Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You can’t love your country only when you win.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

People are complicated. Love is not.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans in disarray!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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Reader Interactions

104Comments

  2. 2.

    Dan

    I think the reason they convened that conference where all the yelling happened was to, in essence, draft a “new bill,” much like a conference committee in the US Congress. And then both the House and Senate go back and vote on the identical bill.

  3. 3.

    Sentient Puddle

    You’re right. The assembly is voting on the bill the Senate passed this morning at around 11. Nothing really untoward here.

  4. 4.

    cathyx

    That’s not the only thing that could be illegal about this. They gave no notice that a vote was going to happen.

  8. 8.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    It’s a trap!

    They’re trying to lure the Democrats back into the state at which point they’ll have a quorum and then they can pass whatever they want.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    I don’t get it either. From what I’ve read, a quorum is necessary to pass bills with a financial impact. Either there is no financial impact, in which case Scott’s entire premise about the necessity of the bill was a lie, or there is a financial impact, and therefore the bill is illegal.

  11. 11.

    cathyx

    I wonder how many public employees voted republican? In my public employee experience, quite a few of them are.

  12. 12.

    General Stuck

    Been listening to the Peter McCarthy hearings starting this morning. We haven’t had that spirit here since 1954.

  13. 13.

    Percy Percy

    The bill the senate passed is now going back to the lower house. So they’ll pass the bill. And then they’ll have passed the same bill. And Walker will sign it and it will become law. And then it will go to court. And then all the Republicans will lose all their elections. And a modicum of sanity will be restored. It’s interesting we haven’t heard anything from Reince Priebus about all this . . .

  14. 14.

    PaulW

    @General Stuck:

    Yeah, the Senate bill was its own thing. The state assembly has to vote on a similar bill in their wing and then it gets forwarded to THE LIAR OF MILWAUKEE for his blood-soaked signature.

  17. 17.

    Jude

    You are all correct in your analyses. Especially you, PaulW.

    I’ve never seen politicians so unconcerned with their own re-elections before. I imagine they’ve all been promised sinecures at think tanks and the like.

  18. 18.

    piratedan

    well it remains to be seen if the Wisconsin Senate Republicans use of ninja politics will withstand the legal light of day when it meets the Wisconsin Open Meetings Laws. In this case, it appears that Fitzgerald is either incredibly canny or marvelously stupid, but I suspect that there are people waiting in the courthouse waiting for it to be “passed” before they file the paperwork indicating that it was done illegally.

  19. 19.

    PaulW

    @cathyx:

    I wonder how many public employees voted republican? In my public employee experience, quite a few of them are.

    There used to be, because back in the old days (pre-2010) the Republican Party wasn’t so blatant about busting unions.

    Here in Florida, we had a union for the librarians in Broward County back when I worked there (not sure if they still do). It wasn’t mandatory to join, and not a lot did. I dunno if they still have one.

    If any public employee with a union ever thinks of voting Republican again, they and they alone should suffer the indignities the GOP is heaping upon everyone earning under six figure incomes. Everyone else, swear to GOD, get out of the GOP!

    Republicans Lie. Remember That.

  20. 20.

    Zifnab

    @Betty Cracker:

    Either there is no financial impact, in which case Scott’s entire premise about the necessity of the bill was a lie, or there is a financial impact, and therefore the bill is illegal.

    It’s the former. Gov Walker is casting all pretense to the wind and just ramming through the anti-union provisions on their own. They don’t technically have financial impact, so it’s by-the-book legal.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    @Betty Cracker:

    Either there is no financial impact, in which case Scott’s entire premise about the necessity of the bill was a lie, or there is a financial impact, and therefore the bill is illegal.

    Apparently all of the financial parts were removed so they could pass the union-busting part so, yes, Walker’s claims that it was somehow necessary to the budget is revealed as transparent bullshit.

  22. 22.

    West of the Cascades

    @Betty Cracker: That’s exactly what has been revealed: the Senate split the statute that eliminates collective bargaining rights for public employees off from the spending bill, and passed the “de-unionization” bill on a simple majority vote (without the supermajority required for a budget bill). They essentially admitted by their procedural device that eliminating collective bargaining has no financial impact, and that their original premise was a lie, but went ahead with it anyway to please their Galtian Overlords. Dumb move — whereas in Indiana when this happened in 2005 no one was paying attention and unions withered, it looks like in Wisconsin people are definitely paying attention, and have the additional power to start recalling the Republican Senators (and Governor Walker himself in a year). There’s gong to be a series of recall elections in Wisconsin leading up to the 2012 Presidential election which can help keep the Democratic Party base charged up.

  25. 25.

    Kryptik

    @Jude:

    I’m not sure it’s even that. I’m fairly sure a good number of these either think that they can ride out the storm or that the people that REALLY matter, and REALLY vote will still come out for them. Don’t forget they have Voter ID laws on slate, and I wouldn’t put it past them to follow after NH in trying to outright disenfranchise students as well.

  26. 26.

    Davis X. Machina

    We’re about 90 days away from the law being what the people with the guns say the law is…

  27. 27.

    RossInDetroit

    What I haven’t seen discussed is when this will have an effect on union negotiations. When are contracts up? When does the bill take effect? Do they have 3 years to fight this or does it start doing damage in 3 weeks. All of the analysis has been about the process and little about the impact.

  28. 28.

    dr. bloor

    @Betty Cracker:

    They stripped out the union busting stuff and made a separate bill of it, one that does not need a quorum because it’s not budget related. In doing so, they only confirmed that the claim that antiunion provisions had something to do with budgetary matters was a Big Lie.

    The bill as formed is legal, and, as others have noted, isn’t an uncommon maneuver.

  30. 30.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    @Jude: They are so inside the bubble they really do believe they are in the majority. It helps if you have a right wing relative that forwards you the emails they all ship around. Every single one talks about how politicians are not listening to the majority of their constituents.

  31. 31.

    PaulW

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    They’re trying to lure the Democrats back into the state at which point they’ll have a quorum and then they can pass whatever they want.

    No, they won’t. Because while the Senate passed the anti-union bill on its own, they still have a budget to pass. A hideous budget full of unwarranted tax breaks, privatized energy monopolies, and social service cuts that would kill half the state. And the budget does require a quorum (2/3rd) to get voted on. Unless the Republicans figure out another re-reading of the state rules that would allow them to rule by fiat or the whip… which I’m certain of they’re looking into as I type this.

  33. 33.

    General Stuck

    @Jude:

    There has the stank of an organized premeditated multi state political suicide terrorist attack on unions.

    Maybe Peter King’s House Committee ON UnAmerican Activities will investigate the AL Wingnut terror org

  34. 34.

    4tehlulz

    @PaulW: Impeachment might work nicely.

    I’m sure they can come up with a BS charge similar to dereliction of duty.

  35. 35.

    Paul in KY

    @Percy Percy: Yes, der Repubfuhrer has been strangly silent, especially since this is all going on in his neck of the woods.

    I would say the silence speaks volumes.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jude:

    I’ve never seen politicians so unconcerned with their own re-elections before.

    Given the huge success they had in November, can you blame them for thinking they can do absolutely anything and a majority will still vote for them?

    Also, too, as others said, they’ve put a lot of laws in place meant to suppress the Democratic vote. No one ever said they were above cheating.

  41. 41.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Jude: I suspect they have been told that if they pass this bill then unions will be so weak that they won’t be able to help any Democrats win any elections.

  42. 42.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Corner Stone: Look at things like the Spokane near-bombing and tell me you couldn’t throw together an American Freikorps with a little money, and a little effort, and a little cooperation from a tame judiciary, and one well-trained in urban and irregular operations thanks to a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan…

  43. 43.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Jude:

    I’ve never seen politicians so unconcerned with their own re-elections before.

    I expect the lion’s share of them to be re-elected, with increased majorities.

    Enraged minorities roll apathetic or detached majorities all the time, and any recall elections, never mind a general election, are a long way away.

    These people are very, very good at staying angry. They’re still fighting the Vietnam war, and that happened before half of the country was born.

  44. 44.

    someguy

    @PaulW:

    No, they won’t. Because while the Senate passed the anti-union bill on its own, they still have a budget to pass. A hideous budget full of unwarranted tax breaks, privatized energy monopolies, and social service cuts that would kill half the state.

    The Dems should stay away and let the state crater. Souplines, whatever. The voters deserve what they get. Once the Republicans in WI are fully destroyed, they can come back and crush in 2012.

    We should start up an ActBlue account to house the WI Senate Dems. This can’t be cheap.

  46. 46.

    Napoleon

    @RossInDetroit:

    Great questions, and does this mean that the unions take back their offer to go along with teh cut backs and if so do they have a contract they can enforce?

  47. 47.

    Dave

    @Davis X. Machina: Actually, the recall elections for these state senators start in a few months, IIRC. They need signatures by May 2 or so (60 days after filing for recall). If they have enough, and the Dems avoid a primary (which could add six weeks to the process) you could see election as soon as July. I don’t think this is fading over the next few months.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    @Mnemosyne:
    The ends justify any means for R’s.
    Who knows what other blatantly crooked plans they have up their sleeves. If they have a wingnut state attorney general, the voting process could be totally corrupted.
    The WI supreme court justice election is April 5th which is extremely important now that the WI GOP games with the bill will be challenged. The very conservative Prosser is being challenged by Joanne Kloppenberg. WI voters really need to get to the polls April 5th.

  50. 50.

    Dennis SGMM

    Any unionized worker, public or private, who voted for the Republicans after 1981 (The year Reagan bumped off PATCO) is delusional. The notion the “They won’t come for me,” is obsolete.

  51. 51.

    Mitch Guthman

    The old political equilibrium is gone. There is no longer any such thing as law in this country. There are no lines that the Republicans won’t cross. Power and the will to use it is all that matters now.

    I regret this deeply but I see no possibility of restoring that balance until the Democrats make it clear that they understand this and are ready to stop appeasing the Republicans and fight to protect the things that most Democrats (outside of the Washington elite) believe in and want to see protected.

  53. 53.

    Mike in NC

    @Davis X. Machina:

    American Freikorps

    Makes one wonder exactly what ties the Koch brothers and their ilk have to Erik Prince (Blackwater USA/Xe Services). They could easily recruit an army of goons from his personnel database.

  54. 54.

    ColleenSTL

    Although the procedural move may be kosher, I disagree that it is not unusual. Even some Republican Senators thought it was pretty slimy, which is why they didn’t do this before.

    The state Open Meeting laws are a different matter. As I understand it, they gave less than the required-at-the-very-least two hours notice before convening. So they may have to do this again.

    And then there’s the rest of the bill. The minute the State Dems return the Gov will get unilateral control over state assets and the state’s Medicaid program.

  55. 55.

    Jude

    I don’t think you people understand just how pissed off a lot of people here in Wisconsin are at the GOP. And they’ll stay that way. All of those cops and firefighters and all other public employees that voted for the Republicans? Kiss most of those votes good-bye. There are also lots of “independent” voters who won’t come back to the GOP for a long, long time, if ever.

    People in Wisconsin are generally very nice and polite, and they don’t like to see shoddy crap like what’s going on now. They also don’t like that none of this shit was ever in the campaign. Walker ran on two things–creating jobs and killing the high-speed rail project. He mentioned deficits, but didn’t go out of his way to say that they were the most important thing ever. They were more of a rhetorical cudgel to use against Barrett, his opponent in the general.

    So there’s a whole lot of anger, but it’s directed at the Republicans.

    As a small matter of record, you don’t need a supermajority to pass fiscal items in the WI Senate–just to have the vote. You need the quorum present, but a simple majority vote once that hurdle is cleared passes the bill.

  56. 56.

    cbear

    You’re right, John, the situation in Wisconsin and a number of other states is both perplexing and quite disturbing, and may have far reaching fiscal and societal effects for the nation.

    Hopefully the President will assemble a blue-ribbon commission of fair-minded Americans to sort this mess out for us.
    Perhaps former Senator Alan Simpson, if his work on our behalf as chairman of the President’s Fiscal Commission wasn’t too taxing, could be persuaded to lead again.

  59. 59.

    Southern Beale

    Heard on the Twittah that the local Wisconsin Firefighters union just pulled all of its money out of M&I bank, which gave campaign money to Walker and WI GOP.

  60. 60.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Jude:

    So there’s a whole lot of anger, but it’s directed at the Republicans.

    Given money, time, and access to the world’s largest and most productive producers of Bright Shiny Things, that can be changed.

    And if it isn’t changed in Wisconsin, that doesn’t mean failure elsewhere. If it snows in May, it will certainly snow in January. If you can only nearly end the union movement in Wisconsin, Bob LaFollette, Sewer socia1sm and all, you can certainly end it altogether in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio…

  61. 61.

    Dimestore Chaucer

    A man once, in Galtian jargon,
    said, “you shall not collectively bargain.”
    In the state of Bob LaFollette,
    where they will not forget,
    soon the Democrats’ vote share will largen.

  62. 62.

    Southern Beale

    Apparently the White House is doing a big event on bullying, according to The Twittah. And fuckitall but workers are being bullied in Wisconsin and in states all around the country right now which I’m just a little bit more concerned about at the moment. I know bullying is awful, but that issue needs to take a back seat to the outrageous power grab we are witnessing right now. The White House looks stupid and out of touch for focusing on an issue everyone was talking about 3 mos ago.

  63. 63.

    RossInDetroit

    According to this Maddow segment, things in MI might actually be worse. The new GOP Gov is going to drastically cut payments to cities and towns. Then he wants to be able to:
    1) declare them insolvent.
    2) appoint someone – an individual or a corp. – in charge who can
    A) cancel all union contracts
    b) dismiss elected officials
    c) dissolve the municipality

    And more.

    First they came for the unions, then they came for our cities.

    It wouldn’t be hard to imagine the governor trying to take over Detroit for its own good.

  64. 64.

    Punchy

    Can’t feel real bad for Wisky. Elections have consequences and all that. It’s not like this guy got the gig due to a unfortunate plane crash or assissinations. He was chosen by his voters to express their vision for them.

    Illinois is looking better and better every day.

  65. 65.

    EverettRuess

    @ @RossInDetroit: : Three days, rather than three years. Contracts – most of which are contract extensions, not actual, current contracts – end Sunday. What happens after that is anyone’s guess. But presumably dues stop rolling in, and all protections guaranteed by contracts are worth about as much as the Republicans’ good word.

  66. 66.

    Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)

    @Betty Cracker:

    Either there is no financial impact, in which case Scott’s entire premise about the necessity of the bill was a lie, or there is a financial impact, and therefore the bill is illegal.

    When a Republican does it, it’s not illegal.

  67. 67.

    Kryptik

    I’m just really hoping something comes of this, something happens, because honestly it feels like all this says is, no matter how much you fight, how much you scream, how much you stand up, if you’re a Liberal or not in the pocket of some corporation, fuck you, this is no longer your country, it never was, you have 30 minutes to get off our fucking lawn you fucking goddamn hippie.

  69. 69.

    Bob L

    @Jude: Keep in mind the Conservatives are in there own bubble. Anyone who says “hey! what will happen next election?” will be called a RINO / realist or whatever and marginalized. In their minds they will be praised for this because hey, everyone they are willing to listen to says it’s a great thing.

  72. 72.

    Rihilism

    @cbear: “Perhaps former Senator Alan Simpson, if his work on our behalf as chairman of the President’s Fiscal Commission wasn’t too taxing, could be persuaded to lead again.”

    Perhaps, but let us not limit our choices. The esteemed senators from Connecticut and Arizona, the currently far too underutilized elder statesmen, might be persuaded to ask the fine workers of Wisconsin to bend over rationally consider making some shared sacrifices for the greater good…

    If not, well then, we have only the enema man to blame….where have you gone David Bro(er) der, A nation turns its lonely eyes to you,…, whoa, whoa, whoa….

  73. 73.

    JCT

    @Kryptik: This is truly a watershed moment — if we (collective) don’t wake up and make sure that the consequences of voting for Republicans who just out and out lie to achieve their political agenda is not fully exposed and exploited in the next elections than we are just lost.

    They are HANDING us ammunition on a silver platter. (Excuse the violent imagery).

  74. 74.

    Southern Beale

    @Kryptik:

    I’m just really hoping something comes of this, something happens, because honestly it feels like all this says is, no matter how much you fight, how much you scream, how much you stand up, if you’re a Liberal or not in the pocket of some corporation, fuck you, this is no longer your country, it never was, you have 30 minutes to get off our fucking lawn you fucking goddamn hippie.

    Yes, that’s exactly how I feel. That’s exactly the message I get too. And this will not stand. It can’t stand. Historically, you look at any time, any place in the world — fuckit going all the way back to antiquity the Bible if full of stories about this — whenever the powerful few have profited by exploiting the weak — it has led to overthrow, revolution, and change. It has not stood. It will change, it’s how the universe is wired. This too shall pass.

  75. 75.

    Uloborus

    This is the only thing that has actually worried me about the situation so far. The conservative loons don’t have the army of thugs they’d need for actual fascism, so the threats of violence merely made me sad because we’d get a few terrorist events like that poor Gifford.

    But with this and the ‘we can cancel any federal law’ bills they’re just plain saying that their government won’t follow the law. The moment you have a large movement dedicated to simply ignoring the law, life becomes much less predictable. Their followers are not exactly prepared for armed resistance. They’re armed, but elderly narcissists make lousy soldiers, in the sense that they never show up to fight at all. But when one part of the government has to ask the police to move against another part? OY.

    This is kind of freaky to me. I can’t predict anything. I can’t even get a feel for likelihoods.

  76. 76.

    Maude

    @Southern Beale:
    WI is a state and not Obama’s arena.
    It is Michelle Obama who is talking about bullying.
    Bullying has caused teen suicide and it is serious because it can be hidden from parents.
    There are 50 states and a lot is going on.
    Here in NJ, we have our own problems with Christie.

  78. 78.

    mds

    @Southern Beale:

    BREAKING:

    Wisconsin Democrats are coming home.

    Oh, good. Given that the only thing the legislature managed to pass was the collective-bargaining provision, and that in a possibly-illegal fashion that might be challenged in court, it’s reassuring to know that some of the Wisconsin 14 are declaring defeat and returning home to allow a quorum for passing the no-bid utility sell-off, the gubernatorial seizure of control of Medicaid, and all the other Galtian horseshit in the original bill. Sheesh, too bad Holperin didn’t check @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford‘s comment first.

  83. 83.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    @cbear:

    Perhaps former Senator Alan Simpson, if his work on our behalf as chairman of the President’s Fiscal Commission wasn’t too taxing, could be persuaded to lead again.

    Not available… something about milking a cow came up…

  85. 85.

    The Moar You Know

    The White House looks stupid and out of touch for focusing on an issue everyone was talking about 3 mos ago.

    @Southern Beale: Repeat for every issue and you’ve got the Obama administration in a nutshell.

    Too little, too late.

  86. 86.

    Matt

    @Jude:

    I suspect they’re assuming 2012 will end up with a military coup to fight “socialism” after the voters hand T-Paw or whoever they pick an epic defeat. Who needs reelection when you’ve got incipient totalitarianism?

  87. 87.

    Cris

    @Mnemosyne: Given the huge success they had in November, can you blame them for thinking they can do absolutely anything and a majority will still vote for them?

    Telling, though, that the US Congressional Democrats, whose 2008 success was even huger, didn’t act that way.

  88. 88.

    Kryptik

    @Southern Beale:

    Unfortunately, how many of those movements had to grow out of centuries of bubbling unrest? Not to mention that our country still seems more obsessed with re-fighting the Cold War and the Cultural Revolution with it’s ridiculous predilection to see “Communists” and “Hippies” under every rock.

  90. 90.

    smedley

    @cathyx: I wonder how many Democrats did NOT vote. Just stayed home in a pique about Obama not doing what they want. The Democrats in Wisconsin got the government they deserve. Maybe next time they’ll get off their ass and vote.

  91. 91.

    folkbum

    @Dave:

    But the anti-union part includes increases in contributions towards their pension and healthcare. Isn’t that a financial impact?

    Democrats and unions here are just starting to figure out what’s actually in the bill. It will be challenged in court, and undoubtedly the first judge to hear it–Dane County, slightly to the left of Amsterdam–will put a stay on it. I have no doubt that it will hit the WI supreme court. There’s a seat up on the court in April, and if anyone here wants to help out with that, visit JoAnn Kloppenburg‘s website.

  92. 92.

    Stillwater

    I think any restructuring of government payment obligations sorta entails a budgetary impact, and hence, requires a quorum. The can’t merely assert that denying CB doesn’t effect fiscal issues. And of course, there was the procedural requirement of 24 hour notice for voting on a bill which was also violated. This will undoubtedly end up in court.

    But one thing the Dems need to be careful about here was mentioned above: by returning, they’re permitting the GOP to schedule votes on the remainder of the bill, which (in my view) has far more long-term negative consequences than CB rights. I think at this point the GOP would be happy to lose on CB rights (via the courts) in order to get all the other provisions enacted.

  93. 93.

    JohnR

    “How is that legal?”

    1. That already happened with little fanfare at the Federal level under Bush, and nothing was done. I guess when the law and the Constitution are already ignored in big things, why quibble about the little things, right? Anyway, who cares about the state level. Strong Leaders do what must be done to Save Our Nation from the DFHs and their Islamic terrorist pals in the unions.
    2. All this hoohaw about Wisconsin. The whole thing is not surprising – what people don’t seem to see is that the coup happened a few years ago, and now is just the “consolidating power” phase. We’re seeing what happens when the government no longer feels required to honor the wishes of the voters, because they Know that the protestors aren’t the Real Voters. It’s just Ted Agnew’s old Silent Majority argument brought up-to-date and completely divorced from any required basis in reality. There are no rules beyond what the Republicans recognize, and only Democrats feel obligated to honor some sort of objective Constitution. Demonstrations? Unimportant. Wait them out; Do what you need to do (within acceptable PR limits) to disperse them. The press won’t care, and remember: if a tree falls in a forest and nobody reports on it, it didn’t really happen. Want to recall somebody? Good luck – we’ve never yet seen what happens when a “recalled” politician doesn’t recognize the “legitimacy” of the recall and refuses to leave, but I bet we will soon (assuming that such a thing even manages to get pushed through against the powers of the State). Go ahead and challenge the bill in court – we already have seen that a judgement rendered by “liberal activist” judges can be safely ignored by Real American government, and this will almost certainly be no different.
    This is a fascinating time for students of political science and post-18th century American and European history. Everything old is new again! We live in interesting times, indeed.

  94. 94.

    Stillwater

    @smedley: I wonder how many Democrats did NOT vote. Just stayed home in a pique about Obama not doing what they want. The Democrats in Wisconsin got the government they deserve. Maybe next time they’ll get off their ass and vote.

    Are you auditioning for the role of Captain Hindsight?

  96. 96.

    Greyjoy

    The freshly-elected GOP majority in the Minnesota legislature is also apparently operating under the same orders as whatever is behind this multi-state drive for Republican elected officials to just plain stage a coup by fair means or foul. They campaigned, and won, on the “We need jobs” platform and so far, their main focus has been to spend $700M on a new Vikings stadium. As of this week, they also want to outlaw abortion over 20 weeks and union-bust our public employees as well. Thank fucking God, though, that Mark Dayton won the governor’s seat. He might be a limousine liberal (his family used to own Dayton’s department stores, which was ultimately sold to Macy’s, but also spawned Target Corp) but he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who has no intentions of letting these thugs have their way. When I think about how close our election was and how we were only one gracious concession (by Tom Emmer) away from possibly ending up with an all-Republican majority, I break into a cold sweat.

  97. 97.

    Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)

    @mds: Holperin says he’s not going anywhere near the Capitol and that the senate doesn’t reconvene until April 5th (so there’s not much sense in him waiting things out in Illinois if there’s no voting going on). I’m sure someone in WI can clear that up.

  98. 98.

    Bob Loblaw

    @Uloborus:

    The conservative loons don’t have the army of thugs they’d need for actual fascism

    How dare you use the word fascism in that manner, sir?! It is not an epithet or a synonym for authoritarianism! No sir. Everybody knows fascism is a word that should only be used when referring to the historical continental movement in the mid 20th century.

    So sayeth the Very Serious polisci juicebagger contingent.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bob Loblaw:

    Er, no, unlike you Uloborus is using the word correctly: he’s saying that the conservative loons would like to set up an actual fascist state very similar to the ones Franco, Pinochet and Mussolini had.

    A fascist state is authoritarian, but not all authoritarian states are fascist. See the subtle difference?

  100. 100.

    Uloborus

    @Mnemosyne:
    There’s a very sharp similarity in their nationalistic sentiments, black-and-white portrayal of political divides, and preference of threats to negotiation. But a paramilitary arm capable of actual campaigns of intimidation *is* key, and they just don’t have it. They have a bunch of fat old guys on scooters who like to talk about how they’ll kill anyone who takes their guns, and it’s not the same thing. They talk like fascists, but thank The Golden Calf they aren’t in a position where we have to worry about whether they mean it.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @Uloborus:

    I think David Neiwert nailed it years ago: he calls it “pseudofascism.” (PDF) Conservatives have assembled all of the necessary ingredients except two: a strong leader, and shock troops. Short of one of our generals deciding to level Washington DC and overthrow the government with the full might of our military behind him, there’s very little chance they’ll be able to grow those tiny seeds into an actual fascist state.

    It’s not going to stop them from trying, though.

  102. 102.

    Ronzoni

    Oh my lawd. Nobody remembers, but it was Harry Truman who said in 1948 that “any working man who votes for a republican needs his head examined.” Unfortunately, with no reasonable health care system in place, who could afford it?

  103. 103.

    Jebediah

    @Uloborus:

    elderly narcissists make lousy soldiers

    Nice! I think middle-aged narcissists probably make bad soldiers, too. Doughy pantloads, also.

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