CatBus

This joke chart has been making its way around Twitter, except… it’s not a joke. It’s an actual chart presented at today’s House Judiciary Committee oversight committee (by Rep. Gohmert, where all the crazy that isn’t coming from Trump originates)

Look carefully at this thing. What links James Clapper, Susan Rice, David Petraeus, Eric Holder, and the Obama State Department together in this insidious Russia/UraniumOne web? You guessed it – Benghazi! Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein even warrant their own crazy bubbles on this Russia/UraniumOne chart, cause Rosenstein’s job description is all about the Uranium, and he was US Attorney in Maryland until Trump put him to his current position, so that’s awkward. In fact, Mueller’s on there twice for good measure. So’s Comey. And Obama. And Susan Rice. Because doubling the crazy bubbles makes it seem doubly nefarious.

The Moore Senate campaign response just keeps getting lower and lower.

That’s right. They aren’t saying the Washington Post is paying women thousands of dollars to lie about Moore, they’re just saying the Washington Post is paying women thousands of dollars to lie about Moore through an anonymous intermediary, which is a totally different thing, because you can deny you said it. Because normal people unconnected to the Moore campaign make that kind of statement all the time in their normal everyday robocalls to Alabama voters, so it might be one of them.

Oh goody, sounds like Sessions is planning to resurrect the Clinton show investigations. So we get to hear all about the DOJ investigating Clinton e-mailing uranium to Vince Foster in her Benghazi pizza dungeon for another three years like that’s going to paper over Russia.

This is where we must have state-level charges. He’ll only be coy about pardoning people for so long. If this hits his family, the pardons begin. But if his family gets hit with pardon-proof charges, he may be so fixated on those charges that he lets the other perps continue to dangle on federal charges, which would be lovely.

RayRogers said:

Might as well go for it since it’s natively 4K resolution.

Nah, I’ll be recording it to VHS anyway. Just kidding… maybe.

He’s JKRACH! I knew it!

The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!

They appear to be testing a maneuver that sucks the orange pigment out of their bodies, allowing them to more easily pass for humans.

TV’s Frink said:

Would it? Not sure if that’s necessarily true. They can’t replace him on the ballot either way so they’d have to force a write-in campaign.

If Moore publicly announced he’d step down, people could vote for Moore knowing he isn’t the one who would actually serve the Senate term. You don’t have to do a write-in campaign, just go with Moore and a pledge to step down once elected, and you get a Senator picked by the Republican governor. That’s actually the move with the best chance of winning at this point IMO. You get your deplorables voting for Moore because they actually like him, and your sane Republicans voting for him because they like the governor. And that’s the coalition that delivered Alabama to Trump both in the primaries and the general, with hefty margins.

Could Moore break such a pledge? Absolutely. But the same people who got duped into the “Trump will pivot to the general/pivot to acting presidential” will easily fall for it whether it’s an honest pledge or not. And the kicker is, I don’t think McConnell cares either. He needs the pledge to win the seat. Once he has the seat, it only matters if they have an (R) next to their name. Moore could break the pledge or not, it won’t matter.

Just finished Season 2. Agree with DominicCobb, a bit of a letdown. In many ways it was the same horror/action split you saw with Alien/Aliens, except not as well executed IMO. I preferred the subtler creepy vibe of S1 to the more straightforward scary monster vibe of S2. And Episode 7 gets some well-deserved shit – what’s worse than how bad it was, is how unnecessary it was. Was this an attempt at test-marketing a spin-off series featuring all the other experiments that were done before StitchEleven came along? I can’t even figure out why someone decided to write it. It is entirely skippable and all you really lose is the backstory for a hairstyle. Bleh.

That said, I liked some parts of S2, and overall I thought it was okay. Some characters were great – Steve and Dustin in particular. I thought that the slow parts were better than the action-packed parts, in the sense that I enjoyed watching these characters trying to get on with their previously normal lives, while suffering from the after-effects of S1. But I feel S1 has some re-watchable value, and I’m not sure S2 does.

Yeah, I agree that VHS-style Blu-ray set is pretty bad-ass looking.

TV’s Frink said:

Mitch McConnell finally finds (some of) his spine.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/360102-mcconnell-roy-moore-should-step-aside

Moore stepping down would improve the GOP’s chances of holding that Senate seat. I’m not sure spine enters into the calculation.

yhwx said:

Donald J. Trump does not know how to spell “they’re.”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/929503641014112256

When will all the haters and fools out there realize that having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. There always playing politics - bad for our country. I want to solve North Korea, Syria, Ukraine, terrorism, and Russia can greatly help!

He can spell covfefe just fine though.

So, I do want to interrogate you, but not because you’re Muslim. I want your language skills, if you have them 😉

Since it sounds like you didn’t live in Pakistan yourself, your Urdu might not be so great, and if it isn’t just say so. But it would be seriously awesome if we got Urdu subtitles for Star Wars, just saying. And we have (most of) a Hindi dub, so you listen to the Hindi, write/convert it to Urdu, and it’s pretty easy as far as translations go. Anyway if you (or anyone you know) is interested in this, please oh please send them my way. Also if you have any other language connections, I’m not picky. Punjabi, Dari, whatever. I realize English is widely spoken and understood in Pakistan, so English audio or subtitles should be more than adequate, but hey why not Urdu too?

I now apologize for the derail and we can go back to the regularly scheduled interrogation.

SilverWook said:

Why is the state auditor going to bat for this creep anyway? Doesn’t seem to fit the job description. Are they in the same country club or something?

Same gentleman’s club, more like. It’s really no surprise anymore when the most outspoken of our modern-day Pharisees turn out to be compensating for personal actions that could only generously be called moral failings. Moore’s not the first, nor the worst, nor the last, in our modern-day parade of the depraved hypocrites.

This state auditor sure seems to bother his Bible to the same degree as Moore, defending child sex predators no less. You have to wonder if they share a true kinship of faiths, as it were.

The proliferation of consumer recording devices (e.g. audio/video recorders in the form of phones that everyone is expected to have) seems to so far have been a good thing (thanks BLM). I can only think a lot of sexual harassment cases that were previously “he said/she said” will turn into “he said/she said – and she has it on tape”, which changes the legal dynamic significantly. Although there’s also the wiretap laws/recording people without permission angle which I think deserves serious consideration.

On the downside, I suppose it’s only a matter of time before a James O’Keefe-type character records something innocuous and edits it to appear incriminating, so there’ll always be some assclown to rain on every parade.

Oh please oh please let this be the time to bring Schneiderman on board for some pardon-proof charges.

Most kidnapping cases are prosecuted on the state level. Federal authorities will typically get involved and file federal charges if the kidnapping crosses state lines.

SilverWook said:

CatBus said:

Warbler said:

CatBus said:

Since it’s too late to change the name on the ballot, Republicans may attempt some sort of “refuse to seat him/he resigns/appoint new Senator” gambit, which basically amounts to “you’re just voting for the Republican ticket, not this particular Republican. Trust us to sort out the details.”

mayhaps.

My mistake. This is the tactic they’re taking.

“Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Ziegler said choosing his words carefully before invoking Christ. “Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

Actual quote from the Alabama State Auditor, defending Roy Moore. Not denying it, just saying preying on teenagers is Biblically justified.

Holy crap. Let’s remember the Bible has been used to justify slavery, outlawing mixed race marriages, and probably whacking off in a tool shed on a Sunday.
But you can still legally marry your cousin in Alabama. 😉

I can’t believe it keeps getting worse. Roy Moore is already using the “He preys on your children” story in his fundraising mailers.

Also, it’s sad that the Republicans have such total control of everything that they have to invent a boogeyman comprised of two private citizens (the “Obama-Clinton machine”) because there aren’t any Democrats with enough power to be a credible threat to anyone anymore.

Warbler said:

CatBus said:

Since it’s too late to change the name on the ballot, Republicans may attempt some sort of “refuse to seat him/he resigns/appoint new Senator” gambit, which basically amounts to “you’re just voting for the Republican ticket, not this particular Republican. Trust us to sort out the details.”

mayhaps.

My mistake. This is the tactic they’re taking.

“Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Ziegler said choosing his words carefully before invoking Christ. “Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

Actual quote from the Alabama State Auditor, defending Roy Moore. Not denying it, just saying preying on teenagers is Biblically justified.

Since it’s too late to change the name on the ballot, Republicans may attempt some sort of “refuse to seat him/he resigns/appoint new Senator” gambit, which basically amounts to “you’re just voting for the Republican ticket, not this particular Republican. Trust us to sort out the details.”

I like to think the recent revelations about Roy Moore will sink his Senate campaign. It’s well-sourced and corroborated with court filings from the time, but it’s already getting called “Fake News” at Breitbart, so who knows what the voters will think? Also, Trump’s racism gave him an impressive margin of victory in Alabama, in spite of the well-documented fact that he was a horrifying human being. Perhaps Moore can still pull this off. Child molesters can still win elections, as long as they’re sufficiently racist child molesters.

While I’m generally pleased about how the Dems fared this year in Virginia, this interesting stat stands out:

Democratic candidates won 54.8 percent of all votes that were cast for one of the two major parties

The Democrats beat the Republicans by almost ten points in the House popular vote. And that was almost enough to get half the seats in the VA House of Delegates, but not quite. For all the laughing about how the Republican gerrymander was so stupidly aggressive that it made them vulnerable to waves, the gerrymander held. It worked. And as long as there’s not an insane Democratic wave every year, the Republicans will be sailing back to a veto-proof majority in a state they simply can’t win anymore in terms of votes.

If I were a Republican strategist, I’d look at Virginia as a success. And a roadmap for the future. Drawing maps may be hard, but it’s easier than winning.

This could be fun. But people other than Mueller can have sealed indictments on that docket.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/22972/mueller-not-done-federal-court-docket-shows-four-emily-zanotti

Warbler said:

I wonder why Alaska’s gun death rate is so high.

Suicide. For real. Which is a huge chunk (over 60%) of all these guns deaths, but Alaska has either the first- or second-highest rate in the country, depending on the year (they trade places with Wyoming). Native Alaskans have one of the highest suicide rates on the planet.

Also, state gun regulations all have the “neighbor state” problem. If you’re near a state with lax gun laws, do the strict gun laws have as much of an effect in your state? Hawaii is a bit of an example of what happens when you have strict* gun laws and no neighbor state problem.

* “Strict” on a US scale, which goes from “very lax” at one end to “completely irresponsible regulatory void” at the other.

CatBus said:

Virginia prediction: Northam will beat Gillespie, but the Republicans will easily maintain a hold on the House of Delegates, probably losing only a few seats. Trump’s overt white supremacist campaign only got 44.4% there last year, and although Republicans should get a bump due to it being an off-year election, that only bumped their candidate for Governor to 45.2% in 2013. The somewhat academic question will be if Gillespie’s overt white supremacist campaign puts him over or under 45.2%. If over, that means racism still has a strong enough appeal to the Virginia electorate that people will keep trying the Trump/Gillespie formula there (maybe supplementing by adding secondary issues other than appeals to racism). If under, that means white supremacy may play well in other states, but it’s a losing issue in Virginia statewide elections. If under by enough, it may even be an indicator of the “Trump effect” – a national drag on statewide/local Republican performance – certainly for people like Gillespie or LePage who are branding themselves as mini-Trumps.

I guess I should add the alternate scenario: if Gillespie wins, politicians around the nation will see it as a clear sign that running a “no issues/all racism” campaign will not only win in Republican-safe areas, but can be the critical formula to put them over the top in competitive or Democratic-leaning races. Or, worse, it will show it doesn’t matter what sort of campaign you run, you will win as long as you have the backing of Russian bots.

yhwx said:

Jeebus said:

Warbler said:

Why do fellow members of my gender have to act like such idiots. KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF!!

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

This has to more to do than just power.

Impunity is a sign of power. People do all kinds of shitty things when there are no consequences.