Sunday, January 31, 2021
Exciting And New
It is sufficiently late in the show's run that not only do you get beloved showkiller Ted McGinley as the ship's photographer, "Ace," but also the Love Boat Mermaids, including Teri Hatcher in her first tv role.
— Adam Bonin (@adambonin) January 31, 2021
This is what dumb weekend tv is all about. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/v3KlRVqlIo
Is Our Democrats Learning
Schumer: "We cannot do the mistake of 2009 where they whittled down the program so that the amount of relief was so small that the recession lasted 4 or 5 years. And then on the ACA, when they spent a year, a year and a half negotiating and then didn't come to any agreement."
— Michael McAuliff (@mmcauliff) January 31, 2021
Nobody Who Went To Yale Could Be Bad
Winter Fundraiser Day Final!
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America's Most Obvious Liars
A mistake a lot of people make, especially overeducated people convinced that they are very smart indeed and that everyone else is very stupid by comparison, is truly thinking that their bullshit isn't just something they manage to get away with, but so clever that no one even notices it.
Brain Worms
Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team.In a couple of months people we'll be asking if "is Trump pretending to be president the sign of a deeply delusional man afflicted with dementia" or "is Trump pretending to be president part of some sort of 'cunning' political plan" and the answer will be: both. It's both.Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.
No other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump's impeachment defense.
A person familiar with the departures told CNN that Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he's left office. Trump was not receptive to the discussions about how they should proceed in that regard.
Morning Thread
Discuss.
Saturday, January 30, 2021
It Is Quite Likely That Some Of Our Faves Are Implicated
Members of Congress, because of the nature of their jobs, have more inside information about markets than almost anyone else in America, except perhaps the executives of publicly traded corporations. And yet our elected officials trade hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock every year. As a result, congressional insider trading scandals bubble up regularly—more regularly, probably, since the passage of the 2012 law that forces members to disclose large stock trades. It is impossible to avoid the appearance of corrupt self-dealing if the people responsible for oversight of the economy, and for creating the laws that govern how the economy operates, are also allowed to personally trade individual stocks.
Controversial and Divisive
The Oldies
President Biden told us he would have a plan to defeat the virus on day 1. He just never told us that it would be to give the vaccine to terrorists before most Americans.
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) January 30, 2021
Winter Fundraiser Day 6
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Perhaps Chaining Yourselves To Trump Is Not So Bright
👀 new @ajc/@UGA poll in Georgia...
— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) January 30, 2021
NET APPROVAL/FAV/SUPPORT:
– Trump: -17
– Kemp: -9
– Raffensperger: +13
– Biden (transition): +25
– Biden (fav): +11
– Abrams: +10
– Ossoff: +10
– Warnock: +17
– Dems: +6
– GOP: -26
– $2000 checks: +56
– impeachment: +6https://t.co/o2M5T3gxu7
But What If They Didn't Go To YLS
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats are vetting civil rights lawyers and public defenders to nominate as judges, embarking on a mission to shape the courts after Republicans overhauled them in the last four years, according to senior party officials and activists.
Get It Done
Morning Thread
Friday, January 29, 2021
Friday Evening
How'd That Work Out
In fact, according to sources close to the campaigns, people in and around the White House, including the president's lawyer former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, put near-constant pressure on the two Georgia Republicans, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, to shape their runoff campaigns around his demands."It was a hostage situation every day," said one Republican strategist familiar with the campaigns who only agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity.
"We were always trying to guard against the tweet [from Trump]," the strategist said.
"Every week we had some new sort of demand," said another strategist involved with the campaigns. "Calling for the hand recount. The signature match. A special session. $2,000 [coronavirus relief] checks. Objecting to the electors."
"It was, 'If you do not do this, the president will actively work against you and you will lose,' " he recalled.
Why
Whoomp
Biden, asked if he supports moving Covid package via reconciliation: "I support passing Covid relief with Republican support if we can get it, but the Covid relief has to pass. There are no ifs, ands or buts."
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) January 29, 2021
Have Security Escort Them Out Of The Building
That and the insurrection and assassination attempts.A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me & others on social media.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 29, 2021
I'm moving my office away from hers for my team's safety.
I've called for the expulsion of members who incited the insurrection from Day 1. Bring H.Res 25 to a vote.
The Real Racists
Winter Fundraiser Day 5
But instead I just ask you to consider supporting my extravagant lifestyle directly, to alleviate the guilt that you must feel knowing that the Virgin Ben Shapiro has made millions off of his grift and I, sadly, have not.
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Democrats Are Going To Make Us Kill Them
Something already broke, Jim, you asshole.🚨 🚨 “Something will break": Conservatives warn culture, political wars will worsen - @benshapiro @TuckerCarlson on the growing post-Trump rallying cry https://t.co/IBnSm9viWw
— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) January 29, 2021
Hoarders
If your idea of "fun" is chatting with your friendly CNBC host on teeve, you're a nutter like Trump.
Just crazy old coots sitting on a pile of gold under the mountain. $3 billion can't buy any love from the kids and grandkids that $1 billion can't. Or from CNBC hosts or anybody else.
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Money Is Wasted On The Rich
Listening to irate New York hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman on CNBC right now lamenting people "sitting at home getting their checks from the government, trading their stocks."
— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) January 28, 2021
“This fair share is a bullshit concept," he shouts. "It’s a way of attacking wealthy people." pic.twitter.com/zFW6o1MFND
Thursday is New Jobless Day
Bipartisanship Is Dumb
Another way to say this is that there's nothing wrong with the obstruction that Minority Mitch engages in, except that our dumb Senate rules allow the minority party to get away with more opposition than they should be able to get away with. The problem is with letting him get away with it, and unnecessarily leaving the rules in place that allow it.
Lock Him Up
ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State attorney general accused the Cuomo administration of undercounting coronavirus-related deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50 percent, according to a report released on Thursday. The count of deaths in state nursing homes has been a source of controversy for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state Health Department officials, who have been sensitive to any suggestion that they played any role in the number of nursing home deaths, which the state put at more than 8,500.I can take the Fauci fans, but that period of "Cuomosexuals" made me want to have Dick Cheney shoot somebody in the face.
GameStop Takes
This is, and there’s no other way to put it, hilarious. A bunch of people trading stocks on their phones have brought some of the lords of finance to their knees. They weren’t using some amazing or novel strategy: The run-up in GameStop is just the “pump” of a pump-and-dump scheme, where hype pulls people into a stock before the rug gets pulled out. In fact, that’s what hedge fund managers do all the time, making bets and using research to puff up a stock, then taking the profits off moving a stock, through force of will—theirs—rather than the inherent value of the company.Written before all the easy mass market retail brokers stopped letting people buy (but not sell) the stock, it crashed, and all trading was prohibited, then allowed again, then up somewhat again.The only real difference here is that ordinary investors are driving the train, and the hedge fund guys are getting run over. The hedge funders are mad because distorting corporate stock prices beyond the fundamentals is supposed to be their thing, not the work of the hoi polloi. Now, they’ve been outfoxed. If you can think of a better use of $600 stimulus checks, let me know. Never was there a more apt name for an app in this moment than “Robinhood.”
The Enemy Inside
Asked what she meant when she said the "enemy" was inside, Pelosi repeated that it means there are members of Congress who want to bring guns on the House floor. https://t.co/THnj9EiPs2
— Tara Golshan (@taragolshan) January 28, 2021
Winter Fundraiser Day 4
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Fear of the Q
I'm not trying to Both Sides Dem and Republican primary challenges. I don't think saying "people should have free at point of service health care" and "Hillary Clinton wears a mask made from the skin of children she slaughtered in the basement of Comet Pizza" are in any way similar. But there's a bit of "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" from incumbent politicians in both of these situations.
I Like A Politician Who Tells It Like It Is
People don't know how bad they are unless somebody explains it. Maybe some people need to be respectful to their distinguished colleages so that they can keep forming their ridiculous Gangs in the Senate, but some people should be out there explaining to The American People that they're a bunch of hideous racist fuckers..@AOC says Kevin McCarthy "answers to these QAnon members of Congress, not the other way around."
— Eliza Relman (@eliza_relman) January 28, 2021
"When I hear that Rep. McCarthy is going to pull a member aside who's made white supremacist-sympathizing comments, I think, what is he going to tell them? Keep it up?"
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Shutup, Tim Kaine
(Kaine is organizing a Gang Of Senators for censure, or some dumb shit like that).Manchin: "We all want to make sure that no one ever does this again, never thinks about doing something like a seditious insurrection such as that"
— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) January 27, 2021
And Speaking Of Snitches
One of the Michigan militiamen accused of conspiring to overthrow the state government, kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and put her on trial for “treason” before Election Day has pleaded guilty in the foiled plot....
According to the plea agreement, Garbin has agreed to “fully cooperate” with the federal authorities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Michigan State Police, and other law enforcement agencies.
Snitches Get Stitches
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.
Funny But Not Funny
CNBC's David Faber said he is hearing a number of hedge funds are in similar trouble that Melvin Capital saw in its GameStop $GME and may need to be bailed out. pic.twitter.com/KAiADPUnOD
— Streetinsider.com (@Street_Insider) January 27, 2021
Winter Fundraiser Day 3
Facebook and general antipathy to "the comments" elsewhere by institutions unwilling to put the minimum into moderation destroyed most internet forums. There's twitter, but a party that everyone crashes is not the same as a community.
No big point here, just musing out loud as I do during fundraisers.
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Peep Through Your Blinds
No that would be time consuming and wrong. We should look forward and heal!
Can we dissuade others from paying lots of money to them for dubious reasons?
No it is not right to "cancel" people.
Can we at least be mean to them in restaurants?
No, not that either.
I don't think it's crazy to suggest that if it's always "The Purge" for elites, it might cause some problems.
Bring It
News: Sen. Tom Carper introduces the Washington, D.C. Admission Act to make DC the 51st state.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 27, 2021
Maybe The Hedge Fund Managers Should Learn To Code
Ignore Me
It is actually best that the people in charge ignore the daily bullshit cycle, which involves ignoring people like me. I mean, hopefully they listen to me and ignore people like Joe Scarborough, but still.
I doubt they thought it at the time, but I don't think the Obama people ever transcended the daily bullshit cycle. Hopefully the Biden people manage to.
Morning Thread
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Slaughtering Trump's Enemies
MR. BIDEN'S VILE ASSAULT ON THE PRESS IS WORSE THAN TRUMP'S
HE IS TRYING TO CANCEL MR. DOOCY!!!PETER DOOCY: Mr President, what did you talk to Vladimir Putin about?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 26, 2021
PRESIDENT BIDEN: You. He sends his best. pic.twitter.com/Fq0zglc9aK
Sounds Kinda Bad
The commander of the D.C. National Guard said the Pentagon restricted his authority ahead of the riot at the U.S. Capitol, requiring higher level sign-off to respond that cost time as the events that day spiraled out of control.Local commanders typically have the power to take military action on their own to save lives or prevent significant property damage in an urgent situation when there isn’t enough time to obtain approval from headquarters.
But Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, said the Pentagon essentially took that power and other authorities away from him ahead of a pro-Trump protest on Jan. 6. That meant he couldn’t immediately roll out troops when he received a panicked phone call from the Capitol Police chief warning that rioters were about to enter the U.S. Capitol.
That's Progress
President Joe Biden on Tuesday will order his Department of Justice not to renew its contracts with private prisons, one of multiple new planks of Biden’s broad-focused racial justice agenda.But still rolling back to 2016.Biden is poised to sign four additional executive actions after laying out his racial equity plan at the White House at 2 p.m. ET, according to his press schedule. Vice President Kamala Harris will also attend the event.
Winter Fundraising Day 2!
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You Can Watch Just About Anything At Any Time - Why Would You Watch That
Giuliani, the lawsuit alleges, knowingly spread falsehoods about the company to bolster Trump’s failing attempts to overturn the reality of his election loss. But Giuliani had another incentive for doing so, the lawyers wrote: He “cashed in by hosting a podcast where he exploited election falsehoods to market gold coins, supplements, cigars, and protection from ‘cyber thieves.’ ”
60 Votes
There are options other than "nuke the filibuster." We will see...
Morning Thread
If you further reduce the effective power of Congress (to just taxation and spending bills), the other branches will step in. Congress ain't perfect, but it is the most democratic bit of our system.
Not only will they step in. They have to.
Monday, January 25, 2021
Q
The monthslong review by Dechert LLP found no evidence that Mr. Black was involved in the criminal activities of the late Epstein, who was indicted in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges involving underage girls, according to a copy of the law firm’s report that was viewed by The Wall Street Journal."[L]egitimate advice on trust- and estate-tax planning." Sure rich guys need that, what was Mr. Epstein charging for this valuable service? Computer, enhance.In its report, Dechert found the fees that the billionaire had paid Epstein were for legitimate advice on trust- and estate-tax planning that proved to be of significant value to Mr. Black and his family. Mr. Black paid Epstein a total of $148 million, plus a $10 million donation to his charity—far more than was previously known.
$148 million
Add Some Counts
!!! NEW: US Justice Dept tells judge Riley Williams, woman accused of stealing computer from Nancy Pelosi's office, is suspected of using internet in recent days, encouraging people to destroy evidence in Capitol insurrection case. They want judge to prohibit internet access pic.twitter.com/YwKKj0kdIe
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 25, 2021
Bully For Me
This isn't about Obama, though. I think Joe Biden is a dick, too! Let Joe be Joe.
Afternoon Thread
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Box Turtle John
Flashback:Another "unifying" move by the new Administration?
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) January 25, 2021
Biden Ends Partial Ban on Transgender Soldiers in U.S. Military https://t.co/DiVXdFnEQ8
For the record, it’s true that Cornyn dropped the “box turtle” reference from a 2004 speech to the Heritage Foundation. But the reference appeared in an advance copy of the speech that was given to The Washington Post, and the newspaper ran it. Here’s the quote:That speech was written by Ben Domenech, now Mr. Meghan McCain, though that bit was "borrowed," perhaps with permission, from a blog commenter at Red State.“It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right … [N]ow you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife.”
Biden's "unity" rhetoric is dumb because of course they were going to claim anything that doesn't appeal to the worst Nazis in their party is not unifying, and because the press will let them get away with blaming Biden for their own failures, but...
LOL
Rudy Giuliani calls the Dominion lawsuit “another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech” and threatens to countersue. pic.twitter.com/eODVmBNVQO
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) January 25, 2021
Take It All
(CNN)An election technology company that has been the focus of consistent conspiracy theories by Donald Trump and his allies has sued the former President's lawyer Rudy Giuliani for defamation after he pushed the "Big Lie" about election fraud on his podcast and TV appearances.Dominion Voting Systems is seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages.
"Just as Giuliani and his allies intended, the Big Lie went viral on social media as people tweeted, retweeted, and raged that Dominion had stolen their votes. While some lies -- little lies -- flare up on social media and die with the next news cycle, the Big Lie was different," lawyers for Dominion wrote in the lawsuit, filed in DC District Court on Monday morning. "The harm to Dominion's business and reputation is unprecedented and irreparable because of how fervently millions of people believe it."
Total Mystery
It was the harassment of my wife, and particularly my children, that upset me more than anything else. They knew where my kids work, where they live. The threats would come directly to my children’s phones, directly to my children’s homes. How the hell did whoever these assholes were get that information? And there was chatter on the internet, people talking to each other, threatening, saying, “Hey, we got to get rid of this guy. What are we going to do about him? He’s hurting the president’s chances.” You know, that kind of right-wing craziness.His kids are obviously not "kids" in the sense of being young, but there is really no divide between "The MAGA Chuds who engage in online harassment" and "The MAGA Chuds who worked in and around the White House and their friends."
2021 WINTER FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA
I managed 4 years of the Trump administration and deserve some hazard pay! Joke, but while this is in some ways an *easy* "job," not being able to tune out, well, ever, is not always so fun!
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Onward to the Hawley administration!
WHAT'S TRUMP MAD ABOUT TODAY
Morning Thread
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Sunday Evening
The Good Stuff
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order reversing the ban on Transgender military service Monday, January 25, the Los Angeles Blade learned Sunday.Though "rolling back to 2016" should be just the start!
Message To Reporters
Chuck's gotta take control, too, but I've seen so many tweets from reporters over the past few days about what Mitch does and does not want and, well, who gives a shit.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer now comes down hard at GOP for standing in the way of the organizing resolution: “McConnell will not dictate to the Senate — McConnell is no longer the Majority Leader.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) January 24, 2021
Resign, Bitch
Rep. Scott Perry (R-York) is facing calls to resign after a published report said he collaborated with former President Donald Trump in a scheme to overturn legally certified election results in Georgia.The New York Times reported Perry, who is just starting his fifth term, connected Trump with Philadelphia lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who was an acting assistant attorney general at the U.S. Justice Department and who was sympathetic to Trump’s effort to push an election-fraud lie to stay in power. It said Trump considered firing Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who was not willing to pursue Trump’s claims in Georgia.
Destroyer of Worlds
Almost everything in our discourse is like that.
They're Our Only Hope
Fuck You. Ours.
We'll see tomorrow...
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Who Radicalized You
“This is the only president in American history who incited an insurrection against Congress that could have resulted in assassinations and hostage-taking and, conceivably, the cancellation of a free presidential election and the fracturing of a democracy,” Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian, told me. “That’s a fact, and it won’t change in 50 years. It’s very hard to think of a scenario under which someone might imagine some wonderful thing that Donald Trump did that will outshine that. He did, literally, the worst thing that an American president could ever do.”
Hours Can Seem Like Days
Long month!
Gotta Make It Hurt
Welp
In charging papers, the FBI said that during the Capitol riot, Caldwell received Facebook messages from unspecified senders updating him of the location of lawmakers. When he posted a one-word message, “Inside,” he received exhortations and directions describing tunnels, doors and hallways, the FBI said."Uspecified" is not the same as "unknown."Some messages, according to the FBI, included, “Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3floors down,” and “Go through back house chamber doors facing N left down hallway down steps.” Another message read: “All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas,” the FBI added.
Matt Gaetz' fingers sure were flying during the coup attempt! pic.twitter.com/059roByX0U
— BIG BOPPER (Human Capital Stock) (@hughfriknfraser) January 23, 2021
Morning Thread
Friday, January 22, 2021
You Have To Admit, You Kinda Miss Him
Afternoon Thread
Is Our Democrats Learning
Senior Democratic lawmakers are moving to fulfill President Biden’s desire to expand the child tax credit by drafting legislation that would direct the Internal Revenue Service to send recurring monthly payments to tens of millions of American families, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share knowledge of the internal discussion.Obscuring everything in the tax code, so maybe you get some money once per year but are never quite sure why, has been really dumb.Under one draft of the plan being discussed, the IRS would be tasked with depositing checks worth $300 every month per child younger than 6, as well as $250 every month per child aged 6 to 17. That would amount to $3,600 over the course of the year for young children, as well as $3,000 a year for older children, the officials said.
Suck. On. This.
New Schumer: Impeachment articles will be delivered to the Senate Monday, McConnell's filibuster demand "won't be accepted"
— Kate Riga (@Kate_Riga24) January 22, 2021
Morning Thread
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Shush Nigel
This kind of fake scandal was given life by our media with Obama becaue he was the uppity black guy who didn't really deserve to be there, and DISRESPECTING THE MOTHER COUNTRY was just not done. We were supposed to see Obama as subordinate to a dead English prime minister, somehow. Biden gets to say, "Fuck you, Nigel, I'm Irish, and I don't give a shit" and our great media will run with it.There are media reports that the bust of Winston Churchill has been removed from the Oval Office.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) January 21, 2021
If true, this is a slap in the face to the British and any prospects of good relations. pic.twitter.com/DBHhygcuLf
Expel Them
JUST IN: 7 Senate Democrats file ethics complaint "concerning the behavior of Sens. Cruz and Hawley related to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6."
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 21, 2021
Sens. Whitehouse, Wyden, Smith, Blumenthal, Hirono, Kaine and Brown sent the complaint to the Senate Ethics Cmte pic.twitter.com/SpcLUErvrP
Detrumpification
Wow. VOA Dir. Robert Reilly is FIRED by Biden admin and escorted by Guards. He reprimanded reporter @pwidakuswara last week for asking Qs to Pompeo, removed her from assignment.
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 21, 2021
He's at least #5 official to be fired in last 24hrs. AP: https://t.co/wugj8yc6Mu
The GOP Political-Media Complex As Abuser
There's nothing you can do to escape the wrath of Bad Daddy. It's random, but he'll see you cowering in the corner eventually.
The Greatest Time Of His Life
Tan Suits and Pelotons
I was looking back to 2009, and a big focus of the media on Obama's inauguration was how expensive it was, with mostly made up numbers escalating as they added in any random thing they could think of. You know, uppity black guy thinking he deserves an extra fancy party!
Indeed
"The president of the United States committed an act of insurrection.
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) January 21, 2021
I don't think it's unifying to say, 'oh let's just forget it and move on," Pelosi tells reporters.
Pelosi was asked if GOP members gave reconnaissance tours to the insurrectionists. Is there evidence?
— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) January 21, 2021
Pelosi said it's unclear and she'll follow the evidence, but "if people did aid and abet, there'll be more than just comments from their colleagues, there will be prosecution."
Yinzers
Pittsburgh (Allegheny County) went big for Biden, though Ted tried to disenfranchise them all. Presumably Pittsburgh is invoked because of coal and steel. There are 4500 coal mining jobs in all of Pennsylvania, and I'm pretty sure that number is "zero" in Allegheny County. There are still some steel jobs, but I don't think it hits 5 figures.By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh. This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 20, 2021
Pittsburgh is reasonably prosperous, but it's Eds and Meds, not coal and steel.
These people are just liars and one would hope that after 4 years reporters would... haha I kid.
Abuser
And he could just tweet it out!
Maybe the first few years weren't so bad, but with covid, the election, the coup, and the fact that his pudding brain was increasingly realizing that whatever constraints he had thought he faced weren't actually so constraining...
Thursday Is New Jobless Day.
Is That You, Rand?
They always do this, and it's important to point and laugh at them when they try it. If you think Biden was talking about you, Rand, then I guess he was.Sen. Rand Paul on Fox News: "If you read his speech and listen to it carefully, much of it is thinly-veiled innuendo calling us White supremacists, calling us racists, calling us every name in the book, calling us people who don't tell the truth."
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) January 21, 2021
Who Lied
Well at least here the reporters are getting the real story, but also quite often the real real story is about the lies, so...
“Charlie Flynn is an officer of an incredibly high integrity,” McCarthy said. “Multiple combat tours. He has buried a lot of people. This guy has given a lot to this country. It is incredibly awkward for this officer every day for what is going on with him and his brother, but he puts his head down in, and he is locked in to serve the Constitution.”ALL CAPS guy should be outed, for the ALL CAPS.Army officials, before and after that interview, denied that Flynn appeared during the call.
“HE WAS NOT IN ANY OF THE MEETINGS!” one Army official said on Jan. 12 in an email to The Post.
Like several others interviewed, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
After being approached with the accounts of multiple officials on the call, the Army sent a statement confirming Flynn participated.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Ignore Them
No need to indulge dumb journalists with dumb questions. "Are you serious with that question? 400,000 people are dead." That kind of thing.
Vice President Harris
I don't have kids and I don't claim much knowledge, but lots of concepts of "normality" seep into their little brains without anybody realizing it, and that a bunch of kids spent 4 years with the bad racist orange man as "the president," even if they agreed with their parents that the dude sucked, can't be entirely healthy. Re-warping their brains with some different representation will hopefully be healthy.
Day 1 of the failed Biden/Harris administration!
Embiggened
Federal authorities on Wednesday arrested Joe Bigs, a right-wing media personality and a member of the Proud Boys who promoted the pro-Trump event that led to a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Biggs will faces at least three charges, federal authorities said. The complaint against Biggs notes that another Proud Boys member was seen breaking the window of the U.S. Capitol building with a clear plastic shield, and that Biggs was apparently filmed inside the Capitol in a video posted to to right-wing social media platform Parler.
Finally That Dumb Show Is Over
Inauguration Thread
I'll see your "what's the downside for humoring him" quote and raise you this 2016 quote from an anonymous "Politics reporter, 42, Washington, D.C.," who said of his intention to vote for Trump, "I just want to see what happens." https://t.co/m3xfeGnYbI pic.twitter.com/FXhTyzp4IC
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 3, 2021
What Will We Call The New Tea Party
They will be the protagonists of our politics story, as they always are. Angry, racist, relatively affluent white people who are covered obsessively by our political press who somehow never manage to convey who they actually are, who is funding them, and what they actually want.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Back On Their Bullshit Already
(narrator: they never got off their bullshit)Sheryl from NYC doesn’t think people in Scranton can exercise apparently pic.twitter.com/xZMlFqZbGm
— clelia (@cleliaddgo) January 19, 2021
Georgia's Worst Humans
GOP chair of the Gwinnett County elections board on why she wants GA legislature to impose new restrictions on voting. “They don’t have to change all of them, but they’ve got to change the major parts of them so that we at least have a shot at winning.” https://t.co/8FaeKWNN0W pic.twitter.com/KsGaJtntuN
— Sam Levine (@srl) January 19, 2021
So Sad When A Bromance Ends
VP Pence is not expected to attend President Trump's sendoff at Joint Air Force Base Andrews tomorrow morning, per White House officials. He is attending the inauguration later in the day, and aides say it would be logistically challenging for the vice president to do both.
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) January 19, 2021
I Want My 2.5 Months Back
Mitch's Game
Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said on Tuesday that the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 had been “provoked by the president and other powerful people,” stating publicly for the first time that he holds President Trump at least partly responsible for the assault. “The mob was fed lies,” Mr. McConnell said, referring to attempts by Mr. Trump to overturn the election based on bogus claims of voter fraud. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”
Pour A Drink For Dale
Let Us Put All Of This Behind Us
OK we will be allowed the occasional moment of collective Schadenfreude when they step on rakes. But only occasionally.
But Mah Pillow
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said in an interview Saturday that Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s are among the retailers that will stop selling his products due to his continued support of conspiracy theories related to President Donald Trump’s election loss.Another victim of the deep state.
Is W. Bad Again?
SPOTTED: GEORGE W. BUSH and TUCKER CARLSON having dinner at the private home of a neighbor on the exclusive Gasparilla Island, Fla., where they both have homes.
Monday, January 18, 2021
Joining The 34% Club
We used to joke a lot about W.'s poll numbers here at atrios dot blogspot dot com. I suppose it mattered to me that more people realized he had fucked things up that much (Iraq, Katrina, ...). Since then I've accepted that it's really really hard for a Republican president to get below 40%.
With minutes to spare, My President did it!
Trump's Harshing My Buzz
Less than 48 hours...
Covid Was His Chance
Just Gotta Nominate That Nice Moderate Joe Biden
Lots of AlmostNeverTrumpers would not have been behind most of the Dem nominees (certainly not Sanders, but they would have invented reasons for most of the rest). As for where they would have been on the long coup attempt? I suppose we'll never know...
Whoomp
BREAKING: On CNN, Rep. Steve Cohen calls out Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert by name, saying: “She‘s not on the home team, she’s with the visitors.” He confirmed he witnessed Boebert leading a “large tour” of people through the Capitol in the days before the riot. https://t.co/VKMt7RuRCd
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) January 18, 2021
Welp
...no longer thought to be a threat, apparently.BREAKING: Smoke rising behind Capitol building. Inauguration rehearsal appears to be evacuating. Emergency announcement playing at Capitol grounds. pic.twitter.com/86J9S8CsMY
— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) January 18, 2021
The Ones Who Knew Him Best
And they didn't care.
Foxy
But there was one curious provision that Fox insisted on: The settlement had to be kept secret for a month — until after the Nov. 3 election. The exhausted plaintiffs agreed. Why did Fox care about keeping the Rich settlement secret for the final month of the Trump re-election campaign? Why was it important to the company, which calls itself a news organization, that one of the biggest lies of the Trump era remain unresolved for that period? Was Fox afraid that admitting it was wrong would incite the president’s wrath? Did network executives fear backlash from their increasingly radicalized audience, which has been gravitating to other conservative outlets?
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Lock'em Up
(AP) — Members of President Donald Trump’s failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president’s grassroots supporters.A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be “on site” during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.
The Trump Family Variety Hour
Nothing Will Change
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Create Your Own News Cycle
Create your own news, and Onion Joe can throw his signature "Come on, man" at them if they try to get a response about the fake outrage of the day.
Also Sowing, Reaping
New: US Capitol Police arrested a Virginia man as he attempted to pass through a police checkpoint in downtown Washington Friday with fake inaugural credentials, a loaded handgun & over 500 rounds of ammunition, CNN reporting.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) January 16, 2021
Sowing, Reaping
Loews cancels @HawleyMO’s Valentine’s week fundraiser in Florida. https://t.co/2SJMaPJ0on
— Bryan Lowry (@BryanLowry3) January 16, 2021
Baked
WASHINGTON (AP) — Far-right media personality Tim Gionet, who calls himself “Baked Alaska,” has been arrested by the FBI for his involvement in the riot at the U.S. Capitol, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Whose Party
The newest and most-buzzed about possibility, however, surrounds the president’s daughter Ivanka. The senior White House adviser is set to decamp to Florida after her father’s presidency comes to a close. And though talk of her launching a primary challenge to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has given off the faint whiff of political fan-fick, in reality, Trump officials say, there have been machinations behind the scenes.One person in contact with the president said that Jared Kushner is viewed as “working single-mindedly to protect and promote his wife’s ‘political career.’” And two sources, including one top GOP fundraiser, said that Trump ally and mega donor Tom Barrack had been pressing fellow Republican financiers to put together some type of operation that could lure Ivanka into entering the race.
Well Then
WASHINGTON — In the days leading up to the mob attack on the Capitol, congressional security officials never let House and Senate leaders know that the Capitol Police had warned they might need National Guard backup, according to a congressional aide and other people familiar with the matter.The police request, made to the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, was prompted by intelligence that showed Trump supporters planned to target the Capitol itself as Congress certified the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, according to a congressional official. The Capitol Police asked the sergeants-at-arms to request that the National Guard be placed on standby.
But the sergeants-at-arms, Michael C. Stenger of the Senate and Paul Irving of the House, rejected the request without raising the issue with either the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, or Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to the aide and another person familiar with the matter.
The Hero Of My Story
I'm sure people have thought about this more than I have, but I don't think this is the normal way the celebrity and fame are talked about. Maybe less about glamour and adoring fans, and more just about reality bending more towards the inherent belief that we are personally the center of all things.
Friday, January 15, 2021
Seditious Conspiracy
WaPo photographer got a close-up of the My Pillow guy's notes.
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) January 15, 2021
Hard to read. Seems to push for using "martial law if necessary."
References Sidney Powell and, I think, an attorney at the NSA ("Fort Mead" sic). Advocates for Trump to "move Kash Patel to acting CIA" pic.twitter.com/xU0tz3YDo7
Atrios, WRONG
Jenna Ryan For Your Realtor
...wow, CANCELLEDIncredible. pic.twitter.com/qqzxMzlKix
— George Zornick (@gzornick) January 15, 2021
“Can’t face federal charges for exercising my right to freedom of speech and assembly,” she wrote last week, adding that she was “an innocent person who is not a professional rioter; someone just living and standing up for what I believe in.”“You can never cancel Jenna Ryan,” she wrote. However, by Monday, she said her publisher had canceled her self help book that was due out next month.
Losers
ST. LOUIS (AP/KMOV.com) -- St. Louis attorney Albert Watkins is representing a man pictured in viral photos of the Capitol unrest and is making a direct plea for a pardon.Jake Angeli, whose legal name is Jacob Anthony Chansley, was taken into custody Saturday in Arizona. An indictment unsealed Tuesday in Washington charged the 33-year-old with civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, and demonstrating in a Capitol building. It’s unclear whether the new charges are felonies or misdemeanors. Chansley was previously charged with two misdemeanors stemming from the violent riot — entering a restricted building without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Shit Liars Until The End
When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this week that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.
Welp
PUBLISHED 1:05 PM ET OCT. 07, 2020WASHINGTON — The nation’s top infectious disease expert gave a chilling warning Tuesday that the U.S. coronavirus death toll could nearly double in the coming months.
“The models tell us if we don't do what we need to in the fall and winter, we could have 300,000 to 400,000 COVID-19 deaths," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said during a virtual event for American University.
Unpopular President
The poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds Trump leaving office with a 38% job approval rating; 60% disapprove, matching (but not exceeding) his peak disapproval in August 2018. His career average approval rating is the lowest for any president in modern polling, back to 1939, and he is the first president in that time never to achieve majority approval at any point.Obama wasn't super popular, and it was fair to portray him that way, but he was more popular than Trump and that rarely came through in coverage.
Of course Clinton was more/at least as popular as Reagan, and you know how that went, also, too.
Morning Thread
The funniest photo of all time was taken two years ago today pic.twitter.com/A9GVvcweMi
— Weenage Tasteland (@YOUWONTBELAFFIN) January 14, 2021
Thursday, January 14, 2021
And Why Not The House Staffers
Per @MSNBC, Republican Senate staffers are telling their bosses that if they don’t vote to convict Trump, they will resign en masse because they were also the ones barricaded in offices, hiding under desks, fearing for their lives for hours on end#ImpeachmentDay
— Eimear (@eimzcaomhanach) January 13, 2021
Plans
Those who planned and executed the zero-tolerance policy must be held responsible for the fundamental human rights violations that they perpetrated. As the incoming Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I plan to hold hearings so we can finally hold them to account. https://t.co/AUnVkluoLg
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 14, 2021
Lock Him Up
The D.C. Attorney General’s office has notified Donald Trump Jr. that it wishes to interview him as part of a lawsuit alleging that President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee improperly funneled money to the president’s business, an official in the attorney general’s office said Thursday.
America's Worst Humans
Many U.S. Secret Service agents have stood guard in Washington’s elite Kalorama neighborhood, home over the years to Cabinet secretaries and former presidents. Those agents have had to worry about death threats, secure perimeters and suspicious strangers. But with the arrival of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, they had a new worry: finding a toilet.Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside the couple’s house, the Secret Service detail assigned to President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job, according to neighbors and law enforcement officials. After resorting to a porta-potty, as well as bathrooms at the nearby home of former president Barack Obama and the not-so-nearby residence of Vice President Pence, the agents finally found a toilet to call their own.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
...adding that every week has been worse than the worst week of the Great Recession since this began in March.965k unemployment insurance claims last week. That is 300k worse than the worst week in the Great Recession
— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) January 14, 2021
Did Yesterday Even Happen
Morning Thread
Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, two officials said, and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the president’s behalf to challenge election results in key states. They said Trump has privately expressed concern with some of Giuliani’s moves and did not appreciate a demand from Giuliani for $20,000 a day in fees for his work attempting to overturn the election.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Worst Television Show Ever
Trump has been impeached for a 2nd time, 232-197. The first time, the House charged he corruptly used his office to obtain a benefit himself in the 2020 election by extorting the govt of Ukraine. The second time, the House charged he incited a mob to storm Congress after he lost.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 13, 2021