pretty great things. Back when I was their age, all I did was stupid shit.
Say what now?
So when the WaPo’s topics across the top included “Condom Snorting”, you know I had to click.
And regarding the stock market falling – it’s been expected for months, it’s done it 2-3 times in the past few weeks, and Trump vs the Chinese on tariffs. So no surprises.
TenguPhule
@clay:
To be fair, its a rare man who wastes filet mignon by burning them into inedibility.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Col Klink’s dad was the conductor of the LA Philharmonic.
TenguPhule
@Spanky:
Uh, its done it a lot more then that once Trump decided to let his freak flags fly since Feb.
Kay
It’s amazing. Sinclair gets money damages from the employee if the employee quits rather than read propaganda. 40% of annual salary plus a multiplier in certain situations.
BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: I was told that trade wars are good and are easily won.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
What kind of marketing department decided that naming their product after a well known murderous shapeshifting alien in the Arctic was a good branding?
TenguPhule
@BillinGlendaleCA:
It will be a short victorious war. //
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Its official then.
We are trapped in 1984.
rikyrah
Dow down 670
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Spanky: I think there must be secret internet platform where teens plan conspiracies like this. “What horse shit thing should we tell the olds we’re doing to freak them out?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: a great day for someone to hack the Beast’s twitter account and repost some of his “Look at the stock market!” stuff
rikyrah
@Kay:
thanks for the info, Kay.
Will spread the word.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
What scares the MSM is that the kids don’t need them. At all. The kids have an instant messaging system, in fact a few of them. They know what is going on better than the MSM and faster. Their world doesn’t depend on the MSM for anything. The MSM will be obsolete in the near future, and they know it. Will the kids stop using their methods of communication when the get older? I doubt it. Look what the MSM actually gives you. It’s gossip with some explosions once in a while. The kids have that and they get to control it. They aren’t going to give that up. The MSM will continue to speak to a smaller and smaller audience until they run out of any customers. They are running scared that they are rapidly becoming irrelevant. And they should be but because they are who they are they can’t change to even attempt to capture the younger audience. And they won’t. They are successful old farts and successful old farts have blinders on the size of small states because their way has been successful. When it stops being successful, they have no idea what to do. It’s why you see them continue to go in the wrong directions, they don’t know anything else and like most old farts aren’t willing to learn.
ruemara
This is a dictatorship and he’s stopping by for a site visit to review documents and talk to his underling.
Not sure how it’s still a question. I think every piece of intel is completely compromised by this traitor and his team. You’re going to have to clean the whole fucking government, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law and rebuild, rewrite and restructure the IC, the law & all levels of government after this. And that’s if you get it back in 2018. If you don’t, you’ve fucked the world for a good generation or 2.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: IANAL, but this is what I was wondering about
Ruckus
@Kay:
The chances that those HS sophomores would be able to do a 10,000% better job than the current occupant of the WH are extremely good so I’ll second your idea.
Jay C
Dow down 653 now.
Though (just as an opinion) – the index has only “lost” back down to its levels of last fall: after which the Dow was pumped up to new heights – so sellers have about a year or more of profits to take and still be ahead of the game.
If it dips below 23,500 or so for any length of time without rebounding, however, then the fecal matter is definitely on course for projected impact with the impellr….
jimmiraybob
The important question is will Vlad be in the reviewing stand for the big spring military parade?
prostratedragon
@TenguPhule: compare off the top of my head Cerberus investment fund, the Macondo oil prospect, probably others. They either have a tin literary ear, or just love fucking with us.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
I believe the classical version is seven generations down.
And they were optimists.
TenguPhule
@prostratedragon:
I am convinced this is true.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Depends, are we talking D&D high school sophomores or Ayn Rand high school sophomores?
Spanky
@Ruckus:
Minor adjustment. And seconded.
Ruckus
@Spanky:
I’m no expert or anything but I’d expect one’s attention to be what, maybe elsewhere if snorting a condom but then at least they might still have an attention span. So I’m giving them 5,000% better while doing that. Still good odds.
ETA I wonder if when I was a teen condoms were hidden so that kids wouldn’t get the idea to snort them? Or if the old farts were just afraid that kids would think that safe fucking was OK. Oh well, we’ll never know.
Spanky
@Jay C: Given that the current White House occupant is actively working to wreck the economy via trade wars, tariffs, and twitter-trashing major American corporations (Amazon, today), I’d say we’re in for a rough ride.
I went to mostly cash immediately before the inauguration, having wildly underestimated the market’s capacity for denial, and missed out on the runup to where we
arewere.Brachiator
@Ruckus:
This cuts a number of ways. The old MSM is going away, but it’s unclear as to what will replace it. Instant messaging is not journalism. It’s not even news. The MSM gives you gossip with some explosions. Instant messaging gives you Kim Kardasshian’s ass, spam and selfies. Instant messaging is reactive and kids control that very well. But you also have governments that seek to control or monitor social media, to demand back door access to devices, and to destroy net neutrality and shift control of the Internet to corporate entities.
I applaud the kids who use Instant messaging and social media like 21st century versions of the pamphleteering that Alexander Hamilton and his buddies used. Everything old is new again. But it is just a few of many arrows in the Information Age quiver.
Ruckus
@Spanky:
I went to all cash during the recession, because I had no choice. I’ve stayed all cash ever since and I find it refreshing that I was ahead of the curve for once.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
The MSM has long been only a gossip column. Some segments worse than others of course but look at what the main stream media puts out for content. There are places that do what we think of as journalism but the MSM isn’t often part of that, and getting less and less as the days go by. Sure internet communications are under attack and kids are going to use it to teach each other to snort condoms, but really, how is that a lot different from what’s on your TV or in your newspapers every day? Important news? What important news have you gotten from the main stream media in the last 30 days?
ETA My suggestion that the MSM will disappear doesn’t mean in the next year, but as the HS kids of today become the adults in charge. That’s still a rather rapid change, in a historical context.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
This simply is not true. The media is not a monolith, even though it’s nice to pretend that this is the case for media bashing purposes.
Whenever I ask commenters where they go for journalism, typically I am offered opinion sites. This is not journalism, and the opinion and analysis sites typically depend on some mainstream site for their analyses.
I got news about China’s impositions of tariffs from traditional news sources, as did anyone who composed a Twitter post or Instant Message or included it in their FaceBook feed.
I follow sites like Newspaper Death Watch to track the accelerating death of newspapers and magazines. That mainstream media is dying is old news. Much of it deserves to die. Some is dying because audiences are fleeing. But good journalism is not easy or cheap, and new models are not yet self-sustaining. I know quite a number of good journalists who lost jobs as a result of newsroom layoffs and tried to start online news sites which could not build a sustaining subscriber base.
On top of this, you have Murdoch and Sinclair Broadcasting, which are eager to serve as right wing propaganda organs, with no pretense of honesty or integrity. Unfortunately, these properties have lots of right wing money to sustain them, and they are desperately trying to expand beyond their core demographics in order to try to influence the larger public.
Kayla Rudbek
@BillinGlendaleCA: and some of the menâs hair dyes still have lead salts in them. Iâm surprised that those are still legal.
TenguPhule
@BillinGlendaleCA:
To be fair, nobody would ever think of adding poison to Mcdonalds offerings.
Jay
@Frankensteinbeck:
Canadian’s don’t worry about dangerous wildlife.
SgrAstar
@clay: little known fact: trumpâs suits are Brioni, and theyâre not cheap. He just doesnât have any taste. He *wants* to look this way in his expensive, ill-fittin suits. Lipstick on a pig, guys… lipstick on a pig.
TenguPhule
@Jay:
I know this is a lie because they have moose in Canada.