• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Late Night GOP #FAILShow Open Thread

Late Night GOP #FAILShow Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  September 9, 202012:11 am| 111 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Trumpery

FacebookTweetEmail

Journalistic assassin weighs in:

In 2016, Trump beat Hillary Clinton in North Carolina — 49.8 to 46.2. Today, he’s basically tied with Joe Biden in the state polling averages. But Trump tells his supporters here that he thinks the crowds are bigger at his events this cycle than they were last time. pic.twitter.com/TS28w3Ang8

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) September 8, 2020

Several Trump one-liners have fallen flat with the crowd here in North Carolina. He called the Green New Deal the “Green New Nightmare” with delivery that left room for a beat of laughter or applause. It didn’t come.

— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) September 8, 2020

Don’t you think he looks… tired?

Let me sum up this presser for those of you who are not Trump cultists: he is terrified

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 7, 2020


Every time Trump steps to the microphone now it's like the end of A Face in the Crowd, except everyone pretends it's not.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 7, 2020


Andy Griffith libel! (Nobody would greenlight a production about Putin’s media-made mouthpiece, DonJon ‘Pissy’ Rhodes… )

you’re gonna get a lot more of these morose tantrums as he realizes the morose tantrums are not working https://t.co/4vSBcaSNI7

— kilgore trout, non mini-stroke haver (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 7, 2020

The unsaid in Trump’s campaign cash problems is that he won in 2016 via foreign help and media complicity more so than by running an actual campaign.

In 2020, he has already set fire to a mountain of money on a campaign op about as successful as one of his casinos. https://t.co/PwR6MnxHAg

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) September 8, 2020

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «On The Road After Dark - Lapassionara  - Paris in the daylight 5 On The Road After Dark – Lapassionara – Paris in the daylight
Next Post: COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Tuesday-Wednesday, September 8-9 »

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 9, 2020 at 12:16 am

    May the failures continue!

    also, lolsob:

    traveling back in time to 2005 to try and prevent this future from happening but only able to remember that Smash Mouth would be responsible for more deaths than 9/11

    — donald john president (@Theophite) September 9, 2020

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    September 9, 2020 at 12:21 am

    If I didn’t know there was no such pill I’d swear Dolt 45 was addicted to humanity suppressants.

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    September 9, 2020 at 12:22 am

    Trump is considering putting $100M of his own cash into the campaign exactly the way he is considering releasing his new health care plan two weeks ago.

  4. 4.

    Geoduck

    September 9, 2020 at 12:23 am

    Interesting to note that a lot of the crowd was wearing masks.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    September 9, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @RaflW: It’s an Infrastructure Week miracle!

  6. 6.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 12:32 am

    I’ve been reading Compromised – the book by Peter Strzok , Comey’s head of Counterintelligence at the FBI. I really wanted to know what happened with the CI investigation and so far I’ve just read up to the Election.

     

    The Ciinton emails controversy

    1. They’re all Republicans, pretty much. Mostly not the type that would say “I hope you get that bitch” to Strzok, as one did, but they’re all Republicans.
    2. They all love Comey. At every key point in the Clinton investigation he’d meet with the team to discuss his next steps. And they’d all agree with Comey’s course being the wisest. There was never a dissenting voice even if Comey proposed going against precedent or DoJ guidelines,
    3. He really doesn’t like Clinton. Strzok was angered that in the FBI interview of Clinton, her answers were “carefully parsed”.
    4. Strzok also expresses anger that Clinton was reluctant to provide the FBI with her laptop during the investigation. To this day Strzok can’t understand why she was reluctant to trust the FBI.
    5. Comey was writing the speech he would make in July back in May. The tarmac meeting of Clinton and Lynch had no effect. He was always going to make that speech.
    6. Comey did discuss it with Strzok and the top team and none thought it a problem for the FBI to publicly trash Clinton even though no charges were made even if no-one could remember the FBI ever doing anything like that before
    7. Strzok is proud of the emails investigation. Every year the DoJ/FBI give out awards for best investigation and Strzok think his team would have won if the investigation wasn’t so political. The FBI normally give coins to members of major investigations and that couldn’t happen so Comey personally bought commemorative coins for the Clinton Emails Investigation (not ‘matter’).
  7. 7.

    BruceFromOhio

    September 9, 2020 at 12:33 am

    Nothing is more dangerous than a person who believes there is nothing left to lose.

    Except maybe an agitated cobra. That’s pretty dangerous.

  8. 8.

    Elie

    September 9, 2020 at 12:33 am

    Problem is that the more he swirls down his financial and other resources, the more reckless and crazy he will become.  We have not demonstrated any way to contain his most destructive actions — who — WHO/WHAT will stop him from destroying whole agencies and programs — impacts worse than we have experienced for REAL PEOPLE.  The military leadership has been ultra disciplined but what are their margins?  This guy will try to destroy the old US of A if things don’t go this way.  Do you have any doubts about that?  So what the fuck are the options for those of us who care to retain our country’s government?   Stop bullshitting me with the fog of “who knows?”  — we are fast approaching a decision point where we better have some answers — and most of this is likely to come before things are really “settled” from the election…. We are a civilian led government for now — but how do we address what may be civilian led insurrection from Trumps MAGAT militias?  Lets not wait to talk about it until after the election….

  9. 9.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 12:33 am

    The Trump Campaign Investigation (up until the Election).

    1. The Counterintelligence investigation was opened on July 31, four days after Trump made his infamous “Russia, if you’re listening..” speech
    2. The CI team was mostly taken from the (now-free) Clinton investigation team (a few dozen officers). Bizarrely Strzok (and the FBI) doesn’t seem to be phased by the mismatch between the task of looking at one person’s emails and investigating the efforts of an entire country.
    3. A week earlier (and before the Trump speech) Josh Marshall had laid pretty well the publicly known facts about Trump and Russia at the time https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing
    4. Strzok lists the same concerns – Trump’s finances (hidden tax returns history with shady Russians etc), Trump’s public backing for Putin, Manafort’s history, Carter Page’s history and Russian media backing for Trump.
    5. Strzok had one additional concern – Papadopolous remarks to the Australian ambassador which wasn’t publicly known and which Strzok immediately chased down and verified.
    6. After confirming the Papadopolous story the FBI began to focus on … Carter Page. As Strzok notes Page turned out not to be a major player and barely featured in the Mueller report. He never explains why they focussed on Page – they knew he tried to work with the Russian in 2013 but the Russians correctly identified him as stupid.
    7. There is no evidence that the FBI ever investigated Trump or his finances. Strzok does not explain this at all even while acknowledging it’s a legitimate concern.
    8. The same with Manafort. Even after he resigned as campaign chief (whilst still performing the role) after the Ukraine payments were revealed, it seems he was never investigated in any meaningful way.
    9. There was no investigation of what Manafort was doing at the convention. You would think CI would want to know what a self styled ‘convention fixer’ was doing and exactly what that ‘fixing’ entails.
    10. The same with Flynn. Strzok recognizes he was of interest but it seems there was no meaningful effort to investigate what he was doing – even though they knew about his trip to Putin and his relationship with Svetlana Lokhova.
    11. Instead they spent from mid-August to the end of October working to get a FISA warrant, not for Trump or Manafort or Flynn but for Carter fucking Page.
    12. I have no idea how long it takes to get a FISA warrant. I’m guessing if these had been scary brown people it wouldn’t have taken over 2 months.
    13. Strzok confirms the entire FBI was pretty much blind to the Russian social media operation. Once upon a time all western intelligence agencies kept a close watch on Russian (and others) attempts to infiltrate and influence the media but I guess we don’t need that anymore.
    14. Other than one mild word against McConnell who refused to sign on the Obama administration letter on interference, Strzok has no criticism of Republicans. The Russians were infiltrating the Trump campaign you see. Strzok doesn’t like Trump at all, but it seems the got elected with no help at all from any Republicans.
    15. Ominously, he says the Russians had more they could use but inexplicably held it back. He can’t reveal what it is and whether it might still be of use in 2020.
  10. 10.

    Jean

    September 9, 2020 at 12:40 am

    If anything is working so far for Trump, it may be the socialism scare.  I hear it among Republicans I know (with whom I don’t engage).  I wonder what they think socialism means–giving free stuff to poor people?  Communism?  I don’t get it.  They certainly like Medicare, Social Security, Public education, interstate highways, etc.  Over at the Orange Satan, there crying about Florida–we’re tied there, according to some polling, and not winning Latinos by the same margin Hilliary did.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    September 9, 2020 at 12:41 am

    @sanjeevs: Thanks for the review.

    I saw a brief news report about him and his book recently and it was almost interesting enough to consider putting it on The List.

    https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/515543-peter-strzok-trump-is-compromised-on-national-security

    Fortunately, your post disabused me of that idea, so thank you very much!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    September 9, 2020 at 12:41 am

    @BruceFromOhio

    Bobby McGee being an exception to the dangerous part.

    :)

  13. 13.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 12:43 am

    @Another Scott: Yup. Would not recommend. I really wanted to see what his explanation was for the pathetic counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.

  14. 14.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 12:45 am

    @sanjeevs: All these “heroes” were 100% on the “nuke Hillary team”, ready to do whatever it fuckin’ took.  And then, they got their wish, and boy howdy talk about buyer’s remorse.  And they’re tryin’ to patch back together their run-thru-a-woodchipper reputations.

  15. 15.

    Citizen Alan

    September 9, 2020 at 12:47 am

    @Jean: Socialism. Communism. Marxism. The assholes don’t know what any of those words mean and they don’t care to. This is because they use those words merely as placeholders because they know in 2020 that they can’t get away with calling us n*****-lovers, which is how 90% of Republicans in the country refer to us in their inner monologues.

  16. 16.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 12:50 am

    @Citizen Alan: This is 100% right.  100%.

  17. 17.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @Citizen Alan: But it’s OK.  We know them, too.  “You’re a GrOPer, eh?  Rapist, pedophile, or both?  Or do you just like to watch?”

  18. 18.

    Morzer

    September 9, 2020 at 12:52 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Nothing has done more to destroy what little faith I had in the FBI than the spectacle of Comey and his best and brightest publicly revealing day after day just how unprofessional, arrogant and unfit for the job they all were.  They are apparently too stupid and self-absorbed to realize just how much they are showing the world about themselves – and it’s an amazingly unpleasant and embarrassing picture.

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    September 9, 2020 at 12:52 am

    @RaflW:

    When Trump says he’s considering putting $100M of his own money into the campaign, you have to remember he considers all the campaign money his personal property. Putting his own money into the campaign effectively means not embezzling that much.

  20. 20.

    Redshift

    September 9, 2020 at 12:54 am

    @Jean: Republicans have been running on socialism=Soviet dictatorship since the 1970s, in my memory, and I’d guess since the 50s. That’s enough for the older Republicans; now they try to reach a bit younger by adding that anything socialist will inevitably lead to becoming Venezuela.

    So no, they will not accept that anything like Social Security or Medicare are socialist, or that numerous European countries have had socialist prime ministers who were later voted out without having become dictators.

  21. 21.

    Jean

    September 9, 2020 at 12:55 am

    @Citizen Alan: I agree that “socialism” is used as a “placeholder” for Democrats are scary.  They don’t seem equally frightened about far right extremists or authoritarian government, and would be astonished by any accusation of how this current trend as exemplified by the Trump administration can lead to  American fascism.

  22. 22.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 12:56 am

    @Chetan Murthy: Yeah. I was trying to figure out why the CI investigation was such a wet noodle.

    It’s clear they all idolized Comey. A guy who, like them had risen to the top echelon at the FBI then went to the private sector where he scored a 7m a year sinecure at Bridgewater before returning to the FBI.

    They didnt do a proper investigation of Trumpco because they’re Republicans. Start Investigating finances and you risk pissing off the Mercers, Dalios and Erik Princes that were going to provide that sweet retirement package.

  23. 23.

    James E Powell

    September 9, 2020 at 12:59 am

    @sanjeevs:

    To this day Strzok can’t understand why she was reluctant to trust the FBI.

    He is either lying or just so fucking stupid it isn’t worth listening to him. Is it possible that he was not aware of the “visceral hatred” the NY FBI agents expressed for Hillary Clinton?

    There is no evidence that the FBI ever investigated Trump or his finances. Strzok does not explain this at all even while acknowledging it’s a legitimate concern.

    This is evidence that neither he nor the FBI cares about corruption as long it’s Republican corruption. Looking the other way, letting things go, that’s just how they do things in the FBI. Unless it’s a Clinton. Then it’s pull out all the stops and abandon all the rules.

  24. 24.

    Redshift

    September 9, 2020 at 12:59 am

    @sanjeevs: Didn’t someone else’s book or article recently reveal that Rosenstein had made the counterintelligence investigation part of Mueller’s assignment because the FBI really thought there should be one, and then ordered Mueller not to pursue it without telling the FBI, so there never was one?

  25. 25.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 1:01 am

    @Redshift: That FTFNYT fucker Schmidt’s book, yeah.

  26. 26.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 1:02 am

    @Redshift: Correct. I haven’t read the post-election part of his book – I’ll post about it when I do if anyone is interested.

  27. 27.

    Calouste

    September 9, 2020 at 1:03 am

    @Jean: I don’t know what the shitgibbon has against communists. He’s probably jealous that they could build a wall (the East German ones anyway), and he can’t.

  28. 28.

    Mallard Filmore

    September 9, 2020 at 1:04 am

    @Jean:

     

    If anything is working so far for Trump, it may be the socialism scare.

    Socialism is evil and must be strictly reserved for the rich.

  29. 29.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 1:06 am

    @James E Powell: She didn’t trust the FBI and she was proven right. She thought she’d be safer with a private email server and she was right (State Department was hacked, she wasnt).

    She said half Trump’s supporters were ‘deplorables’ (racists) and she was right. She called Trump a Russian puppet to his face whilst the FBI was fucking around trying to get a warrant on Carter Page.

  30. 30.

    cain

    September 9, 2020 at 1:07 am

    @Morzer:

    And it’s just really unfortunate that Obama kept this man as head of the FBI instead of someone else. I feel like all this feel good kumbaya and adding the opposing party has turned into a farce.

  31. 31.

    Jean

    September 9, 2020 at 1:10 am

    Why did they hate Hillary Clinton so much?  I’ve never understood it.

  32. 32.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 1:10 am

    @cain: No more fuckin’ GrOPer daddies.

  33. 33.

    Jean

    September 9, 2020 at 1:12 am

    @cain: That’s a great question.  When my husband was working for Tim Kaine, he had a positive view of Comey.  It made the whole Clinton attack seem very bizarre.  Why Obama chose Comey instead of someone else is also weird.

  34. 34.

    James E Powell

    September 9, 2020 at 1:13 am

    @Jean:

    I never did either. And I know plenty of Democratic voting tote-baggers who have hated her since 1992.

    I don’t know if the video is available, but there was a concert for New York City after 9/11 and when NY Senator Hillary Clinton began to speak, there were boos. Why? I have no idea. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that this nation has a lot of very fucked up people in it. Ignorant, hateful bigots.

  35. 35.

    Splitting Image

    September 9, 2020 at 1:14 am

    @Calouste:

    I don’t know what the shitgibbon has against communists. He’s probably jealous that they could build a wall (the East German ones anyway), and he can’t.

    Under communism, he wouldn’t have been able to turn away black residents from his rental buildings. He got sued for this back in the 70s and he’s held a grudge ever since. Racism is the one and only thing he has truly believed in all of his life.

  36. 36.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 1:14 am

    @Jean: Not sure I understand that either.

    But even apart from that is that the criticism from Republicans matters a lot to the FBI. This is really clear in the book.

    They don’t care about Congressional Dems, Dems at the DoJ or even Obama.

    Why? Mabye because of who hands out the lucrative post-FBI career jobs. It’s not Democrats.

  37. 37.

    cain

    September 9, 2020 at 1:20 am

    @Splitting Image: Under communism, he wouldn’t have been able to turn away black residents from his rental buildings. He got sued for this back in the 70s and he’s held a grudge ever since. Racism is the one and only thing he has truly believed in all of his life.

    He believe in  himself more than anything else.

  38. 38.

    piratedan

    September 9, 2020 at 1:22 am

    @sanjeevs: please do, if nothing else, tomes like this should be on file and into the historic record and used to unfuck the agency.  It’s obvious now that they’re subject to the same organizational biases as our 4th estate and if we can’t find people willing to simply follow the rules and follow the established protocol without using their thumbs on the scales then you don’t need to be in public service anymore and don’t expect us to be fucking grateful that you fucked up in your job so egregiously.

    Makes me wonder how many qualified people out there could be potentially working for the government but weren’t hired because they’re weren’t conservative white males with shitty haircuts.

  39. 39.

    Bill Arnold

    September 9, 2020 at 1:23 am

    Re the end of A Face in the Crowd, here’s the dialogue:

    Mel Miller : Marcia, stop it. You were taken in, just like we were all taken in. When we get wise to him, that’s our strength. We get wise to him.

    And the scene:
    https://youtu.be/P4_GCMBMll8?t=7492

  40. 40.

    cain

    September 9, 2020 at 1:23 am

    @James E Powell:

    I wasn’t a big fan of her either. I think it’s just because she just wasn’t particularly inspiring and all the political shit that happens around her is so tiring.

    They ruined a good candidate with their constant shit throwing over 30 years.

  41. 41.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 9, 2020 at 1:24 am

    Can we get the California folks to check in?

    There are several fires burning in the region and 160 miles south Willits is not doing well.

  42. 42.

    Sebastian

    September 9, 2020 at 1:25 am

    @sanjeevs:

    He wants a PRIZE for missing the biggest intelligence attack by a major foreign adversary in the history of the republic???

  43. 43.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 1:26 am

    @Sebastian: “You don’t understand; the [slur for woman, starts with “b”] was gonna win!”

  44. 44.

    Sebastian

    September 9, 2020 at 1:29 am

    Turns out there is a fucking deep state but it’s blind towards Republicans and only attacks Democrats.

  45. 45.

    Sebastian

    September 9, 2020 at 1:33 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    They should all be summarily demoted. All of them.

    Fucking incompetent arrogant asshats. IT HAPPENED ON THEIR FUCKING WATCH.

  46. 46.

    Origuy

    September 9, 2020 at 1:33 am

    @HumboldtBlue: San Jose here. We’ve been getting the smoke from the Mendocino fire. Earlier today it stayed in the upper atomosphere, but in the afternoon it lowered and the air quality got worse. I’ve been monitoring the Creek Fire around Shaver Lake. It’s starting to get out of the mountains and into the foothills to the south. One evacuation center in Oakhurst had to be closed because the area was evacuated. It’s heading north towards Yosemite, too.

    Up in Oregon, the outskirts of Medford are on fire. We could lose a medium-sized city.

  47. 47.

    piratedan

    September 9, 2020 at 1:39 am

    @Sebastian: I feel the same, all of this shit that has gone down and what do we get?  Do we get remorse?  Do we get introspection?  No, we get, “I got a book deal and once everyone reads it they’ll be completely on board with how this went down….”.

    THEY STILL don’t think they did anything wrong….

  48. 48.

    Mike G

    September 9, 2020 at 1:40 am

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Just a little smoke here on the Central Coast and no fires too close, but we’re about the only part of the state not seriously affected right now. At least it’s cooled down a little, the last few days were brutal for heat, even by the ocean.

    https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    September 9, 2020 at 1:40 am

    @sanjeevs:

    They’re all Republicans, pretty much.

    I think this is a big background cause of the (long-term) rot in the DOJ (and especially the FBI). They are mostly nice, polite Republicans, but they buy into GOP framing even more than the mainstream media do, and it colors everything that they do. That’s why Mueller was so persnickety about how he conducted his (too narrow) inquiry, and it’s why many of them didn’t realize for years what a monster Barr is. The signs were there in his first go-round in the Reagan administration. They act like they’re all collegial members of a wise gentlemen’s club, and the Democrats don’t even come into it.

  50. 50.

    Mallard Filmore

    September 9, 2020 at 1:43 am

    @HumboldtBlue: South end of the Big Valley here.  No fire danger in my area.  Smoke all day, must be in the upper atmosphere as there is no strong smell.

    It’s taking about 20% off my solar panel output.

  51. 51.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 9, 2020 at 1:44 am

    @Origuy:

    Oh no

  52. 52.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 1:45 am

    @piratedan:

    THEY STILL don’t think they did anything wrong….

    The media give ’em a pass, too.  I mean even Wonkette (all hail The Editrix, may her red correction pen never run dry) doesn’t call out Strzok at all for being such a Hillary-hater at a time when the real threat was Putin’s Pet Coprophage.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    September 9, 2020 at 1:47 am

    @sanjeevs:

    Yeah, what Another Scott said. Thanks for the detailed review.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    September 9, 2020 at 1:51 am

    @sanjeevs:

    Yes, I’m interested.

  55. 55.

    piratedan

    September 9, 2020 at 1:51 am

    @Chetan Murthy: and I sit back here and I try to list all of the transgressions committed by Hilary Clinton against the United States of America and it’s a pretty thin damn list….

    1. decided to forgive her husband for being an opportunistic horn dog
    2. tried to assist in bringing healthcare to more Americans in the 1990s
    3. married a guy from Arkansas, even though she wasn’t from there
    4. is smart, prepared and honest
    5. understood that not everyone in Washington is as smart as they think they are, both inside and outside the government.

    For this she is apparently one of the most hated women in politics and its a long burning visceral hatred.

    Not much of a list although I have to say, its a freaking miracle that she’s never been served papers to defend herself in court, and the best reason I can think of, is that they understand #4 all too well and wouldn’t like being shown up by a woman.

  56. 56.

    sanjeevs

    September 9, 2020 at 1:54 am

    @Steeplejack: Meant to add one more line about that. The pre-election investigation was a Trump campaign investigation only.

    They must have known about the tape Evan McMullin made, where Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy have a good laugh about Putin paying Trump and Rohrbacher.

    I presume the FBI knew about Maria Butina too and the other Russian operations on GOP reps and associated organizations like the NRA.

    But Strzok never mentions any of this.

  57. 57.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 1:55 am

    @piratedan: She refused to stay at home and bake cookies, instead going out and becoming one of the country’s top lawyers: that was her real crime.

  58. 58.

    piratedan

    September 9, 2020 at 1:57 am

    @Chetan Murthy: good catch, my guess is that the cookies would have had raisins in them if she had…

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    September 9, 2020 at 2:02 am

    @sanjeevs:

    “It was all Trump, not the Republicans!” They don’t see the rot because they’re immersed in it.

  60. 60.

    Kent

    September 9, 2020 at 2:14 am

    @Splitting Image: Under communism, he wouldn’t have been able to turn away black residents from his rental buildings. He got sued for this back in the 70s and he’s held a grudge ever since. Racism is the one and only thing he has truly believed in all of his life.

    Plenty of racism under communism. It’s just flavored to each individual country’s history.

    USSR – Holodomor and many mass ethnic deportations and massacres
    Cambodia – Genocide against ethnic Vietnamese and other ethnic minorities launched the whole thing.
    China – Uighurs and Tibetans

    I don’t know what Trump would have been under communism, but nothing good.

  61. 61.

    Mary G

    September 9, 2020 at 2:15 am

    @HumboldtBlue: Here’s the LAT article on the Bobcat Fire, set by idiots revealing their baby’s gender:

    The Bobcat fire continued to burn unchecked Tuesday through the Angeles National Forest and officials warned that Santa Ana winds could cause the fire to threaten homes in several foothill communities.

    At 0% containment, the fire has burned more than 10,000 acres as of Tuesday night with red flag warnings issued due to the windy conditions.

    “The big worry is the weather model, which is forecasting a shift in the winds to Santa Ana winds,” said Angeles National Forest representative John Clearwater, “and there is a possibility of that fire being pushed south. South of the fire line is our foothill communities.”

    Residents of Monrovia, located at the base of the forest, have already been placed on notice and are being urged to stay alert for official evacuation orders. If an order is issued, the city said it would work in two phases, Phase 1 to include residents north of Hillcrest Boulevard north of Greystone Avenue, and Phase 2 to include residents between Hillcrest Foothill boulevards.

    “We have been told to plan for the fire to get worse and we are asking all residents to be prepared and ready if an evacuation order is issued,” the city said in a statement. “Santa Ana winds can change the fire conditions incredibly quickly.”

    Arcadia also said residents living Foothill Boulevard and east of Santa Anita Avenue should be prepared to evacuate.

    The nearby cities of Duarte and Sierra Madre are also urging residents to remain vigilant.

    Residents of Monrovia were on edge as fire trucks roamed the neighborhood.

    Cliff Armstrong, a cable marketer, has lived in the Cloverleaf Canyon neighborhood for 21 years. He said Tuesday that he has never seen so many firefighters moving in and around the area before.

    Earlier in the day, Armstrong was watching helicopters dip large buckets into a sawpit debris basin. He saw firetrucks traveling up and down the street for the last two days.

    “I’ve never seen this level of preparation before,” he said.

    Residents such as Armstrong say if they’re forced to evacuate it would be the first time they will have to flee their homes. Fires have come and gone through this area, including the Station fire in 2009.

    Armstrong said he stayed behind, watering his home during that blaze.

    “I don’t think I’ll risk it this time,” he said.

    Neighbors have started packing up their cars and moving vehicles to the homes of friends living away from the mountains or in other cities. They share tips with one another about how to best defend their homes from a fire.

    Outside their homes, Armstrong and his neighbor talk about those efforts. His neighbor tells him he’s removed all the cushions around the patio and floor mats, anything that is combustible.

    “Oh, right, right. Well, wait a minute,” Armstrong said. “I have a garage full of toilet paper and paper towels because of the COVID thing, man,”

    He chuckled.

    “Remember it was hard to find? So I have a bunch of paper goods sitting in the garage.”

    The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning through 8 p.m. Tuesday for the mountains and valleys of Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

    The Bobcat fire started just after noon Sunday, and is one of two fires currently burning in the region. The El Dorado fire in the San Bernardino National Forest has burned more than 10,000 acres and is roughly 16% contained.

    The Bobcat fire’s “remote and rugged location” has made it challenging to contain, Clearwater said, adding that establishing and reinforcing bulldozer lines around the fire is a top priority. The Forest Service is now estimating its containment date as Oct. 15.

    “It is growing rapidly,” Clearwater said. “A lot of thought and preparation is going into how to mitigate and prevent that fire from moving into a position where it poses a serious risk.”

    The Mt. Wilson Observatory has a half-million-gallon, gravity-fed water tank filled and ready for battle should the Bobcat fire close in on the property, said the observatory’s director Tom Meneghini.

    Three employees remain at the mountaintop location as a skeleton staff, ready to hand over the keys and fire hoses to firefighters if needed, Meneghini said.

    The Bobcat fire is the third in as many months to pose a danger to the observatory, but the gravest threat in recent memory was the 2009 Station fire.

    “That took the cake,” Meneghini said. “We had Arizona hotshots camped up there in the dome, living up there. They were fighting defensively from the observatory. We hope this isn’t a repeat.”

    Conditions were calm Tuesday morning, as seen on observatory surveillance cameras, Meneghini said. But Santa Ana winds forecast for the days ahead have him concerned.

    “I don’t know what that’s going to do, that’s the wild card in this whole thing,” he said. Fire risk is part of forest life — “like gravity, there all the time,” Meneghni said, He welcomed federal authorities’ decision to close national forests in California during the current heat wave.

    “Given the heightened danger, I think it’s good. I’m just kind of jaundiced on my fellow men being responsible for these conditions,” Meneghini said of the fires. “Privilege comes with responsibility … and we are our own worst enemies.”

    We had a much cooler day in coastal OC today and no Santa Ana winds have showed up yet. Usually my joints hurt before they show up and I feel fine, but it could all go to hell in a minute.

  62. 62.

    scott (the other one)

    September 9, 2020 at 2:17 am

    @sanjeevs: 

    Here’s the thing. Strzok and Comey clearly think they’re in the mold of Eliot Ness or maybe Harry Callahan or, hell, maybe Martin Riggs or even Jack Bauer.

    But one of the things most of those stories make clear is that the characters know and understand—whether they say it or not, and either way, the AUDIENCE knows and understands—that they may need to break the rules, go outside the law, to get the bad guy…but that if they’re wrong, they’re screwed.

    That’s the trade-off those heroes/anti-heroes make. They bend or break the rules to get the villain. And if they get it wrong, they’re fired, they lose their badges, they maybe go to jail. They understand that’s how it works: the fact that they’re willing to risk everything is what makes them heroes (in the context of these stories).

    Comey and Strzok and the rest of them don’t get that second bit. They just think the rules don’t apply to them being, well, obviously, they’re righteous. And that’s reason enough, no?

    So Comey and Strzok need to have their pensions stripped, their clearances stripped and, in the case of Comey, be disbarred. Make it crystal clear to these wannabe heroes that if they’re going play with the big boys, they’re going to reap the consequences if they’re wrong.

    Or, in the future, such guys could, you know, just do their damn jobs right.

  63. 63.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 9, 2020 at 2:20 am

    @Mary G:

    Monrovia/Arcadia, that’s a lot of people.

    I’ve got a half-dozen on watch in San Diego.

  64. 64.

    Morzer

    September 9, 2020 at 2:29 am

    @atrupar

    “We are going to be appointing very pro-crime judges” — Trump #wut

  65. 65.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    September 9, 2020 at 2:31 am

    @HumboldtBlue:  The sky in the afternoon was a creepy orange here in Ukiah from the Willits “Oak” fire, and with all the smoke, it was actually almost dark by around 2 p.m. The silver lining was the smoke kept it noticeably cooler today, only getting up to around 89 degrees (it had been forecast to be about 99, which was already down from the weekend 107) so that was a break for the firefighters. Hwy 101 is still closed both directions around Willits and some suburbs (e.g. all of Brooktrails) are evacuated. The fire is heading north; no news yet on what caused it

    It’s 863+ acres, about 10% contained now, up from 5% this afternoon.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    September 9, 2020 at 2:31 am

    @Roger Moore:

    Plus he’d have to have that money available. $100 million? Yeah I don’t think he has that laying around. In any form. He may have a bit but $100mil is more than just a bit. And he’s so good with money….

  67. 67.

    Ruckus

    September 9, 2020 at 2:43 am

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Socal has issues as well. The Bobcat fire is thought to be threatening  quite a few bedroom communities and they are telling people to prepare to evacuate. The home I grew up in is in that area. It’s over 100 yrs old now. Mom moved out quite a while back and I haven’t seen the place for a while but still. So the north sides of Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Azusa and Glendora are all under a possible evacuation order. This is the fire that started 2 days ago that I wrote about being 4-5 miles from me has grown to over 10,000 acres and is only 10% contained and Santa Ana winds are expected tomorrow.

  68. 68.

    smike

    September 9, 2020 at 2:44 am

    @cain:

    They ruined a good candidate with their constant shit throwing over 30 years.

    Exactly! The millions and millions of dollars spent returned a dividend. Right wing in action.

  69. 69.

    Ruckus

    September 9, 2020 at 2:49 am

    @Mary G:

    The gender reveal fire is the El Dorado fire in Yucaipa, also at 10,000 acres.

    The Bobcat fire is under suspicion but the cause is as of yet unknown.

  70. 70.

    Morzer

    September 9, 2020 at 2:56 am

    @Ruckus:

    I think you are absolutely right – and that shortage of money is one of the reasons Trump got Bill Barr’s Criminal Department to take over from his lawyers in his latest rape case.

  71. 71.

    Mary G

    September 9, 2020 at 2:58 am

    @Ruckus: Thanks for correcting me; there are so many I can’t remember which is which.

  72. 72.

    Feathers

    September 9, 2020 at 3:00 am

    @Steeplejack: The background checks and recruiting standards at the FBI means that it is full of Mormons and Catholics who wanted to be priests, but decided on the FBI instead. High on their own supply of self-righteousness.

    The crime solving of the FBI (and even more so in local police departments) is seriously hindered by the fact that everyone needs to have been a special agent (or regular beat cop) before moving into a specialty or becoming a detective. There are lots of people who would be very good at fighting white collar crime, but have little or no interest in carrying a gun and being a a cop or special agent.

    I can see why and how law enforcement evolved in this way, but it is another thing really holding the profession back from becoming truly modern. These people join other agencies or the state investigative units, but a police force needs to be more diverse than all cops or cops who’ve been promoted.

  73. 73.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 9, 2020 at 3:13 am

    @Feathers: Esp. given that the biggest form of property crime (by value) is accounting control fraud, and that shit is rarely prosecuted, much less punished.

  74. 74.

    lgerard

    September 9, 2020 at 3:24 am

    Given the cash crunch killing his businesses, there is no way the papaya pinochet has 100 million bucks laying around even in the unlikely event he would waste them on his own campaign.

    This is just happy talk in an attempt to assure the nervous vendors that they won’t be stiffed, even though history tells us they will be.

  75. 75.

    TS (the original)

    September 9, 2020 at 3:24 am

    When I saw the top tweet all I could thing of was

    I hope it rains on their parade

  76. 76.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 9, 2020 at 3:32 am

    @Ruckus:

    The Valley fire directly impacts family in San Diego.

    The next few days of wind and high temperatures does not bode well.

  77. 77.

    SectionH

    September 9, 2020 at 3:36 am

    @HumboldtBlue:  @Mary G: The Valley Fire is still burning. East San Diego County. I almost feel guilty reporting at all, because I’m in the city, but I used to live in North County, and I remember the Cedar fire – still in the “top” 5 ever worst CA fires, and I really hope it stays there, and the Witch, so I’m really twitchy right now.

    So far, the Valley fire’s still burning, but SD had an incredible marine layer last night, fanned I guess by some of the strongest on shore winds I’ve seen in the mere 20 years or so I’ve been around here. Srsly, I had one narrow west-facing window in my bedroom open with one window in a north-facing wall in another room open, and the wind was so strong, one gust knocked 2 pictures off 2 different walls in the bedroom. I reckon those  winds must have driven moisture a lot farther inland than usual.

    Tonight, everybody who’s paying attention is worried about the wind reversal – big Santa Anas were/are forecast until Wednesday 8pm. So far (I checked a minute ago) CalFire SD has nothing new to report. May it stay that way.

  78. 78.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 9, 2020 at 3:43 am

    @SectionH:

    High winds are a primary concern.

    May the wind be fair for you.

  79. 79.

    James E Powell

    September 9, 2020 at 3:55 am

    @scott (the other one):

    So Comey and Strzok need to have their pensions stripped, their clearances stripped and, in the case of Comey, be disbarred.

    The only gripe I’ve got against Strzok is that he is apparently trying to make himself out to be a hero. He’s not, no one thinks he is, and he’s at most a footnote.

    Comey, on the other hand, should find a hole in the wall, crawl inside, and die. If that’s too cruel, maybe shave his head and join a monastery of cloistered monks. At the very least he should shut up and go away somewhere.

  80. 80.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    September 9, 2020 at 4:22 am

    Fuck the FBI

    They investigated the emails for 16 months.   That’s way to long to read 30,000 emails.  We saw Hillary’s emails, they were small paragraphs about gefilte fish.  Let’s say you read 10 emails per hour during a 10 hour day – that’s 100 email per day.  You assign 10 agents to the task, that’s 1,000 emails per day.  At that slow rate, you can comb through the batch of 30,000 in 30 working days.  At 5 days per week, it would take 6 weeks at most.

    But no, they dragged it out for 16 months to damage her.

     

    They got everything they deserved.   Typical blowback.  CIA armed and trained Osama bin Laden and they’re shocked their monster turned on them.   FBI aided and abetted Dump and they’re shocked their monster turned on them.

    Fuck’em.

  81. 81.

    Dan B

    September 9, 2020 at 4:29 am

    @sanjeevs: Mind boggling book report.  The blindness to Russian interference seems intentional – chase a few blind alley leads and ignore the powerful people in the Trump campaign.  What security agency does this?  Is it blindness or is Strzok compromised?

    Thanks for a great synopsis!  I forgot about the fires for a few minutes.

  82. 82.

    J R in WV

    September 9, 2020 at 4:40 am

    It seems that the whole FBI has for most of its life has been focused on the wrong things.  Once it was unions,  which to the Republicans just had to be commies! Then it was the black integrationist movement,  which to Republicans just had to be commies,  then the gay liberation movement,  THEY just had to be commies,  fag commies, ask any Republicans FBI agent! And the anti war people,  if the  Republican FBI can just get deep enough in their organization,  they  have to be commies!

    But none of these movements are actually commies,  they’ve patriotic Americans trying to improve the nation. In the meantime,  wealthy Republican industrialists are breaking the unions, building plants in Russia, cheating on their taxes,  and working to weaken  the country,  with all the power and resources of the  Republican FBI behind them! No wonder they can’t do their own job, they’re crazy on account of their distorted beliefs about who is working with actual enemies of the nation, the Republicans! But you can point to how Republicans are damaging the nation and the theocratic patriarchy in charge of the FBI can’t see it for the blinkers they have to wear!

    90% of them need to be transferred to a different organization where they can’t be so dangerous to law enforcement.  Maybe doing tax audits?

    While we hire new youngsters who aren’t in the Federalist Society for  actual law enforcement,  catching right wing terrorists and Republicans owned by Putin, businesses fighting the  environmentalists trying to reverse global climate change,  bad cops, etc. Real fascists,  not Republican fantasy fascists.

  83. 83.

    cliosfanboy

    September 9, 2020 at 4:43 am

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: CIA did not train and arm Bin  Laden.  He’s so rich he funded himself.  The groups CIA armed to fight the Soviets were the other groups.

  84. 84.

    Morzer

    September 9, 2020 at 4:53 am

    @Dan B:

    I suspect that it’s not about Comey’s people being compromised. They were obviously not particularly intelligent individuals and had serious biases built into their assessment of the evidence in front of them. They certainly weren’t going to go looking for anything that might contradict the worldview that they had held for decades, much less anything that might reveal that they had been wrong from the start.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    September 9, 2020 at 5:27 am

    @J R in WV:

    There were some commies out there, especially in labor.  But yeah, the FBI mostly seems to miss the mark.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    September 9, 2020 at 6:02 am

    I will never spell Peter Strzok’s last name correctly ever again.

  87. 87.

    dopey-o

    September 9, 2020 at 6:28 am

    @Jean:

    Why did they hate Hillary Clinton so much?  I’ve never understood it.

    They hated Hillary because ….  because …… Right-wing hate radio told them to hate Hillary. Shrinks talk about the intensity of an emotional affect being important data. Because she’s a ‘gurl.’ Because they’re all bullies and they follow their pack like good little germans. To Vice-Signal their fascist bona fides.

    I have always been amazed at the blind uncritical vitriol heaped on her, and what it says about the infectious spread of toxic ‘masculinity ‘ (and I’m looking at some of you ladies, too.)

    Present company excluded.

  88. 88.

    Chyron HR

    September 9, 2020 at 6:57 am

    @Baud: 

    So business as usual, then?

  89. 89.

    yellowdog

    September 9, 2020 at 7:01 am

    @Morzer: It is not a rape case. Trump is being sued for defamation by the woman he raped. The defaming statement was made while he was in office, which is why Barr claims the DOJ can act in his defense. Still an idiotic arguement that the statement was part of his duties as president. The rape occurred more than 10 years ago. I don’t know if it is still a criminal case. Even Barr would have a hard time arguing the DOJ should defend the shitgibbon for something that happened before he was in office. Of course, that wouldn’t stop him from trying.

  90. 90.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 9, 2020 at 7:36 am

    @Jean: Communism?

    That, these are boomers who’ve been trained all their lives that communism = satanism.

  91. 91.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 9, 2020 at 7:44 am

    @J R in WV: But none of these movements are actually commies, they’ve patriotic Americans trying to improve the nation. In the meantime, wealthy Republican industrialists are breaking the unions, building plants in Russia

    That is funny how Ford gets a buy for building the Soviet Tank factories in the ’30s at the time the US was still deporting people for Communism.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    September 9, 2020 at 7:49 am

    Dan Lavoie
    @djlavoie
    · 8h
    The Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton tarmac meeting “provoked a political furor” and may have “compromised the Justice Department’s politically sensitive investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email practices.”
    Trump turning the DOJ into his personal libel attorney is an “unusual move.”

    Photo choice is interesting too– photo of Lynch for the outrageous act by the Democrats, photo of the alleged Trump victim for the “unusual move” by the Republicans.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 9, 2020 at 7:50 am

    @Jean: It doesn’t help, here, that thanks to Bernie Sanders, maybe the younger third of the Democratic Party now happily refers to the generous Western European-style social democracy they want as “socialism”. Everyone over 60 hears that and imagines Stalin’s purges and the Great Leap Forward.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 9, 2020 at 7:55 am

    @Jean: The hate for Hillary Clinton went nationwide in 1992 and it was because she didn’t present as a traditional wife and was unapologetic about it. She made a sarcastic crack about staying home and baking cookies. That made her the great Satan forever. It really is not more complicated than that.

    That developed into an idea that there must be something indefinably sinister or criminal about her, and the media emphasis on that affected even people who wouldn’t have been bothered by the original cookies remark, 20+ years later.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    September 9, 2020 at 7:56 am

    A Right wing nut ran the FBI for 50 years. It would be astonishing if they weren’t Right wing. The ideological bias was baked in at the start and simmering along for 50 years.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    September 9, 2020 at 7:56 am

    @Matt McIrvin

    Everyone over 60 hears that and imagines Stalin’s purges and the Great Leap Forward.

    Wow, talk about wielding a broad brush. More than a few here resemble that remark, and not as you blithely state.

  97. 97.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 9, 2020 at 8:02 am

    @dopey-o: I have always been amazed at the blind uncritical vitriol heaped on her, and what it says about the infectious spread of toxic ‘masculinity ‘ (and I’m looking at some of you ladies, too.)

    So that was toxic masculinity with Obama in the 2008 Dem primary? I mean it was theHilary’s campaign that started the Birther nonsense, I can’t imagine why the Dem turn out was down for her. It must be toxic masculinity.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    September 9, 2020 at 8:05 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Turnout wasn’t down for Hillary in 2016 because of the 2008 primary. Toxic masculinity may not be the only factor, but it was a big one.

  99. 99.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 9, 2020 at 8:07 am

    @NotMax: I almost wrote “over 50” and should have. Because *I* hear the word “socialism” and think of the USSR and the PRC. Not that I’m some McCarthyite red-baiter and think Communist horrors would literally follow from an expansive welfare state–I pretty much favor Bernie’s stated policies myself; I’ve been having this argument for decades. But the associations with the *word* “socialism” are there in my mind, because I remember the Cold War and the Bernie kids don’t. That’s the psychological gap.

    Why Bernie himself insists on the word, I’ll never really understand.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    September 9, 2020 at 8:10 am

    “Trump’s strategy in this case from Day 1 has been delay, delay, and more delay,” Ms. Kaplan said, adding, “Our job is to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

    Well, the US Department of Justice strategy. The publicly-paid lawyers there hope to delay the case to protect Donald Trump. Not protect the United States, because obviously it’s better for the public if they hear any information on the President that might be revealed in the lawsuit before the election and not after it, but Donald Trump.
    Not “Donald Trump’s strategy”. The US Department of Justice strategy.
    No one has to discredit them. They discredit themselves.

  101. 101.

    Baud

    September 9, 2020 at 8:11 am

    @Matt McIrvin: All the kids insist that the word “socialism” has lost its punch.  I hope they come out to prove it in November.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    September 9, 2020 at 8:17 am

    @Baud:

    You will face the wrath of zhena gogolia.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    September 9, 2020 at 8:21 am

    So it’s 2 months before the election and the DOJ is intervening in a highly political civil case to protect Donald Trump. I think we can safely assume any professional disinclination to violate “norms” is out the fucking window. No telling what they’ll do to protect Dear Leader up to election day and probably after election day.

    Yet we’re told over and over we have some obligation to continue to employ these people – that it’s essential they capitulate to every demand by their corrupt boss so they can “keep their jobs”

    Why do we want them to keep their jobs if they’re corrupt? If they don’t adhere to ethical constraints when they have a corrupt boss what are the ethical constraints for? For when they don’t have a corrupt boss and therefore don’t have to rely on them? The whole point of ethical constraints is “corrupt boss”. They’re not there solely to rat out underlings.

  104. 104.

    trnc

    September 9, 2020 at 8:28 am

     

    • To this day Strzok can’t understand why she was reluctant to trust the FBI.

    • Comey was writing the speech he would make in July back in May. The tarmac meeting of Clinton and Lynch had no effect. He was always going to make that speech.

    But he doesn’t understand why she didn’t trust the FBI. Okaaaaaaaay.

  105. 105.

    jonas

    September 9, 2020 at 8:41 am

    @sanjeevs: The FBI spends virtually all of its existence looking for Russians under every rock they come across, especially any rocks near unions or civil rights orgs, then an entire presidential campaign emerges with all sorts of mysterious ties to Russians and the reaction is “Huh. This is odd. Let’s monitor a low-level aide for a few months and then drop the case.”

    This makes tons of sense.

  106. 106.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 9, 2020 at 9:50 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Funny, if you say socialism, I tend to think of Ramsay MacDonald, Jean Jaures, Bernard Shaw, and the Webbs.

  107. 107.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 9, 2020 at 9:52 am

    @Kay: Yet we’re told over and over we have some obligation to continue to employ these people – that it’s essential they capitulate to every demand by their corrupt boss so they can “keep their jobs”

    You keep saying this, but who is telling us this?

  108. 108.

    dlw32

    September 9, 2020 at 10:12 am

    really, no one’s going to comment on the Doctor Who reference?

    “Don’t you think he looks… tired?”

    Brilliant! Fantastic! Allons-y!

    :)

  109. 109.

    scott (the other one)

    September 9, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    @James E Powell:

    The only gripe I’ve got against Strzok is that he is apparently trying to make himself out to be a hero. He’s not, no one thinks he is, and he’s at most a footnote.

    Fair enough. And I guess maybe it’s petty of me, but I think of Bill Murray in Caddyshack, and I want Strzok to experience total consciousness of just how wrong he was and how that institutional wrongness had disastrous consequences for the country he loves.

  110. 110.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 9, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    Latest fire update. Here on the SF Peninsula, it’s been like an apocalyptic dawn all day thanks to a combination of the marine layer and fire smoke. Sky is orange and is so dark many of the streetlights are on. It’s really quite eerie and totally messing with my sense of time.

    I can’t even get a good photo of it, because the iPhone refuses to accept that the sky looks like that and keep auto-correcting photo, even before I edit it.

    But allegedly the air quality isn’t too bad because smoke is above the marine layer, those my sinuses disagree. And to be thankful for small things, at least it’s cooled down after last weekend’s triple-digit heat.

  111. 111.

    brantl

    September 9, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    @sanjeevs:  This is badly reasoned: “I have no idea how long it takes to get a FISA warrant. I’m guessing if these had been scary brown people it wouldn’t have taken over 2 months.”
    You could have at least googled the average amount of time a FOIA request takes.
    “These can be processed in one to five workdays. Normal – These are usually processed in six to twenty workdays. Complex – requests that involve the entire contents of a case file, or that require extensive search, review, referral, consultation, and analysis. These can be processed in twenty-one to sixty workdays.” This assumes no one contests it, of course. 60 days not being unusual, when it is a lot of stuff.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Image by Albatrossity (6/14/25)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

We did it!

We raised the 25,000 for The Civics Center, and with the external matches, that gives them $60,000 for this Spring effort!

You guys rock!

Recent Comments

  • Jay on Suzanne – No King! Downtown Pittsburgh (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:48pm)
  • WaterGirl on Suzanne – No King! Downtown Pittsburgh (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:48pm)
  • WaterGirl on Suzanne – No King! Downtown Pittsburgh (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:47pm)
  • prostratedragon on Suzanne – No King! Downtown Pittsburgh (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:47pm)
  • Marcopolo on Suzanne – No King! Downtown Pittsburgh (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:46pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!