https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We4vcg2p0L8&list=PLk5l8bUEpopLLXU7dRFIOKwx71h9gVhjW

No music industry claptrap here, just hard lessons of life. Not a bad song in the lot.

It's interesting that while this tit-for-tat was going on regarding the informant, a few new leaks emerged about Donald Jr's activities. Maybe those were a brush-back pitch from DOJ? Apparently now Trump's lawyers would like their own top-secret briefing.

Uh-huh. That's gonna happen. Which Tolkien book do you suppose that comes from?

I don't think we're done with the Duplicitous Duo, Nunes and Gowdy, just yet. Beady Bear and Pointy will either assert that they heard something in the briefing that can't be revealed, or find some new stunningly false accusation to make red meat out of: DOJ BUGGED TRUMP'S HAIR!

Stay tuned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWrMeBR8W-c

If you do nothing else today... Thank an American Soldier

What were they told that they couldn’t spin it somehow to defend Trump? Were they shown so much evidence the investigation has collected against Trump that they were left in a stunned silence? Or maybe their silence is out of fear of having any ties to Trump when the information they saw becomes public knowledge?

SOMETHING shut them up and shut them down! It’s easy to ignore moments of silence from the GOP with the constant ass-hat comments that Trump and friends produce on a daily basis, but it can be far more informative than anything that spews from their mouths!

Ackk! Too true. That travesty should have never been allowed to happen in the first place.

And think: "Hey, deja vu!"

jesus would become a radical socialist, accuse the church of corruption and misquoting him, then get defamed and assassinated by the state. again.

The second coming barely noticed the glint in the tree.
He turned to face God.
It was like slow motion--
the bullet coming towards him.
He spread his arms,
looked toward Home.
"Insanity," he thought, "is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting different results."
"God, my God," he said. "why does this keep happening to me?"
~ken siegmann

Well no one said that everything was perfect under Obama, and we didn't have rainbows shooting out of our asses. The main difference between now and then is that back then the President wasn't an oblivious jerk. Obama and Holder at least knew that the system was awful and were trying to fix it. Trump and Sessions seem to be on a mission to ensure that it's actually worse.

My mother called me last night in tears, having just seen a CNN report on Sessions' new policy of separating infants from their mothers at the border. It's been 58 years since she had her last child, and yet the story affected her viscerally. Politicians that support Trump and Sessions ought to be asked to defend this policy publicly and often.

The descriptive you are looking for is "truths unencumbered by facts."

In a tweet on Saturday President Donald Trump attacked The New York Times, claiming the paper made up a “senior White House official” for its story about the canceled North Korea summit. The official, a member of Trump’s National Security Council, actually does exist and led a briefing at the White House on Thursday for reporters.

In essence, the president of the United States claimed that his own White House briefings are fake news and that an official his White House put in the briefing room "doesn't exist."

POTUS either has no idea what his own administration is doing, has lost his mind, doesn't care, or all of the above and is such a liar he can't remember the last lie he told.

https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-obtains-documents-showing-widespread-abuse-child-immigrants-us-custody

it happened under obama....

agreed on pretty much everything - except what disaster will take the longest to clean up. that award goes to the seat currently occupied by justice gorsuch.

JL

There is a strain of American Protestantism that equates this sort of cheesy patriotism with Christianity. Support for Trump is at an all time high among Evangelicals, for instance, who have told pollsters recently that by two-to-one margins they believe that American shouldn't accept any refugees, and support harsh immigration policies.

WWJD? Shake his head in disbelief, undoubtedly.

All of the activity that has happened in the legislature amounts to Republicans taking advantage of their temporary majority to hit a to-do list that's been more or less the same since the '70's: bigger tax breaks for the wealthy, kneecapping family planning, reducing government benefit payments to the needy, and reducing oversight of business by regulators. Slowly but surely they've been working on that list (except for the tax bill, which was done quickly and secretly). That's the thing we should keep our eyes on, since it will take the longest to clean up.

Right. Since when do you need a half-assed loyalty oath to entertain or be entertained. Should I salute when I watch a movie?

I am personally very uncomfortable with idol worship. This a deep cultural value among my extended family.

The flag was originally intended to designate a U.S. Government object and or organization. That is a practical thing. I have no problem with serving military saluting the flag because they have taken an oath of service and it doesn't hurt to reaffirm it now and again on the parade ground. Football players take no government oath to play professionally, and I can't see why spectators who fork over money for tickets, beer and nachos should be pressured pay homage either.

My father, USN officer, always felt displaying the flag in a civilian context was a cheesy co-opting of government and military prerogatives. * Same with civilians saluting. He didn't like the President saluting either, POTUS may be commander in chief, but he doesn't wear the uniform. That's a gray area, but I see my father's point.

Get rid the cheap politics and play ball.

* Growing up, we draped red white and blue bunting around our property each 4th of July and never a flag because "we are not a post office, a warship, a tank or a warplane."

While I'd love to see the Dems put more competent progressives on ballots, Nixon isn't one of them.

Shouldn't the Democrats be the party that doesn't nominate unqualified celebrities for executive positions? In the age of Trump, this might be one way for Joe Sixpack to distinguish the parties from one another, as in, "Our candidates know what what the fuck they're doing when they get there."

Stacey Abrams, for instance, is an entirely matter, having served her state for many years as an elected official, including being a former Speaker of the Georgia Legislature, so she's eminently qualified for the job of Governor. That's the sort of progressive we need to back, not another Celeb banking on name recognition. Whether Abrams can cobble together enough votes to pull the whole thing off is a different matter...

TP 1:

Bolton..." I mentioned Libya once, but I think I got away with it"

TP 2: Pol Pot, meet Keitel.

TP 3: Waving a piece of paper..."We have peace in our time'' Piece of what?

TP 4: Nunesburg's law of making a mockery of the law of average continues it's march toward perfection. To be completely wrong all the time is indeed a feat to be recognized.

TP 5: "Tale-gate'' the next usurpation of the first amendment.

TP: 6&7: "...burst into flames or get hit by a lightening bolt." or even have the ground swallow you up. The Lord moves in mysterious ways, his disco days were quite embarrassing.

Well done, my little Irish brothers, seems it wasn't 'Beyond The Pale' to vote with your heads instead of your bibles.

LL&P

I might have overstated the case. It likely won't lead to much in the way of an effect on November's turnout, you are right. But it will lead to repercussions within the party heirarchy, and the party's donors -- not just the megadonors, but the upper-middle-class donors who are beginning to realize that they can donate direct and ignore DNC pleas for money. It also might have repercussions on the 2020 race -- both in the rules the DNC lays down for primaries and in the intraparty fights within the field. All very inside-baseball, admittedly, but also not small potatoes by any stretch.

Speak2 [2] -

I don't know if I'd go that pessimistic. Dems have fallen in line pretty well, as evidenced by Hillary's 3+ million vote win in the popular vote. For all the talk of how Bernie supporters stayed home, a whole lot of them turned out to vote for Hillary. But then again, midterms are another story, so we'll see what happens....

Don Harris [4] -

You like Stacey? Well, have to admit, so do I. She seems to be the real deal...

[5] -

Nope, I don't see it as a problem at all. In fact, I think it's quite healthy and would even encourage it. I was writing from the perspective of the DNC, who should indeed see it as a problem -- a big one. Sorry if it wasn't clear enough, but that was my intention.

I support the NFL players, personally. My answer would be to just get rid of the anthem entirely at sports events. I'm going to try working my way back through this week's comments, so I'll check yesterday out, promise...

-CW

In the end, those Teabaggers and Freedom Caucus supporters always fall in line, even when they lose a primary. They still come out and vote for (R-whatever). The left? Yeah, we suck at that.

We have to learn that some newbie or even some oldie who is awful will still do a caucus vote for leadership (leading to Chairs, Agenda, etc), whether at the Federal or more local level. That really is the only power most have (especially something like a newbie House rep).

1. Only the reasonably well-informed know this happened (and outside of NY, it's almost wonk-ish to know this).

2. No one, but the most committed, is going to remember this in November. And those "most committed" were going to find one excuse or another to rationalize why they didn't support (read: come out and vote for) the "most progressive" candidate in the November election anyway, even if that candidate were reasonably progressive (but apparently, not progressive enough).