As the wise have been saying for years, "Every accusation is a confession."
I think it's just breathtaking that he's been the worst grandstander as of late, just hamming it up for Fox News over and over again, knowing he could get busted wide open at any moment. Or supremely confident that he's the smartest guy in the world and could never get busted wide open.
I am just gobsmacked by Nunes. I've been reading/watching him for 15 years, because he does a lot of CA water stuff. I swear, I saw no hint of this pre-Trump. (I mean, how would I, I'm not that insider?) Five years ago, I'd have said he was a perfectly boring not-that-bright guy, completely owned by the water districts. Maybe he was ripe for corruption, but I don't think he would have ever initiated this type of thing. Then he followed Trump, and Trump just rotted the guy. Trump destroys whatever he touches, and Nunes is a particularly clear example.
I feel like the water districts should resent Trump for moving in on their perfectly functional congressman. He could have served them for decades to come.
> Maybe he was ripe for corruption,
Isn't this part of the precondition for the success of Trump? Enough people at all levels willing and able to be suborned into his game...
Yes. Nunes is the ideal Trump Republican.
We thought we we knew Nunes, but it was just a shadow of the real puppet Nunes in Trumpo's Cave.
It's full-on Stalinism. What's he going to get busted for when all he did was back the leader.
Also, I think Giuliani has the pee tape or is bluffing that he does.
In actuality, I thought Giuliani said his insurance was something Biden-related. It's hard to imagine what could possibly be more incriminating than all the buckets and buckets of clearly stated testimony and transcripts.
Oh nevermind. That was the pivot for plausible deniability. Who can keep track.
Jammies and the Giblets are on their way to my in-laws house and I'm on my own for the next three days.
9 does he just, like, carry it around all the time? Might explain the expressions sometimes.
3, 4 -- Like me, Trump never bought anyone who wasn't for sale.
Did you pay for women to pee on things too?
Sorry. I should ask such personal questions.
"Should not." As long as everybody is consenting and Putin isn't using it for blackmail.
He was running a backchannel for Trump on Russia, why wouldn't he be doing it on Ukraine?
Was he? I can't keep these B-listers straight.
19: Who is "he" and what did he do?
There are so many treasonous Republicans pronouns just can't cover them.
I keep wanting to say "Nunces," so I can rhyme it with Toonces, the driving cat.
I honestly don't think that cat was good at driving.
At least it never made a movie with Adam Sandler.
Which is another reason for the symmetry of "Nunces."
Was he? I can't keep these B-listers straight.
Well, the only really important point to keep in mind is that he was in cahoots with Gorpman and Bleemer
Devin Nunes 2015: worried about where politics is going, because his Republican constituents only care about far-out conspiracy theories instead of real issues he could do something about
Devin Nunes 2019: Pursuing far-out conspiracy theories
One wonders how many of those emails are from foreign intelligence fakes.
Huh, I thought I started wondering about Nunes motivations since he seems to be going so far beyond the usual Republican obstruction/obfuscation/opportunism longer ago than just last year.
||
"all security conditions will be met so that Algerians can fulfill their electoral duty in full serenity."Amen, brother.
20/22: During the Russia election interference hearings, he was briefing Trump (and the press) on classified material produced behind closed doors to the intel committee.
I think we talked about this when it came out, but just in case not:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a23471864/devin-nunes-family-farm-iowa-california/
Short version: Nunes moves farm to Iowa, hires undocumented workers. Investigative reporter shows up and finds himself increasingly harassed by the Nunes family.
||
"We lived our whole life under oppression. As a child I remember chopped heads of Sidama people displayed at the market. I will never forget the head of my brother in law," she said.|>
My brother in law has a nice head too. He's tall and bearded, so it's easy to find him in a crowd.
The head alone seldom retains the quality of tallness.
Don't be so bitter just because you cut down all of your trees.
37: Oh yes, I do remember that.
I think I've lacked continuity with this Devin Nunes character in the plot, and sometimes splintered him into two or three supporting roles. All one guy, you say.
46.2: Just to give you a taste of the wonderful world of Twitter -- after the Esquire article, someone set up a parody Twitter account as Devin Nunes' Cow. Then Congressman Nunes filed a totally non-frivolous lawsuit against his own cow. The immediate result of this was that the previously relatively obscure Twitter account now has 661,000 followers.
I've been assuming Nunes is motivated by money and the promise of a high-paying gig at the soon-to-be-announced TrumpTV network. I've also assumed that Giuliani is motivated by money and is billing hours like crazy to the Trump Organization, but it's also possible that Rudy really is just crazy as a shithouse rat.
48: Counting on Trump to pay his bills is pretty crazy in itself.
49: It amazes me that this didn't shut Trump down earlier in his career. I knew he was notorious for not paying contractors back in the eighties, and I think everyone in NY did. Why people kept working for him is a mystery to me.
48: isn't Rudy being paid by Russian oligarchs? As was Manafort when he worked for the Trump campain "for free?" Oh, on googling, excuse me, I see it was a $10 million *loan* to Manafort from Russian oligarchs that he was being "pressured by Russians" to pay back.
||
Since we're past 40 comments, I have a rant.
Maybe this has been going on longer, but I really started noticing during the last year. If I visit the websites for the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate and various other more or less mainstream news outlets, up there with the other "front page" stories there's nearly always a story about what Saturday Night Live is doing.
Why? Who the fuck cares? Has anyone who isn't a journalist even watched SNL for the last 15 years?
|>
Also, if you want a good listen, the Fresh Air episode last week called "Journalist alleges Russian links to mysterious deaths abroad" was fantastic. How Putin operates, what expat Russian oligarchs have meant for the UK, and the murky waters of who the bad guys are at any given moment. A moral cesspool of amazing proportions. And then you think that for the last two decades these people have been propping up the finances of the Trump organization.
52: you must have been algorithmed. I never see SNL related ads. Not that I get past the paywall very often anyway.
Re: 32, the thing that changed is the 2016 election proved to Nunes that far-out conspiracy theories weren't electoral suicide.
48, 49: Not to be all more-cynical-than-thou, but their strategy seems simple enough to me. Subvert American laws, institutions, and norms to make "it's OK if you're a Republican" effectively reality, die rich in bed. Whether they'll succeed or what their fallback plans are, if they have them, is still an open question.
you must have been algorithmed.
A likely explanation. Although if an industrial strength algorithm thinks that I care about SNL, this is proof that machine learning has a long way to go.
I get mostly ads about controlling blood pressure, which is unfortunately well targeted. But, it turns out that drugs work great, you just need to take enough of them.
Enough in terms of dosage or enough in terms of variety?
They think I care about buying a bra that fits right.
59: I'm not sure, but they wouldn't give me any Xanax and looked offended when I asked if ketamine was right for me.
|| So, if you're wondering what the US Supreme Court has done today to fuck up democracy, the answer is that it reversed a decision on Alaska's individual campaign contribution limits, because the Court thinks they are too low. That candidates cannot get enough money from individuals is certainly the most pressing issue in state politics right now . . . |>
Most of my Facebook ads are for local events, which is pretty much what I want except it's "local" within about a 150-mile radius. I'm not going to the grand opening of a brewery in Richmond or a flea market in Allentown. Facebook is happy to waste these businesses' money.
52: I see them, too. I was very surprised to learn that some of the in-laws still watch, either in real time or the next day. Their tastes seem way more mainstream than mine, so maybe it is a thing still?
The only SNL stuff that gets mentioned in commentary is the political stuff which has been awful since the departure of Will Ferrell, and Weekend Update hosted by the two most smug men under 40 outside the realm of professional sports. The only other SNL things I can remember going viral since the departure of the Lonely Island digital shorts are David S. Pumpkins and the "Grouch" trailer. The rest of the show is roughly as good as it's always been, laboring in anonymity.
I mostly get ads for couches, because I recently shopped extensively for a couch. (It turns out there are many ugly couches in the world, so you have to click through a lot of pages.)
Sofa challenge accepted!
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/luxury-antique-reclining-leather-sofa-bed_62039899906.html
https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/canapes/toadstool-collection-sofa-masquespacio/id-f_15982351/
https://shopfactorydirect.com/vendome-ii-formal-victorian-crystal-tufted-faux-leather-sofa-gold-patina-53120.html
||
seen this here?
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/faq-the-snake-fight-portion-of-your-thesis-defense
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Today is Evacuation Day in New York City. I guess because yesterday was some special at Chipotle.
||
We've debated homed in/honed in before, but this letter I'm reading has the phrase, "l have also horned in my interdisciplinary skills..." which is different.
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It means their skillset is too big to fit in their portfolio, so they need a shoehorn to slip it in. IYKWIMAITYD.
Don't hire them unless the other choices are actually evil.
And, oh, hey, guess who isn't a king? Donald Fair Hair.
Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded
American history is that Presidents are not kings. See The Federalist No.51 (James
Madison); The Federalist No. 69 (Alexander Hamilton); 1 Alexis de Tocqueville,
Democracy in America 115-18 (Harvey C. Mansfield & Delba Winthrop eds. & trans.,
Univ. of Chicago Press 2000) (1835). This means that they do not have subjects, bound
by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control. Rather, in this land of
liberty, it is indisputable that current and former employees of the White House work
for the People of the United States, and that they take an oath to protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States. Moreover, as citizens of the United States, current
and former senior-level presidential aides have constitutional rights, including the right
to free speech, and they retain these rights even after they have transitioned back into
private life.
Here's a bit more from that. Apparently, the US District Court hasn't been informed that Article II lets the President do whatever he wants.
The United States of America has a government of laws and not of men. The Constitution and federal law set the boundaries of what is acceptable conduct, and for
this reason, as explained above, when there is a dispute between the Legislature and the Executive branch over what the law requires about the circumstances under which government officials must act, the Judiciary has the authority, and the responsibility, to decide the issue. Moreover, as relevant here, when the issue in dispute is whether a government official has the duty to respond to a subpoena that a duly authorized committee of the House of Representatives has issued pursuant to its Article I authority, the official's defiance unquestionably inflicts a cognizable injury on Congress, and thereby, substantially harms the national interest as well. These injuries give rise to a right of a congressional committee to seek to vindicate its constitutionally conferred investigative power in the context of a civil action filed in court.
Notably, whether or not the law requires the recalcitrant official to release the testimonial information that the congressional committee requests is a separate
question, and one that will depend in large part on whether the requested information is itself subject to withholding consistent with the law on the basis of a recognized privilege. But as far as the duty to appear is concerned, this Court holds that Executive branch officials are not absolutely immune from compulsory congressional process--no matter how many times the Executive branch has asserted as much over the years--even if the President expressly directs such officials' non-compliance.
This result is unavoidable as a matter of basic constitutional law, as the Miers court recognized more than a decade ago. Today, this Court adds that this conclusion is inescapable precisely because compulsory appearance by dint of a subpoena is a legal construct, not a political one, and per the Constitution, no one is above the law. That is to say, however busy or essential a presidential aide might be, and whatever their proximity to sensitive domestic and national-security projects, the President does not have the power to excuse him or her from taking an action that the law requires. Fifty years of say so within the Executive branch does not change that fundamental truth. Nor is the power of the Executive unfairly or improperly diminished when the Judiciary mandates adherence to the law and thus refuses to recognize a veto-like discretionary power of the President to cancel his subordinates' legal obligations. To the contrary, when a duly authorized committee of Congress issues a valid subpoena to a current or former Executive branch official, and thereafter, a federal court determines that the subpoenaed official does, as a matter of law, have a duty to respond notwithstanding any contrary order of the President, the venerated constitutional principles that animate the structure of our government and undergird our most vital democratic institutions are preserved.
77 Yes. COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES v. DONALD F. MCGAHN II
By contrast, is it right that SCOTUS is signaling it will find the penumbras and emanations from Article II put a cloak of invisibility on the President's tax returns?
80 I don't think you should over-read that. I don't think they needed to preserve the status quo here, but it's not surprising that they would.
Justice Alito's dissent from the denial of cert in the climate change defamation case is kind of interesting. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1451_dc8f.pdf Justice Alito dissenting is always a good sing.
Justice Kavanaugh's dissent from the denial of cert in Paul really put the lie to the whole balls and strikes metaphor. C'mon, throw a knuckleball, said no ump ever.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-8830_5hdk.pdf
Why has my computer forgotten me?
Because you're talking gobbledegook. What do 82-84 mean in English?
One time they replaced my laptop with a slab of ice.
If the woman from whom I bought my house had had any money, the middle one of 67 is what she'd have plotted world domination from. As it was, she just painted the damn place in similar colours.
see also this sex dungeon — the "really corking cock-crinkler" brought to 3D life.
69: Did Westeros send that back as a reject or something?
84 means Kavanaugh is planning to dismantle the entire agency structure of the government and very unusually explicitly put out an opinion asking to be given a case that would let him do it.
If we don't win the presidency and the Senate and pack the court, it's going to be the nineteenth century again.
Why are you trying to dismantle the agency structure of government?
Now it will be harder for me to eat them.
Why would you even want to eat a federal agency?
Imagine giving birth to something with legs that long.
I'm not in possession of a cervix, but I've heard that the problem is the head.
Why would you even want to eat a federal agency?
NASA has that fun space ice cream.
The daughter of one of my colleagues writes for SNL. She got us tickets a few years ago, and it was a blast. Still don't actually watch it often.
I'm not sure I've figured out how to square 'article II lets you do anything you want' with 'article I means you can't make any policy decisions.' But then there's never been a reason to regard Trumpism as some sort of coherent system. It's a cult of personality built on a cult of anti-personality. (They love him because he hates us, and says so with his 5th grade vocabulary.)
There's a certain paradoxical logic to the "chosen one" argument. The more clear it is that Trump is a complete idiot, the more certain it is that the only way he could have become President is because God willed it.
I don't think Trump is an idiot. I think he is quite intelligent at seeking his ends. I just find the ends he seems either evil or stupid.
I think he is entirely an idiot, aside from his savantlike ability to be a dumbfuck-whisperer. He can't tolerate complexity or details. His sharpie notes from the other day are not smart.
IDK. He seems like a possessor of truths accidentally acquired. Relatedly, how much whisky is it prudent to drink on a work night?
I think using an overly narrow definition of intelligence is a problem for getting rid of Trump. Being able to read and use dumbfucks is a skill and not a common one.
107: That is a question you will likely spend a whole life of experimentation attempting to determine a definitive answer. And since the variables will always be changing, you likely never will.
110: Well, I could have said "Zero". Now that's pessimistic.
Is 111 why everyone keeps dissing Columbus?
Have I endorsed in this sordid forum Tom Hardy's Taboo? I think I have, but let me endorse it again; it grows upon review.
107 very much depends on the morning schedule, ime.
IDK. I wouldn't want to do genocide with a hangover, either way.
|| It's a hard time to be male. We finally had one legit hero, and it turns out she's a girl ||
113. I liked it a lot. I've actually liked all the BBC/FX coproductions that I've seen. Haven't seen the Gianni Versace one yet, but I would like to. The Danny Boyle Trust was pretty good as well, a little hyperactive and loose for how long it was. Fantastic ending though, and Donald Sutherland was a pleasure to watch.
I watched the Coen's A Serious Man recently. I don't think they like rabbis very much.
I think using an overly narrow definition of intelligence is a problem for getting rid of Trump. Being able to read and use dumbfucks is a skill and not a common one.
I'm using a very broad definition of intelligence. You're claiming that Trump's narrow sliver of intelligence is enough to call him smart.
Is your definition broad or just focused on things that are written down?
I guess it takes a certain kind of genius to take credit for the minting of a centennial coin.
This is a great--you've been working on this for years, right? (Applause.)
So--and they have. They've been working on this for years and years. And I'm curious, why wasn't it done a long time ago? ... Well, I guess the answer to that is because now I'm president, and we get things done. We get a lot of things done that nobody else got done.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/11/trump-coin-commemorative-coin-centennial-100-year-anniversary-womens-suffrage.html?via=taps_top
Is your definition broad or just focused on things that are written down?
I'm certainly picturing lots of things that involve reading and writing, but also how he doesn't notice that his staffers slip stories into his stack in order to manipulate him, how he can't pay attention for more than a few minutes at a time, how he has hours of Executive Time everyday and he's not bored out of his skull watching Fox New, how he falls for conspiracy theories repeatedly, etc etc. He's got a knack, but I think it's more appropriate to call it as a specific kind of entertainer.
How is that different, in breadth, from the intelligence of a programmer who can't communicate successfully in a social area or something? He can do one thing well, but is below average on some very common skills.
Also, why wouldn't he watch Fox News and fall for conspiracy theories? They're very helpful for him.
124: Not very different, but at least the programmer is applying some external rule that exists even if he doesn't want it to. If the programmer just loved programming in C++ and insisted on programming in C++ even when using Python or binary or Facebook, that'd be a little more untethered in the way Trump is. And then tries to program the Ukraine in C++ to rig the next Apple phone to only use C++. You see where this is going.
I do, but I don't agree with it. Why switch tactics that are working?
The Russians hate us for our freedom is why.
Nothing makes me feel more ADHD (which I'm not entirely sure I am, but) than trying to read these applications. It's such gobbledygook. I can't figure out how to actually read and comprehend what I'm trying to read.
I'm in Malaga for my brother's wedding and saw Parasite on the plane (didn't think I'd be able to catch it otherwise) and last night The Irishman at a local art house cinema. I highly recommend both.
Seeing The Spaniard would have been easier.
130: I wanted to see The Irishman, but it started at 8:20 and it's 3 1/2 hours long which would have made it way past my bedtime. So I was A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood instead. Predictably, I cried.
Since I technically live in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, I'll try to remember not to give anyone the finger on the way home.
133: Mr. Rogers thanks you for your consideration!
135: Yeah, I figured I would fall asleep too.
OT: Just out of curiosity, anybody else wondering if maybe the e coli in the lettuce from California doesn't have something to do with the thing dairy queen was saying about how the agricultural workers usually live in areas without water and sewer services?
Maybe that was Megan? It wasn't very long ago, so I should remember.
The global bitcoin network is estimated to consume 73 terawatt-hours per year, close to the annual amount of electricity consumption in Chile, according to an index developed by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
Srinagar: To restore their internet connections, which have been suspended for four months now, companies have to give the government a signed bond saying that internet usage will be for "business purposes" only. They must also promise to share all the "contents" and "infrastructure" of the internet as and when required by the "security agencies".
The bond, a copy of which is with The Wire, consists of six points, including that no encrypted file containing any sort of videos or photos will be uploaded.
Other points state that "for the allowed IP, there will be no Social Networking, Proxies, VPN's and Wi-Fi" and "That all the USB ports will be disabled on the network".
The Western Sahara camel herder says, "If camels could talk, you'd easily hear how intelligent they are." Surely the same is true of Trump.
I doubt, however, that his milk is nutrient-rich, however long he walks around on the golf course.
Twitter loves Devin Nunes
Would be weird on the eve of a major national holiday for #directorofbuttlicking to trend and be tagged to @DevinNunes
https://twitter.com/chrisaghassi/status/1199693473139458048