I don’t suppose any of you are surprised that brave Jeff Flake’s FBI gambit will end in a sham investigation designed to clear Saint Brett:
Perhaps more important, the White House Counsel’s Office – i.e., close Kavanaugh associate Don McGahn – has given the FBI a list of permitted interviews. This list appears to prevent any follow up on a number of leads raised in Thursday’s hearing, such as conflicting accounts of Kavanaugh’s college drinking and the reference to Mark Judge’s high school employment which was referenced as a possible corroboration of Blasey Ford’s testimony.
If we’re being honest, this is really a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.
We’re nearing our goal in the Balloon Juice Forty House Seats To Freedom Fund. The money is split 40 ways by default, but you can give to just a few candidates to minimize mailing lists. If we don’t take at least one chamber this November, I do fear for our democracy, such as it is.
hen I hit the goal, I’ll take recommendations for more races and do those. By the way, last Friday ActBlue took in 11 million dollars, the most ever in a single day.
Doug R
trump tweeted that the NBC story was wrong. Some of us feel that “trumps” any instructions from McGahn.
smintheus
@Doug R: Journalists will keep asking whether the FBI inquiry is limited in scope. Trump has once again – wisely – created a drip, drip, drip story about obstruction of justice.
El Caganer
Oh, yeah, sure, “sham investigation.” No sham, no sham, you’re the sham. You probably think there’s gambling in Rick’s Cafe, too.
pat
I just sent another couple of hundred to Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin first-term senator). I get panicked emails every day from her. Seems the Kochs are shoveling money to her opponent.
SalterWobchak
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Trump has close to no idea what McGahn has instructed the FBI to do or not do.
Armadillo
@dougj I missed the last thread, but I hit up the thermometer this time around.
I also am not going to wade through the comments on the last thread, but I thought you were going for Ministry on that last thread, which I appreciated:
Fuck all these assholes
Stigmata
Don’t tell me nothing but lies
( In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up)
HinTN
Doug! – Because I always miss the post, I’m preemptively putting forward Mariah Philips in TN-04 to remove the odious Scott DesJarlais. She’s a solid candidate on the stump, she’s a teacher so education is one of her main themes, as is healthcare, and she can take a tough question and answer well in the context of the ask.
MagdaInBlack
HinTN
Also too, nope not surprised the game is rigged.
Cathie from Canada
Twitter was discussing this last night, and then conclusion was that the “Trump” tweet was likely from the communications shop , which is disagreeing with McGahn and his buddies, on the scope of the investigation.. McGahn is trying to limit it, but the communications people know very well how disastrous that would be.
MisterForkbeard
I have a BernieBro cousin who has decided that now is the time to yell at people posting Hillary memes about handling hearings well.
Because shes married to Bill. and Bill clearly taped people, and she couldn’t support a Hillary because she was married to Bill and let’s take this moment to spread old rumors about Hillary breaking things in the oval office when the news about Monica broke. Lots of approval from other liberal friends.
Our fucking side, people. We’re so, so dumb. Donating to the fund to balance that out.
MisterForkbeard
@MisterForkbeard: …wow, thank you phone for all those typos. My kingdom for an edit function, etc.
dmsilev
In this context, rigging only works if there’s plausible deniability of that rigging, plausible by the standards of Flake et al. Having evidence of the rigging splashed over the media sort of works against that.
Also raises the question of who leaked the attempted rigging. FBI, probably.
Citizen Alan
@MisterForkbeard:
Your cousin isn’t on our side. Like most of the Bernie trash, she is secretly happy that Republicans are in charge because it lets her wallow and sanctimony.
patrick II
Last night I posted a comment that asserted that if they talked to Judge under oath they might find out a lot more. I did not think Trump would, through McGahn and I guess Wray, would actually name acceptable lines of questioning. I just cannot get cynical enough, but I am working on that.
Doug R
@Cathie from Canada: I think the trump or not not has the chance it was trump at 69%.
Doug R
trump or not bot.
evap
I just threw in another $50. But I find it really annoying that when I click the link I have to fill in my details and even though I have an Act Blue account. Once I fill in, *then* they ask me to log in.
Time to go write more postcards… Here’s another shout out to postcardstovoters.org
Emerald
My sis is a confirmed leftier-than-thou type who still thinks the Russians had nothing to do with our election, Bernie-woulda-won and Hillary is a neoliberal corporatist shill. (I still dunno what a “corporatist” is, but I’m beginning to think it might be their new word for “capitalism.”) She asked me if I’d seen Fahrenheit 11/9 yet. I responded that Michael Moore was going around trashing Democrats at the precise time we must retake at least the House or lose our democracy. She shut up immediately, which probably was just so she wouldn’t get into an argument with me.
I wish I could find some way to de-program her, but she spends all her time with people (Jill Stein lovers) who believe in Pizzagate and Chemtrails. She herself knows better and actually had the sense to vote for Hillary which gives me some hope, but they influence her.
/rant. Le sigh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard: I’m a Hillary Clinton fan and I’m glad Bubba won in 92 and 96, but if I never saw or heard from either of them again, I’d be okay with it. Just by way of context, I’m an even bigger Al Gore fan, and every once in a while I do notice that he’s pretty quiet, and I find it odd, especially where the environment is concerned, but I don’t think i have ever thought, where’s Gore? what does Gore think about all this?
I am baffled that people who hate the Clintons, on the left and on the right, are so obsessed with them.
FlipYrWhig
@MisterForkbeard: Of course about the last person who has a leg to stand on when it comes to creepy views in a previous generation about sex and consent is Bernie Sanders, author of, among other things:
He was constantly writing about how The Man tries to get girls to have less of the hippie sex they obviously want. There’s a thin line between ’60s free love and ’80s frat/club party culture. Maybe the drugs and the hair length are different but the ethos ain’t that different: stick it to The Man by sticking it to that chick, it’s good for her.
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
Honestly, if I found out my husband had been cheating on me and lied to me about it, I would start breaking shit, too. It’s so weird to me that people look down on Hillary for being upset about Monica. What was she supposed to do, nod and smile and be a good Stepford Wife?
MisterForkbeard
@Mnemosyne: No, believe the argument is “She didn’t immediately divorce him and try to get him prosecuted therefore she’s an ambitious harpy and just using Bill for power.”
And then repeat and elaborate o that argument with your friend for… 3 days now so you all feel superior about yourselves, etc.
Dog Mom
@MisterForkbeard: Do you mention all the stuff that Melanie trashed after Stormy got named? And then the other one? Hmm, was there a third?
Gretchen
NRCC has pulled ad money from KS-03 – they’re not liking their chances here! I saw a lot of enthusiasm on the ground when canvassing yesterday.
hells littlest angel
I would probably “forget” to throw some money to Act Blue now and again if it weren’t for these posts, so thanks.
Yutsano
@Gretchen: This is the best news I’ve read all week! I know the last polls had Sharice ahead, but if they’re cutting bait on Yoder that’s huge. Now we have to look where they’re throwing cash.
low-tech cyclist
@Gretchen:
They’ve whaaaaaaat?! They’re giving up on a Congressional district in Kansas?? And one that Cook is still showing as a tossup??
Dayum. I had no idea that was possible.
Woodrow/Asim
@evap: Thanks for that! I’m no good for a lot of the interacting-with-voters stuff, but this sounds do-able!
Neldob
Breseden for Senate in TN. Bring the battle to the tortle, tirtle, uh … turtle. Also, seems TN has a nice get people to vote outfit – civic tn.
Raoul
Thanks to all who’ve chipped in for Angie Craig among the 40 choices. I picked about 15 to give to, including her.
BTW, from the thread below, my partner and I would be quite open to the idea of a Harris/Klobuchar ticket. Kamala at the top as the more sharp-elbowed one, and Amy for veep, a role she would do well – and I don’t mean that as a dig. I think Biden was a great vp for Obama. Someone who could offer perspectives and work collaboratively (if a bi showboaty, which Amy wouldn’t be).
I have my issues with Amy not being ‘liberal enough’ but that’s just me wanting more, not wanting perfection which is useless.
Mostly, we just love the idea of an all-woman ticket. It’d make the contrast stunningly stark. F**k the idea that we need to reach across to butthurt men’s feelings with a M/F or F/M ticket.
As RGB (more or less) said when asked how many women on SCOTUS would be enough and she said “nine” since we used to be OK with nine men. She’s so right on.
Madeleine
I checked my Act Blue and other political giving records earlier in preparation for end-of-month donating. The total was A LOT higher than I expected. I know I’m good at hiding my feelings from myself, and I did not know I was that scared.
Now I’ll go give some money to state races.
Chris Johnson
@MisterForkbeard: So what? Old hat. Just don’t run her in 2020 and get over it. Besides, how sure are you he’s not getting fed that obsession from Russia?
I hang out in a lot of dirtbag left places that aren’t here. There damn well are trollskis posting diligently. For a while there, it was a concerted effort to get the hard left mocking and deriding ‘Russiagate’ people. It got sort of overwhelmed by real people saying “OH COME THE FUCK ON” and showing their work and reasoning. There’s no chance all that Russia-excusing was organic. It was trying to get a sort of meme avalanche going, because that’s how it’s done.
Around here, it’ll be ‘getting people super mad at the now irrelevant and old-news Vermont senator’. Who blew it for a lot of the hard left, by failing to be for gun control, and by not keeping up with younger leftists.
If you rise to the bait you’re just playing into their hands. Nobody in the Democratic primaries in 2015-2016 will be running in 2020. For one thing, they’re far too old, and too easily tied (directly or indirectly) to sexual abuse issues: Sanders’s early writings just won’t do, and Bill’s about as well adapted to 2018 politics as Joe Biden.
TenguPhule
I can’t even.