Bless You, Charlie Pierce

Charlie Pierce - Esquire:

Remember that old saw about a lawyer who defends himself having a fool for a client? Well, the reverse is true, too. A client who becomes his own lawyer has a fool for a lawyer.

The court has been merciless toward Kobach and toward his prime witnesses, including the notorious Hans von Spakovsky, who has been a vital member of the posse in pursuit of the franchise ever since the Republicans dreamed it up. For his part, Kobach has evinced all the legal skills of a marmoset. His feet haven’t touched the bottom of the pool since he entered the court. The federal district judge, a patient woman named Julie Robinson, is completely fed up with having to preside over a trial while filling in the gaps in Kobach’s legal education, as this story from The Kansas City Star explains:

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson has repeatedly warned Kobach’s team about trying to introduce evidence that has not been shared with the plaintiffs during the first three days of the high stakes trial, which will determine whether thousands can vote in Kansas this November. Kobach complained that the parties in the case “are relying on numbers that are stale” after the judge blocked a line of questioning to Bryan Caskey, the state director of elections, on data that had not been provided to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case before the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.

This triggered a rebuke from Robinson after three days of polite warnings on the rules of legal procedure in the face of multiple hiccups from Kobach’s team. “We're not going to have a trial by ambush here... You're stuck with what you provided to them by the deadline,” Robinson said. "No, no. That's not how trials are conducted," she told Kobach during the exchange. Sue Becker, an attorney on Kobach’s team, tried to interject. “Let me finish,” the judge said as she continued on with her admonishment.
And it gets better from there.

May the Lord Zalmoxis keep you and protect you, Charlie.

Today's Brain Teaser

If I didn't do anything the entire 8 years I was in office, what exactly is Trump reversing?

Today's Cheapshot

Dr Gail Saltz:

Because my great big Anterior Cingulate Gyrus can beat up your puny little Right Amygdala.

Please note: the ACG is kind of an upper brain thingie (suggesting higher evolutionary status) while the amygdala is in the lower brain - the part that hasn't changed much since we were living in trees and sifting thru buffalo shit looking for a few undigested seeds to eat.

Just sayin'.

And if you watched that whole video, you know most of what you just read is bullshit.

But if you've been to my little blog with any frequency - well, you knew that goin' in.

Anyway, good to have new information on how to get those idiot conservatives to stop being such bullheaded whiny-butt Proto-Apes and listen to my perfectly-reasoned and superior arguments.

Oh Goodie

WaPo:

Larry Kudlow on Wednesday accepted an offer from President Trump to head the White House’s National Economic Council, according to three people familiar with the decision.

Kudlow had been seen as the front-runner, but Trump formally offered Kudlow the job Wednesday to replace former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn, who resigned last week, largely over a fight over imposing tariffs that he lost.

Kudlow, 70, is described by White House officials as someone who connects with the president personally and politically. Kudlow, born and raised in New Jersey, shares with Trump a hard-charging personality and a fondness for being a media figure and both have hosted television programs. Kudlow has also been an informal Trump adviser over the past year.
Larry fucking Kudlow.  45* loves the guy because Kudlow is good TV - fake lord have mercy.

Get ready for some Baghdad Bob-level happy talk about 5 or 6% GDP growth - which won't happen, which will be used as "evidence" to rationalize more tax cuts and deregulation.

PA18

Some of the Poodles are baying loudly about everything they've been trained to bay about, while missing the seemingly obvious point that the GOP has become whatever is a few orders of magnitude worse than a cess pool.

James Hohmann, WaPo:

THE BIG IDEA: National Republicans threw the kitchen sink to hold a House seat in Pennsylvania that President Trump won by 20 points. But while the special election remains too close to call, Democrat Conor Lamb clings to a narrow lead and declared victory early this morning.

The media will focus today on what an embarrassment it is for Trump to lose in the heart of his geographic base of support. He went to Pittsburgh twice in the closing weeks to boost Republican Rick Saccone, including on Saturday, and tweeted his support again on Tuesday. The White House also deployedDon Jr., Ivanka, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence and even Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to help.

The bigger reason that the savviest GOP operatives in town are freaking out right now, though, is that the results underscore the degree to which the party has been unable to hone in on a message that can reliably win races in this environment.
Yeah - you bet - it's the message. Like it was Hillary's message. 

It's not the fucking message.

I'm not saying propaganda doesn't work - it should be clear that it does, because it's been working for quite a while.

But eventually, we start to catch on. We start to see how little there is behind the slogans and bumperstickers.

And also too

Call me silly and old-fashioned and nerdy, but the message is directly dependent on the issues and the policy proposals. 

When the words in your message are empty, you get a jagoff like Saccone trying to close the deal yesterday with, "...they hate you; they hate this country, and they hate god."

GOP has no message because they're upside down and backwards on practically every issue that matters to people, while believing they can always count on the formula of God Gays Guns and Gynecology. 

Their message sucks because it's all style and no substance - and people are gettin' wise to it.

And also too - this is what PA18 looks like right now.

Gerrymander much? No wonder the courts spanked 'em.

Today's Tweet

Sometimes, god is quite the marksman

Lightening Striking A Moving Car!! pic.twitter.com/Ce4FLPZGqh

— EPL Bible (@EPLBibIe) March 13, 2018

 

About That TheoCon Thing

It's a long one, but you have to admit - the graphic's pretty good.

Michael Gerson, The Atlantic:

One of the most extraordinary things about our current politics—really, one of the most extraordinary developments of recent political history—is the loyal adherence of religious conservatives to Donald Trump. The president won four-fifths of the votes of white evangelical Christians. This was a higher level of support than either Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, an outspoken evangelical himself, ever received.

Trump’s background and beliefs could hardly be more incompatible with traditional Christian models of life and leadership. Trump’s past political stances (he once supported the right to partial-birth abortion), his character (he has bragged about sexually assaulting women), and even his language (he introduced the words pussy and shithole into presidential discourse) would more naturally lead religious conservatives toward exorcism than alliance. This is a man who has cruelly publicized his infidelities, made disturbing sexual comments about his elder daughter, and boasted about the size of his penis on the debate stage. His lawyer reportedly arranged a $130,000 payment to a porn star to dissuade her from disclosing an alleged affair. Yet religious conservatives who once blanched at PG-13 public standards now yawn at such NC-17 maneuvers. We are a long way from The Book of Virtues.
Remember though:

This is Michael Gerson - who helped create the monster.  

It reads as pretty critical, but (to me) it ends up being more of an Apologetic than a Critique.

ie: He tries to say otherwise near the end, but it gets to the usual attempt to blame it all on the product while ignoring the process (and the management of the process) that gave us that product. 

And as always always always, there's the standard passive voice bullshit: "We're all to blame for this horrible mess, so let's call it even and start fresh". 

No. There's one side of this where many many good people (Christian and otherwise) are turning away - because on the other side there's a buncha fuckin' maniacs called Republicans.

There are not "very fine people" on both sides of this shit.

Gotta get used to looking for the razor blade in these apples (hat tip = driftglass).

BTW: There's a sound cloud file embedded in the piece that makes it quite a bit easier.

Today's Pix

(click it)

Yeah, But The Emails

Mary Louise Kelly, WaPo:

Around 3 p.m. that day, massive news broke. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security released a terse statement, declaring that Russia had “directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.” In other words, the leaders of the intelligence community were for the first time publicly fingering Russia for the Democratic National Committee hack, and not only that: “Only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”

I had attempted to take Oct. 7 off, and I have a vivid memory of standing on the sideline of my son’s soccer practice, scanning the statement on my phone and realizing that my weekend was shot. But before I finished filing for the NPR newscast, another shoe dropped. At 4:02 p.m., David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post tweeted, “stand by for some news about @realDonaldTrump.” One minute later, his story on the “Access Hollywood,” “Grab ’em by the p----” video went live, instantly imperiling Trump’s candidacy.

And still the news gods were not done. Just when you thought the afternoon could not possibly get nuttier, 4:32 p.m. brought a tweet from WikiLeaks. “RELEASE: The Podesta Emails,” it read. Some 2,000 messages from Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s personal Gmail account were posted immediately; WikiLeaks claimed to have tens of thousands more. Soon reporters would be mining a document dump that included both serious campaign communications and Podesta’s risotto recipe.
That last bit - the part about how reporters were combing through the emails like a bunch of grade school little brothers who've found their big sister's diary, and making no perceptible effort to make sure we were well-informed about the link between those emails and the fact that the whole goddamned Spook Network was telling us the Russians were fucking with our election.

Now, of course, they blame Obama for not trying harder - for not continually hitting us over the head with it.

Do your own fuckin' work, Press Poodles.

This Week's Amy

Amy Siskind - Medium - Week 69:

This week, Trump acted like a dictator, taking policy matters into his own hands. After praising China’s President Xi for ending term limits, Trump took controversial actions, imposing tariffs and setting up a meeting with Kim Jong-un — both against his party’s positions, and taken after foregoing or ignoring experts’ and allies’ advice.

Amid record turnover, Trump’s inner-circle continues to shrink, which is likely to continue as Trump reportedly tells friends the White House problems come from those around him, not him. With almost one-third of key roles in the executive branch key roles remaining unfilled, and many senior White House roles vacated, increasingly power and control lies in the hands of Trump alone, while the legislative branch remains largely compliant.

Despite Trump’s success in taking back the narrative this week by diverting media attention with the shiny coins of tariffs and a North Korea meeting, trouble lies ahead. This week a new cooperating witness was reported in the intensifying Mueller probe, and the Stormy Daniels story entered potentially dangerous legal territory for Trump and Michael Cohen.

1. On Saturday, WAPO reported on the air of anxiety and volatility inside the White House as Trump rages. White House officials say these are darkest days in at least half a year, with one adding, “We haven’t bottomed out.”

2. Retired four-star Army general Barry McCaffrey warned the American people and especially Congress should be alarmed, saying Trump is “starting to wobble in his emotional stability and this is not going to end well.”

3. On Saturday, CNN obtained a recording of a closed-door campaign fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago that evening. Trump complained that his campaign was still under scrutiny while Hillary’s is not, blaming a “rigged system” that doesn’t have the “right people” in place to fix it.

4. Trump called the Iraq invasion “the single worst decision ever made,” criticizing George W. Bush, “That was Bush. Another real genius,” as well as US intelligence: “Great intelligence agency there.”

8. AP reported Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidelines and priorities for $260 million of Title X grant applications, giving preference to groups that stress abstinence at the expense of reproductive health organizations.

9. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called it turning “back the clock on women’s health,” and others noted the regime’s continued practice of shifting away from science to unscientific ideologies.

10. On Thursday, Mississippi legislature passed a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, the nation’s most restrictive abortion bill. The bill will now head to the governor, who has publicly said he will sign it.

11. Des Moines Register reported the Iowa Senate approved a ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The ban will now move to the state’s House of Representatives where its outcome is uncertain.

12. Alejandra Pablos, a 32-year-old prominent reproductive justice activist, was detained by ICE while traveling to Phoenix from Virginia this week to check in with immigration officials, necessitated by a DUI three years ago.

17. WAPO reported on a nationwide analysis issued by California’s insurance marketplace which found premiums for ACA health insurance plans could rise by 35–94% around the country in the next three years.

25. On Sunday, NYT reported Rex Tillerson’s State Department has yet to spend any of $120 million it was allocated since late 2016 to counter Russia’s efforts to meddle in elections and sow distrust in democracy.

26. None of the 23 analysts in the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, tasked with countering Moscow’s disinformation, speak Russian. A hiring freeze has hindered bringing on computer experts to track Russian efforts.

And the big ones:

28. Axios reported VA secretary David Shulkin started handling his own media, saying Trump appointees in his agency are conspiring to undermine him. Shulkin also told Politico he has the green light to “purge” his agency.

29. On Friday, WAPO reported Shulkin has canceled morning meetings with Trump’s political appointees, gathering instead with only aides he trusts. Shulkin has also placed an armed guard outside his office.
So there it is - 45* is purging these agencies of solid career technocrats, and replacing them with Political Officers.

This is the Daddy State.

Today's Tweet

Lots of speculation on why 45* is going to such great lengths to shut her up, while having absolutely nothing to say about it in public.

As usual, there's a collective shrug coming from "the base". 

Because the MAGA rubes don't care about anything but ruffling Librul feathers.

And the Christo-freaks don't care because "god is using this evil man to do good things for our agenda."

And the Daddy State donors are fine with anything that keeps the Torch-n-Pitchfork mobs from forming while they loot the joint.

There's something of a consensus forming around the theory: If there's proof of adultery, then it triggers a clause in the PreNup that says Melania gets a much bigger slice of the "Trump fortune" when they split.

Which (supposedly) poses another major threat of 45* having to reveal his financial records.

So let's notice - 45* never bad-mouths Walt Putin - because we assume there's kompromat(?)

Is he staying quiet about Stormy Daniels for the same basic reason?

If Trump blocks Stormy Daniels from appearing on 60 Minutes, he will have imposed more sanctions on a porn actress than on Russia.

— Resistance Girl ✊🏿 (@LaChristie) March 11, 2018

 

Today's GIF

Stepping into oblivion

Another One I Missed

Trae Crowder on MRFF

"...because fuck the divine right of kings."

Follow The Smarm

Cult45* lives in the Smarm Space. I've talked about this before - it's that little gap between what you say you'll do and what you actually do. A bit more finely-pointed - and more suited to 45*: it's the space between what people heard you say (and tho't you meant) and what you plan on denying having said later on, if you need to bail on it.

"Jared and Ivanka are working at the White House for free".

I think 45* believes he can hide in that Smarm Space.  If Jared isn't getting paid for his work on behalf of the President, then how could he be working for the President when he's out doing these deals? That's the kinda shit that makes sense to these boneheads.

And besides, you people never made much of a squawk about that guy over at EPA who was moonlighting, did ya?  Why are you begrudging a guy who's just trying to make a living?

And also too - the Pace of Wacky has picked up a little. It could be that the perception of Mueller getting even closer is making Cult45* really antsy and so they're starting to get sloppy.

They've always been pretty brazen - hiding their shit in plain sight - but they seem to be rushing now.

One more: They need billions, and the people they're trying to put the bite on could turn out to be playing them really big - possibly to the point that the "foreigners" are part of Mueller's trap. And wouldn't that be cool AF?

Missed One

It's a problem everywhere.

The Stormy Thing

I'd like to know how it's kosher for people to use pseudonyms on a binding contract.

Whoever got that one to square up with the courts is a fuckin' genius, and I'm just trying to decide whether I want him on retainer or a barbecue spit.

Anyway, 2 things:

1) Stormy Daniels used Peggy Peterson as her alias. PP - pee pee - whenever the subject is 45*'s sex preferences, it seems like everything keeps pointing back to water sports. 

2) Like the man said: Who're you gonna believe, a porn star who has nothing to lose by telling the truth, or a Trump who has everything to lose by telling the truth?

Gene Robinson, WaPo:

Thanks to Daniels, her lawyer and an unforced error by Sanders, the story Trump has tried so hard to squelch is out. Take a minute and think about it.

The personal lawyer of Donald Trump, days before the election, paid $130,000 to apparently buy the silence of a porn star. Said porn star credibly describes an affair she had with the president and the ham-fisted attempts by his lawyer to keep her from talking about it. All of this unquestionably speaks volumes about the president’s character and morals.
How many mulligans does this guy get?

Today's GIF

Something about a bright idea.

This New Episode

... in what has already become a very old and very stale White House Reality Show.

Reuters:

For at least two decades, leaders in North Korea have been seeking a personal meeting with an American president.

Now, as a summit unexpectedly appears possible, analysts fear U.S. President Donald Trump’s understaffed administration may lack the expertise to successfully turn a political spectacle long sought by Pyongyang into a meaningful opportunity to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

South Korean officials said Friday Trump almost immediately agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, without preconditions, by the end of May. Even proponents of a diplomatic approach towards North Korea worry the administration could be rushing into a summit with little time to prepare.

Such a summit - the first time sitting American and North Korean leaders have ever met - would typically happen after each side had made at least some concrete agreements, said Suzanne DiMaggio, a senior fellow at the New America think tank, who has engaged North Korean officials at unofficial discussions.

“It will have to be managed carefully with a great deal of prep work,” she said on Twitter. “Otherwise, it runs the risk of being more spectacle than substance. Right now, Kim Jong Un is setting the agenda and the pace, and the Trump administration is reacting. The administration needs to move quickly to change this dynamic.”
It runs the risk of being all can and no beans? There's just a bit of a risk here?

One of the things you never ever do is lend your entire nation's standing and prestige to a 3rd rate tin-plated phony by jumping into negotiations with him - what the hell was Kim Jong Un thinking?

And oh yeah - I've asked you before, Press Poodles - please stop trying to report on Cult45*'s weird little shit show by gunning it all through your Presumption of Regularity filter.

There's nothing regular about this. There's nothing that's even real about anything this putz is doing.

So stop reporting on how different all this shit is, and start concentrating on how thoroughly fucked up it is.

Today's Tweet

And some history:

Barbara Rose Johns Powell (March 6, 1935 – September 25, 1991) was a young, American civil rights leader-pioneer and the niece of one of the "fathers of the Civil Rights Movement," Vernon Johns.[1] On April 23, 1951, at the age of 16, Powell led a student strike for equal education at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia. After securing NAACP legal support, the Moton students filed Davis v. Prince Edward County, the largest and only student initiated case consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring "separate but equal" public schools unconstitutional.

“IT SEEMED LIKE REACHING FOR THE MOON.” -Barbara Johns pic.twitter.com/TMYudewnYN

— John Schu (@MrSchuReads) March 8, 2018

 

Samantha Bee

Vote against the kind of Healthcare policy that might help, and then bitch about mental health being "the real problem".

Today's Today

Wanna make your economy hum? Take the shackles off of 50% of your talent pool, dummy.

Want your political system to work better? (see answer above)

Wanna fix what's wrong with the culture? (see answer above)

Get 'em, ladies. We need you.

The Guardian has a rundown on International Women's Day:

Kosovo

Turkey

Ukraine

Another School Attack

This time, it was in The Netherlands.

But nutballs have a very difficult time getting guns in The Netherlands, so the guy took a beating from his would-be victims.

Dumbass brought a knife to a backpack fight.

Today's Tweet

On this holy day - as on all others - The Dude abides.

(actually, it was yesterday, but The Dude is chill and flexible)

You have to watch The Big Lebowski 2-3 times to move from “meh” to “I now know who I am and will quote this movie every day until I die.” pic.twitter.com/rTS0s8ZUMk

— TheBloggess (@TheBloggess) March 6, 2018

Random Shots

(...and cheap ones at that)

The good news is that Billy Graham is still dead.

The bad news is that Franklin Graham still isn't.

The good news is that Billy Graham recently discovered there is no god.

The bad news is that we have to live in this fucked up world without George Carlin.

Good Neighbor Sam

More smoke.
More mud in the water.
More confusion and chaos.

The point is to make people think there's no such thing as 'objective reality'. There are no 'facts'. Nobody's capable of either telling the truth, or knowing the truth when they hear it.

This part of the plan - at its core - is to make it look like there's no plan.

But there is a plan, and it's about Power & Money. Because there's always a plan, and it's always about power & money.

The closer Mueller gets to showing us the enormity of this crime, the bigger the spectacle has to be to keep us entertained.

The crime gets wider & deeper & bigger & uglier, so now it's Sam Nunberg's turn to go on national TV and set himself on fire for our amusement.

Are you not entertained.
WaPo, Aaron Blake:

Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg had a surreal day Monday. After deciding he wouldn't cooperate with a grand jury subpoena from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's Russia investigation, he went on a media blitz to, well, air some things. Each interview seemed intent upon out-shocking the last.

By the end, he had suggested that President Trump may have worked with the Russians, dared Mueller to throw him in jail, repeatedly inquired as to what journalists thought his fate might be, and said he thought Trump knew about that Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer. Nunberg did no fewer than three separate interviews with CNN, two with MSNBC and several others.

So what on earth was all that about? Below are some ideas. (And it bears noting that not all of these are mutually exclusive.)

It was an elaborate, Roger Stone-ian show

- and -

During Monday's interviews, Nunberg oscillated between saying Trump hadn't colluded and suggesting he might have had some arrangement with Russia. He at one point said Trump was too smart to fall victim to Russian blackmail, only to later say that Trump “caused this, because he’s an idiot.” He also said that “there is nobody who hates [Trump] more than me.”

“I'm not a Donald Trump fan, as I told you before, okay?” Nunberg told CNN. “He treated me like crap.”
Stay focused , and remember - the guy can say he's your enemy's enemy, but that don't make him your friend.

You want a friend? Buy a dog.

Today's GIF

Honoring #MeToo and #TimesUp:

Meme For A Day

I only wish this made as much sense to some people as it oughta.

Smarm Space

Smarm Space is the gap - big or small - between what you know you should do and what someone thinks they can force you to do. 

It's also the distance between what you're committed to do and what you actually do.

In sales, it's the difference between what you promise before you close, and what you deliver afterwards.

Most of us will hold up our end of a bargain. We sign the papers and we come through with the goods. Being true to our word - being honorable - we understand that's what keeps any civilization from coming completely unglued.

Smarm Space is where the loopholes are; where loopholes can be manufactured by a good-n-smarmy lawyer.

Smarm Space is where 45* lives, because he is without a sense of honor.

Trump Inc, at Propublica:

Today's Tweet

It's no surprise learning McConnell wanted to help 45*. I think lotsa folks were willing to look the other way - and/or waste a vote on Bernie or Jill Stein or Sponge Bob because they were so sure about Hillary winning it. I think what most people really had in mind was to keep the margin manageable.

What has to fuck with everybody's head is the purely and nakedly cynical ambition that McConnell and Ryan demonstrated then, and insist on staying with now.

EXCLUSIVE: @DenisMcDonough says Mitch McConnell “watered down” the White House’s statement on Russian interference in the election. #MTP pic.twitter.com/VLeAWmZXBt

— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 4, 2018