Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Let me file that under fuck it.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

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

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Another Repub Whiner Winner

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Another Repub Whiner Winner

by | 137 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Am I a bad person if I hope his kids grow up to deny their relationship to casual acquaintances? (“Speaker Ryan? Nah, it’s a very common last name, y’know… “)

Meanwhile, from the grown-up side of the aisle, shot fired:

***********
Apart from the vast difference in political capabilities, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Depriving Nancy Pelosi of the speakership for all of the Obama years is a national tragedy.

  3. 3.

    Capri

    I find myself wondering what would have happened if Mitch McConnell and the GOP had not decided to block everything Obama suggested?

    Obama would have compromised with him, he kept trying to after all – and right now Obama would be unpopular with the Democratic base because he’d be viewed as another triangulating squish even if more progress had been made legislatively. And perhaps the GOP base would be less enamored by a guy whose self-proclaimed best quality is that he can negotiate.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    Therapists often discriminate against black and poor patients, study finds
    By Carina Storrs, for CNN
    Updated 7:53 AM ET, Wed June 1, 2016

    (CNN)Minorities and lower-income individuals can face numerous challenges in getting treatment for depression and other mental health problems. They may lack insurance or transportation to a therapist’s office; they may experience stigma in their communities around mental illness that prevents them from seeking care.

    A new study finds that these groups face yet another barrier to mental health care: Therapists may be less likely to see them.
    To study whether therapists had biases, researchers hired actors to record voice messages for 640 therapists in New York. In all the messages, the actors read scripts saying they had been feeling down, had insurance and would like to make an appointment.
    The scripts varied the names, vocabulary and grammar to reflect race and class differences. For example, the name Amy Roberts was supposed to indicate that the caller was a white middle-class woman, whereas Latoya Johnson was used for a black middle-class woman. The scripts for working-class individuals used more slang and some grammatical errors.

  5. 5.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, my First World Problem of the Day is that I read the latest book in a series (by Lisa Kleypas), saw that the next book will have two of my all-time favorite characters of hers as minor characters, and realized that I will have to wait until THE END OF FEBRUARY 2017 to read the damn thing. Feh.

  10. 10.

    Marcolin

    Why is Hugh Hewitt on my tv? Why is he a nightly fixture on my supposedly liberal programming? Why is the liberal host not feeding him verbal haymakers when he says he trusts Donald Trump more than Clinton?

    It’s so bad.

  11. 11.

    Just One More Canuck

    @aimai: Agreed – rikyrah posts a lot of things I would never see or hear about otherwise

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    On the lighter side, kids will be kids.

    A young Chinese boy has accidentally brought a $20,000 Lego sculpture — which took three painstaking days and nights to put together — crashing down, just an hour after it was put on public display. Source

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

    As always, the comments are better than the post itself.

    ………………………….

    MORGAN FREEMAN TURNS 79 FOR THE 79TH TIME TODAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
    Damon Young, 6/1/16

    They say it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. (They’re wrong when they say that, but they still say that anyway.) Well, iconic actor and professional stately motherfucker Morgan Freeman turns 79 today for the 79th time. Which means he’s had 700,000 hours worth of practice of being 79. Which means no one has ever been or will ever be better at being 79 than Morgan Freeman is.

    In honor of his 79th 79th birthday, lets look at this gallery of Morgan Freeman through the years of being 79.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I would be curious to see if they had a broad ethnic/racial range of therapists that they called and if that made any difference in the callback rates. I didn’t see that information in the story, but I’m reading it on my phone.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    TPM

    There’s some fun to be had with the news that the PGA is moving its World Golf Championship to Mexico. But look at the details. PGA couldn’t find a sponsor who would associate itself with a Trump event. How much of a hit will Trump end up taking after more damage is done by the fall? Who knows. But remember, the whole edifice is likely far more precariously perched than most understand.

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    Twitter Truth:

    The Slaves Singing
    ‏@williamcson
    24h24 hours ago
    Why don’t white people “understand” Trump when y’all eat with his supporters? What’s the mystery? Look across the dinner table for answers

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Somehow missed reports of this stopgap measure earlier in May.

    Alarmed by the retreat of its Alpine glacier, a Swiss ski resort wrapped part of the shrinking ice-cap in a giant blanket in a bid to reduce the summer melt.
    [snip]
    The 100,000 Swiss franc ($US83,000) blanket will protect one of the main glacier access ramps, which has to be rebuilt each autumn at the start of the ski season to cover a yawning 20-metre gap opened up by the ice melt. Source

  21. 21.

    gf120581

    @Baud: I don’t know what would be more delightful; Trump going down in flames or his business empire collapsing with it.

    Much like Marshall, I think the top reason he won’t reveal his tax return is because they’ll put the lie to his wealth claims. His actions speak for themselves. Billionaires don’t need to do penny ante cons like Trump University.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    She [HRC] called him [Tatoohh] a crook, he [POTUS] called him an idiot.

    Seriously, in so many words? I’m going to have to watch that POTUS speech!

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    It says a lot about the GOP’s “deep bench” that in 8 months of trying, none of them managed to get under Trump’s skin. Trump’s onion-skin thin skin.

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    So apparently, Tom Hiddleston (Loki from Thor/Avengers) loves to dance…lol.

    Still don’t think he should be Bond though…but I do love a guy willing to shake his groove thing…lol

    Hiddles Dance Moves

  29. 29.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Trump has built his campaign on free media attention for his antics so far.
    Yesterday he ripped the political media hard for nearly 45 minutes. Called them all kinds of insulting things. That can’t be a good strategy for a guy with no money for paid advertising.

    Have to fly somewhere* tomorrow so going to sleep now.
    Cheers.

    *I forget. They’ll remind me when I get to the airport.

  31. 31.

    hovercraft

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Yes, we have actual statesmen and women who can go out and campaign for Hillary. And ours are actually good at hitting him.
    Who does the orange one have?

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @Capri:

    And perhaps the GOP base would be less enamored by a guy whose self-proclaimed best quality is that he can negotiate.

    It’s not that he can negotiate, per se; it’s that he’ll get an amazing deal where we’ll all win so much. He’ll negotiate the way Republicans seem to think negotiation is supposed to work: they get what they want and give up nothing.

  33. 33.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @schrodinger’s cat: We’re watching it right now. The man has a serious grasp of the FACTS. He just made a great point about people voting based on facts and reality, not what they hear on talk radio.

    We’re going to miss him.

    EDIT: I feel like Gwen Ifill is as usual too preoccupied with the horserace.

  35. 35.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev:

    It says a lot about the GOP’s “deep bench” that in 8 months of trying, none of them managed to get under Trump’s skin. Trump’s onion-skin thin skin.

    It sure does…they sure knew what they had sown in their own electorate these past 35 years though, didn’t they? Only Trump knew even better and was willing to go places they wouldn’t, in their endless pursuit of dogwhistles and Republican Noise Machine nonsense.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Marcolin: Chris Hayes gives waaaaay too much time to assholes in a misguided spirit of high-mindedness. Hewitt in particular seems to be a favorite of somebody in whatever office makes decisions at MSNBC

  40. 40.

    hovercraft

    @dmsilev:
    it’s a favorite media meme, that they are reviving again. GOP has a deep bench of VP candidates, but the dems have a very thin bench.

  41. 41.

    Elmo

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: I fly like that sometimes. A couple weeks ago I was in five different states in one day. Not itty bitty New England states either: Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, and Maryland. With a meeting in Detroit that took two hours in the middle.

  42. 42.

    Eric S.

    @Mnemosyne: It’s been 6 years since the last Game of Thrones book which was published 5 years to after the one before that. So, I feel your pain, 1st World pain.

  43. 43.

    Major Major Major Major

    Accepted my offer, which came in 10% higher than I was guessing, and then got some southwestern food (sorely lacking in San Francisco, if anybody has tips??).

    Now I’m going to watch X-Men.

    Denver has the best clouds.

  44. 44.

    James E Powell

    @hovercraft:

    Who does the orange one have?

    Nearly every person in the corporate press/media. They will lose a ton of money if there is no horse race. They hate HRC also too.

  45. 45.

    Cacti

    Gavin Newsom endorses Hillary. Says she was the only prominent Dem who would still be photo’d with him after his office started issuing same sex marriage licenses in 2004.

  46. 46.

    lollipopguild

    @Thor Heyerdahl: Fifth(of Bourbon) Rickyrahrahrah shows up and always has intelligent things to say and very good things to read/link to. Should be a front pager-the keys please.

  47. 47.

    hovercraft

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
    It’s funny, no matter how much the media and the GOP hammer our guys for all the “katrina’s”, the democrates consistently have higher approval ratings. With the constant beating he has taken over the last 8 years, beginning with Rev. Wright, the middling economy, and all the fake scandals, his approval numbers are as high as they’ve been since his re-elect.
    Who is the most popular republican in the country?

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I suspect that Hewitt is one of those guys you can call an hour before airtime and he’ll show up shaved, sober, and with his talking points in place. TV producers love those guys regardless of what those guys actually say during their segment.

  51. 51.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Cacti: But Hillary is only up by 2 in the latest poll, the TV tells me she could LOSE CA and it’d be DISASTER!

  52. 52.

    ? Martin

    @Mnemosyne:

    I suspect that Hewitt is one of those guys you can call an hour before airtime and he’ll show up shaved, sober, and with his talking points in place.

    That is precisely who he is. That he’s 3 time zones west and won’t be in the middle of dinner helps a lot as well.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    You should provide the number.

    The poll had Trump leading Clinton among white men, 60 percent to 26 percent, in a head-to-head matchup.

  55. 55.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @rikyrah: Those number ain’t going to cut it for the Short Fingered Orange Man with the Opossum on his head.

  57. 57.

    hovercraft

    @Mnemosyne:
    He’s part of the COMCAST effort to de-libralize the network. They believe that the networks ratings were suffering because the were too far left. So they hired a whole bunch of right wingers. Ben Ginsberg, Hugh Hewitt, Nicole Wallace, Rick Tyler, a who’s who of repub consultants. At least Steve Schmidt provides some cogent analysis also that talker from WI who led the nevertrumps in the state. . Oh and Tweety seems to have decided to have Ann Coulter as a regular.
    Their rating have gone up but I’m sure that it was just a coincidence that the bump occurred the same time as the primaries got under way.

  58. 58.

    dmsilev

    Remember that lawsuit that Sanders supporters filed in California because they were unhappy that non-party voters had to ask for a Democratic ballot in order to be able to vote in the Democratic primary? Today, a Federal judge told them to go piss up a rope.

    A federal judge refused Wednesday to reopen voter registration in California ahead of next week’s presidential primary, telling a group led by backers of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that the rights of the state’s unaffiliated voters have not been harmed.

    “There’s absolutely no showing of any federal violation,” said U.S. District Judge William Alsup.

    Alsup also denied the request that volunteers at polling places be required to tell voters about the unusual rules surrounding which political parties have opened their presidential contests to unaffiliated “independent” voters.

    (The ‘unusual rules’ are that each party can choose whether its primary is open or closed to unaffiliated voters. The GOP is closed, the Democrats and some of the minor parties are open. If you’re registered with one of the parties, you get their primary ballot by default; if you’re registered as unaffiliated, you have to tell the poll worker which ballot you want.)

  61. 61.

    dmsilev

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Apparently that poll had Hillary up by something like 17 points among people who have already sent in their ballots.

    Good thing for Sanders that virtually nobody in California does mail-in…

  62. 62.

    rikyrah

    Thousands of voters in limbo after Kansas demands proof they’re American
    Wed Jun 1, 2016 9:53am EDT

    After moving to Kansas, Tad Stricker visited a state motor vehicle office to perform what he thought was the routine task of getting a new driver’s license and registering to vote.

    It was a familiar procedure for Stricker, 37, who has moved from state to state frequently in his work as a hotel manager. He filled out a voter registration form and got his driver’s license. He was not asked for more documents, he said.

    So he was stunned when he tried to cast a ballot in November 2014 and was told he was not on the voter rolls. A month later, a letter from the state said why: His registration had been placed “in suspense” because he had failed to meet a state requirement he did not know about – proving he was an American.

    Spurred by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a national leader in pushing for anti-immigration and voting changes, more than 36,000 Kansas residents have joined Stricker in limbo since early 2013 under a state law that raises a new and higher barrier to voting in the United States: proof of citizenship.

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @hovercraft:

    it’s a favorite media meme, that they are reviving again. GOP has a deep bench of VP candidates, but the dems have a very thin bench.

    And it’s a stupid meme, too. Who cares if you have a thin bench or a thick bench? When it comes time to pick a candidate, you only need one; as long as that one is really good it doesn’t much matter how good second place is. As far as the importance of the deep bench for future elections, it honestly doesn’t take that long to develop candidates. Obama went from candidate for Senator to candidate for President in one election cycle.

  66. 66.

    schrodinger's cat

    @dmsilev: I saw your response to Trump as the risky bet analogy. Trump is not like the mortgage backed assets (CDS or swaps or CDOs) the problem was not they could not be evaluated, its that they weren’t. (You could evaluate them as Taylor series expansion, which converged if you ignored higher order terms, when the bubble burst that assumption was no longer valid). So they were not really unpredictable, like a human being’s actions especially a mercurial one like Trump’s can be.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @hovercraft

    There are people in the corner offices who keep track of the number of appearances and number of minutes given* to those from the “other side,” and Hewitt is one of those who is willing (more than willing) to be granted face time.

    *See? See how balanced we are? Whether there’s any cogency or informational value disseminated is irrelevant.

  71. 71.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah:
    That can’t be right, Mitch McConnell said just today that, he knows of no barriers to voting anywhere.

  73. 73.

    Gin & Tonic

    @dmsilev:

    if you’re registered as unaffiliated, you have to tell the poll worker which ballot you want.

    No way! That’s fucking tyranny, dude!

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lollipopguild:

    Also, she sends a cheerful “Good morning!” greeting just about every day. I usually don’t see it until hours after she’s sent it, but I always appreciate it and feel a little better about getting out of bed ?????

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    Romney got 62 percent of the white male vote, so the story there seems to be that (slightly) fewer white men are willing to vote for Trump.

  76. 76.

    hovercraft

    @Roger Moore:
    True. Plus it’s the beltway version of a good candidate. Remember Romney was a great candidate that Obama would have a hard tine beating. This year it was Rubio, can you imagine how Hillary would have chewed him up and spit him out with his canned lines on a debate stage. They fall for image not substance.

  78. 78.

    ? Martin

    @dmsilev: Wait for the GOP butthurt when the CA-Sen race turns out to be Harris (D) vs Sanchez (D) with no Republican in the race thanks to our top-2 ballot.

    There will be lawsuits…

  80. 80.

    dmsilev

    @schrodinger’s cat: That’s fair, but even if it’s not quantifiable, it’s still reasonable to be able to create a hierarchy. Risk(Trump) >> Risk(Clinton), something like that.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    Mostly, they’ll stay home or go third party, IMO.

    I’m going to be very curious to see how Trump’s numbers react once the last few primaries are over and Hillary starts running as our candidate. Right now, he’s essentially spouting his crap unopposed.

    I would also keep an eye on Trump’s numbers with white women. Getting All The White Menz doesn’t do him much good if he doesn’t get similar numbers with white women.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    Halfway through and thus far Maddow’s show today a complete waste of time.

    All meringue, no pie.

  84. 84.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: “Sanders supporters”, whatever that means in terms of financing. Not the campaign itself, or at least not overtly so.

  86. 86.

    raven

    @NotMax: No shit, I was just sayin that! We should have watched the second installment of Aquarius and see what Manson was up to.

  92. 92.

    Zinsky

    Paul Ryan may be one of the least impressive politicians of the past 75 years. He presents himself like an awkward, geeky, adenoidal shoe salesman or something. One who you feel creepy about him touching your feet. If Ryan had any competitors in the Republican Party with an IQ larger than their shoe size, he would have no chance to be Speaker of the House. However, given this lameass Congress, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man will be King!

  94. 94.

    NonyNony

    @Mnemosyne: Apparently there’s a big gap in support between white males with only high school or less education and white males with a college education. Previous Republicans have a split in those groups, but it’s usually fairly narrow. Trump’s is apparently huge, which probably goes right to that discrepancy.

  96. 96.

    Emma

    I nominate rikyrah as Balloon Juice’s newspaper person. Just go out there and find the most interesting stories to discuss.

  99. 99.

    ? Martin

    @Roger Moore: We’ll see. I’m expecting they’ll aim for the federal courts to declare CAs top-2 system illegal. They’ve been gunning for our districting system already.

  103. 103.

    Anoninimous

    White voters are expected to ~69% of the total vote this year down from 72% in 2012. If Trump gets 62% of both white men and women that’s still only 42.78% of the vote. He has to make up 7.22% and with a large plurality of white-dominated vote concentrated in only ~134 EV states it looks almost impossible. Trump *has* to win both Ohio and Florida and there’s zero evidence (granted it is still early) he’ll do it.

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Should you not have seen them, you might well enjoy Occupied and The Assets on Netflix.

    The first takes a speculative quasi-military conceit as thin as an oboe reed in unexpected directions and makes it work and work well, the second a dramatization of the true story of the C.I.A. and the Aldrich Ames spy affair.

    @BillinGlendaleCA

    Hostess bars.

    SATSQ. ;)

  110. 110.

    PatrickG

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    rikyrah would have to step up her good morning game once she has the ability to front-page pictures. Emoticons won’t cut it on a pet-friendly blog!

  112. 112.

    burnspbesq

    @efgoldman:

    Why isn’t DOJ in federal court RIGHT NOW THIS MINUTE?

    Because they already won the case in District Court.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @raven:

    I haven’t watched Aquarius (yet), but a reliable friend has recommended it several times.

  118. 118.

    ? Martin

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yep. Bernie supporters won’t commit until he’s out of the race. And you’ll have more late breakers this year anyway due to the high unfavorable ratings of both candidates.

  123. 123.

    Cat48

    Bernie sued, if u read further to have the 30 something counties to go back, retrieve the unaffiliated ballots that had been cast & then give them the option to vote again. Then advertise on TV etc & let everyone know about the change & how to vote again.

    He’s not hard to deal with at all.

  124. 124.

    ? Martin

    Well, that’s the 3rd victim of gun violence that I’ve known. No idea why more guns don’t make me feel safer.

    Gonna go drink now.

  128. 128.

    Cacti

    @Cat48:

    Bernie sued, if u read further to have the 30 something counties to go back, retrieve the unaffiliated ballots that had been cast & then give them the option to vote again. Then advertise on TV etc & let everyone know about the change & how to vote again.

    He’s not hard to deal with at all.

    So, he wanted legally cast ballots invalidated by judicial fiat?

    Wow, that’s not at all Stalinesque.

  129. 129.

    Carl W

    @? Martin:

    Well, that’s the 3rd victim of gun violence that I’ve known. No idea why more guns don’t make me feel safer.

    I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve not known any gun victims, but on the other end of things, one of my former colleagues is now serving time for murder (using a gun)… more guns doesn’t make me feel safer either.

  130. 130.

    Juju

    @NotMax: I like Rachel but the first 25 minutes were pointless. I didn’t see anything wrong with Hillary’s little clip with the two shirtless bozos.

  132. 132.

    Turgidson

    @hovercraft:

    Who is the most popular republican in the country?

    Probably still Colin Powell. Though GOP base voters would set themselves on fire before “approving” of a guy who endorsed the Kenyan Usurper twice.

  134. 134.

    Tom

    @Elmo: I used to travel so much on business that I had to check my boarding pass when the plane started the landing approach to figure out where I was.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks