Crumble into what is the question. I really don't know. I think wounded, bellowing Trump rampaging through the China shop is a good bet. I think a lot of "creative" methods will be tired; but probably incompetently.
China is real. Idaho is a metaphor.
Anyway, I expect things to get worse before they get better.
I really hope Ailes was lucid enough towards the end to hear the news about Mueller and realize it's all going to come crashing down.
I wouldn't get your hopes too high (yet). Special counsol, not special prosecutor -- as one article said, the same thing that was done for the Valarie Plame affair under Bush.
I'd be happy to be wrong, and to find out that the investigation will have teeth.
Not to mention front page posters shamelessly flouting foundational conventions. The centre cannot hold!
I do think results of the coming special elections will have a significant effect in the short term, but probably will not alter overall trajectory unless they are really, really grim for the Repubs.
Its not over until the Pee Tapes are released.
My most optimistic, and probably ill-informed, best case scenario: We (for whatever values of we) spend the next 18 months making sure voters know that a Republican House is never going to impeach Trump and we flip the House (and the Senate) in the mid-terms.
If Trump hasn't resigned by then, the House impeaches him and then he resigns. We won't have the Senate votes to convict but there's just no way he stays on.
I want this whole thing to drag out just long enough not to give Pence a two-house majority.
And we pray that McMaster and Mad Dog keep Trump's finger off the button until then without an actual military coup.
There's lots of fat men. Lots and lots of fat men insisting the news be read by blonde women who get fired if they gain weight.
Another event that was alluded to in Revelations.
American country singer Toby Keith, known for songs such as "Whiskey Girl" and "Beer For My Horses," is scheduled to perform in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, this weekend in an event that coincides with President Donald Trump's first overseas visit. Saudi entertainment website Lammt, which is advertising the event, says Saturday's free concert is open to men only. It will also feature an Arabian lute player.
12: LB's best case scenario beats that: Flip the house and senate, and snag Pence in whatever scandal...President Pelosi!
I sort of want to hear what "Beer for my horses" sounds like with lutes.
I sort of what to see what happens when Toby Keith sings a bunch of songs about alcohol in Saudi Arabia.
Is there an audience for American country music in the Arab world?
Maybe he'll sing the "we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way" song.
Ha ha, Pence is now starting his own PAC.
The source also dismissed that there is any forethought into PAC being an infrastructure for a 2020 run of Pence's own. "Don't read into 2020 as anything other than his running for re-election as vice president in 2020 and supporting other candidates," the source said.
I'm calling bullshit on that source.
Something is going to happen -- I think we've hit the point where the Trump presidency can't go on in any normal fashion. But I don't have any strong expectation about what.
18 hey, I'm right here and I'm in the miserable kind of mood that only country music can soothe.
that's this weekend? Because next weekend is Ramadan.
Given my recent news I'm only just realizing that I didn't lay in enough booze to see me through.
What about taking your frustration out on innocent by-standers by eating delicious foods around people who are fasting?
I'm looking forward to Trump's speech in Saudi. There's no way he's not going to fuck it up.
20: Why would they start not lying now. And that comment to the whole situation, any small gesture towards the truth will ensnare them further; their only hope is to break on through to the other side of the Bullshit Horizon. Trump can only effectively function as a dictator. Current Republicans as something close to that.
24 Hey c'mon now, Stephen Miller is writing it, how could he possibly fuck it up?
"Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Some call me the gangster of love. Bigly."
Christ. What's the Russian word for "banana republic?"
(Or should I have gone with The Muscovite Candidate?)
I think we've hit the point where the Trump presidency can't go on in any normal fashion
"Trump presidency" and normal could never coexist in any possible universe.
I continue to be terrified by the prospect that, no matter how badly the republicans fuck up, the democrats will still figure out a way to lose.
29 Exactly, that would have to be a very recently recalibrated baseline for normal.
It's not just a question of Democrats figuring out a way to fuck up, but how things are likely to get worse even if the Democrats don't make any major mistakes. The more Trump is attacked, the more he will be inclined to turn toward the shittiest people in America, people who hadn't voted Republican prior to Trump running because the other Republicans weren't openly racist enough.
This isn't to say the attack should be lessened, but I still suspect it will get worse before it gets better.
Yeah, we should be concerned that, even after Trump is gone, many of the institutions of our democracy remain a shambles.
Two of the last five Presidential elections were won by the Republican who lost the popular vote. Do you think maybe the Democrats could try to do something about that?
30 - or if the Republicans manage to get enough parallel-universe propaganda plus voter suppression/intimidation plus maybe outright fraud to hold onto power. The encouraging thing for me so far is that the courts do not seem to be entirely corrupt.
but I still suspect it will get worse before it gets better.
This is my go-to prediction. The first part because it's almost always right, and the second part because I'm such a gosh darn optimist.
Vaguely connected, but sausagely's recent article on how Trump is not an infant but an adult who has never had to face consequences because rich is very good.
21: I think we've hit the point where the Trump presidency can't go on in any normal fashion
&
32: The more Trump is attacked, the more he will be inclined to turn toward the shittiest people in America,
Aside from what Trump himself does, I cannot see where they ever get to anything like a reasonable staffing set up. Historically this is when you would be bringing in some key crisis management types to try to rein things in. But what reiner-inner type would do it and/or be acceptable to Trump, or even if so would Trump comply*?
So I guess per 32 it's likely to be Sheriff Clarke types...
*I will say Trump has shown periods of "discipline"--for instance in the week or so before the election he was relatively tame on Twitter.
Chaffetz expected to announce he's stepping down early. Hell of a day and it isn't even noon.
Does he count as a rat jumping the ship?
Apparently Flynn told some friends at dinner that he still has contacts with Trump who recently sent him a message (not sure by what means to "Stay strong.") This is the kind of thing that intellectually dishonest hacks like Turley can argue are not "technically" obstruction of justice, but should be interpreted in all their mobbish glory. (I hope Mueller brings the right kind of investigators in--not some gentrified "rule of law" fucks>)
And if there ever is a "smoking gun" my bet would be some sort of bribe or arrangement offered to Flynn that gets traced back to Trump.
Apparently now Flynn is refusing to send subpoenad documents to the Senate. Huzzah for the one-hour news cycle.
41
What happens then? I hope it means the FBI breaks down his door and searches his office. During the search, they find suitcases filled with rubles, and the fingernail of a missing prostitute.
So that means the Sargent of Arms of the Senate can haul Flynn to jail for Contempt of Congress, no?
After Shriver died, they went back to having a "Sergeant".
I'm hanging from a clock right now.
You could make this shit up, but nobody would have published it last year if you did. Remember everybody saying how 2017 has to be better than 2016?
I have to say, it feels like this week friends and acquaintances are just thirsty to talk about the day's events in person. Probably because we're all spending so much time consuming the firehose alone. (Previously we had been moving more toward compartmentalization.)
(I'm imagining making news-reading into a social event again, like Paris in 1830 when they read out the Four Ordinances from newspapers in coffee shops...)
Probably because we're all spending so much time consuming the firehose alone.
I don't know anybody flexible enough to do that.
Two of the last five Presidential elections were won by the Republican who lost the popular vote. Do you think maybe the Democrats could try to do something about that?
It's astonishing that the only time the republicans have won the popular vote is Bush's reelection SINCE THE 80s. Like, next year will be 30 years.
41 is awesome. I really hope he makes the Senate send goons to his house. Maybe the Turkish Embassy could lend some of their personnel.
What was the subpoena for again? Any and all documents or something more specific?
So, do you think Netanyahu regrets supporting Trump, given that he's all but giving Israeli intelligence secrets to Iran and perhaps getting Mossad agents killed? Or does he not have that sort of capacity for introspection.
Trump is bombing Syria again. Who had Syria in the pool? My pick was Yemen.
55. No. I mean he of course he should but no.
And Chaffetz is retiring early? What the hell does he know?
The only remaining question is how badly will President Ryan's presidency be tainted by his earlier cooperation with and enablement of Trump? I hope the answer is "cripplingly severely", but I expect the media will mostly be very ready to forgive and forget, and by and large the population will follow along accordingly.
What the hell does he know?
When he's had enough.
58: that his current job is embarrassing and a pain in the ass and he can make more money working for Fox. (I was going to add something about it hurting his prospects if he wants to run for anything else, but after reading about Utah elections for 5 minutes, I don't think he has anything to worry about.)
I'm not saying he's innocent, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't, but as far as I know he's no more criminal or Trump-loyal than the average Republican.
56: Cable news gave him all the big boy feels after he did it last time.
I think Trump might well survive this. Also, fuck everything. My mood has gotten steadily blacker all week. I think part of it is repressed anger over the election (I envy those of you who had any catharsis when it happened; I sure didn't), part synergy with work, part pure local minimum. Sorry about the job, Barry. Try not to lose heart, I say as a champion heart-loser.
Is it wrong of me to really relish that Trump is genuinely tormented by the negative press, and really truly believes he is the most poorly treated politician in history and a victim of a witch hunt?
Also, I am relishing the cold sweat his entire administration must be in realizing that the demented authoritarian is probably going to take them down with him. Trump isn't going out without bringing down everyone he can (at minimum Pence, Ryan, Bannon, Kushner), and his wrath will be primarily aimed at Republicans.
Ah but wait: one thing just cheered me up, this headline: "Billy Joel Is 68 Today -- His Music Is Still Terrible." I think I'll set up a birthday message along those lines to be delivered to me on my birthday.
63
Join us on the dark side. Let the schadenfreude course through your veins.
"We're all in the mood for a melody and you've got us feeling alright."
I think that even if we get to - god forbid - President Ryan, he's going to be weakened and widely hated, and find it very difficult to put across his agenda. I'm not saying that bad things won't happen, but I am less worried about the kind of apocalyptic bad things that one likes to prognosticate for these reasons:
1. He and his policies are much better known than they were before, and he's really tied to attacks on Medicare and Social Security. A surprising number of Americans don't know this kind of thing in normal years, but he won't get any benefit of the doubt at this point.
2. People are riled up in a way I've never seen in my lifetime - the upper middle classes are talking like a 1998 issue of Z Magazine. People who grinned and bore it with Bush, etc, because they were pretty sure it wouldn't affect them personally aren't in the same position now.
3. Victory gives rise to victory - anti-Trump forces are apt to see a Trump resignation as their personal victory, and that will given them appetite rather than a sense of resignation about Ryan instituting the Hunger Games or whatever.
4. Huge numbers of people have been mobilized from the left and the center-left in the past few years - Black Lives Matter, for instance, got a lot of people out of their chairs, and that's before Trump.
5. Ryan is a loony tune ideologue who will continue most of Trump's by now well known and unpopular policies. If there were a real center Republican in the line of succession, that Republican might be able to push through a lot of moderate Republican garbage with Democratic complicity, but that's not where Ryan is going to go.
6. I don't think he can pull together the Trump base and the rest of the Republicans. His persona is genuinely creepy - Trump has this weird "common man" thing going on, but if Ryan were a character in a movie, he would be the type A, very successful real estate agent who is later discovered to have been abusing his daughter and murdering sex workers. He has a real Twin Peaks Evil Father vibe.
Re 68: Also, his ties are strangely wide - they are ties made for a wider man.
I can always manage a little schadenfreude over Trump's ties.
Wide ties indicate serial killers? I think I need to stop off at Macy's this weekend.
Ryan: What's the matter with the clothes I'm wearing?
Billy Joel: Can't you tell that your tie's too wide?
71: It's not the width of Ryan's ties per se, so you might have to find another way to signal your serial-killing. It's the width of the ties in relation to his personal width. The ties don't look like wide ties-as-fashion-statement, they look like ties that are too wide, if you get the difference. Like when someone wears shoes that are not only pointy-toed but too long for their feet - it's not the style, it's the fit on the individual. Or like he's a high school football player from a large rural town dressed up for a game.
if Ryan were a character in a movie, he would be the type A, very successful real estate agent who is later discovered to have been abusing his daughter and murdering sex workers. He has a real Twin Peaks Evil Father vibe.
This is so spot on.
The President's tie is too long.
The Vice President's tie is too short.
(Why does this sound to me like Shel Silverstein?)
74: I think I'm probably O.K. I'm relatively wide.
Remember everybody saying how 2017 has to be better than 2016?
I mostly remember that being said about celebrity deaths, and 2016 was remarkable in that aspect.
I'm a little nervous because I hadn't bought a tie since maybe 2005 or so. I don't wear them often enough to buy them but I don't wear them so rarely that I can be unconcerned about being seen as a serial killer.
If I look like a serial killer, nobody will get in the van.
Join us on the dark side. Let the schadenfreude course through your veins.
This is lovely.
There is no longer a unified Republican government in Washington.
Leadership and senior members fret over what Trump's scandals could mean for their policy agenda, and Republicans who were never comfortable with Trump in the first place are beginning to break with the White House.
It's "becoming much harder to deny that we wouldn't be better off moving a real agenda under a President Pence," one congressional Republican aide said, "rather than spending all day maneuvering the entire ship of state to try and clean up after this guy."
...
It's now an open topic of discussion among K Street Republicans and staff on Capitol Hill that it would be easier to achieve their policy goals if Vice President Mike Pence were in the Oval Office instead.
One Republican lobbyist challenged a reporter: "What percentage of congressional Republicans would rather have President Pence by July Fourth?"
"How does this get better?" the lobbyist said of the Trump scandals. "He's 70 years old. He is who he is. He's not changing."
Republican leaders aren't yet truly breaking from Trump. Ryan reaffirmed his confidence in the president on Wednesday. Trump is still there to sign any legislation that they can clear through Congress and put on his desk.
But they're choosing the words a little more carefully and taking steps -- such as Ryan's endorsement of obtaining the memo Comey wrote that reportedly detailed Trump's pressure on him -- in order to, as so many Republicans put it around the Capitol Wednesday, get the facts.
I think I actually still have some skinny 80s ties somewhere in my closet.
I'm not sure whether that makes me more or less likely to be a serial killer.
There was no OIS in Oakland between November 2015 and February 2017; and the February one was a white guy wandering around firing a rifle.
But, holy shit, I thought the Lieberman thing was just a feint ...and still may be, but ...
A person familiar with Wednesday's meeting said Trump bonded with Lieberman, and the president left leaning towards the former Connecticut senatorTrump bonding with Lieberman, for when your own pessimistic imagination is too limited.
I wonder how many Republicans are secretly hoping that Trump drops dead? Honestly that's probably their best option right now. Scandals die down and public loses interest in the Flynn investigation, and Pence is president without alienating Trump's base.
That's why he wants the U.S. embassy to the West Bank to be in Jerusalem.
88: I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town where people care about things like that.
87: Christ. Just imagine the sympathy that would swell up...
Maybe Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East is to get the Big Three monotheisms to unite around a common enemy? He's really gone out of his way to anger Israel, and I can't imagine he'll do better with Saudi Arabia or the Pope.
87 because certainly no one will see a few bucks to be made circulating rumors of plots to murder the president. (Even if it isn't Alex Jones, it will be someone wanting to be the next Alex Jones).
88 sounds like the white nationalists are having a hard time rubbing against the evangelical zionists. They both DGAF about the Jews except as symbols or pawns, but the white nationalists want them to just disappear while the evangelicals want them to take over the whole of the historical land of Israel and then disappear.
Lieberman as FBI director is depressing me.
It's not an appropriate reaction to have, this is all very serious and absolutely terrifying. But Lieberman as FBI director is cracking me up. It's like they're reading liberal blogs and trolling us specifically.
Everything about the news is cracking me up. It shouldn't be, but this is all so ridiculous. It's Dr. Strangelove or something.
97: I know. That meeting in the Oval Office was so much closer to the Russian ambassador being invited in to see the Big Board than I could have ever imagined.
Trump will absolutely pardon Flynn at some point (probably a horribly inappropriate one...). H apparently would like to have him come back.
Notwithstanding my long list of issues with the FBI, it gladdens me to know that this guy, a big Comey fan, will be annoying be ever-loving hell out of Donald Trump.
88: I have several thoughts.
1. They deserve each other.
2. The fact that he's screwing up our foreign policy towards Israel particularly badly gives a little more credence to Biblical concerns. He can annoy and scare our allies, he can bomb a third world country that was in the middle of a civil war or something, he can prop up dictators, all that is business as usual for Republicans... but if there's actual war for Jerusalem, we're getting close to Left Behind territory.
3. Crazy eschatology aside, it looks like that's mostly cluelessness and carelessness. He's not pursuing a bad policy like the wall on the Mexican border (or at least, it's not mainly a policy thing), he's not covering up a way-too-close relationship with Russia, he's not flagrantly enriching himself, he's just sending mixed messages where every message is radically offensive, for no apparent reason. A comforting reminder that he's not a genius and doesn't listen to them. A sobering reminder that his and his party's priorities are domestic affairs and they still run things there.
The way conservatism is turning into pure trolling is really weird. I mean I know the only thing they can all agree on is "if it makes liberals annoyed it must be good" but can you really hold together an entire movement on just that basis?
Yes, yes you can. At least for a couple of years. Which is why I think it gets worse before it gets better.
You can hold the movement together, but it's not yet clear if you can use it to accomplish anything very substantive in terms of policy.
Bret Stephens's latest column (which I read against my own better judgment) notes Mike Savage and Ann Coulter are starting to make anti-Trump noises. Maybe the Fox bubble will burst after all?
How is that a problem if you are actively seeking the destruction of government functions?
Semi-OT, but is there any better way to read tweetstorms than the default app? A browser plugin, a setting to change in the app, some bot that will compile them? I started reading one earlier today but gave up, it was too annoying how early and often it was getting interrupted by strangers saying random shit. (This is semi-OT because that was the one M/itch posted on the other place, about Fox News insanity.) Barring that, is there any way to get people to stop saying interesting things on that platform, so I can safely ignore it?
106: It isn't, but it becomes one if you also want to use your power to reward your cronies.
It's liberals fault you can't reward them.
Liberals can stay underwater for days at a time because they can breathe though their rectums. How can you fight that with one term? Trump/Bannon 2020.
This reminds me of 2006 where the Dems took the house and senate basically because the republicans self destructed. They then acted as a comprador party for the financial industry and lost the house 4 years later.
107: Damn it, I came back here to post a tweetstorm... Eat this. (It's the thing about Sheriff Clarke's uniform, since we have been attending to fashion here.) I am sorry for the frivolity.
There wasn't the kind of mass organizing in 2006 that there is now, though.
The marginal Senate vote in 2006/2008 Congressional sessions were well to the right of where they are now. Lieberman, Nelson, Baucus, Landrieu all gone, and the only equivalently weaselly replacement is Manchin. Maybe to take over the Senate they'll need equivalently weaselly candidates, but I think most people realize Republican-lite is not the way the wind is blowing.
Tweetdeck makes Twitter legible, even the tweet storms
Daily Beast reporting that Trump wants Flynn back in the administration.
Though only after everything blows over.
Why do you figure Trump loves Flynn so?
Also, I totally get that Lieberman is a rotten person, but is there any particular thing that he'll do poorly as FBI director? I mean, is he an especially bad choice?
He's a political appointee in a situation that calls for someone non-political. Trump is a client of his law firm, so he's conflicted. He's completely unqualified and his resume does not resemble other FBI leaders (he's never worked at DOJ, FBI, as a prosecutor, or even as a judge).
At this point, why does it matter?
Ultimately Trump is the endpoint of a particular way the Republicans go about getting power, so removing him just removes a sideshow, it doesn't remove the policies.
Like the Tories in the UK, the Republicans will always come together for government because what unites them isn't ideology but a drive for power.
119, 120: He's also a total fucking fuckhead on multiple fronts. Warmongering not the least. Peak Lieberman to me was the 2000 VP Debate where he demonstrated how to debate with your opponents cock wedged firmly in your mouth (also see his performance during the Florida recount).
I love this anecdote from Jeffrey Goldberg:
Lieberman likes expressions of American power. A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, a few seats down. The film was "Behind Enemy Lines," in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, "Yeah!" and "All right!"
So much of this is Al Gore's fault.
Saiselgy has a good rundown on Lieberman and why he's totally unqualified for this job.
Yeah, I should have said that 120 was a tldr of the link in 126.
The article is good. Thanks, Teo.
But he's not like Sessions, where he'll come in with a lifelong agenda that I hate? I guess the warmongering qualifies.
128: Not quite like Sessions, no, but it's not at all clear what he would actually do as FBI director since it's so far removed from everything he's done before.
I'm kind of thinking Trump might skate.
Unless Mueller ends up getting a bunch of financial stuff, ostensibly to find out what leverage Russia had, and finds tax evasion and other business fraud.
130: Right, the real overarching issue is abuse of power impeachment-y type stuff rather than the strictly legal things the special counsel will be going after.
107/112: I've actually been meaning to ask--why doesn't unfogged have a twitter feed? I love rss but the world has abandoned it. Twitter serves that function now.
||
I'm not a Reel Big Fish fan, but I have to respect the title of their 2007 album, "Monkey for Nothin, Chimps for Free". Game recognize game.
¦>
115
On paper, the most liberal the median vote in the Senate has been since the early 90s was 2009-2015, when it was Joe Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, or Jim Webb.
The median Senate vote now is probably Shelley Moore Capito.
Would Lieberman make a pledge of loyalty to Trump? I'm pretty sure that's what Trump wants most of all from his next FBI chief.
Has Trump ever been held accountable, or faced any real consequences, for poor judgment, dubious dealings, or bad behaviour?
I dunno. I want to believe, I desperately want to believe, that it's all finally falling apart; that Trumpty Dumpty will have a great fall, and that all the king's horses and all the king's men will be unable to put Trumpty together again. But what I truly fear is that the chaotic shitshow that is Donald Trump in the White House may just be the new normal.
Surviving his own sleaze is in fact his superpower.
I think a tweet of my daughter's I posted here back in December is holding up pretty well:
Trump's administration won't be authoritarian, openly corrupt, etc in the ways we think. It'll be a freaking parody of those things.
Judging from my witter feed everyone's chaosed out.
135- Yes, obviously while Republicans control the Senate the median will be a Republican. The question is, if Dems re-take the Senate in 2018 or more likely 2020, they do it by winning red states with mushy people like those annoyances who were in office in 2008, or if they have a fairly solid liberal majority not subject to the whims of Senator droopy dog (I-CT).
This has been the most incredible week and a half that I can recall. It's far down on the list but I'm still amazed he's retained his reputation for being an "alpha male" what with all the whining.
||
Airport again. Security confiscated my rounded edge scissors that I forgot were still in my bag. I hope I don't have any absurdly long nose hairs.
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143 Lots of us are speculating that Gov. Bullock will run against Sen. Daines is 2020. Bullock will be termed out. He's got a good record, and is a decent guy. He's no socialist, but you'd flag him as left of Baucus. Daines may well be vulnerable.
When you think about what future senators are going to look like, you're starting from a fairly small pool of actual people who have the mix of talent and skills necessary to make it.
||
Thus far, I've been lucky enough not to be personally affected by Trump's election. This is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but Trump wants to try to take away the 10-year Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program, which would hurt me in a big way. If anyone has an interest in this or knows anyone else with an interest in it, please consider writing to your elected representatives.
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Last night's interesting thing in chaos watch were the Pence was totally in the dark about everything "leaks" from his friendlies. Almost certainly noted by the Trumpkins.
1441.1: He was a book. The Practical Guide to Undergoing Political Orchiectomy.
Old Bannon's Book of Practical Orchiectomy
I assume the "Pence was in the dark" story was nonsense to protect him, right?
He probably read the Watergate page on Wikipedia and noticed that Agnew was thrown out before Nixon.
My theory is that what can actually do Trump in is pre-campaign financial hanky-panky (fraud or tax evasion) and so Pence is unlikely to be implicated in anything at all. If, like Agnew, he has some sort of completely independent corruption in his past, he can worry, but this seems a lot less likely than it is with Trump.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if Pence really was at the fringe of the decision-making during the transition -- despite his nominal title -- and not really involved in post-inaugural staffing. He seems, from the outside, to be exactly the sort of fellow neither the Bannon faction nor the Kushner faction, nor the Goldman Sachs faction, if there really is one, would respect in the least. Why would Trump trust him with anything? Wouldn't the whole staffing of the government part of Trump's pattern of pathetic failure be going in a completely different direction if Pence was an actual player?
I suppose he might be a witness to some bad stuff, and so his primary exposure, such as it is, comes from getting caught lying to federal investigators.
I'm finding fantasies about Pence going down just beyond my ability to suspend disbelief.
I don't think it likely either, but I have a theory that people with that shape of head tend toward criminality.
|| Here's the latest Quist ad. Yes, that is me, lurking about. |>
I didn't catch your preexisting condition?
I see you but there's no food on your plate. FAKE AD!
It's really hard to pull off the belt buckle/hat/guitar persona and look convincing. He's a good candidate.
There you are indeed. Are there phone banks set up? And would out-of-staters on the phone be helpful or harmful?
Send picture with belt buckle/hat/guitar for determination.
No need to be bossy.
There you are indeed. Are there phone banks set up? And would out-of-staters on the phone be helpful or harmful?
The past few days have made it possible (fun, even) for me to listen to the news again, but I'm nervous. You know those parts of Game of Thrones where, say, the Starks have won a few battles and Martin allows his readers some optimism? I feel like we're due for a Red Wedding.
There are phone banks, and out-of-staters are calling. Also door-knocking. Email me.
It's going to be a very close win, if we win.
160 Already ate it all!
They have 5 shots of me in there, but thankfully did not include me singing along, or opening a beer.
Looks like the new CBO numbers will be coming out the day before election day.
167: I was going to say we've got the Sabbath off-leash hours coming up, but I guess he'll be in Saudi Arabia tomorrow. So who knows.
If I had to pick something, I think the next shoe to drop would be some kind of blowup at Rosenstein. Wittes, who recounted his Comey conversations to the NYT, surmises on his own blog that Rosenstein got the nod as DAG because he made the loyalty pledge that Comey would not.
Though apparently the Comey firing was encouraged by Jared, so the whole "on-leash" thing is a bit dubious.
Yes, that's more wrt Twitter jags than anything substantive. I don't know if the past few months have continued to confirm the Sabbath hypothesis.
Rosenstein writing the memo he did at the time he did seems to me like misconduct. That is, I completely agree with everything in the memo. But he was asked for it as a figleaf, and producing it without having it contain some explicit context about how Comey should have been fired immediately by the prior administration, or immediately by Trump, and that there was an appearance of impropriety (to put it mildly) in the delayed firing in the context of other ongoing investigations seems very improper to me.
Oh hey, new readout of Trump commenting on his firing Comey while speaking to Lavrov/Kislyak. NYT front page.
170: I've warmed up to Comey since he was fired, but that article, ostensibly written by a friend of his, made it harder. I mean, if Comey didn't want Trump to treat him like a friend, then mmmmmmmaybe he shouldn't have done Trump a huge, unnecessary, unethical favor back in late October.
There are phone banks, and out-of-staters are calling.
Including my girlfriend, possibly as we speak!
174: Yeah, wow. Fuck that shit:
"I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job," Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off." Mr. Trump added, "I'm not under investigation."Defended as a negotiating tactic to get concessions from Russia. (I know it's a tired trope, but imagine the holy hell if Obama had done anything remotely like that.)
And for once the Times did not bury the fireworks, headline: "Trump Told Russians That Firing 'Nut Job' Comey Eased Pressure From Investigation"
I mean: no American media, but Tass is there. (And they never have really acknowledged that Kislyak was there, read out and all subsequent statements I've seen only mention Lavrov.) Tass publishes pictures of them yukking it up grandly--no Merkel awkwardness. Classified Israeli intelligence, and mocking the former FBI director and saying now the pressure is off.
On to the Middle East!
Defended as a negotiating tactic to get concessions from Russia.
It sounds like he's asking for a bribe.
In the meantime, apparently a senior white house official is now a person of interest (tm) in the Russia probe. Fun times on Air Force One.
It's interesting to see both the Times and the Post really digging in on this story.
He did everything but note that he had some property on a Caribbean island for sale.
183: They probably gave them a brochure on the way out.
Speaking of buying shit because you like Trump, I wonder how much worthless, branded crap is filling the closets of Trump supporters?
I wonder if there's any way to short Margo-De-Lago (sp?) housing?
It's interesting to see both the Times and the Post really digging in on this story.
I occasionally grumble that, of course the media is covering this story -- it has all sorts of soap opera twists and turns and conflict to drive it. The questions that I have about the media are whether they can cover policy and give any sense of scale, and this story doesn't demand that.
But, yes, I am happy to have it be constantly on the front page and hopefully making it harder for Republicans in congress to get anything done (both because of the distraction and the potential for fractures within the Republican party).
Usually the bombshells have come out every day at 5-6 Eastern this week, but today more like 3. Because it's Friday, or because AF1 was wheels-up about half an hour earlier?
187.1: Like the ongoing story of the sabotaging of the ACA including a quid pro quo to insurance execs of "we'll pay the subsidies if you agree to support the AHCA."
188: Yeah, just got off the phone with my daughter; turns out we both have time-critical real work work today but we both needed to actually talk about it with someone.
181: Torn between wanting it to be Sessions or Kushner, but hopefully will get both!
I know it's unlikely the Saudis will allow any media to be there when AF1 lands in Riyadh, but I sure hope they do.
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Hyde Park is really quite nice even if the temperature does drop 35 degrees from one day to the next.
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191: Betting on Kushner. Someone on Twitter was pointing to a piece from earlier this year about his role in the campaign's data-mining and targeting operation, which would have been a useful place for a little help from some friends.
I saw on Twitter a quote from an early April NYT story quoting an anon source as saying that Bannon thought Kushner's contacts with the Russians would become an issue.
If that's not reliable, what is?
Yeah, I'm thinking it must be Kushner.
Some reporter on Twitter claiming it was confirmed as Kushner.
I bet he regrets pushing so hard for Trump to fire Comey.
Which comes first: Trump pardons Kushner, Kushner rolls over n Trump?
Strategic challenges, Trump style: can't pardon too soon because then they can't claim the 5th, but if you wait too long, you might lose the pardon power, and then you know Pence is going to be all "Donald Who?"
Either the blonde goes down with him or she creates an enemy for life, I am liking the Kushner option ...
Nah, even with a completely discredited Trump among Republican electeds, he would have at least 40% bitter-end supporters in the rank and file, so Pence would hand out pardons like candy all "we must move forward".
I'm still feeling Charley is right in 130. Maybe. I have no idea what the "rules" are anymore.
But Republicans are going to Republican.
I think 203.1 is why this week has demoralized me to an unprecedented degree. If he stays president after all of this, shit is going to be terrible. I may cheer up a tiny bit if the inquiry manages to obtain his tax returns, which will of course immediately be leaked to the press.
NYT now reporting that Comey has agreed to testify publicly before Senate Intelligence Committee.
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This is just fantastic (it's mostly symbolic, hopefully, but not reassuring).
Deep underground in the far reaches of the arctic North, there's a fortress that's supposed to be one of humanity's safeguards if we can't feed ourselves in the future. It's a vault containing 500 million seeds, representing 880,000 different crops, many of which can't be found in fields today. It's the ultimate failsafe if the world's farms burn or diseases decimate our staples and we have to start over. The facility is supposed to keep these seeds safe for hundreds of years, without human oversight.
What the designers weren't counting on so much: floods linked to climate change.
...
The "doomsday" vault's location -- inside a mountain on a Norwegian archipelago -- was chosen in part for its cold temperatures. They make refrigerating the seeds for long-term preservation easy, without the need for energy-consuming refrigerators. It can run -- so its architects hoped -- without human supervision.
Record-high temperatures in the region have thrown this dream into disarray.
Ironically, the facility was funded by the Norwegian government because of the threat of climate change. Climate change poses a huge threat to biodiversity and food production. And the seed vault ensures that these crops -- and, more importantly, their genetics -- will be preserved.
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"I did not have relations with that woman, Mother Russia."
"People have got to know whether or not their President is a друг. Well, I am not a друг."
He may not be a друг, but he's not bright enough to be Alex.