One of the harshest realities of all that we’re learning about the lead up to Jan. 6 is not that Trump was perpetrating the Big Lie to hold onto power & avoid prosecution, but that so many in his circle were gung-ho about helping him commit this coup & end our democracy.
— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) December 11, 2021
Jan. 6 panel: Mark Meadows said National Guard would "protect pro Trump people" https://t.co/cJEr9YrK8i
— Axios (@axios) December 13, 2021
TL, DR:
The Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol riot released a report and resolution Sunday outlining its recommendation to hold former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress.
Why it matters: The report alleges that Meadows sent an email Jan. 5 “to an individual about the events on January 6 and said that the National Guard would be present to ‘protect pro Trump people’ and that many more would be available on standby.”…
The big picture: The report recommending Meadows be held in contempt of Congress comes after he failed to appear before the panel last month and his attorney announced last week that he would no longer cooperate with House investigators, citing his belief that he’s protected by executive privilege…
What’s next: The select committee is expected vote to recommend charges of contempt of Congress against Meadows this week, before a full House vote takes place, per AP…
"The messages also describe numerous contacts with members of Congress about Trump’s efforts to recruit state lawmakers and encourage them to help overturn the election results." https://t.co/TTSqBSSuUI
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) December 13, 2021
Meadows was always an earnest little worker bee, more dogged than gifted, and he doesn’t seem to have inspired much loyalty among his fellows — in the party, or in the media:
… It’s unclear who Meadows, the former White House chief of staff to Donald Trump, relayed the information to or whether it was the result of any insight provided by the Defense Department. But the exchange is of high interest to congressional investigators probing whether Trump played a role in the three-hour delay between the Capitol Police’s urgent request for Guard support and their ultimate arrival at the Capitol, which had been overrun by pro-Trump rioters. The comment also aligns with testimony from former Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who said that in a Jan. 3 conversation with Trump, the then-president told him to “do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights.”…
The messages also describe numerous contacts with members of Congress about Trump’s efforts to recruit state lawmakers and encourage them to help overturn the election results. They also included questions about Meadows’ exchanges with members of Congress as they pressed him urgently to issue a statement telling rioters on Jan. 6 to exit the Capitol…
BREAKING: THREAD: a new 51-page document issued by the J6 committee reveals some new info about Mark Meadows. First, Meadows spoke with Patel and Chris Miller NONSTOP on 1/6, and knows if and when trump spoke to them about National Guard deployment 1/ pic.twitter.com/vOUoPfP5dX
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) December 13, 2021
Note the several pages explaining the due diligence & good faith efforts the committee employed to give Meadows every opportunity to comply. That will strengthen their criminal referral to DoJ. Pages 12-20. And the entire document is here: END https://t.co/VLWVWjRKcx
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) December 13, 2021
Meadows needs to start worrying about being indicted for far more serious charges. He needs competent legal counsel to advise him to fully cooperate against Trump to preserve his freedom. He should read up on Watergate which was a walk in the park compared to this situation.
— Richard Signorelli (@richsignorelli) December 13, 2021
Jeffro
Suddenly, it seems like CRT might not be the thing we talk about all next year (GQP efforts to the contrary)
Gin & Tonic
Thoughts and prayers
ETA: El segundo!
Mike in NC
This Mark Meadows fellow was apparently not the brightest bulb on Melania’s Christmas tree collection. His fingers were so involved in January 6th that he was buried in the riot up to his elbows.
Doug R
One of the grade-grubbers our educational system is good at churning out.
gene108
Whether or not any January 6 conspirator faces Watergate-like consequences is entirely dependent on Democrats holding the House in 2022.
Like McConnell did with Scalia’s open seat, there’s a possible winning strategy in trying to run the clock down to see whose in charge in January 2023.
Give the Jan. 6 committee nothing and possible Democratic voters get frustrated the investigation goes nowhere and stay home next November.
zhena gogolia
Why is he “Renfield”? Is this a slur of Dwight Frye?
sab
SiubhanDuinne
Can’t wait to peruse this post, but in the meantime someone sent me a .gif with a tweet attached, which said
and I swear there will never be a more 2021 sentence than that.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow.
I hope your brother gets better soon.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Renfield is a secondary character in Dracula. I suppose that’s the reference.
Betty
What I could never understand was that after Meadows pulled a racist stunt at a Congressional hearing, Elijah Cummings described him as a good friend. Mr. Cummings was such a decent man. My limited experience with Meadows was when he had me put in time out on Twitter for making a joke about him. Can’t say I am surprised or unhappy to see his current troubles.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: No, the character Frye played in Dracula.
Lapassionara
I read somewhere that Meadows had acknowledged to someone that Biden actually won the election, so he was trying to pull off this coup knowing that it was based on a lie.
He should pull a John Dean.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks. I haven’t talked to him but just got off the phone with my niece who spoke with him briefly this afternoon. Apparently he is completely loopy from the meds. Feeling no pain, in any sense of that phrase.
sab
@SiubhanDuinne: Fuck of a lot of RWNJ Republicans have died. Rude to gloat. Useful to note their seats are open and the enemy (Democrats worried about the virus) did not kil them.
Edmund Dantes
Not sure why everyone expects Watergate consequences for these guys. The last 40+ years have been concerted effort to make sure it never ended that way again for a GOP person . Bob Dole was one of the people that thought Nixon got dirty and you had lots of Dems praising Dole at his death. Reagan, North, scooter, other Iran Contra, all the W war criminals, etc.
Ken
Is it wrong to hope that it’s through some ridiculously obvious con, so that Meadows looks even more stupid when it comes out, and the firm gets indicted?
debbie
First, has the National Guard leadership commented on this implication that they were prepared to commit treason?
Second, after reading a lot of the coverage, I’m convinced Trump worked longer and harder in the two months between the election and the insurrection than he ever did in the four years leading up to the 2020 election.
West of the Rockies
Much like Pompeo and Trump and Gaetz (and the cast of thousands), Meadows is not half as bright or charismatic or inspiring as he imagines himself to be.
Scout211
California is reinstating a statewide indoor mask mandate starting December 15 for one month in response to a 47% increase in daily cases.
We have not had a statewide mask mandate since June 15th.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I didn’t get it either. Balloon Juice is becoming an impenetrable thicket with obscure references.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, but being found dead in a hot tub doesn’t hold a candle to being shot dead with a crossbow while in the sauna.
FelonyGovt
Interesting that congressional investigators are “probing whether Trump played a role in the three-hour delay between the Capitol Police’s urgent request for Guard support and their ultimate arrival at the Capitol, which had been overrun by pro-Trump rioters.”
What’s to probe? He did not call out the National Guard for HOURS. In fact I seem to remember that it was Pence who finally did.
MattF
Another factor in the 1/6 events is the non-appearance of any leftists, i.e., “Antifa”. The lack of leftwingers meant (to the Trumpist coup plotters) that National Guard could just stay out of the picture and let the mob do its thing. The theory that it was all a false-flag conspiracy is just an attempt to use a script that fell by the wayside because the various actual leftists had the sense to stay away.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
At least his RWNJ bingo card was completed before his demise. //
Ken
Darmok, mopping mustard under the willow.
JoyceH
Maybe not enough to swing elections, but consider that a lot more than that will be dealing with Long COVID next election, and good luck to them trying to get an absentee ballot, the way their party is rewriting the voting laws.
mrmoshpotato
I’m perfectly fine with Lady Justice skullfucking all of these Dump-humping, fascist shitstains.
MisterForkbeard
@zhena gogolia: I thought it was just a comment on being a useless toady for a villain (like Renfield for Dracula).
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Good point, but it lacks the piquancy of the cryptocurrency argument.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: References to Bram Stoker’s Dracula are not that obscure.
debbie
Renfield wasn’t just any secondary character in Dracula. He was portrayed by Dwight Frye in the film starring Bela Lugosi. He played the role of the actor who first came into contact with Dracula when he got lost and knocked on a nearby castle door to ask for help. Well, he got more than that. He got bitten, became Dracula’s minion, and lived for the day Dracula would toss him the odd insect for nourishment.
So, Renfield and Meadows, as demented nutjobs, do have something in common.
misterpuff
@SiubhanDuinne: Can I get an NFT of that tweet?
germy
“Balloon-Juice: Now With Footnotes!”
germy
@debbie:
But will Trump toss Meadows anything? Dracula was more generous than the former guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
Covid, guns, cryptocurrency — it’s all there, isn’t it?
(I’m not ceding hot tubs to the RWNJs. Hot tubs are nonpartisan.)
Omnes Omnibus
They won’t comment because it’s not their job to comment.
Woodrow/asim
That makes a lot of sense, actually. There’s a lack of faithful Dracula adaptations that provides some of the gap; those of us who imprinted on Coppela’s DRACULA film in the 1990s, for example, likely recall that Renfield. Most of what the mainstream knows about the characters around the original Dracula novel are distorted — when not erased completely from adaptions and thus discussions.
I also recall the character because I live with someone who’s a major fan of the book and got me to read it last year; she can discuss its ideas and themes at the drop of a hat. In fairness, I myself like some of the characters enough to contemplate writing a crossover with Irene Adler of Sherlock Holmes fame (the OG character, to be clear.) As much as I dislike supernatural horror, I think there’s an interesting challenge there, given Holmes’ dismissal of same. :)
debbie
@germy:
“I won’t be your friend.”
dexwood
@MisterForkbeard: And let’s not forget Meadows, like Renfield, eats flies.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
No, it is not wrong! And I will join you in that hope!
germy
@debbie:
Emotional blackmail from Trump. And his minions eat it up. Amazing.
Tony Jay
@MisterForkbeard:
A useless toady to a villain who is eventually punished by said villain for (slightly) betraying him.
It’s a perfectly cromulent reference and, I hope, a prophetic one.
SiubhanDuinne
@misterpuff:
You got 2.5 million Bitcoin on you?
germy
I’m reminded of Steve Bannon’s acid-washed hot tub.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
We’re not talking about some hippie stuffing a daisy down a soldier’s rifle barrel. The National Guard just had its collective ass thrown under the bus. They, or the people they report to, should comment and should push back against the implication of any sort of treason.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: When I google it I just get a reference to this thread.
germy
Woodrow/asim
@Omnes Omnibus: I struggle to think of any recent (last 30 years) Dracula adaption that has a “descent into madness” Renfield, outside Coppela’s. The NBC one didn’t (at least before we gave up watching), and the version from the recent BBC series is, from what I understand, radically different.
So I can see how one might not know the character, or if you did, not connect them to “madness”.
West of the Rockies
Potentially big news if it can be confirmed.
This sends the investigation into a whole new direction…
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: The National Guard didn’t do anything wrong in this instance. They have nothing to explain.
zhena gogolia
@debbie: But Dracula was charming!
debbie
@Woodrow/asim:
He sure descended in the Bela Lugosi film.
misterpuff
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, I had some in my digital wallet, that I forgot the password to.
I would gladly pay you next Tuesday for a NFT today.
debbie
@debbie:
Here is proof of his madness.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Yeah, baby!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ7fPsSiq_8
Citizen Alan
@Woodrow/asim: The most recent BBC version was weird. The first two episodes were brilliant, and then it fell apart in the last part b/c of two many ideas thrown into a blender (one of which was Mark Gatiss playing Renfield as Dracula’s shady lawyer/servant). An unfortunate misfire by Stephen Moffatt.
Tony Jay
@dexwood:
raises hand, stands, clears throat
I’m sure Woodrow can correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall that Renfield fed the flies to the spiders (which he then ate).
He had a system, see?
sits back down, all pleased with himself
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Psychic!
Anoniminous
@Ken:
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh
Dan B
@dexwood: And the drool on Meadiws lips when that fly was on Pence’s head! Like Niagara Falls it was!!
zhena gogolia
@debbie: I love Dwight Frye.
debbie
@Tony Jay:
No, if you watch the clip both zhena and I linked to, you’ll see he looked down on flies as useless and preferred spiders. Big juicy ones.
zhena gogolia
@Dan B: hahaha
dexwood
@Tony Jay: I’m sure you are correct, it’s been decades since I read the book.
ETA: I still think Meadows is a fly eater.
gene108
@SiubhanDuinne:
Renfield was a Dracula sycophant in the worst way possible. Could be another layer of meaning.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
I’ve always liked his work. He was in this MGM short subject, playing an arsonist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzmDfiNz5_0
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: We are the outliers it seems. I read Stoker’s Dracula as a teen and haven’t seen any of the movies. And don’t remember every character or plot point from the book unlike the geniuses that populate this site.
germy
@dexwood:
Zipped or unzipped?
Tony Jay
@Citizen Alan:
Seconded.
The first two episodes (well, 90% of them) really set the scene for a fantastic ten part dramatisation of the book. Then the end of part two and the whole third episode… well…
Such a pity. Given space to breathe Gatiss could have been a properly broken and raving Renfield.
prostratedragon
The Waits/Coppola combination put Renfield on the map:
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Leave
Brittanyhot tubs alone!Bex
Committee in session now.
Gravenstone
Trump is far too stupid to come up with that specific phrasing on his own. Who was feeding him this rationale that he needed to use the Guard to protect the fucking rioters?
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: Even before ever reading Dracula or seeing it, I knew who the character of Renfield was. Point being, I don’t think it’s a particularly obscure reference.
Betty
@Tony Jay: Confirmed by Debbie’s Youtube. Well done.
SiubhanDuinne
Bennie Thompson is giving one hell of a statement.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think you are likely quite correct, but.
I also think that there needs a check into that just to make sure there is nothing there. IOW do not overlook the possibility that it is not just the top of the pile that is the actual shit.
dexwood
@germy: Hadn’t considered either, but now that you mention it. . .
VeniceRiley
@Miss Bianca: Exactly. Even I know Renfield is a Smithers under thrall.
Tony Jay
@debbie:
Wasn’t that what I said?
Links to one of my fave lines in Coppola’s version. Renfield droolingly begging for a “nice, plump kitten”. I know people think English food is bad, but c’mon man, that’s harsh.
@dexwood:
Oh, that’s long confirmed. When the man smiles it looks like he’s been chewing raisins.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Have you considered you might just be a genius?
Gravenstone
@germy: Does under the bus count?
Bill Arnold
@gene108:
The Justice Department is under the control of Biden/Harris at that time and until at least January 20 2025.
Just saying.
Tim C
@Ken: You needed to work in a Subaru to that line somehow.
gene108
@VeniceRiley:
I believe SC grew up in India, where Dracula never rose to iconic status he enjoys in the USA, as a piece of modern popular culture mythology that has been used and reused in countless adaptations across many different media formats.
debbie
@Tony Jay:
Forget Coppola’s version. No one’s a better Dracula than Lugosi and no one’s a better Renfield than Frye.
germy
@Gravenstone:
Most likely he’ll be underbussed.
Josie
@Miss Bianca: Even if one doesn’t know the reference, it’s easy enough to google it, as I did, and figure out the connection rather quickly. Really, I don’t see the problem. Reading BJ constantly broadens my outlook.
SiubhanDuinne
I have to keep reminding myself how much I don’t like Liz Cheney, because damn, she’s good.
prostratedragon
@germy: [shudder]
Omnes Omnibus
@Woodrow/asim: And yet I stand by my statement that it wasn’t a particularly obscure reference.
Ken
That’s in the book, too. Sugar, to flies, to spiders, to sparrows; and then he asks Seward for a kitten. To which Seward replies non-committally, after which Renfield eats the sparrows himself.
SiubhanDuinne
@gene108:
I must confess I have never read, nor seen any filmed version of, Dracula. So I’m learning a lot from this thread, but I basically just don’t like vampires.
gene108
@Bill Arnold:
Justice Department ain’t gonna do shit about 1/6 other than prosecute the minnows that were dumb enough to post selfies in the Capitol that day.
No way the DOJ goes after current or former members of Congress, and high level White House staff over what may or may not be a clear cut conspiracy. Did Boebert & Brooks coordinate together when giving tours of the Capitol prior to 1/6 or did they act independently? Is a Congressperson giving a tour a crime?
I doubt the DOJ is capable of unraveling the complex crimes of the rich and/or powerful anymore. Maybe it could once, decades ago, but I doubt it has the same abilities now, because it has proven incapable during my lifetime.
germy
Cheney is reading the texts from fox news hosts. With expletives included.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
[mutters] Wish someone would acid-wash Steve Bannon.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne: So brief, yet so much content.
Ken
@Tim C: “Darmok, mopping mustard under the willow, near the Subaru”? That would be rather a mixed metaphor, wouldn’t it?
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Ditto, except that I don’t really mind the references because I learned something.
debbie
@germy:
That must be something to see. Is she keeping a straight face?
germy
@debbie:
Cold as ice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvvOQy3yaYE
Another Scott
@germy: fnord [snort!] fnord.
Cheers,
Scott.
Nutmeg again
@Gin & Tonic: How many wetsuits?
PST
@Ken: As I recall, Renfield’s obsession was to consume as many lives as possible, so by using a hierarchy of intermediate carnivores he was able to ingest more total flies than he could have by eating flies directly, plus some spiders and sparrows to boot.
Frank Wilhoit
@Omnes Omnibus: … /s ?
It is every institution’s job to assert and defend its prerogatives and protect its reputation. If it does not do so, it becomes a laughingstock. This is a big part of where we are.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
“Nosferatu” and the Bela Lugosi “Dracula” are all the screen Dracula anybody needs.
“What We Do in the Shadows” is the only vampire movie anybody needs.
Sez I, naturally.
Anoniminous
@Gin & Tonic:
H’mmmm. They’ve either changed or added some things since the last I played Clue.
SiubhanDuinne
Aguilar is throwing Meadows’ book under the bus, and it is lovely.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
Thanks anyway :-)
germy
Watching these live hearings, I can imagine what they’d be like if Jim Jordan had gotten in.
He’d be yelling and interrupting everyone. It’d be a circus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Arte Johnson was the quintessential Renfield
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: I’m an outlier too. I neither read the book nor saw any Dracula movies, so that Renfield reference went over my head completely. The commenters caught me up though, which is usually the case for the obscure ones.
debbie
@germy:
Wow, even DJTJ! Even though I’m not surprised, I am uncomfortable with the access Fox people had to the White House.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ken:
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
trollhattan
Covid news.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Lapassionara: I don’t think he is bright enough to see predicament he is in. The quicksand is up to his waist already, and he is still playing games with the committee.
germy
“The Chief’s Chief”
What a dumb title.
debbie
@Alce _e_ardillo:
I don’t think he’s bright enough to realize he’s not bright enough to play this game.
Gravenstone
@SiubhanDuinne: Might I suggest fuming sulfuric? Removes all those pesky MAGAt spots and stains. Along with everything else…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy:
There go two miscreants
@Woodrow/asim: If you have not already, you should get a copy of Leonard Wolf’s Annotated Dracula. He includes lots of interesting historical context.
Omnes Omnibus
@Frank Wilhoit: I disagree. What did the National Guard do wrong on January 6? Nothing. Why should the institution feel the need to come come out and assert that? “We did our job and waited for orders.” What kind of weak shit is that? If they feel the need to come out and say it, it sounds as though there were some possibility that they were going to do something else and that would be worrisome.
NotMax
@trollhattan
This fellow seems to be in agreement.
;)
Dan B
@Gravenstone: Hydrofluoric acid! Removes everything but waxy buildup.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They must be so pissed, hearing their private texts read out loud like that.
VOR
My late wife worked at a property management company who ran a mall with a big, very new multi-screen theater. She got tickets to a pre-release screening of Coppola’s Dracula. As we left the theater there was a man standing in the hallway watching the crowd exit, seeing their reactions. I had no idea who the man was, but the next day I realized it was Francis Ford Coppola.
gene108
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve been totally running to Google over things like Howard Beale references everyone else seems to get. Also, Google’s my go to for many classical music, Broadway musical, ballet, and opera references.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
Right? Reminds me of that West Wing episode where Donna introduced herself to some WH visitors as the Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, and said “I guess that makes me the Deputy Deputy,” and nobody laughed, and it was awwwwwk-ward.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh man it’s been so funny. Mainahs are saying he was never really a Mainer, that he was “from away”. It’s pretty much the worst thing you can be up heah.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Hah! :-)
Noble quest.
Did not know the “Twilight” baseball game had become a bad-movie meme, so watched the clip and soon learned why.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gene108: does anything come up if you google “cudlip”?
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Why is Joe Biden not stopping this? Sleepy Joe, letting the klan into the Capitol. Shame on you, not-president Joe Biden.”
Gravenstone
@Dan B: Not really. HF is just a strong mineral acid. Great at etching glass (and really nasty if you get it on you). But oleum is a wickedly powerful acid and oxidizer. If you really want to crank it up, add some 30+% hydrogen peroxide for a quick piranha bath. That shit will digest all manner of organic matter. As long as you keep it from erupting/exploding.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: the truly scary thing is that even DJTJ and Sean Hannity seemed to think 1/6 would lead to more blowback from the American people than there actually was
SiubhanDuinne
@gene108:
Well, we mostly have a different set of references we’re clueless about, but I do that all the time, and if they’re honest I expect most BJackals do the same thing.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: Jr. is not going to be invited for X-mas. sad
MagdaInBlack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, THEN. And within days it was spin, damage control and denial.
oatler
Why does so much news about these weasles get reported in the future tense: “House poised to…”, “Senate to vote to indict…” and it seems all the bad news about the weasles is reported in the present tense; “Bannon wins trial delay” etc. I already got burned by Mueller.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
23 skidoo!
;)
Ken
I’m drawing a blank. Wasn’t there some tech billionaire — Zuckerberg, maybe? — who said that people shouldn’t expect privacy online?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: there was a twitter thread the other day, something about quoting a line from a movie that “everyone” will recognize without naming the movie. I scrolled through it for a couple minutes, recognized maybe half, and I used to watch lots of movies.
Dan B
@Gravenstone: I sorta knew that but Hf was rumored to be very painful as is Acetic, I believe. I worked with all of them in a ab one summer. I learned to be very good at pouring nasty liquids.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: What are you guys watching?
edit: oh, live hearings. I have been catching up on work today and I missed the whole thing. Where are you watching?
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Ha! You seriously think I have to Google that?
Notary Sojak!!
Citizen Alan
@Tony Jay: It should have been four parts. When episode 3 started, we suddenly had a new setting and an entirely new cast except for Dracula himself. Even Zoe was a different character from Sister Agatha. And the entire plot of episode 3 depended on Dracula falling madly in love at first sight with Lucy who had something like two scenes to develop her character before she got bitten.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Wrapped up about 15 minutes ago, but MSNBC carried it all.
ETA: The entire thing was only about 45 minutes, and well worth tracking down on C-SPAN or something and watching it all. These guys, very much including the two Republicans, are fierce, determined, and good.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: 1/6 Committee on YouTube. I believe. Cheney started and was righteous.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Twitter is saying the best is yet to come. They are sitting on a lot of damaging information.
Citizen Alan
@gene108: Seriously, it’s possible that my first exposure to Dracula was in a Gilligan’s Island parody!
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I searched Google with cudlip, no quotation marks. First hit was an ancestry.com link. The second is Peter Hodge Cudlip’s Wiki page, and then listings of various people with the surname of Cudlip.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Citizen Alan: I was intrigued by the first two episodes, but I bailed after the time jump.
@gene108: Ha! I did the same. Didn’t go deep enough to see if any old BJ threads came up
gene108
@Citizen Alan:
My first exposure to Dracula was properly a Scooby Doo cartoon, in the late 1970’s.
VOR
@Dan B: hydrofluoric acid is famous as the preferred method of dissolving bodies used by Walter White of the show Breaking Bad.
Kattails
@WaterGirl: @muellershewrote was live tweeting. Vote to hold in contempt unanimous. She noted that immediately after all the texts from Ingraham et al telling Donnie to get a lid on it, they went on air and blamed Antifa and BLM. Fuckers.
VOR
@Ken: Scott McNealy, co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems, famously told a group of reporters, “You have zero privacy anyway…Get over it!” – 1999
SiubhanDuinne
@MomSense:
A Maine friend says the dude was in D.C. on 1/6.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Sojac.
Smokey Stover creator Bill Holman explained it as his transliteration of the Gaelic for Merry Christmas.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Here. Cheney’s at about 8 minutes.
Nicole
I just reread Dracula in November- interesting tidbit- scholars think one of the big sources of inspiration for the novel was the stories from his mother about having survived a cholera epidemic in Sligo in 1832:
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/bram-stoker-dracula-sligo-cholera
Sobering reminder that pandemics and epidemics have been traumatizing populations for a very long time.
smedley the uncertain
@SiubhanDuinne: Smokey Stover
oatler
@SiubhanDuinne:
Notary Sojac was also the name of an Oregon band from the early 1970s. The appeared at the Vortex Festival in 1971 and recorded a honking double album called “Return to the Zoyd”.
Mike in NC
@germy: More like “The Asshole’s Asshole”.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Oops. Thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@smedley the uncertain:
Yup.
Kattails
Side trip, retweeted by @bradMossesq: “Rep. Cheney hints at where this is going: federal criminal charges for President Trump….”
SiubhanDuinne
@oatler:
The things I learn at this place!
Scamp Dog
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: As I recall, there was a troll here who used that as a term of abuse. Can’t remember anything else, beyond the fact that he was annoying.
Dan B
@Kattails: Hot Damn!
Kattails
Oops, seems like Meadows tried to claim executive privilege over personal emails and cell phone records he failed to transfer to the National Archives.
I am going to go pour myself a drink, and toast, among others, Liz Cheney, because damn.
Gin & Tonic
@Scamp Dog: That person was ostensibly female, and may have had some issues, but I think it’s not fair to characterize her as a troll.
lurker
@gene108: me too – had to google this Trump character … did you know he was president? Amazing things you learn on the interwebs…
/s off
seems like some of these references are more obscure than others, but I think that is mainly about point of view and past experiences – there are a couple of classic books “everyone” read in high school that I managed to miss, and the references to those can be confusing, especially when everyone else seems to get them. On the flip side, when someone references something obscure that I know, there are often puzzled looks in the room (or on zoom these days), until someone explains something.
lurker
@VOR: McNealy did say that, but Zuckerberg really went much further with it. McNealy was not as obviously a fan of the situation as Zuckerberg seems to be. However, I may be to charitable to McNealy on this, as I do not remember seeing the video back in the day. He took more flak for that than Zuckerberg ever has.
Alison Rose
@germy: Isn’t it delicious?
The Thin Black Duke
@SiubhanDuinne: Near Dark is a superb reboot of the vampire mythos.
Another Scott
@lurker:
I really liked how Durbin started his questioning of Zuckerberg at that Senate hearing long ago (2:04). But, unfortunately, it seems that nothing substantive has changed.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Watch Z’s flunky over his right shoulder – wondering how to react.”)
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: My calendars came today! Three will be sent to Madrid and one to Moscow.
zhena gogolia
Just to set the record straight: I know perfectly well who Renfield is, having read Dracula and having developed a crush on Dwight Frye at a tender age. I just had no idea what he had to do with Mark Meadows. Still not sure I understand the connection.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: I could not sleep for a week after I read Dracula. So never had the urge to see it on screen. I have purged the unpleasant details from my memory, I only remember the outline of the story. Besides it was a long time ago.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Yeah. Have a hunch that Igor would have been more on point.
;)
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: Igor is not in the book though.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Maybe he means Igor from Young Frankenstein.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
For the general public, doesn’t matter. Lugosi’s portrayal of Ygor* cemented the name (by any spelling) into the popular mythos.
*First appearing in the third Frankenstein film.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Suit yourself. I’m easy.
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: @zhena gogolia: I was trying to make a joke.
BlueGuitarist
@SiubhanDuinne:
And even more about that guy:
Jan 6 participant
Said “possible he picked up the COVID-19 virus during a stop in Wuhan” on December 2019 trip to China
“sought to buy drugs falsely touted as COVID-19 cures,”
In 2018, disqualified from Maine ballot for nominating petitions “marred by fraudulent and dead-voter signatures,” after which his campaign signs kept “popping up at busy intersections” in New Hampshire.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Q: What did Dr. Frankenstein instruct his creation to do when injured?
A: “Suture self.”
:)
stinger
@dexwood:
Now I’m seeing him slurping them, lizard-like, off Pence’s head. Thanks.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Yay! How do they look?
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Lovely!
phdesmond
@zhena gogolia:
i had “Renfield” mixed up with the guy who Adam just mentioned:
I’ve now seen reporting that Meadows or someone else sent the memo to Ratcliffe at ODNI, but he denies ever seeing it.
dopey-o
Every villain has his enabler. Knowing Meadows’ rise from Freedom Caucus to Trump’s Toady, it’s easy to infer that Renfield was a feckless flunky.
burnspbesq
@FelonyGovt:
If you want to get Trump out of the picture, it would be helpful to have admissible evidence sufficient to prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
Paul Psilos
@gene108: but they are giving big time now and will continue to. Lots of momentum here.