Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
kpete
kpete's Journal
kpete's Journal
May 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1131533756945326080
House Committees aren't the reason nothing is getting done; Senate Republicans are the reason.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1131533756945326080
?w=600&h=492
May 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/GottaLaff/status/1131319636748668928
Trump: "I don't do cover-ups."
https://twitter.com/GottaLaff/status/1131319636748668928
May 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/jahimes/status/1131235636428640257
Fixed the President's Rose Garden sign for him.
https://twitter.com/jahimes/status/1131235636428640257
May 22, 2019
An update on the circus at 1600 Pennsylvania.
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
MAY 22, 2019
The Cracker Factory was open for business outside the White House on Wednesday morning. Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out of a meeting with her caucus in the House and told reporters that she believed that "the president* was involved in a cover-up." Then, she and Chuck Schumer, both apparently firm believers in the power of hope over experience, went to the White House to talk about infrastructure. El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago thereupon told them he wouldn't be doing any deals while the House persists in investigating him and walked out. This might have been considered a shrewd power play, if the president* hadn't then gone out into his driveway and lost his shit entirely.
This was an "avail" of demented perfection. The man who bought off Stormy Daniels so thoroughly that his bagman is in the federal sneezer said, "I don't do cover-ups," and, against all odds, his tongue did not burn with fire. The constitutional genius with the world's greatest brain made certain to remind Democrats that, as unlikely as this sounds, one day in the far distant future—of the year, say, 1998—a Republican Congress might bring "the I-word" against a Democratic president for frivolous reasons. I mean, good lord, the Clintons came to one of his weddings. Didn't they talk? The man has a brain of tapioca.
Otherwise, the press availability was pretty much an impromptu performance of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. More talk of witch-hunts and hoaxes and a lot of yammering about how transparent he's been and a monstrous exaggeration of his alleged accomplishments. One can picture White House aides hiding under desks and skulking down back alleys in search of noonday whiskey. And, as the reports that leaked out in the immediate aftermath of the meeting revealed, the president* went somewhat berserk even by his own standards and walked out after three whole minutes. Pelosi responded at her own news conference by slipping in the Italian-Catholic version of the shiv used by Southern Belles when they say, "Bless Your Heart."
"I pray for the President of the United States and for our country," she said.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27559083/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-investigations-infrastructure-rose-garden/
Charles Pierce:Trump Lost It in Rose Garden After His Attempted Power Play With Nancy Pelosi & Dems
Trump Lost It in the Rose Garden After His Attempted Power Play With Nancy Pelosi and the DemocratsAn update on the circus at 1600 Pennsylvania.
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
MAY 22, 2019
The Cracker Factory was open for business outside the White House on Wednesday morning. Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out of a meeting with her caucus in the House and told reporters that she believed that "the president* was involved in a cover-up." Then, she and Chuck Schumer, both apparently firm believers in the power of hope over experience, went to the White House to talk about infrastructure. El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago thereupon told them he wouldn't be doing any deals while the House persists in investigating him and walked out. This might have been considered a shrewd power play, if the president* hadn't then gone out into his driveway and lost his shit entirely.
This was an "avail" of demented perfection. The man who bought off Stormy Daniels so thoroughly that his bagman is in the federal sneezer said, "I don't do cover-ups," and, against all odds, his tongue did not burn with fire. The constitutional genius with the world's greatest brain made certain to remind Democrats that, as unlikely as this sounds, one day in the far distant future—of the year, say, 1998—a Republican Congress might bring "the I-word" against a Democratic president for frivolous reasons. I mean, good lord, the Clintons came to one of his weddings. Didn't they talk? The man has a brain of tapioca.
Otherwise, the press availability was pretty much an impromptu performance of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. More talk of witch-hunts and hoaxes and a lot of yammering about how transparent he's been and a monstrous exaggeration of his alleged accomplishments. One can picture White House aides hiding under desks and skulking down back alleys in search of noonday whiskey. And, as the reports that leaked out in the immediate aftermath of the meeting revealed, the president* went somewhat berserk even by his own standards and walked out after three whole minutes. Pelosi responded at her own news conference by slipping in the Italian-Catholic version of the shiv used by Southern Belles when they say, "Bless Your Heart."
"I pray for the President of the United States and for our country," she said.
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27559083/donald-trump-nancy-pelosi-investigations-infrastructure-rose-garden/
May 22, 2019
BREAKING: The New York state legislature has passed a bill to allow the state tax commission to provide @realDonaldTrump's state tax returns to three Congressional committees. Returns could have much of the same info as contested federal returns.
ALBANY, N.Y. (CN) – Passing legislation that will allow members of Congress to obtain New York state tax filings, state lawmakers brought Democrats one step closer Wednesday to accessing financial data that the president has kept hidden.
While debate on a second bill is still underway, the legislation that was adopted by the New York Assembly this morning 84-53 authorizes state tax officials to release the returns filed by federal, state and local lawmakers, as well as political party leaders, after being requested to do so by any of three congressional committees: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The vote was largely along party lines, and debate before both bills passed was marked largely by partisan comments.
White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has said Democrats will “never” see Trump’s tax returns, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced a pummeling at the House just this morning amid new reporting on IRS policy that describes the obligation to disclose tax returns to Congress as “mandatory.”
https://www.courthousenews.com/new-york-opens-door-for-dems-to-see-trump-taxes/
https://twitter.com/cliffordlevy/status/1131249017256648705
https://twitter.com/jessemckinley/status/1131248655200116736
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1130940518869995520
NY State Legislature passed bill to provide Trump's state tax returns to 3 Congressional committees
New York Opens Door for Dems to See Trump TaxesBREAKING: The New York state legislature has passed a bill to allow the state tax commission to provide @realDonaldTrump's state tax returns to three Congressional committees. Returns could have much of the same info as contested federal returns.
ALBANY, N.Y. (CN) – Passing legislation that will allow members of Congress to obtain New York state tax filings, state lawmakers brought Democrats one step closer Wednesday to accessing financial data that the president has kept hidden.
While debate on a second bill is still underway, the legislation that was adopted by the New York Assembly this morning 84-53 authorizes state tax officials to release the returns filed by federal, state and local lawmakers, as well as political party leaders, after being requested to do so by any of three congressional committees: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The vote was largely along party lines, and debate before both bills passed was marked largely by partisan comments.
White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has said Democrats will “never” see Trump’s tax returns, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin faced a pummeling at the House just this morning amid new reporting on IRS policy that describes the obligation to disclose tax returns to Congress as “mandatory.”
https://www.courthousenews.com/new-york-opens-door-for-dems-to-see-trump-taxes/
https://twitter.com/cliffordlevy/status/1131249017256648705
https://twitter.com/jessemckinley/status/1131248655200116736
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1130940518869995520
May 22, 2019
Fed Judge in DC unseals 5 search warrant applications that Mueller filed in 2017 re: Michael Cohen
New: A federal judge in DC has unsealed five search warrant applications that Mueller's office filed in 2017 while they were investigating Michael Cohen
https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1131197768670879744
May 22, 2019
—House Majority Leader Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. to Speaker Carl Albert, January, 1973, as reported in How The Good Guys Finally Won by Jimmy Breslin.
The President* Has Done Too Many Things, and Too Many People Know About Them
It has begun.
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
............................
Look between the lines of all that Beltway weaselspeak. See all the tiny white flags waving? Steny Hoyer is so deeply a part of the political establishment that he probably sleeps every night atop a pedestal in Statuary Hall. And, clearly, his resistance is crumbling into tiny flakes and blowing away on the fresh spring breezes.
This president* is going to be impeached by the House of Representatives. It is now unavoidable. He's done too many things and too many people know about them. This is going to be one helluva summer. And it's building now like a thunderstorm over the mountains, and there's no way to stop it.
the rest:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27554565/democrats-impeach-donald-trump-steny-hoyer-house/
Charles Pierce: The President* Has Done Too Many Things, and Too Many People Know About Them
"They did too many things. Too many people know about it. There is no way to keep it quiet. The time is going to come when impeachment is going to hit this Congress and we better be ready for it."
—House Majority Leader Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. to Speaker Carl Albert, January, 1973, as reported in How The Good Guys Finally Won by Jimmy Breslin.
The President* Has Done Too Many Things, and Too Many People Know About Them
It has begun.
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
............................
Look between the lines of all that Beltway weaselspeak. See all the tiny white flags waving? Steny Hoyer is so deeply a part of the political establishment that he probably sleeps every night atop a pedestal in Statuary Hall. And, clearly, his resistance is crumbling into tiny flakes and blowing away on the fresh spring breezes.
This president* is going to be impeached by the House of Representatives. It is now unavoidable. He's done too many things and too many people know about them. This is going to be one helluva summer. And it's building now like a thunderstorm over the mountains, and there's no way to stop it.
the rest:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a27554565/democrats-impeach-donald-trump-steny-hoyer-house/
May 22, 2019
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1131159474171981825
Narcissism 101: "People thinking less of me is not because of me."
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1131159474171981825
May 22, 2019
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has put up just 1.7 miles of fencing with the $1.57 billion that Congress appropriated last year for President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border, a federal judge was told.
A lawyer for the U.S. House of Representatives provided the information Tuesday to the judge in Oakland, California, who is weighing requests from 20 state attorneys general and the the Sierra Club to block Trump from using funds not authorized by Congress to build the wall.
"The administration recently provided updated information to Congress on the status of its efforts as of April 30, 2019," the attorney, Douglas Letter, said in a court filing. "Based on that updated information, it appears that CBP has now constructed 1.7 miles of fencing with its fiscal year 2018 funding."
That was 3/4 of a mile more than the administration reported at the end of February, Letter said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/federal-wall-funding-of-1-57-billion-yields-1-7-miles-of-fence?srnd=premium
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1131175375478898688
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1131188150586499072
US Wall Funding of $1.57 Billion Yields 1.7 Miles Of Fence (*$920 million per mile)
*$920 million per mileU.S. Customs and Border Protection has put up just 1.7 miles of fencing with the $1.57 billion that Congress appropriated last year for President Donald Trump’s wall along the Mexican border, a federal judge was told.
A lawyer for the U.S. House of Representatives provided the information Tuesday to the judge in Oakland, California, who is weighing requests from 20 state attorneys general and the the Sierra Club to block Trump from using funds not authorized by Congress to build the wall.
"The administration recently provided updated information to Congress on the status of its efforts as of April 30, 2019," the attorney, Douglas Letter, said in a court filing. "Based on that updated information, it appears that CBP has now constructed 1.7 miles of fencing with its fiscal year 2018 funding."
That was 3/4 of a mile more than the administration reported at the end of February, Letter said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/federal-wall-funding-of-1-57-billion-yields-1-7-miles-of-fence?srnd=premium
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1131175375478898688
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1131188150586499072
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Sep 17, 2004, 03:59 PMNumber of posts: 72,022
