Ur Rule of Law Delenda Est Open Thread

by Ugh

Things are going swimmingly here in the State of Denmark 'Merrica. The Post, the Times, detail Trump's efforts to subvert Mueller's investigation (Josh Marshall comments here).  Meanwhile, the GOP congress continues in its attempt to undo the ACA and tell anyone depending on it - plus anyone caught in the collateral damage - to go fnck themselves, happy to let Trump keep on keepin' on.  Jeff Sessions, fresh off being essentially told by Trump that Trump wishes he hadn't picked him, continues on his merry southern way to make life hell for the non-white population.  I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

Whatever. This ship be sinkin', can the last rat turn out the lights?

Open thread.

UPDATE: wrs: "the POTUS is a crook. a criminal, a shady dealer, a serial bankrupt and fraudster. he's a creep, a bully, an abusive misogynistic sexual predator. he's profoundly ignorant and has no interest in changing that."

Comments

[wj]

Does Dilbert today seem to have a political resonance as well?

[Countme-a-Demon]

"Does Dilbert ... ?"

Yeah, but not like you think:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-22/how-dilbert-s-scott-adams-got-hypnotized-by-trump

[hairshirthedonist]

From the Count's link on Scott Adams:

At both the bank and the phone company, Adams has said, his professional advancement was thwarted by diversity hires. “There was no hope for another generic white male to get promoted any time soon,” he wrote in Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert. (Later in the book, he noted that his Dilbert TV show was canceled after “the network made a strategic decision to focus on shows with African-American actors.”)

and

The second novella, a follow-up titled The Religion War, describes a civilizational conflict in 2040 between a violent caliphate in the Middle East and a Christian alliance in the West. The hard-nosed hero builds a wall around the jihadists and “essentially kills everybody there,” Adams told me. “I have to be careful, because I’m talking about something pretty close to genocide, so I’m not saying I prefer it, I’m saying I predict it.”

So, even more than the wacky hypnosis stuff, this aligns with Adams' Trumpiness.

[wj]

Just because it is unintended doesn't mean it isn't apropos.

[wj]

Note that he is making exceptional efforts to pick the people who might be responsible for cases involving him.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/20/politics/donald-trump-jessie-liu-dc-us-attorney/index.html

[Ugh]

Spicey resigns.

[russell]

Scaramucci?

Can he do the fandango?

[ral]

russell, so nothing really matters?

[I know, I know... just free association on my part. I would never think that of you.]

[wj]

Can he do the fandango?

Can he put lipstick on a pig? Seems more likely to be a useful job skill.

[Ugh]

Scaramucci literally at the WH press briefing talking about Trump throwing spirals through tires. I am not making this up.

[Nigel]

Some pretty good legal advice for Trump, especially considering it's free...
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/21/donald-trump-bob-mueller-215403

[Nigel]

And I'm really liking the suggestion of quo warranto - a writ abolished in England before the war, but which persists in the US (backed by various state statutes):
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/07/no_matter_who_he_fires_or_pardons_trump_won_t_be_able_to_escape_state_attorneys.html

Whatever chaos Trump might have visited on us, he has given a real fillip to legal nerdery...

[Nigel]

So, delenda non est.

[JanieM]

I am not making this up.

But Scaramucci is.

[sapient]

Whatever chaos Trump might have visited on us, he has given a real fillip to legal nerdery...

Hey, what's wrong with the mother country that they got rid of a writ? Hope y'all still have mandamus. (I see by a bit of googling that it's not a writ anymore either. Shame!)

[sapient]

In other news, Sessions is going down (unless, of course, nobody does anything about it). Traitor, white supremacist, evil a@@%01e, I hope to see him in a chain gang.

[Ugh]

My sense too sapient, but all depends on Senate GOPers deciding they are only willing to be lied to so much, but I think we've reached the "haggling over the price" stage on that. So to speak.

[wj]

Actually, the Russia stuff might actually make it more likely that Sessions keeps his job. After all, if the whole Russia thing is a witch hunt without merit, why should Trump care about anything supposedly arising from it. And if he fires Sessions after the latest revelations, isn't he implying that there is a there there?

[Countme-a-Demon]

Scarymoochie's opinion of dump not too long ago:

"[Donald Trump] is just another hack politician. That's another hack politician. He's just a hack politician. [Donald Trump] is probably going to make Elizabeth Warren his Vice Presidential nominee, with comments like that. It's anti-American [for him to criticize hedge funds]. It's very divisive.

I can tell you what he's going to be president of—you can tell Donald I said this—the Queens County Bowling Association. You have to cut it out now. Stop all this crazy rhetoric.

I don't like the way he talks about women. I don't like the way he talks about our friend Megan Kelly. You know what? The politicians don't want to go at Donald Trump because he has a big mouth, and they are afraid he is going to light them up on Fox News.

But I'm not a politician.

You are an inherited money dude from Queens County! Bring it, Donald! Bring it! An inherited money dude from Queens County!

Q: Do you think Walker will do attack ads against [Donald Trump]?

I don't. I think that Walker is a smart guy and he knows [Donald Trump] is going to implode without attack ads. I don't think [PACs] are going to spend their money on him. Anybody that has been in the high 20s this early in the race has faded. It's Herman Cain. [Trump] says he's different: it's not different.

I'll tell you what I think he's doing. It's right out of Elizabeth Warren's playbook. [Donald,] are you a Democratic plant? Stand here and prove otherwise!"

The wonderful conceit about America is that we are a meritocracy. Shits like this prove that any shallow cuck can become extremely wealthy moving one dollar from under one shell to another, bet every trade from both sides and then some from there, charge their clients 30% fees, and whine about their motherfucking taxes, and then rise without qualification to become a spokesperson for an autocratic piece of filth who happens to taking the greatest Nation down the chute to bloody Hell.

Apparently, the NRA disapproves of Scarymoochie because of past statements he made about gun insanity in this country, so I would expect he will soon brandish an AK-47 and fire off a few rounds over reporter's heads at the next "press conference" to prove his bonafides, just as he today wormed his forked tongue up hack rump's dumpchute and gave it good licking.

republicans are flexible that way.

[Doctor Science]

Back from parentland. My Dad's stroke seems to have been *amazingly* limited: he has a degree of expressive aphasia, but absolutely no other problems. We're hoping he can go home in only another week, and he may well be driving before Labor Day!

My family picked out a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 for him, because he seems to still have his writing ability.

So things are going better than expected, but my Mom is still very stressed, and I'm utterly exhausted.

[wj]

All the best Doctor. I've been thru the parent stroke thing, and it just totally takes it out of you. It's hard to force yourself, but be sure to make time for sleep. It isn't enough, but without things are worse.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Pace yourself Doc.

Been there.

[Countme-a-Demon]

https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2462944201.html

[Countme-a-Demon]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a56485/sean-spicer-no-sympathy/

Just looking at the photographs side by side, I believe it will be a smooth transition for Melissa McCarthy at SNL.

[Lurker]

Nigel,

The point instate investigations against a sitting president is intriguing but if done, it is one more step on the road towards the break-up of democratic norms. Having a New York DA arrestimg Trumpnwould be very satisfying but unlikely to happen. First, the Secret Service would not let it happen. If the push came to shove, the Secret Service would protect President. That is what they are for. And you would not want a federal-state law enforcement shootout at Trump Tower. It would end up with federal military intervening. The president or the vice-president would invoke the Insurrection Act, and the GOP and a large segment of the US military would be utterly happy to crush a democratic state government and to reconstruct it the way you've never seen reconstruction done.

Arresting the president is most likely a federal crime, even if theoretically justified under state law, so you would end up with the FBI arresting the state DA and the investigative team for criminal conspiracy.

The states can't beat the feds in direct confrontation. Instead, it would be possible for state authorities to start investigating and arresting Trump's clan members who are not cabinet officials. That way, you could mount pressure against Trump.

[Girl from the North Country]

Good news Doc, and I second what wj said about sleep. Here's to continued improvement - for all of you.

[Lurker]

Best of health, Doc, for your father and strength for all of you.

[Hartmut]

Well, the appointment seems aptly named.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaramouche

That genocidal idea of Adams sounds like just an update on an infamous short story by Jack London where the "Yellow peril" is dealt with by cordoning off China and then dropping all bioweapons the West could produce into China by air. Soon 100% of all Chinese are dead => problem solved.

Imo it's still seen as an appropriate solution to deal with the enemy du jour by some on the US Right, the only problem being the possibility of failed containment and thus a spread back to the homeland. Their hopes of developing racist germs have not yet come to fruition.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Hey, the individual Secret Service agents may not like it, but I'm sure that the state dept. of prisons could arrange for them to share a cell with Trump to keep him safe during his stay in the 'Big House'.

Might be problems with firearms and cellphones, though. And that whole 'nuclear football' thing also, too.

NY prosecutors are smart. They'll figure something out.

[russell]

Adams likes Trump because he is good at hypnotizing (some of) the masses with bullshit. He's 60 and he's got those "how to pick up chicks" books lying around. He will improve your orgasms with his jedi hypnotist skillz.

Not a guy I'm gonna look to as an ally in advancing the common weal.

Doc, that is great news about your dad. Sending all best wishes for a good recovery. Take care of yourself!

[wj]

It's pretty likely that nobody would even try to arrest a sitting President. But that's not to say he couldn't be investigated, evidence gathered, and even indictments handed down. The arrest and trial would have to wait until he left office. But they could be queued up and waiting.

[wj]

Found this in the daily Economist e-mail:

The four Arab countries that blockaded Qatar last month abandoned their original list of 13 demands, which the emirate had deemed “unrealistic”. Diplomats from the Saudi-led bloc said they wanted an amicable solution to the impasse, and now propose six general principles for Qatar—including a commitment to fight terrorism and to suspend its alleged “acts of provocation” in the region.

Gosh. Do you suppose that their "evolving" position could have anything to do with the revelation that the specific stories which were blamed for their original action have been shown to have been hacks by the UAE? Nah, why would anyone care that their justification had been shown to be utterly bogus?

[Countme-a-Demon]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/07/21/this-presidency-cant-be-saved-its-all-downhill-from-here/?utm_term=.185c3cc7836f

I have a sixth scenario to add to rubin's five.

rump fires Mueller. Everyone, right down to the janitor at the Justice Department, resigns. Congressional republicans offer to join Democrats in commencing impeachment proceedings against rump if Democrats agree to vote to a package deal repealing Obamacare, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security and minting a one trillion dollar coin and presenting it to the Koch Brothers so they can take Sean Hannity to lunch forever. Democrats agree, the deal is on, but at the last moment Marty raises his hand and points out that the only reason rump resorted to treason, espionage, and the stealing of an election by a foreign government was because Hillary Clinton, so republicans smirk and back out of the deal, excepting the parts about SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, not to mention the National Parks. rump, in a celebratory response, empties the contents of of his solid gold shitter all over the Lincoln Monument and orders Anthony Scaramoche to clean it up with a roll of toilet paper in which each individual sheet is a copy of the Constitution, but Mary Ann Conchickwithdick, Paul Raynrand, and Mitch McConnell and the Detroit Wheels beat Scaramouche to it and cleanse the monument with their tongues and then pulverize it and sell it for billions on Ebay.

Vlad Putin decides, after witnessing this, that the tax advantages of moving to Texas and bringing half of his nuclear arsenal with him disguised as a professional football team dressed as Russian Orthodox priests who want to crucify fags and targeting all of them at Barack Obama's house is too much to pass over.

Texans elect Putin Governor by a landslide and the latter immediately begins putting together a campaign team for the American Presidency in 2024.

Red hats everywhere you look.

[Countme-a-Demon]

"Gosh."

Golly, did the hackers tip off rump too so he could spout off about Qatar, as always.

I hope Qatar develops a nuclear arsenal because of this.

[Ugh]

Ken Starr had someone write a memo saying a sitting president can be indicted. LOL

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/us/politics/can-president-be-indicted-kenneth-starr-memo.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[Countme-a-Demon]

All of the usual suspects want Mueller fired.

He will be fired.

https://www.mediamatters.org/research/2017/07/21/trump-reportedly-considering-fulfilling-months-long-right-wing-media-fantasy-fire-robert-mueller/217347

Since America has not summoned the patriotic guts to terminate all of these filth, they continue to destroy the country, year after year, election cycle after election cycle, decade after decade.

As long as they live, America rots.

This is not Watergate.

The violence that is coming to avenge these crimes will consume all of us.

[Countme-a-Demon]

That the ADL has NOT placed this right wing hater on a hit list means its not doing its job to save America:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/20/1682497/-Sickening-Top-GOP-Senate-candidate-in-Ohio-defends-Pizzagate-pusher-and-lashes-out-at-ADL

[Tony P.]

Somebody (possibly here) once asked whether the POTUS would be breaking any US laws if he moved to the French Riviera for the balance of his term.

Assume he could pay for a villa himself. Assume that France would grant visas to him and any aides he wanted to bring along. Assume that, if the USAF was unwilling to use AF1 to shuttle official papers to him and back, then FedEx would do it.

Would the "white working class" finally demand his impeachment? And if yes, on what grounds?

Notice I used "he" and "his" on purpose. If I had written "she" and "her" the question would be superfluous.

--TP

[russell]

I was wondering the same thing as Tony P, except I was thinking about countries that don't have extradition treaties with the US.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the Ukraine, Russia. Among others.

Those Ukraine girls really knock you out!

His supporters wouldn't bat an eyelash. He was forced into it by vindictive (D)'s and fake news!

[ral]

For russell,

Muppets cover of Bohemian Rhapsody

[wj]

Count, let me suggest a possible alternate scenario. Executives act via subordinates, who carry out their orders. In private business, they can get fired if they don't. In government, political appointees can be fired; but firing civil servants requires showing cause.

1. Trump fires Sessions. The latest revelations about Sessions and the Russians providing the justification. NOT, of course, Sessions' dealings with the Russians. But over his lying about it; especially unsuccessfully. (My guess is that the leaks this past week were not from the intelligence agencies directly. But rather from Trump flunkies in the White House.)
   
2. Trump orders Rosenstein to fire Mueller. Rosenstein declines, citing lack of cause and DoJ regulations. Trump says, essentially, "Just change the regulations!" Rosenstein says he will put a team to work on how exactly to do that.
   
3. Trump gets tired of waiting, and fires Rosenstein.
   
4. He then orders the Associate AG (Rachel Brand) to fire Mueller. She declines, citing lack of cause and DoJ regulations. Trump fires her.
   
5. At this point, Trump has run out of political appointees who he can fire at will. (A bunch of them are awaiting Senate action, but for the moment their positions are filled on an acting basis by career civil servants.) So he tries ordering them, with similar results -- except that, when he tries to fire them, the matter ends up before the Civil Service Commission, since there isn't just cause for firing them either.
   
6. Trump decides to just fire Mueller himself. (Note: this may have happened earlier in the scenario.) Mueller looks at the regulations, determines that Trump doesn't have the authority, and ignores him.
   
7. Trump decides to just have Mueller arrested ("Lock him up!"), and get him stopped that way. He orders the FBI to act. They refuse, citing lack of cause for an arrest.
   
8. Trump, in a burst of unusual innovation, tries to order the Secret Service to act. They decline for the same lack of cause.
   
9. Trump tries to order the military to act. The DoD also declines, citing lack of jurisdiction. (Trump, being massively ignorant of history, doesn't think to cite the 82nd Airborne going into Little Rock to enforce the Supreme Court's desegregation order.)
   

Thru all this, Trump is tweeting like mad in increasing frustration. (At some point, he might even collapse from apoplexy.) But he is discovering that his power is rather less absolute than he imagined.

Trump's supporters take all this to be evidence that the "deep state" is out to get their guy. If by "deep state" you mean "government officials who believe in following the law", then they might have a point. Sort of. But there really isn't much an executive can do if his subordinates refuse to break the law for him.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Trump is tweeting like mad in increasing frustration:"will no one rid me of this troublesome lawyer"

Trumpistas mob Mueller; he might survive, might not. Trumpistas are pardoned by Trump and congratulated for 'a good job'.

Hey, it's just a good thing that Trump is profoundly ignorant of history, amirite?

BTW, no link, but somewhere there is a recording of Bohemian Rhapsody in Japanese. It's cognitive dissonance hilarious.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Another scenario out of Brian Beutler, via Balloon Juice:

"Should Trump fire Mueller, with the tacit assent of Republicans in Congress and the DOJ leadership, there will be little recourse. It is feasible (though difficult) to imagine a GOP House and Senate passing an independent counsel statute to restore Mueller to his job; it is nearly impossible to imagine them doing so by veto-proof margins. And should Trump pardon himself and his inner circle, it is dispiritingly easy to imagine Republicans reprising their familiar refrain: The president’s power to pardon is beyond question.

If this crisis unfolds as depicted here, the country’s final hope for avoiding a terminal slide into authoritarianism would be the midterm election, contesting control of a historically gerrymandered House of Representatives. That election is 16 months away. Between now and then, Trump’s DOJ and his sham election-integrity commission will seek to disenfranchise as many Democratic voters as possible, while the president himself beseeches further foreign interference aimed at Democratic candidates. Absent the necessary sweep, everything Trump will have done to degrade our system for his own enrichment and protection will have been ratified, and a point of no return will have been crossed."

[Countme-a-Demon]

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tariniparti/trump-is-showing-the-world-what-a-weak-american-presidency?utm_term=.wrjyxZavn#.cgexyAXOE

Among the contents:

"Even the president’s top backers are losing patience. Billionaire Trump patrons Rebekah and Bob Mercer are “apoplectic” over the health care debacle, with renewed fears that Trump’s lofty goals of changing Washington have become all but impossible, said a Trump administration adviser. The adviser added that lobbyists and establishment lawmakers are making Trump’s life more difficult."

Unless apoplexy can lead to sudden and terminal asphyxia, lead poisoning, and imminent death for the entire Mercer clan, America will require a much more deadly antidote to that infestation of pig shit plaguing us.

[Michael Cain]

My suspicion about the whole Russian thing is that what will eventually be found is that the Trump family owes assorted Russians and Russian banks most of a billion dollars, and they're getting close to one or more of the trigger conditions that make the loan(s) callable. Which leaves the Trump family in the position of choosing between getting a quite public bail-out from the Russians, or watching a good portion of Daddy's real estate empire go down in a cascading financial mess. Neither of which is particularly tenable if you're going to play at being President.

I had former colleagues on the inside of a couple of big cable company implosions. Their descriptions of the slow-motion collapse as the family that controlled all the parts of the company, and had overextended, furiously trying to juggle collateral and swap assets around to stop the cascade were... entertaining.

[Bruce B.]

The father of one of my friends was in the chain of command above Adams at the phone company, and remembered him through the intervening years as one of the most input-proof fools convinced of his own brilliance that the father had ever had to deal with. According to this man, Adams was one of those who's sure he understood every part of every operation he was involved with, and every other activity that happened to catch his fancy. So everything he touched took longer and was unnecessarily complicated, since others had to clean it up.

I was, somehow, not surprised to hear this.

[Countme-a-Demon]

In the interests of full transparency ....

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scaramucci-twitter-delete-trump-clinton-nra

...... Scaramucci wipes down his fingerprints at the crime scenes and kills any possible witnesses.

He pronounces "gotcha politics" over.

He's right. We're now well into fuck you politics, with him as "you".

By the way, the Italian scaramucci means "to skirmish" (or "to squirmish" when translated into Death Palinese) in plain English.

The latter of which Scaramucci won't be speaking much of over the coming months, the subhuman republican liar.

Just a heads-up, if you own appliances of any sort and you have rump/republican family members, neighbors, and friends, you might want to secure your premises from the thieving scum.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sean-spicer-minifridge-stole-aides-white-house

[Countme-a-Demon]

I believe Michael Cain is approximate in his estimation of rump/russian bank/family business machinations and what's coming.

Leaving aside the vast possibilities for treason implicit in the "arrangement", for which most of the republican party elite will be executed either by a rule-of-law firing squad or summarily dispatched by extra-legal means, when the call goes in for the loans, rump will order his Treasury Secretary to make himself and the Russians whole at American taxpayer expense, probably with some finagling from Goldman Sachs, who will come up with a scheme for Treasury to issue a new class of government junk bond as collateral, perhaps even a new U.S. currency, the rump.

[Countme-a-Demon]

Before I waste too much more of my weekend explaining horsecrap America, let me top it off by pointing out that rump's statement that Mueller had better not investigate rump's utterly crooked businesses is like Joe Pesci undergoing a routine traffic stop on the way north out of Jersey and advising the cop to NOT check out the trunk of the car, despite the thumping and muffled cries from therein.

[sapient]

Pretty sure Mueller's way ahead of him on that, Count.

The thug Republicans, having control of the government, may be able to thwart Mueller, but Trump himself is way out of his league.

[sapient]

Also, Count, I admire you a lot, but in one of your comments you said something like "W-w-well, I'm not defending Democrats here!" Yeah, that was the way I read it.

That's your particular disease. Just advice from a friend.

[Countme-a-Demon]

In Africa, I'm advised hunters sever the tail of the elephant they've just killed as a sign of respect for the animal.

http://www.thejournal.ie/trump-elephant-2886996-Jul2016/

I hope that bit of politically correct multiculturalism takes the sting out of what rump and family have done to all of the tail-less, tusk-less, lifeless republicans out there.

[wj]

Trump patrons Rebekah and Bob Mercer are “apoplectic” over the health care debacle,

Is it too bad of me to think that, if the apoplexy becomes literal, the country will be better for it?

[Countme-a-Demon]

"W-w-well, I'm not defending Democrats here!"

"That's your particular disease."

You might want to re-read that comment as I hold you in my armchair and you try to feel my disease.

I wrote, in so many words, that my only political aspiration from here on out is to see a dead, defunct, ruined, harassed out-of-existence, reduced-to-vagrancy, illegal (if possible) republican party, identified as an enemy of America, like the Nazi and Communist Party menaces have been handled over the decades.

What comes after, whatever it is, even if it is chaos, will take care of itself and be better than this perverted monstrosity Gingrich, John Birch, and the Mercers and countless hapless nincompoops have purposefully and with extreme malice bequeathed us.

If it's Democrats, fine, but until we nuke republican Hiroshima and firebomb republican Dresden, nothing else matters to me.

These filth want to be nihilists? They want to be a wrecking crew?

Wait until they get a load of me.

I want to blow it up before they do and then have them beg to have even a little of what they wrecked back.

And answer "NO!"

Come together is way down the road, not yet visible.

"Shootme!"

[Countme-a-Demon]

"Is it too bad of me to think that, if the apoplexy becomes literal, the country will be better for it?"

Only after frothing at the mouth, death seizures and rigor mortis for them can we better for it.

[sapient]

As usual, you're speaking my language, Count.

Tried to find the actual moment I was concerned about, and must have been another thread.

Just, if we're going to be able to solve this peacefully, give it a few elections, starting with November 2017, with VA.

If we lose that, I'm buying weapons and hoping for someone to organize me.

[bobbyp]

666

[Matt McIrvin]

Jennifer Rubin has a remarkable amount of faith in the willingness of a bunch of Republicans to turn against the Leader for his outrages.

My assumption from the beginning of this has been that the coalition that elected Trump would be perfectly OK with the US becoming a one-party kleptocratic dictatorship, and that about a crazification-factor 27% of the country (the ones Clinton called "deplorables", and who happily embraced the label) would be OK with a war of total extermination against blacks, Hispanics, Muslims and liberals.

That 27% has a lot of guns, and some of them are in law enforcement. If some state or local officials attempt to indict Trump to get around his federal immunity and the unwillingness of Congress to act, Trump could tweet out an order for the local police to assassinate them, and there's a non-negligible chance someone would comply.

I am just not convinced that enough Americans take the rule of law seriously as anything other than a euphemism for white supremacy.

[Countme-a-Demon]

An autopsy, of sorts, of Sean Spicer, while the corpse still twitches on the slab:

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/07/23/late-night-farewell-to-sean-open-thread-aka-piss-off-a-pack-of-journalists-at-your-own-risk/

[Countme-a-Demon]

The following six links are related by a common theme. Carlin points out the difference between irony and coincidence in one of them. Some of the links are hybrids of those two instances.

The common theme is what happens when you turn America's owner's manual over to malign, ignorant, willfully stupid republican fucking assholes and mistake the outcome for freedumb.

Cheerio!:

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/07/oklahoma-sure-has-a-lot-of-earthquakes-these-days/

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/armed-drivers-police-stop-deadly-arizona-philando-castile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn9elWR13Z4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4IrfObVzJo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZbQ8b8xnLI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJXOjb_IJWQ

Listen, I know there are decent conservatives out there and among us. But you are now nothing more than Patty Hearst showing up in a grainy video wearing a beret and brandishing a piece of military weaponry as she served as a lookout in an armed heist by crazy psychopaths.

We get it. By the time they let you out of the darkened closet and took the hood off your head, you were dazed, shaken, and blinded by the light. The next thing you know things were moving too fast and you were inside the bank, thinking how did I get here.

Try at least to escape. It will look better to the jury.

That way, maybe wolfie will burn and piggy might live happily ever after.

[wj]

Good thing they don't do much fracking in Oklahoma. Otherwise they might start getting a really large number of quakes. At least if the worriers are right. Oh wait....

[Girl from the North Country]

For anybody who hasn't read the full Balloon Juice link yet, but has been reading all the Spicer stuff, this absolute gem from that BJ thread:

Comrade Colette Collaboratrice says: July 23, 2017 at 3:50 am

This is just to say

Fuck the plums

Who eats fruit anyway?

I have taken the icebox

[Girl from the North Country]

Oops, it suddenly occurs to me (ignorant as I am of blog etiquette) that maybe I should have checked with Comrade Colette Collaboratrice if it was OK for me to repost her comment. I think I've seen others here and at cleek's do that. I apologise to anyone (especially CCC) if this was a no-no; because I have never posted at Balloon Juice it never occurred to me to do so.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

GftNC: the only time that people get called out for reposting someone's comments is when the reposter is acceptably rude and insulting by reposting a Conservative's previous comments verbatim.

Deplorable! Insulting! How can we have a civil discussion when such behavior is tolerated?1??

[Countme-a-Demon]

"Fuck the plums" is going to be my new exclamation curse going forward.

Besides, talent borrows, genius steals.

[Countme-a-Demon]

http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/07/deep-thoughts-j-d-vance

I read Hillbilly Elegy some time back. Heartfelt it was, especially the depiction of his grandparents, mamaw and papaw, salts of the Earth.

But I got the feeling, even after he graduated from Yale Law School, that everything was still Jethro Clampett's "cement pond".

But not really, because Vance ain't no hillbilly despite puttin' on airs that he might be.

Now, before someone accuses me of various crimes against the "deplorables", know this. I was actually born long before he was in Vance's adopted hometown of Middletown, Ohio (it was just north of the Mason Dixon but in its racial attitudes it was definitely south, not that anywhere north wasn't to one extent or another) and ma daddy and ma grandpappy, salts of the Earth, worked their entire adult lives for Armco Steel, the lamentedly gone-in-its-previous-incarnation hometown employer, which competitive capitalism, the international kind, hosed for a time (well, the company still exists of a sort under a different name and owners, AK Steel).

To their credit, they just built a new research and innovation center in Middletown this year.

http://www.aksteel.com/news/press_release.aspx?doc_id=1085

I don't know that happened. The thing was planned and announced and ground broken under the Obama Administration, despite hillbilly protestations that THAT couldn't possibly be.

No doubt rump thinks he built it.

[Countme-a-Demon]

So much fake news, ya can't keep up:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/trump-and-troops.html

[Countme-a-Demon]

Just desserts and french pastries elaborated on by Ron Perlman, auditioning for the rump biopic "Dumber Than Particle Board", later to be re-named and re-made as a documentary: "Dementia and Incontinence: A Primer".

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/good-morning.html

[Countme-a-Demon]

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/its-time-for-hillary-clinton-to-gracefully-bow-out-of-public-life-along-with-all-other-women