Trump said Oct. 3 that he spoke with McConnell about the Zelensky call, and McConnell called it "innocent."
McConnell today: "I don't recall any conversations with the president about that phone call."https://t.co/KQjRGCyldV
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) October 22, 2019
“Trump… Donald Trump… there’s a name I haven’t heard in some time… “
Say what you will about #MoscowMitch’s ethic — like many of his fellow Repubs, he has but the one: What’s in it for *me*? — his sensitivity to changes in the political weather is unparalleled.
And concerning Trump’s new best dictator friend:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to introduce resolution calling on Trump to rethink his invite of Erdogan to the White House
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) October 22, 2019
Unless the Oval Office Occupant’s handlers can hide his phone again, signs point to (more) twitter-tantrums.
I hear the rumble of the Cocaine Mitch Express Bus with stops at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mar a Lago, and Trump Tower. https://t.co/ZmPSkRP4KR
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) October 22, 2019
Not everyone will mourn the fall of Klan Deplorable, Inc…
Anthony Scaramucci on Donald Trump: “He may or may not have early-stage dementia, but he definitely has early-stage fascism . . . This guy has the self-esteem of a small pigeon.” #VFSummit pic.twitter.com/eAYUdI6Kv6
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) October 22, 2019
… “In the next three to six weeks, there will be more damning information related to the president” released, Scaramucci predicted. “He’s aware of it. I believe that [Mitch] McConnell will eventually go to him and say, ‘Hey, man. You’ve gotta take one for the team…you’ve gotta go back.’ He’ll probably end up back at Mar-a-Lago or something.” Though he says he hasn’t had a personal conversation with McConnell, who “plays his cards very close to the vest,” Scaramucci said he has “talked to a legion of people” who see the tables beginning to turn. “For someone like McConnell,” he acknowledges, “it’s going to take a little more lawless activity exposure.” But, he predicted, the evidence of more high crimes and misdemeanors will be forthcoming: “We’ll eventually uncover that something happened between him and the president of Turkey to have him disavow the Kurds the way he did. I believe there’s a personal transaction embedded there as well.”
“I predict he will be out of office before the next election,” Scaramucci continued, adding that Nancy Pelosi is “like my favorite Italian now at this point.” Trump will “either be out the way Lyndon Johnson was out, or he’s going to resign from office. I do believe he’s cornered now, and as the facts unfold, they’re so overwhelming in their criminality that he’ll be out of office.”…
Just spoke to a GOP source close to McConnell, on the politics of impeachment: "This is shaping up to be a very dark moment for the Trump White House."
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) October 23, 2019
The Gaetz Maneuver or Why Forcing Entry Into a Secure Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) Is a Really Bad Idea
dmsilev
Hahahahaha. There’s only an I in Trump’s ‘Team’.
rikyrah
@dmsilev:
Dolt45is not noble. Doesn’t know how to spell it. If he is going down, he is taking EVERYONE WITH HIM???
Mary G
Mitch the weather vane has swung quite a ways already, with his WaPo oped that leaving the Kurds in the lurch is terrible without mentioning the words “Donald Trump” or “president,” like some wizard from Hogwarts in an Invisibility Cloak told Ertogan to go ahead, and now this. I’d like to see more shit come out, though.
scav
@dmsilev: That did rather jump out as marking an exercise in sheer fantasy.
Adam L Silverman
It will all come down to the internal polling for Republican senators up for reelection in 2020. Until or unless McConnell sees the internal polling moving in the wrong direction, he won’t do anything but hem and haw. Until or unless he thinks he’s at risk of losing his majority, don’t expect anything but his normal schtick.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Spellcheck be damned!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: He does know how to spell Nobel(and that’s as close as he’ll get to one).
Adam L Silverman
@scav: It is. Scaramucci isn’t very bright. But he has access to journalists and he’ll use it to peddle his bullshit.
bluehill
As noted below, there may come a time when some repubs decide that they are already so f’d they may as well down with the ship. I don’t think Gaetz is one of them because he seems like a bully and if there’s a threat of real jail time, he’ll back down. Bill Barr, on the other hand, seems to have come up with justifications for his unethical, lawless and unconstitutional actions and enough smarts to do some damage.
TS (the original)
Rachel: Opens her show with
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I think the Nobel Peace Prize selection committee should announce, now, that they’ll give the 2020 Prize to anybody who beats Trump next November.
Adam L Silverman
@bluehill: Gaetz isn’t a bully. He is, however, someone who has always been able to count on daddy’s money, power, influence, and connections getting him out of trouble and ensuring he faces no consequences. That’s all well and good in Pensacola and Tallahassee where his father’s money, power, influence, and connections go a long way. It does him no good in DC.
Adam L Silverman
@TS (the original): She is correct on this point.
TS (the original)
@Mary G:
Moscow Mitch is sure going to stop that – although trump will never understand that he has to go quietly – you may get your wish.
bluehill
@Adam L Silverman: In that case, I’ll look forward to his perp walk!
Marcopolo
@TS (the original): Rachel is doing a great show atm. Highly recommend folks tune in or catch it in the next 24 hours. Nice linkage btwn the Brooks Brothers SCIF event & the appeals court hearing the Trump tax return case.
Yutsano
Wait wait wait hold up.
Back this whole truck up.
…
Scaramucci is MARRIED???
BruceFromOhio
Putin cabled to say we got what we came for, and Moscow Mitch is holding the door for ya, Donnie. Go quietly or else.
JAFD
Looking at the photo of Sen McConnell at the top. The expressions on the man and woman at the right side of the picture (can anyone identify them?) – just wow…
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: Yep. His wife actually filed for divorce around the time he didn’t actually work as the White House Director of Communications. She was 9 month’s pregnant at the time, doesn’t seem to like the President, and wasn’t consulted by Scaramucci regarding him agreeing to take the White House job.
pagesix.com/2018/03/06/scaramuccis-wife-filed-for-divorce-because-he-took-white-house-job-without-te…
They’ve since reconciled and gone through counseling.
people.com/politics/anthony-scaramuccis-wife-calls-off-divorce/
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
His first marriage lasted 23 years.
He has five children.
Adam L Silverman
@JAFD: On McConnell’s left, our right, is Senator Thune (R-SD) and Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA). She’s been growing her hair out. Thune is part of the GOP Senate leadership and Ernst is the first female Republican senator to ever sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She’s not a lawyer, but McConnell decided they needed to add some women after the Kavanaugh hearings. Her look is “I’m not buying this, but I have to be here and pretend everything is fine”.
Aleta
Trump calls Taylor a ‘Never Trumper,’ accuses own administration of hiring people opposed to his presidency
JAFD
@TS (the original): Some pundit once said that the problems of the Balkans came because they produced more history than could be locally consumed. Am feeling that the USA has taken that over.
Barbara
The idea that Trump would take one for the team is so laughable that it cannot be taken seriously. “Sir, you are now a liability and since we are too chickenshit to make you go by voting where everyone can see us, you are just going to have to leave quietly on your own.” If this is actually McConnell’s plan I hope he has an alternative.
JAFD
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks!
TS (the original)
@dmsilev: It belongs to Nancy Pelosi – for calling him out and leading the house to get him out of power. I try all the time, not to be critical of any democrats in congress – but sometimes I fail, a leader in the Senate who could emulate the Speaker would be such a bonus to next year’s senate elections.
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: LMAO!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Wait, that’s Joni ‘Bread Bags’ Ernst? She looks way different than I remember
TS (the original)
@Aleta: Disgusting in the extreme that trump says he doesn’t know the man he appointed to be the Ukraine Ambassador. With every word he drops his foot further into the mud. With every word he raises the status of his predecessor.
mrmoshpotato
@JAFD: You rooting for a Russthuglican cage match?
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara: Agreed.
Jay Noble
@JAFD: Don’t know about the guy, but the woman is a BJ fav – Joni Ernst
Mary G
@Aleta: Pompeo’s in the doghouse after he was taken to the woodshed. He hired a real ambassador instead of another clown like the hotel guy. That’s why he went to Kansas on the taxpayer’s dime to work on all the foreign diplomats there. It gives Twitler time to cool off.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Aleta:
It escapes me why he always tries this and thinks it will work
Barbara
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Because for the most part it has worked out well for him. It is no mystery.
glory b
Holy crap! While watching Rachel Maddow just now, I saw an ad for Dan McCaffrey for PA Superior court, and he noted that he’s been endorsed by Planned Parenthood!
I can’t remember seeing a statewide candidate ever doing that before.
TS (the original)
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Working on appearing as the good republican housewife.
Barbara
@glory b: Superior court is statewide? You mean supreme court?
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Again, she’s been letting her hair grow out and that isn’t a particular good picture and she doesn’t look happy in it.
clay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: It’s mob-speak, basically. “Never met the guy, don’t know him, he’s not a friend of mine, etc.”
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Barbara:
Fair enough. Sure hasn’t seemed to be working lately for him though. Ghoulini still has tire tracks on his back and now Trump’s in this current mess
Adam L Silverman
@TS (the original): He didn’t appoint him. He didn’t nominate him. Ambassador Taylor is the Chief of Mission and Charge de Affairs of US Embassy Kyiv. This is the #2 position in the embassy and does not require a formal nomination and a senatorial confirmation. We know that Secretary Pompeo recruited him and specifically asked him to take the Chief of Mission/Charges de Affair position because of his prior experience working on Ukraine for the State Department. Because there is no Senate confirmed ambassador to the Ukraine, as is the case in the majority of US embassies right now, the #2 in each embassy is functioning as the acting ambassador. Which is what Taylor is doing. My guess is that the President will be leaning on Secretary Pompeo to recall him and replace him ASAP.
Ladyraxterinok
Do not see any pic with Mitch, Thune, and Ernst.
NOTE—Looked on this tablet with Crome and with Firefox
Systems set up for me by my son
Rand Careaga
@TS (the original):
Exactly wrong. We are finally compelled to recognize the folly of relaxing and getting on with our lives when a Clinton or an Obama is elected. We have to cease sleeping through the midterms, ignoring local races, indulging “principled abstentions” when a Democratic candidate at any level does not meet our purity standard. Man, I’d rather not pay attention to politics! There are tons of other things to which I’d sooner devote my attention. But the other side never sleeps, hasn’t slept since Goldwater lost, and if we do not “pay this much attention” going forward, well, scattered across this formerly great land of ours there are scores of aspiring autocrats—smarter, slicker, more disciplined than this one—watching the scene, taking notes, drawing conclusions about how easily the norms and conventions went down. One of them will make his move at the first opportunity, and FSM help us all if we’ve been asleep at the switch.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Probably. Which would just land Trump in more hot water. Could Trump install his own goon at the US Embassy in Ukraine if Taylor is recalled? Or would some other career diplomat take over as acting ambassador?
Jeffro
@rikyrah: yup
The things this ‘person’ is going to confess to/implicate others in/amaze even us stalwart BJers with is going to be um…amazing
And he’ll still end up as America’s most-reviled public figure, ever
Barbara
@TS (the original): That really isn’t called for. At any rate, when I have seen her in recent news clips she appears to be a bit shellshocked — trying to maintain a brave pro-Trump front but wishing she could talk about anything else, except maybe tariffs.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Well, he does do the fandango.
danielx
@dmsilev:
Yeah, that’s going to happen. And pigs MIGHT have wings…..
Barbara
@rikyrah: “How could I be a member of any team when there is no “I” in team?”
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Oh I believed it was her. She’s just changed a lot.
@clay:
It makes sense. The guy talks like a mob boss on a regular basis
Aleta
@Aleta:
Btw, I looked back and Pompeo got credit for returning Taylor to Ukraine to act as ambassador. I guess the decision to fire Yovanovitch was a mite precipitous, and in the rush they ran off that cliff. Pompeo … “it would be really great” if he “could stop hiring Never Trumpers,” huh.
zhena gogolia
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Another career diplomat would be sent as an acting ambassador until one is nominated and confirmed by the Senate. I’m not sure anyone would want to take either position right now.
TS (the original)
@Adam L Silverman: I did read his submission and understand that he did not call himself the Ambassador because he was not senate confirmed at this point in time. I also read that Pompeo asked him to do the job. I thought he was, however, to all intents and purposes filling the job of ambassador (as you say). I don’t doubt that he will be recalled in the very near future – anyone appearing in the inquiry would surely know they have little time left in their current jobs.
I guess my main takeout from trump’s comment is that if he didn’t know Bill Taylor – he certainly should have. His alternate group of diplomats in Ukraine were reporting back to trump & there is no doubt they mentioned Taylor. I am still (after 3 years) in absolute denial that this person was elected president*.
Another Scott
@BruceFromOhio: How many judges are in McConnell’s queue for approval? One has to figure that no trial/resignation is going to happen until that number gets close to zero.
Oh, and probably not until after the Transportation Department IG finishes that pesky investigation of his wife. He might need Donnie to pardon her or something.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@Aleta: Taylor was appointed to his current posting in Kyiv by Mike Pompeo. He was appointed to his first full tour as Ambassador there by George W. Bush. He’s a career Foreign Service Officer, so he was hired by State quite some time ago – I’m too lazy to look up under which administration.
Mary G
Wow.
He needs to lose next year. I give M.J. Hagar a monthly donation.
NotMax
@Ladyraxterinok
Not even a good enough act to be booked on the “Death Trail”* in vaudeville.
;)
*see here
TS (the original)
@Barbara: I don’t know why else she would do it. Any woman who is a republican with their current policies has no shame & no right to the benefit of the doubt. She supported his election – if she is shell shocked she should be talking about it – not changing her hair style. They give NOTHING to democrats – I return the favor.
Gin & Tonic
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Since its independence, the US has only appointed career Foreign Service Officers as Ambassadors to Ukraine. This is not like Luxembourg or something, where a couple of million in donations will get you the job. It’s a posting that requires actual work and actual diplomatic chops.
NotMax
OT.
@SiubhanDuinne
Saw your comment earlier but thread was by then moribund. I too had never heard of the movie before.
Princess
Thinking about how angry and verbally abusive Trump must be being to Pompeo these days for hiring Taylor and to Mulvaney for his press conference admitting the quid pro quo (which I would be Trump ordered him to do) gives me life in these dark days. They are all miserable and they are all stuck with each other.
Ken
@Aleta:
Well, he gets confused easily. Remember how he mixed up the conspiracy theories about Secretary Clinton’s e-mails with his plan to blackmail Ukraine into confessing they hacked the 2016 election, and ended up with the doubly-insane idea that the server with the e-mails is hidden somewhere in Ukraine.
I’m half expecting him to mix up Syria (“we have secured the oil”) and Saudi Arabia (“they are paying us to station troops there”), and announce that our troops are going to secure Saudi Arabia’s oil. Won’t that be interesting times…
Gin & Tonic
@TS (the original): Bill Taylor was Ambassador to Ukraine from 2006-2009. He was succeeded by John Tefft, who was recalled early for another assignment, then by Geoffrey Pyatt, now Ambassador to Greece, then Marie Yovanovitch. Taylor can be referred to as “Ambassador” because he has been one, but he is currently “only” the chargé d’affaires.
Hovercraft
@Mary G:
Susan Page of USA Today who’s a native Kansan said Pompeo’s still very popular there, and since it’s such a deep red state, he could use the Senate race as excuse to jump the sinking ship and rehabilitate his image and run for POTUS in 2024. He’d be formidable! Don’t tell anyone, I’m sure Twitler will let him walk unscathed.
You got to love the fact that the Villagers are so eager to welcome all of Twitlers henchman back into the fold. They still have bright such bright futures, Westpoint, first woman President and a woman of color too! Without all of those far left ideas about giving stuff to the masses. You got to love that the Villagers seem to assume the Democrats are going to let all the enablers just walk away scot free. You know for the good of the country, surely the impeachment of the Orange shitgibbon will be enough, right?
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: There’s a good reason for this. This is an old Black PSYOP tactic, which the Soviets used to use all the time. Black PSYOPs is when you launder your propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and/or information for provocation through a legitimate third party that no one would think is connected to the people laundering the information for effect, so that it can be later referenced by those who laundered the information in order to influence others. The classic example was when the Soviets laundered reporting through an Indian newspaper that AIDS was invented as a biological weapon by the US government, specifically the CIA if I’m recalling correctly, in order to target specific groups. A couple of years later, the Soviets then referenced this news reporting from the Indian news media in a journal article on the same topic allowing them to then weaponize that information against the US.
The real deliverable and due out that the President wanted from Zelensky wasn’t real evidence that incriminated the Bidens, nor made up evidence that incriminated the Bidens. The real deliverable that the President wanted from Zelensky was a public announcement that he was opening an investigation into the Bidens because there was a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. And that the announcement would be made in an appropriate mainstream news media outlet that isn’t perceived as favorable to the President, so they could weaponize Zelensky’s announcement immediately in TV, radio, and digital ads. So that it could then be pushed to reporters like Ken Vogel to write on it and amplify it under the masthead of The New York Times.
By the way, most of what we consider to be astroturfing in US politics, such as the Tea Party bullshit, is Black PSYOPs. Journalists who cover politics and political scientists just don’t know about Black PSYOPs, so they mislabel it.
Gin & Tonic
@Ken:
That’s not even his own doubly-insane idea, it’s something that’s been percolating in the RWNJ fever swamps for some time now.
Adam L Silverman
@TS (the original): So he is a member of the Foreign Executive Service, which is the equivalent of Senior Executive Service (SESes) for State Department personnel. Most of these folks have ambassadorial rank even if they’re not sitting in an ambassador billet. But he was the acting ambassador.
Mary G
I don’t watch much TV, but this will help my soul:
Mart
My political fantasy story includes Moscow Mitch trashed by ties to the Russian oligarchs behind the proposed aluminun mill in KY, and half the GOP run out after direct ties found to illegal Russian campaign financing.
I am wavering a bit on SNLs Kenan Thompson, “Ain’t nothen gon happen” to Trump prediction, but still the safest bet.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman:
You channeling our old friend BiP now?
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
Asha Rangappa’s been writing about this too.
Mary G
Here we go again:
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Now you know where he got the idea.
Yutsano
@NotMax: Makes me miss Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: You keep them away from Chicago! We no longer have hogs for Joni to castrate.
And, good B.O. meant good ticket sales. Ahhh, things were different (and apparently stinkier) back then.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: Asha Rangappa knows her business very well.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Knew that a while ago.
Patricia Kayden
So blatant.
Adam L Silverman
Oh goody, the President is going to be triggered all day on Friday!
NotMax
@Ken
Why else do you think they’re there for? see: Carter Doctrine. Note the timing of the deployment relative to attacks on SA’s oil infrastructure. Buffers-in-place to deter an attack on the infrastructure which ends up killing U.S. service personnel, providing a casus belli for Dolt 45.
Query: Too cynical, Adam?
Adam L Silverman
@Patricia Kayden: Wouldn’t it have to pass the Senate first?
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Just wait until the Soviet shitpile mixes up Russians and Martians and screams that Daffy and Marvin and Hillary hacked the election so she would lose.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Dick Cheney used to do with the FTFNYT, he(or his staff) would leak to Judith Miller, she’d write the story, then Dick would cite the FTFNYT in interviews.
The New York Times in garbage.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: “ one of this country’s finest public servants”. Trump will so disappointed to find out that he’s not the one.
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Yup. We remember Miller and Cheney and FTFNYT. Observer:
Mistakes were made. We’ll be hearing that a lot in the next few years. We can’t fall for it again.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Basically we sent a fighter strike group and some air defense specialists to help them with the Patriot batteries we’d sold them. So we didn’t send a lot of people. And, to be honest, unless you’ve got a CAP up when something happens like last month’s attack, there’s not a lot the fighter squadron’s going to do. And, because they’re up, they’re just as like to wind up getting locked on to by the ground to air defenses as the incoming fire. I’m not sure if Raytheon ever worked out the problems with the targeting software in the Patriot’s system that kept locking on to US and Coalition aircraft during Operation Iraqi Freedom. We shot down a number of our own fighters using them during OIF.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: The winds, they be coming. Good thing I’ve got city power.
The Dangerman
@Barbara:
Depends on how much money or other valuables* are involved.in the transaction.
*Freedom after leaving Presidency, Ivanka, etc.
danielx
@Yutsano:
Gutt, Cutt, and Flense….
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: How long are these blackouts on average?
lgerard
Wait until the new book by
Jaredanonymous comes out on the 19th. ttump will go absolutely bonkers.he will not only refuse to pardon the turkeys, he will decapitate them on the White House lawn after declaring them part of the deep state
Sebastian
@Mary G:
I remember a time where no one would dare attack the USA but nowadays we are everyone’s bitch I guess?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Great minds and all…
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Indeed!
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. And Douglas Feith hired Miller’s friend, the conspiracist Laurie Mylroie, to do contract assessment work for his Office of Special Plans at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Mylroie would launder bullshit through Miller, which the administration, specifically Feith, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Cheney would then latch onto and rebroadcast, which would then get further coverage, etc, etc, etc.
danielx
Having a fantasy in which Nancy Pelosi is named Time’s Person Of The Year and Lord Shortfingers froths at the mouth and strokes out on live tv when he hears about it….
Mary G
@lgerard: I think Anonymous is George and Kellyanne Conway. She’s perfectly capable of that level of ratfucking, and he hates Trump, except for the judges.
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: I remember he seemed to have an impressive and dedicated career. I believe he worked on problems in the ME and also in Iraq before being returned to Ukraine. And before all that, many years in the eastern part of Europe. They made quite a mistake (for their purposes) appointing a knowledgable person who cares about the security of Ukraine, doesn’t deny Russia’s invasion, and is very experienced and also tough.
Martin
@Mary G: Here’s the CPUC (California Public Utility Commission) fire map: ia.cpuc.ca.gov/firemap/
Here are the street-level maps for possible power shutoffs from Southern California Edison: sce.com/safety/wildfire/psps?fbclid=IwAR3oH7ZvvffT2OXoVYyE8L5nxLCurgSLLmGL8vH5IWrjL9I4UnSWXp_geV8
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: I can’t see George as actually hating Dump. It would create way too weird of a dynamic at home. I think it’s all an act.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Piece in Foreign Policy which might interest you if you haven’t already seen it.
I don’t entirely agree with all of it (seems there’s some axe grinding going on) but found it a helpful read nonetheless.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: ” By the way, most of what we consider to be astroturfing in US politics, such as the Tea Party bullshit, is Black PSYOPs. Journalists who cover politics and political scientists just don’t know about Black PSYOPs, so they mislabel it. ”
I think you are too charitable to the corporate news media. it doesn’t make nay difference what you call it, fraud is fraud, misrepresentation and dishonesty are what they are. It was very obvious that half of the Tea Bagger movement was astroturfed from the very beginning. And the half that was actually grass roots was pushed out and shut down by the corporations weeks, months at most, after it started. None of this was hidden
The (relatively few) actual grass roots Tea Bagger leaders of the actual grass roots Tea Baggers (less than half the movement) were complaining about being ostracized and shut out. Now, I think the grass roots leaders were wrong and knuckleheads, but even they understood astroturf organizations were shutting them out. Gee, it’s real funny that these all American small town diner older conservative and concerned white guys that the media usually slobbers over aren’t worth paying any attention to if the corporations would prefer that they get no attention. That is really an odd coincidence.
The astroturfing was obvious. There were video news clips of demonstrations with oldsters getting off chartered buses, getting box lunches, and holding up dozens of identical professionally printed signs. And some airhead or corrupt Biff Newsactor describing it as a spontaneous grass roots movement of concerned citizens. Hilarious and disgusting. Who am I going to believe, Biff Newsactor, or my lying eyes?
It was dishonest corporate news reporting for either ideological reasons or profit motive.
So, in sum, I very respectfully disagree.
Mary G
@mrmoshpotato: They are new this year, but I imagine as long as the winds are very high and the humidity is very low. The state has a scale. It’s days rather than weeks, I think.
Mary G
@mrmoshpotato: I think the incompetence and stupidity are what he hates.
Aleta
@Another Scott: No one could have predicted.
“Major combat operations have ended.”
lgerard
@Mary G:
I’m holding on to the dream that it is Jared, it is too Shakespearean to give up
NotMax
@Aleta
Pictures of smiling Iraqi families picnicking in their town’s George W. Bush Square will abound.
Martin
@mrmoshpotato: This one only goes into Friday. High of 93 here near the coast tomorrow, 90 on Friday. Max winds midday Thurs.
Gvg
Trump has always preferred flattery to insults or truth for himself. I think he is avoiding news source that say mean things about him, which these days is almost all of them, even Fox some. That means the only things he reads or has read to him are getting fewer and nuttier. He also seems to think TV is reality, at least TV that says what he wants it too. I am sure his aides are forced to direct his attention to flak sites, but really it’s him. I suspect is isn’t viewing anything but kook info by now.
Viewing only nutty info probably cause more mental self damage too.
Patricia Kayden
I missed this.
Martin
@lgerard: He’s not nearly clever enough to do this without outing himself.
Leto
@Patricia Kayden: Don’t worry, they’re working all the channels:
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: So he’d rather they were competently and smartly corrupt as fuck? :)
And quietly sucking dictator ass. “I love Kim Jong Un! He’s the one who made the sexy time tape with my black friend Kayne, right?”
Doug R
@mrmoshpotato:
vancityreynolds
The Merc May Be Filthier, but Her B.O. is Stronger. Congrats #WonderWoman #BoxOfficeBoss
instagram.com/p/BWYyVO2jV86/?utm_source=ig_embed
Leto
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: Back in the days when a whole thread could be about “the iPod.”
jl
Another example of dishonest, or lazy and sloppy, news reporting. Heard an interview with someone who knew something about the (for the time being informal) impeachment hearings in Congress. Many of the new Brooks Brothers rioters who violated security procedures today had the right to attend hearing today, and there were many GOPer congresscritters in the hearing. Why wasn’t that detail in the news reports? Or was it? I didn’t see it mentioned in the stories I saw. I just saw wide eyed news media fascination with fat white guys in suits righteously barging through doors.
By Lincolns’ maxim that false perceptions created by misdirection and omission are morally the same as bald face lying, then the Congressional GOP lied it’s ass off today. And corporate news media either lied too, or are pathetically lazy and incompetent.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Thanks.
VOR
@JAFD:
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota).
Matt McIrvin
@Adam L Silverman:
I remember hearing that one directly from Radio Moscow around 1986 or ’87. Didn’t know the provenance.
Mary G
@Leto: They ordered pizza and Chick Fillet – I don’t know how they spell it, and sat around alone inside eating until they got bored and left. Someone said they ordered 17 Domino’s pizzas; maybe they thought they’d stay a couple of days. There was a lot of uneaten pizza. They tried to get reporters to eat it. Nobody would because a) they aren’t allowed to take things from legislators and b) it was Dominos.
JAFD
@Barbara: The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is one of the two intermediate-level appellate courts – see
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_Court_of_Pennsylvania
for more info
jl
@Patricia Kayden:
” Cornyn: not a bad idea to get US troops out of the way if Turkey planned to ‘ethnically cleanse the Kurds’ ”
I clicked through to the source to make sure that quote is real. Apparently it is. IIRC, the brilliant mastermind Trump is the president who sent US troops on the open ended Syrian mission in the first place. Would be interesting to dig up GOP Congresscritter praise of Trump’s order sending the US troops to Syria a couple of years ago.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: The pizza was from a Capitol Hill pizzeria called We the Pizza. I’d have ordered from the Capitol Hill location of Matchbox 3-6-9, but I’m funny that way.
Mary G
AG Barr doesn’t seem to be having much luck:
And the allies are getting tired of it:
lgerard
Speaking of dark moments, tomorrow is arraignment day for Jacob Wohl for his felony rap.
I am so excited I won’t be able to sleep tonight.
Hopefully he can’t either;
NotMax
So from what I’ve read the Iraqi government has announced it is not granting permission for U.S. troops from Syria to be repositioned there. Will they now wander the deserts for 40 years?
//
RandomMonster
@Rand Careaga:
This. I keep telling myself, and anyone who can tolerate me, that Trump is beyond awful, but what if it had been someone disciplined following his same game plan? We would be well into a fascist state at this point.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: No, please refer back to my post on this last week. The expansion into Syria to assist the SDF was done under President Obama. It was expanded under the President.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Oh. sorry, should’ve verified.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G:
That’s the point.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: No, they’re being pulled out over the next 120 days.
jl
@jl: Deleted my comment because Adam Silverman says I’m a dilatory student. I’ll go read his post and then issue my reply that destroys him! Or my apology.
Adam L Silverman
@RandomMonster: Yep. Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton have been taking notes. As have others who aren’t even on anyone’s radar yet.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I just happened to see it referred to in some of the reporting I read on what happened. That’s the only reason I know where they ordered the pizza from.
Mary G
@Adam L Silverman: Hawley is scary.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Bobby Jindal two-point-oh?
:)
Patricia Kayden
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Pizza or…
…FREEDOM PIES!
“Yes, I’d like to order 17 large pies, all with extra sleaze.”
:)
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: No, Jindal doesn’t have the casual cruelty and psycopathic streak that Hawley and Cotton exhibit. Jindal’s cruelty stems from him not being smart enough to realize that his policy preferences are just really bad. He’s a true believer for whatever reason, but he’s to weak to go authoritarian.
Mary G
You all like comics::
Mart
@RandomMonster: Pretty sure assholes Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley are taking copious notes. 1. Remove all investigators. 2. Hire AG that knows Dems can be impeached for almost anything, Repub Presidents can not be charged with crimes. 3. Attack the press. 4. Load the courts with fellow facists. Etc.
Edit to say oops, Adam said it. I just hate Hawley over his BS ads saying he will fix the preexisting condition problem, while joining the lawsuit to kill the ACA. I take personally as my family is insured by the ACA.
MoCA Ace
@Hovercraft:
Seems plausible.
danielx
@Mart:
Thanks, I was worried about falling asleep too easily. Never happen.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: OK, I read your post of last week. I thought Obama’s actions were limited to air strikes. But Obama did station a very small support ground force. So, yes, Trump did ‘only’ expand the ground mission after he took office.
But, I think my overall point stands. The current mission that Trump rashly, incompetently, and perhaps corruptly, canceled is his own mission that he is responsible for. Regardless of what Obama did, Trump is the author of the current mission that he just canceled, even if it was ‘only’ an expansion of what the previous administration was doing.
Leto
@Mary G: Haha, that’s awesome! Definitely going to scroll through this.
President Supervillain: behind the alarmingly accurate Trump-Marvel mashup
TS (the original)
@Mary G: But of course he would be there – and welcomed – I will watch as well
Ken
@Mary G: The dramatic twist in the movie would be that the pizza delivery guys had been replaced with a team of foreign agents who used the order to plant listening devices inside the secure facility.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Looks like I just squeeze in one of the shutoff areas for LA county. We’ve been without power 2 nights in the last month because they were working the high voltage lines on the street in front of my building. I’d guess it would depend on how high the winds get. But from the looks of it these are some very high voltage lines, major supply lines. And they aren’t the only ones, a half mile south there are the normal high voltage feed lines and a different set of poles that list the voltage as 20,000 volts. That’s a bit more than your phone uses and is some serious power.
Millard Filmore
@Mart:
On my optimistic days I think Trump will take the entire Republican Party down with him, and anyone taking notes will be coming out of the Democratic Party. (The parties are made up of ordinary people, there are bad apples in all groups of sufficient size).
Mary G
@Ruckus: I just checked San Diego Gas & Electric and no shutoffs near me. We have unbroken hills behind town with no canyons or passes to accelerate the wind. We had one fire in the 70s where a few houses were lost and the city has been hardass about brush clearing ever since.
Martin
@Mary G: SDG&E has been working on burying their high risk lines longer than the other utilities in CA.
mrmoshpotato
@Doug R: Haha
Fair Economist
@Ruckus: I’m not affected personally, but the bike trail I use for exercise goes next to an area under consideration.
I note municipalities with socialized electricity like Los Angeles are unaffected. A data point for future discussions.
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G:
Haha Yes I did post this recently.
mrmoshpotato
@lgerard:
Are you making “dark” a synonym for “hilarious” in this case?
Uncle Cosmo
@mrmoshpotato: No, lgerard just misspelled “dork.” Time to measure that asswohl for an orange jumpsuit.
Mary G
@Martin: Because the county starved the firefighting budget and had a ginormous fire. When the whole neighborhood has burnt down, it’s easier to bury power lines.
Also – a Democratic town hall on Newsmax TV????
WTF is Beto thinking?
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Well, he could enter a plea of insanity.
;)
randy khan
I know enough about baseball to know that teams win games by ridiculous margins and then turn around and lost the next game, sometimes badly, but what the Nats did to the Astros tonight in the 7th inning has to leave a mark.
NotMax
@Mary G
Reached the conclusion quite a while back that thinking and Beto are but passing acquaintances.
mrmoshpotato
@Uncle Cosmo: Hehehe
mrmoshpotato
@Mary G: He’s thinking he don’t wanna do this campaign thing no more?
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: “Your Honor, I plead insanely stupid.”
randy khan
Current WaPo online top headline:
Ouch.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
“Tomorrow I’ll be holding a press conference to reveal that the judge has been having sex with an entire pack of Cub Scouts. Including pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.”
cynthia ackerman
@Adam L Silverman:
I like the cut of your jib.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ladyraxterinok:
The picture is in Aaron Blake’s tweet at the top. The picture may not appear on all devices. But you can see it if you click on the tweet and go look at it in Twitter. (You do not have to have a Twitter account.)
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: That’d be a bit far even for these scumbags. (Unless the cubs are actual bears.)
“Tomorrow I’ll reveal the judge has had orgies with Senators Warren and Harris! And the ghost of Mary Todd Lincoln!”
JWR
@Adam L Silverman:
Late to the thread, but as for Trump’s desire to have Zelensky say that he would be opening an investigation of the Bidens, I seem to remember a news clip of, not a podium, but a group of Ukrainian politicians standing around a meeting table, and one of them, I don’t think it was Zelensky, saying that “yes, he would take a look at all of these previous investigations“, and they left it at that. Anyone remember that?
Was that Zelensky’s attempt to assuage Trump’s desire for dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden, for the Quo to Trump’s offered Quid, which was the military assistance?
Mnemosyne
@Leto:
Fortunately, Adam Schiff was too smart to give them the footage they wanted.
I still want all of their cell phones confiscated and destroyed, though.