I wrote about this on the twitter machine, which usually is just where I post crap and tell toadie journalists and nazis to go fuck themselves, but I think this is worth repeating. A refresher on what the dipshits Wohl and Burkman tried to do:
The office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has asked the F.B.I. to investigate what appears to be an effort to smear him, stemming from suspicious emails offering women money in exchange for fabricating sexual misconduct claims against him.
“When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the special counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the F.B.I. for investigation,” Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, said in a statement on Tuesday.
The plot appeared to be the latest, and one of the more bizarre, in a string of attempts by supporters of President Trump to discredit Mr. Mueller’s investigation as a hoax and a witch hunt. Mr. Mueller is investigating whether any Trump associates conspired with Russia’s 2016 election interference and whether the president tried to obstruct the inquiry. He has secured six guilty pleas and a trial conviction in the 17 months he has overseen the investigation.
That’s the gist of it- they were conspiring to find women and pay them/bribe them to come forward with phony allegations of sexual misconduct. It’s idiotic and offensive, but it is also a very, very serious thing. Just this conspiracy alone is probably (remember, IANAL- I am not a lawyer) a felony for obstruction of justice, as they were doing this to bring down Mueller and obstruct his current investigation. It will, in all likelihood, cascade into a series of other tertiary felonies, as this dipshit brigade will probably lie to the FBI when questioned (felony), attempt to get everyone to tell the same story and coax witnesses (another felony), attempt to destroy evidence and smash hard drives and erase emails (felony), and so forth. Again, IANAL, but it sure feels like this is the road we are going to travel.
The details of our stupidest venture into dirty tricks are also humorous and staggering in their incompetence, as any investigation into Surefire Intelligence, the vehicle for this “scheme” (no disrespect to actual schemes intended), is sure to bring the yuks:
The “intelligence firm” that prepared the allegation, SureFire Intelligence, was linked to Wohl due to DNS registration records saved on CuteStat.com. These records show that someone using the email [email protected] was involved with the domain registration for surefireintelligence.com.
***When searching for the various employees who list their employment as SureFire Intelligence, nearly all of them use stolen profile photographs. In particular, many of these photographs use the sepia-toned filter that was likely used to disrupt reverse image search algorithms.
Their “Tel Aviv Station Chief” uses a photograph of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli.
It goes downhill from there.
But to me, the most depressing aspect of this whole thing (now that I have sufficiently buried the lede for this post) is WHY they thought it would work.
They thought that they could easily find women to come forward, accept money, and lie about sexual misconduct on the part of Mueller because THEY DON’T BELIEVE WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN VICTIMIZED. They think it is all made up. They don’t believe women are sexually harassed, they don’t think they are assaulted and raped, they think everyone coming forward is doing it because they have ulterior motives, whether it be fame, fortune, or in Dr. Ford’s case, they love abortion so much that they just had to stop Kavanaugh.
It never once occurs to them that these women in the #metoo movement are coming forward because they are victims. It just doesn’t even cross their minds. To them, they are just opportunists. It never occurs to them that the women who come forward do so at great risk to themselves, in ways that impact their emotional well-being, their financial well-being, and their physical safety. It never occurs to them that the women who come forward are going to be re-victimized, are going to have to relive the trauma of the original assault that they in many cases have repressed for years just to get by. It never occurs to them that they don’t want ANYTHING other than to be believed and to try to stop this from happening to another young woman. It never occurs to them that the women who come forward will be met with nonstop abuse and harassment, be called liars, have their motives questioned, their private lives destroyed, and everything else we have seen.
And the reason it never occurs to them is because to them, women are not people. They are objects- servants when needed, playtoys for sexual release or gratification, impediments in the workplace when it comes to promotion, things to look at, things to help them feel better about themselves, and in this case, tools to achieve a political ends.
And that’s the most depressing thing about this scandal.
JPL
At a rally late last week, trump said something was going to happen next week that would make his supporters happy. I wonder if he also thought it would work.
schrodingers_cat
Not people according to T and his R minions
1. Non Christians
2. Women
3. Immigrants
4. Democrats
5. People they consider to be not a part of the “master race”
6. LGBTQ
and yet they have an electoral lock on many states.
dedc79
The plan I think was even more confusing and stupid than what you’ve described. It looks like they think they’ve found a real accuser (or they think they’ve invented one, at least). They convinced themselves that a way to discredit the press and Mueller in advance of bringing that “real” accuser forward would be to try to get the press to bite on a story that women were being paid to fake claims against Mueller. That plan blew up in smoke when the journalists who were teased that second story got suspicious and alerted the FBI.
Ocotillo
Running an errand and NPR had a story about the #metoo movement. It turns out three quarters of Republicans vs one quarter of Democrats say the #metoo movement has gone too far. Hoocoodanowed?
Cermet
Like I first posted in the previous thread on this topic – its was a good thing that this came out into the open: first, these low life’s are in big trouble; second, this shows exactly what low life’s occupy and support the thug party. Finally, it further discredits their general approach of screaming vile and false statements against democrats, as well.
pete
This is a great post. Thank you!
rikyrah
Cole:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Your mind and my mind thought alike.
I have been working so much that it was evening before I even knew about this. And, I was like..
WHAT.THE.ENTIRE.PHUCK!
They thought that they would play THE FORMER HEAD OF THE FBI?
REALLY?
SERIOUSLY?
Gin & Tonic
“O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.”
Gravenstone
I believe it was Adam that pointed out that this was basically Lindsay Graham’s threat from the Kavanaugh hearing, given flesh. These go-getters decided to aim high and hoped to undercut Mueller while weaponizing the #metoo movement. And yes, your assessment that they women solely as tools is sadly spot on.
DCrefugee
Their legal defense will be some variation on “Who would do something so stupid?”
Gravenstone
@JPL: Suspect that alluded to either his bonehead plan to EO his way around the 14th amendment, or his plan to send troops to the border. Either way, just red meat for the slavering base choads.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
I’d love to know what Mueller, a lifetime Republican, most think of what’s become of the GOP? He appears to be a man of great integrity so I can’t imagine he’s too pleased with shit like this.
J R in WV
@dedc79:
Yes, in a completely unexpected but hilarious set of coincidences, the accused attack happened when Mr. Mueller was actually serving Jury Duty at a courthouse, and rather unavailable to attack a co-worker, who also too, actually never worked for the law firm where Mr. Mueller worked. So much stupid and evil, it burns.
@Gin & Tonic:
“O Lord please make my enemies ridiculous.”
LAO
Walking up third avenue in the 20s this am, I was forced to listen to a white man, mid-40s explain to a younger white man, exactly how Kavanaugh was smeared and how the mainstream media failed to report on all the evidence that pointed to a frameup. Every time I thought I had out walked them, they’d catch up to me at the corners. IN NEW YORK CITY! I’m still fuming.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@schrodingers_cat:
Hopefully that will begin to change this coming Tuesday.
The Midnight Lurker
Show me on the doll where the Mueller investigation touched you.
Bos
Yep, these reichtards heard the allegations against Kavanaugh and Faux convinced them the Dems were making shit up out of whole cloth and so they said to themselves, “That can’t be too hard, let’s give it a go.” But good Christ, the scooby-do-ness of the whole plot. Makes pimp boy O’Keefe look like a brainiac.
And that’s all the comment I can manage on this laggy damn site.
Dorothy A. Winsor
On the way home from B&B, heard an NPR show on which pundits talked about “polarization” which, as far as I can tell, is a version of both-siderism. Here’s an article published 5 days ago in the Harvard Gazette that provides data on how asymmetric the polarization is. The punch line
schrodingers_cat
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: From your fingertips to Ceiling Cat’s ears.
JohnPM
Rat-fucking has really gone downhill since Nixon’s day.
Brachiator
I admit that I did not expect John Cole’s post to take this direction. This was unexpectedly incisive, and I think absolutely on target.
But I would take it even further. A good chunk of white women don’t believe that women are sexually harassed, or they see it just as a part of the deal of being a woman,or that victimized women are weak and whiny, or they believe these women but are still willing to sacrifice them in the name of abortion, tradition, family values, prayer in schools or some other bullshit that they think threatens the very fabric of American life.
Coming back to the men, they want to be like Trump. They fear, hate and disrespect women just as much as he does. They would do anything for him, no matter how sleazy or disreputable. Their lame plan was pulled out of the same moral gutter that Trump calls home, and in which his acolytes happily wallow.
Betty Cracker
Yep. No wonder these moronic fuck-sticks went all-in on the Trump cult.
Susanna
Terrific take down piece. And forwarded to others. Thanks.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: They believe it alright. They think they endured it so others should have to, as well. There were some prominent female journalists in India who were critical of the #metoo movement and jumped to the defense of the accused male predators.
The son of one of those women, pontificates on India from a NYT op-ed perch. She is also a Modi bhakt to boot.
ETA: I speak of Tavleen Singh and Aatish Taseer.
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Very interesting! Coincidentally, I just ran across this Vox YouTube video about asymmetric polarization, and about how clearly the Republican Party has become more obstructionist and extreme.
Equally sad is how too many in the media are afraid to call the GOP out, and insist on a demonstrably false “both sides” narrative.
Steve in the ATL
@LAO: yes, there’s a very good reason why that was never reported!
(Because there wasn’t any, in case I was too subtle)
VeniceRiley
@JPL:
I would bet a paycheck. And if true, there will be evidence.
Not going to quote John’s whole post and scream- which is my actual feeling right now.
Old School
@JPL: Do have a quote for Trump saying something would happen? I’m not finding it and would like to see exactly what he said.
JoyceH
I think it’s less a matter of not believing the women as thinking it just doesn’t matter. I remember when sexual harassment was the subject of humorous skits on variety shows. Who else remembers the “boss chases secretary about the desk” gags? It was as much a staple of comedy as the humorous drunk. When I first started working the term sexual harassment hadn’t even been invented yet. It was just something you put up with. The women in the workplace would be sure to warn the New Girl of who they had to watch out for. Now that behavior can cost a man (“a good man!”) his job, and they’ve never gotten over it. They think it’s unfair – it never used to matter.
hitchhiker
Cheering for that post, and lest we forget where we are …
It’s unimaginable, but it’s real. A hostile foreign government is known to have interfered in our most recent presidential election. It’s likely that the winner of that election cooperated in the effort and is now trying to hide the evidence of that cooperation.
No wonder we all feel like we’ve lost our minds.
Kraux Pas
@DCrefugee:
Or Trump’s own variation, “If it’s illegal why would I do it and make it so obvious?”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Brachiator:
I think they’ve changed their semantics on this in response to widespread, lefty push back. My guess is that they’ve lost enough lefty tote baggers (and their donations) who finally caught on to the “both siders” crap that they decided to change their approach, hence the use “polarization”.
But, as you point out, it still doesn’t change the fundamental culture of their shitty reporting.
My favorite analogy of what NPR and their ilk call “polarization” is the “anthrax and tire rims” analogy. If NPR were presented with a theoretical dating scenario, one where you’re trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, NPR would laud you as “bipartizan”. If you couldn’t figure out a way to split the difference, NPR would call it the sad polarization of ‘Murka.
Jeeeesuskeeeristonabike how I loathe what our corporate media has been for the last 20 years.
NonyNony
I think you’ve got it right, but it isn’t the whole story. I also think that they thought it would work because they have a cartoon caricature of liberals in their heads and they include the entire media landscape in that caricature. When they hear people say “Believe Women” what they think we believe is “Believe All Women No Matter What They Say When They Accuse A Man Because All Men Are Horrible Monsters” instead of “give a woman the same benefit of the doubt you’d give to a man making accusations”. They think that a woman making an accusation is a trump card because their only model for how liberals think comes through a filter of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones, and those outlets present a caricature of liberal though for propaganda and entertainment purposes.
It’s the same with the Black Lives Matter movement. They think we think that Black Lives Matter means “Black Lives Matter More Than Others” rather than “black people are people and should be treated as such”.
Part of this is projection because Every Accusation Is A Confession where conservatives are concerned. Their mental model for how liberals think is basically Bizarro Conservative – take what they believe, reverse it, and you end up with what they think we believe. It isn’t true at all, but since they’ve limited their exposure to liberals to the ones that live in Fox News fantasyland it’s what they believe.
The Moar You Know
Really never thought of this. I thought they were trolling for desperate people, but as it turns out the folks they approached weren’t desperate at all. You are correct; they think the women are all lying.
Which is appalling.
JPL
@Gravenstone: That’s what I initially thought, but scary brown people is nothing new for him.
The Moar You Know
@Gravenstone: It was already weaponized. Ask Senator Franken. These yobs just thought they could do the same thing to Mueller, not realizing something important: people tend to learn from their mistakes.
They didn’t realize that because they’re not able to.
ruemara
Well, yeah. In fact, they think the accusations are simply political tools. They always were horrible people.
jl
@dedc79: “It looks like they think they’ve found a real accuser (or they think they’ve invented one, at least)”
Do you have a link for that idea? All I’ve heard so far is that they went to a currently unknown women and blankly and guilelessly asked her to just make up stuff for money. And this fake ace investigative firm cold called a law professor who never met Mueller, implying that they had evidence of some previous encounter, with implication that they’d pay her handsomely for whatever she wanted to say (and that person contacted Mueller and FBI almost immediately, at least a week before the story hit the media).
I haven’t heard or read of any evidence that they had a good-faith belief in anything.
MisterForkbeard
@Gravenstone: Right. Basically attempts that mean nothing (Troops ordered to the border to do literally nothing while a dwindling ‘caravan’ of women and children slows makes their way over and shows up in 3 months) or threatens blatantly unconstitutional actions. Both in areas that tickle the racist fantasies of the Republican Party.
I think you’re right that Trump thinks this stuff is going to play really well and he’s bragging about it. He’s also wrong, but that’s Trump. This particular comedy of errors is just because the GOP’s standard procedure is to loudly yell and issue carefully carved political statements that are supposed to get their base to do something without actually explicitly calling for it. In this case, it’s the whole “revenge-for-fake-accusations-against-Kavanaugh” thing and Lindsay Graham’s “You’ll regret it when this happens to you!” and Kavanaugh’s public declaration that Democrats would pay for their crimes against him.
Jacob Wohl is to Lindsay Graham as Cesar Sayoc is to Donald Trump.
Stevie
@Brachiator: it’s easy to sacrifice these women because they view them as damaged goods and believe that it no longer matters what happens to them.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
@JoyceH:
When it comes to women, especially older white women, I think this is a big part of it. It’s like the victims of hazing sticking with the fraternity that hazed them even if someone dies — sticking with the larger group is more important than standing up for yourself. And there is a certain feeling of I had to put up with much worse harassment, what makes you so special that you’re not willing to do the same?
It almost becomes a weird point of pride for some women — they had to put up with it, they got through it, and that’s what makes them worthy of whatever power and position they’ve been able to amass. Younger women who are demanding better treatment are doing it the easy way.
FlipYrWhig
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Maybe it was so deadpan I missed the joke, but: you know that analogy was created here, by John Cole, right?
Elizabelle
You’re a clear thinker and a really good writer, Cole. Straight and to the point.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you. Looks like a great article, and book.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@hitchhiker: Politico has an interesting story about a sealed subpoena Mueller apparently has waiting for after the election.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@FlipYrWhig:
Back in June of 2012 I believe. I have the saved quote, just not the attribution. But of course I got it from here, I find so many useful quotes here.
I have now added to my notes on this that the quote is from Cole. One of the best.
Adam L Silverman
@Gravenstone: I do resemble that remark.
catclub
Mark Levine had a comment which I hope is not prophetic:
Adam L Silverman
Cheer up everyone. I bring glad tidings. Just six more shopping days till the start of the 2020 presidential election! Make sure to be ready by getting all your decorations and lights up by midnight next Tuesday.
DanF
The Twitter thread was a thing of beauty; very much enjoyed the rerun.
West of the Rockies
@Brachiator:
Wasn’t this sort of the central thesis of that
Ornstein/Mann book? Republicans have gone full-on crazy pants.
Thoroughly Pizzled
When you have no empathy, your only frame of reference is your own hateful, diseased mind.
West of the Rockies
@Adam L Silverman:
Good God, man!
Adam L Silverman
@LAO: I just watched an NBC reporter interview some whacked out white woman in Estero, FL who told her she voted a paper ballot because George Soros had spent millions on controlling all the voting machines. Florida does have a law, the Baker Act, that allows people to be held, upon request of concerned parties, for a 72 hour (psychological) evaluatory hold. I strongly believe it needs to be used far more often than it is.
jl
What puzzles me is that, given that about half the population are women, you can find crooks among them who are willing to plot deviltry for money, and have a reason to keep quiet about it, at least as long as they get the money and they think they are getting away with the caper.
Why were they cold calling random women? And, for that matter, why women? Why not a guy?
If I wanted to to hatch a criminal conspiracy, cold calling people who you have no reason to believe are into that kind of thing seems like a very bad idea. From what I’ve seen so far, these women were freaked out and did the smart thing: forward the solicitations to reporters or law enforcement. That is what I would do. I can’t imagine responding to what seem to be straightforward, plain English meaning, invitations to commit a crime. If a stranger came up to me and said ‘hey I’ll dump cash on you if you help me commit a felony’, my first instinct would be to walk away real fast.
daryljfontaine
@jl: Yeah, to me the “accusations” never felt like a real story — it felt like Wohl et al. ratfucking the media a la Dan Rather. They were counting on the media not verifying certain details and just reporting blindly — they wanted a giant “Gotcha! Fake News!” moment, and got caught with their hands up each other’s asses.
The collateral damage of the accusations would leave a smear on Mueller (however untrue), and as others have pointed out, they expected “the libtards” to just accept the story without verification, missing entirely that the point of the Kavanaugh debacle was that the verification process was being actively stymied.
D
Kay
Online small donor fundraising is amazing. I have never seen anything like this. They really can make big donors irrelevant. I mean, it’s chaotic and you never know who will hit, but it’s really something when it does.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: It is Diwali, after all!
Schlemazel
This is all hilarious now until we realize that smarter more competent people will be doing this to many Democrats in 2020
Mnemosyne
Also, let’s not forget that it’s an article of faith for the Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs) that women routinely make up false accusations of rape and molestation to get the upper hand in custody battles.
A certain amount of this is selection bias — the type of damaged guys who become MRAs have a tendency to marry women with personality disorders that make them prone to doing shit like that — but it’s a pervasive enough urban legend that even guys whose divorces and custody arrangements are going smoothly are told by other guys that it will inevitably happen to them if they’re not careful.
Kay
It rattles me a little how unafraid they are of federal prosecutors. They all seem to be operating under the assumption that the “fix is in” or something. You see it with the low quality Trump hires, too. It’s just blatant, in your face, corruption.
Either we’re delusional or they are- I hope like hell it’s them because if they really are untouchable we have bigger problems than Donald Trump.
The Moar You Know
@MisterForkbeard: I have been vigorously and vehemently against the practice of “outing” but am willing to make an exception for Senator Graham. In large part because he is obviously being blackmailed over his orientation and practices, which are in the end nothing but his own business, and that method of applying pressure to him needs to be stopped.
Since he won’t do it for himself, someone needs to do it for him.
Gin & Tonic
@daryljfontaine: Now, apparently, douchebag Wohl is suggesting that the original e-mails from the never-confirmed “woman” were actually originated by someone in Mueller’s office, I guess as some sort of entrapment attempt.
I know I was pretty dumb when I was 20, but this guy really deserves an Olympic medal.
Gex
@JohnPM: Second time as farce!
jl
@daryljfontaine: The BS story the Trumpsters are trying to peddle is that this ‘me too’ thing and ‘believe the woman’ stuff is all a racket. They purport to take ‘believe the woman’ saying literally, as meaning a woman makes an accusation, and that is the arrest, indictment, trial and execution right there. Of course, life does not work that way, and there are plenty of news stories of false accusations that fall apart upon investigation.
But in the political world, strange to say, most of the sketchy, or proven false, accusations have been against Democratic politicians.
The Trumpsters are just crooks who don’t believe a single thing they say, or they have gone insane wandering in their double-think house of mirrors, or both. Or they believe they are serving a higher purpose that justifies lying their asses off all the time.
JPL
Thinking outside the box, trump could be planning a trip to the border to visit the troops. That might not work because he hasn’t visited troops in actual war zones.
@Old School: no .. I’ll try to find it though.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: I have the book and am working my way through it for work related purposes.
jacy
I think you’re right, Cole. Listening to NPR this morning there was a report that “43% of people think the #MeToo movement has gone too far.” But then when you break it down, you find out exactly why. Turns on that less than 25% of Democrats think that, but more than 75% of Republicans do. I’ve come to the conclusion that the vast majority of Republicans are just irredeemable. It’s not that they have different opinions, they’re just terrible people.
Ian R
@Mnemosyne: It’s like the way US doctors have done literally hundreds of studies about how sleep deprivation in doctors kills patients, and yet refuse to do anything to actually change the forced sleep deprivation during residency.
They had to suffer through it, and they’d rather kill people than admit that doing so was pointless.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
Except that it’s REALLY hard to manufacture these kinds of accusations out of whole cloth. They were able to take Al Franken down because they had the gag photo to point to. They were able to create a cloud around Bill Clinton because he really is a horndog who hit on a lot of women.
They were never able to get these kinds of accusations to stick to Obama, because he kept his dick in his pants and his hands to himself. Democratic men who have behaved like adults have nothing to fear.
The Schneidermans still hiding out on our side, however, should probably bow out now and not put themselves up for that scrutiny.
JMG
@Ian R: You don’t have to blackmail someone into doing something they want to anyway. Graham’s lust for power, racism, and innate cowardice are all that’s needed to explain his words and deeds.
Mandalay
Their website ( https://surefireintelligence.com ) lists their London address as 1 Berkeley St, Mayfair, London W1J 8DJ, UK.
That’s a real address in one of the very swankiest parts of London, but of course there is no company named Surefire Intelligence at that address. And nobody in Britain would include “Mayfair” as part of the postal address. It’s completely redundant … unless you are trying to make gullible saps believe that you really have an office in one of the swankiest parts of London.
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies: Forewarned is forearmed.
dmsilev
@Kay:
You’d probably enjoy this story in today’s LA Times about how Democratic small donors are swamping many Republicans.
I also enjoyed this little vignette from upstate New York:
Kay
The thing about ordinary criminals is they don’t, actually, go after prosecutors. This is a new breed of white collar, privileged criminal and they’re much ballsier than blue collar criminals. I think they genuinely believe they are above the law, because federal prosecutors are hugely powerful and should be terrifying to lawbreakers. I mean, that’s rational, to be afraid of them. They really can lock you up a long time- it’s a big powerful machine and you can’t stop it once it fires up and starts chugging away, flattening anyone in its path.
The Moar You Know
@Schlemazel: Someone made the point yesterday that if Sacha Baron Cohen had done this he may well have succeeded. He’s got twenty years experience doing it and is a master, but fails when those approached do due diligence. Every time. These idiots were amateurs. 2020 will be bringing the “A” team.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: And now I want gulab jamun.
Ian G.
I said this exact thing to my father and uncle this morning: these dipshits think the global Jewish conspiracy is behind all sexual assault claims made against Trump, Kavanaugh, Roy Moore, so they genuinely thought they could turn the tables and do what “George Soros” did to Kavanaugh.
Voiltaire’s quote about how his only prayer was to make his enemies ridiculous comes to mind.
Mnemosyne
@Ian R:
Exactly. IMO that’s a big chunk of the rationale for women who are dismissive of MeToo. Usually the only thing that changes their minds is if they have a daughter who gets harassed or attacked, because then they actually have to see the suffering up close.
Eural Joiner
@The Moar You Know:
Chatting with friends “in the know” around here the past few days – Graham has been hit in the last few election cycles by light weight right wing wannabe’s and so he’s easily held his prized Thurmond Heritage Senate Seat. But a challenge from…Nikki Haley? He’s gone full crazy to shore up his right against that very real threat, not from blackmail.
Mandalay
@JMG:
Right. Similarly, you don’t have to order someone to say something they want to say anyway.
Sean Hannity loves to brag that FoxNews never tells him what to say, and I’m sure that’s true. But that’s because they don’t need to tell him what to say. If they did he’d be gone.
jl
@dmsilev: Faso has an uncanny, very natural and intuitive, almost instinctive, feel for Delgado’s message on what the GOP will do to health care coverage of pre-existing conditions. I wonder why.
piratedan
@The Moar You Know: if Mueller is as thorough as we suspect, the A Team may very well be behind bars by the time 2020 rolls around.
hells littlest angel
Don’t forget that calls to Surefire Intelligence were forwarded to Wohl’s mother’s voice mailbox. So clearly his mom is behind this — the bitch set him up!
r€nato
have we reached the point where Wohl claims he got massively hacked?
The mind boggles that these tools never thought out this scheme as far as the media shitstorm that would descend upon whomever might be stupid enough to accept their bribe to give a false and defamatory statement about Mueller. I can only assume they get high AF on their own supply of RW bullshit, and believe The Liberal Media just accepts unquestioningly allegations of sexual harassment.
But Mueller is a Libtard Hero™, so wouldn’t that mean The Liberal Media would be highly skeptical of such allegations?
Or maybe I should finally accept that it is a waste of time to attempt to apply logic to understanding the thought processes of Trump cultists.
EDIT: Wait, I have a theory. Joining the Trump cult instantly destroys one’s pre-frontal lobes. It is the only answer that makes any sort of sense.
catclub
@Kay:
except if your criminal conspiracy is run out of say Citigroup or JPMorgan, and your lawyers intimidate the DOJ lawyers ( PLus, you can threaten the DOJ lawyers that you won’t hire them after they leave the DOJ -even more intimidating!)
I think the book about it had Chickenshit in the title.
eclare
OT, but sending the bat signal for Steve in the ATL, I need an attorney with experience or contacts in the Wisconsin Department of Unemployment Insurance. Do you know anyone or any firm in WI? Unfortunately, an urgent matter.
Adam L Silverman
@piratedan: There is nothing A Team about any of these knuckleheads.
bemused
@catclub:
Wait, what? Mark Levine isn’t a trumper or did I read his comment all wrong?
Cheryl from Marland
@Brachiator: An addition to make: even as this crap plan failed, its existence will cheapen the #metoo movement. Because those who think “these bitches be lyin’ to set me up” will find reinforcement rather than repudiation. Excellent insight, all.
bemused
@Adam L Silverman:
I saw that too but was kind of shocked that Andrea Mitchell made a point of saying Soros had nothing to do with the voting machines, it’s the state’s responsibility.
jl
@bemused: it might not make any sense at all. These people get paid for spinning BS. It just needs lo look like it might make sense to enough dupes and the wingnut pundits get their paycheck.
MCA1
@West of the Rockies: Yes. They covered this years ago, and in fact introduced me to the phrase “asymmetric polarization.” No one in the mainstream media was able to internalize their findings, apparently. They’re so committed to the cause of bothsiderism, for a variety of possible reasons, that they can’t break out of the paradigm when the President of The United F’ing States calls them the enemy of the people and excuses fascists and goes around the country calling for his enemies to be imprisoned for no reason and his initial public response to a terrorist attack in a synagogue is blaming the victim. They cannot call this what it is.
Dev Null
@jl: Completely off-this-thread, I posted an apology a few minutes ago at the Pigmuck King comment thread … to you in particular (since you mentioned that you had donated to Scholten) and to the Balloon Juice community as a whole. My comment #2 at that thread was gratuitous, obnoxious, and arrogant. I regret writing the comment.
catclub
@Mnemosyne:
This is the GOP again and again. an intense failure of imagination. Sarah Palin decided special needs children were worthy of government support only when? Dick Cheney decided that some gays might be worth human dignity, when?
laura
Men. Hate. Women.
Not all, but way, way too many.
Chyron HR
@Schlemazel:
They’re going to have smarter, more competent people in 2020?
Repatriated
@daryljfontaine: That, and I tend to agree with the theory that it was intended as preemptive disinformation to prop up a subsequent (also false, but better-supported) accusation. If the discrediting op had succeeded, it might have bought the latter accusation enough time to get through the midterms to provide a pretext for dismissing Mueller after them.
Of course, they botched it.
Manyakitty
@Kay: It looks to me like they’ve all adopted 45’s attitude that law enforcement will never catch up to them. Holding my breath for the day when it does, because THAT will be a good day.
Adam L Silverman
@bemused: As Jay Rosen noted yesterday with the piling onto AP over its headline regarding the idea of amending the Constitution by executive order, reporters seem to have learned something.
jl
@Dev Null: I never saw it, so don’t worry. Easy to get too worked up on the internet, so my first instinct to to take a deep breath. I have gone off on people without thinking and regretted it later too, and have apologized later a couple of times.
catclub
@MCA1:
understatement of the year candidate. Suddenly two guys who no longer got invitations to the sunday gab fests.
A shorter version of their book: “The GOP has gone crazy pants, the Democrats have not.”
I think the real failure of the book was the failure to use ‘crazy pants’.
bemused
@Kay:
White far right wing entitlement.
Jay C
Well, maybe a contrarian opinion, but I see a number of silver linings in the fart-cloud the “Surefire Investigations” debacle has engendered:
1. It has exposed GOP/RW ratf*cking to public scrutiny.
2. It’s done so via the “MSM” – pointing out the general credulity/bogosity/dishonesty of the Wingnuttosphere as a bonus benefit.
3. It’s made any future attempts of the sort WAY less likely to succeed: warning both the media and any potential targets that they might be in the crosshairs of the B*llsh*t Cannon.
4. It’s added credence to any suspicions the press/public might have over whatever accusations (/indictments) of election-tampering, etc. Robert Mueller might bring.
5. It’s likely to become a shot-in-both-feet self-inflicted “own goal” for the RW ‘Net trolls like Jacob Wohl: even assuming they avoid slam, their credibility will be shot (one hopes).
6. Even if this was one of Lindsay Graham’s bright ideas, neither he (nor, IMO, ANY elected official outside of the worst Trump-cultist Deplorables) is going to want to be in the way of any legal blowback
So pretty much a “win”
Kristine
@LAO: Wohl et al assumed Kavanaugh was set up, and decided to do the same. Maybe fence sitters will read about their ridiculous failure and realize just how difficult that type of frame-up would be to pull off.
Maybe. But probably not.
Gelfling 545
I would just like to mention that Mueller sets an example here for all those (reported) crowds of men (and their mothers) having anxiety attacks over the prospect that some woman might accuse them of sexual misconduct out of the blue.
1. Actually be innocent and
2. Tell the authorities to yes, please investigate.
piratedan
@Adam L Silverman: well… I was actually alluding to Stone, who is also apparently in Mueller’s cross-hairs, I know that Wohl is Rookie ball level, and O’Keefe is likely AA, but Stone plays in the bigs and I suspect his days are numbered it appears, so if those shoes do indeed drop, the GOP will need to recruit some new ratfuckers, not that they aren’t capable of that very thing, after all, look at all of the journos they already own over at the FYFNYT.
Kelly
@Kay:
Chaotic could be good. Catch the R’s by surprise.
Sloane Ranger
@Mandalay: The J in the middle of the postcode is also a giveaway to anyone who knows UK postcodes. They are always one or two letters followed by one or two numbers, space, one number followed by two letters, eg GH23 2AB.
bemused
@jl:
Levine is no Max Boot, that’s for sure.
catclub
@bemused: oh, gaaah, Matt Levine at Bloomberg, sorry.
bemused
@catclub:
Ok whew. That’s for the correction.
Mnemosyne
@eclare:
You should also see if you can somehow get hold of Omnes Omnibus — he’s a lawyer in WI and may know people who know people.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
I think you are being naive. I hope you are right but I am not as positive as you are
Schlemazel
@Chyron HR:
two words: Roger. Stone.
Snarki, child of Loki
Graham vs. Nikki Haley?
Yeah, I think I know who wears the pants in that pair.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Gulab jamun was not a traditional Diwali treat in my family. Its not that difficult to make though, especially for someone with your skill with desserts.
I make karanjis . They look like small empanadas and are baked.
ETA: For an easy Indian dessert, I make carrot halwa in the slow cooker, which is pretty awesome. Delicious and with a fraction of the work and fat compared to the original.
catclub
@Ian G.: Did you hear the NPR bit on conspiracy theories this AM, when one guy put it as:
(misremembering here) “Sooner or later every conspiracy runs into/turns into antisemitism.” It is similar to six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
eclare
@Mnemosyne: Yes! Forgot about that!
sukabi
@Chyron HR: pretty sure all the “smarter more competent people were driven from the party almost a decade ago…the wrap on smarter competent repubs was completed in 2012.
Don’t see a rush of anyone jumping in the trumpster fire.
schrodingers_cat
@eclare: He is on Twitter IIRC.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
I don’t think I’m naive. I think that making this shit up out of whole cloth is way harder than most men realize. That’s why most false accusations arise out of an existing relationship.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: @Schlemazel: FWIW as a fellow woman, I agree with Mnem.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks! I emailed Adam to contact him directly.
jl
Well, Hannity thinks this will work. Seems to be a pattern among them. Hannity’s high tech conspiracy yarn isn’t an official felony, though.
@hellenkeniford
oh no…..i think he’s onto us
https://twitter.com/hellenkeniford/status/930943477222952960
TXG1112
@Brachiator:
I’m with you, but might even take it a step yet further and be even more cynical:
They believe that all men do this to women, that it’s totally normal and that it should be easy to find women to which it has happened. That they think it is ok for this to happen to women is no reason not to hold it against Muller if it serves their political ends.
Casey
Well, of course GOPers don’t think of women as actual people.
But the disease is wider and deeper than that.
They don’t believe liberals actually care about any of the groups we advocate for; they think it’s all a pose, just to get money or votes. The reason they think that way is because THEY have no actual beliefs, only a will to power.
Inventor
This reminds me of that whack-a-doodle plan O’Keefe had with the boat and the woman journalist (Lara ??) and the sex toys. It was creepy and bizarre and one of O’Keefe’s female accomplices “spoiled” it by coming clean with the journalist.
She was to be driven into uncontrollable sexual lust by the dildos and O’Keefe’s mutant Alfred E. Newman face….or something. What kind of bizarre fantasy land do these people live in?
Gremcat
@Eural Joiner: I think that Graham is setting himself up to be AG when Asshat fires Session after the midterms Nicki will then be chosen by SC governor to take his Senate seat. If by some miracle the Dems take the Senate then this will happen during the lame duck session.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne: @schrodingers_cat:
The mistake you are making is that you assume they will all end in the exposure of the lies. I have no faith that the media will get around to that, particularly when there are 3 dozen separate charges to report on. But even if the media did it job properly & all are exposed BEFORE election day there will still be voters who do not believe the media, voters who only remember a lot of unsavory things candidate ‘A’ was accused of – and where there is that much smoke there must be fire and a third group, one I am painfully familiar with right now. That third group is liberals who are refusing to vote for Keith Ellison because of the charge against him. Unsubstantiated, despite the alleged victim claiming she has evidence that she refuses to share. Undermined by documents the GOP ‘news’ group got released. But still I know of several who will skip voting for MN AG this fall because of the smear.
They don’t have to be truthful, they don’t have to actually bring the candidate down they only need to suppress the vote for the candidate.
Yes, the Dems need to clean house & remove predators in our ranks but even if we are able to the GOP will weaponize #MeToo & there will be a cost to Dem and a much much worse cost to women
J R in WV
@Dev Null:
I contributed to King’s opponent, Scholten, as well. I took no offense from your comment, after looking it up. But if you felt bad about it, obviously a gracious apology is the best thing to do, which you have done very well. Maybe to some folks “virtue signalling” means something darker or more serious than I took it…
Really, though, it wasn’t that bad. Especially for here among the jackals. Really !
It’s been a very stressful election season for all of us. Some are also having other stressful situations in their lives, beloved members of a family damaged badly or dying in one’s arms, having their rights as Americans attacked, just to list a very few we’ve seen right here in our B-J community.
I have begun to feel a little optimism lately, after not allowing myself any of that for a very long time, two years now, actually. I hope it isn’t misplaced. I had lots of optimism for Hillary last time around, and it failed out the last week, sort of the opposite of what I’m feeling now.
Hang in there, Jackals~!!!~
schrodingers_cat
@Schlemazel: I am not sure what exactly you are trying to say. Is it, women should keep quiet because Rs will use this as a tool against Ds?
lgerard
I just want to be there when Wohl tries to explain Surefire Investigations to the FBI
bemused
@Inventor:
Seriously, if O’Keefe and company didn’t get some kind of legal trouble over this, they should have.
Adam L Silverman
@piratedan: Stone isn’t exactly the A Team either. Stone is far more myth and legend than he is fact. Stone has been allowed to play in the big leagues and pull all sorts of crap or claim to because no one could be bothered or thought he was important enough to deal with.
Starfish
Republicans have been pulling this nonsense for a while at this point, and it is another game of Calvinball that they get to win no matter what.
It works like this.
Have someone come out with an accusation of rape or sexual harassment.
1) If it works, they bring down their political enemies.
2) If it does not work, and they are found out. “See, there are women who do lie about rape.”
3) It will force Democrats into either not believing alleged rape victims or becoming skeptical of accusations against their people reinforcing point 2.
This has happened at the state capital here where Democrats accused of sexual improprieties have lost their jobs, but Republicans accused of the same have been defended because the bar for removing a Republican who is behaving badly is always set higher.
This is what they are trying to do against our next likely governor. During his first campaign at age 19, our US Representative (who is running for governor) pushed a woman who was trying to take something from his campaign.
This is what Republicans were trying to do to Keith Ellison.
This is what they are trying again with Mueller.
I hope at some point, sexual harassment is taken seriously and the rules are applied evenly. I do not want to live in this world of POLITICALLY WEAPONIZE ALL THE THINGS.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: I like karanjis too!
You have to remember that the Diwali foods I’m used to are the ones that the families of the Nepalese officers I supervised prepared for Diwali. And that I was fortunate enough to be invited to share.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
Unfortunately, Ellison has done a really crappy job of publicly addressing those allegations. He seems to think that he can just ignore them and they will die off on their own, but obviously that’s not working. And it’s not helping him at all that quite a few Democrats in MN seem to feel that he bigfooted a better Democrat in the primary.
I agree that Ellison is a good example of what NOT to do when allegations are brought against you.
Schlemazel
@schrodingers_cat:
WHAT!?!? in what universe do you get that out of anything I said?
What I said is we have to be ready because the GOP is weaponizing #MeToo. We need to make every effort to be prepared and to demand the media do its job.
We also need to make sure the Dems make every effort to dump abusers & I know that is happening here but it will not save us from the charges.
J R in WV
And what gives with Democratic candidates who hit me up for a donation, but don’t evidently have a connection to ActBlue that I can use to contribute with?
I’m just not going to spend the time to reenter all that data that ActBlue has already. So there is a small grass-roots contribution of $50 or so that isn’t going to happen for that Democratic candidate.
I got a phone call from a candidate out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and after looking him up, I kicked in a little bit. He has an Act Blue account. Easy.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
Do you live in MN? I do & have heard Ellison address the allegations. I have no intention of forgetting the bullshit move he pulled this election but I am going to vote for him this time (don’t think it will matter, a Muslim and a black man, he is going to get buried in rural MN unlike his urban CD5). But I have some very good friends who are very liberal and despite the very good chance it means we end up with a GOP abuser as AG they refuse to even consider voting for Ellison
EDIT: One of them used to comment here but left when he felt we were not willing to just toss Franken overboard without at least looking at the charges. SOme of you may know who I mean. He refuses to come back here, we are all evil
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: My favorite Diwali food is the savory chakli ( the dough is made with roasted grains and various spices) shaped like a spiny wheel and then deep fried. I have never been to a Nepali Diwali celebration. Nepali food is probably closer to north Indian food. My family is from the west coast of India. We love coconut and use it in everything.
different-church-lady
Before I even opened the site just now, I was thinking that what was depressing was that they had a reasonable belief a gullible media would bite. But you’ve gotten far closer to the heart of it.
sukabi
@jl: pretty sure that board is just a representation of how hannity thinks of women…that “snapshot” of the inside of Hannity’s brain is quite the dumpster fire, and something that a relatively sane person wouldn’t publicise on national tv.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Schlemazel:
Ok, but what else can we do? You pretty much already said that those solutions won’t be enough.
debit
@Schlemazel: I voted for Ellison (absentee). If he wins there’ll be an investigation and we will see what shakes out. Until then, those leftier than thou fuckwads can eat a nice warm pile of shit and die. I am in no mood for this bullshit after what happened with Franken.
germy
Article about Kamala Harris and the new candidates she’s mentoring:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/kamala-harris-is-building-a-network-for-black-candidates.html
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
I do not live in MN. If Ellison did have an adequate explanation, it has not filtered outside of the state, and it sounds like quite a few MN Democrats did not find his explanation adequate.
I get why you’re pissed off, but Ellison has not done a good job of defending himself.
Starfish
@Schlemazel: You and @schrodingers_cat need to quit fighting over this. I thoroughly covered all of it in my comment.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: or as has been speculated on before, he’s the classic snitch. Sets up or is involved in some scheme and when he gets caught sells out the other players involved in other dirtier schemes.
CarolDuhart2
@bemused: But O’Keefe messed with people who didn’t have law enforcement powers and connections. These clowns messed with the former head of the FBI, which aren’t people you want to prank with. The FBI can arrest and charge you. ACORN couldn’t, plus they were immersed in their own money scandal regarding one of the heads embezzling money. It’s the reason you don’t prank the cops.
Introducing a term; Epistemic Closure Republicans now increasingly live in their own world detached from empirical reality, which is why they think a former real estate scamster is the greatest President ever. They listen only to their own radio stations, watch just one tv network, go to megachurches that are so large they could be their own denomination, meaning they don’t even visit other churches in the area.
Schlemazel
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
That is all we can ever do. Do what is right, fight on no matter what. Demand better. Just do not go forward with your eyes closed or the expectation of common decency from the GOP or competency from the media.
Barbara
@Schlemazel: Well, SC isn’t the only one who wondered where exactly you were going with this. I didn’t actually think you meant for women to keep quiet, but your comment was ambiguous in several respects. There is no question that, for instance, being the party that supports civil rights has been used to batter Democrats in many places all over the country, including but not exclusively the South. I have heard more than once (though I stress, not recently) that it would behoove us not to talk so loudly about civil rights, because in the long run it would hurt civil rights if it were used as a wedge issue to defeat Democrats.
debit
@Schlemazel:
Was it Trentrunner? If so, please let him know from me that I’ still waiting on his apology for calling me a rape apologist.
Schlemazel
@debit:
I see these people regularly & it is very awkward. They have not forgiven me or me them.
Schlemazel
@Starfish:
I didn’t even know we were fighting
arielibra
@catclub: Templars or go home.
Mary G
@germy: I’m on her email list, not because I’ve donated to her, she’s swimming in money, but from contacting her about issues. She never asks for money for herself, only for other candidates in other states, not all African-American, but all liberal, and asks me to donate to them or be aware of them, etc. She gets this stuff and the more I see of Kamala the more impressed I am.
schrodingers_cat
@Schlemazel: We are in complete agreement then. We have to do what we must. Be karma yogis.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know what more he can do. The accuser refuses to do anything other than make the charge. Ellison has done everything he can to defend himself as you can’t prove a negative. The circumstantial evidence is in his favor but thats not enough I know. He has not made the defense a centerpiece of his campaign and why should he? If it is true he would only be damaging his future more & if it is false he is only giving it air to fester.
Tenar Arha
@jl: That photo made me laugh, but I think that 2 decades plus of Fox & the rest of the RW media ecosystem is also a reason that those guys really thought it would work.
There’s no real investigative reporting on the right (whether there ever truly was is another discussion). Anyway Fox & RW “investigations” mostly take the form of either tricking the rest of the media to chase nonsense stories so they can twist those results even more, or it’s someguy at the Big Board with a bunch of flowcharts. I mean “Wall of Crazy” seems to be permanently absorbed in the Right’s base level DNA.
And I keep thinking about how there’s plenty of people who’ve never known anything else. Between the projection, the default refusal to believe women, & the relentless brainwashing by their own media, these guys don’t have enough grounding in the real to create plausible believability.
Barbara
@debit: I do get a little tired of Franken being continually raised as an issue. If it had been just the one incident it would have been okay, but when it became multiple incidents it couldn’t be salvaged. Nothing about that made me happy but it’s important not to become overly fixated on any individual as a hero or savior to the point you tune out the gestalt.
bemused
@Schlemazel:
The ex-girfriend won’t release the supposed video.
Ellison’s ex-wife said he was never abusive and had kind things to say about him since their divorce. She thought their divorce details couldn’t be revealed and didn’t want it to go public. She had MS and reportedly had hit Ellison during their marriage. He did not hit her. I don’t remember if Ellison also objected to that. I haven’t paid that close attention to all the details but this has been in news in MN. I don’t know what more Ellison could do.
EthylEster
Sort of OT….
from the previously estimable St. Pete Times which got re-branded as the Tampa Bay Times and is now pretty much a POS newspaper.
Schlemazel
@debit:
No, eeyore. I avoided those threads entirely but it would not surprise me if he called you that also. He said much the same to me. We are on a committee together and attend social events together & it is not good. We are polite and never mention it but I have a lump of coal in my heart that is not going away any time soon. I assume he has his own
Schlemazel
@schrodingers_cat:
My concern was that somehow what I was saying meant women should shut up. I am not always good at recognizing how I come off and I had to reread & reread what I said because I was not seeing what you accused me of.
bemused
@CarolDuhart2:
Republicans think there no repercussions for them and are just getting worse as they have gotten away with so much more now that they hold the reins.
germy
@Mary G:
I expect when she runs for president, whether she wins the nomination or not, all sorts of commenters with unfamiliar names will appear here to concern troll, “just raise questions”, quote old intercept stories, or outright attack her. I also expect the word “cop” to be used against her.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: I’m a coconut fan. And, of course, most of India’s Jewish community was from Cochin/Kerala.
But my understanding, from my Nepalese friends, is that North Indian food is more like Nepalese food. I can tell you everything was excellent and I never left hungry.
germy
@Mary G:
I expect when she runs for president, whether she wins the nomination or not, all sorts of commenters with unfamiliar names will appear here to concern troll, “just raise questions”, quote old intercept stories, or outright attack her. I also expect the word “cop” to be used against her.
ruemara
@Schlemazel: They’ve been weaponizing #MeToo before there was a Me Too. Honeypots are not new. And frankly, there’s nothing you can do about it except allow for investigations & if you’re running for office, or going to be a high profile critic, keep your hands & your mouth to yourself. Franken had not one, but over 5 credible incidents where he either wasn’t thinking or wasn’t thinking with the big head. He wasn’t railroaded, he was having his past as a guy with fame catch up to him.
germy
“I say everything twice!” he yelled.
Schlemazel
@bemused:
Ellison supported his ex-wife’s desire to keep the divorce doc sealed. She had MS and issues with depression and behaved very badly. To his credit he supported her and even said he did not handle her condition as well as he wished he had. The GOP, aided by the MPLS paper took the case to court and as soon as the facts came out dropped the whole thing.
I hope he didn’t do it. It does not seem like he did but unless the GF cooperates we will never know & all Dems are hypocrites for not simply taking her word
germy
@ruemara: I remember during the Anita Hill hearings, Ted Kennedy had to sit quietly because of his own issues. Some tough questions for Thomas went unasked.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: Mumbai too had a sizable Jewish community, they call themselves Bene Israel Jews and speak Marathi. There are several famous theater and film personalities among them. Although now most have immigrated to Israel. The principal of my mother’s school was a Jewish woman.
EthylEster
@The Moar You Know:
Uh…who doesn’t already know he is gay?
Wapiti
@germy: Good for her. Build up a base of long-term allies. If not for 2020, then for later. She could probably run for President as late as 2028, after 2 terms in the Senate.
Gravenstone
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, I debated characterizing it as “further weaponizing”. Woulda coulda shoulda I guess.
Millard Filmore
@catclub:
One can also be quite amazed at the things rich people can get away with, when rich people write the laws.
EthylEster
@Jay C:
Very little coverage of this story in NYT and WaPo so far.
Rubin mentioned it today in her column but no stories from “reporters”.
ruemara
@germy: Hell yeah. We had some greatly progressive heroes, who couldn’t see past their own dicks when a reasonably attractive woman was unattended. I use unattended deliberately, because men still see women as possessions they deserve to have. It’s unfair & cruel, but recognizing that this behaviour was common even in people who have good reputations for their policies.
artem1s
@Mnemosyne:
I think there is another layer to it too. Something akin to survivors guilt. If they had sought help, spoken out, etc. then perhaps they wouldn’t have had to deal with the harassment. Perhaps they wouldn’t be stuck with their PTSD and constant fear of exposure. they don’t want to feel guilty about the women who had things much much worse. or they don’t want to admit to their families that they had terrible things happen to them too. I have a sister who in buried in denial about her past and will never have a frank honest conversation with her family because she is still blaming herself for the abuse she endured by former boyfriends and husbands. She is more angry with other women who are being heard than her abusers because no one was there for her and there is no one in her sphere she can trust with the truth.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
I didn’t find any of the accusations against Franken to be credible (really, squeezing someone’s waist during a photo is sexual assault?) BUT I have accepted that Franken needed to be sacrificed in order to get Doug Jones into the Senate. It was more important to add that seat than to hold onto Franken since Franken was going to be replaced by another Democrat.
germy
mozzerb
@Sloane Ranger:
Actually, the postcode is legit — a lot of the central London postcodes have that extra letter after the number in the district part, because there are so many addresses there that they ran out of codes (and presumably they wanted to keep the old London district numbers, so couldn’t split them out into new numbers like they do in the rest of the country). According to Google results there are 178 companies in that postcode. It’s just that none of them are Surefire Intelligence.
Bobby Thomson
I agree entirely with this post and comment only to say that Twitter has a hilarious account of Wohl’s attempt to bilk two banks out of millions of dollars with a scheme so flimsy it wouldn’t even get past Haberman. Some background: Wohl is the youngest person ever to get a lifetime ban from the financial industry and “it is known.”
debit
@Barbara: I really don’t want to rehash it, but the start was the picture, which, while in poor taste, offensive and unbelievably stupid, was not assault. The rest of the “accusations” were along the lines of “one time he squeezed my waist and I don’t even let my husband do that.” There was nothing there. I am still angry and upset that he was not given the chance to have an investigation clear him. Or not! But either way, it would have been clear. Instead, this will hang over him for the rest of his life.
Ladyraxterinok
@germy: The GOP made a very big deal out of his being on the committee–‘How can someone who KILLED A GIRL complain about the little bit that Thomas supposedly did?? Hmm? Hmm?’
debit
@Schlemazel: That sounds awful. I’m so sorry.
Mnemosyne
@artem1s:
Agreed. I think a certain amount of the vitriol directed at Christine Blasey Ford by conservative women was because her story dragged up their own memories and flashbacks and they blamed her for bringing up those buried memories, not the fact that they were never able to get help and treatment for their own trauma.
I mean, my traumas are relatively minimal compared to what many commenters here went through, and I was still having a pretty tough time mentally even with this supportive community around me. Not having anyone around willing to sympathize would be soul-crushing.
Schlemazel
@Millard Filmore:
Justice is blind but she sure can smell money
Sorry if that is a repeat – I love that quote
JaySinWA
@schrodingers_cat:
I heard the “it’s a small world” theme in my head while reading that.
MattF
@Bobby Thomson: The short version is here. There is no long version.
Raven
I caught a shrimper just as the sun rose.
Schlemazel
@ruemara:
FDR, Ike, JFK, Clinton. All horndogs who should be ashamed of their behavior. But all three serve honorably as POTUS. That does not mean we should be OK with their private actions or that they should be given a pass if they ran today. It is possible to separate public and private malfeasance. I would rather have Carter or Obama but if the choice is FDR/JFK/Clinton or Reagan/Bush/Trump I will hold my nose and chose the former group while working inside to convince people we simply have to do better
Schlemazel
@Raven:
love that picture! The view almost makes getting up at the crack of dark worthwhile :)
eclare
@Raven: Gorgeous sky!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: this seems to me to merit a “wow”
Is he sulking because of Oprah?
geg6
@debit:
I agree with you completely. Thankfully for Al, his wife is the awesome Frannie Franken, who is a spouse for the ages. Al will be fine. His family stands 100% behind him and he’s hardly scraping for cash. I see he’s back on FB, so he’s okay.
LongHairedWeirdo
There’s one thing I find more depressing – but I admit it’s only speculation (however well informed!)
This *will not* make them think “wow, it’s *hard* to find women who’d make a false report even if you’re *looking* for them!” I bet they’d rather believe that all of the women are Democrats and Never-Trumpers, than accept the more obvious conclusion that honest people are, you know, *honest*, and there are (I’m confident – but, admittedly not certain) far more “law abiding, competent gun owners” who damage themselves or others than there are women who’d make false accusations, even if paid.
germy
@LongHairedWeirdo: They made their job of finding women to make any kind of report tougher after the way Ford was treated and then ignored, and the way they’re threatening to investigate Avenatti and Swetnick.
debit
@geg6: They shop at the same store I do and are always super smiley and affectionate with each other.
Kent
This goes back way before Kavanaugh and it’s a very easy thread to follow:
They first weaponized sexual harassment against Clinton with the Lewinski scandal which I guess wasn’t exactly the same thing but related in that it was a weaponized sex scandal.
They turned around and ignored the 20-something examples of sexual harassment against Trump for partisan reasons and because they assumed correctly that t was what they would do.
They ignored the same accusations against Kavanaugh because of some combination of they just don’t care and they assumed it was the same pattern of partisan warfare that they use
At the root of all of this cognative dissonance is Trump. If you believe in #metoo you have to reject Trump. If you support Trump you have to discard #metoo. There has been a tremendous amount of discussion on what kind of investigations the Dems would pursue if they take the house: Russia ties and collusion with election meddling, Tax fraud, corruption in the Trump empire, corruption in the Trump cabinet, Kavanaugh. its a very target rich environment. I haven’t seen much discussion about whether Dems should investigate the long string of sexual harassment claims against Trump. Maybe they should.
Whitney Barnes
@Ian R: My understanding is that transferring care from doctor to doctor is not so hot for patient safety either. Mistakes get made that way too.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
You’re naive. At least 3 of Franken’s accusers were hardcore Republicans, another 3 were never identified and the last one was the waist woman.
The only mistakes they made here was not soliciting confirmed Trump supporting women into the crime and not doing their homework as to finding a time and place where the accused might have no alibi available.
TenguPhule
@Barbara:
Remarkably all of them fell apart under scrutiny. Quantity was not quality.
skyweaver
Outstanding, John.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
They were not credible. All three of the first identified accusers were Republicans. Three others did not identify themselves (including the “Democratic aide”) and the last one was the crazy waist woman.
Mandalay
@debit:
Wasn’t it even worse than that? My understanding was that Franken could have stayed and fought the charges, but he didn’t solely for the greater good of the Democratic party. The end result of that was folks said he musty be guilty because he left so soon, no smoke without fire, etc.
Bad enough for Franken to be framed and have his career destroyed and his reputation savaged. But then, when your colleagues are sticking their knives into you, and you take one for the team by leaving ASAP, everyone shits on you for “running away” and being a coward. What a nightmare for him.
I wish Franken nothing but happiness and good fortune for the rest of his life. Which is a lot more than I can say for some of his Democratic colleagues.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: I have to disagree with you on this one. In my opinion, there were absolutely not 5 CREDIBLE incidents.
WaterGirl
@debit: That is how I view it too, and it still makes my blood boil. Every single time someone brings it up.
James E Powell
@EthylEster:
Neither of them, nor any of the cable shows, is going to expose or do anything to put an end to Republican rat-fucking. That’s where the NYT & WaPo get half of their stories. That’s where cable shows get three-fourths of their stories. Without Republicans feeding them rumor, innuendo, and outright lies, they’d have to learn things other than “who’s hot, who’s not.” They’d have to do investigations and try to find out whether something was true before publishing or broadcasting. They are never going to do that.
Dev Null
@jl: @J R in WV: Thanks, guys. Appreciate your responses.
I am nonetheless embarrassed … what I wrote in my comment last night was stupid and obnoxious and just plain bad manners. Even if my comment wasn’t intended to be insulting (it wasn’t so intended); even if my comment wasn’t directed at either of you (how could it be? I committed my comment at the beginning of the comment thread); even if there is a kernel of truth in “share the love” (and I think there is), I should have known better.
Intent is cheap. Execution matters.
The virtues of “virtue signalling” depend on context, I guess. I used the phrase because it describes me. I really want to donate against people like King and Brat and Nunes and on and on … It’d feel great! … but no donation I could make to their opponents will accomplish squat. Even so, I’m still tempted. That seems to me to be virtue signalling.
But I’m being a bore. If you will pardon me, I will crawl into my hole, pull it in after me, and make a few more ActBlue donations.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
We are after all, pack animals. A lot of the older of us were born into medium to largish families so we were/are used to belonging to groups. And of course you don’t abandon your family, you are in it for good or bad. Go down with the ship and all that. You have to reach a pretty out there point to walk away. For many people, politics are no different.
A Ghost To Most
@Ruckus:
I never got this as a concept that applied to me. I see people as sheep, shepherds, wolves (these two overlap), and cats (outside the carnage, doing their own thing).
ruemara
@WaterGirl: It’s fair to state that. But I viewed it as enough incidents that could be verified as having occurred as to warrant investigation, even though I felt some of them were downright bizarre and that includes Tina Dupuy saying putting an arm around a waist constituted assault. But there were a total of 8 accusers and you know what, as much as I liked Franken, I felt that some of the behaviour was unwanted, even if it didn’t fit fully the idea of sexual assault, yet it was definitely weaponized.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: I think all incidents but were total bullshit, and in that remaining “incident” the woman was anonymous and there was no way to verify anything either way. I think he was thrown under the bus by ambitious members of our own party, and I am still seeing red about it. My heart rate shootsup instantly and get really stressed whenever I see the ignorant stuff some people write about Franken.
But there’s no use in the good guys (us, in this case) fighting with one another over this one week before the election.
David Evans
@Sloane Ranger: Actually W1J 8DJ is the correct postcode for that address. London postcodes don’t follow the usual UK format, I suppose because they ran out of numbers.
PS I see someone else got there first. Must read more carefully.
VOR
IIRC someone tried to pull a related stunt on the WaPo during the Roy Moore days. They went to the Post with a false story and were surprised when the Post did their due diligence before publishing. The Post then confronted the claimant with their research and taped the whole thing. It was textbook journalism.
debit
@WaterGirl: And again we are as one. It’s only been a few months and the story has already morphed from “obvious ratfucking” to “I don’t know, there were so many credible accusations…” I will never stop being angry about it, I fear. Such an obvious smear and to a genuinely good man. Not a lecher, not an abuser, but a good man. It makes me want to scream.
J R in WV
@Raven:
Nice photo – I was thinking and wondering — what kinda fish is a “shrimper”???
Reminds me of Key West back when it was a shrimper town, back in the 1970s when I was stationed there. you could go down to the docks and get a bucket of shrimp for nearly nothin’
All gone now, yachts at all the piers and docks, shrimpers can’t compete in that kind of market.
Jack the Second
Also too, I think the answer to “When is the Mueller investigation going to wrap up?” — asked earnestly our by RWNJ — is “When people stop committing new felonies trying to obstruct the investigation of whether people committed felonies trying to obstruct the other investigation.”
boatboy_srq
@schrodingers_cat: Got to agree here. If there is one thing we have learned about the Reichwing, it is that their arithmetic – about sex scandals, about immigration, about voter fraud, about opinion polling and election results – is all off because they steadfastly refuse to accept the basic humanity of their opponents. They can’t lose because their opponents’ voice is to them illegitimate at best and the braying of livestock at worst. Their ongoing expectation of landslide victories, of Permanent Republican Majorities, of New American Centuries all stem from the basic inability to account for the women, minorities, philosophical opponents and virtually anyone who does not toe the line in their calculations. The last two decades’ ongoing purification of the GOP, expunging any and all who question Rethug orthodoxy in the slightest, is based on the presumption that there are still enough white cis male Xtianist votes to enable them to win without the RINOs – a belief backed up in practice only by decades of voter disenfranchisement and the disengagement of the electorate at large. Every loss is attributable, not to the unpopularity of their ideals nor to the presence of large voting blocs that oppose them on principle, but to the massive swamping of the polls by compensated malefactors voting improperly and skewing the results. They refuse to envision a world where women, minorities, and adherents to contrary political philosophies have a valid say in public policy simply because they cannot envision a world where those groups are populated with their equals.
Ruckus
@ruemara:
@WaterGirl:
The only thing I’ll add is that I remember that people talked about Franken running for office and early on as he said there had been things that might be a problem. Now would they truly be issues or were they made issues? I thought he should have fought but he decided. Maybe that wasn’t the best way to handle it, but people who knew him as a senator called for him to go. Were there other times that we don’t know about? Was it a complete set up and he’s totally innocent? I suppose we’ll never know.
For sure he looked like a good guy on the surface and seemed to be a good guy. A question I’ll ask is how many guys in show business seem to be good guys, right up until the minute they aren’t? It’s ego driven businesses, show business and professional sports. I’ve worked in the second, I’ve met my share of walking egos. And not everyone with a huge ego is a shit, but some absolutely are.
jayjaybear
@VOR: Wasn’t that Project “Veritas”, James O’Keefe’s little scam shop?