Month: January 2020

 

From Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice:

Russians Hacked Ukrainian Gas Company at Center of Impeachment

Well waddaya know? I’m tempted to do a straight news story here but, honestly, everyone including a can of Chef Boyardee canned ravioli on the shelf at Safeway knows what’s going on here.

Unless it’s just a coincidence that, as the New York Times now reports, Russians have hacked the Ukrainian Gas Company at the center of impeachment.

You know, the one that Hunter Biden had been involved in.

Ahh, must be a coincidence (the glass jar of Bubbies sauerkraut on my kitchen counter just shouted: “No.”)

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• Jonathan Bernstein goes into impeachment, explaining why Republicans should fear the unknown. Has something to do with a scary non-sound in the dark of the night: the shoe that hasn’t dropped.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged looks through the Trumpy Ukraine‑gate claim of attorney confidentiality during the commission of a crime. She discovers that three-way-privilege is not always legal, even when it does not describe extra-marital fantasies. Nice touch, that.
   
  I confess to a little more skepticism since Robert Kardashian became one of O.J. Simpson’s lawyers a generation ago. He was hired specifically not to do a damn thing. Well… except to claim attorney‑client privilege about the garment bag full of evidence with which he had walked away as the murder was being investigated. What a friend!
  Bastard!
   
• News Corpse watches Sean Hannity become enraged on Fox News that evidence dares to emerge implicating him – Hannity his own self – in the force-Ukraine-to-smear-Biden conspiracy.
   
• Well, here’s something I didn’t know before. In MadMikesAmerica, Mark Bear talks about one possible reason Iran shot down a passenger jet, thinking it was part of a US attack force. An American newscaster told Iran, and anyone else listening to his broadcast, that six American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bombers were on the way to bomb specific sites in Iran:

  
  Powerful US military forces, they are in position tonight.
  We can report six B-52 bombers are on the way to the region.

  The newscaster went on to describe the targets: oil refineries, nuclear power generators, as well as political and religious leaders.
   
  Mark has the video of Sean Hannity providing that strategic information. I thought that sort of thing, if true, would be a military secret. If it was a lie, it was a dangerous lie, as the loss of an airliner proved.

Continue reading “Impeach, Triple Play, Hannity, Arrest in Iran, Kellyanne Losing It, Primary Fix”

 

From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

A study published this week provides hard facts about the truly bad deal the US is getting for health care. Simply put, the US for-profit health system costs four times as much than Canada’s single-payer system. Even though the two systems provide roughly equivalent results.

Why? Because of a veritable army of administrative workers who play no direct role in providing actual medical care, and the cost of paying dividends to shareholders of insurance companies. These administration expenses add up to an annual cost of $817 billion, which is an average of $2,497 out of the pocket of every American man, woman, and child every single year.

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From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

She smiled widely and then leaned in with genuine concerned and quietly pressed for details: “So what are you tired of?”

I couldn’t come up with an answer that seemed sufficient in the thirty seconds we had remaining before our takeout orders were ready (and honestly I didn’t feel right baring my soul surrounded by complete strangers in front of a full deli case) so I laughed and said, “Oh, you know!”—and quickly changed the subject.

But on the way home her question was still hanging there in my head: What am I tired of?

Hatred.

That’s it. I’m tired of hatred—like, really tired.

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From Cato Institute senior fellow Julian Sanchez:

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held shortly after the release of his scathinging report on the FBI’s investigation of erstwhile Trump aide Carter Page, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz had a telling exchange with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn):

Blackburn: Let me ask you this, how often do you find mistakes in a FISA Application?

Horowitz: This is actually the first time my office has done a deep dive into a particular application. We’ve done higher level reviews on the FISA process and have found various issues at a higher level, but this is the first time we’ve been able to delve in this way.

Blackburn: It’s a fairly fairly unusual occurrence?

Horowtiz: Let me put it this way, I would hope so.

Presumably Blackburn had expected a rather different response: That the embarrassing catalog of omissions, errors, and misrepresentations that the IG’s office found in applications for FISA surveillance of Page were extraordinary and unprecedented—suggesting some special vendetta against the Trump campaign. Horowitz’s discomfiting, candid reply deserves to be unpacked, because it implies at least three important points worth bearing in mind.

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From Nan’s Notebook:

On Amy Klobuchar:

She’s vibrant, outspoken, mature (but not old), and has a fiery spirit that would allow her to stand toe-to-toe with the insults and misogyny remarks she’d undoubtedly get in a debate with Trump.

For me, her “politics” are agreeable/compatible so I could see voting for her.

Regrettably, she’ll most likely never get on the ballot. Even if she happened to move up in the polls, there are still far too many people in this country who are unable to accept a woman president (which is why I have strong doubts that Elizabeth will make the cut).

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From Tommy Christopher:

NBC News political analyst Jonathan Allen got checked on Twitter for taking an old Bernie Sanders clip out of context, as Sanders Communications Director Mike Casca warned Allen to “always watch the full video when you get pitched” opposition research.

In preparation for Tuesday night’s CNN/Des Moines Register debate, Allen tweeted an old quote from Sanders regarding deceased Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and suggested it might be a relevant indicator of inconsistency on Sanders’ part.

“Bernie Sanders voted for regime change in Iraq repeatedly before he voted against it. It could come up tonight,” Allen wrote, then added “‘Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator who should be overthrown, and his ability to make weapons of destruction must be eliminated.’- Bernie, ‘98″.

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From JoAnn Williams at Biased Unbalanced and Politically Incorrect:

The MAGA’s voice and posturing have obscured the lines between fact, information and elevated ignorance to stupid and currently border on lunacy.

Ignorance Definition: Lacking knowledge about something or deliberate disregard for information regarding facts or events. (I’m calling stupid on this one).

Stupid definition: “slow of mind; obtuse, given to unintelligent decisions or acts; acting in an unintelligent or careless manner.” Example: Trump Rally.

We are all ignorant at times about issues, but choosing to remain that way is stupid.

Given today’s access to information, stupid is a treatable condition but comes with a caveat – responsibility.

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From The Borowitz Report:

At Bloomberg campaign headquarters, in New York, the campaign’s chief strategist, Harland Dorrinson, said that the poll numbers made it clear that “Mike’s ads are having exactly their desired effect.”

“If this many people are willing to vote for Mike to make him stop airing ads after he’s spent only two hundred million, imagine how many will vote to stop him after he spends another eight hundred million,” Dorrinson crowed.

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

The trial can’t begin until the House passes a resolution naming the impeachment managers. That’s Nadler’s job, and he will undoubtedly be lobbied by everyone and his dawg for one of those spots (Side bet: he will name himself and Adam Schiff, so the other spots are really the only ones unknown at this point), but he will take his time. And then the Articles of Impeachment goes to #MoscowMitch for his tender mercies.

Anyway, I’m betting that this thing doesn’t get any “Kinetic Action” (Hawt!) until after MLK Day, even if Pelosi does push the button tomorrow.

But, our Stable Jenius is taking things well in stride…

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