Love work-at-home days. I eat better, can throw loads of laundry into the dryer and make coffee any old way I want. I get more done. And I can work in my bathrobe, as I did for the first 90 minutes of my day, until I got up and put on some random assemblage of dirty laundry and wore it until 6 p.m.
“Career clothes” has a different definition for the home worker. Although I always do better when I’ve at least had a shower. But this is summer; rules change.
Besides, who cares what you’re wearing when news is breaking? That being the latest wrinkle on…what are we calling this one? Fredogate? Or just Normal?
Meanwhile, stuff like this comes out as sort of a side dish. Click and read the whole thread:
Since the Donald Jr.-Russia news came out, fmr @penn classmates have been reminiscing about him in school. They're uniformly negative.
— Aki Peritz (@AkiPeritz) July 11, 2017
Oh, what have we done to our beloved country? Is this the way out, or just another drop toward a seemingly bottomless bottom?
I need some uplift. Here’s an uplifting story:
It was Saturday evening, after all, peak summer season in Panama City Beach for overheated Florida tourists to cross paths with curious marine life. Then they noticed flashing lights by the boardwalk, a police truck on the sand and nearly a dozen bobbing heads about 100 yards beyond the beach, crying desperately for help.
Six members of a single family — four adults and two young boys — and four other swimmers had been swept away by powerful and deceptive rip currents churning below the water’s surface.
“These people are not drowning today,” Jessica Simmons thought, she told the Panama City News Herald. “It’s not happening. We’re going to get them out.”
You oceanside dwellers are going to have to explain rip currents to me. I understand what they are; they’re powerful currents that run offshore, more or less perpendicular to the beach, right? And to get out of them, you swim parallel to the beach until you’re out, or else you float on your back until it’s spent and spits you out. But the scenario described in this story doesn’t sound right, but I have only read about rips, never seen or been in one.
There were no lifeguards, and the main heroine of this story says the police were just sitting on the beach, waiting for a rescue boat. But it sounds like these people were struggling in one place. I can’t quite picture it. Someone needs to explain this. But it’s a good story just the same.
Finally, because Alan remarked at dinner today, out of the blue, “I am not a violent person. But I find Donald Trump Jr.’s face very punchable.”
I leave you with that. Carry on.
David C. said on July 12, 2017 at 6:10 am
I’d say entitled cluelessness makes a face punchable.
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alex said on July 12, 2017 at 7:08 am
I dunno. This is looking less Corleone than it is Keystone if you ask me. I’ve been following Josh Marshall from the git-go and he has some keen insights today, as always: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-vipers-and-the-derp
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 8:08 am
https://twitter.com/johnastoehr/status/884977502820683776
It’s clear that the GOP sought Russian assistance up and down the ticket. Republican state operatives sought to open the voter rolls up to them in Florida, and Russians targeted thirty eight states. In Wisconsin, voter suppression laws account for as many as 200,000 missed votes, in a state where Trump won by 20,000.
The election is illegitimate, Gorsuch is illegitimate, the GOP is illegitimate and they’re backing Trump because is their last shot at feudalism, country be damned.
The Russians so thoroughly compromised the government at their behest there’s no recourse to Article 2 section 4. When there’s treason involved, every one of the fuckers, Pence, Trump, all the civil officers, according to the constitution, must be shitcanned.
Won’t happen when these frauds have got a foot in the door of your house. They can smell your money now, and by screaming tits of Christ they’re going to have it.
While y’all were watching that weepy little song and dance about zygotes and the flag, they took your wallet, your pants, and your pisspot. And if you don’t want to see them hang, you aren’t worth your own flag waving ass.
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Suzanne said on July 12, 2017 at 8:15 am
I read something this morning about how Don Jr’s former schoolmates pretty much all said that Don, J hated his father with a passion. That Big Don liked to whack his son, scream at him, etc. You know, pretty much the same relationship big Don had with his dad.
Would be a great bit of schadenfreude if big Don was brought down by his son over some emails.
And yet, NPR interviewed a few Trump supporters this morning who said there is nothing there, just sore loser libs whining.
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 8:23 am
If sucking up to the white trash who voted for Trump is wrong, NPR don’t want to be right. At this point, it’s like spinning plates or licking doorknobs for them.
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CInna the Poet said on July 12, 2017 at 8:27 am
Here’s a good video primer on rip currents, from Down Under:
https://youtu.be/PuAlDTC_gIQ
I don’t think Fredo-gate is going to result in anything more than a couple of cycles’ worth of headlines. It’s going to take something blindingly obvious — and very simple to understand — to persuade the majority of Americans to even sit up and take notice, let alone do something.
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ROGirl said on July 12, 2017 at 8:56 am
When he starts losing Congress, that’s it. Diehard supporters won’t turn on him, though. And he’ll go down denying everything
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Heather said on July 12, 2017 at 8:59 am
Honestly at this point I think Trump supporters could be huddled in shelters hiding from nuclear fallout and they would still be like “FAKE NEWS! Also, it was Obama’s fault.”
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Jolene said on July 12, 2017 at 9:01 am
It’s not just NPR interviewing a few people on the street that reveal continued support for Trump. Formal polls (just heard recent Gallup results) find the same thing, though there’s been some slippage from “strongly support” to “somewhat support.”
If people disregarded every horrible thing he said and did during the campaign, it’s going to take a lot to get them to back away from their votes.
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brian stouder said on July 12, 2017 at 9:17 am
I thought this was pretty good –
http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/11/media/right-wing-media-donald-trump-jr-emails-russians/index.html
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 9:19 am
You’ve heard their rationale right here on this here blog. The po trash voted for Trump because he was the last white turd standing who would scream the racist epithets they’ve been denied for so long. Their little white hearts are scarred over and over with multiple public humiliations, and only a monkey of their own haircolor could raise them up to fight alongside the people who were stealing them blind.
It takes a mighty effort to humanize the kind of people who would have attended the vast yard sales the Nazis held to dispose of the Jews’ clothing and furniture. But that’s exactly what the media’s been engaged in, trying to spin the election as a cri de coeur. They’ll be sending reporters out to flog this story until they’re being gunned into pits.
We learned everything we need to know about the soul of the white ant in the four hundred years of chattel slavery and the Nazi attempt to resurrect it in the last century. How much more needs to be written about hateful, ignorant bastards, when “They suck ass, and they’d murder you for a couple dollars” is perfectly sufficient.
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Peter said on July 12, 2017 at 9:23 am
While I would have to agree with some of the Trump regime that the revelations about the meeting don’t amount to much (the Trump campaign met with Russians who had dirt on Hillary? I had no idea…) my schadenfreude meter is in the red for two reasons:
1. You know there’s more to the story, and you know Mueller has that info and more, and you know that one day a shit tsunami the likes of which have never been seen will hit the shore and flood the swamp,
2. NY Mag has an article about the latest palace intrigue and backstabbing. So juicy. Oh, the film they’re going to be able to make out of this. Far better than the Clintons, better than the last days of Nixon. Better than Hitler’s bunker? Better than the Romanovs? Not to worry, at the rate they’re going they’ll past those milestones in no time.
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Mark P said on July 12, 2017 at 9:29 am
Doesn’t amount to much? The fact that the Trump campaign was willing to deal with Russians who had criminally hacked the US election to benefit them? That doesn’t amount to much? My, how our standards have changed.
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 9:33 am
Mark p: There’s a lot of preemptive “Let’s just kiss and make up.” out here. It’s a strain of mushmouth contrarianism.
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Sherri said on July 12, 2017 at 9:39 am
Peter, the trump campaign didn’t meet with random Russians, they met with people they knew were connected to the Russian government and wanted to influence the outcome of the election. That’s just not business as usual in a campaign, it’s a big fucking deal. Treason has a particular technical definition, and it doesn’t meet that definition, but it is clearly against the intent of everything the framers tried to build into the Constitution and illegal under campaign finance laws.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=93740
Maybe you can make the argument that Junior was too stupid to know better, but Paul Manafort certainly knows about this.
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 9:54 am
One always lies their fucking ass off when there’s nothin’ goin’ on.
https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/884878218418847747
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Suzanne said on July 12, 2017 at 10:03 am
I keep thinking of Benedict Arnold. He colluded with the British, met with British agents, and tried to hand them West Point & probably the war, but the plot failed. Is he still considered a traitor by current Republican standards?
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Deborah said on July 12, 2017 at 10:28 am
Alex, the last paragraph of your TPM link is priceless.
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Jeff Borden said on July 12, 2017 at 10:37 am
I honestly don’t believe there’s a thing that will sway hardcore supporters of the Orange King. They voted for someone who was a full-throated racist, an unrepentant sexist whose actions could easily be considered sexual assault, a scheming businessman with some 4,000 lawsuits to his name and a reputation for screwing over small business contractors and who endured five bankruptcies including two fucking casinos, a financial flop who could not get a line of credit from any American bank, an advocate for violence against the opposition and someone who openly mocked a disabled reporter and the parents of a young Muslim soldier who had given his life to save his men in Iraq.
What, exactly, would it take for them to feel remorse now when they never felt it before?
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 10:46 am
They like being lied to. Crave it. They’re the doughy cumsocks of the fourth Reich.
https://thinkprogress.org/religious-right-russia-3e80e2ea2e4a
It’s a way of life.
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Sherri said on July 12, 2017 at 10:50 am
Meanwhile, the right wing Christians like Pence waiting to take over: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/leader-of-trump-cabinet-bible-study-god-only-hears-prayers-of-righteous-christians/
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Deborah said on July 12, 2017 at 11:20 am
Nah, the Republican congress is never going to do anything, why should they when they can lower taxes for their rich supporters, they can kill the poors by kicking them off healthcare, they can defund Planned Parenthood and end a woman’s right to her own body, they can keep people stupid by ruining schools, they can put ten commandment plaques in every courthouse, they can turn back civil rights. Their dreams come true, why would they do anything to hamper that?
Hyperbole? Maybe.
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 11:56 am
I’m not shitting you,once I had someone tell me “Pence is smart.”
https://thinkprogress.org/pence-russia-meetings-non-denial-e62cfeb0ddbf
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basset said on July 12, 2017 at 12:15 pm
Distraction: Checker Motors in Kalamazoo stopped making cars on this day in 1982. The last one’s in the Gilmore Car Museum outside Grand Rapids, saw it a couple weeks ago.
And, of course, someone’s trying to revive the brand:
http://www.checkermotorcars.com
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Jeff Borden said on July 12, 2017 at 12:16 pm
It will soon be open season on journalists if this story about the latest shenanigans in the White House is accurate. . .
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-operatives-dig-up-dirt-journalists
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Scout said on July 12, 2017 at 12:38 pm
What makes Twitler’s face so punchable is that awful anus shaped kisser. IMHO
And this guy… https://twitter.com/PreetBharara/status/884635171298914308 Luh him.
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Scout said on July 12, 2017 at 12:50 pm
To clarify, my second sentence above wasn’t a continuation of the first. Two separate thoughts.
Just read this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/category-5-hurricane-white-house-under-siege-by-trump-jrs-russia-revelations/2017/07/11/1e091478-664d-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.c8f107f7278a&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1
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Suzanne said on July 12, 2017 at 1:32 pm
Part of me wonders if this is Donald Jr’s way of sticking it to his old man. Bring him down via email. I don’t think big Donald has been tweeting as much, so someone must be worried.
I hope Don Jr knows enough to not accept any invites to go fishing…
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Julie Robinson said on July 12, 2017 at 1:36 pm
Thanks for the laugh, Suzanne. I keep returning to the image of Don Sr. as the mobster, saying my boy is a “high quality person”. I can hear it and when I need a smile, I’m bringing it out.
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Jolene said on July 12, 2017 at 2:02 pm
Here’s another good Preet Bharara tweet, this one in response to 45’s report that he had “pressed” Putin about the election hacking, but he denied it.
Preet said: When pursuing a corrupt politician, mobster or murderer on strong FBI evidence, if he “vehemently denied it,” we just dropped it usually.
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Deborah said on July 12, 2017 at 2:28 pm
Here’s another good Josh Marshall of TPM piece on the Don Jr etc episode http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-big-trumpers-still-dont-get-the-trouble-theyre-in
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brian stouder said on July 12, 2017 at 3:57 pm
Deborah – that is a great link, indeed.
Ms Maddow is my daily sanity-pill
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coozledad said on July 12, 2017 at 4:18 pm
https://twitter.com/ProBirdRights/status/884882621158707201
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Sherri said on July 12, 2017 at 6:39 pm
Ross Douthat has written some stupid things before, but this may be the stupidest, concerning Game of Thrones.
https://mobile.twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/885152603180498944
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Suzanne said on July 12, 2017 at 7:04 pm
I saw the Douthat Twitter thing earlier. I have never watched GOT so I had no clue what he was talking about. The Twitter replies led me to believe no one else knew either.
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Colleen said on July 12, 2017 at 7:36 pm
I am not violent either, but there is something about the Trump brothers’ faces that makes me want to punch them. I think it’s that entitled half pouty face they have.
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Suzanne said on July 12, 2017 at 8:57 pm
Just ran across this lovely terrifying piece:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41206-misinforming-the-majority-a-deliberate-strategy-of-right-wing-libertarians
Know nothing about the credibility of this website.
And now, after reading this, I think I need to go drink.
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susan said on July 12, 2017 at 10:00 pm
I’d like to punch Ivanka, too. I’ve never punched anyone ever. But she needs her entitled pouty rebuilt face mashed. That whole damned family needs to be punched to pulp.
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Crazycatlady said on July 12, 2017 at 10:48 pm
I still say the award for ‘The Most Punchable Face’ belongs to Ted Cruz. Much hated in the Senate. Also, in Michigan City, Indiana, and Indiana Sand Dunes Park Lake Michigan has a mean rip-tide. People die there every year from undertows. They underestimate that the lake is that powerful. The beaches sometimes are closed due to the rip tides for safety. But there are always folks who don’t get it.
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coozledad said on July 13, 2017 at 6:41 am
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/885330686080675841
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alex said on July 13, 2017 at 7:30 am
Suzanne, I can’t remember where it was, but I read about James McGill Buchanan for the first time recently and also came away astounded. I suspect this is a subject that will be getting more press in the near future.
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susan said on July 13, 2017 at 9:39 am
Alex, Nancy MacLean was recently on Democracy Now!. She just published her book, “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” that details the work of James McGill Buchanan. He distilled the foundation of what the Amurkkkan Right has been up to for at least forty years. The destruction of our Democracy.
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LAMary said on July 13, 2017 at 9:52 am
I’m not advocating violence against women, but I’d say Melania is punchable. Imagine working in retail and having her as a customer. The squint, the scowl, the whole “why do I have to be here” look. At least a smack in the face is called for.
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Deborah said on July 13, 2017 at 10:50 am
If Don jr even reads https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/donald-trump-jr-reviews-famous-works-of-literature
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Heather said on July 13, 2017 at 11:13 am
Martin Shkreli is the ultimate punchable face IMO. I would also add any and all of Trump’s lawyers to this list. And Mitch McConnell.
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coozledad said on July 13, 2017 at 11:38 am
https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/885519808841863169
The Russians have video of this racist dwarf drinking piss out of a shoe, after asking for a double. Making Alabama Gargle Agin.
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Suzanne said on July 13, 2017 at 12:22 pm
Surely it can’t be legal what Sessions is doing? Can it? If it is, every criminal in the world will be saying “invasion of privacy” for any subpoena. Sure, it’s an invasion of privacy, but that’s the point.
But then, any law is pointless if no one is willing to enforce it.
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Suzanne said on July 13, 2017 at 12:50 pm
Now, I’m going to be expecting Sessions to say “I’m a retired investor living on a pension…”
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Sherri said on July 13, 2017 at 1:02 pm
I’m thinking back to all the people who told me “maybe it won’t be as bad as you think” and “you should give trump a chance” and I’m beyond wanting to say I told you so. I want to say get off your ass and do something, otherwise, go away.
Actually, that’s the polite version of what I want to say.
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coozledad said on July 13, 2017 at 1:53 pm
Its just more treason in defense of racism. All these dookydrawered white fuckers ever do is repeat themselves.
Nixon, Reagan, every last one of them. And the windowlicking bastards who vote for them, or push the latest flavor of Naderite horseshit, just hand them their wallets.
When these people talk about “defending western culture” they must be talking about the culture of pervasive infucking and ass snorting, because there’s no literacy, moral, or cultural, among them.
It’s a bunch of witless pink apes blowing gobs of chewing tobacco on the pavement.
I can’t think of worthier candidates for what the Russians are planning to do to us. Sadly, most people were better than these traitors in November, and they’re the ones who both defended and lost the great promise of this country. I still nurse a hope that the military will turn on these traitors and flush them out, but they, along with the cops and the white trash prison population, have been heavily infiltrated by white nationalists loyal to Putin as well.
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Connie said on July 13, 2017 at 2:08 pm
For those who loved Lincoln in the Bardo, it is a finalist for an award:
The Center for Fiction has released the long list for its 2017 First Novel Prize, “awarded to the best debut novel published between January 1 and December 31 of the award year.” Nominees of genre interest include:
Spaceman of Bohemia, Jaroslav Kalfar (Little, Brown)
The Lucky Ones, Julianne Pachico (Spiegel & Grau)
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders (Random House)
Empire of Glass, Kaitlin Solimine (Ig)
Temporary People, Deepak Unnikrishnan (Restless)
The long list is selected from publisher submissions by a jury of writers. This year’s jury panel consists of Sonya Chung, Kia Corthron, Anne Landsman, Fiona Maazel, and Rick Moody, who will also choose the short list and winner. The short list will be announced in September 2017 and the winner will be announced during the Center’s Annual Benefit & Awards Dinner, December 5, 2017 at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. The winning author receives $10,000. Each shortlisted author receives $1,000.
For more information, including a complete list of nominees, see the Center for Fiction’s website.
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Kim said on July 13, 2017 at 4:43 pm
Connie, thank you for that. I think I need another 10 days off this administration’s merry-go-round.
From the NYT story about the French meeting today: At one point when the two presidential couples were together, Mr. Trump told Mrs. Macron, “You’re in such good shape.”
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Jakash said on July 13, 2017 at 5:26 pm
Kim,
“Trump: [sees woman] You’re hot. [realizes her husband is right there] Hey man your wife is hot.”
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/885590455609683968
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coozledad said on July 13, 2017 at 7:13 pm
Person who has a cardiovasular ailment resulting in chronic shortness of breath chooses to die by suffocation? Leaves a note saying NO FOUL PLAY. Ten days after interview where he admitted trying to obtain Clinton emails from Russian hackers?
Death reported as Natural causes?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-peter-smith-death-met-0713-20170713-story.html
On a positive note, a lot more Trump campaign people will be turning up in canals and dumpsters from natural causes. And as far as suicide goes, it’s easier to throw yourself out of a window after you’ve cut your throat.
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coozledad said on July 13, 2017 at 7:20 pm
Marc Kasowitz, consigliere.
https://twitter.com/ProPublica/status/885602418767142912
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Kim said on July 13, 2017 at 9:11 pm
This pit really is bottomless, isn’t it?
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alex said on July 13, 2017 at 9:22 pm
Looks like our blue dog is about to get thrashed for acting too much like a Republican. This time not by Democrats but by Republicans, naturally…
http://journalgazette.net/article/20170713/WEB/170719947
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alex said on July 13, 2017 at 9:27 pm
And in other local news, a local pill mill physician got arrested in full makeup:
http://wane.com/2017/07/13/fort-wayne-doc-2-pharmacists-indicted-in-nationwide-takedown/
Could pass for Martina Navratilova if he’d wipe some of it off.
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