what (R)'s want

by russell

They want all the cookies.

They want to cut taxes, especially on the wealthy.  And they want to either annihilate or privatize any and all outflows of public money to.... the public.

Deficits don't matter, said Reagan, according to Cheney.  But, actually they do matter.  They give (R)'s their pretext for taking stuff away.

From you.

Remember the dude who wanted "government out of his Medicare"?  He's gonna get his wish.

Comments

[John D. Thullen]

Talia Levin needs to secure an interview on Ingraham's shitshow and carry a weapon on her person:

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/03/22/talia-lavin-could-teach-laura-ingraham-lot-about-journalism/223221

[russell]

Still sorry that discussion became personalized.

"Your friends suck"

"You're unhinged"

It didn't 'become personalized', you personalized it. The party with agency here is not "it", it's you.

It's neither here nor there, really, it just is what it is. I'm glad it's finally freaking dawning on you that the POTUS is a freaking bigot and that he enables and encourages bigotry.

[russell]

This is so massive that words fail me:

I was talking with my wife about this this evening while she was making dinner. The United States has become profoundly corrupt. Neither of us has any confidence that that is going to be turned around in our lifetimes.

Frankly, in many ways we would probably prefer to live somewhere else, but our lives are here.

I love what we claim to stand for. I am ashamed of what we are.

[russell]

What I will add to the above is this:

There is not one thing in the world more obvious to me than the palpable corruption of the president of the United States and his family. Equally obvious to me is that, at a minimum, principals of his campaign, including members of his immediate family, did not "collude" but conspired with Russian nationals including people with quite close connections to the Russian government to fnck with the 2016 election.

Mueller has delivered his findings to the DOJ. His work is done, and I'm sure it is well done.

Now it is up to the rest of us - the DOJ, Congress, the courts, and plain old us - to do something about this bullshit.

Best of luck to all.

[wj]

The United States has become profoundly corrupt. Neither of us has any confidence that that is going to be turned around in our lifetimes.

Here's a little something to buoy you up. Not for nothing is today compared to the Gilded Age of a century ago. Think about how quickly that got turned around by the Progressives. (Of course, whether it will happen in your lifetimes depends a lot on how you see your life expectancy. But it's probably not hopeless.)

[Marty]

I would love to see where I wrote your friends suck, I did say you were unhinged I've been called worse.

[wj]

Mueller has delivered his findings to the DOJ. His work is done, and I'm sure it is well done.

The question that leaps to mind is: how many sealed indictments are there, waiting to be unsealed? I'll be surprised if the number is zero. But how many? Not to mention who?

[CharlesWT]

"There no need to ask if we'll see Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report about his investigation of Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. We almost certainly will. The real questions are when we'll get it, how much we'll see of it, and who's going to leak it.

Because these days, sieves are jealous of the federal government. If the report claims any sort of direct connection between President Donald Trump and Russian election interference, some folks are going to want to get that into the public's hands. And if the report does not show any connections, a different group of people is going want to leak that information out."

Unnamed Justice Department officials are telling reporters Mueller has recommended no further indictments.
As the Mueller Report Drops, a Transparency Fight Begins: How much will we see of the special counsel's report? And when?

[russell]

I would love to see where I wrote your friends suck

Seek and ye shall find.

[russell]

The question that leaps to mind is: how many sealed indictments are there

Per Josh Marshall at TPM, CNN's Laura Jarrett asked exactly that. DOJ says zero.

[Hartmut]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/ken-starr-muellers-report-shouldnt-go-congress/585577/

I have several unfriendly remarks in mind concerning this disingenious wish-wash and the bufonid that authored it but in the spirit of civility I'll leave that to the fertile imagination of the audience.

[sapient]

I learn so much from you, Hartmut, but you're being so mean to the family Bufonidae.

[John D. Thullen]

Two views of conservatives regarding cookies in recent books, which I plan to read:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/fdr-herbert-hoover-big-government/580456/

One takeaway, among many:

"Meanwhile, the financial structure of the United States was approaching collapse. At the start of Hoover’s presidency, 24,000 banks had been open for business throughout the country. By 1933, 10,000 of these had shut their doors. One state after another—Nevada, Iowa, California—was suspending normal bank operations in order to keep frightened depositors from withdrawing their cash. Publicly, Hoover insisted that the solution to the panic was a recommitment to the gold standard by nations that had recently abandoned it, such as Great Britain; he blamed the impending Roosevelt administration for sowing fear and discord. But privately, only a day before Michigan declared a bank holiday to protect its faltering financial system, he told Edgar Rickard, an old friend from Hoover’s days as a mining engineer and executive, to withdraw “$10,000 in bills” for emergencies.

The story of an angst-filled Hoover quietly squirreling away funds while lecturing the country about the moral necessity of keeping the banks open is one of the pleasures of Eric Rauchway’s Winter War, a crisp narrative of the four-month interregnum between Franklin D. Roosevelt’s victory in November 1932 and his assumption of the presidency in March 1933."

To the country: "Don't touch those cookies. Leave them in the cookie jar."

To the elite: "Umm, you might want to score those cookies while the going is good. Bob's yer uncle."

And now John Roberts: "Boys, don't think all of those cookies are yours because of your privilege, which is suspect and probably just dumb luck."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/03/john-roberts-biography-review/580453/

One takeaway, among many:

"Two years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts gave the commencement address at the Cardigan Mountain School, in New Hampshire. The ninth-grade graduates of the all-boys school included his son, Jack. Parting with custom, Roberts declined to wish the boys luck. Instead he said that, from time to time, “I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.” He went on, “I hope you’ll be ignored, so you know the importance of listening to others.” He urged the boys to “understand that your success is not completely deserved, and that the failure of others is not completely deserved, either.” And in the speech’s most topical passage, he reminded them that, while they were good boys, “you are also privileged young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you’re privileged now because you have been here. My advice is: Don’t act like it.”

He has a little AOC sitting on one shoulder, or is maybe channeling his inner Russell values, perhaps ready, alas, on too few occasions, to leap over the bar and cut Kavanaugh, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito off from their constitutionally mandated alcoholism. Remind conservatives of that when they scoff at the notion of disparately distributed privilege.

Too bad about most of his rulings, however, since privilege seems to be viewed as protected by immutable law enshrined in the Constitution.

Of course, once p nominates another federalist society cuck, Roberts is of no use whatsoever and the American bet is off.

[russell]

I usually don't bother doing other people's homework for them, but personal shit gets under my skin.

Marty, November 7 2016, 1:21 PM. In reponse to my account of a friend's kid who found Trump frightening:

If your friends 12 year old is afraid of Trump then their parents suck.

And:

Her parents are teaching her to hate, just different people.

"Their parents" and "her parents" here being my friends. And the kid being someone who has friends who are Latin and Muslim, who goes to school every day with kids who are Latin and Muslim, and who at this point probably knows a handful of people whose lives have been fncked up by Trump.

Because even though we live in airy-fairy coastal elite land, many of our friends, neighbors, co-workers, what have you, are Latin, or Muslim, or are some other category of person who Trump has decided needs to have their lives fncked with in order to make America great again.

I will also note that this was at a time when Marty's SO was phone-banking for Trump. About which no-one, including me, had a negative word to say. Then, or now, frankly. People should believe what they want to believe, and should support what they want to support. If anything folks at the time inquired about it respectfully and with genuine interest.

You know nothing about my friends, what they do, who they are, what they think or believe, what they teach their kids and how they raise their kids. Nothing. You know damned little about me, all you know about me and mine is what I share here. Which is the tip of the iceberg of who I am. Just like everyone else here.

All of this is neither here nor there, people say shit on blogs. But no more whining about how things get "personalized". You personalized it. Not me, not anyone else. You did that. You own it.

People can differ about issues. The election of Trump to the office of POTUS is not about issues. It's about corruption and resentment and malice, and the establishment of those things as political and social norms in this country. That is the danger he presents to us.

At some point we all have to decide which side of that line we want to be on.

[wj]

Of course, once p nominates another federalist society cuck, Roberts is of no use whatsoever and the American bet is off.

You seem to be assuming that his next nominee will be replacing, for example, Ginsburg. If he (and with Trump, I'd bet it would be he) was a replacement for Thomas, that would be a different story. (Hey, you might get lucky, and he would be replacing Kavanaugh. Stranger things have happened.)

[wj]

Trump: keeping Americans safe from . . . flight attendants!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2019/03/23/how-flight-attendant-texas-ended-up-an-ice-detention-center-six-weeks/

[John D. Thullen]

It's going to be interesting, in the Chinese sense, to compare the wording of leaks from the Justice Department, nabob natterings from the White House, Pox News, and the latter's sister stations in Russian state media over the next whatever amount of amount time passes before we get to read the Mueller report.

[sapient]

If there were anything good for Trump in the report, wouldn't we have heard about it already?

[Snarki, child of Loki]

If tidbits from the Mueller Report make it to Russia before they make it to the House, that will be quite...informative.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"Trump: keeping Americans safe from . . . flight attendants!"

Thank goodness it wasn't the dire threat of flight attendants wielding snow globes!

The horror. The horror.

[Tony P.]

On releasing the "Mueller Report":

1) We The People did not hire a couple of dozen lawyers for a couple of years merely for Bob Mueller's personal enlightenment.

2) We The People may not have "security clearance", but it would be absurd to keep secret from us any "intelligence" that is already known to the Russian spy services.

I am not opposed in principle to our elected officials knowing stuff we don't know. And I don't care whether we learn the nitty-gritty details through official announcements or leaks. I just want the "Mueller Report" on the best-seller list this year.

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

Here we go:

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/whats-next-trench-warfare.html

Kompromat

Soviet oligarchs living on the upper floors of Mar-a-Lago toasted vermin Lindsay Graham with rounds of vodka after his threatening anti-American pig shit.

[CharlesWT]

"The investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence that President Donald Trump or anybody connected with him directly conspired or coordinated with Russian nationals or entities attempting to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

That's according to a long-awaited summary of the outcome of Mueller's investigation, which was delivered today to the heads of Congress' judiciary committees and then almost immediately released to the public."
Mueller's Conclusion: No Coordination Between Trump Campaign and Russia: As for obstruction evidence, he punts the matter to Congress.

[cleek]

i am disappointed, but not a bit surprised.

[Tony P.]

He, Trump is the OJ Simpson of rich old white men.

So yeah, no surprise.

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

Right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b71f2eYdTc

[russell]

Goldstone to Trump Jr.

Good morning

Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump - helped along by Aras and Emin.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

Best

Rob Goldstone

Trump Jr's reply:

Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?

Best,

Don

And, the meeting was taken. Trump Jr, Kushner, Manafort.

Barr:

The investigators working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence that President Donald Trump or anybody connected with him directly conspired or coordinated with Russian nationals or entities attempting to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in 2016

Note that the crime of conspiracy does not require that an illegal act actually occur, merely that the parties agreed to do it.

I have no idea what possible sense to make of this. I am completely at a loss.

[sapient]

I am completely at a loss.

Me too.

I'm going to assume that Barr has mischaracterized Mueller's report until I know otherwise. I have a hard time reconciling the rigorous prosecution of Manafort, etc., with what you've quoted, russell.

It makes me believe that Mueller wasn't done.

[hairshirthedonist]

Worst. Witch hunt. Evar.

[cleek]

did Barr really pull a "since M didn't find sufficient evidence of this narrowly-defined crime, there's no way Trump could have obstructed anything?"

[John D. Thullen]

Leave p and the traitors/witches alone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqSTXuJeTks&t=186s

Putin will be appearing on the campaign trail in person with p as they romp to a win in 2020.

Buy lots of military-grade weaponry and ammo.

Better yet, steal them from conservatives.

[John D. Thullen]

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/graham-wants-a-new-special-counsel-to-probe-doj-handling-of-dossier-clinton-emails

I agree.

It is well past time to advance to the bloody, and savagely violent phase of Civil War II the filthy subhuman republican party declared long ago and has been trying to get off the ground these many decades.

Bring it the fuck on.

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a26931832/william-barr-letter-russia-interference-2016-trump/

It's obvious that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama colluded and conspired with the Kremlin to throw the election to p and the Republicans.

Clever boots they are.

[wj]

Slow, deep breaths, Mr Thullen, slow, deep breaths. Irritating as they are, they aren't worth driving your blood pressure up.

[John D. Thullen]

My blood pressure is in the excellent category, 'bout 118 over 75, for a guy with my accumulation of tree rings.

Except for the eyelid twitch, I'm perfectly fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXLYf0E2KWU

[John D. Thullen]

Like the KKK, McConnell likes to leave them niggers hanging by the neck in the hot sun for a good long while to tamp down any residual uppityness:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/mcconnell-uses-mueller-report-to-place-blame-on-obama

Lying, subhuman dog shit IS the Republican conservative DNA.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/24/580171396/biden-mcconnell-refused-to-sign-bipartisan-statement-on-russian-interference

Never turn your back on them. Always keep the safety in the off position. Count your change.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/denis-mcdonough-mcconnell-watered-down-russia-warning-2016-n853016

[Tony P.]

Mueller probably concluded that He, Trump did not "collude" with Putin because "collusion" requires a meeting of at least two minds, and he could not find enough evidence for more than one.

McConnell, OTOH, possesses all the cunning required to be a collaborator instead of a puppet. Of course, Mueller was not mandated to investigate him.

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

Russian Republican Party FOX state media celebrates Mueller's conclusions that a foreign power interfered in an American presidential election, vows to re-elect their boy vermin again in 2020.

https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-celebration-in-moscow.html

Popov is the name of one of the principals, as Stanley Kubrick strikes again.

[wj]

Look on the bright side. McConnell is underwater in Kentucky. And not just a little bit underwater. Roughly twice as many people there want to replace him as support him.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/431002-poll-33-of-kentucky-voters-approve-of-mcconnell

One could be forgiven for thinking we might get shut of him in 2020. And wouldn't it be a lovely piece of karma if that cost his party control of the Senate?

[John D. Thullen]

McConnell:

"I never colluded with the foreign enemy Obama in his effort to minimize the Russian theft of a presidential election."

They'd kill US if they could.

[russell]

vows to re-elect their boy vermin again in 2020.

Vermin takes umbrage at these slanderous claims.

One could be forgiven for thinking we might get shut of him in 2020

Squad goals!

[John D. Thullen]

Now this ... cold-blooded murder:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/entire-aca-is-unconstitutional-justice-department-says-agreeing-with-texas-court-ruling-2019-03-25?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

[John D. Thullen]

William Barr is nothing but a hired genocidal hit man.

[wj]

Squad goals!

Think of it as an own goal.

[russell]

This country is seriously f'd up. We have our good times and our bad times. This is one of the bad ones.

We'll turn it atound, or we wont. I'd say it could go either way.

We will all do our best, I'm sure, but this is a pretty steep hill.

Trump is the symptom. We got the disease.

[Marty]

I'm incredibly pleased that we, on a bipartisan basis, protected the Mueller investigation so, at the end, we could trust the result and have confidence that the facts were fairly reviewed. Aman of high integrity, with a team of the best of the best caught pretty much no one doing anything in the campaign.

I'm stunned.

[sapient]

You read the report, Marty? Cool! I wish I had that kind of inside track!

[sapient]

Regarding what R's want, among the many incomprehensibles is this:

"After years of effort, scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service had a moment of celebration as they wrapped up a comprehensive analysis of the threat that three widely used pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species, like the kit fox and the seaside sparrow.

*****
"But just before the team planned to make its findings public in November 2017, something unexpected happened: Top political appointees of the Interior Department, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, blocked the release and set in motion a new process intended to apply a much narrower standard to determine the risks from the pesticides.

"Leading that intervention was David Bernhardt, then the deputy secretary of the interior and a former lobbyist and oil-industry lawyer. In October 2017, he abruptly summoned staff members to the first of a rapid series of meetings in which the Fish and Wildlife Service was directed to take the new approach, one that pesticide makers and users had lobbied intensively to promote."

I just don't get it.

[John D. Thullen]

What's not to get?

"I'm stunned" (phonetically in Russian:
Я ошеломлен
YA oshelomlen)

You and the kit fox and the sparrow by the seaside.

I'm incredibly pleased, that we, on a bipartisan basis, protected Hillary Clinton's right to have a cough and a cold without calling her a lying c&nt and repeating Russian lies that she was dying of consumption and female menopause.

I wonder if we, on a bipartisan, coated bullets in malathion and chlorpyrifoes whether we'd find fatal pesticide traces in subhuman lobbyists and citizen united jurists.

[John D. Thullen]

"basis"

[John D. Thullen]

I just read my un-redacted copy of the full Mueller memo, released only to me and William FlunkedhisBarr, and it concluded that we, on a bipartisan basis, can now declare the ACA unconstitutional in full and proceed with the God-given unconditional preexisting malathion-related deaths of single mothers, their uninsured human children, and elegiacal opioid-addicted hillbillies in Middletown, Ohio who were thrown to the tender mercies of Obamacare because they were fired and laid-off and later laid as prostitutes by conservative corporate filth.

Blood pressure: a sultry 112 over 71 this morning.

I don't like a jumpy trigger finger at the gun range.

[russell]

A man of high integrity, with a team of the best of the best caught pretty much no one doing anything in the campaign.

Given what is in the public record regarding contacts between principals in Trump's campaign and Russian nationals with varying degrees of association with Putin and/or the Russian government, I'm stunned too.

And, of course, Trump, the (R)'s, and the various organs of conservative agit-prop are immediately on the job with accusations of treason and calling for counter-investigations and criminal prosecution.

A friend of mine says, time to move on. Move on to what? You seem to think it's all good. It's not all good.

Enjoy your tax cut.

[hairshirthedonist]

Obstruction is a tough nut. That the conclusion was ambiguous suggests to me that, at the very least, there was plenty of unethical behavior on Trump's part - but that's not exactly news, is it? Short of anything glaring, you pretty much have to be inside someone's head to eliminate any ambiguity about their motives.

As russell has already pointed out, it's strange that the emails and meetings between Russian nationals and Donny, Jr., Manafort, and Kushner don't constitute collusion in and of themselves. I chalk it up to a judgment that they ultimately didn't do anything as a result, at least nothing there was any evidence of, and that they were just being the dumbasses that they are. On the other hand, that meeting, among any number of other things, makes the Mueller investigation anything but a witch hunt, regardless of its findings. (Or maybe the fact that they didn't find anything actionable means that it wasn't a (Democratic?) witch hunt. If it were, I don't think it would have been hard to drum something up.)

But William Barr is not Robert Mueller, and William Barr's letter is not Robert Mueller's report.

We also have yet to see what comes of the other investigations that were spun off of Mueller's. It's not over by a long shot.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

OF COURSE Marty has read the full report!

Using his amazing conservative Mind-Reading talent, that he demonstrates here, ever now and then, when he slips and forgets to conceal his super-powers.

Able to leap to stunning conclusions in a single bound? That also, too.

[hairshirthedonist]

This is an excellent write-up on the end of the Mueller investigation, written before Barr presented (his version of) the main conclusions.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/how-understand-end-mueller-investigation-hint-you-cant-yet

An excerpt - just one of several I could have chosen:

The end of a criminal investigation is thus a funny moment. While the subject will generally claim vindication, it actually does not mean that you cannot judge her conduct morally. It does not mean that she cannot be held accountable in myriad non-criminal fashions. She can be ridiculed. You can campaign against her on the basis of the unindicted conduct. You can write histories of the scandal that denounce her behavior. You might even be able to sue her successfully. The end of the investigation only means that the state will not punish her using the specific instrumentality of the criminal law. It means only that the we won’t “lock her up.”

[wj]

You can campaign against her on the basis of the unindicted conduct.

Especially when DoJ guidelines say she couldn't be indicted.

[hairshirthedonist]

This one was written after Barr's letter:

https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-make-bill-barrs-letter

On "collusion":

Put simply, the criminal investigation didn’t find any crimes on the U.S. side, though it found plenty on the Russian side. It doesn’t means one cannot conclude, based on the factual record, that people behaved recklessly, unpatriotically or stupidly. But it does mean that the criminal investigation is over. That’s good news, in general, and it’s good news for President Trump.

On obstruction:

In laying out this summary, Barr’s letter reveals several new facts about Mueller’s obstruction probe. First, it notes that Mueller’s report covers several actions by Trump that could raise obstruction concerns, “most of which have been the subject of public reporting.” This confirms what has long been suspected: that Mueller believed that at least some of the president’s publicly reported actions—likely including some of his public actions—could raise obstruction problems. It also suggests that there are potentially obstructive acts that have not yet been reported. Barr’s letter thus leaves the distinct sense that Mueller’s detailed accounting of the president’s potential acts of obstruction is significant, regardless of Barr’s own judgment as to the criminality of any of those acts.

It also makes clear that the Mueller report creates an extensive record on the obstruction question. And that may well be the point. After all, what is the point of a prosecutor’s amassing a factual record and then refusing, as Mueller apparently has refused, to evaluate it in a traditional prosecutorial framework? The answer the letter suggests but does not state is that the Mueller report has teed up the question of presidential obstruction for evaluation by a different actor—to wit, by Congress—on a decidedly noncriminal basis. Mueller, being barred from indicting the president, has done the investigation, has apparently declined even to evaluate the matter as a prosecutor, and has laid out all of the facts and the arguments for and against treating the president’s behavior as criminal. It is now for other actors to decide whether the conduct Mueller describes is acceptable in a president.

[cleek]

Marty just wants to crow that the wicked libs didn't get a pony.

[John D. Thullen]

Off-topic, but some here wondered what was going on:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-reckoning-of-morris-dees-and-the-southern-poverty-law-center

You could read this hysteric's pronouncements:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/southern-poverty-law-center-poverty-palace/

Or, you could consider the New Yorker piece to be more nuanced than Dreher cares to present, to wit, that the author points out that Dees joined the "let's run this joint like an everything-is-presentation business, in other words, lie, cheat, and grift, like any good Milton Friedman MBA program would counsel, in the service of maximizing shareholder returns by separating people's money from them" plague that is ruining every fucking institution, private, public, non-profit in this cul-de-sac of a suicide pact of a country.

All that matters is the bottom line to those at the top of any institution, no matter the ideals of the mission statement.

Also, just as we are counseled to generalize about black men in hoodies hailing cabs under urban street lights, Dees is a white male, and it seems from the evidence, should we wish to conservatively generalize about white men, of which I am a member, that even when white men, regardless of their partisan druthers, are fighting the KKK and antisemitism, we are, we white men, and what the hell, Bill Cosby too, I would venture, looking out for the main chance at all times, which is attempting to fuck everything that moves, and if not fuck it, then making sure we discriminate against it in the job market and in institutional hierarchies, and should that latter gambit fail, which it rarely does, resume trying to fuck it or at least expose our dicks to it, which is why Thomas Jefferson may have had other cards up his sleeve when he unzipped to water the tree of liberty.

Of course, there are exceptions among us men, unless you are a male running the Family Research Counsel, the Vatican, the p Administration, or just about any bullshit grift that suffers the little children to stand still while we come all over them.

All exceptions, please raise your hands.

Easier to count the exceptions.

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alabama-congressman-quotes-hitler-in-slamming-the-left-for-pushing-big-lie-2019-03-26?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

There will be Civil War.

Bring it on, Mo.

[hairshirthedonist]

Marty just wants to crow that the wicked libs didn't get a pony.

Not yet, anyway. Whether more comes out of the report that congress acts on, whether anything comes from the other spin-off investigations, or whether Rump does something sufficiently stupid in the meantime are all yet to be determined.

It's been 3 days since the Mueller investigation officially concluded.

[Tony P.]

Mueller, if you're listening, I hope you can leak your raw data to the American public. You will be rewarded mightily by our press.

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

If p was a stock like this sketchy, illiquid, international grifting outfit, I'd be taking my ill-gotten profits or even shorting by word of mouth:

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=HUNT&insttype=Stock&freq=1&show=&time=4

[John D. Thullen]

More on lying republican cucks:

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/03/gop-hack-says-obama-should-apologize-for-russian-hacking/

[hairshirthedonist]

This is interesting, too:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/barrs-summary-omits-key-aspect-muellers-report/585703/

Excerpt:

Even so, Bash said, it’s an “immense challenge” to envision how a counterintelligence investigation targeting the president himself would have played out. “Normally, the bureau would investigate, and if criminal matters were involved, they’d ask prosecutors to get involved,” he said. “But if it is just a matter of there being a national-security threat, the FBI would report to the director of national intelligence, who would then report to the president. But what if the president is the threat? We don’t have a playbook for this.”

Generally speaking, the wide aperture afforded by a counterintelligence investigation might be key to understanding some of the biggest lingering mysteries of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians in 2016—mysteries that, if solved, could explain the president’s continued deference toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and skepticism about his conduct on the part of the U.S. intelligence community.

For example, was the fact that Trump pursued a multimillion-dollar real-estate deal in Moscow during the election—and failed to disclose the deal to the public—enough for the Russians to compromise him? Why did the administration attempt to lift the sanctions on Russia early on in Trump’s tenure, even after it had been revealed that Russia had attacked the 2016 election? And what about the internal campaign polling data that Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, gave to the suspected Russian agent Konstantin Kilimnik in August 2016—an episode that, according to one of the top prosecutors on Mueller’s team, went “very much to the heart of what the special counsel’s office is investigating”?

[sapient]

Mueller, if you're listening, I hope you can leak your raw data to the American public. You will be rewarded mightily by our press.

Like.

[hairshirthedonist]

On whether or not Rump does something sufficiently stupid to hand the libs a pony, he's already overreacting to the end of the investigation without further indictments. He's attacking (not literally) just about everyone, and his administration is going after the ACA again. An emboldened Rump is his own worst enemy.

[hairshirthedonist]

That "not literally" applies to "just about everyone" rather than "attacking."

[John D. Thullen]

"An emboldened Rump is his own worst enemy."

What, he gets to be EVERYTHING?

No, he's MY worst enemy.

He's a worst enemy like melanoma is to a woman about to lose her ACA coverage.

He's not just skin deep. He spreads to the brain and the liver.

He's systemic malignity and left unchecked, fatal.

[russell]

It doesn’t means one cannot conclude, based on the factual record, that people behaved recklessly, unpatriotically or stupidly.

Yes, and if they did so, the factual record discussing the various ways in which they did so should be made publicly available.

Because we - the people who have to live with the consequences of folks behaving recklessly, unpatriotically, and stupidly - deserve to know wtf is going on.

[cleek]

Why did the administration attempt to lift the sanctions on Russia early on in Trump’s tenure, even after it had been revealed that Russia had attacked the 2016 election?

Trump's all about easing sanctions on countries who flatter him. ask NK.

he's just a stupid shallow narcissist. he's pre-compromised.

[hairshirthedonist]

he's pre-compromised.

Or self-compromised. Or both, I guess. But he has a cult!

[John D. Thullen]

Make of the conservative firmament an abattoir:

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/03/26/alex-jones-pushing-conspiracy-theories-about-death-sandy-hook-father-who-was-suing-him/223246

[John D. Thullen]

Make of the worldwide conservative firmament an abattoir:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/saudi-coalition-bombs-save-the-children-hospital-in-yemen/

[John D. Thullen]

The murderous velociraptured cult:

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1110591692778950656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1110591692778950656&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftalkingpointsmemo.com%2F

He's right though, we need machine guns and rocket launchers, Russian made since conservatives are importing them willy-nilly to murder Democrats and liberals, in every real American's hands.

[wj]

But he has a cult!

Well, he's not personally religious, so he's no Nehemiah Scudder in that sense.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Goes_On—
But otherwise the parallels are a bit scary. Including the exaltation of ignorance rather than expertise.

[John D. Thullen]

America exists to facilitate the fucking over of our fellow Americans:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-eviction-crisis-is-starting-to-look-a-lot-like-the-subprime-crisis-2019-03-26?mod=mw_theo_homepage

[Tony P.]

I, Tony P, am calling for a complete and total ban on supporters of He, Trump from Our Country until civilized people can figure out what the hell is going on.

--TP

[sapient]

This is all.

[John D. Thullen]

Barr will let p redact the Mueller report before we lessers are permitted to read it, it is being reported.

The Rosemary Woods cleaners spring into action.

I propose that p's and Pence's, and company's ashes be on this lunar landing craft for burial at the lunar pole.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/26/1845382/-A-major-course-correction-for-NASA-as-Trump-sets-2024-deadline-for-trip-to-lunar-south-pole

One small step in it by man, one wiping of the dog shit off the shoe for mankind.

[hairshirthedonist]

https://deadspin.com/trump-department-of-education-wants-to-defund-the-speci-1833588986

They’re a parody of mean-spirited Republicans. Do you think Trump thought Burgermeister Meisterburger was the protagonist in “Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town”?

[John D. Thullen]

Remember when Marty expressed disbelief bipartisanly right here that Mueller and Rosenstein were not Democrats?

Ah, yes, the defunding of the Special Olympics. p is known to have a visceral disgust for spastics, as he calls them when mimicking them for laughs while fluffing the Mar-a-Lago crowd, showing themselves in public.

Besides, Republicans remember when the schwartza showed up Hitler at the 1936 Olympics, even in the goose-stepping event.

His Minister of Lies, KellyAnne Goebbels, spun that debacle to the delight of American Jew-burning Nazis assembled at Madison Square Garden.

[John D. Thullen]

Typical corrupt thieving lying FOX Republican mouthshit:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/investors-say-ex-fox-and-friends-host-turned-them-into-unwitting-slumlords/ar-BBVf7jF

[John D. Thullen]

Jesus!:

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/3/25/1845116/-Freshman-PA-GOP-state-rep-ruins-swearing-in-of-state-s-first-Muslim-American-woman-legislator

Watch the embedded video.

[Nigel]

Speaking of ministers of propaganda, look who is crawling back into the Trump fold:
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/27/frank-luntz-trump-white-house-1238283

[hairshirthedonist]

Jesus!

It's hard for me to imagine the sense of privilege that allows someone to act that way.

[John D. Thullen]

Of course.

The Ministry of Words:

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/gingrich-language-set-new-course/O5bgK6lY2wQ3KwEZsYTBlO/

p's list of profane labels for his enemies fits hand in glove with the Lunzt/Gingrich list of their now mutual enemies, both of which include, bipartisanly, at any particular time, EVERYONE not sucking their political power cocks at any particular time.

I've embraced the list, fully becoming all 133 defamations on the list, by sheer force of will, because what Gingrich/Luntz/p don't seem to realize, nor do most of their enemies, that becoming those defamations, wearing them like a uniform, is how these vermin who ruined America (it's not on its way to ruin; it's gone) will be wiped off the face of the Earth along with the entire edifice and infrastructure of their political party and their malign base.

They are going run out of words to call me as they get to their last ones before their final breaths.

As for them, "DEAD" is the only word we will require to describe THEM.

It's a well-known word with little that is ambiguous in its meaning. It doesn't "evoke" their EVIL; it says it in real American, though liberal me will allow the Spanish "Muerto" as well, in the news crawls reporting their demise and on the multilingual signage designating their graves sites.

They could still win elections from their graves because before their demise their Supreme Court could rule on the constitutionality of gerrymandering conservative cemeteries across the country as the only legally-recognized voting entities in the land for purposes of the Electoral College, so pouring salt in their mouths, cutting out their hearts, and sewing their orifices shut to imprison their republican demons for eternity may require some adjunct actions as well to be fully shut of them.

What happens policy-wise after they are gone is of little import.

I don't care.

This will be a humanitarian service solely in the interests of vengeance.

It will be yet a historical marker to punctuate the end of of yet another epoch of worldwide malignity, like the torching of Atlanta, the disemboweling of Mussolini, Pol Pot's unstabbed (an oversight) heart giving out in his sleep, the planet of the Alien nuked from orbit, Jurassic Park converted to smoldering bare rock with not a single piece of lizard jerky left for some fucking conservative a-hole to gather and recombine for future sequels.

[John D. Thullen]

We'll never see the Mueller report:

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/03/donald-trumps-schedule-to-release-the-mueller-report-is-never/

OK, there are other eulogies to read at their funerals.

[John D. Thullen]

I've been meaning to post this cite regarding Brexit:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/25/the-chaotic-triumph-of-arron-banks-the-bad-boy-of-brexit

A long read, but worth it IMHO, heh.

The very real grievances on both sides of the Atlantic regarding "globalism" and "immigration" aside, there is something I want to point out about the main character, Arron Banks.

Place the issues aside for a moment and pay attention to their "presentation".

With his peers among the p-ers on this side of the pond, Banks shares a manner that is hard to describe. It's this loosy-goosy, shameless jocularity about their methods, the origins and legality of the dirty money flows despite ample evidence of the dirtiness and its skirting of the laws, and their contacts, despite numerous pieces of evidence regarding who they hang with and for whom they might be doing their bidding that seems to be a worldwide phenomenon among the conservative filth.

Think Bolsanaro in Brazil, the thug in the Philippines, the antisemites in Poland and Hungary, the prosemite in Israel, the butcher Assad in Syria, name yer poison.

Wrapped into their presentation is this thing they have about "political correctness", whatever that phrase has come to mean, ya know, let's call women "c*nts", a fag is a fag, Soros (wink wink) and his Jew dollars, immigrants are murdering invaders, you know the drill, and their saying of these things, moving their mouths closer to the mic to make sure tender ears get the full effect, is accomplished with this kind of bravura whaddaya gonna do about it, hefting one gonad, in a sort of low-level mafioso fonzi machismo presentation.

It's this catch me if you can, you gooks, I wouldn't say we exactly broke the law, but we have our methods of, how you say, ignoring the spirit of the thing, and then laughter and a sort of stepping back from the mic, and giving the Mussolini my-people-know-what-I'm-talking-about-here nodding of the head with the arms crossed in defiance. Hanh?

And underlying all of it, which is a little hard to grasp for those nerds like me who THINK the argument is about issues is the profit motive, I've-got-irons-in-the-fire-that-could-set-me-up over-heah-so-keep-yer-grubby-legality-nitpicking-hands-off if you know I'm saying sort of challenge, and by the way, even IF there wasn't bags of cash on the line, fucking you politically correct fags would be worth the damage we're doing.

p and Banks are all over this approach.

Putin too.

McConnell and his face, which will be removed, convey this too.

I hate them.

[John D. Thullen]

Leaving town tomorrow.

No posting for me for two weeks, you hope.

That's OK.

[John D. Thullen]

The stabbing and shooting murder of "Remainer" Jo Cox by the platoons of crazy people conservative nationalist mover and shakers worldwide keep on retainer came up in the interviews:

Banks: Shame that. I don't know who would do such a thing, unless of course it was a Sandy Hook sort of set up by the deep state. Condolences to her family. But fuck her.

[John D. Thullen]

I'm still here today, alas:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/world-news/australia-prime-minister-accuses-one-nation-party-us-gun-lobby-donations

Australia should revoke all visas to American and Russian NRA filth, but should they try to disembark on Aussie tarmac, have snipers on hand.

[russell]

The Fed revises its economic growth forecasts for the next couple of years.

2.4% GDP growth in 2019, +/- .2%
1.95% GDP growth in 2020, +/- .15%
1.9% long term, +/- .1%

Not Trump's 6%. Not even Marty's 3%.

The tax cut sugar high is wearing off.

[John D. Thullen]

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/russias-take-on-mueller-report-trumps-victory-is-our-victory-2019-03-27?siteid=bigcharts&dist=bigcharts

Vlad helps the worldwide conservative nationalist cause.

[Michael Cain]

2.4% GDP growth in 2019, +/- .2%
1.95% GDP growth in 2020, +/- .15%
1.9% long term, +/- .1%

You would think that a near trillion dollars per year deficit would buy better growth rates than that.

[John D. Thullen]

Well, obviously, we need more and bigger tax cuts and the gutting of Social Security and Medicare, as I channel Larry Kudlow's next approach to the microphone.

Apropos of everything and nothing in particular as pigfuckery rules all American values, this:

"While gold was first discovered in Alaska during the 1870s, the 1890s have come to be known as the Yukon-Klondike Gold Rush days, as thousands of rugged individuals swarmed to the northern climes to find fortune and glory. Unsurprisingly, during the winter of 1896-97 the Alaskan ports were frozen solid and therefore closed to all shipping traffic. Food became very scarce and very expensive since new supplies had to be brought in over land at great hardship. Reportedly, a can of sardines that had cost $0.10 in New York could be priced at 10 times that amount by the time it reached the gold miners in Alaska. Still, there was great demand even at such inflated prices. For instance, in one remote mining town the price of a can of sardines was sold at rapidly escalating prices from $10.00, to $30.00, then $50.00. Finally, one desperately hungry miner paid $100.00 for a can of the highly sought after sardines. He took it back to his room to eat. He opened it. To his amazement he discovered the sardines were rotten. Angered, he found the person who sold him the tin and confronted him with the rotten evidence. The seller was amazed and shouted, 'You mean you actually opened that can of sardines? You fool; those were trading sardines, NOT eating sardines!'”
... Anonymous

Take what the pigfuckers have done with, I don't know, the price of insulin. Diabetics, like my dead diabetic father and sister, didn't live to be fools who thought insulin was a medicinal sardine, not a trading sardine.

[John D. Thullen]

I'm going to start a fledgling commercial airline once the dead hand of the FAA is privatized and out of the way.

Instead of taking off from a runway, my algorithms, no actual physical aircraft will be employed, which will cut overheard, will flap their virtual wings tentatively and fall straight downwards from a nest.

Vulture investors will flock.

Airline Brand: LookMaNoHands Air.

Stock Symbol: OOPS

Advertising slogan: Getting you nowhere in the shortest amount of time.

Alternative: We say a little prayer for you.

Second Alternative: Reservations? You'd be smart to have them.

Third Alternative: Two bags free via truck. Alert your survivors for pickup.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

"I'm going to start a fledgling commercial airline once the dead hand of the FAA is privatized and out of the way.

Instead of taking off from a runway, my algorithms, no actual physical aircraft will be employed"

So, operating out of post-Brexit UK?

I heard that they have a shipping/ferry company organized on that model.

[cleek]

i'm going to be in Scotland on April 12th, and i must admit, i was a little morbidly curious to see what the crash out looked like first hand. looks like i'm going to miss it, now.

[John D. Thullen]

The hoax continues according to plan:

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/03/the-earth-is-melting/

With a few adjustments (larger pockets, larger getaway cars, murdering those on Obamacare, smaller portion sizes during medicare meals), this one will continue as well:

https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/03/republicans-screwed-up-their-tax-cut-and-big-companies-are-unhappy/