I’m sure that Collins will successfully run for office there again even (especially?) with a Trump pardon.
If the bill hit Trump’s desk yesterday, then his tenth day (skipping Sundays) lands on January 1st, just short, with Congress receiving it on the 2nd. I doubt that’s an accident. I’m sure that the experienced parliamentarians had it marked on their calendars months ago, and made sure the people that mattered all knew that they had to wrap it on Monday night. They’ll still have to be ready on the 2nd to override.
Hm. I could be wrong. It depends on what happens to bills that have been overridden just before the end of session. Does it have to touch Trump’s desk again (on the 3rd, after the session has ended), or does it go straight into law?
Schoolhouse Rock needs more verses!
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Since I can’t post another consecutive reply to the Dead Celebrity thread (stupid two consecutive post limit), I’ll post it here.
Cue the “and nothing of value was lost” gifs.
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I’ve always thought of Bill Kristol as an asshole, but a relatively smart one. And far as I know, he never supported Tromp. Anyway, he put out an ominous Twitter string. If he’s right something big could happen tomorrow.
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This thread is based on recent conversations with people whose information and judgment I trust, who in turn have spoken candidly with Trump appointees still on the inside. Here’s a question: Why did Trump and Barr, when they negotiated Barr’s departure, settle on Dec. 23
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It could, obviously, be kind of random–a date picked last week to allow Barr to get things in order, an accommodation of Barr’s family schedule, etc. But it could also be that Barr very much wanted to get out before Dec. 24, and/or that Trump wanted him out by then
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One obvious possibility discussed in the White House: Trump has spoken about a bunch of pardons on Christmas Eve. Some of the names may have been too much for Barr–so they agreed on his departure on Dec. 23.
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(Or the pardons will be a few days later, but the principle holds–Barr wanted out, or Trump wanted him out, first.) But it could be more than pardons. Yesterday Barr suggested there were several things he wouldn’t do that Trump wanted him to do as AG…
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…ranging from appointing special counsels for Hunter Biden or election fraud, to giving a legal ok for seizing voting machines or for various types of Insurrection Act-type moves by the president. Can one be confident Barr’s successor as AG, Jeffrey Rosen, will also say no?
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I’m told not. I’m told the very ambitious Rosen has pushed on earlier occasions for carrying out Trump’s will only to be stopped by Barr. And people who’ve worked with Rosen say they wouldn’t be surprised to see him, as AG, hasten to try to do Trump’s will.
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In the past, Rosen has been allied with some in the White House counsel’s office and others elsewhere in the White House who’ve been for going whole hog for Trump, as a friend put it. They’ve run up against resistance from Barr but also from WH Counsel Pat Cipollone.
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The departure of Cipollone would be a signal, as one person put it, that “all bets are off.”
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I’m also reliably told senior military officials in the Pentagon are more, not less, alarmed than they were a few weeks ago when Mark Esper was fired. The new crew of Trump loyalists in the most senior civilian positions don’t seem there only to burnish their resumes, as…
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…one person put it. They’re trying to figure out, in coordination with people in the White House, “how to make things happen.” The senior military obviously retain considerable clout, to say the least. But the discussions they’re having among themselves are unprecedented
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…more sober and weighty than those of 1974 in the weeks before Nixon’s resignation. And the difference is that Jim Schlesinger was then Secretary of Defense, committed to checking an unstable and desperate president, not to helping one.
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All of these alarms, one hopes and trusts, will come to nothing, or at least to not too much. And the coup, in the end, will fail. But that something more than we’ve seen so far won’t be tried–of that people aren’t so confident.
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The first thing to look for is what, if anything, happens on Dec. 24.
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Bugger! Apparently they haven’t got it to Trump as of Wednesday afternoon, so he could pocket it. Delivery by sloth or what?
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a category that grew to include Gab, Parler, and the defunct crowdfunding site Hatreon.
Holy Klono’s claws!
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surely mcconnell had to know the timeline. i wonder what that means… they finally agreed to it because they knew trump was going to sink it?
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These assholes are literally turning into parodies of themselves from the past… I wonder when the new Steven Koelbert show, the Koelbert Dispatch will be starting up?
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Holy shit. Someone tell Rick Evil is Live spelled backwards. 
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So like… sort of a mix of the Friday News Dump
and
yeah … the Saturday Night Massacre
but with the bonus of xmas and xmas eve holidays counting as “Fridays” so really we have double the “fun” here.
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Downthread of this tweet is a quote from the Bible, 2 Timothy 3 and it’s…
… reminds me that Christianity is not some cafeteria-style pursuit where you pick and choose what you want. If someone claims she/he/they is/are Christian, and believes in the literal truth and final authority of the Bible, I’ll be bringing up 2 Timothy 3 in first breath I draw.
ETA grammar 
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Just when I thought his getting Covid was the last of his humiliations, it just keeps on happening…
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GOP Cheating to Win, part number whatever of a series that so fkn needs to end January 2021:
tl;dr
Facebook the garbage company just does not give a rat’s caboose about its own rules, about lies posted by people who cheat to try to win, and/or the democratic future of our nation. I realize this is all very much Groundhog Day territory but with all eyes turned toward Georgia now, you’d think they’d make some performative half-gestures. Eh, nope.
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This is a cash grab. When you finish a job, you’re always thinking about how to reinvent yourself. That’s what Donald Trump is doing right now. He knows that his next saga of his story is really going to be predicated around a Trump news network. It’s why he’s fighting with Fox every day. He’s looking to steal their base. Because with his social media platform of 90 million followers, he knows that of that 90 million, 20 million are die-hard Trump fans. He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they would be behind him 100%. From them, he just wants $4.99 a month. And for that $4.99 a month, you get to listen to all the bullshit and all the far-right-wing conspiracies that Donald Trump can dream up. That’s what he’s going to sell you. That’s $100 million a month. $1.2 billion a year. That’s going to pay for the gas in his 757.
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I have also seen those ads on youtube… they are grasping at straws, but the base will buy it up.
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