38 thoughts on “Not Even A Trickle”

  3. politico:
    Some Republicans with national security and intelligence backgrounds were sharply critical of Trump’s decision Friday.

     
    “The White House’s failure to declassify the House Intelligence Committee minority memo — particularly in the face of unanimous bipartisan vote by the committee — represents a massive strategic miscalculation,” said Jamil Jaffer, a former lawyer in George W. Bush’s White House who has also served as senior counsel to the House Intelligence Committee.
     
    “The decision to reject the committee’s request simply plays into the partisan narrative about the Nunes memo and deprives the American public of the benefit of both sides of highly politicized debate,” added Jaffer, now a professor at George Mason University.
     

  4. on  the lighter side from wapo:
    There was bipartisan support Thursday night on essentially one issue: for Rand Paul to quiet down.
     
    As the libertarian held the Senate at bay into Friday morning to protest an estimated $320 billion being added to the national debt under a bipartisan budget deal, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and outspoken liberal actress Bette Midler both made quips that referenced a physical attack made in November against the Republican senator from Kentucky.
     
    “When Rand Paul pulls a stunt like this, it [is] easy to understand why it’s difficult to be Rand Paul’s next-door neighbor,” Dent said Thursday night.
     
    In a message posted to Twitter, Midler made a similar comment around the same time: “Where’s Rand Paul’s neighbor when we need him?”
    Paul’s neighbor, Rene Boucher, pleaded guilty in January to attacking the senator, leaving him with six broken ribs and a bout with pneumonia, over an apparent lawn-care dispute.
     
    Paul’s camp did not take well to Dent’s quip.
     
    “That comment is disgusting, and Charlie Dent should apologize. Sen. Rand Paul will always stand up for what is right, regardless of which party is in control,” Sergio Gor, a spokesman for Paul, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “He successfully brought much-needed attention to the hypocrisy in the halls of Congress when it comes to out-of-control spending.”
    In a phone interview with The Post, Dent said he likes and respects Paul, but he would not apologize for what he called a “clearly facetious” comment made in jest.
     
    “Who knew libertarians were so sensitive and concerned with political correctness?” he said, as he arrived in Pennsylvania to celebrate the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles.
    [..continues…]

     

  5. Piss-on America tax cuts!

    Nothing like the Olympics to bring the world together with the olive branch of peace and love.  pence, the valium-voiced rush limbaugh, skips dinner with female nork.   His wife in tow, he is fearful of being excited and poisoned at the same time.  Once again, making America look like the problem child of the world.  The kim family vs. the trump family.  trump is a loser and responsible for the trump slump which is affecting Asian markets.  kim is looking cool, level headed and his sister is charming the world.   Score for the norks. The norks may get a gold medal for this performance.

  6. Without mcgahn?  The big money politics, ethic violations and tax cuts for the wealthy, could not move forward without the mcgahn plan.
    From 2016, article on mcgahn.

     

    DONALD TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL IS PROUD “ARCHITECT” OF AMERICA’S CORRUPT BIG MONEY POLITICS

  7. From the above liked article —

    A White House’s lawyer essentially serves as the president’s conscience, and is in charge of the ethics rules.

    Ryan considers McGahn to be “a very skilled lawyer who knows campaign finance and ethics laws like the back of his hand” and hence will give Trump accurate advice. Therefore, says Ryan, “when President-elect Trump engages in any questionable ethics practices, we’ll know he’s doing so with full knowledge of ethics standards. President-elect Trump has no excuses.”

    (mcgahn is a walking ethics violation. – BW)

     

  10. is it possible that the highly respected 3rd in command at justice stepped down due to being at odds with the twit over the memo?  just a hunch from reading these lines in yesterday’s nytimes article “No. 3 Official at the Justice Department Is Stepping Down”

    Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by President Trump, according to two people briefed on her decision.

    […]

    Ms. Brand now oversees a wide swath of the Justice Department, including the civil division, the civil rights division and the antitrust division. She helped lead the department’s effort to extend a law that authorizes the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program.

     

    probably not the only reason to resign given the many sins visited on doj by the twit

  11. hope-ful or hopeless?

    excerpt from  wapo’s 
    “Hope Hicks: The quiet one in Trump’s White House suddenly feels the glare”
     

    She has also raged against those who leak to the news media and has defended Trump even in situations where other aides rolled their eyes. She has frequently told others that Trump is charming and that she wishes others saw him as she does. 

  12. She has frequently told others that Trump is charming and that she wishes others saw him as she does. 

    hicks extolling  the twit’s charm reminds me of the lyrics in the “caberet” song “if you could see her through my eyes”

    When we’re in public together,
    I hear society groan.
    But if they could see her through my eyes,
    Maybe they’d leave us alone.

    How can I speak of her virtues?
    I don’t know where to begin:
    She’s clever, she’s smart, she reads music,
    She doesn’t smoke or drink gin like I do.

    Yet when we’re walking together,
    They sneer if I’m holding her hand.
    But if they could see her through my eyes,
    Maybe they’d all understand.

  13. Well I enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies very much.  I don’t blame the SKoreans for extending an olive branch to their northern brethren.  I can only imagine how frightening is must be to have on the border of my country Lil Kim playing nuclear footsie with our mentally childish so called president.

    I will spend most of today watching all kinds of events at the Olympics…  I love the winter games.

    ps…  I wonder what Kim’s sister thinks about seeing a country as successful as South Korea is…  I wonder what she will tell her brother.

  14. As year two of the destruction of America continues, the quantity of people leaving the WH, whether under indictment or arrest, or are getting out to avoid the same, is increasing.  The immediate effect is that more of the functions of the WH and administration of the Executive branch will be unattended.  Already all the Departments (I include DoD) are mishandled or are deliberately being destroyed.  The list of those wanting to join SFB is extremely limited.  The “everything SFB touches dies” is understood by many.  Even the magic of being a “trumpian” is not enough to recruit replacements.

  16. I think Rachel Brand quit because she was tired of going out with her friends and having to defend the indefensible

  17. rr – She was educated in Switzerland.  She’s the head of Lil Kim’s “propoganda and agitation” squad.  She knows the reality of the outside world.  Remeber, her family is NORK’s 1 % & she is living the good life already.    She’s a monster from a family of monsters.   She’s not there to collude to overthrow the regime, nor to defect.  She’s  there to make she the NORKs look like regular folks to the rest of the world.  Nothing to see here.  We’re just like you; it’s all very normal.

    patD – The pic you posted on the OT – Exactly.  There is no point in appeasing barbaric asshats.  It fixes nothing.

  18. Why would employers pass on the tax cuts to emoloyees?  We are already being allowed to keep more of our stagnant wages.  We got ours, jack.  That is the attitude of employers.  Those few, large companies that passed out one-time bonuses (that were a drop in the bucket compared to their gains), those were the exceptions and the MEDIA shouldn’t have been so foolish as to carry Trump and Ryan’s water for them.

    Paul Ryan is just awful.

  19. If Hope Hicks is saying all of these nice things about Cadet BS, it gives me even more reason to think that she is there to be his handler. Gotta stay close to keep intel passing between Trump and Put-ey.

  20. excerpt from nbc news ” Analysis: The DOJ just lost another top lawyer. Why that matters to Robert Mueller.”

    […]
    But even if Brand’s departure ends up having no bearing on the Russia investigation, specifically, it’s still an ominous sign more generally. After less than nine months, the third-ranking official in the Justice Department resigned, according to an associate, “[b]ecause she is very smart, accomplished, and talented, and wants to protect her career.”
    If someone as smart and accomplished as Brand came to the conclusion that the best way to protect her career was to leave the Trump administration, one can only imagine — the Russia investigation aside — exactly what she is trying to protect her career from.
     

  24. kgc, yep.  must have seen pretty bad stuff coming down the pike to choose a job at Walmart over a real career maker at the white house.

  25. really like the sound of this from that daily beast piece

    ….reasonable supposition that Mueller is well on his way to detailing conspiracy, wire fraud, illegal foreign campaign contributions, or all three.

    go bobby 3 sticks!

  26. Brand is the face of the brain drain through out the federal government caused by SFB. In the USDA SFB hand job Perdue is causing a lot of people to retire or leave for implementing a reverse of telework freedom.  One of the few benefits there are is telework, saves on traveling to the office and you are more productive working at home.  It went from three, or in some agencies four, days per week to a maximum of one day per week, four days in the office. Of course the plan is to reduce the USDA by at least twenty percent in 2018.  No replacements for those leaving so already understaffed programs will be worse. USDA is operating under the assumption that programs will cease at some point, in other words death to the federal government.

  27. in case you all thought I was just kidding about brand choosing to work for Walmart over the white house…. not exactly like door greeter, stocker or cashier of course, but still…. wally world?
     

    from the guardian:
    The US justice department’s No 3 official is leaving for the top legal job at Walmart, it has emerged.
    [….]
    “She felt this was an opportunity she couldn’t turn down,” her friend and former colleague Jamie Gorelick said. Walmart sought Brand to be head of global corporate governance at the retail giant, a position Gorelick said has legal and policy responsibilities that will cater to her strengths. “It really seems to have her name on it,” Gorelick said.
     
    The Walmart president and CEO, Doug McMillon, said Walmart “is fortunate to have a leader of Rachel Brand’s stature join the company”.
    […continues…]

     

  29. craig, too late for that fantasy, self-driving trucks have already hit the road.  here’s a story from last fall at wired:

    [….]
    Since early October, autonomous trucks built and operated by the startup Embark have been hauling Frigidaire refrigerators 650 miles along the I-10 freeway, from a warehouse in El Paso, Texas, to a distribution center in Palm Springs, California. A human driver rides in the cab to monitor the computer chauffeur for now, but the ultimate goal of this (auto) pilot program is to dump the fleshbag and let the trucks rumble solo down the highway.
    “This is the first time someone has demonstrated this end-to-end,” Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues says. “It showcases the way that we see self-driving playing into the logistics industry.”
    [….continues….]

     

  31. Someone on NPR suggested a military parade made up of veterans.  That’s it.  Just veterans finally getting some well-deserved attention.

    I’d like to add to that suggestion:  Parades of veterans in every town in America.  No need for difficult and expensive travel to DC.  And/or maybe events to help veterans instead of parades.

    We just need to make sure Cadet BS doesn’t get a tank-filled spectacle to fill his gaping, glory hole.  (Yeah, I know how that sounds.)

    Paul Ryan…well, you know.

     

  34. And maybe we could stop sending them into those hellholes & bring many home.  We still haven’t even learned the lesson of Russia in Afghanistan.

  35. I’m loving the Olympics. It’s the only time I’ll watch curling or figure skating/ice dancing, etc. it’s started out strong, and having the men’s downhill on the first night of event coverage is just insane.

    Brand made a good choice. Get out before it destroyed her.

    Poobah, I thought I wanted to drive a truck when I was younger. A guy who drove a truck lived up the street from me, next to my boyhood best friend. His truck was decked out with a sleeper, tv and porn. To an 11 or 12 year old it seemed like an exciting life. His wife divorced him pretty soon after they moved into the neighborhood. Didn’t seem to be conducive to family stability.

  36. Blue, you left your Paul Ryan comments off a few recent posts. Let me help.

    Paul Ryan is a dick. Rinse, repeat.

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