Quote of the Day posts

“You have to ask yourself how you will be remembered: as one of the three big internet giants, together with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have enriched our world and our societies; or, on the other hand, in fact, the genius that created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and our societies. That’s the question that you have to put for yourself.”

— Former Belgian prime minister Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt, speaking to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, before the European Parliament in Brussels as Europe prepares to implement new data protection regulations

“We’re supposed to provide back-and-forth perspective, so that you make the best decision based on science and based on the law. But that’s a pretty big struggle right now. ... I hunt and fish—I’m actually kind of a redneck. But I believe in the public good and public land. When Trump talks his B.S. about the ‘deep state,’ that’s who he’s referring to. I totally reject that kind of characterization. That’s how these guys see it: if you’re not a tool of the most high-powered lobbyists in Washington or following orders, then they really don’t want you around.”

— Unnamed civil servant in the Dept. of the Interior, currently headed by Trump loyalist Ryan Zinke, in Evan Osnos' must-read New Yorker piece,  “Only the Best People: Donald Trump's war on the ‘deep state,’” about how Trump is remaking the federal government in his image: with incompetent personnel whose main qualification is loyalty to him.

Clinton email investigation:
-2 yrs
-0 indictments
-0 convictions

Benghazi investigation:
-4 yrs
-0 indictments
-0 convictions

White Water investigation
-6 yrs
-0 indictments
-0 convictions

Trump/Russia investigation:
-1 yr (so far)
-19 indictments
-4 convictions

Just sayin'.

— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) May 17, 2018

In case you don't know: Trump and the GOP are trying to end the Mueller investigation after a year because it's a “nothing burger” and a “witch hunt.” But that's a lot of something for a nothing burger. And witch hunts aren't supposed to catch actual witches. 

Today's revelation: Don Trump Jr. met with foreign reps, including an Israeli expert on social media manipulation and an emissary for two Saudi princes, as well as Erik Prince, the controversial former head of Blackwater who has denied involvement in the Trump campaign, on August 3, 2016 in order to win the election. From the Times:

The meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election. The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.

It's a nothing burger with everything. 

Trying to wrap my head around the claim that it somehow reflects badly on Obama that Trump's campaign was so riddled with agents of foreign powers that FBI felt compelled to investigate.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 17, 2018

Following Rudy Giuliani's stunning admission on Sean Hannity's Fox News show that Pres. Trump reimbursed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, the $130,000 that Cohen paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the month prior to the 2016 election to keep quiet about her 2006 affair (or one-night stand) with Trump:

The president’s lawyer just told a fellow client of the president’s OTHER lawyer, who is under investigation, that the other lawyer definitely paid the sex worker the hush money the president insisted he never paid, but it’s fine because the president paid the him back.

Fox News

— Julius Goat 🦆 (@JuliusGoat) May 3, 2018

Ding dong, something's dead.