I have ZERO expectations for the Mueller hearing tomorrow, but this is mildly interesting:
Rumor is that Aaron Zebley (Mueller’s Chief of Staff) will be on the witness panel with Mueller.
You don’t get to change the rules right before kickoff, especially after a 22 month, $30 million investigation.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 23, 2019
What is the plank-faced pervert abettor worried about?
Open thread.
gene108
They may face consequences for their theft of the Treasury and colluding, with Russia, to win elections?
Sab
I love that Jordan thinks this is a sports event.
dmsilev
Wait, Republican Representatives are concerned about alleged heating shenanigans? Where’s my electron microscope? I need it to find that violin.
The Dangerman
Not sure I understand the reference. Hit him with a plank, sure, else …
ETA:
Nothing, but he has to bitch about something. Could be the color of the ties planned to be worn or the temperature of the room, but there will be bitching (kinda like the movie “There Will Be Blood”).
SRW1
@Sab:
Mud wrestling is a sports event!
Daniel Almont
Hmmm, Barr blocked Mueller, but didn’t say anything about Zebley. Yet.
raven
Speaking of, they just announced Georgia-Notre Dame for a night game on CBS on Sept 21!!!! And epic game and and epic deep sea fishing trip in the same week. . . epic!!!!!
sherparick
While all the attention is being spent on Mueller, the Trump-Mulvaney administration does not let a day go by when it can do something to hurt poor people, workers, and the environment. Today, they issued a rule to prevent automatic enrollment into SNAP if you are receiving TANF. They hope this bumps 3.1 million men, women, and children off the SNAP (Food Stamps) as part of their plan to make America hungry again.
I would encourage all to check out this twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/rebeccavallas/status/1153642781761527816
But remember, the most important issue in the last election was Hillary Clinton’s email and records management practices.
West of the Rockies
@The Dangerman:
I’m not sure what plank-faced means either, but I do like it. Flat-faced, dull expression? I get the feeling that Jordan thinks of himself as a seething mount of male awesomeness.
eemom
Nonsense. This is gonna be the long awaited moment when Pelosi sheds the Clark Kent costume and magically grows a pair of balls right before our very eyes.
different-church-lady
@eemom: Uhhh… that’s not how Superman works….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I have pretty low expectations, but I would bet that Gaetz, Goehmert and Jordan are going to make fools of themselves, and will make Mueller look that much better to normies. Reports indicate that while Dems weren’t willing to give up their camera time to a lawyer, they are rehearsing and coordinating their questions. Fingers-crossed
Kay
I don’t think he’ll say anything outside what he wrote. This drives Trump crazy though- it’s obviously not true that none of this matters to him.
cain
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Good, because their ass is on the line too. We are expecting results now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eemom: you make shoes out of your empty Franzia blush boxes, don’t you?
Matt
Shorter Gym Jordan: “As a man with some experience in these matters, I’m frightfully concerned that some kind of coverup of crime is going on!”
Chyron HR
Which part of the football rules had “Let your pervert buddies rape kids in the locker room”, Gym?
trollhattan
I must type Gym Jordan because he always needs that scandal tied to his neck. Ditto Ken Starr and the Baylor rapealooza.
Thank you.
Shalimar
I did not realize “Zebley can’t testify” was a rule.
Plato
Less than zero expectations.
West of the Rockies
Turns out that there is a horror movie called Plank Face. Look it up at your own risk. NSFW.
germy
@different-church-lady:
You didn’t see the Zack Snyder reboot?
Yustano
@Chyron HR: To be fair, he was a wrestling coach. Which just opens up all kinds of molestation shenanigans on its own merits. And yeah still don’t believe he’s anywhere near innocent there. But no one has called him out on it yet so…
Another Scott
Via TheHill: 6 page Mueller Report cheat sheet for Democrats and lawmakers:
It sounds like there may be fireworks tomorrow…
Cheers,
Scott.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It is a day ending in “y”, after all.
geg6
I have absolutely no expectations for this hearing. I don’t expect it to change a thing, I don’t expect Mueller to stand up to the bullies in the White House, I don’t expect anyone to do anything useful or to move public opinion along.
Nothing is going to change anything until the election. Which may or may not change things. In which case, I’ll be looking into how to get out of here or how to kill myself. One or the other.
germy
germy
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-mueller/u-s-justice-department-tells-mueller-to-limit-congressional-testimony-idUSKCN1UH2KI
TenguPhule
I’m sorry, with this Congress you have to be a little more specific.
trollhattan
@sdhays:
Don’t know if my decaying brain can stand any more Goehmert exposure. I’m dangerously close to the Goehmert LD50 as it is.
sukabi
I’m wondering if Mueller wants his aid with him because he’s having a bit of age related cognitive issues. He sounded aged and unsure at the press conference he did.
germy
@sukabi: Or maybe to remind him what’s classified and what isn’t?
laura
@Chyron HR: he was a rassler, not a football player.
Also, the acting president is less plank faced, than ham headed IMHO. And I’m dreading his inevitable tweet storm about the “lovers” strozk and page, that just nails down a chalkboard to me every time.
Immanentize
@sukabi:
Is this the Trump/Russia talking point distributed earlier today?
Roger Moore
@laura:
I think Trump goes with the “lovers” theme because it’s a way to avoid having to spell Strzok.
Gin & Tonic
@laura: Strzok.
sukabi
@Immanentize: I have no idea what the Russians are doing. That was my impression from his press conference. He was struggling a bit and seemed old.
germy
Christopher Wray says he hasn’t read Mueller’s Report.
Martin
@Daniel Almont: Barr can’t block Mueller. Mueller doesn’t work for the government. Barr has no more control over Mueller as he has over your or I. Government jobs are still just jobs.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sukabi: I thought I heard Natasha Bertrand say something similar on MSNBC last week, that the time limits are due to health issues
ruemara
@different-church-lady: It’s not how impeachment works either so, at least it’s consistent.
gene108
@germy:
Report is damning enough. Only thing keeping everyone from seeing the truth his the P.R. job Barr, put on, which was probably engineered by Bill Shine, so his buddies on Fox got a few days to bullshit about total exoneration, and so now that’s what people believe.
We are in the post-truth era.
germy
Christopher Wray looks like the dad on a 1960s sitcom. He could have been the third Darrin in Bewitched.
Hoodie
@sukabi: Nonsense. Having the COS there would be consistent with Mueller’s indication that he is sticking to the report in his testimony. For example, when a congressperson asks a question, the COS could be helpful in citing sections that might be pertinent to the question or pointing out that the question is not covered in the report. The COS is probably more familiar with the minutiae of the report than Mueller is.
gene108
@germy:
I wish someone would ask Trump, why his hand picked, and Senate confirmed, FBI director has not weeded out the Deep State in the FBI? Or better yet, ask Wray about the Deep State in the FBI.
I have a pipe dream that one day Republicans will be held accountable for their bullshit by the media. A crazy, never gonna happen, dream, but still a wild idea, I can’t let go of.
Betty Cracker
@laura: Me too. It’s so weird and creepy, the way Trump goes on about Page and Strzok, who are private citizens, after all. Their only “sin” was to call out Trump’s stupidity and unfitness for office via private text messages, just as millions of fellow Americans have for years now. It was dumb of them to use FBI phones for that purpose, but the penalty for that shouldn’t be having their names endlessly dragged through the mud by the degenerate in the White House, who has a lot of nerve taunting other people for adultery, given his own sordid history. I wish they’d sue the bastard for defamation. I’d contribute to a fund for that purpose.
germy
West of the Rockies
@laura:
Barr has a ham head. Damn thing is weirdly big and bloated.
Raven
@gene108: If you don’t think that is coming you are in a dream world.
TenguPhule
@West of the Rockies:
Ham is one of the few remaining good things in this life. Please don’t take that away from me.
Danielx
Why does the phrase “essence of douche” come into my head every time I see Jim Jordan’s image?
trollhattan
Good guy with a gun.
“Mah knife done shot mah gun!” Imagine being being convicted of this even in Alabama.
Kay
Guffaw.
The thing is- they really believe this. They really think conservatives care about “budgets”. There may be no way to convince them otherwise. It’s impossible. They’ll go their GRAVES insisting it’s true.
What do you do with a belief like this? It’s a religion. There’s no way to correct it. It’s faith.
sukabi
@trollhattan: the knife should have shot his dick off.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: Good God. In my backward-ass gun-nut county, the all-wingnut school board has been trying to figure out how to station armed “guardians” in the local schools without someone accidentally shooting his balls off. Ex-Gov Skeletor threw the “guardians” program into new restrictions that passed after Parkland as a sop to the NRA. Weird how they still can’t get their shit together.
JPL
@Another Scott: MWF’s are the days I sit for the grandson. The two grans decided to watch him, so he would be six months when he went to daycare. Now I wonder if I should break my promise to myself not to watch the TV when he’s up. errr..
gene108
@Raven:
In my lifetime, I am 45 years old, I have never seen any Republicans take much of a hit for breaking the law.
North, Abrams, et. al. from Iran-Contra nicely landed on their feet.
Thiessen, Liu (sp?), Bush, Jr., Cheney, et. al. are living nicely for lying us into a war in Iraq, instituting torture, etc.
I am not holding my breath thinking anyone from this Administration will be held to a higher standard, than the above Administrations.
Also, Starr’s merry band of Clinton panty-sniffers are doing great. Helping with a bullshit investigation, participating in the bullshit Brooks Brothers Riot, etc., just lands participants on the SCOTUS.
They can lose a couple of elections, but other than that, they will be making millions, in either the private sector, as college professors, university Presidents, working at think tanks, or as paid lobbyists.
Republicans look after anyone, who doesn’t snitch on other Republican crooks.
germy
The old ones are being rapidly replace by much younger ones:
Peale
@sherparick: So states will go back to the old ways. “Oh, this is a TANF appointment. You’ll have to go to the food stamp office across town that’s only open every other Wednesday or Thursday depending on the humidity and give them the same documentation proving for the 4th time to the 10th person in our office that you are indeed poor. And we’ll reject your first application anyway so you’ll need to appeal, but those appeals offices are in different locations, too. Have a nice day and remember to fill out my Customer Satisfaction Survey.”
JPL
@Immanentize: How was the appointment and did you manage to have a glass of champagne at lunch?
gene108
@germy:
Thank goodness, she’s a Republican. I was scared the nut jobs at Justice Democrats are trying to primary Omar.
Immanentize
@Martin:
That is not true. Working as a prosecutor entails a life-long duty to keep prosecution confidences, confidential. Mueller’s client is the US. If the top legal representative of the US says you cannot reveal any confidences outside of what has already been made public (the unredacted parts of the report) you cannot. It is unethical and perhaps illegal. Appropriately so.
Baud
@Kay:
Nice use of passive voice to avoid calling out the media directly.
Kay
You know how conservatives are going to “cut the budget”? They’re going to cut some budgetary meaningless amount from something like food stamps, in the dumbest and most cruel and mean-spirited way possible, and then brag about how thrifty they are. Because that’s what people who are phonies do- they make splashy “frugal” gestures on stupid shit and never really change their habits. They’ll be all smug about denying some 4 year old his breakfast cereal while POURING money into the donors pockets.
Brachiator
I don’t know what people expect.
He told Congress to impeach the muthafucka.
Do they want him to say it again more slowly?
JPL
@Immanentize: Crap!
Immanentize
@JPL: Ha! Pre-op is boring and repetitive. No champagne at lunch, but the Immp and I went to Smash Burger and I got a free birthday shake!
Maybe the bubbly tonight.
Chris Johnson
@geg6: Lighten up, Francis
Peale
@Kay: Usually its cut $20 from the $110 a month they receive, but add $400 per month in user fee charges because someone thought it would be funny if the poor had to wear ankle tracking devices like paroled sex offenders do.
Kay
@Baud:
It isn’t a capitulation! They never meant a word of it. They haven’t meant a word of it for the last forty years. We’re now on the second and third generation of political media who refuse to accept the plain fact that NONE of these people are fiscal conservatives. What would it take to convince them? Every single GOP government since Jimmy Carter has not convinced them. There is no amount of evidence that will change their belief.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Okay, you inspired me to go scream at him on Twitter. Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ.
Baud
@Kay:
But they seem so serious when they complain about the debt under Democratic presidents.
Kay
@Peale:
It’s all just such a lie. Every part of it. What is a “food stamp”? It’s a voucher for agricultural products! It’s a straight-up subsidy to the giant ag industry. WTF? How can the people who produce food NOT KNOW that there’s a federal subsidy to purchase their products! What do they think is going on here? The voucher goes TO THEM.
Just take the consumer out of it for a moment. Who benefits?
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Yay! I get all the pleasure of Twitter but none of the angst. As a lurker. I think it’s a little free-riderish of me but I don’t care.
Thank you for your service :)
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
WTAF? I just don’t get how:
A) Gun manufacturers continue to make guns that depend only on a trigger based safety and
B) Idiot gun owners continue to carry these guns in condition 1
It’s about time one of the idiots was actually prosecuted and convicted of this kind of stupidity.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
I would like to assume the knife was sheathed.
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: I think that’s the point, actually.
They want him to say that “Trump committed offenses that would normally have received Obstruction charges, but as per DOJ policy we’re not allowed to charge or formally investigate that. Prosecuting or investigating any such charges is something Congress would have to initiate” and then to get it on tape.
ETA: The reason they want this (or something similar) is that it would instantly guarantee an impeachment inquiry, if not the actual impeachment itself. But without any real political risk to shaky Dems.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
They think they are earning good money from the sweat of their brow and the labor of their own two hands. Never mind that 99% of them neither sweat nor actually use their hands in an actual field.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
O/T (got too late to the morning thread), but happy birthday! ??
I know it’s a worrying time now, but you and Immp will come through this just fine. Thinking of you both.
Immanentize
@Kay:
That is why foodstamps historically had broad bipartisan support and was added to every farm bill. Without controversy.
I think now, Trump just gives direct subsidies so they don’t need the do-gooder cover and they can get both their money and be mean on poor people. Also too, direct agricultural subsidies violate every old timey (three years ago) principal of free trade we used to complain bitterly about when other countries did them.
Zinsky
Nothing will come of Mueller’s testimony. He is gutless like most Republicans. He wouldn’t indict Trump for anything. That would involve putting country over political party and no current Republican will do that, Justin Amash excepted…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He’s talking to Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s outfit, I believe.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Using smaller words in plain English, with a helpful map including highlighted instructions.
It might work. //
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is this Trump’s idea of a Second Amendment solution?
oldgold
@sukabi:
In a recent interview Seymour Hersh said the about Mueller: “It is not a big secret in Washington that Mueller is not as quick as he used to be. He lost his fastball. A lot of people know that.”
James E Powell
@gene108:
Too true. The report isn’t damning because the general public has no idea what is in the report. The American press/media expressly rejects any truth-finding function – at least with respect to Republicans – so the only thing people know is what was said about the report. And since Republicans pretty much own the press/media, they mostly reported what Republicans said about it.
I don’t know any way around this.
TenguPhule
@germy:
In a normal timeline, the preceding would result in a lifetime ban on any work related to any entity of note.
low-tech cyclist
NAACP delegates unanimously call for Trump to be impeached
germy
https://www.thewrap.com/3-publishers-delete-pro-jeffrey-epstein-stories-after-ny-times-inquiry/
J R in WV
@Yustano:
I’m pretty sure a number of former OSU wrestlers and wrestling workshop attendees have testified under oath that they informed Coach Gym Jordan of lusty activities on the part of the guilty team doctor who always showered with the boys on the team/in the workshop.
Now, whether those depositions will even have any negative effect on Gym and his political career, who knows? But pretty sure he has been named as a required reporter who didn’t report anything. Why would he fail to report that kind of thing? I can imagine several reasons, none of them good for Gym Jordan’s career.
Immanentize
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you!
sdhays
@Kay: Democrats don’t help this. If they would stop engaging on the issue and refuse to accept this framing, it would help. As I recall, there was a clip a few weeks ago with Kamala pushing back against the idea that the deficit is some kind of Democratic problem, but the whole party needs to get in on that. I think part of the problem is that they think it’s so obvious that they don’t need to say it every single day, every other breath.
Immanentize
@oldgold:
So has Seymour Hersh. By a huge amount.
germy
Immanentize
@germy:
That is another rather crazy person. My friend used to live in the same co-op on Fifth as she did (does?). Friend moved to Chicago.
Brachiator
@oldgold:
I don’t know what the fuck this means or why it is supposed to matter.
Brachiator
@germy:
The Twitter response to Shari Lewis is funny.
All I can say is, I don’t wanna hear no dirt about Mr Rogers.
Immanentize
@Brachiator: Also, how can you shake hands when it is covered by a little lamb?
oldgold
@Immanentize:
True. In the same interview he admits to it. ” I’m old. I’m 82, and I don’t really have my fastball.”
germy
@Brachiator: There is no dirt on Mr. Rogers. He was the real deal. I remember when he testified in front of that senate subcommittee.
MomSense
I didn’t expect to laugh on this thread but some of y’all are wicked funny.
Not sure what to make of tomorrow. Even if Mueller just repeats verbatim the report it will mean that the content will finally be heard. The Republicans will act all shouty and indignant as they say irrelevant things which are meant to provide clips for FUX to air.
I made the mistake of getting into it with an asshole on twitter who not only doesn’t think asylum seeking is legal but who said the migrants aren’t asylum seekers they are law breaking illegal aliens. The big outrage though is the idea that we should spend more money to make the conditions in the concentration camps humane. He doesn’t want his tax money going to support that because he’d rather that money be spent on our homeless in this country. Seriously? Republicans will never spend tax money on the homeless. He can’t possibly think the GOP would ever spend money on the homeless. Hell they’re going to kick 3 million poor people off SNAP benefits through a bureaucratic sleight of hand.
Fuck these ignoranus Republican voters.
SFAW
@Brachiator:
It means Mueller has to go to his formidable slider a lot more often, he can’t just blow his fastball by Yelich and Bellinger the way he used to. Of course, his changeup is less of a surprise now, since his fastball has dropped to the mid-80s. I hear he’s working on a cutter, as well as a sinker. Probably not going to try the knuckle-curve, however.
Which is a long way of saying: I don’t either. Someone might tell Hersh that the term “inside baseball” is not meant literally.
SFAW
@MomSense:
If Thanos had targeted just the Rethuglicans, instead of a random 50 percent, there would have been no “Endgame” movie, because the Avengers — and the rest of those “left behind” — would have said “We’re OK with that.”
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
C’mon, man! You’re getting into the mean-girls zone.
Yutsano
@Immanentize: If ya have to ask…
Also: happy womb eviction day!
Elizabelle
I’m sure you all already linked this, but for handy reference:
Lawfare: Mueller on Trump: Everything the Special Counsel’s Report Says the President Did, Said or Knew
So looking forward to tomorrow’s testimony. Release the Zebley!
Rand Careaga
@Baud:
My wife supervises a group of attorneys in a rather specialized corner of the law, and this involves her from time to time in reviewing their briefs. She’s death on the passive voice, and has become fond of something she picked up recently in Dreyer’s English: if your sentence still works when the two words “by zombies” are added to it, then the passive voice is being used! By zombies!
Brachiator
@SFAW:
Ha! Well said. A zinger!
Ksmiami
@Yustano: I thought Jim Jordan prefers farm animals that’s the rumor…
sdhays
Considering how many people who opine officially regarding the Mueller Report who haven’t read it and have no intention of reading it, Mueller’s testimony should at least force them to absorb some of the cliff notes. And the discussion will be more around what was actually said rather than William Barr’s dishonest characterizations of the report’s content and what Mueller told him personally.
SFAW
@Brachiator:
A few more, and I might reach the Mendoza Line.
[If you’re not familiar with the term — not everybody is — it’s from baseball]
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve never thought about getting a tattoo, and that’s a bit long, but it’s a phrase for the ages. It deserves to be memorialized.
Brachiator
@germy:
The trailer for the upcoming Mr Rogers movie is, well, heartwarming.
https://youtu.be/-VLEPhfEN2M
I don’t wanna hear no dirt on Tom Hanks, either!
Jay
James E Powell
@MomSense:
You have way more faith in the press/media than I do.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: Happy b-day, old fella(you’re about 6 months older than I) and wishes for good results for Immp tomorrow.
sdhays
@James E Powell: They will hear more of it, if for no other reason than they are desperate to talk about something, and this is the thing for the next day or two.
AnotherBruce
@Ksmiami: Has he denied being fond of farm animals?
laura
@West of the Rockies: the oval office is so full of ham heads, it might as well be Easter Island.
Kay
In shocking news, we learn that Betsy DeVos is corrupt and she hires people who lie to Congress:
Low quality hires. Every last one of them. Bottom of the barrel.
Kay
Betsy DeVos is worth billions. She’s MUCH wealthier than the rest of the low quality Trump hires, including the Trumps.
So what does she do when she’s handed a position of public trust that she hasn’t earned and should be grateful for? She robs low income 18 year olds. Shakes them down for tens of thousands of dollars in student loans for worthless degrees from garbage, for-profit colleges.
I mean, they’re just despicable human beings.
bemused
@Kay:
Rush Limbaugh just admitted this last week saying on his show that R’s aren’t fiscal conservatives,
their screaming about deficits have always been bogus.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
You could just stop there.
Butter emails!!!
@bemused:
Of course it’s bogus. If the actual concern is the deficit, then the solution is to implement much higher tax rates on upper incomes…like the ones we needed to pay down the debt following WWII.
Another Scott
@MisterForkbeard: Yup.
If it’s not on video, it doesn’t exist as far as too much of the press is concerned.
The Democrats want him to say, with the cameras rolling, the parts that Barr tried to cover up. That’s the whole point of the testimony.
Sure, it would be great if he said a lot more, more directly. But he probably won’t.
What he says will be damning enough, and the Democrats will be sure to let people know how damning it is.
As they conclude in their 6-page cheat sheet today:
Cheers,
Scott.
jackmac
@germy: “Trump Leadership Initiative Training conference. “Is that what they’re calling Trump University these days?
bemused
@Butter emails!!!:
Yes, of course Republican legislators caring about deficits is bogus and always been bogus. What’s different is that Rush casually admitted it. The GOP doesn’t care much about hiding all their lies anymore because a lot of their voters don’t care either.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
Well, there will be lots of plays. Perhaps they will get Mueller to more clearly define the nature and/or scope of the results of investigations that didn’t find their way into report. I’m nosy, so I’d ask whether Mueller considers Barr to currently be a “friend”.
But re “cover up”, I’ll remind people that center right pundit Wiliam Safire dubbed Barr the “Coverup-General” in 1992.
Essay; The Patsy Prosecutor (WILLIAM SAFIRE, OCT. 19, 1992)
And more details:
Essay; A Tale Of Three Counsels (WILLIAM SAFIRE, DEC. 28, 1992)
J R in WV
@oldgold:
Seymour Hersh is 82, nearly a decade older than Mueller. Lost his fastball, indeed!!
jonas
@Another Scott: I agree. I think he’s basically going to stonewall questions from both sides and just say over and over “I stand by what I wrote in my report and am not going to go into the behind-the-scenes processes.” That’s going to shut down idiots like Jordan trying to get him to admit that the entire SCO was a bunch of hysterical leftists out to get Trump, but I’d be shocked if he gave Dems anything to hang their hats on, either. This whole thing will end not with a bang, but a whimper, I’m afraid.
Uncle Cosmo
@oldgold: @J R in WV: F’ing** pot, kettle, black.. Hersh can’t find his own wrinkled butt with both hands these days. Isn’t some underpaid assisted-living assistant stuffing tapioca into his piehole with a plastic spoon at lunchtime? (** I’m on a library computer at the moment, hence the untoward reticence.)
J R in WV
@Ksmiami:
Yeah, real young ones! That’s what I hear at the fifth of July party!!
Uncle Cosmo
@Immanentize: Hey Imm, late to the party, but as they say in the old country (yours by ancestry, miine by adoption),
Hope you are enjoying (at least in a relative sense) the day. Best to the Immp.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: If you are serious about potentially killing yourself, please seek help.
@Chris Johnson: What the fuck is wrong with you?
Chris Johnson
@Omnes Omnibus: I think geg6 is not real when he or she says things like that. I think he or she is being paid to dump negativity on forums and Twitter and doesn’t authentically mean those things. If geg6 is real (certainly a familiar nym, but one I associate with what I see over the long term as russian or russian-fed negativity-porn) they said this:
Oh HELL no. ‘Lighten up Francis’ is about the nicest, couched-in-humor-reference thing I could possibly have said. I am deeply, deeply offended and angered at these views, they don’t speak for me at all, I don’t want people to adopt them, and I goddamn well DO expect Mueller to stand up to those he has accused of treason, I expect it to be some kind of help to those stymied by process and politics, I expect them to do something useful, I expect they are rehearsing to better arrange for outcomes that WILL move public opinion along, and I assert that things are changing, before the election, in myriad ways you won’t see reported on the largely Russian-controlled media.
I am deeply offended and angered at the setting up of the ‘failure and futility in the face of all logic and reason’ narrative. Lighten up, Francis, again. It’s a reference to a comedy movie in which a soldier goes on about who he’s gonna kill, intimidates everyone with the grimness of his purpose, and gets his way, his message unchallenged. Until another character defuses it by calling the guy on his bullshit.
Fuck the “nothing is going to change, nobody is going to help, nothing anyone can do and then we will probably ‘lose’ the election and should just die or flee”. FUCK that. Do you understand that’s what’s being said? “Lighten up Francis” is a kind response in the circumstances. This is not occuring in a vacuum. You’re defending a specific point of view that is Russian propaganda, whether it’s being intentionally spread or unwittingly absorbed. This is war. Fuck that noise.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris Johnson: Probably a dead thread, but…. Geg6 is not a troll. She has commented here for at least 10 years. I neither agreed with nor defended her point of view. I simply expressed concern that a person might actually be considering killing herself. If you are incapable of that, then I would say that something is wrong with you. Finally, I have seen Stripes multiple times so I am familiar with the source and context of “Lighten up, Francis.”
Chris Johnson
@Omnes Omnibus: Not a problem, looks like more of a personal discussion. I have had too many friends die of despair in recent years. It is contagious, and it is getting weaponized. If I am incapable of concern (i.e. sympathy) for a stranger who is talking the poison that’s been killing my friends it is because they are talking the poison that’s been killing my friends, and my sympathy is with my friends (and is also somewhat hardened. So many are dead now)
If I cannot tolerate the POV that I/we/geg should kill myself or flee the country, I would say there is something right with me.
This is a war and it ain’t over. If we lose geg I am MORE angry, not less.