Today's Tweet

And BTW - why does it seem like the Lady Dems are the ones with the real balls?

This is the face of every American woman after listening to a man blab his mouth when you asked him a yes or no question. pic.twitter.com/SF8shsFTtN

— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) June 8, 2017

Keith

I missed this one last week. Lots of disclaimers and caveats, but holy crap.

That Natural Law Thing

Sometimes, I have to let this junk outa the sewer just long enough to show it up for the dead-end bullshit it is.

"There's no equality in nature."

These guys are sure that's the whole banana. All they ever have to claim is that they're just trying to go along with "the natural order of things", and nobody can refute or rebut - there's no equality in nature.

Wanna know what else you don't find in nature, Mr Spencer? Here's one: There's no law in nature. 

In nature, there's nothing that keeps Charles Barkley from popping your fool head like a pimple.  So go play outside for a while, shortpants - the adults are trying to work.

Jesus, I hate dealin' with these shit-heels.

Overprivileged White Guys

"...toxic - like farts from a vegetarian."

Today's Pix

Yup, That Was It For Me Too

Dana Milbank, WaPo:

But such legal considerations, though important, miss the real significance of Comey’s testimony heard-’round-the-world. In the three hours I sat transfixed in Room 216 of the Hart Building, 15 feet behind the fired FBI director, the line that chilled me more than any other was Comey’s account of why he wrote extensive, real-time notes of his conversations with Trump. “The nature of the person,” Comey explained in part. “I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document.”

The nature of the person.

This was the essence of Comey’s testimony: that the president of the United States is at his core a dishonest and untrustworthy man. It was judgment on character, not a legal opinion, and even Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee made no real attempt to dispel it.

Ding ding ding.

And then there's Paul Ryan:

Republicans on and off the panel largely accept Comey’s assessment of Trump’s character. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) suggested that “the president’s new at this” and “probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols.” But, he added, “I’m not saying it’s an acceptable excuse.”

That's gotta be the weasely-est weasel-ing I've come across in quite a while - and Ryan's been pulling that crap for almost a year now where 45*'s concerned.

Fake lord have mercy.

Today's GIF

Whaddya mean, "Do I smell smoke"? What smoke? There's no smoke.

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 Tweet

The Daddy State requires darkness to do their shit because when the light comes on, they all go skittering back under the dishwasher.

Use our toolkit to unleash a tidal wave of pressure on Trumpcare. Target list, phone #'s, facts, graphics. Please RT https://t.co/3XvofXuTE9

— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 7, 2017

Storm Comin'

WaPo:

When torch-wielding white nationalists gathered in front of a Confederate statue in downtown Charlottesville last month, Mayor Michael Signer worried that the event harked back to “the days of the KKK.”

That warning has now become prophecy.

On Monday, city officials said the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had applied to hold a rally near the statue on July 8.

“This rump, out-of-state chapter of a totally discredited organization will succeed in their aim of inciting controversy only if folks take their putrid bait, and that begins with the media,” he wrote in an email to The Washington Post. “I encourage everyone to ignore this ridiculous sideshow and to focus instead on celebrating the values of diversity and tolerance that have made Charlottesville a world-class city.”

Charlottesville - a regular hotbed of social rest - is not given to protest and demonstration.

This could get to be a pretty big deal.

A New One

I've not met this lady, but we've been chatting online for a short bit and I think she's the real thing.  And she talks about real things too.

I've linked to her site on my "Places I Go" list - click on the little stack of lines in the upper left of the main page. 

Intrigue At The Palace

Vox:

On Friday, January 6, FBI Director James Comey met with President-elect Donald Trump. His task was awkward; he needed to inform Trump that the FBI’s counterterrorism unit was investigating claims that Russia had embarrassing blackmail material on the billionaire real estate developer.

Something in Trump’s reaction disturbed Comey. “I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the President-Elect in a memo,” he recalls in testimony prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The compulsion to record the conversation was fierce and immediate; Comey didn’t even wait to get back to his hotel. “I began to type it on a laptop in an FBI vehicle outside Trump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting.” From then on, Comey began documenting all his meetings with Trump. “This had not been my practice in the past,” he says.

On January 27, Comey again found himself in a strange situation with the president, caught by surprise when a dinner invitation that originally included his family turned into Comey having dinner with Trump, alone, in the White House’s Green Room. Trump immediately asked if Comey wanted to remain in his job, and said many other people would want it — a request Comey found strange, as Trump had already asked him to stay on as FBI director, and Comey had already accepted.

“My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting, and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship,” Comey says. Trump would soon make that perfectly clear. “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,” the president told his FBI director.

In subsequent meetings, Trump would ask Comey to “lift the cloud” Russia was casting over his presidency, to announce publicly that Trump was not being investigated, and to squelch the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s activities. In their final conversation, Trump asked for Comey’s cooperation, saying, “I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.” Comey says he did not know what “that thing” was. Shortly thereafter, Comey was fired.

Everybody's expecting a big show today when Comey testifies, but the smart money seems to be on Big-Nothing-Burger.  Why does the guy telegraph his moves by releasing a kind of script before he shows up?  He doesn't think anybody's going to confine themselves just to the points he outlined, does he?  But then again, it's not likely for him to drop the big one in open session. But then again again, this guy has pulled some pretty horrendous shit in the not too distant past.  

And wouldn't it be nice if one of the Press Poodles could manage to ask the question - Is any of this to be considered "usual and customary"?

So anyway, we see what we see today. And what we do know to be "usual and customary" is that we can count on the Poodles to sell us gigundous piles of car insurance and boner pills. This is USAmerica Inc - it's what we do.

Manage the expectations, and keep pushing Congress to do something honorable.

It's A Ladder, Einstein

Dear @realDonaldTrump: Here's a friendly reminder from @VicenteFoxQue that Mexico will not pay for your wall. pic.twitter.com/Osg8ZUYLlG

— Super Deluxe (@superdeluxe) June 7, 2017

Today's Quote

"Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."

--James Baldwin

Today's Tweet

Kinda looks like the President stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a charity for kids with cancer? https://t.co/BRUqF8jzc4

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 6, 2017