Breaking news from The Post:
…Trump on Monday put the brakes on a preliminary plan to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia, walking back a Sunday announcement by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that the Kremlin had swiftly denounced as “international economic raiding.”
Preparations to punish Russia anew for its support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government over the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria caused consternation at the White House. Haley said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that sanctions on Russian companies behind the equipment related to Assad’s alleged chemical weapons attack would be announced Monday by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
But as officials in Moscow condemned the planned sanctions as overly punitive, Trump conferred with his national security advisers later Sunday and told them he was upset the sanctions were being officially rolled out because he was not yet comfortable executing them, according to several people familiar with the plan.
Gosh, why?
TenguPhule
Must be a day ending in day.
trollhattan
That’ll show them pesky Russkies!
Don’tBy all means, go ahead and mess with Donny.MattF
Hmm. You think the reason starts with the letter ‘P’?
Yarrow
Related, in case anyone missed it yesterday.
He was angry it looked like the US was taking the lead with the toughest stance on Russia. He only wanted to match other countries and follow what they were doing.
It’s so obvious who he serves and it isn’t the United States of America.
Manyakitty
Hoocouldaknowed
Chyron HR
@MattF:
No, there’s no P! Fake news! He’s only concerned for Melon’s sake!
The Moar You Know
The state of the world is fucking ridiculous. Putin and Trump both should have been in jail years ago. Instead, they’re in charge of everything.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Wonder what Putin told him the red line is on release of the piss tape, which probably doubles as release of Melania from her own NDA and prenup…
TenguPhule
@Yarrow:
I don’t see how this ends well. I mean I literally can’t picture him turning over power to anyone else.
bluefish
God Lord! When will this nightmare be over? This guy has got to go! It’s just enraging. Off to find my pipe, clean out the icebox, and write my Congressman. In reverse order.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
T-R-A-I-T-O-R
jl
@Yarrow: Do tell. I noted Trump getting angry and losing his shit over perceived lead in both Syrian strikes (apparently from news I read over weekend France was in the lead in terms of planning and determination) and diplomatic response to probably Russian poisoning in UK.
But Trump is fuming over his belief that Bolton is getting too much credit for the Syrian strikes in the domestic press.
Makes sense in the most unhinged, rabid, and ruthless ‘kiss up kick down’ circles of hell, but not in other more normal and sane circumstances.
MattF
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It’s likely that Donald and Melania had a formal pre-fucktual agreement, but probably not this exact circumstance.
Yarrow
Re: Cohen case:
Jeffro
It’s almost like there is a pattern there or something …
Weird how most of us here saw this coming two years ago
ByRookorbyCrook
And the GOP congress will do nothing because they are not a co-equal branch of government and must accede to Derp Trumpenführer whims. Another to the list for articles of impeachment.
TenguPhule
In news that will surprise nobody, Pruitt’s $43,000 soundproof booth was found to be in violation of the $5,000 cap on spending by GAO.
germy
jeffreyw
The Hill
Verified account
@thehill
Follow Follow @thehill
More
Trump admits he made mistakes picking his Cabinet: “Not all of my choices were good” http://hill.cm/7jn4HXh
MomSense
Trump is a Russian ASSet.
germy
@Yarrow: Don Jr.?
TenguPhule
@germy: Parody account?
Sab
@Manyakitty: NE OH meetup someday?
jl
@jl: And, maybe I am not paying enough attention to the media, but the idea that the US press is making Bolton the big hero of the Syrian strike seems delusional to me. From what I’ve seen, the media seems to have rolled out it’s usual ritual of slobbering over a president who unilaterally decides to blow stuff up.
Along with all the other bad things that Trump is, he is nuts.
Edit: Seriously, if anyone has info that Bolton has gotten more attention and credit in the media than the Trumpster Hisself on Syria strike, let me know. I haven’t seen it, but I just watch some clips here and there on the internet.
Mike in NC
Trump is deathly afraid of falling out of a 5th floor window.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Yep. Trump, his family, his cronies, top GOP and many lower level GOP–traitors, all.
@MomSense: He sure is. A dumb one, but he knows who owns him.
@germy: We’re about to find out!
trollhattan
@MattF:
Her prenup is probably as rock-solid as her dignity is in tatters. Considering Donny had three goes he certainly got really good at having them written up.
germy
@MattF:
I’ve never seen it, but I imagine it covers basic stuff, like she’s not allowed in his presence without full makeup and high heels. And she’s not allowed to talk about anything she sees him do.
Yarrow
@trollhattan: DJT has now shown that he’s good with legal stuff. The prenup could be a mess as well. Melania may know that and is biding her time.
germy
@TenguPhule: Yup. Although sometimes he just quotes him verbatim and says “I can’t top this”
Yarrow
Re: the name of the third client:
Yarrow
Oh, holy shit!
Barbara
Name of the third client is Sean Hannity.
Puddinhead
@Yarrow: Hannity. Better (i.e. funnier) than I expected.
TenguPhule
Trump businesses making millions from political and taxpayer spending – report
This is not fine.
Corner Stone
@Yarrow: Are they shitting us?
jl
@Yarrow: Melania the unnamed third Cohen client?
Anyway, glad that the court is, so far, not buying the Trumpster BS. I love the term ‘Special Mater’, and it appears to be a real thing, unlike the ‘Marshall of the US Supreme Court’ who can go around and put everything right, but can’t because of the Deep State. Poor guy.
Yarrow
@Barbara: @Puddinhead: So awesome! Hannity is a traitor and probably needs a fixer for other things as well.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HAH A
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
Isn’t that just the cherry on top? Jeez.
Sab
These Evangelical Christian values have certainly improved the quality of governance in this country.
LAO
HOLY CRAP — the 3d client Michael Cohen refused to name is sean hannity.
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: They are not! It’s live court reporting! Sean Hannity is Cohen’s Client Number Three.
germy
LAO
@rikyrah: I’m dying I’m laughing so hard.
germy
As Popeye said, “How embarriskin'”
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Reality is stranger then speculation.
germy
Yarrow
OMG, this day is amazing. Sean Hannity is Cohen’s client. I knew he was a traitor and all tied up with Trump and Russia stuff, but this…oh man. It’s just too good. Not enough popcorn in the world.
Barbara
How do the people observing this hearing, and I am including the attorneys, keep from laughing?
guachi
I disbelieve the third client is Sean Hannity.
Amir Khalid
@jeffreyw:
Fixed that for Trump.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow: Onion has decided to turn in, claims reality has put them out of business.
gratuitous
I don’t recall exactly where it was, but I’d heard that nobody had been tougher on Russian than Lord Littlehands. Looks like whoever said that wasn’t talking true.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/donald-trump-white-house-questions/index.html
Of course, that was all the way back in the dim recesses of history; April 3 to be exact.
Yarrow
@LAO: Isn’t this amazing! It’s beyond what I imagined. Too funny.
TenguPhule
@guachi:
You fumbled your save against reality.
Take 4d6 damage to your SAN.
jl
@germy: That is not a joke? It’s really Hannity? Uh-oh. What was that hush money for? How botched up was that NDA? One of the new clients Avenatti talked about recently?
Now that I think about it, better Hannity than Melania. Not a fan, but she deserves decent lawyering, like most other people in the country. Not sure about Hannity.
Corner Stone
@jl:
Don’t you fucking disparage the Justice Eagles of the Deep State!
Frankensteinbeck
@TenguPhule:
Nobody cares. He can sit in his chair and scream, “I’m the president! The president! Where are my two scoops of ice cream?!” as the Secret Service carry him out of the building. They won’t be his Secret Service anymore.
@jl:
That was my guess when he made his speech. I knew A) there was no way Trump made this happen, and B) it would come out he fucked things up somehow. Didn’t even take the whole weekend for his victory to turn to shit.
Brachiator
Funny, I heard a clip of Haley announcing that the sanctions were coming just this morning.
Trump is both clumsy and cunning. He makes sure to sound as tough as possible about Russia, but kisses Putin’s ass hard.
Everything certainly looks as though Trump (and elements of the GOP) sold out to the Russians. It’s insane that Trump’s supporters and Republicans are fine with this.
Yarrow
@guachi: Believe what you want. It’s entered into court record.
Fester Addams
Hannity! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Michael D. Cohen, Esq. – Practice limited to scum and villainy.
RandomMonster
No puppet! No puppet! You’re the puppet!
TenguPhule
@Barbara:
Jaws stuck to the floor, perhaps.
germy
Here’s his statement:
“Hillary laundered 84 million dollars!!!”
LAO
@Yarrow: It’s like Christmas before the war on Christmas started.
Corner Stone
“Wwwoooowwww!”
Harry Lipman when he heard it is Sean Hannity.
MomSense
This would be hilarious AF if trump weren’t so unstable.
germy
Jeffro
@germy: pure chaff
TenguPhule
@germy: I could have sworn Hannity was smarter then that.
Corner Stone
@TenguPhule:
Obama put The Onion on life support because there was just never any *there* there for 8 years. Then Trump delivered a death blow by racing past anything their writers could possibly ever come up with.
mai naem mobile
Michael Cohens third client was Sean Hannity. Lolololol. Does Fox have any hosts who didn’t have problems with affairs/sexual harrassment/infidelity etc.
beef
Huh.
You know, Louise Mensch has been saying for months that Hannity is going to jail.
I wonder what he needed a mob lawyer for.
germy
Erica Orden, reporter at WSJ, is in the courtroom and tweeted the news as soon as she heard.
Hannity.
Ooof.
Corner Stone
@Barbara:
I am reminded of the time I saw the movie Tommy Boy in the theater, where I was laughing so hard I had to go into the aisle and stretch out so I could breathe again.
mai naem mobile
Okay,now I have yo switch to watch Fox. For a few minutes. Guessing there’s a spot open on Fox..Maybe the Mooch will get a job at Fox now.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah: Dying. Just fucking dying.
Uncle Cosmo
@TenguPhule: @germy:
Um, yeah, pair o’dee…
Mathguy
Q: What’s the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea?
A: The shitgibbon has never had a garbanzo bean on his face.
jl
@Barbara:
” How do the people observing this hearing, and I am including the attorneys, keep from laughing ”
IANAL, but from what I’ve read, the Trumpster position seems laughable, at least compared to Avenatti’s briefs. So, far, good to see the court seems to agree with IANAL me.
Edit: maybe the Trumpsters can score the My Cousin Vinny guy and his girlfriend who works in the auto shop. If the case ends up turning on instant grits, transmissions and tire tread marks, they’ll win.
jeffreyw
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sean-hannity-denies-right-wing-blogger-s-sex-harassment-claim-n750211
germy
@Corner Stone: He gave cohen thumbs up in this photo:
Duane
@Yarrow: That rat Hannity carried Putin’s wikileaks water all during the election. Great American traitor is more like it. He’s up to his neck in Trump’s swamp. The swamp water he carried. May justice be swift and harsh to the lot of them.
Yarrow
@jl:
Well, the Marshal of the US Supreme Court is also a real position. It is currently held by a woman, Pamela Talkin. You can see her listed on the Supreme Court website under Court Officers. What the person in that role does or does not do is another discussion.
JPL
No wonder why Hannity thought the raid illegal. Fox news must be so proud.
kidding, they don’t care about trust and honesty
germy
@jeffreyw: Why would cohen lie about something like that, in front of a judge, Sean?
Dave
@Corner Stone: Only thing saved the Onion during Obama’s administration was their treatment of Biden and prescient articles such as the “White hot sphere of screaming rage new GOP front-runner” after the 2012 election.
germy
Jimmy Kimmell’s next monologue should be… interesting.
jl
@Yarrow: Thanks for the info. Does her uniform include an admiralty fringe? That’s how I can tell the real positions from the fake 14th amendment ones.
Dave
@Duane: Hannity facing the music would be almost too much scheadenfreude might even restore my faith in justice.
Mandalay
Finally Trump has done something that I wholeheartedly endorse:
It’s about time that teflon coated con artist got her comeuppance. It’s all the sweeter that the knife in the back was completely undeserved, and was solely due to the incompetence of Trump Administration.
(I’ll never forget or forgive how Haley was deliberately sitting on the fence over the Confederate Flag, and then instantly changed her tune once she realized which way the wind was blowing. Like Trump she believes in nothing beyond advancing herself. She is scum just as much as Kushner, Bolton, Pruitt and all the usual suspects.)
Yarrow
@jl: I have no idea what she wears. I’m sure the court website could offer more insight. The position is supposed to be something like that of a bailiff.
Duane
@Dave:Hannity is caught in a trap solely of his own making. It’s a wonderful sight.
Mike in NC
@gratuitous:
He’s the pathetic coward we always knew him to be. Expel Russian spies?! Hell, he invites them into the Oval Office at their leisure, where he hands them autographed golf balls and they get to look at all the papers on his desk.
Amir Khalid
I will be acquiring at black Epiphone Les Paul Studio very very soon. I’m open to suggestions for a name that’s not too obviously literal, like Old Black or Blackie.
The Moar You Know
Huh. How about that. Three of the most repulsive clients placed on God’s green earth and I have no idea how any of of those three sacks of crap managed to get within spitting distance of a woman, never mind fuck ’em.
Oughta call Cohen “The Miracle Lawyer”.
J R in WV
@Yarrow:
I’m sitting in a doctor’s office trying not to laugh out loud!!
That would be rude…
germy
@Amir Khalid: Eppy.
(That’s what the Beatles called their manager)
efgoldman
@LAO:
Entire newsroom where journo daughter works (CQ Roll Call) erupted in a huge group cackle
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
Woot wooot!
Veronica was the first name that popped into my head.
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: Don’t think you’re getting bargain basement. No different than a Gibson these days. As for names, I’ve never named a guitar (at the moment I’ve got about 15 or so) so am not going to be helpful there.
El Caganer
And it looks like we are ready to drop the curtain on today’s performance by Vladimir Putin’s Tiny Fingers Puppet Theatre.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
What about “Sister” in honor of Sister Rosetta Tharp, a great guitar player in the 40s and 50s?
efgoldman
@Amir Khalid:
Gee-tarr
Mike in NC
@Fester Addams:
If you go to one of the least reputable law schools in the country, your list of clients is somewhat limited.
Calouste
@Amir Khalid: “Black Dog”, after the Led Zeppelin song that uses a Les Paul.
James Powell
@Amir Khalid:
Unless a name is clear from the start, the name should emerge from the experience of playing it.
Elizabelle
@J R in WV: I like that. Sister, and The Girl.
Mike in NC
@Mandalay:
The media has repeatedly ignored the fact that Nikki Haley is a really terrible person. As governor of South Carolina she checked off every box on the wingnut welfare job application. It was only natural that she would enthusiastically go to work for Trump after leaving her state a broken basket case like Kansas. Her husband “worked” two jobs: one for the state of SC and one for the SC National Guard. She makes dishonest scum like Pruitt and Pence look admirable by comparison.
Amir Khalid
@The Moar You Know:
All the YouTube reviewers like it, a lot. I was also considering the Goth version of the same model, but then I’d have to explain away the Celtic cross on the headstock — an ostentatiously Christian symbol. I don’t know what Epiphone were thinking, putting that on a guitar.
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
I had the very same thought.
Just one more canuck
A hell of a start to infrastructure week
O. Felix Culpa
@Amir Khalid: Ebony?
Kathleen
@Amir Khalid: How about “Mary Ford”, in honor of his wife who recorded with him?
Aardvark Cheeselog
@Amir Khalid: Svartalf?
Aardvark Cheeselog
About the OP, my first thought was “quid for the quo of not lighting up the air defenses for Trump’s excellent hundred-tomahawk head-fake at spanking Assad?” Quickly followed by “Christ I can’t believe I’m thinking this.”
Anybody know where is the best bulk price on heavy-duty tinfoil? I need a new hat.