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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Take Your Kids to Work Day, 2016

Take Your Kids to Work Day, 2016

by John Cole|  November 14, 20165:33 pm| 256 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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We are so well and truly fucked:

.@realDonaldTrump team has asked @WhiteHouse how his children could receive top secret security clearances – details on @CBSEveningNews

— Julianna Goldman (@juliannagoldman) November 14, 2016

If things like this happen and continue to happen we are going to be operating in an intelligence vacuum because NO other country is going to share anything with us. We’ll be an angry and dumb superpower lashing out blindly.

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Previous Post: « RIP, Gwen Ifill
Next Post: Monday Evening Open Thread: The Farce Awakens »

Reader Interactions

256Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    November 14, 2016 at 5:35 pm

    On twitter, Ryan Lizza is awarding Trump bananas on his most Banana Republican moves. I think this has to be 140 bananas.

  2. 2.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 5:35 pm

    But but but but but but but but but but but but but but but…

    … CLINTON’S EMAILS! CLINTON’S EMAILS!

    / the MSMGOP

  3. 3.

    Chat Noir

    November 14, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    The horrors keep piling up every day with this transition.

  4. 4.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    Next, he’s going to ask how he can get one for his BFF, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    @Chris: But, but, but…BLIND TRUST?!

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:37 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Next, he’s going to ask how he can get one for his BFF, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

    Pretty sure that dude already knows everything he needs to about the US.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    I’ve always wanted to know what the nuclear codes were.

    I bet one of them is “password.”

  8. 8.

    Cacti

    November 14, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    How long till the epaulettes and medals?

  9. 9.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Our only hope at this point is that the Kremlin announces that Putin died of liver failure after all the alcohol he imbibed celebrating last week.

  10. 10.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 5:39 pm

    @Baud:

    “Swordfish.”

    I’d be almost unable to resist it myself if I were in charge of that.

    “Swordfish,” or “Mellon,” or “Jehovah” spelt with an “I.”

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    @Chat Noir: What, you mean like between the installing of a white nationalist racist bigot feet away from the Oval office and the furtherance of an obvious kleptocracy?
    IT’S NOT EVEN FUCKING TUESDAY AFTER THE ELECTION, PEOPLE.

  12. 12.

    catclub

    November 14, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    This post is in So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.

    Better exit strategy than most here.

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    November 14, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    By law England cannot share intel with any nation that tortures. Since cheeto turd says he intends to torture that would include the US in January. We will be an island of insanity, a spent super power waiting for the CHinese to make their demands

  14. 14.

    Cermet

    November 14, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    But e-mail server …lol. So the small handed dick head has his evil spawn get TS clearance …why? Being spawn does not entitle one to a TS clearance. Boy, are these stupid fucks already starting to lower the bar and it isn’t even day one of the small handed dick head’s tiny rule..

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    @Baud: Andrew Jackson’s birthday.

  16. 16.

    catclub

    November 14, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    @Baud: Weren’t they all set to 0000 by some General who thought they were too complicated?

  17. 17.

    gene108

    November 14, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    Which kids are going to get the TS clearance? You got Don, Jr., whose pushing 40 and Barron, who is 10.

    Barron is probably the least likely to abuse a TS clearance. Kids at that age, to varying extents, are still willing and able to follow orders. They realize they do not know everything.

  18. 18.

    Mike in Pasadena

    November 14, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    @Cacti: The US Air Force will fit him with an extra large flight suit so he can pretend to be a pilot just like W.

  19. 19.

    John

    November 14, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    I know this isn’t on topic, but I wanted to get this idea into the public sphere.

    There needs to be a big push to pressure Donald Trump to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. The principle that a President is president until his term ends needs to be upheld and Trump should be made to see that if Congress can hold Obama’s appointment power hostage, the same can be done to him. When it looked like Clinton was going to win, there was a lot of talk about pushing through approval of Garland to keep the seat out of her hands, so arguing that he is unqualified is difficult to do. Trump needs to understand that good faith requires that he honor the appointment made by Obama.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    November 14, 2016 at 5:43 pm

    Listening to This American Life’s post-election show. Two Hispanic cops in the Miami area are celebrating Trump because life has been so hard for cops the last few years. Obama treats every cop involved in a shooting as guilty until proven innocent. I think that’s kinda the exact opposite of what has actually happened.

  21. 21.

    Schlemazel

    November 14, 2016 at 5:44 pm

    @Baud:

    Dark Helmet: So the combination is… one, two, three, four, five? That’s the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard in my life! That’s the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

    President Skroob Trump: That’s amazing. I’ve got the same combination on my luggage.

  22. 22.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 14, 2016 at 5:44 pm

    We’ll be an angry and dumb superpower lashing out no matter what Trump does. If he does so blindly he might accidentally do something good!

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    November 14, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    We’re about to witness the largest grifting operation in the history of the planet.

    PS: Another plug for Chait’s latest.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/how-the-loyal-opposition-will-work-in-trumps-america.html

  24. 24.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    November 14, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    Help us CIA, NSA, you’re our only hope.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    @gene108:

    Barron is probably the least likely to abuse a TS clearance. Kids at that age, to varying extents, are still willing and able to follow orders. They realize they do not know everything.

    Are you kidding me? Do you not know any 10 year olds?!
    Plus, he’s good at the cyber. He’s so good at the cyber, it’s unbelievable. In a cost cutting move, I expect Trump to fire the NSA and put Barron in charge of all the cyber. He will be paid Smarties, Ritz Crackers with peanut butter and Yoohoo.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 5:45 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I read that. It was good.

  27. 27.

    JMG

    November 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    They can’t get them unless he also gives them jobs entitling them to security clearances. They don’t hand them out like souvenir matchbooks. I honestly wonder if they’ll tell Trump about ongoing covert operations.

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    This is in Adam’s wheelhouse, and I for one cannot wait to read his take later this evening.

    Oh, and John? This is quite possibly one of your best thread titles ever.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    @John:

    There needs to be a big push to pressure Donald Trump to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

    Stop. Just stop.

  30. 30.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I just read a conversation on Facebook where some Trump idiot was talking to a friend and saying “well okay, you’re terrified because you’re persecuted, I’m a police officer, I know what it’s like to be persecuted, but what are you doing about that?”

    They really are the biggest fucking… crybabies, because the word that springs to mind is fairly sexist and I don’t have a stronger one available… in the fucking nation.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    @JMG: Why start now?

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 5:47 pm

    Unless they are holding official positions, which means he appoints them – regardless of whether they need senatorial confirmation or not – they will not get clearances. They and their spouses, however, will have to be background checked and vetted for his clearance.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    November 14, 2016 at 5:47 pm

    @Cermet:

    Also, just having a security clearance, does not grant you magic super powers to access all the governments secrets.

    If you have a job that requires a security clearance, you get to access the documents, which are needed for that job and that job only.

  34. 34.

    John

    November 14, 2016 at 5:48 pm

    @Corner Stone: Yeah, I know. But still.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    November 14, 2016 at 5:48 pm

    @Cacti:
    Are the Nixon palace guard WH uniforms away in a warehouse somewhere?

  36. 36.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:49 pm

    @JMG:

    They can’t get them unless he also gives them jobs entitling them to security clearances.

    People keep saying things like this. That there is some law, precedent, regulation in place where he can’t do what he says he intends to do. Yeah, so what?

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 5:49 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    If he does so blindly he might accidentally do something good!

    This optimistic statement brought to you by the Stopped Squirrel division of the Department of Blind Clocks.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    November 14, 2016 at 5:49 pm

    @gene108:
    What document access would be required for the job of being a ginormous asshole?

  39. 39.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:52 pm

    Ok, MTP Daily’s ending round table is all talking about how Trump is using a balance in picking both Reince and Bannon.
    Oy, pretty sure this is all over with but the giggling.

  40. 40.

    GxB

    November 14, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    Reminds me of the good old Dubbuah days. My dad had a hilariously sarcastic commemorative calendar containing many of Georgie’s boners, blunders, and general idiocy. So it looks like we’ll need to dust off the Chronicler of the Fuckups (CotF) yet again.

  41. 41.

    chopper

    November 14, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    i just can’t even with this shit.

  42. 42.

    Klaus

    November 14, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    Can the intelligence services say No? What are the neopitism laws, or do they no apply to Rebulicans?

  43. 43.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 5:53 pm

    @trollhattan: All of them, Katie!

  44. 44.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 5:54 pm

    Holy shit, the LAPD just said that they wouldn’t help deport immigrants under Trump? The LAPD is sticking it to the short-fingered autocrat?

    Riggs, Murtaugh, you magnificent bastards.

  45. 45.

    Frank Wilhoit

    November 14, 2016 at 5:55 pm

    @Chris: Accountability == persecution. Freedom == unaccountability. This is the mindset of all of the Republican constituents. It is a shame, because freedom was once a noble concept; but it has now been completely and irreversibly discredited.

  46. 46.

    Joyce H

    November 14, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    But you know what, guys? These folks know NOTHING about security and NOTHING about administration and they’re suddenly going to have to staff up an entire West Wing, something these boneheads apparently just learned the other day.

    Soooo… How about we (the left) get some of our people in there on the clerical staff? You think it’s going to occur to these jackasses that people bringing their smartphones to work have a handy audio and video recording device on their person at all times?

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    @gene108:

    Barron, who is 10.

    Ah jeeze. We’re gonna have two adolescent boys in the WH at once, aren’t we?

  48. 48.

    LesGS

    November 14, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    @Baud: It is good, although Chait is asking Obama to continue wearing a target on his back, at maybe even heightened risk. (TBH, he will be for the rest of his life anyway…)

  49. 49.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    In all seriousness, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see troops killed because Trump revealed some operational military secret.

  50. 50.

    Bill Arnold

    November 14, 2016 at 5:57 pm

    @Baud:

    I bet one of them is “password.”

    Nah, too easily guessed. Perhaps “passw0rd”. That at least is not in the top 5.

  51. 51.

    Joyce H

    November 14, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Or ‘maintence’. That one’s always in there because the maintenance guys can’t spell.

  52. 52.

    Bobby D

    November 14, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    I’m going to be the contrarian here and say this is a GOOD thing. We want Ivanka, a moderate democrat from policy perspectives, as close to Trump and the decision making apparatus as possible. I want her in the WH inner circle, virtually a “body man” to him. Uday and Qusay can fak right orf, but I want the moderating democrat daughter to have his ear.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    @Chris: “Whoa, guys. We’re racist but we’re not Trump racist.”

  54. 54.

    quakerinabasement

    November 14, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    Top Secret clearance for the kids? Which one of the boys wants to play double-ought secret spy?

  55. 55.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t see how Ivanka gets once, since she’s friends with Putin’s girlfriend.

    We really are in the last days of our Republic, aren’t we?

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    November 14, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    I am back to reading nothing but Balloon Juice again. So much for courage. Maybe tomorrow.

    Thank FSM for you all.

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    @Baud:
    I remember reading somewhere that after all the elaborate things they did to protect the nukes with passwords- I think they were actually numbers rather than words- they wound up setting them to 000000 so they would be sure to be able to launch when the time came.

  58. 58.

    J R in WV

    November 14, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    Do they even need to fill out that 168 page form?

    He can give them jobs and tell the security folks to issue them clearances, and fire people until someone does what he says.

    Nixon, Saturday Night Massacre, he fired Attorneys General down the chain of command until he got to Robert Bork, who was willing to do as he was told. And fire the Special Prosecutor investigating the Watergate break-in bugging wiretapping scandal, which led to Nixon’s Impeachment and resignation, followed by a Gerald Ford pardon.

    Trump will get his way eventually. I’m just surprised the issue became public. There will have to be a probe to find who leaked this secret issue!!

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:01 pm

    Here’s a piece worth reading about the urban/rural divide.

    The “white working class”, which isn’t really working class and should better be called “white provincial morons” doesn’t like the idea that they should go get jobs in cities. They want to stay doing what they do and just make more money. Um, no. Moochers.

    Maybe I’ll buy a Carrier air conditioner.

  60. 60.

    goblue72

    November 14, 2016 at 6:01 pm

    @Chris: Most big city police departments (not all, but most) do not want to get drafted into serving as adjuncts to ICE. Kicking in the doors of “illegals” is not an agenda item they want to add to their list of responsibilities, nor do they want to be in the crosshairs of the blowback they’d get from politicians and the general public in the generally liberal big cities they work in.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 6:02 pm

    @Mary G: Someone mentioned something Chris Matthews had said and I was like I don’t even want to hear about it second hand.

  62. 62.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    Does anybody have a link beyond Twitter? I can’t find anything. Not that I think it’s wrong, but I’d like to know more about it. How far has this gotten? How likely is it? Can the president just decree that anybody he wants should get briefings?

  63. 63.

    gogol's wife

    November 14, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    @Chris:

    Doesn’t drink.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 6:04 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Whoa. Neither does Trump, right?

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:04 pm

    @Bobby D:

    We want Ivanka, a moderate democrat from policy perspectives, as close to Trump and the decision making apparatus as possible. I want her in the WH inner circle

    What? She is a disgusting scumbag parasite. I feel gross just thinking about this family being in the WH.

  66. 66.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 6:04 pm

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    It is a shame, because freedom was once a noble concept; but it has now been completely and irreversibly discredited.

    No more so than decades of communist tyranny discredited, or should have discredited, the concept of “equality.”

    The plain fact is that no one’s yet invented a concept that doesn’t break down when it’s reducio-ad-absurdum’d, or when it’s shamelessly exploited by con artists and narcissists. And unfortunately, any remotely successful political ideal will inevitably be subjected to that at some point.

    Religions have the same problem. There, it’s called fundamentalism.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    Read this and see what you think. It describes how I’m feeling perfectly:

    They will have second thoughts, these comfortable Republicans of means. They will flake off from Trump long before the sad nostalgists and struggling rural voters who actually believe his promises of magic. They will lower his approval ratings. But they made him President, and gave him a Congress full of cyphers, slackwits, and doddering old men to work with. What a price our country and the world will pay, and for how long they will pay it, because those Americans most richly blessed failed so completely in their duty as citizens.

    It’s decadence. It’s taking it for granted that what they inherited will continue to exist, with no effort on their part.

    No one is going to stop this man. We’re just not up to the challenge.

  68. 68.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:05 pm

    You’re right John. Not one of our allies will be willing to share intel anymore knowing that to do so is basically to invite Vald in on the conversation.

  69. 69.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    @goblue72: plus, I’m sure there are a fair number of LAPD who are Latino, and maybe their families wouldn’t like them working with/for La Migra.

  70. 70.

    gogol's wife

    November 14, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    @Baud:

    Right. I realized just as I was typing that that it’s hinky.

  71. 71.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    I can’t listen to his voice. I can’t look at his face. This is going to be a very long fucking four years. And when that is over, whenever it is over, it’s going to be a very long fucking life knowing he was ever elected president.
    Good fucking christ.

  72. 72.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    @Corner Stone: Hear hear!

  73. 73.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    Alone among systems of government, democracy imposes duties on the ruled as well as the rulers. It doesn’t work if those duties are shirked by too many people. People of means—coincidentally the traditional core of the Republican Party—have a special interest in maintaining standards of ethics and probity in candidates for national office, for without lawful and universally accepted authority no property is safe.
    The Republican Party supported a war hero and veteran legislator for President in 2008. It backed a legitimate businessman and successful governor in 2012. This year, it fell in behind Trump. About as many Republicans voted for Trump as for Romney four years earlier. The great majority of these were not distressed working-class voters. They weren’t threatened by minorities or by globalization. They were—are— people who have lived easy lives, never wanting for anything save the most garish accoutrements of great wealth.
    They knew Donald Trump was ignorant and dishonest, and it didn’t matter to them. They knew he was a sex predator who fathered children by various women, and it didn’t matter. Cheating on his taxes, cheating on his wives, consumer fraud, the bogus charity, the sponsorship of the Russian intelligence services, the anti-Semitic associates, cheating contractors who had done work for him, the picking on individuals before massive rallies, the insufferable racism, the continual running down of America—none of that mattered.

  74. 74.

    Chris

    November 14, 2016 at 6:09 pm

    @Kay:

    Like I said the other day: it’s instructive to me that all the Republicans I know who at least summoned the elementary decency not to vote for Trump were vulgar Bible thumpers, while the few wealthy East Coast Republican friends I know, so proudly “moderate” and “reasonable” and “open-minded” and “cosmopolitan,” pulled the lever for him.

    (Or voted absentee, more likely. Standing in line and pulling levers is so crudely proletarian).

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    And that, in turn, is going to fuck up our intelligence efforts big time. We have a lot of allies with older and more established intelligence networks in the Middle East and North Africa, but who won’t share stuff that they know will go right to the Kremlin.

    Of course, since any terrorist attack is an opportunity for Trump, he probably doesn’t even give a shit.

  75. 75.

    Mary G

    November 14, 2016 at 6:09 pm

    @Kay: Can’t make myself hit the link just yet, but that paragraph is truth. I wonder if any of them have a conscience that is bothering them?

  76. 76.

    Bill Arnold

    November 14, 2016 at 6:10 pm

    @Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:

    Help us CIA, NSA, you’re our only hope.

    Or the Deep State. Or some other organization, possibly detached from normal human morality. The mind, it wanders, into unhealthy and strange places. We are living in extremely interesting times.

  77. 77.

    catclub

    November 14, 2016 at 6:11 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Unless they are holding official positions, which means he appoints them – regardless of whether they need senatorial confirmation or not – they will not get clearances.

    Huh? So the employees of some company that is building the latest super-secret spy satellite only need secret clearance?
    I would not have guessed that.

  78. 78.

    Mary G

    November 14, 2016 at 6:12 pm

    @Corner Stone: Me too. One of the housemates was watching news and I heard its voice and told her to turn it off or put in earphones and didn’t even say please.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:12 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Black Lives Matter was unfortunately very consequential in this election, in a bad way. Anecdotally, a friend’s brother in MI said all of the white people in his social circle voted Trump because of BLM.

  80. 80.

    Bobby D

    November 14, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    @Corner Stone: You’d rather have Bannon as the last input before he makes decisions?

  81. 81.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    “No, Mr. President (cough) elect, Area 51 is just a plot device in some paranoid bad SF movies.”

  82. 82.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    You can’t avoid them. I heard Conway boasting on the radio today. Blathering something about “repealing Obamacare” as if this pollster and GOP political hack has any fucking idea what “Obamacare” is.
    She couldn’t describe Obamacare in her own words for a million dollars but she’s bragging about getting rid of it.

  83. 83.

    ms_canadada

    November 14, 2016 at 6:13 pm

    @Corner Stone: You are really scaring this Canadian! (I do have a spare room if anyone wants a taste of Southern Ontario, Canada- no guns!)

  84. 84.

    SFAW

    November 14, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    @Baud:

    In all seriousness, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see troops killed because Trump revealed some operational military secret.

    Thanks, Obama!

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    @Mnemosyne: How dare those blah people expect to be treated as anything more than escaped chattel. The nerve!

  86. 86.

    kindness

    November 14, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    Donald’s version of a BLIND Trust is evolving I see.

  87. 87.

    hovercraft

    November 14, 2016 at 6:15 pm

    @Chris:
    I think the objection there was that the “Clinton’s” felt entitled to power, Bill was elected, but they tried to ram two for the price of one down our throats. The Shitgibbon’s on the other hand have demonstrated time and time again that they have only the best interests of the country at heart, they would never do anything for personal gain. They are patriots, so it’s okay, we should be grateful they are willing to make this sacrifice for us.

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    November 14, 2016 at 6:15 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Anecdotally, a friend’s brother in MI said all of the white people in his social circle voted Trump because of BLM.

    As well they should have — BLM created a lot of “economic anxiety” for those working-class white people.

  89. 89.

    ms_canadada

    November 14, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    @Corner Stone: and pron!

  90. 90.

    dlm

    November 14, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    @ms_canadada: We may hold you to this offer. Seriously, no matter how afraid you are, it’s still not half as afraid as we are down here.

  91. 91.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:16 pm

    @John: Not to be rude, but what makes you think that Trump cares about protocol? Garland is not going to be a Supreme Court Justice now that Trump has the opportunity to nominate extreme Rightwing Judges to push SCOTUS to the right. In fact, SCOTUS is lost for probably the next 30 or so years once Trump gets to stack it with Conservative Justices.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    @Mary G:

    We shouldn’t forget that the people who elected Trump, the vast majority, were economically comfortable and secure Republicans.

    They’re soft and spoiled and lazy, so they thought they could elect this lunatic and stay safe because they take it for granted that they’ll remain comfortable no matter what they do.

  93. 93.

    jacy

    November 14, 2016 at 6:17 pm

    @Bobby D:

    I don’t know that there’s that much daylight between Bannon and Ivanka. Neither do you.

  94. 94.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:18 pm

    Drumpf’s vile spawn are classic security risks; in debt about a half a mile above their ears to disreputable oligarchs in a country known to have renewed imperial ambitions and for the past century at best a potential adversary, if not a straight out one. They shouldn’t qualify for SECRET, let alone TS.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:19 pm

    It’ll get really bad before anyone does anything. Hiring Bannon was a shot across the bow. Now they’ll get more confident no one will stop them and it will get worse.

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:19 pm

    @Bobby D: What evidence do we have that Ivanka and/or Kushner are at all reticent, in any way, to the message Bannon has been advocating? IMO, she is as bad as any other person in that circle. She is gross.

  97. 97.

    debbie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    @Chris:

    Rich, considering Pence is trying to take his emails private.

  98. 98.

    Mary G

    November 14, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    @Kay: Unfortunately, they’re probably right, or at least a lot of browner, then poorer people, will be first.

  99. 99.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:20 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Yes because Black people speaking out against police violence (which is unchecked and unpunished) is such a huge problem.

    Racist White people: “Can someone make those Negroes shut the hell up while we kill them in the streets? But let’s cry and mourn about aborted (White) fetuses though.”

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    November 14, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @Kay:

    People of means—coincidentally the traditional core of the Republican Party—have a special interest in maintaining standards of ethics and probity in candidates for national office,

    When was that written, in the 1940s? It sure hasn’t been that way for the last 20-plus years.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @Kay:

    The one cousin who I know for sure voted Trump has two teenage sons with her now ex-husband. They got divorced because he came down with a severe type of degenerative disease (I think it was multiple sclerosis). It’s a disease that is genetically linked.

    So she was willing to screw her own kids by voting for Trump, because she’s middle-class and nothing bad will ever happen to her.

  102. 102.

    Suzanne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Yes. BLM freaked a lot of white people out. Dipshit white people are retaliating when their control is threatened.
    In all seriousness, there is no winning coalition if we scare away all the white people with legitimate equality for blacks and Latinx, and women and the disabled, etc etc etc. That takes a certain degree of empathy and yes, dirty left-wing hippie shit education, and I remain unconvinced that more than 50% of the population has it.

  103. 103.

    Joyce H

    November 14, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @J R in WV:

    o they even need to fill out that 168 page form?

    He can give them jobs and tell the security folks to issue them clearances, and fire people until someone does what he says.

    Um, no. Actually, he can’t. It’s against the law for a federal employee, up to and including the president, to employ a family member. See 5 U.S. Code 3110.

  104. 104.

    Mary G

    November 14, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @Corner Stone: Ivanka’s just a better actress.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:21 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I’m confused about how none of these Trump family members ever go to work. What kind of business do they have where they never have to work? I’m not familiar with CEO’s like this- they can all take 2 years off?

    It’s bullshit. They’re no more “running” this business than I am.

  106. 106.

    Bobby D

    November 14, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    @jacy: No, I don’t know Ivanka’s innermost thoughts. We do have an idea of Ivanka’s political leanings from her past, her “ideas” during the campaign aimed at young mothers, and her association with Chelsea Clinton. And we know clearly where the racist asshole Bannon stands. One of them is going to be whispering in his ear. I’d rather stack the odds against the white nationalist anti-semite being that person. They all disgust me, including Ivanka, but I’d rather drop a hammer on my foot that blast it with a .12ga shotgun

  107. 107.

    Joyce H

    November 14, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    @Kay:

    I’m confused about how none of these Trump family members ever go to work. What kind of business do they have where they never have to work?

    Well, Ivanka, for instance, has a highly important job ripping off other people’s shoe designs.

  108. 108.

    NotoriousJRT

    November 14, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    Blind trust, anyone?

  109. 109.

    debbie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Oh, please. Of course they’ll get the clearance. It’ll be Trump’s first Executive Order.

  110. 110.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    @Kay: Conway, like other Republicans, are trying to destroy President Obama’s legacy root and branch. Krauthammer was boasting after the election that President Obama’s legacy was gone now that Trump has been elected. Doesn’t matter whether or not they know what Obama actually did, they just want to get rid of it if it has his taint on it.

  111. 111.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    @Suzanne: Before BLM, libertarian rhetoric against police was much worse.

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    [. . .] Trump is using a balance in picking both Reince and Bannon.

    Tire rims and anthrax. All righty, then.

  113. 113.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    @Chris:

    They really are the biggest fucking… crybabies, because the word that springs to mind is fairly sexist and I don’t have a stronger one available

    Has Trump ever tried to grab a woman by her police officer?

  114. 114.

    SFAW

    November 14, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Racist White people: “Can someone make those Negroes shut the hell up while we kill them in the streets?”

    Oh, come on — if they were truly racists, they would have used “the darkies” or “the coloreds” or the N-word.

    You are the real racist for calling those pore, put-upon white folk “racists.”

  115. 115.

    Peale

    November 14, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    @Corner Stone: by 11 I had mapped out my secret plan to sneak into the Soviet Union with our chinese allies. Hint: it involved a massive invasion across the Bering straight when they weren’t looking.

    Seriously though, were one step away from the family pet as army colonel here

  116. 116.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:27 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It’s not a coincidence that my Trump-voting cousin in WI who threw her own children under the bus did it because of the “baybeez” being killed by abortion. Her own born children must be sacrificed to protect the potential children of total strangers.

  117. 117.

    tobie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne: That unfortunately is my impression, too. Canvassing in rural PA I saw signs saying, “We support our local police,” which I took to mean, “We take offense at all talk of criminal justice reform.” The level of resentment in rural regions is mind-blowing.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    That’s why there have to be consequences. They can’t put the whole world at risk on a whim and then be assured none of the downside will affect them. There has to be moral hazard. I get that it will hurt the most vulnerable the most but that’s always true- the least secure are always at most risk. It isn’t a joke or a game and they’re not going to get it until they are themselves at risk.

    I was never a chaos person- I’m too orderly for that- but I have reached the point where I think stupid collective decisions have to have consequences. They think they’re invulnerable, and they’re not.

  119. 119.

    khead

    November 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just saw this on FB. Not a Huckabee follower but this is what his folks are sharing.

    As Mike Pence prepared to introduce our new President Elect, Donald Trump, on election night, he said, “I come to this moment deeply humbled, grateful to God for his amazing grace.” It’s nice to know we’ll have new leaders who look up to God. It’s also time to teach a new generation about God’s role in America. It’s why my team at Learn Our History created the kids DVD, One Nation Under God. Right now, we’re giving it away for free at…

  120. 120.

    gratuitous

    November 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    Oh sure, giving the monkey a flamethrower was just soooo cute in the beginning. In retrospect, we probably should have seen that coming. We’ll know better next time.

  121. 121.

    Peale

    November 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: we haven’t moved much beyond those ancient kingdoms where they defaced the idols thinking that would save them

  122. 122.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    @NotoriousJRT: As in the blind trust that 59 million Americans placed in Trump despite the fact that he has no political experience, lacks self control and has an outsized ego?

    @Corner Stone: Perhaps Ivanka and Kushner feel that they are above any damage to Jews that will be meted out by White Supremacists. It’s interesting that they haven’t said a word against the anti-Semitic noise that has followed Trump’s campaign and has spiked since his election.

  123. 123.

    Juice Box

    November 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    If his kids don’t have access to top secret information, how can they possibly manage his blind trust?

  124. 124.

    jk

    November 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    @Baud:

    The more of Chris Matthews you watch, the less you know. He deserves a one way ticket aboard a spaceship full of villager deplorables headed for the Andromeda galaxy.

  125. 125.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    November 14, 2016 at 6:30 pm

    can we convince the CIA, NSA and FBI to void the security clearance of absolutely EVERYBODY in the Trump West Wing? There should be serious concerns about this stuff leaking to Russia 24/7.

  126. 126.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:30 pm

    @Kay: Heydrich supposedly replied to a subordinate who questioned some policy decision that had been made that was on its face illegal: “Who’s going to stop us? WE ARE the police!”

  127. 127.

    Manyakitty

    November 14, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    @Kay: I couldn’t have said it better than Fallows.

  128. 128.

    cokane

    November 14, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    yeah the nepotism in this admin is going to be maddening but it might also be its undoing. so sad and predictable, Trump has zero lasting professional relationships, and so … turns to his kids.

  129. 129.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Kushner is a willing Kapo. Fuck him.

  130. 130.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    November 14, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    @gratuitous:

    “We took pity on him because he lost both parents at an early age. I think, on reflection, that we should have wondered a bit more about that.” – a character from Discworld describing Mr. Teatime.

  131. 131.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Krauthammer was boasting after the election that President Obama’s legacy was gone now that Trump has been elected. Doesn’t matter whether or not they know what Obama actually did, they just want to get rid of it if it has his taint on it.

    It’s gone. Gone. This decent, intelligent, man who treated people with respect is going to go into the history books as some equivalent as a WH janitor. They are going to go the full Carter on him X10. Or maybe worse.
    The US knew what they were voting for, or couldn’t be arsed to come out and vote for.

  132. 132.

    Timurid

    November 14, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The same is true of their dad. I wonder just how clownshoes this transition will have to get before some Republicans start thinking about an Electoral College mutiny…

  133. 133.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    Go dammit Harold Ford. You’re going to say Steve Bannon is going to have to prove himself?!!!
    FUCKKKKK!!!

  134. 134.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    What day is the job fair at Liberty U. Trump U.? Asking for a neighbor.

  135. 135.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    @tobie: They take offense to the police not getting away with killing unarmed Black men. Let’s say it like it is. Also, they don’t have to worry since the vast majority of police officers who kill unarmed Black men walk away scot-free. That has been going on since Africans were brought here as slaves.

  136. 136.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 14, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    @khead: Pence’s god, and Huckabee’s god, is Mammon. These are the vile assholes Jesus drove out of The Temple.

  137. 137.

    SenyorDave

    November 14, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Perhaps Ivanka and Kushner feel that they are above any damage to Jews that will be meted out by White Supremacists. It’s interesting that they haven’t said a word against the anti-Semitic noise that has followed Trump’s campaign and has spiked since his election.

    Kapos don’t care. I’m Jewish, and that is a terrible thing to call another Jew, but they deserve it. They are vile people.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Okay but then don’t put the moron out there saying he wants to “bring the country together”

    Burn it down, but don’t claim we’re all in this together while you’re doing it. They want to be radicals but they also want the approval of the establishment. They want to screech these awful things but they also want to whine about how people loathe them They don’t get both. One or the other.

    They’re not even good radicals. They’re soft and whiny and pampered radicals. I don’t even respect them as bomb-throwers.

  139. 139.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:33 pm

    No wonder we lost all those state houses and now the WH and both houses of Congress.

  140. 140.

    dlm

    November 14, 2016 at 6:34 pm

    @tobie: That sign was code for I’m voting Trump/Pence. I live twenty miles outside of Phila.

  141. 141.

    cmorenc

    November 14, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    @John:

    There needs to be a big push to pressure Donald Trump to appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. … Trump needs to understand that good faith requires that he honor the appointment

    Save for the superficially civil and brief 1.5 hour visit with Obama at the White House on Thursday, Trump and his transition team have done everything to gleefully boast how quickly and thoroughly they intend to go about wiping out every trace of Obama’s legacy they possibly can. What gives you the silly notion that Trump and his team have so much as a microgram of “good faith” or willingness to consider an exception for Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to SCOTUS?

    It would be no surprise whatever if by the morning after inauguration day, team Trump has painted pictures of Obama’s face on the bottom of every toilet bowl in the White House, at least all that the press doesn’t have access to.

  142. 142.

    Joyce H

    November 14, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    You know what? We need our own Arkansas Project. (Though perhaps it would be a bad idea to call it the Manhattan Project…) Think about it – would Paula Jones have been able to make so much trouble if she didn’t have access to free right wing legal representation? So there ought to be a pool of lawyers willing to provide free legal representation for any assaulted woman, any cheated small business, that wants to file suit against Trump. Remember, the Supreme Court ruled back during the Clinton Administration that responding to civil law suits while in office would surely be no impediment to the president’s ability to fulfill his duties. (And if the GOP whines that ‘you’re only doing this because he’s the president’, we’ll tell them that the 90s called and advised them to look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary.)

  143. 143.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:36 pm

    @Corner Stone: I sense that your blood pressure is rising up. You may need to take a break from cable news. Harold Ford is desperate to be a centrist and I hope he’s not delusional enough to think that his centrist schtick will get him into the White House. Someone should direct Ford to read Breitbart.com and see what it says about Black men like him. (Hint: it’s not very nice).

  144. 144.

    Cain

    November 14, 2016 at 6:37 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    So she was willing to screw her own kids by voting for Trump, because she’s middle-class and nothing bad will ever happen to her.

    Well she did abandon her husband over the disease.. so why not?

  145. 145.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:37 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Trump is too much of a pampered baby to move to DC. That’s too much for this revolutionary leader. Moving into the White House inconveniences him.

    Where will he sleep if not in his own bed? Is he 5 years old?

  146. 146.

    Suzanne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:37 pm

    I have to say that I think that blue state legislators should seek to punish red states from here on out as much as possible. Want money for your options epidemic? Tough shit. Highway spending? What, you don’t need infrastructure in your shitty backwater. I have no sympathy. The workers at the Carrier plant? I feel bad for the ones who voted for HRC, but fuck the rest. If we have to cut Medicaid, I’ll happily cut theirs.

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    November 14, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    @quakerinabasement:

    Come on, double-nought spy.

  148. 148.

    SenyorDave

    November 14, 2016 at 6:38 pm

    @Bobby D: We want Ivanka, a moderate democrat from policy perspectives, as close to Trump and the decision making apparatus as possible. I want her in the WH inner circle, virtually a “body man” to him. Uday and Qusay can fak right orf, but I want the moderating democrat daughter to have his ear.

    And Eva Braun was a moderating force on Hitler. Why, because she is a little less vile? Ivanka Trump has the stain of the father, plus years of exposure to the whole evil family. The Trump family is malevolent. Best case scenario is the Monty Python 16 ton weight falls on the whole family.

  149. 149.

    MazeDancer

    November 14, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    By law England cannot share intel with any nation that tortures.

    Very good news!

    Think there also might be a UN signatories clause that says by law, no member nation can share intel with John Bolton.

  150. 150.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Perhaps Ivanka and Kushner feel that they are above any damage to Jews that will be meted out by White Supremacists. It’s interesting that they haven’t said a word against the anti-Semitic noise that has followed Trump’s campaign and has spiked since his election.

    In place of “interesting” I would substitute, “completely expected”.
    And where is P-Elect assface on this? Using his ridiculous clown face with its clown makeup to mouth the words stupidly, “Stop it.” is so fucking presidential I can barely take it.

  151. 151.

    khead

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    EVERYONE is in on it now though – not that they weren’t before – but even D-listers see dollar signs beyond their wildest dreams.

    Sell your prepper and MRE penny stocks – it’s time to invest in Jesus American history CD’s.

  152. 152.

    debbie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    @Suzanne:

    I want Congress’s benefits cut first. Then those red state pigs.

  153. 153.

    gene108

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    @Kay:

    I do wonder, if Trump opts to live in NYC, while President, if that is not so much fear of sleeping not in his own bed, but rather it makes it easier for him to manage Trump, Inc. and use the power of the President to boost his business.

    Sure the Secret Service would be posted around the building, but I doubt they’d go into his actual apartments, as they are private quarters.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    @Cain:

    Yeah, it was a bit of a family scandal. My mom is pretty right-wing, and she was horrified. And then she married a new guy with the same first name, which creeped me right out.

  155. 155.

    tybee

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    @gratuitous:

    We’ll know better next time

    probably not.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    They’re all just angling for work and influence, Corner Stone. Frankly, they don’t care at all what happens. They’re fat and happy and they think they’re secure.

    They’re having a revolution! Except it’s a very comfortable and plush revolution, where everyone makes a lot of money and stays friends.

  157. 157.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    November 14, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    We’ll be an angry and dumb superpower lashing out blindly.

    On Twitter.

    Stand by ISIS from some really nasty tweets!!!!

  158. 158.

    jk

    November 14, 2016 at 6:41 pm

    We are so well and truly fucked

    I’m an atheist, but if there were a God this would be the perfect time for some divine intervention that would reward us with a new blockbuster Trump scandal causing a stampede of faithless electors to switch their vote to Hillary.

  159. 159.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 6:41 pm

    @Kay: That sounds like a Glorious Revolution.

  160. 160.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:42 pm

    @PaulWartenberg2016:

    There should be serious concerns about this stuff leaking to Russia 24/7.

    Does anyone in our national intelligence orgs really give a shit anymore? Are you telling me they could not have ran a counter-op to mitigate what happened this election? I’m not talking about Superman flying around the earth really fast, but there had to be something one of these multi-multi-billion dollar annually fed organizations could have done?

  161. 161.

    gene108

    November 14, 2016 at 6:42 pm

    @Joyce H:

    They spend several million dollars on the Arkansas Project. I don’t know anyone, who has that kind of money lying around.

    Free legal aide, would be a good thing, for people wanting to step up and sue Trump.

  162. 162.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:43 pm

    @SenyorDave: Yep. And then you have Black women like Omarosa who stood behind and fully supported Trump even though a lot of his policies are going to heavily damage African Americans. But I guess that’s alright since she’ll have a cushy position somewhere in Trump’s administration so to hell with the rest of Black Americans and other people of color.

  163. 163.

    debbie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:43 pm

    @gene108:

    That has got to be illegal. How do you run the country if not in the White House? And why, if the deficit is so yuuuge, would you spend lots of money to set up two separate security programs?

  164. 164.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 6:43 pm

    @jk:

    At this point, I’m kind of wishing that the “deep state” that conspiracy theorists believe in would do something. Alas, I think they’re both mythical.

  165. 165.

    Central Planning

    November 14, 2016 at 6:43 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: He’s already accidentally done some good – downstairs, there’s a thread about the American Jewish Congress and the Islamic Society of North America – they formally entered into a civil rights protection and promotion and civil society defense agreement. Look at Trump, bridging the gap between Islam and Judaism. Want to bet somebody submits Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize next year?

  166. 166.

    debbie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Did you see that clip of her with that smirk on her face talking about Trump taking revenge on everyone who spoke out against him and warning people that Trump was now the most powerful man in the universe?

    ETA Link: http://www.mediaite.com/online/omarosa-every-critic-every-detractor-will-have-to-bow-down-to-president-trump/

  167. 167.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 6:45 pm

    @goblue72:

    Most big city police departments (not all, but most) do not want to get drafted into serving as adjuncts to ICE. Kicking in the doors of “illegals” is not an agenda item they want to add to their list of responsibilities, nor do they want to be in the crosshairs of the blowback they’d get from politicians and the general public in the generally liberal big cities they work in.

    They also don’t want people to be afraid to talk to them out of fear of being deported. If LAPD is forced to cooperate with ICE, they’re going to have an impossible time convincing illegal immigrants from coming forward as witnesses, or even reporting crime when they’re victims. That’s why they adopted these policies a long time ago, for which enlightened stance bigots like Trump brand them as “sanctuary cities”.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:45 pm

    @gene108:

    Trump had it right when he said he could shoot someone on the street and nothing would happen to him. That’s MORE true now, not less.

    You’re watching political leaders and media negotiate the terms of their surrender. It won’t go well for them.

  169. 169.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:46 pm

    @Corner Stone: Someone should make a bobble head Donald who squeaks, “Stop it” when a string is pulled. The doll will do as much good as the real Donald at stopping the racist incidents which have spiked since his election.

  170. 170.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    November 14, 2016 at 6:47 pm

    @John:The way it’s going I am betting Trump will propose the Duck Dynasty guy as a SC justice.

  171. 171.

    SenyorDave

    November 14, 2016 at 6:47 pm

    @Joyce H: So there ought to be a pool of lawyers willing to provide free legal representation for any assaulted woman, any cheated small business, that wants to file suit against Trump. Remember, the Supreme Court ruled back during the Clinton Administration that responding to civil law suits while in office would surely be no impediment to the president’s ability to fulfill his duties. (And if the GOP whines that ‘you’re only doing this because he’s the president’, we’ll tell them that the 90s called and advised them to look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary.)

    Exactly! And for that matter, how about a push to interview all these women together and have them tell their story. Why not, it would be a great narrative. IMO, the idea that Trump is a rapist is far more believable than the idea that Bill Clinton is a rapist. Frankly, while we are at it, let’s make a movie a la D’nish D’Souza. Working title – The Trump Assaults.

  172. 172.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:48 pm

    @debbie: Have you bowed down yet? I haven’t.

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    November 14, 2016 at 6:49 pm

    We’ll be an angry and dumb superpower lashing out blindly.

    With this lot we will be that no matter whatever else happens.

  174. 174.

    Bill Arnold

    November 14, 2016 at 6:49 pm

    @gratuitous:

    Oh sure, giving the monkey a flamethrower was just soooo cute in the beginning.

    You’ve seen this, right?
    Chimp with AK-47, what could possibly go wrong? LOL
    (backstory if you’re wondering if this was real (not))

  175. 175.

    dogwood

    November 14, 2016 at 6:51 pm

    @Corner Stone:
    Harold Ford will play whatever role they want him to play. He’s desperate to be on tv. He’ll be on a lot playing the democrat who goes after his own.

  176. 176.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 6:53 pm

    These media elite just do not get it. He does not “want” to be loved. He is going to demand to be loved.

  177. 177.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:54 pm

    I saw on Twitter People magazine did a glowing piece on Ivanka. Could have been written by the Trump family publicist.

    This is the magazine where Donald Trump assaulted their reporter, right? Women have that little value, that Trump attacked their reporter and now they’re happily promoting his Presidency?

    He was right. He can shoot people in the street. He’s completely and utterly unaccountable.

  178. 178.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:54 pm

    @Kay: I really feel that being President is just a badge that Trump is going to wear going forward. He inherited his wealth and doesn’t know what it feels to work hard. No way is he going to inconvenience himself to live in the people’s house — especially after that Black family befouled it for 8 years. Why should he? He’s always lived way above the rubes. He’s not going to change just because the rubes elected him to the most powerful position in this country.

  179. 179.

    SenyorDave

    November 14, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    @Kay: We can all hope that the strain of actually working will take a toll on him physically. M.I. in three, two, one…

  180. 180.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    The whole country is supposed to be comforted because pundits think Donald Trump wants to be loved.

    These people are insane. They have lost their minds. They are hoping against hope that Donald Trump will not decide to hurt them.

    They didn’t even last a week before totally surrendering.

  181. 181.

    Ridnik Chrome

    November 14, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    I keep thinking of that old saying: “First rate managers hire first rate people, second rate managers hire third rate people.” Except calling Trump second rate is still too kind…

  182. 182.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 6:57 pm

    @Kay: The media is going to suck up to the Trumps so we’re going to see all kinds of cutesy stories about Melania and those odious adult “children”. The complete normalization of Trump has begun.

  183. 183.

    SenyorDave

    November 14, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: The two trump boys are true example of Hitler youth.

  184. 184.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 6:58 pm

    @Kay: They’re probably exhausted from fighting Hillary all these months.

  185. 185.

    debbie

    November 14, 2016 at 6:59 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I’m beginning to think botox may have unknown, lethal side effects.

  186. 186.

    Peale

    November 14, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    @Kay: yep. That’s why this need to get on the case of the WWC is so annoying. Of course the elite republicans and upper middle class shitheals want us to put the entire onus on them. It absolves them of responsibility.

  187. 187.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    @SenyorDave:

    Oh, no. We’re not getting off that easy. We hired the moron. Now we’ll have to suffer the consequences of that decision. If there are no consequences they’ll just make another bone-headed decision and hire the next idiot conman who comes along. They need to lose their life savings. That’s what happens to people who get duped by cons. Then they learn.

  188. 188.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 7:01 pm

    @Kay:

    I was never a chaos person- I’m too orderly for that- but I have reached the point where I think stupid collective decisions have to have consequences.

    Stupid collective decisions are going to have consequences whether you like it or not. Trump is going to make us pine for the days of Shrub, much less Obama. It’s vital for the Democrats to oppose him in everything he does so they can say not only that they aren’t responsible for his mistakes but that they actually did their best to prevent them.

  189. 189.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 7:05 pm

    @Peale:

    It’s so funny how that has been totally forgotten. Remember all the principled Republicans who were going to vote against Donald Trump? He did better with Republicans than Clinton did with Democrats.

    Financially secure Republicans put him in office. They rolled the dice not because they’re desperate white working class, but because they’re arrogant and soft and they were sure they would not get hurt or suffer any downside.

  190. 190.

    SenyorDave

    November 14, 2016 at 7:05 pm

    @Kay: We didn’t learn from GWB. How many scandals were there under his administration? Then we have Obama, who probably has the cleanest administration in modern history, and the GOP spends half its time investigating Benghazi. More time than they spent of fucking 9/11.

    But aren’t the Trump kids so good?

  191. 191.

    Richard Mayhew

    November 14, 2016 at 7:05 pm

    @Baud: 1-2-3-4-5 like the combination to my luggage

  192. 192.

    SgrAstar

    November 14, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    @Kay:

    No one is going to stop this man. We’re just not up to the challenge.

    Don’t give up yet! As a veteran of past protest movements and resistance to state overreach, I think we are up to the challenge. Not saying it’s not going to be excruciatingly painful (it already is), just saying We. Are. In. The. Majority. Let’s never, never forget that.

  193. 193.

    Quinerly

    November 14, 2016 at 7:07 pm

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
    KOS has a piece. Looks like it was on the CBS news.

  194. 194.

    Baud

    November 14, 2016 at 7:07 pm

    @SenyorDave: The media is about to develop scandal fatigue.

  195. 195.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 7:07 pm

    Former RNC Chair Michael Steele is absolving the Bannon appointment.
    It’s going to be fine.

  196. 196.

    Mary G

    November 14, 2016 at 7:07 pm

    I am listening to Hamilton and imagining it in a crown, red velvet cape, and tights.

  197. 197.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 7:08 pm

    @jk:

    He deserves a one way ticket aboard a spaceship full of villager deplorables headed for the Andromeda galaxy.

    Definitely a reservation on the B Ark.

  198. 198.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 7:09 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I agree. I wish Bernie Sanders would stop speaking for Democrats. He’s not even a Democrat. He’s negotiating with himself hoping he’ll get something from Donald Trump. It’s disgusting. Jesus fucking christ Bernie. You’re fawning all over this guy in the hopes of getting a highway bill? There’s not going to be any highway bill anyway, but even if there were, this handing over every shred of self respect is appalling.

  199. 199.

    Peale

    November 14, 2016 at 7:11 pm

    @Kay: yep. So it was a combination of poor whites, many of whom opted not to vote, online mean liberals who voted for her, a protest movement against police brutality and Clinton herself. But not middle class white voters. Couldn’t be them. Republican middle class voters couldn’t have been so bad.

  200. 200.

    gogol's wife

    November 14, 2016 at 7:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yeah, they’re effing terrified of those poor bereaved mothers that Hillary had at her convention. I think that was a big factor. Just the name Black Lives Matter just terrifies them.

    Plus tax cuts.

  201. 201.

    Kay

    November 14, 2016 at 7:12 pm

    @SenyorDave:

    I loathe the Trump kids. Not the little one. The adults. The boys are objectively horrible and Ivanka reminds me of women who conduct business seminars. I hate that forced cheeriness.

  202. 202.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 7:13 pm

    @Kay:

    They’re having a revolution! Except it’s a very comfortable and plush revolution, where everyone makes a lot of money and stays friends.

    It’s the most amazing revolution! You never had a revolution so great!

  203. 203.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:14 pm

    @Kay:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if some people are starting to hope that Daddy Obama is going to suddenly declare martial law so they can have their Obamacare and their outrage, too.

    Sorry, suckers. You broke the country, it’s yours now. No one is coming to save you.

  204. 204.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:15 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Missed (thankfully) MTP Daily, but heard (tragically) a few minutes of that show with Halperin and Heileman. They had the execrable Mary Matalin on, who said of the RNC PR BS and Bannon appointments that they would “make the trains run on time.” I think someone else used the same Mussoliniesque phrase a couple of days ago, which was mentioned here by one of the commenters. They are honestly not even trying to keep this shit in dog-whistle range anymore, are they? Loud and proud with the fascism.

    (When they brought on “Democrat” Harold Ford, I changed stations. Much as I did earlier during “All Things Considered” when NPR interviewed Bernie Sanders to get his views on how to fix the Democratic Party. Why not go for the trifecta and bring on Joe Manchin?)

  205. 205.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:17 pm

    @SgrAstar:

    I think what Kay’s saying is that we’re going to have to save ourselves, because the institutions that were supposedly set up to protect us turn out to have been hollowed out by the Republicans.

  206. 206.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 7:18 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    At this point, I’m kind of wishing that the “deep state” that conspiracy theorists believe in would do something.

    They did something two weeks ago to get the exact result we’re currently seeing. Don’t count on them getting buyer’s remorse.

  207. 207.

    gogol's wife

    November 14, 2016 at 7:19 pm

    @Kay:

    Yes, they did a story about how he assaulted their reporter, plus they also ran a spread of the 12 other women who accused him of assaulting them. Today I came home and found the latest issue, with a big glossy picture of “President Trump” on the cover, “His astonishing journey to the White House.” Straight into the trash can.

  208. 208.

    OGLiberal

    November 14, 2016 at 7:20 pm

    @debbie: Trump Tower is near my office so would be a huge inconvenience but would probably him staying out of the White House so he doesn’t gold plate everything and put in a bunch of tacky pieces of furniture.

    Of course he doesn’t want to live there…America’s is for plebes.

  209. 209.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 7:21 pm

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    I keep thinking of that old saying: “First rate managers hire first rate people, second rate managers hire third rate people.”

    Fifth rate managers hire their relatives because they can’t trust anyone else.

  210. 210.

    JaneE

    November 14, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    @catclub: Most of the employees would not need a high clearance. Some facilities are required to clear everyone, others only those with need to access classified information. How high a clearance will depend on the nature of the information you need to do your job. I have worked for defense contractors twice, and was cleared twice, and never in the 11 years total did I ever see any classified information. I did see a “TOP SECRET” envelope containing classified documents once, when a secretary was hand walking it to some meeting. Even 40 years ago no one went to the trouble of getting Top Secret clearance unless it was really necessary.

  211. 211.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:23 pm

    @Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire):

    I don’t see how Ivanka gets once, since she’s friends with Putin’s girlfriend and Crooked Hillary’s daughter.

    Not sure which friendship is more disqualifying in a Trump administration.

  212. 212.

    dogwood

    November 14, 2016 at 7:24 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    People do have to own -up. Last night there was a discussion about how devastating the ’04 loss was to so many. Part of me breathed a sigh of relief that night. I knew the war was going to become increasingly unpopular, yet there was no quick fix, happy ending there. Kerry would have faced a republican congress, so no chance at much domestically. I didn’t want dems to left holing the bag when it all came down due to decisions made by W.

  213. 213.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    @Mary G:

    I am back to reading nothing but Balloon Juice again. So much for courage. Maybe tomorrow.

    That’s me, pretty much. I glance at Gin & Tacos, BooMan, and Digby, but I haven’t been on Facebook since Thursday or Friday, and I’m mostly ignoring my email right now. If it weren’t for this place, I’m not sure where I’d turn.

  214. 214.

    OGLiberal

    November 14, 2016 at 7:28 pm

    @SenyorDave: The Trump boys talk strategy……

    https://timeentertainment.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/christian_bale_04.jpg?w=600

  215. 215.

    OGLiberal

    November 14, 2016 at 7:32 pm

    @SenyorDave: Here’s Eric Trump providing some lighting at Dad’s rally:

    http://www.ivid.it/fotogallery/imagesearch/images/swing_kids_giovani_ribelli_robert_sean_leonard_thomas_carter_010_jpg_mszd.jpg

  216. 216.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:33 pm

    @Kay:

    It’s decadence. It’s taking it for granted that what they inherited will continue to exist, with no effort on their part.

    The conventional wisdom, for a family industrial fortune, is “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.”

    I guess it takes a little longer for a nation ?

  217. 217.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 14, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s vital for the Democrats to oppose him in everything he does so they can say not only that they aren’t responsible for his mistakes but that they actually did their best to prevent them.

    This a million times. That’s exactly what the Republicans did to President Obama. That’s one page we need to borrow from their book.

  218. 218.

    Joyce H

    November 14, 2016 at 7:38 pm

    @Kay:

    I loathe the Trump kids. Not the little one. The adults. The boys are objectively horrible and Ivanka reminds me of women who conduct business seminars. I hate that forced cheeriness.

    When I caught a clip of Trump’s acceptance speech (something I did NOT watch), and saw that little boy standing there looking terrified, it occurred to me to wonder – if the Secret Service witnesses the President beating his wife or child, what do they do?

  219. 219.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:39 pm

    @ms_canadada:

    Well, depending on where you are, I might be in your vicinity sometime in the next week or so. Planning to drive from Atlanta to Owen Sound to spend (American) Thanksgiving with my cousin and his wife, and just chill* for a few days.

    * The one thing that would keep me home is a major snow/blizzard event in the GL area, so “chill” may be the wrong choice of words.

  220. 220.

    petesh

    November 14, 2016 at 7:46 pm

    @Baud: According to an apparently informed source (I am NOT joking), for many years the nuclear codes password was: 00000000

  221. 221.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:47 pm

    @debbie:

    Rich, considering Pence is trying to take his emails private.

    I absolutely believe you, but is there a link for this?

  222. 222.

    dogwood

    November 14, 2016 at 7:48 pm

    @OGLiberal:
    I’ve been thinking about the residence staff this week. Couple years ago I read a book about upstairs at the White House. Wonderful interviews with retired staffers. Mostly AA, many worked 40-50 years. They loved their jobs, revere the house, and speak warmly and fondly of every family. Lots of wonderful stories. One woman spoke of the transition period and how the families and staff adjust. In her time there the starkest transition in terms of how the families lived their daily lives was between the Reagans and the Bushes. Well this one is gonna be a doozy. I can’t image these people being forced to work for a racist president. It hurts my heart.

  223. 223.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    November 14, 2016 at 7:51 pm

    For all of the can kicking the founding fathers did about slavery, all the chickens came home to roost in this election. I think Black Lives Matter, coupled with Khizr Khan’s attempt to shame those white working class “real Americans”, was the tipping point into fascism. White people are overwhelmingly mean, petty and vindictive, massively uninformed about the Constitution and the rule of law they don’t understand and take for granted because LEO is the new (old) KKK and is reactionary, and white people are deeply, deeply mediocre. The center couldn’t hold, and we couldn’t keep the Republic.

  224. 224.

    Another Scott

    November 14, 2016 at 7:52 pm

    Doesn’t 5 USC § 3110 still apply?

    (b) A public official may not appoint, employ, promote, advance, or advocate for appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement, in or to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control any individual who is a relative of the public official. An individual may not be appointed, employed, promoted, or advanced in or to a civilian position in an agency if such appointment, employment, promotion, or advancement has been advocated by a public official, serving in or exercising jurisdiction or control over the agency, who is a relative of the individual.

    If they can’t be employed, appointed, etc., then how could they be eligible for a clearance?

    Adam? Anyone?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  225. 225.

    Botsplainer

    November 14, 2016 at 8:01 pm

    @Kay:

    Those would be the “good” Germans, those conservative residents of Berlin who got squicked out by excess and vice if their cosmopolitan city.

    He could always be controlled…

  226. 226.

    Mnemosyne

    November 14, 2016 at 8:08 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Was that passed after the JFK years when he made his brother Attorney General?

  227. 227.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 8:11 pm

    @jk:

    I’m an atheist, but if there were a God this would be the perfect time for some divine intervention that would reward us with a new blockbuster Trump scandal causing a stampede of faithless electors to switch their vote to Hillary.

    I hope very hard that Fahrenthold and Eichenwald will continue digging and committing journalism. Whatever they’re able to unearth may not, almost surely will not, change the outcome of the election, but a steady release of damning and damaging news could throw him off center.

  228. 228.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 8:14 pm

    @Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire): We are not in the last days of the Republic. When 650,000 of us are strewn across battlefields from Pennsylvania to Florida and from New Mexico to South Carolina and there’s still no end in sight, then we might be in the last days of the Republic.

    I’m not going to say things aren’t grim. That we’re in uncharted territory. That we appear to be nationally compromised by Russia and that the Chinese now perceive their long game to eclipse may have sped itself up. All of this is true. But we’ve come through worse. And when we have we’ve almost always made advances. But no advancement, no progress in America has ever come without a sharp, strong, and uncomfortable attempt at retrenchment and reprisal. This is what happens when your state and society are Constitutional Republic version of liberal democracy and, at the same time, the oldest and most aged of revolutionary states and societies. The latter tend towards reactionary beliefs, attitudes, and actions as they age.

  229. 229.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 8:16 pm

    @debbie:

    Until a few weeks ago I had never even heard of this woman (no TV, never watched The Apprentice even when I had a TV), but she strikes me as the distillation of awfulness. Am I wrong?

  230. 230.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    November 14, 2016 at 8:19 pm

    @Another Scott: “If the President does it, it’s not illegal.”

    President Nixon.

  231. 231.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 8:23 pm

    @catclub: No, if you work for a contractor providing services to the government and the statement of work for your position requires that you have a clearance, then you have to have that clearance. The level will be specified in the contract. Once you have the clearance, however, it is only to access materials that you need to know at the level you are cleared for.

  232. 232.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 8:26 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I can almost guarangoddamntee you that Trump will be named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.”

    Guar.
    An.
    Tee.

    By rights, of course, given all the beautiful souls that have left us since January, the 2016 “Person of the Year” should be the Grim Reaper.

  233. 233.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 8:29 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: Actually he denied that Trump is an anti-Semite:
    http://observer.com/2016/07/jared-kushner-the-donald-trump-i-know/

  234. 234.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 8:33 pm

    @Kay:

    Ivanka reminds me of women who conduct business seminars.

    OMG, that is exactly it! Just a brilliant catch, Kay!

  235. 235.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    @Another Scott: It should apply.

  236. 236.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 8:38 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I can almost guarangoddamntee you that Trump will be named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.”

    Should be Putin.

  237. 237.

    Roger Moore

    November 14, 2016 at 8:42 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Not an anti-Semite, but #1 with anti-Semites.

  238. 238.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 14, 2016 at 8:45 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That we’re in uncharted territory.

    O/T, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for using “uncharted,” correctly. I am sick unto death hearing radio and tv pundits (or “pundints,” if Mrs. Greenspan is to be trusted) saying “unchartered.” Grates on every membrane of my ears.

  239. 239.

    Another Scott

    November 14, 2016 at 8:47 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Yup. 1967.

    Paul Blumenthal at HuffPo:

    These appointments would face the immediate barrier of anti-nepotism law. The president is banned from appointing relatives to any civilian position in the federal government.

    When the law was passed in 1967, it was presumed to be a congressional response to President John F. Kennedy appointing his brother, Robert Kennedy, as attorney general. The author of the bill, however, repeatedly denied this was his motive.

    Rep. Neal Smith instead aimed the legislation, the Federal Postal Act of 1967, at nepotism in the postal service, and it applied broadly to both the executive and legislative branches. He said it applied to Congress because “there were 50 members who had their wives on the payrolls.”

    Some scholars believe that the application of anti-nepotism laws to presidential Cabinet appointments is unconstitutional ― the argument being that Senate confirmation is the only appropriate check Congress may impose on presidential appointments.

    Trump could appoint his kids to head task forces or serve as unofficial “czars” with policy portfolios. The precedent for this is President Bill Clinton appointing then-first lady Hillary Clinton to head the official Health Reform Task Force in 1993.

    Critics filed lawsuits challenging both her appointment under the anti-nepotism laws and the ability of the task force to meet in secret. A D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upheld both her task force role and its ability to meet in secret.

    If Donnie has enough smart lawyers, they can probably find a way to get his people on the job in some form or other, but it’s not at all clear if they could get a clearance. But IANAL.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  240. 240.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 8:52 pm

    @Another Scott: Why would he bother paying a lawyer on this? Just do it. Who is going to stop him/them?

  241. 241.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 8:53 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Well if we either own the vehicle of choice outright or stole it, then unchartered might be accurate.

  242. 242.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 8:56 pm

    @Corner Stone: Everything he or his people do is going to result in an IG complaint or a legal challenge in the courts. There will be civil rights groups and ethics watchdog groups and others challenging everything. They may not win, but they’ll generate bad headlines and slow things way, way down.

  243. 243.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    November 14, 2016 at 9:06 pm

    @jk: The Andromeda Galaxy is not interested in becoming our latest Superfund Site.

  244. 244.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    November 14, 2016 at 9:10 pm

    @Kay:

    “bring the country together”

    This means “make all those people come crawling up to lick our boots and admit we are right and they are wrong.”

    In case anyone needed to have that translated from the Authoritarian dialect of Assholish.

  245. 245.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 9:11 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: And?

  246. 246.

    Another Scott

    November 14, 2016 at 9:15 pm

    @Corner Stone: I figure he’s going to have trouble staffing government agencies as it is. People in the DOJ aren’t going to want to throw away their careers by ignoring the laws and the Constitution they took an oath to protect.

    Trump’s people are putting up all kinds of trial balloons (heh) now. We need to pushback and not just assume that they can do what they want without consequences.

    We’ve got a lot of ideals worth preserving. Yeah, it will be bad going forward, but we have to try.

    There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.

    – Malcom X

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  247. 247.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 9:32 pm

    @Another Scott:

    People in the DOJ aren’t going to want to throw away their careers by ignoring the laws and the Constitution they took an oath to protect.

    Oh yeah? I keep being mystified that some people seem to want to cling to normality. To rules, regulations, things that make sense. We are past all that now.
    The R’s control everything. The IG, the bullshit rules and regulations. None of that matters now. Trump told people he was going to jail his political opponent if he was elected. They cheered him.

  248. 248.

    Aleta

    November 14, 2016 at 9:36 pm

    Bet he has already opened access to some classified info to Jared and kids. This is retroactive effort to duck and cover up.

  249. 249.

    Another Scott

    November 14, 2016 at 9:40 pm

    @Corner Stone: Trumps voters didn’t swear an oath to protect the Constitution.

    Saturday Night Massacre:

    When Cox issued a subpoena to President Nixon, asking for copies of taped conversations recorded in the Oval Office and authorized by Nixon, the President initially refused to comply. On Friday, October 19, 1973, Nixon offered what was later known as the Stennis Compromise—asking the infamously hard-of-hearing Senator John C. Stennis of Mississippi to review and summarize the tapes for the special prosecutor’s office. Cox refused the compromise that same evening and it was believed that there would be a short rest in the legal maneuvering while government offices were closed for the weekend.

    However, on the following day (a Saturday) Nixon ordered Attorney General Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused, and resigned in protest. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He also refused and resigned.[4][5]

    Nixon then ordered the Solicitor General, Robert Bork (as acting head of the Justice Department), to fire Cox. Both Richardson and Ruckelshaus had given personal assurances to Congressional oversight committees that they would not interfere, but Bork had not. Although Bork would later claim that he believed Nixon’s order to be valid and appropriate, he still considered resigning to avoid being “perceived as a man who did the President’s bidding to save my job.”[6]

    Even partisans have their do-not-cross lines.

    We’ll see how bad it will be, but we have to stand up for what we believe in even if we can’t yet see a way to stop bad things from happening.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  250. 250.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 9:42 pm

    @Corner Stone: And what? All I can do is provide factual answers to question about how the government works in terms of things like policy making or getting a clearance or appointments, etc. Or how government can be tied up by both the internal bureaucracy or external interest groups.

    I get that you’re upset. I get that you’re processing in the comments. And its not my place, nor would I ever suggest you stop. But I would like to suggest that things are not as bad as your reactions seem to make them out to be. And that’s not to suggest that things are good. This is not last Tuesday at noon with all the promise that day seemed to hold. But its also not the fall of Rome either.

    Right now, between the most senior of the President Carter appointments, as well as the much younger still President Clinton and Obama appointments, the Federal judiciary at the district and appellate levels maintains a majority of judges appointed by these three Democratic Presidents. That isn’t going to change any time soon. Trying to pack the district and appellate courts isn’t going to be done quickly or easily. And even with a Supreme Court justice, provided the Senate Democratic caucus doesn’t slow things way, way down and the nomination, advise and consent occurs at a normal pace we’re talking March or April before whoever is nominated gets their final vote. This means that the Supreme Court will be 4-4 this term and if the nomination can be slowed into the summer, then at least the first half of the 2017-2018 docket will be chosen by a 4-4 court. So few momentous, major change of direction cases, because neither side wants to risk a 4-4 tie that affirms an appellate decision the other side can’t live with. And even with a 5th conservative justice we’re just back to where we were before Associate Justice Scalia died.

    From what I’m observing things are going to be a shitshow. Even the folks around the President Elect with government experience don’t seem to actually have a clue what they’re doing. This too will slow things way, way down. Right now inexperience and incompetence are good things. Remember, our system of government is not meant to be efficient – as in quick – even in a crisis. Its a high veto point system, and inherently ademocratic to anti-democratic specifically because the Founders and Framers were concerned with something like this happening. They wanted to make it as hard as possible for the system to be turned against the citizenry, to be turned toward autocracy. That works in the favor of the loyal (to the Constitution) opposition.

  251. 251.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 9:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Respectfully, IMO you are coming at this from a perspective of understanding the built-in rules and regulations of a somewhat coherent government. The R’s have done their best to be dysfunctional but overall everyone tipped their cap and played by the rules set in place for some time. We hated their gridlock but our side (D) knew that was a possibility.
    If I may, I would humbly suggest you are still clinging to a framework that makes sense to you. Laws, rules, regulations, procedural authority. All those things are steeped in your working adult life.
    I simply believe those no longer apply. The D Senate will not obstruct. They do not know how, and further, they truly believe in government at their core. The R’s will take every advantage of this.
    No one really knows what Trump truly believes. We do not have to. We know what Ryan, McConnell and Bannon believe. Trump’s closest advisors such as Kushner and Ghouliani – they have shown us what they truly believe.
    Yeah, I am shook after the election results. I live and know many white racists so I always knew we could do this. But god damn. Nothing mattered this election. Nothing.
    I am personally flabbergasted that any single rational person, at this point, could possibly believe there is a limit on what they will try to do. And given what he has shown us – get away with, with no consequences to him. Someone else may pay the piper. But it will be too late, the deed will be done and he will be moving on to the next thing.

  252. 252.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 9:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But its also not the fall of Rome either.

    Of course it is. It has been a long term series of the fall of Rome.
    That you do not get that is as scary as anything else posted here.

  253. 253.

    Corner Stone

    November 14, 2016 at 10:03 pm

    He just appointed a white nationalist as his chief strategist. The media is saying, well, let’s give him a chance. Democratic politicians are saying, well, let’s give him a chance.
    The fucking P-Elect has not come out and told his supporters to be at peace with all of America. After 200+ incidents of hate crimes and terrorism. Further, his staff has been saying how it is incumbent on Obama and HRC to come out and tell people to calm the fuck down.
    He wants TS for his kids. the same kids that will run a 500 company org in a “blind trust” that no fucking body is going to stop or oppose. Good luck IG.
    It’s a slow motion putsch and a real time kleptocracy. If this isn;t the fucking fall of Rome then what is it?
    We impeached Nixon for jacking with his political opponents and then telling us to fuck off. Trump has a nation state act on his behalf multiple times, then the FBI step in twice in 11 days before the election. And all this after he said in a debate watched by 60M+ citizens that he would jail his opponent if he won. And they cheered him on to victory.
    Tell me. If he appoints his son Barron to the Senate as special envoy can we then start considering this may actually be the fall of Rome?

  254. 254.

    LesGS

    November 14, 2016 at 10:33 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: He may not be. (I can’t read his mind, though I do believe he loves his now-Jewish daughter, Ivanka (in his own special way)). But – and I’m not saying anything novel to this commentariat – he literally (literally) promoted the anti-Semite Bannon. He has committed an *action*. For all practical purposes, Trump is an anti-Semite.

    Maya Angelou – “When someone shows you who they are, believe them; the first time.”

  255. 255.

    Adam L Silverman

    November 14, 2016 at 10:35 pm

    @LesGS: I was just answering the question of had his Jewish son in law said anything. I wasn’t arguing that he isn’t.

  256. 256.

    J R in WV

    November 14, 2016 at 10:40 pm

    @Joyce H:

    Thanks for the cite re Trump hiring his kids.

    I would like to believe that will be the case going forward over the next four years.

    But I’m pretty dubious that the Trumpettes won’t find a loophole that will last longer than the presidency they are working to monetize. Like working for any one of the vast contracting firms, or working for free, or…. the mind reels, you see.

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