;)
The Commentariat -- December 24, 2020
Trump-Free Zone. Marie: I don't care if Donald Trump hangs himself from a Mar-a-Lago chandelier or goes out & shoots sightseers on Palm Beach's Worth Avenue, he gets no mention tomorrow.
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) rebuked President Trump over his criticism of a $2.3 trillion package to provide coronavirus relief and fund the government. Gonzalez said Trump was misleading the public when he criticized the bill earlier this week, suggesting it was funding too many overseas projects and that it did not provide large enough stimulus checks to American families. 'If @realDonaldTrump didn't want money going to foreign countries, he shouldn't have asked for it. 100% of the items he complained about last night were either a lie (i.e. illegals aren't getting $1800) or things in HIS budget (all the foreign aid),' the Ohio Republican tweeted.... 'The @HouseGOP has stood by him for 4 years. If he thinks going on twitter and trashing the bill his team negotiated and we supported on his behalf is going to bring more people to his side in this election fiasco, I hope he's wrong, though I guess we'll see,' he said."
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "A massive government funding and coronavirus relief package is being sent to Florida on Thursday afternoon, where President Trump is mulling whether to sign it into law. The legislation was enrolled on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted. A person familiar with the matter confirmed it will be sent to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump is spending the holidays. White House officials have declined to comment on whether the president intends to sign or veto the package."
Messages from the People. Heather Long & Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Millions of Americans ... have a simple plea to President Trump and Congress: Please help us. The Washington Post has been inundated with messages and phone calls from people on the verge of losing their homes and cars and going hungry this holiday who are stunned that President Trump and Congress cannot agree on another emergency aid package. Several broke down crying in phone interviews. Some blamed Trump for torpedoing a $900 billion relief package at the last minute. Others agreed with Trump that the proposed $600 checks for over 150 million American households was too little, too late and should be raised to at least $2,000. Others blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for not taking a deal in August. But most told The Post they are 'not political people' and are struggling to understand why Congress and the president would be able to celebrate Christmas when 14 million Americans are slated to lose unemployment aid on Saturday, the government is set to shut down on Tuesday, and an eviction moratorium that has prevented millions from losing their homes during a pandemic ends on New Year's Eve." ~~~
~~~ Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "Congressional leaders are clambering to avoid a disastrous government shutdown a day before Christmas after ... Donald Trump rejected their $900 billion stimulus deal that would provide relief to millions of Americans. And as Trump single-handedly halts hundreds of billions of dollars in coronavirus aid, even some Republicans are urging him to drop the matter.... Both parties are now stranded with a Trump-driven crisis on Christmas Eve -- uncertain how to deliver quick relief to millions of Americans suffering in the pandemic-battered economy, let alone keep the government funded.... 'The best way out of this is for the president to sign the bill and I still hope that's what he decides to do,' Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the No. 4 GOP leader, said on Thursday. But Blunt conceded he had 'no idea' what Trump will do.... Trump, meanwhile..., hit the golf course." Emphasis added. MB: Peace on earth, blah blah; I'd like to do bodily harm to that fat bastard.
Marie: Remember how the now-departed Bill Barr said that Donald Trump was right that there was some voter fraud but not enough to change the results of the presidential election? Well, here's an example of that isolated fraud: ~~~
~~~ Davey Alba of the New York Times: “... Pennsylvania officials say one of the names [of dead people] held up by the Trump campaign was used to cast a vote in the election.... Authorities say the fraudulent vote was cast for Mr. Trump. This week, Jack Stollsteimer, the district attorney of Delaware County, accused Bruce Bartman of Marple Township, Pa., of illegally voting in place of his deceased mother in the general election. In addition to his mother, Mr. Bartman registered his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Weihman, who died in 2019, as a voter, according to the district attorney's office, but is not accused of voting for her. He also cast a ballot under his own name. 'This is the only known case of a "dead person" voting in our county, conspiracy theories notwithstanding,' Mr. Stollsteimer said in a statement."
John Eligon of the New York Times: "Susan Moore, [a Black] patient, said the white doctor at the hospital in suburban Indianapolis where she was being treated for Covid-19 had downplayed her complaints of pain. He told her that he felt uncomfortable giving her more narcotics, she said, and suggested that she would be discharged. 'I was crushed,' she said in a video posted to Facebook. 'He made me feel like I was a drug addict.' In her post, which has since circulated widely on social media, she showed a command of complicated medical terminology and an intricate knowledge of treatment protocols as she detailed the ways in which she had advocated for herself with the medical staff. She knew what to ask for because she, too, was a medical doctor.... On Sunday, just more than two weeks after posting the video, Dr. Moore died of complications from Covid-19, said her son, Henry Muhammed."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Seizing on President Trump's implicit threat to reject a $900 billion stimulus compromise unless Congress more than than tripled the $600 direct payments, Democrats attempted to call his bluff on Thursday with legislation that would send Americans $2,000 checks. Republicans rejected the move and tried to counter with a motion to force their own changes to foreign policy spending. Attempted and rejected in less than two minutes, the efforts to amend a $2.3 trillion spending package that overwhelmingly passed both chambers on Monday after weeks of bicameral negotiations were more theater than legislating. They came after Mr. Trump implicitly threatened to reject the measure in a four-minute video on Tuesday night. He has since gone silent, leaving both parties to wonder if he really would veto long-delayed coronavirus relief that is attached to a larger bill to keep the government funded past Monday." ~~~
~~~ The headline on the WashPo story is a classic: "House Republicans block Democrats' effort to advance $2,000 stimulus checks pushed by Trump." ~~~
~~~ Steve M. explains the ratonale behind the headline: "Sure, they're denying desperately needed cash to voters and defying the president, but 'Always be loyal to Trump' is a rule that has one exception: It's okay to defy to Trump if your defiance owns the libs."
** Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain and the European Union struck a hard-fought trade agreement on Thursday, settling a bitter divorce that stretched over more than four years and setting the terms for a post-Brexit future as close neighbors living apart, according to British officials. The deal, which must be ratified by the British and European Parliaments, came together in Brussels after 11 months of grinding negotiations, culminating in a last-minute haggle over fishing rights that stretched into Christmas Eve, just a week before a year-end deadline. Despite running to thousands of pages, the agreement leaves critical parts of the relationship to be worked out later. And it will not prevent some disruption to trade across the English Channel, since British exports will still be subjected to some border checks, adding costs for companies and causing potential delays at ports." The AP's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Sylvia Hui of the AP: "Trucks inched slowly past checkpoints at the English port of Dover and headed across the Channel on Thursday to the French port of Calais, after France partially reopened its borders with Britain following a scare over a rapidly spreading new coronavirus variant. Only a small fraction of the thousands of frustrated truck drivers and travelers have so far made it through the mass gridlock at Dover on Christmas Eve, held up by slow delivery of the coronavirus tests now demanded by France. One by one, trucks passed toward ferries and trains that link Britain with France, as authorities checked that drivers had the negative virus tests required to cross.... Officials warned the backlog could take days to clear.... French Ambassador Catherine Colonna said two dozen French firefighters have been sent to Dover, bringing 10,000 coronavirus tests for drivers desperate to get home for Christmas. British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said British and French authorities have agreed to keep the border between the countries open throughout Christmas...."
DeJoy to the World, Your Gift's De-layed. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Paul Murphy of CNN: "A historic amount of packages and rising employee Covid-19 rates are causing significant backlogs at US Postal Service processing facilities before Christmas. All the shopping and shipping Americans have done in the last few weeks has inundated the system with what the USPS says is a "historic volume" of mail and packages. 'The packages are up to the ceiling' in Philadelphia, local American Postal Workers Union president Nick Casselli told CNN. 'I've been in postal for 35 years, I've never seen what I'm seeing.' He says there are so many new packages -- upwards to 250,000 a day at the largest processing facility -- that the USPS opened a fourth annex just to store them all. There are so many incoming packages the postal workers can't process them in time, Casselli said.... Union presidents and postal workers across the US -- in Illinois, Michigan, California, Florida, Maine and New York -- say they, too, are seeing record volumes of packages and backlogs. Efforts to clear the backlog, they say, are being undercut by rising number of Covid-19 cases and quarantined postal employees." ~~~
~~~ Jacob Bogage & Hannah Denham of the Washington Post (Dec. 21): "Competing crises are slamming the U.S. Postal Service just days before Christmas, imperiling the delivery of millions of packages, as the agency contends with spiking coronavirus cases in its workforce, unprecedented volumes of e-commerce orders and the continuing fallout from a hobbled cost-cutting program launched by the postmaster general. Nearly 19,000 of the agency's 644,000 workers are under quarantine after testing positive for the virus or after a close exposure, according to the American Postal Workers Union. Meanwhile, packages have stacked up inside some postal facilities, leading employees to push them aside to create narrow walkways on shop floors."
Missy Ryan & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has formally notified Congress that it intends to sell nearly $500 million in precision bombs to Saudi Arabia, a transaction that is likely to fuel criticism from lawmakers who object to arming the Persian Gulf nation over its record of human rights abuses and stifling dissent and role in the war in Yemen."
The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser
Another Gross Abuse of Power. Trump Pardons Criminal Friends, Family & Allies. Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Trump doled out clemency to a new group of loyalists on Wednesday, wiping away convictions and sentences as he aggressively employed his power to override courts, juries and prosecutors to apply his own standard of justice for his allies. One recipient of a pardon was a family member, Charles Kushner, the father of ... Jared Kushner. Two others who were pardoned declined to cooperate with prosecutors in connection with the special counsel's Russia investigation: Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger J. Stone Jr., his longtime informal adviser and friend. They were the most prominent names in a batch of 26 pardons and three commutations disclosed by the White House after Mr. Trump left for his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., for the holiday. Also on the list released on Wednesday was Margaret Hunter, the estranged wife of former Representative Duncan D. Hunter, Republican of California[, whom Trump pardoned the previous day].... Of the 65 pardons and commutations that Mr. Trump had granted before Wednesday, 60 have gone to petitioners who had a personal tie to Mr. Trump or who helped his political aims, according to a tabulation by the Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith.... 'This is rotten to the core,' said Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska." CNN's story is here. Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The Court forced Manafort to forfeit tens of millions of dollars. Manafort will not get that money back. As Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC, "You can't pardon your way out of a civil forfeiture." ~~~
~~~ On the Other Hand: Don & Bill's "Killing Spree." Isaac Arnsdorf of ProPublica: "In its hurry to use its final days in power to execute federal prisoners, the administration of ... Donald Trump has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical, according to court records that have not been previously reported. Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases. They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night. They left one prisoner strapped to the gurney while lawyers worked to remove a court order. They executed a second prisoner while an appeal was still pending, leaving the court to then dismiss the appeal as 'moot' because the man was already dead. They bought drugs from a secret pharmacy that failed a quality test. They hired private executioners and paid them in cash. The unprecedented string of executions is often attributed to Attorney General William P. Barr, and his role was instrumental: It was Barr's signature that authorized the use of a new lethal injection drug, his quotes that trumpeted the execution announcements and his position as attorney general that holds the ultimate authority in capital cases.... But... the push to resume federal executions for the first time since 2003 long predates Barr, with groundwork beginning as far back as 2011 and accelerating after Trump took office in 2017. It could not have happened without the help of Justice Department lawyers; officials at the Bureau of Prisons; two professors who endorsed the government's injection method; conservative Supreme Court justices who dismissed final appeals; and Trump himself, who encouraged the executions and declined to commute them." ~~~
~~~ Marie: In case your dumb uncle reads this story & becomes outraged, tell him this does not mean that Trump should commute the sentences as he did Paul Manafort's & let mass murderers walk among us to kill again. Rather, it means that Trump could commute the death sentences to something like life without possibility of parole.
Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "With four weeks left in President Trump's term, he is at perhaps his most unleashed -- and, as events of the past few days have demonstrated, at the most unpredictable point in his presidency.... He spends his days flailing for any hope, if not of actually reversing the outcome of the election then at least of building a coherent case that he was robbed of a second term. When he has emerged from his relative isolation in recent days, it has been to suggest out of the blue that he would try to blow up the bipartisan stimulus package, driving a wedge through his party in the process, and to grant clemency to a raft of allies and supporters, mostly outside the normal Justice Department process. On Wednesday, he vetoed a defense bill backed by most of his party. He has otherwise sequestered himself in the White House, playing host to a cast of conspiracy theorists.... He is almost entirely disengaged from leading the nation...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: For all this mess, I blame mike pence & Trump's Cabinet members for allowing him to remain in office. They know Trump is crazy dangerous -- everybody knows he's crazy dangerous -- and they have done nothing to stop him. In a clearly 25th Amendment moment, all have been derelict in their Constitutional duties. Update: I see where Paul Campos thought of the 25th, too. Campos worked out how pence could invoke the Amendment this Sunday, and "This, in effect, means that Pence could become acting president on Sunday, December 27, and would remain in the position for the rest of the current administration's term in office, as long as House Democrats acceded to the new status quo." ~~~
~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN: Donald Trump is "more erratic than ever. Though he has all but disappeared from public view, Trump is wielding what executive powers he has left to rancorous effect, ensuring his presence is felt even as he holes up in virtual isolation. Instead of off-the-cuff rallies or shouting underneath his helicopter, Trump is holding forth in pre-produced videos and, as always, tweeting. His actions all seem designed to offer the other co-equal branches of government a taste of what he can do -- and what damage he can inflict -- in the days he is still President. By pardoning convicted liars, corrupt loyalists and war criminals, Trump has reminded the judiciary that, if he wants to, he can reverse its work. Issuing a surprise and vague attack on carefully crafted stimulus legislation lets lawmakers know he's still a player, even if he sat out the negotiations entirely and seemed confused about what, exactly, he is opposing." Read on.
Why? Because He Can. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "President Trump made good Wednesday on his repeated threats to veto a $741 billion defense spending bill, setting up what is expected to be the first successful veto override of his presidency during his last weeks in office. The House and Senate each passed the bill earlier this month with strong veto-proof majorities, rejecting Trump's insistence that it be changed to meet his oftentimes shifting demands. Both chambers are expected to sustain the two-thirds majorities needed to override the president's veto. In his veto message, Trump complained that the legislation includes 'provisions that fail to respect our veterans' and military's history' -- a seeming reference to instructions that the Defense Department change the names of installations commemorating Confederate leaders. He also scorned the bill as a &'"gift" to China and Russia,' slammed the bill for restricting his ability to draw down the presence of U.S. troops in certain foreign outposts, and excoriated lawmakers for failing to include an unrelated repeal of a law granting liability protections to technology companies that Trump has accused, without significant evidence of anti-conservative bias." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: One or more of these possibilities explains the veto beyond Trump's just showing off his power: (1) screw up already screwed-up the holidays of Members of Congress who failed to bend to his will; (2) screw up the federal government; (3) further reduce U.S. influence around the world, thus sending an actual -- and intended -- gift to China & Russia.
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday unexpectedly threatened to reject a far-reaching, catchall spending package that includes $900 billion in coronavirus relief and funding for the government through Sept. 30. The threat in effect dropped a depth charge on the Republican Party, but beyond politics, the coming days will determine whether his actions actually deny or delay relief to struggling Americans and shut down the government.... In a video posted online on Tuesday, Mr. Trump conflated the $900 billion relief package with the routine funding portion running alongside it.... Many of the items he objected to [in the video] came straight from his own budget proposal." ~~~
~~~ Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's last-minute move to reject a sweeping coronavirus relief package is escalating confusion and panic among Republicans while setting the stage for an uncomfortable confrontation Thursday that could lead GOP lawmakers to object to their own president's demand for larger stimulus checks for Americans. The chaos is unfolding against the backdrop of another threatened government shutdown, with funding set to lapse starting Tuesday unless a spending bill to keep federal operations running is signed into law.... While the president hasn't explicitly threatened a veto, his defiance of a deal negotiated by his own administration could spark a standoff that could conceivably last until Joe Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20.... Trump could veto the coronavirus relief and spending bill by doing nothing -- the bill has yet to be transmitted to Trump, meaning the 10-day veto window will expire after the current Congress adjourns on Jan. 3.... But multiple congressional aides said their real deadline of concern was Monday at midnight, when a temporary government funding bill expires. If the standoff is not resolved by then, the aides said, an extended government shutdown could potentially continue until Biden's inauguration.... The fight also handed Democrats in two vital Senate races in Georgia a fresh political weapon against their GOP opponents, with Trump undercutting Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler as they took a victory lap over securing the $600 checks." ~~~
~~~ "Complete Clusterfuck." Anita Kumar, et al., of Politico: "On Tuesday night, Trump blindsided all of Washington -- including his own staff -- with a series of eleventh-hour demands to amend coronavirus relief and government funding legislation that his own administration had helped carefully craft and supported.... No one on either side of Pennsylvania Avenue appears to know what Trump's plan is -- or even if there is one. House Republicans held a brief conference call Wednesday afternoon, where they received little clarity on the situation. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Republicans he spoke to Trump, but that the president hasn't committed to anything yet, according to two people on the call. The White House, meanwhile, did not respond to questions about the legislation.... Yet Trump left town Wednesday afternoon without saying a word about the bill, departing for his South Florida Mar-a-Lago resort, where he plans to stay through the new year. And no one seems to know what will happen next.... 'Complete clusterf---,' summarized one top Republican Hill aide."
Another Fool's Errand. Kate Riga of TPM: "White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows made a mostly pointless pilgrimage to Cobb County, Georgia Tuesday to 'get to the truth' of the signature matching audit. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Meadows showed up flanked by secret service, but wasn't let into the room where the voter signatures from ballot envelopes are being matched to the signatures on file." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "A defamation law firm representing Dominion Voting Systems has sent letters to White House counsel Pat Cipollone and ... Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani instructing them to preserve all records related to the company at the center of Trump's conspiracy theories and warning Giuliani that legal action is 'imminent.' Through two well-known defamation attorneys, Dominion Voting Systems sent letters to Cipollone and Giuliani Tuesday, demanding Giuliani stop making 'defamatory claims against Dominion' and ensure there is 'no confusion about your obligation to preserve and retain all documents relating to Dominion and your smear campaign against the company.' The attorneys told Cipollone their preservation request is vast and includes conversations White House officials had with attorneys like Giuliani or Sidney Powell regarding Dominion." MB: This, of course, is a civil suit. Trump can't pardon it away. ~~~
~~~ In a Separate Matter. Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "An executive for a voting machine company that has been the target of conspiracy theories in the aftermath of Donald Trump's 2020 election loss and been baselessly accused of swinging the results against the President is suing his campaign and conservative media figures for defamation. Trump has called Dominion Voting Systems 'a disaster,' and his supporters have pushed the conspiracy theory that the company deleted votes for Trump on its voting equipment and that Dominion's director of product strategy and security, Eric Coomer, helped subvert the election. There is no evidence that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and his administration and election officials have called it the 'most secure' election in US history." MB: Let's hope that on January 21, the plaintiffs in both of these cases will add Trump personally as a defendant.
Where's Jared? Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast: "As ... Donald Trump tries to nullify the 2020 election, pardons perpetrators of one of the most infamous atrocities of the Iraq War, and throws a last-minute wrench into government funding and COVID relief legislation, his most trusted adviser has been half a world away. Jared Kushner ... has spent a significant amount of time after the election overseas, including championing the work he's done in the Middle East. He's planted an olive tree at the Jerusalem Grove of Nations, elbow-bumped with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu, and taken the first direct flight between Morocco and Israel, after orchestrating a formal detente between the two nations -- a detente lubricated by arms sales and a de facto go-ahead for territorial annexation of Palestinian land.... [The trip has struck people] back home as wildly, almost comically, ill-timed; and, they suspect, deliberately so. Jared, after all, has a habit of getting out of dodge at the most problematic moments and few times are as problematic as the current one. 'This is just what Jared does,' said one senior Trump aide."
Never Mind. Quint Forgey & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Conflicting internal memos created confusion inside the White House on Wednesday about when staffers in the Executive Office of the President should begin preparing to leave work ahead of the transition next month. In an email Wednesday morning from the White House Management Office, EOP staffers were instructed to 'please disregard' an earlier memo that had been sent Tuesday informing them that they 'will start departing' on the week of Jan. 4.... The Tuesday memo also included information pertaining to outgoing employees' payroll, benefits, sick leave, records, ethics debriefing and security clearance.... The initial White House communication sent Tuesday had contradicted the ongoing public effort by ... Donald Trump and his top aides to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election." MB: So the fantasists have trumped the realists. (Also linked yesterday.)
Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI has concluded that Iran was behind online efforts earlier this month to incite lethal violence against the bureau's director, a former top U.S. cyber expert and multiple state elections officials who have refuted claims of widespread voter fraud promoted by President Trump and his allies, federal and state officials said Tuesday. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and ousted Homeland Security Department official Christopher Krebs were among more than a dozen people whose images, home addresses and other personal information were posted on a website titled 'Enemies of the People.' Crosshairs were superimposed over the photos." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Anneken Tappe of CNN: "Claims for unemployment benefits fell across most categories in Wednesday's Labor Department report. Still the job market recovery has stalled while more than 20 million Americans need aid to make ends meet. Another 803,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis. That was a drop off from the week before but still nearly four times the claims during the same period in 2019, and yet another sign that the US job recovery has run into serious trouble." (Also linked yesterday.)
Katie Thomas & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "When federal regulators approved two antibody treatments last month for emergency use in high-risk Covid-19 patients, doctors worried there would not be enough to go around.... Early trial data had shown the treatments could keep people at risk of severe disease out of the hospital if administered soon after infection with the coronavirus. But in a surprising turn of events, the treatments are sitting unused in hospital refrigerators around the country, just when they might do the most to help patients and relieve the burden on overwhelmed hospitals as cases and deaths surge to record levels.... The federal government has on hand nearly 532,000 doses of the two drugs, and 55 percent of that has been shipped out, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. But early data collected from hospitals by the federal government suggest that they have given only about 20 percent of their supply to patients.... Administrators have struggled to identify people who should get the antibody drugs because of delays in testing and a lack of coordination between testing sites and hospitals." (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
Another Good Reason to Stay Home for Christmas. CNN: "A large winter storm that brought blizzard conditions to the Midwest on Wednesday night is set to hit much of the East Coast on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, bringing snow to parts of the South and heavy rain across the East Coast. The combination of heavy rain and existing melting snow from last week's storm could lead to flooding from the mid-Atlantic to New England. New York City, for example, will be under a high wind warning and a flood watch from Thursday night into Friday morning, with winds forecast to be 20-30 mph and gusts up to 60 mph."
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Reader Comments (13)
With all of those fruitcakes in D.C. all we taxpayers are getting is crumbs ($600.00) or possibly nothing. I'll have to call Trader Joe's and cancel that wine order.
@Forrest Morris: Maybe you can economize & change your Trader Joe's wine order to a case of "Two Buck Chuck," though I think the price has gone up to three or four dollars a bottle. BTW, I once bought a bottle of "Two Buck Chuck" wine at my husband's insistence, and it was worth every penny. IOW, not so good.
You will PARDON me if I fail to ruminate today; I am fed up to here–-she points to her head–-hearing about the new new fresh hell the bastard has wrought upon the nation. All the quid pro quo pardons made me furious but it was the pardons of the Black Water murderers that did it for me along with his messing up the stimulus bill along with his veto against the defense bill. I understand that these pardons are the types of pardons that do permanent and long-lasting damage to America’s image abroad.
“President Trump has hit a disgraceful new low with the Blackwater pardons. These military contractors were convicted for their role in killing 17 Iraqi civilians and their actions caused devastation in Iraq, shame and horror in the United States, and a worldwide scandal. President Trump insults the memory of the Iraqi victims and further degrades his office with this action.”
( Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said in a statement.)
He has got to be stopped! If a mad dog was on the run, you can bet somebody would rein him in–-maybe even shoot him. We have a mad man on the loose and apparently it's perfectly fine to just wait it out while he continues to destroy and pursue his "presidential fuck=ups."
Sorry––I couldn't help myself.
I'm wondering what trumpkovitch, who claims to be so supportive of the military, is doing about the destruction of Camp Pendleton. Is he even aware that the base is burning and thousands of citizens had to leave their homes on Christmas Eve? What an A-hole, with a capital A.
Marie,
While I wholeheartedly support your decision to excise all references to the treasonous fascist, if he does happen to bang himself from a chandelier, could you let us know? Christmas cheer would be much cheerier. Also, if possible, include the name of the company that installed that fixture. I’d be sure that fat fuck’s blobby bulk would yank a chandelier out of a steel joist. I’d send them a ‘Good job” note.
@Ak: trump won't be banging himself. He reserves that for the likes of Stormy D.
@Akhilleus: I should be able to find the name of the company that hung Mar-a-Lago's chandeliers if the fixtures were re-hung or rewired after Trump bought the place. A search of Palm Beach County's court records should produce the name of the company, as it most likely had to sue Trump for payment.
Here's to hoping the new year is vastly different to this past: https://www.curbed.com/2020/12/biden-climate-team-gina-mccarthy.html. Let's hope they don't pick up Dick Cheney's or Javanka's calls on the first ring.
Forrest,
Haha. Just now noticed that my earlier comment was waylaid by Otto Correct. I’d much prefer a Fatty hanging to a banging, unless it was from a firing squad. Didn’t Fatso Barr revive firing squads for death sentences before he skedaddled, as well as gassings and other forms of archaic methods for inflicting maximum suffering?* Why not garroting? Or having the condemned sewn into a bag with vipers and other viciously fanged and pissed off animals, then thrown into a River? Those Republicans...such a fun bunch.
*As a kid, on a visit to a major art museum, I saw a number of medieval paintings depicting the gruesome endings of various martyrs. People being flayed alive, drawn and quartered, shot through with volleys of arrows.. and that was just in this one museum! As I got older and had a chance to visit others, it became apparent that there must have been a serious taste for torture porn among the moneyed patrons and well off church officials. I’m thinking they would have fit right in with the current crop of right wing torture aficionados.
@Ak, to be drawn and quartered sounds like an apt punishment for such a treasonous traitor against Country and humanity as the Orange Menace.
(The artwork would probably make great jigsaw puzzles though.
"Look Honey. I think this piece goes with his intestines...")
@unwashed and Akhilleus
Shot with arrows, OK, I guess as a deserved ending, but unlike St. Sebastian, the Pretender is surely no martyr to a higher cause.
Or maybe mpaled on the sharp and unforgiving points of his own ego in a protracted and unrelenting agony of self destruction.
I could live with that, even if not reported here until Saturday.
Unwashed,
Drawing and quartering was exactly the punishment for those convicted (or, by some paranoid, mooching monarchs, suspected) of treason. There was also the gruesome bit about having intestines pulled out, wrapped around a kind of hurdy gurdy thingy and set afire whilst the poor man was still alive (this punishment reserved for men only). But your extension of this extravaganza into a sort of game show, adds an extra element of parlous frivolity. Perhaps a contest for biology or pre-med students...”I’ll take “gloppy, stringy, bloody mess” for 800, Alex.
Human history has no dearth of creative ways for thems that got to fuck up thems as don’t, as the current confederate “leaders” demonstrate on an almost hourly basis.
And then we have such as Li’l Randy in a tizzy because more people aren’t spit roasted as he would like.
When that arc of the universe comes back toward justice, it’s my fervent hope that these people are crushed to a pulp and extruded out towards the nearest black hole for permanent, universal evisceration.
One can just imagine Li’l Randy suing Santa for landing on his roof. Here’s to Donner and Dasher chewing that ugly rug off his perpetually scowling noggin and dropping him on an ice floe in the melting arctic, and meeting a very pissed off Frankenstein monster on the way.
I have paid no attention to anything today...and that is how it should be. Please, someone let me know if the Donnie and the Crapweasels
punishment show is picked up for 2021... I would personally like to hang him myself. The pardons are horrible and expected, because what else would a bastard like him do? I'm sure it isn't all-- his list is long and counted more than twice...
On another note, many many thanks for so many months and years of like-minded comments-- I'm sure if you were in my community, I would find and hug you, although we can only do virtual hugs at the moment. I am really enjoying the news of friends and relatives gathering, despite the pleas from health care workers. I won't be hugging these friends and relatives. But you guys, thank you a hundred times for helping get me through this year. You are collectively lovely. Christmas love sent your way.