The defenestration of Ambassador Haley continues…
From Tass:
MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. The United States has notified Russia through its Embassy in Washington that it will not impose fresh sanctions against Russia for the time being, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry informed TASS on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that the US has notified the Russian embassy that there will be no new sanctions for some time,” he said.
The Washington Post’s Carole Leonnig confirmed this last night:
The Russian government was given a backdoor assurance on Sunday that no more sanctions were coming and to just ignore Nikki Haley. pic.twitter.com/bC8JeSbehg
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) April 18, 2018
But it leaves an important question: who was informed first the Russian ambassador in DC or Ambassador Haley?
The tick-tock following Haley’s comments and the subsequent reversal of policy raises the question of who was notified first…Russia, or Haley? pic.twitter.com/2RPdAjE0ZI
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) April 18, 2018
The US’s position on Russian sanctions has now been officially announced and confirmed by Russia through a Russian state news media outlet.
We are off the looking glass and through the map.
Stay clammy!
Open thread.
Bobby Thomson
Once you just accept we are a Russian client state nothing these people do surprises anymore. Nothing.
West of the Rockies
It’s so great that we again have some strong foreign policy Republicans running things again. Stability, strength, all that jazz. Yeah… no.
arrieve
Bus, meet Nikki.
I don’t like Haley, and think anyone who agreed to be a part of this maladministration should be automatically disqualified from polite society forever and ever, amen. That said, she does not seem to be either blatantly corrupt or a drooling moron, so I expect that her days as part of the cartel are now numbered.
MattF
Haley needs to quit. Yesterday.
ETA: Occurs to me that she might have been double-crossed by Bolton. Isn’t politics fun?
Booger
I did actually LOL at clammy. Well played, Adam.
Emma
WTF???!!!
Excuse me. I’m going to see if anyone here has single malt stashed somewhere.
The Moar You Know
I wonder if Haley will do the right thing in response to being treated like retail management by her boss. Her history leads me to seriously doubt she will.
She aspires to independence, but has been a loyal GOP lapdog her entire career. Don’t see that changing. Trump and Putin will take turns driving a bus over her, and she’ll thank them publicly.
NotMax
“Sanctions? We don’t need no es-stinking sanctions.”
No Drought No More
My first thought upon hearing of today’s Puerto Rico blackout was to wonder if Putin Inc. is attacking the island’s computer grids. Of course, it could as well be the ongoing, racist disinterest of the Trump administration as Putin, but, again, it was my first thought..
Then again, it might well be both, eh?
schrodingers_cat
Has there ever been another country in the world that gave up its preeminent position to become a stooge to a third rate power, willingly.
Corner Stone
Boo hoo…NFTG for her.
Corner Stone
@No Drought No More:
Why? He already has Trump attacking the island through vicious neglect.
Corner Stone
“I don’t get confused.”
Maybe, maybe not. But you sure do get shit on.
Adam L Silverman
@Booger: People got mad at frosty. People got mad at toasty. So I’m going to be just rotating appropriate and/or inappropriate states of being.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: I thought the moral imperative was to, “Stay hydrated!”
Or did that bunch someone’s nether region garments as well?
Brachiator
OK. This level of gamesmanship is too weird for me. Why bother having Haley as an ambassador if you are also going to tell everyone to just ignore her? How does this not make Trump look like a boob?
Why pretend that you are going to impose sanctions when you are not going to do so? Is there a battle in this administration between people who think they know what the policy will be and the actual Deciders?
Is there any politician or reporter who has asked or is willing to ask the basic question, “Is Donald Trump on Putin’s payroll?”
Adam L Silverman
@No Drought No More: Occam’s razor on this one. The PR grid is still a mess. About 40,000 were still without power before it went down. It is highly likely it went down because of normal issues of maintenance and repair. The race in PR is to get the grid back up, running, and as hardened and upgraded as possible before the 2018 hurricane season. I’m not sure that race is going to be won.
PJ
@Adam L Silverman: I think we can all agree on, “Stay comfortably dry, but properly hydrated.”
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: I’m planning on rotating that one in.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
A wee smile generated each time I see “stay frosty.” Was a catchphrase of Bob the Guardian on ReBoot.
Mary G
Haley hitched her star to a backstabber and got stabbed in the back. Rick Wilson coined #ETTD – Everything Trump Touches Dies. She’s just the latest dead body.
Kind of ironic that saying “I don’t get confused” has probably doomed her with him. I’m sure he’s seething at the failure of the woman to take the responsibility and blame for his Putin paranoia.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: What do you think about this email sent to detectives in Pittsburgh today..
https://twitter.com/MCipriani_WTAE/status/986635152913780736
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Adam L Silverman: If you’re changing what you say because some jackals will get mad, you are in an endless, fruitless struggle.
trollhattan
Haley was a garbage governor and opportunist and yet Trump has me actually feeling sorry for her. What an odd world.
MattF
If we’re going to be a Russian client state can’t we at least get the Russians to put a naval base in, say, Staten Island? Or maybe Brighton Beach? There’s no place like home, after all…
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I don’t think Haley will leave unless she has someplace to go and I don’t know what that would be. She’s ambitious. She doesn’t want to retreat into oblivion.
trollhattan
@JPL:
Is a “semi-spontaneous” protest anything like being a little bit pregnant?
Lapassionara
@Mary G: let us hope her political career is over. She is dangerous, as she comes across as articulate and competent, but she is a rwnj to the core.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: Here’s the official response:
Perhaps not the most artfully worded email, but the police have to be prepared in the event of protests or counterprotests. And, unfortunately, the current policing model is to overdress for combat in Afghanistan.
Adam L Silverman
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I’m honestly just screwing around with it for a bit. Largely for my own amusement.
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
She thinks she’s presidential material and wants/needs the spotlight. South Carolina doesn’t have a senate seat coming up until 2020 but perhaps Graham will get the vapours and quit.
Corner Stone
@Brachiator:
This same question could be applied to every member of Trump’s Cabinet. I am boggled why anyone in this admin would ever make a forceful statement. Of any kind. On anything. By now they have to know what’s coming.
EthylEster
Heh, not like the REAL defenestration of Maxim Borodin.
cgordon
Defenestration is probably the best thing that could happen to Nikki Haley. I remember watching her and thinking she could go far in politics if she hadn’t thrown in with Trump.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
I was listening to a film review program where one of the hosts spoke about taking a Disney cruise which stopped at St Martin, which is still devastated seven months after Hurricane Irma.
Bobby Thomson
@NotMax: Michael Biehn in Aliens.
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
This is exactly my take. She is probably already populating a spreadsheet to tabulate the likelihood that it would be better politically to stay or go. Seeing as how she is from South Carolina, I would imagine the stay column has a lot higher value.
rikyrah
@arrieve:
Nobody with self-respect would have taken a job with this Administration in the first place.
LAO
I am genuinely curious. Taking into consideration the racist, misogynistic bent of the current Republican party, does anyone think that Nikki Haley has a viable political future?
cain
In honor of today, I’ve been listening to Rage Against the Machine specifically “Killing in the name..”
Barbara
@Brachiator: I was recently on a Caribbean cruise that departed from San Juan. San Juan looks approximately the same as it did when I was last there more than 10 years ago, but there is a lot of damage that is clearly visible not even that far out of San Juan. Most of the roads going through national parks are closed, and the rain forest canopy was seriously damaged. You see downed wires everywhere, and our take was that many down wires were left in place in order to focus totally on restoring service. St. Maarten has supposedly been flattened, along with VI, Anguilla, and Dominica. Other places (St. Barth’s) showed damage but had mostly recovered.
NotMax
@Bobby Thomson
Oh, quite likely predates that as well. I prefer to associate it with a more upbeat venue.
:)
artem1s
@The Moar You Know:
I would normally agree with you. But I think she aspires to being the first woman President. And being associate with this administration will kill her political career if she doesn’t publicly push back, hard, and fast. She might be aiming to be the next Scarramuchi; thinking it will be a badge of honor, some day, to have been pushed out for doing her job (at least with the very serious thinkers at the NYT and The Village and what is left of the moderate wing of the GOP)
JPL
@LAO: Yes, if only to prove that they aren’t racist. They would paint her as one of the good ones, since she’s not from that shithole continent that Trump refers to.
Barbara
@LAO: Maybe as Lindsey Graham’s replacement, and not in any other way I can think of. I assume she was aiming for VP candidate, but I seriously doubt that is in the cards.
Ocean dude
He cant put at risk that sweet easy money from Russian bag men. He is thinking post presidency about the Trump money laundering enterprise. Davidson in NYer- Trump and sons actually undersold themselves to Russians, their service was worth far more than they charged, geniuses they are not. They burn through one scheme without much thought or planning, and then its onto the next. Trump enterprises collapses without that inflow of corrupt rubles. If you are Haley do you step down because of professional pride, or do you step down because of your disgust with the repeal of Russian sanctions. If she chose the latter she could really do some harm to Trump. She would be on the tv circuit explaining how bad an actor Russia truly is. Sanctions needed to check this behavior, etc etc. I can see the twitter feed now from Trump-“BITTER NIKKI IS A
NorthLeft12
Being over sixty and having read a great deal of American history it is almost amazing to think that right now an American “President” is kowtowing to Russia, and got elected by basically promising to kowtow to the Russians. When I was much younger, if any American leader was less than aggressively bellicose to Russia they were roasted in the press and by any of their political rivals. Being soft on the biggest world rival was a death sentence at the polls.
And now, for something completely different…………………
Timurid
@Adam L Silverman:
What are they reacting to, exactly? Mueller firing rumors, and plans for protests in that event, have been circulating for months. What’s so special about this week? There was considerable media/social media/RUMINT buzz after the Cohen raid, but that appears to have died down. I can’t imagine local police departments having any inside information about Trump’s plans…
Calouste
@No Drought No More: The Puerto Rico blackout is pretty bad news. A lot of medical supplies are made in Puerto Rico and there were already acute shortages after the hurricane. Acute as in that the hospital my wife works has daily meetings about how to address them.
Adam L Silverman
@Timurid: I have absolutely no idea. I don’t know how Pittsburgh PD has its intel unit organized, nor what they focus on. So I have no idea why this needed to be done now.
JPL
@Timurid: It seemed odd to me also. I was tempted to contact someone on the local level, to see if they heard any buzz. I’m waiting awhile though.
Corner Stone
@cain: But do you do what they tell you?
TenguPhule
Here there be fire breathing rabbits with very sharp teeth and a mean temper.
Gin & Tonic
My son had dinner with Victoria Nuland last week, and she was apparently all about pushing him and his fellow students to consider careers in the Foreign Service. With all the existing vacancies and people retiring/resigning in disgust, she believes there will be plenty of opportunities for advancement for young people who join now. Talk about making lemonade from lemons – I’m not sure we’l even have a career Foreign Service by the time Il Donaldo is no longer President.
TenguPhule
@arrieve:
Then you haven’t been paying enough attention to her.
She fully deserves every bad thing which happens to her. And then some.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
Ha ha. No. They’re not going to hire anyone competent and they’re going to continue the beatings until morale improves.
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Admittedly, rebuilding Berlin after the war created great opportunities for the construction trades. You just didn’t want to sign up too early, such as February 1945.
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: Wow. So basically a “We expect demonstrations to be big and possibly break out into violence considering the spontaneity of it, so until informed otherwise bring your riot shit to work.”
I’m curious as to why they believe Mueller will be fired NOW, since the warnings from last week didn’t pan out.
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: If it protects white supremacy, these folks will bow & scrape to their Russian masters.
Jay S
@LAO: Putting on the ‘R’ jersey seems to cover a multitude of sins either real or imagined. She did win as Governor of SC after all.
celticdragonchick
@Adam L Silverman:
Heads need to be broken apparently.
MisterForkbeard
@NorthLeft12: The important thing to remember is that basically any behavior by Republicans will be allowed and normalized if someone sufficiently high up in their hierarchy does it – they just deny it’s happening.
The media will only call them on it in a cursory fashion, and unlike Democrats the Republicans won’t police their own in a meaningful fashion. So you get abrupt shifts like this when a sufficiently visible Republican does something nuts, like prostrate themselves before Russia so long as they publicly state that they’re totally challenging Russia by giving them everything they want.
Mandalay
@MattF:
Well that’s one I hadn’t thought of, but you could be right.
It’s certainly hard to believe that Libby’s pardon and Bolton’s arrival were mere coincidence.
Millard Filmore
@Bobby Thomson:
Putin is letting the world know who is running the White House.
scav
Any chance of a Stay Inebriated signoff? That’s at least one I’m likely to achieve.
As for bypassing depts of govt, I wouldn’t at all be surprised by the Orange Egomaniac grabbing some airtime to announce who is or isn’t getting a tax refund thanks to his personal munificence amd handing out huge checks with his huger signature. Crowds of redhatted admirers in the audience jumping up and down shouting “MeMeMeMeMe!” Ratings Bonanza and Team Repub Reporters solumnly intoning about the Triumph of proving that so much govt bureacracy and infrastructure is unnecessary.
Gravenstone
@NotMax: Was tooling across YouTube the other night and happened across a snippet of ReBoot. I had fondly remembered the show as being quite groundbreaking. Alas, the then cutting edge CG style has not aged well.
JPL
@MisterForkbeard: It’s possible that they read McConnell’s statement, and it took it as a green light for Trump to do what he wants. If another police department follows suit, I plan on panicking.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: That’s silly – who hates “frosty”? I’m sticking with frosty.
I can’t abide “clammy”. Just the word itself makes me want to head for the shower…
@scav: and then there’s this…”stay inebriated” (or just “high”, or “disoriented”)…those work well, too.
Brachiator
@LAO:
Sure, why not? Republicans carve out exceptions for the super assimilated “pro-America” nonwhites. Politicians like Bobby Jindal, who is a Roman Catholic with a 100 per cent anti-abortion voting record, and Nikki Haley, who identifies as Christian, but still respects Sikh traditions. This super assimilation also makes room for pundits like Dinesh D’Souza, who probably would join the Klan if they would accept him.
LAO
O/T — I guess it was reported that Michael Cohen’s attorneys are being paid by the Trump campaign. LINK. While the TPM report focuses how it makes it unlikely that Cohen will flip on Trump. The real issue, to me, is whether payments by the Trump Campaign creates an unwaivable, “actual conflict between” Cohen’s best interest and Trump’s best interest, which would require their removal from the case.
MisterForkbeard
@Gin & Tonic: I think this isn’t even wrong, necessarily. But it’s predicated on a Democratic president in 2020/2021, which is when the real staffing up will happen.
Getting in now seems hard, since the service is basically being hollowed out.
@JPL: It’s a sort of reasonable interpretation of McConnell’s remarks. I don’t know anyone who thinks McConnell will actually do more than furrow his brow if Trump fires Mueller, given McConnell’s own history of sabotaging the investigation, let alone accepting foreign help for partisan reasons.
NorthLeft12
@MisterForkbeard: Yeah, the 180 degree high speed turn the Repubs have done on the deficit….multiple times….should be proof enough of their hypocrisy and ability to get away with it.
Arm The Homeless
@Adam L Silverman:
After our electrical infrastructure sunk into the swamp during Irma, we rebuilt it upon the swamp, but this time with more wooden planks butressing the poles.
Burying lines is costly and takes time, and we can’t inconvenience rich folks coming back to their vacation homes
Frankensteinbeck
@artem1s:
Republicans are not going to nominate anyone but a white man for president in the foreseeable future. I’m not sure where the ceiling is exactly. I think it’s ‘Not a senator, not even as a token.’ However, there is good money to be made as the minority they support just long enough to show they’re not bigots and then dump before there’s any real chance they’ll get chosen.
LAO
@Jay S: I know that she’s won in the past, I’m just not sure that a woman of color is electable as a Republican today.
@Brachiator: That made me laugh, because it’s true. But still, I don’t see the Republican base accepting a woman of color, even if she’s an avowed RWNJ.
LAO
@LAO: The more that I think about it, if Cohen’s indicted, I’d bet money that government moves to disqualify his counsel. Would be interesting to see what happens.
Mandalay
@Mary G:
Exactly. Apart from shameless ambition she has absolutely no reason to be part of the Trump regime.
She attacked Trump for proposing a Muslim ban while he was campaigning, and she genuinely hates Russia, whereas Trump wants to be buddies with them, and said so repeatedly before and after his election. If she had any integrity, why would she choose to work as Ambassador to the UN for someone pushing policies she opposes?
NotMax
@Jeffro
Someplace in the back of a drawer is a pinback button with the legend Stay Off Center – with all the words shifted to the left hand side.
Fairly certain it was a freebie for subscribing to Rampart’s magazine.
ET
I don’t feel sorry for anyone in that administration that gets thrown under the bus – they knew what they were getting into – but personally I think that the “serious” types were all for sanctions it was a go, and then twitler changed his mind and didn’t tell anyone. This is how he operates. That he has undercut his staff doesn’t bother him because he is the only person that matters.
germy
Leto
@MattF: Mar-a-Lago Russian Naval Base. It’s already there.
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard: The question that needs to be asked is who has a copy of McConnell’s long missing from the official records and archives DD214? And what are they asking of him in order to keep it from leaking out?
rikyrah
A viral set of videos are trending about an altercation at a LA Fitness in Secaucus nj where two black men who had memberships were profiled, asked to reaffirm their membership, then the manager called the cops for which police took the two men’s side.
https://www.facebook.com/tshyrad.oates/posts/1935575163119174
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
This is certainly an interesting turn of phrase, given how inconvenient Russians have been meeting their end:
Adam L Silverman
@Arm The Homeless: I understand completely. The entire new transmission grid needs to be buried in weather hardened conduits. We need to do that for the entire continental US and Hawaii as well. As well as our other territories. All part of a too long overdue upgrading of the generation and transmission grids.
LAO
@Mnemosyne: I snorted at that as well.
germy
@Adam L Silverman: Same person who has the photos, apparently.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
I think in this case it means one that has been planned except for the time. So we know there’s likely to be a major protest if/when Mueller is fired, but nobody, even Trump, knows when that will be.
LAO
O/T — so apparently, the Governor of NY restored Parolees’ right to vote today and this is my absolute favorite tweet of the day:
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
I don’t think Trumpov really cares – he is playing to an audience of one (and I don’t mean Nikki Haley) The gamesmanship that interests me is Haley’s. She has clearly ‘read the tea leaves’, as it were, and has decided that she has some capital she can spend with The Donald while making herself look like an independent-ish Republican who’s not afraid of/tied to Putin. Hmm, I wonder why that might be? Perhaps the Orange One is nearing even his Republican sell-by date (for politicos, at least) and the non-Russia-affiliated/(blackmailed) Repubs are starting to realize there will indeed be a post-Trumpov GOP, and soon, and it’s going to need a leader…
It’s not the best-managed WH we’ve ever seen, right? With little/no coordination going on, and multiple agendas, it makes sense for an anti-Putin Republican (or even one who just wants to appear anti-Putin) to jump out there right after we bombed Russia’s ally Syria and say “more sanctions are coming”. It’s her way of shaping reality. And if that holds, then great: more sanctions kick in and Putin gets a shot to the balls. If it doesn’t hold (i.e., if Trumpov walks it back) then a) he looks even weaker & in the thrall of Putin, and b) she’s established her “independence” and antipathy towards Russia even more firmly. It’s a nice move, really.
Dems have been alluding to it for almost 2 years now…oh I’m sorry, you meant “any Republican politician”. Some reporters have been asking it as well, but you know, that’s just #FakeNews…
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: Good thing it’s Infrastructure Week – we can get right on that.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, it IS infrastructure week.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: The War on Infrastructure continues apace.
Frankensteinbeck
@Adam L Silverman:
We have always been at war with Infrastructure.
JPL
@LAO: TPM has a write-up about that now.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/mcdermott-ryan-representing-michael-cohen-russia-investigations-personal-business-dealings
germy
@LAO: Gilbert is a mcsweeneys/newyorker magazine “humorist” who equates BLM with drinking in the park.
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: I keep hearing you say that this is a big deal (and it IS), but at this point I don’t think anyone in the Republican Party would care about it. They’d all just back him up, and the media itself would forget about it once it failed to get any traction.
I’m not sure it has any real power to damage him, so I’m not sure he’s got any incentive to be blackmailed by it. That said, if said blackmail includes proof of things he’s done in the past to avoid exposure, THAT would hurt him.
Jeffro
@LAO:
Absolutely. Both GOP elected officials and their voters at large will support females and people of color for office, as long as said candidates are saying the Randian and/or racist and/or religious things the officials/voters wanna hear. Examples too numerous to list.
I mean, white males are probably preferred, but yeah, they’ll go with whomever’s against liberals, ‘identity politics’, LGBTQ folks, immigrants, and so on, race and gender be damned.
Mandalay
@germy: Not usually a fan, but Joy Reid is knocking it out of the park on twitter:
Brutal, but it’s all bang on the money.
Barbara
@Jeffro: I think the answer is a lot more simple. I think that sanctions were agreed to by the right people who were given authority from Trump and then when they were actually announced, Trump changed his mind and ordered backtracking. Maybe Trump approved “in principle” and then when he actually found out what they would be reneged. Whatever. But the “confusing” explanation for how Haley got out ahead of Trump is complete BS. What UN ambassador would fly solo on something like that?
trollhattan
@germy:
I take it as aiming at Cuomo’s craven willingness to go trawl for votes wherever they may be, but am not a New Yorker so defer those those folks.
LAO
@germy: You’re right. It’s a pretty shitty tweet. I’m sorry I posted it.
ETA: I “read it” as an example of how Cuomo isn’t progressive, which is something that irritates me to no end.
Manyakitty
@Jeffro: moist
Barbara
@Jeffro: Nikki Haley is basically the female version of Bobby Jindal. It doesn’t matter how many nice things the establishment says about her, voters won’t comply, not for a long, long time.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
I’m willing to give the people who signed on at the very beginning some benefit of the doubt. Some of them may have decided to come on board out of a genuine, patriotic belief that Trump was desperately ignorant of the job and needed to be surrounded by experienced people in order to avoid crashing and burning. Those people who have been on from the beginning deserve to be judged by their actions in their jobs, rather than simply condemned for signing on. Of course anyone who’s signed on more recently should have known better.
Leto
@MisterForkbeard:
Are they just hollowing out the top/middle, leaving room for young Trump professing acolytes to come in? That’s part of what I’m worried about, the new young hires who are bat shit crazy and have the potential to be there long term. Similar to the federal judges OFC appoints. Of course this also comes back to the argument of, do you work in this current government (excluding Executive branch/appointment) and try to limit the damage done, OR resign/leave/don’t submit an application in form of protest?
HeleninEire
@Adam L Silverman: Who? Name names.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mandalay:
She can forget it. The higher up, the less Republicans are willing to tolerate a token minority. The media will slobber over her, she’ll seem to be getting some headway, mostly with the evangelicals, and then the base will sharp turn and support the most racist asshole they can find. Same as the last couple of elections.
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
I read it as Cuomo trying to shore up his support with Black voters, but the “drinking in the park” bit was shitty and racist.
NotMax
@Mandalay
Should she run, Haley will have all the traction of a unicycle on an oil slick. The ambassador title will serve her about as well as it did Alan Keyes.
germy
@LAO: There’s still some good writing in the New Yorker (Jane Mayer) but many of them come across as clueless and entitled. Anthony Lane, their film critic, wrote something dumb recently in a review, and Lola Kirke responded in a letter to the editor:
Brachiator
@LAO:
Jindal and Haley were elected governors of Southern states.
Also, whether or not Haley is a woman of color is pretty arbitrary, as is a great deal of thinking about race. An anecdote from her childhood (via Wiki) also illustrates the sheer idiocy of how America tries to shoehorn people into its traditional racist categories:
Mandalay
@Jeffro:
It’s all moot since Haley is on the record as saying that a ban on Muslims is “absolutely un-American”.
If Haley looks like becoming a threat in 2020 her opponents will happily remind Republican voters that Haley is a Muslim-lover (in suitably couched terms but with a scary voice narrator).
ruemara
@Brachiator: She is a woman of color, but she is not white nor black. Now, if you want to argue that it’s strange a contest has a black queen & a white queen, that’s good. If you want to argue that we need to broaden the range of understanding of what a person of color is, that’s very true. But, she didn’t fit the (dumb) criteria for the contest and Republicans have always been willing to support a POC that says things they want to hear. How far they go depends on whether or not enough Republicans need a friend of color card in their “I’m Not A Racist Because…” deck.
LAO
@Mnemosyne: hey now, I actually apologized!
eclare
@Mnemosyne: I noticed that too a few days ago….sounds like an accurate assessment of the situation.
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
Sorry, I wasn’t actually bashing you for it. More like, I see what the writer was trying to do and why it passed a quick skim on Twitter, but wow, that part is pretty bad.
LAO
@Mnemosyne: I got it. I just feel like a schmuck for posting it.
germy
@LAO: I wasn’t bashing you for it, either. And you’re right about Cuomo.
rikyrah
@Mandalay:
tell it, Joy
ruemara
@LAO: Don’t. It is funny, but it’s pretty awful of their writer for cracking that joke. In the effing with black people scale, I’d give it a 25 out of 100.
LAO
@germy: I appreciate being called out when it’s appropriate and you and Mnemosyne are right. No offence taken.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Or more simply, Haley just refused to sit back and let the administration brand her as being confused. This by itself looks strange in an administration which values “loyalty.” I don’t think this is good for her longevity in a Trump administration. And it makes Trump look like the fool he is. The misstep is on him, not Haley. And anyone with even a glass eye can see it.
I don’t see anything which suggests that the GOP leadership will ever cut Trump loose. I don’t see any signs that they have any clue as to what a post-Trump GOP would look like.
Doesn’t answer my question sufficiently. Someone is drafting sanctions. Why bother? Is it simply that Trump at first capitulates to advisors who suggest sanctions, and then has a change of heart after he hears from his Russian handlers? We’ve seen this dance before. Why keep pretending? It even makes Trump apologists look stupid.
Also, here, Haley is simply the mouthpiece for the administration. She ain’t shaping nobody’s reality. And someone on CNN pointed out that other UN representatives see that there is no point in seeking meetings with her since she clearly does not speak for the president.
Again, allusions and whispers don’t do anything for me. Has anyone asked the question directly to Trump or to any of his spokes-weasels or directly brought it up in an interview, on the floor of the Congress, any-freaking-where?
Calouste
@Mnemosyne: Cohen’s Russian buddies pointed out to him that Skripal’s wife, son, and brother had all died in the last few years before Skripal himself and his daughter were poisoned. And that that would be his future as well.
We need to keep an eye out for deaths in the immediate family of Flynn, Papadopoulos, and others who are known to have flipped.
J R in WV
@JPL:
“They would paint her as one of the good ones, since she’s not from that shithole continent that Trump refers to.”
No, she’s from one of those shithole states that once tried to leave the USA to form the CSA, and still can’t get over losing that civil war they started and lost.
glory b
@LAO: Joe Scarborough does, he mentioned her primarying Trump yesterday.
Don’t laugh, it’s true.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
It’s one of those annoying collateral damage jokes. I was on board with the Cuomo bashing for his pandering, and then I was like, Wait, what’s up with that “drinking in parks” thing? I don’t get it. And then germy pointed out the racist origin of that particular meme.
JPL
The email sent out earlier by the Pittsburgh Police was sent out based on intelligence according to a comment by Marcie Cipriani.
https://twitter.com/MCipriani_WTAE/status/986648883513167873
What would be the point in firing Mueller now?
Corner Stone
@Mandalay:
Who are you not usually a fan of? Twitter in general or Joy Reid?
Geeno
OT but the Onion nails it again.
JPL
@LAO: Is there really a double jeopardy law, that could prevent NY State from charging Cohen, and others?
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/986688609624510464
Corner Stone
@ruemara: I probably gave it a skim-pass too quickly. I just took it as, “how damn scared Cuomo is that he’ll take any crazy ass issue he can find”.
Not to be conflated with this tweet but I remember one of the police episodes (maybe L&O but could be any of them) and they are investigating something happened in a park. They interview a 40-something “professional looking” white guy who is often in the park late afternoon, and ask him why is he in the park at that time. HIM: “Me? I drink.” Like it’s the most natural answer in the world.
PVDMichael
My take on this is that there are some Russia hawks within Trump circles who trick him into being more hawkish:
“Mr. President, our European partners are kicking out about 60 diplomat/spies, shall we also kick out about 60?”
Reversed when he found out that they were kicking out 60 total… not 60 each.
“Mr. President, should we impose sanctions on those companies providing raw materials to the Syrian chemical weapons program?”
Reversed when he figured out that those are Russian companies..
Tony Jay
“Politics in the American Autonomous Oblast was confusing for outsiders, deliberately so in many cases, but one iron rule was always in effect and could be relied on as a guide in all but the most opaque of situations. However loud the boast, however crude the threat, the Grand Boyar owed his throne, his wealth and the lives of his heirs to the distant Tsar and that debt was always due. On time and in full.”
From A Short History of the Antedilluvian World
Professor Mercedes Hot Fudge Brown
University of Mars Press
Year 338 in the Reign of Elon XII
ruemara
OT, I can’t think of anything I’d like to do more than spend 12 hours straight with industry insiders & colleagues trying to be social with people.
Except, have stomach flu. or ab surgery again. or relive when the little monster kitty had the runs on Christmas and wiped it all over the wall and ran while drip pooping all over the carpet & up the stairs.
@Corner Stone: Joy. She’s not a Bernliever.
Cckids
@Adam L Silverman: Try “wear sunscreen “.
LAO
@JPL: I hate to give a lawyerly answer but — maybe? It depends? There are a lot of criminal statutes here in NYS.
CPL Article 40. NYS double jeopardy protection is terrific and should not be altered significantly. All that would be necessary is adding a provision in Section 40.30(2) exempting prior convictions for which the defendant received a presidential pardon.
rikyrah
You guys, Net Neutrality is officially ending April 23rd… we still need just one more vote in Senate to yet again deny the end of net neutrality..
I feel like we’re not raising hell about this so it’s going to quietly end. Merely ONE MORE VOTE is all we need. #NetNeutrality
— Black Cat Anukii ✪ (@Anvkii) April 12, 2018
rikyrah
RT ??for people w/#Preexistingconditions
READ letter to @SenateMajLdr @SpeakerRyan @NancyPelosi & @SenSchumer TODAY⬇: 113 patient groups OPPOSING the proposed rule on short-term plans!
Please HELP & comment now➡https://t.co/1GthkYuPzc
We ONLY have until 4/23, 1159pmET! pic.twitter.com/yOQ7MdHd8W
— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) April 18, 2018
Jeffro
@Manyakitty: ew
Jeffro
@Barbara: nickel bet ?
EveryDayIHaveTheBlues
Adam, the answer is probably “Hell Naw!” but: 1) is there an innocent explanation for why Russia might be told before Haley?
2) Doesn’t informing the Russians involve actual State Dept (ie career, hopefully honest) employees rather than political types? If so, are they all turning into Hohman now? Or does the right hand not know what the left is doing, and so Haley was left twisting in the wind while the targets of the sanctions were given the good news?
So many questions. How the hell does something like this actually happen?
Once more, a query also to all the folks from Ohio. Is it worth pressing Brown to vote “No” on Pompeo, or will this impact his re-election?
JPL
@LAO: Thanks. It seems like it’s an easy fix, but state governments normally don’t act fast. Do you have any idea what would happen with a preempted pardon, and whether or not that would still apply to the law?
Jeffro
@Brachiator: disagree with the takes here – Will try to follow up when I’m not busy driving ?
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Welcome to the entertainment industry. It’s basically mandatory.
Mary G
If you want something cheering, watch this video at the Minnesota state legislature, it’s 24 seconds:
Adam L Silverman
@HeleninEire: Usual suspects.
Adam L Silverman
@Brachiator: The larger issue is the language the administration uses: creating or drafting sanctions, imposing sanctions, enforcing sanctions. It is unclear, given how this administration uses these terms, what they actually mean in practical application and what we actually have done in regard to sanctions on Russia.
J R in WV
@Barbara:
One with no ethical sense, no morality, an ability to lie with a straight face, who doesn’t care about what her boss says, who has never been a diplomat. Just blue sky imagination here, but… maybe one just like Nikki Haley?
Adam L Silverman
@glory b: Rumors have started floating in the WaPo and NY Times coverage that she and Pence are forming an alliance to run together in either 2020 or 2024. My guess, based on reporting over the past couple of week’s that the President himself calls select reporters at NY Times, WaPo, etc and provides them with the leaks on the basis that they refer to him as a “Senior Administration official”, is that the President is leaking this so he can then cut them off at the knees. The VP seems to think he’s smarter than the President and can out maneuver him. I have socks smarter than the VP.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: There’s a larger issue here. Police unions all across the country have been publicly backing and lobbying their state legislatures to change the laws pertaining to protests and demonstrations. Essentially they want the laws tightened to make it easier for police to crack down and for protestors and demonstrators, no matter how lawful, to be criminalized.
http://inthesetimes.com/features/police_anti-protest_laws_trump.html
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I know you know better, drumpf has no fucking idea what he is doing, doesn’t know what he did 5 minutes ago, and has no fucking idea what he will do in 5 minutes. His “thought process”is purely random responses that are always wrong.
Gelfling 545
@Lapassionara: If the GOP had sense she’d be their 2020 candidate or at least VP. Fortunately they don’t seem to and she lacks the all important Y chromosome. Besides she took down some Confederate statues IIRC and appears to conduct herself in a seemly fashion so the base would not approve. She could do damage.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: @LAO: I’ve seen this batted around over the past several days. Apparently the way the current law is written it is nebulous in regard to what it would or would not allow Schneiderman to do. One of the arguments being made is that the reason that Mueller is charging so narrowly is so that Schneiderman will have room even if the President issues pardons, because blanket pardons will fall outside this laws scope.
Just one more canuck
@Adam L Silverman: you mean it wasn’t a joke when you said people complained about “frosty” and “toasty”? My god, people will gripe about anything.
And like Helen said, name names
Adam L Silverman
@EveryDayIHaveTheBlues: I have no good answers to any of your questions. Sorry.
rikyrah
Shonda Rhimes Reflects on Olivia Pope’s Legacy
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/video/‘scandal’-shonda-rhimes-reflects-on-olivia-pope’s-legacy/vi-AAw1Iaw
Adam L Silverman
@Just one more canuck: People here do gripe about everything. Rotating what follows “Stay” is my way of messing with them.
Barbara
@J R in WV: No, I don’t think she would fly solo. If the sanctions were not in the cards she might come up with an over the top hawkish statement but she wouldn’t put herself at risk like that. She’s too concerned about her career.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
1. Race Bannon is up to his eyeballs in the Flynn mess.
2. He was over the transition
3. If he thinks that Dolt45 is going down ALONE AND NOT TAKING EVERYONE WITH HIM – HE’S DELUSIONAL
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: I expect Mother will survive.
Gelfling 545
@TenguPhule: That notion is based on Trump being president in perpetuity. Sooner of later we will have a real president and they will hire and promote.
SgrAstar
@germy: I just don’t get the New Yorker antipathy. They’ve done a terrific job on trump, and their willingness to work with Ronan Farrow, after his stuff had been rejected by other publications, just won them a well-deserved Pulitzer. Some of the best writers on the planet are or have been contributors to the New Yorker. Hello, Jane Mayer and Atul Gawande! For me it’s a necessary refuge and I absolutely love it. My 2 cents. :)
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: You have pointed out my pet issue. Everyone has one. Clawing back power from the GOP is “simple” – more votes (it’s not simple but it can be done). But how do we claw back power from the police?
(“Police” being a catch-all term for a broad spectrum of actors ranging from my local cops to the CBP/ICE, FBI, NSA and others. That they have far too much power in American society is self-evident. What to do about that is not at all self-evident.)
Uncle Cosmo
@Adam L Silverman: In fact it’s Instrufracture Week!
…Oh, wait…
Gelfling 545
@Mnemosyne: His proposition is acceptable.
frosty
@Adam L Silverman: Rotate away! Looking forward to see what comes up next.
(Staying frosty … also too it snowed on the PA Tpke yesterday)
EveryDayIHaveTheBlues
@Adam L Silverman: No problem, thank you. I was just curious how this would actually be accomplished. It does seem like something that would require something more than just the “political appointees” to prosecute.
JPL
A little good news
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
It seems as though Trump wants to do nothing. And he conspicuously seems to want to do nothing. Whatever the language is, creating, drafting, imposing sanctions, Trump announces and then undoes whatever someone says will happen.
So, who is coming up to him and saying, “Mr President, here is what you can or should do with respect to sanctions.” Is it Trump himself making shit up and then changing his mind?
Supposedly, there was some meeting which concluded with everyone in the room hearing something about strong sanctions, and with Haley going away to announce this.
Given what has happened with other issues, such as DACA and the budget, it appears that something happens, someone speaks to Trump later, and whatever happened is made to un-happen. Maybe it’s Lou Dobbs.
@Ruckus:
One day, Trump may say something or agree to something that will unleash hell before it can be undone. That Trump may not know what he is doing is only part of it. That terrible shit might happen as someone tries to execute his decisions should scare the bejeebus out of everyone.
Just one more canuck
@Adam L Silverman: smh
Stay frosty
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: That’s good, but won’t Kobach just charge it to his office? It does nothing to him personally.
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
We have to vote in local elections, since it’s mostly localities that run the police departments. Vote for City Council members who make police reform an issue. Vote for pro-reform sheriffs.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I expect Putin to do his best to ensure otherwise.
oldgold
Another example from today of his idiocy.
Brachiator
@oldgold:
Jesus. I suppose that the GOP will continue to pretend that Trump knows what he is doing. But the rest of us just have to hold on for dear life and hope that this dope doesn’t do something catastrophically stupid.
trnc
@Adam L Silverman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1sgug6prw
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: that’s “a” sock smarter than the VP
Brachiator
With all of the controversy over Trump and Nikki Haley, I have to admit that I love this New York Magazine headline:
Maybe Haley was invoking her inner Sikh warrior.
rikyrah
Missouri’s Governor files restraining order against the Attorney General ??
https://twitter.com/ZavalaA/status/986713550541369349?s=19
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
The horse has been missing from the barn since at least the early half of 2017.
I have lowered my expectations accordingly to just actually surviving to see 2019.
tobie
@oldgold: John Harwood has mastered the economy of words when taking down Trump. This was an impressive display.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
I fully expect more buses to be dropped on her.
Because the only reward for doing a job for Trump is worse jobs.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Japan won’t agree to bilateral anything if the U.S. doesn’t exempt Japan from steel and aluminum tariffs. Trump’s supporters won’t support that. What’s a fat orange pig to do?
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
This is almost as crazy as Trump.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Similarly, a Federal Court blocked Ohio’s new law diverting funds from Planned Parenthood. A pleasant surprise!
Brachiator
Cuba is getting slightly younger leadership
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
When did Cohen become Trump’s business partner???
Steeplejack (phone)
Watching Trump’s joint press conference starting now.
First impression: if Trump is 6’3″, that is one tall Japanese prime minister. Just sayin’.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
To the contrary. We have to hope he does something catastrophically stupid to himself instead of to us.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): They have Abe listed as 5’9″
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack (phone):
No-class ass: Sending condolences to Barbara Bush’s family, he mentions that GHWB was married to her for 73 years, then throws in: “I’ll never beat that record.”
ETA: I’m a bit behind on the DVR, as usual.
debbie
Does Pittsburgh know something we don’t or have the Russian bots gone rogue?
Frankensteinbeck
@debbie:
I don’t think that will be a big issue. The only followers who actually care have mostly figured out the tariffs were screwing them. He’s still hating on browns. Some of them may care that he’s good at negotiating (although I doubt it), but no specific action will affect that, because they don’t understand international trade at all. Only appearances.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
That’s the shortest 6″ I’ve ever seen. Boom! Phrasing.
Brachiator
@debbie:
Just saw this. A welcome victory of sanity over right wing dogma.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone):
That’s one of those things where a normal person might ad-lib and say, “What an amazing love story.” or anything anodyne.
Just anything but having to make it about yourself again.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Drip, drip, drip!
MomSense
@Steeplejack (phone):
It was a cringeworthy comment. Also, too I resent this press conference being held at mar a lago.
debbie
@Corner Stone:
Bet Melania heartily seconds that!
debbie
@MomSense:
You know what else is at Mar a Lago? The payday lenders’ national conference.
Corner Stone
Sad, sweaty desperation combined with the death of all dignity of the American soul?
MomSense
Now he’s taking credit for the success of the Olympics?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone, @MomSense:
That line would kill at a Dean Martin roast!
Corner Stone
@debbie:
Inner Melania Scream: You can’t beat 73 seconds, you fucking two pump chump!
***SHUTTERS***
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
drumpf doesn’t do something stupid.
As I said, he always does everything stupid, that is his only possible thought process. That it will be dangerous, deadly, catistrophic or just plain stupid is anyone’s guess.
debbie
@MomSense:
Is Abe rolling his eyes or anything?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
????
Damn, my phone’s so old I don’t have the vomiting emoji.
Steeplejack (phone)
@debbie:
He is remaining, uh, inscrutable.
Steeplejack (phone)
I’m ten minutes behind on the DVR. I just got to the place where Trump took credit for the Olympics and threw in a non sequitur about boosting ticket sales. What a fucking maroon!
Steve in the ATL
@rikyrah:
Lol whut? That’s not how it works!
Sm*t Cl*de
@debbie:
“The Americans have imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminium. Let’s shift our mills to the States and restart the industry there.”
“Where’s the fun in that? The cost/benefit analyses are far too predictable.”
“No, look at the small print, the president will exempt our competitors from the tariffs, depending on whim and on who’s greasing his tiny little palms.”
“OK! You’ve convinced me! Shift production tomorrow!”
Corner Stone
@Sm*t Cl*de: “We’re totally good to invest $250M in a retrofit!”
“For maybe the next five minutes or so.”
“Let’s do it!”
Peale
@Steeplejack (phone): he just has these fantasies where he walks over South Koreans doesn’t he? They are begging him to rejoin the tpp. They couldn’t run an Olympics without him. If it weren’t for Mexico, I think his contempt for Koreans would be more remarked on. He job st hates that they aren’t poor any longer.