Kristen Welker reported yesterday that Trump was "devastated" by Lindsay Graham's death. Don't mind her reporting what he said, but phrasing it as if she is vouching for Trump's sincerity is just idiotic. Personally, I think Trump would be more devastated if he dropped a quarter on the street and it rolled into the storm drain at the curb.
I lost respect for her (Kristen Welker) a LONG time ago. After that last interview with Trump where she actually pushed back a little and then he called her a name and stormed out (it was in some barn I guess and it was raining). The very next day she called him, apologized for the "conditions" of the interview and said they would talk again. Sick of everyone, including journalists, kissing his fat ass.
I have detested Kristen Welker's hosting MTP almost from the beginning of her tenure. It made me so sad to turn it off as a viewer for decades, but her relentless failure to follow up on the most glaring fabrications and outright lies has lost me almost completely.
By chance, I happened to watch Ryan Nobles guest host two weekends ago and he was VASTLY better. I might even become a regular viewer again if he took the host seat.
TOTALLY AGREE. I was so disappointed in her interviews with no push back ever. And the one time she did and Trump stormed out, she apologized, as IF she did something wrong. Yeah, she's just another pretty face and not a serious journalist.
Did you Happen to watch Jake Tappers performance with Trump yesterday—total sycophancy and betrayal—he let Trump get away with More lies and deception, not challenging him at all.
The new management is working in overdrive and the complicity of some of the anchors already making its mark.
Tapper is CNN’s new version of CBS’s Tony Dokoupil…:)
My understanding from a statement from her the next day was that they talked and she basically apologized for the "conditions" (they were in a barn with a tin roof and it was raining, so lots of added noise), thereby giving Trump and "excuse" for his childish behavior. Again, no respect for her coddling the big baby.
How is Welker doing what she chooses to do to keep her job any different than R’s in Congress? These folks have sketchy, selfish lines in the sand, easily washed away and redrawn when the next wave hits!
I dunno. He seems to be thinking about death...that's part of why he's doing all the redecorating of DC with his name. I suspect that the death of his golfing friend (who probably let him win every time) would shake someone who is aware of, and nervous about, his own mortality.
To the extent that the president pays attention to how Senate votes work out, he just lost one...maybe he's not devastated but is nervous.
It has been reported that Graham was in Kiev discussing additional Russian sanctions--which is weird, since Trump has been lifting Russian sanctions left and right since the Strait of Hormuz was closed. I can only think Graham went to somehow improve the look of that, politically speaking.
Remember that in 2017, Trump was poised to lift all Russian sanctions by EO until McCain, Cardin and some others to pass the veto-proof* Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of 2017, which specifies that only Congress may lift sanctions against Russia and three other named countries, one of which is Iran.
* Trump signed, after adding a whiny little signing statement to the effect that the law would hamper his prodigious negotiating skill.
Yeah, it costs roughly 11 1/2 cents to make a quarter, so there's a seigniorage profit of about a half buck to every dollar's worth of two bits issued into circulation, and we know how Trump is about *profit*. As to being devastated by Grahm's passing, his two cents' worth on that subject's not worth a plugged nickel.
The only thing that devastates Trump is a loss TO HIM. He called in to Fox News and they tried multiple times to bring him back to the subject of Graham from his own SAVE Act priority.
Call me crazy, but if GOP Senators didn't care that Donald Trump sent a mob to kill them on January 6 2021, why would they that the same Donald Trump is, in all likelihood, a pedophile? The only thing that matters to GOP Senators is staying in the Senate. The only thing that matters is power.
Want proof? Look how Lindsey Graham reinvented himself the past 9+ years of his life.
There is no there there left in the Republican Senate, heck one could say the whole Party, but Lindsey Graham always seemed, despite his immense DC power, an unserious person with the stability of a weather vane.
Exactly! And these same Senators are too stupid to understand that had the mob actually gotten their hands on them, they would have killed them or beat them to a pulp.
McConnell's story does not make sense. Was the story that he received CPR false? He says he doesn't have any broken bones, but doing chest compressions on a frail 84 yo man is bound to break a couple of ribs.
He has pneumonia now but didn't have it before he fell? Did he aspirate during a resuscitation? Was he intubated and developed ventilator-acquired pneumonia?
Also, he's been in the hospital for nearly a month. Even if they'd given him a million-dollar workup for a syncopal (fainting) episode, it would have taken a few days, not a few weeks. He could have gone home with a Holter monitor to check for intermittent arrhythmias. What about his condition prevented him from being discharged sooner?
And why is he now in a rehabilitation hospital? This is common for someone who was bedridden for an extended period, especially an elderly person, but if that's the reason, why was he bedridden? If he quickly regained consciousness after the fall and had no major injuries, they would have had him up and walking around as quickly as possible.
The gaping holes in his story: *brief unconsciousness* followed by *mild pneumonia* and the known CPR transcript from the MCConnell residence. But nothing to see here Justin other than an elderly man doing well after a fall and his adoring wife. Would a hologram of dear old Mitch tell you anything different.
Is that pic of mitch AI generated? This whole episode is pretty sketch to me.
My ex-SIL generates AI reels of herself and her cat doing pop culture activities - going to soccer fans watch parties with her decked out cat drinking wine, running with the bulls in Spain with the cat on her shoulder, etc. So real looking that they took in my husband. Hmmm...
Yeah. Personally, I've never seen mcconnell look that bright-eyed and happy unless he was stealing a scotus seat or plucking the wings off of a butterfly.
My spouse and I immediately said it's AI. No one looks that good after a month in the hospital, especially someone his age. His face was smooth and glowy and pink. He has looked fairly gray in the face for a couple of years now. That was a photo of him from years ago.
I gather McConnell’s in a rehab facility now, looking perky in that picture with his wife. If his initial collapse were caused by a heart condition, that would account for the extended rehab. I went into congestive heart failure at work, spent 4 days in ICU & another 8 in a normal room, to be released for cardiac rehab at the facility I worked at. I looked pretty chipper, too. I also instantly retired. Note to Mitch….
Exactly. Even with the lavish taxpayer-funded free healthcare that he enjoys, they don't keep people in hospital for weeks anymore. I know somebody who got a frickin' LUNG transplant who was out in less time than Mitch was.
To be a teensy bit fair, people Mitch's age only need to spend a few days in the hospital before they need to go to rehab. Why? Due to their frailty and already-debilitated status, a few days laying in a bed makes them very weak and unable to do much of anything. So they need physical therapy and other therapies to get back to the baseline they had before the hospitalization. Having said that, I don't believe much of what was in that statement. Why couldn't he make a video? Although I suppose AI could do that, too. 🤔
That's true, and Perticone reported that Mitch was already in a wheelchair before the fall. But that's all the more reason why they would have tried to minimize his time in bed. Unless they couldn't because he was "briefly" unconscious for several days.
This may be a little conspiracy-theory-ish, but I wonder if the current newspaper McConnell is holding in his hand in the picture that just came out (of him smiling in a bed with his wife next to him) was photo shopped into the picture. The way his fingers are holding the newspaper looked a little strange to me. At my family zoom meeting yesterday, one of my brothers kept saying, "He's dead" so often we starting teasing him. This morning that brother sent us a link to a Guardian article about the possibility McConnell is dead or on life support, with the possible reason being that in his state, if a congressperson dies, it triggers an immediate election. The theory of the article's author was that the Repubs thought they would be more likely to win the election in November than now. A possibility, I guess, but it seems unlikely they could game this out until November.
In the hospital for a month with a mild case of pneumonia? I don’t think so! And since when are patient’s allowed to where a golf shirt and jeans in a hospital bed??????
Things are a little more relaxed in a rehab hospital, but the photo would have been more convincing if he'd been standing up, or at least sitting up in a chair.
My most enduring image of Lindsey Graham comes from earlier this year and, unbeknownst to all of us, near the end of his life: Graham at Disney World prancing around with a bubble wand. Finally, it seemed, Lindsey Graham had met his calling.
The kindest reasonably objective opinion I’ve so far read about Graham is that he was a good man led astray by his belief that by staying on Trump’s good side he could be a positive influence on Trump. I can’t speak to that since I don’t really know the content of their conversations.
For me, though, the inflection point for any American, and particularly one who had taken a Congressional oath was whether or not he or she voted to convict or to acquit Trump after January 6th. Those like Graham who voted to aquit at that moment lost any credibility.
Gingrich was at heart a dynamite carrying anarchist. McCain on the other hand was a far more complex man, one who had endured a kind of hell on earth, and no one can really say how that affects a man. Obama’s tribute to him at McCain’s funeral was, however, right on the money.
Sorry, to me, Lindsey has always been a dangerous neocon who never met a war he didn’t like. He betrayed his best friend—McCain, and never looked back.
And I don’t get it, he claims Trump is the greatest president because he took out Maduro and Cuba is next. Let’s not forget, we targeted socialism for democracy—Trump is just replacing democracy with more an even more deranged authoritarian kakistocracy.
How does this compute with how these wars have always been shaped to the public? What exactly is so great about invading or illegally kidnapping heads of state but leaving the same regime in place or a worse one? Obviously, it’s about extracting mineral resources and ultimate control.
As for Iran? We just replaced one corrupt malignant regime with an even more dangerous regime, while helping Iran to achieve more power and influence in the region than anytime since its inception.
Only in a twisted and depraved mind could this outcome be good for anyone, especially the US and Israel. Yet, here we are!
Bottom line, Lindsey is a modern day Zelig and he can be whatever you want him to be—just like all the parasites and cheap snake oil salesman inhabiting Trump’s administration. IMHO…:)
These confirmation hearings should be a boon to Jackson or whoever gets the MN nomination. If you can tie Blanche's Epstein coverup to her Kavanaugh vote, and by his extension vote to end Roe, you can message to Maine's very important older female demo on one side of the pincer while hammering the economy/war on the other
Also, to me, Lindsey Graham is a great example of why we should appreciate Never Trump Republicans and respect them for their courage.
Two days after he was sworn in as acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche fired pardons-attorney Liz Oyer after she refused to approve a gun waiver for a Trump crony who had been convicted of a felony. Then he tried to intimidate her from speaking up. Now, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oyler has documented what happened. Read her letter, "My Letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Concerning the Nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General" at https://substack.com/home/post/p-204528774 . Read, too, the related Substack by litigation lawyer Mitch Jackson: "Letter Could Sink Todd Blanche's Confirmation (Read to You Word for Word)" at https://mitchthelawyer.substack.com/p/liz-oyers-letter-could-sink-todd .
The Epstein class is running the administration and the country, no question about it. You know it, I know it, question is whether the Dems (ones who are not implicated) know how to step up and galvanize public support.
I wonder how Fox is covering the news of Graham's sudden passing. Not curious enough to check or read pages of propaganda, but I suspect he's being depicted rather heroically.
When John McCain died, who was an actual example of heroism, it was Trump's first term, and I suspect the state funeral Trump gives Lindsay will be a bit more grandiose than what he gave McCain. Which is fine, since McCain's people didn't want Trump there anyway, even though McCain's daughter seems to have forgotten any ill-will towards Trump she may have had in the aftermath of her father's illness and passing. It's a sad era in America, where in the 21st century heroes are disparaged for their example, because it is a rebuke of the president, while villains and cowards are lionized.
Before anyone tries to heap encomia on the dear departed Graham because of his support for Ukraine (which did not persuade Trump in any case), they should read the tweet of Michael Fanone, a Capitol Hill cop injured during the January 6 insurrection regarding Graham’s response to the grieving mother of a policeman who died:
GIVEN THAT TRUMP THOUGHT NOTHING OF LEANING ON THE PRESIDENT OF FIFA TO CHANGE THEIR DECISION, HOW MANY CALLS DID HE MAKE TO HIS PUPPETS ON THE SUPREME COURT TO INFLUENCE THEIR DECISIONS?
Trump admitted that he personally called the President of FIFA and asked him to “take another look at it” and to “review “ FIFA’s decision to suspend an American soccer player’s participation in the next game.
One would have to be an idiot not to read between the lines.
This was heavy duty pressure from the President of the United States, who sponsored these games in the U.S. and who had previously invited him to attend his Presidential inauguration and affairs at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump has consistently said he did not tell President Infantino what the decision should be, only that the play deserved another review.
"All I did was ask for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do….That wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. You can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot when you're going full speed. These were two great athletes that got tangled up…Take another look at it. Review it.”
This was heavy duty pressure on the FIFA President.
Given that Trump’s call was merely standard operating procedure for him, one could easily believe that Trump may have placed similar calls into judges around the country, and especially Chief Justice Roberts or Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, or Kavanaugh to influence their decisions. Not a single judge would fail to understand Trump’s urging to “Take another look at it. Review it”.
This is the kind of political sleaze and slime that Trump excels in, along with coercions, shakedowns and threats of retaliation. What are Trump’s abiding principles of morality? He said it himself: “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me."
Kristen Welker reported yesterday that Trump was "devastated" by Lindsay Graham's death. Don't mind her reporting what he said, but phrasing it as if she is vouching for Trump's sincerity is just idiotic. Personally, I think Trump would be more devastated if he dropped a quarter on the street and it rolled into the storm drain at the curb.
I lost respect for her (Kristen Welker) a LONG time ago. After that last interview with Trump where she actually pushed back a little and then he called her a name and stormed out (it was in some barn I guess and it was raining). The very next day she called him, apologized for the "conditions" of the interview and said they would talk again. Sick of everyone, including journalists, kissing his fat ass.
I have detested Kristen Welker's hosting MTP almost from the beginning of her tenure. It made me so sad to turn it off as a viewer for decades, but her relentless failure to follow up on the most glaring fabrications and outright lies has lost me almost completely.
By chance, I happened to watch Ryan Nobles guest host two weekends ago and he was VASTLY better. I might even become a regular viewer again if he took the host seat.
TOTALLY AGREE. I was so disappointed in her interviews with no push back ever. And the one time she did and Trump stormed out, she apologized, as IF she did something wrong. Yeah, she's just another pretty face and not a serious journalist.
Yes, Nobles has a bit more grit than Chuckie Todd or Welker will ever have.
But they all don't measure up to Tim Russert. (the last great Sunday talk show host) They don't make them like that anymore.
I haven't watched Sunday talk shows since he was on.
They came crawling back to each other as I always thought. The only decent interview of DJT to date has been Jonathan Swan.
Did you Happen to watch Jake Tappers performance with Trump yesterday—total sycophancy and betrayal—he let Trump get away with More lies and deception, not challenging him at all.
The new management is working in overdrive and the complicity of some of the anchors already making its mark.
Tapper is CNN’s new version of CBS’s Tony Dokoupil…:)
Today on Jake Tapper, is Biden old?
🤣🤣
I didn't know that she apologized! That is disappointing, to say the least .
My understanding from a statement from her the next day was that they talked and she basically apologized for the "conditions" (they were in a barn with a tin roof and it was raining, so lots of added noise), thereby giving Trump and "excuse" for his childish behavior. Again, no respect for her coddling the big baby.
How is Welker doing what she chooses to do to keep her job any different than R’s in Congress? These folks have sketchy, selfish lines in the sand, easily washed away and redrawn when the next wave hits!
He'd be more devastated if Mar-a-Lago ran out of ice cream.
And here I was thinking the real crisis was a lack of Diet Coke.
Hey, I resemble that remark…:)
And McDonald’s….:)
If the bathroom attached to the Oval Office ever ran out of copies of the Constitution for him to use as toilet paper he'd be even more devastated.
I dunno. He seems to be thinking about death...that's part of why he's doing all the redecorating of DC with his name. I suspect that the death of his golfing friend (who probably let him win every time) would shake someone who is aware of, and nervous about, his own mortality.
To the extent that the president pays attention to how Senate votes work out, he just lost one...maybe he's not devastated but is nervous.
or ketchup for his big mac
Ketchup oh so important doing double duty as both Big Mac AND wall condiment.
It has been reported that Graham was in Kiev discussing additional Russian sanctions--which is weird, since Trump has been lifting Russian sanctions left and right since the Strait of Hormuz was closed. I can only think Graham went to somehow improve the look of that, politically speaking.
Remember that in 2017, Trump was poised to lift all Russian sanctions by EO until McCain, Cardin and some others to pass the veto-proof* Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) of 2017, which specifies that only Congress may lift sanctions against Russia and three other named countries, one of which is Iran.
* Trump signed, after adding a whiny little signing statement to the effect that the law would hamper his prodigious negotiating skill.
Miss Lindsay's visit was just window dressing. Gotta keep up appearances, don'tcha know!
Window dressing is a rather apt metaphor for Lindsey Graham’s whole career.
He might actually be devastated. Every time an elderly GOP senator dies, impeachment and conviction gets a pair wings?
he is devastated he doesn’t have another vote.
I saw Ms. Welker's performance. Laughable.
I don't watch the Sunday talk shows. Give me The Bulwark any day.
I haven't since Tim Russert was on.
Yeah, it costs roughly 11 1/2 cents to make a quarter, so there's a seigniorage profit of about a half buck to every dollar's worth of two bits issued into circulation, and we know how Trump is about *profit*. As to being devastated by Grahm's passing, his two cents' worth on that subject's not worth a plugged nickel.
The only thing that devastates Trump is a loss TO HIM. He called in to Fox News and they tried multiple times to bring him back to the subject of Graham from his own SAVE Act priority.
or his meme coin
Of course, he would then order the appropriate Department to pull up the storm drain and dredge for the quarter.
Call me crazy, but if GOP Senators didn't care that Donald Trump sent a mob to kill them on January 6 2021, why would they that the same Donald Trump is, in all likelihood, a pedophile? The only thing that matters to GOP Senators is staying in the Senate. The only thing that matters is power.
Want proof? Look how Lindsey Graham reinvented himself the past 9+ years of his life.
There is no there there left in the Republican Senate, heck one could say the whole Party, but Lindsey Graham always seemed, despite his immense DC power, an unserious person with the stability of a weather vane.
Exactly! And these same Senators are too stupid to understand that had the mob actually gotten their hands on them, they would have killed them or beat them to a pulp.
He’s a modern day Zelig…:)
Zelig with a pseudonymous Grindr account.
🤣🤣🤣
McConnell's story does not make sense. Was the story that he received CPR false? He says he doesn't have any broken bones, but doing chest compressions on a frail 84 yo man is bound to break a couple of ribs.
He has pneumonia now but didn't have it before he fell? Did he aspirate during a resuscitation? Was he intubated and developed ventilator-acquired pneumonia?
Also, he's been in the hospital for nearly a month. Even if they'd given him a million-dollar workup for a syncopal (fainting) episode, it would have taken a few days, not a few weeks. He could have gone home with a Holter monitor to check for intermittent arrhythmias. What about his condition prevented him from being discharged sooner?
And why is he now in a rehabilitation hospital? This is common for someone who was bedridden for an extended period, especially an elderly person, but if that's the reason, why was he bedridden? If he quickly regained consciousness after the fall and had no major injuries, they would have had him up and walking around as quickly as possible.
The write up is suspect to say the least. I'm surprised he didn't add he passed a cognitive test.
With the exception of Donald Trump, no one can pass a cognitive test. They're too hard, dontchaknow.
The gaping holes in his story: *brief unconsciousness* followed by *mild pneumonia* and the known CPR transcript from the MCConnell residence. But nothing to see here Justin other than an elderly man doing well after a fall and his adoring wife. Would a hologram of dear old Mitch tell you anything different.
In my cpr training we were told to expect breaking ribs everytime.
You would have to have a butterfly performing CPR on someone of Mitch’s age a frailty to not break ribs.
Is that pic of mitch AI generated? This whole episode is pretty sketch to me.
My ex-SIL generates AI reels of herself and her cat doing pop culture activities - going to soccer fans watch parties with her decked out cat drinking wine, running with the bulls in Spain with the cat on her shoulder, etc. So real looking that they took in my husband. Hmmm...
I thought the same thing; Mitch hasn't looked that good in ages.
Personally I think it is AI.
Yeah. Personally, I've never seen mcconnell look that bright-eyed and happy unless he was stealing a scotus seat or plucking the wings off of a butterfly.
My spouse and I immediately said it's AI. No one looks that good after a month in the hospital, especially someone his age. His face was smooth and glowy and pink. He has looked fairly gray in the face for a couple of years now. That was a photo of him from years ago.
I gather McConnell’s in a rehab facility now, looking perky in that picture with his wife. If his initial collapse were caused by a heart condition, that would account for the extended rehab. I went into congestive heart failure at work, spent 4 days in ICU & another 8 in a normal room, to be released for cardiac rehab at the facility I worked at. I looked pretty chipper, too. I also instantly retired. Note to Mitch….
Exactly. Even with the lavish taxpayer-funded free healthcare that he enjoys, they don't keep people in hospital for weeks anymore. I know somebody who got a frickin' LUNG transplant who was out in less time than Mitch was.
To be a teensy bit fair, people Mitch's age only need to spend a few days in the hospital before they need to go to rehab. Why? Due to their frailty and already-debilitated status, a few days laying in a bed makes them very weak and unable to do much of anything. So they need physical therapy and other therapies to get back to the baseline they had before the hospitalization. Having said that, I don't believe much of what was in that statement. Why couldn't he make a video? Although I suppose AI could do that, too. 🤔
That's true, and Perticone reported that Mitch was already in a wheelchair before the fall. But that's all the more reason why they would have tried to minimize his time in bed. Unless they couldn't because he was "briefly" unconscious for several days.
This may be a little conspiracy-theory-ish, but I wonder if the current newspaper McConnell is holding in his hand in the picture that just came out (of him smiling in a bed with his wife next to him) was photo shopped into the picture. The way his fingers are holding the newspaper looked a little strange to me. At my family zoom meeting yesterday, one of my brothers kept saying, "He's dead" so often we starting teasing him. This morning that brother sent us a link to a Guardian article about the possibility McConnell is dead or on life support, with the possible reason being that in his state, if a congressperson dies, it triggers an immediate election. The theory of the article's author was that the Repubs thought they would be more likely to win the election in November than now. A possibility, I guess, but it seems unlikely they could game this out until November.
In the hospital for a month with a mild case of pneumonia? I don’t think so! And since when are patient’s allowed to where a golf shirt and jeans in a hospital bed??????
Things are a little more relaxed in a rehab hospital, but the photo would have been more convincing if he'd been standing up, or at least sitting up in a chair.
Shots: "So it is possible to change personnel in the middle of a war. Just in case someone wanted to tell the White House."
Well, first you have to admit you're in a war.
Surely ending the same war 37 times earns one the Nobel Peace Prize! 😀
I dunno. He's already got the FIFA Peace Prize. I think the only one better would be one from the US Golf Association.
they were different wars, so ackshually he ended 37 wars.
Especially another FIFA!
"On the other hand, this is supposed to be a newsletter" (emphasis on NEWS) - love it!
Why should Lindsay Graham R.I.P. when the rest of us are going thru hell specifically b/c of spineless, immoral power hogs like him? No, just no.
My most enduring image of Lindsey Graham comes from earlier this year and, unbeknownst to all of us, near the end of his life: Graham at Disney World prancing around with a bubble wand. Finally, it seemed, Lindsey Graham had met his calling.
Drunkenly chortling with trump, on AF1, shortly before that, will stick in my mind.
The kindest reasonably objective opinion I’ve so far read about Graham is that he was a good man led astray by his belief that by staying on Trump’s good side he could be a positive influence on Trump. I can’t speak to that since I don’t really know the content of their conversations.
For me, though, the inflection point for any American, and particularly one who had taken a Congressional oath was whether or not he or she voted to convict or to acquit Trump after January 6th. Those like Graham who voted to aquit at that moment lost any credibility.
Two sworn oaths. Broke both to support a coup-instigating sexual predator felon.
Led astray by his need to feel important to important people. He attached himself to Newt Gingrich in the House and John McCain in the Senate.
Gingrich was at heart a dynamite carrying anarchist. McCain on the other hand was a far more complex man, one who had endured a kind of hell on earth, and no one can really say how that affects a man. Obama’s tribute to him at McCain’s funeral was, however, right on the money.
He was in reality a little man basking in the glow of others.
Whatever good Lindsey Graham may have done in his life, it was completely obliterated by his servility toward Donald Trump.
In keeping with the spirit of Clarence Darrow (often misattributed to Mark Twain), I read this obituary with great pleasure.
Yup, that’s Darrow. Although you missed the part about “never wishing a man dead, but I’ve taken great pleasure in reading a few obituaries”….:)
That's exactly what I was alluding to. I figured it was well-known enough to not state explicitly. 😀
I know you do, but how many people quote Clarence Darrow…:)
Ummm...... 😀
Blanche travels to prison to meet with Maxwell but won't meet with Epstein victims who travel to Washington DC to meet with him?!
That wasn't his job...as he saw it. He still functions as a defense attorney for his one client.
Sorry, to me, Lindsey has always been a dangerous neocon who never met a war he didn’t like. He betrayed his best friend—McCain, and never looked back.
And I don’t get it, he claims Trump is the greatest president because he took out Maduro and Cuba is next. Let’s not forget, we targeted socialism for democracy—Trump is just replacing democracy with more an even more deranged authoritarian kakistocracy.
How does this compute with how these wars have always been shaped to the public? What exactly is so great about invading or illegally kidnapping heads of state but leaving the same regime in place or a worse one? Obviously, it’s about extracting mineral resources and ultimate control.
As for Iran? We just replaced one corrupt malignant regime with an even more dangerous regime, while helping Iran to achieve more power and influence in the region than anytime since its inception.
Only in a twisted and depraved mind could this outcome be good for anyone, especially the US and Israel. Yet, here we are!
Bottom line, Lindsey is a modern day Zelig and he can be whatever you want him to be—just like all the parasites and cheap snake oil salesman inhabiting Trump’s administration. IMHO…:)
"Trump is just replacing democracy with more authoritarian socialism."
Call it a national socialism.
Fair enough, and so it shall be written: National Socialism! Although an even better option would be authoritarian kakistocracy….:)
Socialism for the wealthy and connected.
These confirmation hearings should be a boon to Jackson or whoever gets the MN nomination. If you can tie Blanche's Epstein coverup to her Kavanaugh vote, and by his extension vote to end Roe, you can message to Maine's very important older female demo on one side of the pincer while hammering the economy/war on the other
Also, to me, Lindsey Graham is a great example of why we should appreciate Never Trump Republicans and respect them for their courage.
I was a bit confused at first until I realized you meant "ME" instead of "MN"!
All good points.
What election is going on in Minnesota that I don't know about? (my first reaction as well...)
OMG! What a rookie mistake. I am devastated. 😔
Two days after he was sworn in as acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche fired pardons-attorney Liz Oyer after she refused to approve a gun waiver for a Trump crony who had been convicted of a felony. Then he tried to intimidate her from speaking up. Now, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oyler has documented what happened. Read her letter, "My Letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Concerning the Nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General" at https://substack.com/home/post/p-204528774 . Read, too, the related Substack by litigation lawyer Mitch Jackson: "Letter Could Sink Todd Blanche's Confirmation (Read to You Word for Word)" at https://mitchthelawyer.substack.com/p/liz-oyers-letter-could-sink-todd .
The Epstein class is running the administration and the country, no question about it. You know it, I know it, question is whether the Dems (ones who are not implicated) know how to step up and galvanize public support.
I wonder how Fox is covering the news of Graham's sudden passing. Not curious enough to check or read pages of propaganda, but I suspect he's being depicted rather heroically.
When John McCain died, who was an actual example of heroism, it was Trump's first term, and I suspect the state funeral Trump gives Lindsay will be a bit more grandiose than what he gave McCain. Which is fine, since McCain's people didn't want Trump there anyway, even though McCain's daughter seems to have forgotten any ill-will towards Trump she may have had in the aftermath of her father's illness and passing. It's a sad era in America, where in the 21st century heroes are disparaged for their example, because it is a rebuke of the president, while villains and cowards are lionized.
Expect DJT to award Graham with Medal of honor very shortly.
Before anyone tries to heap encomia on the dear departed Graham because of his support for Ukraine (which did not persuade Trump in any case), they should read the tweet of Michael Fanone, a Capitol Hill cop injured during the January 6 insurrection regarding Graham’s response to the grieving mother of a policeman who died:
https://x.com/DeanObeidallah/status/2076326338479231454
Satan will recognize his own.
Perfect summary of Graham's legacy!
GIVEN THAT TRUMP THOUGHT NOTHING OF LEANING ON THE PRESIDENT OF FIFA TO CHANGE THEIR DECISION, HOW MANY CALLS DID HE MAKE TO HIS PUPPETS ON THE SUPREME COURT TO INFLUENCE THEIR DECISIONS?
Trump admitted that he personally called the President of FIFA and asked him to “take another look at it” and to “review “ FIFA’s decision to suspend an American soccer player’s participation in the next game.
One would have to be an idiot not to read between the lines.
This was heavy duty pressure from the President of the United States, who sponsored these games in the U.S. and who had previously invited him to attend his Presidential inauguration and affairs at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Trump has consistently said he did not tell President Infantino what the decision should be, only that the play deserved another review.
"All I did was ask for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. I didn't tell him what to do. I can't tell him what to do….That wasn't a foul. That wasn't even an infraction. That was two guys running full speed that happened to crash into each other. You can't take your foot and properly place it on somebody else's foot when you're going full speed. These were two great athletes that got tangled up…Take another look at it. Review it.”
This was heavy duty pressure on the FIFA President.
Given that Trump’s call was merely standard operating procedure for him, one could easily believe that Trump may have placed similar calls into judges around the country, and especially Chief Justice Roberts or Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, or Kavanaugh to influence their decisions. Not a single judge would fail to understand Trump’s urging to “Take another look at it. Review it”.
This is the kind of political sleaze and slime that Trump excels in, along with coercions, shakedowns and threats of retaliation. What are Trump’s abiding principles of morality? He said it himself: “My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me."
Nothing is strange about McConnell's hospitalization for an 84 year old man.
Except he won't go bankrupt after several weeks of intensive care.
THIS!!!