;)
Wednesday
May312023
May 31, 2023
Afternoon/Evening Update:
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House was heading toward a final vote Wednesday night on a bipartisan plan that would suspend the nation's debt ceiling for two years, after the package cleared a major procedural hurdle as lawmakers raced to act before a looming June 5 default. With Republicans in revolt over the measure, it fell to Democrats to help clear the way for the legislation, in a 241-187 vote that reflected a bitter G.O.P. split over the compromise between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden.... In the end, 29 Republicans opposed the measure while 52 Democrats crossed party lines to support it." This is the top pinned item in a liveblog.
Wow! Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which ... Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything. The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources.... On the recording, Trump's comments suggest he would like to share the information but he's aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.... The July 2021 meeting was held at Trump's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with two people working on the autobiography of Trump's former chief of staff Mark Meadows as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin. The attendees, sources said, did not have security clearances that would allow them access to classified information." The document Trump was discussing in the meeting was apparently "a four-page report typed up by (Trump's former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Mark Milley himself." Read the whole story. ~~~
~~~ "Lordy, There Are Tapes!" (And Witnesses!) Marcy Wheeler has some thoughts: "... this is the kind of document that the Saudis would pay billions of dollars for.... No matter what reason Trump originally stole this document, this incident shows how Trump was exploiting it: To prove a critic [-- in this case, Susan Glasser of the New Yorker (see original CNN story) --] wrong.... And Trump had it, at least in part, to avenge what he perceived as a slight by Milley." ~~~
~~~ Marie: An aside to the main story, which Andrew Wiessmann said on MSNBC is a "game-over" moment if true, is the audience for Trump's undoing: they are two people who are working on Mark Meadows' "autobiography." Although Meadows himself was not in the meeting, he appears to have included the meeting in his "autobiography" as if he had been there. IOW, the "autobiographers" seem to have been sort of alter-egos, and Meadows has produced an "autobiography" he did not write, but in which he was where he wasn't. People quip that autobiography is the sincerest form of fiction; looks as Meadows set out to prove that.
William Rashbaum & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is asking the judge overseeing his criminal case in Manhattan to step aside, citing ties between the judge's family and Democratic causes, Mr. Trump's lawyers said in a statement Wednesday. The motion for recusal, which has not yet been filed publicly, represents the latest effort by Mr. Trump's lawyers to move his case away from the judge, Juan M. Merchan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan. The Trump legal team also recently sought to shift the case, brought by the Manhattan district attorney, to federal court. On Tuesday, the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, filed court papers opposing that effort, and he is expected to oppose the effort to get Justice Merchan to recuse himself."
Farnoush Amiri of the AP: "The chairman of the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday he is moving forward with holding FBI Director Chris Wray in contempt of Congress because the department has not turned over a bureau record that purports to relate to President Joe Biden and his family. Rep. James Comer ,R-Ky., criticized the federal law enforcement agency after he said his committee was told it would not gain access to an unclassified form that describes 'an alleged criminal scheme' involving the president and a foreign national.... The FBI said it offered to give the Oversight committee 'access to information responsive to the Committee's subpoena in a format and setting that maintains confidentiality and protects important security interests and the integrity of FBI investigations.' The bureau called that offer 'an extraordinary accommodation.'... 'This subpoenaed document, by definition, reveals nothing more than an unverified and unsubstantiated tip made to Donald Trump's Justice Department, which presumably led to no evidence of criminal wrongdoing,' Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement late Tuesday."
Little Spud Quits. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The national security adviser to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) has resigned after The Washington Post disclosed in a story that he presented Tuberville with the highly controversial strategy of stalling scores of senior military nominations in an attempt to stop a new Defense Department policy that helps ensure access to abortions for service members. In an email to colleagues Tuesday night obtained by The Post, Morgan Murphy shared that it was his last day working for Tuberville. 'Today is my last day with Coach, the best boss I've ever had,' Murphy wrote...." Politico's report, which broke the story, is here.
Jill Colvin of the AP: "Former Vice President Mike Pence will officially launch his widely expected campaign for the Republican nomination for president in Iowa next week.... Pence will hold a kickoff event in Des Moines on June 7, the date of his 64th birthday, according to two people familiar with his plans.... He is also expected to release a video message as part of the launch." MB: To celebrate, I plan to go out in the front yard & wave a couple of those teeny American flags people put on July 4th cakes.
Jill Colvin of the AP: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire. Christie, who also ran in 2016, is planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of Politics, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie's plans." MB: I see by the Googles that St. Anselm's is 23 minutes from my house. I should drive right over there & cheer on Chrisco.
~~~~~~~~~~
Carl Hulse & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "A bipartisan deal to suspend the federal debt ceiling advanced on Tuesday night toward a climactic House vote despite a rebellion by hard-right Republicans who said the party was squandering a chance to force fundamental changes in government spending. In the legislation's first test, the House Rules Committee voted to clear the way for debate on the plan to be held Wednesday. Seven Republicans voted to send the measure on, while two others joined with Democrats to oppose doing so.... It was a boost to Speaker Kevin McCarthy's effort to push through the agreement that he hammered out with President Biden in days of difficult talks, and which must pass the House and clear the Senate by Monday to be enacted in time to avert a default.... The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday that the package would reduce the accumulation of debt by about $1.5 trillion over the course of a decade, largely by cutting and capping certain discretionary spending for two years. It also said a series of changes in work requirements for food stamp eligibility -- tightening them for some adults, but loosening them for others including veterans -- would actually increase federal spending on the program by $2 billion." A related Guardian story is here.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... as the [Rules C]ommittee was about to take up the debt ceiling deal, one of its Freedom Caucus members [-- Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.) --] lodged a remarkable claim about the January agreement [that got Kevin McCarthy the speakership]: that GOP votes to advance bills on the committee effectively needed to be unanimous.... Roy was basically claiming that he, fellow Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and a third non-McCarthy loyalist on the committee, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), each had veto power.... 'I have not heard that before,' Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) told CNN. 'If those conversations took place, the rest of the conference was unaware of them.'" MB: This supposed rule, forged in such secrecy that even one of the parties to it knows nothing about it, is as stupid as the Senate rule that allows Sen. Potato Head to single-handedly hold up promotions for hundreds of military officials.
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Chip "Roy, 50, the policy chairman of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus who has emerged as the hard right's spending expert, is accusing [Kevin] McCarthy of having reneged on [a 'power-sharing' agreement they cut in January], and is attempting to exert his leverage again -- this time with potentially dire consequences. He and his allies are attempting to shoot down the agreement Mr. McCarthy reached with President Biden to suspend the debt ceiling just days before the country is headed for default.... Several members have floated the idea of calling for Mr. McCarthy's removal."
Olivia Beavers & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Conservative angst over the debt deal is threatening to trigger Kevin McCarthy's biggest fear -- a push to oust him from the speakership. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) on Tuesday became the first House conservative to explicitly state he is considering a push to strip McCarthy of the gavel over his recent deal with President Joe Biden.... Other conservatives have indicated they're considering drastic measures over a debt-and-budget deal that they despise.... Publicly, though, few Freedom Caucus members are willing to go that far even as they trash the McCarthy-Biden deal.... The procedure Bishop is considering would essentially trigger a vote of no confidence against McCarthy -- a tool that's been weaponized by the conservative House Freedom Caucus against the past two speakers in attempts to keep party leaders from leaning too much towards the center." MB: They're not "conservatives"; they're radical economic terrorists (and most are insurrectionists, too).
How Joe Rolls. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For days, [Kevin] McCarthy (R-Calif.) has effectively been arguing that he rolled [President] Biden, forcing him into major concessions on spending and delivering the Republican Party a win. 'President Biden claimed he'd never negotiate.... But in a stark contrast, Biden on Monday declined to even say who had gotten the better deal; he has merely called it a 'bipartisan deal' and 'good news for the American people.' And he said there was a reason for that. 'Why would Biden say what a good deal it is before the vote?' [Biden asked reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.] 'You think that's going to help me get it passed? No. That's why you guys don't bargain very well....'... In other words: If Biden says this is a good deal for Democrats, Republicans will vote against it.... It also reflects the reality of the modern Republican Party, which has become defined by an owning-the-libs mentality...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "The intensive negotiations [over the debt ceiling deal] thrust [Office of Management & Budget Director Shalanda] Young, 45, into the center of a fight with sweeping economic and political ramifications. To many participants she seemed to become an indispensable figure, a rare individual who was known and trusted by members of both parties and could serve as a conduit at a moment when partisan recriminations have reached a fever pitch.... Young has been involved in budget fights for more than a decade starting with her tenure on the House Appropriations Committee.... 'Everybody in this place knows her, respects her greatly,' [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy told reporters this month.... Young's relationships with Republicans, former colleagues and current aides say, proved to be critical in developing trust with GOP members of Congress and their staffs.... [Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi] also praised Young's 'encyclopedic knowledge' of the budget and the respect she commands from Republicans, attributing it to her determination not to 'diminish the value of their contributions.' Young's command of the subject is also widely recognized."
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "... the brinkmanship that brought the United States within days of being unable to pay its bills has renewed calls for the Biden administration to stop the debt ceiling from continuing to be a political tool.... [President] Biden opted against challenging the constitutionality of the debt limit this time around but suggested last week that he had the authority to do so and hinted that he might try to use it in the future.... When and how Mr. Biden might try to carry out that legal test could affect how his legislative agenda holds up in a potential second term and how future presidents navigate budget negotiations when a party in the minority appears willing to risk a default. The Justice Department signaled this week that the Biden administration preferred to keep its legal thinking on the matter private.... After the agreement was reached [between the president and the House speaker], department lawyers asked for a hearing [in a suit challenging the constitutionality of the debt limit statute] that was scheduled for Wednesday to be postponed. The judge, Richard Stearns, agreed to postpone it indefinitely and allowed the Biden administration to avoid laying out its legal rationale."
Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "President Biden is expected to nominate the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric Smith, to lead the service as commandant, selecting a senior officer who has led troops in combat and served more recently in a key role as the service attempts to transform itself after two decades of counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.... Smith's selection comes amid a broader remaking of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as [some top] officers retire. Among the other changes expected, Gen. Randy George has been nominated to replace Gen. James McConville as chief of staff of the Army, and Gen. Charles 'CQ' Brown Jr., the current chief of staff of the Air Force, has been tapped to replace Army Gen. Mark A. Milley as Joint Chiefs chairman." MB: Good luck to all you guys. Because Mr. Potato Head.
Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Turkey to take immediate action on Sweden's bid to join NATO, saying there was no reason for further delay in bolstering the trans-Atlantic alliance at a time of profound tension with Russia.... While NATO members cemented the accession of neighboring Finland this spring, Turkey and Hungary have so far declined to ratify Sweden's membership.... Blinken spoke alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who said Stockholm had taken numerous steps to address Turkish concerns about Sweden's handling of individuals whom Ankara views as Kurdish militants.... U.S. officials have said they expect Hungary to ratify once Turkey does."
The Wind Is Woke. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Even before the [Inflation Reduction Act] started to take effect..., America was experiencing a renewable energy boom. And the boom has been led by a surprising place: [Texas].... Texas dominates in wind power.... You might think, then, that Texas politicians would be celebrating the renewables boom.... But no. Republicans in the Texas legislature have turned hard against renewable energy, with a raft of proposed measures that would subsidize fossil fuels, impose restrictions that might block many renewable energy projects and maybe even shut down many existing facilities.... Renewables have been caught up in the culture wars.... the weird thing is the way [the rage against wokeism] infects attitudes on issues that don't actually involve wokeism but are seen as woke-adjacent.... So in the minds of Texas right-wingers the wind has become woke, and wind power has become something to be fought even if it hurts business and costs the state both money and jobs."
Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), who was first elected to Congress in 2012, will resign his seat to focus on his wife's health, according to a published report.... [Her] medical issues are not publicly known.... Stewart's departure would reduce the GOP's already-slim majority in the House -- 222 seats to Democrats' 213.... Per Utah law, Stewart's resignation will spark a special election, whose winner will fill the remainder of his term Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) will announce the timeline for the race's primary and general elections once Stewart officially announces his resignation. Stewart, who serves on the Appropriations and Intelligence committees, has won handily in the Republican-leaning district since he was first elected in 2012." (Also linked yesterday.)
Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: Jack Smith, "the special counsel investigating ... Donald J. Trump"... has subpoenaed staff members from the Trump White House who may have been involved in firing the government cybersecurity official whose agency judged the election 'the most secure in American history,' according to two people briefed on the matter. The team ... has been asking witnesses about the events surrounding the firing of Christopher Krebs, who was the Trump administration's top cybersecurity official during the 2020 election.... Mr. Smith's team is also seeking information about how White House officials, including in the Presidential Personnel Office, approached the Justice Department, which Mr. Trump turned to after his election loss as a way to try to stay in power, people familiar with the questions said. The investigators appear focused on Mr. Trump's state of mind around the firing of Mr. Krebs, as well as on establishing a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021....
"Mr. Krebs enraged Mr. Trump when his agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, released a statement nine days after the 2020 election attesting to the security of the results. The statement added a sharp rebuke -- in boldface type -- to the unfounded conspiracy theories that Mr. Trump and his allies were spreading about compromised voting machines. 'There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised,' the statement from Mr. Krebs's agency read. Five days later, Mr. Trump tweeted that Mr. Krebs was 'terminated' after releasing a 'highly inaccurate' statement about the 2020 election.... Within the Presidential Personnel Office, a small group of Trump loyalists, led by Mr. Trump's former personal aide, John McEntee, were on a mission to find and fire people perceived as disloyal to Mr. Trump within the federal bureaucracy. And they had fingered the outspoken Mr. Krebs as among the ranks of the disloyal." Read on.
Spencer Hsu, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Mar-a-Lago employee who helped move boxes of documents last June has been questioned about his conduct weeks later related to a government demand for surveillance footage from Donald Trump's property, according to a person familiar with the federal probe.... Authorities have ... examined events in mid-July surrounding a ... subpoena which sought footage from security cameras on the property. Around that time, the employee allegedly had a conversation with an IT worker at the site about how the security cameras worked and how long images remained stored in the system, the person familiar with that aspect of the investigation said. The employee later told investigators that the conversation was innocent....But those answers were met with skepticism...."
Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "A Pennsylvania restaurant owner who screamed death threats directed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than two years in prison. Pauline Bauer was near Pelosi's office suite on Jan. 6, 2021, when she yelled at police officers to bring out the California Democrat so the mob of Donald Trump supporters could hang her. In January, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted Bauer of riot-related charges after hearing trial testimony without a jury."
Bill Barrow of the AP: "Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has dementia and remains at home, her family has announced. Carter, now 95, remains at home with former President Jimmy Carter, who has been at home receiving hospice care since early this year. 'She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones,' the family said via The Carter Center, the global humanitarian organization the couple founded in 1982 after leaving the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Carter family's statement is here.
Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer who in 2020 accused Joe Biden of sexual assault, has said she had defected to Russia. 'I'm still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,' Reade told Sputnik, a Russian press outlet supportive of President Vladimir Putin, while sitting with Maria Butina, a convicted Russian agent jailed in the US but now a member of parliament in Russia. 'I feel very surrounded by protection and safety,' Reade said on Tuesday. Now 59, Reade was a staffer for Biden when he was a US senator from Delaware." MB: Well, thanks to Reade for opening a window into her excellent perception & judgment.
Marie: Oh, Lordy, help me, help me. I agree with this guy. (This is likely a somewhat simplistic explanation of Trump's success, but it is an explanation): ~~~
~~~ Bret Stephens of the New York Times: "'The totalitarian phenomenon,' the French philosopher Jean-François Revel once noted, 'is not to be understood without making an allowance for the thesis that some important part of every society consists of people who actively want tyranny: either to exercise it themselves or -- much more mysteriously -- to submit to it.' It's an observation that should help guide our thinking about the re-election this week of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. And it should serve as a warning about other places -- including the Republican Party -- where autocratic leaders, seemingly incompetent in many respects, are returning to power through democratic means.... The classically liberal political tradition is based on the suspicion of power. The illiberal tradition is based on the exaltation of it.... The Trump movement ... [is] built on a sense of belonging: of being heard and seen; of being a thorn in the side to those you sense despise you...; of submission for the sake of representation. All the rest -- victory or defeat, prosperity or misery -- is details. Erdogan defied expectation because he understood this. He won't be the last populist leader to do so."
Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Members of the Sackler family, the billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma, will receive full immunity from all civil legal claims -- current and future -- over their role in the company's prescription opioids business, a federal appeals court panel ruled on Tuesday. The ruling gives the family the sweeping protection that it has been demanding for years, in exchange for payment of up to $6 billion of the family's fortune to help address the ongoing ravages of the opioid crisis. It removes a major hurdle for that money, plus the company's initial outlay of $500 million, to be dispensed to states and communities for addiction treatment and prevention programs, needs that soared during an epidemic that has grown far beyond abuse of Purdue's signature prescription painkiller drug, OxyContin."
Chick-fil-A Fails Latest Bigotry Test. Gideon Rubin of the Raw Story: "A fast-food chain that for years has been castigated by progressives over its donations to anti-LGBT groups and allegations it embraced discriminatory practices is now being assailed by conservatives over a new initiative that aims to promote diversity, Newsweek reports. Chick-fil-A on its website reported that it has named Erick McReynolds as vice president of diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), a move that has angered conservatives."
Presidential Race 2024. The Party of Hate. Shane Goldmacher & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida kicked off his presidential campaign in Iowa on Tuesday with a sweeping denunciation of the 'elites' that he said dominated American institutions, pitching himself as an unrepentant fighter who could reverse a tide of progressivism in boardrooms, the government and the military.... In a strident speech, he painted a dark picture of America, saying he would be a salve to a 'malignant ideology' that was taking hold across the nation. He described children facing 'indoctrination.' He mocked transgender athletes, denounced the 'woke Olympics' of diversity programs and reveled in his battle with Disney. 'It is time we impose our will on Washington, D.C.,' Mr. DeSantis said." MB: And you thought Trump was deplorable. BTW, I heard about 10 seconds of this speech, and DeSantolini's whiney little voice is even worse than Trump's.
Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: "... many parts of Earth's surface are sinking -- fast. Scientists are especially concerned for sinking locations near the coast, which are at a higher risk for flooding as sea levels rise in a warming world. Hurricanes and extreme rainfall events can also bring more damage to such low-lying areas.... Regions with the highest land subsidence in the United States are mainly located along the East and Gulf Coast, but here we selected a few hot spots around the country." Patel names Houston, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City; Norfolk, Virginia & California's Central Valley. (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Mississippi. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: The mother of 11-year-old Aderrien Murry of Indianola, Mississippi, whom an Indianola policeman shot without apparent provocation, "filed a federal lawsuit against the officer accused of shooting her son, the police chief, the city of Indianola and other, unidentified officers."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war against Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here: "Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Kyiv for [drone] strikes in Moscow, accusing officials of retaliating against a Russian strike on a Ukrainian military site.... Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky..., denied that Ukraine was involved in the strikes but said Moscow residents deserved whatever came at them."
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Reader Comments (15)
Lying by omission is still a lie…
The Times piece, linked above, says…
“…despite a rebellion by hard-right Republicans who said the party was squandering a chance to force fundamental changes in government spending.”
What they should have included to more honestly represent the core hypocrisy of Republican caterwauling is this:
“…despite a rebellion by hard-right Republicans who said the party was squandering a chance to force fundamental changes in government spending, CHANGES THEY NEVER SUPPORT WHEN A REPUBLICAN IS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
But that wouldn’t get the Both Sides Seal of Approval.
Must at all times depict the Republican Party as a serious and competent organization and not the bunch of lazy-ass layabout extortionists, bigots, white supremacists, authoritarians, theocrats, and traitor sons-of-bitches they actually are.
Today in TrumpyTown
Former official liar for fatty (aka press secretary) Kayleigh McEnany came under fire from TFG for going on Fox and not saying that he was polling 999 points higher than the other authoritarian asshole in the race. On his Liar’s Anti-Social site (still only 17 subscribers) he referred to McEnany as “milktoast”. I guess he still has the best words. The best made up ones, that is.
So here we see two things. First, Fatty’s command of the language is still on a third grade level. Second, no matter what you did for this asshole at any other point in time, like going before the press and lying for him every day to make him look good, he will still hit you across the teeth with a crowbar if he thinks it will benefit him somehow.
The Orange Traitor continues his raw display of Civics 101 ignorance (the fact that we had a guy as president who is this stupid still boggles the already overly boggled mind) by promising to start tossing out (he calls it nullifying) parts of the Constitution he doesn’t like (which, of course, no president* or even a president can do). This week it’s the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.
His beef is people coming here from other countries whose children can then become citizens. Stupid doesn’t like this idea. But Stupid forgets that he wouldn’t be a citizen without this clause because his paternal grandparents came from Germany and his mother from Scotland. I suppose he might have a chance of becoming a citizen by passing the citizenship test, but he’s too STUPID.
But this bullshit is standard Republican crap, pulling up the ladder after you’re safe and sound. This was a regular Lyin’ Ryan dance number.
There’ll be more Trumpy feculence any minute now, so stay tuned. Maybe tomorrow he’ll promise to chop out more of the Constitution. Or make up more stoopid words.
@Akhilleus: I hate to break it to you, but both of Trump's parents were citizens at the time he was born. Mean Fred, whose father was a naturalized citizen, was born in NYC. And Trump's mother became a naturalized citizen in 1942, four years before Donald was born. So neither Donald nor his father was an "anchor baby." But then they didn't come from "shithole countries," so how could they be?
As for tossing out parts of the Constitution, doesn't a president* have an Article II right to do whatever he wants? So that should include everything except maybe tossing Article II.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) whines that there's not enough time
to read the 99-page bill that Pres. Biden and McCarthy thrashed
out to avert a default.
Hasn't he been paying attention? Shouldn't he already know whats
in this 99 page package? Doesn't he have a staff who can help him
read it and explain the big words (2 syllables or more)? Isn't he
being paid something like $175,000.00 per year which would mean
he's not really earning it if he's so in the dark?
I have lots more questions but the garden is calling.
https://news.yahoo.com/gop-rep-whines-99-page-084151354.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_00
@Forrest Morris: I hate to tell Rep. Moving-Lips-While-Reading that the three-day hiatus between bill publication and vote was his own caucus's demand.
And, continuing about Mr. Norman's complaint, take a peek at the draft bill's text:
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20230529/BILLS-118hrPIH-fiscalresponsibility.pdf
Lots of filler up front, and max 25 lines of wide-margin per page. This is standard galley, which allows plenty of room for pen and ink mark-up.
But Mr. Norman's lips probably get tired around p. 30, so he can just put his word processor on text audio read after he's all tuckered out.
These people are so so so whiny, you wonder how their constituents live with it ... but I suppose they're whiny too.
CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK:
Looks to me as if that ole Texas blowhard, Chip Roy, is leading his followers into "get rid of McCarthy territory. This bloke speaks pretty much like his old mentor, Ted Cruz back in the day, but he does it with much more sophistication. I listened to him rant during the McCarthy speaker debacle and thought wees gonna hear from this guy a lot in the future. I smell a bid for the speakership in this bearded Texan and its odor ain't nothin like one of Forest's flowers.
Marie,
Yes. Of course I know that Fatty’s parents were citizens, but if they were unable to become citizens (his mother, coming from Scotland, and his father, by dint of having foreign born parents) because the Constitution disallowed their citizenship, per his latest stable genius plan, then Trump would also not be a citizen, nor would he ever be allowed to slither into the White House, something that would have been a boon to mankind.
(I know they might become naturalized, but I’m sure that fat fuck would “nullify” that option as well if he could.)
My point is the stupidity of this asshole who would wipe out a central feature of life in America just to suit his own bigotry and that of the racists and white nationalists who support him.
Who woulda thought that the ground in parts of the U.S.A. would be
sinking?
I'm not a geologist or any kind of scientist. All I have to do is just
think about what we've been doing for hundreds of years, or dozens,
don't know which.
Anyway, we've taken out of the ground underneath us trillions of
cubic yards of 'stuff'. Even if those negative places refill with, like,
water, the earth's crust still isn't as stable as it was before all that
stuff came out.
Maybe Mar-a-Lago will sink into the Atlantic with you-know-who
going in with it.
Funny thing happened yesterday whilst visiting friends. One of their
(R) relatives stopped by to tell them how depressed he is. "My
girlfriend left me last week, my dog just died, and Trump isn't
president* anymore".
There wasn't a single response but the looks on everyone's faces
said it all.
Marie points out the exceptionally whiny quality of the DeSantolini vocalizations. Boy, ain’t it the truth? Whiny, nasally, grating…a slush of sludgy, unmodulated, stupor inducing sounds. Don’t the MAGA crowd already have one of those guys?
I heard a clip in which Whiny Ron (Trump insists on calling him Rob, which is pretty hysterical) blurted out “WOKE” seven times in 20 seconds. The combination of grating whine and nonsense repetition is nothing short of soporific.
I keep seeing “Rob” (that is really funny, a lot funnier than the less than mellifluous DeSanctimonious) referred to as a beta to Fatty’s alpha. Don’t beta versions come before the alpha release? Beta testing is where all the bugs and code monkey problems are ironed out.
A beta release after the alpha has been on the market for years sounds like an instant dud. Talk about failure to launch.
But neither of these clowns makes the highlight reel of great presidential voices. FDR, Kennedy, Obama, even Reagan (that actor voice) play on a tape, followed by Fatty and Rob with their high pitched whines. It’s like figure drawings by Degas, Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, next to a stick figure scrawled in crayon.
You can’t steal that line! I stole it first. It’s mine!
Soooo…more squishy diaper noises from the nursery.
The Fat Plagiarizer is pissed…pissed! The Florida Dictator used a line “of his”:
“Amid a catastrophic failure to launch, Ron DeSantis announced his candidacy with ‘Great American Comeback,’ a phrase stolen from President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address,”
But lo and behold, Trump swiped that Great American Comeback idea (as well as his make America great again bullshit) from St. Ronald of Raygun. Raygun used the line in his 1986 SOTU speech.
But never mind, once Trump has something he’s stolen (like plagiarized phrases, top secret documents, gifts from foreign countries while in office) they belong to him and no one else can use them.
Except…a search for that phrase turns up hundreds of uses before Fatty swiped it. It’s a dead certainty that Reagan didn’t write it himself. By 1986 he was lucky he could count the jellybeans on his desk. It was probably Ken Khachigian, St. Ronnie’s main speechwriter but it could have been cuckoo bird Peggy Noonan. Who knows? Who cares? Oh…Trump does. Nobody steals like he does.
He’s just a crook at heart.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-attacks-desantis-for-blatantly-plagiarizing-a-speech-line-that-trump-actually-took-from-reagan
@Ak, it's funny that you mentioned "betas" today. This morning I read about this new EV that just started production. I was involved in the hands-on design and assembly of their first 16-17 beta prototypes back in 2016, one of which did fairly well in the 2017 Pikes Peak Hill Climb despite having to "reboot" before finishing the race. To verify my claim, I have photos and 3D CAD data that I have never shared with anyone that didn't have a need to know. I thought FF went belly-up years ago, yet hope that they have some measure of success for their years of effort. Though too rich for my blood (and needs)...
So yeah, confirmation of Fatty’s willful and knowledgeable mishandling of top secret documents is, to quote Joe Biden, a big fucking deal. But just for a moment…
Mark Meadows.
Another lying grifter. Pretty much everyone not dead surrounding Trump was a liar, a crook, a bigot, a grifter, a treasonous jackal or…did I say liar?
Meadows is not the first, nor will he be the last self-proclaimed big shot to have had someone else write a story he put his name to (see Trump, Donald), but as a Teabagging Freedom Cock-up mucky muck, groups that claim to be slathered in Truth and Authenticity, it’s especially delicious to find his ghostwriter slipping him into meetings he never attended, likely to try and bolster his bona fides as a Trump Prime Lackey. I guess that’s what you call an antibiography.
Like the rest of the Trump circle, anti truth, anti democratic, anti you name it.
So this meeting took place at Bedminster. Why the fuck am I not seeing headlines about the FBI executing a search warrant at Bedminster and at t**** tower and all the other places RIGHT NOW? We knew since the story broke that the Turd had stolen property everywhere. The minute they found stolen documents and items in Florida they had full cause to search other places.
I am tired of waiting. I am tired of quadruple-checking procedure. The bastard has shown himself to be a massive criminal, a criminal like you've never seen, a beautiful criminal. Take him down now.
Jeez. Apparently it is like a mighty river, a gushing pipeline (you're welcome, Nasty Mansion--) full of toxic sludge...I am referring, of course, to the vast index of lies and crimes done by Flabbylips and his family and "friends." Every. Damn. Day. We never have any time to relax and refresh-- thanks, Chris Wray and Merrick Garland, for your stupid investigations that never end, never go anywhere.
As for Mark Meadows, what an unending pile of s*** he is. From lying and avoiding and providing fake addresses to vote, he is a miracle for sure, an "author" who did not write his book, and was placed in a meeting he did not attend, and he did ZILCH to stop January 6, but DID burn documents in a fireplace at his workplace. I can't even adequately describe what a zero he is. Lock him up and throw away the key. No one will miss him ever. Maybe his wife can go live in the trailer they claimed was their home...Oh, and he had a big ole wedding during covid. He's worse than zero. What would that be?