Author: Raymond

 
From driftglass:

Rebel, rebel, your face is a mess…

God bless Parker Molloy for doing actual journalism in public by going down into the archives of Bolshi Freedom Troll Glenn Greenwald to find out what Mr. Greenwald thought of people being damn-fool enough to go on Fox News and expecting a fair shake.

From Mr. Greenwald back in 2005:

What possesses people like Andrew Fois to go on national television and prostrate themselves before dishonest partisan shills like Sean Hannity and Victoria Toensig by showering them with lavish praise before he even gets to a single point? People like Hannity and Toensig make a living by depicting Bush critics as traitors and cowards and terrorist-loving subversives, and so many of the people who are the target of their attacks feel compelled to praise them before defending themselves. Do you ever hear Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh lauding Bush critics as “great Americans” for whom they have a lot of respect?
…

So I guess I must have been asleep for the last 14 years during which Fox News shed its unhinged, rage-drunk, conspiracy-mongering. White Power Hour, Own The Libs instincts and became a virtuous model of respectable, fair, broadminded, serious and fact-based journalism.

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From Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit:

Cat herding is a good term for a political chief executive: Mayor, School Board President, Governor or President. While there is some inherent power in any of those jobs, the truly great ones know that their job is to both lead and persuade. The councilman for the fifth ward isn’t going to go along with the mayor’s desires just because the mayor want it. The mayor has to build either a consensus or a movement. That takes work.

The ones who are good at it are those know know this to their bones. A president can order the army about, but the congress can cut funding for that.Getting elected is not a carte blanche.

The problem is intensified with business guys who become political executives. They are used to a world where what they command eventually happens. It’s worse for those who come from family or private corporations, for they have never had to answer to anybody.

This is why Trump is failing.

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From Julian Sanchez:

“The FISA warrant issued against [former Trump advisor] Carter Page, based on a dossier prepared by Christopher Steele, is at a minimum disturbing,” said Graham last week, echoing a claim first championed by former House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes in a now-notorious memorandum. “Whether or not it’s illegal, I don’t yet know. So I’m going to get answers to this.”

I’ve written before that I find little merit in the arguments raised by Nunes, and the portrait they paint of a politically-motivated Deep State conspiracy to bring down Trump—are without merit. That assessment still stands. But what little we’ve learned about Mueller’s findings does suggest there are aspects of the FBI’s surveillance of Page that deserve further scrutiny. They’re just not the aspects Graham and his co-partisans are most agitated about.

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From The Onion:

“In my 20-plus years at East Lansing, I’ve had the privilege of threatening to pummel some incredible players, but none of them have ever responded to my murderous rants like these guys,” said Izzo, who showered praise on the team for winning the Big 10 tournament, so he didn’t have to follow through on his promise to “choke them out” if they lost.

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

Chairman Richard Neal of the House Ways and Means Committee, has officially requested six years of our Grifter-in-Chief’s personal and business tax returns from the IRS. The law (remember laws? seems quaint, dontit?) requires the IRS to provide those returns to the committee without exception.

The Treasury Department, run by human typo Steve Mnuchin (worst Bond villain ever) is required by law to provide six years of Comrade Trump’s personal and business tax returns to Congress.

[Ed. – Be prepared for a shock, Gentle Readers!]

Prznint Stupid intends to enlist the federal government to conceal his tax returns from Congress and the public.

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From The Onion:

‘Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare’

WASHINGTON—Proclaiming “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,” Hare Krishnas issued a statement Thursday announcing “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hara Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”

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From nojo at Stinque:

What do we know?

Nothing, really.

We know that William Barr issued a tightly worded letter claiming Robert Mueller found no evidence to support the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russian government, and punting on the question whether Donald Trump’s actions regarding the investigation amount to a legal case for obstruction of justice.

We know that Barr himself is someone a courtroom drama would call a hostile witness, someone whose word is not to be trusted.

We know that in the days following the letter, the Department of Justice issued its own statement promising its own summary, and that Barr promised to provide the full report, but with redactions both legally required and arbitrary.

We know there is no legal requirement to redact anything for certain chairs of congressional committees.

We know the report itself is nearly 400 pages long.

And we know that everybody has been losing their fucking heads.

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From Cato’s Julian Sanchez:

This was, at least originally, both a criminal and a counterintelligence investigation. And there are a number of questions left unresolved that don’t necessarily relate to criminal conduct, but are highly significant from a counterintelligence or national security perspective. One question is whether Russia had some form of “kompromat” or other leverage over Trump—which might help to explain why they were so eager to promote Trump above other Republican contenders. That could be true without Trump having committed any crime (or any crime directly related to the election) but it would obviously be quite urgent for the public to know about.

There are also questions about the campaign’s stance toward Russian interference that go beyond direct “coordination” or “conspiracy.” We know the campaign was eager to make use of hacked Democratic e-mails, and that Trump and his surrogates sought to cast doubt on Russia’s responsibility for that intrusion long after the Intelligence Community considered these to be established facts. If the Trump campaign knew or believed that Russia was indeed responsible at the time, that might not be criminal, and it might not amount to “conspiracy”—but it would be extremely damning all the same.

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From News Corpse:

The Rachel Maddow Show has achieved yet another milestone in her program’s ratings surge. She has been outperforming her competition since the midterm election last November. That includes staggering routs of Fox News and its primary Trump-fluffer, Sean Hannity.

In a press release from MSNBC, Maddow is shown to have beaten “all other FOX News and CNN shows, according to Nielsen data from December 31, 2018 through March 28, 2019.” Furthermore, “this quarter was ‘Maddow’s’ highest-rated quarter ever in total viewers, averaging 3.07M total viewers at 9pm.” It’s a record-breaking achievement that demonstrates the audience appeal for an aggressively honest brand of reporting that respects the viewer and delivers facts that are well-sourced and documented.

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From Andy Borowitz:

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—After praising Donald J. Trump, on Sunday, for cutting aid to “three Mexican countries,” the cast of “Fox & Friends” blamed former President Barack Obama for creating additional Mexicos during his tenure in the White House.

“When Barack Obama took office, there was only one Mexico,” the host Ed Henry said. “He allowed these additional Mexicos to develop.”

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