Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Trump Crime Cartel / Michael Flynn Urged Matt Gaetz On While Supposedly Cooperating – And Open Thread

Michael Flynn Urged Matt Gaetz On While Supposedly Cooperating – And Open Thread

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CNN got some Twitter direct messages between Michael Flynn and Congressman Matt Gaetz, praising Gaetz for attacking the Mueller investigation, with which Flynn was supposedly cooperating.

“You stay on top of what you’re doing. Your leadership is so vital for our country now. Keep the pressure on,” Flynn wrote in an April 2018 message to Gaetz, which was obtained by CNN.

The contempt these people have for the law is stunning. It’s just like Paul Manafort’s constant lying when he supposedly was cooperating. In meme language,

The common point could well be a promise from the godfather that they would be taken care of.

And Open Thread!

 

Reader Interactions

107Comments

  3. 3.

    germy

    @RepMattGaetz. Mr. Obstruction himself. The same Matt Gaetz who is now being investigated by the FL Bar for threatening Michael Cohen to get him not to testify to Congress about @POTUS. No surprise there ?— Robin D. (@RobinD444) May 18, 2019

  4. 4.

    Gravenstone

    Would have guessed the individual related to Congress alluded to in the unsealed decision was Nunes. Guess it was probably any and every one of the Republican goon squad instead. Apparently I think too small when it comes to the hubris of this crew.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: Not necessarily. My guesstimate is that it is Derek Harvey. He’s a retired colonel who Flynn had as senior director for the Middle East on the National Security Staff. Harvey’s a conspiracist and, frankly, a kook. As soon as Flynn was replaced with McMaster, McMaster pushed Harvey out and he immediately took a senior staff position with Nunes. So if you wanted someone connected with both the Administration or Congress, Harvey fits the description. I suppose it could be Kash Patel, who is both Nunes senior investigator and also a tremendous asshat.
    abajournal.com/news/article/federal_judge_issues_order_on_ineptitude_in_prosecutor_benchslap

  7. 7.

    Old Dan and Littlw Ann

    There is a sweet moon tonight. Also, was reading BJ earlier about Woody Harrison’s dad being a hit man. Then saw it again just now on some randomn fb page I follow. It’s all connected, man,

  8. 8.

    Wag

    Curiouser and curiouser. Truly heading down the rabbit hole

    I picture tRump as the Mad Hatter.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Dragging up from downstairs.

    Strictly for grins, went and looked up who is registered with the FEC as a presidential candidate for 2020.

    As of May 13, 2019, there are 716 candidates who filed to run, including:

    · 244 Democratic candidates
    · 91 Republican candidates
    · 26 Libertarian candidates
    · 14 Green candidates
      Source

    Among the many listed at the link whom you likely have not heard about (yet):

    Refino Pig (R)
    Pew Die Pie (I)
    Internet Beef (NP)
    Grapelton Feret (D)

    ;)

    Also noticed that Howard Schultz (I – Flash-in-the-Pan) has not registered as a candidate.

  19. 19.

    Harbison

    I wanted to pick up on what Cole was saying below:

    You can not compromise one inch with fanatics. The moment you buy into their framework of things (“ABORTION IS EVIL”) and start saying things like it should be “safe, legal, and rare,” you are losing the battle.

    That is absolutely correct and some of us have not forgotten that chief architect of “safe, legal, and rare” were Bill and Hillary Clinton:
    harvardpolitics.com/united-states/safe-legal-and-rare-the-democrats-evolving-stance-on-abortion/

    We are reaping the results of this sort of hair-splitting “centrist” triangulating New Democrat bullshit right now.

  22. 22.

    Mak

    Hmm. Wonder what Judge Sullivan will think of this revelation (assuming he doesn’t know already).

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2019/05/17/michael-flynn-urged-matt-gaetz-on-while-supposedly-cooperating/#comment-7288682″>Jay

    The one listed is Pie with an e. Unfortunate propinquity?

    :)

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @Wag

    An ear robin.

    Although that treads into “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly” territory.

    ;)

  29. 29.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    Same Guy, but ballotpedia says Communist Party.

    Basically, he filled out a form, so he’s listed, even if he’s not eligible.

  37. 37.

    Mike in NC

    Never read the book, but episode 1 of “Catch-22” on Hulu was excellent. The 1970 movie was good, with a number of preserved and flyable B-25 bombers, but it couldn’t match modern CGI for the combat scenes.

    Got to ride in a B-25 a few years back and it was fantastic.

  38. 38.

    J R in WV

    Ear worms are a terrible thing. I’m lucky in that mostly the ear worms I catch are good tunes. The only way to fight one is to pick out some really great tunes and listen to those to drive the worm out of your memory. Something completely different, but also awesome.

    Like Los Lobos to drive out something you heard on the radio or in a business lobby. For example…

  40. 40.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’s convalescing. Back surgery about two weeks ago.

    I’ve often said, when down with my back problems, that I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. But no more…

    I hope his back trouble keeps Mr Starbucks down until late November, 2020. Then he can have a marvelous cure, but not before then. Asshat also too.

  42. 42.

    J R in WV

    @laura:

    @Harbison: Please to be eating a giant sack of salted dicks. When you’re done, go fuck yourself.

    You all are keeping my style alive~!!~ For which I thank you all …

    About time to go down for the night. Wife and I worked in the creek below the house this afternoon with a 6 foot pry bar. We moved a couple big rocks around in the creek bed hoping to stop erosion into the fill around the septic tank and driveway. Things you have to do to live in the green green hills!

    Hope everyone has a good night.

    How about those graduate school grades Lamh posted up? What a woman, traveling all over the world, studying, makin’ those A’s !!! Can’t say enough good things about her drive and success.

    Good night all~!!!~

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    Since the GOP is so concerned with sin, let’s see them support life imprisonment for elected officials and judges who lie to the public, and hard time for anyone who helps them do it.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jay: Those are both Democratic senators and that was snark making fun of the President.

  52. 52.

    Bill Arnold

    Interesting. This isn’t large scale social media, it’s groups. (Any people familiar with India care to comment?)
    WhatsApp is driving Indian women to vote like never before (Annalisa Merelli, 2019/05/17)

    Today, the conversation has changed dramatically. Chopra said women are in WhatsApp groups with hundreds of members who all discuss political preferences.
    “Things have moved from me walking to the neighbor to have a conversation to having the conversation coming at me at a rate that never existed before,” she said. These conversation make women feel more involved, and then more inclined to participate when the time to vote comes around, she added.
    Social media platforms also help women express themselves in a way they might not be able to at home, where traditional roles still often hold sway. As a result, many Indian women—who were once largely unengaged in politics—are now part of a collective “uprising of the female voter in India,” Chopra said.

  53. 53.

    Wag

    @NotMax:

    I remember a punk version with the final verse of
    I know an old lady who swallowed a minister
    Isn’t that sinister, to swallow a minister

    She died!!

  55. 55.

    Chetan Murthy

    @NotMax:

    Unfortunate propinquity?

    I love that in this community, people use words like that without even pretending they need explanation.

  60. 60.

    Bobbo

    @Harbison: @Harbison

    ‘We are reaping the results of this sort of hair-splitting “centrist” triangulating New Democrat bullshit right now’

    Uh, no. The increasing fanaticism of the Republican party is the responsibility of the fanatics, who have agency too. Maybe Clinton didn’t do enough to fight it, but 25 years ago their fanaticism wasn’t as apparent. Clinton saved the Democratic Party. He was the kind if Democrat who could win in 1992

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    @frosty:
    Went to Oshkosh in 99 and rode in the EAA B-17.
    It was pretty fucking amazing. Those old birds are getting rarer and rarer so fly in one while you can.
    I seem to recall that the pilot/co-pilot in my ride were B-17 pilots at the end of WWII. They were the right age for it and seemed very comfortable in the plane.

  64. 64.

    TomatoQueen

    @Mike in NC: Read the book. It’s a classic of modern American comic fiction, and impossible to film, altho’ someone in every generation wants to try it. The reviews of the current effort are most encouraging, except for hints that character names are truncated, which would spoil a good bit of the fun. Milo yes, but Milo Minderbinder is the full character.

  66. 66.

    gene108

    @Bill Arnold:

    Only commen is about 50% of WhatsApp users are in India. The platform is extremely popular there and is used for everything from personal to business communications.

    ******************************************

    On a personal note, I have come to realize my personal goal in life is to have the physique and health I had 20 years ago, when I was 24 to 25 years old (including no gray hair), by doing nothing more than wishing really hard.

    I have had no success so far.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    There’s a chart at the link displaying in bar graph form the numbers for each time around back to 1980. Prior to 2018 the totals displayed are significantly lower, with the most numerous still not reaching 500..

  69. 69.

    gene108

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I just have this sinking feeling, I am going to be one of those folks, who has a bad allergic reaction to over the counter hair dyes.

    Makes me hesitant to use them.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    Quite comfortable with the gray and the white hair. Each one tells a story.

    The collective hubbub at one time kept me up at night, but one becomes accustomed.

    ;)

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne

    @gene108:

    The OTC hair dyes instruct you to do a patch test before you apply them so you can find out whether or not you’re allergic before you rub it all over your scalp. It’s a fairly messy process, though, even if you have short hair.

    I started going gray in my late 20s, so I’ve been dyeing my hair for years. I need to make an appointment with my colorist, because my roots are pretty bad right now. ?

  74. 74.

    Mo MacArbie

    Why does my hair always look the grayest at the barber shop? I suspect they select the lighting to upsell more services.

  78. 78.

    Aleta

    Because there’s no reason to go to Ireland if he can’t charge them and us for use of his property.

    (Irish Times) Disagreement over the location of a possible meeting between US president Donald Trump and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has thrown a potential visit to Co Clare by the president into doubt.

    The Trump administration had been considering a visit to Ireland between the president’s trips to Britain and France in June. But disagreement has emerged over protocol issues.

    While the Taoiseach’s preference is to meet Mr Trump in Co Clare, Irish officials are reluctant to meet the US president in his golf course in Doonbeg. Instead, the Government has pressed for a meeting in another location, preferably Dromoland Castle, located 50km away.

    One White House source told The Irish Times on Thursday that the president was now favouring a visit to Scotland rather than Ireland during his European trip.

    But sources in Dublin on Thursday said they believed the Irish visit would still go ahead.

    The unique nature of a potential visit – a US president visiting his own private property in Ireland – has thrown up complex issues around protocol, and whether it constitutes a private or official visit.

    Out of control avarice.

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Aleta: JFC. What a grifter a-hole. “Wah wah wah I’m not coming to your country if I can’t make money.”

  84. 84.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: Seen any good old movies lately? I have John Frankenheimer’s The Train on hold at the library.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aleta:

    Remember that Trump also has that weird obsession about sleeping in his “own” bed, which includes the beds in his hotels.

    He’s probably also starting to get paranoid about his personal safety now that he’s successfully pissed off the majority of the world’s population.

    ETA: The fact that his personal fetishes and obsessions will also generate income for him is part and parcel of his malignant narcissism.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Burt Lancaster.

    Have watched maybe a half dozen or so middle of the pack old movies recently. Nothing to mention as standing out; there’s reasons they are generally obscure.

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mnemosyne:

    Remember that Trump also has that weird obsession about sleeping in his “own” bed, which includes the beds in his hotels.

    In that case, he should resign, get the fuck out of the people’s House, and fuck off back to Dump Tower in NYC. It’s only logical.

  89. 89.

    mrmoshpotato

    IMDB is asking who would win a fight: John Wick or T-Rex. Am I missing something, or are they pitting human vs dinosaur?

  90. 90.

    something fabulous

    how annoying of her. how dare she even think of running again this time? —oh, wait.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    One thing recently watched which has its cute moments (not a recommendation, merely pointing it out as an oddity) is a mini-series – seemingly incomplete as yet – on Prime called The Benza. About two Western guys in Japan, both fluent in the language, on an increasingly bizarre errand to buy a replacement for a cracked toilet seat.

  94. 94.

    Aleta

    @Mnemosyne: He can sleep wherever he likes (and we have to pay him for every room and glass of water and sandwich the secret service needs). Seems the Irish think it weird though to expect their officials and their security, etc to set up at his private place and buy his congealed freedom fries, instead of greet him at a national site prepared for these things.

  95. 95.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    on an increasingly bizarre errand to buy a replacement for a cracked toilet seat.

    Sounds quirky.

  99. 99.

    tokyokie

    @mrmoshpotato: The Train is one of my all-time favorite movies, an action movie in which the action is believable. Burt Lancaster performs his own stunts (and pulled a muscle along the way, so the script was changed to include his getting wounded), it’s one of the rare film appearances of the great Paul Scofield, and classic French actors like Jeanne Moreau and Michel Simon show up as well. And there’s a huge train crash that doesn’t employ models or CGI. I heartily recommend it.

  102. 102.

    trnc

    @Harbison:

    You can not compromise one inch with fanatics. The moment you buy into their framework of things (“ABORTION IS EVIL”) and start saying things like it should be “safe, legal, and rare,” you are losing the battle.

    That is absolutely correct and some of us have not forgotten that chief architect of “safe, legal, and rare” were Bill and Hillary Clinton:
    harvardpolitics.com/united-states/safe-legal-and-rare-the-democrats-evolving-stance-on-abortion/

    We are reaping the results of this sort of hair-splitting “centrist” triangulating New Democrat bullshit right now.

    I don’t know if Clinton was triangulating when he said that, but the way I took it at the time and the way I still think of “rare” in that statement is not “shame on you.” It’s that birth control should be taught to every school kid, pre-natal care should be available to every pregnant woman and men bear as much responsibility as women for preventing unwanted pregnancy and supporting the health of the expectant mother.

    I fully support abortion rights, even a fully elective one, but I would rather there be zero abortions, mainly because every medical procedure carries some risk to the patient.

    I’ll ask in the interest of gaining some perspective from other people here – I don’t think any woman should be shamed for their choice, but I would still think it’s a somewhat tough decision to make (barring medical or financial reasons, etc), even if you know it could be completely private. Is that a minority opinion?

    From a purely political perspective, to the extent that anyone here agrees with the above sentiment, I don’t think it’s productive to tear down the statement. I think it would be better to embrace it and define it in the way we want. One thing that bothers me about the controversy around the statement right now is that I’m not sure how much of it is fed by right wing framing. I noticed, for instance, that the linked story linked to the Washington Times, who would not be writing about this in good faith.

  103. 103.

    Johnnybuck

    @trnc: Just because Cole has a semi-famous blog foesn’t mean he’s right. Safe, legal and rare is exactly how this issue should be framed. Most people, and I mean the vast majority support legal abortion, although they’d prefer that it not have to happen. How fucking hard is this? These laws have less to do with abortion and more to do with white supremecy. And anyone who thinks it will change the political calculus in those states, didn’t pay attention to 2016.

  104. 104.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Loved the Alpine scenery, but hated the sweetness, like supersaturated southern iced sugar water tea. Hated the characters, the children, everything but the scenery.

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    @gene108:

    … the physique and health I had 20 years ago, when I was 24 to 25 years old (including no gray hair)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    @gene108: I took care of the gray hair, they have this stuff called hair dye.

    You guys! I was so bald at 25 I had to wear a baseball cap to go fishing lest I get a horrible sunburn on my scalp — and you’re bitching about it being gray??

    SAD!

  106. 106.

    trnc

    @Johnnybuck:

    Just because Cole has a semi-famous blog foesn’t mean he’s right. Safe, legal and rare is exactly how this issue should be framed.

    I appreciate your comment. I know what you’re saying, but several people chimed in to agree with Cole on it, and that was not the first time I’ve read complaints about the “rare” part. Which is weird to me because I think very few people would actually WANT an abortion.

    I think the comments are actually more of a pushback against the patriarchical authoritarianism that spawned the recent abortion laws, but I do worry that it starts to sound more like, “Abortion! Hell, yeah!” instead of “Hey, assholes, if you’re so against abortion, how about some birth control education and health care for women instead of your viagra subsidy?”

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