A source with direct knowledge tells Axios that John Kelly recently formed a small working group to start preparing for the possibility that Democrats will soon sic Congress' top investigators on Trumpworld. https://t.co/QEHCDlhPNe
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 8, 2018
In case there was any question why the Greedy Old Pervert party thought it was so important to ram Kavanaugh’s nomination through before the election…
Top officials inside the White House have taken their first steps to prepare for an onslaught of investigations if Democrats win the House.
What we’re hearing: According to a source with direct knowledge, Chief of Staff John Kelly recently formed a small working group to start preparing for the possibility that Democrats will soon sic Congress’ top investigators on Trumpworld. Senior White House staff have an offsite weekend retreat scheduled for late October. The agenda is expected to include a discussion of investigations under a Democratic-controlled House, according to the source.
To be clear: Team Trump is still trying to prevent a House flip from happening. They’re ramping up political activities leading into the midterm — including a blitz of rallies from the president — to give Republicans their best chance of saving the House.
Why this matters: Polls show Republicans will probably lose the House in November. And Trump’s team, including the understaffed White House Counsel’s Office, must batten down the hatches for an onslaught from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue….
The bottom line: For the most part, the staff who work in the Trump West Wing — beyond the counsel’s office — have no idea what may be coming for them. But senior staff are now finally preparing for a tough new normal under House Democrats.
May Sekhmet, Goddess of Consequences, guide our Democratic voters safely to tamper-proof winning tallies!
Shredding papers like Banksy over here. https://t.co/ThxGHsHsLU
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 8, 2018
feebog
I hate to sound greedy, but man we need to take the Senate as well. Must stop the ramming through of any more wingnut judicial nominations to the lower courts.
SFAW
Please, let it be so. And please, if the Dems do take over the House, let the mantra “Look forward, not backward” not be heard, except from the targets of the (hopefully myriad) investigations.
geg6
Schooley nailed it.
Mnemosyne
On the one hand, I don’t particularly trust Axios, especially when they’re telling me something I like to hear.
On the other, I’ve thought for a while that, if I were Vladimir Putin, I would think that it was in my best interest to let the Democrats take back control of Congress and tie our government in knots so I could do whatever the hell I wanted in the rest of the world.
Even if the Democrats only control the House, Maxine Waters would be the chair of the finance committee and Adam Schiff would be the one investigating the Russia ties.
Gvg
Conspiracy to cover up crimes. I expect this will turn out to be even easier to prove.
Not to mention Trump was apparently committing financial crimes before he ran.i wonder was if his team will try and cover that up too.
I really want the actual child stealers, low and high, to get arrested. A few governors and AG’s could make that come true.
I take Trumps guilt for granted. It’s the corrupt Congressmen, Sessions, etc that I want caught next.
MazeDancer
@feebog:
There won’t be in openings. If Dems win the Senate, Mitch will ram through Judges all day, every day in the lame duck.
WereBear
So. Many. Crimes.
ruemara
I’m working to flip Congress. The House is easier, but the Senate is possible and I go for the biggest possible possible.
@MazeDancer: And let the impeachments commence! If possible. I’m not taking the gloves off. I’m swapping them for spiked gauntlets.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I blogged about what carried over from academic writing to writing fiction. Even from academic writing about tech communication. :-)
Brachiator
Democrats better be more about governing than launching investigations. Yeah, some independent counsels may be needed, but fighting with the GOP helps Trump going into the 2020 presidential election.
Elizabelle
@feebog: That’s not greedy at all. It would be malpractice not to try.
Corner Stone
Sounds like a frat party induction.
dexwood
@feebog:
If you’re gonna wish, wish big. You never know…
Corner Stone
It’s actually deciding to commit men and women into harm’s way. But you boof you, assface.
Quinerly
Who else is watching this shit? I finally sat down. Made the mistake of turning on cable news.
Kelly
Thread needs a kitty. Here’s our 11 year old Manx, Annie.
https://imgur.com/a/sh6iupK
Corner Stone
Kavanaugh is going to be the most bitter, vengeful, hate-fuck on the SCOTUS.
Mary G
Gonna need a Yuuge working group to cover up even a fraction of their crimes.
Quinerly
@Corner Stone: what a fucking shit show.
Corner Stone
I can’t wait for more witnesses to show up on Ellen, Oprah, The View, GMA, etc and just slag this mofo for the next year.
Corner Stone
Please stop saying Bill Cosby…
westyny
What if we’re left with only corrupt judges to hear cases of judicial corruption?
Schlemazel
@feebog:
There are 5 Rapeublican seats that are toss up or lean D
Arizona, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas.
We need 3 of those and those are not States I would normally hope to flip. We need to work harder
Rate as safe are MS, NE, UT and WY. You can imagine those would be even harder.
I have had to take a break from campaigning, been really sick & have surgery Wed. I can’t urge everyone strongly enough to do SOMETHING. If you are uncomfortable calling, send postcards, stuff envelopes, put up signs. Call your local Dem candidates or state party and ask what you can do. We are forever short staffed and need help. Do not be intimidated if you have never done it before. VOLUNTEER! Everyone needs to grab an oar now, even a small paddle, 2 hours on a Saturday, anything. Do not wake up on Nov 7 wishing you had done more
GxB
I’ve long held the view that we should be rioting in the streets daily since this farce of an administration took office. If these assholes start dicking with our foundations, and they will (Roe, voting rights, anti-gerrymandering, etc) we literally need to start burning shit. This is not a country that is looking to the future, this is no longer a country that can competently lead in any endeavor (exception noted for wringing the last bit of “value” out of the lower classes while convincing them they are on their side. Also noted; I consider myself a “lower class” citizen.) I see the US as I see Cadillac – opulent design, and impeccable reputation with third string materials and shoddy management in spite of its astronomical resources. All in the glorification of maximization of profit – that ain’t the way to run, well, anything, long term.
I don’t think my opinion of this country can sink lower, then I consider its “leadership”.
USA!, USA!, USA! Murica! Fuk Yeah!…
Kelly
@MazeDancer:
Double the number of judges at all levels the next time we have a trifecta.
germy
wow! a whole ceremony going on now, while bort o’kavanaughh stands there awkwardly.
“burning intellect; a brilliant scholar…”
gimme a break…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@geg6: Yeah, “shredding” was my first interpretation of the word “preparing” also. And my second.
@feebog: The numbers are tough but not impossible this year, due to a low number of R incumbents running. Much better on 2020 when some of our favorite people come due (Yertle, Susan Collins, I think Grassley, and Inhofe). My horizon currently doesn’t extend past November though, thinking about 2020 is like worrying about the heat death of the universe.
Corner Stone
“I don’t have a beer…I don’t have a woman’s mouth to cover while groping her…what the hell do I do with my hands?!”
germy
Is trump’s speech directed entirely at the kavanughhh daughters? (the ones who giggled at the protesters during the first hearing?)
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Patricia Limerick, Dancing With Professors, The Trouble With Academic Prose.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: I thought he was already sworn in.
Corner Stone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Ceremonial victory dance for Trump.
ETA, And I forgot. He had to swear fealty to Trump in prime time, also too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: Someone I know commented that he couldn’t believe so many interesting people were doing fascinating work and presenting it to the rest of us in dead boring prose.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
Tried to edit but was not allowed
We also need to worry greatly about D seats in WV, ND, FL and MT (maybe others)
If we pick up all 5 toss ups & lose 5 (or more) we are just as screwed
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is ceremonial. Spiking the ball, as it were.
Or was the first swearing in ceremonial?
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I hope you read the part about Hud.
germy
“Team player on a team of nine.”
He’s really laying it on thick.
Corner Stone
“I am humbled and proud to sit in Anthony Kennedy’s seat we bribed him into leaving by promising his son special treatment in the future.”
khead
“A team player on the team of nine”. Lol. The number you are looking for there is five, Brett.
germy
Were other supreme court justices sworn in with such fanfare? Or is this the brave new world?
JR
@raven: I’m not sure that’s true. Writing is hard and academic work requires a lot of other talents as well. I think a lot of professors are just plain bad writers.
Steve in the ATL
@Quinerly:
That’s what’s known as an “unforced error”
Quinerly
@Corner Stone: he could whip out his dick with his hands and stick it in some girl’s face like he did that Ramirez girl in college.
I’m seething and drinking beers on an empty stomach, but I digress.
Sister Golden Bear
Enough snowflakes create an avalanche….
Corner Stone
“I thank all my friends. Tobin, PJ, Squi, Donkey Dong Doug…”
Chris Johnson
@Mnemosyne: That time would come, but the Republicans are really more likely to damage and sabotage our functionality as a country. The Democrats are really more likely to do things, even sort of indirectly and fecklessly, that will strengthen America. Hell, if we’d got Hillary, she would have been VERY interested in geopolitically hobbling and marginalizing Russia and plenty of other places: it wouldn’t be new, Bill Clinton helped Boris Yeltsin quite a lot and then exploited that to effectively further American and NATO power, which Yeltsin didn’t like much.
No way is Russia eager to turn around and strengthen Democrats, even if it would further the slide into chaos.
I’d also point out that w.r.t. the angle Democrats take, the Republicans are going to react and act literally as if we are all bomb-throwing anarchists trying to murder them all in their beds whether or not we do.
I get not wanting to become a revolutionary force singing ‘take me out to the ball game’ and looking for assassination oppportunities. I get that. It’s not very West Wing, and it’s no way to run a civilized society, and even if driven to that we wouldn’t want to stay there a moment longer than necessary.
But the Republicans’ actions and beliefs are all completely based on the fantasy that we ARE all exactly that, and they will hunt us down and kill us and wreck everything we have, whether or not we are genuinely peaceful or we’re vengeance-spitting antifa revolutionaries selling our lives dear. It’s just like how they can’t credibly claim that they will get turnout advantages from things like seating Kavanaugh (or NOT seating Kavanaugh, for that matter).
They are tapped out. There is not ONE wingnut not already doing everything they can to destroy us, from voting to cheating to drilling with automatic weapons in militia groups. The ones they are counting on, are already completely committed. There’s no pool of wingnuts who have been sitting by, not doing anything until now, passively accepting… Obama? No. What we see is them going all out and wrecking us in any remotely possible way, and it’s not hidden.
WE are not tapped out. but we have a hell of a job, and depending on how much the Republicans wreck, we might be heavily into revolutionary behavior. And again, they will behave as if we are, whether we are or not. They are not listening to anything, they are already fighting with 100% committment and no backing down. There is no negotiation here.
raven
@JR: Well, if you read the part about the buzzards and didn’t think it was funny I can’t help.
Gelfling 545
@germy: Burning intellect? Flaming asshole, more like.
germy
@Gelfling 545: Hunka hunka burning love.
germy
Does Megan McCain understand or care that not everyone can take a month off from work after their father dies?
frosty
They’re worrying about investigations? They didn’t do anything wrong, so they shouldn’t have anything to worry about, amirite?
Kay
He’s graciously decided to forgive us.
Insufferable.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: That was entertaining! Dangling buzzards.
I had a prof in grad school who said the more complicated your ideas are, the simpler you should try to make your language. That way you can tell when you’re obfuscating with buzz words. I took it to heart.
The other thing is that people have only so much cognitive ability to call on at any one time. If they’re struggling with hard thoughts, their control of language may slip. You see it in college students. If they’re allowed to keep writing the same stuff they’re used to, they’re fine (maybe). But their writing has to get worse before it gets better because you have to push them. You also see it even in English professors. When I edited the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, I occasionally saw one who made occasional subject-verb agreement errors because their attention was elsewhere.
That’s why you need multiple drafts. And also editors.
WaterGirl
@Kay: Still trying to repair his image.
Kay
It’s unbelievable. Worse than I imagined. That he allows himself to be used like this for Trump’s ridiculous political campaigns is just appalling. Don’t tell me he’s not Trump. Unless he;s a moron he knew what Trump would do and he agreed to appear for this campaign event- for all I know he planned it.
Anyone who suspected he was a purely political operative now knows he is. This is a patronage hire. He’s like a precinct captain.
bupalos
GUYS I READ THE BOOK! WE WIN IN THE END!!!!
Get up! Stand up. Be part of it!!! You don’t have that much time left, TRUMP GETS DUNKED ON HARD!! GET YOUR HAND IN HERE!!!!
Register someone TOMORROW!! You absolutely won’t be sorry!
cynthia ackerman
What I learned in the last two weeks:
Privileged white boys and men are the most oppressed people in the history of all oppressed people.
WaterGirl
Who knew that when George Orwell wrote 1984 that the Republicans would see that and think “let’s use that as our playbook”?
Kay
@WaterGirl:
If that was his intent he shouldn’t have appeared with Donald Trump, who is cynically using him to fire up the GOP base for the midterms. He’s campaigning with the GOP. This is a campaign appearance. I don’t know- how smart can he be and have agreed to this? He honestly imagined it wouldn’t be a hackfest with Trump at the helm?
darrel wright
@Kay:
Come on now. I’ve been deep with these people. I’ve taken checks from Heritage. Honestly hey are laughing that you’d give them this much benefit of the doubt. Kavenaugh is deee-fucking-lighted to play the sad martyr about how his life is ruined. HE BECAME THE STAR HE ALWAYS KNEW HE WAS DESTINED TO BE precisely because he tried to rape a lady, which he kind of vaguely remembers barely.
You don’t know. They don’t count you. He’s a star where it matters to him.
WaterGirl
@cynthia ackerman: I surely hope that the person who coined the phrase “pride goeth before the fall” knew what they were talking about.
Kay
I’m gonna stay on the Brett Kavanaugh beat. I get the feeling we’re gonna see even lower lows.
Bobby Thomson
@Kay:
There is literally no chance that Kavanaugh is bothered by his nomination being used for partisan ends. He is the Forrest Gump of Republican ratfucking.
cynthia ackerman
@WaterGirl:
That person was not a privileged white male, I’m guessing.
Kay
@darrel wright:
He;s standing there like a cardboard cut out while Trump spouts bile. I had nothing to do with this humiliation. He signed up for this. A wiser and less egotistical person might have opted for the private ceremony- many of them do. No, he chooses to go out there with big mouth and endorse this nonsense. No one forced him to be used as a campaign prop for Donald Trump. He volunteered.
darrel wright
@Kay:
Kay you definitely get it. But just get it all the way. He knows exactly what that means, down to the last resonant synapse-firing. I feel like almost everyone is still vaguely entertaining the fig-leaf that he’s sad and what-not. IT IS TOTAL BULLSHIT AND HE KNOWS IT. They (or their handlers) read lots of Nietzsche and then pretend they didn’t. They orchestrated EXACTLY what he would say, and they know how many people they believe are susceptible and how it translates to POWER.
Register. Someone. Tomorrow.
I’ll be posted up at Hiram College looking to turn the tide in Ohio 14, signing up kids and telling them why it matters. BETSY RADER WHY IS SHE NOT ON THESE LISTS!!?!
Chris Johnson
@Kay: Well, that’s what he’s for.
Also, he has to telegraph that he’ll bail all the Trumpians out of being done for treason. So he HAS to publically ally with Trump, otherwise it might be insufficiently reassuring about whether he’ll save them all from being busted for treason. It’s WAY more important for him to communicate that, and there’s no reason for him to want to appear unbiased at all. The whole point of him is to act as a political operative just when they need one most.
And yeah, I’m sorry. That isn’t very ‘West Wing’. It’s as if government is a toxic pile of fascist garbage and there was never any point in caring about discourse or being friends with Republicans.
And look at what happened. Now it’s obvious. I do think you basically understand this, Kay, I’m thinking about a whole bunch of other Balloon Juicers who hate incivility and cling to what we used to have. It’s them I’m sorry for, but learn this lesson. This happened, and you all saw it just as I did.
Bobby Thomson
Christine Blasey Ford and her family still can’t go home because the death threats haven’t stopped. Meanwhile, that piece of shit accuses her of lying and “apologizes” to another god damn criminal.
As reprehensible as Susan Collins is, you know who else voted for Kavanaugh?
Dean Heller (R-NV)
Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Deb Fischer (R-NE)
John Barasso (R-WY)
They all are running for re-election in a few weeks.
You know who else would have voted for him? Literally any Republican running for a Democratic or Open seat, including the one running against that asshole Manchin.
Make.Them.Pay. At every level, for every office.
darrel wright
@Kay: He did. I agree. That means something. It means a lot. It’s not a humilation, that’s totally phoney. I can tell you he will have many robust dinners (without the wife and kids) where this total outrage he has to endure just because democrats are such animals will be the entire theme of the evening. And he’s the star, because he drew their fire.
I’ve been at these dinners.
Steve in the ATL
@Kay:
Yeah, like when he writes his first 5-4 majority opinion. God help us.
Mnemosyne
@darrel wright:
Nah. I think what Kay is saying is that Kavanaugh is experiencing what every upper-class Republican who deals with Trump does — distaste that he has to get his power from Trump, but more than willing to do the groveling if that’s what Trump demands from him.
Elizabelle
Winter is coming?
I hope that direwolves box their ears until they plead for mercy.
Corner Stone
@WaterGirl: No, he wasn’t. Kavvy never said a word about his “emotional” partisan slip showing when he primal screamed at the Senate. This was pageantry. All for Trump and the R’s.
Kay
@Bobby Thomson:
I;ve practiced my entire career in county courts in conservative counties utterly dominated by GOP judges. Good judges. bad judges, dumb judges, smart judges. Not once have I ever felt any of them were biased against me or my client because of my political opinions.
But that’s gone too apparently. They ruined that too. Now we have judges who feel perfectly comfortable ranting about “the Left” publicly and appearing with the President while he campaigns for the midterms. It’s outrageous. Can you imagine the weeping and wailing if Sotomayor had issued an opinion on “The Right”? They’re take her out of there in handcuffs.
Chris Johnson
@Elizabelle: Nah. There’s no direwolves.
There’s just us.
Let ’em wish it was direwolves.
Elizabelle
@Chris Johnson: We can be as resolute and merciless as direwolves.
We is not extinct. At all.
darrel wright
@Mnemosyne: Disagree. This guy is in deep. You aren’t urging people to ask about Clinton’s Penis because you have that sad duty thrust upon you.
I was shocked guys, I went to school and fell for the line and was kind of ushered into the inner sanctum. Cole has it pretty right, it’s more elemental than most folks, even at their angriest, are willing to credit. Guys like Kavenaugh probably get the slow treatment, but he knows what he is. He did try to rape that girl and he knows it. Here’s what may be a little shocking…in a few of the scenes I can call to mind (25 years ago now) he could basically openly admit that and still be a star. They’ll openly say that women don’t know what they want and are grateful for you freeing them from decision making. I’ve seen people in this track (I believe this is what I saw) drug women.
Kay
I sort of feel for him, because I am sometimes slow to realize horrible truths, but I don’t think I would have said this publicly because the one and only question becomes “you JUST figured this out?” He won;t get any credit.
cynthia ackerman
@Kay:
The optimist in me wants for this to be the end of a downward slide to autocracy.
The realist in me is currently ahead.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: I wonder if the lesson will stick after Trump is gone. Sometimes I think they’re just reacting to the aesthetics.
Steve in the ATL
@Kay: sorry, Max: your policy proposals had -zero- to do with gop electoral success. It was all racism, sexism, and voter suppression.
darrel wright
This whole “sad republican thing…” you know what these guys are calling Trump? They’ll be comparing him to Alcibiades.
Here’s a little except from THE SENATOR FROM FUCKING ARKANSAS, who ran in the same circles I did around the same time:
“We often forget that Socrates was more than a philosopher. He was also an honored warrior and a prolific drinker. It is said that when he drank with his friends, Socrates would stand like a stone as they passed by the way. That is to say, he would drink them under the table without ever faltering himself. An impressive feat, to be sure.”
You know, when that was the upbringing of the senator from Arkansas, you are totally, completely fucked!
raven
@darrel wright: xnay on the goofy formatting.
darrel wright
@raven: Why what’s it doing? I didn’t really do anything. bold?
Baud
@Chris Johnson:
Fixed.
raven
@darrel wright: Bold and all caps all over the joynt. Maybe it’s java!
Jay
@Kay:
Poor, poor Max, spent his whole life building this.
His tears are delicious.
Elizabelle
@Baud: We jackals are direwolves for loyalty and fighting, but we are not extinct. And will not become so.
We also know to stay out of tarpits. The real ones, anyway. Fighting over useless things … um …
Mnemosyne
@darrel wright:
No, I believe you. I just think that Kavanaugh and the other upper-class assholes are not actually all in with the Trump worship and will happily stab him in the back as soon as it benefits them.
James E Powell
@Kay:
Yeah, I think the rest of us got it pretty clearly with Reagan going to the Neshoba County Fair and blathering about states’ rights. Seemed pretty obvious. Can’t imagine what was blinding Max Boot to reality.
I’m curious to know but too lazy to research what Max Boot’s reaction was when Hillary called half of Trump supporters deplorable. The Village and the corporate press/media turned on her like a pack of hyenas.
Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot
@Schlemazel:
The campaign I’m spending most of my donation $$ and volunteer time on right now is Kyrsten Sinema’s — she’s up against kapo of misogyny Martha McSally for Flake’s open senate seat in AZ. They’re in a dead heat per polling, and we’re cautiously optimistic.
The fascists are in ascendance in America, politically and economically. There can be no doubt about that. But they need to be fought, to the bitter end if it comes to that (I’m cautiously optimistic that it won’t come to that, though my 30-something liberal/leftist son is not, nor are most of his age/political orientation cohort I know personally — way anecdotal, of course).
The results across the land this November 6th will be dispositive on whether that “bitter end” is inevitable or not, I think.
J R in WV
@raven:
I hope you realize that this guy, whoever he is, is not me from West Virginia. Wherever he is from, he is not me, not at all.
Sincerely,
me,
J R in WV.
ps — why are there other people who want people to think they are me? so odd!
J R in WV
@Kay:
He was already sworn in privately. This is purely and solely the political afterword, just for Trump to strut about his big win, after so much infighting and suffering by the women this cheap turd has harmed. So neither wise nor less egotistical, say rather, stupid and completely driven by ego.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
I was thinking more along the lines of: the White Wankers have already broken through the Wall
SFAW
@Kay:
Re: Max Boot’s “epiphany”: I don’t disagree with what you wrote, but the first thought that came to my “mind” was “Christ! What a moron!”
SFAW
@J R in WV:
Did he remember to take off the kneepads before the cameras started rolling?
Ken
A Democratic House could really hit Trump where it hurts by cutting back the Secret Service budget so he can only go golfing three weekends a month.