WOW — Trump says he wants American people to treat him like North Koreans treat totalitarian dictator Kim Jong Un.
"Hey, he's the head of a country, and he's the strong head — he speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same." pic.twitter.com/A43xYXsFod
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 15, 2018
i've said this before, but trump has no understanding of or admiration for democracy or self-governance. he worships power and admires strongmen. he praises dictators and authoritarians because he's *jealous* of them. they can compel the worship he thinks he deserves. https://t.co/lSiO8I2G2f
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) June 15, 2018
Cover of ?@TheEconomist? pic.twitter.com/bJcX1BV7U8
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) June 14, 2018
Reporter: “The president said it will be verified.”
Pompeo: “Of course it will.”
Q: "Can you tell us a little bit more about–what is, what discussed about how?"
Pompeo: “Just so you know, you could ask me this, I find that question insulting & ridiculous & frankly ludicrous.”
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) June 13, 2018
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Asked to reconcile his assertion that Kim Jong Un loves his people with Kim's practice of killing his people, President Trump says, "I can't speak to that." pic.twitter.com/EcapwwdNgI
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 15, 2018
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What does the Trump-Kim summit mean? Not a damn thing. https://t.co/RO9cUFSIoN
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 13, 2018
… Over the long run, Singapore changed none of the fundamentals of the situation. North Korea still has a track record of agreeing to things and then reneging on its agreements. So, for that matter, does Donald Trump. It seems extremely unlikely that a regime that believes its security is intertwined with its nuclear capabilities will surrender them. It seems even more unlikely that hawks such as national security adviser John Bolton are going to roll over and not try to provoke Pyongyang again. Most important, there is no evidence that the fundamental policy preferences of the key actors (North Korea, China, the United States) have changed on this issue.
That said, the primary reason the long-term odds have not changed is because those odds were not as high as everyone thought six months ago (myself included). Back in January, Michael Horowitz and Elizabeth Saunders concluded that structural factors (capabilities, geography) limit the likelihood of armed conflict. None of those factors has changed after the summit, either.
The Singapore summit produced great theatrics. Beyond that, everything that was said in Singapore could be easily revocable. So embrace the season of conciliatory rhetoric between president Trump and Kim Jong Un. Just realize that even if the rhetoric begins to curdle, the fundamental situation will not have changed all that much.
.@POTUS says he gave Kim Jong Un his direct phone number
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) June 15, 2018
"I can now call him. I can now say, "Well, we have a problem." I told him — I gave him a very direct number. He can now call me if he has any difficulty. I can call him. We have communication. It’s a very good thing.
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) June 15, 2018
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Humiliating, stupid, inappropriate, a breach of protocol, and also, a little boy’s ignorant fascination with uniforms. https://t.co/o1PodmeaFB
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 14, 2018
North Korea, a few months ago:
Juche propaganda minister: "I think I can get a Trump look alike for a new video."
Kim Jong-Un, watching the POTUS freestyle nonsense on Fox & Friends: "I have a better idea."
— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 14, 2018
Frank Rich, former theater critic, at NYMag, yesterday:
… What is going to dawn on Trump now is that in television terms the summit was only a limited series while the Mueller inquiry, and its many attendant subplots, is an open-ended series with no season finale yet in view. Trump has already milked the Kim story for all that he could. Now that the summit is over, he can no longer create artificial suspense by threatening to cancel it or suggesting he might walk out if Kim wasn’t to his liking. He can no longer bask in its photo ops. He can no longer brag about his ability to take the measure of a new acquaintance in less than a minute…
… Trump gave up all his cards in Singapore, and not only does he have no national security achievements to show for it, but he will soon have no selfish political gains to show for it either. North Korea will vanish into the ever-churning news-cycle ether by next week. Its fading memory will not derail the scandals at home, and will not be a factor in the midterms. Americans don’t cast their votes on foreign-policy issues short of cataclysms like long-running, blood-drenched quagmires in Vietnam and Iraq.
This won’t stop Trump from repeatedly trying to hawk the summit as a great achievement in world peace. He values a Nobel almost as much as an Emmy. Still, for all the throwing around of the word historic this week, what’s most historic about the event is how closely it seems to emulate Munich. Upon returning to England from his meeting with Hitler in September 1938, the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain used triumphant language much like that we find in Trump’s Twitter feed today. “This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine …[It is] symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again … I believe it is peace for our time.” Hitler invaded Poland six months later…
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Trump enablers: Now is the time to try to recover a shred of your dignity by criticizing this
GOP Congress members: do your constitutional duty and object to this
Previous Trump voters: vote Dem to stop this
Trump supporters: No one expects anything of you. Carry on. https://t.co/CUCBkpsvFZ— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) June 15, 2018
TenguPhule
Trump is going to subcontract his political assassination of Democrats to NK?
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
marcopolo
So yesterday in one of Betty’s threads I bitched about how hard it is for reporters to clearly point out when the president is lying & to correct those lies.
Watch the first few minutes of this!
In it Katy Tur goes to town on Trump’s impromptu White House lawn interview with Fox & Friends. She uses the word lie! Yay! I realize this might also go well in the worm turning thread but just saw it.
Really, watch the first few minutes, enjoy.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
He claims he said that “sarcastically”. Yeah, right. Nothing in his tone or demeanor suggested he was using sarcasm. He meant it and when called out he started backpedaling.
Claiming you were being sarcastic is what all people do when called out on something others find objectionable and don’t want to face the consequences of what they said. “Come on, I was just joking. Can’t you take a joke?”
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: “Peace in our time!”
/If we are under Chinese rule in 6 months, I just want people to know I really hate Republicans
burnspbesq
The possibility, however unlikely, that this time next year Nancy Pelosi could be President probably scares Our Progressive Betters more than it scares Trump or Pence.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@marcopolo:
I really do wonder what Trump did that was the last straw on the camel’s back (assuming this is a trend that will continue). Was it the trade war? Trump’s bullshit summit and the humiliations it spawned? His lying about the IG report on the FBI in a transparent attempt to exonerate himself? Or is it the concentration camps being built for kidnapped migrant children?
VeniceRiley
Never went from admiration to revulsion faster since Cosby.
http://www.indiewire.com/2018/06/chris-hardwick-nerdist-removed-chloe-dykstra-1201975277/
Cheryl Rofer
Trump is ahead of Frank Rich. He wants a summit with Putin as the next chapter in the reality series.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@VeniceRiley:
Well, fuck. He seemed like such a likeable guy. My exposure to him was on the game show The Wall.
Cheryl Rofer
To go back to a previous topic, here are some lawyer thoughts about Manafort’s current situation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
no question there’s a childishness to trump’s ignorance and lack of impulse control, but his love of uniforms, and big men wearing them*, and the brute authority they represent, is much more dangerous than a little boy who wants to play army man
*
the whole article is basically one long entry into Dan Dresser’s Giant Toddler thread
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
He wants us all to fucking bow down before him. Fuck.
I know this is futile, but one of the things I want to see badly is for Tяump’s voters to tell us all that they were wrong. I want them to tell us they understand what they did, and why it was so harmful to so many people. I want them to ask us to forgive them. I know this’ll never happen. Never. Tяump could order ICE to begin shooting down children in the street. He could begin selling weapons to North Korea. He can do anything to anybody, even those who voted for him, and they’ll never turn on him. I know that. But I still want to hear it from them, that they fucked up, and they know they fucked up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: I feel less and less like I need to change the tinfoil in my hat when I think he’s afraid that his daughters will grab a poison door knob, or something more spectacular, if he flips.
marcopolo
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: It could be, along the lines of the theory Kay espoused a couple days ago, that various reporters/ cable folks/ others have been trying various ways to address the Orange menace in the room and that they’ve finally come down to “we just have to say when his mouth is open he is lying.” Who knows, maybe they finally realize there is no real mushy middle to appeal to and that anyone who is already on the Trump train will be riding that sucker into whatever oblivion for which it is headed. We all know that the hosts on MSNBC who seem to be doing the most confrontational/reality-based reporting are being rewarded in the ratings.
All I can do is to praise the folks who are doing the right thing when they do it.
PS I will need a way to blow off steam after working at the nearby coordinated campaign office much of the week. Anyone here at BJ ever play Elder Scrolls online and have an opinion of it. I burned out on WOW a couple years ago. Thanks in advance.
DCrefugee
The television angle is interesting. As someone who lived through Watergate, for a lot of us, the end of this won’t be in sight until Congressional hearings begin and get live coverage. Agent Orange’s reaction to daily televised hearings will be off the charts…
Kay
Every once in a while it hits me how strange this has all become- the President of the United States is sending “messages” to his (currently incarcerated) campaign manager NOT to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
catclub
@burnspbesq: I doubt it. Our Progressive Betters probably don’t worry that Pelosi will put them in jail.
germy
Watching the clip, I thought Trump meant he wished his staff would be at attention when he spoke. He sort of gestures behind him when he says it. I didn’t interpret it as meaning the American people.
It sounds like he’s acting like a jocular CEO talking about his middle managers.
Baud
I look forward to the upcoming Twitter summit between Trump and Kim.
catclub
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.):
correct. Never happened with Nixon. Nixon had a huge landslide win. Nobody ever said they were mistaken about that.
Ford pardons and… bygones.
marcopolo
@Cheryl Rofer: Guess he should have thought of that before he started trying to tamper with witnesses. No sympathy here. But if he ever does flip for realsies I am gonna drink a really really good beer. Thinking Fin du Monde. It is a lovely 9% alc by volume.
Mike J
@Cheryl Rofer:
When y9our defense is witness tampering, this is true. It’s designed to stop it.
Cheryl Rofer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I keep wondering why someone would put himself in that position. I know – money, a sociopathic tendency to believe he won’t get caught. But still, I keep thinking, he was in a position to see what can happen to people who do precisely what he’s been doing and how arbitrarily it happens. It’s a cognitive dissonance for me.
germy
That mountain of skulls cartoon.
The editorial cartoonist who got fired from his paper (by his pro-trump editor) did something similar, but only posted it online because he knew it wouldn’t get printed.
Schlemazel
@VeniceRiley:
I’m old, none of those people mean a thing to me.
It is sad that people treat others so poorly.
jl
@Cheryl Rofer: Where is the suspense there? Putin is like an old recurring character brought back to juice a failing sitcom. Putin apparently does face-lifts, so the audience won’t gasp at how he’s aged since the last episode he was on, is main difference.
And might be counterproductive, if Trump’s Oval Office meeting with the Russians early in his term is any indication. Trump will be like a gleeful little kid who gets his moment with a callous and crooked baseball hero, who sneers and chuckles, or stonefaces, his way through the ordeal. Trump ether won’t notice or will double down on the boorish good cheer to try to make it look good.
Trump’s already given away the drama. He’ll have burgers and fries with Putin, lean over the table and say “Hey, pal, everyone wants you out of Ukraine and I’m supposed to help, so do me a solid on that, huh? Now wait until you see the ice cream sundae, it’s first rate, really a top sundae. Served at the all the premier Trump properties”
m.j.
For the record, I am not your people.
Dorothy Winsor
@marcopolo: Kos has a good piece today on some tactics reporters can use.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: One reminder and one fun fact.
Reminder: The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has a wonderful chief judge. Named Garland. You might have heard of him.//
Fun fact: As I type this a no official cover (NOC) member of Russian intelligence is preparing to get himself arrested in DC and thrown into general population. This is not sarcasm.
WereBear
This cheers me.
Cheryl Rofer
@jl: Nah. He’ll give Putin three slices of that really terrifiic chocolate cake.
Schlemazel
@Cheryl Rofer:
It would be fun if they treated Manafort like Starr treated McMillian. Moved from jail to jail, kept in solitary, once even housed in a glass box in the middle of the prison
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@germy:
It’s not much better, honestly. These people in the White House work for him but they’re not his slaves and don’t have to “sit-up at attention” when he talks. Not even in a private business setting. That’s an unhealthy work culture that would only encourage corruption and waste.
GxB
Is this the thread where we tell Chump to fuck right the hell off?
Good ‘cuz go fuck yourself Dolt – I’d have my head lopped off before I’d bow to you – you goddamned psycho.
schrodingers_cat
What were people thinking when they voted for a seething mass of resentments with no conscience and the intellectual curiosity of a pumpkin. He doesn’t care for anyone or anything other his own personal profit and aggrandizement.
jl
@Cheryl Rofer: I guess the drama will be on whether Putin eats the grub and looks like he likes it.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@catclub:
OTOH I distinctly remember reports of polling afterward asking who people voted for showing that Nixon lost. Denial is strong.
OzarkHillbilly
@Cheryl Rofer: “It will never happen to me. It only happens to those people.”
MisterForkbeard
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): The sad thing is, if a Trump supporter DID do those things and said: “I understand now that I made a horrible decision, and that it has caused a lot of harm to many people” I’d be willing to forgive them… in most cases.
I don’t really see this happening. Anyone who voted for Trump knew what he was even if they wouldn’t admit it – a giant corrupt and racist douchebag who assaulted women. If they voted for him just to spite Hillary, that doesn’t make them any better off. So they’re all doubling down on him again and again. Source: My in-laws, who are mildly racist and think Trump is a clown, but one who’s doing some real good.
bluehill
@Kay: It wouldn’t be happening if the repub controlled Congress wasn’t looking the other way. As with almost every other repub tenet, the law and order party is just a campaign slogan. I would guess that enough of them aren’t true believers and they could stop this slow motion train wreck if they had any of the courage of the Parkland kids, kneeling NFL players or metoo women. But my fear is that they have already condoned so much that it’s too hard to reverse positions. The ones with any decency are retiring and even then they won’t fight. These morans are exceptional in the worst ways.
Adam L Silverman
@marcopolo: So funny fin du monde story. My masters thesis in religious studies was on violent millennial movements entitled: It’s the End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fear, Foreboding, and Violence at the End of the Second Millenium. One of my good friends from aikido was from Quebec. And she gave me a six pack of those as a graduation gift.
The Dangerman
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.):
Na gonna happen.
They wanted/want to break shit. I figure withdrawing completely from Korea or blowing up NATO will give them much joy.
Adam L Silverman
@m.j.: You’re not a Tangerine-American?
Adam L Silverman
@WereBear: L’Hayim!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
I assume it depends on who you would ask. Plenty probably voted for Trump just to make Clinton lose, not out of huge support for him. Others really thought he was a good businessman and thought that alone qualified him to be President, knowing nothing of his past failures. Still others knew what he was about and identified with him, wanting to vote to punish those they hated. Finally, there are those who pulled the lever for Trump just because he had an R after his name.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Toxic, aggressively-passive leader. What else would you expect?
VeniceRiley
@ Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) : I know! I never missed an ep of Talking Dead, and often watched Midnight and played the hashtag game. Also, @GunnerGale follows me. Now, I can’t possibly watch the show until he is replaced. I feel sick to my stomach.
marcopolo
@jl: Are you saying that because of the rumor he really on drinks the blood of virgins?
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: That’s just mean to pumpkins.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Economist cover reminds of my eighty-something RW neighbor, whom I see once or twice a year at neighborhood parties (and is one of the reasons I only go to those parties once or twice a year) who always mentions that he subscribes to it as if that’s proof he’s smart. And I don’t think even he’s on the trump train.
schrodingers_cat
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The R office holders who enabled his rise and are now letting him destroy the world order of almost a century put in place by the United States have no excuse to hide behind. They are complicit.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Adam L Silverman: I asked about this in a previous post, although I posited Russian mob. What provisions do we have to deal with that potential in a county jail. My guess is few.
trollhattan
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s Friday. We should all check back Monday whether the camel is on the warpath or reverted to “Straw? There’s no straw here? What about straw, anyway?”
Rudy will do ALL the Sunday shows!
Bobby Thomson
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): in Germany, it took losing a war. It would take at least that here.
JDM
So Trump also gave Kim a phone number to directly call him? meaning that their subsequent conversations will be on Trump’s insecure Android phone, with who knows how many foreign governments listening in.
marcopolo
@Adam L Silverman@Adam L Silverman: It is one of my go to beers for serious celebrating along with the local 4 Hands brewery’s Chocolate Milk Stout.
Hope you enjoyed it though drinking more than a couple bottles at a sitting can leave you swaying.
Adam L Silverman
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): There is no difference under Putin between the Russian government, Russian intelligence services, and the Russian mob.
Adam L Silverman
@marcopolo: I shared. I kept one empty bottle with cap. It sits on a shelf. And gets dusted every so often.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ????? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t disagree. I wasn’t making excuses for them, just explanations.
schrodingers_cat
@JDM: All of them Katie. I am also wondering how many spies are working at that Florida resort of his.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: Sunday shows, you say?
Chris Whitehead
@TenguPhule: Yes, that phone number is 1-900-MrTrump, call anytime and talk as long as you want.
Baud
@Bobby Thomson: Being occupied by Canada sounds kind of nice actually.
@JDM: All of them, Katie.
@Adam L Silverman: Sounds very efficient.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t disagree. I wasn’t making excuses for them, just explanations
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is it my imagination or is Jon Karl egging trump on?
Every time I see a press conference where Karl is in the crowd, he’s shouting something like “When ya gonna fire Mueller? When ya gonna pardon manafort?”
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: It is.
trollhattan
@marcopolo: @Adam L Silverman:
I’ll make a pitch for this to be the go-to brew for the time being. The well-kerned titling really grabs the eye from the storeshelf and the contents do the rest.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Of course. I just didn’t think the other interpretation was much better for Trumpie
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Well shit, booking actual Nazis.
Does the makeup person assigned to Bannon begin with a belt sander? He/she should just keep sanding.
marcopolo
@trollhattan: Lol. Have to see if I can find someone in St. Louis selling it. I have a large group of beer drinking friends who might not be the highest on fruit accented beers but would make an exception for this.
Several of us have the “It’s Mueller Time” t-shirts. I’m sure drinking while wearing the tee will heighten the experience.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
You think somewhere in a Long Island split-level, some mid-level FBI guy just opened his first Friday beer, checked twitter, and said, “Oh you dumb fuck, I told you not to say it was us!”?
Dorothy Winsor
My husband has Chuck Todd on, and Chuck is showing the falsity of the claims Trump made on the WH lawn today. I think Chuck is done.
trollhattan
@catclub:
And then, because Watergate was such “recent history” St. Ronaldus the Treasonish skates on Iran-Contra, reputation burnished hourly to this day.
Doug R
@burnspbesq:
…and that’s the problem “betters”. Anyone who doesn’t trust the will of the well informed people I don’t want running things.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: I’m more a nectarine kind of guy. I don’t like my fruit to have more facial hair than I do…
TenguPhule
@germy:
Never give Trump the benefit of the doubt.
schrodingers_cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There is no depth the toady media won’t descend to for their R patrons.
Kay
@bluehill:
They’re in a box, too, though. Their base won’t allow them to veer from Dear Leader, but they’re not all stupid. They know this doesn’t end well. They’re all just hoping to avoid getting crushed when it crashes. They made a conscious decision to let it play out- they can’t oppose him. They’ll lose their seats. They really only had one choice if they want to keep their jobs.
No one knows how to deal with this, IMO. Not the media, not elected Republicans – no “institution” is faring well. The people I have the most sympathy for are the career federal employees. They’re victims, as far as I’m concerned.
trollhattan
@marcopolo:
I truly hope it has good distribution, since everybody needs a chance!
Luckily, the peach while there is well in the background so not a deterrent, at least to my palate. Stone generally knows their stuff.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
How fast can the CIA arrange for the NOC to die from an accident?
marcopolo
@Dorothy Winsor: With the Katy Tur clip I linked at comment #2–which is from around 2 pm today, I’m thinking MSNBC has as of now decided to “bang the nail on the head”, as it were, with Trump’s lying.
If so, good for them.
Anne Laurie
@germy:
IIRC, Jon Karl got his start in journalism as a member of the Young Republicans writing for his campus paper. He’s always been a Repub cheerleader behind a tissue-thin pretense at “objectivity”.
The good thing is, if we’re fortunate and the Everybody-Knows tide is really turning against the GOP crime cartel, Mr. Karl is gonna be one of the first wedgie-targets from his former coworkers. Once the schoolyard bully gets taken down, his seconds tend to get everything they and he deserved…
TenguPhule
@GxB:
Don’t give him ideas.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Heh. Hate screwing around with shaving/peeling kiwifruit but in the last year discovered new varieties that can be cut in two and scooped out with a spoon like a two-minute egg. Success!
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Nunes is really dumb. This is important and good to know, but really dumb to say it on TV.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Dorothy Winsor:
So Peter Principle has finally gotten a clue? Good.
I distinctly remember someone on here mentioning that around 2008 they thought Chuck Todd was actually a decent pundit.
I’d like to know when everyone’s epiphany was that Chuck Todd was an idiot.
misterpuff
Wait, Obama was a wannabe King with his Executive Orders and his haughty manners…that’s what the GOP and Rand Paul told me during the last year of his administration.
The Donald wants to be a Drumptator and not a peep. I’m sure if His Trumpness demanded, they would curtsy and kow-tow to him (not the office).
Its his Divine Right as a Rich Old White Guy and senile fool.
TenguPhule
Elizabeth Holmes indicted for wire fraud!
And another one bites the dust.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: They made this box. They propagandized their base into what they are. They did this to themselves in a quest for power and control.
Kay
The Pruitt scandals alone would be a lot for a President over the course of two years, and he’s just one minor corrupt individual in the Trump Administration. He’s loose change compared with the complex, elaborate criminality of people like Manafort.
I think they keep Pruitt around because they needed some ordinary corruption to distract from…treason.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: The CIA does not operate domestically within the US.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Concerning, though, because it indicates the IG is more corrupt than at first apparent. Not only making up BS summary findings not supported (rather, actually contradicted) by the evidence in the report itself, but apparently not looking into any questionable behavior, like massive leaking, that favored Trump. TPM says didn’t look into the backdoor connections to Rudy either.
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: Correct. He came out of the same Koch funded pipeline as McArgleBargle.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
And FSM willing, it will ensure they’re ultimate defeat and destruction.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
“Officially” //
OzarkHillbilly
@marcopolo: Try Lucas Wine & Spirits in Ellisville. I’ve never been to it but I have friends who swear they have everything.
jl
@Baud:
“Being occupied by Canada sounds kind of nice actually.”
Maybe you should run a Canadian invasion of US up the old flagpole as part of Baud 20201 platform?
We don’t want to give away the country for free. Canada would promise us big discounts on their superior snacking foods.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: When NBC announced he was their chief polling and politics expert despite not being able to make it through an undergrad polisci program, including never getting to, let alone through, the baby stats class.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)
@TenguPhule:
Who is Elizabeth Holmes?
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): She’s the one who created the blood testing Enron company.
jl
@jl: I did not know that about Mr. Todd. But, wow, capable of very smooth and confident moves in front of the green screen. I guess that is what matters.
Edit: naive me thought that some of the pundit celebs got around to learning something about what they babble on the TV. I think Roker, at some point, bothered to actually learn something about the weather. I assumed the same for Todd. I am slow sometimes.
TenguPhule
Fuck you Schumer. Turn over your leadership to a Democratic Senator who’s not a fucking idiot.
Cheryl Rofer
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): The founder of Theranos, the company that was supposed to be able to do hundreds of tests on a drop of blood. Silicon Valley disruptor! Except she missed out on the fact that you really have to know something about blood tests to try to do something like that.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: No, this is not the case. The IG split the investigation into the leaks in the NY Field Office off from this investigation. It is expected to be completed and released later this summer. I’ve heard July. Also, Comey indicated in his testimony just before he was fired that he’d opened an investigation into this issue. It was unclear if that was IG or part of the ongoing CI investigation that Mueller inherited. Regardless, I would expect that Mueller is looking into this as well. That’s partially why it is so stupid for Nunes to go on TV and say this. It also opens Chaffetz up to some serious questions as well. Such as: did he reach out to Comey, directly or indirectly, in October 2016 to threaten him, which partially prompted and forced Comey’s hand. And if Mueller wasn’t investigating this before, he is now because Nunes is too stupid to keep his mouth shut.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule:
I agree, he wants all of us to cheer him all of the time, just like in North Korea. Wonder when we’ll set up the giant loudspeakers on our borders to tell the Canadians and Mexicans how wonderful life is here under Chairman Trump.
jl
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): Fraudster who peddled fake scientific breakthroughs in blood testing for a big tech start up. She was the new Bill Gates/Steve Jobs rolled into one for a while. Now it appears she had much more in common with Madoff and PT Barnum.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Wouldn’t that be Canada and Mexico broadcasting scantily clad young women singing cheerful Pop songs 24/7 at the borders to encourage us to overthrow our tyrannical dictatorship instead?
Dorothy Winsor
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I didn’t see the clip, just heard it on my car radio. It didn’t sound like a joke.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
If only you could master that jl, if only…
Sm*t Cl*de
“Boot-licker” is shorter.
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer:
But nothing on Hillary! Sad!
BC in Illinois
@marcopolo:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Friar Tuck on Watson Road in Crestwood has it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: Both sides have giant loudspeakers on each side of the DMZ.
ETA: I’ve seen the speakers on the South Korean side, I’ve heard the speakers from North Korea.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks very much for that info. Either I misinterpreted TPM or it is being uncharacteristically sloppy. or Josh Marshall himself is.
So, OK, Nunes really really dumb to say what he did on TV. I guess these characters think they have it all wrapped up, they way they are talking. They got all the candy they wanted, the baby is crying in the roller, no parent in sight, and they are gobbling up all the good stuff. Not a care in the world.
TenguPhule
Drink!
OzarkHillbilly
@TenguPhule: Schumer is right. Even a stopped clock trump is right every now and again.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Why are you coming to Sacramento? What is your dark plan? Spill.
JMG
@Kay: Those Republicans in Congress haven’t thought far enough ahead. Suppose the Democrats win the House in November. Trump isn’t going to blame himself, he’ll blame the remaining GOP members. The base will believe him and they’ll all get primaried in 2020 anyway. That’s what makes this situation so dangerous. The Republicans have to know they cannot lose an election as long as Trump is President. They are liable to go a long way to keep it from happening.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I thought SK was the only one using giant television screens to support their broadcast message?
germy
Russian Cybersecurity Firm Severs Ties With Europol Over Accusations of ‘Malicious’ Activity
trollhattan
@Kay:
Holy crap. With Pruitt still in office running his GriftMacher 2020 machine at full tilt, Trump may be completely correct that Rod Blagojevich is being unfairly imprisoned. He didn’t even complete the deal!
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think it would be an enormous escalation for Putin to kill an American citizen in the U.S. I really don’t expect that to happen and he probably doesn’t either.
But I could be wrong!
TenguPhule
@OzarkHillbilly:
Picking a trade war with China, Canada, Mexico and the EU at the same time is the very definition of wrong on every level.
Gravenstone
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: openly admitting that he sees the press as his greatest enemy.
sukabi
Question: we know the repubs won’t use impeachment to get rid of Drumpf, but as the Mueller probe inches closer to Ryan & McConnell and the rest of the sellouts, and as Drumpf and Ghouliani spew more and more crazy shit, will McConnell & Ryan try and convince the cabinet to dust off the 25th to stop the Mueller investigation?
I know a billion to 1 odds with the current cabinet of grifters and thieves.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I told you last night, jl, photograph our state capitol. I have one sort of good picture(taken on a slide) taken in 1975.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
You are really being charitable.
germy
@Adam L Silverman:
In the clip, it looks like he realizes his mistake after it comes out of his mouth.
Or maybe that’s just his regular facial expression.
TenguPhule
@Gravenstone:
That was last year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: They may do that now, I was last there 20 years ago.
OzarkHillbilly
@BC in Illinois: Sometimes I really do miss the city. Then I drive up there, enjoy the hell out of myself and return to my little speck of the hills and hollers and feel tensions I wasn’t even aware of drain away. If there was ever a way to combine the best of both worlds….
trollhattan
Did somebody say
Infrastructure WeekNewsdump Friday?jl
@JMG: GOPers cannot do one thing until they get through the primaries. Then they’ll reevaluate, and see which way the wind is blowing. They clearly think that they can turn on a dime and BS their way out of anything, it certainly works with their base, as we have seen repeatedly. We’ll see how it works out for them in the general. I hope it works out very badly.
But given what has happened to any GOPer in the primaries who even made a few peeps against Trump, they are locked in to Trump through from now until beginning of August, at least. Need to get past those primaries. Reliable GOP primary voting base consists only of fanatical die-hard Trumpster fanatics. The ten or twenty percent of Trump voters who’ve drifted off mean nothing for the primary.
sukabi
NY AG has separate investigation into Eric Trumps foundation…
my guess yesterday was right regarding the Drumpf spawn facing more “charity down time” than what’s being sought in the Drumpf foundation investigation.
germy
@trollhattan: If it’s one thing that family knows how to do, it’s flout.
Wapiti
@Adam L Silverman: I remember the FBI handling the anthrax terrorism case by first going after one suspect, then pressuring their second suspect into suicide. Case closed.
I’d be surprised if Manafort died in jail. I don’t think the FBI would lose a lot of sleep over it, if it did happen.
TenguPhule
And Wallstreet yet again has convinced themselves that Donald Trump’s actions “aren’t serious”.
It feels like the runup to October 2006. The music is still playing, but nobody pays attention to all the seats disappearing. And when the music stops…..
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I forgot to check back after I asked last night. Sorry.
Please don’t hurt the state capital with your weirdo infrared ray camera.
Lots of pretty nature pix opportunities around Sacto, if you can find time outside the brewpubs.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
I object! Nunes isn’t too stupid, he’s just stupid enough.
Confess I’m very curious as to what suburban Fresno has in store for old Devin this November.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@jl: Poutine in every pot!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Shouldn’t be a problem, I don’t drink.
ETA: I will be taking my IR camera, but it does not emit IR, it just collects IR being reflected off objects(trees, buildings…).
ruemara
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): I understand that urge. I gave it up, but every so often, i want to return to a forum I used to hang out in, where i know certain principled republicans who hated the party yet couldn’t be convinced to not vote for it every election, and scream what fucking traitors and scum they were fine with pulling the lever on. But I’m really not a flouncer.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You insulting Sacto brewpub food?
After Canada takes us over, there will be ways to make people like you be polite.
…. damned outside agitators come up here…
OzarkHillbilly
@TenguPhule: I’m not talking about the trade wars, I’m talking about China’s trade policies, specifically their position on American companies access to their markets.
randy khan
@sukabi:
I suspect I will repeat this comment at least 100 more times, but the Republicans in Congress will be with Trump until they’re against him. If it happens (and I’m not saying it will), it will be like a light switch and they will more or less all abandon him at once. It’s what happened with Nixon and there’s no reason to think the same dynamics aren’t at play today.
It’s really about how they see their interests, and right now they see that they can’t get elected without Trump supporters. If there comes a time when Trump is so off the rails that he loses, oh, half of his current support (or evidence comes out showing that he sold us out to Putin, or something equally awful, with the same effect), they will realize that they can’t get elected with the Trump supporters, and will turn on a dime. There’s no principle there except self-preservation, and if Watergate is any indication, they won’t figure it out until it’s too late.
jl
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): Free Nanaimo bars and extra crunchy peanuts for all.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat:
The latter sentence is the answer to the former, as far as I’m concerned.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Madame has family in Canada, I’ve learned to be quite polite. I’m sure the SacTown brewpub food is quite good, but it’s also probably not the reason most folk visit.
TenguPhule
@OzarkHillbilly:
Supporting Donald Trump in any manner whatsoever is a surefire way not to address that.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @jl:
Jerry had the entire place dipped in ray-absorbing paint. Wake up, sheeple!
TenguPhule
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S):
Isn’t that a war crime?
jl
@randy khan: The GOPers have to wait until after the primaries. So, the timing isn’t great for them. But, they have great confidence that they can BS their way out of anything. If they have to run out and start ripping Trump the day after the primaries are over, it will be too awkward for even the corporate news media celebs to ignore.
gwangung
@schrodingers_cat: They wanted someone JUST LIKE THEM.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: People have been tweeting at Marshall since yesterday that this is what the IG has done with that part of the investigation. He acknowledges them and then goes right back to stating he’s confused about what happened to that part of the investigation. Perhaps someone in his newsroom needs to do a hard reset…
jl
@trollhattan: Damn, Brown is smart. I wondered what he was using all the rainy day money for. The BillinGlendale emergency infrared ray camera interception plan.
The Ancient Randonneur
A joke I just read on Twitter: Did you hear about the MAGA coyote who got caught in a trap? He chewed off three legs and he was STILL caught in the trap.
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
Don’t know about y’all, but I don’t think I can wait that long.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: They won’t. The 25th calls for a supermajority vote in both chambers of Congress to ratify the Cabinet’s decision.
jl
@SiubhanDuinne: The price we pay when our savior is a virtual statesmen of world historical insignificance.
burnspbesq
@TenguPhule:
Where are John Clark and Domingo Chavez when we need them?
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Eh we should all be in android bodies with our consciousness as computer code by then right?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: So he’s an early supporter of Baud!2020! and his fight against the sun?
@jl: It still would make for an interesting picture, so Jerry’s foiled again.
OzarkHillbilly
@TenguPhule: Agreed, but saying that trump is right about the trade practices of a foreign country is not necessarily supporting trump in his policies to address the problem. The WTO is the proper venue to address this issue. I’m not sure of Schumer’s exact position on the whole thing but the timing (following the latest tariffs) is troublesome.
OzarkHillbilly
@jl:
Also a great way to suppress votes from their base.
Litlebritdifrnt
So let us look at this like rational human beings would instead of the fucking brain dead media. Trump says he gave Kim his “private cell phone number” and everyone glombs onto that. Not one of them mentions the fact that a) Trump can’t speak Korean, b) Kim speaks limited English (I have seen various reporting on this, some say his English is excellent, others say it is limited) so are we being led to believe that Trump is savvy enough to have a Korean translator on stand by 24/7 on the off chance that Kim calls him “with a problem” a 3AM? Really? I mean come on folks, ask a fucking follow up question for once.
“I gave Kim my private cell phone number”
Reporter with a functioning brain “but Mr. President you don’t speak Korean”.
How hard can it be?
sukabi
@The Ancient Randonneur: lol. How many legs does Rudy have left?
jimmiraybob
It’s good to be the king.
Patricia Kayden
When Trump was telling his supporters to attack peaceful protesters during his Nazi rallies, that was the first indication that he was a fascist. The fact that he’s now openly fawning about Dictators is just par for the course. Not shocking at all to anyone who paid any attention to his election campaign where he literally kept the media at bay in fenced off areas.
Calouste
@Cheryl Rofer: Mattis was on the board of Theranos, as were a number of other high profile people. Wonder if they are going to get sued for not doing their oversight job by investors.
Aleta
That picture of him saluting a NK general should be billboarded all over the red states and sold as christmas cards. Send to relatives and rw radio/fox advertisers, local gun clubs and NRA candidates … and the editors of the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.
eta I think I’ll send it to my local and state R office holders, maybe leaflet cars with certain bumper stickers
The Lodger
@jl: Baud/Horton 2020!
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: if you can have your endless “Infrastructure Weeks” I can have my “Fantasy Fridays”.
A girl needs to dream damnit!
evodevo
@schrodingers_cat: If you’ve ever been around rednecks much, you would realize this is a personality type THEY ADMIRE….this is why they voted for him …
TenguPhule
@Litlebritdifrnt:
What makes you think Trump can tell one Korean speaking on the phone from another?
Who wants to bet that whoever is speaking to Trump from North Korea, it most certainly isn’t going to be Kim himself?
TenguPhule
@sukabi:
Which one?
father pusbucket
To paraphrase Maya Angelou, how many time does Trump have to tell us who he is before we believe him?
Peale
@SiubhanDuinne: little known Baudbyte: he’s actually a young earth creationist, but the Bible isn’t his holy book.
rikyrah
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.):
Don’t give a shyt about them. Just want to laugh at them when he is arrested
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman:
Lol
sukabi
@TenguPhule: well to continue with my “Fantasy Fridays” theme…
Rudy standing before the judge on his Obstruction arraignment, starts to open his mouth. Judge shuts him up with the maga coyote joke from upthread and finishes with: “Mr. Giuliani, you’ve already chewed off the only legs you had to stand on, which is why you’re before me now. Are you going to claim it’s only a “flesh wound”?
Peale
@OzarkHillbilly: China has made it difficult for retail banks, insurance and accountants to operate there. That’s the home town industry.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: you forgot the ***
***Legally they can’t, who’s to know what they do “extra-legally”? It’s classified.
Aleta
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): The more wrong they are, the less likely they are to admit or apologize. Especially if the effects are regrettable. So many humans are like this that it seems to be a brain thing, like self-deception. Or behavior when losing. The worse the results, the more they are invested in continuing, not admitting anything.
schrodingers_cat
@Calouste: So is Mattis gullible or crooked? I am no chemist but Theranos tall claims always sounded like a bunch of crock to me.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t know… Do you think President Tapeworm would say a word about it if Putin did this? I don’t.
Peale
@schrodingers_cat: probably gullible. Lots of red flags, but that’s why no one on the board had medical or scientific expertise.
Ruckus
@Cheryl Rofer:
I don’t think little Pauly flips. He plays rather serious games with some very serious people. The kind of people who play extreme hardball. He has the balls to think that he could talk to and get witnesses to play dumb and you know that his attorneys had to have warned him about that. He’s played high stakes politics with dictators and such for years. He flips and he’s going to have to ask for protection for the rest of his nasty life. Which wouldn’t be long with that protection. He’s in that proverbial rock/hard spot, his only good option is shutting the hell up.
schrodingers_cat
@Peale: Theranos did not pass the smell test.
sukabi
@Aleta: yep…except it would fly over their heads…remembering all the shit Obama got for shaking hands and customary bows with Japan…
Saluting an adversaries generals…no biggie, especially when you consider they’ve pretty much accepted treason.
Sm*t Cl*de
Theranos gullibility:
https://twitter.com/SenJohnMcCain/status/654714209360437249
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Marshall just went on a ten tweet tear about it. Obvs reads BJ comments in real time, and closely! I guess he thinks he sees something others don’t, or vice versa.
sukabi
Think Rudy got warned that chewing off your legs isn’t a good strategy.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Porque no los dos?
Aleta
@Kay: Giuliani seems nervous.
sukabi
@Aleta: could be he’s nervous because part of the evidence against Manafort includes phrases like “It would be a shame if something happened to your family.”
dopey-o
@marcopolo:
Then stay sitting!
MisterForkbeard
@Aleta: “Look, just because he violated his parole multiple times and was trying to suborn testimony by other witnesses is no reason to revoke his parole.”
Guiliani, Best Lawyer Ever
Boussinesque
@marcopolo: Late to the thread, but just wanted to put my 2 cents in–I’m enjoying the hell out of Elder Scrolls Online. I picked it up when it first came out, but got distracted shortly afterwards and never came back to it until about 2 weeks ago. It’s got great storylines, voice acting, and quest design, and they’ve come up with a way of scaling content so that you never have to worry about outleveling zones–you can basically go anywhere and play with anyone and still be earning level-appropriate rewards while being able to contribute meaningfully to the group (and most of the content can be done solo, as well, if that’s your jam). I play on the PS4, but I’m contemplating dropping the $10 for the base game/Morrowind upgrade on Steam, just to have it on PC/Mac as well.
Scamp Dog
Welcome back! I don’t think I’ve seen you since you had that front page post. Will we be getting oceanography posts from you? I love reading that kind of stuff.
Boatboy_srq
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.): I passed that point in January and am fast approaching the belief that one’s support for Lord Dampnut is indication of an incurable psychosis best treated with immediate if painless termination.
WaterGirl
@Scamp Dog: You are welcoming someone back – who is it?
J R in WV
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
And you think corruption and waste matter to who, exactly? No one in the White House right now, certainly!
TenguPhule
@Boatboy_srq: Give it another Friedman unit and you’ll be omitting the painless part.
Kdaug
@marcopolo: I am friends and colleagues with many of the principals. If you enjoyed Skyrim, but would like a more compelling storyline in an MMO environment, check out ESO
J R in WV
@Dorothy Winsor:
Trump can’t make jokes, nor can he use sarcasm. Probably part of his psychopathy complex of issues. Or just too stupid.
Boussinesque
@Scamp Dog: aww, thanks for the vote of confidence! I’ve been tied up with tutoring (my current day job) and personal stuff for a while, but since the summertime is a bit light, I might be able to put something together again. Would be a good chance for me to review the material myself, since I haven’t had much cause to use it while tutoring Physics and Calculus.
As far as being around, I’m always here, I just don’t comment a lot because by the time I get to a thread, anything I want to say has probably already been said better or snarkier than I could =P