.
New Quinnipiac poll:
Trump approval: 38-55
Committed crimes before becoming president: 64-24
Committed crimes while president: 45-43
Believe Cohen over Trump: 50-35
Congress should investigate Cohen claims: 58-35
This is so RISKY!!!https://t.co/u4QTtApKAS
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 5, 2019
Well, sure, those are the numbers now, but I bet if the Democrats dug further into this with televised hearings with witnesses and everything, the public would quickly rally around the president.
Right?
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 5, 2019
Seriously, look at the polling on Nixon's impeachment.
A month *into* the famous Ervin Committee hearings, the percentage supporting Nixon's removal was still down in the teens.
Support for removal didn't cross 50% until late July 1974 — and he resigned two weeks later! pic.twitter.com/Tme6611cUL
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 5, 2019
Right, the partisan floor is higher today but by the same token the percentages backing impeachment are higher too — less risk for either side
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 5, 2019
lol. Trump loses out bigly to Michael Cohen on credibility, according to new poll. pic.twitter.com/QXugRW2dNz
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 5, 2019
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
OzarkHillbilly
<blockquote>North Korea has begun rebuilding a rocket launch site that had been partially dismantled as a goodwill gesture after the first summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in June last year.
Satellite images show the reconstruction work was carried out shortly before their failed second summit in Hanoi last week, and their publication on Tuesday evening contributed to fears that the peace effort was in jeopardy.
So. Much. Winning.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds
And mars, any heart
Not tough or strong enough
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain
Love is like a cloud
Holds a lot of rain
Love hurts…… ooh, ooh love hurts
sukabi
@OzarkHillbilly:surprise, surprise. conman conned.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Deep State lies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Hell hath no fury like a donnie scorned?
@sukabi: Whocoodanode???
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: NK didn’t exactly lie… Oh, wait a minute, you meant the other deep state.
NotMax
“The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.”
– Ambassador Kosh, Babylon 5
plato
I know nixon, trump ain’t no nixon.
#thethugwontquit
Cheryl from Maryland
OT, but I thought the chicken keepers at BJ would be interested in this article on chickens not kept in coops in an Alpine Forest.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cheryl from Maryland: I’m not sure about that, doesn’t look like that forest has been raked.
JPL
Trump university was a scam, and trump had to pay a large fine. Why is it only 64 percent think he committed a crime? He’s a crook.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: He is their crook therefor it wasn’t a crime to defraud the suckers.
Immanentize
I’m with Blech this morning. I somehow managed to scratch my eye in my sleep? How odd….
A Ghost To Most
@NotMax:
The clips of cars being buried by the avalanches on I-70 should be shown to T as coming attractions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: At least you got some sleep.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Always looking on the bright side of life, aren’t you?
hervevillechaizelounge
I can’t remember who but there’s a poster missing a dog named Luna and I just found this story about a stolen kitten name Luna being returned:
http://riverdalepress.com/stories/bodega-smitten-over-kittens-return,68289
I think it’s a cosmic sign doggie Luna is on her way home!
(Or I’m in the early stages of schizophrenia where everything random appears connected—but hopefully doggie Luna is on her way home regardless:)
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
Neither Trump nor his “University” was prosecuted, as such; they were sued. Per Wikipedia, Trump was not convicted of a crime and did not actually lose the lawsuits — he did have to pay a US$25 million settlement — ergo he is not a crook, so there.
Immanentize
@hervevillechaizelounge:
That’s Miss Bianca who lost Luna.
Kay
This probably is what they tell him. That it’s a “similar” kind of thing. Of course, some of the people telling Trump this may themselves be in some peril with disclosures and oversight, so they have some personal interest in lying to him. They’re all now personally invested in lying and stonewalling and that investment grows every year they stay with him. That’s how the infection spreads to more and more people.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: It’s a dirty job but somebody;s got to point out the dark side of everything.
Amir Khalid
Some music: a ukulele cover of the AC/DC classic Thunderstruck.
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid:
No, he is not a felon. My ex wife broke many laws before she was finally convicted and sent to prison.
Baud
@Kay:
“They” is probably Sean Hannity.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank you for your link yesterday to the Van Gogh exhibition. It made my day!
Princess
Sure these poll numbers may look bad for Trump, but Quinnipiac has a 1.7% Republican lean according to 538, so they in fact are even worse.
ETA that lean seems to be old data. Not sure where they are now.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
Them that argue on Trump’s behalf are probably not going to be too careful about that distinction.
debbie
@Kay:
As Colbert pointed out last night, there was one crazy old man who kept demanding Obama release his birth certificate.
debbie
@Immanentize:
I missed seeing the outcome. I’m so sorry for her loss.
Baud
https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/03/06/politics/trump-trade-deficit-tariffs/index.html
Kay
@Baud:
Oh, I think it’s more than him. Trump has a lot of employees, including his many employees in Congress. Everyone knows the way to win favor is to flatter and lie to him. It isn’t even about Trump. It’s about the self-interest of the people who surround him.
You can’t blame the foreign leaders who play this game- they are literally doing their jobs when they trick him.
It would be politically risky but it would be fun to try if one were a D Senator. Be the Senator who is “friends” with Trump. You could get all kinds of concessions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: That’s when one pulls out the snubnosed .38 and says, “So I’m not a murderer until I get convicted of blowing your brains out?”
Kay
@debbie:
I think the birther conspiracy deserves a serious telling, like a whole book or a movie. I don’t think it should go unexamined. I feel like it was a turning point in our descent and choices were made- there was a decision made to cover it as if it were a serious question. It’s important to out it together in one place. I want it part of the record, with all the players- Trump, the GOP, media.
JPL
@Baud: Trade wars are easy to win.
Daniel Dale is going to release the number of lies that trump told at CPAC. Expect the number to be high.
debbie
@Kay:
I agree, but I think it was part of something bigger, not something isolated. It was the next “logical” step after disputing Kerry’s military service.
debbie
@JPL:
Any idea what the overall number is? Is he closing in on 9,000?
OzarkHillbilly
Kevin Drum:
Baud
@debbie: Which was itseld the next logical step after portraying Gore as a serial liar.
We could go further back in time as well.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: It was always a stupid policy. And the reason why any D such as Sherrod Brown who supported these policies gets a side eye from me.
rikyrah
I ♥️ Ted Lieu
https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1103120974545907712
rikyrah
@Baud:
Uh huh ?
OzarkHillbilly
Moms Demand Action Founder Says Male GOPers Wore Pearls To Mock Her Group
Yeah, Watts isn’t buying it either.
One look at the picture and you’ll understand why.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Those pushing it were stupid and/or crazy.
But, it was always, always racist to the core.
JPL
@debbie: If not now, soon.
Trump associates are going to refuse to testify before Congress. Will this be the end of congressional oversight?
Brachiator
Numbers. Trump is transforming the judicial branch:
From HuffPo
The stakes for 2020 have never been higher.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/allison-jones-rushing-trump-judge_n_5c7ee103e4b0e62f69e74912
plato
@Brachiator: Yup, poison has been planted with an evil intent to yield disasters down the road.
Baud
@Brachiator:
We’ll see if people really care this time.
Immanentize
@debbie: Lost like, Luna is on walkabout, not that Luna died….
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
@OzarkHillbilly: ?
@Baud: Good morning to you. The trouble is that much of the stuff we use every day is now made in China, so we all had to just cough up the extra money to cover the tariff and buy anyway. I’m a micro scale manufacturer, and the small plastic jars I use for lotions, as an example, are pretty much only made in China now. The tariffs were just another sneaky tax on us.
Kay
@rikyrah:
If you work in a state court system it was just so nuts because a birth record IS the record. That’s the original document. It doesn’t get better than that, and no one, no one, questions it. Thousands of times a day in courts all over America, the document Obama was relying upon is accepted without question but in this ONE instance media pretended it needed corroboration. I’ll tell you a secret. Courts don’t even require the raised seal. We submit a copy on pleadings. Never once have I seen anyone demand more. It literally comes from “the recordkeeper” for vital records. There’s no looking in “vaults” or interviewing attending physicians.
Pure racism. The black person had to provide MORE than any other person ever has to. The whole system would grind to a halt if this document weren’t accepted. It’s used constantly. Media ignored all of that and pretended this were an actual controversy. Have they not done this themselves? I KNOW they fucking have. Did anyone ever ask them for a BETTER record than a birth certificate? No. Never.
It’s like how they forget how voting works when black people vote. All of a sudden there’s this presumption of fraud.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Same here and I’m still furious about how Obama was treated by Dems over trade. It’s especially frustrating that the Obama administration had a long plan – the stimulus invested in green energy, the Paris accords set goals for all the participating countries to transition to green energy, and the TPP gave incentives for them to buy green energy from us instead of china. But no we freaked out about old Wikileaks information about a previous iteration of the TPP and bought into the BS trade killed manufacturing.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Probably the largest tax increase in history.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey there, I think *I* have the territory east of the Mississippi, or at least east of western IN, for that job.
@Kay: I agree that it was a kind of tipping point, and a nasty old mobbed up man with a peculiar skin tone was going on about the birther stuff all the time.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: the other aspect of that story is that the parents of those lost to suicide wear white beads on the Out Of Darkness walks (not just suicides by gun). The NH Rethugs had to know that they were mocking the parents of a dead child too.
rikyrah
Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) Tweeted:
After two years of Congress abdicating its constitutional oversight responsibility for overtly partisan reasons, we’ve had two months of oversight of the most corrupt POTUS in history and some pundits who breathlessly covered Benghazi ask if it’s too much. The answer is no. Next.
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1103271545613496320?s=17
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Around the same time that all that was happening, I had to order a new birth certificate for I-9 eligibility for a job. The only birth record I had was the flimsy, faded certificate my parents had been given at the hospital when I was born… and I’d misplaced that. Pretty soon I found it again, but it was faded almost to complete illegibility and was nearly impossible to photocopy.
The new certificate they gave me was, of course, the same sort of thing Obama posted publicly. I’ve used it to get a job and a passport. It’s not “the original” because it’s not from 1968, but there’s nothing better now unless somebody is willing to go over that illegible slip of paper with a microscope. And nobody has ever quibbled.
MomSense
@satby:
In my experience, New Hampster Republicans are some of the nastiest you will encounter anywhere in the US.
A Ghost To Most
@rikyrah: True , but never underestimate greed and spite.
OzarkHillbilly
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Oh good, it does get tiresome being the only voice of doom and gloom.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I remember during the height of the birther craze, I had an epiphany about the racist implications of the whole thing — how it affected people. I always knew birthers were racist to the core, of course, but up until that point, I also thought they were funny, in a fitting-object-of-derision kinda way — such zany characters, like the demented dentist Orly Taitz! And that scammy NYC real estate developer with the ridiculous clump of orange cotton candy on his noggin!
Anyhoo, after PBO released his birth certificate in a futile attempt to bring the absurdity to an end, I saw a clip of the reaction of Baratunde Thurston. He was crying and shaking with barely contained rage. He seemed broken because these fucking racist assholes had actually forced the president to show his papers. I didn’t find birtherism so funny after that, and I was and still am kind of ashamed I ever did.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I second the sentiment. I believe in snark and mockery, but there’s a danger in being too entertained by it.
satby
@Baud: an entire nation, amusing itself to death in sarcasm and ragegasms.
satby
@MomSense: they look like it. Vicious, cruel, and totally without class.
danielx
Yet another morning of waking to a frozen hellscape. Could be worse, I could be one of the guys out there installing fiber optic cable in the neighborhood.
MomSense
@satby:
John Sununu, NH Republican. And never forget Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza came of age as nasty Republicans at Dartmouth In NH.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We took our son and DIL out for dinner last night to celebrate their wedding anniversary. She brought her copy of Michelle Obama’s book to loan me. People sometimes say we didn’t know how good we had it with the Obamas, but you know what? Most people here did.
Baud
@satby: Yep.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s why I’m still here.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s a lovely story, and I think you’ll enjoy reading it.
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx: I was thinking about this the other day when I finally ventured forth at 18 degrees (the day started at zero). It was a perfect winter day with the sun bright in a clear bluebird sky, the trees on my place etched in stark contrast against the whiter than white snow, absolutely beautiful, almost perfect except for the gusting winds (to 20 mph I’d guess, not too bad). I thought back to my younger days when scraping the ice off the rafters was just the start of the day. I actually gloried in it back then, never felt more alive, and I was a little pissed at myself for spending so much of the day hibernating with my woodstove.
That lasted about a half hour.
zhena gogolia
@hervevillechaizelounge:
That’s a great comment! I love your nym.
chopper
@debbie:
at which point the dragonball Z memes start creating themselves.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m trying to picture a situation in which one would scrape the ice off the rafters. Maybe you were building something?
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: Balloon Juice had elebenty anti TPP FP posts IIRC.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Yup.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yeah, houses. If the weather forecast was for warming temps, they’d usually find something else for us to do the first couple hours. If not, we were told to “be careful up there. We don’t need a hike in our workmen’s comp”. Then why are we going up there?
rikyrah
Evil Azz Demons ???
BallsOut (@bjcreigh) Tweeted:
As of March 1, ICE was detaining 16 infants in Texas.
Infants.
12 were released. All were ill.
Is this really what we’ve become? https://twitter.com/bjcreigh/status/1102991772727296000?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
And now I’m gonna see if I can snag some of that sleep that evaded me last night. Y’all play nice now, ya heah?
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: @Baud: Birther movement was never funny even when Orly Taitz was its biggest proponent. It was an implicit warning to any black person, immigrant, any one deemed the other to show them their privileges depended on the goodwill of the majority. Grow too big for your boots and we will cut you at the knees, no exceptions.
After all this is the country that denaturalized people because they were deemed not white enough less than 100 years ago.
ETA: The contrast in the media coverage of T and Obama shows how racist our media is
JPL
@rikyrah: ICE kidnapped the infants, and yes that is what trump has allowed to happen.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s what I do best.
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: And yet the person who came up with this policy, Kelly, is still considered a good guy by the media.
Original Lee
@Immanentize: I may be a little late to your comment, but you should see your ophthalmologist. I had the “scratched my eye in my sleep” thing several times, and by the 4th or 5th time was told I was actually reopening scar tissue from previous scratches. It’s called recurring corneal erosion syndrome.
Bemused senior
@JPL: My husband and I are listening to Michelle Obama reading it on our long commutes. It is so wonderful to hear it in her voice.
Immanentize
@Original Lee:
Oh shit! Thank you, but also, really?
Meanwhile — good news! After people got to their Reps, the Dem resolution on Anti-Semetism has been postponed perhaps to include comments about Anti-Islamic speech as well.
Miss Bianca
@hervevillechaizelounge:
: )
From your mouth to Dog’s ear, my friend.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
You ain’t never lied.
The absolute desperation to try and normalize this traitor. The absolute curve given to him and his lying, incompetent goons. The numerous ways that they have tried to not call all the racist shyt going on with this Administration actually RACIST….
yep…
JanieM
@Original Lee: @Immanentize: Seconding Original Lee. I have corneal erosion issues too. My ophthalmologist suggests it could be due to severe dryness, as in, my eyelids aren’t all the way closed when I’m sleeping.
I use drops at night and have also tried a mask (with mixed results) and even taping one of my eyelids shut, which is a nuisance. Anyhow, it’s not something to take lightly
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Glad that I went back through the comments because I was going to bring up Baratunde’s reaction…
He spoke for a lot of Black people that day.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
And, this is reason #1 why those who brought us to this point will NEVER EVER EVER BE FORGIVEN.
L85NJGT
@schrodingers_cat:
It brings to mind a quote from Frances McDormand’s character in Almost Famous:
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
“original” doesn’t matter. At all. It’s actually called a “duplicate original” to distinguish it from a photocopy.
Of course it doesn’t matter. If your whole identity was reliant on this piece of paper that would be insane. That’s the whole point of keeping and storing “records” – so people can get one :)
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
“original” doesn’t matter. At all. It’s actually called a “duplicate original” to distinguish it from a photocopy.
Of course it doesn’t matter. If your whole identity was reliant on this piece of paper that would be insane. That’s the whole point of keeping and storing “records” – so people can get one :)
Mnemosyne
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was poking around on Twitter and basically @WDLNH’s schtick is to steal other people’s symbols and re-brand them as pro gun rights. They also sell hot pink hats with an AR-15 on them.
So it’s an even bigger asshole move than it first appears. ?
Original Lee
@Immanentize: About recurring corneal erosion syndrome: yeah, really, and that was my reaction, too. My ophthalmologist describes it as the area of a previous scratch is sort of like an area rug that’s starting to fray, and the eyelid is you walking over that area and sometimes tripping and occasionally catching your foot and unraveling some more off the edge. Yeah. I got the diagnosis after a “scratch” episode that was bad enough I had to go back daily for a week to make sure it was healing ok and had to spend three days in the dark with my eyes closed and antibiotic cream in the affected eye. I now have an OTC cream I use every night to prevent more incidents. It’s worked well for 6 months. The cream is a little pricey, but so worth it just for the peace of mind.
ETA: Sitting in the dark with your eyes closed for three days isn’t as exciting as it sounds.
hueyplong
It is almost invariably true that if you think a GOP talking point is almost humorously absurd, it’s because you don’t immediately recognize its deeply offensive nature.
stinger
@Cheryl from Maryland: Interesting — thanks for the link!
Original Lee
@JanieM: I started off with drops, but the cream lasts nearly 24 hours, so my eyeball makes it to the next dose without having daytime dryness issues (especially important in all this cold weather we’ve been having). It’s basically just sterile lanolin with enough purified sodium chloride mixed in to stimulate tear production.
Ruckus
@satby:
You can get those jars made here still. But the cost is higher and no one will sell you the relatively small quantities that you need. You can purchase at nearly the same price if you can take shipments of say 10,000 to 20,000 or more. I bet you don’t use that many in a while. (I was in the business for decades, long ago, occasionally I keep up with what’s what.)
Gravenstone
@JPL: Thought I already saw a tally of over 120, for 140+ minutes of witless yammering. So basically one a minute.
Kathleen
@MomSense: I am so in agreement with your comment. All your comments actually. I’m still pissed about all that tariff noise. And 2016. And Slander’s role in that.
Gravenstone
@Brachiator: And only possible because McConnell slow walked or otherwise obstructed multiple lower court appointments during Obama’s administration. The stolen Supreme Court seat is the one everyone talks about, but the damage was much deeper and more extensive.
L85NJGT
@Kathleen:
I want the old plant back. The one that made products no one uses now, with a bunch of hard workin white men doing tasks that were automated away thirty years ago. Not the new one where all those Mexicans work…..
Kathleen
@L85NJGT: And where everyone knows their place. /s
EthylEster
Frontpager quotes poll numbers: Trump approval: 38-55
Frontpager also includes Josh Marshall tweet with embedded 8 second CNN video saying exactly the same thing.
Newsflash: text is frequently the most info dense method of communication.
Thanks for presenting the textual polls result up front.
But Josh Marshall adds nothing except a very profound “lol”.
You are enabling his tireless self-promotion.
And the video adds nothing.
You are enabling the pathetic CNN.