Monday Morning Open Thread: Good Cop / Lousy Cop
Across the aisle…
To put it as bluntly as possible, but also as gently as possible, I’m irritated at the prospect of James Comey urging anyone not to lose their minds in a sensitive political situation.
— David Waldman, LLC (@KagroX) July 22, 2018
Haven’t you helped enough? https://t.co/eDXGaDsalu
— Morgan Harris (@mharris621) July 22, 2018
Look, man. Become a Democrat and embrace liberal values if you want to dispense advice to Dems. There is no "his Republican Party." There's one Republican Party, it's led by Donald Trump and you're a part of it. Until something changes, your advice is not welcome. https://t.co/8OEFlXAlgm
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) July 22, 2018
Who actually likes James Comey besides James Comey?
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) July 22, 2018
To be fair, who else could like James Comey as much as James Comey?
Blech.
Always the projection with these Repubs.
Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Apropos of nothing…
Is the Manafort trial going to be on TV?
@Baud: I don’t think Virginia allows cameras in courtrooms. But it would be must see TV if they did.
Good morning, jackals.
Ozark: great catch about the Pompeo projection.
Fucomey.
@Baud: I hope it involves a news copter following a white Lada in a slow police chase around the Beltway
@Baud: eventually, as an FX mini series
I admit to unplugging for a couple days….why is he screeching about Iran ?
@Baud: No. You can’t even bring your cell phone to the courthouse.
The best comment I’ve seen about Comey’s “advice”:
(LawyersGunsMoneyBlog)
@germy:
As is Jeb! is a moderate. They are all fucking radical loons. High time these corrupt thugs are called radical.
Today will be sneak in a lawn mowing before leaving day. Also download stuff to watch on the planes from Netflix and Amazon Prime to the tablet day.
Caught an interesting (overused word, but applicable) short (~50 min.) documentary on Amazon Prime last night. Open Secrets, about gay Canadian servicemen during WW2.
@MagdaInBlack
Without going into further detail, for the same reason he screeches about anything – because his wi-fi is connected and his brain cells are not.
@Platonailedit: His “tone” his moderate. His policies are just as batshit crazy as the rest of them. There are no moderate republicans.
@Elizabelle: It got even better (as in worse) over the next few paras in the article:
Unlike our trump supporting Evangelicals.
Separating children from parents at the border because the parents broke the law by being brown while seeking asylum is the sensitive approach and all the protestors need to STFU.
Nothing to see here, move along Mr Mueller, move along. And don’t mind that man hiding in the cone of silence while he destroys the environment, also forget about all the money the trump org is making off the presidency, and never mind the Kushner family selling visas in China and…. And you? Over there? Black person waiting in line to vote for 4 hours? Sorry, your voter registration was expunged last month so no, you can’t vote. Sucks to be you.
The level of corruption in service to the wealthy in the trump admin is mind boggling.
@NotMax:
Got it. The snowflake in chief was triggered.
@MagdaInBlack:
Because he’d chewed, broken the heads off, or rubbed shit on all of his other toys over the last week and the babysitter was – this – close to slapping his fat, orange face for being such a petulant whiner.
“Look Donny, that brown kids’ saying stuff about you. Why don’t you go and egg his windows or something?”
@germy:
Pretty much. We have two political movements in this country: Wanting to help ordinary people, and bigotry. Everyone else is a tiny fringe. Trump offered the hardest shot of bigotry.
@MagdaInBlack: Rouhani said something about not playing with the lion’s tail. Follow the link I give here:@OzarkHillbilly:
Meanwhile, Bibi’s trying to goad Tr*mp into another war:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wanton complete projection with wanton lack of self awareness. Fucking gaslighting assholes.
Wikileaks links to 2 year old DNC talking points about Right wing judges as “opposition research” on Kavanaugh
Still haven’t uncovered anything about the Trump Administration or Republicans in Congress- the people who are actually in power.
@OzarkHillbilly:
This sounds like Bush/Cheney in the lead-up to invading Iraq.
@NotMax: man, Anne with an E has really jumped into lbgt stuff big time
@raven
Anne of Lavender Gables?
;)
@germy:
Seems to be working. Donald the Dove and Hillary the Hawk. Remember that incredibly insightful political commentary?
Trump looked weak in Russia so he has to make up for it by attacking Iran.
@germy:
Bibi’s up to no good and he’s sneaky. Trump is also up to no good, and he takes pride in zigging when people expect him to zag. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
@Kay:
Trump’s morphing into Gaddafi.
@Kay:
Isn’t pos twitter’s one of tos not to promote war, hatred etc.?
@debbie: Hey, it’s the War in the Middle East Boogaloo! because we really slayed them with our last dance in that neighborhood.
@Amir Khalid:
Putin and Netanyahu are fighting for Trump’s soul. An epic battle.
@germy: The sooner Netanyahu and his cult of crazy followers are driven into the sea by sane Israeli’s the better for everyone. Maybe a close friend of the orange fart cloud (cough, putin) could handle the problem for Israel via his polonium poison for that crazy war monger.
@Amir Khalid: interesting? Maybe, though my word would sound more like horrifying 😱
@Annie Laurie:
To be fair, Donald Trump likes Donald Trump much more than James Comey likes James Comey. OTOH James Comey doesn’t dislike Donald Trump’s GOP enough to leave the GOP. But what if James Comey did leave the GOP to become a Democrat? Would we start liking James Comey even a fraction as much as James Comey likes James Comey? I doubt it.
I’m not anything approaching being the bootblack to the cousin of a third assistant apprentice to a scholar of Persian history, but would make a gentleman’s wager that Rouhani’s phrasing harks back to similar phrasing in a regionally/culturally well-known Farsi poem.
@Kay: He wants to block Iranian oil, which helps Russia by raising the price.
@debbie:
For an infinitesimal prize.
Oddly enough, Bibi also oversaw the rescue of 250 White Helmets out of Syria, via the Golan Heights, into Jordan. Assad had their names on a list, and the Russians can’t be too keen either on all those witnesses to gassing and barrel-bombing living to testify at length. I can see the benefit of poking Assad in the eye, but it’s gonna get Trump in Dutch with Russia.
I’m slightly bummed that the TCM classic movie tours of NYC only run on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I’m getting in too late to go on Saturday and leaving Tuesday evening. Was hoping to go on it Tuesday before I left if there was time.
@debbie:
Query: would the highest bidder win, or the lowest bidder win that battle? And hasn’t Trump already sold his soul to the devil for a lifetime theme park pass to the “Seven Deadly Sins”?
@debbie:
Joke’s on them when they find a shriveled, burnt mouse turd.
@Baud:
Thanks- I gathered that was one of the goals with the sanctions. Trump worries about rising fuel costs, though. He knows his presidency hinges on his base’s perception that the economy is good. He’ll collapse if there’s a bump in the road with the economy.
@satby
Have you ever taken a Circle Line tour of Manhattan? I remember it as being quite a lot of fun.
@satby: What is on the tour?
@Kay: It’s becoming clear to more and more people that what Trump says isn’t credible. I’m not even sure the markets react to his statements anymore.
@Kay:
Kay, I heard a Midwestern manger of a food processing company interviewed yesterday. He said that customers’ orders for his processed meals had been cut in half, he thinks as a result of steel companies having increased their prices 30% after the tariffs began.
(I know that’s a poorly constructed sentence. Sorry.)
shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) Tweeted:
Had Pres Obama had candidate Trump resume 3 marriages, 3-6 bankruptcies and countless sexual assault allegations. He couldn’t get a tour of the WH, let alone become Pres. https://t.co/wWvQuTd0L9 https://twitter.com/ShannonSharpe/status/1020815013940932609?s=17
@NotMax:
I have. It’s about a half-hour too long.
Demons
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) Tweeted:
The Interior Department has commissioned a $1,700,000 expedited environmental review of the impact of leasing part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas drilling, according to a document released under the FOIA. https://t.co/mCTCyjCwss https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1020148793025720320?s=17
@Baud: @Kay: A war with Iran would block more than just Iranian oil. A lot more.
Doug Rand (@doug_rand) Tweeted:
In a series of recent memos, @USCIS has effectively enacted a “zero-room-for-error” policy for visa applicants attempting to navigate the legal #immigration system. 1/ https://twitter.com/doug_rand/status/1018869398172553218?s=17
@Baud:
He looked genuinely weak in Russia. A far Right House member called it “subservient”, so it’s time for some belligerent threats against traditional Republican enemy countries. They can all rally ’round attacking Iran.
@MagdaInBlack:
Also, too, Mike Pompeo and Tom Cotton were beating the war drums at the Reagan Library.
Trump getting instructions from his boss in Helsinki to attack Iran would be the kind of thing you wouldn’t want in an official transcript of the meeting.
Just saying.
New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) Tweeted:
The real estate company formerly headed by Jared Kushner exposed children to cancer-causing substances as part of a campaign to push rent-stabilized tenants out of their apartments, a lawsuit claims https://t.co/iQC3oRrg66 https://t.co/nLeHMylEZV https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/1018647367891996675?s=17
erica orden (@eorden) Tweeted:
An AP investigation found that over the past three years, more than 250 rent-stabilized apartments — 75 percent of the building — were either emptied or sold as the Kushner Cos. was converting the building to luxury condos. https://t.co/23JE8WyS7u https://twitter.com/eorden/status/1018569915949895682?s=17
@Kay:
Yep.
He looked like the asset of Putin that he is.
@debbie:
That’s interesting. Food processing is one of the industries that are still unionized. They’re good jobs and they’re know as “recession proof” – not as cyclical as manufacturing durable goods. That’ll hurt in this area.
@hueyplong: I thought Russia and Iran were allies. I can’t keep up.
Iran is not Iraq.
Mess with the Persians if you want to. 😠😠
@debbie:
I don’t get it. What do steel tarrifs have to do with food processing?
@germy: They are.
@NotMax: no, I’ll check that out!
@germy: Lots, looks like fun:
http://www.tcm.com/tours/tour_ny.html
@rikyrah: Good morning 🙋
@Kay: Yes, GOP voters need a boogeyman. I wish I knew what our voters needed.
@rikyrah
IIRC from the news of some years ago, there was at least one tenant (elderly, female) who sued and won the right to have repairs done to her apartment and to continue occupancy.
Yes, it is my birthday. Which is going to be just like every other Monday it appears. As Ozarch would say — and does frequently — “Blech”
@Kay:
I can’t wait until Assange is thrown out onto those London streets.
I am glad that WikiLeaks has been discredited.
@Baud: It seems our voters need other of our voters to complain about.
@Immanentize:
Happy Birthday 😄🎈🎂 👍🌸🍧🍹🎉🎇
@rikyrah:
I am waiting for Assange to be set back into the world as well. Then I want to hear the words “sealed indictments.”
Annoyed that the “better” offerings from the hospital menu were suspiciously similar to the default offerings. A bit of rubber chicken, boiled potatoes that would be too bland even for a Minnesotan Lutheran church dinner, and vegetables boiled within an inch of their life* — and did I mentioned we’re specifically not supposed to have vegetables or any other fiber for five days post-surgery.
Ordered off the non-Western menu for tomorrow. Dim sum for breakfast (shu mai and har gow), with pad see ew for lunch, and being daring and ordering chicken penne for dinner. All the carbs probably won’t be good for my diabetes, but my blood sugar has been extremely good and hey, I’m in a hospital, they can give me insulin if needed.
I may have the arrange a food run with J.’s friend who’s here to support and get something more edible. Oh, and coffee. I’m seriously coffee deficient at this point. You have no idea how happy a latte this afternoon made me, even though I’m normally a black coffee drinker.
*No jello molds though.
@Immanentize:
What @rikyrah said.
@satby
Quickly perusing their web site, the prices seem reasonable even to an old cheapskate like me. Being on the water gotta be less sweltering than being on the pavement.
;)
Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) Tweeted:
71 seconds, so many unanswered questions. Listen to @blackthought’s powerful original composition, #RestInPower, a tribute to the life and legacy of #TrayvonMartin and the title track of the docu-series that premieres July 30th on @paramountnet and @BET. https://t.co/jq9rJ4gWYP https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1020382669333385222?s=17
A nice news story: The radical sheriff giving offenders a chance
Much more at the link.
The run up to Iraq was sort of a fevered natural sequel to Afghanistan. I don’t get the impression that anyone in the US general public (excepting Dershowitz and his ilk) are at all interested in war with Iran. At all. No prep has been done. No fake crisis averted. Nothing.
@Immanentize:
Happy B-Day!
@Baud: binkys
Oliver Willis (@owillis) Tweeted:
it isn’t bewildering at all. but the media and pundits will continue to pretend its super confusing even if he replaced the us flag with the russian one. the obvious truth – he’s a traitor – is just something they won’t say. https://t.co/0HB2kPTUYB https://twitter.com/owillis/status/1021221278479454208?s=17
@Immanentize
Happy birthday!
(Video chosen with Immp in mind.)
@rikyrah:
Oh boy, I can only plead early-morning ear malfunction. Meal/nail, whatever. Here’s the interview.
Tomorrow is supposed to be more ouchy, as they take off the thick bandages covering up the surgical area, so you get a bit of pink bits that are now exposed to the elements. We’ll see how that goes.
OTOH, it’ll be the first chance to take a look at things and see how they turned out. I’m expecting stitches and swelling, but yeah, I’m looking forward to actually seeing the changes.
@Immanentize: Happy Birthday 🎂🎂🎂
rikyrah has all the emojis 😊
@DavidBegnaud: “Hamilton” creator @Lin_Manuel announces multi-million dollar arts fund for Puerto Rico
Lin-Manuel says all funds from… https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1021141718639562755?s=17
Ivanka Trump believed her announcement of existing apprenticeship programs last week would distract people from Trump’s disastrous summit performance. The boilerplate “job retraining” announcement that every single administration in my adult life has made.
She considers this a huge accomplishment.
This is what privilege looks like, in practice. Meeting the absolute minimum is considered extraordinary work.
@rikyrah: @Baud: @NotMax: @satby:
Thank you all! Loved the viddy NotMax! Gotta get Immp to his job. Later jackals!
@Sister Golden Bear: I can’t even imagine! Good luck for less ouches than expected.
@Sister Golden Bear:
I hope you’re happy with the results.
@Immanentize: Happy Birthday! Hope you and Immp have a splendid summer day. Will be thinking of you today.
@rikyrah: We’ll see if Putin has anything to say about what appears to be US sabre-rattling concerning Iran. If you are right and Iran is in solid with the RF in these shifting times, we might be treated to the spectacle of Bibi and Vlad publicly playing “Whose Gimp is Trump?”
That won’t at all be embarrassing for the United States.
@Immanentize: My preferred method of celebration of B-days is to ignore them so that’s what I will do for you. ;-)
@Immanentize:
I don’t really celebrate my birthday anymore either. I just sort of stopped. It upsets my daughter a little- she loves holidays and celebrations.
The year I turned 21 my boyfriend at the time (who was otherwise horrible, in retrospect) threw a surprise party for me where I was genuinely surprised. That was the high point. Never really topped that, for birthday celebrations.
@Immanentize: It’s not like every other Monday, because it’s your birthday. Eat cake!
@OzarkHillbilly: Pompeo and Trump are definitely the “pot” calling the Iranian “kettle” black. This kind of attack just strengthens the Iranian regime domestically since the Persians are a rather nationalistic people with an identity going back 2600 years. The thing is, as the North Korean waltz has shown, Trump says a lot of words and is a bully, but he really is risk adverse about actual military actions.
@OzarkHillbilly:
And never more than in that statement
@Baud: It should be.
Christian fascists bitching about “Islamic fascists”.
You could run a drive-in on the projection.
When we have a Dem in the White House again, s/he’s going to have to let Israel know that they can keep on electing Bibi, but we’re done with taking that clown seriously.
@Baud:
Well, they say recognizing you have a problem is the first step.
Maybe if you don’t know what they need, it means those voters aren’t ‘ours’?
If only somebody could ask them.
(all the contempt everyone else is showing helps though, keep that up)
@Kay: Wikileaks really outed themselves when President Obama was elected. Prior to that they were an each way bet in regard to political issues – then it all changed and trump caused them to double down against democracy.
@AnonPhenom: as I said, a binky.
@Kay: Any other twitter user would be banned for this tweet
@AnonPhenom: Perhaps you’re right that we’re actually a minority party in this country. I guess we’ll learn soon enough.
@rikyrah: Exactly this. Stop pretending it doesn’t make sense. It does.
@satby: You notice no one ever says “we should be nicer to Democrats.”
@AnonPhenom: Great! Here, have some more!
@sherparick:
I pray to FSM that you are right about that. I worry that he will see military action as a political plus.
@sherparick:
Trump’s attacks strengthen the Iranian hardliners and weaken the reformers.
Trump’s repudiation of the Iranian deal has proved the hardliners were correct when they said that the West couldn’t be trusted.
@Viva BrisVegas:
It’s often the case that domestic conservatives buttress foreign conservatives.
@AnonPhenom:
Sorry, kid, but 2016 proved that there the alleged “left” will never vote for a Democrat, no matter how terrible the alternative is.
@Immanentize: Or as Yarrow would say, “Tick, tock, motherfucker”
@Chyron HR: Oh, you better be nice or they’ll show you and not vote some more.
@Kay:
Truth. No wonder they’re freaking out. You mean there’s folks out there who do twice the work for half the recognition. Inconceivable.
@JPL: Eat cake. Because it’s cake or death!
Toronto shooting: 2 dead in popular Greektown district; gunman killed by police
The American disease is contagious.
@debit: 👍👏
@Chyron HR: I dunno. I don’t think there really are all that many lefties in the US. Probably a lot more people who think their votes don’t matter (kind of self-fulfilling, no?). I don’t know what the solution to that is.
@A Ghost To Most: I’ve been saddened and concerned about that story.
You want the osmosis to seep south of their border. Canada does not need to be picking up any of our many pathologies.
Interesting:
Judging by my family in WNY, there’s little chance of sanity leaking south.
@Kay: This year my sister sent me a card that made me laugh. On the front was an oddly dressed older woman. The caption said: “I buy all my clothes at Forever 71.” I had to explain the joke to Mr DAW.
@germy:
Grifters gotta grift.
@El Caganer: That recent article about the non-Trumpist white working class made, I think, the best political case for a stronger economic leftism I’ve seen in a while: it’s not going to pull any significant number of people over from the Trump camp (they are actually more affluent and driven primarily by bigotry) but it might get some of these discouraged non-voters to vote.
@germy:
Amen!
@Matt McIrvin: Dems have been moving to the left since 2007. When do you think we’ll reach a tipping point where we’ll know whether the theory holds water?
@Kay:
I think it would be good humor if Rouhani tweeted back something like: “Oh, Donnie, you poor thing! After Putin took your balls back to Moscow with him, you think threatening us will magically re-grow them? Not that there was much there in the first place. Now, please, toddle off, and also SHUT THE FUCK UP, snowflake!”
Hilarity would ensue.
@OzarkHillbilly: They are not wrong, but people in glass houses and all of that.
@Immanentize:
Happy Birthday!
@germy:
man it drives these assholes so crazy that obama got diplomacy to work.
@Baud: How many people actually know what positions the Democratic Party has? That’s not necessarily the Party’s fault. I think a big chunk of the vote-eligible public has disengaged to the point that it has no clue what any party stands for. Which makes it much easier for a walking horseshit machine like Trump to peddle his nonsense.
@El Caganer:
To the extent that the party has policy positions they can all get behind, yes it is their fault. Nobody else is going to do that job for them.
@El Caganer: I don’t doubt there are tons of obstacles to our success. But I’ve been hearing that the party needs to move to the left to win for a long time. Meanwhile, the party has been moving to the left and hasn’t been winning (except for Obama), nor have more lefty progressives been winning very many seats over that time. I’m just asking for some evidence that rises above the anecdotal level and that isn’t just based on what people think should work.
@El Caganer:
Truth be told I don’t think the general public has ever been that engaged. That is not a knock on my fellow citizens, It is just some people follow baseball, some basketball, some spend their time raising their kids and a few fools follow politics.
They were black Americans picked up for offenses like vagrancy, flirting with white women & petty theft. The state leased them to plantation owners. They worked in the fields til they “dropped dead in their tracks.” They were as young as 14 & as old as 70. https://t.co/28aZiOd0t9
— Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) July 22, 2018
DA PHUQ?
‘Alabama-based League of the South launches Russian-language page to promote ‘Southern nationalism’’
‘The new page will reflect that the Russian people and Southerners are natural allies’ 🤦🏻♀️https://t.co/qNqjFNobb7
— RynheartTheReluctant (@TheRynheart) July 21, 2018
@Baud:
We’re already past it. Democrats offer what people say they want, then get no credit for it. Only in the world of magical leftist imagination is there a burning cultural desire for someone to announce they’ll tear down the rich and that will bring out voters. In the real world, Hillary’s historically liberal policy positions were ignored, Sanders lost the primary badly, a big chunk of his support turned out to just be ratfucking Republicans, and since then leftist candidates have been getting their asses kicked so bad that it’s big news when any of them win anything. Thus the confusion as to what our voters want to vote more consistently, because it sure as Hell isn’t anything that’s already been suggested. Personally, I think we’ve found it – getting punched in the face that their vote matters, and there’s Hell to pay if Republicans win. They needed life to shove their face in the ugly, not anything Democrats could do.
It’ll work too. The morons will now credit Trump with “averting” a war with Iran. Donald The Dove.
@El Caganer:
We’re positioning into a void. Elections are all about the lizard-brain now. Because it generates clicks.
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah, but there’s this woman in Brooklyn!!1!
@SFAW: According to Real Press Sec. he’s been tweeting up a storm this morning. Amazon, North Korea, Putin, Page, and witch hunt are the main topics. Doesn’t the grand jury meet on Mondays?
@D58826: it should be a knock on our fellow citizens. Basketball and baseball don’t actually impact their lives (unless they’re players) but politics affects everything from the air they breathe to the foods they eat to how much they pay for things and what governmental services they get or don’t get. The propaganda that government is the problem and their votes don’t matter has allowed them to feel justified in being disengaged, but it just makes everything worse for everyone. Even oligarchs need to breathe clean air and drink safe water.
Private sector leaders should shut up about Trump. They all backed him because they wanted deregulation and a tax cut.
They got what they wanted. They should stop pretending they care about what happens to anyone else.
Our elites suck. They’re low quality. Trump exploited an opening and the opening was our elites are reckless and incredibly greedy and selfish. They’re not even very smart.
@rikyrah: @rikyrah: I think “National Southernism” would have a better ring to it….
@El Caganer:
Oh, they know exactly what the parties stand for: they stand for “both parties suck!”
A huge number in this country have no idea how much their vote counts, and don’t want to because their air of savvy cynicism is far more important to them.
This is just being rotten for rotten’s sake. Makes no phucking sense.
…………………….
The Trump admin is planning to eliminate a vast trove of medical guidelines that for nearly 20 years has been a critical resource for doctors, researchers and others in the medical community, according to The Daily Beast. https://t.co/x70WdciU08
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 23, 2018
Excellent thread from a former senior counsel on the Senate Intel Committee and head of intelligence law at NSA https://t.co/0YAg17aqHi
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 23, 2018
@Baud: I don’t think moving to the left of what the party is now is even good policy. LTTs should be ignored not pandered to.
We had a sensible, balanced, ethical candidate. Comey stuck a knife in her back. I am not religious, but I might pick it up again just so I can see James Comey burning in hell.
@rikyrah: It makes perfect sense. As a Russian asset he is destroying the country which he officially heads from within. It all fits, the inane trade wars, the anti-immigrant jihad, the backing out of treaties and agreements. By the end of his Presidency, official American word will be worth zilch. iIf he is not stopped our currency will no longer be the reserve currency of the world.
He wants us to be like Russia. Many 0.1% that donate money to the Rs don’t care as long as they can become Red America’s oligarchs.
@Kay:
they should also shut up, because for all their Master of the Universe posturing, they still show up for the dog and pony show that they had at the White House last week, and they don’t say SHYT.
So, PHUCK THEM.
@rikyrah: Yeah, that tweet says a lot more about all these ass-clowns than they perhaps realize.
Why it matters that Kavanaugh questioned a key Watergate ruling
07/23/18 09:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination is controversial for a variety of reasons, but near the top of the list are the conservative jurist’s views related to the power of the American presidency.
As has been well-documented, Donald Trump’s choice for the high court is on record arguing that sitting presidents shouldn’t have to deal with “time-consuming and distracting” lawsuits and investigations. In Kavanaugh’s vision, a president shouldn’t have to deal with civil suits, criminal probes, or even questions from federal prosecutors.
But the scope of the judge’s thinking on the subject is still coming into focus. The Associated Press reported over the weekend:
As Trump threatens war with Iran, few know whether to take it seriously
07/23/18 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Welcome to Monday morning, Americans. Your president published a series of tweets overnight, directed at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, raising the prospect of a war.
………………..
Under normal circumstances, when a sitting American president threatens a possible war with a foreign adversary, it would be a development of great international significance. But Donald Trump’s presidency offers little in the way of normal circumstances.
It’s an awkward feeling. On the one hand, the Commander in Chief of the world’s strongest military is publicly raising the prospect of a deadly conflict, and it seems irresponsible to just shrug that off as background noise. On the other hand, most observers realize that Trump is an erratic amateur with the temperament of an elementary-school bully, who finds joy in chest-thumping bluster, and whose occasional tantrums frequently amount to very little.
The former suggests last night’s presidential tweets were important. The latter suggests we should roll our eyes and focus our attention elsewhere.
The uncertainty is itself an issue the nation needs to come to terms with. When a sitting American president threatens a war, and no one’s sure whether to take it seriously, there’s a problem.
Trump camp changed strategy after Russians stole DNC analytics
Rachel Maddow looks at the timing between the theft by Russian military intelligence of DNC analytics data in September 2016, as described in the recent indictment brought by Robert Mueller, and an abrupt change in campaign strategy by the Donald Trump campaign in early October.
Candidate whose data was hacked in 2016 talks defending democracy
Former Rep. Brad Ashford, whose data was stolen in the hack of the DCCC by Russia military intelligence, talks with Rachel Maddow about how details of the hack were addressed by the Democratic Party, what it meant to his campaign, and what it means to American democracy.
@rikyrah: Must be awash in rubles.
When I say…he brought receipts…
He👏 brought 👏 receipts 👏
Jake (@Care2much18) Tweeted:
Maggie Haberman:
Where are people getting the impression she is an access journalist and Trump shill?
Baffling?
Let’s take a closer look. https://twitter.com/Care2much18/status/1021060227096088576?s=17
Does he have a dog?
Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) Tweeted:
The sheer number of tweets in which Trump predicted Obama would go to war with Iran for political purposes is staggering https://t.co/h3bVd4iQTL https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1021383923820003328?s=17
@Frankensteinbeck: We live in an environment where everything is the “Trump show,” 24/7 no matter what news outlet you turn to. Getting your voice heard, when everyone is looking in astonishment, shock, horror, fear, etc. at the shitshow in the White House is really hard. That will be the challenge for Democrats–how to be heard at all in this media environment.
Assuring that hungry people, particularly children, are fed and assuring that sick people are able to see doctors and get healthcare at a reasonable price is not “losing your minds”. Allowing hunger and death in the richest country in the world because “socialism” is losing your minds. It’s called sociopathology.
@satby: At a general level I agree with you – politics does affect all of us. . I think I should have been a bit more specific and used the term ‘political junkie’ for those who follow the ins and outs of politics like other follow the baseball standings. Different folks just have different levels of interest.
I got interested when I listened with my Dad to Army/McCarthy hearings. I remember saying to my Dad – is that the guy with the frog in the throat
Bruce Japsen (@brucejapsen) Tweeted:
Kentucky’s Medicaid administration costs jumped more than 40% after implementing work requirements @FitchRatings https://t.co/tblc1NdYgq #PoliticsNation #CNNSOTU #ThisWeek #AMJoy https://twitter.com/brucejapsen/status/1021010378225053696?s=17
@rikyrah:
The level of sycophancy from these so called business leaders was disgusting.
LOL😄😄
Alex Morash (@AlexMorash) Tweeted:
Fox & friends is so dumb they had on the wrong politician this morning 🤦🏽♂️
They thought they had a Ann Kirkpatrick but they got @teambarbara who hijacked their show to bash Trump. 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/9nHkmBUhq1 https://twitter.com/AlexMorash/status/1021357641883414528?s=17
Lips pursed.
………………….
Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson hands out cash to potential voters
POSTED 4:55 PM, JULY 22, 2018,
BY TAHMAN BRADLEY,
CHICAGO — Willie Wilson, the millionaire businessman and candidate for Chicago mayor, handed out cash to potential voters Sunday morning at a church on Chicago’s South Side.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, himself seeking reelection, joined Wilson at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church at the event.
An aide to Wilson said the businessman gave away $300,000 to 2,000 people through the Dr. Willie Wilson Foundation, a 501(c)(3). Such organizations are tax-exempt, must not be organized for the benefit of private interests and are restricted in how much political activities they can conduct. Wilson says he organized the giveaway to assist homeowners who are struggling to pay their property tax bills.
“My wife and I have been blessed by God to be able to get a few of the material things out of life and so it’s up to us to now continually to share back with all of you all and others,” Wilson told church members during the event.
Wilson’s campaign spokesman insists today’s appearance was not campaign related. But Chicago politicos on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about the event.
Equalizer 2′ squeaks past ‘Mamma Mia 2’ to lead the box office
The follow-up to 2014’s “The Equalizer” is Denzel Washington’s first sequel and the biggest opening of director Antoine Fuqua’s career.
by Associated Press / Jul.22.2018 / 5:37 PM ET
In the battle of two very different sequels at the box office over the weekend, Denzel Washington’s action pic “The Equalizer 2” has narrowly won out over the ABBA jukebox musical “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”
Studios estimated Sunday that the R-rated “Equalizer” follow-up grossed $35.8 million from North American theaters over the weekend. It’s Washington’s first sequel and the biggest opening of director Antoine Fuqua’s career. The first “Equalizer,” from 2014, opened similarly and went on to earn more than $190 million worldwide.
Second place went to Universal Pictures’ “Mamma Mia 2,” which took in $34.4 million, a sum that was driven by an audience that was 83 percent female and 64 percent over 25. The film brought back much of the original cast, like Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan, and added Cher, Andy Garcia and Lily James to the mix. Critics overall gave the sequel better marks than the first, which still went on to gross more than $600 million worldwide 10 years ago.
@Immanentize: Happy Birthday!
I was happy to see this letter to the editor from Frederica Wilson to the Miami Herald. The “empty barrel” speaks. Her reputation will still be solid after this all plays out. In full:
Insecure about your ballot? Try absentee voting, July 20, Miami Herald.
@Immanentize: Happy Birthday!
F-You too Comey, Hillary as moderate as they come and she such an unacceptable radical in you mind you threw the election for the Nine Year Old in Chief, Since the Democrats won’t be nominating some Bush spawn, we will take it as read Comey will voting for Trump in 2020.
@rikyrah: Well everything has to do with the economy in a way. Cause a trade war, somethings go up in price, some people decide not to buy that, the example thing’s producer decides to lay off some employees and they and producer can’t buy as much of everything else, so those industries have layoffs and production cuts and raise their prices…
on topic, did anyone ask Comey what exactly he meant that democrats shouldn’t move too far to the left? I am curious what GOP voters think we are doing that is too left. I bet it’s projection, but I could use a laugh.
@Immanentize:
Happy birthday!
@Just One More Canuck: Ouch!
ETA I just realized that my age just hit the year in which I was born. So there is that!
@bjacques: This is not a Southern thing, people. Ever been to (my home town spaces) in Upstate New York? It is rural versus city. Segregated versus integrated. Very different than a regional dispute. Which is why it really cannot lead to a proper civil war as the two sides are everywhere. Well, absent ethnic (cultural?) cleansing.
@Platonailedit:
You would think Twitter would ban his account for inciting violence or something.
@rikyrah:
Steel cans, the package costs.
“The socialist left”. They called ’em “pinkos” not so very long ago. You can bet Comey was raised believing a commie lurks under every bed, and that America needed to fight the War in Vietnam in Vietnam, or Americans would be forced to fight on the streets of Honolulu or San Francisco.
Lest We Forget: Hillary campaigned for George McGovern but loves Henry Kissinger.
@Sister Golden Bear:
Glad you’re well enough to complain about the food. That was a sign of improvement in my wife, who spent 3 weeks in MICU, followed by a minor surgery to place chest tubes for a collapsed lung, followed by a short stay in SICU, followed by a long stay in general population guarded by nurses from infectious patients.
We agreed that the hospital food was high end for what it was, and there were always extra trays for folks staying with their patients. In the end her thoracic surgeon went to patch the “leaky lung” and found the entire third lobe of her left long was necrotic, and scraped it out.
Her recovery after that whole 2 month event was nearly total. Eat your food, be glad you’re able to criticize it.
So glad you’re doing swell so far away!
@germy: the moustache has also slapped his dick on the table…
@germy: that’s funny…she had a televised dust up with a woman from one of the gun safety orgs the other day. The woman pointedly asked her about NRA Russian ties and money.
@rikyrah: I read that as assend of
Putin…
@sukabi:
For some reason, that line made me burst out laughing. Now I’m trying to think of a way I can work the phrase “slapped his dick on the table” every time some male blow-hard spouts off with some ridiculous manly-manning bluster.
@Miss Bianca: I predict you’ll have plenty of opportunities.
I do not know if it is true that Roman generals, while celebrating their triumphs, were followed by a slave whose job it was to periodically whisper “Remember, you are but a man” into the general’s ear.
I do know that James Comey should always be accompanied in public by someone whose job it is, whenever Comey appears to be about to open his mouth, to say “Nobody cares what you think, you sanctimonious piece of shit” while punching him in the junk.