Chairslinger

I don't think this argument is completely without merit, but coming from the GOP it is suuuuuper disingenuous. He is saying you can't punish Kavanaugh on the basis of he said/she said. But then the GOP goes out of their way to suppress all corroborating evidence and make the hearing solely about he said/she said. Personally, I find the psychiatric notes from years ago to be probably the most convincing evidence here. It's the type of evidence where, by and large, either Ford is telling the truth or you have to start positing conspiracy theories to explain it. Hey, maybe there is a conspiracy going on. Maybe Ford, her husband, and the shrink are in on it together. But if you believe that, why is it not being dug into? Why are you, in fact, going out of your way to not get the whole story from other witnesses?

Some assorted speculation that the GOP may think Kavanaugh is in more trouble than they are letting on. I am someone who thought stopping Kavanaugh was somewhere in the 5% range, but I think some real cracks are showing. In any other sane administration this guy would be gone by now. If not for the most rudimentary display of shame or a bare minimum of human decency than because dropping him now would be the smart move. Just replace him. But Trump(and to a lesser extent the GOP in general) have become the "fuck the libs to spite my face" party. So replacing him, even if it's the smart move, is just anathema to Trump and his base whose first impulse is to be as grotesque as possible.

I wonder if Trump has kept this in the barrel as a last resort for when Manafort flipped. If this news is tied to the news earlier this week that Trump was trying to get thos DOJ documents out there it would suggest the WH is leaking this for a reason And if this is true, imagine the type of panic from Trump and knowledge of culpability it would take for him to pull that trigger a month and a half before the midterms.

A post I made yesterday in the Manafort thread.... Dowd getting setup as the fall guy on efforts to silence Manafort?

That is always a distinct possibility.

Word was that earlier this week Trump was held in check by Senate Republicans basically saying, "Please just stay out of this. We'll get him through, you get a win. Everybody's happy, ok?" I wonder if this outburst signals that someone informed Trump that the nom is, in fact, in trouble and a plan B might be a good idea. What we're seeing may be Trump saying "Fuck it I'll do it myself" and going back to his old playbook of attack, deny everything, and then attack some more.

I commend his restraint in not decking the skank sidekick when she got ahold of his hair.

Small point here. While the Manafort plea holds all kinds of potential for the collusion case, it's kind of amazing how rarely mentioned it is that there is a very good chance he also holds a potential smoking gun for obstruction. Remember the story earlier this year about Dowd floating a pardon to Manafort in exchange for silence? Do you know who would be in a position to confirm that the president's lawyer was authorized to offer Paul Manafort a bribe to obstruct justice? Paul Manafort.

Rightwing outrage media machine tries to gin up a fuss when it is shockingly revealed that lifelong Democrat Willie Nelson is supporting Beto O'Rourke. Willie Nelson shoots it down in the most Willie Nelson way possible. "I don't care" I liked the video that was posted in the comments, I hadn't realized Willie had covered this one

I wouldn't say I agree, but it's an interesting supposition. I just saw a story that was musing that if Collins votes yes she is leaving Murkowski out to dry because apparently that native Alaskin thing really hit home for her and she may be trying to get to no. I understand why the woman doesn't want to testify, but if her goal is to spike Kavanaugh it seems like it might be a mistake. If McCaskill is out in front and Murkowski is leaning no, I think most hypothetical scenarios for how a public hearing would go could only serve to push Collins more towards no. It may be ugly and embarrassing where everyone comes away dirty, but pragmatically speaking there's not a whole lot of ways for it to go well for the GOP.

It has been a little surprising to me how the news of this has been largely subdued. I think it's mainly because of the timing of happening on a Friday, being cut off by the weekend, and then being consumed by Kavanaughty. I know it has gotten a decent amount of attention, but I think this is right up there with Comey's firing and the appointment of Mueller as big landmarks in our march towards whatever the resolution will be to collusion/obstruction. Comey today said that he thought that this might represent the fourth quarter of the investigation. Which is funny because in trying to describe why I thought this should be a bigger deal, the analogy I came up with is that all Mueller's other indictments represent amassing his troops and getting them to their staging areas, while Manafort's indictment is Mueller actually taking the beachhead. Mueller has taken the beach. Manafort is the staging area for going after the final targets. And that can only be a few people. Probably Trump and his spawn.

How do you say, "We're not running out of targets, they are" in Chinese?

Eventually they had to ask Shine to leave the room because he was slowing everything down by constantly responding to Kavanaugh's answers with, "Bitches, amirite?" and requesting high fives.

There is a lot to work with for those with a talent for gif making.... Every single one of those sound bytes is something one could imagine Trump exclaiming during sex. "I'm the best!!!"

Mueller has a new mouse to bat around.

Brett's buddy who denied involvement should, as well. Let's see if he's willing to committ perjury for Kavanaugh.

It won't be long before he is hawking Trump steaks on the White House lawn in those videos he likes to do so much.

Yeah, but did they ask her if she wrote the NYT op-ed?

When this was mentioned in the Kavanaugh thread I was fairly confused by it as I had never heard of this. Damn white nationalists if they ruin Danny Green and the Dudley's hand gesture!

I think in the not too distant future, the Republican party will be trying to do just that.

Someone's gotta stand up to these experts.

In other news, Trump has now randomly asked his staff half a dozen times today, "It's hot in here, right? Will someone turn on the damn air conditioning?!" while pulling at the collar of his suit with one finger.

One of these days cops are going to be dragging Sanders off her podium while she strains towards the microphone screaming, "This has nothing to do with the president!!!!"

No, he hasn't pled guilty to the state crime, but he has pled guilty to crimes for which the state could go after him and, I beleive, his guilty plea can be used against him. I am not sure about the minutiae of state laws, though.