US Politics May 2019: " If I was burned at the stake, I would ask for a mirror"

poor Hope Hicks, trying to find the fortitude to resist subpoenas.

an emptywheel thread on haberman's article

Yeah, I read it -- good shit

Was there LSD in my eggs and chorizo this morning? https://t.co/oPO4nVcyeb

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) May 26, 2019

I wonder if dictators pass a burn book between them.

good morning!

(looks at watch. shakes it. looks again. purses lips. shakes head. walks off.)

...what is happening

No really, good job everybody. pic.twitter.com/NgO8G1Pvo8

— Schooley (@Rschooley) May 28, 2019

i checked - it's real

between that, the fawning Hope Hicks "existential crisis" profile and glamor photo and the front page Trump nicknames chart....

the editors of the NYT and WP can't be that naive, I think Jay Rosen was right in what he said about the NYT, that “they are tempted to look right and see one kind of danger, then look left to spot another, equal and opposite. They want to push off from both sides to clear a space from which the truth can be told. That would make things simpler, but of course things are not that simple. The threat to truth telling - to journalism, democracy, the Times itself - is not symmetrical. They know this.”

US terrorist supporters will always support US terrorists. When I read shit like this, my admiration for the Cuban Revolution increases. The Sandinistas were too democratic; and if US imperialists hate anything, it's democracy. https://t.co/4mV9KIUX5Y

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) May 28, 2019

WASHINGTON — A single House Republican again blocked final passage of a long-delayed emergency aid package, the second Republican in a week to use the power of an individual lawmaker to ensure the delay of relief for communities and farmers still recovering from natural disasters.

House Democrats tried for a second time on Tuesday to use a procedural vote to pass a Senate-approved $19.1 billion package while most lawmakers are spending a weeklong recess outside of Washington. But Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, used the power of a single lawmaker to object to the vote, pushing for the full chamber to be present to vote on legislation.

“If the speaker felt that this was must-pass legislation,” Mr. Massie said, “the speaker should have called a vote before sending members home.”

...
Without lawmakers in town, passage through the House would have to be unanimous. On Friday, Representative Chip Roy, a freshman Republican from Texas, postponed returning to his Texas district to prevent the package’s passage during an identical procedural vote, calling the maneuver “a very swampy thing to do.”

Like Mr. Roy, Mr. Massie outlined his concerns with the vote on the House floor, complaining about a vote during recess. Separately, Mr. Roy had also cited fiscal irresponsibility and the decision to leave out the White House’s request for about $4.5 billion for the southwestern border as reasons to take issue with the legislation.

...Mr. Massie, often a thorn in the side of House leadership regardless of party, lauded Mr. Roy’s decision to block the vote, calling the gesture “Hero level, over 9000” on Twitter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/us/politics/disaster-relief-bill.html

delaying aid for a bunch of people whose lives were ruined...and then making a dragonball z joke in praise of the delay.

wtf

Holy shit at that Amash town hall. He had support.

McConnell needs to die in the most horrific way possible imo

Good morning!

McConnell said if a SC Justice died in 2020, Republicans would hold a vote to confirm a new one, in case anyone is wondering.

This description in the NYT seems rather understated...

Mr. McConnell’s most common explanation for blocking Mr. Garland — that a new president should get to fill a Supreme Court opening that occurs close to an election — struck Democrats as disingenuous at the time, and many said it looked even more so after Tuesday’s comments

tbh I'm glad he's at least not pretending anymore

like it's not the evilness and the brazen breaking of the rules, it's the longwinded justifications like "well ACTUALLY we've been VERY consistent on this if you look at the late 1800s you will find blah blah blah" that really annoy me honestly

well it's like he said in that long profile - he makes decisions based on whatever will deliver the most "conservative" outcome. this is entirely consistent with that.

oh NO

not disinGENuousness

I’m starting to think this Mitch McConnell guy is just a straight-up liar!

McConnell needs to die in the most horrific way possible imo

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Wednesday, May 29, 2019 8:22 AM (fifty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Good morning!

― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, May 29, 2019 8:54 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, GREAT mourning!

The NYT's eyebrow twitches slightly as though trying to be raised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGL5dclzjHo&feature=youtu.be

Try again
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTMCeSZOYCxORs481iukwXQ

Huh. Anyway, that's the kickoff ad from Jaime Harrison, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, who is challenging Lindsey Graham. Don't know anything about Harrison, even after that video, but he's got my support.

Mueller gonna speak at 11?

oh man this is gonna finally be the end of the trump presidency, i can FEEl it

probably wants to complain about Game of Thrones

I saw some news/rumor item late last night claiming that mueller had, at one point, prepared an obstruction allegation against Trump. Maybe he’s coming out of his shithole to make sure everyone knows that’s not true. There is too much hope in the world

while we wait for mueller's pronouncement that mcdonalds should make the mcrib a permanent menu fixture, here's a fun thread on the shocking news that trump's tax cuts enriched the rich and did nothing for wages or the economy

Congressional Research Service—which is nonpartisan, independent, and highly-respected—just published a report that dismantles claims that the GOP tax law is doing much good for the economy. https://t.co/rAkDIbVHjv

Here are some quotes…

— Harry Stein (@HarrySteinDC) May 28, 2019

US Justice Dept. says Mueller's statement will be "on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. This will be a statement only, no question and answer period to follow."

I expect this to be deeply disappointing, probably something along the lines of "trust whatever Barr says".

I saw some news/rumor item late last night claiming that mueller had, at one point, prepared an obstruction allegation against Trump.

yeah, the new Michael Wolff book:

In his chapter on Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Wolff says there was a draft version of a three-count criminal indictment against President Donald Trump as early as March 2018. He says the three charges (under Title 18 of the federal code Sections 1505, 1512 and 1513) did not stem from the Russian interference itself but from Trump's efforts to thwart the investigation.

Wolff links this draft to Mueller's deputy Andrew Weissmann and reports that Mueller let it languish for nearly a year while preparing his own report, ultimately deferring to a longstanding Justice Department policy that a president could not be indicted while in office. Wolff says he got a look at the draft, and other related memoranda regarding that no-indictment policy, from "a source close to the Office of Special Counsel."

But the Office of Special Counsel on May 28 released a statement denying that account. "The documents you describe do not exist," said Peter Carr, responding to questions from The Guardian and other media organizations.

what a time for the krassenstein brothers to be banned from twitter

he could at least do a better version of faking it: Giacometti biography, book about African art, Winston Churchill, Gladstone, Jess Phillips...

oops wrong thread

i have little doubt this won't be totally infuriating

https://media.wnyc.org/i/800/0/c/85/1/its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown-footbal-gag.png

for forty days and forty nights, we have waited for mueller to speak

we have eaten normally during this time

it'd be neat if he coolly took to the stage and delivered an unbroken fifteen-minute series of howls, shrieks and dolphin noises into the mic before adjusting his tie, stepping down from the lectern, walking through the main doors of the department of justice building and disappearing in a dazzling blast of hot pink light, never to be seen again

mueller: LIVE!

"It's worse than you think!" Claws out eyes.

one minute later, on the internet: "...whoa man...live spelled backward is evil...let's follow the money"

it'd be neat if he coolly took to the stage and delivered an unbroken fifteen-minute series of howls, shrieks and dolphin noises into the mic before adjusting his tie, stepping down from the lectern, walking through the main doors of the department of justice building and disappearing in a dazzling blast of hot pink light, never to be seen again

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/snl/images/7/74/Odonoghue.png/revision/latest?cb=20131220094933

can't believe they're finally gonna lock her up

We begin bombing Russia in five minutes.