Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

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

I really should read my own blog.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Bark louder, little dog.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

We still have time to mess this up!

Infrastructure week. at last.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing to Review the DOJ Inspector General’s Report Live Stream

Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing to Review the DOJ Inspector General’s Report Live Stream

by | 131 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , , , , ,

Sorry I got to this a little late, but I was working on something offline. Anyhow, here is the live stream of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing to review the DOJ IG’s report. Testifying before the committee are DOJ IG Horowitz and FBI Director Wray. Things to watch for:

  1. The Republican members of the committee to hammer both Director Wray and IG Horowitz on who should be punished and why they haven’t/aren’t being punished. As well as the Republican members of the committee hammering IG Horowitz about why people connected to the Clinton’s weren’t/aren’t being prosecuted.
  2. The Democratic members of the committee inquiring about why the report doesn’t deal with the reported in the IG report significant anti-Clinton bias and leaks out of the NY Field Office of the FBI during the campaign. Senators Feinstein has already been all over this and Senator Leahy is now asking Director Wray about it.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    This has probably been answered already, but I missed it: Will there be a Part 2 to the IG’s report, one that specificaly addresses the FBI NY office?

  3. 3.

    M4

    @JTL:

    The way things are going, who knows?

    This is essentially my analysis of everything in the world right now.

  4. 4.

    bluehill

    Putin’s making his next move. Interest rates will have to go up in order to attract buyers or the Fed is going to have to start buying again. Morans.

    Foreign governments pulled back their purchases of longer-term U.S. debt as trade tensions escalated around the world. The declines are relatively small so far for notes and bonds — just shy of $5 billion each for March and April, the most recent months for which Treasury data are available — but it signals a potentially troubling trend.

    “We need all the help we can get in the search for buyers of US Treasuries due to the enormous supply coming our way in the next few years,” Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, said in a note. “Our stance on trade with our trading partners could very well play into this in coming months and quarters, especially with China, the largest owner of US Treasuries.”

    One of the most glaring declines has come from Russia, which sliced its holdings of U.S. debt nearly in half from March to April, from $96.1 billion to $48.7 billion. Russia’s Treasury ownership peaked at $108.7 billion in May 2017. In all, foreigners held $6.17 trillion of the total $14.84 trillion of Treasury debt outstanding through April. The national debt including intragovernmental holdings has swelled to more than $21 trillion.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: Both IG Horowitz and Director Wray refused to confirm or deny that to Senator Leahy about ten minutes or so ago when he asked directly if there is an ongoing investigation into this issue. IG Horowitz stated that it is against DOJ policy to publicly confirm or deny any investigation (which is true under the Privacy Act of 1974). Brad Moss, who has an active FOIA litigation into this matter has tweeted this in response to Wray’s response:

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    @M4: Yes. Part of the reason inflation has gone up, however, is the result of the tariffs that the President put on washing machines. That’s caused a significant chunk in the spike.

  10. 10.

    sdhays

    @Adam L Silverman: So how did we all know that this other investigation (the one that was released last week) was going on? Why was that announced and not covered by the Privacy Act? Did the Preznit just shit all over the Privacy Act so it didn’t matter?

  12. 12.

    Adam L Silverman

    Director Wray looks like he might just throttle Senator Lee with Senator Lee’s tie.

  13. 13.

    TenguPhule

    @sdhays:

    Did the Preznit just shit all over the Privacy Act so it didn’t matter?

    Do popes piss in the woods?

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    is the result of the tariffs that the President put on washing machines.

    The tariffs on everything else may cause stagflation in the near future too.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sdhays: My take away from IG Horowitz’s answer, in combination with Director Wray’s, is that if there is an investigation, it is not an IG investigation. IG investigations can be referenced though their contents should remain confidential until complete and unless they need to be classified. These are separate from regular DOJ/FBI investigation, which is never supposed to be confirmed or denied as a result of DOJ policies derived from the Privacy Act of 1974.

    I can’t prove it, but my take on this, based on what reporting has existed since last year, is that the investigation into the NY Field Office and leaks out of it, was part of the counterintelligence investigation, which Special Counsel Mueller inherited.

    The simple reality is we will simply have to wait and see.

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    @M4:

    I didn’t realize that washing machines were such a big part of the inflation index.

    Durable good. 25% increase in price due to the tariffs. Expect another 10% hike from the metal tariffs in materials.

    Food and energy are both going to spike hard once the rest of the tariffs make their way down the supply chains.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @M4: I read several reports that because of the price spikes that the tariff caused, it created a significant bump in inflation.

  26. 26.

    jonas

    If any of this stuff were happening under a Democratic administration, esp. with the governing party’s entire establishment AND the president himself accusing the FBI of all manner of malfeasance and corruption, every headline would be about how outraged the rank-and-file are at being attacked. It would be the whole story. “Bureau ready to revolt over President’s accusations….” etc. would be blazoned across the FYFNYT every day. So where’s that story now?

  28. 28.

    rikyrah

    someone on another blog had a simple question with regards to the kids:

    don’t understand why the kids don’t even have simple plastic id/info bracelets like they have in hospitals.

    let’s be blunt- that is only a solution for those who actually WANT to keep up with the children.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    @germy: Both IG Horowitz and Director Wray refused to confirm or deny that to Senator Leahy about ten minutes or so ago when he asked directly if there is an ongoing investigation into this issue. IG Horowitz stated that it is against DOJ policy to publicly confirm or deny any investigation (which is true under the Privacy Act of 1974). Brad Moss, who has an active FOIA litigation into this matter has tweeted this in response to Wray’s response:

    Hmmmmmmmm

  31. 31.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    let’s be blunt- that is only a solution for those who actually WANT to keep up with the children.

    The only time a government agency doesn’t have paperwork about their detainees, is when they’re doing shit to them so illegal that they can’t risk any written records of it leaking and linking specific people to specific victims.

  32. 32.

    Yarrow

    @M4: Gas prices keep creeping up but they usually do in summer. What’s going to really sting is if (when) they don’t go down again in the fall.

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:
    Plastic wristbands are too easy to lose. I’m sure DHS will start tattooing them with unique numbers any day now.

  36. 36.

    jonas

    @Yarrow: I forget where I read it the other day (WSJ?), but supposedly Trump has asked Putin and Saudi Arabia to turn the faucets on next fall to help him in the midterms.

  39. 39.

    Yarrow

    @jonas: We’ll see how that goes. The various tariffs could have made things difficult by then so it doesn’t matter as much.

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: Yep. And this won’t be much fun either:
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/second-opinion-trade-dispute-canada-us-drug-patents-intellectual-property-1.4708630

    “An eye for an eye won’t work when one side is small and the other is large,” he said. “When you’re David and the other guy is Goliath, and you go after him or her symmetrically, you are not necessarily going to produce the outcome you want. What you must do, therefore, is retaliate asymmetrically.”

    And so Attaran is suggesting that Canada take aim at U.S. drug patents.

    The U.S. holds more pharmaceutical patents and other intellectual property licences than any other country. But that strength could become a vulnerability if Canada took action to suspend American patents on Canadian soil. Canadian companies would then be able to produce those drugs.

    “You hit us on tariffs, we hit you on patents,” he said.

    “The basic idea, I agree with him,” said McGill law professor Richard Gold, who is an expert in patent law.

    “We should be considering all options. This could be very targeted and it would disproportionately hurt the United States over other countries.”

    The power is not so much in the action, but in the threat: To make the pharmaceutical lobby nervous enough to pressure the U.S. administration to resolve the current trade dispute with Canada.

    “That industry is the single most powerful lobby in Washington,” said Attaran.”There is nothing that industry is more afraid of losing than control of their patents.”

    “You’re trying to identify retaliatory actions that will prompt certain agents in the other country to press their government to fix the problem,” said Gold.

    He argues the strategy need not be limited to pharmaceuticals, but could include intellectual property rights on everything from music to airplane parts. The mechanisms would need to be worked out, but Gold said it could include special Canadian legislation to override U.S. patents in targeted areas.

    Attaran believes the tool already exists in trade law governing drug patents. He points to a historical example: Back in the days before the 1989 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, Ottawa routinely granted domestic drug companies the right to manufacture U.S. drugs — a practice that ended when the FTA and NAFTA were signed.

    “If you want to go there, Washington, and start behaving in a pre-NAFTA, pre-free trade way, as by imposing tariffs, well, then we’re also going to behave in a pre-free trade way, as by taking your patents,” Attaran said.

    There’s already evidence that a threat of an intellectual property trade war might be an effective strategy.

    In 2010, Brazil threatened to ignore U.S. patent and intellectual property rights in the midst of a dispute over U.S. cotton subsidies. Before Brazil took action, the U.S. backed down.

    Gold said the U.S. was afraid Brazil would give other countries the same idea.

    “You’re hoping by just threatening it, the United States will back down — because they don’t want every single trade dispute to default to that,” Gold said.

    Attaran suggests another example: When Antigua and Barbuda threatened to suspend copyright protection on U.S. intellectual property because of U.S. interference in the tiny island’s online gambling services.

    “As soon as Antigua threatened U.S. intellectual property, they caved,” said Attaran.

    Much more fun at the link.

  41. 41.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the President said that winning a trade war is easy

    Most Americans are innumerate; he leads the ignorance parade. Kind of surprising for someone who’s business, other than grifting, is real estate.

  42. 42.

    bluehill

    @M4: Yes, Fed has been hiking rates to slow or head off inflation. They actually want some amount of inflation. I think they are targeting 2%, I’m guessing they would prefer it to be from increased consumption and wage growth rather tariffs or trying to fund our debt. Without directing intervening, the Fed is really just signaling that they want rates to increase; other bank lending rates are based on the fed funds rates. However, US treasury sales of US t-bills, bonds and notes are done by auction, so it’s supply and demand and other factors can influence the yield besides the the Fed’s actions.

  43. 43.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    Kind of surprising for someone who’s business, other than grifting, is real estate. money laundering.

    FTFY.

    Nobody legitimate buys real estate for 2-3 times the appraised value.

  48. 48.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The U.S. holds more pharmaceutical patents and other intellectual property licences than any other country. But that strength could become a vulnerability if Canada took action to suspend American patents on Canadian soil. Canadian companies would then be able to produce those drugs.

    “You hit us on tariffs, we hit you on patents,” he said.

    Holy fucking shit. That’s the economic equivalent of ordering a carpet bombing and an artillery barrage. It’s only two or three steps down from full economic nuclear exchange.

  51. 51.

    Mary G

    UGH

    New: ProPublica has obtained audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children can be heard wailing. Border Patrol agent jokes, “We have an orchestra here.” https://t.co/pkmD8DKYmo— ProPublica (@ProPublica) June 18, 2018

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    Ooopsie!

    ETA:

  56. 56.

    bluehill

    @TenguPhule: All of our other trading partners are going through the same exercise. It may be tit for tat in monetary terms, but I doubt it will be equivalent in terms of strategic value.

  59. 59.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Trump gave Kim Jong Un his personal cell phone number?

    Didn’t Trump already tell us this himself immediately after the meeting ended?

    Why the surprise?

  63. 63.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    these frames surrounded pics of Trump with Emmanuel Macron, president of France, one of America’s closest allies.

    Repeating: The country has (or had) “allies.” Weasel Face does not, and doesn’t know what he word means.

  64. 64.

    Repatriated

    @GregMulka:

    I hate that I want a VW but I want the electric Mystery Machine in 2022.

    Why was I not informed of this?

    (Note that they haven’t mentioned range or cost, and most of the nifty features like the retractable steering wheel and HUD won’t make it into production. Even so…)

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: I believe it is the economic equivalent of dropping a couple of MOABs. As a national security professional I’d love to see them do it to see if it will force the people that actually own the country to rein this crap in.

  67. 67.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    and doesn’t know what he word means.

    Trump thinks allies means “suckers”. Granted, he thinks every other word for other people means the same thing.

  69. 69.

    Jager

    I just got into it with a relative from Iowa in an email exchange.

    I could give a shit what fundamentalist Iowa farmers think about California, do they even know California is the number one ag state in the country? If they are willing to take a 640 million dollar a year kick in the ass, because they are worried more about social issues than the economy of their entire state, that’s their fucking problem. It’s not my problem that their politicians won’t even address the issue in public. When they start getting their combines repossessed, when they fall behind on their mortgages, when they can’t buy groceries they can look in the mirror.

    I grew up in ND, a farm state with oil. My relatives were all excited about the oil boom until they realized that 90% of the leases were owned by out of state and foreign interests and the money just disappeared over the border. All the oil boom did for my home state is drive up the price of homes and everything else in the god forsaken place. My sis was out here and we drove up the coast, you can see the offshore rigs in the Channel Islands, on 101 you drive right by the station where the oil is tanked and put into the pipe lines, guess what nobody works there anymore. You drive by the pumps north of Santa Maria, nobody works there anymore. Kath and I saw one pickup driving around the entire oil field with 100’s of pumps and tanks in the middle of a weekday.

    They had that big packing plant bust in Tennessee last week arrested over a 100 illegal workers and hauled them off to who knows where. You know who should be hauled off and jailed, the fucking guy who hired them, somehow he gets interviewed and he whines about who is going to work in the packing plant? Where are those nice American girls who are willing to scrub the blood off the killing floor for minimum wage? Where are those able bodied assholes who chant USA! USA! USA! when the skin needs to be ripped off a cow’s head? The county the plant is in has the highest percentage of opioid usage in the state. And it isn’t the brown people working their asses off for minimum wage getting stoned on their asses everyday. Grow the fuck up.

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @Mary G: I didn’t notice your post. Have you listened? I read Sophie’s Choice and then saw the movie. The screaming tore me to pieces.

  72. 72.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    to see if it will force the people that actually own the country to rein this crap in.

    Spoiler alert: It won’t.

    If the money people were able to rein these Nazis in, they would have done so before the stupid shits got other countries to erect their counter-tariffs.

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman: AFAIK Trump hasn’t bothered to get a secured phone like President Obama did. I assumed immediately he meant the unsecured line.

    Because it was the stupidest thing he could have done.

  76. 76.

    I'll be Frank

    @Adam L Silverman: Not to triffle, but the second fastest growing expense is the plug figure to adjust for home owners not being subject to rent changes. Imputed rent has been either the fastest or second fastest growing expense item for the last several quarters. It really is a case of deciding what number they want and then computing their way to it.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: The reporting is that he has two unsecured phones. One for tweeting. One for talking to his friends and outside advisors. I did a post on this and why it was a national security nightmare a couple of weeks ago.

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: Someone has to make purses and shoes for Ivanka so she can proudly claim her products are made in the US.//

  84. 84.

    different-church-lady

    @Mary G: TIRED: Hoods, electrodes, and wooden crates in Cuba
    WIRED: Kids in cages here in the states.

  85. 85.

    Mary G

    @JPL: I didn’t get all the way through. Had to stop at the jocular “We’ve got a whole orchestra here, all we need is a conductor.” My cat was upset, and I was horrified. I hope it gets to every network, preferably behind the picture of the toddler who’s crying and has no shoelaces in her shoes.

  86. 86.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @rikyrah: Interesting that the Feds are in a hurry to build these internment camps for kids ripped away from their parents but couldn’t build emergency relief shelters in PR.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @TenguPhule:

    John Harwood @ JohnJHarwood
    11,785 children are now in the care of Donald Trump’s HHS, according to HHS

    Chris Hayes has posted a ProPublica youtube of children crying for their parents in a detention facility. I lasted about thirty seconds. It’s seven minutes long. Every elected Republican should be forced to listen to that, on camera, then justify their cowardice.

    ETA:

    @Mary G: Border Patrol agent jokes, “We have an orchestra here.”

    My god

  88. 88.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The reporting is that he has two unsecured phones. One for tweeting. One for talking to his friends and outside advisors. I did a post on this and why it was a national security nightmare a couple of weeks ago.

    I thought his fellow Nazi Kelly had taken one of those phones.

  89. 89.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Reposting from below, as representative of any attempted conversation with a winger (ETA: the only thing missing is a reference to abortion):

    Stolen from a fb post:

    Left: Stop taking children from their parents!
    Right: But Obama started it!
    Left: I don’t think that’s true, but it’s irrelevant right now. It’s happening NOW. It needs to stop NOW.
    Right: It’s been happening for years!
    Left: Okay so it’s about time to stop it, right?
    Right: Democrats are blocking attempts to stop it
    Left: The GOP controls Congress and the WH, they could stop this tomorrow. Put a bill on the floor of both houses and see who votes for it. If it passes, see if Trump signs it. At least TRY.
    Right: But you didn’t complain about it six years ago.
    Left: Either I didn’t know about it or it wasn’t happening. Either way, can we please stop taking children away from their parents now! We can argue about who to blame for it later.
    Right: The parents are being put in jail for illegally crossing the border. It’s wrong to put kids in jail with them.
    Left: Don’t put these people in prison with murderers and rapists then.
    Right: But it’s a deterrent!
    Left: This is the US, not North Korea. It’s barbaric, stop it now.
    Right: Not up to us.
    Left: You run the government.
    Right: The Bible says…
    Left: JUST FUCKING STOP IT.
    Right: We don’t want to.
    Left: Bingo.

  90. 90.

    TenguPhule

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    Interesting that the Feds are in a hurry to build these internment camps for kids ripped away from their parents but couldn’t build emergency relief shelters in PR.

    They weren’t trying to kill people in those emergency relief shelters.

  93. 93.

    different-church-lady

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Stolen from a fb post:

    Left: Stop taking children from their parents!
    Right: But Obama started it!
    Left: I don’t think that’s true, but it’s irrelevant right now. It’s happening NOW. It needs to stop NOW.
    Right: It’s been happening for years!
    Left: Okay so it’s about time to stop it, right?
    Right: Democrats are blocking attempts to stop it
    Left: The GOP controls Congress and the WH, they could stop this tomorrow. Put a bill on the floor of both houses and see who votes for it. If it passes, see if Trump signs it. At least TRY.
    Right: But you didn’t complain about it six years ago.
    Left: Either I didn’t know about it or it wasn’t happening. Either way, can we please stop taking children away from their parents now! We can argue about who to blame for it later.
    Right: The parents are being put in jail for illegally crossing the border. It’s wrong to put kids in jail with them.
    Left: Don’t put these people in prison with murderers and rapists then.
    Right: But it’s a deterrent!
    Left: This is the US, not North Korea. It’s barbaric, stop it now.
    Right: Not up to us.
    Left: You run the government.
    Right: The Bible says…
    Left: JUST FUCKING STOP IT.
    Right: We don’t want to.
    Left: Bingo.     You’re a fucking idiot. [LEAVES ROOM]

  94. 94.

    J R in WV

    So the Republicans want to know

    …why people connected to the Clinton’s weren’t/aren’t being prosecuted

    This is the easiest final exam question ever: Clintons and the members of their administration and campaign are not being prosecuted Because they didn’t ever commit a crime.

    Unlike most or all Republicans.

  95. 95.

    TenguPhule

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    11,785 children are now in the care of Donald Trump’s HHS, according to HHS

    New cases or is this total including the prior ones formerly being held by by Border patrol.

    Context is important here. I don’t want fly off the handle if these kids were already in the system because while its an outrage, its not a new and breaking outrage.

  96. 96.

    TenguPhule

    @J R in WV:

    Clintons and the members of their administration and campaign are not being prosecuted Because they didn’t ever commit a crime.

    Being a Clinton or working with a Clinton is a crime to Republicans.

  98. 98.

    efgoldman

    @Jager:

    they can look in the mirror.

    Apparently they don’t have any in their houses.
    How many RWNJs survived on federal subsidies (hello, Granny Starver) only to try and nuke them when they had power.
    Hypocrisy is apparently a virtue for them
    IGMFY fuck them all.

  99. 99.

    Wapiti

    @rikyrah: I remember photos from years ago, of our service members in Iraq taking retinal scans of tribesmen at checkpoints. Like a fingerprint, I guess.

    So we could do it, if we wanted to.

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    @rikyrah: Interesting that the Feds are in a hurry to build these internment camps for kids ripped away from their parents but couldn’t build emergency relief shelters in PR.

    Why you gotta bring truth like this.

  103. 103.

    zhena gogolia

    @JPL:

    I can’t listen. I can’t do anything — I can’t concentrate on anything because this is so horrifying and I feel so helpless.

  104. 104.

    Jay

    “As of now, the American media has not seized on this web of conspiracy and criminality, largely because it is hard to understand and even harder to report. At the moment, it is a white hot story in England, however, as it has more than adequately provided a smoking gun to prove Russian involvement in the Brexit campaign. But it’s a web that leads everywhere, including into Cambridge Analytica and the whole Facebook controversy, and including into the Trump campaign and the governor’s office in Mississippi.

    It’s still unclear how instrumental George Cottrell’s July 22, 2016 arrest, seized phone and laptop, and cooperation with U.S. prosecutors has been or will be in unraveling this mess, but there’s a reason that his confederates went running to the Russian embassy to keep them abreast of the charges against him.

    The main difference between Mueller’s investigation and the parliamentary inquiries in Britain is that we’re getting almost no information from Mueller. But’s it doubtful that Mueller doesn’t know as much or more than what parliament has learned. And I suspect a time will come when, one way or another, Mr. Cottrell will tell us his story.”

    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/6/18/13554/7796

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back Monday at the growing condemnation of her agency’s practice of separating migrant families at the border, telling a gathering of law enforcement officers, “We will not apologize for the job we do.”

    In a speech at the meeting of National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans, Nielsen drew rousing applause when she directed her remarks at “a selected few in the media, Congress and the advocacy community” whom she accused of mischaracterizing the Trump administration’s border crackdown.

    “This department will no longer stand by and watch you attack law enforcement for enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” Nielsen said. “We will not apologize for the job we do, or the job law enforcement does, or the job the American people expect us to do.”

    Via Wapo.

    The Nazis are determined to die on this hill of human atrocities.

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G:

    Hallie Jackson @ HallieJackson
    Hallie Jackson Retweeted ProPublica
    This audio’s playing off someone’s laptop in the White House briefing room. (Reporters had gathered in here, awaiting briefing, before this story posted.) @ PressSec has not arrived yet.

    I’m sure it’s a coincidence that Jethrene just postponed her appearance again. Apparently Nielsen is going to join her.

  108. 108.

    TenguPhule

    Trump said Monday that he would direct the Defense Department and the Pentagon to create a new “Space Force” — an independent sixth branch of the armed forces.

    Trump has floated this idea before — in March, he said he initially conceived it as a joke — but has offered few details about how the Space Force would operate. Several experts noted that an act of Congress is required to establish a new branch of the military.

    Trump said Monday that the branch would be “separate but equal” from the Air Force and that Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would oversee its creation.

    “It is not enough to have an American presence in space, we must have American dominance in space,” Trump said, adding that he didn’t want to see “China and other countries leading us.”

    The Outer Space Treaty, which the United States signed in 1967, bars states from testing weapons and establishing military bases on the moon and other celestial bodies. It also prohibits the placement of weapons of mass destruction in orbit around Earth. Both China and Russia are signatories to the treaty. But the treaty has no enforcement mechanism (indeed, the Air Force’s unmanned space plane, the X-37B, has completed several clandestine missions).

    Via Wapo.

    Earth is so fucked.

  109. 109.

    JPL

    @Mary G: I read that while waiting for Sarah, the reporters listened to it. I made it 3 minutes and had to stop and wipe my eyes.

  112. 112.

    Tim C.

    @Adam L Silverman: They can’t. They don’t run things any more. They did up until the moment the based realized the same things the smart guys did to rig the system (unlimited soft money, voter purges and above all else, gerrymandering) mean that the base voters run the show now. Likewise, if Fox News were the only game in town for the fascists and fellow travelers they might be able to get control of their moron base, but Alex Jones, Mike Drudge and the 1000 points of White Entitlement can now bypass Fox. This is going to get worse before it gets better. There will be an economic hammering no matter what now.

  116. 116.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule:

  118. 118.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    Earth is so fucked.

    I wouldn’t worry. If he’s as good at that as he is everything else,,,,
    There won’t be any appropriations.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @germy:
    One could label drudge as media, under the broadest brush but what drudge actually is, is propaganda.
    Or if one is being crude, bullshit.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @TenguPhule:

    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back Monday at the growing condemnation of her agency’s practice of separating migrant families at the border, telling a gathering of law enforcement officers, “We will not apologize for the job we do.”

    I don’t want an apology from Kirstjen Nielsen. I want her in jail for 12,000 counts of child abuse.

  124. 124.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: I just posted it, but it is quite good.

    Also, there will be no “space force” because 1) we already have this covered with US Air Force’s Space Command and 2) it violates US treaty obligations, ratified by the Senate, to not militarize space. No one at the DOD is going to do anything on this other than pencil whip it from office to office.

  125. 125.

    Sherparick

    @TenguPhule: I do expect oil & gas to kick-up, but the short term effect of the trade war will be to lower commodity prices for meat, grains, & soybeans as export markets are closed off to American farmers. Fruits & vegetables may go up because of the immigration policies will leave crops in the field.

  126. 126.

    Bard the Grim

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That’s why I have a hybrid that get’s between 45 to 50 mpg in the city.

    Dude, your apostrophetizationism is killing me. Verbs (“gets”) do not get apostrophes. And when you’re confused about “its” vs “it’s” (not here, but on many other occasions), think “his, hers, its”. It’s=It is. No need to thank me, I can read your mind.

  128. 128.

    TenguPhule

    @Sherparick:

    but the short term effect of the trade war will be to lower commodity prices for meat, grains, & soybeans as export markets are closed off to American farmers.

    If prices plummet below production costs, the farmers will destroy the produce and collect the insurance instead.

    So prices may drop, but expect supplies to drop accordingly.

  129. 129.

    GregMulka

    @Repatriated:

    That’s fine. If it keeps the modular interior and gets close to 300 on a charge I’ll able to make space for the spawn and their friends and get up to Michigan’s Sunrise Side with a reasonable number of stops.

  130. 130.

    Tenar Arha

    @Mary G: Yup, UGH.

    It’s similar to today’s earlier resonance with “separate but equal” space force. I think the historically ignorant border patrol guy really thought he was cheering the kids up…but I still had to stop at that point before I completely lost it from the historical resonance with the orchestras at the camps like Auschwitz.

Comments are closed.