prayers up for the nyt editors who i assume are working on 9 front page pieces on this for tomorrow's paper https://t.co/9WUz6VVnPE
— John Whitehouse+ (@existentialfish) February 7, 2022
Scoop: National Archives last month had to retrieve boxes of Trump WH records from Mar-a-Lago that were improperly removed from the WH. The items included correspondence w Kim Jong Un. With @jdawsey1 @thamburger & @AshleyRParker > https://t.co/ZdGvEk66Zv
— Jacqueline Alemany (@JaxAlemany) February 7, 2022
… Trump advisers deny any nefarious intent and said the boxes contained mementos, gifts, letters from world leaders and other correspondence. The items included correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which Trump once described as “love letters,” as well as a letter left for Trump by President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the contents.
Two former advisers described a frenzied packing process in the final days of the administration because Trump did not want to pack or accept defeat for much of the transition…
The Archives has struggled to cope with a president who flouted document retention requirements and frequently ripped up official documents, leaving hundreds of pages taped back together — or some that arrived at the Archives still in pieces. Some damaged documents were among those turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob…
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a member of the Jan. 6 committee who did not have knowledge of the Mar-a-Lago transfer, said the overall records situation reflected the “unconventional nature of how this White House operated.”
“That they didn’t follow rules is not a shock,” Murphy said. “As for how this development relates to the committee’s work, we have different sources and methods for obtaining documents and information that we are seeking.”
The records’ removal to Trump’s Florida club will be investigated, said House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.). In a statement, she called it “deeply troubling but not surprising.”…
“I don’t think he did this out of malicious intent to avoid complying with the Presidential Records Act,” one former Trump White House official said. “As long as he’s been in business, he’s been very transactional and it was probably his longtime practice and I don’t think his habits changed when he got to the White House.”
‘Very transactional’ — that’s a nice new euphemism for ‘sticky-fingered as a gecko with kleptomania.’
The key to the stories about Trump's serial violation of the Presidential Records Act is that he was repeatedly told he was breaking the law, but he kept doing it.
Same was true of the Hatch Act. His whole administration's attitude was that obeying the law was optional.
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) February 7, 2022
But who among us *hasn't* walked off with fifteen boxes of federal property explicitly covered by legislation clarifying that you are not the owner of said property? WHO I ASK
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) February 7, 2022
Stuff TFG figured might be incriminating, he tried to destroy. (Wasn’t there a Final-Days story about him trying to eat a torn-up memo telling him not to do something egregiously criminal?)
Because they are the only love letters he’s ever been given
— moon cake candy flipping (@br0k3nhalos) February 7, 2022
I personally suspect this was the cache of material he thought he could resell for ‘historical value’, alongside Melania’s NFTs…
I want to know more about the soccer ball from Putin that communicates with cell phones.https://t.co/yla7Qcd9mp
— Tired Dad (@psheneghan) February 7, 2022
(Nah, that ball was stuffed with $100 bills and red Starburst candies, both long since eaten up… )
Fair Economist
We need to Benghazi this. Appoint a special prosecutor. Insist on seeing every document Trump has on the grounds that it might be held in violation of the Presidential Record Retention Act.
Caphilldcne
Good Morning, baaalloonnjuuuice! It’s 37 in the nation’s capital and your weary DJ can’t sleep! We’re gettin ready for a fake convoy of “truckers,” the Canadian women’s hockey team played their whole game with masks on, and twitters on fire about whether Tarantino could remake Pulp Fiction “these days.” Its 1:11 am!
Caphilldcne
Also I can’t stay on topic. Completely agree with @Fair Economist.
Bnut
OMG, I can’t study anymore. Tell me someone here has had an amazing experience with an occupational therapist so I don’t feel like I’m throwing my brain against a wall for no reason.
HumboldtBlue
Women’s snowboard parallel giant slalom racing where the Russian gets knocked out in an early upset is fun.
U.S. Women’s hockey getting smacked by the Canucks, not so much.
LongHairedWeirdo
I really wanted to share this with you all, you were all part of making it possible:
Love any corrections, additions, and sharing elsenet. I’m a full time Weirdo for now.
(begin)
Why don’t we do more of this?
Respectfully, Mr. Dickenson, yes *the* Bruce Dickenson.
Sorry, Mr. Walken. I know. Cowbell. Cowbell Cowbell Cowbell.
I have an *awesome* idea. Let’s *stomp* that meme, and replace it with AWESOME. (Er, I’m sure on the cool kids, on facetube, would say it better, these days. Still: awesome, awesomer, eh? Interested? cartoon eye waggle – eh?)
Redo it. Cowbell played by a guy in a 5 color stripe suit. Life Saver, get it?
LRPBD: Fellahs, that was two good tracks. What’s the problem?
S1:It’s just, I find lifesaving pandemic restrictions awfully annoying. I dunno, if it’s just me, I’ll shut up.
S2: Naw, they’re pretty rough.
LS: I can try to pull it back. A little.
LRPDB: But not too much. People are dying!
Look, I’m angry right now, and I want *SEETHING* rage, I admit it, but for now, let’s just make something beautiful. We’re *all* being distracted by the overzealous cowbell, we all hate it, admit it. But remember: once it’s done right, everything became awesome. The cowbell was accepted. Like Wreck It Ralph! Sometimes bad guys need love.
I believe, in real life, it was laid down, to avoid the terrible fate you presented, (slow and careful) “Mr Walken -not-Dickenson, can you see it? “people are dying”. “I got a FEEVUH”.
Or maybe you can do something cool, instead.
I love that I can say that, without caring if anyone thinks I’m cool or not. It’s a recent change, and I *love* it (“See what I did there” smile.).
It’s a very recent change. For the first time in my adult life, I *want* to live. I *want* to see the project. I want/need/must be part of the Project.
Until very recently, sorry, melodrama, but: I just couldn’t let someone I love grieve needlessly, so I had to try to stay alive. What I’m doing, right here, right now, typing? Hurts. More than you can imagine, because *I* couldn’t even imagine it, or imagine surviving it. IT lasts FOREVER AND ALWAYS, yes, it’s melodramatic.
And now that I’m happy to be alive it’s time for a riff on an old song:
I have a dream I’ll go spinning some stories, spread a little loving as I keep spreading love
Something always happens, whenever we’re togther, our loving keeps on growing as we’re spreading that love
Sing along if you remember The Partridge Family!
Think you could do it better? Send it to the LongHairedWeirdo if you can find the right one. Think it’d be fun to sing that sort of a riff on that song for me, maybe even make it an actual theme song? I’d LOVE to hear, maybe see it! See how it works?
Mock it with cruelty, better be good – the “Weirdo” ain’t for show, we mock right back, or congratulate you on a FUNNY, not CRUEL parody, see?
This – this style of talking, that’s my way to love, to try to make people laugh and be happier. Don’t use mine. Model it after me, I’m proud, but I’m the only me, and you’re the only you, so you have to make the decisions, right? Mr Rogers would approve!
Can we all laugh about our own inner goofiness for a bit? And stop, think, “how can I make someone happy”. Not my fellow D or R, *someone*. But if you rerealize you can do it for the other side, well, that will help spread love, yes, corny, and trust, not at all corny.
See, some people say, folks like this here LongHairedWeirdo, he hates people like them. If he’s a D, he hates Rs, and if he’s an R, he hates Ds. That’s no good. That way lies hate, lies, injustice, and indifference. The Weirdo loves you. Not always perfectly, doesn’t always like you, and, if he feels Mr. Rogers might not approve of the person you’ve grown into, he’ll let you know. Mostly, politely, but it’s sometimes more FUN to do it with humor, and he tries to be loving, but he fails. We’re all human.
Now, I’m not Charlie Brown, fine fellow but I’m *not* wishy-washy. Yeah, I love that hapless kid, too, just like you did, if we are of a similar age. Bless him, the Christmas special, for being always magical. I also have an AWESOME story about Joe Shlabotnik I’m working on.
It might make people smile and laugh. Isn’t that *cool*? If you don’t think so. I think it’s cool… so you don’t have to!!! – Scrubbing Bubbles, it’s probably on YouTube. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone just now made sure, so they could upload it, if not? I’m a specific LongHairedWeirdo, I got GAME in love, but I can’t do it alone. No one can. Nevertheless we can all make it more awesome… it’s our choice.
Listen: either the Democrats are unjustly on the warpath, or the Republicans are withholding vital information from the American people and should stop stalling, whatever the reason is for their stalling – unless they want us to think they’re hiding something. Why not blow the fake accusations entirely out of the water? Only the truth can be trusted – nothing less will do. Common sense, right?
If you’re not guilty of anything, why not? And even privilege only increases the level of interest needed – even if former President had perfect executive privilege, that privilege should cede, given the national interest in the truth, and the damage done if it’s left concealed – the loss of trust. Let’s love each other enough to listen. Let’s trust both sides to look out for justice first, party second. Our house, the people’s house, was ransacked. That shrine to democracy was torn apart, spread with feces, and police fought for their lives and those they protect.
I’m a mathemagician, see, so you can trust me when I say: Love+truth=justice, and no lesser combo can do it, we need love, and TRUST so we get the real truth, not the typical BS.
GO. Be AWESOME. Be NICE.
Spot a mistake here, me, the Self Righteous Weirdo? Correct it for me, instead of mocking it. Or be *funny*, not mean.
I want a childish insult trade with Ann Coulter, starting with me saying “I’m going to win so hard, it will blast her everliving frilly panties off!” (frilly replaces ____ing) and have her respond with how she’s going to beat me like a drum, so hard it’ll stuff my dirty jockstrap down my throat. I wanna respond “Dirty? Don’t get personal” and have *her* respond “Clean, until a microsecond after it’s on that THING.”
Might sell more books, and nicer ones, might not, but it would be funny and fun. And I want a world where having mentioned panties can be juvenile, not sexual, “eeew, girl cooties!” 12 year olds can have *scads* of fun if they’re all in on the joke, if kindness is intended. Why not try it out?
Say “loved it!” to Mr. Walken, with no mention of cowbell, please? Not for me, just, it’d be a great way – he’ll either guess “cowbell” and appreciate the respite, or ask, and we’ll know what *would* make him happy. It’ll spread, like wildfire, because that’s what love does. I hope. I dream. I have FAITH.
For the man who brought us the smooth, unflappable, not entirely coherent, Bruce Dickenson, shouldn’t that be what we do, when we hear stories, he almost regrets doing it, and so forth?
Do this: Mr. Walken, I don’t know your politics. If you hate mine, please remember that I stood up to make a crazy suggestion because I thought it would help. We’ve seen enough of the “cowbell” reporting that this seems like the decent thing to do. I’m truly sorry if this doesn’t make us both a tiny bit happier, it’s just, no one will listen to little old me… unless they *care*, see? And we *so* need more caring today. And I promised myself, if I was going to be crazy, it would be to hit that cowbell, one more time, see if we can do it. Okay, AND it could be awesome squared! So, I hope you know, or come to learn, I am sincere.
Once we care, we can fix the real problems, and not just have shouting matches. And isn’t it awesome, even if the shouting continues? Go watch Klaus for an answer, and turn some, not all yet, of the cynicism off. Oh, yes, America. It can be. Let’s try to make every town Santa’s home base, where it all began, *before* the magic took hold. Let’s BE the magic. Or do something even more fun, and loving. Or not. Your choice, but I happen to be having a ball, through all the pain. (Yeah, I love you enough to push through the pain. Ask my Beloved.)
All of us, Imagine:
Christopher Walken’s “sacrifice” made something *awesome*, and we could just maybe use that for something even more awesome, awesome-squared, because I’d be so tickled if this happens, for all the right reasons, and other folks might just see the *MAGIC*, see? How EASY it is? I want Yoda to judge, and Yoda says: Easy, it is. Harder, it gets.
BIG HAND FOR YODA, PEOPLE, BRING IT!! The *perfect* gift of *understatement!*
My way, see? Find yours. Tao of Steve, detach, be awesome and just stop right there, for now. Share Tao of Steve. Or not, it’s your choice.
And don’t be afraid to have fun with Yoda, either.
Imagine: “I’m telling yah, fellas, you’re going to want that lifesaving”.
Some weirdo – wait, “Weirdo”, it’s a title, weirdo’s merely accurate. I don’t know who it is came up with this idea, and hoped it would kick off…
The LongHairedWeirdo Project, named for another long-haired fellow, who got nailed to a, uh, tree, for saying it would be great if we all were nice to each other. This time… maybe it could work… and no one will have to get nailed to anything, either! Except maybe in construction accidents… they do happen. Be your own, best, Weirdo.
Ruckus
@Bnut:
Define the word amazing in this context……
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@Bnut:
The OT who worked with my mother when she broke her femur at the age of 99 was wonderfully clear and helpful in explaining what goals she needed to hit and why they mattered. She also managed to monitor her on working towards these without being patronizing or condescending, which was not a universal skill for people in that therapy team.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@HumboldtBlue: Ask the Finnish women’s ice hockey team how they felt about their game against the US.
Lacuna Synecdoche
WaPo via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Boxgate: But his boxes!
Seriously, if there was no nefarious intent, then that would be the first moment in Trump’s life without nefarious intent. Nefarious intent is Trump’s state of being. He has no other motivation, no other consciousness.
Redshift
My recollection is that was at the beginning of his term (part of the original story about aides rescuing documents and taping them back together.) Back before it stopped getting coverage, I guess because it was old news or something even though we now know it kept happening.
eclare
@Redshift: That was also my recollection, at the beginning of his term. Maybe Omarosa revealed it?
Redshift
The thing I don’t get about the shredded documents – why didn’t the staffers just have multiple copies of the documents, and file the copy TFG didn’t shred instead of taking them back together? I’m guessing the regulations are that it has to be the actual document the president sees, but it seems pretty weird.
Redshift
@eclare: Ah, that might have been it.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Fair Economist:
Seconded.
sab
@Bnut: No amazing stories but they have been incrementally incredibly helpful to many family members. My mom who had a hereditary ataxia. My autistic granddaughter. My 97 year old father with dementia.
Princess
So he took everything with him he thought he could sell one day.
NotMax
“A minor oversight anyone could make. All 15 boxes were labeled ‘Nobel Prizes’ on the outside.”
//
The Dangerman
Eating the paper wasn’t a coverup; he was just kinda bound up and needed some fiber.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
but, but…. her emails!
NotMax
@The Dangerman
“I love the taste of Sharpie in the morning.”
//
prostratedragon
Michelle Goldberg on the late Todd Gitlin.
Edmund Dantes
Can I just say, one silver lining of the whole 6-3 scotus, is watching Roberts life work of being a “stealth (the forms were followed oh well) destroy it all but don’t leave any fingerprints” finds him basically yelling at the other 5 to stop fucking up “the Roberts’ court” so badly when they could achieve their goals in less obvious ways?
His dissent in the latest shadow docket is clearly him going “look we could have easily killed this the ‘right way’ let’s not potentially wake up the complete dunderhead Dems (Manchin/Sinema/anyone else against court reform) by so blatantly going ‘fuck you thats why’ with our rulings”.
Asparagus Aspersions
“As long as he’s been in business, he’s been very transactional and it was probably his longtime practice and I don’t think his habits changed when he got to the White House.”
“He was a pathological lying crook prior to the presidency and he remained one throughout” is possibly not the defense they think it is.
sab
@Edmund Dantes: Yes. Wasted life. He’s a sneaky devil, but it is hard to manage idiots, and Mrs. Barrett, Kavanagh, Thomas and Alito are not really bright enough to be on the Court. Intelligent people but not anywhere Supreme Court caliber. Probably also Gorsuch, but his arrogance is so powerful it’s hard to evaluate his intelligence.
Brachiator
Jesus Freaking Christ. Why does everyone keep making excuses for this asswipe Trump? He treated the White House and the presidency as though they were his personal property. “Unconventional nature…?” How about “criminality?”
And the Republican leadership, in their blind desire for power, refuse to control or punish Trump, and might inflict him on us again.
sab
“Unconventional” is the new “illegal”. What was wrong with the old straightforward “illegal?
ETA ” Unconventional” or not it is still illegal. In Trump’s case his conventional (to him and his family) pretty much is illegal. That’s all they do.
eclare
@sab: I would to see a thief, upon arrest, assert the “improperly removed” defense.
VOR
It may have been overshadowed by the attempted coup, but I hope someone did a full audit of furniture, decorations, silverware, anything not nailed down, at the White House when the Bidens took over. Because you know he saw it all as belonging to him personally, not to the office or the institution.
eclare
@eclare: Oops, “love to”
Amir Khalid
@sab:
Call what TFG or a TFGista does iilegal; and no matter how obvious to all the illegality is, they will resort to their hollow protestations of innocence, their pearls of disingenuous clutching, and their cushy couches of fainting.
carlo granada
@Bnut:
I long term partnered an OT. I retain some bragging rights by having done some serious nudging for him to complete thesis. He became good at analyzing mobility, doing home and adaptive equipment evaluations. When covid hit, the group he is with went heavy into tablets for individual and group Zoom sessions. I overhead some Loteria get togethers that would match The Price is Right enthusiasm. Seemed to help with the oddness of being homebound for everybody.
opiejeanne
@VOR: Oh, we know he did. He swiped some trinkets from the embassy in France when he visited. Turns out they were inexpensive copies.
opiejeanne
I think one of the neighbors has decided they don’t like us.
We were just awakened to the strains of a chainsaw working in front of our house at 1:30am. Three big trucks with flashing lights parked out front. Went out to see what was up and one of the guys said they are the night shift working for the county, just clearing some brush from the ditch out front. It’s the law, he said, can’t impede the flow of water. At this hour??? It’s not raining, and that ditch is all of 30 feet long and rarely has any water in it during the worst rainstorms, and then only a trickle. I asked how big this brush was and he said, big enough we had to use a chain saw. Now, I know that there wasn’t any brush in the ditch because I was surprised that it looked like someone had mowed it recently, but I also know that there was a small branch from one of the birches lying along our fence next to the ditch. It wasn’t impeding the flow of the non-existent water, and wouldn’t even if we had a gully-washer.
I’m going to be really pissed off if what they cut up is the little bridge across the ditch that we had installed a couple of years ago so we can get to the mailbox across the street from the garden without having to go all the way across the lot and down the driveway and then back down the street to them.
Grrr. Now I’m wide awake, and I’ve got an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning.
eclare
@opiejeanne: That is bizarre! I would be incredibly pissed and annoyed. I hope you can get some rest before your dr appt!
Elizabelle
I kid you not. The FTF NY Times has the documents story buried halfway down its website front page. One of numerous stories about the US, and you have to look for it.
More prominence is given to the threat of white tailed deer as potential coronavirus reservoirs. That’s up near the top.
And then: that ridiculous trucking convoy: here are the FTF NY Time’s headlines about that, and look at their language:
Is that not kind of the same language you might use for Black Lives Matters protests? A second story about it, right under the first: The headline:
Now: to get to the Trump documents story:
Yes. That is the headline up at this very moment. Trump Gives. The Great man Gives. The documents. They be passively “improperly taken.” But Trump … has set it right? What??
What do you make of these headlines?
This is not an accident.
Are they having to look farther afield for rural diners and their patrons?
opiejeanne
@eclare: thanks. I’m pretty damned pissed right now. Someone had to call in a complaint because those guys don’t just show up out here.
This is a semi-rural neighborhood, people have mini-donkeys, alpacas, horses, goats, and various other livestock IN THEIR FRONT YARDS. And it’s fine because all of those properties have large frontages and the animals are well-maintained and not nuisances, and if you came here you’d understand it. This is a horse-y area. More than one place has a gymkhana in their front yard.
We have a couple of neighbors whose properties are incredibly tidy, and I salute them, but they have tried to police other property owners because they really don’t like living in an area without an HOA to enforce a bunch of piddly-ass rules to suit their tastes. I’m sure they hate the color we painted the house, because it’s an actual color.
See that snow? There was a foot of it and the county never plowed the street. That was 2 days after Christmas.
https://flic.kr/p/2mTBozR
Ryan
Did Trump eat his Russian translator’s notes from Helsinki, or are those still about someplace?
brantl
Rotating Tag Line!
MagdaInBlack
@opiejeanne: For what it’s worth, I like the color.
opiejeanne
@MagdaInBlack: Thanks. Some of the other neighbors, and one of their realtors, told us after it was finished that they were uncertain if they liked it when the painters started, but loved it when it was done. People are color-phobic here. Houses and cars are beige or gray/silver, a few are white.
MagdaInBlack
@opiejeanne: I live in Chicago suburbia, the land of beige and grey. I love a good pop of color.
Geminid
@opiejeanne: They probably cut up the bridge. You may not care to pursue it, but there is a story here: how did your neighbor get a public agency to send a crew out in the middle of the night, to remove what he decided is a nuisance?
The why is not a mystery. He’s an asshole.
debbie
What is behind that pixelation on the soccer ball?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle: IMHO, those headlines are bullshit
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: They truly are. Who knows how the actual story reads, but the headlines are all that most people who look at the NY Times website ever see.
The Times sometimes changes them too, once published, to something more innocuous. They can be very slippery.
Betty
@Bnut: My niece is an OT and a great person with a great team who do wonderful things for people. Hang in there!
Ken
I think I’ve heard this one before. Hmm….
They were stapled to the chicken!
opiejeanne
@Geminid: Oh, I’m calling the county road office tomorrow and bend their ear about it, because it’s not supposed to rain for at least 4 more days, and that ditch is clear right now but has been full of weeds and brush and it never backs up, but coming out at that hour and running a chain saw???. The bridge was technically on their property, so while I can gripe if they touched it, they are within their rights if they removed it.
They probably won’t tell me who it was, but the neighborhood doesn’t keep secrets very well and it will come out. I’ve got a good idea who it was but I’ll wait to find out. Meanwhile, my favorite neighbor is really good at passing along gossip, most of which is just like chickens squabbling, but once in a while there’s something useful. She hears everything while she’s out walking her dogs.
Nancy
@Bnut:
Both husband and I have been helped by PT and great physical therapists.
Surgery was being mentioned but PT came first and worked quite well. I can stay active which is what works best for a lot of the issues I have. Same for husband. Hope this qualifies.
Miss Bianca
@LongHairedWeirdo: I think you need to work on your act, personally. Or maybe just change your nym to “LongWindedWeirdo.”
Yutsano
@Bnut: Avoiding the obvious Marine joke…
I will say that the hospital OTs were pretty fantastic when I was in inpatient rehabilitation after my ulcer last year. So if you want a good goal, aim for an IPR unit. The work is very rewarding.
Madeleine
@Amir Khalid: Beautifully phrased!
Origuy
@VOR: There is a position called the Curator of the White House, that was created by the Kennedy administration. I believe Jackie Kennedy was partly responsible for its creation. The current curator is Lydia Tederick, appointed in 2017. Keeping track of the furniture and artwork like a museum curator would is her job.
J R in WV
My wife, Father, brother and I are all able to walk because of the knowledge and experience of various therapists! ( well,except for dad, who died backon election day 2004 but still ) Wife will need rehab after her surgery to resume life.
My brother can’t start his next rehab until his joint surgery heals up,, some weeks from now. I don’t have the patience for it, plus I’m retired, but it is one of the most important and necessary skills in the medical area, they complete the healing process after doctors repair us.