Fresh thread.

I suppose we will need a fresh thread for the Congressional shooting. Here it is.

Posted at 8:57 am in Current events |
 

57 responses to “Fresh thread.”

  1. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 9:07 am

    And now with House Majority Whip and his aides being shot, is it time for you to reconsider your incendiary, violent rhetoric about “targeting” congressional districts and putting Republicans in the “crosshairs” like when everyone lost their collective shit when Gabby Gifford got shot. Or will you double down and pluck a quote from your hero Hillary… “What does it matter?!?!”

    Utter incoherence from previous thread, from a supposed anti gun pro gun nut party whackjob.

    Prolonged cognitive dissonance really fucks with yo’ mind.

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  2. Heather said on June 14, 2017 at 9:16 am

    I would just point out that Sarah Palin famously used the image of actual crosshairs to target Democrats just a few years ago.

    Sadly, I don’t think this will cause anyone to rethink their positions on gun control. It will probably cause legislators to clamp down on our freedoms even more.

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  3. Danny said on June 14, 2017 at 9:41 am

    Heather and Harry Mitchell used crosshair imagery (superimposed on J.D. Jayworth) in the following 2006 politcal ad:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epdJWNA65oY&feature=related

    And of course the DCCC used bullseye imagery in the links below:

    http://postonpolitics.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2010/04/08/democrats-our-bullseye-targets-on-house-districts-are-not-like-palins-crosshair-targets/

    http://kerfuffles.blogspot.com/2011/01/dems-targeting-republicans-with-gun.html

    And in 2008 there was then-candidate Obama’s quote” ““If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said in Philadelphia last night. “Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.””

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2008/06/obama-brings-a-gun-to-a-knife-fight-009692

    So lots of violent rhetoric to go around. Fun times.

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    • nancy said on June 14, 2017 at 9:45 am

      If this is the direction we’re going in, I’m deleting the post and all the comments. STOP IT. It isn’t important.

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  4. 4dbirds said on June 14, 2017 at 9:52 am

    Thoughts and prayers.

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  5. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 9:55 am

    https://twitter.com/kira_lerner/status/874980818795593729

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  6. Icarus said on June 14, 2017 at 10:18 am

    What is the appropriate reaction here? I don’t know anything about this person, he probably is a complete GOP dick, but did he deserve to get shot like this? In one of my private Facebook resistance groups the snarky comments are flowing and some of the remarks don’t make Leftys look any better than Righty. I’m not sure if I should say something or just let everyone get it out of their system privately.

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  7. Sherri said on June 14, 2017 at 10:28 am

    I think it’s terrible when anyone is shot. I also believe that restrictions on gun ownership are not incompatible with a reasonable interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, and that thoughts and prayers and talk about improving mental health services will not change things. Rep. Scalise disagrees with my positions, being a proud owner of an A+ rating from the NRA.

    That does not mean he deserved to be shot. Perhaps he forgot to take his gun along with his glove out to second base. I’m sorry, is that too glib? With a man who promotes the idea that the murder of school children in Sandy Hook was a hoax scheduled to go on national TV in a few days, my sympathy is in a little short supply right now.

    I hope Rep. Scalise makes a full recovery. I also hope that he is moved to take action to prevent other people from getting shot.

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  8. Suzanne said on June 14, 2017 at 10:43 am

    My first thought when I heard about the shooting was that it’s too bad those baseball players weren’t packing heat. Oh, wait. There were armed guards right there and still people got shot. Had the shooter had an AR-15 or something similar, they’d all have been dead before the security guy got his gun out of the holster.
    My second thought was that I hoped the shooter was not an immigrant or minority.
    My third thought was a full on conspiracy theory which I won’t even say, but I’m sure the chatter about JB Sessions has waned, hasn’t it?

    Now, my thoughts are with the people wounded and hope they are all ok.

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  9. Heather said on June 14, 2017 at 10:47 am

    I don’t think anyone deserves to be shot. Gabby Giffords didn’t either. Maybe we need some PSAs about what bullets do to human tissue. Because even if you survive, you’re probably going to be dealing with the effects for the rest of your life. There was a heartbreaking story posted here a couple years about about one of the students shot at a college in Oregon–she survived, but the physical, emotional, and mental effects were horrible. Wish I could find the link.

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  10. Suzanne said on June 14, 2017 at 10:58 am

    Shooter is a 66 yr old white guy from Illinois.
    Need an Illinois travel ban now, for sure. That will mess up air travel through O’Hare, but what can you do?

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  11. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 11:27 am

    Berniebro. Anti-Hillary. In some ways the perfect candidate to set fire to the Reichstag, because they’re already claiming he’s representative of the resistance to Trumpism.

    Get ready for major abridgments of the right to assemble, free speech, and 14th amendment guarantees, courtesy the stalking horse brought to us by the Republican party.

    We had a Berniebro running for the NC Senate from Person County. He was mentally unstable, with dark right wing tendencies. My wife and I initially were funding his campaign, but cut him off when he started posting Breitbart shit about Hillary. He still insisted on showing up at Dem headquarters to try and use the button making machine, or horf up snacks and sodas we kept for the volunteers. He was a portly exceedingly white hairless fucker who alienated everybody as soon as he opened that 23 year old yap.

    I’ve heard Republicans right here on this here blog pimping Bernie in the early days. He will always be useful to them.

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  12. Deborah said on June 14, 2017 at 11:29 am

    This incident makes me furious. Why does it have to come down to violence? It solves nothing. Guns plus testosterone.

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  13. Judybusy said on June 14, 2017 at 11:33 am

    I am glad no one died. No matter the target, these shootings are horrible. As ya’ll know, James Brady became an advocate of gun control after he was shot.

    I also want to go on the record that I am sickened that Alex Jones is getting that interview.

    In the Twin Cities, we are anxiously awaiting the verdict on the Philando Castille shooting.

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  14. Sherri said on June 14, 2017 at 11:42 am

    Right, it was just about the wording of the resolution.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-southern-baptist-convention-alt-right-white-supremacy/530244/

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  15. Bitter Scribe said on June 14, 2017 at 11:48 am

    Reagan didn’t change his mind about gun control when he got shot, so these guys probably won’t either. They’re consistent, give them that. Consistently stupid.

    Ditto Judybusy about the Alex Jones interview. I never had any use for Megyn Kelly. Unlike the people I referenced in my first sentence, she’s capable of coming around to humane positions on some issues, as long as they affect her personally. She was against mandated maternal leave until she had children; she was dismissive of sexual harassment claims until the late Roger Ailes started creeping on her. If, God forbid, one of her kids ever gets shot at school, I doubt she’ll have Alex Jones on her show again.

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  16. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 12:00 pm

    Berniebro also obsessed with Seth Rich/pizzagate conspiracies. So Alex Jones is in the mix, too. Nice.

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  17. Heather said on June 14, 2017 at 12:09 pm

    Rep. Steve King is blaming the left for violence. What a surprise.

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  18. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 12:17 pm

    Steve King’s Democratic opponent dropped out of the race because she was receiving death threats. He needs to shut his fascist mouth.

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  19. Jeff Borden said on June 14, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    Nothing will happen. If the massacre of young children at Sandy Hook didn’t move the needle, the wounding of a Congresscritter won’t either.

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  20. Dorothy said on June 14, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    I can’t stand seeing all this finger pointing and arguing on here. I know it’s the way things go around here but sometimes I’d just like to yell at a bunch of you. We have more in common than we realize and sometimes we need to stop saying shitty things to each other. And as upsetting as this morning’s shooting was, I can’t help but feel a little bit happy. We’re getting a new dog. Here’s a picture of her. I’m going to go pay the fees tomorrow morning after my dentist appointment. Her name is going to be Nestle, because she looks like the color of Quik, which I keep on hand when I want some chocolate milk. I drink milk a lot, not usually chocolate. Hope Nestle is excited to meet me tomorrow. I’m hardly going to sleep tonight.

    http://petharbor.com/detail.asp?ID=A040514&LOCATION=MCOH&searchtype=LOST&start=4&grid=1&friends=1&samaritans=1&nosuccess=0&rows=100&imght=120&imgres=thumb&tWidth=200&view=sysadm.v_animal&fontface=arial&fontsize=10&miles=20&shelterlist=%27MCOH%27&atype=&where=type_dog

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  21. Deborah said on June 14, 2017 at 1:57 pm

    Oh Dorothy, that is so sweet. She’s adorable.

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  22. Charlotte said on June 14, 2017 at 2:41 pm

    There’s cell phone video. It is a VERY long 2:39 …
    https://nypost.com/2017/06/14/the-moment-the-gop-shooter-opened-fire/?utm_campaign=iosapp&utm_source=twitter_app

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  23. Judybusy said on June 14, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    Dorothy, that is great! Congratulations on your new family member. I do think we need to live our happy moments while doing all we can politically. Be sure to get pics here if you can and provide lots of updates!

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  24. Sherri said on June 14, 2017 at 3:17 pm

    This mass shooting will get lost in the noise of the one in VA, but it’s just another day in America: http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Police-swarm-UPS-building-in-SF-on-report-of-11219519.php#photo-13089256

    Maybe the problem isn’t political rhetoric or terrorism or mental health or lack of thoughts and prayers.

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  25. alex said on June 14, 2017 at 3:28 pm

    Pretty puppy. I miss having a dog, but we’re home so little that it just wouldn’t be fair to adopt one right now.

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  26. Julie Robinson said on June 14, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    Aww, Nestle is adorable, and I need something happy after two shootings and the horrible fire in London. Thanks for the reset, Dorothy.

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  27. David C. said on June 14, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    This is the world they vote time and again to live in. Like a smoker who is so surprised to find they have lung cancer, these are the seeds they’ve sown. I have a hard time mustering much sympathy.

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  28. Kim said on June 14, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    You know, I can’t read the reactions of elected officials who were there like Rand Paul, who called the ballfield a “killing field,” and not just wonder where the fuck were you when 20 six- and seven-year-olds plus six of their teachers/staff were gunned down at school? I agree with the earlier comment that if our laws didn’t change after 20 children were killed at school, we are pathetically incapable of that sort of change.

    The gunman is from my husband’s hometown (a shitty hole above ground not known for its liberal ways)and lived on a nice plot of land about a mile straight down the road from the in-laws.

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  29. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    Yeee hawww.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-is-investigating-trump-for-possible-obstructi

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  30. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 6:48 pm

    Functional link:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wapo-report-special-counsel-investigating-trump-obstructing-justice

    Shortly before or after Trump fired Comey, someone from the CIA told a reporter “He’s going to die in jail.” He can fire anyone he wants, but he pissed off the company. Going down.

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  31. Charlotte said on June 14, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    Kim, I’m with you. I just want to send every one of those GOP house members who are shocked! frightened! pictures of those little kids from Sandy Hook. And that asshole who instigated this campaign of hatred against their parents. Blood boiling.

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  32. Deborah said on June 14, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    Kim, I was going to say something about where the gunman was from, but you said it all. It’s across the river from St. Louis, I was actually wondering for a split second if I might know the guy since I lived in St. Louis for about 23 years. There are lotsa nut jobs around there, believe me.

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  33. Sherri said on June 14, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    This is the most reasonable thing I’ve read on the Megan Kelly interview: http://variety.com/2017/tv/columns/megyn-kelly-alex-jones-nbc-1202465891/

    There are possible contexts in which an interview with Alex Jones might be done and be done well, but Megan Kelly is unlikely to provide that.

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  34. Suzanne said on June 14, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    I agree with that Megyn Kelley piece. I don’t have a problem with an interview with some lunatic. Charles Manson was interviewed, the guy who killed John Lennon, and other awful sorts. But I have no faith that MK would do anything but look pretty and lob powderpuff questions at him. This is, after all, the woman who told about having to hire security guards to protect her from Trump people but didn’t do so until after the votes were in. She is not credible as a reporter. I am not sure what NBC was thinking.

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  35. Suzanne said on June 14, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    But then again, didn’t NBC put on that horrific Peter Pan live with a high or drunk Captain Hook and lost boys that seemed more like men about to open Neverland’s first gay bar than boys in search of a mother figure?
    So, good judgement at NBC is not apparently a thing.

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  36. alex said on June 14, 2017 at 8:38 pm

    What was NBC thinking? That people are stupid, they like tits and ass and snake oil, and they’ll empty their pockets for a shit show like this one.

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  37. Julie Robinson said on June 14, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    Rand Paul tweet from June 23, 2016, “Why do we have a Second Amendment? It’s not to shoot deer. It’s to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!” http://www.mediaite.com/online/a-year-ago-rand-paul-tweeted-that-2nd-amendment-exists-to-shoot-at-the-government/ I would love to hear his explanation.

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  38. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    Keith Richards’ paramour Vita Sackville-West has died.

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  39. alex said on June 14, 2017 at 10:23 pm

    Cooz, I didn’t know she liked dick too, but I’m astounded that he has outlived her.

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  40. coozledad said on June 14, 2017 at 10:25 pm

    Alex: He gets the furniture.

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  41. Dexter said on June 15, 2017 at 3:46 am

    The crack of the bat morphed into the sharp retort from an AK-47. As one who has felt the survival rush at the sound of Kalashnikov fire aimed to kill me and my buddy Frank many years ago, yesterday will change those Republican ballplayers forever…you never forget it, ever. Still…ain’t nuthin’ gonna change and we all know it. The nation easily could have had a dozen or twenty Congressmen wasted yesterday. Two security bodyguards, heavily armed, saved the day. (Frank survived Vietnam and died in 2012, age 62, in his beloved Ann Arbor)

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  42. coozledad said on June 15, 2017 at 7:58 am

    https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/875166972614516737

    Watch for these in any upcoming hearings.

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  43. Jenine said on June 15, 2017 at 9:13 am

    Nancy I hope you can get rid of the summer crud quickly. I am hearing about various friends and acquaintances that all have a bad version of the summer cold.

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  44. LAMary said on June 15, 2017 at 9:20 am

    I’m amazed Keith Richards has outlived a whole lot of people.

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  45. Suzanne said on June 15, 2017 at 9:23 am

    Keith Richards. Not the guy you ever use as an example to your kids on the dangers of drug use. Or maybe all the drugs have left him so well preserved that he will go on forever.

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  46. coozledad said on June 15, 2017 at 9:29 am

    Olly Stone and Trump need to watch whose ass they’re tonguing:
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/putin-offers-comey-political-asylum

    There’s speculation that if Trump fires Mueller, the GOP won’t do anything. I don’t believe they can. They’re committed to treason. They’re all compromised.

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  47. Julie Robinson said on June 15, 2017 at 10:14 am

    Stone was on Colbert a few days ago and the audience was laughing and booing his ridiculous Putin worship.

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  48. Deborah said on June 15, 2017 at 10:30 am

    The GOP is trying to change the narrative about trump and Russia, the congressman’s shooting helped somewhat, in that it changes subject for a day or two. That poor congressman is going to suffer medical hell for a long, long time, the bullet went through his hip shattering bones across his pelvis messing with internal organs, yikes. I hope he recovers quickly but that seems incredibly serious.

    Those GOP talking points in Coozledads link #42 sure had a lot of typos. They must have been in a big hurry to get them out.

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  49. coozledad said on June 15, 2017 at 11:16 am

    GOP are all suckers. It’s why they don’t have the slightest reluctance to submit to the leadership of a foreign power.Nature has put a hog ring in their noses, and all you gotta do is grab that sucker and pull.

    https://twitter.com/SimonMaloy/status/875351898018197504

    It’s not an ideology, it’s a pathology.

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  50. brian stouder said on June 15, 2017 at 11:47 am

    Well, wow. It is a very, very good that everyone but the bad guy is still alive. Frankly, it is also good that the villain was a crazy white guy, rather than anything else (for example, anyone of middle eastern or Hispanic descent) as it demonstrates what we all (should) know: crazy is crazy is crazy.. The fact that a crazy white old man had to be stopped by the good guys (black police officers) (including a woman) – provides a glimpse at a home-truth : Human beings do terrible things all the time, for all sorts of deranged ‘reasons’ . No blanket travel ban (for example), directed at a religion, or a geographical region of the world would make anyone one scintilla ‘safer’.

    I admire the passion with which some of our commenters express themselves. I also very much admire the restraint shown by others (including our Proprietress); people who could (no doubt) cut-loose with highly charged, passionate, well-worded jeremiads on Current Events, at the drop of a hat….but who instead choose their words and metaphors and lamentations with a view toward genuine intellectual curiosity, and/or lamentation

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  51. Jeff Borden said on June 15, 2017 at 11:56 am

    Brian has hit on a critical point: the shooter was a white man. What might’ve happened had it been someone from the Middle East? Or a Hispanic or black man? Would we be looking at martial law? I do find the palpitations on the right, particularly Sean Klannity and Newt Gingrich, about the murderous intent of the left laughable. For eight years, I saw images of President Obama being lynched, burned in effigy, depicted as a chimpanzee, a pickaninny, a witch doctor complete with bone through his nose. And I clearly recall the Tea Party punks wearing shirts at anti-ACA rallies reading, “We Came Unarmed. . .This Time.” It’s particularly rich for the loathsome Gingrich, who pioneered the demonization of Democrats from his perch as speaker.

    I despise the Orange King as fiercely and deeply as any political figure in my lifetime –including Nixon and Five Deferments Dick Cheney– but I will give him credit for sounding presidential in his remarks after the shooting. How long this sense of decorum will last is, of course, unknown, but at least once, he sublimated his base instincts to offer reasonable words of comfort.

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  52. coozledad said on June 15, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    Sessions lied. Obstruction of justice, folks.

    If it has an R after its name, it’s traitor scum.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/15/lobbyist-russian-interests-jeff-sessions-testimony?CMP=twt_gu

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  53. Deborah said on June 15, 2017 at 4:32 pm

    Brian, yes one of the police who helped bring down the shooter is a lesbian woman who was injured and in the hospital with her wife at her side. The congressman who was shot had been working on pro-gun legislation and anti-same sex marriage. I wonder how he will feel about all that after this is over.

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  54. Jolene said on June 15, 2017 at 5:13 pm

    Very interesting, Deborah. Where did you read about the police officer’s orientation and marriage? I’m sure learning these facts will make Pence swallow hard.

    I feel bad for Scalise too. The combination of orthopedic and digestive system injuries, complicated by massive blood loss is nobody’s idea of fun.

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  55. coozledad said on June 15, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    https://twitter.com/JoeSudbay/status/875459532633153536

    Suckin’ that Russian pud. All of them.

    In the absence of an actual belief system, a little walking around money from a foreign government will do just fine. Don’t confuse anything these people do with ordinary human motivations. They’re here to burn shit down for the Russians. Pence was Manafort’s personal sack of hammers.

    His full price is likely listed in the set of books the former Ukrainian prime Minister left in a safe when he went ghost. Mueller has transcripts of those at the very least.

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  56. Sherri said on June 15, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    I’m going to utilize this thread to roll my eyes at a piece of corporate speak over-wordiness that appeared in my mailbox today. I have an interview scheduled in a couple of weeks, and I receive an email confirming the time and giving me the location of the interview. Then, the person added, “Directional details follow for your convenience.”

    Directional details? Like fingernails on a chalkboard.

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