Updated because I knew you guys would come through for me. This lifted me, along with some great comments. I’d hope to give us all a place to vent and feel better. Hope it’s working.
h/t waratah
‘How can we continue to lose the lives of unarmed Black men in the United State of America at the hands of white police officers?’ — @BetoORourke speaking out on Botham Jean pic.twitter.com/hte5idsTrM
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 17, 2018
=============================
I lived through the Nixon years – and while I was young, I remember feeling energized by it all. Because somewhere in the back of my young mind, I saw this as how strong our country was. We defeat bad guys.
I remember during the Shrub years, feeling discouraged. Wondering how people could be so stupid to elect this idiot who was responsible for sending my brother and many, many more people to war.
But it was nothing like this. This. Is. Fucking. Exhausting. I don’t recognize the government any longer. And I can only hope that come November we are a tsunami of change and begin to wash away this stain.
I’m afraid there will always be racists, misogynists, xenophobes, homophobes and other despicable people. But for fucks sake, we shouldn’t be paying them with our tax dollars to destroy the country. Or to be so cowardly as to not stand up for it.
I am officially discouraged this week.
Open thread.
Nicole
I agree with you. I’m so tired of being anxious about the future of the g-damn nation. And I’m also really scared there’s going to be ratfuckery of the November elections on a large scale.
raven
Fuck it and drive on! FIDO!
Eric U.
I’m taking it better than I did with GWBush, but it really is scary and exhausting.
Major Major Major Major
In a lot of ways, the 2010 election cemented in my mind America’s status as a has-been, unwilling and unable to address its own structural deficiencies and incapable of durable correct action on the world stage. I hoped Obama and then Hillary could manage this decline gracefully. Instead we have this.
mvr
I’m fully in agreement with the exhausting bit. But maybe not as discouraged. I think that’s part of why I’m exhausted. I have enough hope to keep trying to track what’s going on.
Marcopolo
Preach it!
The only thing that really works for me now is to put my head down, try to block out all the noise, and take positive steps to affect the outcome in November. Today I’ve written 100 GOtV postcards to be sent to low turnout D voters at the end of October–my Indivisible group is within spitting distance of completing our 100K goal–and then I called both my Senators & Senator Grassley’s office. Calling Grassley is a first, but I hope a lot of folks are doing it right now because he is such an @sshole.
raven
pat
And I’m reading FEAR, by Bob Woodward.
And I can tell you, the people who are “protecting” us from this moron are actually facilitating the destruction.
FelonyGovt
I’m with you. I can’t believe Trump’s fitness and sanity has been openly challenged BY MEMBERS OF HIS OWN STAFF- and that was LAST week, and this week it all seems forgotten and we’re on to other things.
gene108
I try not to think about the big picture. It is demoralizing. I canvass for our Democratic challenger to Rep. Tom MacArthur, in NJ-3, Andy Kim and hope it makes a difference.
I just think Republicans have taken a hammer to what used to be civic norms, with the approval of many millions of Americans, that I don’t think we’ll ever fully recover.
Used to be people disagreed, with regards to politics, such as how much welfare benefits should someone get, what rate people should be taxed at, how much should we spend on the military, etc., but they generally agreed on the rules of engagement, i.e. each side plays by the same rules. Republicans have changed the rules of engagement. They have deliberately tilted the playing field to their advantage, with the repeal of campaign finance laws via “activist” judges on the SCOTUS, gerrymandering, and voter suppression laws masquerading as voter ID laws.
I don’t see a path forward, because so many Americans want to keep us on the path we are going on.
geg6
#Me too.
Was sick with some kind of respiratory virus last week. Started to recover over the weekend but went to the alumni golf outing that raises funds for campus scholarships. I am in charge of one of the beverage carts every year. It’s usually a fun day. But this Monday, it poured and I spent the day getting soaked, literally water pouring off me by the end of it. Then yesterday, presented at a high school counselor financial aid workshop all morning. Worked the afternoon and then went to give a presentation at one of our service area high schools which is in a rural area (Cole, I’m sure, has heard of Burgettstown, Washington County) about 45 minutes from my home from 6:30 until 8:15 pm. And trying to keep myself up to date on everything happening. As I should have known, I have promptly relapsed. I just feel sick despair with lots of phlegm. I just can’t today.
satby
Lived through the Civil Rights movement as an older child, Viet Nam era as a teen, Nixon and Watergate, Dumbya and Darth Cheney as an adult. Compared to all of them this feels worse. The others divided the country, this feels like the country has been taken prisoner.
Republicans lead the impeachment of their own president Nixon then; these current Republicans refuse to fulfil their Constitutional duty to remove a screamingly obviously corrupt and incompetent Oval Office occupant. I want them destroyed completely.
mali muso
Agreed. I’m trying to do my part locally (vote, donate, encourage others), but I am also following through with the required steps to open an application for permanent residency in Canada. I’ve had my credentials evaluated for equivalency and am signed up for French and English language tests in the next few months. I figure that it can’t hurt to have a plan B for the sake of my daughter’s future. Things feel so grim.
catclub
the GWBUsh misrule was ( so far) orders of magnitude worse than Trump. 1/2 million dead iraqis at a cost of $2tr, then destroying the world economy. Also Katrina mismanagement. also torture, also incompetence before 911
But GWBush was born to the GOP aristocracy, so it was not so bad, right?
no.
wv blondie
I mostly lurk, so forgive my presumption for offering advice, but here goes: We can all recover from exhaustion. We can work through discouragement. But we don’t quit. Do you think the men and women of the 1930s and ’40s wanted to fight Hitler? Do you think they got tired and discouraged?
My favorite part of LOTR (sorry, it’s my inner nerd) is when Gandalf points out to Frodo that no one wants to go through dangerous, terrifying times – but that’s their responsibility nonetheless. We didn’t have to live through the Civil War, but we are eternally grateful to Mr. Lincoln and all the other brave people who made the ultimate sacrifice, to not only keep our country whole but to advance the goals of “forming a more perfect union.” We didn’t struggle to survive through the Great Depression, and we are thankful that our grandparents and great-grandparents were tough-minded survivors.
Now it’s our turn to step up and make our contribution to strengthening the ideals of this dream, this United States. I am beyond sad that here, in the 21st century, it’s necessary, but I am willing to do my small part, knowing there are millions and millions of others who are doing the same.
Betty Cracker
I hear you, and I’m exhausted as fuck from previous “most important election of our lifetimes” — each of which legitimately was that in its turn! It’s like we said in 2016, “Don’t drive off the cliff — we’ll all die!” And they drove off the fucking cliff anyway, but miraculously, we landed on a precarious outcropping just below the cliff, crumbling toward the abyss, and now we’re saying, “Don’t drive off the outcropping, or we’ll all REALLY die this time!”
The Moar You Know
@Major Major Major Major: Took a trip to Britain in 2016 to realize that we have the political infrastructure of a third world country and are rapidly devolving towards being one in every other way as well.
Can’t leave and that’s the only truly effective action I can think of.
Kia kaha!
The response to this ongoing insanity – watched from a safe distance – is exhilarating. The relentless refusal by journalists, the judiciary, the PEOPLE to take this nonsense lying down has been absolutely brilliant.
gene108
@Major Major Major Major:
Any Republican President would have done damage to our international standing. Maybe not as ham-handidly as Trump, but every Republican candidate was going to pull us out of the Iran nuclear agreement, for example.
I think there are generations, ending with mine (Gen X), who only know America as the unquestioned leader of the world, and people have taken this as a given, and no longer understand the work that was put into being the leader and the breaks we received to get there, like having 80% of the world’s manufacturing capacity at the end of WW2, because other industrialized nation had been bombed out.
Republicans play to this sense of entitlement by attacking any attempt at structural change as somehow unpatriotic or unAmerican, and too many people view unquestioning devotion to tough talk, as the bench mark of true patriotism.
gene108
@FelonyGovt:
WE are in Trump Time. It’s like a unit of measure, where time moves at a different speed, with regards to political news than it does in other aspects of our lives. A week in normal time is a week, but in Trump Time it’s like 3 years, because more recent events overtake it immediately.
Major Major Major Major
@gene108: In retrospect (which as a youngish person is how I must view the 20th century), this was all inevitable when we started to abandon our postwar commitment to citizen well-being in the late 60’s (around when women and black people started wanting to participate, hmm).
@catclub: Imagine how bad Trump would be if he’d had a 9/11 though.
The Midnight Lurker
@raven: In my day it was, ‘Suck up. Ruck up. And move out.’
Brachiator
Yep. I swear to God, I wake up some mornings and say to myself, “What? Trump is president? WTF?”
But it is heartening to see so many people not only resisting, but fighting back. I don’t know that victory is guaranteed, but at least we can give it a hell of a fight.
lahke
Did anyone post the latest Alexandra Petri yet? The woman has amazing chops as a poet, not just a satirist.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2018/09/19/some-interpersonal-verbs-conjugated-by-gender/?utm_term=.a64fba75160e
Gelfling 545
And, fron you know who
“This is a tough hurricane, one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Corner Stone
@gene108:
Completely disagree. Romney, Bush, Rubio – none of them would have shit talked NATO and pulled us out of the Iran agreement in such an egregious and capricious way. Maybe sideways walked into new talks? Sure.
But Muslim Ban, child separation, banning trans from military – any number of just world class stunningly stupid one-offs would not have happened. The closest we could have gotten to this kind of world level shaming would have been with Cruz.
West of the Rockies
@wv blondie:
Well said, WVB. We all have some part to play, for good or ill. We are on the side of good.
Rommie
I’ve been down this week, because the R’s see an opportunity to stick a knife into #MeToo, getting revenge against women who had the nerve to speak up, AND get their guy onto the SC at the same time. Win-Win!, and they are going for it. I hope to FSM there are more falling shoes and/or Giant Meteor inbound.
Ohio Mom
@Marcopolo: Thank you for all those postcardS
And,
@gene108: Thank you for canvassing.
I still manage, I don’t know how, to have some optimism that eventually things will right themselves. Maybe I am deluded. My day-to-day mood is melancholic though.
I am absolutely sick of what is happening, even bored of it. If this was a movie, I would have walked out, if it was a book, it would have been returned to the library, unfinished.
Trump and the rest of his administration, and this Congress, are horrible. I get it. I don’t need any more examples. I am ready to move on.
Chetan Murthy
[A good bit OT, but still …] Dammit, these libertarians are all fucking child-molesters!
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cody-wilson-3d-printed-gun-hatreon-charges-sexual-assault-child
Founder Of 3D-Printed Gun Company Charged With Sexual Assault Of Child
NotMax
Illegitimi non carborundum.
catclub
@Chetan Murthy: ‘well of course’ was my instant response on seeing that.
The Midnight Lurker
Need so good news? According to a Reuters online poll, Beto has a two point lead. Other polls have him down by three, but this is good news anyway. And… I have sweaty Beto photos.
waratah
https://nowthisnews.com/videos/politics/beto-orourke-on-the-killing-of-botham-jean
This will cheer you up
Gin & Tonic
My parents survived Hitler and Stalin. I can live through Trump.
Betty Cracker
@catclub: When people say Trump is worse, they’re not excusing the horrible things W did. Both Trump and W were and are terrible, but their awfulness manifests in different ways. It’s not an apples-to-applies comparison.
Trump is erratic and unstable in ways W wasn’t. W was the garden variety GOP evil we’ve been dealing with since Reagan, only dumber and more impulsive. He did awful things. People were ruined financially, and people died in a useless, ruinous war.
Trump hasn’t even been president for two years, and he’s already pretty much destroyed our international alliances, is busily undermining our economy with a trade strategy that doesn’t seem tethered to economic realities and appears to be operating as a stooge for a vicious foreign autocrat. He may very well end up causing even more ruin and deaths — give him time! (Or don’t — that’s my preference.)
Doug R
trump voters trend older and meth-adlled. I think healthy liberals can take the stress better, especially with a healthy dose of Stephanie Miller. And a healthy dose of Mueller.
dww44
Not only am I exhausted and weary and having difficulty summoning up enthusiasm for the upcoming election, I get doubly depressed when I see the GOP ads that are running in my red state. The newest one, product of a 45 Superpac (supporting Trump), is a slick well, done positive message sort of thing that all the voters around me will be influenced by. It’s narrated by a young and cheerful, almost certainly, white female about how the country is “back, thanks to a thriving middle class, reduced regulations, and tax cuts for same (no mention of the rich)”. All the while panning over videos showing a young black guy in front of a class room, and other minorities, i.e. women and African Americans mostly.
Its misrepresentation of the policies and actions, not to say demeanor, of the current Administration borders on being criminal. I both mute and change the channel. Doesn’t help that we’ve not got any sort of counter message being shown as frequently as this one is. It really does matter how much money one side has and the Democratic party in this state is not flush with big money contributors.
Ohio Mom
@Betty Cracker: “Bush was worse” is a recurring theme of both Atrios and Kevin Drum.
But I agree with you, we don’t know Trump’s sum total yet.
Leto
I just received in my work email a “Birthday Message from POTUS*”; Trumpov wished the USAF a happy birthday. In no fucking universe did Trumpov write this. It’s too coherent, and uses two many two syllable words for him to have penned this. It has complete sentences, expresses complete thought. It also uses phrases like, “Military families are the unsung heroes who help sustain our fighting force, and we owe them a debt of gratitude.” He has no clue wtf any of that means. His words towards Gold Star Families (the Khan’s specifically) shows that, for all eternity. The GOPs whole hearted embrace of all things Trumpov should expose the hypocrisy/lie whenever a Rethug claims to love the military, vets, or mil families.
Long read on WaPo: Twelve years ago, Amber Wyatt reported her rape. Few believed her. Her hometown turned against her. The authorities failed her.
wv blondie
@gene108:
Yes, people may consider it the status quo and not understand our own history. But that also means, if they value that status quo, they will see they have to fight for it. I look to what I saw in DC on Jan. 21, 2017 – millions of people in the streets, not just there but around the world – to remind myself there are many, many allies in this struggle for our collective soul.
gene108
I think the reason this feels different than Bush, Jr. or Reagan is that actual institutions are under assault by Trump and Congressional Republicans and even Republicans at the state and local level.
Trump as demanding the FBI share information on an ongoing investigation into Trump. Trump is taking the emoluments clause of the Constitution and crapping all over it, and god only knows how much self-dealing he is doing, as he hasn’t divested himself from his business.
Congressional Republicans have jumped in to demand the FBI undermine its own investigation into Trump and Russian election interference.
Trump wants to use the DOJ as his personal police force, and has forced the resignation or termination of several career FBI agents.
Congressional Republicans are doing nothing to address the weaknesses in our voting system, which has been repeatedly exposed, because it benefits them.
Plus the whole right-wing media machine is cheering this on, as if it is normal.
bemused
Hillary predicts “wholesale firings” by trump after the election. Bruce Bartlett agrees “mass purge” with only Pence safe. I would guess there are people who would leave on their own. If true, I shudder to think of the “best” people trump would want to appoint. No one with any brain cells would want a job there.
TaMara (HFG)
@Gin & Tonic: Perspective. You have it. xo
Hoodie
@Rommie: Maybe, but I have a feeling they’re doubling down on stupid. There are probably a metric ton of white women who have experienced what Dr. Blasey experienced, in some shape or form. A bunch of old white dudes are poised to blow it off just to do a solid for a frat bro. That could have toxic repercussions for them in November. I kind of wonder I’d DiFi and others planned it that way, kudos if they did. The real answer for the Dems is not to block Kavanaugh in particular, it’s to eventually expand the Court beyond 9 to something more like 15 or greater when they get control of the White House and Senate.
Marcopolo
@Ohio Mom: Thank you for the thanks. The cool thing about the postcards is we (my Indivisible group) had given ourselves till Oct. 15 to finish the 100K–we did it in half that time! Now we are revving up to write additional GOtV postcards to a different set of low turnout low income voters asking them to get out and vote for the minimum wage prop on the November ballot–and linking the fight for a higher minimum wage to voting D.
At least in MO (and I suspect most places) this election is going to be all about turnout. In the interactive polling the NYT is doing with Sienna it already looks like there might not be a surge of hispanic voters coming to the polls in November, but it also looks like traditional polling methods may miss a fair number of voters who do not normally vote in the midterms who are energized this year. I would love to see McCaskill ahead in some poll/any poll in the next few weeks but actually suspect that won’t happen since polling models are looking to people who voted in 2016 & 2014 to come up with their numbers. Just hoping, like in Florida with Gillum that we can figure out what works to turn out a bunch of folks who heretofore haven’t bothered to vote in the midterms.
Suzanne
Tamara, you have completely captured how I’m feeling today. I’m so weary. I’m so tired of white dudes who think they are logical and rational but the rest of us are irrational and just want handouts and favors. I really want to leave.
TaMara (HFG)
@Marcopolo: Endurance and enthusiasm. You have it. xo
I take hope in that. I am sure mine will return in a few days. Hopefully.
zhena gogolia
@wv blondie:
Excellent comment. You’re a better person than I am!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
With hindsight we should have seen this coming with the Creationists. The fact they were so slick at convincing the uninformed their BS was science and how their believers will stick to it even when proved wrong is was the warning signs of Trumpism.
Now we have Holocaust Deniers, White Holocaust Believers, Flat Earthers and the list of the willfully stupid just go on.
TaMara (HFG)
@Rommie: This
@Hoodie: And I sure hope you are correct. When I’m not so down, that’s usually where my thought lead, too
Uncle Cosmo
IIRC sometime in the 1960s or ’70s – smack in the middle of what RAH’s Future History labeled “The Crazy Years” – someone (probably a SF fan) asked him how he felt about having been so wrong in his predictions for that time. Heinlein famously shot back something on the order of What makes you think I was wrong? Arrogant, but he had a point – most of the details were wrong but his take on the overall tenor of the times was uncomfortably close.
I worry about Scudder. Lonesome Rhodes. “Meet John Doe.” Upton Sinclair’s “wrapped in a flag & carrying a cross” statement.
I too am concerned re rodent fornication. That’s why we have to bust our butts to win these races by as much as possible. If nothing else, force the bastards to steal on a scale no logical person could ignore.
Marcelo
I feel exhausted too, and then I remember that this perpetual exhaustion and despair about the state of the country, the enormity of the task of undoing the damage, the horrific daily reminders of how messed up it all is…that has been happening to black people and other marginalized for decades on the DAILY. It’s my white-ass privilege that let me feel like this urgency and exhaustion is new.
So then I suck it up and deal with it and move forward, because if those communities can deal with it for decades, I need to be as strong as they are.
catclub
@gene108:
so condoning torture by the CIA (and twisting the Justice department to ok it) is not an assault on institutions? How about firing US Attorneys and making them run political investigations? How about the politicization of Justice department hiring?
How about Dick Cheney refusing to answer subpeonas from Congress by claiming he is his own branch of government?
Like I said before, Bush was already born to the GOP aristocracy, so gets a pass.
TaMara (HFG)
@waratah: Okay, I’m adding this to the post. Everyone needs to see this.
zhena gogolia
@lahke:
She is en fuego. I loved this:
frosty
@raven: FIDO indeed! Last weekend I signed up to canvass for Jess King every Sunday until the election. No polling, solid R district, long shot … FIDO!
germy
I wonder how his friends in the NY office feel about that?
trollhattan
First president of my lifetime who is wholly unqualified for the job, wholly uninterested in the job, proudly ignorant, belligerent with every fibre of his being, more easily bruised than a ripe peach, hates people and hates government other than that aspect of government that can enrich him and harm his enemies. You are his enemy.
Yeah, I’m worn out.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: Jesus fucking Christ.
Why did you post that? I’ve managed to avoid it until now.
trollhattan
@germy:
In balance I’m sure it’s working out okay.
Marcopolo
@TaMara (HFG): Well, when I really feel worn out I look at the campaign contributions being made in real time at ActBlue. Back in January it was going up about $1M/day, now it is $6-7M an accelerating. The overall total reads at about $2,680,000,000 since 2004. $680,000,000 of that is just since January 1 and it will crack $3 billion before the midterms–all donations by individuals, the vast majority under $50. People are fired up.
I gotta run but here is the link for the Red to Blue page for anyone who wants to add to it–just think of your donation as throwing some coin in a wishing well :).
James E Powell
@dww44:
I get slammed for saying it here and elsewhere, but the Democrats really could use a small set of strong, thematic messages that every breathing Democrat would repeat at every opportunity in front of camera or mike.
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
They are forgetting what Bush did.
so what has Trump done that is worse than those? I am not seeing it. made people tired of dealing with his constant need for attention?
made them tired of dealing people who deny facts? Those don’t really compare
Dorothy A. Winsor
I felt like this during Vietnam, when Nixon was in office and the war and draft just kept on, and Kent State happened, and I felt like I couldn’t do a thing about it. You just have to keep on doing what you can do. I have hopes for November.
catclub
@Uncle Cosmo:
these are not logical people.
the response from Adlai Stevenson springs to mind “But I need a majority”.
Raven
@The Midnight Lurker: You guys were way better than we were.
Emma
@Gelfling 545: I read that and the only thing that kept me from punching a wall is that my new office is right next to my boss’.
Raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: xin loi
Immanentize
@raven:
It don’t mean nothing. Drive on!
Brachiator
@catclub:
Nope.
Interesting, but no. Bush was bad, largely unqualified, but Trump is unfit in every way. Bush had Cheney. Practically every Trump cabinet appointee and staffer is incompetent or evil.
ruemara
Welcome. This is a fact. This is also why black people don’t fuck around about voting like white people do. If we did, we’d be in a nationwide Jim Crow still. You’re never going to get rid of those people, you just have to keep them curtailed.
Mike in DC
@catclub:
Muslim travel ban, Charlottesville, massive deregulation, stepped up deportations and cutbacks on refugees, rescinding DACA, child separation at the border, supporting the de facto coup in KSA, supporting the war in Yemen, starting a trade war with virtually every other country, coarsening the public discourse to its lowest level ever, blatant obstruction of justice, cozying up to the worst dictators in the world and alienating longtime allies…it’s been less than 2 years! Dubya was around for 8.
schrodingers_cat
Rs are terrible and T is the worst President bar none. Our democracy is strong, here in MA we had great candidates at the local level. Rs are not winning they are in panic. Which country in the world is perfect? None of our problems insurmountable what is needed is political will. That is not true for most countries in the world. We have an opportunity this November to stem the tide. The locals Ds I volunteer with give me great hope.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Truth. I cannot understanding voting for the feels.
Betty Cracker
@catclub: Sounds like you’d rather gloat about the imagined superiority of your powers of recall than actually understand what people mean. Have fun with that.
TaMara (HFG)
@catclub: Trust me I have not forgotten. And you don’t need to attack people here to disagree with them. So be done with that or take off.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Raven: Was that offensive? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be.
schrodingers_cat
@TaMara (HFG): Bush for all his faults went to a mosque in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. Think of what T would have done instead.
catclub
@Mike in DC: I hate Trump too, but Bush still has the body count: 1/2 million Iraqis 4 million plus Iraqi refugees. 9/11 oopsie. Also the ruined economy. I did mention so far.
Bush would have done this: supporting the de facto coup in KSA, cozying up to the worst dictators in the world and alienating longtime allies
(he did that with Putin and alienating allies over Iraq war),supporting the war in Yemen, massive deregulation (umm subprime bubble, anyone?)
trump is trying to up his body count with deportations and child separation at the border, but he has a lot of catching up to do.
I did mention so far.
coarsening the public discourse to its lowest level ever, oh boo hoo, ask the Iraqis which they prefer.
@Brachiator:
So? I would rather have an unfit president and no failure to stop 9/11 than have Bush plus failure. plus torture.
JMG
Anyone old enough to remember the TV western “Maverick”? It’s on some of the oldies cable channels. James Garner as Bret Maverick says in one episode, “my Pappy used to say ‘you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, and those are pretty good odds.” Those are good odds and that’s what we’re up against. But unless polls are off y 10-15 points instead of 2-4, Trump is not popular. Neither if the Republican Party. There are seven weeks until Election Day and I’d rather have our hand than theirs right now.
Gelfling 545
@germy: That cancer on our country line makes me think someone has been telling him about John Dean.
Aleta
Thanks Tamara.
Gelfling 545
@catclub: Trunp is bad. Very, very bad and completely unfit. No matter how bad Bush was, the fact remains that he is not the one currently in office. His ability to do damage is over. Trump can ans has expressed the desire to continue to damage this country and our institutions I do not see how recognizing the disaster that is Trump is giving Bush a pass.
Gelfling 545
@JMG: Was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid!
NotMax
@schrodinger’s cat
Simplistic analogy, but here goes.
W was someone who enters your orchard and steals all your apples.
Dolt 45 is someone who enters your orchard, steals all your apples, cuts down the trees, absconds with the timber, then salts the earth in order to foreclose on your farmhouse.
catclub
@TaMara (HFG):
I agree. who did I attack – which post? I did say that people are forgetting how bad Bush was. Is that an attack?
MomSense
I need some help from the leagles regarding some canvassing issues that have come up.
We’ve had some canvassers who have been kicked out of an HOA for violating their ban on solicitation. Are there any citations or links I can reference to respond to this complaint?
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
More people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria than died in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
So I would say the only thing holding Trump back from a body count as high as W’s is a lack of opportunity (so far), not a lack of desire.
Pogonip
@raven: Then the Congress should insist on a doctor’s examination. 30 seconds and you know who’s lying.
JPL
@catclub: Trump administration has lost 1500 migrant children, so I would think that’s a big deal.
Today there were two mass shootings, one in Wisconsin, and one in PA that the news media is ignoring.
The one thing that George W. did is he defined a patriot.
This is a patriot. link
Rob Lll
@wv blondie:
Thank you. I’ve often thought of that LOTR passage and reflected that all over the world people have been through far worse than what we’re living through now and surmounted it. Perspective is key.
JPL
@JPL: I should have said he tried to define a patriot. A patriot is not a lap dog, although most lap dogs are better than Trump and George W.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
Also, this:
How about we ask the American citizens who have been beaten or murdered because of their race or ethnicity how they feel about our public discourse? Or the woman who just had to go into hiding to avoid death threats because she’s derailing Trump’s preferred Supreme Court nominee?
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: I used to say Reagan was the termites eating away at your houses’s framework unbeknownst to you, and Bush was the wind storm that knocked your weakened house over.
Then you understood how much damage had been done when you weren’t paying attention.
Where to put Trump in this analogy? He must be the con artist posing as a general contractor. He convinced enough Americans to pay the full amount up front and abscounded with it. Leaving us broke and homeless.
catclub
@Mnemosyne:
I agree. I have emphasized so far.
but the body count from GWBush is still orders of magnitude worse.
If trump wants a high body count but does not get it, I have to rate that better than somebody who gets a huge body count through his actions.
I would even say that that somebody is ‘worse’
WaterGirl
From Steve Benen:
JPL
@Mnemosyne: It sickens me that her life was threatened. This is why most people don’t step forward.
catclub
@Ohio Mom:
It may well turn out that way, but at present the economy is pretty good. Incompetence and good luck beats bad luck and incompetence.
Marcopolo
@MomSense:
What’s Up with That? Campaigning is free speech, not solicitation
Hope this helps.
TS (the original)
@catclub:
Trump has alienated every world leader except 2 and those 2 are pleased to see him carrying out their plan. The impact of this over the next few years could be more horrifying than anything for the past fifty – unless trump is stopped.
His tax breaks have taken away any possibility of stopping the continuation of the rich getting richer & living off the labors of the poor. The increase in racism and sexism under his administration will eventually lead to the next civil war. This is as Putin wants – trump is his happy pawn.
And given I hope he will die or be defeated at the polls – I don’t intend to extrapolate the current misery by talking about how the norms of society and democratic government have disappeared with the end of the Obama administration. You know all this – or else you have been asleep for the past 18 months.
Ohio Mom
@Pogonip: TBF, Congress should have insisted on a complete medical physical some time ago. Just like they should have insisted on seeing Trump’s tax returns.
Mart
Charles Pierce at Esquire advertising this blog: “So, when a boisterous con-man comes to town and sells some balloon juice about how he, alone, can bring all of it back, they vote for him because they literally are at the end of their tethers.”
MomSense
@Marcopolo:
Thanks!
Kathleen
@Marcelo: I think about that also. I also think about how African Americans have kept up the fight for hundreds of years. That is.where I see hope.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
W didn’t invade Iraq until after the 2002 midterm elections. We have not yet had a midterm election. So if you want to do an apples-to-apples comparison, Trump has done FAR more damage and killed many more people than W did in the same stretch of time (presidential election to midterm election).
Ohio Mom
@catclub: It’s a metaphor.
Losing our status in the world and fraying our relationships with our allies is a kind of bankruptcy, even if the economy is fine for now. Some things are harder to earn than money.
schrodingers_cat
As an immigrant there is simply no comparison who is worse T or W. I felt like the world had ended when T was elected. It was a gut punch. Nothing compares to the raw hatred T has spewed against immigrants from the first day of his campaign.
sheila in nc
@MomSense: Canvassing is not solicitation. At least that’s what I have been told when I have canvassed. OTOH, it doesn’t help your cause to get everybody mad at you — pick your battles.
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
Yup. There are many varieties of bankruptcy. There’s bankruptcy of the wallet, there’s bankruptcy of the soul.
Mary Ellen Sandahl
@Kia kaha!: Thanks for that. Pardon my lurker ignorance, but where are you?
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Not at all, xin loi just means “sorry bout that”!
debbie
@JPL:
Like the story about the Turtle and Scorpion, it’s in this country’s nature to be bullies. We used to just bully other countries; now people seem intent on bullying other people.
The Midnight Lurker
@Raven: Horseshit, troop!
raven
@Pogonip: The pecker checker!
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Me too, but I’m laughing pretty heartily just imagining what his inevitable tweet will say about that.
Steve in the ATL
@Mart: love Mr. Pierce, but he should know what “literally” means. And it doesn’t mean that.
B.B.A.
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies.
The Pale Scot
@gene108:
We’re doing politics, they’re doing Spiritual Warfare! That has been bombastically nurtured by wing nut media
KSinMA
“I saw this as how strong our country was. We defeat bad guys.”
THIS, 1,000 TIMES, THIS.
And thanks for the video. It gave me home, too.
Eyes on the prize. We will defeat bad guys again.
TenguPhule
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat: yeah but he did that only because the house of saud owns the house of bush
JPL
@debbie: For me it gives me more options than just calling him President Trump, so I’m okay with that.
TenguPhule
@gene108:
Its paved with good intentions and cemented by the corpses of every dead-end Republican.
schrodingers_cat
@Steve in the ATL: Michael Moore is that you?
TenguPhule
@catclub:
Destroyed the Federal Government and brought us to the brink of Civil War. And he’s not done yet.
Fleeting Expletive
Have y’all read about Pompeo’s staff memos on the proper use of commas? Egregious grammar mistakes make my eyeballs itch but this is what we pay him for? (CNN)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gene108: Those people aren’t the future, they are literally dying out. Like Trump, end of life and batshit crazy.
Marcopolo
Apparently there is now a contemporaneous counting/verification of Dr. Ford’s story from a woman who was a year ahead of her at her school: https://mobile.twitter.com/jaybookmanajc/status/1042386834284789760
Everyone please call your Senators & Grassley.
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat: I know I’ve put on a few pounds but that’s just mean!
debbie
@Steve in the ATL:
O/T, but did I miss the post where you said your wife had recovered and was well?
B.B.A.
And I am struck by the hollowness of it all. Bushism was a dystopian hellscape of megachurches, SUVs, Walmart, Nascar, and endless war, but if someone were sufficiently white and evangelical and Southern I can see how they’d think there was something to it. Trumpism is just transparent horseshit.
Steve in the ATL
@debbie: sadly, that post hasn’t been made yet. She recovered from the nightmare pancreatitis, but still has the original abdominal pain that they caused the pancreatitis in trying to diagnose. Some progress but not enough!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Another thing to take inspiration from; win lose Beto is the future. That means no more Nice Polite Democrats. Sure they can shove that Date Rape A-hole into the SCOTUS, then when the Dems take it they can do the investigation what should have been done and impeach his behind with Thomas, tell the Right to go stuff it.
JPL
@Marcopolo: NBC has the story. link
Maybe more will come forward.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: That is so sad. I hope that there are answers soon.
debbie
@Steve in the ATL:
I am so sorry to read that. It sucks when doctors don’t have instant answers.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL:
Or he could literally ask Joe Biden.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: It sucks more when they have instant answers and they’re the wrong ones.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
To be fair, we’ve never actually made a serious effort to. This could be rectified.
Ruckus
@catclub:
All of what you say is true.
But, and it’s a big, round, firm but, they are differently bad.
Betty laid it out well in her comment.
My take is that GWB was a disaster of a president, but this guy isn’t your average republican disaster, he’s a human time bomb, with all the self control of a nuclear bomb that’s been armed and is just waiting for something, anything to set it off. And no one actually knows what that might be.
He’s far more dangerous because the only way to contain the damage, is to remove him from office, and there is no way to get there from here.
trollhattan
Republican stratigeriizing, bringing the A-Game: Roy Moore endorses Kavanaugh.
Why yes, yes they do.
TenguPhule
@catclub:
You did remember Trump is okay with torture and wants to double down by murdering the families of any suspects, yes?
And that nobody is monitoring whether or not the CIA and military have reinstituted the GWB torture practices.
Marcopolo
@Steve in the ATL: Hey Steve, wave, posting between dinner preps, but hope they figure it out soon. Going through a similar experience w/ my mom atm.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I’m sure that will be helpful.
Betty Cracker
@catclub: If you’re going to insist on body count and financial ruin as the sole metrics for terrible presidents, I guess LBJ and Herbert Hoover surpass W as the worstest.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Marcopolo: It took docs two years to figure out Madame had gall stones and not a stomach problem.
TenguPhule
@Rob Lll:
Only the ones who survived.
The Pale Scot
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Bingo! It’s all that practice refuting evolution, geology and somehow Einstein. See the Dover Trials
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: As far a body count alone, FDR and Lincoln top the list.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Susan Collins is so voting to confirm now that he has the coveted Roy Moore thumbs up (sorry for the unintended image there).
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Reposting from below because I didn’t get any adequate answers:
This came up last night on a thread:
If 15 states are going to contain 70% of the population in the next 20 years, guaranteeing empty red states a majority in the Senate and the EC, then what’s the point of any of this? I’d go on to say I should come up with an exit strategy, but where would I flee to? Everywhere practically is going to shit. I don’t want to be around in 20+ years, as much as I hate to say that, if that’s the future I have to look forward to
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Not always. I’ve had wrong answers for 31 years now.
TenguPhule
Woman found dead the same day she was scheduled to appear in court with alleged abuser
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Isn’t the electoral college reapportioned at each census?
TenguPhule
I am a horse. I know horseplay. That’s not what this is.
ArchTeryx
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Empty red states sometimes send Democrats to the Senate. Quite a few of our almost-majority are already from empty red states. That makes them Blue Dogs, sometimes in the extreme – but they still vote for a D for Majority Leader, and that’s the vote that counts most of all.
Reapportionment partially nullifies the power of the empty red states. The problem isn’t that empty red states are red. The problem is a lot of very non-empty *blue* states voted for 46 minus one.
The Pale Scot
@Ohio Mom:
“Tin Men” Slap some aluminum on and the place will look new!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Yes, since the House is, but the Senate remains two for each state.
boatboy_srq
I’m more than casually jobhunting, and one of my prime criteria for a new employer is an international presence that could be a migration point. For example, the international law firm with offices in London, Brussels, Paris, Hamburg and Sydney, or the overseas grocer moving in on the US market whose HQ is somewhere civilized. Getting out while staying on the payroll eliminates the two most difficult parts of fleeing: the job goes with you so relocating is easier, and your employer remains a known quantity and not something you have to find all over again.
@Major Major Major Major: His first term isn’t over yet. Give him time.
chris
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
And reality television.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Right, I was addressing the EC part of the comment. The Senate is part of America’s original sin and a tough nut to crack.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: Oh good. I looked it up and it said “excuse me,” so I thought maybe I’d said something
dr. luba
@satby: GOP delendo est!
TenguPhule
Trump tells storm survivors ‘we will never leave your side’ as he tours the Carolinas
As if North Carolina hasn’t suffered enough.
Ksmiami
@MomSense: solicitation I thought meant business of a transactional nature. Political canvassing is first amendment/non financial which is why you get religious proselytizers ignoring those signs as well.
MomSense
@Steve in the ATL:
Damn, I was really hoping no news was good news. Hope she gets some relie r soonest.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
Yes but (and do not hold me to this 100%, I did the calculations in Nov 2016 so I may not have the states exactly correct)
N Dakota, S Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho have a total population near Michigan’s. They have .18 EC votes to Michigan’s 16. States with 3 EC will never have fewer no matter how few people live there so it will only get worse
ArchTeryx
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah. The Senate is an anachronism and really should be disbanded, but the blowback from that would be almost beyond imagination if it were even brought up. The small-population poorer states would go absolutely bugfuck, and not just the red ones, either. New England says ‘hi’. A parliamentary structure would basically leave those states powerless, and none of them would take that loss of power lying down.
Kia kaha!
@Mary Ellen Sandahl: New Zealand – on the edge of my seat.
khead
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Buck up little camper. And then move to a red state of your choice. I suggest WV.
khead
@catclub:
Soft power. What is it good for?
Rob Lll
@TenguPhule:
Yes, well — you know what Keynes said about the long run.
Ksmiami
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: not to pile on your worries
but literally within 20 years, if we stay on the current course, much of the south will be uninhabitable through global warming so I imagine things will be reset. Plus the millennials will start flexing political muscle in more creative ways. Minority rule like what we have rt now is not sustainable and it either collapses or it is violently torn down.
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: yes, there’s a per-state floor, but it’s not that big a hurdle, especially compared to the senate.
@Ksmiami:
I’d be happy if we did it uncreatively even.
Mike in DC
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The Senate is somewhat rigged, yes, but the electoral college still generally follows the overall popular vote. The National Popular Vote Initiative, if passed by enough states and held constitutional, would effectively undo the electoral college. Not much you can do about the senate without a Constitution amendment or a new convention.
TenguPhule
Lagoons of Pig Waste Are Overflowing After Florence. Yes, That’s as Nasty as It Sounds.
FTFNYT.
A shitty situation all around.
Patricia Kayden
I’ll survive Trump but many won’t. His incompetence has already left hundreds dead in Puerto Rico and hundreds of migrant children in jails and separated from their parents.
Sessions is trying to change asylum laws to make things even worse for Brown people and Trump asked if drones could be made silent.
Sigh!!
TenguPhule
@Rob Lll:
You will be both dead and still owe taxes.
Corner Stone
@Rob Lll:
“No one can maintain a 4 minute mile pace for the entire 26.2 miles.” ?
TenguPhule
@Ksmiami:
What do you mean or?
Gin & Tonic
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Then you’re a fucking moron.
Soviet dissidents persisted against overwhelming odds for decades; many gave their lives in the process. Eventually the USSR fell apart. Was it because of their efforts? Not exclusively, of course. Maybe not even mostly. But they didn’t give up.
If you’re going to give up, then do us all a favor and STFU or go away.
Matthew McIrvin
@Schlemazel: Unless the House is vastly expanded.
TenguPhule
Chyron HR
@TenguPhule:
Oh, I’m sure Glenn Greenwald would have notified us if that as the case.
TaMara (HFG)
@catclub: I had do some work, so unable to get back to you directly. I am very sorry for you that you do not understand how to express an opinion without treating others as if they are somehow less than you. If this were my place and not John’s (who believes everyone should have a voice, even the trolls) I would have given you a timeout. Instead, Imma just gonna ignore you and go watch Scout play in the falling leaves.
trollhattan
Knock me over with a feather. Libertarian hero 3-D gun dude up to his eyeballs in rape of an underage girl.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: The Senate is a component of the EC so it gives outsized weight to small population states.
Corner Stone
Fuck you, Megyn Kelly. Just go the fuck away.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
Nebraska 1,920,076
Kansas 2,913,123
Idaho 1,716,943
Montana 1,050,493
South Dakota 869,666
North Dakota 755,393
Wyoming 579,315
TOTAL 9,805,009
Michigan 9,962,311
EC
MI 16 wilderness 18
Senators
MI 14 wilderness 16
Lets say bot MI and the wilderness both lose 1 million people MI loses 1 or 2 EC and the wilderness loses nothing
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
What did she do now?
Rob Lll
@TenguPhule:
OK, that made me laugh.
Rob Lll
@Corner Stone:
That too.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
Just realized I got the EC total wrong. The wilderness is 5 short. In theory NB and KS could lose a congressman if they lost population. Of the states on that list they are the least likely to lose population
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @Schlemazel: there are 538 total electoral votes. The distortions caused by the per-state floor are a relatively small percentage. It is not in the same league as the senate, which consists entirely of per-state floor distortions.
Litlebritdifrnt
@TenguPhule: Then he said to a man who had a yacht wash up into his yard and destroy his deck “well at least you got a boat out of it” No I am not kidding.
Ksmiami
@TenguPhule: collapse under incompetence like the phillipines or Poland or violently torn down like Italy in ww2 or Romania under ceacescu or- well you know most brutal governments are violently torn Down so you have a point.
TenguPhule
It just never stops.
TenguPhule
@Litlebritdifrnt: I saw. I facepalmed.
debbie
@Litlebritdifrnt:
He should just stick to tossing paper towels and zipping his lip.
Chetan Murthy
@Rob Lll: He didn’t actually say what is popularly (and also by that imbecile Niall Ferguson) attributed to him.
The popular view is he said something like “hey, eventually we’re all dead, so {{shruggie}}”. In fact, he said that people who argue that something will transpire in the long run (e.g., “in the long run,markets self-correct”) are fools b/c meanwhile massive suffering can occur, and a theory that is useless to help understand and prevent that suffering is useless, full stop.
In short, “In the long run we’re dead, so why do we care what you fucking theory tells us?”
Keynes was *great*
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
true but both have a debilitating effect on the US.
TenguPhule
A year after Hurricane Harvey, some cleanup workers are still unpaid
Lessons not learned.
Betty Cracker
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve assumed CC agrees WW2 and the Civil War weren’t pointless blunders on the part of the US.
Matthew McIrvin
@Chetan Murthy: I’ve always thought of Keynes’ crack as of a piece with “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”
TenguPhule
So this was what all the fuss was about.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: I don’t think we’re in disagreement.
Aleta
Nelle
@Kia kaha!:Where in NZ? Formerly of Taupo, myself.
CapnMubbers
@Kia kaha!: Love your nym; an affirmation and imperative for this time.
Mary G
@Steve in the ATL: So sorry to read that. It’s so aggravating when doctors can’t figure something out.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
You mischaracterize the core, which is not the emptiness but the redness. So long as there continue to exist states as quasi-sovereign entities there needs to be an accompanying equity of some sort applicable to them as parts of a union. The road to purpledom is political dynamism – and demonstrable results – from the ground up, not power imposed from the outside in.
Leto
Just remember, “NO COLLUSION”:
In Secret Calls, Putin Cultivated Trump’s Anger at the “Deep State”
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “XIN LOI or XOINE LOI: pronounced by GIs as “Sin Loy,” meaning ‘too bad,’ ‘tough shit,’ ‘sorry bout that.’ The literal translation is “excuse me.”
“
Marcopolo
While I was eating dinner my Senator, Claire McCaskill, came out against Kavanaugh!
I expected it, but good on her for not dragging it out when she’s in a tough re-election campaign. Link:
https://amp.news-leader.com/amp/1363181002?__twitter_impression=true
raven
If you haven’t seen “The Wrecking Crew” and you are a rock and roller, do so.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Fixed that for you, unfortunately. These things always come around again, differently, but the same, kind of…
Chetan Murthy
@Marcopolo: she’s a champ, and we don’t deserve her. I wonder if there’s any other senator who so fricken’ outperforms. I mean, sure Senator Professor Warren is a giant, a lion, a megalodon. But she’s from Massachusetts. Senator McCaskill is from MISSOURI, and she’s still amazingly stalwart.
I sent her some more money today (had done so months ago). I really want her to stick around in the Senate.
Dan B
@James E Powell: I’m in total agreement that Democratic messaging is nearly nonexistent. Most liberals come from academia which rewards complex and verbose (more words put together well means higher grades…). Also the delivery and the spokesperson(s) matter. Wilmer puts out a lot of words I agree with but what registers is ‘angry old man’.
Maybe one day we’ll get some liberal communications consultants with real influence in the Dem leadership.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kia kaha!: The kid will be there in a couple of weeks(she leaves the day after tomorrow for the Aus part of her trip).
Kay
Some members of my immediate family and extended family had bad times this summer. One was an actual catastrophe but the rest were just bad things happening to them that were making them unhappy and so worrying me.
I started saying “it’s a bad summer for us” and for some odd reason I felt better- like it wasn’t permanent- but it felt good to just stop pretending it was FINE when it really wasn’t. My daughter was making fun of this “bad summer” thing I had latched onto – “oh, will it end Labor Day? Is there an end date?” but I did find it comforting. A variation on “this too will pass” I guess.
TS (the original)
@JPL: From your link
The lady has realised what coming forward to support Christine will do to her. This is how men treat the victims of sexual assult and their supporters.
TS (the original)
@TenguPhule:
That made me smile – one more thing they really don’t need.
raven
Sunrise doesn’t last all morning
A cloudburst doesn’t last all day
Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning
It’s not always going to be this gray
frosty
@raven: And I’ll put in another plug for “Twenty Feet From Stardom”
raven
@frosty: I’ve been going back to Mad Dogs and Shelter People and Claudia Laneer and Kathi McDonald just blow me away. I know part of it that I saw them from that 20 feet away but, damn.
Cry Me A River Are either of them in that film?
raven
Lennear and she is but no Kathi.
MisterForkbeard
@TS (the original): Yep. Trump supporting assholes are claiming that she “retracted” her claims. Nope. Just said she and the school knew it happened and that Kavanaugh was a well-known drunk, and she doesn’t want to be attacked the same way Ford is.
TS (the original)
@Litlebritdifrnt: and then we cried
The fool has no empathy with anyone – no wonder his kids are such a disaster, living with that for years. If the dems don’t win in November, the world is just f….ed
FlyingToaster
@catclub:
Long term financial damage to rival the mess caused by Reagan*.
The trade war has just started, and even if if the D’s take both houses of Congress, we have no way of stopping it. I won’t be able to afford to replace the aging Minivan nor the even older Washer and Dryer, let alone re-roof the house or replace the HVAC systems. And we’re the so-called middle class that every damn thing relies upon.
*Aloud, at Chez Toaster, he’s referred to as “The Butcher of Guatemala”, because he caused me to have to take a year off college in order to pay for it, and he caused HerrDoktor a fuckton of grief and money. We (long before we met each other) took serious damage from GOP policies, and we don’t fucking forget, however prosperous we get up here in the People’s Republic.
frosty
@raven: I don’t know Cry Me A River. I think Kathi was in 20 Feet.
smintheus
Republicans are desperate. Fox just had Juanita Broaddrick on to declare that she thinks Christine Ford is lying. Her evidence? Ford didn’t tell people immediately about the attack, and Broaddrick cannot imagine why anybody would do that.
They also had some idiot former prosecutor on to dismiss the idea that the FBI should investigate. She declared that she wasn’t going to say that Ford is lying (big of her), but there just wasn’t enough information known that she would feel comfortable prosecuting the case. Asked about the merits of actually investigating further, her attitude was ‘Well all you could do is interview Ford and Kavanaugh, there is no other way of learning anything’. The other witnesses have ceased to exist apparently in Fox world.
raven
@frosty: It’d linked up there.
MisterForkbeard
@smintheus: The republicans I know think saying “Juanita Broaddrick say naw” is a killing stroke.
Chetan Murthy
@catclub:
Hannah Arendt wrote that fascism consisted in applying to the population of the metropole (the capital of the empire) the same methods as were applied in the colonies. I think this was a really profound observation. Shitlord brought fascism to America, in a way that Preznit Cheney only dreamed if. Yeah, if Cheney’d had his own 8yr, he’d probably have gotten there. But that’s not this timeline.
So (from a purely, parochially American standpoint) this is what’s so much worse. B/c fascist regimes end up destroying the country and the economy, and often drag their counties into destructive wars. And lots of people (Americans) die.
Now, it’s true that from the POV of the Iraqs, they might not be able to tell the difference. But they’ll be able to tell, if as a result of our misrule and mistakes in foreign policy, Iran and KSA and who-knows-who-else in the Middle East get nukes, and some nutjobs Salafist blows up Baghdad. That’ll be worse.
What I’m saying is: as bad as Shrubya was, at least he understood the structure of the Western Alliance, and -tried- to work with it and keep it strong. And he wasn’t -actively- trying to bring fascism to America.
Look: you think the Iraq war was bad? Imagine if Kaiser Yeti Pubes tries to deport 11m undocumented immigrants. If he abolishes birthright citizenship retroactively from their children. You’ll have mass civil unrest. Could go to a hot war fast. And -that- will be massive casualties.
Ruckus
@Dan B:
My inbox is full of dem messaging. It’s out there but it doesn’t make the news much for two reasons.
1. It isn’t conservative news. That’s who owns the bulk of the new media, that’s the direction that they are going to go.
2. Dems don’t generally want huge shinny things, WAR, HUGE TAX CUTS, END CRIME….. We want stuff that works better for everyone, a fairer and balanced policy. And that’s somewhat boring. Well not the arrest all the conservative traitors, thieves, perverts part……
Chetan Murthy
@Ruckus: Ruckus, I know you mean what you wrote in the best possible way, and for sure we agree 100%. But … just gotta say ….
Dude, my Bronze plan is a HUGE SHINING THING! I LOVE IT. IT IS SO SHINY!
Jimmm
@Steve in the ATL:
I assumed because he was talking about mine safety that he was punning on the fact that miners wear tethers (to make sure that nobody gets lost or left underground during emergencies). If you’re at the end of your tether, you’ve gone as far as you can safely go.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub:
He’s putting mechanisms in place for a new Holocaust. That it hasn’t gone into full-blown operation yet shouldn’t be comforting.
J R in WV
@Marcopolo:
Ok, contemporary confirmation of Professor Ford’s accusation. “Judge” Kavanaugh is now truly fucked, should be impeached from his “judgeship” and disbarred from the lega profession. Then he can get a job at a grocery stocking fresh vegetables.
Hurray for Ms King for coming forward to verify Prof. Ford’s tale of preppy horror!!
Sorry Grassley, you toad!
J R in WV
@FlyingToaster:
This is wrong. Congress has given the President the ability to levy tariffs himself, but that power is vested in Congress, and they can take it away from the President in a matter of days.
IIRC, of course. I havn’t researched it, but that’s how I recall the situation.
Matt
@Uncle Cosmo:
My worst-case scenario for November: the blue wave rolls in, and then the GOP develops a sudden concern about “Russian election hacking” and declares the result invalid. They promise new elections “once the polls are secured”. Who would stop them?
It’s common to talk about “democracy is fighting for its life”; IMO it’s more likely democracy is in a “walking ghost” phase like a person who’s been exposed to way too much radiation.
wv blondie
@zhena gogolia: No, I’m not a better person. There are times I fantasize about re-education camps for Trumpistas when this is all over, and pulling Faux’ license to broadcast, and pursuing RICO (or treason) charges against the GOP. It’s just that those dreams do nothing to get us out of this mess.
wv blondie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: That means those 15 states will utterly dominate the House of Representatives – which won’t help with Senate confirmations, but it sure as hell will help with legislative fights. Especially since ALL spending bills have to originate in the House.
Rob Lll
@Chetan Murthy:
Thanks for that clarification — much appreciated!