jerseyhoya wrote:

traderdave wrote:Talk about a false equivalence. I think we can all agree that being prosecuted for contempt and being brutally murdered, dismembered and dissolved in acid are two very different things.

I'm guessing the shorthand summary of Klobuchar's question left much to be desired because as described it doesn't make any sense.

It was more of a "will you use the power of AG to punish journalists".

Barr came up with contempt while dancing around the meat of the question.

Some senate Rs may be wavering. Rumors of a letter signed by both sides to be sent to WH calling on them to reopen the government.

Why am I skeptical that Trump will respond positively?

jerseyhoya wrote:

Johnny Verhovek @JTHVerhovek
Sen. Sherrod Brown says he's embarking on "A Dignity Of Work Listening Tour" and will visit New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada

Says he has not made a decision on whether to run for President in 2020

If he hasn't made a decision to run for President it sure is a lucky coincidence he's headed to those four states to hold political events!

It's a listening tour, and if everyone is telling him don't run, he won't. Probably.

CalvinBall wrote:Some senate Rs may be wavering. Rumors of a letter signed by both sides to be sent to WH calling on them to reopen the government.

There is some second attempt at a bi-partisan lunch today.

Pelosi also has asked Trump to delay the State of the Union or simply present it in writing to Congress due to the shutdown. Pretty hilarious move.

Don't look now, but Trump's approval ratings are declining. Even the latest Rasmussen poll has it at -12.

CalvinBall wrote:Pelosi also has asked Trump to delay the State of the Union or simply present it in writing to Congress due to the shutdown. Pretty hilarious move.

because she knows he'll now have to go speak. The more people see him speak, the better off we are. If he's not at a rally with his rabid supporters in the audience, he comes off very poorly. He has to have the speech now.

Couple of headlines I gleaned, there's some just regular old, New Normal wacky out there. Pence's wife is going to teach at a school that Bans any lgbtq students are teachers, really carrying the torch for normal American values. And then some crackpot in Florida, maybe belongs in the Florida thread, says that Rashid Talib is going to possibly blow up the capitol because, of course. But not a racist or a xenophobe you know.

Monkeyboy wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:Pelosi also has asked Trump to delay the State of the Union or simply present it in writing to Congress due to the shutdown. Pretty hilarious move.

because she knows he'll now have to go speak. The more people see him speak, the better off we are. If he's not at a rally with his rabid supporters in the audience, he comes off very poorly. He has to have the speech now.

he was always going to give the speech. not exactly high level gamesmanship going on here.

i mean unless there's some rule that says the house doesn't have to let him, then lol.

American troops among those killed in Syria by ISIS bombing. Glad we defeated them or someone might have gotten killed.

William Barr.

At one level, I am comforted by the fact that he served capably as AG under HW Bush. Decent man by most accounts.

It surely is troubling that he wrote that long letter critical of the Mueller investigation.

If there is any decency at all in the GOP, they saw the future of Sessions and wanted a decent man in there. They got Barr to write this letter with Trump as the intended audience. Get Trump to buy into appointing him as AG thinking he's getting a protector, but he's actually getting a Bushie who will resist Trump as all the Bushes have done. Then Barr says things at Senate hearings, again with just one audience in mind - Trump, so that Agolf Twittler doesn't panic and withdraw the nomination.

At this point, there's nothing I know about the Trump/Russia thing that Barr doesn't know. At age 68, might he not be more motivated to be a key figure in saving the nation than as yet another enabler of our criminal moron POTUS?

I wanna believe.

That's plausible and I also want to believe that's true. Unfortunately, I don't think we can take the chance, especially since Barr has a long history of being a water carrier for the far right. He was one of the ones who did the whitewater stuff back in clinton's time. He's willing to lie and obfuscate to help the GOP and the GOP is in real danger from this scandal.

Monkeyboy wrote:That's plausible and I also want to believe that's true. Unfortunately, I don't think we can take the chance, especially since Barr has a long history of being a water carrier for the far right. He was one of the ones who did the whitewater stuff back in clinton's time. He's willing to lie and obfuscate to help the GOP and the GOP is in real danger from this scandal.

All true.

But whoever else might get the job - nominated by the Orange Buffoon and confirmed by Turtle McConnell - could only be worse.

I agree. He is now on record as being opposite of Trump on just about everything involving the Mueller investigation. He could be, relatively speaking, a best case scenario.

JFLNYC wrote:American troops among those killed in Syria by ISIS bombing. Glad we defeated them or someone might have gotten killed.

Good news, Pence has gotten the talking points memo that Isis is defeated. Apparently the measurement is the state of the caliphate, undeterred by the reality of how this and other terrorist organizations work.

After a few conversations I have concluded most Trump fans that work for the government know he is the reason the government is shut down but they don't blame him, they still blame Democrats because they won't give him what he wants. Perhaps if they hear from enough of us he will get his wall and we can all keep going to work. That's what I've concluded they think.

When I mentioned that the president doesn't just get to decide for everyone what happens and the House passed a bill one supervisor brought up how Obama said we could keep our insurance company and we didn't (we did here, fwiw). So they are all liars. He also mentioned how Obama 'didnt do shit' and look how much Trump has gotten done (economy and North Korea).

Cool; I have more seniority than him so he can potentially enjoy this shutdown at home I guess.

McDonald's has 11 franchises JUST in downtown Moscow.

joboggi wrote:McDonald's has 11 franchises JUST in downtown Moscow.

WOWW

When I was in Moscow, they had more Subways than anything else.