;)
The Conversation -- September 14, 2023
Michael Schmidt & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Hunter Biden, the president's son, was charged on Thursday by federal prosecutors with lying about his drug use in connection with his purchase of a handgun in 2018, a move that could put him on trial next year as his father runs for re-election. The decision to file criminal charges against President Biden's troubled youngest son was an extraordinary step for the Justice Department and the lead prosecutor on the case, David C. Weiss, whom Attorney General Merrick B. Garland named as a special counsel last month. Mr. Garland gave Mr. Weiss that status after the last-minute collapse of a previous deal that would have resolved the long-running investigation without Mr. Biden serving prison time.... The gun charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, is only sporadically brought against first-time offenders, particularly ones like Mr. Biden, who is not accused of using the weapon in another crime. Mr. Biden's lawyers have argued to Justice Department officials that the charge will ultimately be thrown out because a series of Supreme Court and appeals court decisions have cast doubt on the constitutionality of the federal government putting certain conditions on firearms purchases." The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Andrew Weissmann said on MSNBC that it is odd that a few weeks ago this same Trump-appointed prosecutor was going to accept a plea deal and now -- after Congressional Republicans amped up the volume on their whining -- and now he suddenly thinks the same set of facts is worth three criminal charges. Indeed, many people thought the original plea deal was too harsh and unusual under the circumstances. Weissmann expects Hunter's attorneys to justifiably argue selective prosecution. MB: So is Hunter getting special treatment? Why, yes, yes, he is. In the meantime, here's my advice to the litigants: negotiate a plea deal! ~~~
~~~ Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Prosecutors and FBI agents involved in the Hunter Biden investigation have been the targets of threats and harassment by people who think they haven't been tough enough on the president's son, according to government officials and congressional testimony obtained exclusively by NBC News. It's part of a dramatic uptick in threats against FBI agents that has coincided with attacks on the FBI and the Justice Department by congressional Republicans and ... Donald Trump, who have accused both agencies of participating in a conspiracy to subvert justice amid two federal indictments of Trump. The threats have prompted the FBI to create a stand-alone unit to investigate and mitigate them, according to a previously unreleased transcript of congressional testimony."
Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A judge on Thursday granted ... Donald J. Trump and 16 others a separate trial from two of their co-defendants, who will go to trial next month in the Georgia election interference case. The judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, has laid out an expedited trial schedule for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell.... The two had invoked their right under Georgia law to seek a speedy trial, in part to avoid the high cost of a more protracted legal fight. Their trial is set to begin on Oct. 23." The ABC News story is here.
Emily Brooks & Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vented his frustration about the hard-line conservatives holding up appropriations, dropping an expletive as he dared his fiercest critics to attempt a vote to oust him. During a closed-door conference meeting Thursday, McCarthy addressed an uptick in threats from members to call a motion to vacate the chair -- a move to force a vote on ousting the Speaker. 'If you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the f[uck]ing motion,' McCarthy said, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) recounted. McCarthy's comments follow Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) earlier this week explicitly threatening to call a motion to vacate if McCarthy does not follow through with a number of spending priorities and votes on bills that his detractors were promised in January."
That Didn't Take Long. Gloria Oladipo of the Guardian & Agencies: "A former Kentucky county clerk is being ordered to pay $100,000 to a local couple who sued the clerk after she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan county in eastern Kentucky, rose to national prominence for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses in 2015, arguing that such actions violated her religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman.... Last year, a federal judge ruled that Davis violated the constitutional rights of the two gay couples who sued her.... This week, in a trial to determine damages Davis must pay, a federal jury ordered Davis to pay $50,000 each to David Ermold and David Moore, according to lawyers of Davis, the Associated Press reported. The second couple who sued, James Yates and Will Smith, were awarded no damages."
~~~~~~~~~
Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "House Republicans on Wednesday failed to move forward on a procedural vote advancing a bill to fund the Defense Department after it became clear they did not have enough votes to secure its passage. The usually noncontroversial step became tied up in a broader debate among the conference that threatens to derail negotiations over the budget as a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government looms.... The inability to move forward on a basic step to fund the government -- the House's top responsibility enshrined in the Constitution -- offered an example of just how difficult it will be for [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy and the ideologically fractured Republican majority to find consensus, keep the government open and avert blame if a shutdown is triggered. The House has less than a dozen days in session before the Sept. 30 deadline."
Li Zhou of Vox explains the fake Biden impeachment thing. ~~~
~~~ Impeachment Is Just the Beginning. Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "It may be that even [Kevin McCarthy] is nauseated by his latest stunt. That it has finally sunk in that he has become the not-so-glorified puppet of the House Republican conference's radicals, folks like Dan Bishop, Chip Roy and, most prominently, Matt Gaetz. Mr. McCarthy may wield the gavel. But the far-right rebels who opposed his election as speaker, of whom Mr. Gaetz was a ringleader, now wield the ax poised above Mr. McCarthy's exposed neck -- an ax that he handed them in exchange for them letting him pretend to be in charge. With the omnipresent threat of voting him out of his dream job, the conference's fringe is leading the speaker around by the nose hairs.... Indeed, Mr. McCarthy had barely wrapped up his impeachment dirge when Mr. Gaetz took to the House floor to dismiss the speaker's 'rushed and somewhat rattled performance' as malarkey and to stress that the hard-liners will not be so cheaply bought.... His basic message to the speaker was clearer than a shot of Stoli: We own you, buddy, so get busy making us happy. Or else."
Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 and the only member of his party to twice vote to convict ... Donald Trump in politically charged impeachment trials, announced Wednesday that he will not seek a second term in the Senate representing Utah, saying in an interview that it is time for a new generation to 'step up' and 'shape the world they're going to live in.' Romney, 76, said his decision not to run again was heavily influenced by his belief that a second term, which would take him into his 80s, probably would be less productive and less satisfying than the current term has been. He blamed that both on the disarray he sees among House Republicans and on his own lack of confidence in the leadership of President Biden and Trump. 'It's very difficult for the House to operate, from what I can tell,' he said in a lengthy telephone interview previewing his formal announcement, 'and two, and perhaps more importantly, we're probably going to have either Trump or Biden as our next president. And Biden is unable to lead on important matters and Trump is unwilling to lead on important matters.'" A CNBC report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: For what I found to be a startling new revelation about the January 6 insurrection, Alex Griffing of Mediaite cites an excerpt in the Atlantic of McKay Coppins's upcoming biography of Romney. P.S. Why didn't Mitch respond? Was he having another mental health moment? ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: Donald Trump posted an all-caps victory statement in response to Mitt Romney's announcing his retirement from the Senate. MB: What Trump doesn't get is that Romney doesn't need to run for re-election to stay out of jail, so Romney is free to enjoy retirement at any and all of his own resort-like homes, while Trump must hope that a return to the drafty old White House will beat a dank prison cell.
Solidarity Among the Dictators' Club. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump pointed to sympathetic comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin early Wednesday to try to bolster his case that he is being treated unfairly by prosecutors in the United States.... Putin, who has a history of persecuting his political opponents, claimed Tuesday that the criminal cases against Trump were part of 'the persecution of a political rival for political reasons.' He predicted that the proceedings against Trump would diminish America's global standing, to Russia's benefit.... The comments reflected the largely warm relationship between the two leaders during Trump's presidency.... Trump has continued to maintain that he and Putin are on good terms, despite the isolation of Putin by the West for his invasion of Ukraine -- which Trump once described as 'genius' and 'savvy.'... Trump's Republican primary rivals quickly seized on Putin's latest remarks.... Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie ... called Putin a 'brutal, mass-murdering, KGB hitman' and said that Trump needs new role models. 'Get it straight. Trump is under indictment because of his conduct. He played with fire and is getting burned. And now his best buddy is coming to his defense,' Christie wrote in a social media post."
Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Pretrial-palooza has officially begun, with hearings expected at least in Florida and Georgia this week, along with court filings and potentially more grand jury activity in D.C.... In Georgia, where Trump and 18 co-defendants face state charges for trying to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 victory, the judge schedules weekly hearings to review the many requests he is getting from defendants and prosecutors. At Thursday's hearing, we may get more insight into when Trump will go on trial there.... Prosecutors told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee they expect it to take up to four months to try those who were charged. That's because they have 150 witnesses to call to the stands. 150! Let's see, 150 times 19 cross-examinations adds up to ... forever. Roughly forever. And potentially right in the middle of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign."
Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump does not want to be tried with anyone seeking a speedy trial. Mark Meadows wants to stand trial alone, but only after he exhausts his appeals on his request to move his case to federal court. Rudy Giuliani does not want to be tried with Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, former Trump campaign attorneys who sought to sever their cases from each other but are scheduled for a joint trial next month. Meanwhile, an Atlanta-area prosecutor leading the criminal racketeering case against Trump and his allies over alleged 2020 election interference in Georgia still wants to try all 19 defendants together beginning Oct. 23, arguing that separate trials would be a 'logistical quagmire' for the court system, witnesses and anyone else involved in the case. These are among the avalanche of motions filed before Judge Scott McAfee of the Superior Court of Fulton County, who is overseeing the sprawling election case and has said he hopes to begin issuing scheduling orders this week that could determine how and when the matter will proceed."
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is presiding over the documents case [against Donald Trump], gave [a] somewhat vague ... order setting up a series of rules to protect the classified materials at the heart of the proceeding. Judge Cannon said that Mr. Trump would indeed need to use a secure facility to review the sensitive records, suggesting but not specifically declaring that it should not be housed at his private club and residence in Florida. The dispute about how and where Mr. Trump could talk about the secret papers in the case began last month when his lawyers asked Judge Cannon to allow him to re-establish the sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, 'at or near' Mar-a-Lago that he once used for classified materials when he was president.... Prosecutors ... objected to the notion of Mr. Trump having such discussions at Mar-a-Lago, which not only gets hundreds of visitors a year, but was also where the former president haphazardly kept boxes of classified materials stacked up in a bathroom and atop a ballroom stage."
Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A top House conservative's conversations with allies in Congress and the Trump White House about overturning the 2020 election are off-limits to special counsel Jack Smith, an appeals court ruled in a newly unsealed court opinion. A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that prosecutors' effort to access the cellphone communications of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) with colleagues and executive branch officials violated his immunity under the Constitution's Speech or Debate clause, which shields members of Congress from legal proceedings connected to their official duties.... The decision from [Naomi] Rao, a Trump appointee, was joined by another Trump appointee, Judge Greg Katsas, and by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush. However, Katsas filed a separate concurring opinion saying he viewed the privilege for lawmakers more narrowly than the other judges on the panel, but the disagreement wasn't meaningful in Perry's case."
Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "Barely 24 hours before the contract deadline, the United Auto Workers leader said Wednesday that his members were prepared for a strike against the three Detroit automakers -- first at a limited number of factories, with the walkout expanding if talks remain bogged down. The U.A.W. president, Shawn Fain, also ruled out any extension of the existing four-year contracts with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis after they expire on Thursday night. 'September 14 is a deadline, not a reference point,' he declared in an address to union members on Facebook Live. He said the initial strike locations would be 'limited and targeted,' and would be communicated to members on Thursday night ahead of a Friday walkout."
Cruelty Is of the Essence of the Scheme
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday rejected the Biden administration's latest effort to save a program that has shielded hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults from deportation, saying that it remained unlawful even after recent changes. The judge, Andrew S. Hanen of the Federal District Court in Houston, maintained that President Barack Obama exceeded his authority when he created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, by executive action in 2012. The decision is the latest twist in a five-year-long court saga that has left the program and its beneficiaries, known as Dreamers, hanging in the balance. While the ruling is a blow to the immigrants, the judge did not mandate an immediate end to the program. Current applicants will be able to keep and renew their protection. No new applications will be allowed." MB: Dubya appointed Hanen.
So there's this, which we've all known would happen:
Ben Casselman & Lydia DePillis of the New York Times (Sept. 12): "Poverty increased sharply last year in the United States, particularly among children, as living costs rose and federal programs that provided aid to families during the pandemic were allowed to expire. The poverty rate rose to 12.4 percent in 2022 from 7.8 percent in 2021, the largest one-year jump on record, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. Poverty among children more than doubled, to 12.4 percent, from a record low of 5.2 percent the year before."~~~
~~~ According to Chris Hayes of MSNBC, Fox "News" is all over this, deeply upset that Joe Biden is impoverishing innocent little children. Really? From the Times report (and Hayes): "Congress passed the expanded child tax credit as part of the American Rescue Plan, President Biden's pandemic-relief package, in early 2021. But while other Covid-era relief programs were always intended to expire once the emergency passed, supporters hoped to make the expanded child credit permanent. That didn't happen. Faced with united opposition from congressional Republicans as well as some conservative Democrats, Mr. Biden dropped his effort to extend the program at the end of 2021; a renewed push failed again last year. The rise in poverty in 2022, social policy experts said, was the inevitable result of that decision."
Marie: There's a way to get around both of these problems -- DACA & child poverty -- right now. I meant to look for this earlier. The authors of Tyranny of the Minority -- Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt -- discuss just that with Alex Wagner of MSNBC. Watch at least the end where they mention one move that is (a) possible and (b) would work right now:
~~~ IOW, get rid of the filibuster, pass legislation that helps people.
~~~~~~~~~~
Florida. Quack, Quack. Kendra Nichols of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the state's surgeon general are warning residents under age 65 against the new coronavirus booster, going against the advice of federal health officials who have recommended the shots. In a call live-streamed on social media platform X[-Twitter]..., DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo repeated comments made in a live event last week in Jacksonville, Fla., and argued there isn't enough evidence that the booster's benefits outweigh any risks.... The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a reformulated coronavirus vaccine that targets an omicron subvariant and is cleared for everyone 6 months and older. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its advisers recommended the shots, manufactured by Moderna and by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech." The Hill's report is here.
Florida. Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took at least six undisclosed trips on private jets and accepted lodging and dining in late 2018, according to flight manifests, tracking data and other documents obtained by The Washington Post.... The trips came during the period between DeSantis's election and inauguration as governor.... DeSantis did not report the flights or accommodations as gifts or campaign contributions and it's unclear whether he used a separate legal option to personally reimburse for the flights at the cost of coach airfare.... His then-campaign lawyer wrote in a memo to his transition team that as governor-elect, he was 'required to report with the Ethics Commission all direct and indirect gifts accepted that are worth over $100,' including 'transportation' 'lodging' and 'food.'... The undisclosed trips, which have not been previously reported, reflect how DeSantis fueled his political rise through close bonds with rich patrons and had a taste for luxury travel, in contrast to his campaign's portrayal of DeSantis's humble blue-collar roots and aversion to moneyed interests." A DeSantis campaign spokesman says all trips were properly paid-for. MB: Okay, prove it.
New Mexico. Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday halted New Mexico's ban on carrying firearms in public in the state's most populous city after the policy was met with fierce backlash and lawsuits from gun rights advocates. The temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge David Urias pressed pause on the policy, which had suspended open and concealed carry laws in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County. After announcing the ban Friday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) told The Washington Post that the unusual action was necessary because of a surge in gun violence, including the killings of a 13-year-old girl, a 5-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy this summer." MB: Urias is a Biden appointee. CNN's report is here.
Texas. Marie: What with the fake impeachment of Joe Biden looming, I have not been keeping up with the real impeachment trial of suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Here's a link to the latest Texas Tribune stories about the trial.
Wisconsin. Scott Bauer of the AP: "Wisconsin's Republican Assembly leader announced Wednesday that he's created a panel to investigate the criteria for impeachment as he mulls taking that unprecedented step against a liberal state Supreme Court justice. Republicans are targeting Justice Janet Protasiewicz over comments she made during her winning campaign about redistricting and nearly $10 million in donations she received from the state Democratic Party. The impeachment criteria panel being created by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will consist of three former Wisconsin Supreme Court justices whom Vos told The Associated Press he would not name until after their work is done. Vos said they were not being paid and he expected their work to be complete in the next few weeks."
News Ledes
Libya. New York Times: "More than 10,000 people were missing, Libyan authorities said on Wednesday, after the catastrophic floods that pummeled the country's northeast. The death toll, which has surpassed 5,000, could reach up to 20,000 based on the number of districts that were wiped out, the mayor of Derna, Abdulmenam Al-Ghaithi, told Al Arabiya television. A North African nation polarized by years of civil war and intense political and territorial divisions, Libya was poorly prepared for Storm Daniel, which swept across the Mediterranean Sea, pummeling its coastline and quickly destroying poorly maintained infrastructure."
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Lee is on the move north through the western Atlantic and its large size means it will spread strong winds, rain and coastal flooding far from its center to eastern New England and Atlantic Canada by this weekend. Lee is also producing rip currents and high surf along much of the East Coast, providing another example of how hurricanes can be a danger for beachgoers far away from where a storm is tracking.... A hurricane watch has been issued from Stonington, Maine, to Point Lepreau, New Brunswick, and also from Digby to Medway Harbour, Nova Scotia, including Yarmouth. That means hurricane conditions are possible in these areas within 48 hours."
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Reader Comments (18)
Marie suggests that a way around the constant self-serving stunts and chronic cruelty of the Party of Traitors is, in part, “pass legislation that helps people”.
Quite.
What most of the lazy media frauds don’t seem to get, when they breathlessly report on the GQP’s every loose bowel movement as if these double dealing douche clamps hail within several parsecs of anything that could vaguely resemble “legitimate”, is that this House, run by iniquitous quacksalvers and mealy mouth mountebanks, whose idea of legislatin’ is eternal kangaroo court “investigations” accompanied by pompous pronouncements that any day now, shit will get real, doesn’t actually do anything. Not a fucking thing. But they get the benefit of the doubt every single time, while Joe Biden, who day after day seems to find some new way to make life better for tens of millions of Americans, is portrayed as too old and maybe even a crook.
Can anyone point to a single piece of legislation written and passed by those carny barkers? And sorry, total abortion bans and guns4all don’t count as stuff that helps anyone.
And yet, even with this fake impeachment bullshit, a con job as genuine as Gym Jordan’s constitutional acumen, media outlets intone GQP talking points as if there is a serious question about Biden’s involvement in his loser son’s schemes. And here’s the other thing. Hunter Biden is a sad, squirrelly character, no doubt. But his worst ploys don’t come within miles of the jaw dropping chicanery the grifting Trump spawn pulled on a daily basis.
But, ooohhh…Both Sides!
So sick of this crap.
@Akhilleus: The thing is, without the filibuster, it would be possible to pass legislation that helped people. Of course every time Republicans are in power in either house of Congress, they can undo it. But then maybe it would begin to dawn on the Vast Undereducated who's responsible for their misery. Right now, they're pretty sure it's all Joe Biden's fault. And to the extent that he continues to support the filibuster because he has such faith in the Senate Gentlemen's Debate Society, they're partially correct.
On a personal note, I am getting a bit of a hint of what it's like to be a Black person in the South. Oh, this is not Ruby Freeman-level stuff, but it's still as disconcerting as it must be for a long-time Black voter to be told she couldn't vote in the next election unless she could prove who she was.
Yesterday I opened up my mail & found a letter from the IRS saying I needed to "identify" myself. It had an IRS phone number to call, and after some folderol, the IRS lady told me I was a "special case" and could not take care of the matter over the phone or on the IRS's online site which is set up for confirming taxpayer identification. Instead, I had to go to an in-person interview to prove I was who I said I was. I have to bring a lot of documentation, too, including my birth certificate (it's tattered, but I found it!).
During the phone conversation, I tried to find out why I was a "special case," as I've paid my taxes every year with no odd gaps or unexplained income or deductions. I didn't apply for or take any of the Covid relief scam money, and to my knowledge, I haven't done anything that might appear dodgy or illegal.
Still, I got no answers. So I have to show up with a briefcase full of documents at a federal building about 25 miles from my home tomorrow afternoon. I find it very strange to be as old as I am and with as much of a paper trail as I surely have to suddenly be a suspected imposter. So if you don't hear from me Saturday, it's probably because I'm in federal prison! For ... not being me.
Don't think anything can soon at come of it at the federal level because the filibuster stands firmly in the way, but yesterday had a moment with a die-hard Republican so steeped in the Faux News tea that he regularly repeats their nonsense as if it were the Word.
But there was this one moment. After issuing the Biden impeachment warning that we will all be surprised at the the extent Biden awfulness that is bound to be revealed by the inquiry, he turned to government corruption more generally. Too much money in politics he said,
The three liberals present rushed to agree. Two pointed immediately to Citizens United. And there was our moment. Agreement about the corrupting influence of money, duplicating the finding of one poll after another.
So...do we have an issue on which Republicans and Democrats can work together?
Maybe not starting in Congress where the grip of money remains tight, but at the local and state level making the issue of sane campaign finance a centerpiece might have more than traction. It's a popular idea with cross-party appeal that might have an immediate effect.
A place to start?
More information on where campaign finance laws stand in the various states can be found here:
coalitionforintegrity.org
Hold My Beer, Nick Fuentes edition
Right-wing icon Nick Fuentes , favored by a cabal of the usual suspects (Trump, MTG, Paul Gosar, et al) must feel so empowered these days by the innate racism of Republican DNA that he just can’t be stopped from saying out loud what many of them believe. His latest brainstorm combines virulent GQP racism with its love of brutal authoritarianism. Wouldn’t it be great if China invaded the US, took power, and started killing black Americans?
Seriously. Chopping their heads off on the street.
Okay, maybe this is just Fuentes pandering to his KKK fan bois. But that’s the thing. Pandering to these pricks and dreaming up ever more baroque scenes of racist violence is what gets people killed in Jacksonville, in Buffalo, in Texas, in…you name it.
Yesterday, a dangerous escaped convict, armed with a rifle, was recaptured safely. Do you think if he were black he’d still be alive today? A black guy, a convicted murderer, on the loose, who broke into a white family’s home and stole a rifle? Would that guy have made it out of the woods alive? Maybe…but probably not.
Tim Wise, who writes extensively on the dangers of racism, suggests that we can expect a lot more violence from Republican supported white supremacists:
"I am obviously horrified and concerned that we're going to see more white racist terror attacks and hate crimes. When they figure out they can't win legitimately at the ballot box, they're going to turn to the bullet. They certainly have a lot of guns, and they have a lot of rage. I don't mean that in a prophetic way; it is pretty obvious."
And talking about obvious…a recent report indicates how vital racism is to Republican ideology, that effectively, GQP supporters are dyed in the wool racists. Here’s columnist Leonard Pitts:
“Indeed, it’s amusing — or maybe ‘appalling’ is the better word — to note that the report was issued only days after a white man appointed by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis as a commissioner in the state’s only majority-Black county, abruptly resigned when pictures surfaced that seemed to show him wearing the white robe and pointy hood of the Ku Klux Klan. It also came just after Rolling Stone, citing ‘Confidence Man,’ New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book about Donald Trump, reported an episode in which the 45th president, while hosting a reception for congressional leaders,’turned to a row of racially diverse Democratic staffers’ and asked them to bring the hors d’oeuvres.”
Funny, in’it? Funny like the Chinese invading the country to murder black people.
These assholes traffic in this sort of rhetoric and get away with it because their vicious fantasies mirror exactly the sort of racism that powers the entire fucking Republican Party, from Proud Boy thugs to gun knobbing neo-Nazis (“good people”) to former President* Bring the Hors d’oeuvres, to John (Racism is over) Roberts.
Just look at the off the chain outrage that two black women holding Trump accountable have engendered. Threats of defunding, demands they step down, death threats…
It’s who they are.
Glad to see the video above with the Tyranny twosome on Alex's show.I missed that because, sick to death listening to all the legalize discussions, I turned to PBS's Nature and learned that even tiny lizards and crickets adjust to climate change and invasive species. Such a shame those creatures on the Right that are supposed to be human fail miserably and can very well be on the spectrum of I.V.
The news about Romney 's text to our shell bearing Republican leader of the Senate and not receiving an answer is shocking. Even if Mitch was in one of his frozen phases he has a staff that was, I imagine, privy to the message. I'll be interested to see if we hear more about this.
Just read Marie's post–––what the hell???? Well, good luck tomorrow finding out why you were targeted. I'd be furious!
@Marie: I'm baking a coconut cake with a file inside. Let us know
which prison it will be. Or maybe it should be an upside-down cake.
Most things arrive that way lately.
Your threats make my past age related problems seem miniscule.
Going to cash in my IRAs at age 57, with driver's licence as proof of
age, I was told at the bank to come back with my birth certificate
since you look more like 37 and that license must be fake.
I changed banks the day after I got the cash.
"NLRB Has Corporate Lawbreakers Arrested"
I'm sure Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner is a great boss. /s
Well now, here’s an interesting idea.
Perhaps Tubbyville’s “principled” stand against all those military sluts getting abortion after abortion on the Pentagon’s dime ain’t so principled after all. In any event, there’s more than one way to peel a potato.
What if Potato Head is doing this to help the Fat Fascist, who, we’ve already seen, has yuuuge authoritarian plans for remaking the country if (1) he can stay out of prison, and (2) he can successfully steal the 2024 election?
So what’s the plan?
“This is part of Trump's strategy to gain absolute power in a second term. He wants to replace those pesky military officers who got in his way the last time with men who are more loyal to him than the Constitution.
Now, Trump isn't that original. He got the idea from when Mitch McConnell refused to take any action on Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court, holding the seat open for Trump's nominee. But so far, it's working.
And you know who owes his cushy new job with the high profile to Donald Trump? Tommy Tuberville.”
So we’ve already established that the Orange Monster is no Machiavellian mastermind, but he is a slimy, scheming, sneaky prick, and this is exactly the sort of thing he did his entire time in office, force out anyone who refuses to Heil Trump and replace them with boot licking lackeys who will. It’s been revealed that Trump was able, though his cronies in the DoD, keep the National Guard off the backs of his thugs on Jan. 6. But what if, through generals he “owned”, he could bypass thugs and go straight to military junta land, a land he controls?
Sounds far fetched? Too blunt? Sure, but then everything about this Fat Fuck is like blunt force trauma. He uses a billy club, not a scalpel.
The connective tissues here is Potato Head. Is he really that much of a holy roller? Maybe. But he’s also an idiot who now finds himself glorified by the religious right and positioned to be a big player in the next Trump Reich (of course, if that’s the case, he hasn’t been paying attention. Trump never comes through for those who stick their neck out for him, but that’s a fried potato for another day).
Interesting idea, nonetheless.
@Forrest Morris: If the IRS agent tells me tomorrow that I look more like 37, I'll kiss him/her.
I once had several thousand dollars in a North Carolina state credit union account, and when we moved to New York, I got a check for the balance (closing out the NC account) and put the check in my new NYC Bank of America account. BofA was right happy to take the money and open an account.
But when I went to get some of the money out of the BofA account, they said the credit union had to send them a form identifying me as the proper recipient of the check I'd given BofA to open the account. So I wrote to the credit union & asked them to send the form.
Six weeks later, when I went back to BofA, they said the credit union still hadn't sent the form. So I sez, "Okay, just give me $200," or whatever amount it was I wanted. "Can't do," the bank manager sez. "We've got to have that form." "But you have my money," sez I. "Yes, we do," sez he. So I sez loudly enough for everyone in the teller line, one of whom happened to be a uniformed NYPD officer, to hear: "Well, I've heard of folks coming in and robbing a bank of thousands of dollars, but I never heard of a bank robbing its own customers of thousands of dollars." That's when the manager gave me the money.
One does have to be firm with these people. But maybe not if they tell you how young & handsome you look.
P.S. Pineapple upside-down cake with hacksaw filling sounds delicious.
Aliens are real
@RAS: Yeah, I love that story, too. However, the NYT story on the same seems to put the kibosh on the ET claim:
"Analysis of the specimens in question in Peru showed that they were manufactured using a combination of human and animal bones, vegetable fibers and synthetic adhesives.
"Another analysis in 2021 determined that the head of one of the specimens was a deteriorated llama braincase. While debunking the contention that the mummies were extraterrestrials, the researchers expressed wonder as to how the specimens were made centuries ago, appearing to be 'constructions of very high quality.'”
But we do have alien doppelgängers among us, human only in appearance.
Republicans.
But those ETs did a bad job on Gaetz and Boebert. They don't even look human,
Not only Trump appointees, Rao and Katsas are former Clancy Thomas clerks.
"Hunter Biden indicted on federal gun charges
The indictment against the president's son comes after a plea agreement on tax and gun charges fell apart in July and amid a probe of his finances by House Republicans"
This from the Perry decision per USA Today:
"Katsas, who wrote a concurring opinion, said 2,219 records were stored on the phone, including 1,508 with individuals outside the House of Representatives. The latter are the records Howell must review.
Perry has argued the latter messages deal with “informal factfinding” about the 2020 election and modifying election procedures, Katsas wrote. These are the records Howell will have to review, to determine whether they were “necessary to preserve the integrity of the legislative process.”
Seems there's a crack--"outside the House of Representatives"-- in the conservative wall.
A good opportunity left to wilt…
My Kevin has to know that he will go down in history as a pusillanimous putz, a bobble head booby bound by promises to crazies, liars, a child sex trafficker, and other assorted malcontented Trumpish bounders.
Is that really how he wants to be remembered? A loser? A ball-less sack of shit in thrall to skeezy slime balls?
I guess he does. But he has a chance to go down as a Speaker whose political connections did not trump his principles. How? Tell Gaetz and the Freedumb Cockups to tell their story walkin’. He has to know that this impeachment bullshit is the shadiest and seediest form of confederate kabuki. Were he to stand up before the House and say “I’m not doing this. This is not the right way to do things. You guys have been investigating the Bidens for over a year and you have nothing. You wanna dump me? Go ahead. But if you insist on carrying out this sham impeachment, I’m out.”
They would, of course, vote him out, but he would go down as a guy who, when it mattered, stood up to be counted. He’d always have “Speaker of the US House of Representatives” on his CV (looks much better than Butt Boy for Assholes) and he would, like the bad guy in the movies who does the right thing just before he dies, be remembered as someone who wasn’t a complete devil’s spawn.
But will he?
Alas, such abjuration requires a spine firmer than boiled ramen.
So the answer is…no. He’ll enter the history books as an ambitious but chicken hearted poltroon, manipulated—willingly—by skeezy traitors.
Hey, I think I just came up with the subtitle of his biography!
My Kevin!
Chicken Hearted Poltroon, Manipulated—willingly—by Skeezy Traitors
Find it on the publisher’s overstock table. In the back of the bookstore. Next to the Pillow Guy’s autobiography, and “Bobo’s Book of Words that Rhyme with Jesus”, like deceives us, seize us, fake tits please us, and intravenous, and the Hell’s Kitchen Bible, “Barbecuing Roadkill!”.