I like Trae in small doses and his backyard rants are must watch for me.
There’s a rumbling in the country and the right is missing it, so wrapped up in their bubble. The Barr Report, I believe, has thrown a smoldering match onto flammable materials. That 2018 blue tsunami ain’t gonna be nothing compared to the bonfire used to burn down these mofos at the ballot box.
Open thread
MomSense
“Let them pat themselves on the back at their golf courses and wiener massage parlors” needs to be a rotating tagline
Miss Bianca
Christ, I hope so, TaMara. I look around me and see that the only thing my fellow rural CO citizens seem to give a shit about is that no gorram Red Flag law is going to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, by God, because the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of anyone who gets in the way of a white guy with his God-given-right to blow my head off. Apparently when Jesus said “Blessed are the Peacemakers”, he was talking about a Colt .45.
rikyrah
Absent Mueller conclusion on obstruction, Barr makes own ruling
Rachel Maddow notes that past precedent for dealing with the question of obstruction by a sitting president is to refer the matter to Congress, but Trump A.G. William Barr took it upon himself to decide no crime had been committed.
rikyrah
Barr memo leaves much unanswered about Mueller report findings
Rachel Maddow reviews Attorney General William Barr’s memo to Congress about the conclusions of the Mueller Report and asks some of the questions that are not addressed and also newly raised.
rikyrah
Lack of Mueller recommendation on obstruction perplexes experts
Chuck Rosenberg, former senior FBI and Justice Department official, talks with Rachel Maddow about the peculiarity of Robert Mueller apparently not making a recommendation on Trump obstruction of justice in his report and what might explain the omission.
rikyrah
Possible Mueller testimony to Congress likely to face contention
Chuck Rosenberg, former senior FBI and Justice Department official, talks with Rachel Maddow about whether Robert Mueller could be called to testify before Congress and whether Trump’s attorney general, William Barr could prevent that from happening.
rikyrah
If Mueller’s report is great news for Trump, why can’t we see it?
03/26/19 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Over the last 48 hours or so, Americans have seen quite a bit of coverage about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia scandal. What they have not seen is Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia scandal.
Literally everything we know about the document has come from a brief summary of the report, written by Attorney General William Barr, handpicked by Donald Trump to lead the Justice Department. Barr, a Republican lawyer who’s only been at his post for about five weeks, has offered his assessment about Mueller’s findings – but that’s all he’s prepared to share.
Last week, the House voted 420 to 0 on a measure calling for the attorney general to release the actual Mueller report to the public. It’s against this backdrop that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried yesterday to pass, by unanimous consent, the same resolution in the upper chamber. That didn’t work.
Joe Falco
Looking at the time the latest threads were posted, it seems everyone takes their coffee around the same time.
The treasonous shit-weasels that is currently the Republican party know the rest of us are going to go after them with tong and hammer if we win enough next year. They’re running scared no matter how much they declare Trump to be super innocent of any crimes. We got this.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
Yes, this was an excellent two minutes. I need to watch it every hour or so.
chris
More gas for the fire. Are you fired up yet?
rachel
@chris: OK, that just pisses me off.
zhena gogolia
OK, I said yesterday I wasn’t going to say anything bad about any of our candidates, but that first clip of Warren on Colbert that’s posted down below really pisses me off. She thinks it’s irrelevant to people’s lives that Putin gets to pick our presidents?
Betty Cracker
@chris: I don’t tweet a ton (most days), but I had to react to that when I saw it yesterday via TPM.
Miss Bianca
@chris: My momma always said that some people had more nerve than sense. But THIS guy – I’ve never seen anything like the nerve of this guy.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Brace yourself for BJ nannies, who get all upset if you dare to disagree with any of the Ds running for the Presidential nom. They will be arriving soon to tone-police.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Saw the clip too, and I had an entirely different reaction. Warren specifically said the Mueller report is “important” — direct quote. But she also noted that after talking to about 100 people in Iowa, no one brought it up.
I think we have to accept the fact that most regular voters (i.e., people who don’t follow politics as obsessively as we do) don’t want to make the Trump-Russia issue the focus in 2020. The House Democrats aren’t going to drop the issue — they’ve demanded the entire report and threatened to subpoena the DOJ if they don’t get it. But they aren’t going to center their activities on it, and that’s probably the smart thing to do, given the current situation.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@chris: /goes to find brick wall, bang head against repeatedly/
WaterGirl
I love this guy, so thanks for posting this. I haven’t watched it yet, but his rants always give me hope. Going to watch it now.
stinger
@zhena gogolia: I really like what Warren has to say on economic matters. What disturbs me is that she does the Bernie-trick of pivoting EVERY topic to that. I realize that that’s her background, and she views everything through that lens. But a President needs to view through many lenses.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Regular voters aren’t in Congress. I would expect members of Congress to be concerned about a hostile attack on our election process.
chris
Agreed all. but he’s Majority Leader and can say whatever he wants. That doesn’t mean he should. Asshole.
My fondest hope on a good day is that a significant portion of the one hundred million people who didn’t vote last time will be disgusted enough to get off their asses. For Democrats, of course, the opposite is too horrible to contemplate.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m usually one of them!
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: I found it comforting.
zhena gogolia
@stinger:
Yes. Of course I’ll crawl over broken glass to vote for her if she’s the nominee.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
I think channeling our anger into action is our best bet right now, and he captures that. We saw it at work in the midterms, so I hope it can be even more impressive in 2020.
kindness
I understand that Republicans would say Barr’s letter is a complete victory for Trump. I don’t get how the MSM is saying it is a complete victory for Trump. Really MSM? Are you that brain dead that you didn’t see the pile ups of convictions already obtained on the way here? The shallowness is hard to take.
Tony Jay
Open Thread?
Brexit News – Gather your children and run.
Oh it’s all going off now, isn’t it? Brexit, that genius plan to turn the United Kingdom into a bigger, juicier Bluestar Airlines en route to going full-on Airstrip One has hit a tiny, wee stumbling block. Turns out that Parliament, that wacky bunch of grey-suited mavericks and jobbing Executive Vice-Presidents for Arranging Contracts and Dat while Golfing, have decided that they don’t too much fancy the very likely prospect of being roasted for their meat by dispossessed proles in the smoldering ruins of Chipping Norton Conservative Club and would quite like to, maybe, I don’t know, exercise a bit of that ‘Parliamentary Sovereignty’ all the Leavers were banging on about non-stop back in the days when being humiliated and sent home from European capitals was more the preserve of our national football teams than our national government.
In a vote last night on an amendment put forward by Regency beau and racist jelly-mold Oliver Letwin a majority of Parliament chose to push the Government aside and hold a series of indicative votes on other options. Things like Revoking Article 50 (Brexit is sent to bed with a cup of hemlock), having a straight 2nd Referendum (Brexit has to re-apply for its job), a Norway style semi-membership (Brexit pops on a Viking helmet and is told “Ingen Sjance, Froken Brit!” by Norway), or whatever the Speaker decides is non-Unicornesque enough to get serious support. How the votes will take place, how they’ll be weighed, will they be subject to whipping (always popular amongst the Tories and their public schoolboy contingent) is all still up in the air, but the fact of the matter is that after three years of embarrassment and abuse Parliament has had just about enough of this Government’s blatant contempt for the democratic process and has, with a quivering jaw and mascara-streaked face, torn the Enoch Powell biography from Theresa May’s cold, dead hands and screamed “You will listen to me!” into the sudden, bewildered silence.
And what has Queen Theresa made of all this? Well she’s telling everyone who’ll listen that she’s not bothered. Just like she’s not bothered about the two hammering defeats her deal has already suffered, or the humiliating failure of her last display of British steel and diplomatic finesse in Europe, or even the Speaker’s refusal to let her deal get another vote without something more momentous than the font changing. None of it matters to Queen Theresa because she’s in a better place now, somewhere disagreeable impediments like votes and negotiations and basic reality can be safely disregarded because She’s the Queen of the Land of Do As You Please and everything else is noise. She can state, via her shrinking supply of pot-grown junior ministers, that no responsible Government can be expected to enact important legislation affecting the future of the country without knowing the desired end-point and process in advance with a blithe lack of even the most basic self-awareness. Not bothered. She can lecture Parliament on thinking it can force through revolutionary changes to centuries of constitutional tradition without reflecting for a moment on the fact that her Government is only still technically ‘in power’ because her predecessor’s Parliament made revolutionary changes to centuries of constitutional tradition with its Fixed Term Election Bill. Not bothered. She can even stand there and declare with a more-or-less straight face that No-Deal is both on and off the table at the same time, like a Schrodinger’s Cat of a policy, except this cat is ten feet long, long in tooth and claw and weighs the same as a small family house. She. Is. Not. Bothered.
Probably, it appears, because the Grand Wizards (no, really, that’s their term, because why not, eh?) of the Brexiteerean Jihad look like crumbling under the pressure of Reality and voting for May’s Deal de la Merde as the worst possible option they can hope to foist upon the country before the cock crows and everyone starts sobering up in the cold light of Brexit day. It’s like she’s spent so long huffing their ultra-high leaded emissions in pursuit of their votes that she hasn’t even noticed the way the Parliamentary math has shifted around her. Or, to put it in an even creepier way. She’s spent the whole of the School Leaver’s Party following Jacob (Call me Kyle) Reese-Mogg and his gang of Emo-Goth Randians and Ulster Exchange Student Militia around, laughing at their crap racist jokes and doing anything and everything she can, however degrading, to get them to come back to her house for an invite only After-Party, but, just as she’s finally got their muttered ‘okay, maybe, whatever’ in the bag, she turns to see that everyone else has got bored waiting and left to go and see what the beer is like at the Free Oompah Band and European Folk Music Festival in the local park. And now, in a final swipe of the dirty dishcloth of (what Western popular culture erroneously believes to be called) karma across the face of her dreams, Theresa learns that the only way anyone will even consider going to her party is if she’s not there.
How unfair, said nobody else.
Basically, it boils down to this. Parliament can indicative vote until it’s blue in the face, but it can’t force the Government to do anything the Government doesn’t want to do. OTOH, the E.U. has given May only one week to get her Withdrawal Deal passed, and if it doesn’t, well, there’s a hard deadline of April 12th for Britain to come up with an alternative that Parliament – can – support and – crucially – the E.U. will accept. The balance of power has slowly, steadily shifted under the crushing weight of glacial reality so it’s no longer May’s Government stuffing her deal in the face of Parliament and saying “Vote for this or the country gets it”, but rather Parliament itself deciding on a version of Brexit enough of them can coalesce around (crucially, probably, I think, with a Confirmatory Public Vote rider tagged on to bring the anti-Brexit rationalists on board) and then shoving – that – into May’s face and saying “Let this get a free vote or the Tory Party gets it”. Remember, the entire concept of British Parliamentary democracy revolves around the idea that the faction that can harness and provide a majority for legislation gets to be the Government. No majority, no Government. Claiming to be the Government while refusing to enact the will of an – actual – majority, ooooh, now, that’s the kind of genuine constitutional crisis we never got before the stupid Fixed Term Election Bill and one that has only one answer, a resounding vote of No Confidence and a General Election.
Interesting days.
Now, back to your scheduled countdown to the release of the – actual – Mueller Report rather than the hastily scribbled customer review put out by the guy being paid to protect Trump.
oldgold
The most concise statement of the Trump/ Russia conspiracy I have seen comes from Jeremy Bash.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Wow, SC. If you want to look at tone, maybe you could think about looking at your own tone first? Why start a fight when everyone is already frustrated and hurting and mad?
schrodingers_cat
@stinger: This with a small caveat. I like her financial regulatory policies. Her trade policies tend to protectionism.
Immanentize
@stinger:
“It’s (gonna be) the economy, stupid”
The real economy, not the Bernie imagine economy. At least, that is Warren’s Gamble and right now it looks pretty solid. My personal current fave, Harris, is making the same bet with her school teacher plan. But micro, not macro.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: Me, too. He also made me cry, but in truth that has been a pretty easy job these past couple of days.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: I’ve been trying to characterize how I feel lately – that, bad as this shit is, this country has been through worse, and it’s all because of the same revanchist forces at work today – white male supremacy, and whatever it fucking takes for white men to stay on top, and damn the rest of us to the hell which we apparently deserve for daring to suppose that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” applies to the rest of us as well – women, people of color, religious and ethnic minorities – anyone who isn’t a white straight Christian property-owning, shootin’-arn-totin’ white dude. I try, but my rage against the machine turns inward, and then I get depressed. So it helps when someone says “cheer up, muthaphucka, and welcome back to the America that non-whites and poor people have ALWAYS known was ‘their America’ – now don’t mourn, organize – get out there and DO something about it.”
Snarki, child of Loki
“whether Robert Mueller could be called to testify before Congress and whether Trump’s attorney general, William Barr could prevent that from happening.”
If Mueller chooses to testify, there’s fuck-all that Barr or Trump can do about it.
You can’t claim ‘executive privilege’ for someone else, when they don’t want it.
This is more chum for the mouth-breathers.
jc
So, according to Peckerwood, we can’t do shit about any of it, so let’s just get drunk and have a bar-b-que. Don’t you worry your pretty little heads, folks. It’s all too complicated for us little people.
Half the country were conned into thinking: this Trump guy is not a typical crooked politician. It turns out, you’re right: he’s much worse. Enjoy watching the country go down the drain.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HAH HA HA HAH A
All charges dropped against Jussie Smollett, attorneys say
POSTED 9:48 AM, MARCH 26, 2019, BY WGN WEB DESK,
UPDATED AT 10:20AM, MARCH 26, 2019
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: All criminal charges against Jussie Smollett have been dropped and his record has been expunged, the actor’s attorney confirms.
CHICAGO — Jussie Smollett made an “emergency court appearance” in Chicago Tuesday, a representative for the actor confirmed.
The reason for the appearance is not known. Smollett and his lawyers are expected speak to the media afterward at the courthouse.
zhena gogolia
@jc:
I don’t think that’s what he said.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Maybe we saw two different clips? I’m referring to the first one AL embedded below. Colbert asks Warren if she trusts Barr’s judgment, and she says no. Then she says we have to see the whole report so “we’ll know what the basis is for [Barr’s] decision.” She reiterates that the report is important and notes that there are a lot of other investigations going on, then she pivots to what she thinks regular folks are concerned with. I think Stinger’s point at #19 is a fair one — she does pivot to economic issues a lot. But I don’t see her dismissing the importance of the Trump-Russia issue, at least in the clip I watched. YMMV.
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay: God DAMN, dude, when are we front-paging this shit? Betty Cracker, paging Betty Cracker…
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
Her foregrounding that out of 100 questions, no one asked her about the Mueller report, is in my opinion minimizing the significance of what has happened. It’s, “You want to ask about that, but I don’t want to talk about that because it’s not what voters care about.” But voters should care about it — it’s going to happen again, with a vengeance now that they’ve gotten away with it once.
WaterGirl
Boy, when even Preet and Chuck Rosenberg are both wondering — out loud — what is going on with Mueller for not making recommendations when he was fucking tasked with making recommendations — my head starts to spin. It makes me feel a little panicky.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: You wanted me to shut up and go away, yesterday. And I did for that thread and pretty much rest of the day.
@zhena gogolia: = )
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: How long do your new year’s resolutions last? Do they make it to midnight? :-)
Immanentize
@Tony Jay:
So fine!!
Betty Cracker
@Tony Jay: A catastrophe inside a debacle wrapped up in a clusterfuck. Hold our beer!
bemused
@oldgold:
I watched that this morning and thought it was great too. It was even bumper sticker concise.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: Show me on the doll where I asked you to shut up and go away yesterday. Or any day.
Seriously, what’s with all the picking of fights here? You are attacking your friends, which makes no sense to me.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I don’t even make them any more!
Immanentize
@WaterGirl:
Really. Don’t try to figure this out before you have the report. Here is one possibility — he was told not to make indictment recommendations regarding the President because of DOJ policy. That would fit the ‘neither implicates nor exhonerates’ phrase we see in Barr’s report. We just cannot know. Being perplexed now does not lead to any useful answers.
Serenity prayer.
germy
@rikyrah:
The whole thing felt “off” to me from the beginning. Not Smollett’s story, but instead the constant leaking to the press, and then the denials of the leaks. It seemed like a weird rush to discredit him.
And even if he DID make the story up… someone online somewhere commented that “this country is so racist they’ll lock up a black man for hurting HIMSELF.”
TaMara (HFG)
@Tony Jay: This is awesome. Can I front page it later today (when we get that lull of not 10 posts in a row – wth happened this a.m. LOL).
PJ
@WaterGirl: In the comments section, there are no friends, just audiences whose interests sometimes align.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: You are accusing me now of picking fights. You picked on my comment criticizing Pete B, when rikyrah made pretty much the same point and I was agreeing with the point she made. You inserted yourself in that conversation. You don’t like my comments feel free to skip.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Fair enough — she definitely used the question to pivot to what she does want to talk about, but IMO, that’s not tantamount to saying Trump-Russia doesn’t matter. Every Democrat is going to have to find a balance, I suspect, due to political realities, including our relatively powerless situation as holders of the House only, the suckitude of our Beltway press, and the public’s gnat-sized attention span.
Immanentize
@germy:
It’s funny, this feels like old time Hollywood ‘fixing’ to me by a skilled fixer. Just a passing thought. We’ll see….
TaMara (HFG)
Okay, it is now my scheduled time to write. If you see me back here, feel free to offer a swift kick to my hind quarters. ;-)
…sneaks off to facebook.
germy
@Immanentize: I think that disappeared with the old Hollywood studio system.
Jamie
@rachel: No kidding. Talk about chutzpah.
Ruviana
@Tony Jay: Can I just tell you you are in Betty Cracker territory with the descriptions? Racist jelly-mold indeed! I will reread this a couple of times for laughs and also to try to keep up on Brexit which still gives me something of a confuzzle.
Tony Jay
@TaMara (HFG):
If you want to. It would be an honour.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Both of them have expressed a HUGE amount of faith in Mueller all the way along this process, so for even them to be questioning this out loud… well, I find it unnerving.
I think I saved about 2 dozen articles to my “reading list” in Safari — for possible future reading — because I just can’t read any of the hot takes at this point because I find the whole thing quite distressing and i just can’t read about it now when we don’t have any actual information.
I saw the Preet quote in one of the only 4 twitter feeds I watch and the Rosenberg info from something upthread. I have a cold and I don’t feel well, people are turning BJ into a food fight about 2020, and the news about efgoldman is just crushing, so you can color me as not doing my best at not being my calmest ever.
chris
@Tony Jay: Outstanding! Also, holy shit!
Immanentize
@germy: That is mostly true, but fixers still try to fix, they just don’t have the same tools as before. The primary tool being the ability to stop publicity or public information. Bit lots (hundreds!) Of drug, alcohol, gun and domestic violence charges — minor felonies all — get fixed into oblivion in most major cities every year.
In this case, I think the tell would be whether Jussie ends up suing. The smart play would be for the production company to pay off the brothers in such a way that they would become unavailable or unusable at trial.
Tony Jay
@Ruviana:
Wikipedia Oliver Letwin. Just look at that face. Check out the bouffant. It writes itself.
schrodingers_cat
@TaMara (HFG): Thanks for the kitteh thread yesterday.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Preet’s position, as I understand it, is Mueller wrote the report for Congress to make decisions based on the facts presented and Barr intercepted for the administration to keep it, as much as possible, in house.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s true, I am.
WaterGirl
@PJ:
Tell that to all of us who are grieving the loss of efgoldman.
debit
@WaterGirl: Everyone seems to be feeling pretty raw. You can come sit by me.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: take care, friend. BJ really isn’t so much crazier than at other times, although there is a slight uptick in shit stirring…. I was amazed yesterday by one commenter going after Raven. I suspect substance abuse problems in the former. Or something….
But really, we all need a little strength now so get better, sleep, stay hydrated, and read some Barbara Pym. That always makes me more calm.
Betty Cracker
@TaMara (HFG): Just remember I’ve got dibs on @Tony Jay‘s Brexit explainer from the other day — an overview of how the whole sorry spectacle came to be. I’m saving that for when the shit hits the fan, one way or another. :)
Lalophobia
@zhena gogolia: Should but they don’t. At least not at this point. People are…short term practical. If their family is clothed and fed (if they’re the kind of people who care about that) then why should they care if the guy who provides said clothing and feed takes a bit off the top for himself? You have to sit down with them and explain to them and teach them how this is going to affect them, and in that time their eyes have glazed over and they’ve lost interest.
If you can find a guaranteed way to make people who don’t care understand why they should, then hell yeah, go for it. In the mean time, if it means getting the White House back, I’d focus on the more direct connection to our voters’ well beings. The ones they can understand or have been keeping tabs on.
Plus, there isn’t much anyone can say without that report because our side doesn’t have the unfair advantage of the MSM carrying water for us without it.
chris
Breathe. Sammi, the Florida chicken.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: My concern about that is that it was perfectly obvious that Barr would try to do exactly what Barr did, and Mueller appears unconcerned about that happening. So it seems like maybe a distinction without a difference?
Raven
@Immanentize: When was that, I missed it. Must have been that punkass motherfucker Plato.
Raven
@WaterGirl: How do you know what Mueller thinks?
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: Mueller is not unconcerned. But he is a soldier, not a cowboy. He is a DOJ employee and an honorable one (IMO) at that.
Me? I’m mostly curious about the outstanding Indictments still filed but not served yet. By my count it is at least 15. So the top line news that there will be no further Indictments from that special counsel office is less interesting than who is yet to be arrested. I am certain Julian Assange is one. Beyond that, I dunno.
But I am an optimist!
Immanentize
@Raven: indeed it was.
Kraux Pas
@zhena gogolia:
Still wondering how long til a Republican legislature introduces a law stating that all polling places in urban districts must have a low entryway with no less than a ten foot stretch of broken glass underneath it.
It’s not about preventing “city folk” from voting, we’re trying to solve the problems of long lines at the voting booth. Because we care.
WaterGirl
@Raven: Nope, it was a different punkass motherfucker.
Alien Radio
@Immanentize: I so Hope one of them is Nigel farage
WaterGirl
@Raven: Hey, at least I said “appears unconcerned”!
Immanentize
@Raven: @WaterGirl:
Man you were on a streak yesterday, I didn’t see the other one!
Raven
@WaterGirl: Fuck em all.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Huh. I was sure it was one of the two-letter nyms, but maybe I have that confused with the person who attacked rikyrah yesterday. Both attacks seemed rather odd to me, so perhaps I conflated them.
Raven
@Immanentize: I didn’t see any of them. I had shit to do so I launched a couple of drive-by’s and di-di’d.
Kay
Verified account
It’s just appalling how the NYTimes political team keep beating this drum. “The Democratic Party” does not consist of the cable tv shows all these political reporters appear on.
Why don’t they try covering the actual Democratic Party and our actual candidates, instead of this imaginary Democratic Party they invented?
Their political team sucks. They’re terrible. I know they’re one of our cherished elite “institutions” but it’s time for them to lose that reputation. They don’t earn it. How long do they get to ride on reputation? It’s been 15 years since their garbage work on Iraq, where half a million people DIED. Why are they still a cherished elite institution?
Raven
@WaterGirl: Yea but he hasn’t “appeared”.
Immanentize
@Raven:
EFG lives. And was eternally correct.
rikyrah
THREAD
Filet Mignon with a nice Chianti (@epitomee) Tweeted:
Yo, y’all are wild. Pete Buttigieg is a white gay man. Pete is first and foremost a white man who is gay. He may or may not recognize intersectionality??♀️ Let’s see if he centers whiteness over queerness ? https://twitter.com/epitomee/status/1110548682779156483?s=17
jeffreyw
@Tony Jay: @TaMara (HFG):
A fantastic comment! I’ve seen few better and would love to see some of the fine comments here get more attention. There are several others that produce insightful material that are both smart and well written.
lurker dean
it’s really incredible that david brooks thinks he has standing to discuss morality. i’m sure front pager tom l. is amused :o)
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Thanks. Feeling crappy or not, I have to head out to pick up the dog and cat food that I special ordered because otherwise we will run out tomorrow. Today is Tuesday which = rib special at Little Porgy’s, so I think I have to reward myself with a stop there on the way home.
burnspbesq
I wonder if it’s occurred to anyone in Her Majesty’s Government to hop in a car, cruise over to the palace and ask the actual head of state if she has any thoughts on the matter.
FlipYrWhig
@WaterGirl:
This is starting to give me the sinking feeling of Comey Redux: the Last Honest Man decides he has to spare the country of the terrible something something and to advance that end makes a decision that _just happens to_ bolster the interests of the shitweasel party he’s been associated with his whole life.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Check out Kay’s comment above. Peter Baker has heard what he likes.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: His non-appearance while his good friend Barr appoints himself sole arbiter of the obstruction case and attempts to substitute a 4-page summary for Mueller’s entire report is kinda the point. If Barr is acting improperly, why doesn’t Mueller say so? If Mueller is okay with Barr’s actions (IMO, that’s the likeliest explanation), fuck ’em.
Raven
Need a break? Here’s the 2 hour TAMI Show.
The Barbarians
The Beach Boys
Chuck Berry
James Brown and The Famous Flames
Marvin Gaye (with backing vocals by The Blossoms)
Gerry & the Pacemakers
Lesley Gore
Jan and Dean
Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
The Rolling Stones
Diana Ross and the Supremes
The Wrecking Crew
Immanentize
@Kay: Ask Baud?
schrodingers_cat
@lurker dean: Cradle-snatching humility expert says what?
Raven
@Betty Cracker: It was NEVER Mueller’s charge to make public statements about this, never.
Raven
@WaterGirl: Is there more than one now?
Immanentize
@WaterGirl:
Damn that sounds good.
Kay
@lurker dean:
He’s our self-appointed moral leader. Our national scold. Insufferable.
I think they’re thrilled that the manly-man is back in charge. All is right with the world. Jesus- it’s cringeworthy how “deference to power” is such a completely natural state for these people.
They’re not smart or innovative or interesting- what they are is rigidly conventional. The existing order works for them so we all have to be stuck with it.
Betty Cracker
@burnspbesq: As an expert on constitutional monarchy by virtue of having viewed all available episodes of “The Crown,” my guess is the Queen would tell them to go sort their shit.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Because the elites who vote R cherish them.
Plato
@Raven: @Immanentize:
Lol. Kept stewing all night over a totally unknown blog commenter? Idiots.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: True. But if he sees that his report is being improperly buried by a party hack (who also happens to be Mueller’s very close friend) to protect Trump, does he not have an obligation to stop that from happening? I would say yes, he does have that obligation.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: Everyone thought it was just fucking peachy that he and his team were tight lipped. NOW we want him to hold a goddamn press conference. You’re going to be pissed off at him no matter what I say so knock yourself out.
rikyrah
@lurker dean:
STFU, BROOKS
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
They flogged this all thru the 2018 election. It wasn’t true. Democrats were running on health care and roads and education and the entire NYTimes political team insisted they were running on Trump.
Maybe they didn’t know because they were covering “the caravan”. It’s a fucking multi-million dollar outfit and you can’t read them to find out what is happening. They cover some meta, abstract OTHER thing that is apart from actual reality. If you’re interested in this whole other…thing they’re good at you should buy and read them. Other than that, they’re useless.
You know who is doing the only real coverage of the ACTUAL Democratic Party? The candidates? Voters? Dave Weigel in the Washington Post. You could literally just read him and follow all of it. There’s ONE. WTF? How did they end up with ONE person? I mean, I’m glad he exists but they might want to put a few other people on the “Not Donald Trump” beat.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Any place called Little Porgy’s should be doing ribs well :)
cmorenc
In the meanwhile before the 2020 election, the Rethugs may have already succeeded in setting up SCOTUS to 5-4 burn the foundations necessary for progressive government to the ground and salt the earth behind it. I cannot fathom how SCOTUS could craft a ruling finding the ACA unconstitutional in its whole without creating the groundwork for future destruction of the Social Security system and most of federal environmental law as well. Hard-core ideological conservatives view the Trump Administration as the chance they’ve been waiting for ever since the late 1930s to fundamentally reset things back to the way they were before *either* of the Roosevelts became president. Which is exactly why so few of them have mounted any serious opposition to Trump’s corruptly malignant and incompetent Presidency.
This state of things may continue until we finally get a break with the sort of SCOTUS opening we thought we had when Scalia died, except hopefully we’ll have a D President and D Senate majority then, with the backbone to firmly tell the barking dogs of the right to STFU and live with the consequences of the rules they set up to ram Gorsuch and Kavanaugh narrowly through the Senate.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: I’m not “pissed off at him” because I’m a capricious female who commends silence in one moment and demands press conferences the next. The circumstances have changed because the investigation ended. The report is completed, and it is being spun/suppressed. Maybe there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for Mueller remaining silent in the face of this outrage, and if such an explanation comes to light, I’ll personally apologize in this blog for doubting the saintly Mueller. But Occam’s Razor points in the direction of Republican hackery, IMO.
RAVEN
@rikyrah: It was there when I lived there 35 years ago!
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Yeah, I’m having a hard time between his passing and the political landscape, both here and elsewhere (looks like Sunday’s Presidential election in Ukraine will be a clusterfuck too.) Will have my grandkids for a week’s visit starting in a couple of days (daughter and family will be moving) so it’s probably as good a time as any to step away a bit and focus on the real world.
plato
Kay
I know they don’t take my advice and they had set up a health care press conference anyway, but if were The Democrats I would take Trump’s blunder with the ACA court case and run with it.
They can go to town with that. They know it too- it’s what they won on in ’18. They don’t have to tell people anything more than “Donald Trump is running your health insurance now – he is upending it”
They don’t have to do anything else for the next 3 months. All day, every day. If they were better at TEAMWORK all the presidential candidates could get on the same page, but I know that’s impossible because we always must have artisanal, hand-made personalized positions and we cannot possibly work together :)
RAVEN
@Betty Cracker: When you find me a saintly Marine Corps Infantry officer give me a call.
SenyorDave
Not many people I hope DIAF sick but McConnell is certainly one. I’ll open a nice bottle of wine to celebrate.
Maybe this is a time for Obama to comment on what happened? Since McConnell brought him into it.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I’m baffled by it too BC and I am damn tired of not being TOLD things! I don’t know when this became the norm. They don’t tell us SHIT. It’s unacceptable.
Elections are OURS. They belong to the public. They don’t belong to the DOJ, or Mueller, or Trump. This is OUR public process and we have a right to know how it’s been compromised. It’s the absolute LEAST we should get.
What are the protecting the integrity OF if they’re not going to tell the public? How can this possibly be “for us” if we’re told nothing about it? I feel like they have completely lost the plot. They’re protecting “institutions” – okay- WHY? For whom? Themselves? That’s not the job. Don’t protect the institutions anymore! Do us a favor! Just let that sucker fall. We’ll at least know something then.
tobie
@Tony Jay:
Please, please, please post ten quips a day. It’s cheaper than therapy and healthier than drugs.
RAVEN
QUESTION
When will the Mueller report be made public?
— asked on Reddit by TheGoldenHeaven
Samuelsohn:
Great question. If I knew the answer I would be rich.
Seriously, though, we are now in a waiting period – one that I’d say will take months, not weeks – while Attorney General William Barr and his aides go through the weeds of the report looking to remove classified and grand jury information that is not allowed to be made public.
In his letter yesterday, Barr said he’d be consulting with Mueller to help find all that information “as quickly as possible.” He also said he needs to be cognizant of other “ongoing matters” like open investigations, so that will slow things down a bit, since he doesn’t want to release a report that undermines potential prosecutions.
Barr reads the papers and knows there’s lots of clamor for this document. So he’ll be under pressure – especially from Democrats – to get something more out.
Myers Wood:
I generally agree with Darren, but think that the pressure from Congress to receive the full report is going to be substantial and Congress is not going to want to wait weeks or months.
One possibility is that DOJ could file a request with the Court to have all (or some) of the grand jury information in Mueller’s report made available to the Congress so that the full report could be sent to Congress for their consideration. This is what happened for the Starr report. If the full report is sent to the Hill, Congress could release (or leak) the report very quickly.
Barrett:
I agree with Darren — this will take a lot of consulting, including with intelligence agencies, so it will take at least weeks, I think.
Tony Jay
@jeffreyw:
Blush
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I’ll be curious to see how Mueller responds to the invitation– I think that’s how they phrase it– to testify. My hunch– IANAL, no expertise, I know as much about Mueller as the TeeVee tells me– but my hunch is he will volunteer little information, but he will answer if the Dems find the right questions
@Kay:
Well said and important, I hope some junior staffer of some Dem on the right committee is lurking here and helps her/his boss plagiarize you.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
This is part and parcel of institutional failure, right? That’s how it happens. The people inside it protect it and they completely lose the point of WHAT they’re protecting. The Catholic Church said “we can’t report the kid rapes because we run schools. We’ll lose the schools!”
They run schools! Not pedophile rings! The school IS the thing they’re supposed to be focused on. They protected it until there was nothing of value left to protect. What, exactly, are Mueller and Comey protecting if not the credibility of the US and the justice system? Institutional actors, that’s who. People. Not something grand and big. Something small. Individuals.
Amir Khalid
@burnspbesq:
My understanding is that the British head of state is constrained by her role to keep her political thoughts to herself. Which is a pity: having spent six decades taking weekly briefings from Prime Ministers, she is probably smarter, and more knowledgeable about good prime ministering, than Theresa May.
glory b
@Kay: To his credit, Joe Scarborough said that he hasn’t seen any of the candidates talk about anything but their issues, and all of them say that no one in their crowds asks about the Russia investigation. His panelists all agreed.
He also scorched David Brooks, and anyone else in the MSM who said or wrote anything similar.
tobie
@Betty Cracker: So true. I wrote earlier today that quiescence in a time of crisis is not a virtue. It’s complicity.
ETA: This assumes of course that Mueller doesn’t agree with Barr’s report which is a pretty big if.
chris
@lurker dean: Brooks? FAKE NEWS! ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!!!!
Tony Jay
@tobie:
Well, it’s like this.
What about the Barr Report and the MSM fapping over it is in any way surprising?
It’s not like they were just going to let the Report come out and do nothing. They were always going to try to bury it as long as possible while spewing out a mountain of bullshit. This, what we’re seeing now? This is exactly what that looks like.
But Democrats hold the House. Eventually, the shit gets washed away and we’ll see.
khead
All I can think of when watching that video is that I could have been famous.
Raven
@khead: Or at least a contender!
Miss Bianca
@SenyorDave:
If ever there was a time, this would be it – or so I’ve been thinking.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
In your job, IMO, you have to go back and ask “what do I do here? Who do I work for? What is my job?”
Because you get off track. So Comey decided he was saving the world. But that was not his job. We all would have been much better off if he had simply performed his actual job competently. All his anguish and shit? Completely unnecessary. All he had to do was read his one paragraph job description and stick to that.
They’re so off track they may never find their way back. And they’re bosses, so no one tells them they’re off track.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Kay, I was thinking that if I ever ran for office again, I wanted you as a policy advisor. Now I think I want you for my speechwriter as well.
: )
Kay
@glory b:
We only have one “activist” Democrat here who screams about Russia and he’s a recent Party switcher who is kind of a pain the ass. I actively recruited him, which I regret. I know in my bones that in 6 months he will be a “Democrats and Republicans are the same” person.
He’s a sheriiff’s deputy who works at the courthouse and I will literally walk up 2 flights of stairs to avoid passing his station. I can’t stand listening to him anymore. He’s a Berniac, of course. Goes without saying.
jeffreyw
@Betty Cracker:
I watched the same shows and my take is that they want the queen nowhere near their business. Likely lest they get told exactly what you suggest.
Brachiator
@Kay:
This is a wonderfully vivid, and accurate description!
I also agree with your larger point that it should be easy to demolish Trump and his stance on The Affordable Care Act, and is also the case with most of his other stupid positions,
Chief Oshkosh
@Miss Bianca:
This is true for THIS country. I’ve recently been reading histories of Cuba, Haiti, and Central and South American countries. The revanchist forces that exist apparently in all countries at all times aren’t so much white (though they usually are male).
The color that drives is always the color of money. Usually inherited or stolen.
khead
@Raven:
I would’ve killed my brother if he had told me to take a dive in that fight. I mean I love him, but c’mon.
Kathleen
@Miss Bianca: “Blessed are the Piecemakers”.
Raven
@jeffreyw: MY wife is going to London the day after tomorrow (with Rag’s wife). Want me to have her take the Queen a note?
Miss Bianca
@Chief Oshkosh:
In case it wasn’t clear, I was talking about THIS country. Your point is noted about other countries.
tobie
@Tony Jay: Thanks, and your metaphor reminds me that I’m very happy I bought Wellingtons recently to muck about in the mud and the shit. Now I just need to find my mental Wellingtons. Hang in there on your side of the pond!
Bex
@lurker dean: Re David Brooks. In honor of efg I say FUCKEM.
Ben Cisco
@Tony Jay: Let me just say that this was some damned fine writing. I heard it in John Cleese’s voice.
rikyrah
????
Ari Melber (@AriMelber) Tweeted:
Length of Bill Barr’s 2018 letter arguing a defense to Presidential obstruction:
19 pages
Length of Barr’s 2019 letter arguing a defense to potential Trump obstruction:
4 pages
Length of Mueller Report documenting the obstruction evidence on Pres. Trump:
Barr won’t say. https://twitter.com/AriMelber/status/1110583140492423168?s=17
GregB
As we watch Trump and the GOP taking their Barr Cliff Notes victory laps and demanding submission by their opposing party and the media, remember that this is going to end up like the statue toppling of Saddam. One small and brief huff of the glue of false victory followed by one cataclysm after another.
Chief Oshkosh
@Miss Bianca: Understood and not arguing. I’m just struck with all the similarities “our” revanchists share with all the others. Somehow it just makes it more depressing for me.
Emma
@Amir Khalid: Actually that’s only in public. Several prime ministers have spoken about her “incisiveness,” “total command of the facts of the political situation,” and her “ability to deliver a sharp critique.” IMHO, some of that means “delivering a bollocking that makes you gibber.” She made a speech during the Commonwealth celebrations about the necessity of working together in difficult situations that was widely considered to be aimed at the Parliament shitshow. Interestingly enough, her two female PMs have not seemed to get along with her (privately, of course).
moops
@zhena gogolia: It is disingenuous to say “nobody asked me about the Mueller report”. If you tell people it’s important, guess what? they will repeat that back to you. People need their political leaders to articulate what’s important. To frame the stakes of issues that they themselves are not being paid to scrutinize and contextualize. The Fate of Democracy is a wee bit abstract to your home constituents.
This goes double for our media, but hey, FTFNYT. They just want to F that chicken. They can flirt with fascism until it’s too late.
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker:
Yep. And for those who doubt this, here’s a little thought exercise. Think of the best Republican you know right now, in 2019. The kindest, most honest, most open-minded Republican you know. Now, imagine that Republican investigating a Republican president. Or imagine that Republican being the boss who gets handed the report on the investigation of the Republican president. Would the best Republican you know right now, in 2019, say or do anything substantively different than what we’re seeing right now? I know some Republicans who are decent people. Not one of them would behave differently than what we’re seeing right now.
rikyrah
I didn’t even know that she had it. Prayers ? for her.
Donna F. Edwards (@DonnaFEdwards) Tweeted:
Yesterday I began a new treatment for my MS. It’s as expensive as the last—no cure, but maybe symptom relief. My out-of-pocket expenses for the first three months of 2019 are over $10k. I’m grateful that @HouseDemocrats are determined to help me and 1 million others who have MS. https://twitter.com/DonnaFEdwards/status/1110562430902591488?s=17
Kathleen
@kindness: They are shallow and soul dead. They are being paid to lie and obfuscate and they are more than happy to pimp fascism and racism. This does not apply to hard working courageous reporters we are still blessed to have.
rikyrah
????
Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) Tweeted:
An extremely DC moment just now as the Green New Deal rally/presser wraps up and three meat industry lobbyists hand reporters fact sheets of Qs we should ask https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1110576904288043008?s=17
Brachiator
@Tony Jay: This really needs its own thread or a side thread.
It seems as though various factions have done nothing but fight each other, almost ignoring BREXIT while using it as an excuse for their solipsistic battle royal. Meanwhile the clock keeps ticking.
Theresa May is as stubborn as Trump trying to get his Wall no matter what. With May, it’s her deal or no deal. And as you note, she does not have to defer to the will of Parliament.
I’m unsure of how a no confidence vote and the prospect of a general election resolves anything. Someone (who?) would have to ask for an extension. Someone (who?) would have to decide whether MEP’s would be elected to the EU Commission (or whatever). This would effectively keep the UK within the EU for some time, resolving an aspect of BREXIT. But the current government in power (and the BREXIT extremists) don’t want to let this happen.
And apparently no one wants another referendum. The people have voted and must be forced to live with whatever decision they were suckered into three years ago.
Miss Bianca
@Chief Oshkosh: Funny how the forces of reaction all seem to share so many of the same salient features, eh? And by “funny” I mean, of course, “nauseous”.
jeffreyw
@Raven: Have her slip my Twitter handle to Her. Probably not a follow but what if she did!!
Jeffro
Can we just write down everything the Liberal Redneck just said and ship it to the Post in column format, so that I don’t have to read frickin’ Gary Abernathy every two weeks? Please??
david
@rikyrah: So I guess Smollett won’t be serving more time than Manafort, as Liberals feared?
germy
https://twitter.com/willwilkinson
Paul W.
I have three huge takeaways from this bullshit outcome, and short of Mueller publicly requesting a chance to present the report to the House this won’t change:
1) The FBI and the DOJ need to come out from under the Executive branch, it’s utterly absurd in terms of permissive structures it creates for the President to win and then slash, cut, and abuse the branch into covering up for any crimes he commits on his way in. As of right now, nothing coming out of the Justice Department can be seen without the dirty and corrupt light of the organized crime mob who sits atop it and the nation will be worse for it as it also encourages others like him to skirt or abuse the system.
2) There need not be respect for any of the Trump appointed judges opinions, and the courts where Bush+Trump appointees have a majority are likely not capable of having impartial (bias is ok) rulings which actually interpret instead of create law. If they continue along the lines of what the 5th circuit and DOJ have done then to me the next Dem congress/president have every right to ignore the fuck out of the courts into they come back from the Trumplandia wilderness and rule in a way that protects this nation and not forwards a political agenda.
3) Senate, House, and Presidency are all going to have so much crazy political and Russian/outside interference we are gonna have our work cut out for us. But prevail we must, and so I’ve come around to an almost complete carte blanche of little to no direct criticism of intent for Democrats running for office (including virtually everyone running for President except Tulsi Gabbard, Hickenlooper and Bernie to a lesser extent) so long as they refrain from personal and mud flinging attacks against the party and its candidates.
Fuck McConnell and every other GOPer who sold their soul to Trump to win in 2016 and 2010, our nation and the world will be forever scarred and a worse place because of them.
Brachiator
@GregB:
Fuck. Are we going to have to have a ceremony where Trump reveals a giant statue of his Trumpiness? Is this going to be part of that huge military parade he keeps promising us?
Gravenstone
@Immanentize: Someone here linked to reporting the other day that there are no sealed indictments remaining that are associated with the Mueller investigation.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Read that earlier. Thought it was a damn good summation of the situation.
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: Sweet jumping jesus, but the purity ponies of all stripes will be the death of us all.
jc
@oldgold: Trump asked for Russian assistance; Trump received Russian assistance; Trump benefited from Russian assistance; Trump rewarded Russian assistance.
Trump cheated his way into power; Trump is cheating his way out of accountability (successfully, so far); and just watch Trump cheat his way into a second term. I wish I felt more hopeful than this.
Bard the Grim
@RAVEN: The thing is, Mueller and Co. always knew that various versions of their report would have to be redacted, so they should have been marking iffy parts as they went along, to make the final pass(es) go faster. I therefore don’t buy the argument that it’s going to take months to redact. A couple weeks maybe. Hopefully we won’t even need to wait that long before somebody on the inside leaks key parts that need to see daylight to blunt the Trumpist putsch.
WaterGirl
@Raven: Yeah, there is the original Little Porgy’s in that tiny little hole-in-the wall in Urbana, which is completely across town and whose food is far superior to the Little Porgy’s that is located a few blocks from Springfield and Mattis, which is, of course, quite close to me.
So I have to drive across town if I want good ribs or chicken, but it’s worth the drive. Bill, the owner, always works at the one in Urbana, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why he/they cannot teach the workers in Champaign how to cook their food. Even the fries aren’t as good in Champaign, and I mean, how do you fuck up fries?
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I thought of you as I was eating the ribs, if that helps!
zhena gogolia
@FlipYrWhig:
Yep.
zhena gogolia
@moops:
Agreed.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: You can get ribs every day, but on Tuesday they cost less! On Sunday the half-chicken, fries and large drink is only 5.99, and that’s a good deal, too.
Amir Khalid
@Emma:
You are right. I meant to say that while unafraid to criticise a PM in private, she doesn’t air her political thoughts for public consumption, and is perforce careful about who hears them.
Both women PMs are Tories. Her Majesty is probably a Tory too at heart, but she must have known that Thatcher despised her as a wet, and it cannot have escaped her that May is stupid and stubborn to a fault.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
I don’t know that May is stupid. And some of the conservatives who might want to replace her are far worse.
Mike in DC
My guess is, if we don’t see the report(redacted or otherwise) by April 2nd, something is up. I’d expect Congressional committees to subpoena the report within a month. And the media narrative will start to turn back against Trump the longer the delay in its release.
raven
@WaterGirl: Yea, my office was basically Tod and John’s right ump there street. I even think Huey’s was across the street for a while before they turned it into a grocery store.
WaterGirl
@raven: I used to hang at Tod and John’s. Long before Tod ran for mayor and became a total raging asshole. Huey’s was across the street! That was a good store.
Have you been to Tod and Johns since it became Black Dog?
frosty
@Tony Jay: Yay! Front page all of Tony’s Brexit commentary. There was a brilliant one a few days ago that I can’t find through searches.
sukabi
@WaterGirl: that’s just it, ALL we know about Mueller’s report is what Barr inferred from his 3 small, incomplete snippets of Mueller’s report. Which means we don’t know anything about the report yet, except Barr didn’t feel “comfortable” saying anything about the actual report.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: that’s the one I couldn’t find. I’m glad it’s going to be back.
WaterGirl
@Mike in DC: Wondering you mean by what you mean by “something is up”.
As in we have something up our sleeves that we will put into play if they don’t meet the April 2 deadline?
Or as in they must really be hiding something big (or worse) if they don’t meet the deadline?
sukabi
@Brachiator: pretty sure there will be homemade drumpf effigies burning in the streets before this is over. No need to actually commission a statue to topple.
raven
@WaterGirl: Yea, when I went up for the 4th a few years back. I’ve known Pedro since he came to the states, he was one of the original Esquire wonders too. Tod and I and his ex Lisa were very close back in the day. They had at least three teams a night in my softball leagues (I ran the Urbana sports program) and I just hung at the bar and would cruise out to Prairie, Canaday and Woodland. Did you hang there when they had free fish Sammy’s on Friday? What a zoo. I think they went to $25 after I moved in 84. The joint was a real dive.
J R in WV
@lurker dean:
Did David Brooks even apologize to her first wife for betraying her, and then leaving his historic family religion to boff a young woman employee?
Majik 8-Ball says NOPE!
He did marry her, the young squeeze, that’s why he had to convert, no bonus points for that David! Still a rat bastard with the morality of Simon la Grise…
janesays
@zhena gogolia: I think her point was that most average Americans aren’t nearly as tuned into all of this as the pundit class is. People who regularly post at this and other similar political blogs are not representative of the average American – we tend to spend far more time focusing on all of the intricacies of our political environment than the majority of Americans.
sukabi
@lurker dean: the evidence isn’t lacking, a large part of it is public, captured on video. The other part is in the Mueller report which hasn’t been read by any of the assholes spiking the ball. What has been made available is Barr’s “interpretation”, which is suspect given his history as cover up king and his 19 page give me the AG job and I’ll make it all go away memo.
stinger
@janesays: But there she was on Colbert, with a national audience. She could have taken the opportunity to inform said audience. Colbert asked the question — he’s a voter. I’m a voter, and I’d like an answer. I’m even an Iowan — if mine had been one of the 100 hands she shook, she’d have gotten a question about the Mueller report/Russian interference/election security for sure!
catclub
@WaterGirl:
Hey, that is starting to sound like Comey, and FBI PR training.
tybee
@Tony Jay: that’s some first class shit, right there. thanks.
WaterGirl
@raven: I got my fish sandwiches on Friday on Green Street. I am trying to figure out when I started hanging out at Tod & Johns. I was definitely there from 83-87, maybe earlier.
catclub
@Brachiator: Agreed. I think the Tory party may crumble, but May will survive in some manner.
She is certainly better than all the Brexit Tories who suddenly did not want to be PM and run the exit show.
WaterGirl
@stinger:
GoodPlan: pick on the one thing Warren might have done sub-optimally on Colbert and let’s focus on that. Again and again. Repeat for all Democratic candidates. So much winning!RAVEN
@WaterGirl: The DeLuxe
stinger
@WaterGirl: She’s tied for my preferred candidate right now. Why can’t I suggest that she address an important topic? I want them ALL to be tied for first! I want them all to be top-tier candidates. But I also reserve the right to suggest improvements for any of them. She’s just the one who’s being talked about here on BJ today.
Her audience on Colbert was a bit larger than “my” audience here at the tail end of a BJ thread. I don’t think I’m hurting her candidacy one bit.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: @RAVEN: Thank you! I could not think of the name, but it was on the tip of my tongue.
MoxieM
@Tony Jay: Dude, not only front-pager here, you need (deserve) a gig at the Grauniad or such. Well put, and I condole with you.
WaterGirl
@stinger: There are 8 or 10 comments about Warren on this thread, and nearly all of them involve some nit picking about her. I didn’t memorize or scrutinize every comment, but if there’s a general feel for what I take away about Warren on this thread, it’s that it’s mostly critical.
Of course you can say what you like and so can everybody else.
But the overall sense I am left with is people focusing on what was not right rather than what was, and that doesn’t seem good for morale. I know for a fact that’s not good for mine. A number of people seem to be stepping away because of the circular firing squad effect on BJ lately and I’d rather not be one of them, so I am speaking up about what I am seeing. It’s doesn’t make me right, but I would love to preserve BJ as a respite not a lion’s den.
J R in WV
@sukabi:
Barr may imply, but we infer from what he implies, that he’s a lying piece of crap. At least wildly distorting what the report says into what he wishes it said.
No one knows what the report says, and our inferences are a poor substitute for knowing what it ways. Time will tell, I hope. Else we may have to wait for that 2020 election…
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
I said she was a tiny step away from Kamala Harris, whom I contributed a small bit to the other day, to help combat my helplessness in the face of powerful fascists in DC and NY.
I like Senator Professor Warren. She’s got good sense and won’t be blown over by neo-liberal war-mongers coming back out of their holes after a successful election. I just think Kamala Harris has a leg up from the get-go being from CA instead of a tiny state like MA. Just my take last Friday night. I needed to do something positive, so I did. Won’t be the last contribution, nor the only candidate.
sukabi
@J R in WV: that was my point. We know exactly nothing about Muellers final report. We do know from the process that many, many witches have been indicted, and more than a few have pled guilty. And there are many investigations that have been spun off to different state jurisdictions.That ain’t nothing.
A Ghost To Most
@WaterGirl:
Ha. Good luck with that.