This is Scott Pruitt, the man Trump appointed to dismantle the EPA. You likely recognized him immediately because, if you read this blog, chances are you follow politics pretty closely. But most Americans couldn’t pick the shit-bag out of a police lineup. So why does he need bulletproof seat covers? Via WaPo:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt upgraded his official car last year to a costlier, larger vehicle with bullet-resistant covers over bucket seats, according to federal records and interviews with current and former agency officials.
Recent EPA administrators have traveled in a Chevrolet Tahoe, and agency officials had arranged for Pruitt to use the same vehicle when he joined the administration in February. But he switched to a larger, newer and more high-end Chevy Suburban last June.
One former EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said that Pruitt remarked that he wanted the larger car because it was similar to ones in which some other Cabinet officials rode.
Just yesterday, the GAO busted Pruitt for improperly squandering $43K in taxpayer dollars to install a soundproof phone booth in his office. There is already such a facility in his building, mind you, but Pruitt wanted his own.
Before that, Pruitt came under (metaphorical!) fire for his first-class travel expenses (necessary, he claimed, because plebes harass him when he flies coach) and world tours taken on the taxpayer dime. A week or two ago (time telescopes out endlessly these days), Pruitt was criticized for being an entitled, grandiose tenant from hell while occupying a posh condo belonging to an energy lobbyist for just $50 a night.
Pruitt maintains a 19 person-strong 24-hour security detail with a fleet of 19 or more vehicles. None of his predecessors even had 24/7 security. Pruitt spends $30 million a year on this small army because he’s received “unprecedented” death threats, according to his office and Trump. That turns out to be mostly bullshit.
Pruitt has received crank tweets and odd emails, plus a couple of genuinely disturbing messages via social media, which is about what he’d receive if he posted controversial opinions on a nearly top-10K blog.
Anyway, just a reminder that this guy is a crook — perhaps the most crooked official in the Trump administration, excluding Trump himself, of course. Pruitt is living large on taxpayer dollars, which Democrats should continue to point out every fucking day between now and November.
Open thread!
schrodingers_cat
My mom’s best friend in school was an EPA administrator. It was her team that did epidemiological studies on the links between asbestos and cancer. She is heartsick about Pruitt. She retired during the waning Obama years.
kindness
Pruitt’s obsession with people trying to kill him is hard for me to get. What stuff is he reading that makes him think this about himself? It’s telling that he goes off the deep end and thinks that is prudent action.
Karma though. It may prove itself yet.
schrodingers_cat
@kindness: His karma, as in his own deeds will finally do him in. We cannot really run from the consequences of our own actions forever.
The Other Chuck
Pruitt can take heart that he’ll have plenty of guards around him in federal prison.
Humdog
Obviously Attorney General material, don’t we all agree?
Jeffro
@kindness: he has got to be at least as much of a paranoid loon as Alex Jones …No other way to explain such extreme measures
Bill K
@kindness:
It may just be an excuse for excess. As with most of Trump’s associates, it’s hard to tell where the graft ends and the psychotic behavior begins.
schrodingers_cat
This bullshit was also peddled by Reihan Salam on the Snooze Hour with zero pushback from either Jowls Shields or R Enabler Woodruff.
WereBear
Paranoia is actually common in really extreme assholes. “If you knew what I was thinking you’d want to kill me” is the inescapable truth their brain keeps telling them.
And, of course, cowardice in abundance.
DanR2
Every time I see a photo of Pruitt, I shake my head. Pruitt is 49 years old.
schrodingers_cat
@DanR2: No way he looks 60+
donnah
Pruitt probably has a checkered past, like the rest of the Trump Cabinet.
Unless the heat gets turned up REALLY high, he’ll still be there. Look at all the deregulation and damage he’s already accomplished! He made it possible, and it’s all with the approval of the Republicans and Trump. Pruitt’s just another big time grifter with an axe in his hands for deregulation.
But I would love to see him gone.
kd bart
Hopefully, one of the first occupants at the newly created Trump Cellblock at a Fed Prison to be named.
Betty Cracker
@DanR2: Seriously? Damn! I would have guessed at least 60.
NotMax
That the head of the EPA is shuttled around in a vehicle which (base model) is rated “up to 16 mpg” in the city is unconscionable all on its own.
Elizabelle
I’m surprised that Pruitt is still with us. And Zinke, for that matter. Such oversight by Congressional Republicans. (Deficits! Benghazi!)
And set your dials: Email from Frontline on their programming tonight. Airing it while their protagonist is still with us.
McCain! was absent for the tax giveaway vote in December 2017. Otherwise, full sweep of GOP; solely party line vote: 51 GOP for, 48 Dems against, McCain absent. Although not needed for a simple majority, by which they raided the treasury.
germy
In other “shit for brains opens his mouth” news:
chopper
@DanR2:
he’s fucking 49?
Brachiator
Trump’s dopey supporters like to parrot their Dear Leader about how he is going to “drain the swamp” of Washington. Sounds like Pruitt is constructing a pleasure grotto so lavish that it would make the indoor pool at the old Playboy mansion look like a puddle.
I’m surprised that Trump is still backing this guy, if only because his lavish spending at taxpayer expense has got to be making Trump feel jealous.
This is confusing. Lobbyists and their political pets screw each other for mutual benefit. Can I root against both these parasites?
Still one thing is clear: when it comes to picking douchebags for Cabinet positions, Trump has an almost perfect batting average.
DanR2
@schrodingers_cat:
I shit you not. From Wikipedia:
Born Edward Scott Pruitt
May 9, 1968 (age 49)
Danville, Kentucky, U.S.
Paranoia and assholery must prematurely age people.
chopper
@germy:
ah yes, the old ‘national socialism‘ gambit. by the same argument, north korea is a democracy.
Feathers
I keep remembering a young woman who was at a gathering I went to the day after the election. We were all worried, but she rather snootily told us that her boss at the EPA had been reassuring people, saying they had made it through the Reagan years, they would make it through this. She rolled her eyes, saying none of this was going to affect her, what she worked on was covered by the Clean Water Act. Just kept my mouth shut, figuring only time would teach her. Think about her. I know she voted for Hillary, but I bet she still thinks Bernie would have won.
As to Pruitt, there is a very distinct audience for security theater pandering. Seeing everything as something that can be bought, including safety, leads to strange places, especially for those with a vivid imagination.
germy
He’s one of those who believes he’s being discriminated against because he’s part of the “majority religion”
Ridnik Chrome
@germy: Maybe he and Ted Nugent can do a speaking tour together.
Elizabelle
@DanR2: He was born after Martin Luther King was killed. Wow.
===
WRT the Republican tax giveaway and takeaway: reposting two comments from The Moar You Know, from the morning’s Hannity thread (seem to be comments 191 and 197):
NotMax
What, no food tasters?
germy
@Ridnik Chrome:
Of the Antarctic.
WereBear
@Elizabelle: First of all, how terrible! This must get out.
Second of all, if they thought teachers were eager to strike BEFORE…
Shana
@schrodingers_cat: I was going to say I’m 59 and he looks at least as old as me.
Brachiator
@The Other Chuck:
And Pruitt seems to have such a fetish for protection; maybe he will volunteer to go to a supermax prison.
kindness
@NotMax: I don’t think they make armored Teslas.
Elizabelle
Retiring GOP rep Charlie Dent is leaving early, in a few weeks.
I wonder what’s up with that? Honestly personal or professional reasons of his own, or he doesn’t want to be around for the upcoming months; dodging something that’s coming up. All ears. I think Dent is one of the few good ones.
Ridnik Chrome
@germy:
While handcuffed together.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Yeah. I think teachers and students and parents and community members should be striking over that. I can see a series of strikes being effective. I’m there. All about good public schools and better paid teachers.
It’s a highly targeted action by dipshit Ryan and his fellow thieves.
What else is in that deplorable legislation that we don’t know about?
Litlebritdifrnt
Quick OT (although it concerns the environment and efforts to save it) but I just watched the most delightful documentary “The Queen’s Green Planet”. Her Majesty and Sir Richard Attenborough wander around the gardens at Buckingham Palace and discuss her love of trees and her new initiative to create a network of forest parks throughout the Commonwealth. It also follows Wills and Harry as they travel around the Commonwealth participating in planting trees and promoting the initiative. Angelina Jolie gets involved too (surprised to learn that she can fly a plane) in Nairobi. It really is delightful and I learned new things about the Queen that I never knew. I don’t know if it is available in the US but I am sure that there will be some service where it can be seen. I would heartily recommend it.
Mandalay
I have to respectfully disagree with that. Pruitt is certainly a serial offender, and while his behavior is outrageous I suspect the taxpayer money he has wasted is chump change compared to what Kushner has been doing to enrich himself.
But while it’s easy to identify and cost what Pruitt has done, with Kushner not so much….it’s all influence peddling, smoke filled rooms, secret bank accounts and Russian oligarchs.
And if Mueller can’t drain that swamp Kushner will get away with it.
boatboy_srq
Pruitt’s entire security obsession is a crock. If he were really petrified that Teh Left™ was out to get him he would use all those security measures 24/7, because you know those Soshulists can strike when you’re on holiday just as easily as when you’re in the office. Instead, we discover that he uses them for “official business” only, and when he goes home or travels for personal or family business he flies economy. So, he’s a cheapskate when it’s his own $ that’s being spent, and only goes full Kevlar soundproofed wingnut when he’s “working.” This “my life is in jeopardy because I’m sticking it to libtards” act falls completely apart when you discover that his life seems to be in jeopardy only when he’s at his desk or in his government vehicle or at podium in Tangier advising Moroccans on bottled LPG – and the rest of the time he’s perfectly OK.
Steeplejack
@chopper:
Well, c’mon, it is a democratic (people’s) republic. It’s right there in the name. QED.
Aardvark Cheeselog
To be scrupulously fair, when one considers what an unutterably shitty experience air travel has become (in coach, or should I say steerage) after Market Optimization and the imposition of Security Theatre, it is scarcely to be expected that so exalted a personage as a Cabinet official would subject himself to it!
germy
@boatboy_srq: isn’t he more frightened of his staff than he is of the general public?
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: GOPers abandoning the sinking rat.
rikyrah
Stop calling it grifting,
Call it PRUITTING.
He’s in a class by himself.
Mike in NC
Trying to pick out the most corrupt person in Trump’s crime cartel is a fool’s errand.
rikyrah
Report contradicts Michael Cohen denial of dossier Prague detail
A new McClatchy report says that Robert Mueller has evidence that Donald Trump confidant Michael Cohen visited Prague at roughly the time described in the Christopher Steel dossier, something Cohen has repeatedly denied. Peter Stone, special correspondent for McClatchy, talks with Rachel Maddow.
boatboy_srq
@germy: And don’t you think his staff can figure out where he lives, where in OK his relations are, &c?
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
A good tax preparer should be able to do a projection of their clients’ tax return, based on the new tax law. And most people, especially those who itemize deductions or have employee business expenses, should be asking for a projection as part of their tax preparation service.
FlipYrWhig
@boatboy_srq: Exactly. He’s not _actually_ concerned about someone attacking him. He’s doing these things to show that he’s as important as all the rest of ’em and it’s his due.
Cgordon
Running the government like a business…
scav
It’s not fear, it’s some combination of dick-measuring courner-office competition and play-acting about how much power he has in bringng down the oppressive system (he’s doing real damage, but what he wants more is the visible and emotional bling of the role). This is rolling coal with the big personal flag (Downton Abbey the Duke is in Residence!) and magic personal souvenir coins to shower the peasants with as you pass by. Plus, he’s got a better phone and stapler than that other guy with two windows.
Elizabelle
WaPost re the Charlie Dent resignation from Congress:
Barbara
It is an open secret in Washington that a member of the House can live an incredibly cosseted existence if he or she wants to with the help of lobbyists. Price, Pruitt and Zinke might seem extreme, but the travel perks in particular are probably not all that far off from what they had become used to as members of Congress. Being told that employees of the Executive branch were expected to use commercial flights was probably seen as an incredible come down. We are just getting a little window into what they expected as members of the House. Think of the relationship between Bob Menendez and his surgeon friend, again, probably extreme, but only in terms of quantity, not kind.
Elizabelle
@boatboy_srq: Yeah. But the bailing even before he was retiring got my attention. Stay tuned.
I hope it’s not a family health issue, etc. Could be nonpolitical. (Wouldn’t usually say that, but Dent seems to be a non-weasel.)
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
Queen Victoria inspects a tree. May be deemed NSFW.
:)
boatboy_srq
@DanR2: I understand this so much better now…
Barbara
@Elizabelle: As a general proposition, I think it’s rotten to force your state to spend so much money for your personal whims, whatever they might be, in deciding not to remain in your seat. It’s one thing to get appointed to some kind of job in the executive branch, but just getting sick of being in Washington or needing to start some private job as soon as possible just gives the big fat lie to the idea that they care about the wise use of public resources.
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
Another “moderate” Republican gone. Is the GOP undergoing an extremist makeover?
Doug Gardner
@DanR2: I’m sorry to admit that I doubted you, until Teh Google informed you are correct. Paranoia and delusions of adequacy apparently age a person. Thank God I only suffer from the latter condition.
germy
@Barbara:
I’ve worked in places like that. It started back in the “greed is good” 1980s.
I remember a new manager, his first act after laying off some old timer employees, was a complete redecoration of his office.
More recently, a place I worked laid off three people. The next week they threw a party for the sales dept. with rented limos.
They never really see it as a problem, or bad optics or anything to be ashamed of.
My cat has a fierce sense of entitlement, but nothing like these characters.
Elizabelle
@Barbara: Yes. The whole thing is strange. Is it a family disaster, is he getting out ahead of a scandal, what is making him jump?
I wonder if Pennsylvania could move the primary date back; lots of states have June primaries. And why can’t they field candidates in 2-3 weeks? Not like the quality on the GOP side is gonna change that much.
Elizabelle
@Brachiator: Ya think?
r€nato
Pruitt’s just getting back what he paid the gummint in taxes, nothing to see here, move along proles. Dontcha know that this is CLASS WARFARE to complain about your betters looting the gummint?
A fiscal conservative politician, hahahaha that’s funny, you’ll have more luck finding a unicorn.
boatboy_srq
@FlipYrWhig: He wants to make noise about the fearsome wind North American Libtard™ and what a dangerous pest it is (worse than the coyote donchano); and all this because all his information sources insist that when wild North American Libtards aren’t kidnapping kids for sexdrug rings and pimping them out from the basement of basementless pizza parlors, they’re hiding in the shadows of Big Gummint looking for Gut Patriotische Ahmurrrkkkans to behead for Godless Atheistic Treehugging Gay Islam.
Betty Cracker
@Mandalay: Good point. Pruitt may be only the biggest crook in the cabinet.
@Barbara: It amazes me, what is actually legal. The Bob McDonnell case was a real eye-opener on that score.
No Drought No More
“There is no doubt that Keith Schiller knows where all the bodies are buried. Next to Michael Cohen, if Mr. Schiller ever turns state’s evidence, the impact on the president would be catastrophic,” Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, told The Daily Beast”
I’m no lawyer. In fact, the day I heard the advice in a speech he gave, I took Warren Burger counsel to heart that Americans should do their best to avoid any entanglement in our legal system, if at all possible.. As it turned out, Abe Lincoln advised the same a century before, too. Still, isn’t it correct to assume that it will only take a single person to flip (i.e., someone who knows where Trump’s bodes are buried) to cause a veritable stampede of the others to cut deals of their own with Mueller Inc? Certainly, if I were in the shoes of Manafort, Cohen, Schilling, and god knows how many more at this point, I’d be wearing a penitent’s sackcloth this morning, and would be found begging for mercy outside Mueller’s door.
MattF
@Brachiator: Has undergone. Is undergoing. Will continue to undergo.
boatboy_srq
@Barbara: So, Pruitt was just as much a paranoid spendthrift scaredycat when he was in Congress as he is at EPA?
arrieve
@DanR2: Maybe someone told him that large amounts of arsenic in drinking water is good for his health. He looks at least 60.
K-to-the-Jane
@Elizabelle:
I might be wrong, honestly just asking…Isn’t the current deduction for classroom expenditures capped at $250? Doesn’t seem like that’s the reason for a +$10k tax increase. What am I missing here?
r€nato
@No Drought No More: the circumstances aren’t all that interesting, but I’ll never forget the substance abuse session I had to attend. The guy who ran it said the same thing: ‘if you can help it at all, don’t ever get mixed up with the justice system.’ This was said with the tone and expression of someone who’d gotten entangled in it and it nearly broke him in several ways.
Ridnik Chrome
@germy:
Makes sense to me. His staff probably has more reason to hate him than anybody else does.
FlipYrWhig
@boatboy_srq: @Barbara: Pruitt wasn’t in Congress, he was AG of Oklahoma.
Elizabelle
From Philly.com:
Chaka Fattah resigned in late June 2016, and that would have meant a late August (at earliest) special election. So I see why they forewent that one.
Mandarama
@DanR2: Ugh, I’m depressed to learn that Pruitt was born in Danville, home to my alma mater Centre College. I met my Yankee husband there, and we chose to have our wedding in Danville so that our families would both have to travel to the middle.
On a happier note, we were both proud when Centre hosted the debate where Joe Biden took Ryan to the woodshed. I like to think there might still be some of Ryan’s bloodstains in the floors of Newlin Hall’s stage.
delk
Security cost for Jeff Bezos (Amazon): $1.6mil
I’m sure with Trump’s deranged lying, Bezos has far more threats than Pruitt.
JWR
‘Scuse me for buttin’ in here, but it’s happened again, and I can’t wait for the bodycam videos of this one to be released.
Diante Yarber: Police kill black father with barrage of bullets in Walmart parking lot
ETA… “California police fired what sounded like more than 30 bullets at a packed car in a shopping store parking lot, killing a black father of three and injuring a young woman in the latest US law enforcement shooting to spark backlash.”
Jeffro
This would probably be better in an OT, but OW (oh well): How Liberty University Built a Billion-Dollar Empire Online. Great long read, if you like long reads that make you angry.
What a fucking scam:
Jeffro
Help moderators – what’d I say up above that got me put into moderation? That BCO web address?
boatboy_srq
@FlipYrWhig: Wait. The AG OF OKLAHOMA is this petrified of the oi polloi? What the BLEEP has been going on in that state?
boatboy_srq
@JWR: I should be shocked, but it’s Barstow.
scav
@JWR: Well, clearly this outbreak of publically shopping and coffee-drinking while black must be put down, along with that gateway behavior of being in back yards.
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: That’s what my guy did. He knew this would fuck us good. We didn’t ask and wouldn’t have thought to. I guess this is the new normal – “so, what’s next year got for me?”
Thanks to Elizabelle for reposting my screeds up here. It’s gonna hit teachers the hardest, but pretty much everyone save the 1% is going to get a massive tax hit next year…and they’ll get it right after Dems take the House. WE NEED TO BE HITTING THIS HARD WELL BEFORE THEN.
? Martin
@JWR: The legislature is working on a use of force law for police. They need to work faster.
aimai
@rikyrah:Peter Stone is my cousin! Go Petey!
? Martin
@The Moar You Know: It’s happening.
I’m in that last category. I’m not losing any sleep over it because I can afford it, but I am annoyed at who will be paying less and annoyed that California keeps getting singled out. But this is making the remaining GOP reps from California a bit nervous.
Jeffro
@The Moar You Know: Looks like we might not need to hit it all THAT hard: Republicans Can’t Even Run on Ryan’s Singular “Achievement“, after all
There’s that pesky crazification factor again…
Not that we should rest on our laurels, but still: good news!
This too (and odd, even coming from a #NeverTrump conservative – she’s still technically a conservative):
Let’s go with “Trumpov tax scam”, Jennifer, but otherwise you’re right on point…
Fair Economist
@Elizabelle:
The Republican Congressional leadership, such as it is, has said they plan to hold no controversial votes between now and the election, so there’s no legislative point to filling the seat. The only reason would be constituent service.
? Martin
@aimai: Heh. I saw him on Maddow, and he looked like the kind of reporter you want working on something like this. He was wearing a coat and tie, but only in the loosest sense of the word. He looked like he belonged in every reporter-as-protagonist movie/tv show ever made.
When reporters comment on how they were working on this story for 3 months or whatever, it always makes me wonder how much stuff they have that never quite make the grade for publication, and how much stuff they have in the pipeline for the near future.
Brachiator
@K-to-the-Jane:
For tax years after 2017. most miscellaneous itemized deductions are gone. More specifically:
Trump and the GOP said that people would be happier with an increase to the standard deduction. This does not work for everyone.
Timurid
@JWR:
It’s already been released.
Gelfling 545
@Jeffro: Well, maybe he has fallen in among bad companions? ( delucate reference to organized crime)
JWR
@boatboy_srq: You know what I find shocking about this is that this happened wayyy back on April 5; it happened in a busy parking lot, meaning probably lots of witnesses, and finally, that this is the first I’ve heard about it. But as far as not being at all shocked that the police have killed another black man, I’m right there with you.
Gelfling 545
@Humdog: Nahh Trump’s looking for someone to protect HIM. This guy is looking out for himself only.
marcopolo
A little OT but in the spirit of the thread–oh, look a new headline about my Governor:
AG Hawley: Greitens committed ‘potentially criminal acts’ involving veterans charity
I actually think this is a more dangerous? serious? provable? charge against Greitens than the privacy invasion/sexual assault issue (not to say that invasion of privacy/sexual assault is not to be taken with the utmost seriousness but so far that charge is a he said/she said and the prosecutor doesn’t seem to have the additional evidence she needs to make it an open/shut case). Anyway, time to start the betting pool. Does Greitens resign first, or do we have to wait for the state legislature to convene a special session this summer to impeach his a$$?
trollhattan
In a nation where Ciiven Bundy is a hero to an unregulated armed RW mob, there’s zero chance Pruitt has received more death and violence threats than his predecessor. Zero chance.
BTW, Zinke, Priott’s Doppelganger has been continuously marketing himself as a geologist despite having never registered nor worked as a geologist. He was an undergrad geo major during his college football days. That’s generally called “rocks for jocks.”
Fuck these people–they’re literally physically harming our country and planet in real time. Just like Trump wants (explaining their continued employment).
No Drought No More
Wiki: “..In 2011, [Joanna Hendon] received media coverage for her appeals to the jury to send her client Winifred Jiau, who was accused of revealing insider information, “home to her dog”. She was described as playing “the dog card”.
As I gather from Wiki, Hendon’s stellar career arc appears to be in steep decline. Playing a dog card is one thing. Representing that steaming, traitorous pile of orange’d haired dog shit is another, and nothing to brag on. John Adams may have defended the lobsterbacks of the Boston Massacre in a court of law, but he wouldn’t have so much as pissed on Trump if Trump caught on fire. None of the founders generation would have either, in my opinion, unless Benedict Arnold retained an American attorney after committing his treason.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Any notion why he is retiring in the next couple of weeks? Last September he said he’d serve out his current term. What changed?
JWR
@Timurid: Oh my goodness, you had me going for awhile there. What’s “funny” is that I’ve never seen any of the Godfather movies, meaning I never get the joke whenever some not too bright brother(?) is mentioned on late night TV.
marcopolo
Here is some other good news today that I haven’t seen commented on yet:
Supreme Court Strikes Down Part Of Immigration Law
Apparently Gorsuch ?!?!? sided with the libs on this.
While this is a good decision on its own, from the chatter I’ve seen on twitter folks are actually more excited about the argument that Gorsuch’s lays out in deciding his vote. Apparently there are a lot of issues (like asset forfeiture) where the police have been able to get away with questionable activity due to the courts giving deference to their interests when the laws being used are vague. This decision & Gorsuch’s stand might mean that challenges to these actions/laws will be viewed favorably by a majority of the SC.
I’ve heard there are a few lawyers who comment here–any thoughts?
Patricia Kayden
@DanR2: Wow. The man looks ancient. Paranoia ages you.
Immanentize
@trollhattan:
Hmmm, I wonder if Zinke’s degree was a B.A. or a B.S. If the former, he has no right calling himself a geologist whatsoever….
trollhattan
@marcopolo:
Hopefully Clarence Thomas doesn’t steal Neil’s bong.
tobie
@marcopolo: I hope Greitens is booted out of office and Jason Kander runs for the seat. A governorship is a great stepping stone toward more national prominence, and Kander seems like a good face for the party.
Immanentize
@marcopolo: This is a really excellent thing — this violent crime part of the immigration law had been expanded beyond recognition to increase deportations. Yes, Gorsuch in the majority.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: He won’t, it has a pubic hair on it….
matyroshka
@DanR2:
See Conway, Kellyanne.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@boatboy_srq:
I don’t believe Pruitt was ever in Congress. He was an Oklahoma state senator and then OK Attorney General, where he did a lot of damage.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: I dunno. Ears to the ground; we will find out.
Politico mentioned he has had talks to be a TV analyst; that’s believable, since he’s telegenic and does not frighten children. Maybe he’s lining up to be a midterms commentator.
But, that said: if he resigns, do his constituents go without service? What happens to the offices? And might you get a flurry of legislative proposals after the midterms?
Very, very strange.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
He claims it’s a B.S. Here’s the source article. What’s abundantly clear is his willingness to wade in and opine on the work of actual geologists.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
16 mpg? Yeah I’d expect something just a bit less in real life, towing his lard brain around.
But it may just be the reason that he wanted the big one, to show that he’s not beholden to the environment. No sir not beholden to the environment in the least little bit.
TenguPhule
@kindness:
Ironically, Pruitt’s stealing money from the government in an attempt to preemptively ward off the consequences of his actions is what’s most likely to get him killed once the security he’s grifted is taken away from him.
marcopolo
@SiubhanDuinne: First, there is the foundational rule of the Trump presidency: Next week will be worse–so why stick around; second, from everything I’ve seen or heard Congress will not be taking any action on any “significant” legislation for the rest of the term so its not like he will be missing anything; third, maybe there is some job opportunity out there that won’t wait around till January next year; fourth, he’s not getting any younger. I could go on but want to agree with the folks here who have said they hope it is not health related. Dent is my aunt’s congress- person and is about the best you could hope for for a R.
JWR
@? Martin:
I seem to remember quite recently having read something like the CA legislature had already passed it,(?) and that it’s waiting for Brown’s signature. In any case, yeah, they really need to get that part done, and here’s hoping that this gets to Brown’s desk in a hurry! (Cuz this sh*t’s gotta stop!)
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Any word on if it’s a diesel and when the “rollin’ coal” package gets installed?
Humdog
@marcopolo: I think Greitens is staying in to test just how far R voters will let their politicians go. They voted for a Child molester, a pussy grabber, a journalist puncher, and they look to be supporting a mine owner/miner killer and now a kidnapper slash sex criminal slash black mailer slash veteran cheater. Anyone want to place money on the depths to which the R voters will descend?
Mandalay
@marcopolo: I read an interesting tidbit about that slimebag Greitens: eight years ago he purchased the name http://www.ericgreitensforpresident.com !!!
The web page doesn’t do anything, but it really does exist. The deluded creep can save himself a few bucks a month by taking that web site down because he’s never going to have any use for it now. And he’s going to need every penny he has to pay his lawyers after he gets kicked out of office and faces time in the slammer.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy:
When did we enter the Age of Stupid? All of the place I heard Post Factional statements like this on some of the pettiest things.
marcopolo
@trollhattan: Hopefully Clarence Thomas retires in the next few years, preferably with a D president. Or, you know, during the last year of the current president. Hell, maybe two years with Trump.
TenguPhule
@WereBear:
Technically its not paranoia if its true. If Pruitt were ever honest about what he’s doing, many people would definitely want him dead.
TenguPhule
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
January 20, 2001.
TenguPhule
@Humdog:
I’m gonna take a swing and say that the next election cycle will have actual GOP sex-slave owners and distributors.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: Hmmm, I wonder what the University of Oregon says (rather than his spokesbot)
catclub
@Elizabelle:
swept away under an avalanche of other bullshit. Actually, I remember reading bout those deductions, and that there were in and then out, but I thought
they ( removal of deductions) did not make the final bill. Journalists did not follow up on that – under the same avalanche.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Elizabelle: Someone making $22K to $30K a year doesn’t get deductions, or rather the personal deduction works better at that level. These twats need to get out of the gated six figure a year bubble more.
marcopolo
@Mandalay: Greitens really is a piece of work. Stephen Webber, who is the current head of the MO Democratic party used to be best buddies with Greitens (they both served in Iraq/Afghanistan and Greitens was a D at that time) to the point that he let Greitens live in his apartment in Columbia MO for a while. I was at a D party event last fall where someone asked Webber about that and Webber says that apparently one day about 2 or 2 1/2 years ago Greitens totally reinvented himself, dropped all his old friends & beliefs, and switched to Republican. Webber said it just left him scratching his head and wondering who the fuck Greitens had been in the first place (for like the half decade they knew each other). He hasn’t spoken with him since.
catclub
@marcopolo: I still think either this summer or after a fall debacle, Thomas and Kennedy will resign to let Trump get his picks in. I hope I am wrong.
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: You must be a tax guy. At any rate, that’s what we’re getting hammered on, and we had literally every single deduction that you’ve blockquoted save “home office”. All gone. Teachers are going to get slaughtered by that, which I assume was the point.
rikyrah
DA PHUQ?
Missouri lawmakers threatened with donor exodus unless they back governor accused of sexual assault
Gov. Greitens was indicted on felony invasion of privacy charges after he allegedly photographed a woman while she was naked and threatened to blackmail her.
MELANIE SCHMITZ
APR 16, 2018, 11:13 AM
State lawmakers in Missouri claim they’ve been threatened with a sharp decrease in donations unless they actively support embattled Gov. Eric Greitens (R), who has been charged with photographing a woman while she was naked and using the image to threaten her with blackmail.
Greitens has also been accused of assaulting the woman and coercing her into a sexual relationship. He was indicted on felony invasion of privacy charges related to the nude photo back in February.
“Lots of people, including me, have been threatened that, if we go against the governor, we will never get financial support from any of the major donors in [Missouri],” one unnamed legislator reportedly told local Missouri Scout, a private news service covering state politics. When Missouri Scout asked other lawmakers to weigh in on the claim, many told the news outlet the threats were allegedly “widespread.”
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
My thought as well. He’s generous with the self-praise and I’m surprised he considered being a SEAL given his apparent ability to walk on water. Seems like a job impediment.
Immanentize
@catclub: I am not sure that will happen. I think Kennedy is aware that his leaving might be a huge disaster for the country. Thomas, who knows? He likes being a Justice.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: Ha!
ETA Show me the diploma!
marcopolo
@Humdog: So my best guess is that Greitens will be impeached if he doesn’t resign. He doesn’t really have any kind of earned support with other R politicians in MO. First, he only turned R about a year, year and a half before his campaign for Gov. Second, he ran primarily with the backing a few billionaires (one of whom gave him 2 million for his campaign–and that guy now wants him to resign) and literally blew out the establishment Rs in the race. Third, once he was in office he created a dark-money-funded PAC that ran nasty ads & push polled against R legislators who didn’t slavishly support his agenda. Anyway he really doesn’t have any friends anymore–who’d of thunk, right?
Here’s the latest polling on how the voters feel:
BTW this poll obviously doesn’t not take into account the new charges about misusing his former charity’s email list.
JWR
@catclub:
Oh god no!* I so hope you’re wrong! (Nah, those two aren’t that cruel.. oh wait.)
* Thinking of Ozzie on the first Sabbath album… “Oh no, no, please God help me!”
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Elizabelle:
I really worry about this. But it can be overcome. The tax law isn’t popular and reminding people that it was the GOP who passed it constantly will help.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@catclub:
Why would they do that? They have lifetime appointments. Why give that up? Belonging to the SCOTUS, like the Senate, is a big honor. Like being a member in an exclusive club that has a lot of power.
trollhattan
@JWR:
I could see Thomas doing that but not Kennedy. However, Kennedy probably has the poorer health of the two so the real world could intervene.
Let us pause to encourage the further efforts of Notorious RBG’s medical and personal trainer teams. Long may they serve.
chopper
@boatboy_srq:
i’m sure scottish punk rock scares the shit out of pruitt.
Bess
@Brachiator:
Perhaps the more moderate Republicans office holders are expecting that the more moderate Republican voters will stay home in the primaries and only the rabid right will vote. Mods may figure they have little chance to make it to the general. That, I think, is Flake’s reason for not running in November.
RedDirtGirl
@matyroshka: How old is she?
JWR
Sandy Hook parents sue Infowars host Alex Jones for defamation
The front page of The Guardian is pretty good today, (if good means bad), and hearing this about Jones warms my heart.
trollhattan
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Thomas faces more time at home with the missus if he quits. I can’t name a more powerful incentive to stick with the day job.
marcopolo
@rikyrah: Not sure what to make of this article. There are several high profile R donor who have called on Greitens to resign. Aside from the state R party and some rural R legislators no one has come to his defense publicly. The R state senate majority leader gave a statement in front of the press that Greitens should resign. So, sure, there might be “folks” calling R legislators threatening their funding but I can’t imagine it is the “majority” of them. In the meantime, always great to see the MO R party eating their own. I’ll just sit back and eat more popcorn.
trollhattan
@JWR:
Can you imagine Alex Jones on the witness stand? Zounds.
rp
Look, his concerns are totally justified. The residents of District 12 are out to get him after he whipped Gale and punched Katniss.
MoxieM
@Brachiator: With his fetish for protection, I’d say he needs a couple of wetsuits, at least. (But really, all I can think is that on some level he knows how heinous his choices are, and thinks someone will actually come after him?) Alternately, it’s more projection, and he’d love to take out all environmental activists, Greenpeace warriors, tree huggers and the like with manly man weapons. Personally.
rp
Has anyone been following Greenwald? You’ll be shocked to hear that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are the real bad guys w/r/t Syria: (a) They have no right to complain about Trump bombing Syria because Hillary would have done the same thing and is the warmongeriest warmonger ever. (b) They have no right to complain about Trump bombing Syria without legal authority because, despite the fact that Obama actually sought congressional approval (which he didn’t get), Obama said he thought he had the authority regardless.
BONUS: relations with Russia suck because democrats can’t accept that Clinton was the worst presidential candidate ever and have ginned up McCarthy-esque hysteria over Russia.
Gelfling 545
@Patricia Kayden: But he has a very youthful oil painting in the attic. He got a few clauses wrong in his contract with Satan.
MattF
@trollhattan: I expect that Jones’ lawyers will do everything in their power (short of pushing Jones off the balcony of his apartment) to prevent that.
trollhattan
Let us give thanks to Ohio for the gift that is Congressman Jim Jordan.
Quatloos awarded to Anderson Cooper for keeping his foot on the accelerator.
MattF
@trollhattan: Now, about the truthfulness of Jim Jordan…
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Yep.
Yep. Teachers and people who belong to unions.
And remember, some union members think that Trump loves them.
@catclub:
The vast majority of journalists got it right, which was tough because this crap bill was rushed through and passed at the last minute. The consensus was that this tax bill was going to be bad for taxpayers, and this was an accurate analysis. HOWEVER, the tax bill was so badly written by the GOP that some details regarding employee business expense are uncertain unless Congress clarifies things or directs the IRS to write temporary regulations.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@trollhattan:
He still wouldn’t admit the truth even when forced to answer the question. What a piece of shit.
Jeffro
@rp:
Hmmm, sounds familiar…you know, now that I think of it…I’ve never seen my RWNJ brother and Greenwald in the same room together…
Yesterday he was trying to tell me that very same “ginned-up hysteria” line. I asked him if he remembered my sending him Trumpov-Russia articles as far back as March of 2016? To say nothing of HRC calling Trumpov “Putin’s puppet”? No response.
FlipYrWhig
@rp: Greenwald is like the King of the Dipshits for several reasons, but I really don’t get why he’s so very deeply committed to these hypocrisy critiques. Just criticize what you think needs criticizing, instead of neener-neener-ing the critics who criticize things in styles you find objectionable.
P.S. I wonder who would win an “I’m rigorously principled and the rest of you are disgustingly corrupt”-off between Glenn Greenwald and James Comey.
Mandalay
@marcopolo:
Some of the things Greitens did to the woman he tied up were completely bizarre. Not so much sick or evil, but just completely odd.
We all have our quirks and foibles, but he is in another league. (TBF his needs to exert physical dominance over a woman, and verbally abuse her are very mainstream.)
CarolDuhart2
For a long time, I’ve wondered if the Russian interference went deeper than the White House. If so, I can see resigning to avoid having to fend off publicly defending their actions to the electorate. Not only that, not running saves money that might be needed for a legal defense.
And Trump is getting crazier and crazier. Where’s the bottom on this? If you don’t want to go down with him, leaving may be a better option than trying to defend the indefensible.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Democrats should be able to easily win on this issue, since the Republicans passed tax reform without them. Totally left them out of the loop.
Also, the Republicans are delusional. They dismissed every analysis that showed how shitty this law would be, and now reality is biting them in the ass. A lot of rich people are rolling in the hay, while the middle class and poor people are getting screwed. In addition, the GOP is delusional and want to make the individual tax law changes permanent.
Health care. Tax reform. The economy. The Democrats can win on all these issues. Even if Trump goes overtime on Twitter, for most people it should be simple. The Republicans took care of the rich at the expense of everyone else.
trollhattan
@Mandalay:
Things looking the opposite of up for the gov.
Gelfling 545
@marcopolo: Trying to make a virtue of necessity. These big, brave Republicans are willing to thwart the wishes of their ( possibly fictitious) doners in order to fight for truth, justice and the American Way!
rp
@FlipYrWhig: Hypocrisy is all he’s got. Doing evil is fine as long as you’re not a hypocrite about it. e.g.,
marcopolo
@Brachiator: Realize there is now a new thread up and this one will now die but…
I’d really like to agree with you that the “average voter” should be able to connect this year’s tax bill with the tax increase they see next April and realize they need to hold the Rs accountable. However, in Nov ’16 I had a rude awakening that the “average voter” seems to be an idiot with little actual knowledge about what is at stake in an election beyond what they see on Facebook and in ads on the TV and what they hear on the radio and the fee fees they have in their gut. I can no longer dismiss the awful truth that there will be some large group of voters who upon seeing their tax bill go up next April will link said occurrence with the D’s winning back the House of Representatives (assuming/hoping that will happen).
Anyways, I certainly hope you are right but recent past experience says nope probably not for, once again, a large number of voters.
stinger
@Litlebritdifrnt: Thank you for the recommendation. I’m a big fan of both the Queen and trees, and will look for this!
rp
@FlipYrWhig: Syria in particular exposes his goal of attacking democrats no matter what and lack of interest in coherent policy views. All he can say is that things in Syria are bad; he opposes US intervention but doesn’t support Assad. But of course he can’t just remain silent — he has to use it to bash the Democrats.
marcopolo
@trollhattan: Lol, see my comment at 93. Sometimes commenting in a thread is like ouroboros.
Mandalay
@trollhattan:
Interesting that just occurred since last week Don Lemon told a Republican pundit “Don’t come on CNN and lie” even though that is what CNN has allowed them to do for years.
I have nothing against Cooper or Lemon – they both seem like truly decent human beings to me – but I have a suspicion that this tough guy act is an order that has come down from their bosses.
Perhaps CNN’s market researchers have looked at MSNBC’s recent success and told them that the right wing noise machine is looking very vulnerable, and they should start putting the boot in much harder on Republican bullshitters to boost ratings.
SiubhanDuinne
@RedDirtGirl:
She’s 51. I knew, but had forgotten, that she turned 50 on Inauguration Day last year. (I have tried, without success, to forget the godawful outfit she wore that day.)
She looks, and I’m being charitable here, like a hard-drinking 68.
SFAW
If Pruitt wanted to do something that would REALLY stick it to the libtards, he should go out and capture some pythons in Florida (See Betty’s new post above.) I’m sure he’d do a swell job.
smintheus
I can’t wait to hear how much Pruitt’s cone of silence will end up costing the public. Surely he has to have one of those too.
Booger
@rp: But he saved all them coal jerbs!
Barbara
@FlipYrWhig: Probably just as bad. I should have known, but they are all so interchangeable at this point.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
This is amazing. The donors seem to be demanding that the legislators commit political suicide in order to protect a sexual predator.
If the state Republicans want to destroy themselves, everyone should just sit back at let them do it.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
Tu quoque is the go to argument for the person with no real argument and not enough energy to come up with anything original.
Barbara
@rikyrah: Reading between the lines, the threats are really coming from the Missouri Republican Party. The article (or the original speaker) was not clear.
Brachiator
@marcopolo:
Understanding economics and taxes is hard. And sometimes politicians over complicate their explanations. But the Democrats have time to craft a simple, clear message. And if they do it well, they should be able to counter any nonsense that the GOP throws at taxpayers.
efgoldman
@Betty Cracker:
That became retroactively legal after SCOTUS fucked the bribery statutes
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
Gas. A suburban only comes with gas.
Ruckus
@Humdog:
How deep is the bottom?
That’s your answer.
laura
@JWR: that’d be my CA Assembly Member Kevin McCarty. He’s been on a good government tear the last 2 sessions. I’d support his legislative career path wherever he chooses to go.
As a city council candidate, he and his wife door knocked and brought me a pot holder with several key city department phone numbers. He’s my neighbor and my representative and he rocks.
SgrAstar
@Immanentize: Not true here. My BA in Physics means that, in addition to having fulfilled our science requirements I also had additional credits in the Humanities, plus foreign language proficiency.
J R in WV
I have skipped to the bottom to comment on Pruitt’s age.
Hate is a terrible, addictive drug, which Pruitt cannot escape. His brain is generating hate, and it’s aging him quickly. This is a good thing, remember. His destruction of our environment must also have a negative effect.
He can’t believe that his actions do no harm, he knows that he is working for evil, that he is helping ruin the world our descendants will live in, hell, the world WE ALL live in right now. The conflict between the work he is doing and the damage it does, and any tiny spark of love for a pretty sunrise, or a flower in a street-scape must also be damaging him at a fundamental level.
I predict Mr Pruitt will not outlive me, and I’m nearly 20 years older than he is. But I look better than he, at 67 and counting. Take that, Scott~!!!
J R in WV
@RedDirtGirl:
Conway, Kellyanne is 51… WOW!! She really shows the impact of hate on the aging process.
tamiasmin
I don’t get the kevlar seat covers over the bucket seats. Is he afraid someone will drill his sorry ass from inside the seats? Could be, I guess. After all, he’s got a bulletproof desk, presumably to prevent someone nailing him from one of the drawers. This guy really needs a nice locked room with soft walls.
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
The Trump Tax Hike should be part of every political message
sends out for the next year. Don’t stop just because there’s an election!!!
That’s not the end of the Trump Tax Hike, which doesn’t end until a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress and a Democratic Senate writes and passes a new tax bill that raises taxes on people who can afford it without noticing it, and lowers taxes on everyone who doesn’t make a couple of million dollars a year!!
Procopius
I’ve wondered about that, too. There must be an untold story there. I don’t think he really believes Greenpeace has a contract out on him or that fanatics from the Sierra Club are tracking his movements planning an assassination. I think there must be a real dangerous adversary that he challenged somehow. Either that or he’s suffering paranoid delusions, which I think we would have heard more about. Still, he’s gotten a lot less press than I expected, so the Borg must be very happy with the work he’s doing.
Procopius
@Elizabelle:
Wait a minute, there’s some seriously important information left out here. The commenter is basically saying that the DEDUCTIONS he was taking before were reducing his tax liability by ten to twenty thousand dollars a year? A teacher? I do not believe this. This would have to mean they were taking deductions at least four times that large. I don’t think many teachers are making over $100,000 a year, so there’s no way they could have legally justified deductions that large. Pull the other one.