The OMG Show.

I expect we’re all going to want to talk about today’s J6 hearing in comments, so I’ll keep this brief.

You know what detail pierced me the most? The one that rang truest, for better or worse? When Cassidy Hutchinson saw the valet going to clean up after the president’s temper tantrum, she grabbed a towel to help. She was aide to the White House chief of staff, but when she saw a mess she did what every woman — or almost every woman, at least the ones with mothers like mine — automatically does: She moved to clean it up. Because women are raised to clean up after themselves, and everybody else. I know there are exceptions, but I never check out of a hotel room without making sure no one left a wet towel on the bed, that all the dirty towels are in a pile for easy pickup, and any trash is in the wastebasket, etc. And I leave a tenner for the maid.

I’m also 1,000 percent convinced that this pig we allowed into the White House has been violent with every woman unfortunate enough to get close to him, including his own daughter. The story Ivana told about him raping her because he was mad his stupid hair-fixing surgery went wrong? I always took that with a grain of salt, because she’s as vile and stupid as he is, but not any more. A man who throws plates against the wall like an infant is capable of much worse violence. As we’re so often told, rape is violence, not sex, and it makes perfect sense that’s how he’d express himself.

A man in his 70s, physically attacking his own security detail. Imagine that.

I know it’s fashionable to beat up on Maggie Haberman, without whom we wouldn’t know a fraction of much of what we know about Trump, but indulge me here:

And:

At least some of the help is turning on their old bosses. Hi, Melania:

Again, not that Stephanie Grisham is anyone to admire. I’m struck, over and over again, how low the bar has fallen that we elevate a woman who went to work for Mark Meadows as a heroine, but a heroine she is.

The world makes no sense to me anymore. Let’s talk about it.

Posted at 5:17 pm in Current events |
 

36 responses to “The OMG Show.”

  1. Heather said on June 28, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    All those people–mostly men–had the chance to come clean and it was a young woman that did it. Not right away, mind you. She’s no hero. But she’ll likely be paying for her bravery for the rest of her life, and I respect that.

    I was also chilled by the mob-like language in the text messages telling her that Trump would be watching and hoping she did the right thing.

    Will this mean anyone will actually be accountable? Still a big if in my book.

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  2. Scout said on June 28, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    ‘The rioters have gotten into the Capitol, Mark, we need to go down and see the president now.’ And Mark looked up [from his phone] and said ‘He doesn’t want to do anything, Pat.”‘

    Talk about a smoking gun. And this one:

    “…I overheard the president say something to the effect of, ‘You know, I don’t even care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,’ ” Hutchinson said.

    Trump then got onstage and repeatedly told his supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol.”

    This testimony definitely falls under the category of bombshell.

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  3. brian stouder said on June 28, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Agreed on all points thus far. As a newly-retired guy, I watched a large chunk of the proceedings today, and indeed, if this was the turn-of-events in a movie (10 years ago) it would have been a sarcastic comedy (at best)….or a darkly pessimistic comedy (MASH plus Dr Strangelove)

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  4. Peter said on June 28, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    Nancy, one sentence you wrote has really made me rethink today’s testimony: “A man in his 70’s, physically attacking his own security detail…” When I heard Cassidy live, I was imagining a Harrison Ford type president in full testosterone rage, leaping over the seat to grab the steering wheel so he can drive to Capitol Hill and Make America Great Again!!!

    Now that I read Nancy’s sentence, let’s imagine what really happened: It wasn’t Harrison Ford, it was C. Montgomery Burns. Lunging for that Secret Service agent’s clavicle? More likely it was repeated blows to his shoulder that weren’t even noticed. When Ms. Hutchinson was talking about that scene in her office with the agents, she should have included the part where they were laughing about it because it was so pathetic.

    And the food/plates/tablecloth? It sounded like the Angry CEO throwing his food like a shot-put, filling his aides with terror and hidden admiration. On second thought, he was like an old gorilla who’s no longer in charge, and he’s half assed tossing poo on the walls for old times sake. I bet the tablecloth was tucked in his crotch like a napkin, and he forgot about it when he left the table. Again.

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  5. susan said on June 28, 2022 at 7:01 pm

    Ms Hutchinson may not be a heroine, but she is 25 years old. What was anyone here like at 25? If I had a job in the White House at that age, that would have been such a score, if that was a goal. Her life experiences could not have possibly readied her for the real shit-show going on around her, with truly shitty people, most being her “superiors,” and men, at that. I admire what she did today. I could not have done that, with poise, no stammering, and useful descriptive narratives.

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  6. apocalipstick said on June 28, 2022 at 7:06 pm

    I believe the same thing about Ms. Hutchinson as I did VP Pence: they did not act to ‘save democracy’, but out of fear that their bodies would never be found. Pence ‘wasn’t getting in that car’ because he was afraid no one would ever see him again.

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  7. Scout said on June 28, 2022 at 7:06 pm

    What susan said. I think she was very poised and self possessed for someone so young. I couldn’t be so articulate at my current age much less when I was 25.

    https://twitter.com/ScoutVotesBlue/status/1541899068942610432?s=20&t=f9fjKINPZBktwF-QOc6oGA

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  8. Suzanne said on June 28, 2022 at 7:18 pm

    I wasn’t the least bit surprised about Trump throwing plates. I have been following Noel Casler Comedy on Twitter for several years (@caslernoel). Mr Casler worked on the set of The Apprentice and has stories, none of which are flattering. Says Trump is a drug addict, wears Depends because he can’t control his bowels when he get enraged, and is generally really infantile and stupid. Apparently threw stuff at people all the time.

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  9. Dorothy said on June 28, 2022 at 7:18 pm

    Heather those “mob-like” text messages were not necessarily directed at Ms Hutchinson. Liz Cheney, when she talked about those intimidating messages before they were shown on screen, said she was not going to reveal who had shared that information with the Committee. Those two messages were examples of intimidation received by others who had testified. And yes it COULD have been Ms. Hutchinson who got one or both of those messages, but that’s not how I understood Liz Cheney laid it all out.

    I watched every second of the hearing and nothing could have kept me away. On NBC news tonight Peter Alexander stated that two Secret Service agents had already given prior testimony to the Committee (not publicly) and had not described anyone lunging for the steering wheel or assaulting an agent. Yeah right. I’m sure it’s in their contract/job description that they are forbidden to tell about situations like that. Not that anything like that has ever happened in a Presidential motorcade before. God I sure HOPE it hasn’t…!

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  10. Dorothy said on June 28, 2022 at 7:40 pm

    Correction – the Secret Service agents are PREPARED to testify under oath about that ride in the limo. They have not testified yet.

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  11. Scout said on June 28, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    US Secret Service statement:

    “U.S. Secret Service has been cooperating with the Select Committee since its inception in spring 2021, and will continue to do so, including by responding on the record to the Committee regarding the new allegations surfaced in today’s testimony.”

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  12. Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 8:32 pm

    Wondered if Ms Hutchison was a graduate of Liberty University or Hillsdale or one of those types, I looked her up on Wikipedia and she graduated from Christopher Newport University in Newport News VA which when it was founded in 1964 was an extension of William and Mary. She graduated with a BA in 2019. She must have had influential parents or something to get a job in the White House so young.

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  13. Julie Robinson said on June 28, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    Deborah, I read that she’s a first generation college grad, which would make an influential family unlikely.

    There were so many bombshells today, but one made me audibly gasp. Former General Michael Flynn, who has been pardoned, nonetheless finds it necessary to take the Fifth repeatedly. Including when asked if he supported the orderly transfer of power.

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  14. Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 9:28 pm

    Well good for Ms. Hutchinson for being a first generation college grad and getting such a lucrative internship and job. That’s impressive, also it makes me think a little bit more of her as to why she would take a position with the Trump administration when she’s so obviously intelligent. It was probably such an amazing opportunity to her if she’s from humble beginnings. She undoubtedly learned a lot and made connections with highly influential people, that must have been too hard to pass up.

    It turns out that the restaurant Eastwood was nabbed at was not the one I thought but it turns out it’s even closer to us in Santa Fe. It was a mediocre Mexican Restaurant called Valentina’s in a nondescript strip mall. Eastman has been living in Santa Fe since 2008 or 9 and at first lived in a modest apartment on the Southside, later bought a house. Snobs in Santa Fe look down their noses at the Southside, because it’s not in the historic areas or in the foothills of the mountains. It’s more newly developed with suburban type housing and corporate retail.

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  15. Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 10:25 pm

    It’s not that late here MDT but I’m exhausted. I clenched my jaw and stiffened my neck and shoulders so much during the hearing today, I feel like I did major physical work and I can’t wait to go to bed. But of course I want to read a bit more online about the analysis of what was said and what that means for the country.

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  16. Ann said on June 28, 2022 at 11:45 pm

    This was actually the first hearing I watched. I found it utterly convincing, but I felt that way about the impeachment trials too, and look where that got us. I was particularly struck by the video of the weasley General Flynn refusing to say if the violence at the Capitol was legally or even morally wrong. I also found myself wondering about the admissibility in court of her descriptions of the conversations and events in the beast. She didn’t witness them herself, but I remember some vague exception to the hearsay rule if a person with direct knowledge didn’t contradict the story when you would expect that they would. Of course people who’ve taken evidence more recently than I have already weighed in. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/28/cassidy-hutchinson-jan-6-testimony-00042985 Breitbart, which I won’t link on principle, suggests otherwise. Not a surprise there.

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  17. Sherri said on June 29, 2022 at 12:35 am

    On a different topic, The Needling is a Seattle-specific satire site like The Onion. They particularly nailed this article on Republican legacy politician and candidate in Washington’s 8th Congressional District, Reagan Dunn: https://theneedling.com/2022/05/07/only-anti-choice-king-county-councilmember-still-kinda-hoping-only-local-right-wing-nutjobs-know-who-he-is/

    Thing is, among the other Republican candidates, he’s probably the least nutty. I don’t even live in the 8th, but I’m driving by signs for two other candidates in the 8th with slogans of “Make Crime Illegal Again” and “America First”.

    The seat is currently held by Dr. Kim Schrier.

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  18. Diane said on June 29, 2022 at 12:39 am

    Just finished a night of very uneventful election judging in the primary here. It was very disheartening to see that there are over 1000 people here in my little county who voted for Tina Peters (former Mesa County, CO Clerk & Recorder now charged with multiple interfering with an election offenses fame) in the contested Republican primary for CO Secretary of State. She lost here and statewide but I find it very distressing that there are 1000 people here who think it is a good idea for her to run the state’s elections.

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  19. Dexter Friend said on June 29, 2022 at 1:07 am

    I watched it live and then hours of dissection on MSNBC. Harry Litman laid out 5 felonious charges that eventually Garland can deal with if he chooses. So one question was answered for me, why is not Garland launching an investigation into Trump? The discussion then seemed to turn to this: Garland isn’t going to say anything, do anything, until the best law-brains in this nation assure him any and all appeals will fall flat, because if Trump is convicted of anything at all and has it overturned in appellate court, Trump wins and his many millions of followers will unite into who-know-what kind of movement. American democracy is at risk, no doubt. California Congressman Adam Schiff said he knows of no investigation of former President Trump scheduled or even discussed. Yeah. That’s right. And so, day by day the mid-terms approach. The polls show Democratic gains, but history dictates the party out of power in The White House nearly always gain, and gain big.

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  20. Mark P said on June 29, 2022 at 9:14 am

    Given the proclivities of the Former Guy, I suspect that Ms Hutchison’s most compelling qualification to work down the hall from the Oval Office was her appearance. They probably had to make an exception for hair color.

    I hope that makes her testimony sting all the more.

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  21. Jeff Borden said on June 29, 2022 at 9:55 am

    The MAGAts are on the march in Illinois.

    A downstate grain farmer named Darren Bailey –who is pro-tRump, pro-NRA, anti-abortion, loudly christian and describes my city as a “hellhole”– won the QOP primary for governor over more moderate choices including the black mayor of Aurora, who was bankrolled to the tune of $50 million by the richest man in Illinois. Interestingly, the Democratic Governors Assn. and the sitting governor, J.B. Pritzker, spent millions tarring the Aurora mayor because they see Bailey as easier to defeat this fall. We’ll see.

    More depressing to me was seeing a truly horrible downstate tRumpanzee, Mary Miller, defeat a merely extremely conservative fellow named Rodney Davis. Miller previously attracted attention for an admiring mention of Adolf Hitler, while last weekend at a rally headlined by tRump himself, said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was “a victory for white life.” Her spokesperson said she misspoke and meant “a victory for right to life,” but nah. She’s a straight up cracker.

    I have no particular love for Illinois Democrats. Our state is bedeviled by corruption and cronyism at all levels. One party rule is not a good thing, whether it is in Illinois or Texass. But I’ll be damned if I’ll cast a vote for ANY QOPer until the party disavows its orange idol and returns to the fact and evidence based world. I don’t see that happening any time soon.

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  22. Deborah said on June 29, 2022 at 10:27 am

    I’m just happy that Andrew Giuliani (spelling?) lost his primary. Sorry that Boebert won hers but not surprised. I hope whoever is running against her wins. Also Mary Miller is awful, but again not surprised she won. Red scourge.

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  23. Jim said on June 29, 2022 at 10:41 am

    IQ4.5, being bald on the top of his head, lets his hair around his ears grow down to his waist and then combs it up and over his head to become a fringe . Be interesting, if while asleep, someone cut it off .

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  24. Bitter Scribe said on June 29, 2022 at 11:33 am

    So funny to see Richard Irvin flounder in Illinois. All of Peter Griffin’s money couldn’t make the Downstate crackers forget that he’s Black.

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  25. Sherri said on June 29, 2022 at 11:48 am

    Lost in all the other news is how SCOTUS not only ignored the law but the facts in the praying football coach case, painting it as a quiet personal prayer. It was anything but, and never intended as such.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/the-myth-at-the-heart-of-the-praying-bremerton-coach-case/

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  26. Icarus said on June 29, 2022 at 11:53 am

    So for a little levity…especially for the cat lovers on this site.

    The other day I’m doing laundry and I put the load from the washer into the dryer. Before doing so, I take a blanket out of the dryer (from the previous load) and walk not 10 yards away to put it on the sectional.

    Close the door and hit start. A few minutes later I happen to walk by and hear a thumping. I open the dryer and see my cat had gotten in there without me noticing. Luckily it had only been 5 minutes and though he was gasping like he was out of breath, he’s fine now, though it took a day before he would purr.

    We laugh now but I shudder to think what would have happened if I didn’t notice for the entire 30 minutes.

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  27. David C said on June 29, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    Oh Icarus. I live in fear that one of our guys will try that. They’re a couple of sneak thieves and could easily slip in without us noticing. Glad it turned out OK.

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  28. Heather said on June 29, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    Ack, Icarus! That kind of thing is my nightmare and is why I am OCD about things like making sure my cat hasn’t sneaked out the door when I leave.

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  29. basset said on June 29, 2022 at 7:15 pm

    Mrs. B is a former veterinary tech and saw several dryer cats. Most of em didn’t survive.

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  30. Jeff Gill said on June 29, 2022 at 8:23 pm

    I had completely forgotten that there was an Andy Griffith Show ep where he & Miss Crump get trapped in a cave.

    In other news, you really don’t want to hear what a 93 year old thinks about all of this. Especially not repeated five or fifteen times a day. I do sneak out in my car and get groceries & prescriptions to listen to Sirius XM; Claire McCaskill has made the point on MSNBC that it could be worse to see Trump charged but not convicted, and it might be better to simply put as many people all around him behind bars as possible, but my wife & I do find our hopes are still tied to the chance that an orange jumpsuit might make an interesting contrast to his hair color & “complexion.” Garland must curse McConnell every day and twice on Sunday that he is stuck making these kinds of decisions as AG and not as a justice of the Supreme Court.

    Hat tip to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson stepping aboard the crazy train tomorrow at noon, though! Long may she wave.

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  31. alex said on June 29, 2022 at 9:59 pm

    Yes, Jeff, it would be quite a shock getting used to seeing orange on his torso instead of his pasty face. And no AquaNet as it’s contraband that the inmates would snort.

    Dryer cats really is a thing. A friend in Chicago used to chase cats out of the laundry room in his apartment building in Edgewater. He stopped using the laundry room altogether after a load of clothing got ruined by cat piss on the high heat setting.

    So red states want to criminalize getting an abortion out-of-state using the snitch system introduced by Texas: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/29/abortion-state-lines/

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  32. Dexter Friend said on June 30, 2022 at 2:19 am

    https://www.today.com/video/british-tennis-star-praised-for-helping-ball-boy-at-wimbledon-142982213740 A simple act of kindness, as she knew the ball boy was in distress, probably low blood sugar or heat exhaustion. I have had a few episodes of this sort when “my” old doctor had me on a too-high dosage of blood-sugar lowering medicine. It makes you feel like you are dying, it’s awful.

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  33. brian stouder said on June 30, 2022 at 2:25 pm

    Alex, I’ve got absolutely zero legal scholarship*, but if I thought I knew any damn thing, it would be that @$@?!! states within the United States canNOT supersede/criminalize otherwise-legal behavior in other states…..but then again, I also used to think ‘conservatives’ generally believed in ‘rule of law’ rather than mob-rule. Imagine how the national Republican/“conservative”/Rush Limbaugh crowd of folks from just a decade ago would have reacted if Obama had lost his re-election bid, and a know-nothing, ‘rule or ruin’ mob of thousands descended on the capitol, and killed police…….Sean Hannity (et al) would be foaming at the mouth (more than usual, that is!) while ruminating about the forgotten public good that a lynch-mob could perform

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  34. Sherri said on June 30, 2022 at 3:25 pm

    This SCOTUS session has demonstrated that there is no longer a rule of law, there is only Calvinball by 6 conservative justices. There is no Constitution you can read, there is no prior case law that matters, hell, not even the facts of the case matter, all that matters is what those 6 justices want today.

    Imagine you are a school superintendent today, after the Kennedy v. Bremerton ruling. You have a teacher that begins each class with the Lord’s Prayer. What do you do? Ask him to stop, sure, but when he refuses? Fire him, and face an inevitable lawsuit? What history and tradition are you supposed to rely on to make the decision? The Founders’ extensive experience with public schools?

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  35. LAMary said on June 30, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    The public schools in my hometown in NJ got a little famous when prayer was banned back in the sixties. All the Dutch Reformed types were refusing to stop starting the school day with prayer. They were protesting in the streets. The NY local news was all over the town. The town isn’t nearly as Dutch as it was so I doubt if anyone there will care about praying on the football field.

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  36. Deborah said on June 30, 2022 at 4:08 pm

    I went to a hearing at the Rio Arriba County building where there was a hearing about a neighbor who was running an unlicensed dog rescue and she was treating the dogs terribly keeping them in the hot sun all day and allowing them to get out and spook some other neighbors’ horses. One of the County commissioners started the meeting with a prayer that ended “…in Jesus name, amen.” I was astonished. By the way neighbor had to give up the dog shelter, thank goodness.

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