It's NOT legal. Retaliating against a witness who testified under subpoena in a federal investigation is a federal felony offense:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1513

I don't know if the House can jump on this, but I suspect they could. OK, Adam Schiff. Get on it! Forget the fucking traitorous stepford Republican Senate.

More News.

Alt-right darling Jordan Peterson is “recovering” from a medical induced coma in Russia.

His nutbag daughter reports: “ After several failed treatment attempts in North American hospitals, including attempts at tapering and micro-tapering, we had to seek an emergency medical benzodiazepine detox, which we were only able to find in Russia”

Yes. If one thing leaps to mind about Russia it’s their top notch medical care and drug addiction treatment.

And if anyone is able to judge what is or isn’t proper medical care it certainly isn’t doctors. Haha. No. No. They obey more than 12 rules!

No. See. Jordan Peterson knows what’s good for Jordan Petersen.

You know. Like his ALL beef and salt diet. It’s amazing and healthy and the conspiracy by post modern Marxist Big Vegetable and Big Nutrition and 99% of every cardiologist on earth is keeping this fact from you.

But not Jordan Peterson. Whose bowels, when he awakens from his coma, are perfect working order after several enemas.

And he is most certainly not a crank.

It's the Night of the Small Hands.

I'm looking at that photo of Trump, and I'm like--somebody do a DNA test. Trump and Gritty have got to be related.

As long as I'm commenting here, let me applaud the comments @1 and @2. Great stuff. And in a better, alternate reality these comments would be par for the course on Slog comment threads.

I'm starting to believe the only reason Jordan Peterson won't develop gout from his all-beef diet is that his diet will find another way to kill him first.

@3
You win the internet today! Good one!

@2
So he's addicted to benzos? I wonder what all the "fuck the addicts" trolls on this site have to say about that

"How is this legal?"

My, Chase/Rich, how Quickly you've forgotten the Repubs' unholy message -- If The President Does something, it cannot, BY DEFINITION, be Illegal.

NO one has oversight, anymore.

Prepare to see Herr trumpster on 'Roid Rage -- 'cause, cuz, the Cuffs is OFF.

Yeah, that pic is the stuff of freaking nightmares. I've never really understood why that walking fucking buttfart wouldn't just shave his dumb head. Like, I get that his dumb hair is part of his dumb "brand" or whatever, but it really does look STUPID AND RIDICULOUS.

Not only that but shaved heads are in, particularly among fat racists, but also in young, hip circles, which affords him plausible deniability to assertions that doing so would simply be pandering to his base of fat racists.
And much as it pains me to say it, he may even look like a little bit of a... "badass?" Or at least as much of a badass as a senile, obese, semi-literate geriatric politician could hope to look like. Sorta Jeff Bezos meets the dad from Modern Family.

Somebody should start up a facebook page or something to campaign to make it happen. Spare us any more of these humiliating photos, if nothing else.

Here's my Favorite, Stephen Colbert
at his Brilliant Best
on Mittens' speaking Truth to Power:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z3qgRvMHCU

@1 About as legal as paying off porn stars with campaign funds. Or taking millions of dollars from foreign nationals staying at your hotels. Or requiring the military and secret service to stay at your hotels. Or using campaign funds to pay for your inauguration committee to use your hotels at grossly inflated rates. Or withholding Congress-approved foreign aid from Ukraine to pursue your personal interests. And of course trying to hide all these things from investigators and obstruct Congressional oversight. But it’s all cool if you have an army of lawyers and Republican enablers who have decided that your personal profit and interests are the national interest.

The Young Turks, who are too left for me, are nevertheless quite interesting. They are definitely
in for Bernie.

Here's how they compare Elizabeth with Bernie in the debate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB3M1b_em64

Buttigieg challenged on race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Uk2GephMs

@2 although it's a given that drug addiction strikes all kinds of people across all kinds of spectrums, I am skeptical of people who cast themselves as gurus and thought leaders and then decide that they're just going to start hammering pills like there's no tomorrow. I mean it is just so fundamentally unwise. Why would I follow the advice of a 55-year-old self-proclaimed guru who knows full well that starting to neck mass quantities of benzos is insanely stupid? It's terrible judgment and lack of control.

I agree too that his wackadoodle daughter is totally out of her lane promoting her diet plan. Doesn't surprise me one bit that the child of an evolutionary psychologist, the spoutiest and probably least scientific of all scientific sub-disciplines, feels fine about making broad proclamations in areas where she doesn't have much in the way of qualifications.

"There’s bound to be a recession in the next few years and who ever is President will be blamed." --@Kenney

You mean, like when Gee Dubya (and, to his 'credit,' too, Wild Bill Clinton) tanked the Economy -- if you're too young to remember, it was Bush's Great Recession -- and it put the US into an economic tailspin that took President Obama eight long years to 'heal.'

"Wouldn’t you rather it be Trump than Bernie?" Nah.

The willfully, insidiously, willfully incompetent trumpfy'd only make matters worse, most likely by ('inadvertently') starting WWIII.

If we wish to Make America Decent Again, we need a Decent person at the helm. And there is a Democratic socialist who'd be someone who COULD make America's vast riches accessible -- to the entire Citizenry, not to just a very, very Select Few -- who've been getting nearly all the Spoils for the past, well -- ever simce Ronny Raygun began the far "right's" evisceration of our once-vaunted Middle Class.

And we can leave all the 'blame' exactly where it lies: on the IMPEACHED Liar-in-Chief. I'd rather have a Nation that inspires the Planet -- not one who wishes to Detroy it -- and why not, since (as he claims) he won't be here to see it happen anyways.

Nah, fuck trump.

And GO, Bernie.

@13: Don't you think that Trump's behavior unleashes far more pressing existential factors, as opposed to his polices and politics, that make his reelection a disaster for America and the world?

If not, do you think he'll finally "pivot" in his second term?

I still think Jill will be our next First Lady.

trumpfy's gonna 'pivot' all right -- to full on Mousilini

and you're either On Board
or, expect a Knock on your front door
from trumpfy's Private Attorney/chief Protector/usag Bill Barr.

I really wish @18 was good ol' kistofarian hyperbole, but I'm afraid to say it isn't.

@19: Just how much "all that bad?" are you willing to tolerate before it's too late?

Guess ol' JBP needs to clean his room! Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, right?

The Pres better give him a medal like the right's other favorite dying drug addict.

"Well sure, a Democrat in the White House would
mean a little more environmental enforcement... "
--@Kenney

You mean, like NOT de-funding
(or, and, why not, Abondoning?)
the Environmental Protection Depeartment?

Or, we could hold Fossil Fools Accountable.

There's our first choice, Kenny.

" ...and a little less immigration enforcement... "

You mean, Dems want "Wide Open Borders," right?
Well, that's surely one way to put it...

Here's another -- Senator Sanders' positions:

Reinstate and expand DACA and develop
a humane policy for those seeking asylum.

Completely reshape and reform our immigration
enforcement system, including breaking up ICE and CBP
and redistributing their functions to their proper authorities.

Dismantle cruel and inhumane deportation programs and
detention centers and reunite families who have been separated.

Live up to our ideals as a nation and welcome refugees and
those seeking asylum, including those displaced by climate change.

Institute a moratorium on deportations until a thorough
audit of past practices and policies is complete."

Again, you have a Choice to make...

Tough call, eh?

@30: More than passing legislation, more than policies or ideology, you couldn't disagree that America deserves a president of character. Ground zero of world power is the POTUS, and that occupant needs to be of sound and healthy mind (R or D).

As you said, Trump is horrible person.

Obama + Dems had Congress for exactly 72 days --
lots of peeps think it was two long years but Wrongly.

It's gonna require Inspiration
to Elect Sanders and Inspiration
to overthrow a fully-complicit Senate
and trumpfy keeps throwing Fuel on the Fire
(Can't hardly wait for Rudy to set even more fires)
[He's been too quiet, for too damn long. Something must be UP.]

So, would Bernie be able to find Common Ground with Repubs?
Fuck YES.

Didja not see last night's Debate, Kenney?
In Bernie's Home state (Vermont) he got
25% of the Republican Vote.

"... and in fact, there were periods when I was in the U.S. House of Representatives, a number of years, where I passed more Amendments on the floor of the House -- in a bi-Partisan way -- than any other Member of the House.

When you bring people together on an Issue; there are many Conservative Republicans, for example, who are concerned about Civil Liberties -- at least, they used to used to be concerned about civil liberties -- there are Republicans, as you [Amy K.] know, that are concerned about the High cost of Prescription Drugs -- there are ways we can work with Republicans on Issues where we have a Common basis.

Let's Do that."

Yes. Let's.
Thank you, Senator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i6qweXt8i4

I think I'm done, Kenney.

What do YOU think?

The NYT had some of their political writers evaluate the Debate last nite and rate the Candidates. They decided Amy Klobachar 'won' and Bernie got second, and after that, who knows? Anway:

Elizabeth Bruenig (9/10) — "What makes Sanders a true radical is his impatience for superficial and peripheral matters and his keen focus on underlying causes. He laid out a vision for total war on the roots of so much (though not all) American misery. He also excoriated the past few decades of American foreign policy, named Saudia Arabia as a major American foe and got a quick snuggle from Joe Biden. All in all, a pretty good night."

Nicole Hemmer (8/10) — "Sanders deftly balanced policy and principle, defending his agenda while repeatedly underscoring the damage Donald Trump has done and the danger he represents."

[WARNING - - - S O C I A L I S M AHEAD!!!! --yours, truly]

Mimi Swartz (8.5/10) — "Quick, sharp, didn’t falter. Defended socialism well, but that’s not a path to victory. Wish someone had asked him about those sexist bros, though."

Will Wilkinson (8/10) — "Sanders held strong in the face of the moderators’ invitation to others to attack his democratic socialism, made his standard compelling pitch and took no real damage. He’s firmly in the driver’s seat."

From: "Winners and Losers of the Democratic Debate, in the New York Times Opinion, Feb. 8, 2020.

The NYTimes is NOT a Sanders Supporter
In fact, I think they'd be just fine with Clinton 2.0.

More (charts and bubbles and shit!) at:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/08/opinion/who-won-democratic-debate.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

@39 Whoah, dude. A guy who wants to build a system like Britain's NHS.

Um, while I guess you can totally argue about the difficulty of getting such a thing built in a climate where the federal government is effectively paralyzed when it comes to building any kind of organization that isn't shoving a gloved fist up your ass at airports do you possibly think that implying he's an authoritarian menace in the making may just be a little bit hyperbole?

"Have we ever had somebody as far left as Sanders have shot at the Democratic party nomination?"

President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt -- although he was a Rich guy, who saw the Light and governed as the Democratic socialist Senator Sanders IS.

Did America like him?

Well, he won the Presidency FOUR Fucking TIMES.

You tell me?

The youth of Today

see 87,000,000 medically un- and under-insured Citizens and wonder what kinda Planet they're living on when the Richest fucking country on the Planet, ever, refuses to provide the Healthcare EVERY OTHER INDUSTRIALIZED NATION ON THE fucking PLANET PROVIDES THEIR CITIZENS and wonder, WTF's WRONG with THIS Country (and I'm pointing at Republicans, who want it ALL) (and centrist Corporatist Dems) (and you) and they're going, we don't GAF what it's called, we want some, too

see the million or so Homeless Citizens (and many of our youth ARE homeless) and wonder, why must people live on our streets -- whytf have we made Housing just another Free Marketeer's opportunity to Capitalize on (strip-mine) our Citizenry

look around them and see college-educated Grads with tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Student Debt and wonder why they're not gonna afford a home or a family for decades, if ever

The Youth of Today are not afraid of your "terrifying Socialism!" Kenney. They're afraid of people like you

"@44 Sadly, many young people have been seduced by Pide Piper Bernie."

Yep. It's True, Kenney.
Entire Countries, too.
Like Canada. Australia. Germany.
This list is long and too arduous burt let's just say
THE ENTIRE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD
but give Republicans a chance, and they'll
strip away Healthcare, Education, Childcare
from those countries too given half a chance
but they're right now working on getting
EVERYTHING in the USA for Themselves,
so they're a little Busy at the moment.

Oh, and please, do tell me one thing, Kenney --
Is it Okay for people to DO drugs
(shall we include Alcohol?)
(sure; why not?)
in the Comfort of their homes
now?

The first, and most fundamental freedom, is the freedom to be left alone.

The ideal social order, to my mind, would be akin to the hunter-gatherer stage, only with modern technology. In pre-agricultural societies, small bands organize themselves along egalitarian lines. A chief exists, however, their authority is entirely ceremonial, not unlike the role of the Speaker of the Commons as practiced by John Bercow. Establish rules of debate and set agendas, moderate time spent in community gatherings, and intervene when tempers flare and need cooling- and aside from that, to fuck off and allow everyone to do their thing.

If you don’t like the decisions arrived at in your small tribal band, you can leave peacefully and go join another. Since most would be less than a hundred people in total, there would be many options to choose from anywhere you go.

The state would not exist. To survive, each would have to cooperate with the rest of the band, not for fear of legal punishments, but simply because nobody has to help you and if you’ve been a dickhead to everyone your whole life, nobody will. Since we all need other people, it pays to be nice.

Neither credit nor debt would exist. Money would, however, it would exist only as a labor credit- a reminder to others of how much effort you put into improving the quality of life for your band relative to others. Markets would not exist, and neither would currency exchanges or banks or private property. Everything would be in the Commons. As the state would not exist, there would be no enforcement mechanism for contracts. All associations would be voluntary.

The thing that appeals to me about such a system is, all responsible adults would be completely free to live as they please, accepting whatever consequences come from their behaviour and finding no special exemption from that, based on anything beyond one’s individual merit.

That, to me, is the maximalist expression of socialism. No state. Total freedom. No hierarchies. No markets.

So, as long as a human being is on the streets or out, in the woods and not doing drugs you disapprove of, and not living in Housing provided by your tax dollars, you're okay with nearly a HUNDRED MILLION of our Citizenry, being -un and under insured; we pay Big Pharma (what about Them?) five or ten times as many of our hard-earned dollars than those horrible and Terrifyingly Scary Social Democracies do, and Drug Corps can raise their Prices to beyond what millions can afford, and tough luck, suckers?

What kinda shit-hole Country is that, Kenney?

Besides that Homeless human being maybe she's out there because she and her family were Bankrupted by a medical situation their piss poor "insurance" would NOT cover -- 500,000 people will go Bankrupt because of a medical Emergency they couldn't afford. Some of them will undoubtedly turn to drugs when they can't deal with Life on the Streets, so, what, Fuck 'em?

They don't Deserve our help?
That is not MY America.

500,000 people will go Bankrupt because of a
medical Emergency they couldn't afford this year.

And the last.

But the next?
We Have a Choice.

So, revolution?
Interesting

@52 -- "I think outlawing the system that takes care of a lot of people now and forcing them into a system that doesn’t exist is crazy."  

I concur. Equally as crazy as trump and Repub's dismantling/eliminating Obama's Affordable Care Act, without decent Healthcare coverage for the Citizenry; and both are, or would be, wrong.

trump knows this.
But he doesn't fucking Care.

Bernie DOES Care:

"Today, more than 30 million Americans still don’t have health insurance and even more are underinsured. Even for those with insurance, costs are so high that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Incredibly, we spend significantly more of our national GDP on this inadequate health care system—far more per person than any other major country. 

And despite doing so, Americans have worse health outcomes and a higher infant mortality rate than countries that spend much less on health care. Our people deserve better.We should be spending money on doctors, nurses, mental health specialists, dentists, and other professionals who provide services to people and improve their lives.

We must invest in the development of new drugs and technologies that cure disease and alleviate pain—not wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on profiteering, huge executive compensation packages, and outrageous administrative costs.

The giant pharmaceutical and health insurance lobbies have spent billions of dollars over the past decades to ensure that their profits come before the health of the American people. We must defeat them, together.

That means: Joining every other major country on Earth and guaranteeing health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program."

Bernie will NOT be leaving the Citizenry without Healtcare.

But Bernie IS gonna hafta Negotiate with Repubs
(barring an as-yet-Unlikely LAND-Fucking-SLIDE
in November), but looking back at @33,* you can see
Bernie Negotiates Well with Repubs and Independents.

"... and in fact, there were periods when I was in the U.S. House of Representatives, a number of years, where I passed more Amendments on the floor of the House -- in a bi-Partisan way -- than any other Member of the House.

When you bring people together on an Issue; there are many Conservative Republicans, for example, who are concerned about Civil Liberties -- at least, they used to used to be concerned about civil liberties -- there are Republicans, as you [Amy K.] know, that are concerned about the High cost of Prescription Drugs -- there are ways we can work with Republicans on Issues where we have a Common basis.
Let's Do that."

Yes. Lets.