Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

He really is that stupid.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans in disarray!

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Infrastructure week. at last.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

You cannot shame the shameless.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking News: Nora Dannehy, Senior Deputy to US Attorney John Durham, Has Resigned In Protest Over Politicization of Durham’s Investigation Into the DOJ’s, FBI’s, and US Intel Communities 2016 Russia Investigation

Breaking News: Nora Dannehy, Senior Deputy to US Attorney John Durham, Has Resigned In Protest Over Politicization of Durham’s Investigation Into the DOJ’s, FBI’s, and US Intel Communities 2016 Russia Investigation

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This is what professionals do!

From The Hartford Courant (emphasis mine):

Federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy, a top aide to U.S. Attorney John H. Durham in his Russia investigation, has quietly resigned – at least partly out of concern that the investigative team is being pressed for political reasons to produce a report before its work is done, colleagues said.

Dannehy, a highly regarded prosecutor who has worked with or for Durham for decades, informed colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Haven of her resignation from the Department of Justice by email Thursday evening. The short email was a brief farewell message and said nothing about political pressure, her work for Durham or what the Durham team has produced, according to people who received it.

Durham, who has never even acknowledged that Dannehy was in Washington working for him, had no immediate comment on the resignation.

Durham recruited Dannehy to join his team after he was appointed by Attorney General William Barr more than a year and a half ago to examine the the FBI’s legal justification for a disputed counterintelligence investigation that looked for ties between President Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian efforts to meddle in the election.

Dannehy is a career prosecutor who worked closely with Durham before leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office about a decade ago for a corporate position in the defense industry. Durham persuaded her to return to the justice department and, within weeks, join his team in Washington in the spring of 2019.

Colleagues said Dannehy is not a supporter of President Donald J. Trump and has been concerned in recent weeks by what she believed was pressure from Barr – who appointed Durham – to produce results before the election. They said she has been considering resignation for weeks, conflicted by loyalty to Durham and concern about politics.

Durham is notoriously circumspect and neither he nor members of his team have revealed anything about the direction of their work. But Durham associates, none of whom have specific knowledge of the investigation, have said recently that it is their belief he is under pressure to produce something – perhaps some sort of report – before the presidential election in November.

The thinking of the associates, all Durham allies, is that the Russia investigation group will be disbanded and its work lost if Trump loses.

More at the link.

We already know, from the findings in the fifth and final volume of the Republican majority Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s (SSCI) investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which shares oversight of the US Intelligence Community (IC) with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), has concluded that the US Intelligence Community, the DOJ, and the FBI acted reasonably and responsibly and that there was sufficient predicate to open the investigations into what Russia was doing and whether the President, his campaign, his campaign manager Paul Manafort, his business, members of his family involved in both the campaign and the business, and several outside senior advisors to the President during the campaign were somehow compromised by Russia during the 2016 campaign.

The SSCI’s conclusions tells us, if anyone had a question about it, that AG Barr is on a snipe hunt to try to produce an October Surprise to help the President get reelected. We also know that the conspiracy theory that AG Barr’s basis, his predicate for creating Durham’s investigation, is partially rooted in the debunked conspiracy theory that Secretary Clinton and her campaign, in conjunction with the Obama administration and senior Obama administration officials – VP Biden, APNSA Rice, AG Lynch, FBI Director Comey, DNI Clapper, DCI Brennan, and others – were conspiring with the Ukrainian government to interfere in the election to harm the President and his campaign and to blame it on Russia by creating a hoax that Putin was interfering on behalf of the President’s campaign. The fifth volume of the SSCI’s investigation report into Russian active measures and the 2016 election states unequivocally that this conspiracy was created by the Russian Intelligence Services and provided to Paul Manafort by his GRU handler, Konstantin Kilimnik, and that Manafort than provided it to the President and many of his senior appointees, aides, and surrogates. Moreover, we now know that the person responsible for pushing this conspiracy theory right now has been designated as a Russian intelligence officer who has been running the President’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, as usefully idiotic asset!

Now we wait to see what the effect of Deputy US Attorney Dannehy’s resignation has. This is definitely a brush back pitch. Whether it actually changes AG Barr’s behavior is something we’ll have to wait to see. AG Barr has made it clear that he doesn’t feel that the DOJ’s rules regarding releasing information that could affect an election within 60 days of an election. Dannehy’s resignation is a warning shot. Now we have to wait and see if Barr receives the message.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    This may be too much to expect from Durham, but given how close Durham and Dannehy seem to be, I wonder if Durham is got Dennehy to resign to send a signal to Barr.

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Was/am listening to MSNBC’s coverage of this breaking story and was so hoping you’d do a post on it. You’re very quick! Thanks.

  4. 4.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    This hits in one week, Trump screamed conspiracy so much there is now a conspiracy against him. Idiot.

  5. 5.

    Eljai

    It’s clear they’re ginning up some bullshit before the election. I just wonder if Dannehy’s resignation will stop Ken Vogel from falling for this sham when it comes out oh who am I kidding?

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    Now we have to wait and see if Barr receives the message.

    We have to wait, but we all know how the smart money is betting. Barr has already abandoned any pretense of impartiality. He’s not going to let this interfere with his attempt to produce an October surprise.

  9. 9.

    MisterForkbeard

    The thinking of the associates, all Durham allies, is that the Russia investigation group will be disbanded and its work lost if Trump loses.

    This is interesting. Basically, they believe that if Trump loses then Biden will drop this investigation. Which he should, so I’m having a hard time caring about it. But I suppose it does suck for these folks that they spent so long on a politically induced ragegasm and now they might not have anything to show for it.

  11. 11.

    Immanentize

    @MisterForkbeard: I actually read that as — if Trump loses in November, the team will be disbanded then, before Biden becomes President because they probably found some interesting things not helpful to Trump.  Durham is reputed to be not-a-hack.  We’ll see.

  12. 12.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: The point of the report isn’t to have broad, non or bi partisan credibility. It is to dirty up VP Biden ahead of the election and provide cover for AG Barr to indict people before the election in order to provide the “truth” to the lie that is the Russian Intelligence created conspiracy theory that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 US election, that Putin didn’t want the President to win and wasn’t trying to help him win, and that the President’s campaign, business, family, and surrogates weren’t actively trying to get Russian assistance in 2016 to help them win the election. Rather, HRC conspiring with Obama, Biden, Rice, Clapper, Brennan, Lynch, Comey, and the Ukrainian government to actually harm the President’s campaign and then somehow sabotage his administration once he won and to blame it all on the President and Russia.

    That’s the point.

  17. 17.

    Bobby Thomson

    “Brushback pitch?”) I can’t believe you still believe anyone in this crime family gives a shit about rules or law. They will completely ignore her the way they always ignore the Boy Scouts talking about meaningless things like statutes and the Constitution.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): It will also not end well either.

    https://time.com/5887437/conspiracy-theories-2020-election/

    On a cigarette break outside their small business in Ozaukee County, Tina Arthur and Marcella Frank told me they plan to vote for Trump again because they are deeply alarmed by “the cabal.” They’ve heard “numerous reports” that the COVID-19 tents set up in New York and California were actually for children who had been rescued from underground sex-trafficking tunnels.

    Arthur and Frank explained they’re not followers of QAnon. Frank says she spends most of her free time researching child sex trafficking, while Arthur adds that she often finds this information on the Russian-owned search engine Yandex. Frank’s eyes fill with tears as she describes what she’s found: children who are being raped and tortured so that “the cabal” can “extract their blood and drink it.” She says Trump has seized the blood on the black market as part of his fight against the cabal. “I think if Biden wins, the world is over, basically,” adds Arthur. “I would honestly try to leave the country. And if that wasn’t an option, I would probably take my children and sit in the garage and turn my car on and it would be over.”

    If she’s thought through this enough to tell it to a reporter, there are very good odds, I’d say as high as 50% that she actually attempts a mother-children homicide-suicide.

  23. 23.

    Redshift

    Someone was arguing here recently that although Barr is more evil than a lot of the Trump Administration, he doesn’t actually seem to be a lot smarter, at least politically. He doesn’t seem to get that if you repeatedly telegraph that you’re going to have an October Surprise, it undermines the impact. It’s kind of like a surprise party that way.

  27. 27.

    LuciaMia

    I’d say as high as 50% that she actually attempts a mother-children homicide-suicide.

    If it was just her and no children involved, Id say “Go ahead!”

    I have just no patience anymore for people that are too stupid to live. (Gosh, and let me guess what her opinion on covid and mask wearing is)

  30. 30.

    jeffreyw

    With Treasury calling out Russky spies working with US senators and this news today, I think we are seeing some very overt pushing against the orange mcmuffin that heartens me.  It’s not “push-back” – they aren’t waiting.  It’s preemptive.

  33. 33.

    Sloane Ranger

    Now we have to wait and see if Barr receives the message.

    He’s not actually stupid so I think he’ll get the message. Whether he takes any notice of it is another thing. Barr is currently living his best life. He’s the right hand man to someone who is acting like an absolute monarch and who is doing the sort of things Barr has always fantasised about. Another term and all the stuff of his wet dreams will be permanently locked in. A Biden presidency, OTOH, and who knows when the opportunity will come again.

  34. 34.

    Redshift

    The thinking of the associates, all Durham allies, is that the Russia investigation group will be disbanded and its work lost if Trump loses.

    Translation: when you don’t want to believe your stand-up guy friend signed up to do a blatantly political investigation, you convince yourself that something like this must be the reason for putting out a report before the election.

  37. 37.

    piratedan

    While we’re nothing more than humble blog readers, I wonder if the Dems and the Biden organization are keeping all of these receipts…

    Barr’s illegal positioning to try and provide legitimacy to whatever DJT claims

    DJT claiming its rigged and therefore he wins

    the Virus allowed to roam free

    more racial violence and confrontation

    little to no assistance to those suffering from man-made disasters

    the media continuing to provide context-free breathless reporting of his proclamations (who needs ads when the news faithfully regurgitates whatever you say?)

    scary times indeed

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Redshift: I think that was the genteel way of saying that if VP Biden is elected, they’ll shred everything immediately in the attempt to cover their tracks and tuchases and prevent a possible investigation into what they’ve been doing and all the details of what Barr actually told them to do.

  41. 41.

    Haroldo

    Another thank you! The bastards really don’t stop, do they? But perhaps this’ll slow them down a mite.

  42. 42.

    Jon Marcus

    Adam, you used the terms “brushback pitch” and “warning shot”. Both of those imply to me that there’s more to come. (i.e. If the batter doesn’t back off after a brush, they get hit. If the adversary doesn’t retreat after a warning shot, the next shot is on target.)

    It sounds like you’re suggesting something’s being held in reserve, against the chance that Barr doesn’t pull back. What might that be, and who might deliver it?

    Thanks,

    –Jon

  43. 43.

    Redshift

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Arthur and Frank explained they’re not followers of QAnon. 

    Of course not, none of the Q cult are “followers.” The cult doesn’t demand they believe everything it says, it tells them to “do your own research” and points them at places to start. And gives them reasons not to trust reality-based sources.

  44. 44.

    Redshift

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I think that was the genteel way of saying that if VP Biden is elected, they’ll shred everything immediately in the attempt to cover their tracks and tuchases and prevent a possible investigation into what they’ve been doing and all the details of what Barr actually told them to do. 

    Ah, that would make sense.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    Paul J. Romero, Jr. for OREGON ???
    @PJR4Senate
    · Sep 9
    Replying to @DWLee333 @peabodyfmdev and 3 others
    Oregon is on fire! Pallet Company in Oregon City confirmed Antifa arsonist on camera. Douglas County Sheriff has 6 ANTIFA arsonists in custody. Many fires in Oregon. Obviously there are more to track down and arrest. Governor Kate Brown built this.

    Trump’s army of nutjobs now out in public, bothering normal people.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: I don’t think they’re all powerful either, but Barr and McConnell are very, very, very, very close to being able to lock in their lifelong objectives. And they have the perfect person that they’ve been using to allow them to achieve those objectives. All they have to do is somehow win on November 3rd. They’re not going to go easily, nor will they make it is easy to get rid of them.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Adam L Silverman:

    We agree they will try, and that they want to succeed.  I just think this report will have all the strength of a wet noodle.   Our voters reacted the wrong way to Comey, and I think lessons have been learned. But we’ll see soon enough.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Redshift:

    This cult is going to end in tragedy though. There have already been tragedies but as the GOP eggs them on and incites them there will be more. One of the cult’s beliefs is that state childrens protective agencies take children and turn them over to traffickers. The state workers are now at risk and so are the children in their custody.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jon Marcus: According to The Courant’s reporting, Dannehy didn’t put her reasons for leaving into her resignation email. Instead, several of her colleagues provided it. I have no idea what she will or won’t do if her resignation doesn’t shake a few people up and achieve the effect she was attempting to create, but what she is holding in reserve is coming out publicly and disclosing what Durham is actually doing, what Barr is actually doing, what the real objectives are, etc. While we all have our suspicions, partially fueled because Barr is playing it too cute in his interviews and giving parts of his game away, her coming out publicly and disclosing it all is what she is holding in reserve. She knows everything.

  51. 51.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Adam L Silverman: @Bobby Thomson: I don’t believe they do. I’ve been very clear hear since June that they don’t. Not the President, not AG Barr, not Senator McConnell.

     

    Then why speculate as to whether Barr “received a message?”  That implies he might actually change his behavior, which we all know he won’t.  Resignation is a good way to remove oneself from the taint but will have exactly 0.0 percent of an effect on the administration.

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Adam L Silverman: In today’s environment it is actually difficult to “shred everything.” You have to be careful and competent, two traits I do not associate with the current Executive Branch.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: People are going to be shot, seriously injured, and killed because of this stupidity. Because locals are too stupid to understand that BLM on emergency services scanners is being said as short hand for Bureau of Land Management. And because these chucklekfucks are convinced and have convinced themselves that BLM is some sort of top down, hierarchical organization that is synonymous with Antifa, which they also believe is some sort of top down, hierarchical organization – none of which is true.

  54. 54.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Adam L Silverman: She knows her SILO.

     

    You already know the response, because it doesn’t change: fake news; has a book to sell; she sucked at her job anyway; she was never in the “real” loop; gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette.  They may even try to work in their favorite – slut shaming – regardless of any facts

  55. 55.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Barr has thrown out “This paper is proof that Hillary and Obama spied on Trump and Trump is the real victim of the Russian Collusion Hoax!” releases before.  They landed like a wet fart.  He can’t get an indictment of anyone remotely important enough to affect the election, and unlike Comey if he gets up on stage and declares he has proof Biden murders babies no one will believe him.  Comey had a reputation for being neutral and professional.  Barr has the opposite reputation.

    This is corrupt and shameful, absolutely.  Dangerous, it is not.  It’s Nunes Memo shit.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    It’s nice to watch Biden interact with people on a rope line. They hand him photos, which I assume are of deceased loved ones.

    Remember that? When the President could interact normally with other human beings?  Prior to this freakshow of misfits and oddballs?

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bobby Thomson: You’re right, I am a terrible writer and if Cole was smart he would ban me from the front page and the comments because my phrasing upsets you. There is no excuse for what I’ve done. I will immediately move into a hollowed out dead tree and live off of whatever I can forage and rain water to make amends.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    @Eljai

    It’s clear they’re ginning up some bullshit before the election.

    Bull Durham.

    ;)

    (Which I was surprised to learn was 86’d in ’89.)

    Trivia:

    W.T. Blackwell partnered with Mr. Green and formed the “Bull Durham Tobacco Company.” The name “Bull Durham” is said to have been taken from the bull on the British Coleman Mustard, which Mr. Blackwell mistakenly believed was manufactured in Durham England. Source

  60. 60.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Adam L Silverman: Sorry, I know *you’re* aware, that was for people who might not be as aware.

    You have to work hard to remove all traces of a document these days, and then to remove the proof that you removed the documents, which can be almost as damning. Electronic records multiply and take on a life of their own.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I think they should be taken into custody on a 24 hour mental health hold if they’re getting in the way of people trying to evacuate or otherwise impeding the firefighting. Enough is enough. They’re going to get people killed.

    How fucking convenient is it that these Q people have come up with a conspiracy theory for why their children have to be removed by social services. It is so perfectly Trumpian that child abusers are pretending they are advocates for children. They learned from their Master, all right.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    I think when we look back on this (if we get thru it) we’ll determine it would have been better if decent ethical people had resigned rather than work for the low quality Trump hires.

    Lots and lots of higher level resignations would have signaled to the public (the sane portion) that something was really wrong. I think staying was a mistake.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Who is we? Because I think all these people will try to rehabilitate themselves in the Village by talking about how they saved America from Trump.

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: It’s just the 1980s Satanic Panic repackaged. And without the originator being a suburban LA mom with paranoid schizophrenia and delusions that should have been the immediate tip off that it was bullshit combined with mental health professionals that pushed it, by having their patients come forward with allegations, but only the patients whose insurance policies had at least a million dollars of coverage for psychological/psychiatric treatment combined with far too many conservative Christian law enforcement officers whose personal religious beliefs included that Satan is overtly active in the world. An iron triangle of delusion, greed, and religiously driven overzealousness and credulity filtered through America’s broadcast news media which is alway looking for the most sensational stories or the most sensational angles to stories.

  66. 66.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT Query – I have a lethargic dog today. He has shit more than I’ve ever seen a dog shit in a day with just normal shit, but it was in a few places in the house. He only gets to eat Iams adult minichunks (green bag), with occasional plate licks. Last evening, he was going to grass and vomiting just before his night walk (he gets about 2.5 miles a day), and is a 7 year old 70 lb Tervuren.

    None of the cat box treats  are in his reach (we’re rocking 3 indoor cats right now) , his nose is appropriately wet, no bulges or flinches on belly palpitations, and he’s been inside most of his days during COVID, shedding gobs of hair on the furniture and beds 16-22 hours a day.

    Damned if I can figure out why he’s not eating and is listless.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    Does Vox have a Trump promoter on staff?

    Trump announces that Bahrain will normalize relations with Israel

    Trump Bahrain IsraelVox – All / by Alex Ward / 1h

    President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing at the White House August 13, 2020 in Washington, DC. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

    Bahrain follows in the United Arab Emirates’ footsteps.

     

    President Donald Trump just announced another historic normalization deal between an Arab country and Israel, notching another victory for his Middle East peace strategy.

     

    On Friday afternoon, Trump tweeted that the leaders of Bahrain, a small kingdom in the Persian Gulf, and Israel had “agreed to the establishment of full diplomatic relations.” The announcement comes less than a month after the United Arab Emirates took the same step with Jerusalem.

     

    The joint statement from all three parties doesn’t include specifics as to what, exactly, the deal entails, but it presumably will mean the eventual establishment of embassies in each other’s countries and more open diplomatic, economic, and security engagement.

     

    Some details may still need to be worked out, and it’s possible the agreement could fall through. The statement says Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani will join Israel and the UAE for a signing ceremony at the White House on Monday, where the UAE and Bahrain will each sign their respective agreements with Israel.

  69. 69.

    Citizen Alan

    @Adam L Silverman:  This is difficult for me to say (and I’ve never even hinted about it to anyone in meat-space). But I honestly feel a strange sense of kinship with her. Because if Trump wins, I consider the odds of my committing suicide fairly soon after (within a few years at most)  to be quite high. The thought of another 4 years of this is simply unbearable. Even if suicide is actually a mortal sin that will condemn me to hell, I can’t imagine a hell worse than what America’s going to be like after another 4 years of Trump. I don’t have a wife or kids. I’m mostly estranged from my family. And I honestly don’t see the point of living if every day things are just going to get worse and worse.

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: I don’t think Biden should be interacting with anyone on a rope line.  He should not be getting that close to people.

    It’s 6′ AND a mask, not either or.

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It is possible he got into something that upset his system. If you can’t get him to eat liver, then you’ve got a real problem. Same with if he won’t drink water. Call your vet and see if you can get him to be checked and so the vet can give you something to treat the abnormal stools. If you haven’t already, boil up chicken breasts and rice and feed him that rather than the Iams. But do call the vet!

    My older lab mix has a GI system that goes out of whack two to three times a year, seemingly for no rhyme nor reason, so I go through this on a semi-regular basis.

  73. 73.

    Hoodie

    The thing to remember is that Barr is a shameless liar, so it really doesn’t matter what Durham has found, Barr will lie about it, e.g., he’ll put forward some kind of “summary” of what Durham is doing and it will bear no relation to reality.  I suspect it’s just as much a message to Durham as to Barr, the message being wake the fuck up and realize that you will suffer the fate of other Trump dignity wraiths if you’re anywhere near whatever shitshow Barr has in mind.

  75. 75.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Adam L Silverman:

    far too many conservative Christian law enforcement officers whose personal religious beliefs included that Satan is overtly active in the world

    And the entire evangelical movement was in a tizzy because their children were starting to abandon the cult.  They needed to convince the rest of the population that absolute control of their children is not just a parent’s right, but a parent’s duty.  It worked quite well, through a series of scandals like the Satanic Panic.  The 80s ‘there are drug dealers in your middle school’s playground’ thing, for example.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Citizen Alan: I cannot speak for the status of your soul, or even if humans actually have souls, but I can tell you that you would be missed. Here and by your friends in family in the non-virtual world. While hope is not a strategy, hope is essential. So don’t give up hope. And remember, why make these assholes jobs easier by giving them the easy victory of removing yourself from them. As bad as WW II and the Holocaust were, they were six years from 1939 to 1945. Don’t give up. And email me or Cole before doing something that can’t be undone.

  78. 78.

    Gin & Tonic

    @CaseyL: I don’t know her from Adam, but my sense is that a lawyer with the integrity to resign an AUSA position on a matter of principle also has the integrity to not be releasing documents which are meant to be confidential.

  79. 79.

    JPL

    @Adam L Silverman: Do you know anything about this

    Deputy assistant AG David Morell — a member of the DOJ legal teams handling Bolton lawsuit, Census matters, Portland protest issues and more — has announced he is leaving DOJ today, withdrawing form all those cases.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I don’t know what time it is where you are, but if it’s not 5:00 or 5:30 yet, call the vet right now.

    One of the first things they will ask is whether your dog will eat something other than the normal food.  Do you have chicken?  Or pasta?

    So if it’s close to 5, call right now.  If you have a little bit of time, see if your pup will eat any of those other things, and then call the vet.

  83. 83.

    Searcher

    @Frankensteinbeck: You don’t think Barr could find a way to lie his way to a half dozen indictments of random people in Biden’s orbit?

    Even if it doesn’t amount to anything and doesn’t succeed in producing three weeks of “chaos in the Biden campaign as XYZ indicted!” headlines, when the Biden DOJ quietly drops the charges against their people and begins indicting Trump’s, it will look hella bad.

  84. 84.

    Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: I hope she doesn’t have Netflix.

    It is slightly adorable, given everything going on, that the QAnoners are losing their shit over a film designed to highlight the oversexualization of girls because it might have an image illustrating how we oversexualize girls – something that in this country seems to be far more prevalent in the bible belt than elsewhere.

  91. 91.

    swbarnes2

    @Adam L Silverman: Should they maybe have not published this, but told CPS instead?

    She says she’ll kill her children.

    I hope someone gets those kids out of there.  Hopefully, friends or family or the kid’s teacher’s will intervene.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: that’s just a LOT of conspirators, is all I’m saying. ?

    Did the GOP want to throw anyone else into the mix while they’re at it?  Bezos?  Soros?  The guy at the 7-11 who looked at me funny yesterday? ?

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Martin: I saw an oblique reference to something on Netflix causing those folks to lose their mind. So that’s what this is about.

  94. 94.

    Citizen Alan

    @Adam L Silverman: Actually, I’m quite certain that vastly more people who only know me by online handles would miss me, mainly Discord followers who are fans of my writing. My 83-year-old mother would be sad, I’m sure. But the rest of my family would cluck their tongues and go one with their lives without incident. I’m a liberal and a non-churchgoer, you see, so I imagine they’d expect me to go out that way. But I do thank you for your kind words. And I’m not to that point yet. Hopefully, Biden will win and we can at least try to save this wounded nation, and if that happens, I’ll stick around and do what I can to help.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    TV has been running ads for “President Trump’s Great American Comeback” which is the biggest crock of shit since Fat Bastard himself rode down the golden escalator.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: Remember back in 2008 when there was the big uproar re: whether certain primary/caucus votes got to be counted because of some ruling that came down from the DNC?

    (details are hazy)

    And then there was some big televised event, maybe some rules committee (?)  where both sides made their case and then they adjourned for lunch and they were VERY late coming back?  And once they returned from lunch, it was very clear that they had worked it out behind the scenes and scripted the way out of the mess.

    This person said this, that person said that, someone proposed this, and it was very clear that there was a deliberate order to things and that the whole thing had been not only worked out, but choreographed, step by step.

    I’m hoping that’s what is happening here.  I’m hoping that people with conscience got together and agreed on the order of the dominos and everyone is clear on their part and on the timing of it.

  99. 99.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I will immediately move into a hollowed out dead tree

    Better make it a pretty big hollow in a pretty big tree, with hot and cold running wifi and jacks for all our laptops, Adam.

  101. 101.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Searcher:

    You don’t think Barr could find a way to lie his way to a half dozen indictments of random people in Biden’s orbit?

    No.  He can’t.  It’s actually pretty damn hard to do that.  You have to be able to show a judge evidence of a specific crime.  It is vastly harder to do that to a public figure than it is for a cop to plant drugs and say the random nobody victim resisted arrest.  And if he could, he would have done it by now.  Hell, one of the leaks that came out years ago was that near the beginning of his presidency, Trump told the DoJ to arrest Obama and Hillary, and they shrugged and said it couldn’t be done.

  103. 103.

    Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, it’s a french film (red flag #1) that won awards at Sundance. The Netflix promotional material is kind of trolling the viewer on this by putting forward an image from the film that should make you uncomfortable.

    I mean, mission accomplished for whoever was promoting it for Netflix. Reminds me how conservatives were all going to boycott Thor when they assumed that Edris Elba was Thor. ‘Can’t have a black Thor!’ So, this will probably set record viewership on Netflix.

  104. 104.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: jumping in, ostensibly on behalf of kids and their safety, is like the all-purpose excuse to believe or do whatever you want…this is why the Q folks think trumpov is fighting satanic pedos, it allows them to go all-in for him and excuse anything he does

    it’s the same delusion the anti-abortion crowd uses to justify their insanity, turned up to 11

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @WaterGirl:

    I like it. I think it’s about managing risk and tradeoffs. A lot of people are really suffering from the lack of human contact. I’m kind of standoffish, so I’m not but truly social people are. I think that can be as important as physical health. My youngest is an extremely social being. He is diminished when he can’t be himself. He’s been blue for months.

  107. 107.

    WaterGirl

    @Citizen Alan: I hope you are in a position to be working on a campaign, doing something – anything.  It’s not hopeless, and I would be willing to be that taking action would help your frame of mind.

    It truly is awful, but I promise you that there’s a better way out of the situation than the one you are imagining.

  108. 108.

    A Good Woman

    @Adam L Silverman:   Teddy Cruz is all wound up about that movie.  I had to look it up and then I shook my head.

    This is a family page (I think) so won’t say what I am really thinking other than those folks really are deplorable.

  109. 109.

    Citizen Alan

    @patrick II:

    1.  My two prior attempts at counseling over the last 10 years were utterly counter-productive, and left me feeling more depressed than when I went in.
    2. I had my chance to move to Canada in 2005. My mother guilted me out of it by assuring that my leaving the country would literally be the death of my father. Now, 15 years later, I’m too old, too unhealthy, and too poor for emigration to be a possibility, even if other countries were letting Americans in. Honestly, it’ll be a fucking miracle if I can even get the hell out of Mississippi Goddamn at some point.
  110. 110.

    Chyron HR

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I rather think the point is to be “credible”, that’s why they’re going through with the charade of a phony investigation instead of just having Trump go “Many horrible discoveries, stay tuned for our report in two weeks” from now until the election.

  111. 111.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay: Everything is riding on Biden.  He is the leader at this point, and keeping him healthy is more important than making some people feel better because of a rope line interaction.

    5+ minutes.  5+ minutes of exposure is all it takes.  Unless he’s on the rope line for less than 5 minutes, which I’m sure he isn’t, he is taking a risk that’s too big for the leader to take.

    My two cents.

  112. 112.

    jonas

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam, that is perhaps the most eloquent and concise summary of what Barr and Trump are up to I have read to date.

    And the mind-bendingly corrupt stupidity of it all (not your’s — Barr’s) has broken my brain. I need a drink.

  113. 113.

    Shana

    @LuciaMia: Along with that, I was just listening to an NPR story about people in Oregon who won’t evacuate because they’re worried about Antifa violence. To which I thought, “fine, let them die then.” Don’t expend any time or effort on trying to get them out if they’re that abjectly stupid. We as a country will be better off with fewer of these idiots.

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @Chetan Murthy

    Would mean uprooting himself, but it’s roomy.

    The Bowthorpe Oak can be found on Bowthorpe Park Farm and visitors are welcome throughout the year. The hollow interior had been fitted with seats and has apparently been used as a dining room for 20 people in the past. Source

    :)

  115. 115.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:

    … they’ll shred everything immediately in the attempt to cover their tracks and tuchases and prevent a possible investigation into what they’ve been doing and all the details of what Barr actually told them to do.

    All it takes is one person with access to soft-copy and a USB stick, and with a motive to leak/release/give-to-investigators. Or even an un-erased/badly-erased laptop drive. (SSD drives are a bit harder to properly irreversibly erase without physical destruction.)

  116. 116.

    Bill Arnold

    @Redshift:

    it tells them to “do your own research” and points them at places to start. And gives them reasons not to trust reality-based sources.

    Some people will need to make a project of disassembling/redirecting-towards-being-less-harmful QAnon. It will be quite difficult.

  117. 117.

    Ohio Mom

    Citizen Alan: I’ll not mince words. Please take better care of your mental health and see a professional.

    We are all in despair over Trump and petrified that Biden might not win but most of us are still able to find moments of satisfaction and even joy in our individual lives. That is what gives us the strength to fight on.

    When a person is depressed it seems normal but it isn’t. I’ve been there, am on an antidepressant and it saved my life.

  120. 120.

    LuciaMia

    I will immediately move into a hollowed out dead tree and live off of whatever I can

    Just make sure you pick the Keebler’s hollow tree.

  123. 123.

    patrick II

    @Citizen Alan:

    I am sorry to hear that.  The trouble with counseling, as I have found, is that it can be painful.

    The problem with any solution other than to live your best life is that Trump wins.  For my family, if not myself, he should not be allowed to win by default.    Counseling’s biggest insight is to understand things as they are, the pandemic is here, climate change is coming,  not necessarily to accept it, but give you a rational self-awareness and place to stand to push back.

    Anyhow, sorry for my dime-store psych stuff.  That’s a limit I have to accept. But any well-intentioned life is better than no life.

    I’m old and not too well either.

  125. 125.

    Jay

    @Citizen Alan:
    https://www.tomdispatch.com/post/2088/rebecca_solnit_on_hope_in_the_shadows

    F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” His forgotten next sentence is, “One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” You wonder what made Nelson Mandela hopeful in 1973, what made Czech dissident Vaclav Havel keep poking at the authorities in 1979, what kept the indigenous peoples of the Americas going from 1492 to 1992 when their fortunes began to turn a little,

  129. 129.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Citizen Alan: Alan, I feel your fear and pain.  I’m feeling it, too.  There’s something you can do, to help yourself and to help others: move to a state with a majority-minority population, under Blue government.  By which I mean: “move to California”.  The more decent people there are in California, the harder it will be for the fuckers to fuck with us, fuck with our people.

    I know that it’s expensive to live here.  But it’s gotta be cheaper than becoming a refugee, and you’ll be *surrounded* by people who *also * have nowhere to go: California is majority-minority, and we can’t all move to Canada (*grin*).  I believe strongly that government is how we solve problems bigger than ourselves.  If the time comes that that bigger-than-ourselves problem is the Federal government, then you want your State government to be on your side, 100%.  And the best way of ensuring that, is to live in a place where nonwhite people are such a majority that they cannot be ignored.

  131. 131.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Update – I threw away his bowl of food and opened a new bag. Dumbass went right to it.

    Go figure. I’ll never understand the ways of dog.

  133. 133.

    Jay

    @Citizen Alan:

    the One Neat Trick about Counselling, is you have to find a practitioner who “clicks” with you. They need to be able figure out who you are, how you communicate, and what techniques work for you.

    I was really lucky, it only took me three tries.

    When SWMBO moved back to Vancouver from New York, it took her a year and 12 different tries, then meeting me, and then trying my guy, to find the “right one”.

  134. 134.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Citizen Alan:

    it’ll be a fucking miracle if I can even get the hell out of Mississippi Goddamn at some point.

    “When in doubt,
    Move on
    No need to sort it out.”

    – jay Ferrar

  136. 136.

    Ken

    @Mike in NC: ads for “President Trump’s Great American Comeback”

    Wait, comeback?  I thought he’d already made America great, and now the campaign is to keep it great.

     

  139. 139.

    Sebastian

    @Citizen Alan:

    Hey man, I second the other jackals in advising to get counseling or at least find a support group.

    If it helps, consider this thought: even if the GOP succeeds in stealing the election, do you really think we will accept it?

    No, I am not talking about insurrection or violence (although there will be plenty) but after reading Adam a few weeks back asking “what are we going to do about it” and pondering the question it dawned on me that civil disobedience is the way to go.

    I firmly believe that most of us will just say “fuck it” and sit down and not lift a finger. Stock market? Couldn’t give a shit. Paying taxes? Couldn’t give a shit. Moving my car across this green light? Couldn’t give a shit. Paying rent? Couldn’t give a shit.

    It would be the moment where enough people would check out of the American Consumer Compact to make it collapse. It’s also the only kind of General Strike I can imagine working in the US.

    I am too old and too chickenshit to fight a civil war but there are not enough wingers to force us to keep this charade up. Yes, you can tear gas and beat protesters but how do you force 10 million people to pay their credit cards? Maybe I am wrong but I feel I am not the only one who has no patience left. Fuck this shit.

    And then there is of course the fact that Donald is about to kick the bucket. So, seriously, eyes on the prize dude. We got one shot to solve this the “easy” way so once more into the breach. I know, we are all tired and exhausted, I know I am, but just one more time, man.

    And never forget, we are not alone, just because you don’t see the Green Berets doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Thousands of patriots are working behind the scenes on taking these fuckers down.

  146. 146.

    Jay

    @Sebastian:

    rent strike,

    mortgage strike,

    bill strike,

    debt strike,

    work strike,

    park the car in the intersection, highway,

    stock up on food first, ( and tp), organize it, and crash the system.

    Organized through social media.

    I like it.

  147. 147.

    zhena gogolia

    @Sebastian:

    And never forget, we are not alone, just because you don’t see the Green Berets doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Thousands of patriots are working behind the scenes on taking these fuckers down.

    In different words, this is what my husband keeps saying.

  148. 148.

    TomatoQueen

    @Citizen Alan: I won’t offer advice or cheerleading but I will say to you, as someone who is now nearly helpless and can’t do much but continue to work for the government because there are people in need, you are needed. Your life is a good example to someone, and a chance act or expression of yours has added your voice to the chorus of those doing good in the world, tho’ most likely you won’t know about it until later. I don’t think, in fact, that there’s a fair measure of worth of the good we do in the world, because the law of unintended consequences always rules. Just to know that we’re doing it is probably the most each of us will get. And I’ll stop here. We need you.

  149. 149.

    Jay

    The mutual aid networks that sprung up for protestors in Portland are being rerouted to provide support for those affected by the fires. As we look ahead into an increasingly bleak future, we understand that grass roots community networks are the only thing that will save us.— liv (@gutxigirl) September 11, 2020

  151. 151.

    Jay

    Apparantly I came very close to being shot by a group of 'vigilantes' from my hometown tonight… My partner and I were followed in his car, people were posting his license plate all over various community pages, making multiple reports to the police. After a conversation 1/?— Jennifer Paulsen (@JenMP96) September 10, 2020

    This is how right-wing terrorism would start in the Jim Crow South.It would start with some rumor, and the white men would all grab their guns, hop in their trucks and roam about, and it would culminate in either a lynching or a massacre.It's being revamped for modern times.— proletkult bastard (@ProleBastard) September 11, 2020

  152. 152.

    Reboot

    @Citizen Alan: Even if worse comes to worst, I hope you’ll have second thoughts. I always think of the New Yorker article about people who attempted suicide and lived, which included the  story of a man who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge who, on the way down, realized that what was going on in his life didn’t warrant what he had just done. This has always stayed with me.

  153. 153.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Kay: The comment that keeps coming out from people who didn’t resign right away was, “We kept Trump from doing some things worse than he even did. We were scared if we left someone who would have zero control over Trump would make it even worse.”
    Resign and attract national media attention for a few days – until another shiny object gets them off path, or keep even a sliver of sanity on the inside…I’m glad I didn’t have to work through that Faustian bargain

    But agreed for those who never resigned at some point…where was their line and how bad did it have to get?

  155. 155.

    James E Powell

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    I will immediately move into a hollowed out dead tree and live off of whatever I can forage and rain water to make amends.

    I think you should stay on, but if you are determined to go, can you take James Comey with you?

  156. 156.

    James E Powell

    @Jay:

    It took me three ties, too. The first two were “Here, take these drugs and you’ll feel better about everything.” The third time was, “Let’s break this down and go through it together.”

  157. 157.

    Amir Khalid

    AG Barr has made it clear that he doesn’t feel that the DOJ’s rules regarding releasing information that could affect an election within 60 days of an election.

    Not that I want to get all in your face and edit you or anything, but your sentence is missing something: what does AG Barr not feel about those particular DOJ rules?

  161. 161.

    SteverinoCT

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You’re right, I am a terrible writer and if Cole was smart he would ban me from the front page and the comments because my phrasing upsets you.

    I just want to send you a few pallets of periods. Diving into one of your sentences laden with acronyms and asides— whew! I often have to re-re-read them. Hemingway you’re not!

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