Sessions starts his #FedSoc17 speech: "Is Ambassador Kislyak in the room? Before I get started here. Any Russians? Anybody been to Russia? Have a cousin in Russia?"
— Todd Ruger (@ToddRuger) November 17, 2017
Perjury is hella-funny in 2017. https://t.co/39LjpsUaTX
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 17, 2017
The only truly appropriate punch line to this joke is an orange jumpsuit. https://t.co/F4dO6dTBEY
— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) November 17, 2017
I piously hope that Mr. Mueller’s investigators are taking notes at the Federalist Society, because the Malevolent Leprechaun spelled out why he’s going to all that trouble playing Blanche DuBois in front of unsympathetic Democrats…
… Sessions had a bounce in his step Friday as he took aim at “judicial activism” of judges legislating from the bench and took a moment to tick through the changes he’s made to return Justice Department to the “rule of law” in a wide-ranging speech at Federalist Society’s national convention.
“Elections really do have consequences,” Sessions said with a smile…
Despite the fact that four of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees have received a rare “not-qualified” rating by the American Bar Association and come under fire for controversial blog postings, Sessions said Trump has been appointing “extremely well-qualified” lawyers who will be “neutral umpires, calling balls and strikes.”…
“I get frustrated, too,” Sessions said, but vowed his “department will not make decisions based on politics” and will not confirm investigations to get a few “cheap headlines.”…
.
Per the Washington Post:
… Sessions has been under fire in recent weeks for his shifting account of his and other Trump campaign aides’ dealings with Russia. On Tuesday, he spent more than five hours before the House Judiciary Committee answering questions about the matter.
Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s former ambassador to the United States, is a key figure because Sessions had long ago denied having any communications with Russians, only to have The Washington Post reveal he had twice met with Kislyak during the campaign.
The crowd at the lawyers convention, hosted at the Mayflower Hotel by the conservative legal group the Federalist Society, was decidedly more friendly than Democrats in Congress. Attendees greeted the attorney general with a standing ovation and laughed vigorously as he joked about Russia and other topics…Sessions complained about federal judges’ issuing nationwide injunctions to block President Trump’s policies. Such injunctions have effectively stopped the administration from implementing the president’s controversial travel bans.
“The judicial branch is a coequal branch. It is not a superior or a policy-setting branch,” Sessions said. “It needs to know its role. Those who ignore this duty and seek to advance their own policy views erode the entire rule of law, they set bad precedents and, importantly, undermine public respect that’s necessary for the courts to function properly.”…
He thinks — or pretends to think — that he’s going to get away with all of it. Because what is the law, if not a sure protection for rich white men and their political water-carriers? Mr. Charles P. Pierce:
I have to give Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III credit for one thing: his John Ehrlichman impression really has improved since the last time he faced a Congressional committee. On Tuesday, Sessions sat in front of the House Judiciary Committee. The Democrats on the committee were fairly slavering to ask Sessions about Russian ratfcking, and what Sessions previously had said about it, and about what Sessions knew about the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, and about how that campaign apparently conspired and colluded with every group except the Bavarian Illuminati in order to give us the president* as president. The Republicans wanted to ask him about the death penalty, weed, the upcoming Alabama-Auburn game, and investigating Hillary Rodham Clinton. Everybody wanted to talk about Roy Moore. (Bipartisanship!) So it goes.
And so it went. Sessions had terrible memory problems. He even forgot what he’d said previously under oath, which could cause serious problems for any ordinary person who is not Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, the only AG we have…
… The Trump campaign was not General Motors. It did not have thousands of employees. It was a jerry-rigged operation with very few actual staffers; that actually was the one truly remarkable thing about it. It outsourced various campaign (ahem) activities to an odd lot of rounders and bounders, not all of them American. Sessions was the first national GOP officeholder to endorse the president*, and he remained one of the few…
What is clear from Sessions’s appearance today is that the Republican majorities in this Congress still have no stomach for seriously investigating the manipulation of a presidential election by a foreign power. Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio, was fairly typical. He spent most of his time wondering why HRC wasn’t being investigated over the now-famous dossier, and then wondered why we couldn’t execute people faster.
They’re going to ride with this president* and his people the way that Alabama Republicans are riding with ol’ Judge Roy Moore. They will ride with everything Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III doesn’t recall, and with every “wrongly stated” thing that the president* says about everything. They will exercise their unconquerable consciences in various green rooms and studios, as well as on the electric Twitter machine. But, ultimately, they will do nothing. That job will be left to Bob Mueller and the 2018 midterms, god help us all.
.
Baud
Clearly the only proper response is to relitigate Bill Clinton.
James E. Powell
@Baud:
Well, some one in the press/media might recall that Sessions voted to remove Clinton from office for perjury.
Corner Stone
@Baud: Or you can follow the lead of the Obama Bros and lovingly link to a hit piece on the Clintons by Josh Barro In Business Insider.
Corner Stone
These parents in the Land Rover ad that kidnap their kid in her PJ’s in the middle of the night kind of creep me out.
debbie
“I’m a grateful ‘lil possum.”
Baud
@Corner Stone: I don’t do podcasts, but that a shame. I had heard good things about them.
MomSense
@James E. Powell:
Did you see Rep. Hakeem Jeffries question Sessions? That was one of the points he raised with the confederate elf.
Mike J
Somebody ought to draw up a chart with every meeting somebody from the Trump campaign had with Russians and who they first lied to about it.
martian
So, does he know he’s lying about, well, everything? I mean, the unqualified hacks they’re appointing as judges are all about “calling balls and strikes” and he’s moving the the Justice Department back to “the rule of law”.
It seems weird to lie to other true believers, they all want the same thing. Is this like a shared delusion?
Teddys Person
@martian: I assume he knows his remarks will become public. So, the lies must be maintained at all times.
bystander
David Cassidy is reportedly in organ failure. Apparently he’s been self-pickling for some time. Who knew?
I’m exhausted by the political news, and it’s taking Celebrity Death to divert my attention. I’m not even interested in the salacious details of Jeffrey Tambor’s offenses.
Corner Stone
@martian:
Just following Chief Justice John Roberts’ lead.
Mike in NC
Love the slippers with the pointy toes that Luckovich draws the elf with.
Raoul
To Pierce’s last sentence: g-d only helps those who help themselves (and I believe that includes we how help our fellows).
But what the heck, let’s have more fun by quoting the Qur’an! “Indeed Allah will not change the conditions of a population until they change what is in themselves.” Qur’an 13:11
Seriously, though. Mueller will do what he needs to do. But at his own pace. We have to do what we have to do.
Volunteer. Donate. Canvass. Caucus. Run for something! Etc. Only way outta here us throug.
Baud
@Raoul: Word.
Raoul
@Corner Stone: Josh is and always has been a conservative. He might see the insane gleam in Trump’s eye and dislike it, but he is for team Red in the big picture.
martian
@Teddys Person:
So, it’s a public charade with everyone in the room in on the joke? I don’t know about that. I used to think the Republican leadership was a bunch of cynical con artists just working their rubes – and I think they really used to be that – but it’s been disturbing to see what true believers they all are now, with only a few dinosaur exceptions.
I think Sessions is high on his own supply. I think he can still see himself as honourable when he’s lying under oath, because it’s in the service of a higher cause. He may sincerely believe in the horseshit he’s shoveling here.
FlipYrWhig
@martian: Pretty much the whole Federalist Society thang is that they think that the law is meant to be conservative and to support conservative ideology. Thus when they bend the law to the right they think it’s a healthy correction from the way it had been erroneously bent to the left before.
IOW, like you said, shared delusion.
Teddys Person
@martian:
It’s not much of a charade, he started his speech explicitly joking about the investigation into Russian interference with an election.
I think they’ve always been true believers in holding and welding power by any means necessary.
For those on the political and religious right, the ends always justifies the means.
germy
I like the way Luckovich captured the likeness of Mrs. Sessions. He’s a regular Mort Drucker.
NotMax
As gorge-inducing a display of ‘humor’ as W’s “Any WMDs under here?” travesty.
noncarborundum
It really isn’t healthy to hate someone as much as I’ve come to hate Sessions.
Patricia Kayden
@noncarborundum: And Trump. And Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And Ryan. And McConnell. And now Moore. Ugh.
germy
@Patricia Kayden: And what have they done to Sarah Huckabee?? I hadn’t seen her in a few weeks, and then yesterday I saw a brief clip of a press conference. She’s unrecognizable!
Did someone from fox news give her a makeover? dolt45 really likes a crapload of mascara, eyeliner, blush, fake eyelashes. I wonder what Mike Huckabee thinks when he sees this…
(I hope they’re not pushing her to lose weight)
martian
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s almost eerie to see him so gleeful about everything – it’s like the ecstasy of a zealot finally laying the torch to kindling piled around their victims. Madness has infected the whole Republican party.
mike in dc
@bystander: Cassidy has had dementia for a little while now.
ColoradoGuy
Sessions, along with the rest of the Trumpers and the GOP ideologues, believe that “Real America” is the America of 1880 through the 1920’s. The America of no income tax, birth control forbidden by the Comstock Act, Jim Crow the law of the land in the South, a tiny Federal Government funded only by whiskey excise tax and import tariffs, and monopolies and the stock market completely unregulated and controlled by banking trusts. That’s the America they want to re-create, and the one they truly believe in. That’s what they swear allegiance to, not the actual country we live in.
I watched some of Newt Gingrich’s fake college courses that were on public-access TV in the late Eighties. They were weirdly distorted versions of history that had the country going to the dogs when FDR came in, while before that was a shining golden age of innovation and opportunities for the Horatio Algers of the world to get ahead … roughly, the period from 1880 through 1930. In these courses, Newt saw the Progressive movement as pure evil, same for labor unions, etc. etc.
So they’re not “conservatives” at all. I think that’s a deliberate misnomer on their part. They’re revolutionary reactionaries, wanting to restore a repressive social order that died a century ago. That’s why Grover Norquist has a picture of Lenin in his living room; they see themselves as revolutionaries, and are very comfortable with deception in service of the greater goal … restoration of the “Real America”.
mike in dc
Manafort–indicted
Flynn–indictment possible, timing unknown
Kushner–hard to see how he’s not indicted
Sessions–50/50 on whether he’s indicted–if he is, it will be one of the last ones
Don Jr–possible he gets indicted
If Trump freaks out and fires Mueller and pardons everyone, it’s likely that one of these guys will be the flashpoint. Because they’re likely well-positioned to stir-fry him if they flip.
geg6
@noncarborundum:
I hate them all. The entire administration, all GOP politicians and their voters. With a burning hatred that makes me nauseous sometimes. I don’t know how to stop it. I just keep repeating to myself that I must do everything I can to defeat them. Then maybe this hate will burn out. I sure hope so because I don’t like living with this hate inside me.
bystander
@mike in dc: Well, that’s sad. Never a Cassidy fan but I think he had a tough upbringing.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: I’ll have to take your word for it because I cannot stand her and flip the t.v. as soon as she comes on screen. Perhaps she’s unrecognizable because the constant lying is changing her physical appearance. Nothing will make her beautiful in the conventional sense of the word — especially not to Trump and his ilk but I guess she has to give it the good old college try. That may explain any caking on of makeup that she’s wearing now.
bystander
@mike in dc: The highlight of my day – so far – has been hearing Rep. Heck say that there will be more indictments up ahead. Really put a smile on my face.
Leaving shortly to hear a recital of 17th century funeral music performed by a Belgian group Vox Luminis, so my day should be getting better.
Thoughtful David
@Teddys Person: Yes, this is why the Gov. of Alabama can say that she believes Moore’s accusers but is going to vote for him anyway, because they need that vote in the Senate. In other words, she has no morals. “The ends justify the means” is a totally immoral philosophy.
Mnemosyne
Had a mini-meetup with Major^4 and managed to get out of the bookstore with only three new books — yay! Flying back to LA tonight.
Baud
@geg6: You’re a good person.
Lapassionara
@geg6: I am with you on that. I fear for the future of my children and grandchildren.
trollhattan
Beginning to think a comet hitting a Federalist Society gettogether would be of greater benefit than one hitting the NRA convention or RNC national convention. Where do I cast my vote?
geg6
@Baud:
Not as good as I thought I was, apparently. I’ve always tried to be empathetic towards others. I’ve lost that when it comes to them. I just hate them for making me hate them.
schrodingers_cat
OT: Does anyone here use Pinterest?
Mnemosyne
@bystander:
As someone else already mentioned, Cassidy announced fairly recently that he had early onset dementia. I’ve heard of people who start drinking heavily in the early stages of dementia because it gives them an excuse for their memory lapses. Kind of a weird form of self-medicating — they can tell themselves the problem is alcohol, not that their brain is betraying them.
Citizen Alan
@geg6:
This. I hated George W bush and his cabal with a fiery passion. But I never hated the people who voted for him. I disagree with them and I thought they were people with very different values than my own. But I understood that in a democracy you lose when more people vote for the other person and I accepted that. I couldn’t hate people who disagree with me about who should be president.
That was in 2004. In 2017, I DESPISE Trump voters. I consider them to be a hated occupying force, and I wouldn’t piss on any one of them if their heads were on fire.
trollhattan
@germy:
She voluntarily took the gig and is free to harvest or walk away from whatever crap they propose for her. I wonder if she’ll get the mortician who did Van Susteren’s makeover–truly the worst I’ve seen.
Baud
@geg6:
No. It’s one thing to be empathetic to the down and out. It’s another to be empathetic to the down and out and hateful. In the latter case, empathy for them means acquiescing to the harm of their innocent victims. You made the right choice.
Patricia Kayden
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, to look at recipes mostly.
Bill Arnold
Since it’s an open thread, a little link indulgence (and probably more than fair use quotes; too many tempting pull quotes in the article). Apologies if already linked.
A delicious piece in Vanity Fair about the ludicrously partisan Trump Tax plan to take from the Blue States (both rich and poor), and from the poor in general, and give to Red State rich people. (And foreign investors, but that’s not mentioned.) Worth spamming to facebook (or whereever) IMO.
“It’s a Ponzi Scheme”: Wall Street Fears Trump’s Deranged Tax Plan Could Kick Off Economic Euthanasia (by William D. Cohan, November 17, 2017)
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I do, but not in a very impressive way.
SiubhanDuinne
That’s as funny (and for the same reasons) as Bush 43’s WHCD schtick about searching high and low for Iraq’s WMD in the height of the war. Not clever, not amusing.
Baud
@Bill Arnold: I read that earlier. It’s a good article.
Baud
I don’t get it.
feebog
@mike in dc:
Given what we know already, I think the probability Donnie Jr. gets indicted is better then 90%. And rising.
geg6
@Baud:
Thanks, I think I did, too, but it doesn’t come naturally to me to feel this way, especially when so many of them are people I’ve known for years and years and years. I think I need to mourn or something. It feels like they’ve all died and, in a way, they have.
schrodingers_cat
@Patricia Kayden:@debbie: I am going to trying to straighten out my closet and my home.
BTW I have been looking at a lot of DIY type blogs for home decor, and they all pretty much look the same, I has a disappoint. Same WP pastel theme, and similar home decor, everything is white, blue and gray. Boring.
ETA: I also don’t understand the fascination for painting perfectly good wood furniture in eye-searing colors. WTF?
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
You should still pin everything you come across. There may be some little something, maybe in a different color or size, that, along with other little somethings, turns out to be what you are looking for.
Mary G
@schrodingers_cat: I use Pinterest a little bit. What’s up?
Baud
@geg6: I am fortunate that the number of people I have to give up on in my life is minimal. I sympathize with the situation that many others face.
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: Oh nothing much. Trying to get my new home in order, and I have too many ideas so I want a place to keep and edit my inspirations. Same goes for my wardrobe.
mike in dc
@feebog:
Well, if Trump doesn’t roll out a pardon or fire Mueller when his own son gets indicted, then it’s never happening.
Patricia Kayden
@schrodingers_cat: Perhaps try googling some home decor blogs if what you find on Pinterest isn’t interesting to you. Straightening our your home sounds like fun to me — kind of relaxing actually.
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
I like re-doing old furniture with modern colors. Gives life and fun to what is often dark and heavy stuff. I have an old buffet that I’m dying to paint. John is reluctant or it would be the same blue we just painted our front door.
geg6
@Baud:
At least it’s not family. My whole family is sane, at least.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: One of my good friends is married to a good old boy from Missouri. He has always been a great friend to us but he is very R in his political leanings, I wouldn’t be surprised if he voted for T. They are moving to Connecticut. So will be seeing them in person, shortly.
trollhattan
@feebog:
Lions everywhere are rooting for this.
schrodingers_cat
@geg6: Would you paint something hot pink?
Baud
@geg6: That is fortunate. Take comfort in that if you can. Many are not so lucky.
@schrodingers_cat: Good luck to you.
debbie
@geg6:
Most of my family went for Trump. I don’t hate them, but I’m pissed as hell at them. I almost wish they could hear the things I hiss at “them” every time I hear something on the news,
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
@Patricia Kayden:
I don’t even click on Pinterest recipes anymore, as their user interface is appalling and terrible. There are hundreds of thousands of recipes for any dish you care to name with good user interface and appealing looking displays.
I don’t know what the people running Pinterest are attempting to do, but the day when I sign up for their lame site is the day after I vote to reelect His Orange Hatefulness pseudo-president.
Gvg
@schrodingers_cat: some republican’s did hate Trump. At least some of my family were screaming hatred of him about him all along.the baptist branch has always been racist so we were pretty much ignoring them anyway. Some people did see through him even if they thought they were conservative.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
You sound like me.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: We were all great friends when we were in graduate school, he was a bit older than the rest of the gang, but we used to have a lot of fun hanging out. We have kept in touch but not seen each other much. in the last 10 plus years. My friend on the other hand is very liberal, bleeding heart.
schrodingers_cat
@J R in WV: It was a suggestion by a French You Tube fashion blogger I follow, to discover what I gravitate towards.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: I hope he turns out to be a Never Trumper.
Vhh
@Raoul: Josh Barro is gay, and as I said once in an email to Andrew Sullivan, the Republicans want gay people to die. Andrew eventually figured out that the Republicans were not civilized conservative gentlefolk like his beloved British Tories, but a pack of vicious carnivores. Josh needs to figure this out, too.
Patricia Kayden
@J R in WV: LOL! It isn’t that bad but you can get great recipes on so many other websites so it’s just one of a couple of sources for me.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Well he was making excuses for Russian connections, so that is not a hopeful sign.
James E. Powell
@MomSense:
No, I did not see that, but he isn’t press/media. Every story that refers to him should say “Sessions, who voted to remove Bill Clinton from office for perjury but jokes about his own lying under oath, . . .
Tim in SF
HA! I love seeing Steve Silberman’s tweets quoted. He’s my neighbor. :-)
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Ouch. That’s seriously bad.
schrodingers_cat
@Vhh: British Tories are pretty vicious too, but they have great accents, so there is that. They is posh.
germy
submitted for your approval:
http://trumpettesusa.com/index.php/trumpettes/toni-holt-kramer/
PPCLI
@James E. Powell: Obstruction of Justice was also one of the articles of impeachment in the package Sessions voted on, if I recall correctly.
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
No, but it’s not my color. The blue on my door is pretty bright, though.
Jay Noble
@schrodingers_cat: Rather than look at “DIY” or organizing themes, pick a style/theme that you like and go from there. I pinned Craftsman and get bombarded with suggestions for all kinds of looks and ideas.
Elie
@martian:
He knows that he is doomed to this so that he might as well go full face… there is no escape for him so he will embrace it. Very dangerous as well because he may not avoid causing more damage — kamikaze-land —- He knows that he is fucked somewhere in there but he is a mean little elf and will not go without maximum hatred and darkness. He will have to be sealed off somehow….
Just One More Canuck
@bystander: Malcolm Young from AC/DC died today from dementia
jl
I read an articles that claimed they are following a ‘boiled frog’ strategy, following the old story that if you heat up a frog in water slowly until it boils, it will never notice the temperature rise until it is too late and the frog is immobilized. The US public and media is the frog and the slow leaks of lies and misdirection is the gradually rising temperature.
I’ve read that,actually, that approach absolutely does not work with frogs. Might work better with US public and media, especially they way right wingers work the refs. That’s why I think we know enough to say that we already have solid grounds for impeachment, conviction at trial and removal from office for cooperation with Russia, among other crimes. We don’t need a damned smoking gun in the sense of canceled check AND the associated laundry list of things-to-do-for-Vlad in the Oval Office desk. The Trump administration has obviously compromised national security and interests with its astonishing series of lies. And there is plenty of non-Russian crimes on the charge list as well. Political interference with DOJ anti-trust merger policy in an attempt to intimidate press will be ready to include in the charges in a few weeks. Fact that CNN can be a pretty crappy press at times is beside the point.
Edit: and fact that I myself think US anti-trust merger policy is way too weak sauce is beside the point as well.
Walker
I want to know why there are no efforts to disbar Sessions for perjury. That does not require control of Congress.
germy
germy
https://boingboing.net/2017/11/18/washington-post-tricked-defeat.html
jl
@Walker: I guess same reason there is no investigation into Moore’s diddling with minors. I read no statute of limitations for that charge in Alabama.
Quinerly
@Patricia Kayden: And, Mrs. Moore.
MomSense
@geg6:
That’s what I struggle with every day, too. I’ve rarely felt such hatred in my life but I just cannot shake it now. If we get through this nightmare, how are we going to become one nation after this? The people who voted for trump and everyone who is in his administration are fundamentally anti democratic. They are pathetically regressive in their views on civil rights, human rights, science, and every other issue. I just don’t see how we move forward with them.
Another Scott
@J R in WV: Agreed.
Pinterest spams lots of Google image search results, but it’s impossible to see any of the images unless one signs up. It’s horrible and stupid.
SC – I’d urge you to use something else if you want other people to be able see the stuff.
Just my $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Patricia Kayden
@Quinerly: And the Alabama Republican Governor who stated that she believed Moore’s accusers but is still voting for him because he has a “R” besides his name.
jl
@MomSense: Very regressive on views towards truth, and telling it, in general.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Have you tried houzz.com ? You can save ideas and they have a huge database of photos to look through.
ArchTeryx
There are times when my personal battle cry of ‘griffin rage!’ speaks the absolute truth about my state of mind.
There’s times for serenity, and there’s times where you know it’s time to start tearing out throats with your talons. This is one of those latter times, and we’ve already started inflicting wounds on those bastards in VA.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: Yes I have checked houzz. I want to create boards to save my inspirations, so that’s the rationale behind using Pinterest.
Another Scott
@germy: Eeew. Ms. Flowers has a blurb there – horrible grammar and all.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: I just signed up for it. I don’t really want anyone to see my stuff. My boards are going to secret for now.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Ok, that’s fine. I hope it works well for you. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
You can save idea books and sort them by room, color, etc.
Lyrebird
@MomSense: Rep Jeffries also did a masterful job bringing up a parallel case where Sessions prosecuted perjury to the maximum degree… Sad and true!
eemom
@Walker:
@jl:
Good points. I think most state bar associations would be reluctant to wade into a hot political issue sua sponte. IOW, they’re a bunch of old fart lawyer chickenshits.
HOWEVER, if somebody filed a complaint against a bar member, they would have to act on it.
Elie
@MomSense:
I think that they were always there but not “enabled” … they will go back under their rocks… many were so called “normal” folks before they got under “the spell”. Many of us black and browns have known these folks for many years — their “real” views just under the radar … You can’t really “out” most of them but you can reveal them and what they are really about
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: So Houzz has its own Pinterest clone? I will take a look. I am actually doing this to sort my closet out, not just home decor.
Lyrebird
@Baud: Sigh.
Did you see the McClatchy offering along those lines, that “Franken forces Dems to finally [sic] confront their own sexual assault scandals”??? (rawstory link)
I went to the McClatchy site and asked for a correction, not for a recto-craniotomy which I think the authors need, but a correction, bc they assert that Franken is groping rather than pantomiming groping in the photo. I don’t want to relitigate the decidedly crass photo, but I’m sick of the relitigating of Mr. Clinton’s consensual skeezy acts, I’m sick of the lies, and I decided I could at least do one small thing.
Sending money to Doug Jones and to the ACLU should come next I guess.
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: I am going to give it a try. Following Michelle O’s advice, controlling what I can.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Lyrebird: Franken was ratfucked by Roger Stone, just watch it will come out.
BBA
@Lyrebird: I’ve calmed down since Thursday. My first reaction was that even if it’s a ratfuck, Franken needs to go, pour encourager les autres.
Now I realize that les autres won’t be encouraged one bit.
Another Scott
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Maybe. But Snopes says the Twitter report claiming the photographer said ‘the photo was staged with her playing along’ is wrong.
Misinformation is everywhere. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
FDRLincoln
There are two types of Trump voters:
Nazis
“Good Germans”.
Both are despicable in their own way.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: I was impressed by the political astuteness of Franken’s response: an intelligent, thorough, principled apology (on the second try) and a request for his behavior to be examined. Stone works best when his target is trying to deny and scurry away. Franken actually gave himself allies via the ethics committee.
Quinerly
@Patricia Kayden: yep.
John Fremont
@ColoradoGuy: That’s exactly the America they want. Where the only contact a person had with the Federal Government was at the Post Office. Although today, even that should be sold off to Fed Ex and UPS.
Timurid
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
I’m starting to lean this way. It’s been several days and still no new accusations. Real abusers don’t just do it once.
tobie
@Lyrebird: What a bizarre headline. Were Dems jumping to the defense of Anthony Weiner or Eliot Spitzer? I don’t think so.
Curiously the first time I heard of Roger Stone was in the story of Eliot Spitzer’s downfall.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Timurid: There’s a post over at LGM right now about this, pretty much everybody is “Franken should resign”. I guess we’ll see…..
Amir Khalid
@John Fremont:
As I understand, the USPS’ duties are assigned to the Federal Government by the Constitution. Wouldn’t privatising the agency be unconstitutional?
BBA
@Amir Khalid: It allows the federal government to establish a postal service. It does not require them to.
Jeffro
@mike in dc:
Let’s not forget Stone, Page, Cohen, Bannon, Flynn Jr., Pence, Hicks, & Conway, to say nothing of Trumpov himself for obstruction, money laundering, and racketeering! Plus the fine folks at Cambridge Analytica, the Trumpov campaign folks like Parscale, and so on.
If Mueller walks these indictments out one by one, then it raises the likelihood that Orangemandias fires Mueller somewhere in mid-stream. I think there is a really big indictment-drop day coming sometime between Thanksgiving and Dec 18th.
You’re right…which is why I think Mueller will likely drop an absolutely huge batch of indictments all at once. We’ll see…
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: How was the writers’ meeting?
Another Scott
Speaking of lying liars, Crain’s New York – Trump NY real estate is collapsing, company apparently lied about revenue:
Shock, Shocking!!
(via Wonkette)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@opiejeanne:
I got a lot done on the train, but our group ended up getting split up, so I really only ended up talking to one other writer. But I got 4,030 words written, so a successful writing trip!
Brachiator
@tobie:
Great reminder on what a piece of sleaze that Roger Stone is, and also that there is a vast right wing conspiracy that targets Democrats. Interesting tidbit that Stone was getting $20,000 a month from a GOP legislator to dig up dirt on Spitzer.
With this kind of stuff going on all the time, a functioning democracy is always under attack.
Baud
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: Seems more like 50/50 now.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: Wow! I did a little over 2100 today.
I had one day that went to 4000 words, but I was writing a ghost story and it sort of took on a life of its own.
fuckwit
@Patricia Kayden: that’s why the attack on franken. to artifically maintain the “balance” of r’s controlling the senate
J R in WV
@Another Scott:
I apologize if I offend folks on the Pinterest thing… not really worth the ire. But I am so easily pissed off lately, and willing to share it.
Last night we went downtown for the first time in quite a while, to a local independent book store/art gallery, to hear a band friends are in. Many of the audience were also friends, which was great. Many hugs with friends of every gender. And no Trumpistas in sight!!
We need to do that more often!
Villago Delenda Est
@Vhh: Sullivan’s biggest problem is not that he’s gay, but that he is forever barred from the British upper class due to his last name.
As for Barro, he’s obviously an idiot who doesn’t realize he’d be among the first processed through Pat Robertson’s Vernichtungslager for fags.
Lyrebird
@tobie: Thanks… curious, indeed!
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: If some of this was orchestrated by the odious Stone (who confused me no end at first bc I was thinking of *Oliver* Stone), I hope it’ll come out before the latest attack on the ACA gets snuck through…
@BBA: Thanks, I can see your point… I was reacting more based on tobie’s line of thinking above, without being able to put it as well. I’m glad that Franken is calling for his own investigation, because I think it is a step towards encouraging (or at least further suitably shaming) les autres.
More than anything else I hope a massive defeat (or even just a slim defeat) in the polls wipes the smirk off of the faces of Moore and his lawyers.
Bill Arnold
@Tilda Swintons Bald Cap:
Reasonably sure now that it was an old-school ratfuck, mainly due to the signature timing.
I loath that sort of political operative.
TenguPhule
@martian:
What makes you think it stopped at them?
TenguPhule
Every judicial appointment Trump makes is going to have to be revoked.
I don’t care if we have to make up the law as we go along to get rid of them, because it beats the alternative which is letting them make up the fucking law.
TenguPhule
@geg6: Come sit by me.
I suspect the only way to bury that hatred is to bury them.
I know that Dick Cheney’s continued existence *still* pisses me off to this day.
evodevo
@germy: Yes … I noticed that last night and commented on it to Mr. Evodevo …Wonder if they will try to get her to highlight her hair on the way to a full-on bleach job …Right Wingers and Fixed Noise seem to love that look …
By the way, all the fundies I grew up with are anti-makeup in a big way. I don’t know how this will play to the fundie base ..
gkoutnik
A home plate umpire is every bit a judicial activist. He legislates the strike zone, which is made anew each game, by each umpire.
Barry
@Walker: “I want to know why there are no efforts to disbar Sessions for perjury. That does not require control of Congress.”
He’s probably a member of the Alabama bar, and there is nothing aside from voting Democratic which would get him disbarred there.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@noncarborundum: I really, really, REALLY hope Sessions gets caught up in the Schneiderman investigation and (FSM-willing) ends up being charged. Because I can’t see Congress doing anything about him…
JDM
So the courts are a coequal branch, not a superior or policy-making branch. But by that “logic”, there are no superior branches – they’re coequal – and therefore there is no policy-making branch. And these guys are supposedly smart?