Seldom Balanced – Usually Fair
From Andy Borowitz:
Minutes after being released on bail, Stone was reportedly driven to a tattoo-removal specialist in Jersey City, who spent nine hours removing his notorious back tattoo of Richard Nixon to make room for the newly minted Mueller tat.
News of Stone’s Mueller tattoo sent a wave of panic through the White House, where top aides attempted to predict what the tattoo portended for Stone’s loyalty to Trump going forward.
From PZ Myers:
Michael Dell, the billionaire, was asked what he thought of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal to increase the marginal tax rate to 70%. He didn’t like that at all. His reasoning was mostly skewered by a competent economist on the panel, who pointed out that the US had that rate for quite a long while during a period of strong growth.
But I was amused by another point. He claimed he donated more to his charitable foundation than the increased rate would take from him.
My wife and I set up a foundation about 20 years ago, and we would have contributed quite a bit more than a 70 per cent tax rate on my annual income.
That seemed unlikely. So I had to look it up…
From Dave Dubya:
I’ve long ranted their authoritarian ideology is founded on belief over fact and feelings over reason. These intellectual and moral failings are tragic character flaws in authoritarian personalities that prohibit communication, cooperation, and compromise. Not that they have any desire or need for these qualities, of course. This is why they embrace anti-democratic, vote suppressing, totalitarian rule by a far Right minority.
Thanks to the testimonials and commentary from our far Right friends, we have evidence of the foundation and operating principles of the post-truth Con-servative ideology that is destroying out representative democracy.
We cannot reason with them. They reject reason.
From Iron Knee Political Irony:
Today, on the 35th day of the shutdown, Donald Trump announced a temporary reopening of the government for three weeks. And no, he didn’t get any funding for the wall. He totally caved.
Why? Could it be because he already lost a handful of Republican Senators, who yesterday voted against Trump as a warning shot that if the shutdown went on much longer Trump would find himself humiliated by a veto-proof bipartisan budget bill being passed by Congress? Well, probably not.
Was it because his base started crumbling, once Trump’s temper tantrum started affecting their wallets?
Or because this is actually hurting the economy and reducing the security of the US more than his silly imagined illegal alien invasion.
Or because he wasn’t going to be able to make his campaign speech State of the Union address? You know how much he loves pomp and pageantry.
From News Corpse:
Steve Doocy, co-host of Trump’s favorite morning show, Fox and Friends, was dumbstruck by the charges against Stone. But more importantly, he couldn’t understand how anyone would see any hint of collusion in the charges against Stone:
“When you look at the seven counts from the Grand Jury – obstruction of an official investigation, false statements to Congress, and perhaps witness tampering – once again, where is the Russia collusion?”
Where is the collusion? It’s everywhere. It’s in each and every one of the charges Doocy just itemized. The obstruction of justice is specifically related to Stone’s efforts to cover his involvement in conspiring with the Russia-affiliated WikiLeaks to acquire and publish emails stolen from Hillary Clinton and her team. The false statements to Congress were specifically related to his denials of such involvement. And the witness tampering was also connected to his attempts to intimidate his co-conspirators into keeping quiet about these crimes committed on behalf of Trump.
The position of Fox News is remarkably tunnel-blind, even for them.
From Julian Sanchez:
Yet there were also several indications that the probe may not be as near its conclusion as many observers assume — and that the true target of Friday’s F.B.I. actions was not Mr. Stone himself, but his electronic devices.
Mr. Stone’s early-morning arrest at his Florida home unsurprisingly dominated coverage, but reports also noted that federal agents were “seen carting hard drives and other evidence from Mr. Stone’s apartment in Harlem, and his recording studio in South Florida was also raided.” The F.B.I., in other words, was executing search warrants, not just arrest warrants.
It seemed as if the shutdown would never end, until it did.
Ordinary people were not being hurt. And then they were.
It was not about officials suddenly opening their eyes. It was about who they saw, all along, as ordinary people.
From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:
Donald Trump simply doesn’t know how to deal with a strong and smart woman. Throughout his business career, he has had money and an army of lawyers, and he’s been able to bully and intimidate any woman who dared to question him. He thought he could repeat that same misogynistic behavior into the political world, and he is now learning that is just not going to happen. He has come up against a strong woman in Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and she is smarter than him and understands politics better.
Yesterday, He thought he could intimidate Speaker Pelosi. He sent her a letter saying, despite her wishes, he was going to give his State of the Union speech in the House of Representatives on January 29th. How could she disagree, since he was a man (and president of the most powerful nation on Earth).
But Speaker Pelosi wasn’t having any of his bullying.
From Joe Hagstrom in MadMikesAmerica:
Seeing as how so many confuse my hero Donald Trump’s negotiating technique with haphazard confusion, it is my duty as a loyal conservative Republican to educate these deluded fools.
While the president is always calling for a deal on something or another, his real secret to success is never agreeing to anything. Or agreeing and later denying agreement and demanding more. His wall negotiations, not that there really are any are showing his negotiating genius.
There apparently are some cracks on both sides of the aisle that may convince some of the less ballsy to agree to Trump’s latest offer which really was no offer. His demand for 5.7 billion dollars may well pass the House and Senate though. And Trump will refuse to sign the bill. Instead he will demand another 5 billion or more and keep the government shut down.