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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Trump Crime Cartel / Cohen Revelations

Cohen Revelations

by $8 blue check mistermix|  February 27, 20198:28 am| 109 Comments

This post is in: Trump Crime Cartel

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My Twitter feed is blowing up with new Cohen revelations:

  • Cohen will show an August 2017 check signed by Trump where he repaid Cohen for the Stormy Daniels hush money.
  • Josh Marshall is highlighting 4 key pages of Cohen testimony, including Cohen’s allegation that Roger Stone told Trump about the Wikileaks email dump before it occurred. Trump told Mueller that he didn’t know about the email dump prior to release.
  • Here’s a good thread (via Cheryl’s Twitter) on other revelations.  Key among them is that, in Mueller’s sentencing memo for Cohen, he said that what Cohen told his team was consistent with other evidence gathered by Mueller.

The key point is that Mueller knows everything Cohen will say today, and more, and he has it from people other than a goofy serial liar like Cohen.

Also, that asshole Matt Gaetz, the guy who threatened Cohen with revelations about his mistresses, rolled over and submissively urinated last night after Nancy Pelosi called him out.

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Previous Post: « The Senate, the 2020 Democratic Primary and health plans
Next Post: Michael Cohen’s House Oversight Committee Testimony Live Stream »

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    hueyplong

    February 27, 2019 at 8:31 am

    My kind of post.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    February 27, 2019 at 8:32 am

    Fuckin’ A.

  3. 3.

    A Ghost To Most

    February 27, 2019 at 8:37 am

    Let’s get this party started. Act III begins.

  4. 4.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 8:41 am

    Attention jackals and good morning! Quit yer bitchin’ because today is a day to celebrate!

    Michael ‘The Rat’ Cohen is headed to Capital Hill this a.m. to testify. The NYT got ahold of his opening statement and HOLY SHIT!!!! Most of this stuff we knew but to see it dressed out is still stunning. And in case any of Trump’s toadies scream ‘liar!’, Cohen has informed us he’s bringing DOCUMENTS!

    And if that not enough to put a smile on your face, listen up! Dumbass Congresscreep Matt Gaetz tried to intimadate Cohen via tweet and Nancy crushed his manhood into paste. Walk back? Run back! They’re talking about felony charges!!

    Mark Harris won’t be seeking re-election in NC-09 because of health problems that casued him to commit voter fraud in the first place. Problem is, the GOP isn’t completely sure they can get him off the ballot in the upcoming special election because of a new law these same GOP dumbasses signed into law last year! Cosmic Karma – what a bitch!

    And while the NC GOP tries to undo their own law, this guy decides he’s running anyway. No, seriously! This guy!

    http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/mark-harris-wont-run-in-nc-09-backs-stony-rushing.html

    Get some popcorn! Get some champaign! And smile!

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 27, 2019 at 8:43 am

    I suspect Cohen’s testimony will be much ado about shit we already know. The fireworks that will follow from trump and his minions however should be delicious.

  6. 6.

    geg6

    February 27, 2019 at 8:46 am

    Also, that asshole Matt Gaetz, the guy who threatened Cohen with revelations about his mistresses, rolled over and submissively urinated last night after Nancy Pelosi called him out.

    I’m guessing he also was told by a lawyer or two that he doesn’t have immunity for shit talk witness tampering that he does on his personal account. What a douche.

  7. 7.

    plato

    February 27, 2019 at 8:56 am

    You’re the lying crook and racist pos.

    No, you’re the lying crook and racist pos.

    I would be surprised if this gets beyond this stage.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    February 27, 2019 at 8:57 am

    I have a prior commitment with a neighbor so will miss the morning proceedings. Do we know how long his testimony will be?

  9. 9.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 8:58 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I suspect Cohen’s testimony will be much ado about shit we already know.

    Mueller knows and we know (because we pay attention) but maybe this testimony will finally trickle down to the majority of citizens who only follow this stuff casually or not at all? The ones who only grab bits and pieces of their local TV news to get the sports and weather segments. That’s what I hope, anyway.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 8:59 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    be much ado about shit we already know.

    But we also know it takes 5000 repetitions for the average voter. Because they are going to rely on that- “this was already known”. But was it? Was it know to the extent of Clinton’s emails, for example?

    After that one the excuse will be that Trump’s fans don’t care about his extramarital affairs. But Trump sure cared about it coming out. Trump thought it would affect the election. That’s why he paid hush money and lied about paying it.

  11. 11.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 9:00 am

    @JPL: I’m guessing hours. You should be able to see the whole thing on youtube tonight if you want. If not, I’m sure there’ll be a ton of clips right here tonight and tomorrow, with analysis.

  12. 12.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:00 am

    Ten bucks says some Republican Congressman screams ‘Witch Hunt!’ and storms out. Five says a fight breaks out.

  13. 13.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 9:02 am

    @The Midnight Lurker:

    10,000 variations on "How do we know you're not lying right now?"— Schooley (@Rschooley) February 27, 2019

  14. 14.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:06 am

    ABC News
    ‏Verified account
    @ABC
    Follow Follow @ABC
    More
    Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Democrats introduce bill to restore Voting Rights Act.

    This makes me happy. What I would also like is for all the elite lawyers who do commentary and who minimized the gutting of the VRA to apologize and hang their heads in shame, and make more of an effort in the future not to be such ass-kissing supreme court worshippers.

    The conservative justices gutted the VRA. Their low quality, garbage work will have to be fixed.

  15. 15.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:07 am

    And I cannot get over NC-09!

    “Hi, I’m Stony Rushing a.k.a. ‘Boss Hog’. Vote Right – Vote White! I’m Stony Rushing and I approve this message.”

    I can’t stop laughing.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    February 27, 2019 at 9:08 am

    Cohen will show an August 2017 check signed by Trump

    I bet the check bounced.

  17. 17.

    clay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:08 am

    @germy: Although when that Congresswoman asked Elliott Abrams the same thing, the right wing pitched a hissy fit.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:10 am

    @germy:

    We don’t. But if that’s the measure then no one in the Trump Administration or the inner circle can ever be called to account, because they all lie constantly, so that can’t be the measure.

    We need someone on the inside and all the people on the inside are criminals. Happens a lot. They tend to hang around together.

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 27, 2019 at 9:10 am

    I guess Matt Gaetz didn’t want to become ranking member of the House Select Subcommittee on Cleaning Out the Cafeteria Grease Trap. Funny what can happen when there’s a Speaker with a backbone again.

  20. 20.

    montanareddog

    February 27, 2019 at 9:10 am

    working from home today, and streaming CNN on a tablet, not through the laptop, so my client won’t see it over their VPN. The CNN “Cohen special” has Tapper and Blitzer as hosts, FSM preserve us. I should start a game of “both-sides-bingo”. At least, Toobin is on the panel. Currently, they are interviewing Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D. rep for the district where Rand Paul’s barber lives, looking at what is sitting on his noggin)

  21. 21.

    Anonymous At Work

    February 27, 2019 at 9:11 am

    The biggest news of all of this is that Mueller is okay with Cohen saying these things in public, like it won’t disrupt his case.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:12 am

    Y’all will be unsurprised to learn that Gaetz (DUI-FL), who combines the intelligence of Louie Gohmert with the charm of Steve King, is a corrupt nepotism beneficiary whose influential state senate president daddy bought his way out of multiple legal jams and pulled strings to obtain the GOP nomination for a House seat in the reddest district in Florida. IIRC, Gaetz was managing a parking lot at a topless bar before entering politics.

  23. 23.

    Bruce K

    February 27, 2019 at 9:13 am

    I read in a book a long time ago that there’s a big difference between things we know and things we can prove.

    I suspect that if Cohen is actually bringing evidence, there’s a whole pile of Trump malfeasances that are about to get upgraded from the former category to the latter.

  24. 24.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:14 am

    @Betty Cracker: “Top of the world, ma!”

  25. 25.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 9:14 am

    @dmsilev: Here’s the check:

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cohen-claims-reimbursed-monthly-hush-payment-heres-check-signed-trump

    Signed in that famous goofy handwriting he’s famous for.

  26. 26.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    February 27, 2019 at 9:14 am

    I have to go to the gym (on account of my cardiologist said so). I’m counting on you all to keep track of events so I can catch up later.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 27, 2019 at 9:15 am

    @germy: @Kay: My outer cynic says the avg voter, if they hear anything at all, will just default to, “Both sides.” because that is the prion they have been infected with.

  28. 28.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 9:15 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Gaetz was managing a parking lot at a topless bar before entering politics.

    It takes skill and talent to manage a parking lot. All that asphalt, etc.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:16 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hah! It always holds. That’s literally WHY he’s in the inner circle. They have to qualify. With badness. The very worst people.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    February 27, 2019 at 9:16 am

    Reading Speaker Pelosi’s comment re: “Let’s See How Much of a Fuckhead I Can Be” Gaetz, I guess I thought she was restrained — another sign of how good she is. Another example of iron fist in velvet glove. Had I been the one issuing the statement, I probably would have gone directly to the “witness tampering, and I’m getting the FBI involved” path.

    And fuck Tim Ryan and Seth Moulton. Their little vanity crusade is part of the reason we can’t have nice things.

  31. 31.

    Mary G

    February 27, 2019 at 9:16 am

    The thought of how mad Twitler must be that his second love fest with Kim is being completely eclipsed by Cohen makes me happy.

  32. 32.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 27, 2019 at 9:17 am

    @Betty Cracker: IIRC, Gaetz was managing a parking lot at a topless bar before entering politics.

    So the people who owned a topless bar in the Florida panhandle didn’t think he was classy enough to work inside, but the good Republican voters there put him in the House of Representatives. Madison wept

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    February 27, 2019 at 9:17 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Y’all will be unsurprised to learn that Gaetz (DUI-FL), who combines the intelligence of Louie Gohmert with the charm of Steve King,

    Perfect.

  34. 34.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:17 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Good luck!

  35. 35.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:20 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You never know, though. Half the time I’m baffled at what they seize on. It’s not rational. There can be a list of horrible things affecting millions of people and then it’s like “Meals on Wheels?!” This cannot stand.

    Voters will say this to you- maybe it’s bullshit and they’re just looking for an escape hatch but their “last straws” are so weird. “I was with him right up until he said he hates dogs” What?

  36. 36.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 9:20 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The beltway is bored with details, but excited by drama. If the villagers get caught up in the drama of “former fixer turns on boss!!” the local media might catch their enthusiasm. Also, Cohen comes across like someone on reality TV. His testimony won’t be dry.

    Local media usually picks up on whatever the big dogs (NYT, WaPo) report, so I’m hoping the news trickles down to the uninformed citizens.

    And then, next election, if they bother to vote, the uninformed might be influenced by the corruption they’ve seen.

    I know I’m being optimistic here…

    EDIT: by “uninformed” I don’t mean dumb. They can certainly fill their heads with sports statistics. It’s “politics” that bores them, unfortunately.

  37. 37.

    joel hanes

    February 27, 2019 at 9:20 am

    @SFAW:

    And fuck Tim Ryan and Seth Moulton

    If Moulton has a primary opponent next cycle, I’m contributing.

  38. 38.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 27, 2019 at 9:21 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Gaetz was managing a parking lot at a topless bar before entering politics.

    Dude didn’t even have enough pull to get an inside job where he could ogle the talent.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    February 27, 2019 at 9:24 am

    Pelosi’s takedown: it doesn’t Gaetz any better than that!

  40. 40.

    RAVEN

    February 27, 2019 at 9:25 am

    @JPL: the 12th of never. . .

    One of the talking head was saying that the pukes will inject all kinds of procedural bullshit top slow it to a crawl.

  41. 41.

    dmsilev

    February 27, 2019 at 9:25 am

    @Kay:

    Voters will say this to you- maybe it’s bullshit and they’re just looking for an escape hatch but their “last straws” are so weird. “I was with him right up until he said he hates dogs” What?

    Something like that can be a tipping point in how you perceive someone’s character. Sure, they may support all sorts of awful policies, but usually awful policies come dressed up in deceptive language so they don’t sound quite so awful (or at least not awful to _you_), so it’s “he’s a nice guy”. But, “he doesn’t like dogs” or whatever is hard to dress up in deception, so it throws that switch over to “maybe he isn’t quite so nice”. And once that switch is thrown, the support for the awful policies becomes a lot harder to sell.

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    February 27, 2019 at 9:26 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I suspect Cohen’s testimony will be much ado about shit we already know.

    Not everyone follows this stuff obsessively, so shit we know isn’t necessarily shit the rest of the country knows. Getting it out in a public spectacle the media will have trouble ignoring should help get it wider attention.

  43. 43.

    SFAW

    February 27, 2019 at 9:26 am

    @joel hanes:

    If Moulton has a primary opponent next cycle, I’m contributing.

    If I thought I could get more than 10 votes, I would have considered doing that mineself. OK, not really, but it gives you an idea of how pissed I was (unlike the rest of you jackals, of course).

  44. 44.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:26 am

    How funny is it that Trump was panicked someone would release his academic records. That’s the thing with him. He absolutely hews to conventional notions of merit. He’s not a maverick at all. He wants so much to be an elite.

    My God, maybe we should have just given it to him. Give him the unearned status he craves. Then we would have been fucking rid of him and he would have just melded into the big mass of over-rated frauds at the “top” and not hurt regular people.

  45. 45.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:27 am

    Matt Gaetz is a NUT and an ASSHOLE! His guest to the 2018 SOTU was Charles Johnson, a well-known anti-semite, Holocaust denier and rightwing troll. Johnson helped set up a meet between Dana Rohrabacher and Julian ‘tick-tock’ Assange, and got banned for life from Twitter after he asked for advice on how to “take out” a Black Lives Matter member.

    When confronted with withering condemnation for this bullshit, Gaetz’s defense was, and I’m paraphrasing – but not much, “I don’t know the guy! He just walked into my office so I gave him the ticket! Honestly, I don’t know him!”

  46. 46.

    Just One More Canuck

    February 27, 2019 at 9:27 am

    @The Midnight Lurker: I’d pay big bucks to see Elijah Cummings kick Gym Jordan in the nuts

  47. 47.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:28 am

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s such a bad precedent for other pols. Deny and obstruct and it will come out in tiny dribs and drabs and just become part of a river of corruption. He can’t succeed. If he does tens more will follow his lead.

  48. 48.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:28 am

    @Roger Moore: Well said, 007.

  49. 49.

    SFAW

    February 27, 2019 at 9:29 am

    @Brachiator:

    Pelosi’s takedown: it doesn’t Gaetz any better than that!

    That’s a five-minute major right there. And you should be glad you don’t get a Game Misconduct penalty for that one.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:31 am

    @The Midnight Lurker:

    It’s also delicious that Assange has been exposed to be a GOP political operative. Just another petty grifter, rooting for what his libertarian US fans derisively call “the red team”. Petty and small. Not big and noble. A fraud.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:31 am

    So the actual hearing gets underway at 10 AM ET, correct? I might break my rule and have the TV on in the background during a workday for this.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    February 27, 2019 at 9:33 am

    @Kay: True. I bet Cumberbatch regrets portraying Assange in that flop of a movie.

  53. 53.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 27, 2019 at 9:36 am

    @The Midnight Lurker: I thought the consensus around here was that he was much better as Simon Templar.

  54. 54.

    satby

    February 27, 2019 at 9:38 am

    @Gin & Tonic: @Betty Cracker: there’s a tweet to the effect that people should call the Florida bar association and file complaints regarding his violation of the law. Not a bad idea, though I doubt they’ll care about non-Floridian complaints.

  55. 55.

    Miss Bianca

    February 27, 2019 at 9:38 am

    @montanareddog: Just don’t make it a drinking game, or you’ll be loopy before 9!

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    February 27, 2019 at 9:39 am

    @Kay: Assange is

    Petty and small. Not big and noble. A fraud.

    He always was. I worry about how gullible large segments of our public are. (Far) Left is not exempt there.

  57. 57.

    satby

    February 27, 2019 at 9:40 am

    John Pavloviz wrote a pretty good post over at his place.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 27, 2019 at 9:41 am

    MSNBC needs to rethink the value of Donnie Deutsch’s inside information, weighing it against his preening, boorish logorrhea

  59. 59.

    Anonymous At Work

    February 27, 2019 at 9:41 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Such persons usually end up in trouble for doing more with the talent than ogling. Then again, no Matt Gaetz in House…

  60. 60.

    joel hanes

    February 27, 2019 at 9:43 am

    @Kay:

    Trump was panicked someone would release his academic records.

    I’m not the least bit surprised, because I expect that the SAT scores are not good enough for admission to most out-of-state universities, and the IQ score is somewhere in the 90s at best, and the grades show frequent outright failure, few if any Bs, and no As. Because he is ignorant and unteachable.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:47 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    A lot of people need to admit they were taken in by Assange. Not “need to” I guess. But should.

    It never made sense, Wikileaks. They’re not transparent and there’s no oversight. The thing contradicted itself.

  62. 62.

    RAVEN

    February 27, 2019 at 9:47 am

    @joel hanes: Hell, Project 100,000 started in November 66, he could have gotten in the Army even thought he was a dolt.“McNamara’s Moron Corps would have been perfect for him.

  63. 63.

    Anonymous At Work

    February 27, 2019 at 9:50 am

    @joel hanes: A lot of “Daddy’s Rich C’s” that didn’t belong, lots of absences, low SAT scores, IQ’s probably ~120ish because he’s lazy and uninformed, not dumb. His brain was there but it’s flabby and getting worse.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:52 am

    @Elizabelle:

    It still shocks me that people didn’t care about the mismatch. The release of the Clinton campaign correspondence but no release of the opponents communications, in a race between TWO. That’s not “transparency”. It’s per se skewed to one side and not one side of “many”. One of TWO. Leaving only the other. With no transparency.

  65. 65.

    Yarrow

    February 27, 2019 at 9:54 am

    I guess the old school networks are covering Cohen’s testimony live. NBC flipped over to it a few minutes ago.

  66. 66.

    JMG

    February 27, 2019 at 9:55 am

    Bloomberg columnist and poli sci professor Jonathan Bernstein points out that Cohen’s testimony and whatever Mueller comes in with don’t have to change THAT many minds. If it turns three percent of voters off from Trump, he goes beneath 40 percent approval and his re-election chances become very slim indeed.

  67. 67.

    geg6

    February 27, 2019 at 9:55 am

    @joel hanes:

    Totally agree. He was an academic failure and that’s a large part of the enormous hole in his soul that he fills with his bluster, bragging and bullshit. Very smart people don’t give a shit about any of those things because they don’t need them in order to feel confident in their abilities. They certainly don’t brag about it, if they even pay attention to it. And revealing old grades and standardized test scores certainly wouldn’t bother them. Who the fuck cares?

  68. 68.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 9:56 am

    @Elizabelle:

    My husband said, very matter of factly, “well, Wikileaks could have released Trump campaign info since they were talking to them” You don’t really need more than that to see the “collusion”. The transparency org didn’t release their own communications with one campaign. It’s devastating and it’s all anyone needs to know.

  69. 69.

    A Ghost To Most

    February 27, 2019 at 9:57 am

    @Miss Bianca:
    Loopy? Try hammered. Be careful out there

    On the plus side, it will make clear who is on the side of democracy, and who is a co-conspirator, for the less informed.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 27, 2019 at 9:58 am

    @Kay: Greenwald, Assange, Bernie Sanders– and I’ll admit I fell for the first one for a while, the bold insurgents who spoke truth to power gave people a little thrill of bold radicalism, I think of being in Evanston, IL (Chicago’s original leafy suburb) in the spring of 2016 and seeing “Bernie!” signs on the lawns of 2 or 3 million dollar mansions near the lake, and knowing those people would howl like banshees if they actually got a tax bill from Bernie’s IRS.

    I get the appeal, the idea that one is too savvy, to principled, too interesting to be part of the complicated and compromised Democratic Party, and the frustration that makes you want to sign on to the idea that we’re gonna, to use a phrase from 2016, shake things up, when the dull and often depressing fact is that politics in this country is, as Hillary Clinton liked to tell us, the slowing, hard and boring task of boring through hard boards.

  71. 71.

    burnspbesq

    February 27, 2019 at 9:59 am

    @The Midnight Lurker:

    Per Ryan Goodman’s excellent preview at Just Security, there will be ample opportunity for fireworks between Cummings and Jordan, who is known to have a short fuse.

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

    February 27, 2019 at 9:59 am

    @Kay:

    How funny is it that Trump was panicked someone would release his academic records. That’s the thing with him. He absolutely hews to conventional notions of merit. He’s not a maverick at all. He wants so much to be an elite.

    he was a fraud in that, as with everything else. He was a phucking transfer into Penn UNDERGRADUATE. He never would have qualified for the MBA from Wharton.

  73. 73.

    Yarrow

    February 27, 2019 at 10:00 am

    Cohen has arrived.

  74. 74.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 10:03 am

    And now the republicans are throwing sand into the gears immediately.

  75. 75.

    burnspbesq

    February 27, 2019 at 10:03 am

    @joel hanes:

    If Moulton has a primary opponent next cycle, I’m contributing.

    Hell yes.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    February 27, 2019 at 10:03 am

    Off to bed,

    I will glory in the carnage later.

    Night y’all.

    Be best.

    WTF, Jackals are the best.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 27, 2019 at 10:04 am

    @Kay: McKay Coppins argued in his book that trump finally ran for president because he didn’t think he got the respect Warren Buffet– the “Sage of Omaha”– and Bill Gates and a few others did during the financial crisis and in other moments of crisis. Trump’s goal was to come in second in a few primaries, then withdraw and play king-maker.

    (And Meadows interprets Cummings’ opening statement with a “point of order”. That’s how this is going to go, every statement interrupted and hectored to a distraction)

    ETA: These whiny theatrics suggest they’re more scared of Cohen than I thought they were

  78. 78.

    joel hanes

    February 27, 2019 at 10:04 am

    @Anonymous At Work:

    IQ’s probably ~120ish because he’s lazy and uninformed

    Conventional IQ tests before about 1975 largely measured familiarity with cultural experiences common to the white upper-middle class, and the ability to extract meaning from paragraphs. The SAT was even more that way.

    He, Donald, had no experience of manual labor or of making things with his hands or doing anything for himself, no experience of literature, no experience of living in a modest home in a neighborhood, no experience with nature or the out-of-doors …
    No experience of friends. He’s never had one.

    I think 90’s is the best he could have scored.

  79. 79.

    germy

    February 27, 2019 at 10:05 am

    “I appeal the ruling of the chair!”

  80. 80.

    donnah

    February 27, 2019 at 10:06 am

    Meadows opens immediately with move to postpone. It is already a circus

  81. 81.

    burnspbesq

    February 27, 2019 at 10:06 am

    @Just One More Canuck:

    I’d pay big bucks to see Elijah Cummings kick Gym Jordan in the nuts

    Keep your wallet handy.

  82. 82.

    The Midnight Lurker

    February 27, 2019 at 10:06 am

    And here come the grenades!

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    February 27, 2019 at 10:06 am

    Ranty McRantface Mark Meadows is so tiresome. Same with Gym Jordan.

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    February 27, 2019 at 10:07 am

    @Kay: I’ll admit I was, at least to a certain extent in the early days. When Wikileaks released the stolen helicopter gunship footage showing U.S. servicemembers mowing down Iraqi civilians and journalists for sport, I thought it could be an important turning point in a war that never should have happened in the first place.

    But you’re right about Wikileaks incoherent presentation as a secretive “radical transparency” organization. Assange set himself up as some two-bit messiah, and the cult that grew around him should have raise red flags for anyone with an ounce of sense.

    I still like the idea of a transnational whistleblower clearinghouse where people can publish information that governments ought not to keep secret, but obviously, it would have to be run by competent, accountable people who vet the information and protect the sources. That excludes douchenozzles like Assange and Greenwald.

  85. 85.

    different-church-lady

    February 27, 2019 at 10:07 am

    @Kay: No, they do need to.

    They won’t, of course, because in order to do so they will first have to confront their own lazy thinking.

    And then they’ll fall for the next one too.

  86. 86.

    Yarrow

    February 27, 2019 at 10:09 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I still like the idea of a transnational whistleblower clearinghouse where people can publish information that governments ought not to keep secret, but obviously, it would have to be run by competent, accountable people who vet the information and protect the sources.

    I think ultimately that’s an impossible dream. Too easy to corrupt.

  87. 87.

    burnspbesq

    February 27, 2019 at 10:10 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    You just described the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who managed the release of the Panama Papers among other things.

  88. 88.

    Just One More Canuck

    February 27, 2019 at 10:11 am

    @burnspbesq: He may just do it to Meadows soon – Elijah’s getting pissed

  89. 89.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 27, 2019 at 10:11 am

    @Kay:

    How funny is it that Trump was panicked someone would release his academic records.

    Trump is all about external validation. You know that age when teenagers suddenly will die if anyone finds out they used to wear socks with kittens on them? Trump never got over that. It’s all he is, all he has. Putin and Kim Jong Il can get him to do anything because a cool kid said he’s cool like them.

    @Kay:

    It’s also delicious that Assange has been exposed to be a GOP political operative.

    Remember M-C’s worship of him and lengthy paeans about how Assange had changed international politics forever because we were now in a world where nations could not have secrets?

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    February 27, 2019 at 10:12 am

    I don’t think I’ve got the stomach to watch the hearing live. The Republicans have started their cloud of obstruction literally within the first minute. Mark Meadows moved to postpone the hearing because Cohen’s transcript was released improperly (according to him).

    Elijah Cummings is acting phlegmatic and imperturbable, but I don’t know if he’s got the kung fu grip on the situation.

    . . . Okay, he started slow, but he’s building up a head of steam. Still not sure I can watch. Might have to check in later.

  91. 91.

    A Ghost To Most

    February 27, 2019 at 10:12 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    These whiny theatrics suggest they’re more scared of Cohen than I thought they were.

    They got nuthin’ but obstruction. Elijah is pissed.

  92. 92.

    Yarrow

    February 27, 2019 at 10:16 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Who is “M-C” in this context?

  93. 93.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 10:16 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    And it’s necessary! They must be secretive and nontransparent because they are stealing. So the whole thing relies on the subjective decisions this tiny group of people make and we must just trust that they are well intentioned. Which is EXACTLY what Wikileaks supposedly objects to in government. The thing itself is exactly what it says it opposes. Their new quasi government model looks and works exactly like really bad government.

  94. 94.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 27, 2019 at 10:18 am

    @Yarrow:
    Makoto-Chan. Matoko-Chan? I always got that mixed up, for some reason. One of our odder regulars for a long time. You’ve been around long enough to remember her, right? Among her other hobby horses, the genetic inferiority of white Christians, and Islam being ‘un-evangelizable.’

  95. 95.

    Yarrow

    February 27, 2019 at 10:19 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Thanks I remember her. Just been awhile since I’ve thought about her so didn’t pick up on the initials.

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 27, 2019 at 10:21 am

    @Yarrow:
    I think it was the genetic inferiority thing that eventually got her banned? She got racist as Hell towards the end.

  97. 97.

    BC in Illinois

    February 27, 2019 at 10:24 am

    @dmsilev:
    @Kay:

    But, “he doesn’t like dogs” or whatever is hard to dress up in deception, so it throws that switch . . .

    Within the BC household, this is known as the “D____ G____ Effect.” (DG is the name of a real-life person we know.) DG was a perfectly reasonable — and extremely talented — young man who got drawn in to a totally unreasonable conspiracy / crackpot / weird thing. (In this case, not political.) He went along with it, hook, line, and sinker . . . “Wow! This is mind-blowing! I never knew these things!” . . . until one day…one person…said one thing…one half-step too far.

    And DG said, “Wait. What? NO!” And it all unraveled. He not only couldn’t go to the next step. He back-tracked all the way out.

    My confidence in Trump and in the Trump regime, is that they do not know where the line is. At some point, they will cross the line and lose people — not only for that last step, but all the way. That’s how I remember Watergate and Nixon. There were some of us who were ready to throw him out from the get-go. But for the nation as a whole, it was a long process. First this, and then this, and then this, and then people started saying “This has to stop.” “This can’t go on.” Then finally, “This has to be stopped.”

    My caution — to keep myself from being too confident — is that I myself do not know what will be the line for someone else. What will it take for someone who is personally invested in tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for the environment, supremacy for the whites, and hatred for the libs to finally look at Donald Trump and see nothing to admire, defend, or stand for? I don’t know.

    But I know there is a line somewhere. And I am certain he will cross it.

  98. 98.

    Sebastian

    February 27, 2019 at 10:27 am

    @geg6:

    Neither does he on the floor of Congress. Felony, treason, and disturbing the peace are explicitly mentioned as exclusions.

  99. 99.

    vhh

    February 27, 2019 at 10:27 am

    @A Ghost To Most: When you haven’t got the facts or the law, you pound the table.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 10:28 am

    @burnspbesq:

    No, this is this bullshit sheen they’re putting on it. What we were relying on were journalists in those cases not having a dog in the fight. We were relying on their professional ethics. That was the deal. We had to trust them because they were outside the rules.

    Wikileaks breached that understanding when they conspired with one campaign. Then they compounded the breach by not releasing THEIR communications with the Trump campaign. There’s no public interest in Assange tipping off one side. Once he did that he went from whistleblower to operative.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 10:32 am

    @burnspbesq:

    They hurt the cause of transparency. They did exactly what they can’t do. They picked a side.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    February 27, 2019 at 10:35 am

    @burnspbesq:

    The only way this fits with the theory of “journalist protecting a source” is if the Trump campaign were the source of the Clinton communications. That has to be situation. If it’s not they took a position. They were on Team Trump, not Team Transparency.

  103. 103.

    Anonymous At Work

    February 27, 2019 at 10:38 am

    @joel hanes: I actually have a lot of work I’m supposed to be doing and now I know that I will spend more than a little time thinking about your comments. I do remember that the IQ Test relevancy issue has been hanging around for a long time and would have to carefully ponder to what extent overly-sheltered brats like Trump just wouldn’t know the proper context to do well on it.
    I mean, great points and I dunno. But, like a lava lamp, it’s something I should look away from but can’t.

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 27, 2019 at 10:56 am

    @Kay: When did the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists pick a side?

  105. 105.

    RobNYNY

    February 27, 2019 at 10:59 am

    @geg6:

    The Speech or Debate clause of the Constitution is pretty powerful. No one is sure of the exact limits, because it hasn’t been litigated in decades. But back then, Representatives and Senators could do just about anything as long as it involved speaking.

  106. 106.

    Amir Khalid

    February 27, 2019 at 11:08 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    As barmy as she was, I kind of miss her sometimes. She had that special pet name for me, you know.

  107. 107.

    r€nato

    February 27, 2019 at 11:28 am

    those of you who haven’t heard already… Gaetz is a POS who was saved by his daddy on multiple occasions from DUI charges and has had a taste for DL mansex…

  108. 108.

    katdip

    February 27, 2019 at 12:15 pm

    The GOP strategy on Cohen is to reflexively bleat “he was convicted of lying to Congress how can we believe anything he says?” These are the same assholes (along with the foreign policy Blob) that clutched their pearls and castigated Rep Omar for calling out scumbag Elliot Abrams for the same thing. And like Cohen, she had receipts!

  109. 109.

    Chris Johnson

    February 27, 2019 at 12:44 pm

    @Kay: “Meet the new boss”…

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