I’ll be curious to see if John Bolton shows up when he gets his subpoena and also if he actually throws Trump under the bus or just makes up stuff that supports Trump’s positions. It would be funny if he threw Trump under the bus and then Tucker and John Woo Yoo called him a liberal traitor. But no matter what happens, we know that in the diners and bars of Rust Belt America, Trump will be as popular as ever.
With the vote on impeachment coming up, let’s try to hit our targets for the Balloon Juice House Fund, which is split among the 17 most vulnerable Democratic incumbents.
Anon
Lol John woo.
DougJ
@Anon:
Sorry, I like Hong Kong movies and I’ve listened to Sure Shot a thousand times.
Mike in NC
Hoping the walrus guy is extremely pissed and looking for payback.
Jeffro
Have to admit, I did not have “John Bolton” on my “things that will eventually bring down the trumpov administration” bingo card.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike in NC: does he hate Russia– and the people who fired him before he could bomb Tehran– more than he hates the Democrats.
Could be. But I’m not counting any chickens
mrmoshpotato
Chris Tucker?
dmsilev
@Jeffro: You have to admire the writers for these past few seasons; there have been some truly gonzo plot twists. Hope they have something good planned for the season finale.
Mary G
Bolton is probably furious that he had a bombing run actually in the air to FINALLY get Iran back for 1979 and Twitler shut it down at the last second. He claimed hadn’t been told that 150 innocent Iranians would die (one of his lies right up there with “Mexico will pay for the wall;” everyone knows Putin found out and told him to knock it off). Also Mulvaney and Sondland were the Keystone Kops of ratfucking. Bolton’s a professional ratfucker, damnit. I’d guess he’ll throw those two under the bus and it’s 50/50 on Trump. I’m not all sure Schiff will even need him by next week. Even the lunch ladies in the WH mess probably heard five or six people talking about it.
dmsilev
@Anon: Picture a hearing room, a witness sitting at the table. Suddenly, a dove flys by the door…
cmorenc
Always considered John Bolton to be a dangerous warhawk nutjob who should be in an locked asylum for the dangerously deranged, but how strange it is that he might just turn out to be a man of integrity whose integrity plays a key part in taking out a dangerous sociopathic nutjob President. If so, I’d be sorta glad he’s at least temporarily on our side, even if only in the enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of way. Afterward, of course, he still needs to be locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane.
phdesmond
In the opening minutes of his show, Larry O’Donnell hypothesized that Bolton would save all the juicy anecdotes for his book to be published next year or whenever he can manage.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mary G: Bolton might decide that Trump is going on down in flames that this is time for the Neo-Cons to redemn themselves for the Iraq mess.
geg6
@Mary G:
I agree. I’ve also seen reports from unnamed people who have been around him and they indicate he is pissed and has things to say, if he should so decide. A sort of warning shot, if you will. Make of that what you will.
Patricia Kayden
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in Texas
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Let me guess: stung by his rejection by the DC fans, Trump insisted on that ad being run.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
he’s talking about trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Putin and, as I understand it, Pompeo’s current number two
sdhays
What’s so tedious about it all is the jackass confessed, but we have go through all this process so that the media can build up suspense and report something. The NPR 2 minute news summary today wasn’t terrible, but it uncritically quoted Dump as denying any quid pro quo. He literally released a memo proving that he did, and subsequently admitted it, albeit using euphemisms. But he denies any “quid pro quo”, so let’s go with that. Does he even know what quid pro quo means?
Dump could say, on camera, that he buried young virgins alive under every hole in his shitty golf courses, then deny he said it, and the media would just report that he denies being a serial killer.
SFAW
If John Woo were directing this maladministration, the “choreography” would be a lot better, and more stylized. Of course, a lot more blood, too, but sometimes there have to be trade-offs.
And if we could get Chow Yun-Fat as President, I would be OK with that.
Mnemosyne
@Anon:
To be fair, I’m pretty sure the whole thing is going to end in a multi-way standoff with Trump, Giuliani, and Barr all pointing guns at each other’s heads in the Oval Office. ?
Kayla Rudbek
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: in Houston, even.
O. Felix Culpa
In sportsball news, Nats take the lead 3-2, top of the 7th.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
I really think that Rubin is on the verge of doing a full Cole, if she’s not there already. She’s REALLY pissed.
Japa21
Talk about timing. Turned on the game and the first pitch I saw was Kendrick’s home run.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: In that happy scenario, my money is on Barr; he’s by far the most competent of the three.
Geoduck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No, this evidently happened in the ballpark in DC, with fans watching the game on the big screen. Still notable, if not so much it happening in Texas.
The Dangerman
So, if Nationals win, will Trump dare crash the parade?
Mary G
Nats ahead!
@Mnemosyne: I’d pay to see that.
Mnemosyne
@cmorenc:
Bolton’s not a man of integrity. He’s a mafioso who didn’t get what the Don promised him and now he’s pissed and seeking revenge.
I’m good with that.
dmsilev
@The Dangerman: He’ll try to invite them to the White House no doubt.
O. Felix Culpa
@dmsilev: And serve them cold hamberders.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
With this crew, the edited version is more likely. Either way is fine, however.
Question: if the Moron-in-Chief points a gun at his own head, does the Secret Service shoot him because he’s an active threat?
West of the Rockies
I watched Rachel talk about Cuccinelli. He comes across as so vile, unsympathetic to fellow humans, so cruel…
When do you all suppose he became that way? Presumably he was a normal 6 year old: silly, thrilled about Christmas and cookies and cartoons…
I know how people become greedy, ignorant, arrogant, but his kind of terrible (along with Trump, Miller, Bannon, Rudy), man, that sort of parasitic wretchedness, that stupefies me.
I guess they all have personality disorders.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nope, Nats Park. He clarified his tweet.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
I don’t follow baseball like I used to, but I would be very happy if the Nationals are the next World Champions. Twitler‘s pouting will be EPIC.
Mary G
And the wife-beater is pitching. Hope he gives up tons of runs.
O. Felix Culpa
@West of the Rockies: Forgive me, but which archvillain is this Cuccinelli? I’ve misplaced my scorecard of evildoers.
ETA: To put it more plainly, who is he? Somehow I hadn’t heard of him before.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
LOL. I was slowly, ploddingly coming to that same idea in the back of my mind. Thanks for the flash of illumination.
TS (the original)
@Mnemosyne: Much as she should, I doubt it. When trump is gone, she will follow the “good” republicans. Romney comes to mind.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC:
In-jur-ies! In-jur-ies!
Mnemosyne
@West of the Rockies:
Back in the days when I was researching serial killers for an unproduced screenplay, it was pretty clear that serial killers and other sociopaths are created that way by abusive parents. There may be a small genetic component, but the abusive parents put that component into overdrive.
IOW, whoever raised Cuccinelli is definitely a piece of work, to put it mildly.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
@O. Felix Culpa: he’s the one who wanted to rape women with forced inserted vaginal ultrasounds.
Mary G
@SFAW: I would also accept Twitler planting a bomb in the Cabinet Room and blowing himself and all the losers who let him down to smithereens. Ivana did say he kept a book of Adolf’s speeches by the bed.
Mnemosyne
@TS (the original):
She hasn’t seemed to be too thrilled with Sen. Romney’s waffling. I still have hope that the rest of the scales will fall from her eyes.
mrmoshpotato
@Patricia Kayden: Never understood this “tax cuts will pay for themselves” bullshit. Yeah, and giving away all my money will make me a millionaire! *headdesk*
O. Felix Culpa
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: Thank you. I had forgotten about that particular atrocity. There are so many….
The Dangerman
I feel extra innings coming.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
The acid test will be when there is a “viable” not-Trump Republican available with Trump out or on the way out. I think there’s a good chance she’ll say it was all Trump’s fault and it’s safe for her to be a Republican again. But I’m keeping receipts on all the times she has said that it’s not just Trump, it’s all of the Republicans, and they’re killing their own party.
TS (the original)
@West of the Rockies:
I watched Debbie Wasserman Schultz calling him a white supremacist – and his outraged rebuttal – and all I could think was – if it looks like a racist white supremacist and acts like a racist white supremacist – that is probably what it is.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Speaking of, a concern trolling piece from the FTFNYT from back in May:
There’s No Boom in Youngstown, but Blue-Collar Workers Are Sticking With Trump (I happen to be from this area btw, so hence my special interest in this piece)
And who are the voters that Betras and Ryan say the Dems have lost the ability to speak to?
Sure would like to ask Mr. Mauerman now what he thinks of Trump’s chances. On second thought, I’m sure he thinks it’s all just a witch hunt, just like his Dear Leader told him to believe
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Might have been some bullshit they extrapolated from the Laugher Curve, but I might be mixing up phony-economic doctrines.
No, don’t “correct” my spelling.
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: Nah, she’s hot for the “Republicans for the Rule of Law” guys who make Never Trump ads. I think it’s George Conway and Bill Kristol.
Steeplejack
@TS (the original):
Yes, Romney, who will bring the cleansing Mormon fire to the GOP.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geoduck:
ah, thanks
@Mnemosyne:
okay, you just pushed me out of indifference
West of the Rockies
@TS (the original):
I’m not a DWS fan, but she slapped that punk good!
Elizabelle
Come on Nationals.
West of the Rockies
@O. Felix Culpa:
Yes, there is much to loath about Cuccinelli: his misogyny, racism, bigotry, smirky face…
Steeplejack
@O. Felix Culpa:
Ken Cuccinelli, former attorney general of Virginia and all-around Republican shitbird. Currently acting director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Highlight reel (from Wikipedia):
Jim, Foolish Literalist
somebody reads this blog and got jealous when I said that Megan McCain had lapped even the trumplings the in born-on-third-base-thinks-they-hit-a-triple head-up-your-ass entitlement sweepstakes
it was the only award he ever could have won, and now, he did
ETA: OTOH, maybe he’s admitting the trump family fortune is smoke, mirrors, grift and creative accounting
Rommie
I don’t see Bolton willingly going to Club Fed to protect Donald Trump. At the moment, he seems like one of the few people who will come out clean from the Ukraine mess, so he has good reason not to jump in the pigpen.
A Sh**load of Space Bucks, and some inner knowledge that the President is more secure than he looks, flips him like a pancake though. I won’t count on him Bus Driving until the Bus is hitting things.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: hahahahahahahaha :)
--bd
Coincidentally enough the Houston Rockets were in Washington playing the Wizards tonight. The game was a defensless LFC-Arsenal style game with the Rockets winning 159-158. IN REGULATION. They missed the the all-time high scoring regulation game by only 3 points.
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: These fuckers really are competing for who should be kicked in the junk more.
burnspbesq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Houston ain’t part of Real Texas no more. No different than goddam Austin.
OnkelFritze
Aahh, Hüsker Dü. Appreciate your range, DougJ! Hit my sweet spot right there.
O. Felix Culpa
@West of the Rockies: @Steeplejack: I don’t understand how people can be so twisted. That man shouldn’t be anywhere near decision-making power over other people’s lives.
Rand Careaga
Pierce on Bolton the other day:
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What did Megan McCain say?
mrmoshpotato
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
You aside from “Don’t you know who I am? I’m John McCain’s daughter!”?
O. Felix Culpa
Mars score, now up 4-2 top of the 8th.
lgerard
I can’t remember a world series where the home team lost every game
strange times
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: too much and nothing, and she thinks people care. Just in general.
Sally
@mrmoshpotato: Isn’t that the entire premise of the prosperity gospel? Of course, it’s giving your money to the “preacher” to gain such wealth.
O. Felix Culpa
Nats score, now up 4-2 top of the 8th.@O. Felix Culpa:
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Bryce Harper must be really happy for his former teammates
mrmoshpotato
@Sally: I think so, but how does that grift actually make you rich?
debbie
@dmsilev:
What a comedy. Trump tells his minions to lay off bitching about process and instead focus on substance. Their response is to blame his behavior on his inexperience.
Could an actual comedy writer come up with this kind of garbage?
NotMax
@O. Felix Culpa
I’ve heard of expansion teams, but that’s a doozy.
;)
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@mrmoshpotato:
Whoah, that’s a spot on impression of her. Have you and McCain ever been spotted in the same room together? ;p
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, I thought it was a real whopper. I am disappoint
Japa21
@lgerard: There has never been a 7 game series in baseball, basketball or hockey where the home team has evenly 6, much less 7.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@debbie:
If they could, they’d likely never work in entertainment ever again
That’s been fairly consistent from the beginning. Remember “Just give him a chance”?
The real issue is that Trump is a corrupt, incompetent buffoon. An average American picked at random would likely have done a better job than Trump has. “Inexperience” is a laughable excuse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: I was listening to O’Donnell and somebody talk about how the new rules provide for use of professional counsel (Barry Berke! Thank god!) and it occurred to me that’s gonna backfire on Republicans too: The Audience Of One doesn’t want to see some sober lawyer asking careful questions, It wants to see Gym Jordan doing his coked-up rage-addled garden-gnome act
Sally
@mrmoshpotato: It doesn’t. But if (when) it doesn’t, it’s your fault for doing it wrong, not sending enough money, not believing enough, etc.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Marvin’s been scouting.
mrmoshpotato
@Sally:
Yeah. That’s the problem! ?
noncarborundum
@mrmoshpotato: Actually there is a point where tax cuts will pay for themselves. If you draw a tax revenue curve for tax rates from 0% to 100%, there’s a point on the curve above which lowering taxes will increase revenue. You can illustrate this by assuming a tax rate of 100%. At this tax rate, no one has any incentive to make money because the government will just take it all away, and 100% of $0 is $0. Lowering taxes from this level would clearly allow the government to take in more revenue. The “bullshit” comes in with the assertion that the present tax rate is above the crossover point. No recent tax rate has been remotely close.
O. Felix Culpa
@NotMax: Inorite? Autoincorrect makes another funny.
Mary G
San Diego Gas & Electric is in my backyard at 8:21 p.m. cutting my neighbor’s bamboo trees. He won’t do it himself and he has big mean dogs. They’re not even that near the main electrical lines. He’s lucky that his lot is about 3 feet below mine, because if I ever see a shoot in my yard, there will be hell to pay. Rich people can be such douches.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: You’d think they’d be ineligible to play in the World Series.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We’ll see if he bursts through the doors into the hearing room, Judge Judy–style, because his gut told him he could do a better job.
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: et tu, Bill?
randy khan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Putting an ad on the Jumbotron probably was not the smartest thing to do in Houston, which is fairly blue.
randy khan
@Mnemosyne:
And each one will shoot himself in the foot.
J R in WV
@mrmoshpotato:
‘Cause after you give all your monies to the Preacherman, he asks GAwd to give you more monies so you be rich too!!! See?
Just Like Trumpite Republicanism.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Literally.
O. Felix Culpa
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The Out of This World Series?
mrmoshpotato
@noncarborundum:
True, but I’m still going to call you a smartass. :)
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That still bugs me that the MLB championship is called the “World” Series when no baseball teams from outside North America play in it
randy khan
@Mary G:
Unfortunately, just one, but it is an important run.
The Dangerman
That feeling of extra innings has passed.
Steve in the ATL
@O. Felix Culpa: et tu, O. Felix Culpa?
Steeplejack
Joe Buck is such a blowhard. I just wish he would shut up for 10 seconds occasionally and let the game proceed without him.
Hopefully just one more inning and then I won’t have to hear his voice for six months.
SiubhanDuinne
@randy khan:
Apparently it was in Washington, not Houston.
Which, now I think of it, is also not the smartest thing to do, given the reaction to the man himself on Sunday.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Steve in the ATL:
You’re just jealous their joke is funnier than your divorce joke : p
O. Felix Culpa
@Steve in the ATL: Brutal, ain’t it.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: oh hells yes!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: Sounds like the feeling I used to have after eating at Dykstra.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@O. Felix Culpa:
Quick, edit it to “Brutus, ain’t it?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: I got a tip from an old Bruin fan, mute the damn TV.
Steeplejack
@lgerard:
There hasn’t been one (until this year ?).
Jeffro
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: she was a serious RWNJ witch to Booker, is what I saw
Elizabelle
The Nationals just got two more runs? Wow!!
TS (the original)
@West of the Rockies: I wasn’t much of a fan either – but she didn’t draw breath – other than to tell him he wasn’t to interrupt and ask for the interrupt time to be added to her allowance. Maybe not being involved with the DNC has been a benefit to her.
randy khan
@lgerard:
It’s never happened. Apparently it’s never happened in *any* seven game playoff series in any U.S. sport.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: We can boo along at home at all sporting events.
And may neither Trump nor Pence be in office next baseball season.
The Dangerman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Funny, I was thinking about my year at Hedrick earlier today.
I feel bad for Greinke. He got squeezed hard by the Ump on the walk right before he got pulled. But, the Umps have been consistent (as in, consistently lousy).
Elizabelle
Nationals, just win, baby.
O. Felix Culpa
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Ah, you got my *subtle* reference. ;)
mrmoshpotato
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: :P
Rick Taylor
Newsweek
Steeplejack
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I like Smoltz and I like the ambient noise. I need the “drop Buck” dial on my sound board.
mrmoshpotato
@Rick Taylor: “Good” doesn’t mean “getting revenge.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: I did two years at Dykstra.
O. Felix Culpa
One more out…
Another Scott
@O. Felix Culpa: 1 strike…
Cheers,
Scott.
O. Felix Culpa
Nats!
ThresherK
I had been rooting for Les Expos since 1977 and Nordiques Quebec since 1979.
I haven’t been this conflicted since the Colorado Avalanche won their first Stanley Cup.
Another Scott
Congratulations to the Walgreens team!!
Cheers,
Scott.
ThresherK
@ThresherK: …but this makes me feel good nonetheless.
randy khan
@randy khan:
And now it has. Wow.
SiubhanDuinne
MARS WIN! MARS WIN! MARS WIN!
Kayla Rudbek
@Elizabelle: from your mouth to the FSM’s orichette!
Elizabelle
@Kayla Rudbek: Yea!
Thank you Nats and FSM!
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: LOL. Yes indeed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Heh, after Mars Attacks.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
From bolton’s perspective the only thing that was fucked about the entire Iraq war was that we didn’t actually go all in and murder every last person in the country. Using nukes. One doesn’t get to be war stash just by growing facial hair.
SiubhanDuinne
Expos woulda won in 1994. Glad they finally did it.
Mary G
@Steeplejack: I hate Joe Buck so much. I grew up with Vin Scully. The loud braying, the interrupting Smoltz, the boring meandering half anecdotes, inability to tell if a ball will be fair or foul, and so much more mediocracy. If he says the Nats are the oldest team in baseball one more time, I will barf.
O. Felix Culpa
@SiubhanDuinne: LOL
Aleta
Glad they won, and esp the fans who booed.
Aleta
Post
noncarborundum
@SiubhanDuinne: Ack ack! Ack ack ack ack!!
Fair Economist
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I’m pretty sure that for this article the FTNYT didn’t even interview people in Youngstown. They went to a white flight suburb some distance away. Do you think the FTNYT reporters are that bad at Google Maps? Hmmm.
Raoul
@cmorenc: Integrity?
Nahhh. He’s just smart enough to maybe be the one guy who doesn’t get ETTD’d.
AnotherBruce
So the Nationals are world champions. All of DC should be celebrating and they are. But Donald Trump is not. What a fucking loser.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
Some of it is in the upbringing. In trump’s case the shit didn’t fall far from the asshole. Fred wasn’t as stupid and was much better at making money – he did it the old fashioned way, as a slumlord. donald just picked up the cheat them part of the brains of the outfit, the actual brains part he declined to see as having any value.
Elizabelle
@AnotherBruce: You know Chef Jose Andres is doing a happy dance.
Unless he is feeding fire victims in California.
lgerard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This could be a 7th inning stretch thing at every Nationals game
They could even have celebrity guests lead the Lock Him Up chant the way the Cubs do with Take Me Out to the Ballgame
I couldn’t find a picture of the Impeach trump banner that was unfurled on opening day this year. but I found the one from 2017. I think it is the same guys
Elizabelle
Definitely check out the WaPost website right now. That is one spanking big headline.
I think they can come up with a suitable one when Trump departs, too.
waratah
@burnspbesq: thanks to Beto.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
It’s not just the headline compositors. The WaPo Editorial Board is pretty giddy too.
Link
AnotherBruce
I’m almost as happy for these Nats as my 2016 Cubs. If the Nats can win a World Series, think of all the states that do not have world series baseball championships. One big reason for awarding DC into statehood . Fuck you North Dakota.
mrmoshpotato
@lgerard:
Hell, we’ll change the 7th inning stretch to chanting “Lock Trump up!” at Wrigley.
mrmoshpotato
@AnotherBruce: Nah. Fuck Wyoming. Amtrak doesn’t even touch Wyoming.
Kayla Rudbek
@lgerard: if they did this,I would buy season tickets!
AnotherBruce
@mrmoshpotato: I’m kinda amused. After I posted I thought I should have picked on Wyoming. Fucking Cheneys
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato:
In between Baby Shark Do do do do do …
KSinMA
So happy for the Nats!
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: Haha, no.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Hadn’t seen that. Lovely.
I’ll take it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
how does this post thing work?
Uncle Cosmo
@cmorenc:
Full stop. Not friend & not, necessarily, for any longer than necessary.
If the Walrus wants to harpoon the Great Orange Whale, I say go for it. Goo goo ga joob!
Dan
Took me a minute, but thanks for the Grant Hart this morning.
Uncle Cosmo
@SFAW: The Unter Gang: All fall down! :^D
Uncle Cosmo
@SFAW: “Tax cuts will pay for themselves” has its roots in JFK’s tax reduction in the early 1960s, which did in fact boost the economy.
The crippling problem with this is the same as with so many other tidbits of the “perceived whizzdumb” of our time:
That period was an aberration that cannot possibly be repeated. (Short of some hemispherical cataclysm that spares the Americas, say a solar flare wiping out 99% of the other half of the planet [cf. Larry Niven, “Inconstant Moon”].)
Jinchi
It took me a minute to realize you didn’t mean Marianne Williamson, John Delaney and the rest of the 1 percenters running for president.
Booger
@West of the Rockies: Catholicism.