Sunday Night Funnies

THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE 

AND STUFF:

Saturday Night Funnies

And now for something completely different:

Trump Tells Russians Firing "Nut Job" Comey Took Pressure Off Russian Probe

Trump invited Russians into the Oval Office, gave them classified intel, and then trashed the head of the FBI -- all while only Russian media were allowed in the Oval Office and American media were not. 

A transcript of the meeting recorded the following statement from trump:

"I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump said, according to the Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."                                                                                                               

On the same day that this traitorous behavior by trump was exposed, Americans learned that a White House official is "a person of interest" in a "criminal investigation."

PM CARPENTER:

Contributing — again — to our ever-growing national consensus on presidential moronity is none other than that model of right-winging extremism, Erick Erickson. As he observes this morning in the Washington Post: "The sad reality is that the greatest defense of the president available at this point is one his team could never give on the record: He is an idiot who does not know any better." 

 And there you have it — utter agreement, total harmony, a seamless consensus between a right-wing extremist and a democratic socialist who recently wrote: "[Trump's] quite efficacious and very believable defense in the face of impeachment and removal could be that he's a dolt, a walking incapability, a take-pity-on-me idiot of Rabelaisian proportions." 

 I have always admired and held philosophical allegiance to the now-antiquated reserve of the historiographical school of American consensus: that we as a nation are defined more by what we agree on than what we dispute. And nothing could be more agreeable, in both senses of the word, than that the moronically reckless Donald Trump is uniting us, as a people, in vigorous opposition.

The Russia Probe is "now a criminal investigation'

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham said the Russia probe [is] ‘now a criminal investigation’

And that caps off Trump's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.

Off goes the BLOTUS to his first foreign country visit and gawd only knows how many embarrassments he'll bring down upon himself and our country. Trump's grasp of domestic policy is tenuous, at best, and his foreign policy understanding is non-existent. 

From what I've read about the upcoming trip, Trump is not enthused about leaving the comfort of his cocoon of sycophants and lackeys. 

Meanwhile, this is the cover of Time Magazine, and it says volumes about how the Trump regime is perceived here and around the world:

This Vox article explains how the Trumpistas are dealing with the Trump-Russia scandals and the possible obstruction of justice in Trump's firing of the FBI Director Comey:


“I just choose to not listen”: why Trump supporters are tuning out the scandalsMotivated ignorance, explained.


“I tuned it out,” Michele Velardi, a 44-year-old in Staten Island, told the AP of the recent news. “I didn’t want to be depressed. I don’t want to feel that he’s not doing what he said, so I just choose to not listen.” 

 This line is extremely revealing. It shows a psychological tendency we’re all susceptible to. That tendency is called “motivated ignorance,” and it’s an extremely powerful force in American politics. It’s also one of the keys to understanding why political discourse can be so irrational. 

 Politics is about establishing a shared sense of reality with like-minded people. It’s not about facts. Here’s a simple truth: We find inconvenient political facts to be genuinely unpleasant. Psychologists theorize that’s because our partisan identities get mixed up with our personal identities — which would mean that an attack on our strongly held beliefs is an attack on the self.




A brief visit around the internet and right wing blogs confirms that many Trumpistas are pretending this is a "nothingburger," or that the Trump-Russia-Comey scandals are made up by a cabal of Clinton, Obama, and Soros agents. I guess when you pin you hopes and dreams on a con man, and then you get conned, the best way to protect your sanity is to ignore it all.

Sad. 

Thursday Night Funnies

Robert Mueller Named Special Counsel in Trump-Russian Scandal

This is a good thing. Robert Mueller III, is respected by both Democrats and Republicans. This will lend credibility to the investigation into Trump and his Russian connections.

In less than 200 days in office, Trump is embroiled in an investigation into his young administration. Many of us predicted that because of his incompetence and horrible temperament, Trump would bring down some sort of catastrophe upon his presidency. I thought it would be in the form of a new war. Instead, it will be an investigation into allegations of obstruction of justice and his Russian connections. Let the investigations begin.

I hate to say "I told you so," but I told you so.

Trump is a disaster.


Special Counsel named to head Russia investigation; White House caught by surprise



The Justice Department on Wednesday named a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller III, to take over the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Russian agents and associates of President Trump. The move heightened the legal and political stakes for the president and his young administration. It came after days of allegations against Trump raised new questions about whether administration officials could oversee a probe which has the president at its center.




A scandal-plagued White House is unraveling Republican unity in Congress

The Trump Disaster

Trump Reportedly Asked James Comey To Stop Michael Flynn Investigation 


“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,” the president reportedly told the FBI director in February.




This Isn’t Smoke. It’s Fire. 


We talk a lot about smoke and fire. But this isn’t smoke. This is the fire. It’s not clear to me what more we need to know. The only question is whether we decide to put it out or just let it keep burning. As I said above, I bet we’re going to let it burn for quite a while longer. 

 President Trump fired the FBI Director – by his own account because he was upset about the investigation into his and his associates ties to Russia. We now learn he straight out asked the FBI Director to end the investigation into Michael Flynn three months ago. 

Last week he decided in the spur of the moment to share highly classified information with the Russian Foreign Minister. Each of these revelations are startling, shocking, albeit at this point simply not that surprising. There are all sorts of safeguards and norms we have created to prevent or limit a President’s ability to transform the law into an instrument of his or her own personal prerogative, his or her own weapon. It is actually better to say that we have set up all sorts of metaphoric fences around such an act or transformation to prevent someone in authority from even getting close to doing something like this – there are policies, taboos, norms, all there to keep a President or other executives from getting close.

**************

“I hope you can let this go,” the president said, according to the memo, parts of which were read to The Times by an associate of Mr. Comey’s. 

Mr. Trump fired the F.B.I. director last week. The White House denied the memo’s version of events.



"The White House," meaning Donald J. Trump, has no credibility.   He's a liar.  He's not to be believed.

“The people are the only censors of their governors; and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs thro’ the channel of the public papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive these papers & be capable of reading them.” –Thomas Jefferson

IF. IT'S. TRUE. (UPDATE 5/16: TRUMP TWEETED THAT IT IS TRUE!)

UPDATE: Trump admitted this AM that he shared highly classified intel with the Russians while they were Trump's guests in the Oval Office. The Russians interfered with America's presidential election that delivered the White House to Russian admirer, Donald J. Trump.




Trump bragged to the Russians in the Oval Office:  "I get great intel."  Then shared classified information with a country that is hostile to the United States. 

When trump was campaigning for the presidency he regularly told his rallies that Hillary Clinton was not qualified to be president because she allowed classified information to be sent out on her unsecured emails. 

Trump willingly gave classified information that could jeopardize our allies to the Russians. 


David Brooks, NYTimes:
From all we know so far, Trump didn’t do it because he is a Russian agent, or for any malevolent intent. He did it because he is sloppy, because he lacks all impulse control, and above all because he is a 7-year-old boy desperate for the approval of those he admires. 

 The Russian leak story reveals one other thing, the dangerousness of a hollow man. But Trump’s statements don’t necessarily come from anywhere, lead anywhere or have a permanent reality beyond his wish to be liked at any given instant.  
We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.






PM Carpenter:


"Impeach and remove this idiot. Period.


Unfuckingbelievable. President Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in a White House meeting last week, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said Trump’s disclosures jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State.

On second thought, it's not at all unfuckingbelievable. It is, rather, classic Trump. Impeach him for criminality, or incompetence, or stupidity.

Who cares?

Just get that dumb son of a bitch out of the White House.

He is America's greatest danger. Of that, perhaps this will convince even some of the nitwitted Trumpeteers.

The Washington Post's blockbuster story is a long one. But its moral is short.

Again: That dumb son of a bitch needs to be booted from the White House.




Update: Moments ago I flipped to Fox News, as I am wont to do in such astonishing times. And there sat Laura Ingraham, slamming Republican Sen. Bob Corker for having slammed Trump for revealing highly classified material to the Russians. That's how deep the sickness goes. One only hopes that it is deeper than it is wide. My guess, it is."




H.R. McMaster Denies A Story The Washington Post Did Not Report 

General McMaster gave a strong, carefully worded statement. But it denied allegations which were not made.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Robert Reich: The End of Trump 

The law is reasonably clear. If Trump removed Comey to avoid being investigated, that’s an impeachable offense. 

Sunday night Mothers' Day Poetry

PEACHES
By S. K.

A shadowy room resurrects

the color of my mother's dress,

placing me in her history:

She’s hanging clothes

with wooden pins.

Rising in the oven

for a feast day’s breakfast,

St. Joseph's bread.

And then:

an inexplicable week of curls uncombed,

beds unmade, one tree planted

in a loss-filled spring.

She would have taught me

how to sew the stars in wool

and keep my hands just so

while winding yarn --

spools to lace crochet

a pillow's case.

Even without her lessons or worn bits of lore,

her sweater folded over a chair, everywhere

there is her history in aprons, the scent of lilacs

in her cut-glass vase, lessons in the saving remnants

of her saving grace --

peaches from the tree on Winthrop Street.

My mother, Concetta

Mother's Day 2017

Saturday Night Music

After this week's events, I thought of this song by The Hollies:

Comey willing to testify, but only in public

AXIOS:

Fired FBI director Jim Comey stunned yesterday when he declined an invitation to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week in a closed session. 

Now a "close associate" of his told the NYTimes that he's more than willing to testify, but not behind closed doors. 

 Why it matters: Those closed sessions routinely leak to the press, but if Comey has something to say, a public hearing will be harder for Trump to avoid or describe as "fake news."

Trump: Comey should hope there are no "tapes"

via daily kos:

We’ve moved this morning from politics that seemed Nixonian, to a scene out of the Godfather.

 Follow

Donald J. Trump 

✔@realDonaldTrump

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

8:26 AM - 12 May 2017

 
•  9,0329,032 Retweets
 
•  23,37823,378 likes

If Trump asked Comey to kiss the ring, it’s likely he did the same to others. 

Jefferson Sessions wouldn’t hesitate at such a pledge, but he should be asked about it. So should every single other person Trump has appointed or nominated. 

Is the Justice Department loyal to the law, or to Trump? 

Is Homeland Security protecting the nation, or the Don? 

Was Neil Gorsuch asked to make such a pledge before taking a chair on the Supreme Court? 

Every single member of the Trump administration should have to sit in front of the Congress and answer the question: 

Did you make, or were you asked to make, any pledge of loyalty to Donald Trump? 

 Donald Trump was originally scheduled to visit the FBI office today. That’s been cancelled. Which is too bad. There were probably people there with a few things to say to the Don.

Evan Vucci / AP

The answers to why Trump canned Comey are becoming clear: The president was filled with grievance about the FBI probe and acted on impulse without clearly thinking through the fallout, numerous sources tell me.

The consequences are also becoming clear: This one quick decision put everything at unnecessary risk, from his legislative agenda to his public standing — and potentially his presidency.

"It is a debacle," said one Republican in constant touch with the West Wing. "They got everything — timing, rationale, reaction — completely wrong."

An English Major Deconstructs Jim Comey's Letter

Kaila Hale-Stern

I always knew that my degree in English literature that I am still paying for would one day prove to be crucial in a world crisis. Now, I will expertly use the unique skills that I was trained in, like close reading and deconstructing the nuances of subtext from sentences, to translate ex-FBI Director Comey’s farewell letter to his colleagues for the masses.

To all:

I DIDN’T EVEN ACTUALLY GET TO SEND THIS TO EVERYONE IN THE DEPARTMENT BECAUSE I WAS SHOVED OUT LIKE A GODDAMNED PARIAH WHO HAD PISSED IN H.R.’S COFFEE SO FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW POST IT ON FREAKIN’ FACEBOOK SO THAT YOUR GRANDMOTHER SEES IT PRINT OUT COPIES AND DROP THEM FROM OUR STEALTH SPY AIRPLANES OVER THE AMBER FIELDS OF AMERICA MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS

I’M OFFICIALLY NAILING THIS SHIT TO THE CHURCH DOOR LIKE MARTIN LUTHER

I have long believed that a President can fire an FBI Director for any reason, or for no reason at all.

IN CASE IT’S NOT PERFECTLY CLEAR I’M THE LATTER CASE Y’ALL OR ELSE I WOULDN’T HAVE MENTIONED IT

I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed.

YEAH I’M NOT GONNA GO INTO IT HERE BECAUSE H.R.’S LOOKING OVER MY SHOULDER BUT THE FACT THAT I MENTION “THE DECISION” IS MEANT TO BE A BIG RED FLAG CALLING YOUR ATTENTION TO SHITBAG TRUMP’S SHITBAG DECISION

AND THE FACT THAT I ALSO MENTION THE WAY IT WAS EXECUTED IS MEANT TO REMIND YOU THAT THAT MOTHERF–ER DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THE BASIC RESPECT TO CALL ME OR LOOK ME IN THE EYE WHEN HE FIRED ME LISTEN FRIENDS WE TREAT FBI TRAINEES BETTER WHEN WE CATCH THEM DOING SILENCE OF THE LAMBS COSPLAY IN THE QUANTICO DORMS AT NIGHT

LISTEN FRIENDS ENTRY-LEVEL TEMPS GET BETTER TREATMENT THAN YOUR MAN HERE WHO DEDICATED DECADES OF HIS LIFE TO KEEPING THIS GODFORSAKEN COUNTRY SAFE WHILE TRUMP LIVED IN A GOLDEN TOWER HOSTING REALITY TELEVISION SHOWS AND GRABBING PUSSIES YOU BEST BELIEVE YOU BETTER SPEND SOME QUALITY TIME THINKING ABOUT HOW THIS WAS HANDLED EVEN TOTAL FAILURES GET A HEADS-UP FIRST AND I’M STILL WAITING TO HEAR ABOUT SEVERANCE FROM H.R.

I hope you won’t either.

I HOPE YOU WILL

It is done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply.

I’M NOT FINE I’M NOT FINE I’M BARELY KEEPING IT TOGETHER DID Y’ALL HEAR HOW THAT SONNOVABITCH IN CHIEF WAITED UNTIL I WAS OUT OF THE STATE TO FIRE ME AND SENT HIS PERSONAL BODYGUARD WITH A NOTE TO FBI HEADQUARTERS EVEN THOUGH I WASN’T THERE LIKE THAT IS SOME DOWNTON ABBEY SHIT YOU’RE GONNA MAKE THE BUTLER DO YOUR DIRTYWORK AND SEND A MCFRICKEN NOTE AS THOUGH ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL DIDN’T SOLVE THIS COMMUNICATION PROBLEM IN 1876 FUCK

Read more below.

America's so-called president meeting and joking with the Russians, who possibly put Trump in office.

Trump welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak to the White House at the request of Vladimir Putin, and Trump did not want photos of his meeting with these two Russians to get out to the public. Only Russian media were allowed to photograph the meeting. Trump reportedly was infuriated that the Russians put these photos on the internet. 

Russians with camera equipment in the Oval Office?  A national security risk? Not just my speculation, but people who've dealt with Russia and its spies. 

Trump is seen here having a jolly good time with agents from a country that is hostile to the United States of America -- a good time Trump didn't want the American people to see.

Let that sink in.

We interrupt Thursday's post to bring you photos from Japan . (Thanks, Tom.)

My nephew, Sensei Tom Callahan, (third from left) in Japan, with Dolph Lundgren (second from right). Tom and Dolph have been friends for years :

Osu! Tom, Dolph, and friends

My nephew, Tom Callahan, and Dolph Lundgren

Quinnipiac University poll reveals Americans associate President Trump with the word "idiot."

UPDATE BELOW


Does that news make you proud, America? 

(See the report below the Jimmy Kimmel video.)

But first:

Comey asked for more funding for the FBI investigation into the Trump-Russian scandal

An enraged Trump fired Comey.

Next day Trump invites Russians to White House, bars American media from meeting, allows Russian media in: Russians welcomed; Americans barred.

I can't make sense of this wacked-out president. Maybe Jimmy Kimmel can, since only our comedians have the skill to do so:











In other news, in a Quinnipiac University poll, reported in Business Insider, here are the words Americans associate with the current US president: 

 A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday asked respondents: 

"What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of Donald Trump?" 

 The most common responses — "idiot," "incompetent," and "liar" — did not reflect well on the president, whose approval ratings from the same poll are near record lows. 

 The most common words were: 

 1. "Idiot," 39 times 
2. "Incompetent," 31 times 
3. "Liar," 30 times 
4. "Leader," 25 times 
5. "Unqualified," 25 times 
6. "President," 22 times 
7. "Strong," 21 times 
8. "Businessman," 18 times 
9. "Ignorant," 16 times 
10. "Egotistical," 15 times 

 Other popular ones were "a------," "stupid," "arrogant," "trying," and "bully."


Are you proud of your brand new president, America? 
--I mean Red America?





UPDATE:
Oh Crikey! How naive are the people surrounding Lord Dampnut? The Russians "tricked" them? Really? Do you feel safe knowing this inept and amateur team let the Russians troll them?

White House furious after being trolled with Russia Oval Office photos

The Russians "tricked" the smarties in DJT's White House! Also, the Russians lied!!!

Nooooooooooooo!

Who could have known that the Russians would do such a thing? Certainly not the idiots in Trump's White House!

Yesterday, this happened in Trump's America

FBI Director, James Comey, was fired while his agency was investigating Trump and his administration for possible collusion in a hostile foreign government's interference with the 2016 presidential election.




Washington Post:

Comey's dismissal may turn the anti-Trump wave into a tsunami.

The timing of his firing of James Comey proves [Trump] is a tin-pot tyrant.





And this:



Reporter arrested for asking HHS Tom Price this forbidden question on Trumpcare and domestic violence


A reporter in West Virginia was arrested on Tuesday after attempting to ask a Trump official about the administration's plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Dan Heyman, a reporter for Public News Service, says he asked Price repeatedly about whether domestic violence is considered a preexisting condition under the new GOP healthcare bill.



Dana Milbank:
Many of us feared during the campaign that Trump would be a threat to democracy, operating outside the Constitution, using demagoguery to turn white Americans against immigrants and religious and racial minorities. That hasn’t happened, though not for lack of trying on Trump’s part. His instincts are authoritarian, but the Trump presidency has been one pratfall after another. He has proved to be a blundering bully and an inept autocrat…. 

This president may think himself unassailable, but Americans are seeing him for what he is: a tin-pot tyrant.


Question for the Goopers out there:

Why do you continue to support this corrupt man?