Flynn The Traitor

 From Balloon Juice:

...When the Obama countermeasures were announced, Michael Flynn, who was influential in the Trump transition and who would become Trump’s National Security Advisor, contacted the Russians to tell them that those measures would be rolled back once Trump was in office, immediately undercutting deterrence. The sanctions and expulsions have not been rolled back, but Trump has been careful to avoid saying anything negative about Russia and has praised Russia and Putin. He continues to deny that there was any Russian involvement in the election and has attacked American law-enforcement and intelligence agencies for investigating that involvement...

Simple Math And The 9% Factor

Keith Oblermann unearthed a statistical nugget and re-visions the 2016 election with the Mango Menace going down in flames. Politically, we should pay close attention to what he came up with.

The Brazile Effect

Last night's election results were surprising in one regard: the Brazile Effect didn't cost the Democrats the governorship of Virginia. Many Democrats were running around wringing their hands and screaming the sky is falling after Brazile accused SOS Clinton of rigging last years primary election. Of course, the claim was pure nonsense, which Josh Marshall, among others, deconstructed quite effectively. (Here is an excellent summary post.)

No one knows what was clattering through Brazile's mind when she made her specious charges. Some people, like me, were suspicious that she was deliberating creating another round of chaos between Sanders and Clinton supporters, who are trying to get together, though many of the Sanders supporters continue promulgating their CDS. But it looks like the Brazile Effect was negligible, which gives me hope for the future. Perhaps, voters can actually see beyond and through all the propaganda and misinformation spewed by the GOP in general and Fox News and the Russians in particular.

How tRump Wins

 From USA Today:

...The question is not whether Trump has any decency left, but whether we have any decency left.

Trump is not against the ropes. Not even close. Republicans are marching in lockstep. What frightens me is that what Trump is unleashing, he cannot control. When I look at what happened months back in Charlottesville, Va., I realize it doesn’t take much to change a cadence — how easily marching in lockstep morphs into a goosestep.

Flake wrote, “We can no longer remain silent, merely observing this train wreck, passively, as if waiting for someone else to do something. The longer we wait, the greater the damage, the harsher the judgment of history.”

True. But if Flake believes what he said, he should go down losing. So should other Republicans fearful of Trump or Steve Bannon or some other boogeyman with a slogan-branded hat.

If sensible Republicans cede the playground to the bullies, the bullies win. Flake said we can no longer stand silent. Talking while walking away is not an improvement.

Katrina Commander Speaks Out

I've been ranting for several days about not having the military ready to deploy the minute the hurricane cleared the island. As a nation, we need to think about re-purposing our military and adding emergency response as a secondary mission. From HuffPost:

...Honoré said the military response to the 3.5 million people without power and supplies should have happened much sooner.

“Not giving the mission to the military” was the first mistake, Honoré said in his interview with CBS. “Look, we got Army units that go do port openings. Not called. We got special forces that could’ve been in every town. Not employed.”

In another interview with CNN, Honoré tied Trump’s response to a overall lack of compassion to marginalized people. 

“And the president has shown again, you don’t give a damn about poor people,” Honoré told CNN. “You don’t give a damn about people of color and the SOB that rides around in Air Force One is denying services needed by the people of Puerto Rico...”

Karma Comes A-Calling

Paul Horner, Fake News Purveyor Who Claimed Credit For Trump's Win, Found Dead At 38

..."I mean that's how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it's false, then they look like idiots," he told the Post. "But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he's in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it. And that feels [bad]..."

Well, yeah, regret and a quarter might buy you cup of coffee. Meanwhile, tRump sits in office ruining our democracy while non-voters, Bernie-write-in voters, Steiners, Greenies, and all the others who did not vote for Clinton sit and wait for their visit from Karma.

Corrupt Media Attacking Clinton Again

...We’ve seen this kind of bandwagon journalism before. Rather than focus fire on a person who was clearly mentally incapable of holding the most powerful position on the planet, far too much of the media was consumed by Hillary Clinton. A new Harvard study found during the 2016 election, the Clinton email scandal dominated news coverage. As we know now, some of this coverage was fueled by the emails released by Wikileaks, obtained from Russia’s hacking of the DNC...

Comment of the Day: Clinton Winning Edition

From TPM

cabchi

Not only won it, but won it by very big numbers. No wonder Trump gets freaked out by it. I have looked at the vote totals for every post war presidential election. And here are the facts. Hillary Clinton beat Trump by more votes than Truman beat Dewey in 1948; more votes than Kennedy beat Nixon in '60; more votes than Nixon beat Humphrey in '68; more votes than Cater beat Ford in '76; and more votes than "President" Gore beat Bush in 2000.
So, I am (bitterly) amused by all the "analyses" of how Hillary didn't connect with the voting public. Well, she sure as Hell connected with more of the voting public than Donald Trump did, and she won a bigger victory than a lot of post war presidents, including at least two -- JFK and Jimmy Carter -- who are venerated by the commentariat left. Moreover, she won it by warning the country about Donald Trump; she was right about him, just as she was right about so much more.

Thoughts on the eclipse

Time, if not life, is not measured in calendar days or minutes and hours, it is measured in memories. Events. Yesterday was one of those life event days that take the yardstick of a lifetime and put a great big huge tick mark on that ruler.

I was one of those people who said he would not drive ten minutes to see a total eclipse. I just did not think it would be that big of a deal. I was completely, totally, utterly wrong. 

For approximately two minutes and 20 seconds, I experienced a magical event, one where reality seem to change around me. At the very instant of totality, I saw something amazing. I've noticed a few people on Facebook have described it as seeing snakes. The three tubes I saw were the most intense and brilliant shades of red, green, and blue--- all discrete in three bright bands. Not everyone saw that.

Comment Of The Day: Democratic Positons Edition

Trump’s childish antics leaving his voters feeling conned — but they’re still mad at liberals for shaming them

Ann Early • 3 hours ago

I'm sick of hearing how Democrats don't stand for anything. We stand for health care as a human right. We stand for protecting the environment, nature, and animals. We stand for the right of women to make their own reproductive decisions. We stand for separation of church and state, the importance of science, research and public education, and the value of promoting the general welfare, all of us together as a country.

As You Should Be

CEO of JPMorgan: ‘It’s almost embarrassing being an American citizen’ - The Washington Post:

...But in a series of calls on Friday to discuss the big bank’s quarterly profits, Dimon vented his frustration with gridlock in Washington. “It’s almost embarrassing being an American citizen … and listening to the stupid s— we have to deal with in this country,” Dimon said in one conference call. The inability to make headway on significant legislation is “holding us back and it is hurting the average American. It isn’t a Republican issue; it is not a Democratic issue...”

Bill & George

Bill Clinton And George W. Bush Bond In Conversation About Leadership : NPR

Clinton: The best thing for a politician "is to be consistently underestimated"

Bush: "I was pretty good at that"

We Know About CDS

Donald Trump Is Right: Hillary Was Held To A Different Standard | HuffPost

Comment Of The Day: HRC v. tRump Edition

Neocon Max Boot: Time To Put Interests Of The Country Before Party | Crooks and Liars
bootster • 3 hours ago

I think the GOP really don't realize what they have done here. They made a HUGE case before the election that Hillary Clinton should be "locked up" simply because she had a private server and there were emails on it that "could be" considered classified, and possibly subjected to a hacker if they chose to violate the law and intentionally hack into her email server to gather data. Nothing was proven to anyone that she broke any laws, and she was legally using a private server, under the advice of Colin Powell, her predecessor. The appearance of illegal activities, especially intentional deceit or recklessness was clearly not proven to be true, as much as the Benghazi investigators would like you to believe.

The entire GOP were pushing the notion that HRC was guilty of "something", so they were just trying to make sure that they had something valid to indict her for, so they tried to accuse her of recklessly handling emails that "could possibly" be available to a hacker and exploited for a security breach. That never happened, and it was concluded that she was innocent of the charges levied against her by the FBI.

Josh Nails CNN Issue

A Right to Free Speech, Not Anonymity – Talking Points Memo:

I want to share a thought about the on-going CNN/Reddit controversy, the question – reasonably – whether CNN should have maintained the privacy of the racist, violence-inciting Reddit user who had his anti-CNN gif picked up by President Trump. I don’t take seriously the idea that CNN ‘blackmailed’ this guy, a middle-aged man who as yet remains unidentified. But in any case I’d like suggest that newsworthiness rather than privacy is the proper prism through which to look at the question....

The Offensive Trump

The Hijacked American Presidency - The New York Times:

...There is something insidious and corrosive about trying to evaluate the severity of every offense, trying to give each an individual grade on the scale of absurdity. Trump himself is the offense. Everything that springs from him, every person who supports him, every staffer who shields him, every legislator who defends him, is an offense. Every partisan who uses him — against all he or she has ever claimed to champion — to advance a political agenda and, in so doing, places party over country, is an offense...

Broken Arm Blogging And Prosing

I broke my upper arm yesterday so I'm tediously using the on-screen keyboard. Don't expect much from me. Too much pain.

Leave Clinton Alone!

Everybody Needs To Stop Telling Hillary Clinton To Shut Up | HuffPost:

...So let’s be clear about this. If you don’t like Hillary Clinton, that’s fine. If you want to disagree with the substance of something she says in her occasional public appearances, that’s fine, too. But if seeing an article about her giving a relatively anodyne commencement speech makes you seethe with rage and demand that she go away forevermore, you’re the one with the problem...

Smoke, Mirrors, and Destroying Healthcare

Vice President Pence Lawyers Up – Mother Jones:

This is just astonishing. The FBI is actively investigating ties between the president’s campaign and a hostile foreign power. Ditto for his former national security adviser. The FBI director has been fired for refusing to kill the investigation. The attorney general has recused himself. The deputy attorney general has appointed a special counsel, Robert Mueller, who is busily hiring experts in money laundering. A few days ago Mueller widened the scope of his inquiry to include a criminal investigation of the president. Bipartisan congressional committees are holding hearings. The president himself has lawyered up, and now the vice president has lawyered up too.

This would not be completely unprecedented if it happened in 2022, six years into Trump’s presidency. But it’s happened in Trump’s first five months. And while we’re all busy gaping at the spectacle of the whole thing, Republicans are trying to take health coverage away from millions of people so they can use the money to fund tax cuts for the rich...

Chelsea Handler Advise Ivanka Trump

Chelsea Handler’s Father’s Day Message to Ivanka Trump: ‘Put Him in a Nursing Home’:

Comedian Chelsea Handler has made it clear in the past that if she had been in Ivanka Trump’s shoes, she would have done whatever it took to prevent her own father from running for president. “As a woman, I would never let my father run for president, knowing what I know about my father,” she told Conan O’Brien earlier this year. “But my father’s not even half as bad as Donald Trump...”

Coultergeist Harpyly Encourages Pence To Mutiny

Ann Coulter is sick of Trump ‘melodrama’ — and would dump him for Pence if he vowed to build the wall:

...Coulter finished off her rant by suggesting that she’d be open to dumping Trump as president in exchange for Mike Pence — but only if the vice president pledged to actually build the border wall that Trump has so far neglected.

“If Pence were smart, starting making noises about how he’d LOVE to build a wall,” she wrote. “He’d be sworn in as president about 2 weeks.”

Please continue, Madam Harpy.

 

Being Patriotic In Modern America

You Will Never Get Your Country Back | HuffPost:

...It’s easy to wave a flag in the air and call yourself a patriot. It’s easy to put a bumper sticker on your truck. It’s easy to put your hand over your heart and pledge allegiance, but that no more makes you an American than putting on a football helmet makes me Tom Brady. You have to earn it. You have to put in the work.

America is more than just a catchphrase or a collection of colors on a piece of cloth. America means liberty. America means freedom. Being American isn’t just a political term, it’s a way of life. It would serve many enablers and supporters of our President to stop going through the motions of calling themselves an American and ask themselves what it means to actually be an American. I think the term for that is personal responsibility. The time for party politics is over. Your nation, my nation, our nation is under attack. Not just from a foreign entity, but a domestic one as well...

Roasting The Bern

Cannonfire:

...As most of you know, I offered Sanders positive coverage when he began his campaign. (I was also quite disenchanted with Hillary.) Although I still support many of the things that the "Feel the Bern" crowd claims to stand for, I turned against the Sanders movement when I saw that it had degenerated into the worst kind of political cult. The followers of that cult became the mirror image of the Trumpers: Intolerant, intemperate, rabid, unthinking, rage-filled, ill-informed, deceptive, mendacious and simply vile...

Pierce On Mueller

Robert Mueller Follows the Money in Trump-Russia Investigation:

...It is now painfully clear that Mueller has opened the ballgame on the Trump organization's entire business model, which always has been aromatic but which now has become entangled with the intelligence community, the institutions of government, and the national interest, as interpreted by Robert Mueller. He isn't some roofing specialist that you can stiff and then drag through the courts until he can't afford the trip any more. He isn't someone you can scare off with your usual gang of billable-hour button men. He isn't some dingy Russian banker who can float you a loan to tide you over. He is honest and respected and relentless, and the only way you're going to get rid of him is to fire him. In a way, the country is daring you to do that, just to see if you have the stones for what comes next, and (possibly) as the last excuse it needs to insist on a new president. Go ahead. Make our day...

Battlin' Baptists

Southern Baptists voted overwhelmingly to condemn ‘alt-right white supremacy’ - The Washington Post:

... Members of the Southern Baptist Convention voted Wednesday to condemn a white nationalist movement, but only after fierce backlash following their decision a day earlier not to move forward with a similar resolution...

tRump On Comey And FBI--- Flashback

Trump Warned of Endless Clinton Investigations. Instead, the Focus Is on Him - NBC News:

...November 5 in Reno, NV

“There's virtually no doubt that FBI Director Comey and the great, great special agents of the FBI will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against Hillary Clinton and her inner circle, despite her efforts to disparage them and to discredit them. If she were to win this election, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. In that situation, we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial.” ...

Will The Hammer Finally Fall In Flint?

Top Michigan health official, four others charged with manslaughter in Flint water crisis - The Washington Post:

The Michigan attorney general’s office on Wednesday charged the director of the state’s health department and four other public officials with involuntary manslaughter for their roles in the Flint water crisis, which has stretched into its third year.

Nick Lyon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, also faces a felony count of misconduct in office...

GOP Immediately Starts Making Political Hay Out Of Shooting

Lawmaker Steve Scalise injured in GOP baseball shooting. Suspect James T. Hodgkinson dies after shootout - The Washington Post:

...Anger about his own colleagues being attacked was evident in the words of Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who, suit in tie, stopped by the crime scene to pray, was viscerally angry about his own colleagues being attacked.

“America has bene divided,” he said, “and the center of America is disappearing, and the violence is appearing in the streets, and it’s coming from the left.” Kng did indicate it was impossible to separate the hyperpartisan climate in Washington — especially people protesting President Trump — with Republican members of Congress being gunned down at a baseball scrimmage...

Russian Attacks Worse Than Reported

Obama red-phoned Russia but apparently felt like the public didn't need to know. Another blunder. If not for Reality, would we even know today? 

Russian Cyber Hacks on U.S. Electoral System Far Wider Than Previously Known - Bloomberg:

Russia’s cyberattack on the U.S. electoral system before Donald Trump’s election was far more widespread than has been publicly revealed, including incursions into voter databases and software systems in almost twice as many states as previously reported...

Killing O v. Killing tRump

'Julius Caesar' has sparked controversy. But where was corporate outrage when a movie killed President Obama? - LA Times:

...As my former Daily Beast colleague Asawin Suebsaeng reminded me this morning, nary a corporate suit batted an eye in 2015 when a Hollywood blockbuster blew the head off of an Obama-esque POTUS in even more spectacular fashion.

I wrote then of the historic cinematic killing of President Obama in 20th Century Fox's "Kingsman: The Secret Service," the first film to depict the then-POTUS's death onscreen. In it, an Obama lookalike, one of several world leaders in cahoots with Samuel L. Jackson's bad guy Valentine, gets his head blown up in the film's bombastic denouement...

Consequences, NBC, Consequences

J.P. Morgan Chase Reportedly Pulls NBC Ads Over Megyn Kelly's Alex Jones Interview | HuffPost:

NBC News is reportedly under pressure from at least one major advertiser over the upcoming Megyn Kelly interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The Wall Street Journal reports that J.P. Morgan Chase has pulled its local TV ads and digital ads from all NBC News programming, including Kelly’s show, until after the interview airs Sunday night...

Crazy In NC: Gerrymandering Edition

US judges correcting NC racial gerrymanders plan to act quickly | News & Observer:

...The three federal judges who could decide whether North Carolina will have special elections this year in state legislative races issued notice Friday that they plan to act quickly.

The memorandum comes four days after the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling unanimously affirming that 28 of North Carolina’s districts used to elect members to the state Senate and state House of Representatives are illegal racial gerrymanders that diluted the overall power of black voters...

tRump And A Fictional Murder Plot

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community:

... I think we’re all familiar with the plot device in which a spouse comes under suspicion in the death of their loved one because they aren’t showing a normal or appropriate level of emotion. If we used that analogy in this case, Trump would be the husband who didn’t call 911 when he found his lifeless wife lying on the floor. He’d be the one who tried to stop others from calling the cops. He’d be the one who denied that she’d been murdered at all, hired one of the prime suspects to work for him, and tried to use his influence with the mayor to shut down the investigation. He’d say strangely positive things about the prime suspects and have some exculpatory story about a 400 lb. intruder that no one has ever seen. His lawyer would have extensive ties to people who had a motive to kill his wife. His son-in-law would have met privately with them and tried to conceal that fact. And when interviewed by investigators, he never once would express the slightest concern that his wife was dead or any interest in seeing her killers brought to justice.

A crime has been committed against our country, but Trump was the beneficiary of that crime and is pleased with the outcome. He has no remorse about it. He doesn’t want it investigated.

So, what are the chances that this can all be explained as normal? Is it really different from how any candidate would feel if their election was called into question?...

Will Dems Learn Lesson?

DownWithTyranny!: What Do The Results Of The U.K. Election Tell Us About Our Own Politics?:

...How did the Conservatives projected landslide turn into a rout? On May 10 the media leaked Labour's manifesto-- Corbyn’s entire program to crank up spending and raise taxes-- and the "press tore it to pieces." Unfortunately for the Conservatives, Corbyn's "plans for pumping money into schools and nationalizing rail transport captured the public imagination after years of grinding austerity." [I want to just note here that the DCCC still insists that congressional candidates avoid contentious issues, not put up issues pages on their websites, and, worst of all, try to run as Republican-lite candidates. It's why they have seen a decade of catastrophic failure and they are determined to do it again-- and, worse yet, teach it to their poxy candidates and campaign staffers at the new DCCC U, an operation that will bake even more endemic failure into the Democratic cake for another generation. Back to the U.K.]...

tRump's Really Bad Week

‘This was the week that things got weird’: MSNBC panel says ‘Constitutionally illiterate’ Trump is doomed:

...New York University’s Cristina Beltran said, “I agree with Joan. This is the week that we saw just how deeply dangerous Trump’s enemies are. In the past he’s been fighting with real estate moguls and beauty pageant contestants and he’s been dominating people with a lot less power than he has, but right now the fact of the matter is that Trump is a president who is constitutionally illiterate and he’s battling with people who actually understand the rule of law...”

tRump Taping Threats Hot Air

Biographer: Trump Admitted Trying To 'Intimidate' Me By Lying About Taping Conversations | Crooks and Liars:

In 2005, Trump sued O'Brien over his book TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, which suggested that the real estate mogul was worth only $250 million. But the author turned the tables on Trump and cornered him in a deposition for making at least 30 false statements...

tRump Didn't Get His Reach Around

Ex-Prosecutor Refused Trump's Call, Got Fired The Next Day | HuffPost:

...Bharara said he viewed direct contact from the president to himself, as a law-enforcement official, to be an inappropriate breach of protocol and reported it to the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 9. “Twenty-two hours later, I was fired,” Bharara said...

Good News For The UK!

Trump's Visit To London Put On Hold | Crooks and Liars:

...So perhaps the idea of being confronted with British asses that could never be as large as our presidential ass-in-chief made a trip to the UK to congratulate Teresa May on her narrow win less than appealing. This Saturday, the Trump administration announced that the trip was put on hold:..

Trib Has tRump Pegged

Donald Trump is a profoundly incompetent president - Chicago Tribune:

...The people who voted for Trump knew they would be getting a disrupter, a critic of business-as-usual and an enemy of political correctness. Many also realized they were electing a bully and a braggart. But they may not have known what they were getting above all else: an incompetent.

There is no other way to explain most of what he has done in the White House. His most formidable opponent couldn't do half as much to foil Trump as Trump himself has done...

The People Win One!

Supreme Court Rejects Guilty Until Proven Innocent, Says States Cannot Keep Money From The Innocent:

With so many constitutional rights under siege, it’s welcome news when one of them is defended. Reaffirming the presumption of innocence, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Colorado law last month that forced criminal defendants to prove their innocence when the defendants’ convictions were already overturned. As the court explained, “Absent those convictions, Colorado would have no legal right to exact and retain petitioners’ funds.” Not only is this decision a win for due process, the court’s ruling in Nelson v. Colorado could have major ramifications for government shakedown schemes nationwide...

tRump Knows He Is Guilty

David Simon Tells Us Why He Believes President Trump is Guilty | IndieWire:

...Simon’s ultimate conclusion: “Trump already knows that there is some fixed amount of Russian interference on his behalf, and possibly, collusion as well...”

The Bros Will Be In A Corporate Dem Huff Over Impeachment

Top Dem Donor Calls On Lawmakers To Take Up Trump Impeachment | HuffPost:

One of the Democratic Party’s top donors is urging lawmakers to begin impeachment proceedings for President Donald Trump.

Tom Steyer, the wealthy environmentalist turned super PAC funder, has penned a letter laying out the case that Trump has met the definition of obstruction of justice, and compelling lawmakers to act accordingly...

The cry from deep in Bernout Land "Boo! Hiss! Piss! Moan! Corporate Democrat! Corporate Democrat! Oh wait..." 

GOPers And The Comey Show

James Comey's Testimony on Trump and Russia Had a Few Pivotal Moments:

...For their part, the Republicans on the committee never strayed far from the club car of the Trump Train. Almost all of them, but Marco Rubio especially, insisted on asking Comey why, if he thought what the president* said about the Flynn situation was so dubious, Comey hadn't reported it to the attorney general or to anyone else at the Justice Department. This gave Comey endless chances to aw-shucks his way past the point of the question, and then talk again about how dangerously inappropriate the president*'s request had been...

Well, No Kidding, Terrorism Double Standard

5 Things The Media Gets Wrong About White Supremacist Hate | HuffPost:

...There’s a familiar double standard in how the media treats violence by white supremacists versus violence by Islamist extremists. It’s time to get it right...

Harris Profile Increases

Trump hearings launch Kamala Harris - POLITICO:

...Her pitch: “This is hardly the first time the GOP has done this — let us not forget when they silenced my friend and colleague Elizabeth Warren for trying to read a letter from Coretta Scott King about Jeff Sessions… Well here is the truth: I will not be silenced. We will not be silenced. The American people, who deserve the truth, will not be silenced. Not when the faith and integrity of our democracy is at stake.”

Harris previewed that defiant posture in San Francisco recently, when during a live recording of the Pod Save America podcast, she exploded into “What the f— is that?” in reaction to conservative GOP Congressman Raul Labrador’s statement that people don’t die because they don’t have health insurance...

False Equivalency Bellowing From Todd

This False Equivalency Is Even Too Much For You, Chuck Todd | Crooks and Liars:

...Semantics! Lynch was right, it was a matter, nothing requiring an investigation like colluding with a hostile foreign entity. We know how serious Sessions' situation is because he recused himself!

Both Sides DON'T.

tRump And The Stupidty Defense

Nicolle Wallace On Trump And The Stupidity Defense | Crooks and Liars:

..."Listen, this is where the White House has landed. They have landed on the stupidity defense. "He just didn't understand that the FBI is an independent law enforcement agency and was doing what you just described. This is where they have landed. This is where they have landed on foreign policy. He just didn't understand that you don't blow the cover of undercover agents. So he didn't get the intel. He didn't understand it was inappropriate to ask for the FBI to be the arms of your press operation and rapidly respond to stories you don't understand...

Blacksnake Moaning To The Duggar Pedophile Blues

Josh Duggar Suing For ‘Emotional Distress’ Of Everyone Finding Out He Was A Child Molester | Wonkette:

...The lawyers also claim in the suit that Josh “was also subject to the humiliation and extreme mental anguish of being publicly identified.”

I don’t know about you, but I kind of feel child molestation is a far greater evil than revealing the fact that someone is a child molester. And that if you go around molesting children, the possibility of someone finding that out someday and you having to be “humiliated” by that is simply a risk you take. The fact that he is tacking on his own lawsuit to the lawsuit of his victims is especially galling, even if the victims are his sisters, even if they have “forgiven” him for having assaulted them.

If Josh Duggar didn’t want to be humiliated by people finding out he was a child molester, he should not have molested his sisters and cousin in the first place. It’s his fault, not InTouch‘s, that he now has to deal with the consequences.

Russia Trying To Undermine Potential President Clinton

Bombshell NSA docs show how Russia was trying to undermine Clinton presidency — but instead got Trump:

The leaked NSA document showing Russian hackers targeted U.S. voting systems and elections officials confirmed their intention to meddle in the presidential contest — but those efforts were aimed at undermining a Hillary Clinton presidency...

Comment Of The Day: Reality Edition

Discussion: Who Is Accused NSA Leaker Reality Winner? - TPM Article Topics - The Hive:

misterneutron
2h

Funny how when Winner hands over classified info to the American public, she lands in jail, but when Trump hands over classified info to the Russians, it's just another day at the White House.

Spymaster Flogs tRump

James Clapper: 'Watergate Pales' In Comparison To Trump Scandals | Crooks and Liars:

..."When I later learned that the first place he was going to visit after the Inauguration was CIA, I thought — again, naively — that perhaps I had gotten through to him. For the intelligence community (not just the CIA) the wall in the front lobby at CIA Headquarters is hallowed, with over 120 stars commemorating CIA officers who have paid the ultimate price. He chose to use that as a prop for railing about the size of the inauguration crowd on the Mall, and his battle with the “fake news” media. His subsequent actions — sharing sensitive intelligence with the Russians, and, compromising its source reflect ignorance or disrespect — are likewise very problematic," he said...

DNC Wanted Hacks Investigated

Democrats pressed GOP to raise alarm on Russian 2016 infiltration

Comment Of The Day: Begging Edition

'Try Obamacare': Internet Mocks Fired Breitbart Writer For Begging For Donations For Medical Bills | Crooks and Liars

Aunty American
@auntyamerican

@k_mcq The dildo of consequences rarely arrives lubed.

2:09 PM - 5 Jun 2017

Toxic tRump

Report: Top Law Firms Don’t Want To Defend Trump On Russia Probe – Talking Points Memo:

Before hiring veteran New York attorney Marc Kasowitz to defend President Donald Trump as the federal investigations into his campaign and administration heat up, the White House knocked on the doors of D.C.’s top tier law firms, only to be turned away...

The GOP Congress Vs. tRump

The Real ‘Resistance’ to Trump? The GOP Congress. - POLITICO Magazine:

...So, what is the verdict on Congress’s uses of its tools to push back against Trump? So far, mixed. It certainly has not been a record of unalloyed partisan subservience, but neither has it been one of sustained opposition. But it is worth noting that opposition tends to be self-reinforcing: insofar as it prevents the administration from getting policy wins, or furthers a narrative of failure, fecklessness or corruption, it will tend to lower the president’s public standing still further. That, in turn, will encourage and embolden congressional opposition, which will, in turn, produce more failures and embarrassments for the administration...

Best Political LOL Lately

Maxine Waters Beated Lefty Reporter To Death, But It’s OK He Got Better | Wonkette:

If you sensed a great disturbance in the Force this weekend — as if a liberal reporter had his microphone-holding hand moved away rather brusquely by a 78-year-old congresslady, and then acted as if it were a violent assault on the press — then here’s your explanation: Michael Tracey, this one reporter for The Young Turks, put his microphone in Maxine Waters’s face on Saturday at the March For Truth in Los Angeles, and when she was tired of talking to him, she pushed his hand out of the way with the violence of several tonnes of TNT...

Russia Hacking Confirmed

Report: Russia Hackers Targeted Voting Software Company, Election Officials – Talking Points Memo:

Just a few days before the 2016 presidential election, Russian military intelligence hackers targeted a Florida voting software company and more than 100 local election officials, according to a highly classified National Security Agency report obtained by The Intercept and verified by CBS News...

SCOTUS Rejects NC GOPer Whine

US Supreme Court affirms NC legislative districts as racial gerrymanders | News & Observer:

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request from state lawmakers to review a lower court’s ruling that struck down the 2011 state legislative districts, but sent the case back for reconsideration of whether elections should be held in 2017 as the lower court ordered.

The order came five days after the justices met behind closed doors to decide whether to take up the case filed by 31 North Carolina residents in 2015...

Traitor tRump

Trump Is Already Guilty of Aiding Putin's Attack on America | Mother Jones:

...Explicit collusion may yet be proved by the FBI investigation overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller or by other ongoing probes. But even if it is not, a harsh verdict can be pronounced: Trump actively and enthusiastically aided and abetted Russian President Vladimir Putin's plot against America. This is the scandal. It already exists—in plain sight...

A Moron Problem

What Trump Really Fears - The Atlantic:

...Meanwhile, the former campaign staffer went so far as to suggest Trump’s aides could have colluded with Russia without knowing it was illegal. “Is it possible that [Trump] was surrounded with people who didn’t even realize what they were doing was inappropriate? You’d have to be pretty stupid. But there are some pretty stupid people in the Trump camp.”

“You have to remember,” the staffer added, “these people were just kind of in the right place at the right time, and fell into running the country … I would almost compare it to the Keystone Kops. Just silly, maybe well-intentioned people who got lucky—or maybe unlucky depending on how things work out.”

How The Election Subversion Worked

Mark Warner Wants To Know How Russians Knew Best Ways To Help Trump | HuffPost:

...Crucial to Trump winning the the White House was that he carried three states ― Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania ― by a combined margin of about 76,000 votes. Polls had shown Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leading in the trio of states, and all of them had been won by Democrats in the six presidential elections before last year’s vote.

Warner in March told reporters that more than 1,000 paid Internet “trolls” working out of Russia sought to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favor by disseminating unflattering and, at times, untrue information about Clinton...

A Hopeful Article

A women's movement grows in 'the most Trumpian place in America' | PBS NewsHour

Hypocrite Thou Name Is Evangelical

Donald Trump Apparently Doesn't Know Which Christians Are Evangelicals | HuffPost:

...But all this little mattered little to his evangelical base. In June of 2016, Trump met with nearly 1,000 evangelical Christians during a conference for conservative leaders in an attempt to win over a voting bloc that has consistently helped sway the GOP vote. He received a standing ovation before taking the stage, and in the months that followed ― full of controversies that would have likely crippled other candidates ― evangelicals remained his loyal fans.

Come November, more than 80 percent of white evangelicals threw their support behind Trump.

Who Gets To Have A Culture?

Tucker Carlson Is Wrong | The American Conservative:

...I’m also utterly puzzled by Tucker’s fear that we’re all becoming tribal. Does this apply to white Southerners who are watching Confederate monuments—celebrating the heroes under whom some of their ancestors fought—being torn down? Are these Southern “tribalists” receiving the same recognition as Black Lives Matter or do they enjoy the same respect as black politicians who say they’re offended by Confederate symbols? One might think, following Tucker’s logic, that in a society where all tribes are contending for power, Southern whites who valued ancestral symbols would be receiving the same encouragement as those on the other side. But of course this is not the case, because Tucker’s view of our present problem misses the point. Although tribalism has had serious historical consequences, it is not the same thing as multiculturalism. Tucker would do well to understand that the kind of tribalism permitted by multiculturalists is extremely selective and is not handed out to all groups in the same measure...

The Daily Flashback: Remember The Real Ronald Raygun

White Evangelical Colleges vs. White Evangelical Parents:

...We can imagine useful upper-class electives on either of those subjects, and both would be enormously constructive for young American students from the white evangelical subculture and tribe. Actual study of the Reagan years, and of Reagan’s actual politics, might be a revelatory bit of myth-busting for such students. Such a course would necessarily touch on, among other things: Reagan’s 1976 primary campaign, his “states’ rights” speech in Neshoba County, the Southern Strategy, Jesse Helms and the conversion of the Dixiecrats, the retreat from Lebanon, Grenada, David Stockman and Voodoo economics, the payroll tax hike, the creation of modern deficits, the air-traffic controller strike and the destruction of organized labor, The Day After, Gorbachev and SALT II, AIDS and ACT UP and Ryan White, Thatcherism, Sandra Day O’Connor, the Iran/Iraq War, Star Wars, the creation of a database (or “qaida”) of Mujahideen, Robert Bork, Contras and death squads, and at least a week’s worth of reading and lectures on the Iran/Contra debacle...

She's Baaaaaaaaaaccccck!

Why are people still losing their minds over Hillary?:

Hillary Clinton is back. And surprise, surprise: Many Americans, both liberal and conservative, still despise her.

Liberals carped at her for taking some time to herself and skipping the Women's March (see, she never cared what happened to us!), and now they loathe her for coming back (you're standing in the way of progress!). Conservatives, meanwhile, continue to hammer her for making "excuses" about her election loss, retrench old tales of her husband's indiscretions, and peddle an array of escalating conspiracy theories about her health. News of her starting a political organization, giving some interviews, and delivering a commencement speech has been met with shock, revulsion, and outright horror, and not just by the press, but also by people who ostensibly supported her. This is far worse than any vitriol directed at the last four men who preceded her as presidential bridesmaids. Why is everyone still so angry at her?...

The Military Should Be Concerned

General McMaster’s former officers claim Trump is ‘using’ him and tarnishing the military:

According to military friends and former colleagues of Gen. H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump only has his position in Trump’s administration because the three-star general makes Trump look good to the establishment. The former military officers are concerned Trump is “tarnishing” the military’s reputation...

The Winning Way

Democrats Don’t Need Trump’s Voters To Retake The House | FiveThirtyEight:

...The GOP’s problem again comes back to Trump’s base being relatively small to begin with compared to the base support of past presidents. The latest poll from YouGov, for example, shows 88 percent of respondents who said they voted for Trump approve of his job performance. But 88 percent of the 46 percent of 2016 voters who chose Trump is just 40 percent. Overall, the YouGov survey found 54 percent of registered voters disapprove of Trump so far. If every person who currently disapproves of Trump’s job performance voted against the Republican Party’s House candidates in 2018, Democrats would almost certainly take control of the chamber.1...

VA Plans To Whack Old Vets

VA defends plan to cut thousands from elderly vets' benefits:

Veterans Affairs officials on Wednesday defended plans to strip tens of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits from elderly veterans as responsible reforms to the department’s growing budget, but opponents promised to fight the idea...

A couple of points: First, SS has zero to do with either the budget or the VA. SS is something we paid for. VA disability falls into a completely different category, both morally and fiscally. Second, this would never, ever, in a billion years, be done to WW II or Korean vets, but since it is primarily Vietnam vets that would be impacted, why not continue the tradition of screwing them, especially since it is being proposed by a man whose war was avoiding STD's and using bone spurs to avoid serving his country. 

Pence Also Obstructs

COVER UP: NYT Bombshell Implicates VP Pence. He's Going Down.:

As Donald Trump himself confirmed, former FBI Director James Comey was fired because he was investigating Team Trump’s ties to Russia, but Trump wasn’t alone in making that decision. A bombshell report from the New York Times revealed that Vice President Mike Pence took part in this obstruction of justice.

The new report shows that a number of people in Trump’s inner circle have been involved in the Comey firing and subsequent cover-up. However, Pence’s corrupt involvement has been kept in “near secrecy,” according to the respected newspaper...

The Inhumanity Of The tRump

A Federal Judge Slams Trump: "Even the 'Good Hombres' Are Not Safe" | Mother Jones:

Today, a federal appeals court judge in California rebuked the Trump administration for its zealous deportation policy and for "ripping apart a family." Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that he had no power to stop the removal of Andres Magana Ortiz, but nevertheless took the time to write a short opinion blasting his deportation as "inhumane..."

tRump Comedy Writers Emerge

White House issues bizarre statement touting Trump’s ‘magnetic personality’ that ‘exudes positive energy’:

...“President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him,” the statement from White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks reads. “He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible...”

Shocked, But Not Surprised At Family Values Hypocrisy

Senator who voted for anti-trans ‘bathroom bill’ busted in hotel with underage boy – DeadState:

This Tuesday, an Oklahoma State Senator was charged with child prostitution after being caught in a hotel room with an underage boy...

Ms. Lindsey Upset At Comey Over Fake Email

Graham: It’s ‘Stunning’ That Comey Acted On Fake Russian Intel In 2016 – Talking Points Memo:

...“I can’t imagine a scenario where it’s OK for the FBI director to jump in the middle of an election based on a fake email generated by the Russians and not tell the Congress,” Graham said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

CNN reported last week that Comey used emails fabricated by Russian intelligence, in which a Clinton operative and DNC official discussed assurances from the Justice Department that it would quash the investigation, to justify his norm-breaking public announcements about the case. Comey believed the emails to be fake, but decided to disclose his findings out of concern that the credibility of the DOJ’s probe would be damaged if the emails leaked...

Bernouts Fooled By Russians

As I suspected.

Russia Duped Bernie Fans via Facebook, San Diego Dems Told - Times of San Diego:

...Mattes confessed that the Democratic National Committee didn’t do Sanders any favors, as revealed in the Russian-hacked emails made public on WikiLeaks. But Mattes insisted that “discouraged” Sanders voters who either voted against Clinton or didn’t go to the polls at all were sufficient to hand the White House to Trump...

Demon "Christians"

Greg Gianforte is what toxic Christianity looks like:

...But the ugliness of toxic Christianity is being laid bare for the whole world to see. This seems like the moment in Pinocchio when the boys on Pleasure Island are almost all the way transformed into donkeys. Five years ago, I prophesied that the American church was being exorcised in the same way as the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5. Our demons are being cast into a herd of pigs that are racing furiously down a cliff to throw themselves into the lake of fire. The demonic pigs of 2012 were so tame compared to the demonic pigs of 2017. I’m just waiting for the part where they finally throw themselves off the cliff and the church wakes up in its right mind...

Let The Singing Begin

Report: Russian Billionaire Linked To Manafort Seeks Immunity To Testify | HuffPost:

A Russian oligarch who secretly employed Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, offered to testify before congressional committees investigating Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election, but only if he’s granted immunity from prosecution, The New York Times reported Friday...

So Will This Be Called Terrorism?

Man shouting 'anti-Muslim slurs' kills 2 on Portland train, police say - CNN.com: 

Two men were fatally stabbed Friday on a crowded commuter train in Portland, Oregon, when they confronted a passenger who was "yelling a gamut of anti-Muslim and anti-everything slurs," a police spokesman said...

Can The Electors Be Arrested?

I wonder how they feel right now about not doing their damn Constitutionally mandated jobs to protect the country from thieves, liars, crooks, and raging orange incompetents? Today we learn that frat boy Kushner was trying to set-up secret communication links with the Russians, and this is just the latest dribble in the flood of nasty, yellow, treasonous water that has cascaded out of the tRump White House.

Some enterprising journalist, who is not afraid of being assaulted, ought to track them down and ask them to "share their thoughts" on being the spineless losers who let this ramshackle mess sashay into D.C.  So what if they got a fine? I'm sure a million GoFundMes would spring up to pay the fines of any who did their patriotic duty and said no to a sexual predator being allowed in the Oval Office.

Update: Just saw this (Sunday morning) concerning the electors and overturning the election. Interesting read.

We Can Shoot Back You Putz

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Jokes About Shooting Reporters | HuffPost:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appears to be a pretty good shot ― and a horrible comedian.

A Texas Tribune reporter snapped a photo of Abbott showing off his target sheet on Friday, after which the governor “jokingly” pointed to the bullet holes and threatened the media.

“I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” Abbott said, according to reporter Patrick Svitek...

Sounds Like Treason To Me

Florida GOPer Helped Russian Hacker Disseminate Dems’ Voter Turnout Data – Talking Points Memo:

A Republican political operative in Florida asked the alleged Russian hacker who broke into Democratic Party organizations’ servers at the height of the 2016 campaign to pass him stolen documents, according to a report Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.

In return, that operative received valuable Democratic voter-turnout analyses, which the newspaper found at least one GOP campaign consultant took advantage of the information. The hacker went on to flag that same data to Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump’s who briefly advised his presidential campaign, and who is currently under federal investigation for potential collusion with Russia...

Maybe the prosecutions should begin at low level and work their way up to the Mango Menace.

Sleepy Ben Continues Snoozing

Ben Carson: Poverty ‘To Large Extent’ Is ‘A State Of Mind’ – Talking Points Memo:

In an interview published online on Wednesday, Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, described poverty as a “state of mind.”...

Jesus Loves Tax Havens

Minnesota Republican dodges question about tax havens by invoking Jesus:

Pressed about her lack of support for an amendment that would close loopholes for offshore tax havens, a Minnesota Republican dodged the question in favor of talking about her religious beliefs...

Daily PUMA Nails Stein Recounts

Daily PUMA -- Stein's Role In Recounts:

...So basically, if one wants to screw up a Presidential Election and has figured out how to change, alter, subtract or add votes to gin the vote for a specific candidate, all one would have to do is then add in a few more uncounted votes into the voting box, thus ruining the validity of ANY recount!..

Kicking Howdy Trey

‘Trey Gowdy needs to have his ass kicked’: Ex-CIA agent blasts lawmaker for grandstanding at Brennan hearing:

...“Trey Gowdy should have his ass kicked. He knows the difference,” Mudd said of Gowdy trying to use the words interchangeably. “If you are an American citizen and CIA is collecting intercepts of Russians of what you said, is it fair to go to court and say that is evidence of something you did wrong?”...

I find that acceptable.

The GOP Talent Vacuum

Watching the downfall of a generation of Washington Republicans - The Washington Post:

...If the GOP is to survive at all after Trump, it most likely will need to turn to governors or ex-lawmakers who did not carry Trump’s water or attempt to defend the indefensible. I raise that now because it will reflect on the actions of Republicans on Capitol Hill for the next couple of years. Keep in mind how self-destructive their behavior is as you wince watching Capitol Hill Republicans flack for Trump, explain why ongoing possible violations of the emoluments clause are no big deal, brush off reckless disclosure of top-secret information to the Russians or refuse to chastise the president for cuddling up to dictators. As painful as it is to watch these performances, some satisfaction can be derived from knowing that these Republicans are doing incalculable damage to their ambition for future leadership in the party.

You Know It's Coming

FORESEEN CONSEQUENCES | Gin and Tacos:

...It would not surprise me if a lot of the Republicans and conservative media figures have their "the day after Trump is gone" pieces in the can already. Even Fox News has to be planning ahead despite their comical efforts to keep this unfolding disaster away from the dead octogenarian eyes of their remaining viewers; a slew of "What went wrong and why are we not at fault for failing to mention any of this before it actually went wrong?" pieces exist in the ethers, awaiting only the push of a button to be unleashed and accepted unquestioningly. Revisionist history as absolution is the only thing the right does as effectively as phony moral outrage and IOKIYAR-ism...

President Pence Coming?

Why Trump will likely resign as Mueller pursues 'Putingate' | TheHill:

The decision to name the universally-respected former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel on the Russian election scandal is a defining moment in modern American history that sets off a chain reaction that probably leads to the ultimate resignation of President Trump...

...And Another Devil Got Its Horns

Former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes Dead, An Influential And Destructive Force In Media And Politics, Has Died | HuffPost:

Roger Ailes, the Fox News co-founder who resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal, died on Thursday, his wife, Elizabeth Ailes, confirmed in a statement. The network’s former chairman and CEO was 77...

Matt Taibbi's "eulogy".

DC Documents-- So Do We

James Comey and the Revenge of Washington’s Professional Class - The New Yorker:

...James Comey, the fired F.B.I. director, began his career as an associate at the powerhouse law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Later, during his years of government service, he routinely documented conversations with his superiors as a method of self-preservation. During the Bush Administration, he documented his resistance to the use of torture, which helped extend his career from a conservative epoch to a liberal one. “A showboat,” President Trump called Comey, last week, in defending his decision to fire the man. Perhaps, but one with the daily routines of a clerk...

I routinely "journaled" my conversations with superiors for many years, and in my place of employment I later discovered, I was far from the only one. In fact, that practice seems fairly common in all phases of government employment. We might no have had video, but we had ink.

Fox Asks GOP To Apologize To Clinton

Hell freezes over: Fox News co-host says Republicans should apologize to Hillary Clinton - Palmer Report:

In a development which truly signifies that hell has indeed frozen over, Fox News is now making the case that Republicans should apologize to Hillary Clinton. That message is coming in the form of an online op-ed from The Five co-host Juan Williams, who makes a compelling argument that in light of recent developments, the Republican Party owes Hillary an apology for the things it said about her with regard to classified information and her emails.

Pierce On tRump On Comey On Blitzen...

Why James Comey's Firing Is a Turning Point for Trump:

..And irony takes a big swig of Virginia Gentleman, shoots up some fine Afghan H, and walks into a propeller blade...

He can certainly turn a phrase.

Dropping Shoes

Report: FBI raid in Annapolis is just the first of numerous Trump-Russia warrants being executed - Palmer Report:

In the wake of Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey to try to sabotage the Trump-Russia investigation, a number of political insiders predicted last night that the FBI would strike back in a major way today (link). Sure enough, the FBI just raided a GOP fundraising firm in Annapolis (link). But word is now that this is just one of numerous Trump-Russia warrants that are being executed...

I wanted to make at least one more post before I leave for the hospital. I am having surgery tomorrow. I will post again when I return. I hope.

The Archer At The End Of Time

I don't know when or if I will return to political blogging, but in the interim I thought I'd use the space to offer my new book. I'm not much of a salesman but if you are interested here's a link to purchase: Book One.    The book is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats.