Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Second rate reporter says what?

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

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

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

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

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

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Everybody saw this coming.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Senator Warren Is A Wise Woman

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Senator Warren Is A Wise Woman

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So the media is bursting with the SHOCK REVELATION that the GOP are already trying to walk back their more ambitious revanchist fantasies, as Trump faces the uncomfortable realization that the Presidency is not a sound stage where you can always do another reshoot to improve the camera angles. If we Democrats can resist our co-dependent instincts (empathy and understanding are the last thing a rage addict needs), then at least we’ll have some most excellent opportunities to mock the embarrassing inadequacies of all the would-be alphas who were so busy crowing about their thimblerigged victory this week…

Meanwhile, watching video clips is as much energy as I can muster for the moment. Apart from picking apart every “misstep” by one of our allies, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?

Reader Interactions

193Comments

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    From a NYT article published Nov. 21, 1922:

    Several reliable, well-informed sources confirmed the idea that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was not so genuine or violent as it sounded, and that he was merely using anti-Semitic propaganda as a bait to catch masses of followers and keep them aroused, enthusiastic, and in line for the time when his organization is perfected and sufficiently powerful to be employed effectively for political purposes.

    Just saying.

  5. 5.

    Matt McIrvin

    So how do we keep the 2018 midterm from being yet another disaster? I’m not even sure we can gain ground–the Senate is in bad shape, gerrymandering stacks the House against us, and Trump may well follow the Bush war formula for retaining midterm popularity. But it seems crucial for retaining any semblance of a just society.

    The Democrats have been losing ground in state houses, governorships and Congress for far too long. That’s the time bomb that just went off. If it hadn’t gone off now, it might have in 2020 or 2024; you can’t hang everything on control of the White House.

  7. 7.

    Matt McIrvin

    …It was probably impractical to just keep holding the White House and hope for long-term demographic change to save us. Demographic change is too slow and white resentment can build faster. The Southern Strategy over again, only not so regional.

  8. 8.

    Matt McIrvin

    …And yet somehow, the Civil Rights Movement happened, and mostly worked. So how do people convince a bare white majority with a constitutional thumb on the scale of power to not go full white-sheet-Klan?

  9. 9.

    EBT

    @Waldo: Cause the president is the most powerful man in the world, and everyone automatically loves and respects the president. AKA cause he isn’t smart enough to realize he stepped in the khak.
    @Matt McIrvin: Protect state legislatures. The GoP need five to write amendments, and we CANNOT allow that. Legalized discrimination versus GLBT will be enshrined as a sacred right along side the right to free speech, or the right to a trial by a jury of your peers. The right to fire queers cause god told you they were icky.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    @Waldo: My guess is they are utterly clueless on how to proceed, so we can expect lots of mixed signals until Pence, McConnell and Ryan complete the org chart. The shit-gibbon is interested in the trappings of power but not in governing. He has no idea how stuff works. For example, when he said he’d keep Obamacare provisions like the elimination of pre-existing conditions while getting rid of Obamacare — I mean, we all know that would put insurance companies out of business, so it’s not going to happen, but the shit-gibbon doesn’t know that.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    Trump is known to tear down his opponents, because he’s a bully. My fear is that the media will not be able to stand up to him, because most papers cannot ill afford court dates with the administration.
    There is another fear though, if Trump is not conservative enough, he will be impeached. Pence will then sign, privatize this bills, along with the right to discriminate on the basis of religion.

    @RandomMonster: Good News!

  16. 16.

    Matt McIrvin

    @EBT: Hell, they could straight-up repeal the 14th and 15th Amendments. I don’t think they’d go as far as repealing the 13th but maybe they’d tweak it around the edges.

  18. 18.

    Applejinx

    Warren is in a very strong position. Can’t fault her patriotism, but she is strikingly anti-establishment, anti-bankster.

    I think people talking about the Republicans just blithely impeaching Trump aren’t quite up to speed. The Republicans would be lynched if they tried. That’s not going to work.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: He’s not the only Republican to have said that. I really don’t know how they are going to thread the needle of killing Obamacare without killing the parts everyone likes. Neither do they.

    Fall has finally arrived in the Ozarks, just in time for opening day of deer season. Gonna head over to a buddy’s deer camp where I can expect a mix of 1 or 2 die hard liberals, a number of political agnostics, and more than a few die hard… RWNJs for lack of better terms. For the most part none of them really know what they believe in outside of “What Rush said!” (with these guys, it’s ALL tribalism) I expect to get a LOT of shit from them. What the hell, I’ve been giving them shit for decades.

    I am going to enter yelling “MERRY TRUMPMAS” and hand out little bottles of Vase1ine, saying “Here’s a little present from Paul Ryan.”

    I don’t think I’ll get shot.

  20. 20.

    Darkrose

    @Waldo: Because he’s scared. Because he just realized that he’s going to be expected to actually do shit. As someone described it, Max Bialystock just realized he has a hit show.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin:

    the Bush war formula for retaining midterm popularity

    The Repubs owned the House, the Senate, and the Presidency for 6 years and they wasted that tripartite on an unpopular war. They won’t make that mistake again.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @Matt McIrvin

    Backstop is the requirement of 3/4 of the states’ legislatures voting for ratification.

    Color me worrywart, but am concerned with the no longer minuscule possibility of attempted declarations of martial law

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @Applejinx: I love Warren, but I wonder if she fully comprehends what’s upon us. She’s speaking as if we’re dealing with a particularly racist, sexist, bigoted president-elect but nonetheless one expected to govern within constitutional guidelines and adhere to democratic norms. I think not.

  29. 29.

    amk

    Well, da kenyan kept saying since 2008, don’t boo, go vote.

    And only the wingutz took that message to their hearts.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    For those here who do not read Outside the Beltway:

    Look, if we want to call ourselves the greatest democracy in the world, we have some self-introspection to do. I can guarantee that this election will damage our international reputation on this count. As a side note it is quite possible that we will find that more people voted Democratic in House races than voted Republican (as happened in 2012). Understanding full well that we elect House members in districts and not in a national vote, it is problematic if, in fact, our major institutions are controlled by a party that actually lacks majority support.

    -Steven L Taylor

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: You’re more resilient than I am. I haven’t faced my Trumpster relatives yet and intend to continue avoiding them until after Thanksgiving. I just cannot with their bullshit right now.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: The last one was popular, at the start. They all are, at the start. Then the body bags start coming home.

  36. 36.

    EBT

    @OzarkHillbilly: Unless Iran flips us the bird again, Then he will put all 13 carrier groups in to the canal (even the three that are drydocked for retrofitting) and bombard the Iranian coast.
    @OzarkHillbilly: Didn’t they change the rules so that the press couldn’t snap photos of caskets being loaded/unloaded to help minimize the demoralizing role a stream of dead young americans every night causes?

  37. 37.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud, I’m on a mood stabilizer. Doubled up my dose on Wednesday. No dark hole yet. Dose low enough I can feel emotions and do get depressed, just not the yawning void sucking me in.

    I got pretty down when my union lost a big arbitration (which we should have won). I finally got pushed out this year, the final fallout from that. I think it hardened me against setbacks. I’m okay. I really am.

    Anne-Laurie, all of those clips mean this page takes forever to load. Not gonna be fun when I try to read everyone’s comments on mobile while I’m chilling at work today.

  39. 39.

    Another Holocene Human

    Visisted John Brown site in upstate New York a couple of years ago and got in an argument with a Fox bot. Got super depressed. These are the Fox voters. Employed, but raging and eager to stick it to non-Christians. (My wife is Jewish. Judeo-Christian my ass. This lady went after her with no shame.) They voted Trump, they and many more in other rust belt areas. NYC came out and stomped her vote but OH doesn’t surprise me, neither does PA. NJ kind of surprises me for still being blue. ME doesn’t surprise me. These people are deeply racist and Trump told them he would deport all the Muslims.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: It is not something I look forward to, but it is something I need to do. I wear my heart on my sleeve. Paul Ryan has given me the perfect rejoinder to anything they might say: “First thing we do, kill all the Grandmas.”

  42. 42.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: They are all in denial.

    None of them want to admit we are on the train to Crazytown, that “norms” have already fallen, that quite a few of our key safeguards already failed.

    It’s a Civilization Chernobyl.

    They should be screaming for control rods, not putting on a happy face for the masses. Who are rioting already, and I don’t blame them.

    Sadly, any attempts to get rid of Trump stick us with Pence, who will revive the economy with a brisk uptick in stakes for burning people at. Otherwise, we would have to invalidate the election, and that’s not going to happen.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    Haven’t tried yet. I’m not a regular Facebook user, and it was late.

    I’m also very behind on work stuff, so it’s probably best for me not to explore a new time suck right now.

  44. 44.

    Another Holocene Human

    I remember in 2008, Obama campaigned hard to get the rural white vote in the Midwest. What did he do right that Hilary did wrong?

    Hilary actually did some stuff right. She shook new Black and Latino voters out of the trees in the South/West. But Trump was able to shake new white voters out of the trees in Appalachia and the Northeast and Rust Belt. The Rust Belt was the only place where any of this mattered for EC, which is why we’re talking about them. Obama in 2012 had more white people vote against him but comparing #s it looks like Romney maxed out the white vote, because Trump lost as many voters as he gained in that demo. The reason Obama still won is that the new white anti-Obama voters were mostly in the South. He did lose some edge states, like IN, which he could afford to lose.

    MN is sort of shocking. It was pretty close this time. In 2012 it was super blue. WTH happened?

  46. 46.

    Another Holocene Human

    Oh, agenda today, going to see about one of the Dem group’s meeting tonight. The local Dem party didn’t put their general meeting on their calendar. Hokay. So I will meet the GLBT group. I already know one person on it and she is a cool activist (and a northern transplant like myself). I should have gotten involved long ago, but didn’t.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NotMax:

    Backstop is the requirement of 3/4 of the states’ legislatures voting for ratification.

    Yes, and the Republicans are fairly close to having 3/4 of the states’ legislatures. Maybe they wouldn’t all be for extreme fascist measures, but the rot has extended pretty far.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @EBT:

    Unless Iran flips us the bird again, Then he will put all 13 carrier groups in to the canal (even the three that are drydocked for retrofitting) and bombard the Iranian coast.

    And Iran will mine the straits of Hormuz sinking half our fleet, closing the spigot on all Persian Gulf oil and destroying the world economy.

    Didn’t they change the rules so that the press couldn’t snap photos of caskets

    They tried to, but I saw lots of those pictures anyway so it appears they did not succeed. Besides they couldn’t stop relatives from taking pictures of the broken, burnt bodies coming back that used to be brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers.

  50. 50.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud: It probably did. He knew how to talk to them. Hilary was more proximately from the NEC than her native IL and did pretty well on the NEC, except Philly, I guess.

    Actually, she did well in the West and the South. It’s just a very different board and there’s a lot to digest. It’s clear due to EC we need someone who plays well in the Midwest. GOP is unlikely to cough up anyone who does so well in the NE again, so there’s that. NE voters don’t like religious righties. They may sour on Trump if they perceive Pence is in charge.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    @WereBear: My guess is they trust the strength of our democratic institutions to contain even as horrible an individual as the shit-gibbon. My husband does! He thinks I’m daft, and maybe he’s right. But after watching our institutions fail to identify let alone ameliorate the threat during the primaries and then during the election, I no longer expect them to contain the shit-gibbon when he assumes office.

  55. 55.

    EBT

    @OzarkHillbilly: And even then after throwing away 4 trillion dollars of hardware and 50 000 service member’s lives over someone making a rude gesture he still wins reelection because you can’t change your horse mid stream dontcha know. (I had someone in 04 use that as his excuse as soon as he had finished saying that he thought W was a bad president and would only make things worse, it was so infuriating)

  56. 56.

    JPL

    The coach of the San Antonio Spurs let it all come out.

    “I’m not done,” Popovich said. “One could go on and on, we didn’t make this stuff up. He’s angry at the media because they reported what he said and how he acted. That’s ironic to me. It makes no sense. So that’s my real fear, and that’s what gives me so much pause and makes me feel so badly that the country is willing to be that intolerant and not understand the empathy that’s necessary to understand other group’s situations. I’m a rich white guy, and I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it. I can’t imagine being a Muslim right now, or a woman, or an African American, a Hispanic, a handicapped person. How disenfranchised they might feel. And for anyone in those groups that voted for him, it’s just beyond my comprehension how they ignore all of that. My final conclusion is, my big fear is — we are Rome.”

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/article/Gregg-Popovich-uncensored-Discusses-the-10609311.php?cmpid=twitter-desktop

  57. 57.

    JPL

    Honestly, when Trump’s craziness continues, the Republicans will blame Hillary for running a bad campaign.

  58. 58.

    dogwood

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I forgot about Steve Taylor. He’s a conservative. I used to read his blog because he wrote quite a bit about Latin America, and I spend time there every year. He was really anti-Obama in ’08, but he has some intellectual integrity. He pissed off his small readership pretty early when he backtracked. Decided he overreacted, Obama was actually very competent and the republic would survive.

  60. 60.

    Darkrose

    @JPL: Popovich, Steve Kerr, and the coach of the Detroit Pistons are having a woke-off. It’s great.

    On the other hand, the fewer MLB guys who open their mouths, the better. I am SO GLAD that most of the Giants aren’t on Twitter and the ones who are rarely tweet about politics.

    I hope Jake Arietta’s arm falls off.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @EBT: Yep, that is the mindset of all too many of our fellow citizens. It pissed me off then and it still pisses me off. They say stupid shit like that because it’s easier than thinking.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @JPL: Good. Let the shunning begin. Trump is an urbanite whose base is the sticks. He doesn’t want to socialize with them. Let’s force him to.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: That is where I am at. Someone like him was never supposed to make it this far. So where are those safeguards now?

    And Pence, like my husband points out, is like swapping Hitler for Heydrich. He’s better at it. It will make our situation both worse and less obviously screwed up.

  65. 65.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Baud: Really. How much of this came from the idea that a candidate or President has to be included in society?

  67. 67.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: Also: what democratic institutions. They have both the House and the Senate. Traditionally what is supposed to “restrain” a unhinged Executive. But will not, because THEY are all from Crazytown, too.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @dogwood: I have a lot of respect for Taylor and Joyner both. They are what most conservatives used to be: Thoughtful. They make me think and every now and again they make me uncomfortable with my positions. I even find myself agreeing with Taylor from time to time.

  70. 70.

    Yoda Dog

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think you’re being daft at all. I will be shocked if we have real elections in 2018 and beyond. We’ve all been underestimating this monster and what he could or would do this whole time up until Tuesday. I’m done with that. This is going to be full-blown fascism and there will be no second chance for us to turn it back.

    But, dear god, I hope your husband is right and I’m being daft as well.

  72. 72.

    Hal

    What is infuriating about Trump’s aca comments is that he is dangling hope in front of millions of people and leaving them in suspense as to what might happen to their health insurance and their lives.

    And again he has proven he does not understand how the ACA works. Just leaving a ban on preexisting conditions with no cost control or incentive is meaningless. Insurance companies will just jack up the price of their plans for people who sign up to the point they are unaffordable.

    I just can’t believe a week ago I was hoping we were finally, maybe, going to get a public option, if not right away then maybe after the midterms and now this bullshit instead.

  74. 74.

    dogwood

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Also too, re Taylor. We need that to be our message. Saying Hillary won the popular vote over and over isn’t gonna sell well because that becomes about her. But showing people clearly that democrats received more votes for president, the house and the senate yet are relegated to minority status with no power will be a big surprise to a lot of people. They kinda get the electoral college thing and the presidency, but very few people have any clue that the majority party in Congress received fewer votes than the minority party.

  76. 76.

    MomSense

    @WereBear:

    I still want to know why some of those safeguards fell. FFS the NYT is shisnlocal paper. They know who he is, had a lot of material and did next to nothing. I’d also like to know how his bogus foundation that didn’t even have the necessary paperwork filed existed all that time with the local paper never exposing it.

  77. 77.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:
    I’m with you on the clip watching. Physically ill when Trump’s face or voice comes on. Unfortunately, the revulsion and alternate crying isn’t getting any better.

  78. 78.

    p.a.

    Things to watch: When Mitch (or anyone really) says no to Donnie. I’m thinking specifically of the infrastructure improvements. Probably it’s all just b.s., but it’s out there.

    How the media responds if infrastructure $ actually passes. Will they point out the hypocrisy, and how the Rethugs were obstructionists for the last 8 years? (It is said sarcasm doesn’t work in print, but the last 2 sentences are so obviously sarcasm I don’t feel the need to add *snark*)

  79. 79.

    WereBear

    I guess I am still at anger.

    It doesn’t help that I am living in Trumpworld, miniature version, in my apartment house. We have four apartments in this old house, and the new tenant is a real bItch. She continually blocks the only parking lot we all use come winter, and will prevent it from being plowed at all. And for a month she had been cutting off the heat to all the other apartments, because the thermostat is in her place.

    So the landlords have moved the thermostat, but not fixed the timer or the broken valves on the radiators in our apartment, and it was freezing all last night, because we only have space heaters for supplemental, like windy nights, not powerful enough to heat all by themselves.

    So on the one hand we have nasty and the other we have incompetent and we are stuck in the middle.

    I sure hope it is not a sign of what is to come.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    It does kind of overwhelm your FB feed because there are so many, but it’s nice to see positivity. I’m sure I’ve missed tons of posts, but what I have seen has helped me feel better.

  81. 81.

    Quinerly

    @Betty Cracker:
    I’m with you, Betty. Plus buried in yesterday’s NYT piece about Trump’s attachment to his NY penthouse and people questioning how much time he actually will spend living in the WH is this little nugget….his handlers want him to continue to have gigantic rallies frequently now that he is president. You guys will just have to read the piece… I have to stop typing now and can’t go back to the piece for more details. I’m sickened how this shit seems to have been normalized.

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly:

    Physically ill when Trump’s face or voice comes on

    “Doc, what’s wrong with me? Every time I watch or listen to the news I start puking.”

  85. 85.

    GregB

    I can assume Trump will make a few international enemies when the US cuts the ribbone and breaks ground on the most beautiful and tremendous embassy the world has ever seen in Jerusalem.

    John Bolton’s mustache will be wielding the scissors.

  86. 86.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @JPL:

    the Republicans will blame Hillary for running a bad campaign.

    Hell, a segment of BJ’ers already do.

  91. 91.

    JPL

    @Raven: I tend to agree, because angst and panic don’t help. Fox is already spreading the lie that Obamacare bankrupted Medicare, even though the opposite is true. We need to be able to counter their lies early, and that requires us to be calm, cool and collected.

    btw. The news is saying we might see drastic water restrictions soon.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    I listened to a reporter’s roundtable just an hour ago that did just that. The gloating is as ugly as a human being can be.

  93. 93.

    EBT

    @Quinerly: And soon everyone will have these nice matching shirts to wear at them. With bits of flare too. What I wouldn’t give for a Franklinator right now.

  94. 94.

    Mike R

    @EBT: Agree 100 per cent. The local newspaper in 2004 endorsed W with the comment, he has failed but we are in a war and he deserves a chance to correct his mistakes. Immediately canceled by subscription and told them my reasons. Still can’t see giving the bastards a red cent.

  95. 95.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @JPL: We’ve had protests here every night since the election, there’s a big one planned for later today. The chopper reporter the other night was saying they didn’t want to get a close up of the signs because they contained profanity. One was pretty big and was readable, “Fuck Trump”.

  96. 96.

    JPL

    @Quinerly: What? President Obama did not return to Chicago often because of the disruption it would cause, and the cost to the Secret Service.

  97. 97.

    WereBear

    @MomSense: I still want to know why some of those safeguards fell.

    I think we know; the press has sucked farm animal nether regions for quite some time. They aren’t the Free Press that would protect us from tyranny any more.

    They are the Circus, instead. Which is fine, we can all use some circuses. But let’s not mistake them for Fine Journalism.

    RE: OUR PEOPLE IN NEED

    Perhaps we should organize all the people, such as yourself, who are threatened by all the safety net cutting the Republicans love to masturbate over, and come up with some kind of protest on the Mall. See, Republicans love to target the sick, because they don’t have the extra energy to make much of a fuss, But they can send representatives.

    I think we could organize a kind of ad hoc AIDS quilt, where people submit a letter sized sheet of paper with their picture and a paragraph of the challenge they are facing. Send them all to a nice bunch in DC, who will, on the proper day, staple them together and lay them out in huge paper strips people can walk beside and see just who the Republicans are planning to kill.

    Perhaps it would be better as a Tumblr, considering the Northern Hemisphere weather, and then a protest in the spring.

    Everyone’s thoughts?

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think we all have different roles to play and Warren is going to represent her role in the institution she serves. I really hope the Dem congress critters are prepared for the legislative and regulatory tsunami that is going to come at them.

    I know this will piss some people off, but I’m not a huge fan of Warren. She has been a fine senator and she talks tough on banking issues and gets her message out well but I’m not overly impressed by her effectiveness or her knowledge of social movements and how to organize. She also hasn’t been a Democrat for that long. I don’t think she voted Dem until 96. She pushed a lot of our buttons but I really don’t think her appeal is that widespread. I think we tend to overestimate how progressive the whole country is.

    Anyway I’m looking to Cummings and Lewis for how they handle this.

  100. 100.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Yoda Dog: Me too. I want to be hopeful, but I see the future the same way as Sarah Kendzior: people have no idea how bad things will get, nor how quickly they will get bad. I’m fighting a deep depression right now with a combination of focusing on what I can control and make better, while avoiding thoughts of the future. Ultimately that avoidance isn’t good, but right now when my thoughts turn that way, they immediately start gibbering in fear and curl themselves into a fetal position.

  102. 102.

    MomSense

    @WereBear:

    That’s a really interesting idea. During the push for the ACA, we did this traveling presentation about those jars you used to see next to cash registers asking for change for children with cancer and other health crises. We had a local musician so a song called begging for change and we had kids on stage holding jars with photos. We were invited to the national protest in DC and performed at the big HCAN rally. It worked well. We were all over radio stations with the song and interviews.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear:

    I sure hope it is not a sign of what is to come.

    On Tuesday morning I had what I hoped was a sign of what is to come: On the way to my buddy’s pig farm to work on his barn, I got clipped by a semi, spinning my truck into and then out of on coming traffic, sideways down into the ditch and, miraculously without flipping, up the hill side and stopping facing the road. (at this point I should have known the election was lost. I will be so glad when 2016 is in my rearview mirror)

    Got out of my truck to inspect the damage, fearing the worst but hoping for better, and found what appeared to be fairly minor damage: a dented rear 1/4 panel and torn rear bumper, a front bumper shoved slightly up and in, and a flat tire. Even had a witness stop and give me her name and phone #. She was really pissed at how the trucker ran me off the road.

    Cop comes, takes statements, leaves.

    I start my truck, put it in 4 wd and drive it up onto the pavement. Change the tire. Drive on over to my buddy’s place and go to work. A little bent a new squeak or 2, but still running, still working.

    The Repubs are probably going to leave us more than a little bent but we’ll still be running, we’ll still be working.

  106. 106.

    GregB

    @Yoda Dog:

    I don’t think you are being daft.

    Trump and the Republicans have been obliterating cultural and governmental norms at a rapid clip.

    The very concept of government has been ridiculed and curb stomped to death except the national and international security state.

    The for profit media is a shambles of pseudo entertainment, reality show idiocy, true bread and circus. Not to mention that the most powerful political propagandist since you know who sits at Trump’s right hand.

    The political opposition party to the now one party state has been reduced to ashes.

    The international order is upended and authoritarianism is toppling democracy in nation after nation. There are no international actors of goodwill left. There is no longer a center to hold.

    The structural impediments are not strong enough.

  107. 107.

    WereBear

    @MomSense: That jar idea sounds wonderful and effective.

    I know sick folks like my husband can’t show up at protests. I used to go down to DC with his mother to lobby for him.

    But this is something almost anyone can do, and then a small group is all that is needed to create a large protest.

  109. 109.

    GregB

    Also, any hope for Republican’s of good faith to step in and do something noble? There are no Howard Baker’s left.

    NH former Senator who finally disavowed Trump after his pussy grabbing talk, Kelly Ayotte is being floated as Secretary of Defense. Co-opted into the fold already.

  110. 110.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The Repubs are probably going to leave us more than a little bent but we’ll still be running, we’ll still be working.

    You’ll change your tune when Ted Nugent gets a Kennedy Center Honor.

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    “Exotic Hawaii.” Fixed it for you. Trump is a man of the people! He, Melania, and Barron will prefer Myrtle Beach. (in related news, autocorrect hasn’t caught up with the election and wants to spell check me on our new First Lady’s name….oddly, that brought a smile right then)

  112. 112.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud:

    You’ll change your tune when Ted Nugent gets a Kennedy Center Honor.

    I just threw up in my mouth a bit.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @dogwood: I used to comment there frequently but some kind of bug got in my computer and the spambot began reflexively blocking me, Both James and Doug would quickly free my comment if I asked but I finally stopped commenting because they both have better things to do. Every now and again I give it a shot and the past few times it seems I can comment again. Maybe my wife’s latest computer fix fixed that too. It’s a surprisingly liberal commentariat they have over there.

  115. 115.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Repubs are probably going to leave us more than a little bent but we’ll still be running, we’ll still be working.
    I have a pension and social security and more importantly I’m white, so I should be okay. My healthy eating habits have disappeared and my sleep patterns are destroyed. The words and actions of the leader of our country are going to cause so much pain for a large portion of our populace. I can’t accept that.

  118. 118.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    My ice maker died, my cocker is very unhappy. I’m headed out today to get a new ice maker module and hopefully have a happy cocker spaniel.

  120. 120.

    WereBear

    @JPL: I have a pension and social security and more importantly I’m white, so I should be okay.

    Not if they crash the world economy, which they are more than capable of doing.

    What is to stop Mike Pence doing a nuclear button dance with Trump, nuking Israel so Jesus will come sooner?

    NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE.

  121. 121.

    Felanius Kootea

    In a thread yesterday, someone wondered about missing Democratic voters. The Atlantic has a feature article today about how Clinton’s popular vote lead will continue to grow over the next few weeks (won’t change the election outcome, obviously). This is because there are over 6 million outstanding absentee ballots to be counted in California, Washington State, etc. By the time December rolls around, she could have a 2 million vote lead. The article basically says that Clinton shouldn’t be blamed for “missing voters” as some on this site have already done, because there are millions of votes still to be counted. She is on track to match the Dem turnout of 2012 (not 2008).

  123. 123.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    As someone who lived in NYC for the decades of Trump’s rise, I can assure you that consideration was never a part of his MO. I heard some BS from some GOP operative about how Trump’s early days were spent listening to the community. Total BS.

  124. 124.

    Aleta

    @Hal: ‘Dangling hope’ is the right term for it. He’s going to say a lot of things just because excited headlines with his name at the beginning are his morning drug.

  125. 125.

    waysel

    @Betty Cracker: I’m with you, Betty Cracker. They’ve shown no allegiance to the constitution in the past, and now they have all the levers. Cit United shows how the law can be twisted. They can install three Scalias in the SC and guarantee passage of any law, no matter how unconstitutional. Complainers will be shot. I am as pessimistic as I can be.

  126. 126.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: My wife is worried, very worried. I keep telling her we are more or less OK. The house is paid off. The cars are paid off. A couple small credit card debts is all we owe. We have some money saved up. Her 401K isn’t great and she worries about that. I have a pension, not as good as I’d like but I hope it will be there when the time comes. Our one big issue is health care, at our age that is everyone’s big issue. We’ll see what comes and deal with it.

  127. 127.

    MomSense

    @Felanius Kootea:

    The people blaming the candidate can’t seem to grasp that they are not the base of the Dem party let alone representative of the country as a whole. Here’s what happened. The situation was so devastatingly terrible that people said well let’s let the black guy have a go. We held our ground in 2012 but we had already lost support. By 2016 the white insular population had bounced back enough that they weren’t in immediate danger but they looked around at the pace of change and the rainbowing of their country and said hell no. They got a huge assist from a news media incapable of and unwilling to cover basic facts let alone vetting one of their own, Republican governors and legislators who disenfranchised the voters in their own states who would vote for the other party, the Russian government and their agent Wikileaks who also apparently colluded with the Reoublican campaign and with rogue elements of federal law enforcement.

    Even the Clinton campaign headquarters was bugged which is pretty much like Watergate which has inspired all the clever scandal names since then and still that story has gone the way of the anthrax attacks.

  128. 128.

    Applejinx

    @Hal:

    And again he has proven he does not understand how the ACA works. Just leaving a ban on preexisting conditions with no cost control or incentive is meaningless. Insurance companies will just jack up the price of their plans for people who sign up to the point they are unaffordable.

    Not impossible that he’ll just forbid them to, or fire them all and do a public option just so that his name can be on it. When people argue that what he’s planning would decimate the private insurance industry, I have to ask myself whether he gives a shit about the private insurance industry versus doing big populace-pleasing things with his name on them. I don’t think Trump has any class loyalty at all, it’s narcissistically personal with him.

    People keep blindly assuming Trump will be an obedient little muppet for mainstream Republican ideology when he beat them all first, and kept detailed lists of which ones defied him (pro tip: pretty much all). He controls the mob. I don’t think he’s nearly so predictable as that.

    They should have colored the states in with blue and ORANGE, then maybe people would have the beginnings of a clue. A third party won.

  129. 129.

    WereBear

    @MomSense: Hope and change can work again. To paraphrase Margaret Mead: it is the only thing that does.

    All I can be is an idea person: after years of suffering, I got a diagnosis this summer. Good news: it is not fatal. Bad news: it’s genetic and chronic and it has to be managed, and I’m looking at months of recovery before I hopefully stabilize.

    Hanging onto my day job and keeping the cat blog afloat and helping Mr WereBear (who also has a chronic illness and is on disability!) wipes me out. Some days I come home from work and just crash; unable to do anything but listen to audiobooks with my sleep mask on.

  131. 131.

    Applejinx

    @Quinerly:

    Plus buried in yesterday’s NYT piece about Trump’s attachment to his NY penthouse and people questioning how much time he actually will spend living in the WH is this little nugget….his handlers want him to continue to have gigantic rallies frequently now that he is president.

    I’m not a bit surprised. He’s his own party. Of course they want him to continue to have hyuuge rallies. He can pretty much trust that the Democrats are neutered, but he absolutely must keep the Republicans in line or he becomes a punchline. That… does not please him. I think there’s a chance he’ll do stuff that outright enrages them (and might help us and ours) just to make the point that he’s his own party and obeys nobody.

  134. 134.

    JPL

    @MomSense: Thank you for the link.

    @WereBear: I’m sorry. The sleep mask and the audiobook, while curled up in a fetal position doesn’t sound bad right now. I do understand what you are saying though.

  135. 135.

    WereBear

    @MomSense: Oh, I am a pinwheel of ideas :)

    I will keep you posted; I have put this idea out on some other outlets, too. Someone has already come back, pointing out the site could be a clearinghouse for organizations aimed at helping those who might be in medical danger from Republican action, so people could network and provide support.

    And we can bring it up on the next call to action here, if you like. I am so pleased you have experience, and I have lobbied in the past in DC. We have so much talent and goodwill on our side, and they have greed and evil.

    So the battle begins.

  136. 136.

    Quinerly

    @Applejinx:
    Know the thread is dying but had this flash of a thought. Does he continue to rant against the same old, same old in these rallies they are planning after he is in office…..immigrants, HRC, Obama et al. Will all the “economically anxious” tire of it?

  138. 138.

    Aleta

    @WereBear: Your idea for the paper quilted rows is a zinger. Lying down with books and cats sets a good example of a way of care. I appreciate what you do.

  140. 140.

    Darkrose

    @WereBear: Hmm. A website on its own? A YouTube video?

    Or hell, all of the above!

    I’m still learning CSS, but I’d be happy to work on a site with someone else. If nothing else, I can do the HTML coding busywork bits.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @Hal:

    What is infuriating about Trump’s aca comments is that he is dangling hope in front of millions of people and leaving them in suspense as to what might happen to their health insurance and their lives.

    Agreed. If they thought they were economically anxious before they have no idea what’s coming.

    It’s a game to Trump. He won. He gets to do whatever he wants. Look at the bright side- if he had lost he would have flipped the board over. He inherited a family business. He’s never even had a job other than that, where he worked for someone else. He’s never had to work with or think about how his actions affect other people. Not in his entire life.

    Incidentally- this was a low turnout Presidential election. They want a narrative that there’s a vast sea of people who love Donald Trump- a super crushing wave. There’s no reason we have to promote this lie for them:

    Voter turnout this year dipped to nearly its lowest point in two decades.
    While election officials are still tabulating ballots, the 126 million votes already counted means about 55% of voting age citizens cast ballots this year.

    His support is about an inch deep and half the people who did turn out loathe him.

  145. 145.

    Aunt Kathy

    I scanned the comments real quick, but I have to get to Saturday errands, so sorry if somebody already said….Rachel’s question was absolutely on point: What do we DO, if they come for the dreamers? Liz’s answer was vague, and not really helpful. “We fight.” Well, ok, but what if my next door neighbor is a dreamer, and they bang on her door in the dead of night? What am I going to DO about that? Do I preemptively hide her in my attic, ala Anne Frank?

  147. 147.

    Aunt Kathy

    hmmmm, landed in moderation, why do I bother? Jaay-sus, this whole last week has made me cranky.

  148. 148.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    co-dependent instincts

    Jesus Christ, empty isn’t evil. For one thing it informs one what the other side is going to do so one can anticipate and plan. Do you understand Anne Laurie all the great generals in history were noted for their empathy? Think about it for god’s sake. What’s General Grant’s line about the first battle he lead “that’s when I realized the guy on the other side was just as scared as I was…”

    Second, it also tells you who conservative and willing to listen to a well reason argument and who is a conservatard wingnut who thinks with their AM radio.

  149. 149.

    WereBear

    @Darkrose: Yes, these days, all of the above!

    I think the first step is a name.

    Medical Orphans
    the Endangered
    This could be you

    Which last is my favorite, because it could! If we dent people’s complacency, that can only help.

    I recently read a story about two college professors: highly respected, great income and insurance. And when he took a header on his bike and became a quadriplegic, they now struggle continually to avert disaster.

    That is the best case scenario. And it is really bad. We can do better. We have to.

  150. 150.

    Kay

    I feel bad for all the low wage white working class who will lose their Medicaid under President Trump and the far Right government we have now, but Lord.

    John Kasich knew enough to take Obamacare when it was offered. There’s only so many times other people can bail them out from the consequences of their own actions. Fully half the time they don’t even know their children are on Medicaid. They say “they’re on the Buckeye” as if it fell from the sky and will always be there.

    So for me it’s like “I should donate a hundred hours a cycle for people who can’t even be bothered to find out where their health insurance comes from?” They won’t put in 3 minutes to find out and it’s life or death to them.

  151. 151.

    dogwood

    @MomSense:
    Both parties are at a point where the activist base who turn out for primaries have convinced themselves that the candidates they love have universal appeal. The activist base used to be the pragmatists of the party. The people who wanted to win. The republicans went through this 4 years ago, talked about it and changed nothing. We want a 50 state strategy with progressive candidates, blah blah blah. The base also wants to approve the party chairman, cabinet appointments and all White House Staff. It’s insane. We want more and louder protests, let’s shut down the Seattle freeway system ; that’ll show those Trump voters in Ohio we mean business. Meanwhile our voters sit in a traffic jam. Burn cars in Portland so a democratic city has to spend taxpayer money cleaning up and bringing in the riot police. It’s all so self-indulgent.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    You know what will really happen to the low wage white working class when they (and their children) lose Medicaid?

    They’ll disappear. The only reason anyone paid any attention at all to the fact that they couldn’t get health care was they were part of “the uninsured” Democrats wanted to insure. College educated white people HAVE health insurance. They’re not “the uninsured”. The female Democrat and the black Democrat are the two people who paid attention to them. Clinton literally helped to insure their children and Obama took care of the adults.

  153. 153.

    buck2202

    This is more of an existential question, I guess, but despite all of the (important) factors that worked against Hillary, and despite the fact that she won the popular vote in the face of them, there’s one big thing that I’m stuck on. Trump marginally underperformed Romney in total votes while Clinton significantly underperformed Obama. What is it about those possibly-missing democratic voters that they need to be excited to show up? I’m sure that registration purges and more suppression laws contributed to the drop in votes, but isn’t this the same problem that we have in midterms?

    Talking about ways to keep our voters engaged and excited is all well and good, and certainly Republicans have a history of doing this well–but I cringed a bit when Michael Moore said that Democrats should be running Tom Hanks or Oprah. Why should that be the only way that people will bother to show up?

  154. 154.

    Hal

    @Kay:

    His support is about an inch deep and half the people who did turn out loathe him.

    The other hair pulling aspect of this election. To lose by 13000, or 32 or 38,000 votes? I still can’t get over that people voted for someone they fucking hate and distrust. That they don’t even know has the ability to do the job. Sure, there were Clinton voters who didn’t like her, but no one voting for Hillary Clinton thought she had no clue what the fuck she was doing, but oh well, let’s roll the dice and see what happens.

  155. 155.

    Kay

    The next time Michael Moore goes on tv and says “elite” Democrats ignored the white working class ask him who got their children health insurance. Does he know that lower income white children are all on Medicaid? They are.

    It’s kind of weird and frankly racist how we’re all going to pretend the only people who benefit from these programs are in, ahem, URBAN areas. It’s a flat-out lie. Everyone knows this, right? That there are way more poor white people than poor black people because there are way more white people?

  156. 156.

    WereBear

    @buck2202: but I cringed a bit when Michael Moore said that Democrats should be running Tom Hanks or Oprah. Why should that be the only way that people will bother to show up?

    We live in a celebrity age and we should deal with it. Reagan, the actor, is how Republicans managed to get out of the wilderness, when all logical sense would have left them there by their campfires, gnawing on bones.

    Why shouldn’t we run campaigns we can win? Tom Hanks or Oprah instead of Trump?

    Hell to the yes.

  157. 157.

    Baud

    @buck2202: Yes. Our side is much weaker than I thought it was. I thought we had turned a corner, but we are easily manipulated and frustrated and discouraged. (I’m talking about people who weren’t suppressed.)

  158. 158.

    Miss Bianca

    @WereBear: I’m starting to think nothing is going to get thru’ to these folks except pitchforks and tumbrels.

    Guess I’m still vacillating between anger/sodden despair.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    @Hal:

    Just be careful of narratives. Lefties want a narrative that there was some kind of populist uprising because that serves their ends and Righties want to claim a mandate.

    Fact- low turnout election. That’s the baseline of any analysis. Fewer voters. The rest is punditry and narrative setting.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Hal:

    I think it’s too soon to decide on “Democrats should do this or that” as far as national elections. Everyone is jockeying to get their preferred narrative to be accepted as “the story”. That’s what advocates do- they tell stories and push narratives.

    Democrats already knew they were bleeding at the state level. That’s what they should focus on because that’s the one thing they know.

  162. 162.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I can’t believe we’re back to that weird and wrong idea that urban black people are the only people who benefited from Democratic safety net programs. It’s wrong. Incorrect. It also has a really nasty racist history, that idea. I thought we all decided to stop lying about that? White working class benefit from ALL these programs. They always have.

  163. 163.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Kay: This! Oh my God it’s infuriating. Moore sometimes is annoying, even if he did call the win when other Dems didn’t see it coming. Maybe the WWC get a clue by 2018 when they realize nothing Trump promised them is getting done but he managed to get his tax cut for himself and the super-wealthy.

  164. 164.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    The shit-gibbon is interested in the trappings of power but not in governing. He has no idea how stuff works.

    With this, we possibly go from bad to worse. Pence becomes Trump’s Dick Cheney, the puppet master. Ryan, overlord of the budget, may be able to shape economic policy for years. A Trump who has no interest in governing is the GOP dream come true. A toothless populist demagogue to wave in front of a populace who would otherwise be angry enough to burn Congress to the ground.

    On the other hand, back in the 1930s, another country thought that they had a toothless demagogue under control.

    The world turned upside down. The idea of a president Trump is unimaginable. We do not know what he will do once he is in power. Right now, he does not know either. But that may change as he gets a whiff of what he can do once he is the one in the Oval Office.

  165. 165.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Democrats did nothing for the white working class except for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and every single federal education program (k-12 and college) they’re all wholly dependent on. Right now.

    He should go to a nursing home where I live. 100% elderly white working class. All paid for by Medicaid.

  166. 166.

    WereBear

    @Miss Bianca: I’m starting to think nothing is going to get thru’ to these folks except pitchforks and tumbrels.

    Sadly, you are right. Because they aren’t vulnerable. The assholes who neglected their duties have six figure salaries or better, with great health insurance, go to all the best parties, hobnob with the rich and famous, and get their asses kissed on the regular.

    They are going to give that up because of shame and the prodding of their conscience? Ha! That ship already sailed or they wouldn’t be in this position, most of them, because deep down they are talentless hacks and they know it.

    However, this is the digital age. We should start thinking VIRTUAL pitchforks and tumbrels.

  167. 167.

    Kay

    @Felanius Kootea:

    We already has this discussion. We all decided to stop pretending low wage white people don’t benefit from safety net programs because that’s a lie. The lie is back? It was only gone 5 years! We decided to start lying again?

  168. 168.

    buck2202

    @WereBear: but is the answer to embrace it? ’08 Obama was exciting and inspiring, but his life to that point was also based largely in decidedly un-sexy public service.

    Just a depressing note from my home state of Ohio–Trump got ~100k more votes than Romney, Hillary got ~400k fewer than ’12 Obama.

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    Fact- low turnout election.

    Fact – the voters who turn up are the ones who shape history. Those who sat on the sidelines may be comfortable or indifferent. They have already shown themselves to be useless.

  172. 172.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m with you too Betty. I think institutions and norms are failing one by one and we don’t where we land.

    It gets worse before it gets better. This seems blatantly obvious to me. Trump was much less dangerous as a candidate than as President. That’s why people were afraid of him as a candidate- he might be President. We weren’t just abstractly upset at Donald Trump the person. As PRESIDENT. With all that power. That was the rational fear. It was realized. Now it gets worse.

    All of the assurances about institutional norms and checks and balances sound like whistling in the dark to me. Paul Ryan is the bulwark against Donald Trump? Ryan couldn’t even stop Trump when Trump was a candidate. He’s sure as hell not gonna stop him now.

  173. 173.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Let’s add the auto bailout to the things the rust belt directly benefited from. Where would those working class whites be without it?

  175. 175.

    buck2202

    @Brachiator: But the “useless” ones do shape history. The 25% that show up for presidential elections but not midterms have a huge effect. The ~300k in Ohio that voted in 2012 but not 2016 had a huge effect.

  176. 176.

    Kay

    I hate to break up the coronation party planning, but could someone from the FBI address the public? Now that Trump has won we need assurances that these agents we’re all paying aren’t being run by a hard Right racist faction out of NY.

    They interfered in an election. They had a candidate. That candidate won and now has real and nearly unlimited police power. We all pay them. They have a duty to tell us whether or not they’re the law enforcement arm of a political party.

  177. 177.

    Kay

    @Kay:

    Correction: “we” don’t all pay them. Donald Trump doesn’t pay them because he doesn’t pay federal income tax.

    How much you wanna bet Trump refuses to release tax returns when he’s President? He’s going to be running the federal government while not paying a dime to fund it. Unfucking believable. Why should ordinary people pay their taxes? The Trumps don’t. We should all withhold federal income taxes until the Trump Family pay up. I don’t feel like supporting deadbeat millionaires.

  178. 178.

    WereBear

    @buck2202: You act like we have a choice when we don’t.

    Heck, I love wonks, I am a wonk, Hillary was an incredible wonk. But as we saw with Dukakis, most people are intimidated by intellect, distrust the intelligent, and so very much do not understand policy.

    If it was all you and me, that would be different. But we are outliers. In a voting democracy, that matters a great deal. Most people go by their feelings. It is hard wired in and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

    And is it so different? Lincoln got in because he was an incredible speech writer and giver. People would come for miles and miles to listen to him. JFK was a natural. And while LBJ was not, to start out with, he made himself become so.

    With that kind of thinking, Hillary would have been better off with lessons on speech giving. We can have both. But I think we have to have both.

  179. 179.

    Kay

    When you see Donald and Melania and the rest of the royal family in the White House remember they don’t pay for any of it. They contribute nothing towards that “institution”. All paid for by other people. You’re picking up their rent and utilities.

  180. 180.

    Amir Khalid

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    I saw The Young Turks had a clip up with Cenk reporting a poll that said their respondents all agreed, Bernie would have beaten Trump, for sure, you bet. I didn’t bother watching, I just rolled my eyes and moved on.

  181. 181.

    WereBear

    @Kay: Gosh, yes. And it could be as simple as filing an extension on April 15th, instead of filing/paying.

    Put it in a week later, once the point has been made. Write on the extension: Donald Trump doesn’t pay taxes.

  183. 183.

    buck2202

    @WereBear: Heck, I love wonks, I am a wonk, Hillary was an incredible wonk. But as we saw with Dukakis, most people are intimidated by intellect, distrust the intelligent, and so very much do not understand policy.

    If it was all you and me, that would be different. But we are outliers. In a voting democracy, that matters a great deal. Most people go by their feelings. It is hard wired in and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

    I don’t think you’re wrong, I guess I just have trouble relating to that mindset. I take no issue with the need to make wonks more exciting, but embracing the idea that exciting is all that matters (this was my initial reaction to Michael Moore’s suggestion–I don’t read you as saying that) still feels dangerous to me.

  185. 185.

    WereBear

    @buck2202: I guess I just have trouble relating to that mindset.

    Kentucky. People finally have healthcare. Guy runs for governor, says he will take it away. He wins. He does.

    They complain.

    What part of cause-and-effect do you people not get?

  186. 186.

    matryoshka

    I wonder if national strike on inauguration day isn’t in order. Refuse to go to work, drive a car, or buy anything online. We could call it a sabbatical. The only power we have is that we are the fuel that makes the machine go.

  188. 188.

    Captain C

    @EBT:

    Then he will put all 13 carrier groups in to the canal (even the three that are drydocked for retrofitting) and bombard the Iranian coast.

    At which point he’ll get an object lesson in what happens when you put 13 large targets in an area in which they can’t maneuver and is lousy with anti-ship missiles.

  189. 189.

    karen marie

    @MariedeGournay: Except that as it turns out, Michael Moore was right but he’s fat, and nobody wanted to listen to Nate Silver because he’s in the pocket of ESPN.

  190. 190.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    They don’t pay for any of it isn’t quite true, the same as with all presidents and their families.

    Now, whether or not you know who will pay the bills presented is certainly an open question.

  191. 191.

    ChrisGrrr

    @GregB: I wish you sounded daft. Even a little.
    Doggone it.

    Though I work to find ways and groups that’ll help people close by through unimaginably hard times, a daunting new degree of pessimism seems to resist any decisions to be productive and “rational.”

  192. 192.

    Suzan

    We need to fund investigations, perhaps through the media. I’d contribute to a PAC or whatever to fund this. I want someone to hack Trump’s accountant and kids (since he doesn’t use a computer). And I reactivated my NYTimes subscription and am urging others to do that and buy their local papers. Maybe it would be as easy as crowd funding and grants?

  193. 193.

    Applejinx

    @Betty Cracker:

    She’s speaking as if we’re dealing with a particularly racist, sexist, bigoted president-elect but nonetheless one expected to govern within constitutional guidelines and adhere to democratic norms. I think not.

    Careful. You’re thinking about it as if the Trump wave believe that their opposition, Clinton, was expected to govern within constitutional guidelines and adhere to democratic norms, and they chose Trump because they wanted to disavow all that stuff and let their freak flags fly.

    If it’s not possible to believe the Trumpsters think Clinton is the renegade and criminal when they’ve been screaming it for years, I don’t know what to even say. Since when are their stated intentions to discard all law and precedent? In their belief systems, that’s what they voted against.

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