Today's Bluff-N-Bluster

First, Jordan can't quite come through with the fulfillment on the assumed promise to get all this weaponization stuff cleared away by impeaching Joe Biden, and the AG, and the White House gardener, and then digging up the dead rotting corpse of Joe's 3rd grade teacher and impeaching her too, dammit.

And then, Jordan takes Merrick Garland's visit to the Hill (every AG does this every year), and he tries to spin it like, "The great and powerful Gym has summoned the evil Garland to appear before us and atone for his many dastardly sins." 

The GOP is 9 gallons of shit in a 3 gallon bucket.

MARIA BARTIROMO ACCIDENTALLY EXPOSES JIM JORDAN’S BIDEN IMPEACHMENT FRAUD

Fox’s Maria Bartiromo pressed Jim Jordan on impeaching Biden, and Jordan’s answer was a dodge that made it clear that House Republicans aren’t going to pursue impeachment.

Bartiromo asked Jordan about impeachment and then what Republicans would do about Biden.

Jordan answered, “Well, we may — that may be the question too. It may not be about the attorney general so much, although I think there’s important things there, it could be more about the president himself. Again, that’s why Chairman Comer’s going to continue to pursue his investigation. He’s looking to get Hunter Biden’s business partner, Devon Archer, in for a deposition, get that all on the record. He’s been trying to get that done. There’s been a number of times it’s been rescheduled. Hopefully, that happens soon and then we’ll see where we go from there.”

Bartiromo specifically asked Jordan about impeachment, and he answered, talking about Merrick Garland’s upcoming testimony. “Well, he’s scheduled, he is scheduled to come in front of the Judiciary Committee for the annual, every year the attorney general comes in front of the Judiciary Committee in September. That is scheduled already. As we get closer, there’s going to be lots of questions about this particular subject for the attorney general when he’s in front of us in two months.”

Less than a month ago on the very same program, Jim Jordan claimed that impeachment was on the table for Biden. Now, he won’t even say the word in his answers.

The reality is that Jordan’s investigations into Biden have bombed. The House Judiciary Chair doesn’t have the evidence or the votes to impeach President Biden or Attorney General Garland.

Jordan can pay lip service to impeachment to keep the base happy, but his non-answer to Bartiromo confirms that House Republicans may try to impeach Biden, but even they know that it is going nowhere.

And Another Thing

OK, the hair-on-fire brigade got all up in arms for good reason, but it turns out that 45* is just a fucking dolt and it seems the world understands this to the point that while they take this shit very seriously, they know now that they have to be the grownups and not go too nuts when he does something that's unbelievably stoopid - even for him.

I have to think there's a strong probability that Iran is just biding their time, and they'll kick us in the nuts when they're good-n-ready.

45* gave a brief statement this morning, and somehow, for now, things are relatively calm again.

WaPo, Paul Waldman:

Five Takeaways From Trump's Deranged Speech On Iran

Having prepared carefully to deliver inspiring words that would bring all Americans together as they worry about the possibility of another war in the Middle East, President Trump stepped to the podium Wednesday morning and instead gave a brief speech that was vintage Trump: lacking in even the barest eloquence, replete with lies, delivered with garbled pronunciation and weirdly somnolent affect, and unintentionally revealing.

• Trump’s Iran policy has been a catastrophic failure.
• Trump desperately wanted to find a way to declare victory and back off.
• Trump is still obsessed with Barack Obama.
• Trump is comically insecure about his manhood.
• Trump still has no idea what he wants to accomplish with regard to Iran or how to do it.

Some fallout - so, Cynical Mike says that maybe Iran isn't in a big hurry to retaliate in kind partly because 45*'s dumbfuck move serves the purpose of "unity" and "rally 'round the Ayatollah", which makes the social oppression a little easier because it pushes down on certain protests - most notably (as usual) the movement to free middle eastern women from the repressive bullshit imposed on them by religious control freaks.

I'm thinking we'll prob'ly see less of this in Iran - young women resisting the forced hijab.

Beau Of The Fifth Column

aka: Justin King - on the silliness of Cult45 and Open Borders

Sssssss

That loud hissing sound we hear is either the air going out of the Daddy State balloon - finally - or it's the growing problem of snakes in the snake pit, as they escalate their attacks on each other.

And now that I stop and think about it for moment, those two things always go together.

Ronnie Reagan would not approve on either count.

WaPo:

Republican senators clashed with one another and confronted Vice President Pence inside a private luncheon on Thursday, as anger hit a boiling point over the longest government shutdown in history.

“This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at one point, according to two Republicans who attended the lunch and witnessed the exchange.

“Are you suggesting I’m enjoying this?” McConnell snapped back, according to the people who attended the lunch.

Johnson spokesman Ben Voelkel confirmed the confrontation. He said Johnson was expressing frustration with the day’s proceedings — votes on dueling plans to reopen the government, both of which failed to advance.

The people who attended the lunch spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a closed-door session. Aides to McConnell, citing regular policy on GOP lunches, declined to comment on the gathering.

- and -

The outbursts highlighted the toll the shutdown has taken on Republican lawmakers, who are dealing with growing concerns from constituents and blame from Democrats, all while facing pressure from conservatives to stand with Trump in his demand for money to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

- and -

“Nobody was blaming the president,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), speaking about the lunch to reporters afterward. “But there was a lot of frustration expressed about the situation we find ourselves in.”

Repubs are staring their political doom in the face and they can't bring themselves to admit that they - along with the incredibly shitty hurtful policies they've been pimping - comprise their main problem.

They can't figure out how to unhitch themselves from a very unpopular president without going against a constituency they believe is vital to their staying in power. But if they continue pandering to a shrinking group of zealous gullible rubes, they're on their way out anyway.

Most of us can see that 45* has not remade the GOP in his image so much as he is a near-perfect reflection of what the GOP has been evolving into for 30 or 40 years. Congress Critters are finally beginning to acknowledge that, as it becomes clearer to more and more people just how venal and cynically ambitious these clowns are.

And guys like Wilbur Ross and Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett (et al) aren't helping.

BTW, that stoopid idea about hostages borrowing money to "tide them over"?  C'mon - you're going to fuck with these people - threatening their livelihoods and their credit ratings and their plans for the future - and then you're going to charge them interest when you're basically loaning them their own fucking money?

Seriously - what the fuck is wrong with you assholes that you'd be looking to profit from this mess?

A Good Point

Today's winning quote:

"If it were good foreign policy, Donald Trump would not be doing it." --David Frum

hat tip = Crooks & Liars

Nunes Is Dirty

It's possible Devin Nunes really thinks he's doing what we pay him to do - and it is possible he actually is doing what we pay him to do, even as he does it in a very unorthodox and troubling way.

It's also possible I can make the jack of spades jump out of a brand new deck of cards and squirt cider in your ear. (with apologies to Sky Masterson's dad for turning that one around)

NYT:

WASHINGTON — A pair of White House officials played a role in providing Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with the intelligence reports that showed President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.

The revelation that White House officials assisted in the disclosure of the intelligence reports — which Mr. Nunes then discussed with President Trump — is likely to fuel criticism that the intelligence chairman has been too eager to do the bidding of the Trump administration while his committee is supposed to be conducting an independent investigation of Russia’s meddling in the last presidential election.

- and -

Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and formerly worked on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.

Today's Stand Up Guy

On Monday morning, every American considering political office got a lesson in taking caution while posting anything to social media. Mike Webb, Virginia Congressional candidate, inadvertently revealed his taste in porn to Facebook. Initially, Webb had only meant to post a screenshot of phone records, along with a Yahoo search of Curzon Staffing Agency, whom he claims prank called him about a job offer. The candidate's post attracted the attention of the public for an entirely different reason. Before snapping screenshots, Webb apparently forgot to close what appear to be two porn sites. The sites' names, which are truncated by the tab label, read "LAYLA RIVERA TIGHT BO" and "IVONE SEXY AMATEUR."

 

What is it about Virginia Politicians these days? 

And oh yeah - GOP - what the fuck, guys?

Today's Stoopid

On the collapse of the I-5 bridge in Skagit, from Addicting Info:

Now, instead of the $7 million in renovations and upgrades, the cost to replace the collapsed bridge will run $15 million and take up to a year. The collapse will cost an estimated $47 million in reduced productivity and trade. With the current average tax revenue from this total for trade and productivity in dealing with trade to Canada to be around 22%, the result is that this bridge collapse will cost the federal government $10 million in revenue for the period of repair, which when added to the $15 million pricetag means that we are looking at a total impact of $25 million. All in order to save $7 million.

"Conservatives" are anything but conservative in way too many cases.  Anybody who has ever actually worked for (much less owned) a properly functioning business of any kind who doesn't understand the fundamental Cost-Effeciency concept of Prevention vs Remedy is unworthy of any label connoting Business Savvy or Common Sense or Entrepreneurship - they've earned nothing but contempt and disrespect.  And if any of them then try to pass themselves off as clear-eyed serious-minded adult realists, they need to be mocked and ridiculed for the Stoopid Fucking Rubes they are.

¢¢

My 2 cents (clever title, doncha think?):

Obama made the biggest, most horrifically horrible rhetorical error ever in the history of human language blah blah blah.

What he said (re California AG Kamala Harris):

"You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you'd want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake.

“She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country -- Kamala Harris is here. (Applause.) It's true. Come on. (Laughter.)

And she is a great friend and has just been a great supporter for many, many years.”

No, he didn't make a huge error - OK he did kinda, but the fuck up wasn't about saying Harris is attractive.  The remark does give an UberFemme like Joan Walsh a chance to smack the Prez which of course makes her think she gains some credibility by being a scold, and lets her put down a marker as Not An Obama-bot (this is correlative to Hippie-Punching).  But Obama's mistake was that he publicly acknowledged that Politics is very much about Sales and Marketing.  While you need to be selling a product or a service or some kind of content, packaging counts.

There are exceptions of course, but you don't really get anywhere just on brains and talent and hard work.  Not when it comes to the Beauty Pageant that American politics has become in the age of Visual Media.

Just A Tho't

The 112th Congress got less done than any congress since 1948.

So lemme see - the party that's always pissin' and moanin' about how crappy and poorly-run the gubmint is; and how we need to let the good ol' Capitalist GOP get in there and show 'em how it's done blah blah blah; the guys who brag about being efficient and good at makin' stuff work - those are the guys who've punked the Senate with 109 filibusters in 2 years, while their buds over in The House have spent boatloads of time (at enormous taxpayer expense) introducing junk bills about Lady Parts and amendment proposals for outlawing gay marriage and and and.

The least productive session in 64 years.  And which "party" do we have to thank for obstructing every single thing we sent Obama to DC to get done?

The Benghazi Gaffe

Willard stepped on his dick again at the "debate" last night when he tried to pull a gotcha on Obama regarding what the administration did or didn't say about the attack on our consulate in Benghazi; and/or when they did or didn't say it, and/or what actual words they used, and/or in what combination, and/or whatever the fuck he thinks he can get away with.



It's kind of a standard play for Repubs.  Whenever you're on the inside of The Bubble, you say whatever crazy shit you know the Party Faithful wanna hear, and then when you venture outside The Bubble, you can "correct the record" or you can say your comments were "taken out of context" etc etc; and sometimes you can just flat out lie.

If he says something to the Press Poodles (outside The Bubble) intended to make himself seem "moderate and non-threatening and mainstream", he can completely reverse himself once he's back inside The Bubble, knowing the rubes will either be unaware of what he said "out there", or totally understand that it's OK to lie to those Lamestream Media Assholes cuz they're a buncha evil Libruls, and we all know what's REALLY goin' on.  Wink wink nudge nudge say no more.

And Willard knows it works in both directions.  All you hafta do is change the phrasing a little.  It's what makes the Etch-A-Sketch imagery so dead-on.

I thought it was kinda interesting though that the Repubs ran into a bit of a major snag as they went after the Benghazi thing.  When they got to the part of the story that was all about what a horrible mess Obama made of providing security for places like the Benghazi Consulate, they suddenly remembered that a certain member of the Republican Majority in The US House of Representatives (a guy who happens to be the Veep Nominee, and who continues to pose for really stoopid photo ops btw) voted in favor of cutting $128 Million from Obama's request for Embassy Security.

It is predictable and not unreasonable for Republican nominee Mitt Romney to make an issue of the level of security at the diplomatic post. But he and his supporters are also walking a thin line, because Republicans – including Romney’s running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan – have voted to cut security funding in the budget.  (Buffalo News)

Oops.

Meep Meep, Muthahfuckah

Wile E Coyote's cousin Bibi addresses the UN.

Stewart's On Fire

Gotta see this one - Comedy Central

Willard Fail

I don't follow him closely, but James Fallows doesn't strike me as the kinda guy who endorses particular candidates.  Looks a lot like that's exactly what he's doin' here.

Fair warning for what's ahead: I once worked for a Democratic president. As I say in a discussion with Ta-Nehisi Coates included in our new Atlantic eBook, in this election I prefer the Democratic position to the Republican in economic policy, in foreign policy, and in social policy. Weigh that as you may.

On the basis of the past 18 hours, I will now say that I also strongly prefer the Democratic presidential candidate to the Republican on temperamental grounds. Mitt Romney's response to the murder of American diplomats in Libya was his "3 a.m. phone call" moment, and what it revealed was not good.

"The other side" is apparently totally stuck in the bubble.  There is practically nothing coming from "conservatives" but the same old and tired meme about "Obama's Apologies".