Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

People are weird.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

T R E 4 5 O N

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

This really is a full service blog.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“But what about the lurkers?”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Flint Nation

Flint Nation

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Corrupt swamp monster Scott Pruitt wants you to pay for his jet-setting lifestyle, but he doesn’t want you to hear any criticism of the way he mismanages his agency for the benefit of his and Trump’s paymasters:

The Environmental Protection Agency is barring The Associated Press, CNN and the environmental-focused news organization E&E from a national summit on harmful water contaminants.

The EPA blocked the news organizations from attending Tuesday’s Washington meeting, convened by EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox told the barred organizations they were not invited and there was no space for them, but gave no indication of why they specifically were barred.

Pruitt told about 200 people at the meeting that dealing with the contaminants is a “national priority.”

Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building.

The story isn’t even a headline at CNN. It should be. This is outrageous.

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  3. 3.

    Jay

    On the bright side:

    “Most importantly for the NRA, North used the faith that was entrusted in him to steal, thereby betraying even St. Ronnie Reagan himself.

    The members of the NRA should know this history because while they may like it when North says we should have to go through five metal detectors to get into our children’s school, they won’t like it when North follows his nature and figures out a way to inadvertently expose their dirty laundry while scamming them out of their money.

    And with more and more evidence suggesting that the NRA has already been up to their necks in criminal behavior involving using foreign money to the illegally fund domestic political campaigns, bringing in someone like North with his decades-old connections to one debacle after another?

    It just seems like a truly bad idea.”

    http://www.boomantribune.com

    On the dark side:

    https://www.epa.gov/history/historical-photos-and-images

    Early in the EPA’s birth, the Agency sent out photographers to record the state of the US environment. That record is still available online, for now.

  4. 4.

    terraformer

    By FSM, if Dems can’t win in November, we are well and truly fvcked. The ads write themselves.

  7. 7.

    kindness

    I have to wonder if the plan within TrumpCo (as much as they can actually ‘plan’ ahead) is to piss off the libs to the point where some nut starts using ‘2nd Amendment solutions’ on this administration so as to justify the ensuing crackdown on ‘the left’. They really do want an all out civil war here in the US. They just want to water that tree of Liberty with liberals blood. Damn, that is kinda conspiracy thinking but I don’t think the idea is as crazy as I previously would have.

  8. 8.

    scav

    It’s going to be amusing — in an inevitably twisted sort of way — if the most reliable and effective stormtroopers of the Trumpist Repubananian State are those of the EPA.

  10. 10.

    TenguPhule

    @kindness:

    They really do want an all out civil war here in the US.

    I understand this is still considered crazy talk at BJ.

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    I need to figure out what more I can be doing. This is crossing a big red line. I’d say that other news organizations should boycott the summit, but then all we’d get would be the right wing “presses'” propaganda.

  12. 12.

    ruemara

    @the Conster: It might make some of them feel badly, so they may put a lot of effort into not getting it.

    @Mary G: Register voters, see if you can be poll watcher, send postcards to remind people to vote. Honestly, at this point, that’s the thing to do. Anything else needs to wait & see until after November… 6th, I believe?

    Maybe I’d do better to just get my passport & go. I want to trust Americans – the good ones – to do the right thing, but they’re so largely disappointing these days.

  13. 13.

    catclub

    @Jay:

    And with more and more evidence suggesting that the NRA has already been up to their necks in criminal behavior involving using foreign money to the illegally fund domestic political campaigns

    OTOH, all that is right up North’s alley. Been there done that, already. I would even argue that doing it to kill Central Americans is worse than doing it just to corrupt US elections.

  14. 14.

    the Conster

    @ruemara:

    We have a white male toxicity problem, and pointing it out to them is like trying to explain water to fish.

  15. 15.

    jonas

    Journalists sit politely in the WH briefing room every day and listen to Huckabeast call them fools, liars, and threats to the country (while also telling them mostly baldfaced lies about everything Trump does) and don’t seem to get too worked up about it. Getting bounced out of an EPA conference by Pruitt’s goons? Well, I guess you just brush yourself off and go get some coffee. Whaddya gonna do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    I remember when you saw shit like this in Malaysia — the first time our new champion of liberty Dr Mahathir was PM. Ask some government bigshot an awkward question at a media briefing, and bigshot would yell at you or even threaten you with arrest. One fool of a Cabinet minister yelled at me because of a story in that wasn’t in the section of my paper that I wrote for, and didn’t even make him look bad.

  17. 17.

    satby

    I mentioned this before,but Karl Rove’s PAC OneAmerica is doing a scorched earth media campaign against Joe Donnelly in Indiana. I assume the same type of ads are running against other Democratic candidates in other red states. We’re in for a bare-knuckle brawl going into the midterms, take nothing for granted.

  18. 18.

    jonas

    Ok, CNN’s at least running this on the top of the website now. Pruitt is such a scumbag.

  19. 19.

    gene108

    I bet there are a lot of folks, who are happy the Fake News Network got its ass kicked.

    We have no norms. Just tribal loyalty

  20. 20.

    jl

    Maybe the Trump admin will issue a challenge coin for it. Then you will know they are getting serious.

  21. 21.

    ruemara

    @the Conster: *considers her own beloved toxic man* Yeah & if they’re lefty, it’s fucking harder than adamantium & more than bonded to their bones.

  22. 22.

    Gravenstone

    @jonas: Being directly affected does tend to enhance one’s focus. How long they continue to act as if it’s important to try and have an open press (or at least open access for themselves) will be the more telling point.

  24. 24.

    sherparick

    But her emails!!!! Also, IOKIYR apparently.

    However, I have concluded the dark secret of the Trump administration is that the MSM, as much as Right-Wing Infotainment Complex vilifies it, is like the Right Wing Infotainment Complex, owned by major corporations, from iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel), Sinclair, Murdoch – Fox, ABC News Disney, Comcast NBC, CBS-Viacom, CNN-Time Warner, to Bloomberg. And these corporations, and the suits that run them (mostly white men and a few white women and even fewer minorities) are not that unhappy with Trump administration that cuts their taxes, frees them from the regulations that limit their ability to loot consumers and otherwise make money, appoints conservative judges that will give business and corporation priority over individuals under the slogans of “freedom to contract” and “rights of property.” What is a little foreign interference when we are talking of billions of dollars a years, or trillions of dollars over decades.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    @jonas:
    The daily media briefing should be the assignment you give the newbiest newbie on your reporting staff. Your more experienced reporters should be out working their contacts for the real stories.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    @Gravenstone:

    How long they continue to act as if it’s important to try and have an open press (or at least open access for themselves) will be the more telling point.

    Everything will be just fine as long as they agree to wear those prominent Stars of David on their sleeves for easy identification by federal authorities. //

  28. 28.

    germy

    the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building.

    No matter how horrible this administration gets, there’s always low-level people willing to be its muscle.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    There are too many perks that go along with being a member of the White House Press Corps — it’s an easy gig with regular hours, travel arrangements made for you by the White House, guaranteed bylines and TV appearances, and more. They even get their own televised (on CSPAN) awards dinner.

  33. 33.

    jl

    @Jay: ” we should have to go through five metal detectors to get into our children’s school ”

    I sense that the market for absurd solutions to mass shooting will surge. I want to get a jump on sad sacks like North and TX Lt governator who can’t think big.

    NO doors! NO windows! Every school is completely walled in. 20 or 40 foot walls, That will tie in school security with the Trump Mexico wall (economies of scale). After undergoing a full body X-ray scan, each student will be individually lifted over the school wall and through a secured access shaft on the ceiling. SCUBA breathing apparatus, headlamps, and full body armor will be donned under supervision of ICE personnel (again, economies of scale). My idea is a winner. I think big.

    Five minutes after school beings, the ceiling access door is welded shut and the whole school is levitated 100 feet above ground with an antigravity machine.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @the Conster:
    @ruemara:

    I managed to find one with a fairly low level of white dude poisoning, but it was a long search, and the cloven hoof still occasionally pops out (like when he was Kucinich-curious).

  35. 35.

    jl

    @TenguPhule: Thanks, Amazing clip. You need to put a line on every comment that you live on another island, since commenters are worrying about you.

  38. 38.

    mai naem mobile

    That security guard who shoved the AP reporter should be arrested for assault and battery and sitting in jail. Fuck these people. If the Dems get back in power they should ado two seats to the Supreme Court. MConnell showed that no norms néed to be followed so fuck them.

  40. 40.

    ? Martin

    @the Conster:

    Will white people figure this out? Because everyone else has.

    Probably not.

    But the real key to winning elections isn’t convincing the other group of voters – it’s convincing the non-voters. That’s where victory comes from.

  42. 42.

    Eural Joiner

    But the real key to winning elections isn’t convincing the other group of voters – it’s convincing the non-voters. That’s where victory comes from.

    This x1000000000 :)

  43. 43.

    ? Martin

    @LAO: Actually, that was exactly the person he was.

    You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    Ruckelshaus, a Republican appointed by Nixon was first EPA administrator. He hit the ground running, overruling a judge who had found the pesticide DDT not carcinogenic and banned it anyway. He later resigned as DAG rather than participate in the Saturday Night Massacre, as the president’s administration crumbled. A thoughtful, ethical, patriotic Republican.

    That was then. Today, Scott Pruitt is a run-of-the-mill Republican making his boss very, very happy. If a few laws are broken along the way, if our lives are shortened by a few years and if a few thousand more species meet extinction, so be it.

  46. 46.

    Jay

    @catclub:

    Yup, but through his long ratfucking career North always managed to blow it and get the dirty exposed, front page.

    When you are an evil, foreign funded terrorist Organization, you should be hiring the guy who never get’s caught, they guy that there are no photo’s of, the guy with 17 different alias’s and 12 different backstories to the point that nobody knows where he was really born,

    You don’t want to be hiring the guy who always get’s caught and is too dumb to hide the money trail.

    You want Kaiser Sauze, not Ollie Obvious.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @Jay:

    because while they may like it when North says we should have to go through five metal detectors to get into our children’s school

    School security will be the new Right wing grift. They’re already lining up. Prominently placed at DeVos’ phony “safety commission” was a school security consultant. I would actually bet money that DeVos’ brother, Eric Prince, is already pitching school security guard contractors.

    Gun regulation doesn’t throw off any public dollars to grifters. “Hardening schools” does. They can repurpose all the “preventing terrorism” grifters on the Right and jam them into schools. Big pots of new public money to steal.

  48. 48.

    LAO

    @germy: @? Martin: Well, if I were to offer a comment, like you both, I find his apology to be insincere — really, really insincere. And, generally unworthy of belief.

    @Cacti: Cornyn is a horrible facade of a human being.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @Cacti:

    The “school shooters are victims of bullies” trope was discredited after Columbine. We lose so much time catching up the slow learners on the Right. Always behind the rest of the class.

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    @jl:

    ” we should have to go through five metal detectors to get into our children’s school ”

    This leaves playgrounds and parking lots, sporting events (especially football games in the South) available for the committed.

  54. 54.

    Mary G

    CNN has breaking news alert of an active shooting at an apartment complex in Panama, Florida.

  55. 55.

    TenguPhule

    Aaron Rupar
    ✔
    @atrupar
    1h
    Replying to @atrupar
    Trump, sounding tired, goes on a weird rant: “You see, any time time I talk to China about trade, I’m thinking about the border b/c that border is a very important element in what we are doing. It has been cut off largely but it’s been opened up a bit lately. I don’t like that.” pic.twitter.com/bZHNlNUyVm

    Day ending in WHY?!!!

  56. 56.

    ruemara

    @? Martin: An awful lot of non-voters are white. & white men to boot. We need that demographic to wake up too. The rest are often actively prevented from voting.

    @lurker dean: THAT STORY KILLED ME! I love it.

  57. 57.

    Jay

    @jl:

    Bad Tux the Snarky Penguin’s ahead of you.

    Students show up at school, which has no doors, no windows, then are transported in naked, with out anything via a transporter. They get crayons and paper, a hospital gown and soft slippers, ( no pens, no pencils, those are stabby, no books, books are dangerous). At the end of the day, they are transported out, back into their clothes.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    Related.

    Backing away from attempts at censorship, the National Park Service on Friday released a report charting the risks to national parks from sea level rise and storms.

    Drafts of the report obtained earlier this year by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting showed park service officials had deleted every mention of humans causing climate change. But the long-delayed report, published Friday without fanfare on the agency’s website, restored those references. The scientific report is designed to help 118 coastal parks plan for protecting natural resources and historic treasures from the changing climate.

    Maria Caffrey, the study’s lead scientist, said she was “extremely happy” that it was released intact.

    “The fight probably destroyed my career with the (National Park Service) but it will be worth it if we can uphold the truth and ensure that scientific integrity of other scientists won’t be challenged so easily in the future,” said Caffrey, a University of Colorado research assistant who had worked on the report for five years.

    The Reveal story, published in April, prompted some Democrats in Congress to seek an investigation of scientific integrity at the park service to see whether Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke or President Donald Trump’s other political appointees are censoring science. Zinke said at a House sub-committee hearing that he had been unaware of the changes, which Reveal uncovered shortly after he told Congress that he would never change a scientific report. The Interior Department’s office of inspector general has launched an initial review, according to Nancy DiPaolo, the office’s director of external affairs.

    The controversy reflects a broader challenge faced by scientists who work for and with the federal government today because of the Trump administration’s attitude toward science, particularly related to climate change.

    People sacrifice their careers to do the right thing. Not everybody can or will do so. These Trumpistas are not good people; they’re not sending their best.

  59. 59.

    Immanentize

    @LAO:

    seeing myself online opened my eyes…

    How many people have you and I represented who had their eyes opened once they saw themselves on video — usually security tapes. ?

  60. 60.

    jl

    When the Trump admin issues a challenge coin on ending mass shootings, we’ll know that they are getting serious.

    BTW, Trumpsters seem to be issuing a number of idiot challenge coins. Anyone know how to get them? I’m thinking of getting back into collecting political memorabilia. And might be useful to carry around. If I’m near the Canadian border and say ‘taco’ or ‘salsa’ and a border control thug decides to ID and harass me for a few hours, I could show it maybe get out of it.

  62. 62.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: Such a valid observation. (I’m often glad I never see any video of me driving, cause I’m sure I look like a crazy person. )

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    @Cacti: In Cornyn’s case, the correct first answer is “stupid,” not venial. I have mentioned that I used to teach at the lawschool that graduated him to the surprise of many professors. I really suspect he was trying to be sensitive rather than mean-spirited. But these things need not be binary.

  64. 64.

    jl

    @Jay:

    ” Bad Tux the Snarky Penguin”

    Bet they don’t have antigravity machines to suspend the schools in air. Do they? No, they do not.

    Edit: and I’m submitting the patent application today.

  65. 65.

    MikeifromArlington

    Remember that douche from CNN as head of WH press corp allowed Fox, the largest propaganda network since Goebles, to sit in the front row during the Obama admin. He then got a Cush job at Fox shortly after. Now, we see CNN being delegitimized by the White House and legitimizing a bunch of shame outlets.

    Trump and these fascist republicans can’t be out of power quick enough.

  66. 66.

    Cacti

    @Kay:

    The “school shooters are victims of bullies” trope was discredited after Columbine. We lose so much time catching up the slow learners on the Right. Always behind the rest of the class.

    In this case, he was also the bully rather than the bullied. He was a creeper, obsessed with a female classmate to the point of stalking her four months, before finally murdering her at school.

  68. 68.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Amir Khalid: @trollhattan: That was awesome. My daughter’s outdoor league starts tonight (U13), and I will be showing her this – she and a couple of her teammates have the leg to try this

  69. 69.

    Peale

    @MikeifromArlington: Yeah. But the question is if we do manage to get rid of Trump and return the Democrats to power, do we want to religitimize CNN. Or bring back “Blue Slips” and other Senator prerogatives. Or an actual Special Counsel Law that will be used to hound Democrats from office? Or have an FBI where the IG never investigates anything at the request of a President and therefore is beyond review? I don’t know if I want to really save CNN. I don’t see rallying around these reporters when their bosses were part of the slimeballs that circled around the pussy grabber to begin with.

  71. 71.

    JPL

    @LAO: Did you see this and pay attention to the first one..
    What McConnell wouldn’t answer at presser:
    Whether he agrees with IC assessment that Putin favored Trump
    Whether Senate will cancel August recess
    Whether Kelly should invite Ds to take part in meeting about confidential source
    Whether he’s OK w Trump effort to get info on source

    https://twitter.com/mkraju

  72. 72.

    jl

    @Cacti: The shooter’s history at school may be complicated, and the father may sincerely believe it, or maybe just saying shit.
    One thing is clear, focusing on that issue, just like focusing on whether it is a good idea for there to be doors (Edit: and windows, and ventilation shafts, and playgrounds, or fire alarms) in this country, is a distraction from main issue: immediate access to guns everywhere all the time by everyone is a very bad policy.

    I’m for focus on the main issue.

  73. 73.

    Cacti

    @Immanentize:

    I really suspect he was trying to be sensitive rather than mean-spirited. But these things need not be binary.

    We’re far past the point where gun fetishists get any benefit of the doubt from me about good intentions.

  74. 74.

    Jager

    I just got off the phone with my boyhood hockey pal who lives in Wisconsin, towards the end of the conversation he said, “I wouldn’t live in California if you paid me. It’s so fucked up I don’t know how you can tolerate living there, of course you lived in Boston before so you’re used to that kind of bullshit.” I mentioned we have an 8.8 billion dollar budget surplus. He said, “The way your state spends money, I don’t believe it.” My answer, “We don’t have any republicans holding state wide office, that’s how and we have a governor, unlike Wisconsin, who knows how to run a state for the benefit of it’s citizens.” He said, “I’m not going to talk politics with you” and hung up.” We’re cool because in a day or two we’ll be talking about the Stanley Cup.

  75. 75.

    jl

    @Cacti: I don’t know about the shooter’s father, and have no idea what the shooter’s history was at that school. But Cronyn’s effort certainly deserves no benefit of the doubt. He is trying to distract from the main issue (guns for all, all the time) with secondary issues. Stupid, or evil, or both, only thing he wants do with that BS is to cover for gun lobby.

  76. 76.

    Cacti

    @jl:

    I’m for focus on the main issue.

    I’d say his history at school fits foursquare with the main issue.

    It’s the tale of a stalker with easy access to firearms, which ended in tragedy.

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    @jl:
    Few parents want to admit their kid may be rotten, far fewer a murderer. Plus there are liability issues so, whevs folks but the politicians trying to tidy things up need to shut the hell up. Video games and abortion, eh Mr. lieutenant governor?

    No thugs in our house
    Are there dear?
    We made it clear
    We made little Graham promise us
    He’d be a good boy

    –XTC

  78. 78.

    jl

    @Jager: As a CA native, and long time resident, I get that comment a lot from kin who live in other states. I’d like to find a way to bill them for all the tax money we send to other states.

  81. 81.

    Brachiator

    Corrupt swamp monster Scott Pruitt wants you to pay for his jet-setting lifestyle, but he doesn’t want you to hear any criticism of the way he mismanages his agency for the benefit of his and Trump’s paymasters

    There were other news agencies present. Somebody just wanted to be an asshole.

    It’s a little weird that Pruitt is trying to outdo his boss Trump when it comes to being obnoxious. On the other hand, we have Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is evil and incredibly stupid. Love this story about her testifying before Congress.

    Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) wanted answers about the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights….

    Two things are happening here, and both of them are subtle: DeVos is shortening her answers in hopes of getting out of the conversation; and Fudge is realizing that she’s talking to a woman with the intelligence of a tennis ball. Watch as Fudge literally becomes resigned to realizing that she’s dealing with an idiot.

    See the link for more hilarity.

  82. 82.

    Peale

    @Kay: I’m sure the good Senator will now jump aboard that anti-bullying school initiative that his party’s pundits have roundly mocked for the past decade because it protects sissy boys and emasculates manly men who naturally should be enforcing norms and stigmatizing the right people. I mean, it was never supposed to prevent school shootings. It was meant to kind of take the edge off the constant hazing. I’m sure he’s going to be right on the phone with Betsy DeVoss to see what can be done to decrease impact of bullying in Texas Schools.

  83. 83.

    Cacti

    @jl:

    The main issue is gun control policy, not the specifics of this particular shooter. So, we disagree.

    Shootings do not happen in a vacuum, and easy access to firearms by abusers goes hand in hand with violence against women nationally.

    So, yes, we disagree.

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    The “school shooters are victims of bullies” trope was discredited after Columbine.

    It got revived by well-meaning adults after the MSD shooting, unfortunately, so it’s still swirling around out there.

    (The person pushing it was the father of one of the victims, which is why I said “well-meaning.” The people who latched onto his meme were not nearly as naïve and well-meaning.)

  86. 86.

    rikyrah

    @Cacti:

    In this case, he was also the bully rather than the bullied. He was a creeper, obsessed with a female classmate to the point of stalking her four months, before finally murdering her at school.

    Yes, how dare the young woman decide for herself, who she wants to date. The nerve.

  88. 88.

    TenguPhule

    Has anyone seen my Trade War?

    The EU is bracing itself for a trade war with the US, after Donald Trump’s administration signalled to Brussels that it would not prolong the exemption granted to European steel and aluminium importers from its punitive tariffs.

    Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for trade, said that she expected the US commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, to make a recommendation to the White House in the coming days, but that the final decision would be taken by the president.

    A temporary exemption EU companies enjoy from a 25% tariff on steel and 10% tariff on aluminium brought in by Trump is due to come to an end on 1 June.

    This is just fine. //

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    Colin Kaepernick’s Collusion Case Just Proved NFL Teams Believed He Was Good Enough to Start, so Why Doesn’t He Have a Job?

    Stephen A. Crockett Jr.
    Yesterday 2:48pm

    Colin Kaepernick filed a grievance claiming that NFL owners colluded to keep him out of the NFL. Team owners and several sports pundits who aren’t fans of the Movement for Black Lives claimed that Kaepernick’s days as a starting quarterback were behind him.

    Well, it turns out that Kaepernick’s collusion grievance against the league has already revealed some interesting information about the owners.

    According to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, the collusion case uncovered that back when Kaepernick became a free agent in March 2017, several teams viewed him as a starting quarterback. Yet Kaepernick, who had the audacity to protest during the national anthem against the killing of unarmed black men, women and children by police, is still unemployed. Remember how people claimed that Kaepernick wasn’t being whiteballed from the NFL but was rightfully without a job because of his inability to play the position? Well, according to Florio, Kaepernick’s legal team has found evidence otherwise.

    From Florio:

    The ongoing collusion case is establishing that multiple teams viewed Kaepernick as a starting NFL quarterback in 2017, and that they continue to view him that way. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, internal franchise documents generated as part of the free-agency evaluation process and testimony from witnesses harvested via depositions in the collusion litigation has established that teams viewed Kaepernick as being good enough not simply to be employed by an NFL team, but to be a starting quarterback for an NFL team.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    The MSD shooting happened on Valentine’s Day. I still suspect there was a domestic violence component to that one as well.

  92. 92.

    TenguPhule

    Mike Pompeo claims Iran carrying out ‘assassination operations’ in Europe

    Mike Pompeo’s claim that the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is carrying out “assassination operations in the heart of Europe” has bewildered security experts and Iranian exiles, who say they are not aware of any evidence for the allegation.

    The new US secretary of state referred to the alleged assassinations in his first major speech on Monday, but devoted just a single line to it amid a litany of criticisms of Iranian behaviour, giving no further details.

    “Today, the Iranian Quds Force conducts covert assassination operations in the heart of Europe,” Pompeo said, referring to the external operations arm of the Islamic revolutionary guards corps (IRGC).

    When asked for clarification, the state department said it would look into the matter, but provided no further information. US diplomats specialising in Iran were taken by surprise by Pompeo’s allegations.

    Apparently old Mike got his Russian and Iranian cue cards mixed up.

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    Connect Rudy Giuliani to the opioid crisis with this one weird trick.

    The US government missed the opportunity to curb sales of the drug that kickstarted the opioid epidemic when it secured the only criminal conviction against the maker of OxyContin a decade ago.

    Purdue Pharma hired Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor and now Donald Trump’s lawyer, to head off a federal investigation in the mid-2000s into the company’s marketing of the powerful prescription painkiller at the centre of an epidemic estimated to have claimed at least 300,000 lives.

    While Giuliani was not able to prevent the criminal conviction over Purdue’s fraudulent claims for OxyContin’s safety and effectiveness, he was able to reach a deal to avoid a bar on Purdue doing business with the federal government which would have killed a large part of the multibillion-dollar market for the drug.

    The former New York mayor also secured an agreement that greatly restricted further prosecution of the pharmaceutical company and kept its senior executives out of prison. The US attorney who led the investigation, John Brownlee, has defended the compromise but also expressed surprise that Purdue did not face stronger action from federal regulators and further criminal investigation given its central role in the rise of the epidemic.

  94. 94.

    TenguPhule

    Florida city warns of ‘extreme zombie activity’ during power outage

    Today’s news from, FLORIDUH!!!

    Residents of a Florida city who received alerts about a power outage were also warned to look out for zombies.

    The Palm Beach Post reported that Lake Worth residents received the message during a power outage on Sunday. The alert warned of a “power outage and zombie alert for residents of Lake Worth and Terminus”, the latter a reference to a city in the hit TV show The Walking Dead.

    The alert, sent just before 2am local time, said more than 7,000 customers lost power “due to extreme zombie activity”.

  95. 95.

    Central Planning

    @Jager: A while ago I was involved in an online discussion at work. One guy (California native) eventually started complaining about how awful it was to live there. I pointed out that it must not be that awful since he still lived there. He got angry at me for that comment. Discussion stopped after that.

  96. 96.

    Jay

    @germy:

    If you take a video feed from say, a TV interview, you can with the right software, scroll through frame by frame looking for an ” unflattering” frame to use, other than with the Obama’s.

    It’s a means, via social media to put “out there”, realities the MSM won’t touch with a 29 1/2 foot pole, with out trying to bothsiderist the hell out of it.

  98. 98.

    Cacti

    @Mnemosyne:

    The Great Mills High School shooting in Maryland was also a domestic violence murder.

    Shooter came with specific intent to kill his ex-girlfriend and succeeded.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    “If the standard journalists set for themselves is that anything Republicans claim to be outraged about must be treated as a live controversy, then journalists … become conduits for propaganda.”

    Via @brianbeutler: https://t.co/G91q4yP8d7

    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 22, 2018

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    Alarming to see that the Secretary charged with protecting the 2018 elections claims not to have read the intelligence on the 2016 elections.

    If she had, she would have seen the specific evidence the Russians sought to help Trump, a finding now affirmed on a bipartisan basis. https://t.co/HgsDG5ahxm

    — Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 22, 2018

  103. 103.

    germy

    @Jay:

    If you take a video feed from say, a TV interview, you can with the right software, scroll through frame by frame looking for an ” unflattering” frame to use,

    Yes, I’ve seen that on RawStory, where they pick a frame with the interviewee’s eyes half closed (mid blink) and mouth open. They can make anyone look like an idiot. (The RW sites did the same thing with Obama; every photo they used of him was a frown).

    But these photos, with their tongues stuck out and to the side. Surely that isn’t just an unflattering screen grab. I was wondering if there was a story behind it.

  105. 105.

    germy

    @raven: It is, which is one of the reasons I really don’t respect RawStory.

    And someone on twitter (I don’t remember who) said he wished Obama was as badass as the RW media tried to portray him in their “evil Obama” photos.

  106. 106.

    MattF

    @TenguPhule: But a ‘city spokesperson’ said:

    that he wanted to “reiterate that Lake Worth does not have any zombie activity currently”

    Note the hedging.

  107. 107.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah:
    Another Schiff shiv. Well played, congressman.

    LGM’s Campos will be on MSNBC tonight discussing his (all too believable) theory Trump knocked up Shera Bechard, not that Jabba-looking rich guy.

  108. 108.

    boatboy_srq

    dealing with the contaminants is a “national priority”

    Is he referring to actual contamination, or to CNN/AP?

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Amir Khalid: My son said he was glad to get out of Kyiv today as it’s starting to be overrun with obnoxious fans. He didn’t specify of which team, though.

    Apparently hotels there have gotten into the extortion business.

  111. 111.

    Jay

    @germy:

    The Twitter story was in the text of the tweet:

    “If he’s guilty, send a sign.”

    It’s snark, but also a summation of Rudi speak.

  114. 114.

    catclub

    @Amir Khalid: Could you educate the generally unaware US folks on 1MDB? I saw it in the article that mentioned Broidy getting a $75M payoff for stopping an investigation. wow! Nice work and all that.

  116. 116.

    Gex

    @jl: Seriously. By focusing on him being a “good boy” it seems to me that they’re just saying that the problem is guns, not the characteristics of the person with access to them. I mean, good guy with a gun is supposed to be the answer. Now they’re trying to say that the bad guy was a good guy with a gun.

  117. 117.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @Gex: It strikes me more as “blame the victim”. If they had treated him better he wouldn’t have had to kill them. What’s a poor boy to do?

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gex:

    Nah. They’re saying, If that stuck-up bitch had dated him, this never would have happened.

    Note that “bullying” now means refusing to go out with a guy who won’t leave you alone.

  119. 119.

    SgrAstar

    @ruemara: hey. I think you embody the best principles of committed citizenship. We’d be honored to have you join us…yet I’m so fearful for you in the current climate. Can we wrest control from the moron mafia? Dunno, but we citizens have to give it everything we’ve got. In the meantime, I think you should lie low, sister.

  120. 120.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): I found the segment for the Kellyanne expression from the timestamp. It looks like she did it unconsciously, not as an attempt to make a face. OTOH it might be evidence of lizard people catching insects. The Giuliani segment runs about 20 minutes with few visual clues as to the time of capture. I couldn’t take watching all of it but didn’t see any obvious point where he made a face. Apparently unlike the Mccain post debate goofy face that was deliberate.

  121. 121.

    SoupCatcher

    @LAO:
    Super late to a dead thread, but if the first reply to that idiot’s crisis-response-team-scripted-apology wasn’t “¿Qué?”, I will be disappointed in the twitterverse.

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @trollhattan:

    “Not sending their very best!”

    I disagree. The Trumpetts are sending their very best, that’s just not very good because of the pool they draw from. When your pool of employees is all deplorables, you won’t be getting the best candidates overall.

  123. 123.

    Darkness at Noon

    @sherparick: You are exactly correct. Media management and ownership as individuals profit bigly from Trump bread-and-circuses and the GOP wrt tax and labor policy.

    It’s just that simple.

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