;)
The Commentariat -- January 28, 2019
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Devan Cole & Kevin Bohn of CNN: "... Donald Trump's second State of the Union address will not take place on Tuesday, an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN.... Trump's director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp said Monday that the White House has been in discussions with Pelosi's office about rescheduling the address and that 'we should have a response soon.'" Mrs. McC: She should wait, IMO, till after the government is funded. ...
... Update. Mrs. McCrabbie: Surprisingly, Speaker Pelosi did not take my advice: ...
... Michael Collins of USA Today: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited ... Donald Trump to deliver the State of the Union address at the Capitol on Feb. 5." Mrs. McC: This is a mistake. Trump will deliver the same bound-and-gagged-women pile of horrorscapes he & Stephen Miller dreamed up for the original speech. I will not be listening.
Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "American and Taliban officials have agreed in principle to the framework of a deal in which the insurgents would guarantee to prevent Afghan territory from being used by terrorists, and that could lead to a full pullout of American troops in return for larger concessions from the Taliban, the chief United States negotiator said Monday. The American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, said those concessions must include the Taliban's agreeing to a cease-fire and to talk directly with the Afghan government, issues that the insurgents have doggedly opposed in the past. 'We have a draft of the framework that has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement,' Mr. Khalilzad said in an interview with The New York Times in Kabul.... After nine years of halting efforts to reach a peace deal with the Taliban, the draft framework, though preliminary, is the biggest tangible step toward ending a two-decade war...."
Thanks, Trump! Caitlin Emma & Jennifer Scholtes of Politico: "The five-week partial government shutdown cost the U.S. economy about $3 billion in forgone economic activity that won't be recovered, the Congressional Budget Office said in a new report Monday. Because the IRS was among the agencies unfunded during the shutdown, it had to slow down some compliance work. For that reason, CBO estimates tax revenue will be about $2 billion lower in fiscal 2019 and that 'much of the lost revenue ... will not be recouped.'... These CBO estimates did not include indirect effects. As the shutdown dragged on ... the 'risks to the economy were becoming increasingly significant,' including the blow to businesses that could not get federal permits, government-backed loans or grants, the budget scorekeeper said."
Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration is reviewing steps it could take to prevent state officials from using their authority under the Clean Water Act to deny permits to developers of natural gas pipelines and other energy infrastructure. The administration is reportedly considering issuing an executive order that would limit the ability of states to block natural gas pipelines and other energy projects. But legal experts countered that Trump would not be able to amend the Clean Water Act simply through the issuance of an executive order." --s
"Fuck you, Betsy." Benjamin Wermund of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' proposal to change rules for how schools handle sexual assault allegations has turned the federal site for collecting public comments into a cauldron of anger and obscenity. DeVos, one of ... Donald Trump's few remaining original cabinet secretaries, has not become embroiled in any administration scandals during her two years running the Education Department, but she remains enemy No. 1 for many teachers and activists. The comments reflect not only the divisiveness and emotion surrounding assault investigations but how anything DeVos touches can spark hostility.... As of Friday, there were nearly 72,000 comments on the Education Department's proposed rule. The proposal is controversial, viewed by critics as DeVos doing Trump's bidding to protect sexual harassers, pointing to such accusations against th president. The comments are peppered with references to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination was nearly tanked by sexual assault allegations."
Presidential Race 2020. Edward-Isaac Dovere, now of the Atlantic: Howard "Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, says in a 60 Minutes interview ... that he is thinking very seriously about a presidential run -- but he stops short of a full announcement. He makes clear, however, that if he moves forward, he will do so as an independent. Already top Democratic operatives working for presidential candidates and beyond say they're worried that the only thing he'll accomplish is making sure Donald Trump gets reelected. It's more than just sniping at a prospective opponent; word that he might invest in an independent run has many of them clearly worried about how he'd split votes in a general election." ...
... Trump Has Figured Out Schultz Is His Best Hope. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday taunted Howard Schultz, who is considering a 2020 presidential bid, tweeting that the former Starbucks CEO 'doesn't have the "guts" to run.' 'Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the "smartest person,'" Trump tweeted. 'Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!'" ...
... Jonathan Chait: Howard "Schultz appears to be one of those rich people who has confused his success in one field with a general expertise in every other field that interests him. His apparently sincere belief that he can be elected president is the product of a sincere civic-minded commitment to the public good and an almost comic failure to grasp how he might accomplish this.... Schultz believes that the large cohort of Americans who identify as 'independents' indicates a market for a centrist candidate positioned between the two parties.... That is not factual." Mrs. McC: Schultz is like Trump, but less malevolent & more naive.
Caleb Howe of Mediaite: "On Meet the Press, venerable news anchor Tom Brokaw ... argued 'the Hispanics' should 'work harder' at assimilation." Mrs. McC: Yeah, they should get them some MAGA hats & listen to more country & western music. Also, less béisbol, more football, & I don't mean soccer. ...
... Brokaw Apologizes for Being Parochial Old White Guy. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "NBC News veteran Tom Brokaw apologized Sunday evening for comments he made earlier in the day on 'Meet the Press' calling for Hispanics in the U.S. to 'work harder at assimilation.' The comments ... sparked a quick backlash both on social media and on set from PBS "NewsHour" White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, who also appeared on the same 'Meet the Press' panel. 'I am sorry, truly sorry, my comments were offensive to many. The great enduring American tradition of diversity is to be celebrated and cherished,' he wrote on Twitter, part of a flurry of posts backtracking on his earlier remarks.... 'I would just say that we also need to adjust what we think of as America. You're talking about assimilation. I grew up in Miami, where people speak Spanish, but their kids speak English,' [Alcindor] ... told Brokaw. 'And the idea that we think Americans can only speak English, as if Spanish and other languages wasn't always part of America, is, in some ways, troubling.'"
North Carolina. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "For the last several election cycles, North Carolina has not held democratic elections for its state legislature ... thanks to an aggressive gerrymander that all-but-ensures Republican control in North Carolina. Yet two recent developments -- one of them very recent -- make it exceedingly likely that North Carolina will have free and fair elections in 2020. The first is a lawsuit, Common Cause v. Lewis.... That suit asks the state courts to declare that partisan gerrymandering violates the state constitution, and to 'establish new state House and state Senate districting plans' for 2020. The second development is North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin's announcement on Friday that he plans to leave his court in order to become dean of Regent University Law School.... Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper will appoint a replacement for Martin who will serve until the next election. That means that the state Supreme Court, which is already heavily Democratic, is about to have a 6-1 Democratic majority. The state's gerrymandered maps are, to say the least, unlikely to survive contact with such a court.... 2020 is a Census year, whoever prevails in that year's state legislative races will get to draw the maps for the next ten years." --s
Baby Steps. Bethan McKernan of the Guardian: "Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have been ridiculed after it emerged that all of the winners of an initiative designed to foster gender equality in the workplace were men.... A United Nations Development Programme study from 2018 found that the UAE was the Gulf country that ranked highest for gender equality and had made significant progress in bringing women into the workforce. The report found that by 2015, 135,000 Emirati women participated in the labour market, compared with just 1,000 in 1975, and 43% of women now hold bachelor's degrees, compared with 23% of men." --s
*****
The Trump Shutdown, Ctd., Month Two
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The toll exacted on government operations and federal employees by the record 35-day stalemate -- not to mention the political costs to those in the White House and on Capitol Hill -- was so punishing that it is giving momentum to a longstanding call to prohibit the government disruptions that have become a regular facet of Washington hardball.... Members of both parties said it was past time to enact legislation that would essentially mean the government would remain open at existing spending levels when an impasse such as the fight over the border wall was reached, rather than shuttering parts or all of the government." Both Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) & Mark Warner (D-Va.) have introduced legislation that would prevent shutdowns. House "Speaker Nancy Pelosi also welcomed the idea on Friday, saying in a meeting with news columnists that she wanted to explore the possibility of legislation that would serve as a shutdown prevention act." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Weak Prez* Still Issuing Threats. The Week: "In an interview Sunday, President Trump told The Wall Street Journal he does not think lawmakers will be able to come up with a deal to fund a border wall, and another shutdown is 'certainly an option.' A committee of seven senators and 10 House members are trying to reach an agreement on border security, and when asked if he believes they'll be able to come up with a deal before the next government-funding lapse in mid-February, Trump responded, 'I personally think it's less than 50-50, but you have a lot of very good people on that board.' He added that he doubts he would sign any bill that does not give him at least $5.7 billion for the border wall he's long promised, and he suggested he will use emergency powers if necessary to get a barrier up." The firewalled WSJ story is here. ...
... Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Trump will secure the U.S. border with Mexico 'with or without Congress,' acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday, as negotiations over Trump's long-sought border wall begin anew. In an interview on 'Fox News Sunday,' Mulvaney declined to say whether Trump would accept less than the $5.7 billion in funding he has demanded for the wall. But he maintained that Trump is ready to use emergency powers to secure the border if Democrats continue to balk at his demands." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Swan of Axios writes yet another autopsy report on the Cave on Wall On Friday morning, "Trump saw a Republican Senate poised to abandon him. Better to cave on his own terms, and in his own words, than watch both parties hang him out to dry. 'I can tell you exactly what happened,' one Republican senator texted me [at the time]. 'The mood at Senate Republican lunch on Thursday resembled what the mood must've been on the Union lines at 4 pm at First Bull Run. I'm amazed only six [Republicans] voted for Schumer's bill. The message from that lunch by VP, Shahira [Knight] and Mitch [McConnell] to POTUS was, it's over. They'll be 70 votes within 48 hours.' White House officials told me they knew their momentum was fading."
Max Boot of the Washington Post: "Trump supporters have been worshiping the god that failed.... His inability to bend the government to his will, even after two years in office, is a sign that (a) the rule of law still prevails and (b) he does not know what he is doing.... The Trump mystique has been based on fear and faith -- fear of immigrant hordes swarming the borders and faith that Trump 'alone can fix it.' The failure of his shutdown dealt another mighty blow to both illusions.... When Republicans were in control of both chambers, he could plausibly threaten lawmakers because of his cultlike hold on 80-plus percent of Republican voters. But his base is only 35 percent or so of the entire electorate, and Democrats are not intimidated by him. His aura of invincibility has been cracked -- and, with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III scheduled to report, the worst is yet to come. Two painful, punishing years loom."
Border Patrol Asked to Find Evidence for Trump's Oft-Repeated Horror Story. Dara Lind of Vox: "It's become a staple of ... Donald Trump's riffs on the horrors of the US-Mexico border...: Human traffickers gag women with tape so they can't even breathe before packing them into vans and driving them across the border illegally. But two weeks after Trump had started talking about tape-gagged women -- when a January 17 Washington Post article had questioned the claim -- a top Border Patrol official had to email agents to ask if they had 'any information' that the claim was actually true. The email ... was sent as a 'request for information' by an assistant Border Patrol chief, apparently on behalf of the office of Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan.... It asked agents to reply within less than two hours with 'any information (in any format) regarding claims of tape-gagged women -- and even linked to the Post article 'for further info.' Vox's source indicated that they and others in their sector hadn't heard anything that would back up Trump's claims, but wasn't sure if agents in other sectors had provided information. However, no one from the Trump administration has come forward to offer evidence for the claim, either before or after the internal Border Patrol email was sent.... It's extremely hard to prove that such things have never happened -- especially because the president has access to classified information that experts speaking to journalists do not." (Also linked yesterday.)
This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It occurs to me that a major reason Trump & his allies engaged Russian hackers & WikiLeaks is that fake billionaire Trump is so damned cheap. While Hillary Clinton was paying Fusion GPS & others to collect dirt/oppo research on Trump, Trump was openly asking the Russians to hack her server to find out what she really thought of Andrew Weiner & what medications she might be taking (i.e., her personal emails). Why? Because it cost him nothing personally & the payback would be lifting sanctions & creating "good will" with the guy who had veto power over the Trump Phallic Tower Moscow.
This Russia thing is all over now, because I fired Flynn. -- Donald Trump, to Chris & Mary Pat Christie, February 14, 2017 ...
... Clueless. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, believed that the 'Russia thing' would end ... [with] the firing of the national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn..., according to an account in a new memoir by Chris Christie. The incident recounted in Mr. Christie's book, 'Let Me Finish,' is among the anecdotes describing how the president and Mr. Kushner grappled with a campaign and a presidency that Mr. Christie says neither was prepared for.... Mr. Christie describes [Trump] as averse to interpersonal conflict with people he likes, needlessly nasty to some subordinates and prone to trusting people he should not.... Mr. Kushner, whose power has grown recently, appears as a shadow campaign manager and chief of staff in the White House, often giving his father-in-law questionable and problematic advice, according to the book...."
Donald Trump could be the first President to go to the inaugural of his successor in a limo with license plates made by his campaign manager. -- John Kerry, at the Alfalfa Club dinner Saturday
Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Sunday lifted sanctions against the business empire of Oleg V. Deripaska, one of Russia's most influential oligarchs.... The Treasury Department announced a deal last month to lift the sanctions in exchange for a restructuring that it said would reduce Mr. Deripaska's control and ownership of the companies. Yet a confidential, legally binding document detailing the agreement showed that Mr. Deripaska and his allies would retain majority ownership of EN+. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who has been among the leading critics of the deal, said that allowing it to take effect 'represents just one more step in undermining the sanctions law, which President Trump has obstructed at every opportunity, while Russian aggression remains unabated.'" ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Paul Manafort was reportedly millions of dollars in debt to Deripaska. To pay back Deripaska, at no cost to himself, this is the deal Manafort would have arranged, if Manafort were not in jail. Hell, it's possible Manafort did structure this deal.
Barbara McQuade, in a USA Today op-ed: "The indictment of Roger Stone alleges serious crimes to obstruct Congress' investigation into Russian election interference. Beyond that, it also provides clues that more charges are likely.... Flipping Stone does not seem to be Mueller's primary goal.... Some of the language [in the indictment] indicates that Mueller continues to explore coordination between the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks and Russia to interfere with the 2016 election.... the Stone indictment ... suggests a basis for charging conspiracy to defraud the United States [as well as violations of campaign finance laws].... Third, this indictment shows how Mueller regards lies to Congress. Mueller is likely scouring the transcripts of all other Trump associates who have testified before Congress, such as Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr., for statements inconsistent with other evidence."
Still Whining. Brett Samuels: "President Trump late Saturday railed against the indictment of Roger Stone, insisting that he did not work with his longtime confidant 'anywhere near the Election' and complaining that the focus should instead be on obstacles his campaign faced in 2016. In a series of tweets, Trump cited allegations in Stone's indictment that data was released during the 2016 campaign to damage then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The president suggested he was subject to similar campaigns, pointing to the so-called Steele dossier, which he dubbed a 'total phony conjob.' The dossier contained several salacious allegations, some of which were unverified, about Trump's relationship to Russia. The dossier was published by BuzzFeed in January 2017, after the election. The president also argued via Twitter he was subjected to 'one sided Fake Media coverage (collusion with Crooked H?),' and 'bias by Facebook and many others.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lauren King & Ali Dukakis of ABC News: "Roger Stone, following a pre-dawn arrest at his home in Florida and ahead of an arraignment in Washington on Tuesday, said that he would discuss cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller, if asked.... 'Have you ever had any conversations with the president during the campaign or since the campaign about Russia or the Mueller investigation?' [George] Stephanopolous asked. 'None whatsoever,' he said. 'Categorically. ... Zero. Zero.'" Mrs. McC: Okay, case closed. Trump is off the hook. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "In indictments and plea agreements unveiled over the last 20 months, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has shown over and over again that some of President Trump's closest friends and advisers have lied about Russia and related issues.... The remaining question -- for both Mueller's team, as it works on a final investigative report, and for the American people -- is why.... The deception by Trump advisers that has led to guilty pleas so far does have a common throughline: Much of it centers on their interactions about Russia.... Steve Hall, who retired from the CIA in 2015 after 30 years of running and managing Russia operations, said..., 'In my view, those lies -- what was lied about and under what condition the lies were told -- contribute to a counterintelligence pattern that has begun to emerge pointing to senior members of the Trump team being involved with the Russians.'..." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I get a kick out of the way some of Trump's defenders give him the benefit of the doubt by arguing that all of Trump's associates are liars & generally untrustworthy.
Ben Zimmer in Politico Magazine on the history of the term "ratfucking." Fascinating, to a words person. Thanks to unwashed for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump early Sunday pushed questionable claims about Texas officials reviewing voter rolls to warn of 'rampant' voter fraud and advocate for 'Strong voter ID.' The president alleged that 58,000 noncitizens voted in Texas, and that 95,000 noncitizens registered to vote. His tweet was apparently spurred by a 'Fox & Friends' segment on the figures at about 8 a.m.... In fact, The Texas Tribune reported that the Texas secretary of state's office announced Friday it had flagged 95,000 registered voters who it said should be reviewed to determine whether they are U.S. citizens. Of that group, 58,000 cast a ballot in at least one election from 1996 to 2018, The Texas Tribune reported. The identified individuals provided some form of documentation when obtaining an identification card that showed they were not citizens, the news outlet reported. However, it's unclear how many are still not U.S. citizens, as some may have been naturalized." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Swan: "Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told me that as recently as a couple of weeks ago Trump mused to him about the possibility of using military force in Venezuela, where the U.S. government is currently pushing for regime change using diplomatic and economic pressures.... Graham, recalling his conversation with Trump, said: 'He [Trump] said, "What do you think about using military force?" and I said, "Well, you need to go slow on that, that could be problematic." And he said, "Well, I'm surprised, you want to invade everybody.'" Graham laughed. 'And I said, "... I only want to use the military when our national security interests are threatened.'" 'Trump's really hawkish' on Venezuela, the hawkish Graham added in a phone interview on Sunday afternoon, adding that Trump was even more hawkish than he was on Venezuela. To be clear: There are no signs that the Trump administration is planning to invade Venezuela, and my conversations with senior administration officials signal that the coming pressures to accelerate regime change are diplomatic and economic." ...
... Brent Griffiths of Politico: "Mick Mulvaney on Sunday refused to rule out U.S. military action to address unrest in Venezuela, following a week where ... Donald Trump distanced the U.S. from the country's ruler, Nicolás Maduro, by recognizing an opposition figure as Venezuela's true leader." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Karoli Kuns of Crooks & Liars has a very Crooks-&-Liars take on that meeting Madame Justice Ginni Thomas & her loony friends had with President* Doodah: "Just last week, Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas went to the White House and paid Donald J. Trump a visit, specifically to yell at him about transgender people and also to complain that he wasn't appointing her friends fast enough. It must be nice to have the ear of a Supreme Court Justice, eh? Just last week the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump's transgender ban could be upheld while the case moved through the courts. I'm sure Ginni had nothing to do with that.... They prayed. A lot. Because that's what these leftover freaks from the Council for National Policy specialize in: Standing before power and claiming it in the name of Jesus. Their entire goal is to co-opt power, create a theocracy, and bow before the cult of President Jesus...." ...
... digby: "I don't think I need to mention that the Republicans would impeach any liberal Justice whose spouse worked as a far-left activist of this type. It's simply bizarre that this is ok. It's not that a spouse doesn't have the right to have his or her own job. But this kind of political activism should be off limits. But hey --- they do what they want. Rules are for losers." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I believe that on an Oval Office sofa there is a pillow festooned with shiny gold braid & tassels & words in large block letters needlepointed into the field "RULES ARE FOR LOSERS."
Jay Bookman of The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has a brilliant Twitter thread on the Trumpification of the GOP into a cult managed by the thought police at Faux News and right wing rage radio. --s
Presidential Race 2020. Stacey Solie of the New York Times: "Senator Kamala Harris of California officially kicked off her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday at an outdoor rally where she warned that the nation and the world were at 'an inflection point' in history and called on all Americans to 'speak truth about what's happening' in the Trump era. Before a crowd that her advisers estimated at more than 20,000 people, Ms. Harris threaded together a biography from her years in the Bay Area with her work as a prosecutor and a senator, and set those details against a broader populist vision about 'running to be president of the people, by the people and for all people.'"
I watched the Oscar nominations a few days ago. And afterwards every single actor said what a great honor it was just to be nominated. ... Trust me: It's not. -- John Kerry, Saturday ...
... Eli Watkins of CNN: "Former Defense Secretary James Mattis received a standing ovation Saturday at the annual black-tie Alfalfa Club dinner after delivering a speech in which he honored the troops and talked about the importance of the US' standing abroad, according to a source with knowledge of the event. For the third year running..., Donald Trump skipped the annual event -- but this year, so did the vice president as well as Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.... The rest of the evening was lighter in tone, with former Secretary of State John Kerry delivering a speech replete with jokes about official Washington and himself. Kerry, the outgoing president of the club -- a mainstay of establishment Washington -- handed over his leadership role to newly minted Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney at the black tie event. 'This is the only speech in Washington that hasn't been canceled by Nancy Pelosi,' Kerry joked...."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Dictators' Nightmare. Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "Protests against Omar al-Bashir, the indicted war criminal who has dominated the country for 29 years, are becoming a daily occurrence.... They want him gone.... But the causes of the unrest cannot be bludgeoned away: a struggling economy, low investment, high unemployment, corruption, bad governance and a potentially disastrous lack of opportunity for new generations of young people.... Recent weeks have seen protests in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Morocco. Once again, the political temperature is rising.... Western governments, too, are repeating the mistakes made before the first Arab spring: backing dictatorships that supposedly suit their interests while ignoring bad behaviour.... This will not continue indefinitely. In Egypt, as in Sudan and elsewhere, pressure is building. A second explosion cannot be far off." --s
News Lede
New York Times: "The polar vortex is back and the forecasts are dire: A quick punch of snow, followed almost immediately by a life-threatening level of cold that a generation of Midwesterners has never experienced. Already on Monday, the misery was on full display.... In Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis, public schools called off classes. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan sent most state workers home early. By midday, more than 1,400 flights across the country had been canceled, according to FlightAware."
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Reader Comments (19)
Sorry, this has been running through my head since reading the Zimmer piece:
How many rats would a rat-fucker fuck if a rat-fucker could fuck rats?
Any guesses?
@unwashed: Thanks a bunch. Now it's going thru my head, too.
Unwashed,
I dunno, but I'm pretty sure he'd be a fucking rat.
The descent from wingnut heaven of Ginni Thomas and her little band of holy rollers, into OUR White House to order the president* to git a move on with their theocracy in America plan made me think of the way a president (one who had read the Constitution and understood it, which, of course, leaves out Fatty) would respond to such outrageous anti-American, unconstitutionally minded crackpots.
And here it is.
There used to be such a thing as separation of church and state, but according to Confederates, that sort of thinking is for heathens. Well then, call me a proud heathen and you can all get your fat asses out of our White House until you read the goddam Constitution. And I don't care how many Supreme Court justices you're married to, it doesn't give you the right to fix it so the rest of us have live in your fantasy theocracy.
Fuckers.
I imagine Roger Stone thinks he's being quite the sly dog (only the second word actually applies) about promising to coöperate (I'm writing for the New Yorker now, cantcha tell?) with Bob Mueller. He sees himself as some kind of slick operator who will sit down with Mueller's bloodhounds and throw them some poisoned meat.
Only in the oily, stinking cesspools of right-wing world is a guy like Roger Stone considered a suave professional. To the rest of the thinking world, he's an amoral putz. A fast-talking, corrupt skulker hired by thugs and murderers to get them invited to GOP cocktail parties in Washington where they can pander for more money to murder innocent men, women, and children back home.
He's the sort of guy hired by a weaselly New York Real Estate con man to help him get his second-hand yacht parked next to a gaudy monstrosity of a soon-to-fail casino to make the rubes think he's a big shot.
He's a cheap, butt-sniffing carny sideshow liar who thinks of himself as an international man of mystery.
And, as Michael Che mentioned on SNL, "He looks like the kinda old white dude who would hire black guys to bang his wife. Oh wait. He actually did hire black guys to bang his wife." But this guy became one of Trump's trusted advisors.
And he thinks he's gonna play Bob Mueller.
I'm sure there are plenty of Foxbots and right-wing apparatchiks who think he's hot stuff, but to Mueller & Co, he's just another turd along the side of the road on their march to Moscow.
Coöperate, my ass.
(On the other hand, he may see the writing on the wall and decide that years behind bars is not for such a smooth, handsome devil as himself; but for Mueller, anything a creep like Stone would give him wouldn't just be fruit of the poisoned tree, it would be that fruit injected with strychnine and pissed on by the neighborhood dogs. The ones Stone hadn't yet threatened to kill.)
Just watching Roger Stone emerge from court and throw up his Nixon fingers was enough to throw up myself. He WOULD wear round glasses and a beret-- fancies himself quite the intellectual, I expect. So glad he won't be "bearing false witness" against Donald of Orange, our Monster in the Oval. As many have already done, he will sing to lessen his sentence when it comes down to it, in my opinion. That whole cabal Ari had on the other night, Michael Caputo, the always-smiling demented Carter Page, the apparently melting conspironut Jerome Corsi and the completely nuts Sam Nunberg, are an example of what delusion looks like. The best people EVAH!
@ Alhilleus: "Coöperate"! Very New Yorkery.
Had to look up Caputo as his misdeeds had escaped me. Here's hoping HE doesn't escape. He's more Russian than any of 'em, and provides solid not-so-Grand Ole Peabrain creds. It's like Stump baited a huge mousetrap with caviar, and every Russia-adorer came running to be in his inner (ew) circle. Mind so tired of the boggling...
Great. All we need is another vanity billionaire presidential campaign. If this Howard Schultz dude Ralph Naders the 2020 race, I will personally drown him in a vat of iced mocha.
Another "both sides" guy who thinks we should all be palsy-walsy after a generation of ratfucking and lies, incompetence and corruption on the right. Sorry Howie, both sides aren't to blame. Does he believe that only he can fix it? We got one of those now, thank you very much. It ain't workin', in case you haven't been payin' attention.
Morons blaming Democrats for gridlock in Washington would be the same people calling the CDC meanies for trying to prevent an outbreak of deadly viruses. We're awful sorry we've been trying to stop Confederate perfidy, malfeasance, corruption, and desecration of the Constitution. We'll try to be better pals to the pricks. Would that make you feel better?
Go home and have a nice cup of chamomile.
Then fucking stay there.
Jesus, these people. Don't they get what's going on here?
Isn't it about time for Mittens to come out against impotent, expensive, and unnecessary government shutdowns? I thought by now he'd have donned his elder statesman high-hat and written a finger-wagging op-ed piece about how this isn't the way (*sniff-sniff*) America works. He's the guy who comes out after the armistice and announces that he has decided wars are bad. He would have gotten around to it sooner, like before the shooting started, but, um, a thing happened.
The varied forms of leadership on the right are just something to behold. Just don't smell 'em.
@Akhilleus: In case you think you should temper your remarks about Schultz, read this interview/report in the NYT. What an ass! I'd boycott Starbucks, but I hardly ever go there.
P.S. He says he's going around the country pushing a book he (or somebody) wrote & "testing the waters." If he comes to a town near you, do go to tell him what you think of his candidacy.
Wall Street starting to freak out over 2020, says Politico.....
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/28/wall-street-2020-economy-taxes-1118065
According to the article, "Bankers’ biggest fear: The nomination goes to an anti-Wall Street crusader like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or Sanders. “It can’t be Warren and it can’t be Sanders,” said the CEO of another giant bank."
Which is why I'm voting for Elizabeth Warren and why I've sent her money.
@Akhilleus: Mittens, like the two-bit phony he is, voted against the Democratic proposal to reopen the government & for Trump's vanity plan. He did what he could to keep the government shut down. But I'll bet he looked very nice at the Alfalfa Club dinner.
The Trump Files: Weird Case #756
Fatty has such a big brain, by his own estimation, but I'm not at all inclined to find out what's rattling around in there among the cobwebs and shadows.
This unhealthy obsession with women being taped up "so they can't breathe" (not the best technique for traffickers, I'm thinking) and the unusual specificity of the color of the tape ("it's either duct tape or electrical tape, but definitely it's blue") makes me wonder what kind of fantasies this guy has been entertaining. I mean, I know he's a yuuuuge misogynist, but blue taped sex slaves?
Wow.
Reminds me of that scene at the end of that movie about the death of Sunny von Bülow, "Reversal of Fortune". Ron Silver, playing a Hollywoodized Alan Dershowitz is talking to Jeremy Irons, playing Claus von Bülow, at the end of the movie. Silver says "You're a very strange man". Irons, as von Bülow, slinks into the shadows in the back of a limo and whispers "You have no idea".
That's Trump. There is likely no one who knows just how weird this guy is.
Marie,
If Schultz shows up, I'll be sure to encourage him to stay home.
And about the Rat, I knew that he voted for Fatty's shutdown, that's why it's safe now for him to come out and lecture everyone on the evils of such things. He's covered one side of his ass, now it's time to cover the other cheek.
And what about this Alfalfa Club thing? I remember reading about it in a piece by Katie Graham in a book of hers about DC (great reading, by the way), but I'd forgotten about it. Founded to honor Robert E. Lee. Very nice. Plus, No hoi polloi admitted. I'm sure Mittens will be right at home.
@Akhilleus: RAS had the theory that Trump accidentally changed from Fox "News" to some kidnap movie & didn't know the difference. That's plausible because there's some question as to how much the guy understands about what he's watching (apparently with the sound off sometimes -- he thinks the chyrons are very important because so many people watch TV w/no sound). There was that time, for instance, that he tweeted about an imaginary terrorist attack in Sweden, then kept insisting it was true (even a year later).
I do think it's just as likely the blue tape thing is a Trumpian fantasy -- he would like the idea of women -- five six, seven!, as he puts it -- bound & gagged. Whether he saw it on TV or in a dream, it's real to him now & no one can talk him out of it. He's one crazy guy.
The most astounding line of the day (so far...haven't read any Tweet storms from Fatty) is this:
"For the last several election cycles, North Carolina has not held democratic elections for its state legislature."
This is just an amazing statement. Even more so because 1.) it's true, and 2.) R's are hoping to duplicate that feat everywhere they can.
This is a frog in the pot moment. This is exactly the sort of thing that creeps and crooks like Roger Stone and his ilk have been pushing for decades. A country in which on Republican votes matter and only Republican candidates win.
SOTU postponed. White House can't find the good crayons. Fatty won't use the broken ones. Wants new ones.
More later.
Maybe he had to wait for a new box of black Sharpies to show up from Amazon Prime.