Individual-1, a joke or a threat? (talk Trump)

[Tero]

”Impeach the motherfucker” is just lady locker room talk.

[Joe]

Look, I am no fan of Putin‘s but Russia is a great nation in pretty much every respect. Whenever I need something, research something, I check out what the Russians have done and this almost as a first point of reference. Lovely literature and arts too, I an so happy I am fluent and proficient in Russian, a huge resource to me!

That's awesome. (get over it Rum) In my experience, Russia is a difficult subject. Not only is the Russian history section at the bookstore tiny, but the books I've found tend to be unsympathetic.

You could do worse than to read Hedrick Smith's The Russians. Of course much has changed in the over 40 years since it was first written, but his insights into the culture are still relevant. It's sympathetic to Russians, if not to the Soviet government of that time.

I'm not forgetting that this particular sidetrack developed because somebody didn't want to face the fact that Trump is parroting Russian propaganda. Intellectual dishonesty FTW!

And particularly interesting because the source of his opinion isn't readily apparent. Nothing from his usual sources, Fox and Twitter, and it's not a belief he's espoused before AFAIK.

It's interesting that this statement coincides with Putin trying to revise that history.

Defying history, Moscow moves to defend Soviet war in Afghanistan

It has been said that Russia is a country with an unpredictable past, as every new government tries to rewrite the historical narrative for its political advantage. In this, President Vladimir Putin’s regime has been particularly active, launching a wholesale rehabilitation of the Soviet period early on. (One of Putin’s first acts in office was restoring the Stalin-era national anthem.)

Last month, Russian lawmakers took another big step in the same direction by approving a draft resolution that seeks to justify the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. The formal vote on the measure — proposed jointly by lawmakers from the United Russia and Communist parties — will be held before the 30th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops on Feb. 15. Hailing the decision, Communist lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov called it a victory for “historical truth.”

I think you noted that Rachael Maddow pointed that out.

What a weird thing to bring up unprompted.

[Sean Hayden]

Thanks L'Emmerdeur

I'll check it out after I've finished "From Soviet to Putin and Back: The dominance of energy in today's Russia"

[Brian Peacock]

Martin Sixsmith's 'Russia: A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East' is worth a punt too.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Russia-000-Yea ... 1849900736

[Tero]

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said he expected the shutdown to go on for a while, but revealed the president has come down from his initial demand of $5 billion to build the wall.

"We sat down with (Chuck) Schumer and gave him a number below five. I am not going to tell you what it is," Mulvaney said.

[tattuchu]

Eleventy-seven

[Tero]

Trump Storm Troopers at Warren rally:
STORM LAKE, Iowa — A supporter of President Donald Trump was arrested after allegedly hitting another attendee with a selfie stick outside an event Saturday for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The senator is on her first swing of Iowa as she explores a 2020 presidential bid.

As Warren mingled with the overflow crowd outside a roundtable event, witnesses told NBC News the Trump supporter unfurled a Trump banner and began yelling, which led to an altercation with other attendees. When one man tried to pull down the banner, witnesses said the Trump supporter struck the man on the head with a selfie stick.

[Scot Dutchy]

This going to be interesting:

This is the Nancy Pelosi moment and Donald Trump should be very afraid

For two years the President has shown disdain for the institutions and practices of governance. Bad move. A new era has just dawned

I loved this thought:

But Pelosi is also asserting the power of her office, going so far as to claim in one interview that the constitution makes her office equal to the president’s. This is untrue: Congress in its entirety equals the presidency, while she only leads one of its two chambers. That said, Pelosi has just, not incidentally, become third in line to the Oval Office; should something occur that occasioned the removal of both the president and the vice president from office before 2020, Nancy Pelosi would by law assume the presidency.

Sanity could still return. For all our sakes lets hope it will.

[Tero]

[Scot Dutchy]

Shutdown does not apply to Trump:

Clock tower at Trump hotel kept staffed with federal park rangers despite government shutdown

At the very least, this smells funny'

It does not smell funny it stinks!

[Tero]

1 Republican plus all Democrats
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/05/68257065 ... with-trump

[Tero]

How low can you go?
https://twitter.com/AZVotes/status/922545298412535808

[Tero]

Shit is coming down if he does this. I say it’s a bad bluff.

[Scot Dutchy]

The guy is terrified. This is his last bluff. He is fucked and he knows it.

[Cunt]

ANYtime now!

Oh, and the second coming. That's also going to be ANYtime now.