Courtesy of NBC’s YouTube channel, a live stream:
I hope it works. A brief on the hearing from The Post:
Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker is scheduled to appear Friday morning before the House Judiciary Committee — a high-stakes confrontation that was nearly canceled a day earlier in a standoff with Democratic lawmakers.
Lawmakers are expected to grill him about his decision not to recuse from overseeing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. They also plan to ask questions about Whitaker’s past businesses and his decision-making at the department since his appointment by President Trump in November.
Hope the Capitol maintenance crews finished digging the trenches and canals leading to the Flop Sweat Reservoir last night!
Do y’all expect fireworks from this committee hearing? I’m keeping my expectations low. Whitaker will be a footnote next week. But when Trump’s low-quality hires come before a committee, you never know — maybe he’ll blurt out all sorts of bald-faced lies and incriminating material.
Open thread!
Xboxershorts
Is it too early to break out the Jamesons?
Leto
I feel like I need to keep mine low too because most of Trumpov’s nominees have basically just refused to answer questions, run out time by spewing word salads of bullshit, or just evaded the questions altogether. But I am sort of hopeful that now that Dems are leading the committes that they won’t put up with the bullshit and will actually get answers to questions. Fingers crossed I guess.
Betty Cracker
@Leto: Yeah, and this guy seems even dumber and less disciplined than the average Trump hire. Maybe that’s unfair (it IS a low bar), but that’s the impression I got from the few public words he’s uttered.
waspuppet
Three hours of “Nobody did nothing you filthy cop.” From the attorney general. Which our “liberal” media will describe as “fiery.”
japa21
Don’t expect anything to really come out. Then Trump will tweet how this hearing totally exonerates him and how the Dems are wasting the people’s money on Presidential harassment. Then the media will ask why the Dems are wasting their time on hearings instead of governing. You know, just like they did when the GOP held 70 gazillion hearings just on Benghazi. Oh, wait…
chopper
heh
mapaghimagsik
Here’s hoping. I think they’ll need a naked guy with a mop to clean up the sweat and distract from the lies.
Yutsano
@Leto: @Betty Cracker: Your impression is not wrong. He’s barely got the legal acumen to be a federal attorney, much less the Department of Justice. The little tit for tat that happened was his whine to get let out of this please? Nahgunna happen Bubba. You have to sit just like the rest of them.
Oh man the Kavanaugh oversight hearings are gonna be lit.
Yarrow
I don’t expect much but I do think his flop sweaty visage will again adorn memes.
MJS
Can’t watch, but I expect him to do poorly. No one in this maladministration can think on their feet, or come across as even remotely likeable, so all the evasions I anticipate will lead to a significant number of mockable moments.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think that’s unfair at all, Betty. And knowing Whitaker is dumb, and knowing trumpov is, well, trumpov, you KNOW they have already discussed how best to kneecap the Special Counsel’s investigation. Whitaker may well end up running out of the room.
@Yutsano:
I just want them to drill down on what quid was pro-quoed to get Kennedy to step down, and on who paid off Kavanaugh’s debts. Oh and then I want Brett “sure I respect precedent” Kavanaugh fucking impeached.
Joey Maloney
From downstairs, I just posted that in his opening statement Nadler is going right for the, ahem, nads.
“The time for this administration to evade accountability is over.”
Joey Maloney
…I’m going to continue my practice of muting whenever a GOP member is speaking. Hypertension, donchaknow.
Lemme know if any of them say anything spectacularly-more-than-normally dumb or treasonous.
JPL
So I guess Whitaker in his written response said the majority of drugs in entering from the southern border as is most crime. The guy needs to work for Charlie to port a potty guy.
JPL
@Joey Maloney: lol Can’t help you because I do the same.
Mike R
Just caught a glimpse of the republican minority guy saying that a subpoena is a bad idea, but he is in the minority so who cares. This has been the republican position whenever they have a majority that minority members don’t count, so it is his turn to eat a bag of shit, hope he gags on it.
Walker
@Jeffro:
Impeachment is going to take a very different Senate — one that is at least a decade off. And if we ever get that Senate, heck we can go as far as making membership in the Federalist society grounds for impeachment.
JTL
They could start by asking him about all of the qualifications and experience he has that make him suitable to be acting AG of the US. That would be fun.
Mary G
@Joey Maloney: The ranking member is issuing a word salad about a travesty. “We ought to just set up a popcorn machine in the back.” “Dog and pony show.” “This is no way to run the railroad.”
Leto
@Yarrow: Flop sweat memes? Here you go. Here’s another.
Hopefully Whittaker’s watery visage will adorn those most searched images.
JPL
What are they voting on and why?
Joey Maloney
OMG, Louiesparagus is on this committee,
cope
Expectations = 0 on my part. Even though the entertainment value of watching Whitaker suffer, sweat and stammer is enticing, I will not watch or listen.
I must admit to a complete lack of understanding of how people like him think it is in any way in their best interest to clamber aboard the Trumptanic at this point.
JPL
@JPL: Motion to adjourn, otherwise known as a stalling tactic.
Mary G
@JPL: Republican moved to adjourn immediately because Whitaker isn’t going to be active past next week when Barr will be approved.
NotMax
Fireworks? No. Slow fuse? yes.
The Midnight Lurker
Anybody else catch the little smirk on Whitaker’s face when he said, “So help me God.”
I’m inviting him to poker night! Hope he brings a lot of cash.
Mary G
Gym Jordan looks awful.
Mike R
@cope: My take, nobody else will take him to play in the big leagues and he is so convinced he is special that he is blinded by ambition. Read something to the effect that the most dangerous people are half bright and wildly ambitious.
Joey Maloney
Omg, AAG Meatball just made a parity claim about Barr!
(Omg, I started 2 posts in a row with “omg”. Calm the fuck down.)
Raoul
@Mary G: Those are a lot phrases that mean “I got nothing.”
HeleninEire
LOL. He’s making a case for WALL.
Jeffro
@Walker: Never say never, or ‘a long way off’. =)
Considering what will come out about the trumpov crime cartel, it’s hard to say who will still stay on board post-SC report.
NotMax
“There is no doubt among our law enforcement community that the vast majority of illegal drugs are coming across our Southern border.”
Hope he’s wearing asbestos trousers.
Raoul
@HeleninEire: He is testifying for an audience of one.
Immanentize
@NotMax: well the southern border stretches from Pacific to the Atlantic….
Joey Maloney
@Immanentize: If only we had WALL around Miami.
The Midnight Lurker
Christ, Whitaker can’t even honestly answer if he has been briefed on Mueller’s report or not!
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
My understanding is that it’s not just perjury if you’re lying about a crime?
Joey Maloney
Oh, this is going to be a loooooooong day.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
isn’t that how Alexander Butterfield told the world about the tapes?
NotMaxn
Been a long time since I’ve seen him. Nadler must have dropped about 200 pounds.
Just Chuck
Does any of it matter even a little? He could stand up there and give his testimony in Russian about how he personally intends to destroy the United States of America and everyone will hem and haw and mutter and then move on to the next shiny object. We’re all just sitting around for Mueller to save our democracy, and I’m pretty fucking certain now there won’t be anything left to save. This is a show.
Mary G
Whitaker read his opening statement well, but now that he has to answer questions he is stalling and stammering.
The Midnight Lurker
Whitaker is Lex Luthor’s stupid twin.
HeleninEire
@The Midnight Lurker: Yeah. He is fumbling 5 minutes in. He is gonna be worth shit in 5 hours in.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Except Butterfield didn’t blurt that out. It had been agreed to in behind the scenes negotiations prior that he would reveal the information during open testimony.
The Midnight Lurker
Whitaker just told Nadler his five minutes is up. The gallery erupts in laughter.
Whitaker: ‘Shut up! Shut up! I’m here voluntarily!’
Ohhh, did you catch the way he just said ‘this committee’? Dripping with contempt.
NotMax
Doug Collins (R-Georgia) ticking off a laundry list of conspiracy memes.
Sab
How did he get through law school?
The Midnight Lurker
@Sab: Affirmative action.
NotMax
“This is not an oversight hearing, this is a rabbit chase.”
Fax from FOX must have been received and read.
JPL
Well I need to leave in ten minutes so I count on my fellow jackals to keep updating.
NotMax
@Sab
I you laid all the crappy lawyers end to end, you’d have lifetime job security.
Kay
If we stopped giving white collar criminals a slap on the wrist there would be far fewer low quality Trump hires to worry about.
The mechanism that is supposed to weed these people out and limit the damage they do is broken. That’s why the bad pennies keep turning up.
Our rallying cry could be “do NOT settle”. You wouldn’t have to bring them all to trial forever. They’d self-police if they saw associates doing time and at the very least they would remain in the criminal underworld and under rocks, which solves a lot of problems. Just need to stop them before they rise in the ranks. Quality control.
Anonymous At Work
@The Midnight Lurker: Committee needs to take a party-line vote to modify the Chair’s “5 minutes” to fit whatever timeframe the Chair wants. Reminder the Possibly-Illegally Acting Attorney General who is in command.
Jeffro
@NotMax: Who said that? Surely not Whitaker???
NotMax
@Jeffro
Rep. Collins, ranking member of the committee.
Betty Cracker
@Just Chuck: I am haunted by the same thoughts.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Or, just “rank” member depending on your view….
Jeffro
These #NeverTrumpers are starting to get on my nerves with their concern trolling. Even the usually on-point J-Rubs needs to go back to trumpov-bashing: 3 Rules for Dems to Keep From Falling off a Cliff
Um, we seem to be doing ok appealing to our party and a majority of (bless them) “Independents”, J. Our ideas DO unify the party, thanks.
Oh ffs…”bold moderation”? THAT’LL win us an election, fer sure…
We’re not LWNJs, Ms. Rubin. We’re the center-center party, and we’ve got this. But thanks for the concern…
Immanentize
@Just Chuck: So the 2018 elections were meaningless to you?
NotMax
@Immanentize
Have no prior familiarity with him but he does come across as a consummate dunderhead.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: When I read an article like that, I think that they are seeing how far the Republicans have fallen and how much they have lost. Sure, Rubin couches it in bashing the “the Left” (while saying don’t sign on to bumper stickers), but the message is, at bottom, “Republicans got nothing.”
Immanentize
@NotMax: The cream is not rising….
Cheap Jim
@Jeffro: I’m old enough to remember when Ms Rubin got all het up one Friday night and exclaimed that the killer we all later learned was Anders Breivik MUST be a death squad of wicked Muslim jihadis. She may not like the president’s style, but she is still a Republican idiot.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: FYI, played the safe money yesterday and went to Regina, which was voted a good choice.
Mary G
@Kay: That is what was so infuriating about the Obama/Holder administration’s dealings with the banks after 2008. Instead of criminal proceedings they mostly just settled for big fines, which compared to the profits they made after ruining so many people’s lives were chump change. They said they didn’t think they could get convictions, but throwing the book at a couple of the worst offenders, even if there were acquitted in the end would have applied the disinfectant of shining a light on the motherfuckers and sent a message that they were on the side of the people. I think that was a factor in losing the 2010 and 2014 congressional elections, if not as big as the healthcare law, but still substantial.
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: Agreed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: I may warm up to this Booker fella
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I saw you were at the game! Woo Hoo — what a doozy to see. Regina is always good, but so are so many there.
Mike in NC
Does Whitaker even have a law degree? Trump is famous for impulsively offering jobs to unqualified morons. Maybe Whitaker was a heel at some WWE event and caught Fat Bastard’s gnat-like span of attention.
Keith P.
Anyone know if #bigdicktoilet is trending yet?
dww44
@NotMax: Collins is from Northeast Georgia area and represents area around I-85 near Gainesville. In many respects North Georgia (north of I-85, I-20, and Atlanta), politically, has always been more vociferously red than other parts of the state. Largely because for most of the state’s history there weren’t very many African-Americans who lived there.
Hence, the powers within the state GOP largely hail from that area. That’s where the recently ex governor Nathan Deal hails from. Albeit he seems, in retrospect, to be far less extreme and anti-democratic than the current governor,who was born in Athens, just south of I-85.
Kay
@Mary G:
I do too. The argument fundamentally does’t make sense, from a broader “justice” view. If they can’t convict them of anything then they shouldn’t be fining them. They’ve managed to completely lose the point. They’ve detached the punishment from the wrongdoing. People aren’t wrong when they ascertain, even vaguely, this is a transaction completely detached from notions of guilt and innocence. The wrongdoers see it that way and so does the public, and they’re right! It’s a deal. That’s all it is. The defendants may as well pass them a bag of cash in a parking lot and call it day.
Every single time they do it they erode the basic idea. The “institution” they all claim to value.
And now we have a BIG ‘ol pile of bad pennies and they’re running the country.
Just Chuck
@Immanentize: I think the next couple years will show them to be meaningless. Hearings are not nearly enough, and legislation simply will not happen.
joel hanes
@NotMax:
he does come across as a consummate dunderhead
High school and college footballer: Iowa Hawkeye tight end.
MBA.
Likely brain damage; likely got academic preference based on athletic capability.
Mary G
Fahrenthold and a couple of other WaPo writers just put up a big investigative piece on Twitler’s years and years of hiring illegal immigrants and paying them bupkis.
Fuck with our publisher? We buy ink by the barrel as the old saw went.
Immanentize
@Just Chuck:
This is the hyperbole with which I am taking issue .
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Belichick was at the game too. He had better seats than I did. So did Garnett, sitting courtside wearing a Rajon Rondo Celtics jersey, which was quality shade until the last half-second of the game.
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
WH is down to D-/F team now.
Barbara
@Mary G: Look, I always hate to say this, but the scandal of 2008 isn’t that people got away with illegal behavior it’s that most of what they were doing that ultimately caused complete financial meltdown wasn’t illegal. Almost none of it. This constant drumbeat against Holder and Obama is totally misplaced. They would have prosecuted if they could. This is our kind of fabulism, where we persuade ourselves that all we need to combat out of control financial wizardry is better prosecutors.
@Kay: You can fine banks and financial institutions for civil violations but prosecutors only go after criminal wrongdoing. The fines resulted mostly from violations of banking and securities regulations but criminal prosecution for such stuff requires violation of a criminal statute.
Immanentize
Just a perspective here — I really don’t think a cabinet member has to reveal any discussions with the President. But it is the President that has to claim executive privilege — the witness cannot. That was what was so squirrelly about Sessions when he testified. He claimed he was refusing to answrer because the President at a later time might claim privilege. That is not how it works.
The Midnight Lurker
Albert Finney died. Can’t seem to post this comment though.
There it is!
The squeaky wheel…
Turner Hedenkoff
@Jeffro: I think there’s a better case for impeaching Gorsuch first. After all, receiving stolen property is a felony in DC.
brendancalling
@Jeffro: J-Rubs is a piece of shit who carried Mitt Romney’s water shamelessly. The only reason she’s anti-Trump is the same reason Broder/Parker/etc were anti-Clinton: “he trashed the place and it’s not his place to trash” (or whatever the comment was). Otherwise she is no different from the awful piece of shit she was in 2012.
J-Rubs will be back to her old awful self the minute a Democrat is elected. She is, at best, like Stalin in WW2: a US ally of convenience.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Did Belichik give a presser afterwards? I like the shade. Games like that are so awesome at so many different levels. 129-128 — whoa!
Mary G
@Barbara: That may be so, but like Kay said why would they pay fines if they were so innocent? I’m talking about the message people took from that politically.
Barbara
@Mary G: Because there is a difference between agreeing to pay civil penalties and pleading guilty to a criminal charge.
Gin & Tonic
@The Midnight Lurker: Although I haven’t seen the film since it came out, I still remember his performance in Under the Volcano.
Immanentize
@Mary G: The fines were generally just considered a cost of doing business. Cheaper, if you will, then spending years fighting criminal charges. Also, when you pay a fine, Companies always state that they are admitting NO wrongdoing. Not one company was in any meaningful way hurt by the fines collected.
Barbara
@Mary G: Because editing is off, I couldn’t edit the above:
Paying fines is definitely an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, however piously parties negotiate wording to the contrary, but “innocence” and “guilt” are constructs that apply to criminal statutes. You can violate regulatory requirements without being “guilty” of criminal violations.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G: @Barbara: Also, I’m not so sure that people who couldn’t figure out who was on whose side in the financial crisis would have been persuaded by trial transcripts written up in the NYT. And would those hypothetical trials have even started by Nov, 2010?
ETA: and IANAL, but people on TV say Bob Menendez got off because Bob McDonnell’s acquittal set a precedent. Would those hypothetical acquittals been a gift to Wall St?
Cheap Jim
@The Midnight Lurker: Has anyone checked the movements of the passengers in the Calais coach?
Barbara
@Immanentize: The problem I have with the drumbeat of comments like Mary G’s (and I promise, I mean nothing personal to Mary G.) is that it diverted blame for the crisis to Obama and Holder for failing to prosecute rather than keeping the focus on the need for more and better regulation. To put it differently, Bush went gangbusters after Arthur Anderson for the Enron fallout and nothing changed because all the regulatory pieces that made Enron possible stayed in place — bamboozling conflicted rating agencies, debt accounting that didn’t provide a clear picture of an entity’s true financial status, and so on. Indeed, in my view, that criminal prosecution was calculated to avoid doing anything that would change the regulatory framework. If you want to make yourself sick read the Trustee in Bankruptcy’s report on Enron.
Immanentize
@Cheap Jim: That’s the version where Ingrid Bergman talks about “the little brown babies.”
schrodingers_cat
@Just Chuck: Your concern is noted.
The Midnight Lurker
@Gin & Tonic:
@Cheap Jim:
“STOP THAT TRAIN!!!”
Cheryl from Maryland
@The Midnight Lurker: I urge all Albert Finney fans to watch Gumshoe, Stephen Frier’s directorial debut. Finny plays a nightclub comedian who takes steps to fulfill his dream to emulate Sam Spade. With the great Billie Whitelaw and Frank Finlay.
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: Why not both? Regulatory overhaul and criminal prosecutions for the most egregious offenders like Bank of America?
Salty Sam
@Just Chuck:
So, I’m curious what you think would be the path forward from here?
Or are you suggesting we just roll over and take our deserved licks from our Repub betters…?
Immanentize
@Barbara: I know what you were saying and I agree! But I think there is room for both to be correct. You are absolutely right that the regulatory structure was so weakened at that point that it was really hard to find (and try) the criminal acts. Also, I think the Obama administration was so focused on preventing collapse, that they may have treated the bad actors more lightly than necessary to keep the financial institutions on board and not jumping (figuratively, although….) I mean, everyone was saying that the failure to bail out Lehman brothers was what caused the crash (crazy, I know). But back to Kay’s bigger point — there need to be more and constant financial firm prosecutions NOT in the context of crisis. Look at Wells Fargo. Plenty of fraud there and no individual prosecutions? No one in prison? There are the tools to do that, for sure. Even if we went after the little guys (which seems unjust, I know), little people in those firms would stop taking those risks. Or at least that is how it is supposed to work.
The Midnight Lurker
@Cheryl from Maryland: Great picture! I own it!
germy
This is a long recess.
Are we sure Whitaker didn’t climb out a bathroom window?
Gelfling 545
@cope: I quess because they can’t get honest work?
Immanentize
@Cheryl from Maryland: For me, the Cohen Bros.’ Miller’s Crossing is the greatest Finney film.
Mnemosyne
@Just Chuck:
If we were all sitting around waiting for Mueller to save us, the Republicans would still be running the House.
Raven
@Cheryl from Maryland: Orphans was really good too.
Immanentize
@germy: I am now going to call Whitaker “the five minute man.”
The Midnight Lurker
Annnnd… we’re back!
Joey Maloney
Looks like we’re fixing to get started again. I hope Meatball powdered his head.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t think BOA was the worst offender 10 years ago.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
I dunno, I think she’s right about the first point, but that’s probably because “leftists” keep screaming that I’m an old centrist white woman whenever I ask them if Medicare For All will have the same monthly fee as current Medicare. ?
The Midnight Lurker
He’s turning red now.
Dorothy A. Winsor
For entertainment, you can read Wonkette’s live blog of this hearing. A sample:
Emma
@Immanentize:
IIRC, a lot of those issues can be traced to the “corporations are people” b_llsh_t.
Barbara
@Immanentize: I am not arguing that we shouldn’t prosecute corporate defendants and I agree that Wells Fargo was a missed opportunity. Obama went after BNP Paribas, although that was for its flagrant flouting of different laws, including protecting individual wrongdoing from criminal prosecution by essentially running out the statute of limitations.
Mandalay
@brendancalling:
Indeed, but she is far worse than that. She is a vile, fucking racist, right up there with the David Dukes and Stephen Millers in her hatred, except her target is Arabs, and Palestinians in particular.
Yet we have knuckle draggers here who cheerfully support her because she makes cogent arguments against Trump. Just as the oh-so-reasonable Steve Schmidt was gone in a New York minute the moment he had the opportunity to run the Schultz campaign, Rubin would immediately attack any Democrat who promoted policies supporting Palestinians if they had any danger of succeeding.
Republicans who hate Trump are not your friends. They are Trojan Horse enemies who are more presentable and less stupid than Trump, who will stab Democrats in the back when the time is right. Don’t give any of these opportunistic scumbags the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
The Midnight Lurker
Five point deduction for overuse of ‘stylish reading glasses’.
And is he trying to hide behind the pile of water bottles?
He should hide them under the table, like Trump. And then Pence a second later.
WaterGirl
@Keith P.: Hmm, at the risk of getting too specific, I will confess that I thought it was more of a big balls toilet. Am I wrong on that? I have clearly never given much thought to what happens to the dangly parts when a guy sits on a toilet.
Frankensteinbeck
@schrodingers_cat:
Because like Barbara said, you can’t criminally prosecute someone who didn’t commit a crime. All that lying to investors and selling crap mortgage bundles as A rank stuff? Not fraud. Yes, it sounds like fraud and morally is fraud. Legally, not fraud. Robosigning? Not a crime. Sure, a violation of procedure that threw the legality of the mortgages in doubt, but a judge decided to uphold them. Criminal penalties were never an option there. All the horrible stuff that caused the crash was 100% legal, because that’s the whole reason Republicans deregulate, to make things that should be crimes legal. There were a few crimes around the edges, but this ‘The bankers should have been thrown in jail to prevent further abuses’ is a fantasy, because there was never anything to throw them in jail for.
You make new regulations so that you can throw them in jail in the future.
The Midnight Lurker
Uh-oh! It’s Rep. Jackson-Lee (TX-18) asking questions! Now you’re going see some shit.
She went to Yale.
OMG! This is an ASS WHOOPIN’!
Uncle Cosmo
@The Midnight Lurker: “Affirmative action?” For a Whitey deRighty-Whitest, more like deformative action.
germy
@Mnemosyne: I think the slogan is Improved Medicare For All
I recall Hillary’s plan was to lower the Medicare age to 55. Which would have been a nice start.
Mike E
@WaterGirl: gravity is a beeyotch, and makes fools of us all
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
That’s only because you’ve never seen Two For The Road with Finney and Audrey Hepburn.
Immanentize
@Barbara: I think most of the “white collar” prosecutions these days are for flagrant money laundering acts. That is probably because the law — because war on drugs — is so nicely settled. We could have had a better regulatory world emerging if Hillary had won and the CFPB was allowed to do its job. But I am hoping that is a setback rather than a complete fail, because the Republicans haven’t really messed with the CFPB legislation, on the theory, I guess, that just having control of the agency was enough. They missed their chance now.
A boy can dream.
tobie
@Mnemosyne: I’m not sure she’s entirely wrong about the second point either. The GND is non-binding, and the original provision for a Select Committee was removed, but there’s still stuff in it about a universal basic income that will make life difficult for House members in swing districts and may do more damage than good in getting people to commit to decarbonization. Weaning ourselves of fossil fuels is absolutely necessary but claiming it’s cost free is absurd.
The Moar You Know
@Mandalay: Pretty sure most folks here know this. What Dems will have to learn is when is the right time to take your “ally of convenience” out for a short walk and shove a knife between their ribs. Republicans are much better at this than Dems are.
Immanentize
@Mnemosyne: Okay. I love that film too. In part because I have a big Audrey Hepburn crush — when I was a public defender in the 80’s I had a postcard picture of her on my desk and told people she was my GF. Only 1 in 10 were fooled, but that was a high ignorance rate, we thought.
Uncle Cosmo
@Just Chuck: You coulda stopped after “I think,” because we all know that’s an untruth, asshole.
misterpuff
@joel hanes: Thomas “Herc” Hauk Clone.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
We’re actually better off expanding Medicaid because it’s used to covering the kind of people who currently lack coverage (i.e. young people, some of whom may become pregnant) but what do I know? I’m just an old centrist white woman. ?♀️
The Midnight Lurker
@Immanentize: You we’re a PD in the 80’s?!! I was a PI!!!
Fleeting Expletive
Oh no, that little shit is dancing like a drop o’ grease on a hot griddle, ain’t he? Barbara Lee ain’t havin’ it, his stalling and chewing up her time. Nadler has already admonished him. Is he just trying for a contempt finding? I wish Nadler would either find him in contempt or suspend the five minute rule.
Now, Gym Jordan’s gonna waltz.
Doug R
@Walker:
Not when Individual 1 starts polling at 27%. Remember how happy Mitch was at the SOTU?
eric
@Mnemosyne: Big Fish. (Millers Crossing is in my top 5 favorite movies.)
Gelfling 545
@Mnemosyne: Well said!
germy
@Mnemosyne: I agree with you about Medicaid.
My hope, basically, is that when it comes time to go off our employer insurance, the person I sit down with to set up a plan isn’t there to extract as much profit from me as possible while providing me with as few benefits as possible.
Whether they want to call it medicare or medicaid or universal healthcare is fine with me. As long as my experience trying to obtain health insurance isn’t like my experience at the car dealership.
germy
Whitaker: “Pay no attention to all the shit I said on the cable shows.”
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: This toilet stuff is some kind of a joke, isn’t it? I mean, if your “dangly bits” are large enough that use of a standard toilet is a problem, you’re going to be unable to walk.
Long shaggy dog story about two old farmers walking home after a night of drinking, stop on a bridge to pee. They whip it out, first one says “ooh, that water is cold” so the second says “yeah, it’s deep, too.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Gin & Tonic: Read it and laugh.
Kay
@Barbara:
The argument is that the facts they stipulated to in the settlements on the civil actions constitute enough to charge them with crimes or at least pursue a criminal investigation jumping off the civil violations, and that wasn’t done because there is a “too big to jail” mentality:
There is no “livelihood” or “shareholder” analysis in prosecution of blue collar criminals. They knock down the door and drag them away.
Year after year of avoiding disruption has led us here. We’re like lazy parents who won’t discipline the 10 year old because he’ll get mad at us and then 5 years later we wonder why the 15 year old is completely out of control. If the consequences of this behavior is people lose their jobs and shareholders lose value there will be less of the behavior. Putting that off forever isn’t going to work anyway. Instead we’ll just get a spectacular, systemic crash.
The Midnight Lurker
Now it’s America’s stupidest Representative Louie Gohmert (TX -1).
Watch your asperagus.
And did you catch Whitaker’s response to Louie’s welcome?
“Good to see you again, Congressman.”
Gohmert is going to talk through his entire 5 minutes. AND HE DID!
frosty
@Kay:
I never thought of it that way. Love it! Keep hammering on this theme, you’re absolutely right.
dww44
@Mnemosyne: I loved that movie and never expected to. One of my favorites.
Uncle Cosmo
And@Barbara: And the difference is that The Plutocracy(R) can always find the $$$ so that they (or their trusted minions) can skate.
This is the ground truth: The Plutocracy(R) is probably not a yooooge fan of the Handmaids’-Tale society the fundanazis want to install here, but they are serenely confident that a sufficient application of ca$h will always manage to buy them out of the ugly consequences. (E.g., abortion made illegal in all 50 states? Daddy’s little girl with child via an inconvenient male? Well hey, she’s off on an impromptu European vacation with a couple of days scheduled in Amsterdam resting comfortably after a “procedure.”)
Gin & Tonic
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow.
tobie
@germy: apparently Cory Booker said today that in 2009 Dems were one vote short for a Medicare buy-in at 55, and that one vote was Joe Lieberman. That sanctimonious prick should rot.
Regarding ease of achieving universal coverage, I still think the German model would work best in the US, but it would rely on regulating the insurance market in ways private hospitals, insurance companies and big pharma would fight tooth and nail. The next fight on this is going to be epic. The GOP has dropped any pretense of caring about anything but sticking it to Democrats.
oatler.
@Fleeting Expletive: Shit’s gettin shouty and real!
The Midnight Lurker
The Republican’s want to talk about ANYTHING other than the Mueller investigation!
If they’re going to carry this much water for Whitaker, they’re going to need a bigger boat!
Or a ‘masculine toilet’.
tobie
@Uncle Cosmo: I think you’re right about the plutocrats. What gets me is the white working class’s diehard support for a group of fat cats that has nothing but contempt for those trying to make ends meet.
Emerald
@tobie:
And in fact, it was Joe Lieberman who originally proposed a Medicare buy-in at 55. Which shows you just how compromised Lieberman became.
I still mourn that Al Gore’s presidency was stolen from him (it might have saved the planet), but I am heartily happy that Joe Lieberman did not become Vice President.
Citizen Alan
@Emerald:
I actively blame Lieberman for Gore’s loss. There’s no way Gore loses FL by less than 600 votes with Bill Nelson as his running mate.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I think maybe you mean that anyone who would actually buy the stupid toilet is a joke?
Loved your joke. I have heard it before but I still laughed. It’s a good one.
jacy
@Immanentize:
Agreed. Miller’s Crossing is one of those films that if I catch part of it for some reason, I’m compelled to stop and watch the whole thing. Finney was great.
The Midnight Lurker
Congressman Deutch (FL-22): “First day of law school, they taught us to answer a yes or no question directly and not repeat the question – it makes you look like a bad lawyer.”
Whitaker: “We didn’t go to the same law school.”
germy
@Citizen Alan: Whose idea was it to pick Lieberman? I’ve always wondered what Gore was thinking.
Kay
@Barbara:
At least explain it to people. I’m no longer buying it but they could put forth an explanation for this jarring, gaping gulf between what relatively powerless individuals experience in the justice system and what powerful people experience or, alternatively, don’t explain, and lose all credibility.
This thing runs on consent. It runs on voluntary compliance with laws and rules. 99% of people comply because that is the deal. If it isn’t the deal they will stop complying and then they won’t be able to hire enough cops and prosecutors to catch them all. When they worry about the shareholders of bad actors, what does that say to the shareholders of good actors? If Wells Fargo cheats and gets away with it why should their competitors voluntarily comply? Once they lose that kind of “herd immunity” to lawbreaking and it spreads they won’t be able to regain it, because it was grounded in trust.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I expect Trump to fire Whittaker next week because Trump doesn’t like bald men so not sure the point of these hearings. .
Mike in NC
Whitaker is one very thirsty liar.
Another Scott
@Barbara: +1.
There wasn’t enough of people being frog-marched off to prison, but the Obama administration did go after a lot of financial fraud.
The lesson is we need better laws, not that Obama was too easy on the banksters.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Midnight Lurker
…sip some water, fiddle with your glasses, ask them to repeat the question, sip some more water…
PROPS to Whitaker!
brendancalling
@Mandalay: I believe J-Rubs has in fact left the GOP, but everything you say is spot on.
Unlike many who have welcomed her (and troglodytes like Schmidt, Rick Wilson, Bill Kristol and the rest of the now-homeless Republicans who can’t stomach Trump), I trust her about as far as I can throw her, and my upper body strength ain’t so good.
germy
What just happened? They’re voting on a point of order?
trollhattan
@brendancalling:
She’s…useful at present with a genuine ability to lay the wood to Trump and his minions. Before I believe that she’s had a permanent change of political stripe I want to hear her denounce Likud and Bibi. (Don’t think there’s any way to disrupt her girlcrush on Willard, but we all have our inexplicable soft spots.)
RAVEN
Orphans
The Midnight Lurker
@germy: Congresswoman Bass (CA-33) asked Whitaker why 46 Democrats have been targeted for ‘ethics violations’ but no Repubs. Chris Collins (NY-27) had a shit fit!
Now a call for a five-minute break.
Whitaker: “Only five minutes for lunch?”
This is fucking awesome!
germy
“yes, no, maybe, I don’t know, can you repeat the question?”
germy
@The Midnight Lurker: I thought Chris Collins was going to punch his mic across the room.
No offense to all Southern jackals, but why is most of the mischief in government done by white men with southern accents?
Maybe the confederates should have been given their own country after all.
The Midnight Lurker
@germy:
None taken. I say we hang those fuckers.
burnspbesq
@NotMax:
That’s probably true, as far as it goes. But it’s so incomplete as to be severely misleading.
dww4
@brendancalling:I’m not in your camp vis-a-vis the anti-Trumpers. I think that all along I’ve kept my inner belief that this is all temporary with them. However, I do think that Rubin has been better than many and her accolades in the WP op-ed the other day on Abrams’ SOTU Democratic response made me quite happy. Yes, the piece mentioned in this thread smacks once more of concern trolling. However there are any number of lifelong progressive centrists who are whistling the same tune.
Salty Sam
@germy:
It appears to me that the minority members of this committee don’t quite understand the meaning of the word “minority”, and what that means in terms of the rules in play here.
The Midnight Lurker
@Salty Sam: Oh, they understand the word ‘minority’ alright.
Don’t let those nasty black women ask the po’ white boy any questions.
raven
@germy: sounds like a yankee now
piratedan
@Salty Sam: considering how they behaved when they had control of the House over the last four years, they’re lucky that they weren’t given wedgies and tape over their mouths when sitting on these committees, they sure had no issue dropping their rules and protocols hammers when they had the gavels.
germy
Steeplejack
Goddamn it, as if there weren’t enough reasons to hate Whitaker, he just referred to “General Sessions.”
The attorney general is not a general. You can call him “Mr. Attorney General” or “Attorney General Sessions” or “the KKKeebler Elf.” But not “General Sessions”!
raven
Fucking broken down 66 year old man!!
dww4
@Salty Sam: Well, sadly speaking, they’ve every reason to behave as if they were in the majority, if for no other reason than that they have so little experience in actually being the minority party. How many years in the 2000’s? 4 or 6, max, maybe?
Plus, the modern GOP has behaved this way ever since the advent of Newt and his minions. There’s no going back to an era of comity, fairness, or reasonableness with them. They are simply mirroring their base by ginning up a continual frenzy. Now, if we could just perfect the technique of shutting them down.
Mnemosyne
@Salty Sam:
Oh, they understand. That’s why they don’t like it. ?
raven
@Steeplejack: This motherfucker couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him a C.
germy
“you know what? never mind. Let’s keep going”
WaterGirl
@raven: Is Whitaker 66? Or are you referring to someone else?
The Midnight Lurker
Cedric Richmond (LA-2): “How many voter fraud cases have you investigated?”
Whitaker: “I’ll get back to you.”
Steeplejack
Okay, had to turn it off. Almost as bad as Whitaker are the grandstanding and/or inept questioners.
Cedric Richmond (D-LA) was trying to get Whitaker to admit that the “DOJ” was founded in 1957? Clearly he meant something else—even Whitaker tried to help him out by suggesting “Civil Rights Division?”—but Richmond waved him off and plowed ahead.
germy
Oh good, a folksy lady republican: “Gosh, this whole thing is a waste of time”
“Now let’s get to my one cause, forced birth.”
Cheryl from Maryland
@The Midnight Lurker: Me too! Also own Tom Jones. Best thing was, I saw Finney live at London’s National Theater as Macbeth, directed by Peter Hall.
The Midnight Lurker
Congressman Jeffries (NY-8): “I want to know how the hell did you get to be Attorney General of the United States!”
Whitaker: “I… I… I…”
Jeffries: “That was a statement, not a question. Just so YOU know the difference.”
OUCH!!!
raven
@WaterGirl: These punks keep talking about Stone.
Steeplejack
This is definitely justifying my time spent on Big Beach Builds as not a waste.
The Midnight Lurker
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Okay… I’m jealous.
germy
@raven: I wish someone had explained Stone was all over social media shooting guns and waving guns and talking about federal agents. Maybe that’s why his arrest went the way it did.
WaterGirl
@raven: Oh. Got it, thanks.
Salty Sam
@Mnemosyne:
…and why *I* do like it.
It’ll be quite awhile before I get tired of this much winning…
The Midnight Lurker
Now David Cicilline (RI-1) is bringing the whip! He will NOT let Whitaker dodge or obfuscate.
Whitaker is slinking down in his seat, his coat bunched up in the back. Heh.
germy
Sanctuary cities was the reason for this hearing?
The Midnight Lurker
I swear… I go to the bathroom and come back and a near fight has broken out. Can’t tell who’s yelling at who.
Fair Economist
This hearing is going to do wonders for Trump’s recruiting. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy excusing the inexcusable like dear Matt is having to?
Yutsano
@The Midnight Lurker: Do they get some kind of weird bonus for acting like even more petulant children than their immature sniveling boss? For serious: what kind of adult does that in the middle of a Congressional hearing?
trollhattan
@The Midnight Lurker:
Bwa-ha-ha! I hope Colbert/Bee/Oliver snap that up and have a field day.
Yutsano
@germy: To quote Wonkette:
EDIT: Swalwell caused the fight? Oh damn I do NOT have enough popcorn in the office for this…
Immanentize
@The Midnight Lurker:
I got a little excited that you meant that literally.
NotMax
Whitaker: “I am not a puppet.”
The Midnight Lurker
@trollhattan: To hell with those guys – next week will be their easiest ever. “Just roll the tape!”
I want to see how Faux News is goin’ spin this shit.
The Midnight Lurker
@Yutsano:
Orville fucking Redenbacher doesn’t have enough popcorn for this shitshow!
--bd
@germy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxjch16fSKk
Ladyraxterinok
@germy: IIRC he was a dem who’d spoken vs BillClinton during impeachment proceedings. Somebody (who??) thought picking him would mitigate against fact Gore was Bill’s Veep.
All to throw sops to people who felt Bill was big bad sinner because of Monica. Some thought Liebermann came off super moral and countered the ‘immoral’ Bill!
The GOPers weren’t going to vote for Gore anyway.
And don’t forget–the ‘liberal’ media couldn’t stand the fact that Gore was/is super intelligent. Who’d want to drink a beer with a guy who’s smarter than you!?! You couldn’t catch his simplist references! And would lose stature in your own eyes.
debit
Did all the republicans leave the room?
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Wow. He’s quoting his lord and master, Darth Donald.
Trump to Clinton: ‘No, You’re the Puppet’
germy
@debit: It’s one Democratic questioner now after another. I love it.
debit
@germy: I get the impression that he’s been abandoned. He’s not getting a break with easy, fluffing questions. This has got to be brutal. Heh heh heh.
NotMax
@germy
Was impressed by Ms Scanlon.
germy
@debit: @NotMax: Interesting questions now about cannabis.
The Midnight Lurker
@debit: Most have. Probably at lunch already, slapping themselves on the back for a job well done.
Meanwhile… poor, poor Matt. All alone. With just his reading glasses and mountain of water bottles to comfort him.
Putz.
brendancalling
I missed part 2. Yelling?? Who yelled?
Tenar Arha
@tobie:
Or, TLDR; racism is a helluva drug.
NotMax
Hearing ends with Nadler on the record laying the groundwork for a subpoena.
The Midnight Lurker
Okay, Matt… that’s lunch.
Five minutes!
Brachiator
@Tenar Arha:
Thanks for the LBJ quote. It’s sad to have to acknowledge that it is dead on what LBJ said, and sadder that it is an accurate assessment of racist fools.