Good news, friends: I’ve decided to launch an eponymous upscale fashion and jewelry brand!
Those of you who know me in real life might protest, “But Betty, since you’re frequently mistaken for a bag lady, what makes you think you have the fashion cred to pull this off?” Or, “But you have no money, and no one has ever heard of you — why would anyone buy your crappy products?”
Those might have been valid criticisms in 2016, but in Trump’s America, everything has changed — via WaPo:
Although Ivanka Trump lacks a formal White House job, the president’s older daughter is moving into her own West Wing office, an administration representative said — a move that increases her profile as an influential, although unofficial, adviser to her father.
Ivanka Trump will not be on the government payroll or officially bound by its ethics rules, but she said in a statement to Politico that she will “voluntarily” follow those restrictions. She also acknowledged the unusual nature of her emerging role…
President Trump has named Ivanka, 35, the mastermind behind his child-care and maternity- leave plans, the first proposals on such issues from a Republican president. Since the election, she has sat in meetings with world leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Politico reported that she is also working to obtain a security clearance and this week will receive government communications.
If the Trump spawn and Mr. Ivanka are qualified to jointly serve as de facto Secretaries of State (and the former as the official handler of “women’s issues”) by dint of their membership in the lucky sperm club, I don’t see why my dearth of fashion sense, relative lack of funds and personal obscurity should be obstacles to my dream of founding a rag-and-bauble empire.
So what role for which you are completely unqualified do you see yourself occupying over the next three years and 10 months (barring impeachment)?
I keed, but seriously, I don’t see how we reestablish standards once this debacle ends. It’s all very decline-and-fallish.
This is an open thread, and feel free to use it to discuss the Gorsuch hearings if you’re so inclined. I don’t give a good goddamn what Gorsuch says about the law since he’s the appointee of a crook and is angling to be the recipient of stolen goods. I’ll confidently assume the worst.
Should the Democrats blow up the filibuster in an almost certainly futile attempt* to block him? I say yes. It’s going to happen eventually anyway. Might as well keep their fingerprints off any Trump-associated enterprise. Anyhoo, open thread.
*Italicized text added for clarification; I think there’s almost zero chance the Democrats can successfully block Gorsuch, but I hope they try.
Raoul
She needs to have daily access to him as his psychological health (always fragile) now shatters into tiny, horrible — but very dangerous — shards.
Elizabelle
I’m gonna be an airline pilot. I’m a good driver, ammirite?
Fillibuster Gorsuch. Leave that stolen seat vacant. I am hopeful the Russian scandal will blow so big that we are looking at a one-time new presidential election. Maybe all federal seats from 2016. Don’t let Republicans keep the fruit from a poisoned tree. Especially if proven they were complicit, or knew and did nothing.
Scald them.
Kryptik
I don’t get the pooh-poohing over trying to fight Gorsuch’s nomination. I mean…because ‘keeping our powder dry’ worked SOO well during the fights with Bush over nominees…
trollhattan
I think Betty Bling ™ or Cracker Creations ™ should do quite well.
As to what Lolota’s…duties may be, I’d rather not know. “Now, daddy?”
Snarki, child of Loki
“I don’t see how we reestablish standards once this debacle ends.”
Summary executions, and heads-on-sticks.
Okay, it might not reestablish the standards, but we should give it a try.
Arm The Homeless
RE: Gorsuck, he fails the only test that’s relevant, which is, “is he Merrick Garland?”
The next limp journalist who claims that the American people want the Dems to be adults, and adhere to rules that are never applied to GOP Fascists, I will stab that person in the crotch with rusty sporks, so help me Dog
geg6
I want to be an astrophysicist.
The fact that I am a moron when it comes to higher maths and have never been able to use a telescope (or for that matter, a microscope) shouldn’t hold me back at all. I should be interviewed for every story about space and should be tapped by Seth McFarlane to be the host for the next iteration of Cosmos.
hilts
Reading Politico story about Ivanka, one thing I learned that pissed me off is that her lawyer is Jamie Gorelick who was Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton.
jeffreyw
I can see a line of fine foil animal pendant earrings! Go for it!
Yarrow
Ivanka moving into the White House has to run afoul of the rules about nepotism. I know she doesn’t have an official title, but she will have an official office. Plus security clearance. It’s wrong by the meaning and purpose of the rule (law?) if not the letter of it.
If Congress won’t do their job and put a stop to this kind of thing, do average citizens have any standing to bring a lawsuit?
Ian G.
I don’t know why the first thing I thought of was how a number of experts/historians thought Agathe Habyarimana was the real power behind the strongman presidency of her husband Juvenal Habyarimana in Rwanda, and that she not only had a role in planning that country’s genocide, but may have also given blessing to the assassination of her husband, which was the Reichstag Fire moment that started the genocide.
Yes, I no longer see much separation between our government and corrupt 3rd world autocracies.
The Moar You Know
My dad is a retired airline pilot, we play Microsoft Flight Simulator together, and I’ve flown a Cessna once.
So greetings and welcome to American Airlines, folks, my name is The Moar You Know and I’ll be your captain today for this exhausting trip from Los Angeles to Dubai. We will be flying over several active war zones in this brand new Airbus A380, at low altitude because I can’t figure out the map thingy and I don’t want to get lost on my first day. That would be so embarrassing!
BretH
@Elizabelle: 100% true. The Republicans refused to consider Obama’s nominee because…well, because…
Anyway the proper announcement is the Democrats will reject Grouch “as long as there are unanswered questions about the POTUS and his minions as regards Russia”. Which ought to keep him out as long as needed.
rp
I’ve always wanted to be a civil war buff.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Don’t forget that Ivanka was with Putin’s girlfriend Wendi Deng Murdoch, in Dubrovnik, August 2016. With a 3 month old infant at home and in the middle of a presidential campaign, Ivanka had to meet up with Wendi in the Balkans…
lollipopguild
Just imagine if Dictater Clinton had installed her daughter in the White House! The screams from the right would be heard on the Moon.
Big Ole Hound
Actually, Ivanka may be the only person who can keep 45 from going completely around the bend…good or bad. Maybe a quick beheading is better than a slow, long sickness?
Achrachno
@hilts: Wait, isn’t that grounds for hope? Maybe the rumored flickers of sanity are real.
The Moar You Know
@Raoul: I’m afraid you are probably correct here. This is their last-ditch effort to keep him from completely losing his shit publicly, which I think will happen by April 15 one way or the other.
I would welcome Pence at this point. I know his breed of horrible and I can live with that. Not happily, but I can live with it.
Aleta
Employment of heirs and in-law (+ more in-laws on the way) is as close as we’ll get to federally funded worker training.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
I just had a random thought. As the noose tightens on Russian interference, should we start calling Washington, D.C. Moscow-on-the-Potomac?
Butch
I always had this idea about products named almost for celebrities – a line of gourmet soups called Okra Winfrey, barbecue skewers called Britney Spears, a line of eye-care products called Saline Dion….maybe the Cracker fashion empire could be modeled along those lines.
laura
I rather fancy myself as a Hollywood Mogul. I know naught but squat about film making, but I’ve seen a few movies in my time, so there’s that!
Fuck that Neil Gorsuch and the misogynistic elephant he rode in on. Blow up the nuclear option and let there be nothing but republican votes. No quarter. Obstruct everything. Remember when the Republican Senators made public their plan to ignore Hillary’s nominees after ignoring Obama’s?
They stood against everything for 8 years, we can do it for 4.
lollipopguild
@The Moar You Know: “What is this button for? Ooops!”
raven
Oh you get me ready in your 56 Chevy
Why don’t we go sit down in the shade
I have a 66 but I want a 56 too!
tomtofa
How does she get a security clearance? One can’t apply as an individual, but rather through a cleared contractor or government agency for whom one works. She apparently doesn’t have a ‘job’, just an informal advisory role. So . . .?
Raoul
Per the twitts, Gorsuch referred to “Democrat presidents.”
I guess I’m a snowflake, but that particular bit of verbal garbage always pisses me off. And I know it is designed to do so, but it’s just such a fvking classless, uncouth intentional elbow to the ribs.
Definitely not becoming of someone who is purported to be ‘honorable.’
Oh, and for yesterday’s into, Colorado’s Michael Bennet can suck a rotten egg. WTF, Democrat Senator. WTF!
raven
Because, you know, I want to be a COWBOY
hovercraft
Ryan: We Didn’t Learn Anything New From Comey Hearing
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Tuesday said that he did not learn anything “new” from FBI Director James Comey’s testimony about Russian interference in the U.S. election. He also reiterated that he has not seen any evidence indicating that President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian government officials.
“I don’t think we learned anything new yesterday with Comey’s testimony,” Ryan said at a press briefing.
He noted that the House Intelligence Committee was still investigating Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election, but he said that he has not seen evidence yet linking the Trump campaign to Russia.
“It is very clear that we’ve seen no evidence and have been presented with no evidence that Donald Trump or his staff were involved in this with the Russians,” he said.
I guess ZEGS like Twitler didn’t see or hear anything that happened on the hill yesterday, they were too busy “running” the country or something. Please move along, here is definitely nothing to see here folks!!
Aleta
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: The timing was critical and she was both the most trusted and the least likely suspect.
amk
trump swamp. the new normal.
MomSense
@Butch:
HAHAHA! Awesome.
gene108
I want to be a superstar basketball player. The fact that i’m, at most, 5’7″ tall, overweight and out-of-shape, and in my early forties should not be a hindrance.
They just need to modify the rules as much as necessary to give folks like me a chance to shine.
Raoul
@tomtofa: From what I’ve read, POTUS gets maximal clearance to everything by dint of his election. And further, he can grant clearance (or grant exception to clearance might be more accurate, read it awhile ago) to whomever he pleases by power of his office.
MomSense
@raven:
Can I be your cowgirl?
Singing Truth to Power
Betty Cracker, I would accept an offer to be your midwestern “eyes and ears” in exchange for office space and a really nice title. I think a security clearance would be unnecessary since I’ve only been arrested for misdemeanors.
bystander
L’Atelier Cracker?
The least the Dems can do is delegitiimize Gorsych the way Thomas is always tainted.
Amir Khalid
@Yarrow:
Rules? What rules? Trump is the Preznit, dang it! Your puny rules don’t apply to him!
Aleta
@hovercraft: Say it under oath Ryan.
SFAW
Me?
Writer of intelligent blog comments.
Sports legend
Fashion model
Aleta
@Butch: Tom Hankies
MattF
@tomtofa: Right. A clearance necessarily means some sort of employment by the government, since the executive branch creates all the classification guides and ultimately determines all classifications. There’s also some contractual stuff, but IANAL.
Butch
@MomSense: You think anyone would go for it?
SFAW
@lollipopguild:
In space, no one can hear wingnuts scream.
Especially if you throw them out of the airlock without a suit.
hovercraft
I would like to be the next American to spend a year on the International Space Station, the pictures look way cool, how many people get that kind of opportunity? I hate small confined spaces, heights, and the thought of no gravity makes me nauseous, I am not in anyway scientific or really interested in conducting any experiments, but just the idea of doing it and saying I did it sounds cool. Okay so maybe not a year, how about I get to go home on weekends, being in space is hard and I will need to get time with my family after a whole week in space, never mind the cost, it’s for the benefit of America, you should thank me.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Aleta: The Trump family bag man.
Iowa Old Lady
I guess if Trump can be president, his offspring can be whatever the hell they want. No expertise necessary. As a matter of fact, it’s suspicious.
catclub
The Democrats should filibuster, and the GOP will withdraw Gorsuch’s nomination and replace it with one that is more acceptable as a bipartisan choice when the country is so narrowly divided. Right?
MomSense
@Butch:
I would absolutely by Saline Dion. Too funny.
Gozer
Oohhh…I wanna be a Formula One or WRC driver. I like going fast and have even driven a car or two in my time.
Of course I’ve never driven anything north of 350 hp but those cars surely must be exactly like my Subaru…amirite?
Yarrow
Democrats should refuse to have anything to do with Gorsuch because it’s no appropriate for a president to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the last year of his presidency.
Lymie
What is ABC’s blog called?
SFAW
@Butch:
Polly-Ivanka Cracker? Her fashion is for the birds? Her designs just parrot Ivanka’s latest half-witted styles?
catclub
@MattF:
Lots of contractors get clearance – consider the private companies that build spy satellites.
So some sort of employment includes contractors.
It would be absurdly simple for Trump admin to get a contract with a contractor who will need a clearance. Also bald-faced corruption in this case if the person with the clearance is Ivanka.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So on the electronics ban, an interesting thought is this – there is one aspect that is commercial protectionism of US airlines. There’s a second aspect, and it has to do with CBP data mining at entry ports – you don’t have the opportunity to wipe memories on the tarmac before exiting the plane, and lots more goodies can get yielded up.
There will be retaliation by affected countries applicable to US carriers. This is going to kill business travel, which will make WWC voters in Appalachia and the Deep South happy, since they don’t go anywhere, aren’t interested in going anywhere and don’t like the idea of anyone going anywhere.
SFAW
@Gozer:
Cole can help you with that.
Yarrow
@Amir Khalid: They will, Amir. They will. The noose is tightening.
And as I’ve said before, he’s going to throw everyone under the bus before he’s forced to leave. He’ll release dirt on every Republican. If they have ties to Russia, he’ll leak that out in an attempt to muddy the waters and hopefully survive in a shitshow of “everyone does it so it’s okay.” The possible exception to being thrown under the bus is Ivanka.
amygdala
Drat. I was hoping there’d be t-shirts with pics of a wine seal sculpture or maybe some chickens and a boxer. :(
Timurid
The underrated story of yesterday happened at the rally, when Trump admitted to harassment and intimidation against a private citizen and private businesses (Kaepernick and NFL teams). Back on Earth 1 that would be an impeachable offense by itself…
Aleta
People were angry and suspicious when Bill Clinton said he might talk over policy with Hillary. (They backed off on that, and then she volunteered to work on health care.)
hilts
@Achrachno:
Jamie Gorelick is an asshole for representing Ivanka Trump who is a fucking asshole just like her dad.
Starfish
I was convinced that once you started your fashion line, you would move to California, and join the class action.
SFAW
@Lymie:
Balloon Juice.
Cole signed it over as another way to get in good with her kids. Of course, it might have the opposite effect (“Mom? He gave you that shitty blog, and you accepted it? Ewwww!”)
Roger Moore
Absolutely. Apart from the worthwhile small chance of success, there’s no point in trying to preserve the filibuster if you back down from using it when it’s justified. What’s the point of saving something if in the process you guarantee you’re never going to use it for its intended purpose?
Starfish
@Lymie: Have you been there yet? Is this it?
hovercraft
If my dream of living in the space station doesn’t pan out then I would like the job of Twitlers shrink. See the sacrifices I’m willing to make for you all?
I will tell him once and for all that no you parents did not love you, you were always insufferable an too needy, they much preferred the girls, look how they turned out. You will never be able to prove yourself worthy, because you are not. The entire world thought you were an ignorant buffoon, but now you have shown them that that was an insult to buffoons, you are worse than that. Please just stop talking, just sit in a corner and watch TV, don’t do anything, don’t say anything, don’t sign anything, just relax for the next four years while your spawn rakes it in and finally makes you as rich as you claim you are.
SFAW
@Yarrow:
Win.
Just One More Canuck
@Gozer: Did you apply for this job?
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/10687501/wanted-one-mercedes-driver-for-2017-formula-1-season
smintheus
@Aleta: Republicans made a huge deal out of the fact that Hillary was put in charge of shaping the health care bill. Now Trump has put first-lady-manquée in charge of shaping the health care bill.
smintheus
@Yarrow: Comment of the day.
narya
@Gozer: You got to it first! I also want to be a Formula 1 driver. For Mercedes. Even though I haven’t driven a vehicle of any kind for about 20 years. And I want to drive an IndyCar for the 500 (even though that means missing Monaco) and for RoadAmerica. And I want to be a major-league shortstop, too; the seasons overlap, so I”m not sure how I will manage it.
bushworstpresidentever
“Should the Democrats blow up the filibuster in an almost certainly futile attempt* to block him?”
In a word, “YES.” So that forever after, Gorsuch will have an * following his name as a reminder that he is filling the Garland seat on the Supreme Court.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
I’m with you. If the R ticket was elected due to the actions of a hostile foreign power – an act of war – with aid from American traitors, the election results cannot stand. No Pence, no Ryan, no none of ’em. Seat Secretary Clinton as the true 45th POTUS or call a new election.
Jeffro
@Yarrow:
And/or to fill a vacancy once the 2020 campaign has begun, which it did late in the day on January 20th, 2017, when Trumpov filed his re-election papers. He made himself ineligible to nominate anyone for SCOTUS just hours into his term.
Mike in DC
HWDIP–He Will Die In Prison
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
Same thing w/ the Electoral College: since it was not used to stop the minority-vote-getting, completely-and-obviously-unfit-for-office demagogue in thrall to a foreign power Trumpov, it serves no purpose and should not continue.
artem1s
Too bad, Mitt missed his chance to install Rafalca in the Senate. I plan on entering this years Kentucky Derby.
Major Major Major Major
Published author!
Pogonip
@Yarrow: Rules are for the little people.
Yarrow
@Jeffro: Very good point. We’re in the middle of the 2020 presidential campaign that started on inauguration day when Trump filed his reelection paperwork. It’s not appropriate to consider a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of a campaign. Let the voters decide!
Jeffro
@hovercraft:
If you don’t get to go, you can at least get alerts when it’s going to be flying overhead – SO cool!
And next time you’re in DC, go see A Beautiful Planet at the DC Air & Space museum – unbelievable shots from the ISS. Thunderstorms at night from space!
Brachiator
Sweet boneless Jesus!
That SNL mock commercial for an Ivanka product called “Complicit” should redone to feature a new product called “Un-Indicted Co-Conspirator!”
There was a recent Balloon Juice thread that asserted that Trump was just a typical Republican. But you really have not seen shit like this outside of a third rate banana republic, or an early episode of “The Borgias.”
We could also talk about how the First Lady seems to have been pushed aside and demoted in favor of the First Spawn, but such speculation would be rude.
@Aleta:
A lot of people, including me, have problems with spouses and close family members being assigned roles in government, no matter how capable those people might be. There are obvious problems with accountability and conflict of interest. Could anyone zealously disagree with the spouse of a president? A spouse has no constitutionally recognized position in the executive department. Would a president be willing to fire a spouse? And some later rules were obviously crafted to deal with a situation like the one in which JFK appointed his brother Bobby to be Attorney General, with obvious concerns about distinctions between constitutional duty and family loyalty.
But Trump blows all this to shit and makes my concerns seem quaint with his layering of family in various quasi-government roles, while seriously pissing on any pretense of observing any rules concerning propriety, conflict of interest, perceptions of honesty, let alone obedience to or even recognition of constitutional authority.
cmorenc
I could serve as Secretary of the Posterior in the Trump Administration – documenting for history each occasion when Trump makes an utter ass out of himself. I would be very, very, busy at my post.
RAM
Not even sure why the Dems are participating in the hearings. Right wingers questioned during confirmation hearings routinely lie about their records and their views on constitutional jurisprudence, so, it seems to me, the whole thing is worthless. Thomas, Roberts, and Alito all lied their asses off during their confirmation hearings and nobody seemed to care overly much about it.
glory b
@lollipopguild: She can’t even write a children’s book without getting grief from Josh Barro and Matt Yglesias.
catclub
@Jeffro:
so funny.
Like bankers not getting their bonuses when they crash the economy. Or torturers in the Bush admin being brought up for trial.
I’d like that pony, also.
burnspbesq
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Unless I’ve missed something, there doesn’t seem to be any impediment to backing up and then wiping devices that are going into checked baggage before you stick them between two layers of dirty undies.
cmorenc
@bushworstpresidentever:
Gorsuch isn’t going to give a shit about the circumstances of his nomination or confirmation hearing, any more than Clarence Thomas does. He’ll cry all the way to his next vote on some constitutional issue, to paraphrase Liberace’s famous quip about criticism of his musical talents.
hovercraft
Spicey will send out a denial in 5, 4, 3, 2, …….
Founder Of Anti-Muslim Group Says She’s Attending White House Meeting
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/brigitte-gabriel-white-house-meeting-claim
The founder of the anti-Muslim group ACT for America claimed Monday night that she would be attending a meeting at the White House.
Brigitte Gabriel asked readers for advice on what to bring up in the meeting:
The White House has not responded to TPM’s request to either confirm or deny that Gabriel had a meeting scheduled with anyone in the Trump administration.
ACT is known for its extensive grassroots structure of hundreds of local chapters, which play host to a traveling circuit of “counter-terrorism” and anti-Muslim speakers. BuzzFeed noted Monday that ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn called Islam a “cancer” at an ACT meeting.
Gabriel (born Hanah Kahwagi Tudor), the Southern Poverty Law Center noted in a profile, once told the Australian Jewish News that “[e]very practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.”
Gabriel said during a panel at the Heritage Foundation in 2014 that 15 to 25 percent of all Muslims worldwide were “radicals” dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization. Gabriel later criticized a Muslim law student who asked a question at that event for not asking about the four Americans killed in the 2012 Benghazi attacks, the panel’s topic.
“No White House official should be meeting with the leader of a hate group that is one of the main sources of growing anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation,” Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement Tuesday. “This meeting should be canceled immediately and an explanation should be offered as to why it was scheduled in the first place.”
ETA link
catclub
@burnspbesq: Yes, but all that has to be done before you get to the airport. Any international traveler should assume that anything in their laptop will be copied, either by the US or by the Customs authorities of other nations.
burnspbesq
@Jeffro:
Can you share your plan for getting the necessary Constitutional amendment through both houses of Congress and 38 state legislatures?
Major Major Major Major
@burnspbesq: they probably just don’t want moose-lambs to have creature comforts. If they could just say you must charge Muslims ten bucks for water because national security, they would. And of course this will depress business by middle easterners. More business for real Americans, that’s how it works right?
cmorenc
@burnspbesq:
…except that most folks wind up chronically pressed for time to pack their stuff and get to the airport for check-in on-time, and now they won’t have those several hours in the air to thoughtfully tackle the task of wiping drives. To get ‘er done, folks might have to forego that last night of drinking and carousing on the town in Paris or wherever…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Raoul:
He was refering to those presdents like GW Bush who were quaint enough to belive in Democracy.
rikyrah
@Kryptik:
Amen
Yarrow
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: @burnspbesq: It doesn’t really matter if you can back up a device or not. Who wants to stick their computer or tablet in unlocked checked luggage? Oh, sure, you can use those TSA approved locks, like those are so secure no one can open them. Uh huh.
No valuables in checked luggage is what smart travelers do. Even if you clean your devices before you board, no one is going to want to risk them being stolen from their luggage. it’s going to affect travel either way.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: I think it’s much more likely that they aren’t going to filibuster the nomination because they don’t want to filibuster the nomination, not because they want to “save the filibuster”.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@rp:
Well… the way affairs a running, you just might end up w/ a brand new civil war to study… your lucky year!
Miss Bianca
Well, I don’t know about moving into positions I’m ill-qualified for, but I’m feeling an itch to get some EMT training after dealing with a friend’s horrific compound leg fracture this weekend.
hovercraft
@Jeffro:
Thanks very cool, my 10 year old love all things space, we’ll have to put that on our to do list.
Seanly
Would it be wrong of me to speculate that Trump & his daughter have a thing? I look forward to the real life reboot of Chinatown:
Ivanka: “She’s my daughter.”
[Gittes slaps Ivanka.]
Gittes: “I said I want the truth!”
Ivanka: “She’s my sister. . . .”
[slap]
Ivanka: “She’s my daughter. . . .”
[slap]
Ivanka: “My sister, my daughter.”
[More slaps.]
Gittes: “I said I want the truth!”
Ivanka: “She’s my sister AND my daughter!”
I also look forward to Republicans being perfectly fine with this. Burned steaks with katsup, ince$t, whatevs…
D58826
@Raoul: Well I guess if she helps keep his grubby little hands off the nuclear trigger she is worth twice the price
D58826
@rikyrah: agreed. It might be the last stand at the Alamo but to mix metaphors better hung for a wolf than a sheep!!!!
Thru the Looking Glass...
With Ivanka **cough, cough** joining the Administration, along with Conway’s husband, it looks like Trump is retreating behind the castle walls, pulling up the drawbridge, and surrounding himself w/ ultra-ultra loyalists… I wonder how much this has to do w/ his own party slapping down his wiretapping allegations? He told a big lie and they refused to follow his lead…. they’re ALL f’in traitors now…
It feels like this absurdist drama has shifted from one phase to another in the last past week…
liberal
@Jeffro:
Huh? How’s it an act of war? Not that I hate Republican perfidy on this less than the next guy.
Tom
@The Moar You Know: I have to respectfully disagree that we can live with Pence. At the moment, Trump’s incompetence, ignorance and psychological issues are interfering with the Republican Party’s desire to finally, after decades in the wilderness, inflict their heinous agenda on the rest of us. Pence would be much more adept at moving it forward.
MattF
@Thru the Looking Glass…: Yeah. This administration sheds new light on the phrase ‘family friendly’.
prob50
Newkleeyer fizzzassist, but only after I’m done being a teen-idol.
Gelfling 545
Since we’re going to have to re-establish the whole damn English language, we’re in for a long slog. Anericanese? Good god!
Thru the Looking Glass...
@MattF: They’re also busy, busy, busy giving some enterprising writer an incredible trove of source material for an amazing mini-series on HBO in 3 or 4 years…
zhena gogolia
@Mike in DC:
You are such an optimist.
MattF
@prob50: You mean newkuulur.
prob50
@raven:
Hey! What’s wrong with a 66? I’m 66.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Gelfling 545: Well… I think we can assume Mr. Lord will be allowed inside the castle walls…
And I think it’s authentic frontier gibberish….
catclub
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
I saw no slapdown.
Comey repudiated Trump as little as possible. he volunteered nothing.
All the GOP House members protected Trump as much as they could by bringing up irrelevant questions.
There were two different hearings in the same room, yesterday, depending on whether questions were asked by Democrats or Republicans.
StringOnAStick
@Miss Bianca</a@Miss Bianca: Probably the best way to do that is to spend the $ on becoming a Wilderness First Responder, (WFR). It is kind of like a back woods, no ambulance, what do I have on hand to help this situation sort of EMT. I took the training 10 years ago after having come across a few accidents while hiking or back country skiing, and realizing that formal training would have at least helped and also helped me deal with the emotional after effects of being in such a stressful situation.
My current job requires that I take BLS training every 2 years, but that is basically what to do while here in civilization with access to things like an AED and an easy way to get 911 responders there quickly. Of the two avalanche situations we happened into, both were less than a half mile from a major highway, and in both cases it took over an hour for SAR to get there; truly, you are on your own once you are out of the range of an ambulance and it’s gurney.
beth
I guess I missed something – exactly what child care and maternity leave plans has she masterminded? I haven’t heard anything specific had been proposed.
Major Major Major Major
@Tom:
I think we should get rid of the unstable, at-the-minimum-too-compromised-to-govern, possibly-traitorous, Nazi-enabling fuckstick in office first, and then worry about their heinous agenda (which Trump would also happily sign).
prob50
@MattF:
My misteak.
TriassicSands
It is my fervent belief that the more appropriate way to separate Donald Trump from the office he so richly doesn’t deserve is not through impeachment but via the 25th Amendment.
Impeachment will almost certainly do no more than reaffirm that Trump is a crook, something we already know. Yes, there is justice in acknowledging the obvious in a formal setting, but it seems redundant.
However, removal by using the 25th Amendment makes a much more important statement — Trump is no fit to be president. It has the additional feature of labeling as mentally ill and by extension, in need of mental health services — probably for the rest of his disgusting life.
Nixon was a crook and would have been removed in a Senate trial had that been allowed to happen. In the best style of a criminal, Nixon smartly resigned and kept intact all the riches that being an ex-president lavish on those — deserving or not — who filled that office. Trump is so much more (and less) than a mere criminal and his diseased mind, myriad dangerous personality disorders, and delusional detachment from reality deserve formal historical recognition.
No, it won’t happen, but in a just world it would be inevitable.
StringOnAStick
That tweet from Richard Wolfe that someone posted yesterday sure made my blood run cold. Basically he was saying that if there is some sort of major attack here, the administration will use it as a way to take over complete control and never give it back. That’s one way to get that permanent rethuglican majority that they’ve been after, and the evil minions Bannon and the rest are more than capable to making that happen while twitler sits in the corner playing with his precious Android.
Chris
@Brachiator:
Policy-wise, he’s a typical Republican. That’s not to say that he can’t breach the idea of what’s “typical” in other ways.
StringOnAStick
@TriassicSands: It seems obvious that installing Ivanka in the WH is a desperation move, necessitated by daddy’s increasing mental fragility. We just have to figure out how Putin got her marching orders to her. /s (but only partially).
hovercraft
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
The real world outside of Trump Tower is cold and cruel, they refuse to believe his lies and everyday they keep asking pesky questions about what he says and does, what the hell is this, don’t they know that he is the Emperor, I mean King, shit I mean President, what he says is true?
This is not what he signed on for, this is supposed to be a ceremonial job, Dense is supposed to be the CEO and take the brunt of the blame, he’s the Chairman of the Board dammit!! When the Company issues a statement, you’re supposed to just accept it, not ask questions, that’s how it’s always worked for him.
By bringing in all his sycophants and familiars, he hopes to add a layer of people to whisper sweet nothings in his ear and tell him all s well.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@catclub: Actually, they DID NOT back his wiretapping claims… slap down…
debit
I would like to be a pop superstar. I can’t carry a tune, but they can fix that these days, right?
sukabi
@Snarki, child of Loki: it’s a start….plus, would have the added benefit of actually draining that swamp of the zombies that keep rising to f things up again and again….heads and sticks needs to apply to enablers in house and Senate as well.
raven
@prob50: Nothing is wrong with it. My 66 Chevy Truck is a bad mofo!
schrodingers_cat
@StringOnAStick: I am sure that’s what they want, it will be a logistical nightmare for starters. Fear is a mind killer, that’s how we ended up with T. Fixating on nightmarish scenarios achieves what exactly?
Betty
@Lymie: ABC Concepts, I believe.
Yarrow
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Yes. And don’t forget that Trump never forgets who has done him wrong and will try to get revenge. If the Republicans aren’t loyal to him then he’ll make them pay. That’s part of why I keep saying he’s going to throw all of them under the bus before he goes. It’s going to get ugly. He will make them sorry they ever supported him.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, like much of what the white house has been up to, it’s clear that they’re *trying* to do stuff like this, and, so far, mostly failing.
Brachiator
@Tom:
Actually, it seems that the Republicans are getting everything they wanted, and more, under Trump’s leadership. The agenda is being pushed further to the right, according to Tea Party/Koch Brothers principles.
I agree with you that we cannot live with Pence, but the GOP right now is more than willing to silently tolerate Trump, and to actively support him where necessary.
Chris
@StringOnAStick:
Personally, the main concern’s been that after any major attack, he’d simply ram through steroided-up versions of his immigrant crackdowns and simply ignore the courts or dare them to stop him. And agencies like CBP have already shown they’re more than happy to go along with it.
Mike in DC
@zhena gogolia:
I hope to some day refer to him only by his BOP number, which should be in the ballpark of 8XXXX-016.
hovercraft
@Gelfling 545:
we’re in for a long slog. Anericanese? Good god!
Alternate fats
Don’t take the President’s words literally
We’ve been through the looking glass for a while now. We are now through the rabbit hole in an enchanted forest where up is down, round is square and anything you see and or hear did not happen, just what the White House tells you is true until they change their minds and that too did not happen.
Got that, erase any and everything you know to be true, and just await the latest update from Twitler and his liars, sorry Americanese interpreters. Who knew that we’d need a translator to understand what the hell our president was talking about.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: There’s also the small matter that deposing the president and nominal leader of their party might, you know, destabilize them a bit and hamper their ability to pass legislation. Plus the filibuster exists, and Mitch along with a sufficient number of Republican senators obviously want to keep it around.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Yarrow:
Only time will tell and I think you’re right about this… when he goes, he just might deliberately take the entire Republican Party down w/ him, or at least anyone he perceives as not siding w/ him… I can’t imagine people like McConnnell & Ryan aren’t shitting bricks behind closed doors and desperately discussing Plan B… at what point do they cut their losses and bail?
Thru the Looking Glass...
@hovercraft:
Yup… he’s retreating into the fortress he made from the sofa cushions… next it’ll be a box of graham crackers, a bottle of scotch, and ann old copy of Playboy…
Nelle
We can’t have a Supreme Court nominee hearing during a campaign according to McConnell and, since Trump filed for re-election already, we can’t possibly have any hearings.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Shush get with the program. Republicans always get what they want.
We should cower and whine. Because they are such supermen, the Rs and their new supreme leader.
hovercraft
@beth:
She’s a woman, she’s a wife, she’s a mother, those are her proposals.
Her ability to help moderate her father is also evident in his restraint towards Transgender issues, meals on wheels and all the other social programs he supports, her top achievement though was convincing him about the waste that goes into feeding poor kids, she championed using that money far more wisely by building a wall to keep those kids from being murdered by roving hordes of illegal Mexicans.
Origuy
@StringOnAStick: I second the suggestion for Wilderness First Responder. I took Wilderness First Aid a few years ago; I need to recertify. WFA is a two day course, as it’s taught by the outfit I took it from. WFR is five days. They define wilderness as anywhere that would take an EMT more than an hour to reach. The first day of WFA was spinal protocol; how to move someone when there’s a possibility or certainty of spinal injury, but they absolutely have to be moved. The second day was everything else; splinting, snakebite, anaphylaxis, etc.
TriassicSands
I think this question poses a genuine moral dilemma for Democrats, progressives, lefties, and others who oppose Trump and the Republican agenda both separately and together.
It is fine to hope that Trump’s incompetence will continue to pose problems for the Republicans in trying to inflict their nightmarish agenda on this country — especially on its most vulnerable citizens.
However, Trump poses a very real threat to the safety and well-being of this country that goes beyond the possible realization of the Republican agenda. He could easily propel us into an unnecessary and disastrous war costing countless lives and doing extraordinary damage to untold innocent people, not to mention the environment. Is the use of nuclear weapons out of the question?
With that in mind, then what is best for the country, one could argue, is the removal of Trump from office with the fight over the Republican agenda taking place in what has become the normal political setting for Democrats versus Republicans.
There is no question that Trump’s removal would make it easier for the GOP to successfully wreck this country’s safety net, health care system, and judicial system. But those are the normal risks that representative democracies face when the voters elect the likes of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, that’s right. Should I also be calling for an armed insurrection?
debit
@hovercraft: Totally OT but I feel compelled to tell you that every time I see your handle I mentally add “is full of eels.” Just wanted you to know.
KS in MA
I’m gonna be a college president. Nice salary, great vacations, nice perks. And I’d be good at handling the occasional crisis: “So what if the students rioted when Mr. Bell Curve came to speak? Go talk to their parents, not to me!”
Major Major Major Major
@TriassicSands:
Uh, I question this. Non-Trump Republicans are still subject to political gravity, and there’s the filibuster.
Felonius Monk
@raven:
I had a ’56 BelAir hardtop when I was in college. It looked just like this.
Nice wheels. :)
hovercraft
@debit:
Heh, heh.
How’s my Hungarian?
Chris
@TriassicSands:
It’s also the fact that different people will suffer under Trump versus under Generic Republican.
Women and poor/working-class whites will probably not see much difference from one to the next – destroying the safety net in general, the parts of it that women depend on in particular, and rolling back women’s rights have all been key to the GOP agenda for long enough that I’m under no illusion that threats like ACA repeal wouldn’t still be on the table. We may even be at less threat right now given the clumsiness of the Trump administration, though Paul Ryan’s managed to impress me in that department too, so maybe not.
On the other hand, I think it’s a safe bet that Hispanic and Muslim immigrants and refugees in particular, and nonwhites in general, are in much greater danger from Trump in particular than they would be from any other president. Though knowing the success that has with their base, the entire party may simply add things like the Muslim Ban to the hive mind.
Spanky
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Aaaaand right on schedule:
Yarrow
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Yep. And McConnell at least has a lot to be nervous about. I’ve mentioned it a bunch but something made him go from “no investigations” to “we’ll investigate” in the course of a day or two. And when he made his announcement that he would authorize investigations into Russian involvement he looked like someone was holding a gun to his head. I’ve never seen him look so nervous.
I think it’s because he’s got a lot to hide and it was made clear to him that if he didn’t authorize investigations his secrets would be revealed. And not just that supposed military stuff. I think his wife’s family has a lot of questionable financial dealings. And if someone let’s Trump know about that, he’ll use it to make McConnell look untrustworthy before he (Trump) is forced out of office.
I’ve said for awhile that the Republicans’ best move is to distance themselves from him and get rid of him as soon as possible. They aren’t doing that. He will make them pay when they finally do.
debit
@hovercraft: It makes my nipples explode with delight.
Mel
As a literature and creative writing teacher with a near complete absence of any math skills, I think I am uniquely qualified to be the new CFO of Betty Bling!
Does the fact that I have sewn a sparkly, lime green majorette costume and a fuchsia hoodie for a cat disqualify me? Wouldn’t want to foul the waters by bringing any remotely relevant experience to this bold, disruptive new business model!
AnonPhenom
@Tom:
Agreed, particularly since impeaching him before Jan 1919 would be impossible without The Republican Party’s help, and they would only do that if they saw that it was to their Party’s advantage. Hang him around their necks like a lodestone.
hovercraft
@Chris: Agree, policy wise the GOP is getting what they want from Twitler and would do so under Dense. The biggest difference in my opinion is the overt blatant racism, xenophobia and misogyny would be tamped down. Knowing that the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave has emboldened them, they are not whispering or speaking behind closed doors, they are shouting it out on the streets. Dense would go back to dog whistles, and make it safer for all of us others. Parents and kids telling kids to go back to Mexico at robotics contest , waiters saying they need to know if you are a resident before they serve you, these are all at Twitler’s feet.
TriassicSands
@Major Major Major Major:
I didn’t say it would make it a “done deal,” only that it would be “easier.” With Trump’s incompetence out of the way, that would be one less impediment.
Major Major Major Major
@TriassicSands: You think having the head of your party, no matter how crazy, forcibly removed from power is less of an impediment than having him there? Might suck up some of the political oxygen, no?
TenguPhule
Head executioner of the Truth and Reconciliation committee of America.
Chopping Republican heads off day after day and mounting them on pikes for display.
Its a tough job, but someone will have to do it.
Timurid
@prob50: Well done, sir.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Spanky:
Kinda sounds like a threat to me…
Shorter Trump: I know where you live…
***shrugs***
sukabi
@tomtofa: from what Adam Silverman has said, the president can get one for whoever he wants…
Seth Owen
Yes, Democrats should filibuster. If blocking a stolen Supreme Court seat isn’t a big enough reason, what would be?
Plus if the GOP gets away with this there will never be another Democratic justice.
ruckus
@Gozer:
Have driven a 400hp twin turbo 4wld Toyota on a racetrack in the rain. I’ve actually road raced motorcycles, and I’m still not a racing driver or rider. And it isn’t due to my age.
Chris
@hovercraft:
Well, all that and his own offensive against them. The rhetoric and the knowledge that they have a friend in the White House has given the various racists a huge shot in the arm in itself, but he’s done plenty of damage himself, too.
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: And Srinivas K, murder too.
arrieve
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Not just business travel, but also tourism. I just flew back from Amman a few weeks ago, and I had a laptop and expensive camera equipment, neither of which I would ever have put into checked luggage. Of course, I stopped over in Paris, so that means I wouldn’t have been subject to this ban in the first place because reasons.
Also, can I just say that the security at your average Middle Eastern airport is much much more stringent that anything in the U.S. Flying out of Amman you go through security four times — car inspection when you get to the airport, luggage xrayed before it can be checked, security line after checking in (during which every camera lens and every piece of electronics was removed from my carryons and inspected) and yet another security checkpoint before actually getting on the plane. Plus in some airports every passenger has to go into a cubicle and get frisked, though they didn’t find that necessary in Jordan.
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Yarrow:
This is the conclusion I reached too… the Republicans have TWO choices here: bad, and worse…
The bad choice is biting the bullet and cutting him loose as soon as possible and hope to minimize the damage to the party… the worse choice is holding on as long as possible and thereby increasing the level of damage to the party by whatever factor you can imagine…
There’s too manny truly dangerous variables in this situation the GOP can’t control…
What will the Russians do? Or the Chinese? Or the N Koreans? None of them are truly our or Trump’s friend, especially the Koreans…
Will one of his own people, like Manafort, turn tails and cut a deal?
And what info does a European govt have, that was collected eavesdropping on the Russians?
And then there’s always the ultimate wild card himself… what might Trump tweet out some Saturday or Sunday morning at 3 am when he can’t sleep?
You’d have to be crazy to not realize what an untenable risk management situation you have on your hands here…
sukabi
@Yarrow: from your lips…
And HELL YES!
Major Major Major Major
@Thru the Looking Glass…: You’re forgetting that the Russians might have something on the members of congress themselves.
Brachiator
@Chris:
Still incorrect.
Bush and Reagan, for example, were typical Chamber of Commerce Republicans with respect to illegal aliens, especially Latinos as potential “guest workers.”
Trump’s attitude is outright racist and nativist.
Trump’s budget and some of the utterances of his cabinet appointees is outright plutocratic.
@Major Major Major Major:
The Republicans are in a sweet position. They are not going to dump Trump no matter what. But they would get pretty much what they want from Pence with respect to domestic policy.
The wild card is foreign policy. I don’t know if much was made about the treasury secretary refusing to buy into standard language favoring free trade during the recent G20 talks. Trump has done much to repudiate Obama’s achievements, much of past Democratic Party accomplishments, and here a chunk of the previous policy of both parties. I’m not sure how far he will get with this, but he seems to have an infantile fantasy of making his administration Year Zero of the Age of Trump.
Ultimately, Trump and the Republicans seem to believe that they can exploit one another for their own ends. Unfortunately, this is not going to work out well for the American people.
sukabi
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: also going to further depress tourism, both into and out of US.
Jeffro
@burnspbesq:
Sure…but you have to subscribe to my newsletter first! ar ar ar
TriassicSands
Oh, Jeebus, another delusional person with, at best, a tenuous tie to reality.
Jeffro
@hovercraft:
For the ISS alerts: you’ll get an email or text about a day in advance. The ones worth noting on your schedule are the ones that will be overhead from 4-6 minutes (6 is max) and somewhere from 45-90 degrees overhead. You’ll see a single bright non-blinking gold light going over without a sound. We’ve probably caught a glimpse dozens of times and it never gets old =)
Jeffro
@liberal:
I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that when a hostile foreign power undertakes intelligence operations designed to put their own agent in power, take control of our government, or cause so much chaos as to paralyze our government…that’s an act of war. They’ve done it with hacking and selective leaking and supporting their guy instead of tanks and artillery, is all.
J R in WV
@Lymie:
ABCConcepts.com… but I suspect her twitter stuff is more up to date. She doesn’t have a troop of
monkeys, er, rabid jackals, uh oh yeahtrusted associates writing comments and front pagers posting with her on the blog yet.Thru the Looking Glass...
@Major Major Major Major: Details, details…
We’re reaching a point where we need a serious score card just to keep track of all of this…
I’ve been wondering about that… what else do the Russians have on the GOP?
danielx
Engineer and architect, all wrapped in one. I want to build shit! I want to build the BEST and YUUUUUGEST….something.
Except a wall. I don’t want to build a wall.
sukabi
@beth: during the convention she proposed something about childcare that would have only applied to well off women who had very good jobs..
Also, she appropriated proposals from the women in her company to help make their working lives a bit better, and has claimed them as her own.
It’s what she does…takes other peoples’ products, cheapens them, claims them and profit!
danielx
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
Short of murder, bestiality and pedophilia, I’m not sure it matters to the Republican base. I think it is pretty well established that they don’t have a problem with incompetence, corruption, insanity and cruelty. Oh, and misogyny.
O. Felix Culpa
MLB third-base coach. I’ve watched baseball games (does that make me overqualified?) and I’ll wave the runners home.
sukabi
@debit: ???
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
OOWwwww !!!
Wrap it tight after applying cleanser etc. With splints to keep it from bending away from it’s natural shape post injury.
Miss Bianca
@StringOnAStick: good idea, thanks for the tip!
Thru the Looking Glass...
@danielx:
Dingdingding! Annnnnd… we have a WINNER!
Janelle
@Elizabelle: Gorsuch is going to get on SCOTUS regardless of what the Democrats do. If they filibuster, McConnell will just go to the nuclear option and the filibuster will be effectively dead for all future SCOTUS nominees.
Which might not actually be a bad thing.
Janelle
@catclub: Unlikely that The GOP will call for Gorsuch to withdraw in the event of a filibuster. More likely that McConnell goes nuclear and kills the filibuster, and Gorsuch then gets confirmed 52-48 on a straight party-line vote.
Aardvark Cheeselog
@Aleta: The way I recall it, it was an enormous scandal that Hillary had any policy role while Bill was preznit. IOKIYAR FTW!
janelle
@Elizabelle:
There is roughly a 0.00% chance of that happening, given that there is absolutely no constitutional provision for a “one-time new presidential election”. Best case scenario (using the word “best” very loosely) if the Russia thing blows up really big is that Trump and Pence both get impeached – assuming both are directly implicated in some way – and Paul Ryan becomes president. More likely would be just Trump getting the boot and us being stuck with President Pence (barf) for the remainder of the term. Bottom line, it’s extremely unlikely that we’re going to have a Democrat in the White House again before January 20, 2021. What’s most important at this point is to take back at least one if not both houses of Congress 18.5 months from now.
Geeno
@debit: The first time I ever saw the hovercraft nym, I asked “Are you full of eels?”. I don’t remember if she got it or not – I think so.
catclub
@Janelle: Really! After reading that you could knock me over with a feather.
Debbie1
All I know is that I fervently hope they documented every item, including books, paintings AND THE SILVER for when these people get through. Mark my words, some will be missing or “misplaced” and the blame will be placed on the domestic staff (in keeping w/ TR*mp’s custom).
Debbie1
@TriassicSands: By the way, only a Republican judge would say that. Dem judges are smarter.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
I wonder what his position on a little SCOTUS decision from 1974 is–United States v. Nixon, I believe it’s called. Was William Rehnquist excessively scrupulous in recusing himself, as he’d been appointed by Nixon and served as Assistant Attorney General earlier in his administration? Were the other eight justices incorrect in their unanimous decision? Where does Mr. Gorsuch stand on the unitary executive spectrum? Does he agree with a Mr. Richard Cheney that the other two branches have no power to act against the Chief Executive in his/her management of the Executive Branch of the US Government?
Seth Owen
@TriassicSands: If that were even remotely true we’d have a justice Garland. The entire point of Republican obstructionism was that there were Democratic judges and Republican ones, otherwise what was the point? I suppose he said that with a straight face, too.
The Pale Scot
Professional Polo player
or
Known as the guy who hunts wild boar on horseback with lance…. Alone
Really don’t know where the equestrian thing came from
The Pale Scot
@geg6:
. Good one, Except I’d take the degree, go to wall street and plant Easter Eggs at Goldmans
TriassicSands
@a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio):
Agreed.
@Seth Owen:
Excellent point.
I heard the tail end of a discussion on NPR (while in the car) about Gorsuch’s hearings. I didn’t get the name of the person speaking but she said roughly she found Gorsuch’s answers to one line of questioning to be remarkably disingenuous. He’s playing the game and like Alito and Roberts before him after he’s confirmed we’ll find out the truth about his “above-the-frayness.”
His stance on physician-assisted suicide is a total disqualifier for me — it tells me that his religious views are paramount. He may try to couch things in terms of the 14th amendment, but I believe he’s lying — or is it just being disingenous?