My thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to broadcast in their studio and over their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as appear on the Sack Heads Radio Show™ each Wednesday evening.
Tonight in the Saloon:
The GOP wants to be loved;
The GOP has no idea how to handle power when they have it;
I read “A Letter to My Father From His,” a post from Memorial Day;
US conducts a successful missile strike on an ICBM target: message sent?
This is not unlike trying to hit a bullet with another bullet, except at 16,000 mph;
America is split on a special counsel for the Russia investigation;
Mike Flynn decides to provide necessary documents to Senate Intel Committee;
Dennis Prager’s advice to insistent “anti-Trumpers;” time to get on the bus, Gus;
Is there a new American civil war coming? Do you even care?
America’s Urban Rat Cages will be Ground Zero for any US cataclysm;
History will prove that Angela Merkel was responsible for eradicating Europe;
Leftists push back; my job is to push back equally if not more so, Deep State;
McCain continues to purposely undermine our president and the United States;
It is the GOP who are stopping themselves from getting anything done in DC;
BZ goes off on cowardly campus police departments;
And oh so much more buttery BZ political goodness.
Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin(on Twitter @BZep and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.
As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening via podcast. My personal thanks to Mary Brockman who continues to bring new converts into the Saloon and in chat!
Don’t forget: Kel Fritzi will be on The Aftermath this Thursday — and do you suspect we may just discuss a bit of Islam? An excellent chance.
Want to listen to all the Berserk Bobcat Saloon archives in podcast? Go here.
Senate GOP triggers nuclear option to break Democratic filibuster on Gorsuch
by Ashley Killough and Ted Barrett
Washington (CNN) The Senate Thursday triggered the so-called “nuclear option” that allowed Republicans to break a Democratic filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
The chamber is now expected to vote to confirm Gorsuch Friday. The controversial changes to Senate rules, made along partisan lines, allows filibusters of Supreme Court picks to be broken with only 51 votes rather than 60.
The actions on Thursday and Friday cap more than a year of tension over an empty Supreme Court seat, as both parties in the Senate are poised to take action leading to an outcome neither party wants.
It’s a situation loaded with nuance, procedural twists and Senate history — not to mention a spot on the nation’s highest court — and a standoff that reflects a peak in polarization following a deeply divisive presidential election.
The move came after Democrats blocked the nomination under the previous 60-vote threshold. Only four Democrats — Sens. Michael Bennet, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin — crossed party lines to side with the Republicans.
Subsequent party-line votes allowed the GOP majority to change the rules, leading up to the final vote breaking the filibuster. After the final vote was gaveled, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went down his row and gave high fives to Majority Whip John Cornyn and two aides.
Here, however, is a very interesting article from the NYT.com:
After Senate Filibuster’s Death, Somber Lawmakers Seek Path Forward
by Jennifer Steinhauer
WASHINGTON — The conventional Washington wisdom dictates that the end of the judicial filibuster is also the end of life as it is currently known in the Senate.
In truth, it may not make that much of a difference at all. In an unexpected way, it may well herald the beginning of a better era for the Senate.
The Senate Republicans’ successful effort on Thursday to end the 60-vote threshold to proceed with confirmation of Supreme Court nominees was really only the final step in a process set in motion by Democrats in 2013 when they removed that threshold for other nominees.
That set off a far bigger firestorm, and Republicans now have simply extended that precedent.
Republicans are quick to point out — and many Democrats privately agree — that had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the White House last year, and Democrats taken the Senate, a similar confrontation was likely in the other direction, and that Democrats may have needed to take the same step as Republicans took to confirm any Supreme Court nominee that Mrs. Clinton had chosen.
Color me gobsmacked, now, because the New York Times just allowed a bit of truth to creep out of an article. Yes, the Demorats would have done precisely the same thing had they been in power. Because of this, I have a sneaking suspicion that Jennifer Steinhauer may not quite have a loving, hallowed and lengthy work future at the Gray Lady.
The move came after Democrats blocked the nomination under the previous 60-vote threshold. Only four Democrats — Sens. Michael Bennet, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin — crossed party lines to side with the Republicans.
Manchin described Thursday as a “very sad day,” saying the Supreme Court won’t have “have a check and balance” system in which the minority has input on future justices. He argued that senators will “rue the day that this happened.”
“They all know what goes around comes around,” Manchin told reporters. “I was just extremely sad.”
And yes, in a way it was extremely sad. But it was the Demorats who decided to filibuster what is fundamentally a good, honest, serviceable and dedicated individual like Judge Neil Gorsuch who has continued to maintain that he has and can remain independent in his opinions from the bench. He follows the law and allows it to inform and guide him. He does not, unlike Demorat/Leftist judges, attempt to create transformative new law out of thin air where precedent does not primarily exist.
Both sides blamed each other for the episode. Democrats blasted Republicans for using the workaround. Republicans, meanwhile, said they felt they had no other option because of the Democratic filibuster.
But the real truth comes next, from Orrin Hatch.
“For the life of me, I don’t understand why the Democrats made such a fuss about this (nominee),” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. “They look stupid. The next one, I mean I expect Armageddon.”
CNN spoke to Senator Hatch on Thursday.
I feel compelled to repeat some things I’ve written before here on the blog and stated on my radio show — which is on tonight, by the way, the Bloviating Zeppelin’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon, at 8PM Pacific and 11PM Eastern tonight on the SHR Media Network. At the appropriate time click ON AIR to listen.
Republicans, on the other hand, argue Gorsuch answered more than 20 hours of questions and was abiding by what’s known as the “Ginsburg standard” so as not to show his cards on how he’d rule in cases that may come before him.
Hitting back against the argument that he’s extreme, Republicans say Gorsuch sided with the majority in 99% of his opinions as a federal judge in the past decade, and the GOP said that of the 2,700 cases he has ruled on, 97% were decided unanimously.
On Friday at 11:30 Eastern, the senate will vote up or down on Judge Neil Gorsuch. A majority vote will yield confirmation.
There will be Armageddon as Hatch suggests. I have it on good information there is a chance that, later this year, another opening on SCOTUS will occur. I believe that President Trump will deign to nominate an individual not unlike Judge Gorsuch. That will tend to move the court to the right. Further, as this is only 2017, there is every chance that between now and 2020 there will be another opening on SCOTUS and the opportunity for President Trump to nominate a person similar to Judge Gorsuch.
If this is true, and I believe it so, this may impact the US Supreme Court for, literally, decades to come.
So yes, the Demorats were rather stupid to filibuster Judge Gorsuch.
What will be the immediate result of this? Will the Demorats become even more obstructionist than they are now, considering there are over 1,000 vacancies still requiring installation in the Trump presidency?
My thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to broadcast in their studio and over their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as appear on the Sackheads Radio Show each Wednesday evening.
Thursday night we discussed:
Happy Stories and good times!
Kurt Schlichter: why the Left hates us
Nancy Pelosi is suffering a distinct marble loss;
Hawaii federal judge puts Trump travel stay on hold — no shock;
Rachel Maddow proves she is the “audacity of hype”;
John McCain: President Trump’s consummate Underminer;
Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin(on Twitter @BZep and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday and Thursday night on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.
As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening via podcast. Thanks and digital hugs to Mary Brockman for spreading the word about the Saloon and bringing new folks into chat. Two words, madame: you rock.
John McCain predicts ‘there’s a lot more shoes to drop’ on Trump-Russia connection
by Ben Wolfgang
Sen. John McCain predicted Sunday that “there’s a lot more shoes to drop” regarding President Trump’s connections to Russia, and said he believes top Trump associates should be called before Congress to testify.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Arizona Republican said the American people need more information and need it quickly.
It was the latest in a string of revelations involving figures close to Mr. Trump meeting or speaking with individuals or groups connected to Russia. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, for example, recently was forced to admit he met several times with the Russian ambassador last year at the same time he was acting as a top surrogate for the Trump campaign.
“Obviously I think [Mr. Stone] and others need to be questioned,” Mr. McCain said.
Good old John McCain, doing the heavy lifting for the Demorat Party as much as he possibly can, slicing and dicing on innuendo and repetition because that’s all he and his fellow Demorats, American Media Maggots, anarchists and Leftists possess.
This is McCain at his obstructionist, feckless best, throwing all the smegma he can at President Trump for any number of reasons, most of them highly personal. First and foremost: McCain lost the presidential bid against George Bush in 2000 and lost against Obama in 2008. He has been cheated twice. Second, it’s always about John McCain and no one else. He vacillates for the same of convenience.
People seem to have forgotten McCain’s 2001 considerations of leaving the Republican Party in general, as well as his 2004 talks with presidential candidate John Kerry about becoming his running mate as Vice President.
This has created the phrase: “Bitter, table for one, please.”
Bitter with George Bush from 2000. Bitter to the point where the NYTimes.com wrote in 2008:
Still, Democrats were stunned one Saturday in late March when, by their account, John Weaver, Mr. McCain’s longtime political strategist, reached out to Thomas J. Downey, a former Democratic congressman from Long Island who had become a lobbyist with powerful connections on Capitol Hill. In Mr. Downey’s telling, Mr. Weaver posed a question to him over lunch that left him stunned.
“He says, ‘John McCain is wondering why nobody’s ever approached him about switching parties, or becoming an independent and allying himself with the Democrats,’ ” Mr. Downey said in a recent interview. “My reaction was, ‘When I leave this lunch, your boss will be called by anybody you want him to be called by in the United States Senate.’ ”
As I wrote and reviewed in detail on my radio show, BZ’s Berserk Bobcat Saloon, John McCain clearly aided Buzzfeed and others in a naked attempt to take down Donald Trump with, well, unmitigated and specious bullshit regarding “Trump’s ties with Russia” and a “dossier.” From my January 16th post:
A still-unidentified wealthy GOP donor — clearly not a good pal of Donald Trump — hired a firm in 2015 called Fusion GPS to assemble opposition research on Donald Trump. Fusion ended up hiring a former British MI-6 operative named Christopher Steele, in the spring of 2016, who wrote the 35-page report on Trump. Please let me point out that the DC firm Fusion GPS is the same one hired by Planned Parenthood to put a positive spin on videos showing the sale of baby parts. This is “good to know” information.
Because the meme was “in the air,” Steele was to dig up smegma on Trump’s “obvious” ties to Russia. Steele talked to some Russians and the gossip was included in the report later compiled.
The information somehow “found its way” to the FBI. That was not magic, of course. It was purposeful, by way of Arizona Senator John McCain.
Yes, John McCain — clearly not a good pal of Donald Trump — got this hot mess started. He sent one of his own operatives across the Atlantic in order to acquire Trump’s dossier from Steele. McCain discovered the dossier’s existence when he was at a Canadian meeting with Sir Andrew Wood, a former associate of UK’s Tony Blair who is, also, not a good pal of Donald Trump, and subsequently sent an aide to acquire the report, in August of 2016.
An interesting aside. Very few persons have dared to mention the direct involvement of Senator John McCain, even that stalwart “the spin stops here” Fox News guy, Bill O’Reilly, who purposely avoided mentioning the involvement of McCain in his Thursday, January 12th Talking Points Commentary broadcast.
John McCain turned the dossier over to the FBI, saying he did “what any citizen would do.”
Retired US Army Lt Col Tony Shaffer said, on USA Radio Network’s Rusty Humphries’ show:
“This could be the first time a former president could be indicted for a felony,” Shaffer answered. “Because I think it is very possible that he acted outside of the scope of his duties, responsibilities and authorities to turn the resources of a nation-state on a candidate.”
“This is, as I’ve said before, soviet-dictator level wrongdoing,” he added.
Sean Hannity had some insight regarding John McCain and Lindsey Graham and their incessant attacks on President Trump. Got that? President Trump. Not President McCain or President Graham. President Trump.
Further, John McCain goes, well, just a bit unhinged over Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. From the DailyBeast.com:
John McCain: Rand Paul ‘Is Now Working for Vladimir Putin’
by Andrew Kirell
After the Kentucky senator objected to a bill advancing Montenegro’s push for NATO membership, McCain lost his cool and accused his colleague of being a Putin operative.
The long-simmering war between Sens. John McCain and Rand Paul boiled over on Wednesday when the Arizona lawmaker directly accused his colleague of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While speaking from the Senate floor in support of a bill advancing Montenegro’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), McCain noted objection from his Kentucky colleague, saying that if you oppose the measure, “You are achieving the objectives of Vladimir Putin… trying to dismember this small country which has already been the subject an attempted coup.”
McCain continued: “If they object, they are now carrying out the desires and ambitions of Vladimir Putin and I do not say that lightly.”
Rand Paul had a measured and rational response in the face of McCain’s overblown rhetoric.
“Currently, the United States has troops in dozens of countries and is actively fighting in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen (with the occasional drone strike in Pakistan),” he told The Daily Beast.
“In addition, the United States is pledged to defend 28 countries in NATO. It is unwise to expand the monetary and military obligations of the United States given the burden of our $20 trillion debt.”
I cannot pass up Rand Paul’s summary of John McCain two weeks ago when he states “we’re very lucky John McCain is not in charge.”
I also cannot pass up Keith Ellison, rampant and unadulterated Leftist Supreme, concluding that “there is no there there” with regard to Trump and the Russians.
Keith Ellison seems convinced. John McCain — who loves the spotlight he acquires at CNN and MSNBC — not so much.
I have said numerous times before and continue to say now: John McCain should simply be truthful. I admire honesty and clarity.
John McCain should simply change his (R) to a (D) and be done with it.
My thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to broadcast in their studio and over their air twice weekly, as well as appear on the Sackheads Radio Show each Wednesday evening.
On Thursday night’s show, “The Aftermath,” I did something heretofore unencountered: I went into overtime. In order to fit all the information applicable, the show ran to 2.5 hours instead of the standard two. We covered:
Marine Le Pen destroys Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande;
Maxine Waters destroys herself;
California kills cops;
Local CHP officer killed;
The Swamp Strikes Back;
John McCain disgusts thinking people
I quantify The Aftermath as “all the stuff I couldn’t fit into the Tuesday show.”
Please join me, the Bloviating Zeppelin(on Twitter @BZep and on Gab.ai @BZep), every Tuesday on the SHR Media Network from 11 PM to 1 AM Eastern and 8 PM to 10 PM Pacific, at the Berserk Bobcat Saloon — where the speech is free but the drinks are not.
Also check @BZep on Twitter and Gab to see if The Aftermath is scheduled for each Thursday at the same bat time, the same bat channel. My guest, Pat Dollard, couldn’t make it tonight but we’ve rescheduled the show for next Tuesday, February 28th, at 11 PM Eastern and 8 PM Pacific. Come listen to the eclectic and irascible Pat Dollard — he’ll open your mind like a bad can of cat food.
As ever, thank you so kindly for listening, commenting, and interacting in the chat room or listening via podcast. BZ
My thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to broadcast in their studio and over their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as appear on the Sack Heads Radio Show™ each Wednesday evening.
just discuss a bit of Islam? An excellent chance.
My thanks to the SHR Media Network for allowing me to broadcast in their studio and over their air twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as appear on the Sackheads Radio Show each Wednesday evening.
Let’s reveal the story up front, from the