(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
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Something you CAN DO NOW pic.twitter.com/jKT77adJTp
— Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey) November 17, 2016
Notes from some of our own commentors —
WereBear:
Quick reminder that the Could Happen to You site is live on Tumblr to take your health care stories!
Francis:
Speaking of legislative strategies — Why aren’t we asking our Congressmen to start holding town hall meetings on ACA repeal?With very little effort we should be able to fill rooms of people telling true stories about how the ACA is a matter of life-and-death.
***********
Apart from non-stop guerilla warfare, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week?
Schlemazel
I got that letter from Penzeys yesterday. Will be buying a bunch of stuff from them this weekend.
I will be calling the committee this morning. It isn’t much, certainly not enough but there isn’t much more I can doo
John not McCain
I think I’ll open carry while wearing a liberty tree/tyrant blood t-shirt with a picture of Trump on the back with a surveyors mark on his face in front of trump tower.
Cermet
We are in this shit because? Well, Huntington Post has a good article on why and here is a key out take from the Clition campaign on what they were doing in Michigan:
Aside: they point out the small handed dick head made one of his last stops in Michigan! Great thinking, Hillary!
What a great idea – maybe loose but at least you played mind games. This was out best candidate!?
Schlemazel
@John not McCain:
Can’r see why anyone would get excited over you doing that. If seems a normal American thing to do
Baud
@Cermet: Yes. Stop nitpicking. The top 100 reasons we lost were evil, outside forces.
Schlemazel
@Cermet:
who knows, maybe tight
Yes she was
Schlemazel
@Baud:
join me in nitpicking the English
rikyrah
Morning,Everyone???
Another Holocene Human
What happened to the BJ talk about helping people get their papers, please to register to vote? I’m still down for that. Not having a BC affects a hell of a lot more than voting. There is no right to a BC in the US, so often survivors of abusive families do not have theirs and a court will not compel the parent(s) to give it up.
Baud
@Schlemazel: I have no credibility when it comes to typos.
Baud
@rikyrah: Morning.
Another Holocene Human
The only reason I have my BC is that my mother wanted me at work, bringing in money and knew I needed identity docs for that. At first I could only borrow them and give them back but eventually I took them for good and I know she was reluctant to hand them over.
Baud
@Another Holocene Human: That sounds like a productive use of resources.
satby
Last day in Delhi. Been fun but challenging due to the currency crisis; I basically got through an entire week on what amounted to less than $30.00 in cash. Fortunately, the hotel I stayed at had a good car service that took my debit card, so I could get to the events. Much more expensive, but better than nothing. The lines at ARMs continue to be 4 hours long, and frequently the money runs out before you get your turn. I love India, but I’m ready to come home.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Well there is your first mistake, assuming intent. You assume it was a typo I went right for does not know lose from loose. It is snotty and dismissive which, in this case, seemed to be the note I wanted to hit. I am so sick and tired of some people siding with the trolls here in an attempt to undo the entire party over a bad loss.
Another Holocene Human
@Schlemazel: Yeah, she was the best candidate once she chased all the credible candidates away. She would have been a good president, even a great president, but you have to win the election first. Maybe she should have sat the hell down knowing her own limitations.
Michigan isn’t even the problem, really. She went to Flint. Maybe she’ll even win the state. WTH is up with PA? And why did we lose Florida?
In 2012 Obama’s team had a computer database that had tabs on every voter. They would call you until you voted. In 2016 I was knocking on doors for people who’d already voted, and we missed people who were at work. Shotgun, slapdash approach. Meeting 2012 targets is not good enough because voting population increases every year! We left votes on the table. We may have actually turned out less of our key voters because in my county there are lots of college educated and we know that group was a swing vote this time. Our margins ought to have been UP in cities, not static.
Baud
@Another Holocene Human: She made the same mistake we did in thinking the Obama coalition was a real thing.
And let’s stop with the zombie lie that she is responsible for other mystery candidates not running. I hate that as much as I hate when Dems are held responsible for GOP actions.
Cermet
@Another Holocene Human: One can order a birth certificate rather easily as long as you know parents names and SS numbers – I did for both myself here in Maryland and for my daughter in Florida (the BC, not her being there.) Maybe where you are is different but getting legal copies wasn’t too difficult for me – I even used a national site – a bit more costly but much easier.
As for Hillary’s campaign, sorry but when they had hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, using it wisely – paying top people who know what they are doing – should be a given; knowing they are weak in a critical state and not focusing resources and time is such a bush league move; either the people weren’t good or else she ignored these warnings from her people – that is most certainly her responsibility and a major reason she lost – that I can’t forgive.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
And there is why snotty and dismissive is the correct tone at this point. When you try to reason with them the bilge just comes rushing up and we have to listen to the same bullshit that was demonstrated false a week ago.
Invest in rusty chainsaw futures
CarolDuhart2
A test run:The Resistance Spreadsheet
Are there any useful links you want me to add? Please post for now-I will give out an email once I have more time to edit this.
gene108
@satby:
At least you’ll miss this screw up The new Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 notes do not fit existing ATM’s.
It’ll take a few more weeks to recalibrate the existing ATM’s,
Also, outside of the wedding, did you get to do any sight seeing?
Glad you enjoyed your trip.
Applejinx
@Baud:
She had orders of magnitude more money than anybody else, except for some of the Republicans in their primary, and even they weren’t quite up to speed with it. Zombie lie, seriously? How the flying fuck is it a ‘lie’ that, when Hillary Clinton is running for President, well connected AND with impossibly vast sums of money, it’s nuts to even bother getting in the way?
O’Malley was nuts to run. At least Sanders didn’t start out intending to win, but I can’t even figure out what O’Malley was thinking. Up until this election, everybody up to and including Russell fucking Brand unanimously agreed that the person with the most money spent on their campaign would win, and this is why the Dem strategy leaned on the donor class so hard. And the answer to that equation was Clinton versus Bush, and for a while there nobody doubted it.
A majority of America was puking over the prospect and asking how we got to this place, and still nobody doubted it.
And yeah, the Dems could have afforded to send canvassers to Sullivan, NH. And Michigan, and a bunch of other places.
Elizabelle
@Cermet: not in the mood for you. Please fuck off. Why don’t you run for office, asshat?
Cermet
@Schlemazel: Hillary was and remains responsible for the main strategy of her campaign – whether anyone “out here” could be better is not an issue since she was the candidate selected to run. Yet knowing she was weak in Michigan and Wisconsin and rural Pennsylvania and not focusing like a laser on those states is not acceptable; also, if Putin the pig was so important, why not make commercials with him standing with the small handed dick head and showing that ass’s praise of the dictator and then asking is that who they want to vote for; this would have carried well in the rural areas of PA, WA and MI.
Cermet
@Elizabelle: Because I know better – not capable of doing that and no delusions that I could; apparently, neither was Hillary capable even through she was an excellent politician and Secretary of State; I see you need some coffee or are you normally that disagreeable because someone says something you don’t like? lol
Elizabelle
My little bit for the resistance today: first one down to the hotel breakfast room. TV on local news channel. Couldn’t find the weather channel, so seized the remote and have hidden it at my table. Blessed quiet. Can hear the other guest chewing his waffle.
Fine by me.
Happy Friday.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I’m with you.
Elizabelle
@Cermet: I don’t feel like filleting the Democratic candidate who ran hard and won the popular vote. Not first thing in the morning.
Could you please stop?
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: @JPL: If a tree in the forest whines about the wind and all the rabbits and squirrels and chipmunks and titmice and nuthatch’s etc etc ignore it, did it make a sound?
Elizabelle
@Cermet: more seriously, I don’t think you realize how easy it is for this blog to lose readers if all we are treated to is despair and Monday Tuesday Wednesday … morning quarterbacking.
Annie put up a post with a suggestion on something positive we can do.
Also: Trump only had to run against Hillary. I have never seen the level of foreign and press malfeasance that lined up against her. Please be more reasonable.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s deep!
In other news to bitch about, it’s been a long, long time since my area has had measurable rain. The critters of the forest are not happy.
Inmourning
I dont know about you guys, but I hear “Satan laughing with delight” every time we focus backwards instead of forwards. My efforts to contact my representative resulted in two identical form letters containing no commitment to take any action. My next step is to share these with the newspaper and try to get people to understand that Trump has already started breaking his promises.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: About as deep as a bee’s knees.
Botsplainer
@JPL:
We have a burn ban in place, it’s been so dry.
JPL
Sessions as Attorney General according to CBS news.
@Botsplainer: Yesterday they issued watering restrictions. Thursday and Sunday are my days. We can water before ten am and after 4 pm. ( not too bad)
Elizabelle
@JPL: Just spent a few days near the Western NC wildfires. Ash on my car. The smoke is actually worse miles out.
Charlotte Observer called it a “California style wildfire,” a type not seen in this area in recent memory.
reporting from BAT CAVE: (I love Bat Cave. This year, the kudzu was dead from the drought. Have you seen that before??)
North Carolina suffered tribulation of fire and rain this year. GOP Governor Pat McCrory tried to burnish his reputation by being on the spot and consoler and chief, but hopefully that does not work to retain his office. Democrat Roy Cooper up by about 5,000 votes; they’re canvassing the results, might go to a recount.
Did hear that two lovely young women, one formerly with campus Republicans, are challenging a few Democratic votes in their county. Voters not reachable by mail! And so it will go.
But hope that forest fires become Roy Cooper’s problem, real soon. Suspect his lead is insurmountable, and McCrory is just working the refs and voting public (Democrat win; voter fraud!)
raven
@JPL: Because my bride broke her arm we’re going to have to go back home a week early. We’re hoping we can use the exams from the Ortho here to get surgery scheduled Monday but I have a feeling that is a stretch.
Elizabelle
@raven: Sorry to hear that. Ouch.
Heck of a way to get out of dealing with a T-Day turkey.
Jeffro
@Baud:
Seconded and moving on for some ACTION today – thanks for the number/info, Anne Laurie!
I’ll be calling about that + calling Kaine and Warner to suggest town hall meetings and NO COMPROMISING on Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid today.
debbie
@Baud:
I think we also made the mistake of thinking she could overcome the Hillary hate in the country.
Elizabelle
@debbie: And the shadows, clouds, and EMAILS! EMAILS! EMAILS! bestowed upon her by the New York Times. Never mind the cable news lunatics.
Hope they are losing subscribers by the hundreds. Bleeding out.
Jeffro
Speaking of joining the resistance: I’m not one for safety pins or yellow car magnets, but it sure felt good to print out a blue Rebel Alliance logo this morning and put it on my door at work. (Just in time for ROGUE ONE, too ;)
No bumper stickers though – why be a target for Trumpkins?
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Condolences. It sucks that your insurance basically covers medical problems only in certain geographic areas? That’s kind of screwy. What if you had been in California, say?
raven
@Elizabelle: I do all the cooking anyway. They told her that they would have to immobilize her hand and elbow for 6 week.
Jeffro
@Inmourning: Most effective thing to do is call. Second most effective is write a letter to the editor or op-ed in a local paper.
Mai.naem.mobile
I talked to a Republican co worker of mine during the primary. He is your typical Trumpy. Older Fox News watching,Limbaugh listening white guy with financial issues of his own making. Also too, he’s a bit of a sexist. Anyhow,i remember him saying he wanted to see Trump in just to see what he would do – that he would be interesting to watch. He said he would never vote for Hillary because of the people the Clintons had killed. Look, he was never going to vote for a Dem but I think there’s people who voted for Trumpy because its like a reality show. They literally don’t realize that presidents do real important work and make a difference in your lives. My sis talked to 2 Trumpies yesterday who are on Medicaid. They really don’t think Trumpies going to do anything about Medicaid. These people have no idea what’s going to smack them on their faces and they need to be smacked on their faces.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Shit. How’d she do that?
rikyrah
@satby:
Glad you had this trip. ???
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: That was my mistake.
rikyrah
@Mai.naem.mobile:
And, I have no sympathy for them
WereBear
I have heard about that. It is an important issue.
Will call today! Will be in the car, taking pictures, and will have many stops and many chances.
Jeffro
@Mai.naem.mobile:
Yup. Folks better start calling their Congressfolks and Senators, demanding town hall hearings on how Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are saving lives (and taxpayer money!) – that was a great suggestion upthread.
Easy activism: I just made myself a quick cheat sheet of phone numbers for Senator Warner, Senator Kaine, Gov McAuliffe, Congressman Conolly, and the House Oversight Committee noted above. They’re each going to get a quick call from me daily about different topics. 5 minutes to make the list of numbers and 15 minutes/day to call, max. Go for it, folks – we have to do this.
waysel
@debbie: I made the mistake of thinking collusion between Gulliani, Cheafetz, Lewandowski, and the FBI, would not throw the election. Silly me. Silly Hillary for not being omnipotent and stopping that move in its tracks.
debbie
@Mai.naem.mobile:
My family’s in that group and I intend to be the first in line to laugh in their sorry-ass faces.
rikyrah
@JPL:
As a Black woman, I can’t tell you how upsetting this is.
Quinerly
@debbie:
True dat at #40.
rikyrah
@raven:
Sorry about it. Hope she is on the road to recovery.
Patricia Kayden
@Another Holocene Human: Great question. The Democratic Party has to be more proactive and aggressive about mitigating Republican voter suppression tactics. If it means finding a way to make sure that potential voters have the documents they need to register to vote, we should be all up on that and not wait until election time to address this issue.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Small consolation, but the guys in line for these positions are all egotistical assholes. Trump and his peon Kushner will never be able to keep them in line. Do they really think they can keep Giuliani from reverting to a hissing possum or Sessions from showing himeself to be no more than a sneering White supremacist? I don’t think so.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
Dems need to be more in-your-face, period. On everything.
Patricia Kayden
@satby: Hope you have some photos that you can share with Front Pagers at BJ. Glad you had a good time there.
@raven: Sorry to hear of your wife’s mishap.
JPL
@rikyrah: I just took the mutt for a walk, and was thinking about the dangers that lie ahead. Flynn and now Sessions, although Sessions has to get approved. He’ll be damaged at least.
bemused
@Mai.naem.mobile:
Josh Marshall reported later last night that Tom Price aiming to start Medicare phaseout in 6 to 8 months, 2017 as part of 2018 budget bill separate from ACA repeal which would take years. They want to move fast before the country notices. You could tell those folks this news but they wouldn’t believe it anyway.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WereBear:
As was discussed last week, it is relatively easy to get a certified copy of one’s birth certificate. It costs money, but the process itself is pretty straightforward.
In Florida, for AHH, you can do it by mail or:
JPL
@raven: That does suck, and I hope there are not any further delays. When are you returning?
weaselone
@Cermet:
You can blame Comey for this. Per Lewandowski, Trump’s barnstorming at the end of the campaign was directly related to the release about the emails. Until then, Hillary’s strategy in these states was going to be successful. Comey’s interference seems to have hurt Hillary with late deciders and reinvigorated Trump’s efforts in these states which was ultimately enough to get them to flip.
Patricia Kayden
@bemused: Wow. Republicans are so evil. Phase out healthcare for our less affluent Americans and replace it with what exactly? Nothing? Is that really what Americans who voted for Trump want? I hope zero Democrats go along with this plan so that it can be pinned on Republicans in 2018.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
Call me silly but I think those are exactly the reasons they are under consideration.
weaselone
As an aside, the FBI’s actions in the campaign are likely to have ramifications to our national security that are more damaging than those caused by any action by a foreign power on our soil since the war of 1812. In other words, the intelligence agency that will have carried out the most damaging attack against our nation’s national security will be the very agency tasked with that security. Thanks FBI.
sherparick
@Another Holocene Human: When you do the county by county comparison between 2012, Obama lost, but he contained his losses in Pennsylvania’s rural counties. For instance he lost Somerset County to Romney by 14,000 votes, but Clinton lost it by 20,000 votes. Compare Obama to Clinton: http://www.politico.com/2012-election/results/president/pennsylvania/ v. http://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/pennsylvania/
Also, on the spreads from the Democratic counties, Clinton was a always a few thousand votes short of Obama’s spreads. Obama came out of Philadelphia with a spread of almost 460,000 votes over Romney, but Trump got 14,000 more votes in Philadelphia then Romney did, while Clinton, who had more overall votes then Obama, ended up with only a 455,000 vote spread. Hence, just with these two counties, Trump picked up 25,000 votes on Clinton. She lost Pennsylvania by just 68,000 votes.
As a side note, when reading the post-mortem that come up from folks like Matt Bai, somehow the subject of “Emails” never or the Clinton Foundation “pay for play” articles that ran MSM never, never, comes up. Bai criticizes Clinton for not letting her interview her in August about “policy” (right, I am sure it would be one question on policy and 15 questions on emails, Clinton Foundation foreign donations, Wikileaks, speeches to Goldman Sachs, and her “lack of transparency and trustworthiness.” ) The MSM media, “both sides” and we are innocent as doves. I will admit her weaknesses as a candidate and her inability to put together a populist pro-worker message/story to counteract Trump’s storty (con game) made the election a lot closer than it should have been – (I do regret not supporting and nominating Sanders – he would have been the far stronger candidate against Trump as I simply underestimated the animus against Hillary that 25 years of right wing propaganda and created in the electorate against her and how her own mistakes would play into their narrative) – I still think she would have won, especially after her strong and his terrible debate performances but for the Comey letter and the subsequent media firestorm.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: Medicare is for old folks, all are eligible for it. Until now that is. Anyway, I call this the “Throw Grandma under the Healthcare Bus” bill. I like to quote Paul Ryan as saying, “First thing we do, kill all the grandmas.”
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
To become the butt of world-wide jokes? Bring it on!
Betty Cracker
@Another Holocene Human: I will note once again that I volunteered for the HRC campaign in Florida, and the experience you describe does not match mine. It’s a problem that volunteer centers were run inconsistently. But it wasn’t uniformly bad in my area. Down here, anyway, it was very similar to the 2008 and 2012 Obama campaign in terms of data and volunteer coordinator quality.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
That is why he is the Zombie eyed Granny Killer
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie You’re channeling W like a true Republican now. You must be related to some.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I was in Bat Cave on vacation w/ my siblings Oct 2015. Love that area! Did you visit that wonderful cider mill?
Betty Cracker
@raven: Oh, damn, it was broken, then. Sorry to hear that. Hope the pain is tolerable. She’s lucky to have you looking after her.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Yep. And when I talk to my congress critters I intend to do so in exactly these terms.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Throw in pigfucker just for the lulz.
PPCLI
@Elizabelle:
@Elizabelle:
Among the few bright spots in the post-election tsunami of crap was the caterwauling of the press about Trump dumping the pool to go out to dinner, and more generally of Trump making it clear that he and his administration will not be conceding the political press any of the perks they have come to cherish. Witness the long NYT article a day or two ago huffing and puffing in outrage about how having a bunch of reporters tagging along after the Prez is part of their critical function in a democracy blah, blah.
Reactions: a) Maybe you should have anticipated that the candidate who pens up reporters at his rallies and pours abuse on them, encouraging his supporters to do the same would not give a damn about you. And perhaps, you might have thought about that when deciding between genuinely investigating his sewer of an organization or just superficially rewriting and publishing yet another dishonest Judicial Watch press release about his opponent’s email practices, or a breathtakingly meretricious piece turning a trip to negotiate for the release of American hostages into more “shadows” and “clouds” over his opponent. Go back and reread the revolting and dishonest piece by your Public Editor saying in essence “hey, we don’t need to investigate Trump – the Post wrote a piece on his Foundation last week”, and please realize that you are getting exactly what you deserve.
b) Apparently instead of eating expense-account meals at upper-tier steak houses, and writing People-magazine calibre puff pieces about what Ivanka was wearing at dinner, your reporters will need to content themselves with the kind of archival work that Farehthold was doing at the Post. This is not a blow to democracy, it is forcing you to actually do what a press is supposed to do.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Did not even know of the cider mill. For next time.
No entry to Bat Cave or Chimney Rock this week, due to wildfires. (Saw one at Rumbling Bald Resort. Heard yesterday the smoke is strong in Charlotte.)
On your list, for another trip: Biscuit Head in Asheville. Yum. Ate at both locations, and would be there again this morning if still in town. They have a jams and butters bar.
ApricotPeach-Rosemary, jalapeno, it’s all good.Betty Cracker
@Mai.naem.mobile: I think the level of sheer dumbfuckery of people of all types is underestimated in favor of all these paeans to the WWC. It’s like any tragedy — people struggle to make sense of it all because they can’t bear to think such awful things happen for no good reason.
Shalimar
@Another Holocene Human: Which credible candidate did Hillary Clinton chase away who actually could have beaten her in the primaries? I love Elizabeth Warren more than Bernie, but it’s pretty clear she appeals to the same voters and there are also clearly a subset of American voters who will not vote for a woman. I doubt she could have done as well as Sanders did, and no one else would have been close to that. Clinton may have raised a ton of money to clear the field, but it wasn’t because she feared someone would beat her like Obama did in 2008. It was because she didn’t want the divisiveness of a sore loser competitor in May-July like Bernie turned out to be. Which was smart thinking, as it turns out.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: That sounds fabulous! I love fruit and pepper jams too and may try my hand at making some this year when the mister’s peppers come in. RE: Rumbling Bald, we rented a pontoon boat there and tooled around Lake Lure. Good times!
PsiFighter37
Sessions is next AG…you can believe there will be nationwide voter suppression instituted.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: Ryan wants to end Medicare as we know it so all those oldsters who voted for Trump are going to be in for a big surprise and a world of hurt.
sherparick
@Patricia Kayden: Yes, that apparently is what they want. Within that 47% there are a fair number of “We got ours Jack, you are not our problem.” There are also those who don’t figure there life is going to get any better, and will probably get worse and resent “Others” (Blacks, college educated women, Hispanics/immigrants, City people) who they think are getting helped. They even resent their neighbors who work for the Government (which are now considered plum jobs as opposed to 30 years ago.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/08/a-new-theory-for-why-trump-voters-are-so-angry-that-actually-makes-sense/ These folks want a Walker, and now a Trump, administration to get “even” for them and take away all those perceived “goodies.” They believe they will still be miserable, but the Liberals and the Others will be more miserable.
PPCLI
Also, we should start loudly demanding that great family leave plan, childcare deduction etc. that Ivanka kept promising, and Donald promised on camera in the debates. The second it was presented, it was obvious that the Republicans would never go for this in a million years. Make them own the broken promise.
[Ref: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/child-care ]
Baud
@sherparick: It’s the sparrow and the rod theory. Longtime BJ readers are quite familiar with it.
Shalimar
@PsiFighter37: I think nationwide voter suppression is coming no matter who is AG. That said, Alabama is the only state I can think of where Republicans suppress black voters just on the basic principle that they don’t think black people should vote, not because they fear Democrats might win. Sessions is a prize-winner in the minority-hating fair. At least he will be done as senator.
bemused
@Patricia Kayden:
Right, a catfood value voucher to buy their own private insurance and increase eligibility age to 67 and going up every two years, bwahaha. If they follow previous Paul Ryan “better way” plans, they will try to trick the seniors already on Medicare to not panic because “nothing will change for them” wink, wink and hope they don’t notice or care that Medicare as they know it will not exist for their adults kids and their grandchildren.
This is why I am going to continue calling my reps (already called Franken, Klobuchar and Nolan) and push hard for them to be yelling about this issue over and over.
D58826
Segregationist Jeff Sessions for AG
Milke Pompeo for CIA. Only thing I know about him is from the 11 hour hearing marathon. Impression is that my pencil holder is more qualified for just about any position you can name, except of course congressman from Kansas. Only qualification for that is remembering how to breath.
its going to be a very long 4 years.
Iowa Old Lady
I appreciate the news of what’s happening and the suggestions for how to oppose it, but I can’t pick at the scab of the election any more. I don’t find it useful.
OT: I gave a reading at a local art center last night that went well. I don’t know how the audience felt, but it lifted my spirits.
Elizabelle
I think getting folks sufficient ID to vote would be a great rallying point for Democrats. Something positive we can do, right down to assisting individual voters.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Democrats need to start working on that right now in preparation for 2018 and 2020. We shouldn’t wait until the last minute to start crying about voter suppression tactics. Those are only going to get worse now that Trump/Republicans control everything.
Another Scott
@sherparick: Agreed.
Funny how Ebola was going to kill us all in October 2014 so we had to lock up people who were treating patients and follow them around tiny towns in the NE. It suddenly became less of an issue after the election.
Funny how e-mail servers and a highly-rated charitable foundation were the main topics of interest in the fall of 2016, but became a non-issue after a certain Tuesday in November.
It used to be flag burning and defining marriage. Now the Outrage of the Day is anything that a Democratic candidate does in their personal life. Buy a house next door to your parents? That means you’re Corrupt™!!1 Give a speech to a charity that helps children? That means you’re a monster!!1 Lose a close election at least in part because the FBI had its finger on the scale? That means you’re the worst candidate ever!!1
I don’t know the solution. Democratic policies are popular. Republican policies are unpopular. But when people are bombarded with “news” that only excites the lizard brains that we each have, then it’s impossible to expect that rationality will win by large enough margins to count on a sensible outcome. So campaigns will have to get even larger and more expensive since polls can’t be trusted, amirite? That will coincidentally help all the political consultants and operatives who work on campaigns – just a coincidence, I’m sure.
Organizations like the AP and UPI and the BBC and NPR are supposed to be able to sort the actual important news from the propaganda and nonsense. They’re letting us down, and we’re going to continue to suffer until some organization takes reporting seriously again.
If the GOP is setting the agenda and defining the memes, then we’re losing.
Pfeiffer and Axelrod and the other brainiacs behind Obama’s successful campaigns should be working to improve the S/N in politics and political news and teaching others how to do it. Maybe they are, but it seems like they’re just playing small-ball (Twittering, appearing for 2 minutes on cableTV blab shows that nobody watches except other reporters, etc.). Maybe Obama will help kick-start something, but we can’t depend on one guy to get it done…
(sigh)
Have a good Friday, eveyone! Keep fighting!
Cheers,
Scott.
Patricia Kayden
@bemused:
This is significant for folks like me. I’m 47 and by the time I turn around a few times, I’ll be old enough to be eligible for Medicare. Oldsters should consider the fact that their children will soon need the entitlement programs that Ryan has promised to cut or alter to the point that they are useless. Will someone please think about the children?
SFAW
@Cermet:
You are abso-fucking-lutely right. If only Hitlary had someone — let’s call him/her a “Campaign Manager” — to handle the operational aspects of her campaign, then she would have swept all 57 states. Instead, she tried to do the day-to-day shit all on her own, and was clearly incompetent.
I mean, EVERYBODY knew that East Wombat County in WI/MI/PA/wherever was in danger of flipping, and shouldn’t Hitlary have taken time away from the low-value things like actually campaigning, and spent it on going through voter lists? After all, when she disappeared for a month after the Convention, her number skyrocketed, right?
Robby Mook, Bob Shrum — perhaps the two most competent campaign managers EVAH.
Jeffro
@Patricia Kayden: Exactly right – we have to get moving now, today. Thanks Patricia!
WereBear
@CarolDuhart2: If it is helpful: our tumblr for sharing healthcare stories:
Could Happen to You
If it fits: Thank you for the shoutout, Anne Laurie!
Kay
In da heart of the rustbelt. Someone alert President Trump.
1300 total jobs – 450 is 850. He can tell the public he saved 850 jobs. The President just lies all the time now.
Why not? He lied about the Ford plant in Kentucky and the lie is viral. 90% of people in Kentucky will believe it.
He can say anything he wants with absolutely no consequences or accountability.
How do normal people operate in this all-lies-all-the-time environment? I need a guidebook.
bemused
@Patricia Kayden:
My husband got on Medicare a year ago and I did a few months ago with a huge sigh of relief. My health insurance was $800+ a month and the plan I was on disappears in Jan. Even if our Medicare won’t get cut for the rest of our lives, which I doubt knowing Republicans, we are furious and sick that our kids, grandkids, friends and family could have that cushion taken away from them.
waysel
@WereBear: Should I refrain from sharing ‘Could Happen to You’ to my Facebook page?
SFAW
On a more pedestrian note:
For those of us too stupid to come up with the right words if/when we call the House Oversight Committee, is there some sort of “script,” or at least an outline of points to make, that we morons can glom onto? Didn’t spot anything upthread, and didn’t see anything at Sarah Gailey’s tweeter-thing. (Although I do appreciate her “gaileyfrey” thing.)
Apologies for not being tangential.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s not just that. Part of what Medicare does is silo the oldest and sickest and keep them out of the insurance pool that the rest of us operate in. That keeps our insurance costs down. We took the highest users of care and therefore most expensive people OUT of private markets which controlled costs for the younger and healthier.
When you add them in younger people have to cover a huge new high-risk pool. It actually screws younger and healthier people the most.
gvg
Are any reporters naming sources for all these rumors of who might get this or that position? I am becoming suspicious that some of them are just made up. I’d like reporters to call every person named and ask them if they are actually talking with Trumps organization, names of contacts and would they even be interested. My impression of some of these people is they wouldn’t accept the job. Also there have just been too many rumors for the same jobs. I also remember that Trump had a habit of personally saying things undercutting what his supposed spokesmen said during the campaign. He also tries to do do much himself.
It is also resembling his TV show. Many rumors because he thinks all publicity is good? People following him around trying to guess. People begging him, gag me. Lots of trial balloons but now I want to know if they are really coming from him or his organization or are just people who think they know. He doesn’t really have an organization for the government purpose. This is the downside of picking an outsider. It’s worse than Carter who tried to be a non Washington choice and got sabotaged and never really got control. Ryan won’t be the only one who thinks he can use it. trump just not get how government works. I can see we are in for years of rumors, so fast and furious, we never see any followup.
D58826
@Patricia Kayden: Well this is one 70 year old who thinks the idea of screwing all you youngn’s sucks.
And if the con isn’t bad enough already :
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/16/13641538/trump-plane-secret-service
Glidwrith
Haven’t read the thread yet, but why the fux do we have to urge them to do their jobs? I will call, just pointing this out.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Just say if the medicare changes go thru you aren’t going to go out alone or peacefully….. NOT! I’m going to use rather stark language about killing Grandma myself. Soundbite sized. That oughta make ’em wet their pants.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Conservatives shift costs. That’s how they “save money”. Paul Ryan will shift the cost of the biggest users FROM the federal government TO younger and healthier people. That’s the “savings”
It’s magical accounting. It’s always, always cost-shifting.
D58826
@Kay: A concrete example of what we have been talking abouthere for the past few months. Technology moves on, even with 21st century green jobs. We can’t stand in it’s way but we can do something for the folks that are being hurt by the march of progress. But this being Reagan/Trump/Ryan America we will do nothing to help them but will fill the airwaves with Rush/etc to tell them who is at fault and who to fear. Fortunately the fault/fear can be summed up as the OTHER, i.e. nonwhite.
gene108
There will be a phase in for killing Medicare. The current 55+ regular Republican voters will be O.K.
The younger, less reliable, Republican voters will be fucked.
What I wonder, as someone who will be on dialysis soon, is will Medicare stop paying for this? After a few months, Medicare picks up the bill, so people with kidney failure are not going to be a drag on private insurers.
I have no idea how badly this will screw up the lives of folks, who have end stage renal failure, and are relying on Medicare for dialysis or transplant costs.
Or even employer based group plans, because the cost for dialysis and transplants are probably not factored in.
Kay
When President Trump says the unemployment rate is X or the GDP is Y, should people rely on that information?
Why? He lies with no consequences or accountability. Why can’t he just make up everything?
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
oh my…sounds delicious
WereBear
@Jeffro: I have made that my Facebook avatar. Thanks for idea!
I am not supposed to do anything political on social media because of my job, but if pressed I can claim, with truth, that I am a Star Wars fan.
Kay
@gene108:
They really will.
WOMP. Add a huge pool of high risk, high use people and watch what happens to the younger people who are protected from the costs of that group right now. Their costs are going thru the fucking roof.
Oh, well. The country elected President Trump and a far Right one-Party government. They better get used to economic anxiety. They’re gonna get it.
gene108
@D58826:
Part of me wants Trump to loot the hell out of the Treasury. I want Trump’s net worth, at the end of four years, to be north of $100 billion dollars.
And I want to watch the media impotently huff-and-puff like they actually matter, as Republicans in Congress and President Trump run over every institutional check imaginable.
Kathleen
@Baud: Amen. Anyone who doesn’t grasp this is not worth paying attention to.
Betty Cracker
@D58826: Maybe this is why Trump said he won’t take a salary as president. His so-called “blind trust” will pocket millions in federal dollars without having to make that info public. It’s going to be a gold rush for that pack of parasites.
Kay
@gene108:
The hard part for me is the reluctance to invest- to go in on a bad high risk bet. Now that it’s acceptable for the FBI and foreign governments to skew US elections, why should I invest 12 months backing a candidate, voting in a primary, etc.
I can’t control the FBI or a foreign government or Wikileaks What they did was so successful it’s naive to think they won’t do it again. they can do the exact same thing again- a month before the election they can intervene and my whole investment has no value.
gene108
@Kay:
Republicans have an effective strategy for winning elections:
1. Fuck up government and public discourse to discourage citizen participation, inlcuding voting;
2. Keep their base engaged and outraged;
3. Restrict voting access as much as possible for people likely to vote against them;
4. Profit.
They are no longer a political party in a well established democracy. They are a revolutionary party, with the dedicated support of a minority of citizens, who seek to take control by any means necessary to enact a radical and unpopular agenda.
Aardvark Cheeselog
I called the number in the OP to add my voice to the din. I got a machine that said “this mailbox is full, please hang up to disconnect.”
Jeffro
@WereBear: See – that’s exactly right! Who doesn’t love Star Wars?? =)
(don’t answer that, Trekkies)
Just emailed Eugene Robinson and Catherine Rampell to thank them for their outstanding columns today. Gonna be a little harder to email Michael Gerson the same, but he’s right: Democrats should not overlearn the results of a close election. (Btw the online header is off-putting; the print version just says, “Choose Wisely, Democrats”. I know he still considers Bernie-socialism to be almost as terrifying as Trump, but he’s coming along.
Shorter Gerson: go with the 50-state-strategy, stick with the Obama coalition, and run a more emotionally stirring candidate next time. Hillz was that for me and many of you, but not for many others. (Kamala Harris, your phone is ringing…Julian Castro, do you have a few minutes?…)
Be happy warriors folks and make those calls!!
PaulWartenberg2016
we need a new thread to vent. the f-cker just nominated Sen. Sessions for Attorney General (?!)
hovercraft
@sherparick:
Bullshit.
Bernie was never attacked by anyone, he ran a campaign where the republicans constantly fluffed him, and Hillary refused to attack him for fear of offending his supporters who she knew she would need in the general. He would have been beaten worse than Hillary, for every Berniebro who came out for him, he would have lost votes in the black community. You think black turnout was bad compared to when Obama was on the ballot, it would have been much worse for Bernie. As much as Bernie and Shitgibbon ran around saying ‘super predator’ over and over again, she had a dedicated base of support who know her from decades of outreach. Bernie’s sudden discovery of our existence after 40 years in DC did not impress most of us, and we wouldn’t have turned out for him like we did for her, period.
As for the Comey firestorm, the media beat that horse till it’s bones were crushed, when it didn’t have the impact they expected/wanted in the polls initially, they doubled and tripled down, beating the story even harder.The media desperately wanted a horserace, and the Comey letter was just the break they needed, coming off the last debate she was beginning to run away with it, so they clung to it like a lifeline, and it was for them and for him. The media gave the people who had lost all hope that he could win the tiniest glimmer of hope again. With the possibility that she could be indicted and the Shitgibbon beating the FBI leaks like a drum, they believed again, and because they believed they decided to go vote. All those people who had been saying the system was rigged so there was no point in voting, thought that the story was enough to depress her vote so if they turned out maybe just maybe the Shitgibbon could win.
Kay
@gene108:
So we’re telling people ‘feel free to invest time, energy, whatever in an election but be aware that any actor can intervene and there will be no consequences afterwards?”
We’re all supposed to just roll this new risk in? Because it’s a substantial risk and it only affects one side. GOP voters don’t have this risk. They can rely on an election where the FBI WON’T intervene.
What happens if we’re 10 days out in 2020 and the FBI and Wikileaks and Russia or China join the GOP campaign?
All non-Republicans just wasted a year relying on a free and fair election. Bad investment for them.
O. Felix Culpa
@Another Holocene Human:
Clinton had that in 2016 too. Brooklyn was analyzing the data nightly and weekly and giving us directions on strategy. I can’t speak for other states, but in New Mexico their strategic directives made sense and worked very well. And we were phone calling and canvassing nonstop (well, we did rest in the wee hours) until a few minutes before the polls closed. As a result, not only did Hillary win handily, but we also took back the state legislature from the Republicans and won a number of important state-wide offices. Why did she lose? Many reasons, but for one there was this guy named Comey…
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thanks. But I should have been more clear: my focus was on the Trump (lack of) transparency thing. Not that I think any Rethug-chaired committee would ever consider doing anything which might annoy a Preznit of their own party.
The Medicare thing, for me, will be calls to the offices of my Congresswoman and my Senators. I’ll probably need a script for them, too, but as I’m an old fart, and will eventually be on Medicare (I hope), it’s less of a stretch for me.
Kay
So this is government propaganda but don’t miss the private sector impact. Trump just favored Ford over all the other auto manufacturers. The President is promoting ONE car company. Now the rest of them have to align with him too and start making stuff up.
It’s fucking terrifying and no one is stopping him. It’s not just government propaganda. It’s government joining with one private sector actor to promote propaganda that benefits that company and this President.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: In other words, it’ll be the way Russia operates under Putin. Maybe Trump will put his son-in-law up in 2024. Or perhaps Ivanka. Then he can run the “blind trust” while they control the money hose.
chopper
@Cermet:
can you just get that tattooed on your forehead and get it over with?
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Kay: Agree 100%. We are now a failed nation. Not a single institution that was designed to prevent this functioned as intended and some actively worked to undermine our system.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
He’s saying “fuck you” to any attempt at telling the truth. 3 days after they all promoted the blind trust bullshit Trump put Ivanka and her husband in a room with Japanese officials. He KNOWS they won’t do shit to stop him.
Trump has been sued hundreds of times because he lies to people and rips them off. In one of the thousands of depositions that weren’t examined by media Trump’s lawyers said they put two lawyers from the firm in any meeting with him because he will lie about what transpired. He lies to his OWN lawyers.
Glidwrith
@Another Holocene Human: It is still on my growing list of things to check out. I have taken next week off, so maybe we can start some serious organizing.
Aunt Kathy
Step back from the panicking and get back to the “resistance” please. Tried to get thru’ to the govt oversight committee this morning, kept getting a full mailbox. So I called Elijah Cummings’ office (Dem co-chair, and I’m a Maryland resident anyway), and talked to a very nice lady. When I explained that I couldn’t get thru’ to the main #, and could I pass along my request to her, she was like, “Oh, cool!” Call any Dem on the committee they’ll love you for it.
Major Major Major Major
Everybody see this?
mai naem mobile
@Betty Cracker: Shitgibbon has his hotels to launder any money anybody want to give him to,you know, curry favor. Jeezus,I cannot believe people are so stupid. They can point to the Clinton fucking Foundation for laundering “bribes.”. Yes,a non profit who has to release their taxes as a non profit. But,Shitgibbons private companies don’t have to release their taxes so can sit there and have ExxonMobil Mobil,Time Warner,GE,Ford or whatever million other corporations want something from the US government hold ‘events’ at his hotels. They are private companies. Not even publicly held companies.Anybody want to bet Shitgibbons hotels are going to see huge jump in profits? And it ain’t going to be from his trailer trash supporters staying at his hotels. It’s going to be from companies doing business or wanting favors from the US government.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
How’d you like to be Honda? They better get on the Trump Train like Ford has.
All they have to do is bow to President Trump and he’ll make something up to benefit their company.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay:
“Sure, it’s not fair, but this is what you get for picking an uninspiring candidate!”
— an asshole
gene108
@Kay:
The only counter is Democrats need their own, secret, organization to hack Republicans and the FBI and FBI agents private e-mails.
We’re heading down a dangerous road and few VSP’s want to realize it.
NotMax
@mai naem mobile
Frankly, it would be informative to hire an expert to book a high-end luxury suite at the D.C. hotel and sweep it for electronic bugs.
chopper
@Kay:
The ford thing is a blatant lie but at least all the stories in google’s news feed on the subject is all about how it’s a big lie. that was heartening to see this morning.
Kay
@Major Major Major Major:
I want the Democrats to insist on a new federal law protecting voting rights as a condition of confirming Trump’s white supremacist AG.
Conservatives gutted the Voting Rights Act and they’re now putting in a white’s only, one Party far Right government.
Congress can fix that. We need a new voting rights act to replace the law they gutted. Black people need federal protections for voting rights NOW, not 4 years from now. That will be too late.
Major Major Major Major
@chopper: It’s such a bad lie that I haven’t even actually seen evidence that it’s being taken as fact in the usual fever swamps, which surprises me.
D58826
@Betty Cracker: Oh he will take the salary. Man never misses an opportunity to make/steal a buck. I suspect that when he leaves office he will steal everything in the WH right down to the wall paper on the inside and the paint on the outside.
p.a.
Not to beat a beaten dead horse but mathbabe.0rg has some interesting articles. Among the points, GOTV was hurt in the rustbelt because all the foreclosures (it takes years to process) really effed up the database accuracy.
Betty Cracker
@D58826: He publicly announced that he won’t take a salary, but then again, he lies about everything, so maybe you’re right.
Bruce K
Does anyone think that the ACLU might maybe have work for a middle-aged expat who’s got twelve years of rust on a New York State bar card? Preferably somewhere in the Eastern time zone?
Kay
@chopper:
It’s also an incredibly dumb lie on the part of Ford and Trump. Auto sales are cyclical- I live in Car Country. Half the employment in this county is tied to the auto industry. They’re booming right now because there was pent-up demand. They already know it’s over and will start to slide.
What do Ford and Trump say when they lay off in Kentucky? Trump didn’t give a shit?
He’s now responsible for every auto-related lay-off. Every lay-off. Every lost job. There are 450 solar panels people in Toledo getting lay-off notices this morning. Why didn’t Deal Leader intervene?
Major Major Major Major
@Bruce K: You know who would know that, is the ACLU! Give them a call!
Kay
@p.a.:
I canvassed in the rust belt and I have to say it looked just like Obama. I had a good list.
Be careful because there’s finger-pointing after a loss. The Michigan Clinton team lost Michigan. It was pretty predictable they’d blame Clinton. She expects it, I’m sure. I get blamed for everything that goes wrong in this office, including tornadoes. It’s just part of normal human behavior :)
Betty Cracker
@Bruce K: Couldn’t hurt to explore it. ACLU reports record donations in the wake of the Trumpocalypse.
@Kay: That’s one place hope lies; these people, while consummate grifters, are incompetent on a number of levels and in way over their heads.
tobie
@hovercraft: High fives for this. We are so over-reading this election to make it fit into whatever handy-dandy theory we have. Bernie amici: please stop it with the schadenfreude. Your glee at the Democrat’s defeat in this election is unseemly, and you’re turning off the loyal base of the party with your insistence that we need to develop a (white) populist pitch in the future. That’s not my party. I’ve volunteered in just about every election cycle since 1984 and will not do it again if we focus all our energy on the male white working class.
P.S. For god’s sake: heard last night on Maddow that Tim Ryan was anti-choice until last year. The hell with him. He’s no Nancy Pelosi!
tobie
@Aunt Kathy:
Thanks for this info. Will redouble efforts.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
He’s as freaked out as we are. I can HEAR the panic in his Tweets! :)
People have to let go of American Exceptionalism. We could easily turn into a completely corrupt entity. Institutions are failing all over the place. It’s like they’ve moved from relying on “institutions” to relying on their fantasy of “institutions”. It’s worse.
Kathleen
@hovercraft: they didn’t want a horse race. they wanted a coup. they got what they wished for.
LAC
@rikyrah: neither do I. And I am tired of the need to normalize this vote for trump.
waysel
@Kay: I love you, Kay:)
Kay
Oh, God. Recent. Recent racist statements.
To recap, “Trump’s ad” on the Central Park Five called for teenagers to be executed. There are reams of legal papers and documentaries and such on what happened there. The short answer is media went into a frenzy and made up a bunch of lies, police covered their own asses by coercing kids into confessions, and the teenagers were wrongly convicted and later exonerated.
The attorney general of the United States endorses that tragedy. You could weep.
waysel
@Kay: Seriously, you so often speak what is in my mind. FWIW, I grew up in Columbus, O, and still have siblings in that area. Thankfully, liberals all.
hovercraft
I’m not sure if anyone’s posted this yet, but on a positive note:
Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency
Inside a stunned White House, the President considers his legacy and America’s future.
By David Remnick
It’s a long but heartening read.
He’s more optimistic than I am, but he makes me want to believe that we are a better country than this election shows us to be. Yes I know she got more votes, but he still got 60 million.
sherparick
@Mai.naem.mobile: They think it is going be those people. And then if the worst does happen, the story they will hear on their preferred media is that it is really Barack Obama’s, Hillary Clinton’s, Bill Clinton’s, Jimmy Carter’s, the Blah people, and “immigrants” fault because they used up all the money.
Liberalism, even New Deal liberalism, does not work well or attract people whose fundamental political emotion is “resentment” or to adopt the Fench word for politically activated resentment, “ressentiment.” “Ressentiment is a sense of hostility directed at that which one identifies as the cause of one’s frustration, that is, an assignment of blame for one’s frustration. The sense of weakness or inferiority and perhaps jealousy in the face of the “cause” generates a rejecting/justifying value system, or morality, which attacks or denies the perceived source of one’s frustration. This value system is then used as a means of justifying one’s own weaknesses by identifying the source of envy as objectively inferior, serving as a defense mechanism that prevents the resentful individual from addressing and overcoming their insecurities and flaws. The ego creates an enemy in order to insulate itself from culpability.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment
This is perfect raw material for the Walkers and Trumps in our system. And the worse conditions become, the more llkely they will continue to channel their resentments at “them” and vote for Republicans/Trumpers who promise to “punish” them.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/17/13626514/trump-systemic-corruption
By the way, how Trump will operate the Presidency as firehose of cash into Trump Inc. is revealed that meetings are transition staff meetings, which are Government funded, are being held at Trump properties.
D58826
@Kay: Well given Trump’s connections maybe those folks can open schools to teach Russian language/history.:-)
Steeplejack (phone)
@PPCLI:
Right on!
LAC
@Jeffro: those were good pieces. Meanwhile over at the New York Times, democrats lost because we relied too much on our diversity. So stop being so blackity browny othery, folks. Yeah, not even for the Sunday times will I renew that subscription.
Cheryl Rofer
Just called the House Oversight Committee. Not answering and mailbox is full. Will keep trying.
Lizzee
I’ve been trying to call the 202-225-5074 House Oversight Committee number since about 8 ET, it says that it is not accepting calls and that the VM is full.
Aunt Kathy
@Cheryl Rofer: Here is the link to the committee members. If you can’t get thru’ to the main number, try somebody else
https://oversight.house.gov/subcommittee/full-committee/
WereBear
You would think that the fact that I:
–told them Trump was lying about protecting health care
And
–now the republicans are going wild to destroy health care
Would make a dent, but no. Brains made of titanium they have.
gbear
I’be been trying to call for the last hour (10:00-11:00 central) and I keep getting the ‘mailbox is full’ message.
SgrAstar
@debbie: Kushner isn’t a peon, he’s gonna be the actual, functionning, unelected President. Trump himself is too old, too distractible, too unhealthy, too stupid. Also too, Kushner is the only person It really trusts.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Another Holocene Human: @Cermet: Huh. I’ve had to request copies of my own birth certificate a couple of times, from Kleberg County, TX. All I had to provide was my own name, DOB, and the full names of my parents (and, of course, money). No SSN required, although there is a restriction on who can request one: self, close relations. The SSN must be a local requirement where you are. Bummer.
frank
thank you for this. ah I do love this place.
manyakitty
I called the Oversight Committee about an hour ago and left a message. I guess they’re at least dumping the inbox, if not actually checking it.
Neldob
Just called em and left a message. And sent the heads up to some friends.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Why, I …
jenn
@rikyrah: As a white woman, I cannot tell you how upsetting this is, too!
On the action front, every day a new group is getting funded, and every work day, my Senators and Reps are getting phone calls about some issue or another. I am rotating between their state and the DC offices.
Really glad to get the House Oversight Committee info, above: sadly called after they’d closed, and their mailbox is full. However, the phone number has now been added into my phone contacts, along with my Sens/Rep, for easy calling. I will call at the crack of why am I awake on the Monday morning after Thanksgiving.
tybee
just a test
another test
and yet another
tybee
test again