Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Republicans do not trust women.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Russiagate Open Thread: What Happens to People with A Rep for Not Paying Their Lawyers

Russiagate Open Thread: What Happens to People with A Rep for Not Paying Their Lawyers

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Or maybe it’s just that his lawyers have no faith in Young Jared’s veracity? Via CNN [warning – autoplay]:

In his closed interview with the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner did not share the existence of his personal email account, which he has used for official business, CNN has learned.

CNN has also learned that the chair and vice chair of the committee were so unhappy that they learned about the existence of his personal email account via news reports that they wrote him a letter via his attorney Thursday instructing him to double-check that he has turned over every relevant document to the committee including those from his “‘personal email account’ described to the news media, as well as all other email accounts, messaging apps, or similar communications channels you may have used, or that may contain information relevant to our inquiry.”…

The emphasis in the letter on “all other” personal accounts not known by the committee would seem to be a reflection of the frustration the committee leaders feel with that fact that Kushner was not up-front about the existence of his personal email account and their desire for him to cover the bases of all his possible communications avenues when responding to their letter. This issue could become more serious if there emerge any emails or communications related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that Kushner has not turned over, and whether he did so with the express purpose of concealing information from the committee…

Kushner has been criticized in the past for initially not disclosing more than 100 contacts with foreign leaders including those from Russia, as well as ownership of a multimillion dollar tech company with links to Goldman Sachs and businessmen Peter Thiel and George Soros. Kushner was also one of three top campaign officials or surrogates who failed to disclose a June 2016 meeting with a woman billed as being with the Russian government and having incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.

What can he say, he’s just a very private fella…

Reader Interactions

224Comments

  1. 1.

    encephalopath

    Wait… why would the email application auto-fill the the address of the prankster? Unless, of course, the lawyer had been communicating with the fake Kushner previously. No email application I’ve ever used puts people in your address book just because some spam showed in your inbox.

    How much correspondence has the Kushner legal team had with UK Kushner impersonators?

  2. 2.

    TenguPhule

    In any other administration, he’d be in jail by now.

    But with this illegitimate regime, he’s still sucking taxpayer money.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    This is the first time I have ever written this in this — or any — blog, but:

    I feel like buying some popcorn.

    No, I don’t think this means the end of Lying Littledick’s Maladminstration — and I’d break out the bubbly for that anyway — but Kushner is just such a fucking moron, like his FIL, that I really can’t wait to see how he fucks up next.

    I’m also hoping that Uday’s two-week “off the grid” trip to Canadia to go “moose hunting” turns out to be just what I (or perhaps we) think it is, meaning one or more meetings with Russkie граждане in the employ (direct or indirect) of Vladi Vladimirovich, Then I’d buy a shitload of p-corn, and invite you all over.

    ETA Don’t tell Omnes that I wrote that, by the way. It’ll destroy my doomsayer cred in his eyes.

  14. 14.

    Anne Laurie

    @encephalopath:

    How much correspondence has the Kushner legal team had with UK Kushner impersonators?

    It was already known that Lowell had been in contact with the prankster pretending to be Kushner. (Lego porn? Really?)

    Lowell either didn’t know enough, or just didn’t bother, taking the prankster’s email out of his ‘reply all’ autofill. So either he’s not the best lawyer for such a complicated situation… or he’s not wasting much time for a client he figures won’t pay him anyway, right?

  16. 16.

    MisterForkbeard

    @encephalopath: Outlook 365 and prior does this. If I receive a direct e-mail from someone (not to a distribution list) Outlook remembers their name.

    This is one reason I kept getting email from an old boss to my personal e-mail account – I’d sent him an update on something while I was on vacation, and even though he never replied to it I still got mail from him sometimes.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    Why is Google showing Glenn Greenwald in my news feed? What’s the point of sharing all my data with them? It’s like they don’t know me at all.

  23. 23.

    encephalopath

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Maybe I was just always turning that stuff off when I set up a new account for myself.

    That really does seem like the easiest way to end up sending something to a place it shouldn’t go.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Is Jared really that stupid?

    :: whistles to self, drums fingers on table, while attempting to come up with a new and clever way to say “SATSQ” ::

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    CNN via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    CNN has also learned that the chair and vice chair of the committee were so unhappy that they learned about the existence of his [Kushner’s] personal email account via news reports that they wrote him a letter via his attorney Thursday instructing him to double-check that he has turned over every relevant document to the committee …

    Well of course they’re unhappy. Republicans spent the entire election weaponizing the use of private email accounts against Clinton, and now they’re staring down the barrel of gun, aimed at them, that they built and paid for.

  34. 34.

    TenguPhule

    @JGabriel:

    Republicans spent the entire election weaponizing the use of private email accounts against Clinton, and now they’re staring down the barrel of gun, aimed at them, that they built and paid for.

    The Republicans will sell us the rope we hang them with.

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    Why is Google showing Glenn Greenwald in my news feed? What’s the point of sharing all my data with them? It’s like they don’t know me at all.

    Or they know you too well.

  38. 38.

    Chyron HR

    @debbie:

    The only surprise is who would win the Stupid Contest, Abbe Lowell or Ty Cobb.

    Well, Ty Cobb possesses the secrets of the Pelnish lore, so he has that going for him.

  41. 41.

    A Ghost to Most

    As Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan asked the press secretary for a clarification on what the president intended with his days-long rant about athletes taking a knee during the national anthem, Sanders cut her off by saying, “I don’t think there’s much to clarify — it was pretty black and white there.”

    Clueless, or intentional?

  42. 42.

    geg6

    This fucking guy. I can’t decide if he is really stupid enough to think he can get away with this shit. You’d think the son of a criminal might have learned a thing or two about how not to end up in prison.

  45. 45.

    Anne Laurie

    @geg6:

    This fucking guy. I can’t decide if he is really stupid enough to think he can get away with this shit. You’d think the son of a criminal might have learned a thing or two about how not to end up in prison.

    From everything I’ve read, Jared — like his old man — doesn’t think Daddy did anything wrong, he just got punished by haterz & luzers for being too extremely awesome. If he (and, may it please Murphy the Trickster God, his wife’s father) end up in jail, that will just be more haterz & luzers at work.

    A guy with this mindset (using the term ‘mind’ loosely) doesn’t learn from experience. Especially if — again, from reports — he is maybe not the most engaged intellect ever to have Daddy buy his way into HBS….

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    Hey, who was it who was giving me a hard time last night because I called out Charlie Pierce for wrongly using “flaunt” when he should have used “flout”?

    Happy to report that he quietly made the change. Don’t know whether he saw my comment here (he is known to lurk at BJ now and then), or a similar comment on his FB page, but I’m happy he’s paying attention.

    Thanks, Charlie!!

    :: waves ::

  51. 51.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: OMG! Glenn Greenwald ads are gaslighting our Baud! Snap out of it! (Administers type of slap hard boiled detective employs in noire movie). We need you to be strong!!!

  53. 53.

    Redshift

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Is Jared really that stupid?

    From everything I’ve read from people who’ve actually met him, yes. He has that Trump-Dunning-Kreuger thing of thinking he’s brilliant because no one around him is ever allowed to tell him he’s wrong, plus the belief that being rich will always allow him to get away with anything, because it always has.

    Among the many lessons I hope get learned from this maladministration is that rich assholes should stay out of the federal government because it’s the one thing that can still fuck them up.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Miss Bianca:

    Oh, I don’t think this comes close. I’ve seen nyms here that run to at least three lines, and are laden with emojis and other graphics. Mine is but a passing breeze.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    Why is Google showing Glenn Greenwald in my news feed?

    It seems they recently massively increased the amount of random crap they’re putting in feeds. I used to get a small number of carefully tailored items in the feed on my phone. Now it’s full of whatever news items Google has decided I ought to be interested in. They’ve obviously been spying on me because they’re doing better than completely random, but their AI obviously needs a lot of work.

  58. 58.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @TenguPhule:

    Kushner has been criticized in the past for initially not disclosing more than 100 contacts with foreign leaders including those from Russia

    Waitaminite…

    ONE HUNDRED?

    Why the f’ is he NOT in far, far, far more trouble, let alone still have a security clearance?

    Simply astonishing…

  76. 76.

    Hal

    Just when you thing you’ve seen the stupidest fucking think ever on social media:

    Katie Pavlich
    Katie Pavlich @KatiePavlich
    Or how about when Michelle Obama voted for Barack over Hillary? Did she “vote against her own voice” by not voting for a woman?

    Like, the fuck?! Conservatives are so horrific at analogy.

  85. 85.

    jl

    @Baud:

    ” I hope Mueller runs an undercover sting operation on Trump. ”

    That would be great, if Meuller gets the goods. Baud 2020! promised to stay away from ideas, but I’ll give a pass on this one.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Kathleen: Did you see the (I think it was) Saturday Night Live episode from decades ago, where they just had the Pips on, doing the background and no one at the mic up front who would have sung the lead? It was funny.

    edit: without Gladys Knight.

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @WaterGirl:

    Yup, that was it. Sorry, couldn’t remember who had commented on my little pedantic rant last night. And I meant nothing offensive or negative by the term “called out” — just remembered there was a brief exchange.

  89. 89.

    TenguPhule

    Touting his intention to cut costs in wasteful military spending, Trump criticized the Navy’s program to replace its steam-based catapult system on aircraft carriers with a digital one. He compared the digital catapult system, called the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System, to the digital seat controls in a car.

    “It’s like when you get a new car and you have to be a computer genius to fix your seat, right?” he said. “The seat’s moving all over the place, it’s unbelievable.”

    It was Tuesday. It feels like forever.

  91. 91.

    Kathleen

    @MomSense: I’ve seen Kool & The Gang, Huey Lewis & News, Doobie Brothers – and, yes, they all worked their asses off. Their energy and enthusiasm after years and years of performing the same songs were amazing. They’re glad they can still perform and draw crowds and it shows.

  92. 92.

    jl

    @Roger Moore: They’ve decided I want to buy large food items over Amazon. Is it the huge brains at Google doing that?

    Side of aged beef. Hundred pound wheel of cheese. Industrial size batches of high quality pastry cream (frozen, delivered overnight).
    Are they trolling me on the difficult time I have controlling my weight, or do they think I will buy that stuff?

    Edit: I am tempted. Especially the pastry cream. I think it is some half-way made stuff, you defrost it and whip it up. I am picky about pastry cream. But, if I don’t like it, what am I going to do with the rest of the ten or whatever gallon bucket of it?

    Edit2: I only buy technical books online. And specialized software packages. Maybe they are desperate to find something, anything I will buy. Or punishing me for not buying. I dunno. Now I have endless silly internet clickbait come-ons. Is that Google ad placement too?

  95. 95.

    Kathleen

    @WaterGirl: No, I did not. But remember David Gregory’s back up dancing to Karl Rove’s “rap” at on the of DC Correspondent dinners? I used to say Gregory was one of Karl Rove’s “Pimps”. Some blogger – might be Pierce – still refers to Gregory as “Dancin’ Dave” to this day.

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    @JGabriel:

    , the entire title of the Fiona Apple CD more commonly known as “When the pawn …“.

    Hoagy Carmichael is rolling over in his grave.

    [Since it’s a pretty obscure reference, Google “I’m a Cranky Old Yank”]

  102. 102.

    Quinerly

    @Anne Laurie:
    I didn’t understand Lowell taking this case in the first place. I’m sure we all remember him as Chief Minority Counsel to the Dems during Bill’s impeachment, plus years ago Lowell ran for office in Maryland as a Dem. Tonight, I finally checked his Wiki page to try to game out the puzzle in my mind. Recently, he’s represented Charles Keating, Jack Abramoff, and John Edwards. Enough said.

  107. 107.

    dmsilev

    @jl: Years ago, I bought some random thing from Amazon and was told that people who had bought that had also bought ‘Clean underwear from The Gap’. So many questions. For instance, does this mean The Gap also sells dirty underwear?

  110. 110.

    TenguPhule

    @Tenar Arha:

    Did you see the LGM post on the inability of in air refueling for the replacements for Air Force One.

    Can’t do LGM since they decided to change displays. I’m guessing its bad though.

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet):

    I didn’t see anybody call you out, but I was silently cheering you. I saw Pierce’s column and thought about leaving a comment over there, but I couldn’t summon the energy. He also had one other semi-howler in that column that I can’t remember now.

    Oh, I know. It was in his big finish. He said something like “If you voted for Trump [or something something] you deserve anything that goddamn happens to you.” That just jangles incredibly. It should be “You deserve any goddamn thing that happens to you.” That scans.

  112. 112.

    Boatboy_srq

    @Anne Laurie: Sounds like the typical middle-aged-or-older, technodysfunctional attorney to me. Enamoured of the gadgetry, but too inattentive to use it properly or recogmize that it won’t work with the rest of his office equipment.

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    Via CNN:

    Russia is warning the United States: Back off our media.

    The country’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued a warning Thursday that Russia would retaliate if U.S. authorities took action against their government-funded media outlets in the U.S. RT and Sputnik. Every act, she said, will be met with a response.

    “Russia is dedicated to all international statues and norms regarding the freedom of speech and proved that on many occasions,” Zakharova said at her weekly briefing. “When it comes down to a fight with no rules, when the law is twisted and turned into an instrument for the destruction of a TV company, every step against a Russian media outlet will be met with a corresponding response. And whom this response will be aimed at, that is what Washington needs to figure out well. The clock is ticking.”

    Golly Gee, someone has a bee up her bonnet.

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Steeplejack:

    He said something like “If you voted for Trump [or something something] you deserve anything that goddamn happens to you.” That just jangles incredibly. It should be “You deserve any goddamn thing that happens to you.” That scans.

    I noticed that, slightly, and it made me itch, slightly, but the flout/flaunt thing sent me right round the curve and I didn’t bother with lesser offences. In a perfect world, of course….

  116. 116.

    JMG

    Lowell defends the people in the most trouble because they are the people who pay defense attorneys the most money. It’s just business. He wasn’t gonna become a public defender in Baltimore or anything like that. Since he’s not a chump, and isn’t really worried about collecting on his bill, I think this “mistake” was because Kushner has been lying to him, Lowell knows it, and took this means of showing how that could lead to Allenwood, Danbury or Lewisburg.

  117. 117.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Steeplejack:

    I was silently cheering you

    I own, and often wear, a tee-shirt with the slogan “I AM SILENTLY CORRECTING YOUR GRAMMAR” on the front. Every now and then I wear it when I’m working at the library. The librarians all love it.

  119. 119.

    John Revolta

    @SFAW: I’m gonna do this from memory:

    I’m a cranky old Yank in a clanky old tank
    On the streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu mama
    Doin’ those beat-o, beat-o, dead on my feet-o
    Hirohito blues

    I haven’t heard that in maybe 30 years. Now how come I can’t remember somebody’s name five goddamn minutes after I meet them?

  120. 120.

    lollipopguild

    @SFAW: I believe Kroger sells gourmet Velvetta. “Specially enhanced Velvetta to make your Velvetta experience just that more special!” You do not like velvetta? Commie!

  121. 121.

    Fair Economist

    @TenguPhule:

    Russia is warning the United States: Back off our media.

    The country’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued a warning Thursday that Russia would retaliate if U.S. authorities took action against their government-funded media outlets in the U.S. RT and Sputnik. Every act, she said, will be met with a response.

    What will they do? Block US mass media in Russia? If we stop Russian agents from broadcasting in the US, they’ll stop Russian agent manipulated media from broadcasting in Russia?

    Don’t throw me in that briar patch!

  122. 122.

    John Revolta

    @WaterGirl: I remember that- it was hilarious! They did all the steps and shit……………”Too much for the man……………..Woo woooo!”

    I think it was on the great but short lived Richard Pryor Show.

  123. 123.

    SFAW

    @John Revolta:
    Nice job!

    One minor (possible) correction: I believe it’s “beat-o, beat-o, flat-on-my-seat-o” — but I’ll step out for a moment to check

    .
    .
    yeah, my version is the right one. But you still get a prize. Maybe Gin & Tonic will but you a round?

  125. 125.

    Roger Moore

    @Hal:

    Conservatives are so horrific at analogy.

    It’s not so much that they’re bad at analogies as it is that they’re trying to justify awful positions. When there are no good arguments in favor of your position, you’re stuck pushing bad arguments.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Steeplejack:

    I’m living it every day.

    Not so “SILENTLY,” though, amirite?

  129. 129.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Steeplejack:

    (blah blah blah change it already)

    My nymism proceeds at its own pace.

  130. 130.

    John Revolta

    @Fair Economist:

    What will they do?

    You mean, what will they do that’s worse than what they pulled last November?

    For God’s sake, don’t let’s try and find out!!

  135. 135.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @lollipopguild:

    “Velvetta” reminds me of a lovely short-story mystery series from 40 or so years ago, about a specialty detective named Nick Velvet. His real surname was Velvetta, but he shortened it because he didn’t want to be thought of as a cheese-like product. Edward D. Hoch was the author, and the stories always dealt with the theft of intrinsically worthless things. No diamonds, or valuable papers, or high-priced cars or furs — just things like one or two letters off a sign in front of an abandoned building, or a week-old newspaper, or something equally innocuous. Velvet always had to figure out why the client would pay his high fee for stealing something of no value. Clever plotting.

    ETA: Pretty sure I first read most of them in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, although they may have been anthologised in paperback at some point. Not even sure EQMM is still publishing.

  136. 136.

    Corner Stone

    Call me crazy but I do not want a WH Cabinet HHS Sec who can afford to write a million dollar check to reimburse travel costs. I know lots of them are wealthy, on both sides, but they can’t possibly know what real life is like if that’s just a check they can toss off.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Four full lines on my cell phone display. Four lines.

    You break my heart. Talk to Mumphrey, or the Canadian Anchor Baby.

  139. 139.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @SFAW:

    Well, except for the ones who pronounce it “Lie-berry.”

    Some do, but only in Febuary. Which usually occurs during nucular winter.

  142. 142.

    Roger Moore

    @SFAW:

    Unpossible.

    What’s next, “gourmet Velveeta”?

    You need to try to genuine aged Dutch Gouda. It’s one of the world’s great hard cheeses. And, FWIW, you can make something very like Velveeta, at least in terms of its melting characteristics, from just about any cheese, so you could make a gourmet “Velveeta”.

  143. 143.

    rikyrah

    I will say this – don’t come for Jane Fonda if she hasn’t sent for you

    ………………………………………………………

    Jane Fonda’s Death Stare to Megyn Kelly Soothed My Soul

    Y’all. Y’ALL. In these times of dumpster fire, joy must come wherever we can find it and I have found glee today!

    Megyn Kelly, white privilege Barbie, has a new morning show on NBC.
    Those fools over there chose her over Tamron Hall, so you know I already wasn’t wishing the show well. Add to the fact that Megyn ain’t got the good sense God gave a goat and what you have is a “get busy, karma” holiday party.

    Jane Fonda got a new movie she’s starring with Robert Redford, called Our Souls at Night so she decided to grace Megyn with her presence.

    Sometimes, you gotta do lessers massive favors like this.

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    @Corner Stone: Listening to NPR at rush hour: Price is paying for his seat.

    His seat. Period. They made it clear he’s leaving most of the charter charges to the taxpayers.

    Fucker. Although: has that changed? I may not have kept up.

  153. 153.

    Elizabelle

    @TenguPhule: the fucker speaks:

    “Today, I will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes,” he said in the statement. “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes.”

    My seat. Not the pilots, not the lav, not the wings or the engine or the other seats on the chartered jet.

    The Times does not specify, but I would guess Price’s seat is in the vicinity of $2,500/flight, if that, which is not 10% of the total charge. Anyone else seen how much these flights cost? Recall: one of them was 130 miles. Asshole could have been driven there, in an SUV, sipping champagne and noshing on caviar in the backseat. For way less. No pilots. No avgas.

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    @Corner Stone: I hit mute as soon as he’s on. It’s the most irritating commercial out there. I bet it gets people to change the channel or turn the set off.

    Memorable, but awful.

  156. 156.

    TenguPhule

    @Elizabelle: Last estimate was $420,000 (And those are just the flights we know of from FOIA requests).

    He’s offering $52,000.

    Let that sink in for a moment.

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    Democrats just keep winning Republican seats they shouldn’t be winning
    CNN

    By Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

    Updated 12:13 PM ET, Thu September 28, 2017

    Roy Moore’s victory in Alabama dominated the news on Wednesday. But, it was two far less high-profile races on Tuesday night — one in Florida, one in New Hampshire — that may well give us the best indication of where we are headed in the 2018 midterm elections.
    In Florida, Democrat Annette Tadeo won a Republican-held state Senate district 51% to 47%. In New Hampshire, Democrat Kari Lerner beat a former Republican state representative to fill a state House district that Donald Trump won by 23 points last November.
    Those twin wins make it eight Republican-controlled state legislative seats that Democrats have flipped in 2017 alone. (Republicans flipped a Democratic state House seat in Louisiana earlier this year although Democrats didn’t even field a candidate in that race.)

    That means that of the 27 Republican-held state legislative seats that have come open in 2017 to date, Democrats have now flipped almost 30% of them — a remarkable number in any circumstance but especially so when you consider the average Trump margin in these seats in 2016 was 19 points.

  161. 161.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @dmsilev:

    Would a bigger phone help?

    Or rotating 90° to landscape mode?

  163. 163.

    rikyrah

    Noam Scheiber‏ @noamscheiber

    Morning: Supreme Crt agrees to hear case that wld cripple public unions

    Lunchtime: Gorsuch talks to group funded by same ppl funding case

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @TenguPhule:

    Yup.

    TPM:

    An HHS spokesperson later told TPM in an email that “Secretary Price will write a personal check to the US Treasury for $51,887.31. The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for his seats on charter planes.”

    Politico exposed upwards of $400,000 in taxpayer dollars spread across dozens of private charter flights in an investigation last week.

    FTF NYTimes: and note: there’s another $500,000 in jets for Europe jaunts:

    …Politico published a series of reports detailing the secretary’s spending.

    The newspaper said Mr. Price took at least 26 flights on private jets, including to Nashville, where his son lives, and where Mr. Price owns a condominium, and to St. Simons Island, a Georgia resort area where Mr. Price owns property and recently spoke at a medical conference. Mr. Price also booked a charter flight that included a leg to Philadelphia from Dulles International Airport in Virginia, a distance of about 130 miles. Mr. Price told Mr. Baier that all were undertaken with his agency’s approval.

    Mr. Baier [of Fox News] pressed him on the cost of that travel — which Politico estimated at over $400,000, a number that has not been disputed — and asked why Mr. Price had only offered to pay back only $51,887. Mr. Price said that amount covers the cost of his seat on the trips, and the total bill remains under review.

    But there’s more: jets cost is up to a million:

    On Thursday night, Politico reported that the White House approved Mr. Price flying on United States military aircraft to travel to Europe, Asia and Africa for official events, at a cost of more than $500,000. The military flights were approved by Joe Hagin, a White House deputy chief of staff, an administration official confirmed, and Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said such travel “is sometimes an appropriate and necessary use of resources.”

    Combined, the total cost to taxpayers for Mr. Price’s flights comes to more than $1 million, according to Politico.

    Even odds Trump fires Price’s ass, and some will praise Trump’s “ethics” and concern for taxpayer money. (Although, maybe not. The Secret Service has already exhausted its budget; Trump family is profligate… everyone who’s not a Fox jackass knows this.)

    Unless — what might Price have on Trump and admin?

  167. 167.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Kathleen:

    That sounds like an extended Bob and Ray sketch.

    Wally Ballou! International House of Toast!

  169. 169.

    burnspbesq

    Re Lowell’s email: lots of good lawyers are dunderheads when it comes to technology, and the IT folks at law firms more often than not don’t have the clout to protect the lawyers from their own folly. Which is why there are poorly-attended programs on the ethical duty of technical compliance at lots of conferences these days. I probably have the slides from said presentation at the ABA Tax Section meeting two weeks ago, but if you’re guessing that I haven’t looked at them yet, you get a cookie.

  170. 170.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    Morning: Supreme Crt agrees to hear case that wld cripple public unions

    Lunchtime: Gorsuch talks to group funded by same ppl funding case

    Dinner: Gorsuch found dead in a dark alley, believed to have committed suicide by stabbing himself in the back. Repeatedly.

  171. 171.

    TS

    @TenguPhule:

    Politico just added a couple of overseas flights – those major cities with no commercial airline flights
    “Accompanied by his wife, the HHS secretary journeyed to Geneva, Berlin, Beijing, Tokyo and other cities for events.”

    Price’s wife, Betty, accompanied him on the military flights, while other members of the secretary’s delegation flew commercially to Europe.
    HHS spokeswoman Charmaine Yoest said Price has reimbursed the agency for the cost of his wife’s travel abroad, but declined to say when he did so.

    Tom Price used military jets

    They just hate government waste, government employees and those they are meant to serve – but they love living the high life on the government tab

  174. 174.

    Kathleen

    @SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet): @SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet): I saw the nym “‘ly Ballou” on a thread the other night and lifted my mouse in a silent toast.
    Also, too, “Ladies Grab Your Seats” with the closing line, “Damn the pop up toaster”.

  176. 176.

    TenguPhule

    Trump on Thursday said the federal government is doing “a GREAT job” responding to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico and suggested the media was not covering his administration’s efforts fairly.

    His comments on Twitter come as Trump has faced strong criticism for not being as engaged in the recovery from Hurricane Maria as he was for other recent hurricanes that hit Texas and Florida. And reviews on the ground in Puerto Rico have been mixed.

    “FEMA & First Responders are doing a GREAT job in Puerto Rico,” Trump said in a series of tweets, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    “Massive food & water delivered,” Trump said. “Docks & electric grid dead. Locals trying … really hard to help but many have lost their homes. Military is now on site and I will be there Tuesday. Wish press would treat fairly!”

    Via Wapo.

    He’s doubling down.

  177. 177.

    Tenar Arha

    @TenguPhule: I’m going to block quote a paragraph or two below for you.

    The problem here is generated by Trump’s flat idiocy. The President doesn’t understand why things like sophisticated airplanes cost a lot of money, and he declared that the new Air Force One was too expensive. Of course, sophisticated airplanes DO cost a lot of money, and the USAF is trying to resolve the problem by refraining from equipping the Presidential aircraft with refueling capabilities. In-flight refueling is, literally, one of the most important things that a Presidential aircraft can have, apart from, say, engines and wings. Consequently, even if the USAF buys the two aircraft in their current condition, it will need to retrofit them, at tremendous expense, at some future point with inflight-refueling capability. This expense will, unsurprisingly, run considerably greater than just building it into the damn planes in the first place.

    There is no limit to the amount of taxpayer money you can waste in service of preventing the waste of taxpayer money.

  178. 178.

    germy

    @rikyrah: Interesting and brutal article you linked to:

    If any believers in the Myth remain after the brutal week McConnell just endured, which capped off an unbelievably brutal eight months, they should take this challenge: Name one major legislative accomplishment to McConnell’s credit over the more than 30 years he has been in the Senate. (Last minute deals don’t count.)

    You can’t do it: Unlike former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (my former boss) and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, McConnell has never authored a single piece of major legislation that became law, nor has he successfully shepherded a single major bill to passage as leader.

  189. 189.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JGabriel:

    Well of course they’re unhappy. Republicans spent the entire election weaponizing the use of private email accounts against Clinton, and now they’re staring down the barrel of gun, aimed at them, that they built and paid for.

    But wait… I NOT OKIYAR?

  194. 194.

    efgoldman

    @Elizabelle:

    how is the granddaughter time going?

    As expected, she is a delight, but her parents will pay when they get home over the weekend.
    Today we went and met the cows at a local dairy farm (G&T and pa know it – Wright’s) and just had to go in their on-site bakery….
    Right now she’s badly over tired. Mommy and Daddy aren’t here (she’s showing him where she went to school in Western MA) and she’s not used to them not being here when she is. So she’s bounced from our bed to hers to theirs’….

  199. 199.

    Gravenstone

    @rikyrah: Even better, he gave that talk at a Trump property. Nothing like a little tip o’ the cap to the guy who gave you your lifetime sinecure.

  201. 201.

    Elizabelle

    Watching the end of Burns’ Vietnam series. So very sad.

    Amazed anyone from the invaded population ever helps us, given our history.

    We have not done well by our Iraqi translators. South Vietnamese could have warned them about that.

  204. 204.

    Elizabelle

    @raven: Thank you. Will look it up.

    Thinking of you as I watch this. Have missed about half of the series; will catch up later.

  205. 205.

    efgoldman

    @ThresherK:

    Our regular holiday visits to folks near ye olde 146 always has a few pies from Wright’s.

    It is, unfortunately , much, much too close to home.
    OTOH, Crugnale’s, an excellent Italian bakery, is literally right next door to my PT place in the same strip.

  207. 207.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Didn’t some foreign potentate recently give us the gift of a Komodo dragon?

    You mean the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest living lizard, a ferocious carnivore, found on the steep-sloped island of Komodo in the lesser Sunda chain of the Indonesian Archipelago and the nearby islands of Rinja, Padar, and Flores? That one?

  209. 209.

    Gin & Tonic

    @raven: Bought that the week it came out.

    To Elizabelle: PDF of that book is freely downloadable. Since Snepp himself cannot make any money from it (see 444 U.S. 507), you’re not cheating anyone by downloading it.

  210. 210.

    SiubhanDuinne (at some point in the indeterminate future to be known by my real name, Judith Mann Costello, but maybe not quite yet)

    @ThresherK:

    Wow! Can’t believe anyone even remembers the Nick Velvet stories! Not great literature by a long shot, but fun and clever diversions. (I feel the same way about Hugh Pentecost’s “Pierre Chambrun” short stories. Loved them, and must re-read one of these days.)

    My mother subscribed to EQMM as far back as I can remember. And I kept the renewals going for years after she died.

    Yes, I loved the TV series, too.

  213. 213.

    Tenar Arha

    @Major Major Major Major: Hopefully it actually won’t be Trump’s (impeachment, resignation, or loses election in 2020 would do ?).

    ETA I forgot the most important part, the wink to indicate I’m trying to be funny).

  214. 214.

    Elizabelle

    I think Price will be fired or will quit, within 7 days time. Maybe sooner. Maybe tomorrow. This is outrageous, and has embarrassed the administration by its nakedness.

    What do you guys think?

  215. 215.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle: I think I want him jailed, to include actual prison time.

    He may resign but Trump can’t fire him. If he does, then what about Pruitt? What about Trump, himself?

  218. 218.

    J R in WV

    @SFAW:

    You ever hear of those famous Philly (PA) cheesesteak hoagies or whatever they call them? Molten velveeta cheeze whiz… unless you specifically ask for provolone, or some other real cheese they might have in Philly.

    Terrible with cheezewhiz. Terrible!

  219. 219.

    SFAW

    @J R in WV:
    I was (un)fortunate enough to go to either Pat’s or Geno’s some years ago. I had never had a Philly cheese steak before then. Nor have I had one since then. Because ….

    when I was in college, we used to get our subs from The Hawk Shops, just down the street. Although filling, their subs were pretty greasy, and we used to joke that the Hawk Bomb was given that name because of what it did to your stomach. But I would take one of The Hawk Shops’ greasiest cheese steak 15 times out of 10 over that crime-against-humanity they serve in Philadelphia.

    The Philly cheese steak is like the Shitgibbon of the small-eatery world. “This is the BEST sandwich in the Universe, and I have the BEST (sort-of) cheese!”

    ETA: In case it wasn’t obvious: yes, I have choked down a Philly cheese steak.

  221. 221.

    J R in WV

    @Tenar Arha:

    Another thing Air Force One requires that the average airliner doesn’t – twice the electrical wiring, all hardened against EMP from a nuclear attack.

  223. 223.

    J R in WV

    We have a small franchise called Steak Escape, 6″, 9″ foot long. Steak, Chicken, Ham or Turkey, peppers, onions and mushrooms with the meat of the grill while you watch. Provolone. Great fries.

    Malt vinegar, cajun sauce, I’m there every week or two, they know us. I usually get a large fry and a size larger sandwich just because I’m a regular and talk to them.

    That’s a real cheese steak. Wonderful.

  224. 224.

    Anne Laurie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    maybe J-Kush really is into lego porn.

    I wouldn’t say this except on a dead thread, but I would not be surprised if Kushner downloaded actual crush porn. Possibly without understanding what the term meant!

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