Like Deja Vu All Over Again

History does not repeat - but it sure as fuck rhymes.

The Daily Beast, Betsy Woodruff:

The FBI has not been permitted to see the memo Rep. Devin Nunes and his staff wrote about alleged abuses by the intelligence community, The Daily Beast has learned.

"The FBI has requested to receive a copy of the memo in order to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps if necessary. To date, the request has been declined,” said Andrew Ames, a spokesperson for the FBI.


-and-

The fact that Republicans refuse to show the memo to FBI, which characterizes the intelligence they shared with Nunes, has Democrats concerned. One aide told The Daily Beast it means Nunes’ efforts are just politics.

“If this is about FBI abuses, why wouldn’t they share it with the Trump-appointed director who wasn't at the bureau when the abuses supposedly occurred?” the aide said. “If this is about cleaning up the FBI like they claim, wouldn't they want Wray as an ally?”
McClatchy's Day In History:

During a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican-Wisconsin) claims that he has a list with the names of over 200 members of the Department of State that are “known communists.” The speech vaulted McCarthy to national prominence and sparked a nationwide hysteria about subversives in the American government.

Speaking before the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator McCarthy waved before his audience a piece of paper. According to the only published newspaper account of the speech, McCarthy said that, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” In the next few weeks, the number fluctuated wildly, with McCarthy stating at various times that there were 57, or 81, or 10 communists in the Department of State. In fact, McCarthy never produced any solid evidence that there was even one communist in the State Department.

Despite McCarthy’s inconsistency, his refusal to provide any of the names of the “known communists,” and his inability to produce any coherent or reasonable evidence, his charges struck a chord with the American people. The months leading up to his February speech had been trying ones for America’s Cold War policies. China had fallen to a communist revolution. The Soviets had detonated an atomic device. McCarthy’s wild charges provided a ready explanation for these foreign policy disasters: communist subversives were working within the very bowels of the American government.

Prognostication

"It's tough to make predictions - especially about the future."

So I'll just say that if the Dems take the House this fall, and if they don't install Pelosi as Speaker - look for impeachment of both 45* & Pence.

Rhyming History

A nice little history lesson. I remember "knowing" Martha Mitchell was whacky - ie: I was being told she was whacky every day.

This is the first of a series - Slow Burn, a podcast about Watergate



First, never underestimate the power of denial on the part of a voter who just can't accept the evidence that he got played, and voted for a bad guy.

In a letter-to-the-editor in 1973, my grandpa wrote this:

..."Just before the election five or six boys thought it would be fun to bug the Democratic headquarters in the plush Watergate hotel and got caught. With the gleeful help of the biased news media, a few senators are again trying to wreck the American government and slap the American people in the face for their choice of the best man we have had in the White House for a generation - a man who can talk to the Communists and have their respect. But the news media is still using the same underhanded, childish, dirty methods of unfounded rumors, ;ies and half-truths - going so far as to attack the President, his family and friends."...

Second, sometimes when it looks like somebody's going crazy - it's really just their attempt to get un-crazy.

Today's GIF

FCC spokes-critter answers the public outcry:

Today's Tweet

"Hello - how are you today?"

WATCH, SHARE, and stay until the very end where Roy Moore starts speaking Russian fluently after praising Putin.
Then, watch again, share again, and repeat. pic.twitter.com/r3jAoOrwOM

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) December 11, 2017

Banging Our Heads

I was honestly thinking Collins and Flake (and maybe McCain) would hold out against this monumental fuckery dressed up to look like Tax Reform.

And maybe there's still some hope that it'll crap out in conference - but it's looking pretty sure that the "GOP moderates" are completely spooked now.  They're finally hearing some very strong resistance from their Dem constituents, and putting that together with the usual shit they get from the wingnuts, they're finding out how toxically untenable the squishy middle can get.

Sometimes, there just aren't two sides.

Susan Collins said she was able to vote for the thing because she got assurances that no Medicare cuts would be triggered by the bill. Of course, there's nothing that says they won't just do it by other means. And there's nothing there about Medicaid or Social Security.

Flake said he voted for it because they promised him not to fuck with DACA, and he got a an $85 billion gimmick eliminated.  Again - a promise? to guy who won't be in the Senate this time next year? And $85 billion - wow, almost one whole percent. Great. Way to go, Jeff. Way to hang tough on a Budget Neutral stance (that turns out to be nothing but posturing bullshit).

McCain's getting skewered with this kinda thing (that I've seen pop up on FB and Twitter several times in several iterations): "John McCain has his cancer treatment paid for by the people whose healthcare coverage he just voted to eliminate".

These are difficult decisions being made under ridiculous political circumstances, but unfortunately, these are not particularly honorable people.

Today's Tweet

"...solve for middle income..."

Malarkey - the only thing they're trying to solve is the problem of getting us to say "thanks for the hat" while they shit on our heads.

Trump WH adviser Cohn on tax bill: “the whole trickle down is good for the economy.” my @cnbc Speakeasy interview https://t.co/AWAQ1d0fRN

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) November 9, 2017

 

Post Truth Personified

...but I'm not going to pretend the kind of bullshit coming from the White House is new in any way.  Maybe the sheer mass of the bullshit is something we haven't seen before, but we can't afford to start thinking this is normal.

NYT, Frank Bruni:

It hit me this week, around the time when Sarah Huckabee Sanders was blithely seconding Chief of Staff John Kelly’s Civil War revisionism, that I missed Sean Spicer.

I missed the panic in his eyes, which signaled a scintilla of awareness that he was peddling hooey. I missed the squeak in his voice, which suggested perhaps the tiniest smidgen of shame.

He never seemed to me entirely at home in his domicile of deception; she dwells without evident compunction in a gaudier fairyland of grander fictions. There’s no panic. No squeak. Just that repulsed expression, as if a foul odor had wafted in and she knew — just knew — that the culprit was CNN.

True, she hasn’t told a lie as tidy as Spicer’s ludicrousness about Donald Trump’s inauguration crowds. But her briefings are breathtaking — certainly this week’s were. For some 20 minutes every afternoon, down is up, paralysis is progress, enmity is harmony, stupid is smart, villain is victim, disgrace is honor, plutocracy is populism and Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia if anyone would summon the nerve to investigate her (because, you know, that never, ever happens). I watch and listen with sheer awe.

With despair, too, because Sanders doesn’t draw nearly the censure or ridicule that Spicer did, and the reason isn’t her. It’s us. More precisely, it’s what Trump and his presidency have done to us. Little more than nine months in, we’ve surrendered any expectation of honesty. We’re inured.

Today's Tweet

Obviously it's coming from the blue side of the aisle, and this "new development" is speculative for now, but holy fuck - this sounds a lot like they're zeroing in. 

We're not talking about whether or not the rat-fucking took the form of direct interference. 

We're not asking, "did that interference take the form of illegal/criminal activity?"  

It's not even, "How did Russia manage to target their shit so perfectly?"

Yes, it was direct interference
Yes, it's criminal.
Yes, the Russians had to have someone helping them from the inside.

Merkley is now asking, "Who provided the analytics the Russians had to have in order to put just the right messages in front of just the right eyeballs?"

“Very likely” that American citizens helped Russia hack the 2016 election -@SenJeffMerkley on #TheBeat https://t.co/j2feNG4bgK

— Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) October 5, 2017

Layin' It Out

So, why did Obama's Evil Minion, Susan Rice, "unmask" those subjects of interest in that one intel report?  Cuz she knows how to do her fucking job.

Hat tip = MockPaperScissors

That Cruz Thing

Yes, the senator's twitter wrangler hit 'like' on a porn site's tweet.

And yes, Cruz is unlikely to know much about his social media operation.

And yes, it looks like he kinda Anthony-Weiner-ed his own bad self.

But please please please - stop tweeting and posting about Ted Cruz's "staff" - I'm easily nauseated these days.

the internet is fucking blessed pic.twitter.com/QRuh6hOC6j

— anime you ok? (@gokunaruto67) September 12, 2017

the woman from teds video and his wife Heidi haha pic.twitter.com/qB9n2b5Z4B

— mr. understood (@EMlNEMOBAMA) September 12, 2017

It's always fun trying to rub their noses in it, but this has been going on for decades, and none of it has moved most "conservatives" off their positions - so, as usual...

On The Border

John Oliver, Last Week Tonight

Keith

Olbermann gets a little up in it, but he has access to lots of people who really know about this kinda shit.

It prob'ly won't get better for a while.

Weaseling Away

Let me say first that I hope John McCain makes it thru this blood clot thing in good shape.

The guy's turned out to be quite the putz in numerous ways and I'd love to choke the shit out of him once in a while, but no, not really - get better, you phony old fuck.

CNN

(CNN)Sen. John McCain, 80, is recovering at his Arizona home following surgery on Friday to remove a blood clot above his left eye, according to his office. The clot was discovered during a routine physical last week, according to a statement.

Surgeons at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix "successfully removed the 5-cm blood clot during a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision," the statement said.
An eyebrow incision is not a big deal, explained CNN Chief Medical Correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta, but the bone was opened to gain access to the brain, Gupta explained on CNN's New Day Monday.

"It's a significant operation," he said, adding that general anesthesia was used and "there was obviously an abnormality that was concerning enough for him to go through this."


Meanwhile, wouldn't it be interesting if McCain were to spend quite a bit more time in Arizona than they were expecting - considering his absence (deliberate or otherwise) could torpedo Mitch McConnell's whole plan for the GOP's Fuck-If-I-Care bill?

And let's try to remember this:

It Gets Worse

As if the fuckery of cult45* isn't bad enough - and I've mentioned this shit before - we have to keep one good eye on what the Congress Weasels are up to that we don't get to see very well because the 45*/Russia thing is such a very useful smoke screen.

Fuck up healthcare coverage
Fuck up the water and the air and the food
And make prescription medications too expensive for most anybody not living 3000% over the fucking poverty line
And
And
And
And privatize the fuck outa everything that moves or doesn't move; or might evolve into a moving thing sometime down the road (not that any of the dumbass rubes will even guess what that "evolving" thing might mean because they keep electing Coin-Operated Politicians who think Betsy DeVos is the new Moritmer Fucking Adler) - and by the way, let's create a Futures Market so somebody can own every-goddamned-thing there is or ever will be. 

And let's not forget Net Neutrality.

Trae Crowder:

Today's Tweet

There is no pimpier pimp than Newton Leroy (McPherson) Gingrich

Notice how Newt called for Obama, not Trump to appear before Congress? Newt's invokin' "White Executive Privilege". https://t.co/JSbXFetcYw

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) June 27, 2017

Daddy State Darkness

Vox:

Senate Republicans can't answer simple and critical questions about the health care bill they're crafting in secret.

Some still can't say what it's trying to do — other than garner enough votes to pass the Senate — or how they believe it will improve the American health care system.

Read the "answers" from the various GOP Senators - classic weaselry.

I still have to hesitate a little even though I'm sorely tempted just to pronounce the thing bullshit, but it's like there are more (and major) flags on this thing every time we turn around.

First - they're operating in secret. Maybe because they can't afford to let us see what they're doing. But maybe because they're not really doing anything - they could be stalling because...

...second, by stalling and making noise about repeal and pimping the "skyrocketing premiums" expectation, they're creating the uncertainty they're expecting will drive the Obamacare Exchanges to stumble and crash, as they keep encouraging the insurers to bail, using the uncertainty bullshit as an excuse.


1) Fuck up Obamacare

2) Point at it and say, "Oh look - Obamacare's all fucked up"

3) Tell the insurance carriers to play along because you'll reward them for their loyalty by boosting their profits with Tax Dollars etc

4) Send copious amounts of emails and other fundraising literature to everybody with a financial interest in Healthcare Insurance reminding them of your largesse

5) Celebrate your re-election

Daddy State 101:
The Daddy State can only operate in the dark because when the light goes on, they all skitter back under the dishwasher.

Theater

HuffPo:

President Donald Trump has set a deadline of July 4 for a shakeup of the White House that could include removing Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, according to two administration officials and three outside advisers familiar with the matter.

While Trump has set deadlines for staff changes before, only to let them pass without pulling the trigger, the president is under more scrutiny than ever regarding the sprawling Russia investigation, which is intensifying the pressure on his White House team.
45* believes his main function is to set up the cliffhanger for whatever fucked up Reality TV show he thinks he's hosting this week.

And as long as we tune in for the shit show instead of concentrating on holding the GOP to account for all this mess, we're complicit.

Get woke

Get together

Get focused

Get shit done

Today's Charlie

May the fake lord bless you and keep you, Charlie Pierce:

Comey eschewed the reading of the prepared statement that was released to the media on Wednesday in favor of beginning his appearance with a scathing denunciation of the president* who fired him, and who then proceeded to lie to the nation about why.

"Although the law requires no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader...Those were lies plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI work force had to hear them and I am so sorry that the American people were told them."

He repeated on several occasions that he'd been fired because of his handling of the investigation of Russian ratfcking in the 2016 campaign. And, every time he was asked why he believed that, Comey replied that he was "taking the president at his word." This is twisting the spear with a deft and practiced hand.

It was a singularly powerful performance, made more so by the fact that Comey is very close to the perfect congressional witness—stolid and relaxed, relentlessly on point, in command of the facts and of his testimony, and not willing to be baited into going a step beyond what he wanted to say.
Coupla things popped out on Twitter and elsewhere:

1. 45*'s lawyer said Comey was a standup guy for "exonerating the president completely", and that Comey is a crafty habitual liar who can't be trusted to tell us the correct time of day.
2. Comey as a private citizen chose to relay non-classified material to the Press Poodles through a friend, while 45* relayed classified material to Russia.
3. Repubs still can't legit rebut any of it (and Jesus on a cornflake, why do they think they need to?) so they're still trying to deflect with "Yeah, but Hillary..."
4. Just what the actual fuck is wrong with John McCain now?

Always read your Charlie - it's good for you.

Today's Charlie

Charlie Pierce at Esquire:

It's going to be about the money. It always was going to be about the money. There is something distinctly rotten at the heart of the president*'s family business, about which the president* and the rest of the Borgias don't want the world to know. The money is all that matters to these people. The money always has been all that matters to these people. The money is central to whatever arrangements the extended clan made with the Russian banks, which is to say with the Russian governments. The money is central to the absurd defense of Michael Flynn and the preposterous alleged double-naught escapades of the Dauphin with the Russian ambassador. The money may be the only thing of which the president* himself is consistently cognitively aware.

Not a big stretch - we're not going too far out on any limbs here - but it's OK to get reminded about who these Trump thieves are and why they do what they do.

And then we can remind ourselves to take a good long look at the Congress Critters who're trying to milk the situation for every last drop of power, so they can move the Daddy State agenda merrily along before they're forced to stand up and be shocked - shocked - to discover there are shenanigans afoot.