Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

T R E 4 5 O N

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

When we show up, we win.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

We will not go back.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Impeachment Inquiry / Open Thread: Bill Barr Is *Not* having A Good Week

Open Thread: Bill Barr Is *Not* having A Good Week

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  3. 3.

    Cacti

    Also too, Dem House Chairs hit Pompeo between the eyes on his refusal to cooperate with impeachment inquiry:

    The statement from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) came after Pompeo said that State Department officials would not show up for their scheduled depositions this week.

    “Secretary Pompeo was reportedly on the call when the President pressed Ukraine to smear his political opponent,” the chairmen said. “If true, Secretary Pompeo is now a fact witness in the House impeachment inquiry. He should immediately cease intimidating Department witnesses in order to protect himself and the President.”

    They added that “any effort to intimidate witnesses or prevent them from talking with Congress — including State Department employees — is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry.”

  6. 6.

    John Revolta

    I’ve heard (from Adam probably) that the Italian Right-wing has close ties to Russia. Now, if you wanted to confer with Russians but didn’t want to go to Russia to do so…………………..it would be irresponsible not to speculate is all I’m sayin’.

  9. 9.

    Millard Filmore

    @Cacti:

    Pompeo said that State Department officials would not show up for their scheduled depositions this week.

    His reply explaining the refusal basically came down to “I don’t like your attitude.”

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    @John Revolta: the Italian government was (until it fell apart quite recently) an alliance between:

    – a far-right ethno-separatist party that had been turned into a Russian stalking horse
    – a party that is essentially a running joke by a bunch of disaffected youth, founded by a techie cultist and fronted by a comedian

  13. 13.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah: related:

    Andrea Mitchell @mitchellreports
    .@GeoffRBennett: “I think House Dems sent these depositions knowing full well that the Secy of State would be less than fully compliant. (If so), they would be prepared to use that stonewalling as grounds for a separate article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress.”

    Geoff Bennett @GeoffRBennett

    Our earlier reporting on @mitchellreports appears borne out by this response from the committee chairs to Pompeo: “Any effort to intimidate witnesses or prevent them from talking with Congress … is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry.”

    NEWS: Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was previously scheduled for a joint deposition before the House Intel, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees tomorrow, will now be appearing on Oct. 11 with the agreement of both the Committees and counsel.

    NEWS: Ambassador Kurt Volker has confirmed he will appear this Thursday for a joint deposition before the House Intel, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees.

    Rachael Bade @rachaelmbade
    IMPEACHMENT LATEST: After @SecPompeo told Ds his officials won’t comply w/their requests, State employees appear to be DEFYING Pompeo.

    1st: Volker says he will testify. Yovanovitch too.

    & now @karoun @John_Hudson report the State IG is coming 2 Hill tomorrow to turn over docs

    Geoff Bennett @GeoffRBennett

    NEWS: The State Dept’s Office of Inspector General has reached out to the relevant congressional committees with what it describes as an “urgent request” to brief staff about documents related to the State Department and Ukraine, multiple sources tell NBC. WaPo first reported.

  14. 14.

    Leto

    @Mary G: I’m anxious that that’ll become a lefty chant. I know we do it here mockingly, but I’m still wary.

    @debbie: Exactly. He’s been up to his jowls in criminal activity since Iran Contra.

  15. 15.

    The Dangerman

    Damn, the billable hours that Trumpers are gonna run up is going to be mind boggling.

    Of course, Donald won’t pay the bills, but the billings will be mind boggling.

  16. 16.

    Cacti

    @Millard Filmore:

    I accidentally cut off the best part of the response to Pompeo:

    “In response, Congress may infer from this obstruction that any withheld documents and testimony would reveal information that corroborates the whistleblower complaint,”

    My only quibble is that they should have changed the “may” to “shall”.

  17. 17.

    Sebastian

    @Aleta:

    Those asshats (Pompeo, Barr, Mnuchin, et al) are going to realize that no one wants to go to prison for them and people are realizing that Trump&Co are no longer in control. This is how a breaking dam looks like. Hold on, this is going to be a wiiiiiiild ride.

  20. 20.

    kindness

    It would be my hope that both Barr & Pompeo are having a very hard time trying to hire defense lawyers. Of course karma isn’t always immediate. Such is life.

  21. 21.

    sukabi

    What’s particularly galling about this whole thing is that they knowRussian interference happened and is continuing BECAUSE THEY SOLICITED IT. Other than using that for cover, the only thing they can possibly get from this is obviously faked documents and more charges brought against them.

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    Julia’s and Dana’s tweets are On. Point.

    Now to throw those facts in GOP lawmakers’ faces at every opportunity. You listening, Dem candidates? How about you, national snooze media?

  27. 27.

    Quinerly

    @Major Major Major Major: I just used one of my free clicks to read this about 30 mins ago. Yes, it’s the NYT but it really should be read and shared. Concrete wall vs wall painted flat black. Wanting to just take people’s land without notice or going thru the process. We have to get rid of this SOB. I despise him.

  28. 28.

    jl

    Everyone is in trouble until they find the HRC email servers, the Russian hoax servers, and the missing pizza joint basement. And Trump wants to see lots of dirt on them, so he knows you got the real ones that have been buried in the woods, not some fakes.

  30. 30.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: apropos of nothing, Mrs. Fro can’t seem to latch on to “nothingburger” and has instead thrown out “empty sandwich”, “air sandwich”, and “fake burger” at times.

    Points for trying, though! LOLOL

  31. 31.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Reposting from moribund thread below, the unbearable sadness of powerful white men, from today’s WaPo:

    First, Kavanaugh [spit]: Brett Kavanaugh’s Washington: A smaller, colder world for a justice under a cloud

    Second, Acting homeland security chief frustrated and isolated — even as he delivers what Trump wants at the border

    They don’t make violins tiny enough.

    ETA: LInk to the 2nd article – https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/acting-homeland-security-chief-frustrated-and-isolated–even-as-he-delivers-what-trump-wants-at-the-border/2019/10/01/b62e740c-e3ad-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html?wpisrc=al_news__alert-national&wpmk=1

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @Millard Filmore: Indeed.

    Repubs need to be asked daily if that is the new standard going forward: “It’s okay to refuse a subpoena if you don’t like the attitude of the Congressperson/committee issuing it? That’s the deal now?”

    Oooookay…

  34. 34.

    Leto

    @ruemara: Because I don’t want it to become a lefty chant? It’s fucking odious when the shitbirds do it, I don’t want to see it come full circle and have Dems doing it. Again, I know we do it here in a mocking fashion (as it rightly deserves), but I can see it being done. Example 1 is last night’s Colbert show with HRC.

  35. 35.

    dmsilev

    @Major Major Major Major: No sharks?

    Edit:

    Privately, the president had often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him.

    Christ, what a sick and twisted SOB he is.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: Yeah that and the fact he wants to shoot those crossing the border in the legs seems important.
    Better ask Mitch. BTW Pompeo is a big sissy.. Hillary took eleven hours of questioning and he can’t even take one.

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    @Aleta: Wow, that is encouraging (that the State officials will testify regardless of what Pompeo says or wants).

    Dam’s cracking, GOP. Last one to head for the hills ain’t gonna beat the floodwaters…

  39. 39.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @ruemara: I’m not Leto but I don’t think that adopting the Right’s call for the imprisonment without trial of political opponents is a good look. YMMV.

  41. 41.

    Chyron HR

    DOJ still won’t say what Barr was doing in his secret trip to Italy — but it looks increasingly likely that he was on a mission to investigate the origins of the FBI investigation into Trump.

    Has… has he considered that the “origins of the FBI investigation” might be all the crimes they were committing?

  44. 44.

    Patricia Kayden

    @dmsilev: Have to say that this story shocked me. Good know Trump is a horrible human being but really? And we’re just hearing about this now.

  45. 45.

    cain

    @Cacti:

    Pfft. A sternly worded letter. You think Pompeo is going to care? Let’s see some threats and then following up with that threat.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:

    BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: I’m told that Pompeo’s office in recent days asked State Department HR/IG if they could “discipline” officers for “failure to follow direction” if they cooperate with Congress.

    Yeah, nothing to see here, just standard operating procedure, no intent to obstruct at all.

  47. 47.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Quinerly: Speaking as a local, I was hopeful when she announced, but am not impressed. We have better candidates. Don’t let the slick ad fool you.

    ETA: To clarify, I’m not impressed with her candidacy in general. She may be doing fine on Hardball, but I haven’t watched it.

  48. 48.

    Hungry Joe

    During (and after) Watergate, Nixon’s defenders said he should have destroyed the tapes that Congress was pressing him to turn over. Had he done so, they maintained, there wouldn’t have been enough evidence to force him out with the threat of impeachment and conviction.

    Does anyone know if the info on Trump’s phone conversations with Ukraine, upgraded to Super-Duper Hush No-You-Can’t-Look Secret, are vulnerable? I know nothing about the ins and outs of this. Could Trump simply order someone to destroy them, then take the heat for that rather than what they would have revealed?

  49. 49.

    Chyron HR

    @cain:

    I cannot imagine how drunk I’m going to have to get on the day that Trump is acquitted in the Senate and you little brats decry the very impeachment you spent a year demanding as a “sternly worded letter”.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    Meanwhile, Marc Thiessen’s latest hack opus is up at the WaPo: “Yes, trumpov Did Something Wrong: That Doesn’t Absolve the Biden’s”

    Yes, really.

    No, I’m not going to link to it.

    Yes, that headline tells it all – they know we’ve got Orangemandias dead to rights.

    No, they will not let go of this dumb non-angle, ever.

  54. 54.

    Quinerly

    @O. Felix Culpa: she’s on mostly b/c of being outed. Very little about campaign. Discussed Joe Wilson’s death. I have always liked her. Haven’t followed her campaign.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Hungry Joe: I will start off by saying that I know zero about classified/secret/top-secret servers, but out here in the more mundane IT world, any system that holds anything approaching important data has multiple generations of backup, several audit trails, reams of system logs, different access control levels, etc. Deleting something without leaving a trail and making sure it actually disappears completely is a very hard problem. I’d suspect it’s much harder on a codeword server.

  56. 56.

    Hungry Joe

    @Major Major Major Major: This sounds like a couple of nine-year-old boys building a fort out of scrap lumber and leftover shingles, and getting a little carried away as they talk about making it even better:

    “We could build a trench!”
    “Yeah! And fill it with snakes!”
    “And ALLIGATORS!”

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this strikes me as a rather significant bureaucratic power play, and a huge fuck you to Pompeo

    Hudson @ John_Hudson
    ?Just as Pompeo warns Dems he won’t comply with their requests, the quasi-independent State Department inspector general tells Capitol Hill he’d like to meet tomorrow to “provide staff with copies of documents related to the State Department and Ukraine.”

  58. 58.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Quinerly: The conversation about having been outed makes sense, especially with current speculation about the whistleblower’s identity and the possible consequences for that person if outed. Unfortunately, as a candidate, that seems to be her primary calling card. Sometimes almost to the point of the old John McCain trope – did you know he was a POW? Did you know she was outed?

  59. 59.

    Aleta

    @Sebastian: It feels kind of like ice breaking up on a river. After it begins, ice dams form and then the water starts to flood up on land to get around the blocks of ice that’re stuck. River keeps flowing faster and faster and the current may get so strong you don’t know what you might see carried along.

    @Major Major Major Major: Great, WH aides on the phone getting estimates from alligator wranglers and discount farms and writing down shipping quotes.

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Major Major Major Major: @Hungry Joe:

    Jon Favreau @ jonfavs
    This was literally a joke that Obama used in 2011 to mock Republicans on border security:

    Michael M. Grynbaum Retweeted Jon Favreau
    “‘Maybe they’ll need a moat,’ Obama said mockingly to laughter from the crowd. ‘Maybe they’ll want alligators in the moat.'”

  63. 63.

    piratedan

    @Omnes Omnibus: would it be okay if they served them subpoenas citing them with contempt and obstruction and THEN locked them up until compliance was forthcoming?

  64. 64.

    different-church-lady

    @Hungry Joe: There’s yet another parallel: Nixon didn’t destroy the tapes because he had a misguided idea there would be things in them that would exonerate him. Same bonehead reason Trump released the transcript/notes.

  65. 65.

    moops

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The data will likely not get corrupted, but someone in the WH still has to access it for Congress and abide by the subpoena. Like Pompeo, they will just refuse. There are never consequences it seems. Cheney showed how it’s done, and we will never recover until someone gets locked up for failure to comply.

  68. 68.

    Quinerly

    @O. Felix Culpa: in her defense, she didn’t bring up her campaign until CM brought it up. I had it on in background so didn’t see her. I was shocked about Wilson’s death last week. Sad. I guess they had recently, quietly divorced but she was with him when he passed away. Organ failure. He was active on social media thru the summer.

  72. 72.

    different-church-lady

    So, Volker’s gonna testify?

    I wonder if the 10 year olds of today are going to see this the same way I saw the original. At least for them the non-stop confusion will be in color.

  75. 75.

    JGabriel

    @different-church-lady:

    They’re not looking for criminal defense lawyers. They’re looking for criminal… defense lawyers.

    Heh. I think Barr & Pompeo broke bad long before they ever got into politics – they were born that way.

  76. 76.

    dmsilev

    @Aleta: A brief Google search turned up backwaterreptile.com, which sells young alligators for $150 each and features the promise “Buy an Alligator with a Live Arrival Guarantee”.

    I assume if you’re buying in bulk there’s a discount.

  77. 77.

    Searcher

    I’m honestly thrilled at how much time and effort they are apparently spending trying to find or fabricate some sort of “evidence”.

    I had kind of assumed that they thought they didn’t need evidence and that everyone on “that side” was happy with just piled higher and deeper bullshit. This is a tacit admission that evidence still matters (and they don’t got none).

  78. 78.

    Quinerly

    @Aleta: I read that Daily Beast piece earlier. Didn’t really get much from it. Would Barr even recognize the professor’s voice?

  83. 83.

    japa21

    Barr and Pompeo are focused on the origins of the Russian Hoax. They know they can’t directly refute the evidence but if they find something shady in it it must mean the whole thing must be thrown out, including the conclusion that the Russians interfered at all.

    Let’s imagine, for just a minute, that it did all start with the Steele dossier. So what? There were enough claims in there to justify the beginning of an investigation. You don’t start an investigation because you have all the facts, you start an investigation to find out what the facts really are.

  85. 85.

    Gin & Tonic

    @different-church-lady: Volker resigned from State last week; RUMINT had it that he was interested in testifying. Since he’s no longer a DoS employee, he can tell Pompeo to pound sand if he wants. He was never a Trump guy, he was a McCain guy, anyway. Actually well-respected in Ukraine

  86. 86.

    Shana

    @debbie: IANAL but I’d argue that what Barr is doing is more illegal than what Rudy’s doing since he’s the Attorney General.

  89. 89.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Cacti: Yeah, but Atrios is sneering at “sternly worded letters”.

    More seriously, that’s good. They’re threatening him with Obstruction of Congress if he doesn’t comply. Which is exactly the right thing to do.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    Barr may be quieter about it than Rudi, but what he’s doing is equally illegal.

    If you don’t constantly blab about it on TV, that means it’s not illegal.

    -Zombie Tricky Dick

  92. 92.

    JanieM

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’d suspect it’s much harder on a codeword server.

    Especially for people who couldn’t even figure out how to work the light switches.

  94. 94.

    Dave

    @Patricia Kayden: He really is the perfect distillation of every loudmouth drunk know nothing blowhard at the end of the bar. It’s like he’s the platonic ideal of this and your asshole drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. This is the sort of plan that is so stupid (not to mention illegal and ghoulish) that the brains first inclination upon hearing it is to just skip over it out if a sense of self preservation.

  96. 96.

    jl

    @mrmoshpotato: Barr is more illegal than Giuliani. Barr is US Attorney General. Giuliani is just some private citizen gumshoe, self-styled defense lawyer, and self-conceived secret agent man hired by a weak minded president.

    So far we have solid evidence that Giuliani’s main crime is lying his ass off on TV. Barr has public office. Barr lied too, several times, but to Congress.

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    ad on a NYC subway car

    Chris Sommerfeldt @ C_Sommerfeldt
    “You have called the law offices of crazy Rudy! We specialize in back channel deals, cable news appearances and will work when drunk!” a belligerent male voice blares in a voicemail set up for the phone number listed on the ad.

    I…. I think I have to call that number

  101. 101.

    jl

    @rikyrah: ‘ CNN: State Dept inspector general has requested an urgent Hill briefing with relevant committees tomorrow related to Ukraine. The email that went to staff suggested it was urgent. A Congressional aid described the State IG’s request as “highly unusual and cryptically worded.” ‘

    Wonder if that is about feds going after WB.

  109. 109.

    debbie

    @Shana:

    Knowing Rudi, I’m sure he’s implying he speaks for more than just the president, but six of one, half-dozen of the other: They both suck!

  112. 112.

    MisterForkbeard

    @jl: Doubt it’s the feds going after Barr, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was letting them know that Barr was literally doing something illegal right now in Italy.

  115. 115.

    dm

    @Hungry Joe: In addition to “stealing”, spies sometimes want to delete or modify things. Therefore, such secure systems are (in theory, I don’t know how true this is in practice) set up to detect and record deletion and modification, with audit logs that are also protected from modification.

    That’s the theory, anyway.

  118. 118.

    jl

    @mrmoshpotato: ” Buried in the woods? The network cables ran into the tree? ”

    Trying to type things out from Trump’s perspective gets weird quick.

    OTOH every reactionary is smart and knows the best way to detect deviltry in a computer system is to pull the plug out of the wall and cart off every damn thing you see in the room. SASQ. QED. Stat!

  119. 119.

    Sam

    @Gin & Tonic: Probably only a handful of people can really remove things, and chances are good they are contractors who would be extremely reluctant to even try without a detailed record of the request for their files. Even then they would go to their own management first.

  121. 121.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    Misery loves company. I had a crappy day myself, but it cheers me no end to hear that Barr & Pompeo are well and truly in the soup. Presumably Rudy and Donald are also losing sleep. The difference between my crappy day and theirs is the difference between honest work and corruption. Looks like I’ll have to scaffold to reach something I’d hoped to just do from a ladder, but those guys are lawyering up and worrying (at least a tiny bit) about going to jail.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    Trumpov’s melting down again…now it’s a “FULL BLOWN COUP”, intent on overturning the 2nd Amendment (really?), denying people their religious rights (how ‘bout that??) and (all of) “their God-given rights as a Citizen* of The United States of America”

    *you fucked up the plural, chief…it’s “AS CITIZENS”

  128. 128.

    Jeffro

    @oatler.: I dunno, sometimes it feels like work trying to translate this stuff.

    “ ‘Empty sandwich’? Ohhhh…you mean ‘nothingburger’!” (Takes rest of day off to recuperate). LOL

  134. 134.

    joel hanes

    @dmsilev:

    sells young alligators for $150 each

    Boy, has the price gone up.
    The pet section of the Ben Franklin five-and-dime in my hometown used to sell baby alligators about four inches long for $0.50 each, back in the early 1960s.
    Baby turtles, too, for those kids who wanted to experience salmonella first hand before learning a little later what a dead turtle smells like.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    I still cannot believe that the best these clowns can do is…SENDING BARR AND GIULIANI THEIR OWN SELVES!

    Do they pay minimum wage for henchmen over in GOP-land? No one but Barr can dig up this (BS) ‘oppo’?

    Dem recruiting slogan, post 2020: “Seriously, henchmen we’ll pay you $15 an hour and ask politely to see if you want ‘Medicare For All Who Want It’ “. GAME OVER RED TEAM!

  137. 137.

    Aleta

    @joel hanes: Thanks, that’s pretty cool. And this is too:

    The Scablands are also important to planetary scientists as perhaps the best terrestrial analog of the Martian outflow channels.[8]

  139. 139.

    tokyokie

    @Millard Filmore:

    I am pretty sure “WB” here means Whistle Blower, not William Barr.

    And I thought “WB” was in the logo at the start and end of old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

  145. 145.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: Wait…the German version…was that bad? It was bad, wasn’t it?

    Not to sorta Godwin the thread, but frankly, Hitler had more brains (up until that last half sec!) than trumpov ever will. And thank goodness for that.

  146. 146.

    Mary G

    Good long read on yahoo about the person in charge of negotiating contracts at the Pentagon:

    It was at this point that Assad said he was instructed by Lord’s office to delete all the information he had concerning briefings on the proposed progress payment rule from a timeline he compiled for Shanahan’s review. “That in itself was really troubling,” Assad said. “I mean, it was really … people telling you, ‘destroy information,’ or ‘eliminate information,’ so that the secretary doesn’t know what really happened … I’ve never had anybody ask me to do that in 45 years, or direct me to do it.”

    Weeks later, Assad sat down with Lord for a performance evaluation in which, after years of exemplary reviews and service awards, she rated him as having a “minimally acceptable performance,” citing his “leadership issues” as the reason.

    A colleague of Assad’s said he was unfairly blamed for the blowback, even though Lord had supported the proposal. “When we first met in early 2018 with the senior leaders to talk about some of these ideas, I walked away with the impression that these were her ideas,” said the former colleague of Assad’s. “Whether that’s true at that stage or not, certainly when there was a significant pushback from industry, she didn’t hesitate to throw Shay under the bus.”

    HOOCOUDANODE that appointing a bunch of defense industry lobbyists to the Pentagon would turn out to be putting the fox in the henhouse? The amounts of money are staggering.

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Juliette Kayyem @ juliettekayyem
    When this is all done, let us never say again the Generals bring order and dignity to our politicized life. They failed.

    Long live the IGs.

  149. 149.

    Jay

    This moat-building story is from a book that also reports Trump wants CBP to SHOOT IMMIGRANTS IN THE LEGS TO SLOW THEM DOWN.As bad as that is?This dude and his co-author thought it was TOTALLY OKAY to sit on the info until it was time to do book PR.https://t.co/xuXRH6EcC3— Leah McElrath ?️‍? (@leahmcelrath) October 1, 2019

  151. 151.

    Elizabelle

    @Jay: Yeah. The holding stuff to publish it in a book has to stop. You are either a daily newspaper journalist or you are not. Don’t hold out, when it could make a difference.

    I think that we, as readers and subscribers, could have something to say about that.

  153. 153.

    Ken

    @Aleta:

    I think House Dems sent these depositions knowing full well that the Secy of State would be less than fully compliant.

    Harking back to that golden oldie, “perjury trap”.

  154. 154.

    Brachiator

    Trump talks a lot about the deep state. It’s hiding in plain sight. It’s not forces working against Trump. It’s his abuse of office, using government officials, paid goons and allies as his personal investigative and attack force.

  155. 155.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mary G:
    One thing I find worrying about Amber Guyger is that she got through whatever Houston PD’s recruitment process has for psychological screening, and then kept her badge despite several uncidents of rash and intemperate behaviour on the job. She might not be the only cop in Houston who is a potential danger to innocent members of the public.

  159. 159.

    Ken

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s probably too much to hope that the documents include Pompeo’s instructions to refuse to comply with Congressional requests for information – or even better, to fake evidence supporting the Ukraine story the administration is still trying to spin.

  161. 161.

    Aleta

    @Jeffro: Wouldn’t a coup suggest a plot by the christian right to replace him with the more godly pence … if the chr. right actually cares about that stuff.

  162. 162.

    Ken

    @different-church-lady:

    I wonder if the 10 year olds of today are going to see this the same way I saw the original.

    Ten-year-old me didn’t really understand Watergate. I was chiefly upset that the TV stations were pre-empting my cartoons to show a bunch of old men talking.

  163. 163.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @Elizabelle: Maybe disbarment too? This just gets better and better. Although if their sentences are sufficiently long, it won’t make any damned difference if they lose their professional license.

    Yes, I want to lock them up. After appropriate legal process. Because they are doing the crimes right out in the open, secure in the belief that no one will stop them. Enough!

  165. 165.

    Jay

    A top channel on Nazi terror @telegram just put out an abbreviated list of recommended channels.The two "news" channels that made the cut?Bellum Acta and CIG/telegram, both of which appear to be Russia-controlled attempts to incite & influence white supremacist terror. pic.twitter.com/IozRUspUoV— Gwen Snyder is uncivil (@gwensnyderPHL) October 1, 2019

  166. 166.

    Fair Economist

    @Major Major Major Major:

    the Italian government was (until it fell apart quite recently) an alliance between:

    – a far-right ethno-separatist party that had been turned into a Russian stalking horse
    – a party that is essentially a running joke by a bunch of disaffected youth, founded by a techie cultist and fronted by a comedian

    5 Star is much more than that. It acts like a running joke, but the point there is to draw support from people who treat politics as entertainment or a joke. It also does a lot of social media manipulation. That has given 5 Star quite a bit of power, which it is now using for its own purposes.

    The thing about democracy is that if you get elected you have power. The road to getting elected need not be dignified or honest.

  168. 168.

    Jay

    Citing a private letter that was published unlawfully, in an intentionally destructive manner and disturbing pattern of behavior by the British tabloid media, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will sue the Daily Mail. "Because my deepest fear is history repeating itself." pic.twitter.com/LJUEDyfGjX— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) October 1, 2019

  170. 170.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jl:

    Trump wants to see lots of dirt on them, so he knows you got the real ones that have been buried in the woods, not some fakes.

    Yep. That’s why Barr and Pompeo are running around. They may be insane enough to believe the server and anti-Mueller evidence is real. It’s moot, because their boss does and is demanding they be found.

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Have to say that this story shocked me.

    I took it for granted that Trump’s starting position was ‘kill all brown immigrants and then look into killing all brown citizens’ and that he has been angry from day one that he doesn’t have the authority to do it. Same with locking up Hillary and Obama, which we also found out he asked the DoJ to do.

    @Dave:

    he’s the platonic ideal of this and your asshole drunk uncle at Thanksgiving.

    I have been calling Trump the Your Racist Uncle President for a long time. That is his appeal to his voters. They think that kind of person is God’s gift to the world.

  171. 171.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jay:

    He wasn’t elected to do it, but he embarrassed Trump on the world stage, and now Ukraine has to pay so all of the other countries that Trump is asking for favors knows that they’d better fall in line.

  173. 173.

    Hungry Joe

    @Elizabelle: Withholding info you gather as a reporter is unethical, dishonest. You’re on the clock; the paper (or whatever entity) is paying you to learn this stuff and report it — or at least, report whatever you and your editor(s) determine is worth reporting. If you want to write a book later, fine — but not using secreted away, more or less purloined goods. That info belongs to the paper, as does the story. I bet I had 2,500+ bylines, and every one of them was, and remains, property of the newspaper I worked for.

  175. 175.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Gin & Tonic: I get the sinking feeling that sometime within the next 30 hours or so Volker’s domicile will be raided & ransacked by the FBI & all his files seized, & he will be frogmarched off to jail & charged with possession of (recently up-) classified material (which will be planted if nothing that fits the bill is found**) to prevent him from testifying. Fuckers.

    ** Hell, they’ll probably plant stuff so they won’t have to look so hard.

  176. 176.

    Jay

    @Mnemosyne:

    The reformed Ukrainian Military has been very sucessfully waging a “War of Inches”, pushing back the LPR and the DPR forces in strategic spots, with minimal causualties, and with out provoking a major Russian military intervention, only posturing.

    The Larov Agreement, requires that Ukraine withdraw from their gains, engage in a ceasefire, and at some point in time, Russia will withdraw forces from the DPR and LPR, ( they won’t), and at sometime free elections will be held in the DPR and LPR, ( they won’t be free).

    The EU and NATO have provided way more support for Ukraine, militarially and economically than the US, so this is a surrender for nothing in exchange.

    One more example of the Dolt 45 Regime fulfilling Putin’s Agenda.

  177. 177.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Aleta: O/T, but – I have never understood why so many people are so often up to their asses in alligators – & no one ever seems to be up to their crotch in crocodiles. Equal opportunity for neglected members of the order Crocodilia, I say!

  179. 179.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Those that there are.

    Trump hasn’t filled top watchdog jobs at Pentagon, CIA, other agencies

    Nine of the government’s top watchdog jobs — the independent officials charged with handling whistleblower complaints and keeping an eye on unusual agency activity — have not been filled by President Donald Trump. Source

  184. 184.

    Jay

    Ironically, it’s NOT the position of the United Stares govt that it’s illegal for @cbp to shoot migrants in Mexico. In fact, not only have they been doing it for years, the government actively defends them even when they shoot children. https://t.co/y2ehDcdRHj— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) October 1, 2019

  185. 185.

    Gvg

    @Jay: that idea won’t occur to Trump’s minions. I am positive they don’t want to remind people such laws exist.They act like they have never heard of them.

  187. 187.

    MoCA Ace

    @jl:

    Trump is the USA and its people! Trump is their very essence!!!!

    That fucker gets his essence anywhere near me and I’m moving to Canada.

  188. 188.

    Xboxershorts

    Has anyone wondered why Barr went to Italy in his investigation of the Meuller report and not, say, Netherlands?

    After all, it was Dutch intelligence that hacked into CozyBear/the IRA and caught Russian Intelligence red handed doing skull fuckery to America.

    I have this theory why Barr’s in Italy…

    Remember the Nigerian Yellow Cake receipt forgeries?
    It was Italian Intel that presented these to US/Cheney.

    Barr’s in Italy because he knows the Italians will lie for us if asked.

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