Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans in disarray!

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

People are complicated. Love is not.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

This fight is for everything.

White supremacy is terrorism.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Fewer Republicans, But Better Republicans

Open Thread: Fewer Republicans, But Better Republicans

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This tweet last night reminded me of pre-abdication Pope Benedict Ratzinger’s more conservative followers, writing hopefully about how purging the ‘doubters’ and ‘weak sisters’ would lead to a hardened Mother Church of “fewer Catholics, but better Catholics”. (When those tactics didn’t work, Benedict threw his tiara in the cardinals’ laps and ‘withdrew from the world’– but not so far that he couldn’t publicly criticize their choice for his successor.)

Google tells me that the ‘fewer, but better’ formulation goes back to Lenin in 1923, but it’s the rallying cry of every cult under stress. The True Believers tell each other that shake-ups and purity tests will lead to a hardened core of steely warriors, while secretly consoling themselves with the thought that in the new regime at least they will have improved their hold over the apparatus… and their share of the spoils, should the group go completely belly-up.

They’re no longer interested in winning the presidential election; they just want to steal everything they can from the collapsing national party, up to and including the pennies off the corpse’s eyes, to enrich their own fiefdoms in the fever swamps of “alt-right” racists, misogynists & xenophobes.

It’d be more entertaining for the rest of us if the rump revanchists weren’t so heavily armed.

Rats might desert a sinking ship but sharks come in to feed. — Commentor Aleta

Reader Interactions

176Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    At this juncture, I feel that it is important for us to look back and reflect on what brought us here, and in particular remind ourselves that Andrew Breitbart is still dead.

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    If the strategy is ‘Let Trump be Trump’, bring it on. More than happy to let him sink himself…

  5. 5.

    aimai

    “There will be fewer, but better, Russians” is also a line from Ninotchka. They ask her how the show trials are going in Moscow and that is her answer.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, this clip from CNN is amazing. Trump’s campaign lawyer manages to fuse Sarah Palin, Baghdad Bob, and stereotypical NYC dickishness into one moment of pure wow.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @aimai: Post-election, it’s going to be a cross between Soviet show trials and the Nazi’s Night of the Long Knives. With just a hint of Lord of the Flies mixed in.

  12. 12.

    PigDog

    We are observing the Grand Unified Theory of post-Gingrich Republicanism. Consider that all the following elements now exist in Shitgibbon’s campaign:

    Anti-Clinton rhetoric
    Roger Ailes involvement
    Breitbart running the campaign
    Racism/sexism/overall demonization of the Other as an *explicit* strategy
    A lifelong con man at the top of the ticket
    The personification of the worst of Evangelical Christianity in the VP slot

  13. 13.

    aarrgghh

    “they just want to steal everything they can from the collapsing national party, up to and including the pennies off the corpse’s eyes, to enrich their own fiefdoms”

    so you’re saying they’re a bunch of grifters grifting off grifters?

    i’m shocked.

  18. 18.

    cmorenc

    Trump’s strategy at this point still 80+ days out from the election, is to make those of us on the progressive side feel so smug and mocking at his (and his campaign’s) buffoonery and offensiveness, that we start complacently thinking we have it in the bag – and don’t see him rapidly storming from behind to catch up with Clinton over the last three weeks until it’s too late. Of course, his campaign hasn’t figured out how they get to the “rapidly storming from behind to catch up with Clinton” part, but hey, they figure they’ve got several more weeks to figure that out.

  19. 19.

    The Golux

    There aren’t enough antibiotics in the world to cure the Republicans’ (terminal, one hopes) case of don-orrhea.

    Let us savor.

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    @cmorenc:

    Of course, his campaign hasn’t figured out how they get to the “rapidly storming from behind to catch up with Clinton” part, but hey, they figure they’ve got several more weeks to figure that out.

    Vladimir Vladimirovich will provide them with an October surprise. They’d better just hope it isn’t Julian October.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    This is Christmas in August! Ann Coulter will, just by her presence, alienate any moderates still fence-sitting.

  25. 25.

    mainmata

    Keep two things in mind 1) All of this glee assumes that Trump doesn’t get so bored that he just abandons his own nomination leaving us with Pence (Hilz still wins but probably doesn’t get those marginal states mentioned above) and 2) we’re only talking about the national GOP. The state and local GOP are very healthy, very extremist and will certainly be back in the majority in the HOR (maybe not the Senate but this depends a bit on ballot splitting). So, basically Hilz gets nothing done at least for two years; probably four because GOP has not recognized the legitimacy of any Democratic President since LBJ. The GOP basically has to be eliminated root and branch at the state level or else nothing much changes (except maybe SCOTUS).

  31. 31.

    Trentrunner

    I might buy this “complacency” concern…if it were the year 2000 and/or the two candidates could be construed as “not a dime’s worth of difference between them.”

    This year, with these two candidates, this is NOT the case.

    Every friend of mine (all Dems) are fucking terrified of the Great Orange Scrotum, and most of us love/like Hillary and are proud to vote for the first woman president and glad that it’s her.

    Obviously this is anecdata, but Trump is so repulsive a person that I find it hard to believe the Dem coalition isn’t motivated by the existential threat of a Trump presidency. #ExpectUs

    Be nice to see some data on this, though.

  32. 32.

    Bruuuuce

    @dmsilev: What a slimebag. And in the best traditions of stopped clocks, his last sentence is precisely correct: people are seeing through the nonsense.

  34. 34.

    Ripley

    Andrew Breitbart is still dead

    Did you hear that they buried him 20 feet under? Because deep down, he’s a really good person.

  41. 41.

    mainmata

    @Trentrunner: I so love this portmanteau of “anecdata” – Brilliant! But you’re right. Lots of motivation because of who Trump is. Of course, the vote suppressors won’t care that Trump is so bad; they hate Hillary even more than they dislike Trump.

  42. 42.

    dmsilev

    @mainmata: I can’t see Trump dropping out out of his own accord, especially not with the odds massively against him. It would look like he was too afraid to face the voters, and for an ambulatory ego like Trump, having pretty much the entire world regard him as a coward would be intolerable. There’s also no easy way for the GOP to get rid of him. Odds are, November will still be a choice between Clinton and Trump.

  43. 43.

    p.a.

    The Whigs disolved over a real issue; slavery. Federalists just lost elections, but I don’t know if they had to deal with any type of prion disease like we are seeing now.

  45. 45.

    dedc79

    @JPL: Hadn’t realized this is the same michael cohen who argued that Trump couldn’t possibly have raped Ivana Trump because “you cannot rape your spouse. And there’s very clear case law.”

  46. 46.

    Bruuuuce

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s a good bet that if the Senate flips back to blue, they’ll extend the limited nuclear option that precludes filibusters on lower court appointments to SCOTUS. It’s a shame that they have to, but with the disloyal opposition blocking every other choice, and with so much at stake, I see it coming,

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @mainmata:

    Actually, current polling seems to indicate that we have a chance to grab the House. Sam Wang at Princeton likes our chances.

    We have an opportunity to turn this into a wave election. Let’s not waste it.

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dmsilev: I wouldn’t rule out a twist in that mercurial brain that makes him drop out (though I think it’s extremely unlikely) but I think the rules are the RNC picks his replacement, it doesn’t just fall to Pence. I don’t think they’d pick anybody red-meat enough for his base, and I don’t think his true believers would at this point fall in line behind Kaisch or Ryan. I think Trump’s write-in vote would swamp Candidate X and Johnson, in this wooliest of wool-gathering speculative scenarios.

  50. 50.

    lamh36

    So once again, POC, women and other immigrants, ya know, the ones routinely pissed on and suppressed by white majority, will have to save the US from these Trump idiots

    Le sigh

  54. 54.

    dmsilev

    @Calming Influence:

    Lately, I’ve found myself daydreaming… Re-education camps; are they really so wrong?

    All thing considered, perhaps we should start with education camps.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I don’t think his true believers would at this point fall in line behind Kaisch or Ryan.

    Candidate for understatement of the year. If you think the wild conspiracy theories are flying among Trump’s supporters now, imagine what they’d do if he dropped out of the race.

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The RNC meets and votes on a replacement. They might just pick Pence, on the grounds that they need a sacrificial goat and Pence was available. Of course, there are deadlines coming up. Filing deadlines for several states have already passed, so they’d need to run a bunch of lawsuits to get injunctions allowing late ballot changes. After that, mid September is a hard deadline, because that’s when the first wave of states sending out absentee and early ballots begins.

    So, if he’s still around in a month, they’re well and truly stuck with him.

  59. 59.

    Hildebrand

    @Trentrunner: I have a feeling a great many folks are going to say to themselves, ‘holy shit, I have to vote to make sure that lunatic doesn’t get anywhere near the presidency.’ Even the 3rd party curious I know are assuring me that they will vote Clinton.

  67. 67.

    jl

    ” one who says he can eat steak ”

    Steak? Forget steak.

    Deep fried pork belly, pop tarts and ice cream! Lots of I scream!

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    It was mostly the 80s but apparently started in the 70s and didn’t wrap up until the 90s. I find it shocking to think that when I was born, a woman had no legal right to refuse sex to her husband anywhere in the US.

  71. 71.

    D58826

    WASHINGTON — A House panel will probe FBI officials next month over whether Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton perjured herself in testimony to Congress last year about her use of private email servers while she was secretary of state.

    Republican committee members plan to bring up the perjury issue at a House Judiciary Committee hearing in September that will focus on oversight of the FBI, according to a Republican committee aide who was not authorized to speak on the record. The exact date and witness list for the hearing have not been set, but FBI Director James Comey will likely testify, the aide said.

    On Monday, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House oversight committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips detailing several examples that they allege show where Clinton’s sworn testimony before Congress contradicts evidence collected during the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s private email server.

    “During a House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing on October 22, 2015, Secretary Clinton testified with respect to whether she sent or received emails that were marked classified at the time; whether her attorneys reviewed each of the emails on her personal email system; whether there was one or more servers that stored work-related emails during her time as secretary of state; and whether she provided all her work-related emails to the Department of State,” the two chairmen wrote.

    Clinton’s statements in those four areas contradict evidence that Comey described in his public statement on July 5 and in testimony before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee on on July 7, the chairmen wrote.

    “Although there may be other aspects of Secretary Clinton’s sworn testimony that are at odds with the FBI’s findings, her testimony in those four areas bears specific scrutiny in light of the facts and evidence,” they wrote.

    In a televised press conference on July 5, Comey criticized Clinton for “extreme carelessness” in her handling of classified information but said Clinton would not be prosecuted because there was no evidence that she intended to violate any laws.

    Clinton has repeatedly said that the answers she gave to the FBI’s questions about her email were truthful and that those answers were consistent with what she has said publicly about the matter.

    The FBI, citing a desire for transparency, on Tuesday gave Republican congressional leaders a package of documents summarizing its investigation of Clinton’s use of private email servers. The release of information by the FBI related to a closed investigation is highly unusual.

    They are like drug addicts looking for their next fix. Laying the ground work for impeachment in January 2017 I guess. And since an impeachable offense is anything 218 critters say it is. the legal definition of perjury doesn’t matter.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-panel-to-probe-fbi-about-whether-clinton-perjured-herself-to-congress/ar-BBvKnTX?li=AA5a8k&ocid=spartandhp

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    Comments 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13: still topping each other … We may not get to peak wingnut but the arc of Balloon Juice is definitely bending towards justice, hilarious justice, tonight

  74. 74.

    gene108

    To be fair to Lenin, he did figure out a dedicated and well organized group of radicals could seize power, if they were competing with comparatively less well organized and dedicated opposition; even if his band of radicals had rather unpopular ideas. And he did make it work, with regards to seizing power.

    Movement Conservatism has borrowed, either knowingly or unknowingly, from Lenin’s tactics and has had some success in forcing unpopular ideas on the rest of us.

    But Trump co-opted the Movement Conservative brand without actually caring for any of its positions, so he’s used up their infrastructure, wowed their followers, with his rhetoric and is leaving them to pick-up the mess he’s going to leave behind. And all the while advancing none of their agenda to the public or if their ideas are advanced it is now under the Trump brand and not their own.

  76. 76.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    @cmorenc: So I’ll need to remember to Early Vote as soon as possible, so I can be distraction-free and complacent for the rest of the fall.

    For those in Tennessee, from the webpage of the Secretary of State:

    August 10, 2016 First day to receive requests for by-mail ballots from persons other than military and overseas voters. (November State and Federal General Election)
    September 24, 2016 Deadline to mail ballots to military and overseas voters who have filed an application for ballot by this date. (November State and Federal General Election)
    October 11, 2016 Voter registration deadline. (November State and Federal General Election)
    October 19, 2016 First day vote early in person. (November State and Federal General Election)
    November 1, 2016 Deadline for receiving an application for a by-mail ballot. (November State and Federal General Election)
    November 3, 2016 Last day to vote early in person. (November State and Federal General Election)
    November 8, 2016 ELECTION DAY (November State and Federal General Election)

    If you don’t live in Tennessee, your state’s Election Commission or Secretary of State should have these details available online. You can usually check your registration status and view a sample ballot, once it’s ready. In Tennessee at least, the FAQ tackles voter ID requirements–interestingly, if you have an expired driver’s license, it still is acceptable here as voter ID, if it has your name and picture on it. There’s also no requirement for the indigent to have photo ID–how you establish that is not clear to me.

    If any of the frontpagers would be interested in posting a compendium of these deadlines, I’d be happy to help with the research.

  77. 77.

    hovercraft

    Bad Tweety is back today, he wants Trump to go back to the Trump who talked about the economy, and staying out of dumb wars, and nationalism. When it’s pointed out that he has no interest in studying policy/briefing books he responds that he just need to say we won’t be pushed around and sound tough like Reagan did. On yesterdays show Tweety pointed out, actually played clips of Trump supporting Iraq, saying to just pull out, no matter what, and saying that Obama should just go in and get rid of Ghadaffi, but I guess that was yesterday, today we’re buying Trump’s “I’m always right about foreign policy”.
    SAD !

  78. 78.

    Mnemosyne

    @Hildebrand:

    I pretty much guarantee you that just about every sane non-white person in the US is thinking that, and a good proportion of sane white people, too.

    At this point, the most reliable voting block in the USA is not old white people — it’s now African-American woman. And I guarantee you that every AA woman of voting age in this entire country is going to drag herself over broken glass to vote for Hillary.

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @gene108:

    But Trump co-opted the Movement Conservative brand without actually caring for any of its positions

    Nonsense. He cares very much about their two true core issues: tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and hating Those People. As long as he’s strong on those points, they’ll let him be a bit unorthodox on other issues.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

    I composed this for the Bernie voters months ago, and I think we can start singing it to shy Republicans, too:

    I’ve never agreed with Hillary once
    We’ve fought on like seventy-five different fronts
    But when all is said and all is done
    Hillary has beliefs
    Trump has none

    It even scans well.

  84. 84.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: my best recollection of my feelings at the time, I was tired of his dumbfuckery (always having been a bit turned off by the lip-biting and other aspects of his persona that I found grating), but also indignant that Ken Starr had slimed his way from a real estate deal in the Ozarks to sniffing through some girl’s underwear drawer

  85. 85.

    D58826

    @Major Major Major Major: What is going to be interesting is how the GOP handles these FBI documents. They are marked secret. The critters have to review them in a secure room. The FBI has to approve any release to the public. So in theory, even if Hillary has confessed to killing Vince Foster, the GOP can’t use any of it to try and influence the election. After all if you are complaining that Hillary mishandled secure documents how can you leak secure documents and keep a straight face? Yes I know its ok if the goopers do it but would make them bigger fools than they already are (which is part of the job description).

  88. 88.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:
    I sort of liked the earlier version of Bernie:

    Madam Secretary
    I am not the reason no one trusts you
    No one knows what you believe
    I will not equivocate in my opinion
    I have always worn it on my sleeve

    I think it sums up the rabid anti-Hillary position pretty well.

  89. 89.

    Cacti

    @gene108:

    To be fair to Lenin, he did figure out a dedicated and well organized group of radicals could seize power, if they were competing with comparatively less well organized and dedicated opposition; even if his band of radicals had rather unpopular ideas. And he did make it work, with regards to seizing power.

    Same is true of 1930s Germany.

    The Nazis never got more than 37% of the seats in any Reichstag election. But they succeeded through organization and a willingness to commit violence against any political, social, or cultural opposition.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    Greg SargentVerified account
    ‏@ThePlumLineGS
    New Q polls:

    In Colorado, Clinton up 49-39

    In Virginia, Clinton up 50-38

    In Iowa, Clinton up 47-44

  93. 93.

    Barb2

    @Calming Influence:

    Cult deprograming? Some say that Republicanism is more like a cult belief system rather than a real political party. (An old poly Sci prof said that during a lecture.)

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hovercraft: and now he’s interviewing Montel Williams. About presidential politics. I wanted to be fair and check my recollection that his show was what I thought it was

    Most Wednesdays (and sometimes on Fridays as well during the summer), self-proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne was Montel’s guest, and performed psychic readings of guests as well as discussing her ideas about spirituality and the afterlife. Her predictions have been the target for much criticism, and her psychic abilities explained as cold reading by critics such as Robert S. Lancaster. She refused to partake in the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge from James Randi, a prominent skeptic.
    In August 2007, The Montel Williams Show was awarded The Truly Terrible Television (TTTV) Award for peddling pseudoscience and superstition to its audience for every episode that has showcased Sylvia Browne. Other winners have been Psychic Detectives, A&E’s Paranormal State and SciFi’s Ghost Hunters.[8]

  97. 97.

    D58826

    @Trollhattan: could not get past the first paragraph. Think I’ll do something useful – like get something out of the car in the driving thunderstorm:-)

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    Greg SargentVerified account
    ‏@ThePlumLineGS
    Trump’s campaign shakeup confirms either that Trump is delusional or that he’s trying to destroy GOP:

  101. 101.

    Anoniminous

    I get Trump having a range between 38.5% and 45% of the national vote. He just doesn’t have any appeal outside his core of ignorant and bigoted white people. With these numbers the Senate will flip and GOP House seats with 2012 results of R+5 or less are in play.

    If you live in such a House district – I don’t dammitall – it is VERY important to work and GOTV for the Democratic challenger.

  103. 103.

    Cacti

    I also have to say with respect to Trump being the GOP nominee…

    I never thought I’d live to see the day when the party of Ronald Reagan’s perpetual sainthood would nominate a guy who wants to help a Soviet Union revanchist reconstitute the Warsaw Pact.

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    Smoking Gun Memo Reveals GOP Voter Fraud Bamboozlement In North Carolina

    ByTIERNEY SNEED
    PublishedAUGUST 17, 2016, 4:46 PM EDT

    On the heels of appeals court ruling that restored a week’s worth of early voting in North Carolina, the executive director of the state’s Republican Party emailed a memo to members of local elections boards urging them to push for “party line changes” that cut back on early voting hours, The News and Observer reported.

    The memo, sent by NCGOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse on Sunday, said that Republican board members “should fight with all they have to promote safe and secure voting and for rules that are fair to our side.”

    “Our Republican Board members should feel empowered to make legal changes to early voting plans, that are supported by Republicans,” Woodhouse wrote. “Republicans can and should make party line changes to early voting.”

    Last month, a panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 2013 law passed by the state’s Republican legislature that cut back early voting in the state from 17 days to 10 days, ruling that it intended to discriminate against African Americans. Other voting restrictions in the law were struck down as well. The state has asked the Supreme Court to halt parts of the ruling and allow North Carolina to keep its cutbacks to early voting, among other provisions.

    The memo came as local election boards are working on schedules for early voting that take into account the appeals court decision. Per the News and Observer:

    County elections boards are developing new early voting schedules in response to a federal court ruling that threw out the state’s voter ID law. In addition to revoking North Carolina’s photo ID requirement, the ruling requires counties to offer 17 days of early voting.
    The voter ID law limited early voting to a 10-day period, but counties were required to offer at least the same number of voting hours as they did during the 2012 election. The court ruling eliminates that floor on hours – meaning that counties can legally provide fewer hours and fewer early voting sites than they did in the last presidential election.

    Woodhouse’s memo warmed that “Democrats are mobilizing for a fight over early voting locations and times.”

  106. 106.

    TS

    @lamh36:

    And this is part of Breitbart/Stephen Bannon – the campaign will be fought on Monica and emails. It will be nasty from the right & the speaker of the House and the senior Senator from Arizona will still “support the nominee”. They will sign up with the devil to keep their party in power.

  107. 107.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Eh, one of them will probably maliciously leak something on day one and it’ll be met with a collective shrug.

    The fact of the leak, yes; the contents of the leak will be pored over like the Dead Sea Scrolls- a reasonable comparison, since it will almost certainly be missing large chunks of mysteriously deleted exculpatory material.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: @Major Major Major Major: I wonder if, in that case, the Dems will nuke the filibuster. Reid I think was ready, Schumer I’m not so sure. A lot of the old Bulls (like Biden!) who fetishized the Senate are gone, Leahy may be the last one. I suspect Warren would be for it, a couple of more mealy mouthed types like Bennet? Casey? Nelson?

    and yes, I’m aware that we may wish we still had the filibuster before too long. Myself, it’s a chance I’m willing to take. If nothing else, it would force a lot of votes, and the whole McConnell-Grassley strategy on Garland is about sparing people like Ayotte and Kirk a tough vote.

  109. 109.

    Cacti

    @Anoniminous:

    I get Trump having a range between 38.5% and 45% of the national vote. He just doesn’t have any appeal outside his core of ignorant and bigoted white people. With these numbers the Senate will flip and GOP House seats with 2012 results of R+5 or less are in play.

    If you live in such a House district – I don’t dammitall – it is VERY important to work and GOTV for the Democratic challenger.

    Have you seen Sam Wang’s comparison at PEC of where the Clinton/Trump race stands compared to Obama/Romney at the same point?

    Trump’s on pace to underperform Romney by about 3.2 points in the popular vote. So about 44% nationally.

  112. 112.

    gf120581

    @Cacti: I also never thought I’d see the day where John “Torture is totally cool!” Woo sides with the Democrats. But today is that day.

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    The Daily SignalVerified account
    ‏@DailySignal
    A cadre of Republican senators has a plan to confirm Merrick Garland if their party fails to take the White House.

  114. 114.

    Bruuuuce

    @efgoldman:

    The filbuster is and always has been an abomination, no matter who’s in power.

    As far as the current “collegial” filibuster, I agree completely. But in terms of the old-fashioned, get up and read the phone book into the record sort, if it matters enough to do it, I can concede its value. But this wussy stuff (including also anonymous holds on appointments and legislation) has got to go.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    Noah RothmanVerified account
    ‏@NoahCRothman
    White supremacists are thrilled, see Bannon’s hire as the culmination of their triumphant takeover of the GOP.

  117. 117.

    Punchy

    Anyone else notice how grotesquely obnoxious the Nat’l Enquirer has become w/r/t coverage of the Clintons? I know the owner (editor?) is a good friend of Trumps, and that would drive the coverage of HRC negative. But….day’um, it’s horrific and absurd. Seems like each issue attempts to be worse than the previous one. Its…BAD.

  119. 119.

    Bruuuuce

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think even Schumer (corporatist though my senior Senator is) will pass a limited nuking of the filibuster if the Senate flips, limited to judicial appointments. It’d be nice if he went further and included all Presidential nominees, but I wouldn’t count on it.

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: I am sure you all are tired of hearing me say this, but President Obama should put the turtle on notice that the Garland nomination expires on election eve. They can do their jobs or pay the price .

  125. 125.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

    So, just to make sure we all have the roles in mind:

    Hillary as Jefferson
    Bernie as Hamilton
    Trump as Burr

    Watch out, thought — there’s a commenter here who’s a Burr revisionist, so he’ll probably kick at Trump in that role. ? (I think it’s Bill E. Pilgrim.)

  127. 127.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: oh stop you had me at comment number two …

    I can barely keep up as it is – Junior keeps nagging me to help him with his birthday Lego set, and the Olympics are blaring in the background .

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    Lee Valentine Smith
    ‏@leevsmith
    And there goes the last remaining 1%. Idiot Trump aide just said there is an ‘African American problem’ in the US

  130. 130.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @dmsilev:

    At this juncture, I feel that it is important for us to look back and reflect on what brought us here, and in particular remind ourselves that Andrew Breitbart is still dead.

    I am trying to picture someone who stroked out from the stress of an intertubes arguement as a hero and just can’t

  131. 131.

    Gravenstone

    @Major Major Major Major: In a Democratically controlled Senate, the extended Nuclear Option is Day One, Act One, Scene One. Turtle will whinge and moan and stomp his little feets, but he’ll be neutered.

  133. 133.

    rikyrah

    LeBron James Upsets White Fans After Praising Black Olympic Athletes
    Many people said that James should be praising all athletes, not just the black ones.
    Posted: August 17, 2016

    Earlier this week, Cameron Newton made headlines when he made comments that the criticism he’s received as a quarterback haven’t been about race. He also went on to say that we’re beyond racism in the United States, much to the ire of many of his black fans.

    But once again, his theory has been disputed—this time, courtesy of LeBron James’ recent praise of Olympic athletes Simone Biles and Simone Manuel.

    James posted a congratulatory post to his Instagram and Facebook accounts that got some white people riled up:

  134. 134.

    FlipYrWhig

    @hovercraft:

    Bad Tweety is back today, he wants Trump to go back to the Trump who talked about the economy, and staying out of dumb wars, and nationalism.

    So, Chris Matthews wants a candidate who talks loudly about the things Chris Matthews cares about now?

  138. 138.

    Emma

    @Mnemosyne: Hey! No, no, no. Burr may have shot Hamilton, but he was fundamentally as decent a man as any of the Founding Fathers. Trump doesn’t fit any of the roles. Even Benedict Arnold was a better man.

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    Billionaire father and daughter linked to Trump shake-up
    By Jonathan Swan – 08/17/16 04:37 PM EDT

    Donald Trump’s dramatic staff shake-up on Wednesday revealed the growing influence wielded on his campaign by a Republican mega-donor duo.

    The fingerprints of Robert Mercer, a New York hedge fund billionaire, and his middle daughter, Rebekah, can be seen all over the new Trump staffing appointments and other decisions being made by the GOP presidential nominee.

    The Mercers, who previously put $13.5 million into a super-PAC supporting Ted Cruz’s bid against Trump, have recently converted the group into the Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, targeting Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
    Robert Mercer has reportedly made a “substantial” additional investment of at least $1 million in the new super-PAC, which has already spent $500,000 on digital ads attacking Clinton in eight battleground states. Additionally, he and particularly Rebekah have become influential figures in Trump World in the past few months.

    Rebekah Mercer “lives in a beautiful apartment in one of Trump’s buildings on the Upper West Side [of New York City] overlooking the Hudson River,” a source who knows her told The Hill.

    A Heritage Foundation trustee and director of the Mercer Family Foundation, Rebekah takes the lead on the details of the Mercers’ political operation, while her father provides the funds.

    She’s known as a hands-on operator who won’t open up the Mercer checkbook without strict conditions about which vendors are used and which consultants are hired.

    Now loyal to Trump, the Mercers were furious when Cruz didn’t endorse the nominee at the Republican National Convention last month. And because they are among the few mega-donors to get fully behind Trump, they now increasingly have his ear.

    Stephen Bannon, the Trump campaign’s newly appointed CEO is “tied at the hip” with Rebekah Mercer, said a source who has worked with the Mercers in their political activities.

  140. 140.

    mike in dc

    The thought that a Breitbart/alt-Right coalition could have even a 1% chance of running the country fucking terrifies me. Can we work hard to reduce that probability to zero in time for election day?

  142. 142.

    Truegster

    Superb writing and historical connections on this post by Anne Laurie, one of my faves. 2¢

  143. 143.

    Gravenstone

    @rikyrah: Sounds like someone is trying to break himself a political party. So he can buy it dirt cheap in the “dents and remainders” sale come December.

  144. 144.

    rikyrah

    Dominique Moceanu ‏@Dmoceanu Aug 16

    @Simone_Biles is now the most decorated American gymnast of all time w/ a combined medal count of World & Olympic medals at 19!

  145. 145.

    FlipYrWhig

    @rikyrah: Remember when Donald Trump was said to be “running to the left” because he said something about hedge fund wealth and higher tax rates for same? Guess that’s slimy water under the crumbling bridge now.

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    @Emma:

    There are no true villains in the play (partly because LMM cut that asshole Monroe out of the story), but Trump and Burr are both one-syllable names, so his name fits nicely into many of the lyrics where Burr’s name appears.

    I’m hoping that the rumor is true and LMM’s episode of “Drunk History” includes the Monroe takedown from the Chernow book. If it does, IT. IS. EPIC.

  150. 150.

    hovercraft

    @Punchy:
    We were all crowing about the powerful surrogates that Hillary has for this Falls campaign: Obama, Michelle, Biden, Warren, and basically the entirety of the democratic establishment.
    Trump has now shown us his equally powerful team:
    National Enquirer, Roger Stone, Cohen, Breitbart, Kelly Ann, Palin, Alex Jones, the list of all stars is endless.
    Game on people, this is going to be really really ugly.

  155. 155.

    Skippy-san

    Whenever I think of the Trump campaign , I think of the song “This Jesus must die”from Jesus Christ Superstar.

    “Fools! You have no perception, the stakes we are gambling are frighteningly high. We must crush him completely”.

  160. 160.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @rikyrah: ROFL megalomaniacs with deep pockets trying to buy a Democracy. what could possibly go wrong? I mean beyond that for some reason being a spoiled brat doesn’t seem to inspire people to cooperate with you. One theme I am noticing is Trump and the rest of them have no clue how to deal with people and get them to cooperate who isn’t some employee.

    Likely idiots like Mss Silver Spoon is why the GoP will never really die. The combination of money and stupidity is just to much for the grifters and conmen to pass up.

  161. 161.

    MomSense

    @Jeannet:

    I’ve loved him my whole life. Took classes with him many years ago and he was even more wonderful in person. That video endorsement is from the heart. Thank you so much for sharing it.

  163. 163.

    bluefish

    @efgoldman: He lost his shizzle in the most excellent way all over Boris E from Camp Trump on Tweety’s hysteria hour this evening. And talked all over Matthews in the most rousing way. It felt great to watch him sneeze. And I like him.

  165. 165.

    Brachiator

    Nobody knows nothing. Not Trump. Not his new advisors. Not the GOP grandees.

    Trump had a surprisingly successful opening game. But he’s got no middle game or any sense of an end game. He always blusters and smarms his way into a deal, but gets in over his head and has to improvise the shit out of the mess he makes. Same thing is happening in the political arena.

    I don’t know whether these new people can help save him. But Trump’s ego, and his huge core of insecurity will not accept being seen as a failure. The presidential race is almost secondary to his ego needs.

    And the GOP is stuck with him. I can’t watch; but I can’t turn away.

  166. 166.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @D58826: What are you talking about? The ReThugs will be leaking the fuck out of those documents, cherry-picking the hell out of them. The best thing Clinton can hope for is a public release of all the investigation’s files. If not, the micro-parsing will be exhausting.

  167. 167.

    The Czar of All the Stupids

    Huge rallies. Gloves off. Brutal fights […with Clinton…]. Heavy emphasis on nationalism and populism. That’s the Bannon strategy.

    Apart from the Clinton reference, it also sounds suspiciously like the Nuremberg Strategy, circa 1936…

  168. 168.

    Turgidson

    @TS:

    All that matters to Paul Ryan is realizing his lifelong dream of bashing the welfare state into pieces small enough for his wealthy benefactors to then steal. He doesn’t give two shits whether the person signing those bills into law is a racist vulgarian who might unleash a nuclear holocaust over an unflattering tweet. As long as he has a working signing hand to gut Medicare, Paul Ryan is happy as a clam.

  171. 171.

    Jeffro

    @efgoldman: that’s true so why not have a Obama make them pay for it ? He can say it was his nomination and effective election day there will be a president elect so she can make the nominations .

  175. 175.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jeffro: Pas mal, as they say in the land of pommes frites. I favor “alt-Reich” myself, inasmuch as it’s also a pun auf deutsch, but different strokes…

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