Monday Evening Open Thread: Like He’ll Have A Choice…
“Can I help you?” an employee at Moscow duty free asked me.
“Thanks, I’ve found everything I need,” I said. pic.twitter.com/Byl8jgy1yW— Lucian Kim (@Lucian_Kim) June 8, 2019
If Trump knows Nixon wasn't impeached, no one else has any excuse. https://t.co/MhElfKRPRF
— Molotov Frappuccino Thrower (@agraybee) June 10, 2019
President Donald Trump, facing calls for impeachment from some Democrats, sought on Monday to draw a contrast between himself and former President Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 before lawmakers could remove him from office….
Trump’s comments came the same day John Dean, the former White House counsel to Nixon, testified before the House Judiciary Committee and drew comparisons between the president and his former boss. Following the testimony, Trump said “John Dean’s been a loser for many years.”
Some Democrats are pushing for impeachment proceedings linked to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the president obstructed justice…
Russian state TV starts to mock Trump. Remember, this romance will eventually end when it no longer suits their agenda. https://t.co/Xs6l3IfBdI
— Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1) June 10, 2019
His foreign paymasters remove their support, and within 24 hours the Squatter-in-Chief (plus whichever members of his family he chooses to share the news with — tough luck, Eric! Too bad, Melania!) will be hiding in a country with no extradiction treaty. Doubt the Bush clan will let him into their Paraguay holdings, though…
So, new reelection slogan: Nixon was a quitter!
If only. Unfortunately, the Russians abandoning Trump personally doesn’t mean they’re going to stop fucking with our elections or national political conversation, because their intent is not to support or not support one man but to disrupt the country. When Trump stops cooperating with them, they’ll happily move against him. It only provides more opportunity for mischief.
[Shaking my fist at sdhays who won “first!” seconds before I hit “post.”]
Can we get him a big tub of Extra Crispy and a tray of Macs, stat? He might leave then…
Reading about Chao and McConnell and remembering when book royalties were enough to get the leader of one of the houses of Congress to resign. God, I’m so tired.
Meanwhile, here in NYC a repo man, at the bank’s instructions, took possession of a car that belonged to an NYPD officer who had skipped 3 months worth of payments, and guess who ended up charged with a felony? Ugh. I liked it when I was naive and believed that laws applied to cops and Republicans.
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2019/06/08/repo-man-speaks-out-after-arrest-for-repossessing-car-belonging-to-nypd-officer-staten-island
Were Cat wrote a guest blog for me that went live today. She writes about keeping a blog fresh over a long time. She’s not around BJ much these days, but you might take a look.
Until the negative is proven, I will continue to believe Melania is still there because she got the first half of a very large settlement in her name, in Switzerland, in December of 20016
and speaking of Russian influence, I’d like to see Mark Penn’s financial statements, too
Chicken fingers are magic food.
This movie is getting so fucking old. When’s the climax already? I’m ready for it to be over.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This is WereBear, yes? Or does she also go by WereCat? Not doubting you, just have never seen her use the WereCat moniker.
Pamela is brilliant. I’ve learned an enormous amount about communicating with our feline friends since I first became aware of her.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Dude’s gotta get paid.
@karen marie:
Does Putin believe in human-caused climate change? His efforts at disrupting the current world order doesn’t seem to support that he does
So, less than 2 months out, the CBD’s Biometric Security data base has been hacked and put on the Dark Web.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/hackers-stole-traveler-photos-border-agency-database/amp
It may come from a propagandist, but nobody can point out how it’s untrue. That’s the advantage of Trump; he’s so ludicrous you don’t have to lie or even exaggerate to have propaganda that seems like it must be fake.
I like Biden. I think he’d be a decent general election candidate, better than many of the almost two dozen, but… /very Nixon voice/…. My god, my god.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
JFC, what a fool
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I hate it but I can’t say it won’t be a successful campaign strategy.
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh you’re right, of course! Sorry. I was thinking “cats.”
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ETA: I also like Warren, coming closer to making a choice (while of course remaining team broken glass) but if I were to get to one of her town halls, I’d ask her if she has a plan for making Mitch McConnell minority leader)
(edit function won’t post)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Someone of twitter wants to remind Biden that Merrick Garland happened before Trump.
@Baud: true, the lumpenmittel likes to hear about bipartisanship and blah blah blah. I still wouldn’t mind him taking a few shots at McConnell while he does that.
ETA: I’d like to see him go to Maine and say, “I see my old friend Susan Collins going along with everything McConnell and trump want and I want to call her up and say, “Susan, what happened to you? What are you doing?”
“Mitt Romney, would your father be proud of you, defending trump?”
As the saying goes: Isn’t it pretty to think so?
He will think that he has the Armed Forces at his beck and call, and “just let the Demon-rats TRY to step me from looting the Treasury,” and so on. Nixon knew when it was time to go, when Howard Baker (or whoever it was) told him so, because he had about 90 IQ points on the Traitor-in-Chief. Nixon was paranoid and evil, but not a moron.
I want a tee-shirt with those two criminal mugs on it. Keep reminding people they’re in bed together. From Russia with love!
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Screw that. Ask her if she has a plan for making him “former Senator,” hopefully “convicted former Senator.”
@SiubhanDuinne: She brought me to tears one day with her writing. It was when she wrote about giving a feline a “knowledge of love” –– it brought back memories of long departed pets of mine.
She is a brilliant and sensitive writer.
Everything on Twitter is recycled. BuzzFeed from 2017 (see #15).
Cheers,
Scott.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
In fairness to people like Biden, it’s not like anyone will have a valid answer to how to work with Republicans to get an agenda passed.
@Jay: What could go wrong?
@Baud: There is no valid answer unless McConnell is retired.
Phuck this muthaphucka 😠😠😠
Matt Murphy (@MattMurph24) Tweeted:
Tom Steyer is targeting these 12 Democrats over impeachment:
Eric Swalwell
Jim Clyburn
Elijah Cummings
Hakeem Jeffries
Nita Lowey
Ben Ray Lujan
Debbie Dingell
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Kathy Castor
Lou Correa
Mark Takano
Tony Cardenas https://twitter.com/MattMurph24/status/1138179804648345600?s=17
@My Side of Town: and that’s the crux of the problem. Modern Republicans would rather let the house rot than help the ‘evil’ Democrats
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @SFAW: She could always Sumner him.
@rikyrah: Swalwell has openly come out in favor of impeachment.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
One of these candidates has to stand up and point out that this is phucking ridiculous 😡😡
@rikyrah: why is it obstensibly Leftie agitators that think the way to get things done is to yell at our own politicians even louder than usual? Especially when the calculation that mostly bogs us down is “the mushy middle scares easily”?
Since Malcolm made the statement today that Dirty Don could have fired all he desired directly, I wish someone would have asked him why he didn’t instead of coercing his minions to do his dirty work?
@The Dangerman: For some reason I just flashed on an episode of All Creatures Great and Small where James Herriott was visiting two older spinster sisters to deal with their pig about some problem. He needed the pig to be in a stall where he could examine it but in order to get the pig from the yard into the stall in the barn one of the sisters was luring it along with digestive biscuits. She’d put one down on the ground, the pig would eat it, she’d move about 2-4 yards away and put another biscuit down for the pig. James was getting impatient and asked can’t you put the biscuits farther apart? The sister laughed and replied that she couldn’t because the pig knew if they were farther apart she wouldn’t get as many biscuits.
Not sure why your mention of KFC and McDonald’s made me think of that….
@sdhays:
Trump: I love authoritarians because they never leave!
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If the last 30 years haven’t shown Biden that Republicans will never work with any other parties, he has no business running.
@germy: Polling is unreliable when you have a foreign army to hack voting machines.
@debbie: I’ll vote for him in the general if he manages to convince the majority of dems that he is the one.
Each side has its own reality:
But only one side is right.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Speaking of Nixon (can’t link on iPad):
@germy:
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is what happens when all your life your spiritual leadership was insisting you think the best of people, and you kept on listening in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I agree that this is nonsense. But a Democrat is going to have to work with these people. Would you prefer eternal combativeness?
Well, I guess today is episode one of season one of “The Impeachment” I’d say that 22 episodes could take us to late November 2019. Starting Season two in late April should take us to late October, 2020 given another 22 episodes. I hope they get a Hollywood pro in to write the scripts.
Impeach, convict; charge, try and imprison.
That is all.
@debbie: that’s what I always think of, the arrogance of people like Hickenlooper insisting, with all apparent conviction, that they could do what Obama didn’t. But Baud has a point, there are gettable voters– tote bagger types– who don’t like trump but do like tax cuts, and they like to hear that shit. They think of themselves as “non partisan” and reasonable, smart people and they want to vote for someone they think agrees with them. Warren talks about getting bipartisan legislation, and i think Gillbrand or Klobuchar have a line about “I even worked with Ted Cruz!”, with the “that asshole” part just implied by inflection.
I guess I’d just like Biden to be a little better at it
@🇺🇸🌎 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳🌷:
He believes in it. He thinks he can profit from it.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“How will you work with Republicans” is the Kobayashi Maru of the Democratic primary.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Love her writing and way of looking at a question. Way of Cats keeps getting better and better.
Hey does anyone else think that the real purpose of calling John Dean to testify was mainly to get his name in headlines and remind John McGahn that there was a White House Counsel who went to prison for helping the president obstruct justice?
@JoyceH:
Except he went states evidence and entered witness protection.
@Brachiator:
“Republicans have continually shown, by their actions and their votes over the past decade, that they have no interest in bipartizan efforts to pass legislation to improve the lives, jobs, health and wellbeing of all Americans.
Under Mitch McConnel and the Trump Administration, hundreds of bills which would help America from Example A to Example Z have been passed in the House only to die of neglect in the Senate.
The only way America can move forward, is with Democratic Majorities in the House, Senate and a Democratic President in the White House”
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This.
“Almost half of Americans are working to support an economy that isn’t working to support them. They live and die in debt, Haque observes. They are effectively Neo-serfs:”
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-poor-country-of-its-own-kind-by.html?m=1
@Jay: The other half are retired and dependent on the neo serfs. This can’t continue.
@Jay: If the Democratic nominee campaigned on that, Trump would win at least 40 states.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: fuck Biden. Seriously fuck him. If you don’t learn after Merrick Garland and still want to compromise with the GOP on any fucking thing you need to just quit and join the Republicunt party.
Also anybody see the story of Amy Chua’s daughter getting a clerkship with Kavanaugh? These people don’t even try to hide the pay to play crap. The second Kavanaugh clerk is Christian Federalist society nutjob. Trenton Van Oss. Seriously who names their kid Trenton Van Ass.
@Mai Naem mobile:
You know, all politicians love corn dogs and whatever food the state they are currently in is famous for.
@Mai Naem mobile: Yep.
I realize that the MAGA horde is stupid, but after many years of Trump, he basically has like four insults to choose from. He’s such a weak pile of nothing. I can’t believe people in his party are afraid of him.
@Raoul: the paucity of trump’s vocabulary fascinates me, especially his reliance on the word “nice”. I think he said the royals were ‘very nice’.
@Jay: Wasn’t he one of the founders?
@Raoul:
They’re not afraid of him. They’re afraid of his angry and violent fans.
@Adam L Silverman:
I think you mean “Brooks” him, since it was Brooks who delivered the beating.
@Nicole:
The life of a repo man is intense.
“Russian state TV starts to mock Trump. Remember, this romance will eventually end when it no longer suits their agenda.” –Frank Figliuzzi
I am sure that the Russians wouldn’t want to actually help elect a Democrat, but if it suits their fancy to sow more chaos in the US by not supporting Trump 2020, they’ll bug out in a hurry.
@germy: My theory, which is mine, is that the reason Romney is kowtowing is to preserve the rube vote for Ragg and Tagg and Dragg. Ditto the elder Bushes and George P. Jebbie and Dumbya will never run for office again, and even if he came out full-on never-trump I doubt Romney would ever lose an election in Utah.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve heard a few clips from a couple decades ago. He used to actually be able to use more complex vocabulary. I don’t know if it’s laziness, far too much repetition of his stock phrases, or (more likely seeming, to me) he’s in fairly noticeable mental decline.
The stress of trying to stay in office against a wall of scandal, early dementia, or what, I do not know. But his doctors claiming he’s in the peak of health is, ahem, utter bullshit when it comes to his mental state. His physical decline is pretty damn obvious, too.
@🇺🇸🌎 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳🌷: Is this a rhetorical question? In case not Russia is a petro state depsendent on selling natural gas to europe and petroleum when it can. It has no interest in renewable energy or in anything but party approved science. And with an economy the size of Italy it is in real danger.
Of course it’s in danger from global warming. The arctic coastline permafrost is eroding at up to three feet a day, already in June! Watch for polonias and massive fires in the tundra this year again. It’s hard to drill for gas when it’s blowing up or when the taiga is in flames.
@SFAW: Tomato-toemaatoe…
@Adam L Silverman: Not for the one on the receiving end.
@Raoul: His physical decline is pretty damn obvious, too.
Pictures at the link, including meat sculpture!
@Dan B:
Siberia started burning in early May this year,
“The head of the local Ministry of Emergencies Valentin Nelyubov said the situation with wildfires grew so difficult due to insufficient fire extinguishing forces and lack of initiative shown by the municipal authorities.
Overall in Irkutsk region firefighters face more than 50,000 hectares (50km2) of burning woods and fields.
In the neighboring Trans-Baikal region wildfires reached the area of 31,300 hectares (313km2). ”
https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/raging-wildfires-ravage-siberia-and-far-east-of-russia/
@JoyceH: John Dean never went to prison, he was housed in a safe house while giving evidence to the Special Prosecutor and his sentence was reduced to time served(4 months).
@🇺🇸🌎 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳🌷:
Putin thinks climate change will turn Siberia into farmland. Doesn’t quite work that way, but he is like ‘bring it’, in the belief that it will benefit Russia.
@Raoul:
And John Dean was an investment banker and author. When he retired, he moved to a Beverly Hills estate. Sound like a loser to YOU?
I don’t think many losers retire to Beverly Hills, actually!