Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

I was promised a recession.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

In my day, never was longer.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The revolution will be supervised.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / MuellerWars Open Thread: Good for Evan Hurst & Wonkette

MuellerWars Open Thread: Good for Evan Hurst & Wonkette

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This is a gem, and also completely true:

Let’s get one thing out of the way right now. A lot of the Robert Mueller testimony was boring, especially in the House Judiciary Committee. Mueller seemed old (he turns 75 in two weeks) and, true to what he said he was going to do, he declined to answer a lot of questions, staying within “the four corners of his report” and letting it “speak for itself.” And with that, we have acknowledged and given the proper respect to every VALID right-wing criticism (and too-cool-for-school leftist criticism) that exists. It did not send the thrill up the leg, and in our American culture, which demands shiny things in order to keep its attention, it fell kinda flat…

Beltway journalists (some of them, at least) were also so booooooooored, like are we there yet? …

Are you hearing all this stuff and giving in to an inclination to agree that yesterday was just terrible and the Democrats are terrible and Robert Mueller was the worst and now you’ll never get your pony?

Stop it.

As former DOJ official Chuck Rosenberg said on MSNBC not long after the Judiciary Committee hearing, “There’s a difference between exciting and important. There are things that are exciting that are not important, and there are things that are important that are not particularly exciting.” Yesterday’s hearings were important. And if you slogged through all of it — even the boring parts — some really crucial things came out, some of them for the first time.

We can start with Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler’s opening five minutes, which really covered most of the ground that the hearing on obstruction of justice needed to cover. In rapid fire questioning, Nadler had Mueller confirm that Donald Trump and his minions are lying every single time they say the investigation found NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION and TOTAL EXONERATION. Mueller also added a new phrase to the lexicon: “Does Not Exculpate.”

Nadler also had Mueller confirm that Donald Trump can absolutely be prosecuted for his crimes after he is dropkicked out of office, though it didn’t really resonate at that point, because we guess half of America hadn’t had its coffee yet. It was under questioning from GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, where Buck seemed just FLABBERGASTED at that notion, and asked Mueller to repeat himself. Did you really just say our shithole garbage king could be LOCK HER UP-PED after he has been de-throned?…

… Mueller stated for the record that it is not only unethical and unpatriotic to do the things Trump and his campaign did, but that those behaviors also open people up to blackmail and extortion and compromise by hostile foreign powers, like for instance RUSSIA, IF YOU’RE LISTENING.

Oh yeah, did we mention that Mueller confirmed that the FBI is still investigating aspects of blackmail and compromise as it pertains to Trump and his associates? Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi got that out of him. He also got Mueller to confirm that he really did not see it as his job to investigate Trump’s financial ties to Russia, or whether Russians used Trump to launder money or anything like that…

Some examples of ‘pundits’ putting the #fail in Our Failed Media Experiment:

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  4. 4.

    Ohio Mom

    I only saw snippets of Mueller’s testimony but I appreciated his quiet, dry understatement as a kind of art form. I mean, you don’t roll your eyes when an opera singer hams it up, that’s what opera is.

    That’s what serious investigators, auditors, and the like are. Very circumspect. That’s part of what makes them credible.

  5. 5.

    donnah

    I watched the testimony yesterday. I then watched some commentary on MSNBC and was confused by their criticisms of Mueller. Why didn’t they focus on all the crap that the Republicans were shoveling out with their stupid questions? How about criticizing Gomer Gohmert or idiot Gym Jordan or Gaetz the Clueless? Why not amplify the good points made in the questions Mueller answered and confirmed?

    I was disappointed, but not by Mueller. The ridiculous comments by Dems and than by Republicans really were way off-base and damaging to the end goal of cementing key points from the Report.

  6. 6.

    Heywood J.

    What if — and I’m just spitballing here — but what if enough people turned away in disgust from the useless antics of Chunk Toad and Magat Haberman and that ilk? What if a sufficient number of people communicated to CNN’s sponsors that they wouldn’t be buying their products anymore, that the days of supporting this Statler and Waldorf theater criticism bullshit are done?

    I don’t know. CNN and MSNBC and the FTFNYT have been as dead to me as Fox, for a couple of years now. They are all completely useless. They are only talking to each other. They are not just part of the problem, they are the problem. They are gaslighting us. Put them all on a rocket and fire it into the heart of the sun.

  7. 7.

    Yarrow

    This is an old Vox explainer but it’s relevant to how the media works. It’s about CNN but could apply to most news organizations today.

    CNN treats politics like a sport — that’s bad for all of us
    When politics is a game, truth telling takes a back seat to controversy.

    In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, CNN president Jeff Zucker described the network’s approach to covering politics, saying, “The idea that politics is sport is undeniable, and we understood that and approached it that way.” That politics-as-sport approach has placed a heavy emphasis on drama, with much of CNN’s programming revolving around sensationalist arguments between hosts, guests, and paid pundits.

    The video is worth watching to see the comparisons with ESPN panels.
    Edit: Forgot link: https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/4/17/15325172/strikethrough-cnn-espn-trump-surrogates

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @Harbison: hmmm What about the grief Obama got for defended a home owner being arrested in Cambridge, MA for not being polite enough to the police.

  11. 11.

    Jager

    Shortly after the launch of Fox News, Roger Ailes said, “We are going to cover news like ESPN covers sports.”

  12. 12.

    JPL

    @donnah: If it is Biden/Trump wait until you hear all the spiel about Biden touching shoulders and ignoring trump’s trysts. In fact trump will campaign on it, cuz he can

  14. 14.

    zhena gogolia

    @Ohio Mom:

    His restraint was remarkable in response to the wingnut inquisition. I only saw a flash of anger in response to Gaetz.

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    Great post, AL. Glad to see so many people pushing back against the dictated narrative.

    @Yarrow: Nice to see you again and hope you are well.

  17. 17.

    Keith P.

    I really appreciate the irony of Chuck Todd – who has worn a goatee on television every damn day since 2000-and-something – being a judge of optics.

  19. 19.

    The Dangerman

    ….Donald Trump can absolutely be prosecuted for his crimes after he is dropkicked out of office

    Lock him up.

    Of course, I assume, he will pardon himself (and by the time that winds through the courts, he’ll be long dead).

  20. 20.

    Baud

    Something to fight over.

    The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a sweeping two-year budget and debt limit deal that would stave off the looming threat of a potential default on US debt and prevent automatic spending cuts to domestic and military funding.
    …..
    The progressive “squad” — freshmen Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — were split over the budget deal. Omar and Pressley voted against it, while Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib voted for it.

    I don’t even know who to hate anymore.

  21. 21.

    Searcher

    If you think Mueller looks like a tired old man, I’d like to take the opportunity to remind you he is younger than two of the Democratic frontrunners.

  22. 22.

    John S.

    @Keith P.:

    Chuck Todd took the ‘Paul Bunyan’s Axe’ award for being the biggest tool away from David Gregory – who was the inaugural recipient of the award.

    I think Maggie Haberman is on a quest to dethrone Chuckles, though.

  23. 23.

    SenyorDave

    Kellyanne Conway is definitely not going to hell, because no way that Satan would take her. He’s got too much class for that. Here’s a quote from her on the Hugh Hewitt show:
    “I feel like Bob Mueller may well have been used by the people around him to imbue this fake and ill-conceived investigation with credibility and legitimacy it wouldn’t have otherwise,” she said. “And I am first and foremost who I will always be, which is a daughter, a mother, and, of course, I feel great empathy and compassion for folks who, as some of these headlines suggest, may be feeble or not understanding some of the questions — asking them to be repeated, clearly not conversant with the facts and with his own report.”
    She obviously has great empathy – why else would she call him feeble.
    I’m embarrassed to be a member of the same species as that thing*

    * I have too much respect for women to call KAC a woman

  26. 26.

    Gelfling 545

    @Harbison: “, if elected, she would work to reduce crime.” Her being in DC a good part of the year would probably help.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    We have a president talking about infantroopens and lawmarkers and we’re worried about Mueller’s performance. JFC

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: Is this the bill that people were calling out as a horrible bill and a giant sell-out few days ago?

  33. 33.

    JPL

    @Baud: FYI I don’t know where little immp is but a friend just confirmed that at Mass General there are lots of dead zones where you can’t access the internet. It might be awhile before we hear.

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G: Thanks. I’m okay. Been dealing with more dad health issues, which has taken a ton of time. He’s doing a bit better but not out of the wood yet.

    @schrodingers_cat: They’re only dishonest if you expect them to be actual journalists covering their beats objectively. I expect them to be people who are paid to spin stories a certain way for their owners and they perform that way.

  41. 41.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Baud: I barely know who those 4 are. They’re nothing but junior Rep’s from another part of the country.

  42. 42.

    Patricia Kayden

    @schrodingers_cat: NYT can only get excited when going after Hillary Clinton about her email servers. They should just pretend that Trump is Secretary Clinton.

    I’ve read that the Trump administration uses unsecured email servers and phones but who cares.

  43. 43.

    hells littlest angel

    @Keith P.: Chuck was disappointed there wasn’t a fistfight between Mueller and Trump on a steel girder 500 feet above the pavement.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    @SenyorDave:

    * I have too much respect for women to call KAC a woman

    Let me help. KAC is the kind of woman who gives women a bad name. She is a self-proclaimed feminist who is anything but. I have faith that kharma will catch up with her.

  46. 46.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    This was discussed a couple of days ago. Some hold that it was tossing away leverage in September, others think it’s a good deal due to the spending increases, rather than cuts the ReThugs wanted.

    As it’s discretionary spending by the Administration and the debt ceiling kicks in for the next Administration,

    and the day after the budget increase the ReThugs cut food stamps again,

    ??????????????????????

  47. 47.

    Brachiator

    , “There’s a difference between exciting and important.”

    Hell to the yes.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @Jay:

    As long as you agree that there are reasonable views on both sides and hyperbolic statements about the capability of the people involved would be out of place.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    I thought he was at B&W but might be misremembering. Have been thinking about Imm and Immp and Eric and Emma and Scotian all day.

  51. 51.

    SenyorDave

    @debbie: It’s pretty much a meaningless job, but clearly it is a reward for being a bigot. In Trump’s world, you have earned something for being a racist. I honestly would love to see the House condemn the hiring, that might actually make news.

  52. 52.

    Steve in the ATL

    We are at Lake Oconee this week, because why stay home the one week you’re not traveling for work? I’m at a wine dinner (spoiler alert: not a fan of Australian wines) and, deep in the heart of Jody Hice country, am sitting between two Democrats. They had both watched the Mueller hearings (on C-Span—they’re not stupid!) and we have been discussing it quietly. Conclusion: at a minimum, obstruction and conspiracy, at worst, treason. I was lobbying for treason, but we’re on the 6th flight now and attention spans are short.

    Steve in the 706

  53. 53.

    Steve in the ATL

    @debbie: yeah, pretty sure she was hired for her blonde hair.

    Unrelated, who’s hiring people with gray hair? Asking for a friend.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    @SiubhanDuinne: All hospitals have areas where you either can’t bring in your tech devices or can’t access the internet. I assume he’s taking care of his son and Baud can bitch at him later about not informing us. then we can all release a sigh of relief.

  55. 55.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    Depends if your glass is half empty, or half full, or you are an engineer who believes the container is the wrong size.

  56. 56.

    Jay

    Today we announce #29Leaks.15 years/ 85 gigs of correspondence between London financial services firm Formations House and its clients – including former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and other, more prosaic kleptocrats from around the globehttps://t.co/7Z2Y2pPQM8— Barrett Brown (@BarrettBrown_) July 24, 2019

  61. 61.

    Jay

    New Senate Intelligence Committee report confirms that Russian hackers probed election systems in all 50 states in 2016. Election infrastructure was successfully breached in two states, and voter data was accessed/obtained in Illinois. https://t.co/KMwM3waUSf— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) July 25, 2019

  65. 65.

    Jay

    According to the Senate Intelligence report, Russian hackers accessed up to 200,000 voter registration records in Illinois, "resulting in the exfiltration of an unknown quantity of voter registration data", including names, addresses, partial SSN's, DOB's, & driver’s license #'s. pic.twitter.com/af5LlzeAkg— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) July 25, 2019

  66. 66.

    Amir Khalid

    @Steve in the ATL:
    Completely off-topic, but did you know that Fender has brought out an all-digital version of the Twin Reverb*? Half the price, half the weight, all the tone, and none of the toob amp hassle.

    *And the Deluxe Reverb too.

  69. 69.

    lamh36

    open thread…ok..so I can talk bout something else?

    Can’t recall if I posted this the other day, but JIC…read this story and I just had to share it.

    These Gay Wedding Photos from 1957 Offer a Mystery, Some History, and a Tribute to Heroes | Tom + Lorenzo

    It’s the kind of story tailor-made for social media in the modern day; a snapshot of the past, the hope of a happy ending, and a tantalizing mystery to solve, starring a cute, brave young man who dropped his wedding pictures off to be developed in 1957, because that’s what you did back then, when phones were bolted to walls and cameras didn’t have screens on them. But this being 1957 and the cute young man being queer, things did not work out.

    “But the young man would never see them. That’s because the photos depict him in a commitment ceremony with another man, and unbeknownst to him, the store manager had a policy of withholding developed photos if he deemed them “inappropriate”—as he did these.

    The photos, though, lived on because the manager of the shop had another policy: Staff were allowed to do whatever they pleased with confiscated pictures. An employee held on to the photos, which her daughter discovered in her Cherry Hill home 60 years later, after she passed.”

    “In 2013, she sold the photos on eBay to a donor who later gave the photographs to the ONE Archives in Los Angeles and the John J. Wilcox Jr. Archives in Philadelphia. Since then, the organizations have been looking for the grooms, their friends or family. In the photographs, the two men and their friends appear to be mostly in their twenties and thirties; if they are alive today, they would be in their eighties or nineties.”

    Here’s the link to the whole story: DEAR GENTLEMEN, YOUR 60-YEAR-OLD WEDDING PICS ARE READY

    Do yourselves and favor and check it out. Here’s hoping they find the grooms and it’s a happy ever afte type story!

  73. 73.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Amir Khalid: half the weight? I feel like I’ve incurred lumbar damage for nothing! Is the sound really the same, or is that just the report from the Fender marketing department?

  76. 76.

    WereBear

    Courtroom dramas are made un-boring through fiction. The real thing only manages sporadically.

    But it is real. And what it reveals is anything but boring.

  78. 78.

    Steve in the ATL

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yes you do, start with everyone and work back from there.

    QFT!

    @lamh36: that’s awesome!

    @WereBear:

    Courtroom dramas are made un-boring through fiction. The real thing only manages sporadically.

    But it is real. And what it reveals is anything but boring.

    QFT again. And for the record, though much of the time the litigation I do is boring, I’m totally exciting. Also, don’t fact check that with my wife.

  80. 80.

    frosty

    @Amir Khalid:

    … none of the toob amp hassle.

    Same answer I use for people who convert wood fireplaces to gas: The hassle is the point!! Plus, I can get out my soldering iron and disconnect the too-brittle bright cap on the reverb side of the DR.

    How’s the guitar practice? I’m trying to expand my repertoire but it takes at least 4 months to get a new song down. Sometimes 6 to 8*.

    *10 to 12.

  83. 83.

    Janesays

    @JPL: Cheetolini literally trotted out his opponent’s husband’s sexual harassment accusers while he was himself being bombarded by numerous credible allegations of sexual assault on a daily basis.

    The man has absolutely no shame whatsoever.

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack

    Excellent thread on how to cover Trump without normalizing his bullshit:

    Here is how the Los Angeles Times put it on July 14: “We shouldn’t rise to his bait, but how can we not? If we ignore him, we normalize his reckless behavior, and that’s even worse.” https://t.co/HeSEuvLcBR Welcome to my new THREAD, where I try to solve this problem. 1/

    — Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) July 21, 2019

    Lower down in the thread:

    Summarizing my tips for the American press: Suspend normal relations with the Trump regime. Try it this way: his actions are reported, but he is not the main character. Move the Truth Sandwich up on your menu. Open a Gaslight Desk. Anchor your journalism in a citizens agenda.

  85. 85.

    frosty

    @Steve in the ATL: Ahem. Lumbar issues? 35 lb for the DR, 45 for the VR, got no idea for the Twin. Plus, hearing loss (WHAT???)

    Berry pie from a farmstand on the Eastern Shore for me!

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    So basically Mueller affirmed some of the most damaging accusations against a President since Nixon but because it wasn’t good television it doesn’t count?

    By George I think Schooley’s got it.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    @frosty:
    It’s going fine. I feel like I’ve made some unexpected headway recently, especially in not staring at the fretboard while playing.

  88. 88.

    Cheryl Rofer

    This is the presidential seal placed on the wall for Trump’s speech at the Young Pioneers the other day.

    Double-headed eagle, as in the Russian state symbol. Golf clubs in the claw instead of arrows. Row of small hammers and sickles above the stripes on the shield.

  89. 89.

    lamh36

    @Steve in the ATL: The pics so lovely. Ugh…I feel so mad that they may never be able to have seen the pics and have something to remember their special day!

    Ugh…time have certainly changed even if not perfect

  99. 99.

    Ohio Mom

    @Cheryl Rofer: And one claw holding wads of cash instead of an olive branch.

    Now who did this work of art? Somebody tunneled their way in to produce this sabotage.

  101. 101.

    A Ghost To Most

    @satby:
    Maybe. They were all talking a mile-a-minute, trying to fill their 5 minutes. Maybe he was just confused at the impatience.

    His affect seemed pretty flat, though.

  103. 103.

    Jay

    Newly released film, 'The Brink,' shows Steve Bannon building 'The Movement,' a coalition of far-Right, white nationalist + neo-Fascist parties. This scene features former Goldman Sachs president and GOP congressman Paul Gosar meeting with leaders of fascist + far-Right parties. pic.twitter.com/12aoBjf0aX— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) July 15, 2019

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    @Janesays:
    If you were him and had an even close to normal psyche, you’d have shame. He falls so far outside normal that in any situation, all you have to ask is, “What’s the worst way to handle something, or what’s the worst way to respond to something, or to speak about anything and that’s your answer as to what shit for brains will do.
    Think if it this way, if you could see inside his brain, OK first you’d need therapy, stat, and not that anyone should have to look in there, but if you could and did it would look like a cement mixer filled with his crap, just going round and round because it’s all backed up into his head and has tainted his view of, well everything. And you thought he was craping while he was sitting on that gold spray painted throne.

  106. 106.

    Elizabelle

    @Cheryl Rofer: That is a thing of beauty. You would think the golf clubs would be a dead tipoff.

    I think the Obamas absolutely roared with laughter when they heard about this one. Hillary too.

  110. 110.

    Elizabelle

    Robert Mueller endured hours of testimony yesterday (crickets), but this presidential shield is going to race around the internet and late night shows like ____ (you think of something!).

    Ridicule is a potent weapon, and the majority of people who see that are going to snicker or laugh out loud. We all need some levity to endure this administration.

    It’s brilliant.

  111. 111.

    trollhattan

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Oooh, much better detail than the screen grabs, had not seen the hammers and sickles before. Very well played, anonymous person.

  112. 112.

    Haroldo

    @Amir Khalid: @Steve in the ATL: @frosty:

    I vote that one of y’all go buy a Kemper modeling amp and report back to us. I’m a bass player much too invested in too much gear to go out a buy one, but I am strongly Kemper-curious. FWIW, I’ve heard fairly mixed reviews about Fender’s modeling capabilities in the bass realm.

  117. 117.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    Watching the hearings, one of the things I noticed was that after Republican Ken Buck asked Mueller if a president could be indicted after leaving office and Mueller said yes, Buck appeared to start to ask Mueller if he believed that the president committed a crime and caught himself before finishing the question. I’m pretty sure he was afraid of how mueller would respond.

    Also, the Gladiator clip reminded me of the James Traficant expulsion hearing, during which he actually did threaten to stab people, or at least expressed the desire to, like Maximus

  118. 118.

    Cheryl Rofer

    “It’s cool people are buying this, that’s great and all,” he said. “But I’ve got to be honest, I am so tickled in the most petty way possible that the president of the United States, who I despise, stood up and gave a talk in front of this graphic. Whoever put that up is my absolute hero.”

  119. 119.

    trollhattan

    Shout out to our gal Lindsey Horan who did this absurd shot last night. So far as I know there were no arrests. Mind you, she didn’t even play the majority of our WWC matches due to the embarrassment of talent on the squad.

  120. 120.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Amir Khalid: I’m skeptical that any digital amp really captures “all the tone” of the tube amp that it’s modeling, though some do sound pretty good in their own way. There’s just something magical about tubes.

  121. 121.

    Amir Khalid

    @Haroldo:
    Search the Anderton’s YouTube channel. They have a video with a blind comparison between a Kemper and various valve amps. The Kemper does surprisingly well.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost story:

    But, [Chuck] Leazott said, it’s him who gets the last laugh. A photo of Trump in front of his seal is now his computer background, and the person who used it at the event is “either wildly incompetent or the best troll ever — either way, I love them.”

    As of Thursday afternoon, Leazott’s shirts were sold out. He said he had to start working with a fulfillment center just to meet the demand. He also revived the primary website for his brand, OneTermDonnie, which includes a paean to the American Civil Liberties Union, where the site says 10 percent of all sales will be directed.

  123. 123.

    Ohio Mom

    @A Ghost To Most: Wow! I wondered who created that take-off on the Presidential Seal at comment #99 and by #113, I had my answer. A full-service blog indeed.

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    By Thursday morning, the Turning Point spokesman said the group had identified the staffer responsible for turning Leazott’s design into a trending topic. He called the incident a last-minute oversight, the result of a quick online search to find a second high-resolution photo of the presidential seal to place behind Trump. He said the mistake was “unacceptable.”

    “We did let the individual go,” the spokesman said. “I don’t think it was malicious intent, but nevertheless.”

    Leazott doesn’t buy it. He thinks whoever was responsible had to know exactly what they were looking for. He believes the person dug up the image he created and used it intentionally.

    “That’s a load of crap,” he said in response to Turning Point’s explanation. “You have to look for this. There’s no way this was an accident is all I’m saying.”

    Yup.

  126. 126.

    Mike in NC

    We’re watching “The Battle of Algiers” on DVD. Thought my wife’s eyes would glaze over but she finds it absolutely fascinating.

  127. 127.

    Burnspbesq

    @Yarrow:

    Well, then CNN should hire Stephen A. Smith. Just try to imagine his take on Mueller’s testimony.

  129. 129.

    Elizabelle

    @Ohio Mom: Yes. Thank you to Ghost to Most for finding that WaPost article.

    A reader comment:

    WaPost: A Turning Point spokesman said Wednesday the conservative group wasn’t even aware of the phony seal until The Post called him.

    It’s a wonder these people can feed themselves

    ETA: Another WaPost reader comment:

    The Pestilential Seal

  130. 130.

    Amir Khalid

    @UncleEbeneezer:
    Take a look at the video I linked to. Digital signal processors are getting more and more powerful, and these days the sound of digital amps is getting awfully close to that from valve amps — close enough that professional musicians find them hard to tell apart.

  131. 131.

    burnspbesq

    @Jay:

    Get a grip. Do you have any idea what Formations House actually does? It’s the Brit equivalent to fucking CT, i.e., the most boring thing on earth.

  134. 134.

    Haroldo

    @Amir Khalid:

    That’s certainly the word on the street (or at least on some bass players’ forums). I don’t have that sort of scratch, alas. There are some cheaper ways of investigating modeling which I might investigate. (Just what I need – more goodies.)

  137. 137.

    A Ghost To Most

    On Wednesday, The Post was the first to report that the seal was fake — and that neither the White House, nor Turning Point USA, the organizers of the star-studded Teen Student Action Summit, knew how it got there or where it came from. Leazott woke up Thursday and saw the news in a Reddit post as he drank his morning coffee. Then, a torrent of messages.

    “It’s been chaos,” he said. “This is not what I expected when I woke up today.”

    No one expects the Resistance Inquisition.

  138. 138.

    Martin

    @Elizabelle:

    “That’s a load of crap,” he said in response to Turning Point’s explanation. “You have to look for this. There’s no way this was an accident is all I’m saying.”

    In a google image search, it’s the 3rd hit of suitable images (ones without a background or a sufficiently easy to remove background). The 5th is a cthulhu one, so there is a clue to pay close attention. So, no you don’t have to look for it.

  139. 139.

    Ohio Mom

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m beginning to think a lot of people wanted Mueller to jump up on the table in front of him, fling open his arms and start tap dancing and belting out the report, with all of the people sitting behind him joining in on the chorus, with coordinated arm movements.

    Instead he gave very measured, carefully considered, extremely succinct answers. Like he has a background in law or something.

  140. 140.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Omnes Omnibus: More like Chuck Rosenberg, another taciturn G-man, I think. He seemed too flat, even when the nazis were attacking him. But then, taciturn is not in my wheelhouse. I hope I am wrong.

  143. 143.

    Ohio Mom

    @Martin: But now the search has been contaminated. Lots of people are looking for that image. So of course it has risen to the top. We can’t know how hard
    or easy it was to find a week (or whatever) ago.

  146. 146.

    Ohio Mom

    @HRA: I knew he was an attorney (was just being snarky), didn’t know where his degree was from

    I thought his affect was completely appropriate for the seriousness of the setting. I sure he is more animated IRL. I’m betting he can even be funny when he isn’t testifying before Congress.

  147. 147.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Amir Khalid: That “of course” is a little suspicious.* How much is Moscow playing you?

    *I just wanted to join in the new fad of calling out long time commenters as trolls.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ohio Mom:

    I’m betting he can even be funny when he isn’t testifying before Congress.

    Even Baud can do that on occasion.

  149. 149.

    smintheus

    He also got Mueller to confirm that he really did not see it as his job to investigate Trump’s financial ties to Russia…

    This is a hugely embarrassing admission. How in the everloving hell could it NOT have been Mueller’s job to investigate Trump’s manifold ties to Russia? He was investigating whether the two coordinated or conspired together to help Russia to meddle in the US election, plus whether Trump obstructed the investigation. Both of those are linked to the question of what tied Trump and Russia and whether those ties (or related factors like leverage) had a causal relationship with coordination or obstruction. As disgraceful as it was for Mueller not to demand that Trump and his crooked children sit for interviews, it’s even more so that he neglected the evidence of Trump’s financial ties to Russia…the very thing Trump warned him not to investigate.

  150. 150.

    Steve in the ATL

    @UncleEbeneezer

    I’m skeptical that any digital amp really captures “all the tone” of the tube amp that it’s modeling, though some do sound pretty good in their own way. There’s just something magical about tubes.

    QFT!

    @HRA:

    Robert Mueller has a law degree from the University of Virginia

    That explains it. We all have our crosses to bear.

    @zhena gogolia:

    His affect was flat because he’s a G-man.

    Considering the rest of the thread, this is a musical joke, right? After six flights of wine tasting plus a bottle of Caymus, I may not have full mental capacity.

  153. 153.

    AM in NC

    @lamh36: When online worlds collide! Love me some Tom + Lorenzo, and that story and photos were hella awesome. I hope they find the people in them.

  155. 155.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: Great, now people are going to start explaining again that the word neoliberal has so not lost its meaning through over- and misuse. Asshole.

  158. 158.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Steve in the ATL: You got your own bottle of Caymus? After six flights, and the Caymus, you’ll do well to stand up, much less think clearly.

  159. 159.

    Jay

    @burnspbesq:

    Like the Panema Papers, what Formations House does is perfectly legal under British Law if they dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s.What their Clients do is often not so legal. Some of their Clients may not be legal under British Law.

    There is a long list of “legal” Financial Institutions not just enabling illegal acts by their customers, but sadly, often abetting them.

    Like the FSB Hack, the Panema Papers and other fiscal record hacks, in some cases this will probably lead to the exposure of White Collar Crime.

  161. 161.

    Ohio Mom

    @schrodingers_cat: I just googled “Presidential Seal” and clicked on Images and there were many examples of the parody seal, some with Trump standing in front of it.

    I guess Google is like a river, you can never step into the same one twice.

  162. 162.

    zhena gogolia

    @smintheus:

    I thought that was specifically excluded from the areas he was supposed to investigate. At least that’s what Nancy P. said in the press conference.

  163. 163.

    HRA

    @Ohio Mom:

    I enjoyed watching him and especially at the very end with Adam Schiff. I am sure he is much different in his own circle of family, friends and associates. I saw the man with the mustache sitting behind him once grin widely at one of his responses to a question.
    It has been noted he had been called to testify 89 times before Congress in the past. That is amazing.
    Sorry for not catching the snark! :}

  164. 164.

    zhena gogolia

    Shoot, you guys had me in an okay mood and I went to WaPo to do the crossword puzzle and saw this:

    Democrats struggle to figure out next move against Trump after Mueller hearing falls flat

  165. 165.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: started with the Caymus, then went to the wine dinner, but took the remaining Caymus with me because I don’t drink white, but there was enough shitty red to intoxicate me without the Caymus, which I finished nonetheless.

    Australian wines remind me of Willamette valley wines, for which I don’t care (?). Nevertheless, I persisted.

  166. 166.

    Ohio Mom

    @HRA: I was reacting to all the talk (not here, in the media) about how boring Mueller was, or maybe he is ailing and that is why he was so “low energy.”

  167. 167.

    Brachiator

    @Ohio Mom:

    I just googled “Presidential Seal” and clicked on Images and there were many examples of the parody seal, some with Trump standing in front of it.

    I guess Google is like a river, you can never step into the same one twice.

    Google is designed to find what people are looking for.

    I will bet you good money that before the end of the week, Trump or some Fox News goober will claim that liberal biased Google is deliberately favoring images that embarrass the president.

  168. 168.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ohio Mom: Bear in mind that, per BillinGlendaleCA, lawyers are really boring people. Which I think is totally unfair to burnspesq!

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack

    @Martin:

    I wonder if the image has moved up in the search results since it hit the news. The perpetrator would have been looking, what, a week ago?

  174. 174.

    smintheus

    @zhena gogolia: Nope. His letter of appointment states that he’s to investigate (a) any links between Russia and the Trump campaign, and (b) “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation”. It was utterly implausible to pretend that the question of Trump’s financial links did not arise directly from an investigation of the coordination that did – improbably – occur between a candidate for US president and a hostile power. Such coordination is so unprecedented, unseemly, and unlikely that the matter of what caused it ever to occur is fundamental.

  177. 177.

    Jay

    @smintheus:

    For now, there are several notable things about Rosenstein’s memo amplifying Mueller’s jurisdiction.

    First, most of it is redacted. The memo is a little over two pages long. After some opening background, Rosenstein instructs Mueller, “The following allegations were within the scope of the Investigation at the time of your appointment and are within the scope of the [May 17 appointment] Order.” But after that, everything is blacked out except for two “allegations” regarding Paul Manafort.

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/russia-investigation-rod-rosenstein-memo-mueller-probe-limits/amp/

  178. 178.

    Jay

    truly disappointed to report that the Numbers are back from the Optics Lab and since Robert Mueller at no point rose from his chair and shouted AT LONG LAST HAVE YOU NO DECENCY at anybody they are not looking so Good— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) July 24, 2019

  179. 179.

    Brachiator

    One item in the fake presidential seal lacks an explanation.

    When I do a Google search now for presidential seal, one of the first images helpfully shows the fake seal, the Russian double head eagle symbol and the real presidential seal. You can click to an explanatory story.

    In the real deal seal, the eagle is holding an olive branch. What is it holding in the fake seal?

    https://news.yahoo.com/amphtml/45-is-a-puppet-can-you-spot-the-mistakes-in-the-fake-presidential-seal-behind-trump-152432083.html

  180. 180.

    Another Scott

    @smintheus: If you believe the rumor mil in 2017, he was looking at things like Russian transactions. Maybe those investigations are still on-going by the FBI, etc.; maybe they got handed off to other jurisdictions; maybe the reports were wrong. (I assume they got handed off to other jurisdictions if they started under Mueller, myself.)

    Mueller had a limited mandate and tried to finish things reasonably quickly. He couldn’t do it all by himself (with his small team). He certainly wouldn’t just ignore evidence of illegal behavior that he found.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  181. 181.

    Jay

    As usual, the very first sentence is a dumb and abrasive lie, to make the people Bret Stephens disagrees with sound as if they're dumb and unfair. Nobody's reviewing Boris Johnson's prime ministership, they're reviewing his long public life of being a rotten jackass prior to it. pic.twitter.com/J2kWSFEsjk— Tom Scocca (@tomscocca) July 26, 2019

  182. 182.

    smintheus

    @Jay: Whatever the memo did state, it cannot legitimately take away the jurisdiction that Mueller’s appointment letter gave him. The investigation of links/coordination with Russia is directly related to an investigation of the factors that created/influenced those links and that coordination. Financial ties is one of the most overwhelming of such factors.

    It’s possible that Rosenstein decided to do Trump’s bidding and warn Mueller for corrupt reasons not to investigate Trump’s financial ties to Russia. But if so, Mueller should have told Rosenstein that the horse already left that barn; that he could not do his job and fail to investigate that matter.

  183. 183.

    Jay

    Emmett Till was murdered at 14. He would’ve been 78 years old today. Racists love to shoot the sign marking where his body was found. That pockmarked plaque is the inverse of a gravestone, showing just how alive racism remains in this ugly country of ours. https://t.co/SH0GaU9xbu— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) July 26, 2019

  185. 185.

    smintheus

    @Jay: It’s disgraceful that the University decided there was nothing they could do to hold the fraternity scum in the photo accountable.

  187. 187.

    HRA

    @Ohio Mom:
    I believe he was most likely exhausted after the preparation of a lot of time for the day. Yet, a relative said “How come he doesn’t remember what he wrote”? Almost 500 pages of the report and he should have memorized it?
    I believe he did very well in consideration of the usual acting up and idiocy of some of the Reps. In regards to the negativity of the press and WH individuals, I stay away from reading the drivel they espouse at the rate of an assembly line.

  188. 188.

    smintheus

    @Jay: If Rosenstein was interfering in Mueller’s ability to do the job he was appointed to, then he should have told Rosenstein he’d resign and let the public know that his hands had been tied. That would have been the end of any attempt to prevent him from investigating Trump’s financial dealings with Russia.

  189. 189.

    Neldob

    To me Mueller looked very careful, listened very carefully and answered carefully and crisply. There is an interesting epigram about brevity. He walked out like a noble scholar, who has dedicated his life honorably to defending justice and the rule of law. Like someone who has spent a lot of time at his desk and not playing golf. “Feeble” my ass. K C is a Nazi.
    Pass me the wine.

  191. 191.

    Jay

    @smintheus:

    Org guys follow org rules. Moreso when they believe that their orderzs are lawful orderz.

    The reality is that you don’t have a career like Meuller when you are the cop who plays “fast an loose with the rules”, partnered with the guy who is “too old for this shit”.

    It’s not a movie. Meuller was handed a limited brief, which in a still classified and redacted memo, limited his investigation further.

    He was not given a blank slate like Starr.

  193. 193.

    Citizen Alan

    @Steeplejack:

    Anchor your journalism in a citizens agenda.

    That is absolutely adorable in light of the reality that 99% of all media outlets are owned by the super-rich. But I’m sure there are a few college alt-weeklies that can pursue a corporate agenda.

  195. 195.

    Jay

    @HRA:

    Meuller didn’t write the Meuller report or conduct most of the interviews. Meuller managed the investigation and construction of the report, relying on his team of experts.

  196. 196.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @HRA: Yet, a relative said “How come he doesn’t remember what he wrote”? Almost 500 pages of the report and he should have memorized it?

    I’d be curious to know more about the composition/redaction process. I wonder just how deep in the weeds he got.

    as for his affect, it reminded me very much of my father, who after the age of 85 or so, started sleeping more. It took him an hour or so to get going in the morning, and he took a short nap before lunch, a longer one late in the afternoon. Before and after his naps he was a little slower, physically and cognitively, for half an hour or so, but most of the day he was pretty much the man I knew all my life.

    As an anti-matinalist, expecting anyone to bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to have complicated back and forth about a complicated matter, a man with a reputation for being extremely cautious in his choice of words, and in a fucking tie, at 8:30 a.m., is kind of ridiculous. (/only somewhat seriously, before someone feels the need to tell me how they translate and comment Pythagoras before their 7 a.m. steel cut oatmeal and wheatgrass juice)

  197. 197.

    HRA

    @Jay: @Jay:

    Thank you for the information. I know a lot of people do believe he wrote it himself and I just went along with the crowd. I will have to inform them about it.

  199. 199.

    Jay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    if an optics win is when you spend three hours shouting conspiracy theories at someone who politely refuses to engage, i should have had a lot more success dating— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) July 24, 2019

    this felt like putting a cat in a suit: the cat made it pretty clear he didn’t want to be in the suit, but folks persisted in putting him in the suit, and when he was in the suit it was fun for no one— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) July 24, 2019

  200. 200.

    Steeplejack

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Also—this thought just struck me—in answering questions Mueller had to remember not only what his team wrote in the report but what was redacted by Barr’s minions. That would cause you to take your time in formulating your answer.

  202. 202.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ohio Mom:

    But now the search has been contaminated. Lots of people are looking for that image.

    Could be. Could also have been google bombed near the top of the list beforehand. and then, one term of art is “fat finger attack”.
    If the heroic perp confesses, then that’s why it happened. If not, then it’s either they’re not confessing, or … weird. (I can’t go with Russia-did-it, though Russian humor can be strange to us Americans.)
    Was very good to see, regardless. Lots of smiles today about it.

  205. 205.

    dww44

    @smintheus: Could it be that he wasn’t allowed to investigate Trump’s finances? I think that might be highly likely as the Special Counsel rules made it far too easy for the President to control the SC’s brief. We need to go back to some sort of Independent Counsel, not withstanding that the IC can abuse the office, a la Ken Starr. In my view, an IC who over reaches is far preferable to a corrupt President who can control the investigation into himself.

  206. 206.

    Scotian

    I know this is likely a dead thread, but had to add this. Showed my night nurses on the oncology unit the pic and told them about his speaking before it, and to a person they all laughed and went on about only he could be that oblivious. Made for a good laugh in a place where those are rare and always needed and welcome
    Thanks for giving it so I could share it with them.

    David Macdonald

  207. 207.

    apocalipstick

    @Steve in the ATL: I doubt if they can sound the same, especially the Deluxe, but the built-in effects and weight reduction might be worth the tradeoff. If you’re really interested in this sort of thing, check out BluGuitar and Quilter.

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