Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

You cannot shame the shameless.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

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

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

After roe, women are no longer free.

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

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Came A Day Late This Week

Friday Came A Day Late This Week

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Holy Shit, What Did I Miss? 1

Friday came a day late this week.  Or, to be more precise, the hoped-for news dump came today instead of yesterday.  Okay, several hours late, at least – this was apparently unveiled at some point on Friday night.

In December, Chief Judge Beryl Howell rejected Perry’s bid to shield thousands of emails from Jan. 6 investigators  (Politico)

The chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., secretly rejected Rep. Scott Perry’s bid to shield more than 2,000 messages relevant to Justice Department investigators probing efforts by Donald Trump to subvert the 2020 election, according to newly unsealed court filings.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell unsealed her extraordinary Dec. 28 decision on Friday evening, determining that the “powerful public interest” in seeing the previously secret opinion outweighed the need for continued secrecy.

Perry, a Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, had urged Howell to block the Justice Department from accessing 2,219 documents stored on his phone, which was seized and imaged by the FBI last August as part of the 2020 election investigation.
He claimed that the records reflected his efforts to research potential legislative decisions — like whether to vote to challenge election results on Jan. 6, 2021 — and therefore should be protected from disclosure by the Constitution’s speech or debate clause, a provision meant to safeguard lawmakers from pressure or intimidation by the executive branch.

But Howell said Perry had taken an “astonishing view” of his immunity that would effectively put members of Congress above the law and free of political consequences for their actions. She ordered him to disclose 2,055 of the documents he sought to withhold — including all 960 of his contacts with members of the executive branch, which she said are entitled to no constitutional protection at all. Some 161 items, she said, were proper to withhold.

“What is plain is the clause does not shield Rep. Perry’s random musings with private individuals touting an expertise in cybersecurity or political discussions with attorneys from a presidential campaign, or with state legislators concerning hearings before them about possible local election fraud or actions they could take to challenge election results in Pennsylvania,” Howell wrote in her 51-page December opinion.

Why was that unsealed on Friday night?  I have no idea.  Maybe because there was a hearing on Thursday?

But it’s not all great news; it’s just a peak behind the curtain,

Thus far, however, investigators have not had access to any of the records because, last month, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to stay Howell’s ruling. On Thursday, those judges heard both public and private arguments about the dispute. The stay remains in place as the appeals court considers whether to leave Howell’s ruling in place, set it aside or modify it in some way.

The judges — Karen Henderson, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao — appeared skeptical of the Justice Department’s position and the breadth of Howell’s ruling, although they discussed her stance only in broad strokes and the details of her opinions remained under seal until Friday.

But the appeals panel’s ultimate leanings remained unclear at the conclusion of the public argument session Thursday. The appeals judges seemed most concerned by Howell’s determination that Perry’s outreach about Jan. 6 was not protected by the speech or debate clause because he was not acting with formal House approval.

That determination was a centerpiece of Howell’s ruling, which she said was rooted in longstanding precedent.

It’s not clear to me that the 3-judge panel has ruled, and it’s not clear to me when they will issue a ruling.  Even when they do, it could go to the D.C. Circuit or possibly go straight to the so-called Supreme Court.

The three-judge appeals court panel decision on Perry’s bid for speech-or-debate protection for his communications may not be the final word. Either the Justice Department or Perry could ask the full bench of the D.C. Circuit to take up the issue or seek to get the Supreme Court to intervene.

The wheels of justice grind so fucking slowly.  Let’s hope that they do indeed, grind exceedingly fine.

I keep hearing that Chief Judge Beryl Howell will rotate out soon, and that some other judge will pick up in her place, at least for these cases.  If someone can shed some light on that process, I would greatly appreciate it.

Surely if we had more judges at every level, the slow-walking of time-sensitive cases would not be quite so rewarding to the people who want things to move as slowly as possible?

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Can you say more about what that means?

    Do you mean these people?

    The judges — Karen Henderson, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao — appeared skeptical of the Justice Department’s position and the breadth of Howell’s ruling, although they discussed her stance only in broad strokes and the details of her opinions remained under seal until Friday.

    Or the next step up in the appeals process?

  4. 4.

    Big R

    “I keep hearing that Chief Judge Beryl Howell will rotate out soon, and that some other judge will pick up in her place, at least for these cases.”

    “Rotate out” in this sentence leaves me nonplussed. Are you saying she’ll rotate out of the chief judgeship and therefore these cases will be reassigned? Because that’s not how it works. Cases are (pseudo)-randomly assigned, there isn’t (or shouldn’t be – I can think of an exception) a class of cases that a chief judge assigns to themselves. Chief judgeships are just a bunch of administrative nonsense on top of your already heavy workload as a judge.

    If what you’re saying is that there is some rotation mechanism where cases change judges after a certain amount of time: I would be deeply surprised by this, as it would exist in no other court and for no other type of case (believe me, if I knew I was going to get a new judge every six months for all my cases, I would have been much happier with certain assignments).

  9. 9.

    tobie

    Perry got the wingnut panel: Rao, Katsas, and Henderson. Didn’t the same three vacate a ruling by Judge Emmet Sullivan that the full court upheld? Rao definitely sided with Michael Flynn and his lawyer (barf) Sydney Powell over Sullivan. I bet this case will go to an en banc hearing.

    Ms. Powell and her client won a significant victory on Wednesday when a divided appeals court panel — in a surprise ruling written by Judge Neomi Rao, a former White House official whom Mr. Trump appointed to the bench — ordered Judge Sullivan to drop the case without scrutiny. Judge Sullivan suspended his review but has not dismissed the charge, suggesting that the extraordinary legal and political saga is not yet over.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Laurence [email protected]

    Even the highly conservative D.C. Circuit panel that heard argument in this case on Thursday will have a hard time disagreeing with Judge Howell, but if it does then the Circuit will act en banc to reinstate her decision, and even this Supreme Court will lopsidedly concur.

    For whatever it’s worth.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    I’m familiar with the phrase bat-shit crazy, but I don’t know the comparable phrase when it comes to smarts.  How stupid are the dumb fucks?

  16. 16.

    J R in WV

    I begin to suspect I will not live to find out how the Jan 6th insurrection issues pan out in courts at all. Which is sad as I am really curious about those events and cases. But it is what it is!

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @Big R: I don’t know the terminology, but some of the podcasts –that focus on the Special Counsel stuff and the case/s against Trump and his cabal – say that pretty soon Judge Howell won’t be the judge that these cases go in front of.

    I don’t know what that means or what the exact timing is.  Or maybe someone was wrong on a podcast, just like they are wrong on the internet.  Shocking!

  21. 21.

    Sister Golden Bear

    OT: The good news is I finally got power restored yesterday — it had been out since Tuesday, since PG&E would rather give dividends to shareholders than, ya know, actually take care of customers. At least with all the snow in NorCal — we even had snow on the beach in Santa Cruz — they won’t be setting the state on fire again, at least for now.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    @Sister Golden Bear: Sounds like PG&E is deserving of the same bumper sticker treatment that Bell Telephone got back in the day.

    Someone here used the classic blue color on a white background that Bell used for all their marketing, and made bumper stickers that had the blue bell outline and said:

    We don’t care.  We don’t have to.

    And then snuck into the parking lot where all their service vehicles lived outside of service hours, and put them on the back of every one of the vehicles.

    I don’t typically support vandalism, but I was all in favor of that move.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    “Listen, Vito, I want that guy whacked. You take him out, you make it clear it wasn’t an accident, that he made some enemies no one should mess with. I’m sending a message here.”

    “Er, isn’t it dangerous to be saying this on the phone?”

    “No. This guy’s bloody death will get the others to vote like I want. I’m exercising the speech and debate clause of the constitution.”

    “OK, Senator, whatever you say.

    (My point, such as it is, being that there must be some limits to its use.)

  30. 30.

    Steve in the ATL

    @WaterGirl: maybe people are afraid that there will be another few dozen disturbingly obsessive posts alleging that a high school kid losing a part time job is the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind

  32. 32.

    kalakal

    @WaterGirl: You missed an epic set of truly incomprehensible posts delivered with great energy and zero tact. Sadly the poster  wanted advice on diplomacy & messaging. It was something else

    ETA the Jill Biden thread

    I literally couldn’t understand a word of it

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Oh, I saw that this morning.  What I saw was a lot of Sebastian bashing, and I felt bad about that.

    It’s not like he’s a troll or something.  I didn’t understand what he was getting at, either, but I saw a lot of talking about him as if he wasn’t there, and a fair amount of condescension.

    A little anecdote: I have two sisters and we kind of have a running 3-way text going.

    One day last week my religious sister was bashing me to my other sister – on our 3-way text thread!  Clearly talking about me behind my back, as if I wasn’t there, but right in front of me!  (by mistake)  I am still pissed!

    That’s what I was reminded of as I read that thread this morning, and I could easily imagine how Sebastian must have felt.

  34. 34.

    Alison Rose

    @WaterGirl: Reminds me of a anti-Exxon shirt a friend had back in the day. She grew up in Alaska, her family moved to California when she was 11. It read “We don’t care. We don’t have to care. We’re Exxon. At Exxon, we’re part of the problem.” Apparently a large percentage of Anchorage residents had the same shirt.

  35. 35.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @WaterGirl:  someone wondered whether he needs help (the thought occurred to me too). I felt I had nothing to add to the conversation but I read it through.

  37. 37.

    RaflW

    @WG Surely if we had more judges at every level, the slow-walking of time-sensitive cases would not be quite so rewarding to the people who want things to move as slowly as possible?

    Are there things we can be doing to help move things along? Several weeks ago I saw that Ron “July 4th in Moscow” Johnson had blue-slipped at least one judge, so I fired off missives to my five non-MAGA Senators (hey, if I have wealth privilege, I may as well use it to have ‘home’ addresses to write as a constituent – if not a voter in 2 of 3 – to all my Dems).

    So far I’ve heard back from Amy K. I liked this bit:
    “Thank you for taking the time to write to my office about judiciary blue slips. Based on your comments, it is clear to me that you have thought about this issue at length.” LOL, yeah, I had said a few choice things about what the GOP will do with blue slips in 2025 if they regain the Senate majority.

  38. 38.

    BlueGuitarist

    Perry, PA-10 is beatable.

    2020 D $10 million, lost by 7 points

    2022 D $400 k, lost by 8 points

    also overlaps flippable state senate and state house seats.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @Steve in the ATL:  Yeah, he had a lot to say about that!

    It has been an odd couple of days, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing that people feel like Balloon Juice is a safe place to vent.

    I can only imagine how protective I would feel about a child with autism, and they may feel their hands are tied because his wife works there, too.  He’s probably so angry that he feels like he might spontaneously combust, and I can live with a dozen comments, or skip by them if they annoy me.

    But I will admit that when they were handing out traits, I got a pretty good dose of empathy.  I’m not as bad as my sister, though, who feels bad for the goalie on the other team when her own team is winning.

  40. 40.

    RaflW

    @WaterGirl: Is it vandalism, really, if the stickers are of course removable? ;)

    I worked at Austin, TXs only early-90s LGBTQ bookstore. In addition to literature, pulp fiction, and whatever legally-permissible smut-ish things an all-ages store could offer, we sold a lot of bumper stickers. There were a surprising number of out of state tourists who would buy rainbow flags and put them on rental cars, with the plan to just say on return, “Whatever, peel it off, I have a plane to catch.”

    We also sold pink triangle ink-stamps that were popular (or so I’m told, I wouldn’t know personally) for criminally defacing the US dollar. Oh well!

  41. 41.

    James E Powell

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can’t recall if Tribe thought he had any chance of winning in Bush v Gore.  The cold brutality of modern Republican jurisprudence makes Tribe’s thoughts into irrelevant sophistry. The only thing that matters is winning elections.

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @RaflW: I can’t even read the letters I get from Dick Durbin anymore, and he’s even on our side!

    They just piss me off because they are completely formulaic and it’s very clear that whatever my call was about, it had no impact on anything.

    It’s like they didn’t actually read what I wrote, and I’m sure they didn’t!

  45. 45.

    different-church-lady

    This is like, “What if Nixon had resigned and then Watergate stretched out another five years?”

  46. 46.

    patrick II

    @WaterGirl

    I am not the most sophisticated listener, however, I am concerned about Sebastian.  He seemed to be mixing in the real world, and particularly a tragic death, with the imaginary one he was creating for some reason (a computer game perhaps?).

    He seemed much more confused than the commentator we have read for a while now would post. I wouldn’t mind if someone who might know him reached out to make sure he is O.K.  Perhaps I am just easily trolled, perhaps it wasn’t him, but it seemed past that to me.

  47. 47.

    kalakal

    @Steve in the ATL: If it was my kid I’d want a good rant too, I’d be bloody furious and scared for the kid.  In my case I’d probably go for a long walk in the woods and kick a tree or something. I just skipped through them but I was surprised at how many there were

  48. 48.

    RaflW

    @WaterGirl: Last night was odd. There was a ‘wires crossed’ feeling that was too hard to sort through lateish on a weekend night when one hopes for more things like “Can I put a leash on a cat”, which saved the thread for me – even as I skimmed fast and departed.

  52. 52.

    kalakal

    @patrick II: What worried me about it was, that on top of the largely  incomprehensible content, it was if he was having frequent massive mood swings throughout. He was all over the place emotionally, logically, and in how he responded

  53. 53.

    different-church-lady

    That bald eagle mother in Big Bear just spent like the last 90 minutes literally covered in snow while sitting on her eggs. Tough birds, bald eagles.

  57. 57.

    patrick II

    I am not a lawyer, obviously, but hasn’t the Supreme Court held back access to some documents in the last couple of years because they were not legitimately part of a congressional investigation that might change law?  Was it Trump’s taxes (at the behest of the executive branch?) So, if something isn’t related to a congressional investigation related to creating new law, then consistency would hold that Perry should not be able to protect those documents.

    And slightly off topic — WTF was he doing with messages still on his phone he is worried about a year-and-a-half after Jan 6, 2021? Did he not see other’s phones being subpeoned nor follow the Secret Service’s example?  How dumb does he have to be?

    (Grammerly says this comment is assertive, direct, and curious. It’s nice software if you don’t mind an AI looking over your shoulder.)

  58. 58.

    Ohio Mom

    @kalakal: As a mom of a 25 yo with autism, the story is more than “This smucky manager screwed my kid.” It’s looking at all the pieces of the story — including the clueless things Young Manatee did — and despairing that Young Manatee will ever be able to manage life independently. And if he can’t, who is going to step in when you, the parents, are gone?

    If it wasn’t this asshole manager, it will be another asshole somewhere else. Because Young Manatee is going to misread another situation again, and again, and the world is an unforgiving place — well, too many of the people of the world are unforgiving.

  59. 59.

    Ohio Mom

    @Ohio Mom: The irony of the story is, we autism parents are told our kids need allies at their workplaces. This young man had his *mother* in the same workplace, and even that did not get the slack he needed cut for him.

    They definitely have a legal case but those things are expensive and uncertain and terribly draining. Most people decide to just move on.

  61. 61.

    different-church-lady

    Warning: once I get some paperwork done, I’m going to let some brown alcohol turn me into someone who might need some intervention as well.

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: I have to say that it was interesting to be the least jackal-like person on the first part of that thread.   He was obviously trying to do something important to him but failing to read the moment and failing to be clear.  Earnestness and lack of clarity is a tough combination.

  63. 63.

    sab

    @Ohio Mom: My stepson works as a machinist and loves his job and they seem to like him.

    The shop just hired a young man on the spectrum. My stepson has been hanging out with a him a bit at work because nobody else was. The kid now hangs around him all the time and never stops chattering. My stepson is fine with that.

    The kid told him that he  (stepson) is the first friend he ( kid) has ever had. Stepson is still shocked. Hopefully he wil be in a position to help if needed. He says the kid’s machining skills are fine.

  64. 64.

    kalakal

    @Ohio Mom: Yes, that’s what I got from those posts.  Manatee is not just furious with that asshole, he’s frantic at the effect it’s going to have on Young Manatee going forward. It doesn’t even take people being assholes, just common or garden thoughtlessness and rudeness will do it.

    Many years ago I worked as a nurse for people with learning disabilities,

    and the plight of many of the parents broke my heart.

    And if he can’t, who is going to step in when you, the parents, are gone?

    This was/is the thing. Well in part it was/is people like me and we tried our best but we’re not the same as parents and ( this was in England) were disgracefully underesourced

    You are absolutely right, the world is an unforgiving place.

    I had to leave that job before it broke me, compared to a parent I had it easy, and they don’t have the option of walking away

    ETA I am not conflating Autism with learning disabilities, I’m referencing individuals ability to be independent, apologies if the language is clumsy

  65. 65.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     

    He was obviously trying to do something important to him but failing to read the moment and failing to be clear. Earnestness and lack of clarity is a tough combination.

    I’ll admit I only gave the Sebastian parts of the thread a fast skim just now, but late in the thread someone asked him why, after asking for help, he didn’t do one longish post explaining his ask, rather than a bunch of bits and pieces. His response was to say that he had a lot going on at once and didn’t have the luxury of time.

    Gotta admit my reaction was, ‘well come back when you DO have enough time.’ Why would you try to engage a bunch of people with your request if you don’t have time to explain it properly? Sheesh.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @WaterGirl: Harlan Ellison occasionally used the phrase “bone-stick-stone stupid.” Might be considered ableist now though I think true stupidity is a measure of the will to ignorance, not cognitive ability.

  69. 69.

    Ohio Mom

    @sab: Good for your stepson. I hope some of his other coworkers step up too. I worry this could turn into a burden for Stepson if the young coworker starts expecting too much from him.

    Machining is one of those jobs some autistics are just made for (not my fine motor skill-challenged son however). It takes an intense level of concentration (which many autistics have) and if you are not social, well, an awful lot of machinists aren’t all that social either.

    I know one autistic machinist and one autistic welder. The welder’s mother said that the Covid lockdown was heaven sent for her son, who abhors talking to people. All autistics seem different until you know them, then their similarities stun you.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @patrick II: Hmm. Never occurred to me that what he was talking about might be less than real.

    It seemed like he was in the process of founding some kind of religious philanthropic youth organization with vibes that… would very much not have been to my taste, but I didn’t come out of that subculture and I can understand that to some people it would appeal.

    But it did get a little confusing as it went on.

  73. 73.

    Steve in the ATL

    @kalakal: a rant is fine, and understandable, and I am also a protective parent who get upset when bad things, especially unfair things, happen to my kids.   But in the real world, things like this happen all the time, even to non-autistic kids. Hell, I’ve had shit like this happen to me and I’m a professional in the field of labor and employment law. Post your rant, then go do something to fix the situation or find a good therapist or both.

    If there is a legal claim to be made here, under the ADA or anything other law(s), this series of posts is going to do major damage to that claim. And naming the manager repeatedly was doxxing as he is not a public figure.  Far worse that when Omnes’ real name was posted here (who knew there is an actual person in Wisconsin named Snidely Whiplash?).

  74. 74.

    gene108

    Karen Henderson was appointed by Bush, Sr.

    Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao are Trump appointees.

    I’m going to assume they rule in favor of Perry. The odds any Republican places what’s good for the country over what’s good for the Party is highly suspect.

  75. 75.

    RaflW

    Maybe I should wait for the Alan’s daily post, but I’m reading the long and detailed Politico (I know, but in this case, it seems pretty compelling) ‘oral history’ by primarily US voices, of the run-up to the illegal and immoral Russian invasion.

    This quote just jumped off the page for me, applicable to so much current GOP politicking

    Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth: There have been times that false pretexts are uttered by irresponsible actors, and if you’ve got the goods in terms of being able to expose that, we’ve all learned that you have to expose that stuff.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @lowtechcyclist: I would be rattled if it felt like 15 people were attacking me at the same time.  I might think “fuck this, I’m out of here” and then a minute later try to explain myself, and then if someone wrote a decent non-attacking comment after a bunch of hurtful ones, that might leave responding differently than I had 5 minutes before.

    Sometimes, if someone asks you to explain something that seems totally obvious to you, it’s easy to be at a loss.  Imagine having to explain why you think the sky is blue?  I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

    Sebastian has been here a long time, and it seems fair to extend some grace even though I didn’t understand what he was saying.

    Like I said, I’m still pissed at my sister talking about me behind my back, in front of me, so I can imagine that some of the responses last night were very hurtful.

  80. 80.

    Ohio Mom

    @kalakal: Don’t apologize, you get it completely. I remember your description of your old job. I think you calling the range of disabilities presented by your students “learning disabilities” is one of those instances of Americans and British not speaking the same language.

    Here we would call your old students developmentally disabled; “learning disabled” is used to describe students of at least average intelligence who are challenged in specific areas such as reading or math. It is quite possible for an LD learner in one area to excel in another, there aren’t usually the sort of global deficiencies that someone with a development disability often/typically presents.

    I suspect that Manatee’s anguish includes worries about his son’s emotional state. People with autism tend to be at very high risk of depression. Being fired for reasons you don’t understand, on top of a lifetime of being misunderstood, isolated, and most likely, bullied — it all adds up (yes, looking at you, commentator at #30, this wasn’t a high-school job, it was probably the level of employment Young Manatee could expect his entire life).

  83. 83.

    Steve in the ATL

    @WaterGirl:

    I would be rattled if it felt like 15 people were attacking me at the same time

    Obviously you have never argued a case in front of an appellate court. Or had a wife and daughters!

  86. 86.

    kalakal

    @Steve in the ATL:

    If there is a legal claim to be made here, under the ADA or anything other law(s), this series of posts is going to do major damage to that claim. And naming the manager repeatedly was doxxing as he is not a public figure

    That had never even occurred to me.

    Seems my kicking trees coping strategy is the better one. ( they’re my trees)

    I’d never had him figured for a Snidely

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    @Steve in the ATL: My lifelong friend gave the eulogy at my dad’s funeral, because we had lost my mom 10 years before and the 3 of us daughters couldn’t hold it together well enough to speak.

    The first thing Steve said was about my dad having 3 daughters and having to be a patient man.  So I get what you’re saying.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Obviously you have never argued a case in front of an appellate court.

     

    Pu-leeze. You’re management side. The appellate courts probably serve you wine and cheese while they massage your feet.

  89. 89.

    gene108

    @different-church-lady:

    This is like, “What if Nixon had resigned and then Watergate stretched out another five years?”

    I feel J6 and the entirety of the Trump admin is like Nixon pardoning some henchmen on the way out, while no one else involved with Watergate ever got indicted for anything.

  90. 90.

    James E Powell

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Obviously you have never argued a case in front of an appellate court. Or had a wife and daughters!

    Or told your middle school English class when the essays are due.

  92. 92.

    oldgold

    The Special Counsel, if he has not done so already, needs to put the documents case on the fast track. He only has so much time and resources.  At this point they are best spent on the documents case.

  93. 93.

    kalakal

    @Ohio Mom: Thanks. The language is a real problem and I’m never sure what the current phrasing is. When I was doing that job it was the terrible phrase “mentally handicapped” which was I guess an improvement on the place being called a mental asylum.

    I suspect that Manatee’s anguish includes worries about his son’s emotional state

    That’s what I was picking up. I expect Young Manatee was very proud he had a job, earning money, doing ‘real’ things and this will have come as a horrible shock to him, especially as he probably has no idea why

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    It looks like we are actually heading for another relative break from COVID here in the Northeast. These things never last but we can enjoy them when they happen.

  112. 112.

    Manyakitty

    @WaterGirl: wtaf? Also, I know better than to click through and read the replies, but YIKES. Whole lotta ignorant out there, especially the guy who came right out and said he doesn’t care how the government works. YIKES 😬😳

  113. 113.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ohio Mom: on the off chance you’re referring to me (/s), I am completely sympathetic to their plight.  But there is a time and place, and the number of posts, the level of vitriol, and the amount of other people’s PII was inappropriate for a public forum, especially one not focused on people with disabilities.

  116. 116.

    Manyakitty

    @Ohio Mom: it’s definitely a legitimate concern. That said, he seemed to think that somehow the manager would see the posts? Maybe? I mean, get it out if you need, but what is the goal of putting it on the record here?

  117. 117.

    trollhattan

    Weather Service Twitter is not usually very interesting. Right now, it’s pretty interesting.

    This morning Redding and Red Bluff reported a half foot of snow, which is all kinds of weird but I’m sure kids are loving it.

    This isn’t even the “big storm”–that’s coming Monday – Wednesday.

    Whee!

  120. 120.

    trollhattan

    Fly your freak flag, Tulsi edition. Goddamn, she’s found a new bag of shovels and is busy finding the best one. When you’ve flummoxed Jesse Watters….

    Tulsi Gabbard on Friday made the wild claim that there’s a historical “connection” between Nazism and the diversity-minded personnel choices made by the Biden administration—a statement that Fox News host Jesse Watters couldn’t get behind.

    Gabbard, who seemingly hasn’t missed a chance to bash the Democratic Party as a Fox News contributor since she announced her departure from it last October, said “identity politics” was one factor in her decision.

    “You see how their agenda of identity politics is directly undermining the traditional democratic values that were expressed so beautifully and clearly by Dr. Martin Luther King: that we should judge each other not based on the color of our skin, but based on our character,” Gabbard said, citing what was recently dubbed “the right’s favorite MLK quote.”

    “And yet…they are proud to be judging people, hiring people, selecting people based on race,” she continued, reminiscent of some conservative commentators’ disapproval of Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black Supreme Court justice. “Let’s be clear how serious of a problem this is. It’s based on genetics, race, based on your blood, your genes; and where do we see that connection? Well, these are the very same geneticist core principles embodied by Nazism and Adolf Hitler.”

    Watters, likely sensing the inherent problem with Gabbard’s comment, followed up: “You are saying the focus on genetics is in a way similar to what was going on in Germany?”

    Gabbard, who is no stranger to making comparisons between Biden and Hitler, made clear that this was no misstatement.

    “You look at the core values and core principles of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. What is it based on? It’s based on genetics,” the former Hawaii congresswoman said.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbard-shocks-fox-news-host-by-comparing-biden-to-hitler?ref=home

  122. 122.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    I would be rattled if it felt like 15 people were attacking me at the same time. I might think “fuck this, I’m out of here” and then a minute later try to explain myself, and then if someone wrote a decent non-attacking comment after a bunch of hurtful ones, that might leave responding differently than I had 5 minutes before.

    No, before that!

    I mean, go back and read his posts 10, 11, 13, and 15 in that thread. (His 3rd through 6th posts there.) By #15, the only reaction to him has been a single “Um, what?” There’s no way to blame those posts on hostility from other posters.

    But that’s the behavior that I understood smike @122 (the poster I referred to earlier) to be referring to. It continued after he was getting a lot of shit, too, but it was right there from the start. So his explaining “because I am wearing four hats and have two phones and not everyone has the leisure of time? lol” still doesn’t sit well with me.

    If he goes and says “I have this vision of this utopian organization, but instead of explaining further, I’m expecting you to go read the stuff at these links before I even get to my ask” because he’s too damn busy, then as Burton Cummings might say, no time left for him.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trollhattan:

    she continued, reminiscent of some conservative commentators’ disapproval of Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black Supreme Court justice.

    Daily Beast? Another crackerjack editing job by Sam Stein

    ETA: I’ll let someone else point out that up until about six weeks ago, Tulsi was a fellow at something called The Sander Institute

  126. 126.

    Steve in the ATL

    @lowtechcyclist: never mind that he said the websites linked to weren’t even ready yet!

    Anyway, as Omnes and others have noted, Sebastian is a long-time poster here and not a troll.

  127. 127.

    Steve in the ATL

    @trollhattan:
     

    conservative commentators’ disapproval of Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black Supreme Court justice

    Did someone leave out the word “female”? As my post above clearly referenced, there was already a black Supreme Court justice.

  129. 129.

    kalakal

    @trollhattan: Let us hope that Dominion take Fox to the cleaners and that Fox have make economies. It would be rather sweet if her new grift proves to be ephemeral just after she’s burnt so many bridges to get it

  131. 131.

    Geminid

    @kalakal: I think Gabbard is looking towards a 3rd party or independent run for president next year. She is auditioning for Peter Thiel and his peers,  and maybe for the “Mises Caucus” that now controls the Libertarian Party.

  134. 134.

    Jackie

    CNN is airing an Obama documentary this evening: “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union” It covers his formative years in Chicago, his upbringing and education. Part 1 @ 8:00 and Part 2 @9:00 ET.

  135. 135.

    lowtechcyclist

    @tobie: ​
     

    I bet this case will go to an en banc hearing.

    I think that’s definitely the way to go, rather than appealing directly to SCOTUS where they could potentially leave the 3-judge panel’s decision in effect by a mere cert. denied. Make those fuckers have to issue a decision overruling the full DC Circuit if they’re going to rule the wrong way.

  137. 137.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … LOLGOP:

    lolgop @[email protected]

    Congratulations to everyone who has not checked the stats of a single one of your tweets this week for having a richer interior life than the second wealthiest person who ever lived.

    Yeah! Yay!!! [ high-5s-all-around ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Jack Smith looks like some character from a Star Trek series. At least he’s not a red shirt…lol!

    Damn this stuff moves slow but as long as it moves forward, I’m good with it.

  145. 145.

    Cameron

    @zhena gogolia: That and the icy expression are why he looks like like an inquisitor to me. “Perhaps you should try on the Spanish boot, Mr. Pence. It might improve your memory.”

  151. 151.

    sab

    Every photo I see of Jack Smith I think he thinks ” they are taking my picture again and I really wish they would not.”  I bet his family photos are cheerful.

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