Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

We still have time to mess this up!

He really is that stupid.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Leftovers Open Thread (Cleaning Out the Political Pantry)

Late Night Leftovers Open Thread (Cleaning Out the Political Pantry)

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benghazi committee odor morin

(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
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… I’m now leaning toward an alternate theory: The investigation is only superficially related to the 2016 election and is unlikely to harm the presumptive Democratic nominee. Instead, it’s a way of using government funding to furnish content for conservative media. That’s all.

Political cartoonist Matt Bors, on “The GIF Bite Election“:

Yesterday’s marathon Benghazi hearing was designed to generate a negative sound bite that could be used against Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency, one errant remark played on an endless loop during constitutionally protected attack ads funded by billionaires…

Theory: while Republicans were playing for the sound bite, Hillary was playing to the gif, perhaps the first politician in history to consciously do so.

HillaryBored.gif is the complete encapsulation of the all-day hearing in just two seconds, which is about all the time the hearing warrants of your attention. You don’t need write ups, hot takes, and CNN panels convened to know how it went. You just look at the GIF and pass it on…


[ref]

I think we can probably stop worrying about Gowdy Doody dragging this thing into 2016 for political advantage, though…


.
gowdy benghazi droppings deering

(John Deering via GoComics.com)
.

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  3. 3.

    Myiq2xu

    WSJ:

    Here’s what the Benghazi committee found in Thursday’s hearing. Two hours into Mrs. Clinton’s testimony, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan referred to an email Mrs. Clinton sent to her daughter, Chelsea, at 11:12 the night of the attack, or 45 minutes after the secretary of state had issued a statement blaming YouTube-inflamed mobs. Her email reads: “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Queda-like group.” Mrs. Clinton doesn’t hedge in the email; no “it seems” or “it appears.” She tells her daughter that on the anniversary of 9/11 an al Qaeda group assassinated four Americans.

    That same evening, Mrs. Clinton spoke on the phone with Libyan President Mohamed Magariaf, around 8 p.m. The notes from that conversation, in a State Department email, describe her as saying: “We have asked for the Libyan government to provide additional security to the compound immediately as there is a gun battle ongoing, which I understand Ansar as Sharia [sic] is claiming responsibility for.” Ansar al Sharia is al Qaeda’s affiliate on the Arabian Peninsula. So several hours into the attack, Mrs. Clinton already believed that al Qaeda was attacking U.S. facilities.

    The next afternoon, Mrs. Clinton had a call with the Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil. The notes from it are absolutely damning. The secretary of state tells him: “We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack—not a protest.” And yet Mrs. Clinton, and Ms. Rice and Mr. Obama for days and days continued to spin the video lie.

    BTW – Why was Chelsea using an alias?

  6. 6.

    craigie

    @Myiq2xu:

    Here’s what the committee found: That H. Clinton was, willfully and deliberately, the Secretary of State when the Benghazi attacks occurred. Nice work!

  10. 10.

    srv

    Well all this serves as a nice distraction from reality of one foreign policy blunder after another – but even the liberal Jimmy Carter is fed up with Obama’s stubborness to reality:

    The Carter Center had been deeply involved in Syria since the early 1980s, and we shared our insights with top officials in Washington, seeking to preserve an opportunity for a political solution to the rapidly growing conflict. Despite our persistent but confidential protests, the early American position was that the first step in resolving the dispute had to be the removal of Mr. Assad from office. Those who knew him saw this as a fruitless demand, but it has been maintained for more than four years. In effect, our prerequisite for peace efforts has been an impossibility.
    …
    The needed concessions are not from the combatants in Syria, but from the proud nations that claim to want peace but refuse to cooperate with one another.

    Narcissism wrought.

  11. 11.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @GoatBoy: Y’all be lookin’ for a goat to mount? Nothin’ new there… BTW, howya doin’ ya racist piece o’shit? Pumped any PUMA ass lately or are you just clowning around lookin’ for some goats to blow?

    Funny that you came slithering back at election time, again.

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    The Juicitariat’s most strident (but ever thoughtful!) Bernista has not been commenting so often lately. Is he/she okay? Disappointed, perhaps, by all the positive attention given to Bernie’s competitor this week?

  18. 18.

    cckids

    @Myiq2xu: Here’s what Digby has to say about that:

    Journalist Kurt Eichenwald begged to differ in a big way and for very good reason:

    I’m going to interrupt here, because that was not uncovered in the emails. That was from notes that were produced to the House Intelligence Committee that are in the House Intelligence Committee Report. And what was also clear from the House Intelligence Committee Report was that the intelligence went back and forth three times in the course of 24 hours. And so when Hillary Clinton was talking to the president of Egypt, at that time, she was reciting what the intelligence was .At that time. 12 hours later it was different. 12 hours later after that it was different again. But that was not from Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    Eichenwald has studied all the intelligence reports and the committee hearing transcripts and knows the information backwards and forwards. This is what’s required if you want to truly understand the way these sorts of scandals are constructed

    Go read the whole thing. Murdoch rags like the WSJ aren’t even trying to report actual facts anymore.

  19. 19.

    seaboogie

    @Amir Khalid: I think that she and mclaren loaded the U-haul and are off in happy lady-land. Bless your heart – ’twas in part your nefarious, clueless and stompy slave-owning self that made that possible. They are prolly lighting a candle in gratitude to you now. Breathe in (have personal troll), breathe out (troll gone to frolic in elysian fields of outraged piss-offedness with fellow angry troll)….

    You have done the dharma and the universe in general a solid, and may you and all beings be free from suffering, etc…

  20. 20.

    magurakurin

    @Amir Khalid:

    I imagine he got let go when the Bush campaign cut staff down in Miami. That dude was/is not a Sanders supporter. They are a paid ratfucker and most likely from the Bush campaign or associated super pac. I suspect that a lot of the more vocal and assholish ones over at DKOS are the same. Ratfucking is real.

  21. 21.

    seaboogie

    @seaboogie: Hey A….I trust that you understand that this is well-intentioned snark. You seem a bit sideways sometimes as you have gone from just “universally beloved ” (which has not changed) to also “has own personal troll”.

    “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown…” But you have earned it, and it’s not even made of tin-foil – THE HELL?

  23. 23.

    mclaren

    @Amir Khalid:

    Not sure to whom you refer. I’ve commented plenty this week. You just haven’t been paying attention.

    For some reason there’s been an outbreak of sanity on the Balloon-Juice commentariat, so no one has bothered to disagree with my obvious statements of fact. (Viz., the Repubs are epochally self-destructing, Jeb’s campaign is going down in flames, Trump and Carson are unelectable, and Hillary has turned into an excellent politician since her fiasco in 94 with health care reform. She’s learned to become a first-rate campaigner & now deals expertly with the D.C. insiders.)

    The rest of 2015 and 2016 will witness a continuation of comity among Democats, because the epubs are so obviously insane and incompetent, and because whichever candidate gets into the White House (Benie or Hillary) we’ll be so much better seved with the current crop of demented Republicans. (Seriously – can anyone here imagine Ben Carson as pesident? Or Trump? Anyone???)

    I’d much rather Bernie gets elected than Hillary, but truth to tell, unless Demos take back the House in this election cycle, it probably won’t make that much difference. The next (Democratic, obviously) president in 2016 will have to get most of what progressives want to accomplish done with executive orders and signing statements. So the ability of the 2016 Democratic president to move forward the progressive agenda will be limited.

    Still, a lot better than nothing. And worlds better than that nightmare from hell, 2004.

  24. 24.

    BGinCHI

    Funny the GOP can make some decisions, which no one denies they made, and AS A CONSEQUENCE, hundreds of thousands of people die (Iraq, etc.).

    But after the fact, of the death of a few people doing their jobs in a dangerous place, it’s not at all clear that there is any evidence whatsoever of wrongdoing, and we have a long, expensive process that tells us nothing we didn’t know after the first fact-finding efforts.

    That asymmetry tells the whole tale of the way politics works in the America of the 21st century.

  25. 25.

    David Koch

    @magurakurin: there are some really disturbed people at dkos. and sanders losing the debate has only made their psychosis worse. a bunch of them were screaming that hillary is responsible for isis. I expect the attacks will only get more deranged as time ticks down to iowa.

  26. 26.

    mclaren

    Incidentally, the Benghazi committee garbage fire will likely be the future pattern for a Hillary presidency.

    There are a couple of advantages to HRC as president. No one has mentioned ’em, but I might as well.

    While I’m not thrilled with many of Hillary’s policies, she’s incredibly strong in one respect: unlike poor Barack Obama, Hillary is not deluded about the Republicans’ willingness to compromise. Hillary has been attacked with bludgeons and mauls by Republicans for 23 years, and she knows the score. Consequently, Hillary will go after the Republicans with a meat hook. And I for one will applaud.

    Unlike poor Barack, Hillary understands that these fuckers only want to rip her head off, so she’ll rip their heads off first and then shit down their necks. Hillary, unlike Obama, is not a split-the-difference kind of politician. Barack’s big problem was he got started as split-the-difference coalition guy in community organizing, so when he hears the Republicans screaming to invade every country in the middle east and the Democrats screaming to stay out, Barack splits the difference and only invades a couple of countries in the middle east.

    Bad idea. There are some circumstances in which splitting the difference doesn’t work.

    Hillary will not make the mistake Barack did of appointing large numbers of Republicans to her cabinet, she will not tolerate the kind of horseshit Petraeus and McChrystal tried to pull what with leaking reports about military progress to force the president’s hand, and she will certainly not try the triangulation garbage Barack got caught up in when he signed off on the extension of Bush’s tax cuts, signed the unconstitutional NDAA, and so on.

    Hillary will probably go for a hard-core neocon foreign policy. That’s not good. Hillary loves her some crony capitalist big bank corruption — double plus ungood, Winston. No surprise, though, since her daughter Chelsea is married to a Goldman Sachs hedge fund trader Mark Mezvinsky, and Chelsea and he just bought a 10.5 million dollar apartment overlooking Central Park West. Hillary adores the panopticon surveillance national security state, and wants more of it. So those are the downsides.

    Not as good a choice as Bernie, IMHO…but, boy, it would sure be fun to see Hillary tear Republicans a new one when they come after her. HRC is tough as nails and if the Republicans come after her as president, they’ll need lots of body bags for their own troops.

  27. 27.

    mclaren

    @David Koch:

    there are some really disturbed people at dkos. and sanders losing the debate has only made their psychosis worse.

    If by “really disturbed” you mean “politically progressive” and “sanders losing the debate” you mean “Bernie Sanders blowing Hillary out of the water,” then yeah, definitely.

  28. 28.

    mclaren

    @BGinCHI:

    That asymmetry tells the whole tale of the way politics works in the America of the 21st century.

    We have to blame the (Murdoch & oligarch-controlled) press for this. Republicans have been getting away with accusing Democrats of treason while grotesque blunders and fuckups like 9/11 and the botched Iraq invasion of 2003 happen on Republicans’ watch.

    One good aspect of this election cycle is that the press is starting to get their feet held to the fire about this horseshit. In some significant part because other members of the press are starting to realize Hillary has been the victim of this kind of slanted press for the past 23 years, and they’re getting sick and tired of it, and they’re speaking out about it.

    Noticed those articles about “Clinton rules”? This is the first election where I’ve seen that kind of pushback against massively biased press coverage. I saw the same kind of massively biased press coverage in favor of Reagan and against Demos in 1980 and again in 1984, but no one in the press wrote a word about the “Carter rules,” the way that idiocies and lies and flat-out misstatements of fact were utterly ignored when they came from Reagan, whereas the slightest microscopic misspelling got hammered hard if it came from Jimmy Carter.

  29. 29.

    seaboogie

    @mclaren: Pretty sure that he was alluding to Thoughtful Today, who has been trolling him specifially and hard with commentary not dissimilar to yours. Hence my comments.

  30. 30.

    BGinCHI

    @mclaren: Agreed, totally.

    Let’s see if they continue to push back and throw in with a party that wants to govern, or revert back to their cozy nest feathered with “access” and, well, sycophantic dishonesty.

    The worst thing about the DC press corps is that they think it’s the GOP who brings prosperity to their class. They have pretensions to wealth they will never have.

  31. 31.

    David Koch

    I’m now leaning toward an alternate theory: The investigation is only superficially related to the 2016 election and is unlikely to harm the presumptive Democratic nominee. Instead, it’s a way of using government funding to furnish content for conservative media. That’s all.

    I think Bernstein is on to something.

    U know how all the questions on Blumenthal are bizarre to the average person. But on twitter i’ve come across wingnuts pushing the CT that Blumenthal is an arms dealer. Remember how Rand Paul was pushing the CT that Ben Gazzara was an secret arms deal to syria gone bad. Well the new layer to the CT is that Blumenthal was the arms dealer behind it. Even Mittens’ campaign manager pushes this CT

    stuart stevens ‏@stuartpstevens Oct 22

    Someone has to write the story of Sid Blumenthal’s journey from crusading journalist to campaign operative to WH aide to arms dealer.
    28 retweets 18 favorites

    In short they’re feeding and reinforcing the whole paranoid wingnut ecosystem, ginning up hate, in hopes of producing turnout.

  32. 32.

    Applejinx

    Both Sanders AND Clinton won the debate in their respective ways plus they weren’t really against each other.

    Clinton established total mastery of tone, spin and the traditional meaning of campaigning. She was damn near perfect, presidential, on point with the issues of the day, plausible, literally everything you could want in a politican running for office against a hostile enemy party right up to amiably declaring war on the other party as the best possible enemy. It’s the picture of an unbeatable modern political animal, a clear winner. She completely owned the Village narrative.

    Sanders SET that tone and spelled out the issues from the word go. He was and is the perfect outsider, the only one who can tap into the swing voters on the other side who are demanding an outsider, but all the same he’s a veteran politician who knows the territory and won’t be helpless. He didn’t seem helpless, either, he was passionate and meant everything he said, very obviously. For this reason he completely owned all the popular metrics, which technically means more votes than the Villager demographic as they no longer directly control any voting blocs. Even if Sanders people coordinated to spam all the online polls and get people together to vote thus producing a false impression: consider that for a moment. Either they’re a genuine grassroots popular movement of staggering size or they’re organized and effective. And lastly, Sanders won because he was only ever out to push the Overton window and direct Hillary’s course. He’s now done that so effectively that Hillary has to run as Bernie, and one hopes govern that way as well.

    They both won. We could run either, each with their advantages and drawbacks, and both are about equally electable when you look at the big picture. And we have Trump as a disruptive force on the other side, while our people are (like proper Democrats) coalition-building with each other and not being disruptive. For that I specifically thank Bernie as he’s set the tone there as well: his expectations are clear and he’s no fool, but he’s absolutely prepared to communicate his needs to Hillary and then trust her to govern provided she does actually win the primary. She didn’t against Obama, but she may well be ready, and part of that is probably internalizing the lessons of the new electorate that Bernie (and Trudeau up north) represents.

    We have seen far tougher times. It’s rebuilding time, time to show how good at governing Democrats really are. This is the stuff we like, thinking of answers and having concern for all Americans (even those we disagree with) and getting stuff done, just like previous eras wrecked by rightwingers and oligarchs and then set right by populists and idealistic Dems who could get stuff done on a grand scale. Our country laid the highway system, built amazing things, went to the moon and Mars and Pluto. It’s time we got expansive and lived large again, the rest of the world is waiting for us to act ‘First World’ again and do a lot of business with them.

    Because some of the Republicans might possibly mean well, but they’re far too infested with larcenous wankers and con artists and they’re thinking way, WAY too small and selfish. They should be ashamed of themselves. Every single Walton will be dead in a hundred years and whether or not that incomparable wealth, equal to most of the country’s population all by itself, is put to use by government, those people will have done nothing useful with it at all…

  33. 33.

    mai naem mobile

    I thought one of the funniest parts of the Benghazi hearings was Rep. Sanchez alternating between a yippy chihuahua nipping at Gowdys socks and the bored kid in the backseat during a long road trip ‘Are we there yet? When are we getting there? I need to go to the girls room! Mommy, Billy took my purple pen! Wahhh!’ If Gowdy wasn’t such a dyck I would feel sorry for him. Also too, what was the deal with Gowdy sweating like a stuck pig? Very unattractive.

  35. 35.

    Keith G

    Thanks Obama. The Ferguson effect gets credibility.

    James Comey is, and has been, a GOP made man through and through. Obama appointed him to lead the FBI. He proved where is heart and soul belong on Friday by saying the recent public criticism of police officers’ horrible behaviors are helping to cause an increase in violent crime.

    The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said on Friday that the additional scrutiny and criticism of police officers in the wake of highly publicized episodes of police brutality may have led to an increase in violent crime in some cities as officers have become less aggressive.

    With his remarks, Mr. Comey lent the prestige of the F.B.I., the nation’s most prominent law enforcement agency, to a theory that is far from settled: that the increased attention on the police has made officers less aggressive and emboldened criminals. But he acknowledged that there is so far no data to back up his assertion and that it may be just one of many factors that are contributing to the rise in crime, like cheaper drugs and an increase in criminals who are being released from prison.

  36. 36.

    Tommy

    @Keith G: I am close to Ferguson. It is starting to get some national press, but six African American churches have been set on fire in the past two weeks. Now the people doing it seem to be idiots. Only setting the front doors on fire, not the church as a whole. Charles Pierce wrote about it the other day, the far right likes to talk about a war on religion. Here is a war on religion. People setting fire to churches. Is Bill O coming to Ferguson?

  40. 40.

    Tommy

    @WereBear: Yes. I am not a huge fan of Hillary but don’t dislike her either if that makes sense. I like Bernie. But if I watch that debate in an honest manner not sure how Hilliary could have done a better job. She was just spot on. Hit on all the points I bet she wanted to hit on. Having watched the Republicans debate, and I think she will be our nominee, they want no part of her in a debate.

  41. 41.

    karen marie

    That little fuckwad Luke Russert is now spokesperson for House Republicans? When was it made official?

  42. 42.

    Tommy

    @Keith G: Where I live we are burning churches. Let me say that again we are burning churches.It is strange to turn on the local news and hear a local church was set a fire.

  44. 44.

    Tommy

    @mclaren:

    While I’m not thrilled with many of Hillary’s policies, she’s incredibly strong in one respect: unlike poor Barack Obama, Hillary is not deluded about the Republicans’ willingness to compromise. Hillary has been attacked with bludgeons and mauls by Republicans for 23 years, and she knows the score. Consequently, Hillary will go after the Republicans with a meat hook. And I for one will applaud.

    What I like about her. She knows what it is like to be attacked. She has dealt with it. She will stand and fight. I love that about her!

  46. 46.

    Gimlet

    @Keith G:

    Apparently the intentional lack of collected statistics by the FBI doesn’t get in the way of a good old fashioned “gut feeling”.

  47. 47.

    magurakurin

    @David Koch:

    I’ve actually been spending a fair amount of time there lately. Even commenting and wrote a little diary. Yes, some of those folks are all the way round the bend and well on the way to Crazytown. What’s really gonna fry their minds is the moment when Sanders and Warren endorse Clinton. And it will happen. And Warren might end up endorsing Clinton before the primary ends. But there actually are a lot of decent folks over at DKOS, as I have learned in the past few weeks. It is a very big tent over there.

  48. 48.

    Keith G

    @Gimlet: Well, they do like their god-botherers over in that lil slice of corn-fed paradise. It makes sense that one of the most vocal of that cult get a boost.

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    @mclaren:
    I think being president does to some extent require that you at least try to work with the other party. Did Obama try for too long? Well, in 2010 the Republicans won the House and in 2014 the Senate as well, so he was constrained in how much he could work without them. But I’m sure he was aware, quite early in his presidency, how little they cared for bipartisan cooperation.

  50. 50.

    Gimlet

    First there was the “Gay Menace” threatening all those Christians, now it’s “Progressives” threatening the followers of “Republican Jesus”.

    BuzzFeed

    “I’d prefer not to talk about security issues but I have recognized — and people have been telling me for many many months — that I’m in great danger, because I challenge the secular progressive movement to the very core,” Carson told WABC radio’s Rita Cosby Show on Thursday.

    Carson said threats against were indeed serious, which was why the Secret Service was considering protecting him.

    “I believe the threats are serious,” he said. “They wouldn’t even be considering this if the threats were not serious.”

  51. 51.

    amk

    @mclaren:

    it would sure be fun to see Hillary tear Republicans a new one when they come after her. HRC is tough as nails and if the Republicans come after her as president, they’ll need lots of body bags for their own troops.

    I thought she is running for the presidency, not for some tinpot dictatorship? Nice fantasy though.

  52. 52.

    low-tech cyclist

    @mclaren:

    Incidentally, the Benghazi committee garbage fire will likely be the future pattern for a Hillary presidency.

    While I agree with pretty much everything else you said, I’m not so sure about this.

    She’s just made the Benghazi! committee look like “the councils of the Small and the Silly,” to steal from Bored of the Rings. She didn’t just beat them at their game, on their home field, she embarrassed them.

    People will run into the same damn brick wall over and over again. But few people have much tolerance for being repeatedly embarrassed. If Hillary shows she can do this to them more than once, the game’s over. The conspiracy theories will keep circulating in talk radio and right-wing message boards, but the GOP-controlled parts of Congress will throw in the towel. And thank God, there is no special prosecutor law anymore – no platform for a latter-day Ken Starr.

  53. 53.

    Gimlet

    @low-tech cyclist:

    Did Republicans ever give up on the notion of Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction”?

    I wouldn’t count on such behavior as “throwing in the towel”.

  55. 55.

    Applejinx

    @amk: The main problem we have is that the Presidency IS a tinpot dictatorship, but it’s the only one we’ve got. It’s our tinpot dictatorship, a front for the military-financial complex (industrial? ahahahaha) complete with entirely captured mainstream media that might as well be Pravda. The difference is, more factions struggling for control.

    Our system was designed to do exactly that: produce so many factions struggling for control that no one cabal could dominate too heavily. The big risk right now is not the wingnuts taking over, but the wingnuts imploding so badly that nothing checks the Dems or stops them becoming the same thing as the wingnuts. It’s not about policy: conservative policy is in theory about prudence and stability, and look where they’re at now. It’s about personalities and narcissists and authoritarians taking over.

    We ARE a tinpot dictatorship at heart. Probably everybody is, we fall back on this crude Darwinist thing as a species. Our system is designed with some failsafes (in various degrees of working order) knowing that our natural state is the tinpot dictatorship.

    Hillary is the perfect figurehead for a tinpot dictatorship, but the important thing there is that it can be a cloak for any sort of policies. She can wear that guise while also presiding over good things happening, if we force the system to produce those good things. She can also run with the tinpot dictator stuff just as the wingnuts expect she will, if we encourage it. Look at Obama: doing various alarming things just because our geopolitical situation seems to demand them.

    We can’t decline to be the fulcrum of global power: if nothing else, our military size means somebody’s gonna be the tinpot dictator even if they don’t wield it aggressively. However, we can direct things as well as we can, our system’s set up to give us some leverage.

  56. 56.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Gimlet: I saw that poll. I gather Republican women really prefer Carson to Trump, which is a large part of his lead, and as Keith G. says, there’s a large group of Evangelicals in the R base.

  58. 58.

    Robert Sneddon

    @amk: Mclaren’s wet dream is a recipe for a do-nothing Presidency and frankly you guys have enough on your plate with your current do-nothing Congress. Adding the Oval Office to the gridlock while possible-President Clinton spends her waking hours fighting the Republicans rather than actually, you know, Presidenting seems a bad idea.

    Some folks like the idea of politics as a soap opera with lots of dramarama, some folks like the idea of getting stuff done and making progress. I really really hope Secretary Clinton follows the no-drama Obama route if she does make it to the White House.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @magurakurin:

    Dailykos is where I first hung out. It was a great place during the Bush years, but it did a complete 180 when Obama took office. By 2010, I couldn’t take it anymore, but that’s when I discovered BJ (from a dkos commenter, in fact, who was complaining about how awful dkos had become). I get the impression they’ve mostly righted the ship, but I can’t bring myself to go back there.

    The one thing that’s nice about them is that they are a big enough operation to do so good and interesting things.

  63. 63.

    Gimlet

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    It’s still a dynamic situation. I’m not sure what became of those previous Trump supporters, whether his negatives made them shift to Carson not the religious motive.

    Carson’s crazy talk in time will probably have them move down the popularity cue to Rubio.

  64. 64.

    amk

    @Gimlet:

    The fundies won there last two cycles – huckster and sick rantorum (but aqua buddha senior won the delegates count). So, no surprise.

    Of course, donald dreck is saying he doesn’t believe that poll outfit since they don’t like him.

  65. 65.

    Aleta

    I’d like to see an outside investigation into how the Benghazi committee has allocated and spent its money.

    Elections and investigations are like full time industries now, devoted to supporting consultant companies and media workers that never shut down. Including those professionals writing stories and placing them.

    A guess, oversimplified, is that’s also what drained Jeb’s resources so quickly. He turned the campaign hiring and spending over to people dedicated to their own business success rather than to him. When he folds they just hire out elsewhere of course. Ironic to see that happening to his family, of course.

  67. 67.

    Arm The Homeless

    If Clinton becomes POTUS, do you think Scalia and Thomas dig-in, determined to leave their chambers feet first, or do they go fishing and on a book tour while they’re still mostly ambulatory?

    My hope is Clinton nominates Michelle Obama or Cecile Richards for RBG’s chair. Perhaps the FSM doesn’t love me that much.

  70. 70.

    BobS

    @Baud: In other words, Daily Kos made you laugh when they slammed Bush, but you cried when they said mean things about Obama.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @BobS:

    Perhaps they were just as unhinged with respect to Bush, and I didn’t notice because Bush was so awful. I can’t say that’s implausible.

  72. 72.

    Gimlet

    I wonder if public sentiment will cool on Hillary before the election.

    Maybe it was the never-ending gaffes, but a big factor was also the sentiment of “not another Bush in the WH”.

    Initially before the season started that was the feeling about “another” Clinton in the WH. With all the attacks on her the poll numbers have risen as they did initially with Bill. A short while later this effect wore off with him.

    Will this be the pattern with Hillary?

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @Keith G:

    That narrative started with a Democrat:

    Emanuel’s decision to blame violent crime increases in part on the after-effects of the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody in Baltimore and the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., cases that led to rioting in those cites, comes as Chicago sees violence on the uptick.

    Emanuel is on defense because his school CEO was indicted, she left the city schools in utter chaos (exactly as she did when she was chased out of her prior job, in Cleveland, and before that in Detroit) and he’s been completely ineffective in bringing the violence rate down, which is why I think he’s blaming everyone but himself for the problems.

    Being a mayor is harder than being a House member, turns out. “Tough” gets you lots of kudos in pundit-land, but eventually you have to also be effective.

  74. 74.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I like the front pagers on Kos. The day after the debate, Kos wrote a post about how Clinton’s success looked bigger to people on the site because the Sanders supporters had lowered expectations by accusing her of all the political failings they could think of. When she proved them wrong, she looked great. He finished by saying simply that Sanders supporters might want to think about that.

  77. 77.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Steeplejack: Weird, wikipedia’s entry on this song has no “reception” section (most popular songs do). While it’s a catchy tune and apparently rocketed Chrissie Hynde to stardom, I’ve always wondered if some people found that song kind of offensive. It seems to trivialize and commodify the suffering of others.

  78. 78.

    Botsplainer

    @Baud:

    No republican justice resigns with a D in the White House. They are committed.

    I can think of two of them who clearly need to be.

  80. 80.

    Another Holocene Human

    @mclaren: lol “outbreak of sanity” “obviously true statements”: you need a big screen for all that projection

    eh, what’s the point, you’re asleep by now anyway

    & I’m glad you’re either medicated or having a stable run at the moment

  82. 82.

    Another Holocene Human

    @David Koch:

    there are some really disturbed people at dkos. and sanders losing the debate has only made their psychosis worse. a bunch of them were screaming that hillary is responsible for isis. I expect the attacks will only get more deranged as time ticks down to iowa.

    I hope Kos peeks in there and bans some people again. It would be good to have the site back for congressional elections.

  83. 83.

    Botsplainer

    @Baud:

    Hard breezy. Last night was pretty bangy about 4 am.

    Right now more cloud than sky, which is why my cenote dive choice rocked.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    I went to a Democratic event this week and David Pepper was the speaker. Pepper is the new state chair for the Ohio Democrats. Anyway, because he had a bit of a different take on how to elect Democrats at the state level, this was my take on what he said. He said he is refocusing away from the needs/wants/desires of the national Party and focusing instead not even on “state races” but instead on local races. The frame for this (which I agree with- I think it’s accurate) is he said state Democrats “get a call” when the national candidate is ready to launch. State and national Democrat then quickly build an infrastructure and process in 88 counties, hoping to bring some down-ticket Democrats along. He wants to change that. His goal is to have a state structure in place and then layer the national Democrat’s org on top of that but keep the two entities separate- the Presidential effort would be sort of rapid-response and the local would be much more in a “building” mode. Anyway, I know there’s a lot of frustration among Democrats believing they aren’t aware that they’re losing lots and lots of state power, but they are aware and they’re (partly) alert to it because they’re self-interested- the state and local Democrats want to win so they have an incentive. They want their own power base in terms of both campaigns and governing and the only way they’re going to get that is if they do it themselves.

  89. 89.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: That Yglesias piece seems to have gotten a lot of attention. I think I should write some articles talking about big problems and claiming that everyone is in denial about them except me.

  90. 90.

    Another Holocene Human

    @RedDirtGirl: He cut his hair but it looks like it backfired. Makes him look gaunt. As if the committee hearings have afflicted him with a wasting disease.

  92. 92.

    hoodie

    The thing that struck me watching the hearings is the utter incompetence of the GOP. Most of the questioning was incoherent nonsense, obsessively focused on emails as if the Sec of State is some kind of house-bound hermit linked to the rest of the world by a T1 line, without any other access to the massive capabilities of the It’s become the party of mediocrities, which is probably why Trump and Carson are winning.

    Woke up this morning to another example. The GOP-controlled UNC Board of Governors hires Margaret Spellings, a Bush crony who essentially is nothing but a PR flack, as the new head of the UNC system. She’s never run a university, let alone a university system. And to add insult to injury, they’re paying her 775k per year with a bonus, so she will be one of the highest paid university admins, making more than the head of the UC system, which probably dwarfs UNCs’. All from the folks who preach fiscal responsibility ad nauseum. Maybe the system can survive in spite of her, but now I’m thinking about encouraging my kid to look out of state.

  93. 93.

    Waspuppet

    @David Koch: The only thing I’d add to that is, the other purpose of the hearing was to establish among the conservative faithful (and signal to the rest of us, i.e. actual Americans) that they will not regard a Hillary presidency as legitimate.

    They waited until Bill Clinton was in office to say “YOUR president is not that important to us” and that “He better not come down here without bodyguards.” This time, they’re not wasting any time letting everyone know that if the election doesn’t turn out the way they’d like, they have no intention of respecting it.

  95. 95.

    Another Holocene Human

    @hoodie: Dunning Kruger at work.

    Some of them come from their state leges which can be clown conventions; others have no legislative experience at all.

    Congressional hearings have always been massive ego collision experiences but the way the GOP is running them now is just kind of shocking. They look so stupid. How can that not be damaging to them?

  96. 96.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Waspuppet:

    They waited until Bill Clinton was in office to say “YOUR president is not that important to us” and that “He better not come down here without bodyguards.” This time, they’re not wasting any time letting everyone know that if the election doesn’t turn out the way they’d like, they have no intention of respecting it.

    Come down here with bodyguards–so, a reference to that British king (Charles II?) who attempted to storm Parliament with armed guards (didn’t work, obviously)?

    I decided to bone up on British history, what the hell, and I think the GOP faps to it, honestly.

  99. 99.

    Another Holocene Human

    @hoodie:

    She’s never run a university, let alone a university system. And to add insult to injury, they’re paying her 775k per year with a bonus, so she will be one of the highest paid university admins, making more than the head of the UC system, which probably dwarfs UNCs’.

    Nothing is too much for those who have escaped into the ruling class. The next step is to crush any unions the peons might have, freeze graduate assistanceships and adjunct pay, cut the benefits of the janitors and secretaries, promote toadies to the admin office and blow up their pay, and politick with the sports booster donors.

    We keep getting told that sports don’t drain monies from academics but I don’t believe that for a minute. Money goes in, money goes out. If it’s not being invested off site, it’s conserved. You drank all that water, so don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.

  100. 100.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud: Ah, thanks. I had heard that and forgotten. Typical culture war, “the military agrees with me” shit.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I did thanks. This is a little different. Here’s a specific example he used (it’s local, which is why he used it). There were three women there who either hold local office (two) or are running for local office (one). I ran one of the women’s campaigns which was extremely easy to do because she’s mayor of this tiny village and our entire campaign plan was one Saturday canvassing every one of her voters. She then won the following Tuesday. It was hysterical- “clean up the pizza boxes and swear her in!” I also got to swear her in because lawyers can do that in Ohio.

    He asked those three women if they got any help from the state Party. None of them did. He thinks that’s the fault of the state Party and he can do one of two things- he can wait for “leadership!” from the national Democrats or he can just run a really good state Party and not fret about what the national Party is or isn’t doing. He’s doing the latter.

  103. 103.

    Tyro

    @Kay: His goal is to have a state structure in place and then layer the national Democrat’s org on top of that but keep the two entities separate- the Presidential effort would be sort of rapid-response and the local would be much more in a “building” mode.

    Why is this not obvious? Why do the rest of the Democrats need this explained? Why has this setup not been in place for the least 10 years, at least?

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Partly they need Party support because it’s so hostile in red counties. The woman who is running locally told her mother she was a Democrat before her announcement ran in the local paper because she didn’t want her mother to find out when she read it in the newspaper. She’s been a secret Democrat! Well, now she’s out but she had to confess to her mother first :)

    It’s kind of amazing they become Democrats at all, let alone run as one.

  106. 106.

    hoodie

    @Another Holocene Human: Isn’t there a new doc film out about how vanity sports programs at most schools are a net drain and are being paid for by student fees? In addition to that, even at schools that ostensibly make money on sports, that simply gets plowed back into plush facilities for sports admin, and donors are giving money to overpaid ADs , head coaches and a gazillion coaching assistants rather than to the university academic programs or tuition reductions. Having a kid on the verge of college, it’s depressing to see the level of corruption in the system, and stuff like this makes you fear it will only get worse. The worst thing about the new right is not really their ostensible ideology, it’s the way that ideology acts as a cover for corruption and cronyism because they don’t have to deliver anything and the most blatant incompetence is not only tolerated, it’s celebrated. The old style corruption at least had to pony up some results for the little guy.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Tyro:

    Well, I’m not sure Ohio is the best example because part of the reason it hasn’t been in place is because the national candidates lavish attention on this state so we get this kind of pre-packaged professional org every 4 years.

    In other words, it’s easy.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Right but I think it’s a really common thing for organizations to forget basic ideas and get lost. I see it in my tiny law office. We periodically have to remind ourselves “what do we do? who do we work for?” – it sounds silly but that’s actually hard to do. There’s a reason there’s all those experts and consultants- people get off track.

  109. 109.

    Another Holocene Human

    @hoodie:

    The worst thing about the new right is not really their ostensible ideology, it’s the way that ideology acts as a cover for corruption and cronyism because they don’t have to deliver anything and the most blatant incompetence is not only tolerated, it’s celebrated.

    They’ve convinced people that this is just how the system works, how it always works, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s gross.

    eta: they do deliver something to the little guy–did the team win? can you put “champs” on your car? did you win the pool? some people have low standards. (what the f*** is wrong with rooting for a privately owned team?)

  110. 110.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    She’s been a secret Democrat! Well, now she’s out but she had to confess to her mother first :)

    “Why couldn’t you just be gay?”

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Confidential files on El Salvador human rights stolen after legal action against CIA

    Confidential files containing evidence of violations committed during El Salvador’s civil war have been stolen from a Washington-based human rights group days after it launched legal proceedings against the CIA over classified files on a former US-backed military commander implicated in massacres, death squads and forced disappearances.

    A computer and hard drive containing testimonies from survivors were stolen from the office of the director of the University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR) last week.

    The director’s office was the only one raided, there were no signs of forced entry, and items of monetary value were left behind, raising concerns that it could have been a targeted attack linked to the group’s sensitive work, said UWCHR.

    I am not generally disposed of the necessary paranoia to see conspiracies but….

    Several rights groups in El Salvador investigating war crimes have suffered similarly suspicious robberies.

    In November 2013, armed men broke into the Pro Búsqueda Association for Missing Children offices in San Salvador and stole computers and attempted to burn paper files containing meticulously gathered evidence of hundreds of enforced disappearances.

  112. 112.

    Another Holocene Human

    Was the raid on Planned Parenthood discussed here and I missed it because I was too busy getting high having another migraine?

    Doctor Intertoobs (I know, not very reliable) tells me that two of the foods I was consuming to help prevent ‘graines (for the Magnesium, supposed to be a preventative) can actually be triggers: banana and chocolate.

    I’m going to wait till Mnemosyne comes on and give more details b/c she takes an interest in that sort of thing.

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: People also have a tendency to want to reinvent the wheel. I see it as another symptom of the same malady.

  116. 116.

    Another Holocene Human

    @OzarkHillbilly: I hate wikileaks, but there is a certain logic to what they do in the face of hostile governments. (Of course in this case, those files could be used to harm the people who came forward or their families. Which is exactly the problem with wikileaks, it’s one big doxx dump.)

  117. 117.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: You’d think after that the Bushies would have sent Helms to track Osama Bin Laden. After all, doesn’t it take a warlord to find a warlord?

    @hoodie: I don’t know if it’s autocorrect, but you entered vanity when you meant varsity. However, it’s pretty apt. Call me when, say, Indiana Hoosier football pays for itself.

    ETA: The Bushie who’s gotten the plum job of running it all is very lucky to be there during a time when UNC football isn’t utter rubbish, if only because of heightened fan interest and income.

  120. 120.

    Another Holocene Human

    @ThresherK: Helms v OBL as they well knew might have ended like Richard III vs Saladin, an embarrassing defeat for Team Christiandom despite all the war crimes Richard III committed (“clear eyes, full heart, can’t lose”).

    I thought “vanity” was intended. They ARE vanity teams. Nothing about their existence serves the academic mission. (The old intramural and then intermural teams derived from the implementation of the Roman notion of “healthy body, healthy mind”. The late 19th century US colleges felt that getting their wimpy 3rd son aristocrats into the gym or onto a playing field would fire up the blood and improve their academic performance. And today we have a similar notion that a moderate amount of exercise is necessary for physical and mental health, both of which can suffer in college. 30 minutes walking on hilly college paths would do it, though; football, which causes traumatic head injuries, and also can cause lifelong health problems because of the very imbalanced and excessive muscle building, doesn’t even hit the mark at all, and that’s before you consider the cost of it all.)

  121. 121.

    magurakurin

    @BobS:

    In other words, Daily Kos made you laugh when they slammed Bush, but you cried when they said mean things about Obama.

    no, it was different place way back then. My KOS ID is 20,000 something. The ID’S of new people are over 1,000,000,000 now. I joined in 2004 and had been a reader before that. Back then Kos himself used to blog pretty much everyday and I really liked his writing back then. These days he almost never posts. Things changed a lot.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Oh, I agree. I don’t know if you’ve worked somewhere a long time and seen what I think of as “drift” though. I’m sure you’ve experienced it as a client or customer, where you’re wondering “what do these people think they do for a living?” It kind of only sticks out in the absence, because you don’t notice it when the focus is there because that’s how it “should be” so if the org is running right it’s invisible. I’m as wary of managerial fads as the next person but I do think people forget why they’re doing what they’re doing and get caught up in all kinds of bullshit so have to be reminded. We did this “refocusing” in the law office a couple of years ago- we bought a book and worked thru it as a group so it wasn’t expensive- and it was helpful although all of the ideas are obvious and we all “know” them. “All politics is local” is like “you’re here to serve the client” – you can know that and still not do it consistently and well because people wander off and lose track. Everyone does.

  125. 125.

    magurakurin

    @Matt McIrvin: I guess she only signed the letter urging her to run. She hasn’t made an official endorsement in her role as a super delegate for anyone yet in the primary.

  126. 126.

    Germy Shoemangler

    One of the balloon-juice commenters (I wish i remembered who) said that Elijah Cummings is Hillary’s anger translator.

  129. 129.

    Tommy

    @magurakurin: My Kos ID is like in the thousands. I got ran out of the place. I noted you could go to my little town and said “nigger” and nobody would find that really strange. That didn’t go over so well. Just an obvious comment. Fact. Did not go over so well.

  131. 131.

    ThresherK

    @Another Holocene Human: First, you know more about the Crusades than I do. I just am amazed that nobody (except a few of us liberals) called Helms a warlord then. Cos he was certainly acting like one.

    As far as “varsity” and “vanity”, the next time I see some megabucks new facility which is being built for “expected demand” that never materializes, which fails even on its own limited premise of college athletic success, I’ll think of this conversation. Rutgers’ latest football expansion comes to mind.

    (Not surprisingly both I and my wife went to D-III schools. My closest brush with athletic greatness was doing some broadcasting for the penny-ante radio station. I spent a few cold October Saturdays in support of football radio remotes, from the student’s pressbox, which was reached by climbing a ladder up to the roof of the other press box.)

  134. 134.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @ThresherK: I remember sending our kids off to college and seeing all the fees tacked on to pay coaches’ outrageous salaries. Neither of our kids had any interest in sports, or participating, but it added to tuition. Big money.

    It came out of our pocket; meanwhile there were students who got in on athletic scholarships because they could throw or catch a ball.

    You’re welcome!

  136. 136.

    gelfling545

    @mclaren: I’m a Sanders supporter and I have to say that there are some people over there ranting who’d be better off in care and that in their “enthusiasm” are doing Senator Sanders a disservice.

    As far as the debate “winner” I’d say that the performances by both Secy Clinton and Senator Sanders made me proud to be a Democrat where actual sane & competent adults are seeking the candidacy.

  140. 140.

    Chris

    @Keith G:

    With his remarks, Mr. Comey lent the prestige of the F.B.I., the nation’s most prominent law enforcement agency,

    I can’t say I’m too wowed by the FBI’s prestige, but maybe I’ve just read one too many stories about Whitey Bulger and the entire “there is no such thing as a National Crime Syndicate!” phase of the FBI.

    to a theory that is far from settled: that the increased attention on the police has made officers less aggressive and emboldened criminals. But he acknowledged that there is so far no data to back up his assertion and that it may be just one of many factors that are contributing to the rise in crime, like cheaper drugs and an increase in criminals who are being released from prison.

    If cops demand that we tolerate racist, abusive behavior from their ranks towards the population as their price for going after criminals, they don’t belong on the force. That’s not public service. If we have to bribe them with tolerance of their own criminal behavior before they’ll do their fucking jobs, then we might as well just let the mob keep order and save everybody the tax money.

    Also, is there any actual substance to this “rise in crime” notion?

  144. 144.

    gelfling545

    his school CEO was indicted, she left the city schools in utter chaos (exactly as she did when she was chased out of her prior job, in Cleveland, and before that in Detroit)

    Oh, mercy. I guess we’ll be hiring her in Buffalo in the next year or so.

  148. 148.

    Bobby Thomson

    @magurakurin: I have a four digit UID. Back in the day there were so few commenters that the agit trolls were obvious and could be called out quickly. Then people just started plagiarizing posts from elsewhere and converting them into recommended diaries. The wreck list is basically a waste of time. Things really went south when the site allowed people to self segregate themselves. They lost all sense of community.

    Kos is a good writer because he doesn’t take a lot of words to make obvious points.

  149. 149.

    Chris

    @Applejinx:

    Our system was designed to do exactly that: produce so many factions struggling for control that no one cabal could dominate too heavily. The big risk right now is not the wingnuts taking over, but the wingnuts imploding so badly that nothing checks the Dems or stops them becoming the same thing as the wingnuts. It’s not about policy: conservative policy is in theory about prudence and stability, and look where they’re at now. It’s about personalities and narcissists and authoritarians taking over.

    Huh. Does this explain the Civil War and aftermath? Democrats go so psychotically out-there that they drive everyone else into the Republican Party, which gets to rule the nation (outside the South) unchallenged, which over time turns it into the bloated corruptocracy that twentieth century liberals had to take on?

    (It wouldn’t be a perfect analogy in any case because party politics were very different back then, but I’m wondering if that wasn’t still a big factor).

  150. 150.

    Emma

    @mclaren: One small bit of advice. Every time you refer to PRESIDENT OBAMA as “poor Barack” everyone can see the spittle running down your chin. Your arguments not only lose weight, but you reap the same contempt you’re trying to sow.

  151. 151.

    Freemark

    @gelfling545: I’m a Sanders supporter and I find some of the Hilary fans as obnoxious as the obnoxious Bernie fans. Guess what it has little affect on my feelings on Hilary. I like her. I find her more flawed in her beliefs and policies than Bernie, but I still think she’d be a good President.

    If you are making decisions based on the activity of fairly anonymous ‘supporters’ it isn’t those supporters who are the problem. You should look at yourself. This whole idea of whether Bernie’s or Hilary’s followers are better or more obnoxious is pretty childish. Unlike Apple vs Android followers. Everyone one knows Applenistas are obnoxious poop heads.

  152. 152.

    gelfling545

    @Freemark: The thing is that neither Sen. Sanders or Secy Clinton shows any inclination that would support the rabid wolverine impersonations among some their supporters. Some, I suspect, are actually Republicans trying to sow discord.

  153. 153.

    Freemark

    @gelfling545: You may be correct. But I’ve met enough people in real life who get that tribal that I wouldn’t bet they are all Republican plants. And of course some people just like to see fights happen so they egg on both sides.

  154. 154.

    mclaren

    @amk:

    I thought she is running for the presidency, not for some tinpot dictatorship?

    Obviously I’m speaking figuratively here, not literally, when I mention that the Republicans are “going to need lots of body bags for their troops” if they go after Hillary when she’s president.

    That figurative description represents an accurate diagnosis of what will happen politically to the Republicans, though. We have seen how Newt Gingrich tried to destroy Bill Clinton and Gingrich wound up with no political career. Dennis McCarthy tried to go after Hillary and now he’s gone, his career in politics is over. Trey Gowdy’s career as a politician is on the ropes, and I predict he won’t last long. Professional pols whose careers evaporate might as well be dragged away in a body bag.

    Some of the commenters here still don’t realize the sheer depth of Republican intransigence. In normal times, yes, the president must work with the opposition party. There’s nothing to work with when we’re talking about this Republican party. HRC understands that. I don’t think a lot you do. Today’s Republican party celebrates Democratic presidential efforts at compromise because they view it as proof of weakness and use it to scream bizarre hostage-situation demands at the Democrats (like “repeal Obamacare or we don’t raise the debt ceiling). The only way to deal with today’s Republican party is to assume they’re going to lie and smear and never compromise, and then place them in a position where the few remaining moderate Republicans find it so untenable to line up with the Freedom Caucus that they have to defect and vote with the Democrats even at the cost of their careers. Viz., the president can get Chamber of Commerce stooges and Wall Street bankers to phone these guys explaining that the entire economy will crater and their local businesses will shut down and they will be blamed for it if they don’t break with the Freedom Caucus.

    In the case of the debt ceiling issue, the solution there is absolutely straightforward — just ignore the Republicans and raise the debt ceiling by executive order.

    That’s not being a ‘tinpot dictator,’ but it is using the powers of the presidency with a little flexibility. It’s a gray area. It’s not written into the constitution that a debt ceiling resolution must be passed, so the president has some latitude to argue executive privilege there, and I for one find it very very very hard to believe that even the current supreme court would side with an argument that blows up the U.S. economy and plunges America into another Great Depression.

  155. 155.

    mclaren

    @Emma:

    One small bit of advice. Every time you refer to PRESIDENT OBAMA as “poor Barack” everyone can see the spittle running down your chin. Your arguments not only lose weight, but you reap the same contempt you’re trying to sow.

    Despite your unwonted animus and vitriol, Emma, rest assured I bear you no grudge. Even though you and a few other Democrats are frantically trying to stir up resentment and strife among Democrats who support a different Democratic candidate for president this year, this time around I think we all agree of the same broad set of principles. We will not have a Nader this time around. And you may also rest assured that if HRC is the nominee I will vote for her.

    So chill, kiddo. We’re all on the same team. Kick back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy watching the Repubs destroy themselves. We’re all brothers and sisters here, politically speaking. Bernie is not your enemy and neither am I.

  156. 156.

    mclaren

    @David Koch:

    In short they’re feeding and reinforcing the whole paranoid wingnut ecosystem, ginning up hate, in hopes of producing turnout.

    Well, the Republicans are trying to gin up hate — but instead they’re ginning up laughter. They’re trying to furnish content for the conservative media, but instead they’re only furnishing content for Saturday Night Live.

    Such escapades do not end well for movement conservatives who promise Democratic scalps to their supporters. It’s like the bond subvillain who promises to kill 007, fails, and then gets dumped into the piranha pool by the remote-controlled drawbridge.

  157. 157.

    mclaren

    @xian:

    so Hillary is now “out of the water” and Bernie is the battleship that blew her there?

    In the debate, Sanders won hands down on issues. Sanders also had the line of the evening: “enough with the damn e-mails!”

    Sanders came through solidly against unwinnable foreign wars — Hillary waffled. Sanders came down hard to break up the Too Big To Fail Banks and put financial crime lords in prison. Hillary came down against that solution, which I for one found gobsmackingly astounding. Sanders came down hard on the side of expanding social security, increasing the safety net, making college free — Hillary waffled and blew a bunch of smoke up everyone’s ass.

    NO question, Sanders won the debate. Hillary won the “most improved performance for a candidate” though. Anyone remember Hills’ miserable performance rolling out the Clinton health care proposal in 1994? She was awful. Back then, HRC had the political instincts of a rock.

    Today, HRC has finely honed political instincts, she’s comfortable in the spotlight, and whoever is running her campaign hasn’t made any missteps yet. So Hillary is completely transformed as a politician, she’s first-rate today.

    Is she as good as Sanders? Not even remotely, in my opinion. But that’s okay. YMMV. We can both agree they did well.

  158. 158.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Applejinx:

    Our system was designed to do exactly that: produce so many factions struggling for control that no one cabal could dominate too heavily. The big risk right now is not the wingnuts taking over, but the wingnuts imploding so badly that nothing checks the Dems or stops them becoming the same thing as the wingnuts.

    I don’t think we need the Republican Party at all in its current form. If it were to wither away so completely that spoiler effects weren’t a concern, the Democratic Party would probably just fracture into a centrist party something like the Eisenhower-era Republicans, and a social-democratic left party.

  159. 159.

    Ruckus

    @Another Holocene Human:
    Another migraine sufferer here. Two big triggers for many are chocolate and red wine. Not everyone of course and trigger amounts can vary for any individual and for many amounts that trigger can vary. Combinations of factors can also trigger and so it can be very difficult to find your own triggers as sometimes something will trigger and sometimes same amount won’t. For some women, hormones can make one more susceptible, depending on their levels. Men can be cyclical in their migraines as well. It all depends on the particular person and their individual triggers. I still get migraines when I haven’t had any of my known triggers in days. And all any docs have been able to do is prescribe drugs to kill the migraine once it happens, some of which are amazing.

  160. 160.

    Julia Grey

    I have a four digit UID.

    Nyah nyah, got you beat. My UID is 755.

    Seriously, though, the place has changed incredibly in that time, but that was inevitable as the audience grew. You used to be able to see just about everything that was new for the day in a couple hours. Now you can’t keep up even if you check every ten minutes.

    And yeah, I miss the days when Kos writing most of the content. Still, some of the current front pagers are terrific, and I love to read the liveblogs of the debates rather than watch them. I go into the comments sometimes in order to keep my mojo up, but I really should limit the time I waste opinionating. Plus, scrolling through the pointless pie fighting.

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