Trump's America, March 2017: Using His Inside VOICE

gee it's almost like they're arguing against strawmen

feel like "fuck trey gowdy" is a sentiment that can't ever really be expressed enough XP

trey gowdy is obviously salty that everyone talked shit about his stupid haircuts during benghazi

also trey - in your 20 years did the prosecutor go over to the defendants house to show him some cool new evidence in the case against them?

"Jesus would not be a satisfactory chairperson to some of my Democratic colleagues," South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy told TWS. "They would complain about his hair.

otm

McConnell not impressed with zombie AHCA

https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/846788140580823041

Mcconnell making clear Obamacare repeal efforts dead. "We have the existing law in place and we'll just have to see how that works out."

on that note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTkor-0A1Gs

who gives a shit what that dork says. I'm too excited about Trump giving us Universal Health Care!

Fun!

https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/846782739558928384

Monday: Nunes' spox: Comey "couldn't come in tomorrow as we hoped."
Today: FBI: No official request for Comey's testimony was ever received.

doesn't mean they weren't hoping

he couldn't moonwalk into the hearing they mean

Didn't Trump say he supported single payer in one of the early Republican debates? Probably without knowing what it meant but still.

he thought it meant Warren Buffet is the one person who pays for everyone's health care

Actually it is Jimmy Buffet

Not to engage in outrage porn, but for as much idiocy as these chucklefucks indulge in on the reg, this seems like next-level fucked-up even for Fox News commentators going after Democratic Congresswomen

https://mobile.twitter.com/JeffreyGuterman/status/846757737908355073

or, to put it another way, this seems like your average Tuesday on Fox News

That too

Fox News: Testing the Waters For Overt Televised Racism Since 1996

can we talk about trump spotting everyone $50? i think that would totally work for him.

Enh, Dubya did that too, didn't he, and it only worked for so long?

Yeah, I'm sure there were tons of people who, like me, thought 'oh cool I can finally buy that Santana box set now but also W. is still a total douchelord'.

my stimulus check went to my drug dealer iirc

America's drug dealers did pretty well that year

irony = stimulus used for depressants

Supernatural isn't really a "box set"

Take it to Out your closeted pedantry

More for the photo:

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/846822921511354369

UPDATE: Nunes says he will not share his intelligence sources with other members of committee.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8CE9WZXwAEmiQ7.jpg

"Do you buy that?"

is this guy just excited to be in the news or something? why else would be be regularly issuing cockamamie statements?

seems like he's caught between two irreconcilable needs: 1) the need to slow down/impede the committee's work (which would require being *quiet* about things, dragging out the schedule, basically laying low) and 2) countering the media narrative on behalf of Trump (which requires 24/7 new cycle dominance - misdirection, counter-claims, constant public statements, etc.) There's no way to do both of these at the same time.

It begins:

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/846825544213778432

NBC News: GOP Rep. Walter Jones becomes the first House Republican to publicly call for Nunes to recuse himself from Russia investigation

That was surprisingly quick, no?

Well I'm starting to see a general disgust/similar calls from others out there in the general GOP/RW profile say similarly, beyond those never fond of Trump. This ran earlier today at NRO, for instance:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/446179/devin-nunes-trump-surveillance-campaign-investigation-house-intel-committee-russia

man someone needs to reboot Nunes, he's about to malfunction

So basically, whatever the motivations, Nunes is now eating into his natural support base.

better know a district

http://jones.house.gov/our-district

and every time these statements get made it's all like "omg why are you focusing on Trump it's not weird to talk to foreign nationals" and it's like bro, if you were as innocent as you say, this investigation would be over in a third of the time if you just cooperated.

I am pretty sure something did happen (even if that 'something' isn't a gamechanger like outright espionage) but I also think Trump is dumb enough to act defensive and obstructive even if there's nothing there simply cos he doesn't like negative implications about him existing anywhere in the ether.

some things i liked or am making my way thru re: our stupid russia fixation

keith gessen, on putin:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/22/vladimir-putin-killer-genius-kleptocrat-spy-myths

masha gessen, on the media:
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/03/06/trump-russia-conspiracy-trap/

robinson & nichols, on louise mensch:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/03/what-constitutes-reasonable-mainstream-opinion

christopher hooks, on the rest of the twitter nutcases democrats are falling for these days
https://medium.com/@cd_hooks/all-the-presidents-mensch-382e3e577c

The Spetsnaz is around the corner

Louise Mensch is crazy? Okay I'm going to read all four of these..

Democrats might not be so 'crazy' about Russia if the White House didn't seem so eager to interfere with the investigation

Nunes is now eating into his natural support base

eh, he'll keep his seat as long as Ryan wants him to.

how long will Ryan keep his

I haven't heard any rumblings about his losing the Speakership - the FC doesn't have the votes to unseat him, and it sounds like the rest of the caucus hates them now.

give him one more failed health care bill and we'll see how that changes

what a dumb time to be alive

Nunes suggests Steve Carell in an espionage comedy. (damn, i just remembered that sorry Get Smart film)

I'm not sure how this could look like any more of a cover-up

I have to say that this bunch is making Nixon look like Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction

By adopting a position that should have been theirs he'd sxramble Washington even more, and this time not at his own expense. He's got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Hell, he could be the first prez to switch parties in office! After all, the Dems took his donations for decades. (but srsly, nuts)

not sure I'm quite buying that last piece goole. Mensch getting a piece published in the NYT doesn't exactly = mainstream acceptance. she's pretty widely known as a crackpot everywhere I've seen her mentioned. I agree that the WH acting as a functional arm of the Trump corporation ought to be a much bigger story, but the Russia thing is gonna dominate as long as the GOP continues to act like a 5 year-old with cookie crumbs all over his face

Democrats might not be so 'crazy' about Russia if the White House didn't seem so eager to interfere with the investigation

― Neanderthal, Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2:26 PM

Yeah I also think conspiratorial cranks filled a void when many were way too readily (and we can agree at least in some measure) wrongly dismissive of the issue.

Then again:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/28/trump-business-past-ties-russian-mobsters-organized-crime/98321252/

To expand his real estate developments over the years, Donald Trump, his company and partners repeatedly turned to wealthy Russians and oligarchs from former Soviet republics — several allegedly connected to organized crime, according to a USA TODAY review of court cases, government and legal documents and an interview with a former federal prosecutor.

This big story is more of a summary than anything else -- but it's a good one. And they went ahead and asked the WH directly:

The White House declined to comment about this article, referring questions to the Trump Organization in New York. Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, denied any transactions with people named in this article.

“The allegations ... are entirely without merit," Miller said in an email. "The Trump Organization never entered into a single transaction with any of these individuals and the condominium units were all owned and sold by third parties — not Trump.”

Trump's privately held company works through a network of subsidiaries and partnerships that make direct connections hard to trace, particularly since he has refused to release his tax filings. In addition, some of the Trump Organization's investors and buyers operate through shell companies and limited liability corporations that hide the identities of individual owners.

trump's long game:
worse first hundred days than william henry harrison
first president to quit his own party since john tyler

next is polk = mexican war and worst president (much-contested)

at least Polk accomplished his agenda and kept his one-term promise