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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Friday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be A Busy Media Day, Even If Mueller *Doesn’t* Act

Friday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be A Busy Media Day, Even If Mueller *Doesn’t* Act

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Meanwhile…

… Mueller obsessives, political junkies and Washington insiders have been scrutinizing the president’s every mannerism, such as snapping at a CNN reporter for posing a “stupid question” about whether he wanted the new acting attorney general to stymie the Russia investigation.

“You can see it in Trump’s body language all week long. There’s something troubling him. It’s not just a couple staff screw-ups with Melania,” said a senior Republican official in touch with the White House. “It led me to believe the walls are closing in and they’ve been notified by counsel of some actions about to happen. Folks are preparing for the worst.”

Adding to the unease is a spate of anonymously sourced media reports suggesting Mueller’s self-imposed quiet period that started about two months before 2018 Election Day is about to transition into a Category 5 hurricane.

Mueller, as has been his custom throughout the investigation, hasn’t said a word about what’s next for his probe into the Trump 2016 campaign and whether it conspired with Russian hackers to win the White House. Instead, the special counsel has let his legal filings do the talking. On Wednesday, Mueller stirred the speculation pot yet again, delivering a one-page motion to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., confirming that former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates “continues to cooperate with respect to several ongoing investigations” and still isn’t ready to be sentenced. Gates pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy against the U.S. and making a false statement in a federal investigation…

Also on indictment watch: Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, who has told his friends in recent weeks that he believes he could be facing charges from Mueller, according to one of those people.

Lawyers for the president and Trump Jr. insist they aren’t worried about Mueller.

“I have no reason to be concerned about that. I can’t imagine what they’d indict him for,” Rudy Giuliani, one of the president’s personal attorneys, said in a recent interview when asked about Donald Trump Jr…

Haven’t read the (reportedly astonishing) transcript, but the Daily Caller sat down with the Oval Office Occupant, and the usual train wreck ensued…

Also, too…

I’ve been holding a post open all week about ‘merry prankster’ Roger Stone, FauxNews lie-ographer Jerome Corsi, hapless shock jock Randy Credico, and their mysterious friend in the Ecuadorian Embassy…

In summary…

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “I have no reason to be concerned about that. I can’t imagine what they’d indict him for,” Rudy Giuliani,

    Obviously Rudy suffers from a lack of imagination. NOT a good thing in a defense attorney. Either that or he’s lying through his teeth.

  6. 6.

    Mezz

    Like every one of us I suspect: Terrific: a day spent furiously refreshing Twitter waiting for The Big News to drop.
    If anything happens, it will be (with my luck) in between lecture for West. Civ. I and West. Civ. II (haha! Today we’re doing origins of fascism! Funny!), when I will have approximately 2 minutes.

    Trump’s bullshit is making it 10x’s harder to make it through the semester. And it’s going to make the History of the Presidents class in the spring a total pain in the ass. Again.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A feelgood tale of a homeless man using his last $20 to help a stranded New Jersey woman buy gas was actually a complete lie, manufactured to get strangers to donate more than $400,000 to help the down-and-out good Samaritan, a prosecutor has said.

    The Burlington county prosecutor Scott Coffina announced criminal charges on Thursday against the couple who told the story to newspapers and television stations along with the homeless man who conspired with them to tell the story. He said the money, donated to the homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt, will be refunded to people who saw the story and contributed to him through a GoFundMe page set up by the couple, Mark D’Amico and Katelyn McClure.

    “The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” Coffina said. “It was fictitious and illegal and there are consequences.”

    Bobbitt was arrested on Wednesday night by US marshals in Philadelphia and remained in custody on Thursday on probation detainers and a $50,000 bond. A message requesting comment was left with a previous attorney of Bobbitt’s. D’Amico and McClure surrendered to authorities on Wednesday night and were released. Their attorney said they have no comment. All were charged with theft by deception.

    Interesting how the homeless guy is in jail while the 2 young and attractive miscreants are apparently out on their own recognizance.

    Prosecutors began investigating after Bobbitt claimed he wasn’t getting the money that had been raised on his behalf. He later sued the couple. It’s not exactly clear what happened with the money, though Bobbitt’s attorney has said it’s all gone.

    And the moral of the story is?

    eta a dropped sentence

  9. 9.

    JDM

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Obviously Rudy suffers from a lack of imagination. NOT a good thing in a defense attorney. Either that or he’s lying through his teeth.

    Rudy is trying to set up his own defense, because he was obviously deeply involved in the Russia stuff (he had advance knowledge of the leaks). So here he’s saying he doesn’t know what they’d possibly have on Don Jr. so he can later say “Golly gosh, I had NO idea he was involved in anything nefarious. Because I wasn’t, that’s for sure.”

    It won’t work.

  11. 11.

    SFAW

    say a deep anxiety has started to set in

    So now Shitgibbon is a member of the criminally economically anxious white grifting working class?

    See, he IS a populist!

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    We got some snew here, can’t tell how many inches, but the rain has started, so it should all be gone by … April.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    The Ecuadorians seem eager to kick Assange out. I’m very much hoping he gets extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to a lengthy stretch for working with Russia to subvert elections. But I think it’s more likely that he’ll be jailed for releasing info about U.S. conduct in the Iraq War.

    It would be sweet indeed if Stone goes to jail. He’s been a boil on the butt of democracy for decades.

  14. 14.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    It would be sweet indeed if Stone goes to jail. He’s been a boil on the butt of democracy for decades.

    FSM does not love me that much. Maybe if I make a burnt offering?

  15. 15.

    Balconesfault

    Wonder if the Whitaker appointment just sped up the timeline.

    And while I don’t think Mueller would let things outside the investigation affect his process, between the House flipping, and the blowback over Trump’s actions in France and comments on California … a pretty good time to hit the Donald with another roundhouse while he’s on the ropes.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “It was like something out of a science fiction movie,” says Barbara Hall from the office of the beachside hotel she runs in Placencia, southern Belize.

    “I woke up at 6am, looked out my window and realised we had a big problem. It was absolutely overwhelming.”

    The sight that greeted her that morning was a gargantuan tide of sargassum – a type of ocean seaweed that had swept in overnight. At sea, sargassum is an essential habitat for some marine life, but when it reaches land it rots, sucking up oxygen from the water and emitting hydrogen sulphide gas, which smells like rotten eggs.
    Sargassum at Ambergris Caye

    It has washed up in the Caribbean in unusually large amounts since 2011, but this year the largest volumes ever have appeared on shores from Barbados to Mexico, with piles several feet deep stretching for miles, and dozens of metres out to sea.
    …………………………….
    It is believed the sargassum has benefited from increased nutrients in the sea – perhaps from mineral-rich dust blown from Africa, Franks says. Others believe fertiliser runoff from industrial farming in the Americas may be to blame. Warmer waters would also encourage plant growth.

    “I imagine global warming is part of the problem,” says Amy Siuda, a sargassum specialist at Eckerd College, Florida. “We’re experiencing changes in currents that certainly can be related to warming of the atmosphere.”

    Changes in wind patterns – potentially caused by a warming climate – mean sargassum might have been moved from areas where it has usually stayed, with winds and currents bringing it further south than normal, Siuda says.

    She adds: “Ocean currents are the results of winds, changes in winds are the results of solar heating and changes in atmosphere and circulation. Ultimately, we can change circulation patterns by warming our atmosphere.”

    Regardless of the causes, sargassum is being taken so seriously that governments across the Caribbean have initiated emergency programmes to deal with the issue.

    Clever, them Chinese, using sargassum to divide us from our Caribbean neighbors.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    I’m guessing that prosecutors are taking a collective deep breath before indicting anyone in the Trump family. It’ll be ugly.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    I am slightly less confident in the Justice Department this morning. Inadvertent early release of Assange’s charges seems amateurish, if not incompetent.

  25. 25.

    JGabriel

    Half a dozen people in contact with the W.H. and other Trump officials say a deep anxiety has started to set in that Mueller is about to pounce and that any number of Trump’s allies and family members may soon be staring down the barrel of an indictment.

    Not soon enough.

    There’s enough crime in Trump’s past that he should have been indicted and thrown in jail months before he ever got near the GOP’s presidential nomination, much less into the White House.

  27. 27.

    Platonailedit

    @JGabriel: Even now he will go scotfree, indictment or not. The ‘checks & balances’ system is so corrupt, weak and ineffective.

  28. 28.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I wonder which administration filed the charges against Assange, when, and for what? This has been hanging around long enough and there’s enough politics involved, those are interesting questions.

    @MattF:
    From watching Rudy on TV, if he’s talking to Trump in person, it’s bullshit fantasies about how Trump will easily beat Mueller’s accusations. Rudy will believe his own lies, and so will Trump, until about 30 seconds after Rudy leaves.

    @debbie:
    The DoJ is hardly a monolith. It has many different teams. There is sure to be incompetents in there somewhere. They sure ain’t working for Mueller.

  29. 29.

    Mike in DC

    I am struggling to come up with a dozen names of potential indictees we have heard of before:
    Assange
    Stone
    Corsi
    Page
    DJTJ
    Parscale
    Kushner
    Eric
    Erik Prince
    JD Burton
    Nigel Farage
    Sessions

    Trump himself is #13.

    I could see there being two waves of indictments, with the Trump clan being in the second wave. The final stage would then be a report or referral regarding the president.

  30. 30.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Platonailedit:
    There is serious legal doubt that the acting president can be charged with anything, except by Congress. People around him are not so lucky. Neither is Trump’s money.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    Everyone’s jumping to conclusions. The Assange mentioned in the filings is probably the infamous mattress-tag ripper Bubba Assange of Manassas, Virginia.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MattF: Why do I suspect Rudy is there to tell little Donny what ever he wants to hear? And that somebody else has to bear the brunt of the 3 yr olds tantrums when they tell Donny that, no he can’t put sugar on his Frosted Flakes because his teeth will rot out.

  36. 36.

    JGabriel

    @Mezz:

    Like every one of us I suspect: Terrific: a day spent furiously refreshing Twitter waiting for The Big News to drop.

    Not me. I’ve long ago learned that if I want big news to drop fast, the best thing to do is to go grocery shopping, or play a video game, or go out for lunch …

    It just seems like nothing cool ever happens unless I’m not there, y’know?

    Anyway, I suspect the big news might not drop until Tuesday or Wednesday, right before Thanksgiving weekend. You file everything right before a holiday, then you get to relax and enjoy the festivities while your opponents fret, worry, and work on their response through the weekend – leaving them stressed out and tired when the courts re-open, while you’re all refreshed and ready to get back to work.

  38. 38.

    Immanentize

    Greetings from the New York Pennsylvania border. 10 to 14 inches on the ground, at least on 31 car pile up just west of me, dozens of accidents, hundreds of impassable side streets. Yet the funeral must go on! At least the graveside service has been curtailed (now in the cemetary chapel). Bearing pall can be rough duty on top of the grief.

    I will be too busy to fret

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Lawyers will say anything, anything, whether it’s to their client’s face or to the public. When I see a defense attorney on the local news proclaiming the innocence of a client who was caught in the act of committing a crime, I can’t help but be impressed by the attorney’s ability to keep a straight face. There must be a special class in law school for learning this trick.

  43. 43.

    Cheryl Rofer

    A few predictions, expanding on Mike in DC.

    All the indictments of Trump’s family will come at the same time, and it will be close to the end of Mueller’s investigation. When you strike at the king…

    I don’t know what will happen with Trump – depends on what they have on him. Probably not an indictment right now, though.

    When the whole story comes out, some of the turning points will be things we’ve heard but seemed unimportant. Just today another name from the past came up.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    Be careful! My East Coast FB friends were all freaking out about the snow last night. Schoolbuses delivered children hours late, the NJ roads were backed up, etc.

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    I always thought that Assange was under sealed indictment, from the Obama years. Just waiting for him to get kicked out of the Embassy.

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    Kyle Griffin ✔
    @kylegriffin1Half a dozen people in contact with the W.H. and other Trump officials say a deep anxiety has started to set in that Mueller is about to pounce and that any number of Trump’s allies and family members may soon be staring down the barrel of an indictment.

    Der Müller Gottes mahlt langsam, aber mahlt außerordentlich klein.

  48. 48.

    JGabriel

    @geg6:

    Muellermas! Please, oh please! Let it be an indictment Friday!

    That would be nice, but, as I said above, I don’t think it’ll happen until next week.

    Think about it this way:

    You’ve got indictments ready to file on a Friday. But the next week is short, with a four-five day weekend. Do you file on Friday, or do you use the two-three days of the following week to copy-edit, maybe do some re-writing, make your arguments tighter, and submit right before the holiday, letting the crooks you’ve indicted fret & sweat through the lo-o-ong weekend while you enjoy yourself?

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    Pure speculation, of course, but I think Trump knows Dim Son #1 is going down. Dim Son thinks he’ll be indicted, according to the press. If it were just Stone, Corsi, et al, Trump would have no problem coffee boying them. He can’t exactly coffee boy his namesake. Trump’s almost certainly looking at a set of questions from Mueller that ask straight up if he knew about the Trump Tower meeting, and of course he did, since Dim Son doesn’t take a crap without the old man’s permission. Dim Son lied about it to the FBI and Congress. So, does Trump implicate himself by lying too when proof may very well exist that it’s a lie, or does he admit he knew about the meeting and implicate Dim Son? Neither option is attractive, which is why he’s trying to shut the investigation down.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Ever since I rolled my tool filled van at 50 mph when I hit a patch of black ice while returning from work during an ice storm, I’ve had a rule: No driving in winter storms. Period.

  51. 51.

    JGabriel

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Sargassum … has washed up in the Caribbean in unusually large amounts since 2011 …

    Deepwater Horizon exploded April, 2010. I wonder the increased Sargassum might be related to the oil release, or a consequence of its aftermath?

  52. 52.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Frankensteinbeck: I think the magic phrase is “unindicted co-conspirator.” That creates the basis for impeachment (House – likely) and removal from office (Senate – less so). It also sets up the casework for prosecution after the president leaves office – yet another legal morass.

  53. 53.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @SFAW: When we lived in the DC area, there was a joke that [corrupt DC mayor] Marion Barry’s snow removal plan was called “spring”. We still tell that joke even though nobody but us gets it.

    Used it this morning in fact as I didn’t end up having to shovel my walk.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I never had a lawyer tell me the bad news until the very end. Always before that it was “We have a really good case.” or “We got him by the balls now.” or “I really believe in you as a client.” That last one is the death knell.

  55. 55.

    JPL

    @Cheryl Rofer: Mueller said that Gates wasn’t ready for sentencing because he is still providing information for several investigations. It does seem like the process is going to take awhile, but I hoped that Corsi, Stone and Don Jr. would be indicted at the same time.

  59. 59.

    Quinerly

    Good morning from Poco and his tribe! Was late to the Roy Clark thread last night. Totally enjoyed it. The Hee Haw clips brought back lots of memories. My dad loved Roy Clark, and the composer of “The Orange Blossom Special” was from Craven County, NC. Know the farm where Ervin Rouse was from. He left as an eight year old, played in Vaudeville, and ended up in Florida where he wrote the song in the 1930’s. My dad said it was always a big deal when Mr. Rouse came back to the area to visit. He was a celebrity.

    I haven’t done the math, but a very good and industrious friend posted on the Book of Faces this AM that today is the 666th day of Trump’s presidency. I’m doing the evil chuckle thang. Indictment Friday?

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JGabriel: While that may play a part, I suspect it is mostly as they stated in the article:

    It is believed the sargassum has benefited from increased nutrients in the sea – perhaps from mineral-rich dust blown from Africa, Franks says. Others believe fertiliser runoff from industrial farming in the Americas may be to blame. Warmer waters would also encourage plant growth.

    “I imagine global warming is part of the problem,” says Amy Siuda, a sargassum specialist at Eckerd College, Florida. “We’re experiencing changes in currents that certainly can be related to warming of the atmosphere.”

    Most especially the changes in currents.

  63. 63.

    Quinerly

    @debbie: If any indictments come down today, I’m not doing the math. It’s just too delicious. Going to just stick with my friend’s counting and not look for an error. ?

  66. 66.

    Quinerly

    @Princess: unrelated to Credico… I guess everyone saw this week the announcement that no charges will be filed in the Burlington College investigation. Case closed

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Platonailedit:
    Trump has hundreds of millions of dollars at least. He could possibly be a multi-billionaire. There is heavy speculation he has even more debt than assets, but that just means he’s even more screwed if his liquid assets are frozen or seized for money laundering. As for pardons, he has eloquently demonstrated he doesn’t think that way. He’s a mean asshole who throws people who could save him to the wolves, both because it feeds his cruelty and because he thinks helping others hurts him. The more stressed and afraid he is, the more he will act on what makes him feel safe at an instinctive, emotional level. I’m not entirely sure he would pardon Ivanka. It’s hard to tell where he starts defining people as his personal property, and thus attacking them is attacking him/taking away his toys.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    @Quinerly: I didn’t hear that. But then again, no charges were filed against Hillary and the Bros still put Hillary for Prison stickers on their cars, so I don’t know that it matters.

  69. 69.

    hueyplong

    I hope there are no indictments today. Let Trump stew over his written responses some more.

    Also too, Racist Uncle Thanksgiving will be so much more Schadenfreudelicious if the feast occurs within a news cycle or two of the hammer being dropped.

    Let’s enjoy the anticipation. I know of someone who is not enjoying it.

  70. 70.

    Bobby Thomson

    The form motion doesn’t necessarily mean Assange has been charged. Could mean there’s a motion in the can, or at least that someone was working on one.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    If it were just Stone, Corsi, et al, Trump would have no problem coffee boying them. He can’t exactly coffee boy his namesake.

    Which is sort of ironic, since out of that crew, Lying Littledick Junior is probably the one whose Peter Principle “terminal state” is coffee boy

  73. 73.

    Ben Cisco

    It’s a balmy 28° here this morning. The move has been completed, and now I’m just tightening things up around (read: inside) the house.

    Re: indictments – I’ll be happy for them when they get here; I like @JGabriel: ‘s take on the timeline.

    Have a great day and stay dry and warm!

  74. 74.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Isn’t there a scene in an Austin Powers movie where he’s chasing down the bad guy with a zamboni or other slow-moving vehicle? Watching Mueller approach must be like that for these guys. And even while you’re free and attending your screaming rallies, that thing is sloooowly getting closer and closer and closer.

    And that image makes me very, very happy.

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Trump has hundreds of millions of dollars at least. He could possibly be a multi-billionaire.

    And here I was, thinking that you don’t get to be called a “billionaire” unless your net worth is in excess of $1 Billion.

    Not that there would be any consequences* if I’m worng, but I would feel pretty confident to say Lying Littledick is not a billionaire. I’m guessing that he’s (probably) so leveraged and debt-ridden that any assets he may have — “may” because it’s not clear what, if anything, he actually owns — are (almost? totally?) balanced out by what he owes.

    *Well, no consequences outside of the slings and arrows of outrageous jackals.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    Amy Chozick
    ‏Verified account
    @amychozick
    Follow Follow @amychozick
    More
    From the studio that brought you The West Wing, The Wire and Friends….comes Chasing Hillary! I love television and could not be more excited about Warner Bros developing my book into a TV drama…

    NYTimes reporter who covered the Clinton campaign.

    We’re now in Year Thirty of the NYTimes profiting off their horrible, garbage coverage of Hillary Clinton. It’s two generations of employees now who have based entire lucrative careers on Clinton bashing.

    When you’re reading what will be garbage coverage of whoever opposes Trump in 2020, read it knowing that it’s ABOUT the reporters book and tv deal.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    I really can’t wait to see how the NYTimes reporter portrays Hillary Clinton in a tv series. Shrieking harpy control freak or scheming criminal?

    Isn’t there some statute of limitations on NYTimes pundits making bank on bashing the Clintons? I mean, Jesus. Enough.

  86. 86.

    Suburban Mom

    @JGabriel: I have no expertise about how the legal community times things, but no communications professional on earth would drop this right before the holiday weekend when major reporters are off eating turkey and the B team is covering fistfights at Walmart.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    As for Mueller, indictments might well have been filled weeks ago. Then it’s just a question of arresting people indicted who might be flight risks.

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    We’re now in Year Thirty of the NYTimes profiting off their horrible, garbage coverage of Hillary Clinton.

    30? I thought the FTFTFNYT didn’t start in on Hillary until 1992. Am I forgetting something? [Note: more than 25 years of that shit is still pretty effing bad. Fucking Pinch and Pinche.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    She wrote a “coming of age” book while supposedly “covering” the Clinton campaign. I mean, really. Pick a job. Don’t pretend to do one while actually doing another.

    People bash Maggie Haberman but Haberman didn’t provide the garbage coverage of Hillary Clinton- Chozick did- and she’s been richly rewarded for that lousy work. The worse they are the more they make. The incentives are all screwed up in that industry. It’s a failed market.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Like I said, if his debts are that big, he is REALLY screwed if his assets are taken.

    Yes, I read and understood that. My point was that he does not appear to be a billionaire, based on his debt level, and based on the idea that a lot of “his” properties appear to be owned by someone else — including some number which have his name is on them.

    Disclaimer: I really don’t spend a lot of time delving into his financials, this is just a case of my (possibly flawed) recollection of various stories that have appeared over the last 666 and more days.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The culminating scene will be Chelsea Clinton popping champagne- which Chelsea Clinton says Chozick invented.

    It doesn’t even ring true. Is there anyone on the face of the planet more reserved and guarded than Chelsea Clinton?

  94. 94.

    Platonailedit

    @Kay: I hope Hillary sues these scums for some royalty payments. After all, it’s her life story they are spinning/lying about. Drag these corrupt mofos to the court just like they do to harass and intimidate others.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t get it. I don’t get the media obsession with humiliating Hillary Clinton. A lot of people run for President and lose. Some of them more than once. How do they justify their treatment of Hillary Clinton as compared to their treatment of Mitt Romney?

    Just on basic human fairness grounds. Compare/contrast. Find a benchmark. A compass. “Is this sort of like Mitt Romney? If it is why do we kiss his ass and savage her?”

  98. 98.

    MattF

    There’s a pro-Trump video showing in the sideband, paid for by ’45committee’. You can’t tell it’s pro-T until the last shot and the credits– otherwise it’s just scenes of smiling, multi-racial happiness. Maybe the ratfu**ers are aware of something.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: God, that’s revolting. I didn’t buy Chozick’s stupid book, of course, but it was clear from the free excerpts published online that the protagonist was Chozick, abdicating her responsibility as a reporter to follow Clinton around and whine about her (Clinton’s) refusal to give Chozick the mommy approval Chozick craves.

    And Chozick & Co are this country’s elite reporters! Their peers would kill for a perch at the NYT! But they use their lofty positions to publicly act out their puerile Oedipal dramas. Like you said, a failed market. Burn it down and start over.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Maybe it’s her temperament – I don’t know- but it makes me a little sad how careful she is, has to be. Trump’s awful grown children are out there every day just expressing themselves all over the place and Chelsea Clinton has to be diplomatic.

    It doesn’t work anyway. They’re going to savage her and her family no matter how many good works she racks up, so I find myself hoping she’d just tell them to fuck off and find a profitable venture that doesn’t involve caricaturing her. But, again, maybe she’s just a really disciplined person.

  101. 101.

    MattF

    @Kay: Back in the days of ‘Mad dog’ Michael Kelley, I knew a couple of journalists. I used to ask them what their ‘Clinton’ problem was, and would just get a shrug in response.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yes, it’s a book about the author’s feelings about the candidate, with some half-assed social science thrown in.

    I genuinely believe this- in your job you have to periodically remind yourself what that job is. As a manager I have learned that 90% of people’s problems at work is when they are NOT doing their job, but instead doing some other job. They can be good people! They just got completely and utterly off track, to the point where they invented a job description and are doing that one instead of their work. It was Comey’s problem too. He was doing an entirely different job- one he invented. He was bad at the position he invented. He might have been good at his actual job- I don’t know- he wasn’t doing it.

    IMO, it comes from arrogance. A sense that the actual job isn’t worthy of ones extraordinary creative skills.

  105. 105.

    Amir Khalid

    @Balconesfault:
    When I try to think of actresses who resemble Hillary Clinton closely enough to play her in a movie, for some reason the only one I come up with is Nina Hartley. I feel so ashamed of myself.

  106. 106.

    WereBear

    Snowed in! And for once, I didn’t stock up, and we are down to our last few rolls of TP. While I had a bagel with roast beef and bacon for breakfast. Expecting more odd food combinations today: haven’t even heard the plows yet.

    Still, we have cat food and that is the one thing that can’t be substituted. Offering tuna results in plaintive faces: yes that’s nice, but where’s our FOOD?

  107. 107.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    I don’t get the media obsession with humiliating Hillary Clinton.

    Look at the sexual harassment scandals that have come out. National journalism is filled to the brim with misogyny, and as you know, there are plenty of women as bad as men in this regard. They hated Bill as white trash who dared take the throne from Reagan’s successor. They will never forgive Hillary for all of that, plus being a successful woman who unashamedly sought power, used it to help others, bested men (especially Republican men they admire) repeatedly, was smarter than them, and ran for president. She is the example of everything that must be put down before it can take away the privilege of men to do what they like to women. Now, add to that once the leaders set this tone and other people who didn’t have an issue based on Hillary’s gender became involved, that generated a personal hate. It’s like a high school clique. Costing her the presidency isn’t nearly enough, she has to be made an example. Oh, and she’s a woman, which triggers the misogynist’s ‘a vulnerable target who is safe and fun to attack’ instinct as well.

  110. 110.

    MattF

    @Frankensteinbeck: Also, some professional factors: it was what their editors wanted and it was what their peers in the media were saying and doing. And, of course, conventional wisdom.

  112. 112.

    OzarkHillbilly

    On Thursday night, former first lady and Melania Trump speechwriter Michelle Obama graced the couch of Jimmy Kimmel Live!

    Opening sentence from this at Daily Beast.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I have to do it myself. “Did I just spend half a day exchanging passive aggressive off-topic emails with the mediator?” While enjoyable and something I am good at it’s not what anyone is paying me to do. It’s shocking how quickly you can find yourself acting in a complete different capacity! :)

    “While it is TRUE that I know how Job and Family Services should be run it is also true that I am not their boss and can’t appoint myself and I’m off track”

    I think everyone should have a basic job description in front of them at all times. Who you work FOR, what is is you DO, that sort of thing.

  116. 116.

    Spanky

    @Kay: An astute observation, Kay. Sometimes it may be arrogance, but I think most times it’s that either they were never really informed of what their job is to begin with, or that they were never reminded/guided by their managers, Shepherded, if you will.

    Journalism! How the fuck does it work?

  120. 120.

    geg6

    @Suburban Mom:

    Yep. That’s why I think today would be perfect. Gives an entire weekend and a couple days before the holiday to really stir things up. Wouldn’t want to be eating Thanksgiving dinner with the Fake First Couple, would you?

  121. 121.

    tobie

    @Kay: is there any collective action we can take to stop this? I dunno ..identify every last company that buys advertising time on TimeWarner channels and pester them to death about advertising there until TimeWarner pulls this project. Who in their right mind would want to see a TV series on Chozick’s journey to adulthood while on the campaign trail?

  122. 122.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: That’s so true! I am lousy at managing people and only did it briefly a couple of times when pressured into it, but you’re right — the task is to keep people focused on doing their actual jobs. I didn’t understand that, which was why I sucked at management. And when I’ve fucked up in non-management jobs, it was invariably because I lost sight of the task. I’m guessing the insight you shared isn’t covered in MBA programs. It should be! :)

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @SFAW: burnt pasta? The FSM is aggressively tolerant, from what I can glean, but surely even the FSM has limits.

  128. 128.

    Gelfling 545

    @Mezz: Granddaughter is a sophmore in college. She says that between her American Media class, her gender studies classes and her American Foundations class it’s like the 24/7 news cycle replaying in her classes

  129. 129.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    I don’t get it. I don’t get the media obsession with humiliating Hillary Clinton.

    I’m guessing it’s because there is a market for it. Maybe the same people who buy Coulter’s books?

  130. 130.

    SFAW

    @Miss Bianca:

    burnt pasta? The FSM is aggressively tolerant, from what I can glean, but surely even the FSM has limits.

    No, I would never offend the FSM. I mean, I partake of the body (linguine) and the blood (marinara), so I’m a devout Pastafarian.

    I was thinking more along the lines of some fat Rethug, give him (or her) an idea of what’s waiting for him in Hell.

  131. 131.

    Manyakitty

    @Mike in DC: Don’t forget about Felix Sater. He’s been very quiet, but has cooperated. I think he was instrumental in helping to catch George Nader, the trump-affiliated child molester.

  133. 133.

    Yarrow

    @Amir Khalid: Doesn’t seem like a large number of complaints:

    According to NZQA 6,300 students were enrolled to sit the exam and the authority had received 13 complaints regarding it.

  136. 136.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    Max Blumental has a great long article about US White-Nationalist groups training in Ukraine. Pretty fascinating and disturbing. Might be worthy of a post by Cheryl/Adam. Cheers.

    Last month, an unsealed FBI indictment of four American white supremacists from the Rise Above Movement (RAM) declared that the defendants had trained with Ukraine’s Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia officially incorporated into the country’s national guard. The training took place after the white supremacist gang participated in violent riots in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California and Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.

    The indictment stated that the Azov Battalion “is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations.”

    After a wave of racist violence across America that culminated in the massacre of twelve Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the revelation that violent white supremacists have been traveling abroad for training and ideological indoctrination with a well-armed neo-Nazi militia should cause extreme alarm.

    Not only are white supremacists from across the West flocking to Ukraine to learn from the combat experience of their fascist brothers-in-arms, they are doing so openly — chronicling their experiences on social media before they bring their lessons back home. But U.S. law enforcement has done nothing so far to restrict the flow of right-wing American extremists to Azov’s bases.

    There is one likely explanation for the U.S. government’s hands-off approach to Azov recruitment: the extremist militia is fighting pro-Russian separatists as a front-line proxy of Washington. In fact, the United States has directly armed the Azov Battalion, forking over anti-tank rocket launchers and even sending a team of Army officers to meet in the field with Azov commanders in 2017.

    Though Congress passed legislation this year forbidding military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology, the Trump administration’s authorization of $200 million in offensive weaponry and aid to the Ukrainian military makes it likely new stores of weapons will wind up the extremist regiment’s hands. When queried by reporters about evidence of American military training of Azov personnel, multiple U.S. army spokespersons admitted there was no mechanism in place to prevent that from happening.

    Today, Azov boasts combat experience, unlimited access to light weapons, and supporters honeycombed throughout the upper echelons of Ukraine’s military and government. No longer just a militia, the organization has developed into a political juggernaut that can overpower Ukraine’s government. Two years ago, the group flexed its muscle on the streets of Kiev, bringing out 10,000 supporters to demand that the government bend to their will or face a coup.

    https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-backed-fascist-azov-battalion-in-ukraine-is-training-and-radicalizing-american-white-supremacists/251951/

  138. 138.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @laura: I’ve seen some of these RAM people at LA City and Board of Supervisors meetings. They are always wearing MAGA hats and creating chaos by yelling shit during the meetings. But remember, there's no connection between Trump and Nazi's and you'd be a fool and a Communist to think there is...

  139. 139.

    Captain C

    @Kay:

    How do they justify their treatment of Hillary Clinton as compared to their treatment of Mitt Romney?

    A) Hillary Clinton is obviously History’s Worst Monster. Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist, which is noble, or something. (Totally nothing to do with him being a man.) Just read their paper and their stories, which will tell you all about it..

    B) If they admit the truth that she’s not, they’d also be admitting that while a true fascist was running for power with the throaty backing of a nontrivial portion of the population, that not only did they stand aside and do nothing, but they abetted the fascist with their crappy, biased, incompetent rumor-mongering-disguised-as-reporting, so see A.

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