Even if Rachel Maddow isn’t your cup of tea, the first two minutes of tonight’s broadcast are worth watching:
[Edited to remove defunct video embed.]Meanwhile, the Republican Party appears to have outsourced its @GOP Twitter account to Mike Flynn’s deranged whelp:
I think I’ll go watch Star Trek reruns until I fall asleep. Living in Stupid Town is so exhausting!
Open thread.
Msb
“Lyin’ Comey”? Trip takeover of the Rs is complete. Now they talk like him.
Bart
No video, Betty.
efgoldman
But you don’t live in DC!
Betty Cracker
@Bart: I fixed it.
efgoldman
Random useless off topic observation:
Was it only a couple of years ago that the yahoos were having hysterics, cows and chickens over interracial couples and families in TV commercials?
Now there’s at least one commercial every hour, on cable and broadcast, with such a family.
And nobody gives a flying fuck, as it should be.
NotMax
Was watching a couple of fan-produced Star Trek new episode ‘continuations’ of the original series earlier today while a pot roast was in the oven..
Depending on the camera angle, Chris Doohan as Scotty now looks older than his dad Jimmy did during the TV series.
Mandalay
Maddow is unwatchable. What an absurd drama queen. The students of Parkland are better speakers.
Yarrow
Thanks for the link. It’s always been all of it. Personal failure, scandal–it’s always been tied together.
I watched a little past that and Maddow says Pompeo might not be confirmed. I’ve been busy and haven’t followed the confirmation hearing. Is that true?
Gretchen
Rachel sounds like she’s really upset about how crazy things are.
Gretchen
@Mandalay: Disagree. She goes into great depth explaining things. If that’s not your cup of tea, don’t watch. I find her perspective valuable.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Definitely in deep doo-doo so far as getting a committee vote of approval is concerned. McConnell has already stated he’ll bring the nomination to the floor regardless of what the final vote in committee is, so it remains an open question.
danielx
I saw a reference at some point this evening to “wretched hive of scum and villainy”, made famous by Alec Guinness, naturally. If it’s not in the rotating tagline database, it should be.
MisterForkbeard
@Yarrow: Ish? He’s probably not getting out of the committee, but McConnell says he’ll advance to the full Senate regardless of what they say.
However, McCain’s not voting and Rand Paul says he’s a ‘no’, so that’s a bare minimum 50 votes right there if the Dems stick together, as they should.
Citizen Alan
@MisterForkbeard:
I’d actually rather see Wendy “I have no opinion about segregation Vitter gets shot down. She’ll be on the court forever.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Yep. If I recall correctly it was a Cheerios commercial with an absolutely adorable five (or so) year old girl playing the daughter in the ad.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: I’ve heard her talk when I was assigned at USAWC. What you’re seeing is a persona she’s developed for her show. One part wonk, one part geek, one part perpetually astonished naif.
smike
@Gretchen: I find Rachel’s ardent use of repetitiveness to be grating, but not watching her is not an option.
piratedan
well, if Trump is pardoning Libby, I can see it serving multiple sweet spots for him…
1) It shows that yes, he can pardon people because he’s the top dawg (as if anyone had forgotten Arpaio) and lets his faithful know he has their back
2) sticks it in the eye of the Bush and “traditional” republicans
3) send a signal to the Deep State that he don’t give a fuck and has no problem protecting people against his perceived enemies…
I’m hoping that we make it to the 2018 elections before this fucker goes into total dictator mode and declares Democrats as illegal and disbands the Government in an attempt to consolidate power.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: He won’t be voted out of committee. There’s a 11-10 GOP/DEM split on the committee. Senator McCain is out for cancer treatment and Senator Paul has already stated he won’t vote to move the nomination forward. Senator McConnell has already made it clear that he will bring the nomination to the floor regardless. The question then becomes, given that Senator McCain will still be out for cancer treatment, whether Senator Paul will still vote against the nomination. If that is the case, and if Senator Schumer can then keep his entire caucus together, Pompeo’s nomination will fail. It is unclear from the reporting what Paul will do once the nomination goes to the entire Senate.
The bigger question that has to be asked is: if Pompeo’s nomination fails, who gets appointed? I have significant concerns with Pompeo’s anti-Islam, homophobic, fundamentalist beliefs. But he is, by all accounts, at least competent. You don’t graduate at the top of your class at West Point if you’re a moron.
Adam L Silverman
@smike:
Blink twice if you need to be rescued?
Adam L Silverman
@piratedan: It may also be that Bolton or someone else has recommended him for something. Either Deputy National Security Advisor or as a backup in case the DCI nominee can’t get past McCain because of her role in the torture regime or something else.
piratedan
@Adam L Silverman: true dat Adam and we know that these guys only hire the best, I mean if you have to pardon someone whose past treasonous activity included outing intelligence assets, why wouldn’t you want them on team Trump? Seems like a natural fit when looked at in Trumpovision….
Adam L Silverman
@piratedan: I think it is also meant to signal that if you lie to the FBI and obstruct justice, this President will pardon you for it.
Aleta
testing — comment won’t post …
Aleta
Kenneth P. Vogel @kenvogel
SCOTT PRUITT demanded that @EPA officials book his flights only on @Delta — even if it cost taxpayers more & required extra layovers –because he wanted to accrue frequent flier miles, alleges ex-agency official who was appointed by TRUMP (!).
Scott Pruitt’s enforcer at @EPA, an [email protected] agent who goes by “Nino,” lashed out at colleagues who challenged Pruitt’s spending, nearly coming to blows with one & threatening to visit another late at night to confiscate his credentials.
SCOTT PRUITT’s security chief, an [email protected] agent named Pasquale Perrotta, boasted that he let women hold his gov’t-issued firearm in romantic situations. “It was, in some ways, like a dangerous, forbidden x x to some, & I played right along.”
The @EPA inspector general is investigating PRUITT’s security chief, Nino Perrotta, for steering an EPA contract to a business partner.
*But the IG heading the investigation has been spotted with Perrotta drinking xxx at a bar near the EPA’s HQ.
Kristine
So many have already been questioned and so much information compiled. What good does the prospect of a pardon do at this point, except maybe for Manafort?
John Revolta
@Adam L Silverman: I’m betting that, having made his “statement” with the committee vote, Paul will fall in line and vote to confirm.
Peale
@Adam L Silverman: or did he graduate top of his class because he held those views? Sorry, I’m starting to get a bit tired of odious conservatives getting a pass because they have “otherwise impeccibally documented credentials”. Te fact that such a scoundrel has a ranking reflects poorly on the institution that ranked him. It doesn’t balance out his odiousness.
piratedan
@Adam L Silverman: have to say that I am at the officially scared part of the process where I am hoping that we get confirmation that the country is still built on the rule of law, where elected officials aren’t exempt from said same. Granted it will be a long hard slog since the GOP just as complicit in the treason as the administration. or at least their actions sure as hell imply it. Also finding that multiple media empires are just as compromised is scary as fuck. Have to give Vlad (and his minions) props for executing their plan and manipulating our weaknesses so well…
hard to believe that here we are in the twenty-teens still having to deal with the fact that so many people are racist or racist-tolerant as long as they can feel like they have an advantage over someone else, be they sluts, transgenders, immigrants, people following other sky buddies or are financially challenged, these people are equal opportunity haters…
seaboogie
@efgoldman: OTOH, now we have Nazis feeling free to fly their freak flag. I would argue that flying fucks are being given.
John Revolta
@Aleta: “So, what’s the big deal? Half the time, it wasn’t even loaded!”
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: Let me clarify. Just because he graduated top of his class at the Point doesn’t mean he’s qualified to be SecState, nor that he should be confirmed. My only point in referencing that he had done so is that neither dummies, nor the incompetent graduate at the top of the class at the Point. It doesn’t give him a pass on his bigotry in any way shape or form. All it shows is he’s a smart, competent bigot.
Adam L Silverman
@John Revolta: Most likely. But he’s a strange dude, so you never know.
hervevillechaizelounge
I know I’m late to the party on this but the appropriate thread is dead—there’s something hinky with the Trump lovechild story, right?
If I’m understanding this correctly the doorman had an NDA which prevented him from speaking about the rumor; but the National Enquirer unilaterally amended the agreement to allow him to speak about the rumor itself but not his agreement with the Enquirer.
Why would the Enquirer do such a thing? Is it because the rumor isn’t true and Team Trump hopes to use the falsity of the lovechild rumor to impugn the veracity of all other rumors (the pee tape et al)?
Or am I misunderstanding the situation? What possible reason could the Enquirer possess for waiving the doorman’s silence?
Ninedragonspot
To cap this exhausting news cycle, I read the shitty news that alcohol is bad, m’kay. I guess wheatgrass juice and tears are to be my new nightcap.
NotMax
@seaboogie
Ol’ Adolf’s birthday anniversary is fast approaching. Perhaps Dolt 45 will issue a pardon for him too, in the hope that would make any other pardons look like small potatoes.
;)
@Adam L. Silverman
He will be guided, as usual, by the cowardice of his convictions.
Major Major Major Major
@Ninedragonspot:
I imagine it was, given that 14 units is approximately the British dose per day…
It should be noted that in the related links was “Little evidence that light drinking in pregnancy is harmful, say experts” so… perhaps the Guardian’s medical reporting is as shitty as everybody else’s
Aleta
JWR
About this Libby pardon thing. I seem to remember something about the difference between a pardon and a commutation, (the former being Cheney’s choice, and the latter of which was granted by Bush), it being that a commutation could shield Libby from further prosecution, but that a pardon would not? Am I misremembering the difference betwixt the two? Am I remembering something I read on Firedoglake? (Hey! FDL was a fairly nice place to visit before Jane went completely bonkers with her ban hammer.) Also, was or is there a statute of limitations on Libby’s criminal behavior?
mainmata
@John Revolta: Isn’t that nearly always what Senator Aqua Buddha does? He really is quite ridiculous.
JR
@Ninedragonspot: I’d have to read the Lancet article, but more than five drinks a week is a pretty vague threshold. Distribution matters. There’s a big difference between one a day and five on Friday, or even three on Friday/Saturday.
The following quote is particularly sloppy:
The paper estimates a 40-year-old drinking four units a day above the guidelines [the equivalent of drinking three glasses of wine in a night] has roughly two years’ lower life expectancy, which is around a 20th of their remaining life. This works out at about an hour per day. So it’s as if each unit above guidelines is taking, on average, about 15 minutes of life, about the same as a cigarette.
Yes, if you put away a bottle of wine a day, you are in for a world of health problems. But that’s not exactly a novel discovery.
Matt McIrvin
@efgoldman: I don’t think attitudes have changed much–the same people who were upset by the Cheerios commercial with the interracial couple are still upset. Advertisers just got a little bolder about pissing them off.
father pusbucket
@Adam L Silverman:
I hope the FBI and Justice Dept. are ready to present numerous examples of Trump throwing people under the bus.
father pusbucket
@efgoldman:
I wish. I wonder if this played a role in watering Trumpism?
The Pale Scot
@JR:
Then I should have died years ago
Barney
@JR: That is not “a bottle a day”, however. They said “three glasses a day”, and have specified a glass as 175ml. It’s seven tenths of a bottle. This may be picky, but you are calling them out for being sloppy, when their figures are right.