43 thoughts on “GOP Congress: ‘We’re Melting!’”

  1. Tammy Duckworth tweets:

    By ensuring that no Senator will be prevented from performing their constitutional responsibilities simply because they have a young child, the Senate is leading by example & sending the important message that working parents everywhere deserve family-friendly workplace policies

     

    4:23 PM – 18 Apr 2018

    I would like to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, particularly Senator Klobuchar, & , for helping bring the Senate into the 21st Century by recognizing that sometimes new parents also have responsibilities at work →

  2. npr:  Republicans Push Bill To Protect Mueller, Without McConnell’s Support

    [….]

    North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis said Wednesday that he will continue working on a bill to allow Mueller access to speedy judicial review if Trump tries to force him out of his job leading the Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election — with or without McConnell’s support.
    “We’ll have a markup and a vote in committee,” Tillis told reporters. “It’s something that can lie in the Senate chamber. Facts may lead to passage or not.”
     
    Tillis said he plans to continue lobbying leadership on the bill, even after McConnell explicitly rejected the legislation.
     
    “This is not necessary, there’s no indication that Mueller is going to be fired,” McConnell said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday. He added, “We’ll not be having this on the floor of the Senate.”
     
    But Tillis and other supporters of the bill say they aren’t backing down. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said Wednesday that the goal isn’t necessarily to pass a measure with the hope of forcing Trump to decide between signing the bill or issuing a veto. The real goal, he said, is to send the president a message.
    […continues….]

  4. My guess is that the Russian journalist who was forced to do a swan dive off of his balcony knew exactly what the prostitute in the Thai jail knew/had access to/the ages of those involved…and Put-ey would’ve lost his leverage against Trumpsky if it went public…because Trumpsky would be removed from office.

    No leverage = sanctions against Russia

    Any Republican who does not want to know what’s going on between Trump & Russia is probably in on it, too.

     

  5. Draining the swamp of all relevancy.

    Fitting the approval rate is the same number as the age of first time voters. Hmmmmm ….. perhaps not a coincidence. Anyone out there to Fire ’em Up?

     

     

  6. A shout out to government workers who keep government going despite the worst efforts of those elected to lead government. They are not the problem, they are the quiet heroes.

     

  7. BiD, this was reported 2 days ago by

    cbs news:

    Sex worker who claims dirt on Russian oligarch appears in court
    PATTAYA, Thailand — A Russian sex guru and his followers, one of whom claims to have evidence of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, emerged briefly on Tuesday for a Thai court hearing after being held virtually incommunicado in an immigration jail. The group’s leader, Alexander Kirillov, and the woman making the election claims, Anastasia Vashukevich, were among about half a dozen people taken to a court in the resort town of Pattaya, where they were arrested Feb. 25 while holding a sex training course.
    Unashamed sexual activity is business as usual for Pattaya, which is infamous for its sordid nightlife, but the allegations by Vashukevich, who uses the name Nastya Rybka on her racy social media postings, have drawn worldwide attention. She says she provided “escort” services to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin, and claims to have audio recordings of him that provide evidence of meddling in the U.S. polls.
    Tuesday’s court calendar said they were there for testimony over the charge that they conducted the course without a work permit. The session was closed and it was unclear if they had legal representation. Foreigners found working without a work permit can face fines of up to 100,000 baht ($3,200) and imprisonment for up to five years.
    Police last week added additional charges against them of soliciting, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, and conspiracy, with up to seven years.
    Kirillov, also known as Alex Lesley, and Vashukevich managed to smuggle out a letter after they were arrested which was delivered by a friend to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, asking for asylum and saying they had important information about the U.S. election.
    They also said they feared for their personal safety, especially if deported to Russia. Vashukevich repeated her claims in comments to reporters before Thai authorities cut off media access to her in the immigration detention center in Bangkok where the group is being held.
    [….]
    Vashukevich, who carries a passport from Belarus, became the center of a public scandal in early February when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny published an investigation drawing on her social media posts suggesting corrupt links between billionaire Deripaska and a top Kremlin official, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko.
    The report featured video from Deripaska’s yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich claims she was having an affair with him and allegedly recorded him talking about Russian interference in U.S. politics.
    Deripaska has been linked to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who has been indicted on money laundering charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.
     

     

  8. The fault in our elected officials is not in them, it is in us. Our vote is our voice & it is our decision who receives it. Nothing will change unless we change it. Easy to huff, puff & blame the fools in office while conveniently forgetting we put them there & continue to re-elect these same fools.

     

  9. BiD, and this by us news & world report:
    Russian Sex Guru, Follower Blame US for Continued Detention
    A Russian sex guru and his followers, one of whom claims to have evidence of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election, have been acquitted of violating labor laws in Thailand but face other serious charges.

    PATTAYA, Thailand (AP) — A Russian sex guru and his followers, one of whom claims to have evidence of Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, were acquitted Tuesday of violating labor laws in Thailand but still face other charges that could land them in prison for more than 10 years.

    Alexander Kirillov and follower Anastasia Vashukevich, a model and escort, told reporters they placed the blame for their continued detention on U.S. officials, to whom they previously appealed for help and political asylum.

    Vashukevich’s earlier revelation of an alleged affair with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin, fueled opposition allegations in Russia of official corruption and enraged the Kremlin.

    Vashukevich claims to have audio recordings of Deripaska that provide evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. polls.

    Deripaska has been linked to Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager who has been indicted on money laundering charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

    […]

    Speaking to the media Tuesday after they were acquitted, they took a more conciliatory tone toward Russia, and a more suspicious one toward U.S. authorities.
    On arrival at the court, when reporters asked Kirillov what he wished to tell the U.S., he responded in English: “Help us. Help us any way because we don’t know what is happening.”

    But after his acquittal, he told them he thought that U.S. officials, including the FBI, may have been trying to engineer the legal proceedings to keep them in Thai detention for three or four months. In broken English, he appeared to suggest the Americans wanted to find the alleged evidence themselves rather than get it by dealing with them.

    “This information is much more interesting for the American side. I think Russia is not involved so much as we thought about this,” he said.

    He added that Vashukevich wrote a message for Deripaska to tell him hello and that she was waiting for him to “‘come and do something’ because this is everything about his case and she don’t want to participate in some political situation. This is love story.”

    Vashukevich, speaking in Russian, voiced similar sentiments.

    “I want to say this to Oleg Deripaska and say that we were wrong, it’s not the Russian government who are trying to put us in jail, it’s the Americans.”

  10. off subject but inquiring minds want to know

    will tom hanks, having played many a hero and particularly in the role of sully the Hudson hero pilot, play this one too?

    abc news:  Hero Southwest pilot one of Navy’s first female fighter pilots

     

  11. news for craig from across the pond:

     
    “It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949,” the queen said.
     
    Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who hosted the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2015, signaled that leaders were likely to confirm Charles as successor to his mother, who turns 92 on Saturday.
     
    Muscat said he was sure that Charles “will provide solid and passionate leadership for our Commonwealth” when called upon to do so.
     
    The survival of the Commonwealth owes much to the commitment of the queen, who has visited almost every member country — often multiple times — over her 66-year-reign.
    [….]
    Philip Murphy, who heads the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, said the Commonwealth was held together by “a kind of inertia, the fact that it’s probably more trouble to wind it up than to keep going.”
     
    But he said he wouldn’t write it off just yet.
     
    “It’s sort of like the Holy Roman Empire — international organizations can survive long beyond their natural expiry date,” Murphy said.
     

  12. Poobah, T-minus one month to the Harry-Meghan nuptials.  I hope the surgery doesn’t limit your plans to attend.

  13. Speaking of Russians….  Rick and I went to a nearby independent artsy- fartsy theatre last night to see the movie “Death of Stalin”.  Very dark political satire…   so funny…  but oh so true.  I highly recommend it.  Made us think… this is culture that Putin comes from.

  14. sj…  saw a segment of the discontinuation of bottled water for Flint MI last night on cable news.  Couldn’t help but think…  oh yeah and Snyder is still governor…  people actually voted this asshat republican into office…   go figure.

  15. RebelliousRenee,

    How people think they’re going to vote & how they actually vote are two different animals 😉 This was illustrated bigly in the 2016 Election. The lasting impression to voters is Republicans let me keep my money; Democrats take my money to spend on parasitical deadbeats. Safe to say many an election has been swayed in the election booth as this awful fallacy sneaks into voters’ brains. The results of our Representation speak for themselves. Me, mine, my welfare over yours. Will give the GOP props for exploiting this inherent weakness & using it for all they can.

  16. cnbc:
    Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen drops libel suit against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS over salacious dossier

    President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, let go of a libel suit filed against BuzzFeed and intelligence gathering firm Fusion GPS.
    Fusion GPS produced a salacious and largely unverified dossier alleging collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Kremlin.
    BuzzFeed was the first to publish the dossier.
    Cohen is accused in the dossier of attending a “secret liaison with the Kremlin” in Prague, among other allegations.

    [….]

    “The lawsuits against BuzzFeed over the Steele dossier have never been about the merits of our decision to publish it,” BuzzFeed said in a statement, referring to the British spy Christopher Steele, who was commissioned by Fusion GPS to compile the dossier.
    “If there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on today, it’s that the dossier was an important part of the government’s investigation into potential collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia,” BuzzFeed added. “Today’s news suggests that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer no longer thinks an attack on the free press is worth his time.”

    [….continues…]

  18. jay, sounds like you know there is something there on which Michael will flip and something bad would be recorded if Michael is wired when talking to your friend and former client.   nothing to flip over if all are innocent

     

    cnn:

     
    Jay Goldberg, a longtime lawyer for Donald Trump — who negotiated Trump’s divorces from Ivana Trump and Marla Maples decades ago — says he received a call from the President last Friday seeking advice and warned the President to be careful about his longtime friend Michael Cohen, who he predicted could end up cooperating with prosecutors.
    ‘Anybody who is facing 30 years never stands up,” Goldberg says he told the President. “Without exception, a person facing a prison term cooperates.”
    Goldberg also added that in addition to cooperation, the person “may also wear a wire.”
    Goldberg was adamant that anyone facing a long prison term “will testify because they need the government’s affection,” he said. “That way, the government can say they have testified in a truthful manner.”
    […]

    The Wall Street Journal first reported Friday’s conversation between Goldberg and Trump. The President also spoke with Cohen the same day.

  19. slates very colorful version of the same Goldberg story:

     

    Facing a Legal Storm, Trump Calls His Old Lawyer Buddy, Who Warns That Michael Cohen Will Almost Certainly Flip

     
    Michael Cohen is in hot water. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, henchman, and fixer had his office, house, and hotel room raided and files seized by federal investigators as part of a federal fraud investigation, among potential other strands of inquiry. As the burier of (proverbial) bodies, the breaker of kneecaps, the man with the bag in Trump world, this is a panic-inducing development for the president.
     
    So what does Trump do? Since he doesn’t have that many actual lawyers on his side anymore, he starts making calls to old friends. Friends like 85-year-old lawyer Jay Goldberg, who represented Trump in divorce and real estate matters back in the go-go 1990s and early 2000s when Trump was flush with both. In what feels like a strangely revealing—and very Trump—sequence of events, Trump got Goldberg on the horn Friday for a chat about the pickle he finds himself in and then Goldberg turned around and spilled, on the record, to the Wall Street Journal about the conversation, which produced this piece of delicious castle intrigue, if the castle were inhabited by a mafia crime family.

     
    What did Goldberg have to say? Keep an eye on Cohen; he’s a rat. From the WSJ:
     

    One of President Donald Trump’s longtime legal advisers said he warned the president in a phone call Friday that Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and close friend, would turn against the president and cooperate with federal prosecutors if faced with criminal charges.

     
    Whoa! Now we’re talking. And then?
     

    Mr. Goldberg said he cautioned the president not to trust Mr. Cohen. On a scale of 100 to 1, where 100 is fully protecting the president, Mr. Cohen “isn’t even a 1,” he said he told Mr. Trump…. In the call, Mr. Goldberg [-] said he told the president Mr. Cohen could even agree to wear a wire and try to record conversations with Mr. Trump. “You have to be alert,” Mr. Goldberg said he told the president. “I don’t care what Michael says.”

     
    Not even a one! Can’t wait for the next episode.
     

  22. I hope Cohen does flip & soon!

    Pittsburg PD told to take full riot gear “until further notice” in case Trumpsky fires Mueller.   Just Pittsburgh?  These won’t be organized protests & they can’t arrest 90% of the population, can they?  Can they?

  24. They don’t like him in Pittsburgh – he tried to say people in Pittsburgh don’t want to be part of the Paris agreements on the environment  which is factually incorrect and the mayor set him straight,

    While they have lost a lot of traditional blue collar jobs the arts are a bigger part of town now.  They have access to foundation money from the Mellons and other steel baron families and I think there is also a Carnegie Trust.  When the city was at it’s lowest point and rents were really cheap a lot of artists came to town.

  25. we love worms  they are good for the soil

    this worm
    informal A weak or despicable person (often used as a general term of abuse)

    ‘it was unbearable that such a worm could be so successful’

    ‘you ungrateful little worm!’

  27. Great piece in Time magazine’s 100 most influential of 2018 on the Parkland kids, written by BO.

    As a counter-point, Tediuos Cruz (who hated Trump, and, whom Repugz in TX voted against in the primary because they feared a Cruz presidency) picked Trumpsky in a piece that blew all sorts of smoke up his skirt.    Is he bucking for a cabinet position when Beto O’Rourke trounces him and he loses his seat?

  29. “without exception, a person facing a prison term cooperates”

    I personally know of an exception.  ‘Nuff said.

  32. Patd

    I absolutely love the musical Come From Away and I can’t read articles about Shults without immediately hearing “Me and the Sky”

     

  33. Recently single, his son works in the WH AND he is going to negotiate the end of the Mueller investigation!   What a catch, rudy, to save the day!

    “I’m doing it because I hope we can negotiate an end to this for the good of the country and because I have high regard for the president and for Bob Mueller,” Giuliani said in an interview.

    (grab for the retch pails!)

  34. Rudy is going to try to negotiate the investigation away?

    I wonder if Cohen handled any of Rudy’s female problems?

  35. Life is changing in the little sphere of Blue Bronc.  Today the porch was filled with boxes.  One of which is a GoPro camera.  Time to start recording my life in the home of my ancestors, including my Native American ancestors.  I am deciding where to post them.

    Even though I work about ten miles from D.C. you can feel the tension and heat of the WH about to blow up.  Inside the buildings of the federal government it is illegal to discuss politics.  And, we do not.  But, you can guess that outside of the limits when off duty. . .

    A whole bunch of stuff is going to happen fast.  I am with the side that says SFB up and leaves the WH.  But, as he waddles out on his way to the Old Post Office (I will not use the defamation of it) he is arrested and frog marched to jail.

  36. If Rudy cares about “the good of the country” he will help Mueller dump Trumpsky.

    Covering up stuff does no good.  Do not worry about any embarrassment of Russia interfering nor anything else the world thinks about the election.

    Rip off the bandaid!

  37. sjwny – SFB and the freak homophobe white head, have made LGBTQ non-persons throughout the executive branch.  Eliminating funding, eliminating positions and deleting us from websites and documentation.

    Just by deleting our names is not the way to delete us.  We are still alive, non-persons, but alive and making the federal government function.

  38. Skeletar to the rescue …. can’t wait for the day he leaves because he wants to spend more time with his family…oh right.

  39. Yes, it was said on the trail that he was a “subbie,” when in the midst of his self-created, marital problems.

    He probably thinks this is his lead-in to a run in 2020.

  41. “A politician only fears one thing…and that is your vote.” -Parkland student still speaking the truth!

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