05:45:14 Retweeted @AFP2019-03-28 23:54:00 For more than 30 years, plastic phones shaped like the cartoon cat Garfield have been washing up on French beaches.The mystery is now solved: a shipping container which washed up during a storm in the 1980s was found in a hidden sea cave
<symbol> Fred Tanneau https://t.co/mMs0fzS7mD
19:20:33 Retweeted @jeremyherb19:19:06 NEW: Barr writes to Judiciary Committee leaders that the Mueller report will be ready for release with redactions by “mid-April, if not sooner,” per @LauraAJarrett. Barr also proposes testifying before the Senate/House Judiciary Committees May 1 and May 2.
22:57:56 Retweeted @b_schaffner2019-03-28 15:46:58 You know that whole urban/rural divide in American politics? Turns out that when you control for peoples’ levels of racial resentment and hostile sexism then it almost entirely disappears. So maybe we should just call a spade a spade? https://t.co/OuVmMkomj2
00:18:10 Retweeted @jrpsaki2019-03-27 18:41:20 .@AOC deserves huge credit for breaking through the noise and putting climate change on the national radar by talking about it in human terms. Health asthma clean water. many Democrats have been trying to do for decades. She has done it. It’s in the conversation.
05:56:27 Retweeted @mviser02:47:05 Stacey Abrams adviser on talk of her being Joe Biden’s VP: “What makes it particularly exploitative is that Biden couldn’t be bothered to endorse Stacey in the gubernatorial primary. Now he wants her to save his ass. That’s some serious entitlement.” https://t.co/3g1DeOQXvL
06:42:16 Retweeted @emilyjanefox00:02:06 NEW: Cohen testified last month that Abbe Lowell suggested edits to his 2017 congressional testimony. Turns out, he has receipts. According to an email exchange I reviewed, Lowell suggested a handful of lines about Ivanka’s knowledge of Trump Tower Moscow https://t.co/Um3ehEe1D3
14:33:44 Retweeted @cspan13:47:42 .@RepAdamSchiff: “You might say that’s all okay. You might say that’s just what you need to do to win, but I don’t think it’s okay. I think it’s immoral. I think it’s unethical. I think it’s unpatriotic. And yes, I think it’s corrupt and evidence of collusion.” https://t.co/AaO59iriAI
15:22:14 Retweeted @JuliusGoat14:50:09 WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE MUELLER REPORT-Over 300 pgs long
-Written w/a razor in red ink
-Eats 16 lbs of meat a day
-Screams when touched
-Covered in eyes
-Commands you to kill
-What’s that?
-No no never I won’t
-You can’t make me
you
i
no
-TOTALLY EXONERATES TRUMP
16:43:13 Retweeted @bettinasays15:36:55 In tears reading this article by @IjeomaOluo. My experience with conversations on anti-racism work is too often that white people want to stop feeling badly, not stop doing harm. And usually what that really means is they want us to stop naming harm. https://t.co/OVqBmtHU3Y
16:44:37 Retweeted @MarisaKabas16:42:55 Biden’s path to announcing his 2020 bid is paved with rakes, and he keeps stepping on all of them.
19:50:05 Retweeted @mostlybree19:43:48 My first fantasy was By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey. I was 12. I was so pumped. IN LOVE. I ran out and said I NEED MORE FANTASY.Someone handed me Tolkien.
20 pages in I was like “…but where are the girls?”
05:27:03 Retweeted @DavidCornDC2019-03-26 23:31:01 This is a brazen lie. Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner spoke to a Kremlin emissary! Manafort spoke to a Russian intelligence associate!Michael Cohen spoke to Putin’s office! All secretly. And there were multiple lies about all this. All proven. She is gaslighting. https://t.co/qGx7xedMyU
05:55:55 Retweeted @itsJeffTiedrich2019-03-26 21:07:07 right now some Deplorable with a persistent cough is driving a crappy car on crumbling roads past abandoned storefronts to a low-paying job and pumping his fist and going “hell yeah!” as he hears on the radio about how Trump is trying yet one more time to get rid of Obamacare
13:42:20 Retweeted @QasimRashid01:54:19 Every. Single. Word. Of. This.“Wanting clean air & water is not elitist. Our children are dying. They have brain damage. Go ahead, call them elitist. If we are not ascending to meet this national crisis then I don’t know what we are doing.” — @AOC https://t.co/Nma90NDq6a
13:51:11 Retweeted @pomeranian992019-03-26 22:34:26 Good god. The EU’s ruinous Article 13 got passed because … some European MEPs accidentally *pushed the wrong* button.As @doctorow says, “It’s the Edward Tufte apocalypse. It’d be funny, if it didn’t make me want to smash my laptop.”
17:11:35 Retweeted @bobcesca_go00:59:33 It’s insane the number of people with employer-coverage who don’t realize how the ACA is benefiting them, despite not being on the exchanges. Every consumer regulation in the ACA applies to all insurance regardless of how it’s purchased.
20:28:28 Retweeted @ABC17:29:04 “I think you don’t run for second place.”Stacey Abrams addresses speculation she would join the 2020 race as Joe Biden’s running mate: “If I’m going to enter a primary, I’m going to enter the primary.” https://t.co/NcxjPS90NKhttps://t.co/pfNtKmn7Gq
02:56:34 Retweeted @bwest01:14:36 Apple’s new credit card should’ve been called Hypercard and anyone that disagrees is wrong
02:58:47 Retweeted @IndivisibleTeam02:03:19 DOJ has announced it won’t defend ANY part of the ACA. This is the Trump admin’s clearest attempt yet to not just sabotage, but to completely annihilate, the ACA, and by doing so, unleash chaos on our health care system and on millions of American lives. https://t.co/NgV97M8oRH
04:34:04 Retweeted @dellcam03:45:14 not a good look. @nytimes quotes a worker speaking out against a min-wage increase; the reporter failed to mention (or more likely failed to notice) that she’s affiliated with a dark-money group with known industry ties. womp, womp. https://t.co/qh5aTtL2A0
04:36:39 Retweeted @VeraMBergen01:57:48 In a letter to DHS, acting Defense Secretary Shanahan says he has authorized the transfer of $1 billion to begin new wall construction/repairs along the US-Mexico border – including “57 miles of 18-foot-high pedestrian fencing” in support of Trump’s national emergency https://t.co/JdtDmWSLom
08:03:03 I think I have finally ODed on Barr/Mueller coverage and commentary. Making sure the news talk I put on to go to sleep tonight is from a non-US outlet. Hmmm… Brexit.
14:22:50 To be honest, if Trump ever truly learned this lesson, those of us opposed to him would be screwed. One (of the many) things that made a difference in the last few days before the 2016 election was that Trump managed to shut up and stay off Twitter for awhile. https://t.co/PsLhW7JQPF
14:25:43 Retweeted @MaryRobinette04:12:43 Let’s talk about spacesuits, specifically Extravehicular Mobility Units, and being a #ladyastronaut.The EMUs on the ISS were designed more than 40 years ago, with a 15-year shelf life.
17:37:28 Retweeted @kyledcheney17:36:32 NEW: In a moment of weird bipartisanship, the Judiciary Committee *unanimously* demanded details about the origin of the Trump obstruction of justice probe. https://t.co/rfuUcpTDDE
18:43:18 Retweeted @Will_Bunch17:49:14 “Putin’s interference wasn’t a conspiracy with the Trump campaign – but with 62 million angry American voters.” My new column on Russia’s useful idiot in the White House, his new post-Mueller autocracy, and why now is the moment to rise up, not sit back https://t.co/p9RO3F7igs
22:46:58 Retweeted @ddale815:08:45 Bloomberg reports Trump’s team lied when they said Trump’s tweet was about possible sanctions that hadn’t been revealed – his tweet indeed intended to reverse the newly announced sanctions, then aides persuaded him to back off and made up a “cover story.” https://t.co/CzkfFf9Gga
23:10:41 Retweeted @ArticleGroup2019-03-24 19:22:56 1/ a few years back we were engaged by a dating app to do some strategy workOne of the big problems on dating apps?
This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan spend almost the whole show on discussing Trump/Russia, the end of the Mueller investigation, the Barr summary of the Mueller report, and the potential political fallout of all of the above. Before that, a quick recap on everybody catching the flu. Which was fun.
Click below to listen and subscribe!
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Show Details:
Recorded 2019-03-28 Length this week – 1:59:15
(0:00:20-0:11:45) But first
(0:13:45-0:41:07) What we know
(0:42:50-1:26:38) Barr summary
(1:27:23-1:58:53) Political fallout
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.
00:44:55 Retweeted @Kasparov6300:11:19 As with Trump’s power grabs post-election, there is a lot of work to do so that the letter of the law matches the spirit of the law. If winning an election after asking for and receiving the aid of a hostile foreign power isn’t illegal, it sure as hell should be. in reply to Kasparov63
01:05:35 Retweeted @jasoncherkis00:46:38 I don’t get the idea that the media did wrong here. 1) We haven’t see the Mueller report and 2) the vast majority of stories exposed serious wrongdoing and questionable behavior. The reporting on Manafort and Co. has been illuminating and vital.
01:12:34 Retweeted @chrisinsilico01:00:15 Whatever this report says, here’s what I know: when I was at Cambridge Analytica, the company hired known Russian agents, had data researchers in St Petersburg, tested US voter opinion on Putin’s leadership, and hired hackers from Russia – all while Bannon was in charge.
02:05:00 Retweeted @jdawsey101:01:56 Thought Rudy Giuliani was calling me tonight to claim victory. Instead it was a semi-regular pocket dial. Sounded like fun was being had.
04:10:42 Retweeted @HoarseWisperer01:27:04 The number of pundits speaking with certainty about a report they haven’t read based on a letter they can’t trust is really… something.
04:20:59 Retweeted @jon_rauch01:21:58 Yes, I too am relieved. With the caveat: Mueller did not find _illegal_ collusion. What we have known for months amounts to immoral and unpatriotic (but apparently legal) collaboration. Trump et al. welcomed a foreign attack on our law and constitution. #”ILoveIt” @Peter_Wehnerhttps://t.co/zaxipO8iQ6
04:29:35 Retweeted @AdamParkhomenko2019-03-24 20:05:40 Don’t tell me this is good news for America. I saw Don Jr’s emails. You did too. What I see is people getting away with something and it should make us all sick.
05:53:11 Retweeted @AriMelber05:32:05 Bob Mueller ran a thorough investigation that busted a crime spree by Trump advisers, and also found no chargeable collusion — the rule of law requires accepting these outcomes. https://t.co/5VBSCahIHn
06:26:00 Retweeted @soledadobrien2019-03-24 22:58:03 From @FiveThirtyEight “Hillary Clinton would probably be president if FBI Director James Comey had not sent a letter to Congress on Oct. 28. The letter… upended the news cycle and soon halved Clinton’s lead in the polls, imperiling her position in the Electoral College.” https://t.co/IJwXqYM4sA
06:26:45 Retweeted @RepAdamSchiff2019-03-24 23:53:39 Mueller did not find sufficient evidence to establish conspiracy, notwithstanding Russian offers to help Trump’s campaign, their acceptance, and a litany of concealed interactions with Russia.I trust Mueller’s prosecutorial judgement, but the country must see the evidence. in reply to RepAdamSchiff
06:37:36 Retweeted @normative05:24:32 Two predictions, because why not: (1) The full report is significantly less flattering to Trump & the campaign than the summary, and (2) Fallout from the Mueller probe, via investigations farmed out to other offices, continues for months or years.
06:38:23 Retweeted @normative05:33:11 Corrolary: The idea that the submission of the report constituted some kind of cloud lifting/game changing/chapter closing is going to seem a bit silly in six months. Very little will change, beyond the replacement of the name “Mueller” in headlines. in reply to normative
06:49:10 Retweeted @nick_kapur06:12:33 A Lithuanian con man stole $99 million from Facebook and $23 million from Google by sending the companies fake invoices for services and goods he never provided, which the companies promptly paid anywayhttps://t.co/gTu9tsifet
06:53:28 Retweeted @pdanahar03:03:40 The UK’s PM Theresa May has faced withering criticism in the UK but this view of her role, from the other side of the pond, is just brutal. https://t.co/ppGD7rIaqy
07:36:15 Retweeted @davebriggstv06:06:10 Anybody who thinks political battle is over post-Mueller…hasn’t been paying attention.Left wants to see entire report, continue to pursue obstruction and not ruling out impeachment.
Right warring against the media and calling for investigations into Hillary, Comey & Obama
07:38:34 Retweeted @JoyceWhiteVance02:56:11 Still trying to understand what “did not establish” collusion means. We’ll have to see Mueller’s full report to know. It could mean there was virtually no evidence. It could also mean there was a lot but not quite proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The difference is significant.
13:48:45 Retweeted @jmclaughlinSAIS12:56:55 My quick take on Mueller/Barr. There is still much to learn and clarify, but Trump opponents need to avoid going down the rabbit hole of relitigating the report. Focus now on his poor presidential & policy performance, where his vulnerability is enormous. https://t.co/IIYFnkqoXB
13:49:37 Retweeted @EsotericCD13:37:00 Because he’s a crap President who is a sucker for anyone who flatters his vanity? And he thinks he can ‘negotiate’ if he doesn’t contradict someone in public? Seems pretty simple to me. https://t.co/NDTwtyoO98
14:01:22 Retweeted @DavidCornDC12:49:38 Russia attacked the 2016 election to help Trump. His campaign signaled Moscow it was fine with that, and Trump also lied about the attack and helped Putin get away with it. And most Republicans and conservatives don’t give a damn. This is sad and troubling.
14:02:52 Retweeted @waltshaub2019-03-24 22:51:33 The only people buying the “total and complete exoneration” spin are the people who don’t care if he commits crimes in the first place.
14:04:07 Retweeted @originalgriz00:17:16 I for one am relieved to hear that Donald Trump is just a serial lying, pussy-grabbing, bankruptcy-perfecting, dictator-loving, child-caging, deficit-exploding, norm-shredding, Nazi-sympathizing, violence-inspiring white supremacist threat to the world.No collusion. Phew.
14:09:33 Retweeted @matthewjdowd14:02:07 Democrats would be wise to nominate the opposite of president Trump on tone, civility, and integrity. They should look for the candidate who is a humble servant leader who speaks truth and acts with integrity and treats all with dignity. That is strongest candidate versus Trump.
14:14:35 Retweeted @Sulliview13:37:36 You say you want a media reckoning? Here’s mine. … New column: Serious journalists should be proud of — not bullied over — their Russia reporting https://t.co/3NaLXL8DES
14:23:06 Retweeted @petridishes2019-03-24 21:08:46 I feel like it’s “COMPLETE AND TOTAL EXONERATION” in the sense that you sometimes see a review quoted as “…THE BEST MOVIE EVER MADE” when the full sentence reads “it would be a mistake to call this вЂthe best movie ever made’”
14:28:47 Retweeted @RadioFreeTom13:57:29 First thing I said to Lynn when we caught the news here in Switzerland. “Didn’t Rudy already cop to this part?”
Once again, suggests that Mueller was more conservative about what he thought he could charge, when the Trump people already assumed they were bagged. https://t.co/89kq9qDFDz
14:40:22 Retweeted @jayrosen_nyu14:25:37@soledadobrien I was up until 2 am brooding on it. You can feel the collective mind of the press saying, “it’s over,” which means — for that group — the Barr letter is the report. Individual journalists may realize this is unwise and inaccurate, but they can feel the group mind forming too. in reply to soledadobrien
16:10:12 Retweeted @joannachiu07:23:05 Thread about airplane creeps: I’m on a plane from a late-evening stopover from and was very tired and had a row to myself to sleep but couldn’t avoid noticing what was going on in the row behind me.
17:35:19 Retweeted @Popehat17:12:00 Protip:If you try to extort enormous transnational megacorporations it will not go well for you.
17:37:19 Retweeted @NonWhiteHat17:30:32 Personal experience: You have to do A LOT to be charged with extortion as an attorney who represents plaintiffs in torts or business cases.I’ve been on both sides for decades. In many ways (not legally, but in public eye), the very job of a plaintiff’s lawyer is to extort.
19:34:06 Retweeted @dsamuelsohn19:23:04 NEW: Mueller’s office confirms it is handing off the mystery subpoena fight case to the U.S. attorney’s office in DC, just as it has already said it is doing with the Rick Gates & Concord cases. https://t.co/obW6WhUavh@politico
21:09:42 Retweeted @ZoeTillman21:06:30 End of an era: The special cousel office lawyers have withdrawn from Paul Manafort’s case, and the US attorney’s office in DC is taking over (remember — Rick Gates still has his sentencing, and Konstantin Kilimnik is still out there) https://t.co/cr011cagtT
21:16:18 Retweeted @AmandaMarcotte21:06:24https://t.co/3ZCRRCLIcT Some more thoughts on Trump being extremely successful, far more than Nixon, at conducting a cover-up: This is why I’ve been such a fun-killer, expressing my skepticism both of “Trump has dementia” and “Trump is stupid”.
23:42:05 Retweeted @morningmoneyben22:13:33 Accidentally sent a test message meant for wife saying “Are you seeing this” to a senior admin official who immediately called me and said “What the [expletive] did we do now?” <symbol><symbol>