US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

If the war itself was on Twitter and the tweets were nuclear-strength then he was almost right.

Meanwhile...

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/367314-rosenstein-meeting-with-paul-ryan-about-russia-investigation#.Wk1ThjR0Qi0.twitter

Key bits: Rosenstein requested the meeting, Wray was invited but not seen there. Hm.

Elsewhere, Chuck Grassley IS Ian McKellen, sorta:

Sen. Chuck Grassley is wearing a hat in the Senate subway on his way to votes — a new look pic.twitter.com/sWvWBYjmYT

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) January 3, 2018

looks like an old queen

what stage of capitalism is it where brands imitate threats of nuclear war to sell fried chicken pic.twitter.com/Fsu8xvi8ng

— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) January 3, 2018

an improv sketch: trump and bannon acting out the german country bench scene from my best fiend where werner laughingly recalls making up anti-werner shit talk with kinksi to help kinski's memoir all i need is love sell

Also seeing reports that Wray is definitely in the Rosenstein/Ryan meeting, if it's still going on.

thanks to C. Grisso/McCain for the Taj Mahal reference btw

The Ryan meeting is Bad, right?

For Trump? I can imagine it going lots of ways. But one way is them meeting with Ryan and saying for all the protestations, there's a lot of bad stuff coming down the pipe, so you better prepare yourself.

Of course, I don't see why they would give him a heads-up about that, or even what they might expect Ryan to do about any of this stuff. Another possibility is it involved a member of the House. I can think of a couple of conspicuous figures tied up in this who might have a bullseye on their back.

Hm hm hm

A single source familiar with the meeting tells us:

Surprise meeting tonight between Deputy Atty General Rod Rosenstein and House Speaker Paul Ryan was requested by Rosenstein to discuss matters related to Congressman Devin Nunes and the Russia investigation.

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) January 3, 2018

not quite a whomp whomp whomp?

Deputy AG, FBI director make unannounced visit to Paul Ryan's office -source familiar w/ meeting said it had to do w. Nunes doc request https://t.co/NgmFszz9OS @politico by @kyledcheney

— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) January 3, 2018

Said doc request, it should be noted, was made over the summer, so whatever it is isn't something new.

it is truly bonkers that really not a single day has gone by in the last year-and-a-half without some batshit thing going down.

Whoa -- Kobach's little sham group has been dissolved?

White House statement: "Rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, today I signed an executive order to dissolve the Commission [on Election Integrity]"

— Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson) January 3, 2018

more good news if true

It's legit, being reported elsewhere.

Full statement is a roffle

Trump is disbanding his voter fraud commission pic.twitter.com/Gymb2wUU4Q

— Stefan Becket (@becket) January 3, 2018

nice

Dude looks like Ivor Cutler up there

Xposts fifth time

sweet!

In Wolff book, Bannon quoted after Trump denounced Sessions to NYT in July: "If he fires Mueller it just brings impeachment quicker. Why not, let's do it. Let's get it on. And I am going to go in and save him? He's Donald Trump"

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) January 3, 2018

And Bannon, quoted about Mueller hiring Andrew Weissmann: "You've got the LeBron James of money laundering investigations on you, Jarvanka. My a---hole just got so tight!"

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) January 3, 2018

@kalebhorton: Michael Wolff's book on Trump has the distinct and specific odor of wish-fulfillment pornography manufactured by someone who wants to make a million dollars very quickly and doesn't care how many lies it takes to get there.

this...feels right

I'm not sure he claim that he has any control over any asshole, including his own.

yeah, starting to seem that way xpost

I think it's clear that Bannon's quotes are from the heart, and that he's not the only one saying the book got their quotes right:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-enraged-personally-dictates-scathing-denouncement-of-one-time-top-strategist-steve-bannon

My a---hole just got so tight!"

omg dying

I think it's clear that Bannon's quotes are from the heart

i think they were from somewhere else

The...Shart?

I am so entertained

Michael Grimm — whose Congressional run, so far, has mostly consisted of a widely shared photo of him shaking Steve Bannon’s hand — just denounced Bannon in a statement. "I fully support our Commander in Chief."

— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) January 4, 2018

Anyway, I think this sums it up

the core dilemma here is that while Wolff doesn’t seem to do much to support his account of events & scorching hot quotes, both the Trump camp & Bannon seem to be behaving as if it’s legit https://t.co/3yT2Olrbil

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 3, 2018

the other thing is everyone in the Trump camp seems to want to dismiss everything as a lie but they don’t know which accounts and quotes are safe to dismiss so they’re just very broad & subsequently lousy denials

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 3, 2018

I’m pretty sure some of that stuff is just wholesale horseshit but I’m also pretty sure a lot of it isn’t - and I don’t think the Trump team knows how to sort that out either

— Kilgore Trout (@KT_So_It_Goes) January 3, 2018

And this is of interest...

FWIW: The several times I saw Wolff at the White House, he was cleared-in with a blue 'appointment" badge allowing West Wing access, rather than a gray "press" badge.

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 3, 2018

Sanders claimed he was always there at the invitation of Bannon.

if you're sucking your own cock it's best to relax, not tighten, your asshole btw

(erm, so I've heard. From a friend.)

Getcha hot takes here

Wouldn’t it be funny if Trump & Bannon cooked this one up together as a decoy for some bombshell policy initiative?

— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 3, 2018

Fun times amidst the maggots.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/03/bannon-endorsement-trump-republicans-263753

read that as 'coked this one up'

Lol

One Republican senator joined many Democrats at a private congressional briefing about Trump’s mental health by a Yale psychiatrist, @anniekarni reports https://t.co/M7pjx8pfPp

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) January 4, 2018

Apparently they met with Ryan to get reassurance that the DOJ wouldn't be refunded if they didn't conply5with Nunes' document request.

*comply with

...defunded?

Apparently that's something congress can do

The Congress has the power to simply not fund an institution that is not being obedient. The DOJ has to be confronted, at some point, with reality that Congress is not going to tolerate being kept in the dark and being told lies. https://t.co/CaTaO6011e pic.twitter.com/sBUsC6AN1u

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) January 4, 2018

Newt, with Jeffersonian wisdom.

what about the refunding though

I don't think this would actually happen, and it would backfire massively if it did, but Rosenstein was apparently concerned enough to seek reassurances from Ryan.

This @jdawsey1/@AshleyRParker WaPo piece says Bannon has alienated Rebekah Mercer https://t.co/jlscrwPfuh pic.twitter.com/Zgz5kNGw9a

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 4, 2018

ya i was saying you said re-funded