We’ve been railing against institutional liars for the entire existence of human institutions. This particular set of puerile whiny losers barely make it to ankle level of the worst of their historical predecessors. And that pretty much sums them up — they are the newest ankle-biters of the ages.
They wouldn’t even have as much power as they do if they hadn’t allied themselves with and actively conspired with more ruthless and frankly evil players from outside the borders of the country. The Putins and bin Salmans of the world are despots in ways tRump and his cronies can only dream of.
The level of incessant lying we are subject to is, by itself, unsustainable. They are already bleeding profusely from self-inflicted wounds caused by all the lies that have come back to bite them. When you throw in the gratuitous cruelty, tone deaf reactions to tragedy and monumental stupidity you end up with incompetence majestic in depth and breadth. They have failed to discover anything they can’t screw up.
Large parts of the republican party have sacrificed their personal integrity on the altar of tRump. They’ve watched it crumble to ashes and blow away on the winds of resistance. No matter how many more lles they tell, they will never get it back.
Aside from the current cult of frozen-brained KoolAid guzzling dead-enders and giddy KoolAid guzzling End-Timers there is no growable constituency waiting around to be enamored or bamboozled by these lying sacks of repetitive bullshit. The rigid opposition by a majority of the country to everything tRump embodies means his only path forward is to cheat again.
But, this time we are watching much more closely. There are more of us now than in 2016 and there are less of them. Actuarial tables skew in the direction of progress. So does disgust with lies and the lying liars who tell them*. This time they’ll have to cheat even more than in 2016. And we have a potent antidote — their track record over the last 3 years.
- Innocent people don’t behave like this.
- Christians don’t cage children.
- Trying to start wars to boost poll numbers is not ok.
- Barr lied about the Mueller Report.
- All of them lied about Ukraine.
- Pompeo lied about Soleimani.
- They even lied about the weather.
- and on an on ad infinitum
Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Don’t Give an inch.
We have this if we work for it. So, let’s keep working.
*I miss Al Franken’s wit.
Colbert on the various justifications for the assassination of Soleimani [4:32].
More Colbert: White House Officials "Shushed" Lawmakers Who Asked Questions During Iran Briefing [8:23] from January 9th and Trump Taunts Cory Booker On Twitter After The Candidate Suspends His Campaign [5:58] from last night
Seth had some thoughts as well [14:10]
How about some news,
Truth challenged is putting it mildly
There just isn’t enough room in the clown car for all the buffoonery they’ve managed to wrap around trying to start World War III
Rolling Stone: Turns Out the Attack on Soleimani May Have Been Retaliatory. Trump Approved It 7 Months Ago
The always-changing justification for the timing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani’s assassination has taken another turn.
According to a new report from NBC News, President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead to take out Soleimani seven months ago. The directive came with one stipulation: Trump would have to give the final OK before a specific plan to kill Soleimani could begin.
Of course, this new information flies in the face of the “imminent” threat against the U.S. that Trump and others in his administration have stated as a rationale for the strike, and this development might give some clarity as to why we’ve seen a mess of contradictions emanating from the White House justifying the assassination.
But wait there’s more
The rug they are trying to sweep all this under looks like a postage stamp sitting on top of a garbage dump.
CNN: Giuliani associate Lev Parnas turns over thousands of pages of documents to impeachment investigators
Joseph A. Bondy, Parnas' New York attorney, traveled to Washington, DC, over the weekend to hand-deliver the contents of an iPhone 11 to Democratic staff on the House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, according to a series of Bondy's tweets.
"After our trip to DC, we worked through the night providing a trove of Lev Parnas' WhatsApp messages, text messages & images—not under protective order—to #HPSCI, detailing interactions with a number of individuals relevant to the impeachment inquiry. #LetLevSpeak #LevRemembers,"
according to Bondy's tweet.
Maybe the drugs wore off?
Gaetz is high on my list of (R)s wasting our air. This surprised the heck* out of me. I think there’s a whole bunch of (R)s that are not happy with tRump about this. I’m shocked that Gaetz actually made his disagreement public
*I have been asked to cut back on the poop references.
Mother Jones: White House Official Calls Matt Gaetz’s Efforts to Limit War Powers “Super Uncool”
A few days ago, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) broke with most members of his party to support a House resolution that seeks to restrict Donald Trump’s use of military force against Iran unless the president obtains congressional approval. Gaetz’s support was noteworthy, because he has (proudly) built a reputation as Trump’s most eager defender in Washington, and because Trump himself called the bill a “Democratic fraud.”
Gaetz’s support for the resolution did not go over well with his fellow Republicans. But you can’t appreciate just how poorly it went over until you read this Washington Post story about the behind-the-scenes opposition. In response to a letter asking his colleagues to sign on to the measure, a succession of GOP staffers took turns trashing it in the kind of language one might expect to hear on Fox News, and a White House staffer told the paper that Gaetz’s support for it had left him in the dog house:
- An aide to Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) simply sent all Republican offices Trump’s tweet urging Republicans to vote against the resolution.
- A senior White House official said it was “super uncool” and “quite unwise” for Gaetz to push for limits on the president’s authority. This person added that White House officials would not be returning Gaetz’s phone calls, text messages, “smoke signals or his kneelings in the snow.”
“Super uncool.” My God. Is this is a debate about constitutional powers or an episode of “The Californians“?
Lock him up
Buh bye and good riddance. Next up Doug and Susan.
Politico: Prosecutors recommend nearly 5 years in prison for disgraced former Rep. Chris Collins
Federal prosecutors on Monday recommended that former Rep. Chris Collins be sentenced to nearly five years in prison — the maximum prison sentence — for his role in an insider trading case that led to his arrest and eventual downfall in Congress.
Collins initially denied any wrongdoing after he was indicted on insider trading charges in August 2018, and the New York Republican even went on to win reelection that year. But Collins ultimately pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and making false statements. He resigned from Congress soon after.
Prosecutors say Collins, 69, deserves a lengthy prison sentence because he chose to continue serving in Congress — which they called “one of the most prestigious jobs in the United States” — and lied under questioning about the case, sending a message to the public that “those in power who make the laws are not required to follow them.”
Nixon? They are using Nixon?
Chutzpah. Arrogance. Stupidity. Lots of stupidity. Are they brain dead? How can anyone think using one of the most egregious unethical violations of law ever committed by a candidate for president to justify breaking the same law?
Mother Jones: Nixon Did It, Too! How a Trump Aide Justified Secret Russia Contacts
McFarland’s assertion hasn’t drawn much notice, but it should. Flynn admitted to secret transition-period contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which he sought to temper Russia’s response to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 election. In his guilty plea, Flynn admitted that he also called Kislyak and officials from other countries to lobby against a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank after news reports indicated that the Obama administration would not oppose the measure. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s April 2019 report says Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, oversaw the latter effort. These contacts may have violated the Logan Act, a 1799 law that bars private US citizens from acting to “influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government” in a dispute with the United States or “to defeat the measures of the United States.” Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to FBI about this activity. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
To summarize: To justify potentially illegal secret contacts between the Trump team and Russia, McFarland, who herself worked on Nixon’s National Security Council, cited perhaps the most notorious example in US history of a White House candidate undermining the diplomacy of a siting president. (McFarland’s comparison is also flawed because Nixon’s interference, and the Reagan team’s alleged actions, occurred prior to Election Day, not during the transition.)
I guess we are in Kansas some more.
This seat isn’t on the flippin’ radar yet. Picking up a Senate seat in Kansas would cause a lot of heads to explode on K street and at Faux Noise. Wouldn’t that be delightful.
Wonkette: If Kris Kobach Wants To Lose Another Seat For The GOP, Who Are We To Argue?
It's just possible that the national GOP hates Kris Kobach more than Kris Kobach hates immigrants. Which is high bar to clear! From the moment he declared for the Kansas's US Senate race by misspelling his own name on the registration form, the National Republican Senate Committee accused him of "simultaneously put[ting] President Trump's presidency and Senate Majority at risk." But Chris -- sorry, Kris -- Kobach brushed off the DC insiders' gripes with the dogged confidence of a guy who plans to grift a billion dollars to erect a home-brew border wall.
While Mike Pompeo was Hamlet-ing all over Foggy Bottom, the NRSC could keep Kansas on the back burner. But now that Pompeo says he's foregoing the Senate race to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fuck shit up in the Middle East, the GOP is panicking. The Wall Street Journal reports that internal Republican polling has Kobach almost 20 points ahead of his closest primary challenger, Rep. Roger Marshall (KS-1), and weak against a strong Democrat in the general. And Republicans remember that 18 months ago, that racist nutbag Kobach managed to lose the Kansas gubernatorial election by five percent in a state Trump took by 20 points. So they're not risking a narrow GOP majority in the Senate on that incompetent buffoon, at least not if they can help it.
Yesterday the GOP wheeled out 96-year-old Bob Dole to endorse Marshall to succeed retiring Senator Pat Roberts, and Marshall reported raising $250,000 in just three days after Pompeo noped out.
Pedophile(R-tRump) does not get to pass go
And another one gone, and another one gone. Another one bites the dust.
Rolling Stone: George Nader, Trump Associate and Mueller Investigation Witness, Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Crimes
George Nader, a key witness in Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, pleaded guilty on Monday to two child sex charges.
According to the Washington Post, Nader admitted to bringing an underage boy to the U.S. for sex and being in possession of child pornography. Nader was a part of President Donald Trump’s 2016 election circle and met with officials and associates of Trump in 2017.
Nader drew the attention of Mueller because he organized a meeting between Trump supporter and associate Erik Prince and a Russian banker with close connections to President Vladimir Putin.
This is the kind of dog wagging I like to see.
If only we could get Patsy to herd the republicans out of Washington so we can put out the tRumpster fire.
Good News Network: More Than 220 Sheep Saved From Australian Bushfires After Heroic Pup Herds Them to Safety
Quick as a flash, Patsy rounded up the herd and ushered them into a barn while the owner of the farm fended off the flames with a tractor and water pump.
Thanks to Patsy’s quick actions, almost every single one of the roughly 220 sheep were saved from the fires.
“If you haven’t got a good dog, you can’t do so much with the sheep,” Hill told NBC News. “They’re really difficult to move in any way, shape or form unless you have a good dog.”
A few more links
CNN: Chris Cuomo: The Trump Triple-Step: Lie, Deny, Defy [5:19]
The New Yorker: Donald Trump’s Iran Problem
Huffington Post: Stephanie Grisham Peddles Outrageous Defense Of Trump’s Anti-Muslim Retweet
The Atlantic: Whatever the Question, the Answer Is Trump
USA Today: 'Evangelicals for Trump' was an awful display by supposed citizens of the Kingdom of God
Musical Interlude
A song for our very disowned NumpeeLoony Boneyspurs and his delusions.
Short Takes
If you shine a light on a republican politician they are likely to burst into flame. shrivel up and disintegrate back into an empty promise.
tRump never met a klan he didn’t like.
tRump has graduated from fly-by-night con artist to cry-by-night whine peddler.
tRump is pro AssAssination because it has double the ‘ass’ making it much easier for him to grab with those tiny hands.
The saddest thing for me about tRump’s increasing dementia is that he won’t have a long time in jail to think about his crimes.
New republican hymn: A flighty dotard is our lord.
Remember extreme vetting? Just like an IQ test, there’s no way tRump could pass.
After recently introducing “sleaze” as the group noun for republicans we have another one for you: a group of tRumps shall henceforth be referred to as “a stench of tRumps.”
tRump saw his shadow again. This time it scared him so much he got on a conference call with Vlad, Kim, Recip, Bashar and Chinese guy to make sure they all still love him. Having them massage his chronic self-loathing, cowardice and paranoia only cost us Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, The Solomons and a year’s supply of Snickers™. Kim managed to convince Donnie that the Snickers™ were a traditional deal sweetener in all inter-government agreements.
I think tRump may do so many stupid things because he has a small penis. Whenever he’s busy stepping on dicks, he can’t find his own, and never ends up really feeling the pain.
Required Pet Photo
Quote(s) of the Day
We learned about honesty and integrity - that the truth matters... that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules... and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square. — Michelle Obama
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively. — Bob Marley
The time is always right to do what is right. — Martin Luther King, Jr
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. — Abraham Lincoln
Closing Notes
To all of our fellow resisters, rounderuppers and gnusies recovering from illness or injury lots of hugs, including {{{{oldhippiedude}}}}, {{{{Msdude}}}}, our Tuesday partner {{{{niftywriter}}}} {{{{Mrmuni12}}}} and {{{{Mokurai}}}}
Last night’s shade: Evening Shade: Speaking of tRump
The lads will play us out with a tasty piece from a summer show 30 years ago. I was there.
Disclaimer: Lies are bad for republican’s political health and I’m happy about that.