• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Please don’t feed the bears.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

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

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

In after Baud. Damn.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

A consequence of cucumbers

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / Monday Morning Open Thread: Cold Comforts

Monday Morning Open Thread: Cold Comforts

by Anne Laurie|  November 28, 20164:56 am| 222 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Assholes

FacebookTweetEmail

cranky-geezers-have-better-brains-sylvia

(Sylvia/Nicole Hollander via GoComics.com)
.

At last, a little uplift for the Balloon Juice commentariat! (And, yes, this front-pager, who just turned 61.)

The fact that 54% of those voting voted against Trump clearly has him unnerved. Let's remind him every day.

— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) November 28, 2016

Speaking of long-range tactics, I think Dana Houle has a good point here:

After narcissism, it’s what was on TV, what the last person he spoke w told him, cruelty, racism/sexism, conflicting goals of his minions https://t.co/LLSOzZBDLD

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 28, 2016

And no, Trump is not a puppet of a cohesive team executing a plan. The Kushner/Bannon/Priebus triumvirate will be acrimonious & chaotic

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 28, 2016

Jared Kushner is a NYC businessman, heir to a convicted felon real estate developer. Reince Priebus is a leading product of the GOP political machine. Steve Bannon is a sociopath who sees the neo-Nazi, white-supremacist “alt right” as a tool for random social destruction, which he finds entertaining / useful for his private goals. (Bannon is acting as the third corner of the traditional GOP Golden Triangle, Business/Bureaucracy/’Church’, which is its own kind of weird American success story.) The three of them have converged, temporarily, to push an aging “celebrity” to the top of the American political pyramid. Their common interests started diverging immediately after Clinton’s concession speech… and the cracks are widening by the day.

Our strategy, as Democrats and citizens, must include encouraging the dissension between ‘good for the Trump/Kushner business conglomerate’ — ‘Good for the GOP party’ — ‘Good for the dank lulz’. Yes, it would be nice if the pivot weren’t Donald Smallgloves Trump, but then again, he’s not going to make life easier for the triumvirate, either.

***********
Apart from soldiering on, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?

On Monday I will introduce a resolution asking President-elect Trump to comply w/ Constitution regarding his assets. https://t.co/KFt4zPliVS

— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) November 22, 2016

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Late Night/Early Morning Open Thread
Next Post: Two important papers »

Reader Interactions

222Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 4:59 am

    Happy birthday, AL!

  2. 2.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 5:00 am

    And you go, Senator Ben!

  3. 3.

    Anne Laurie

    November 28, 2016 at 5:01 am

    @Baud: Thanks — but it was actually back in mid-month.

  4. 4.

    raven

    November 28, 2016 at 5:05 am

    Was rasslin with some kids down the street and one of my hearing aid “domes” got stuck in my ear. I’m hoping I can get it removed at the local VA clinic. A friend looked and said it’s not as deep as it seems.

  5. 5.

    Debbie(aussie)

    November 28, 2016 at 5:07 am

    Many happy returns Anne, you spring ?You.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 5:12 am

    Did Clinton end up with 54% of the vote, or does that include third parties?

    I got mixed information yesterday about turnout totals. Is this still considered a low turnout election?

  7. 7.

    Duane

    November 28, 2016 at 5:17 am

    Good for Senator Cardin.Next up.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 5:25 am

    @raven: Moral of the story: You’re not as young as you used to be.

  9. 9.

    Zinsky

    November 28, 2016 at 5:30 am

    I turn 60 at the end of December (still trying to get my head around that!), but I still feel 19 in my soul! I am in good health – work out five days a week – and the memory is still pretty good. Trump rising to power actually makes me feel more alive and invigorated. Someone once said that liberals do better as underdogs than as the party in power. I think there is truth in that. I look forward to working toward bringing this reptile crashing to earth and becoming a one-term president.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 5:32 am

    @Zinsky: Excellent.

    Unfortunately, I’m coming to the same view about liberals and power.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 5:35 am

    @Baud: 3rd parties too.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 5:37 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 5:44 am

    This is from Ari Berman, who is wonderful:

    As a United States attorney in the 1980s, Jeff Sessions, Mr. Trump’s choice for attorney general, charged black civil rights activists in Alabama with voter fraud. (They were acquitted.)

    There has to be documentation on that- pleadings, a transcript, etc. It would be great for the public to get a chance to review what happened there, before his confirmation hearings. I wonder if the defendants are still around- some of the people who testified against Sessions in the past have since died.

    Democrats in the Senate could turn that hearing into a voting rights trial for GOP Senators. Sessions was kind of an outlier going after voting rights in the 1980’s- now voter suppression is standard practice in the GOP. They’ll all have to defend him on it.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 5:46 am

    @Kay: He was a man before his time.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 5:48 am

    @Kay: I hope Hillary attached that information to one of her emails.

    I have a bad taste with Ari since I saw him join in on the complaints about Clinton’s press conferences. (If I’m thinking of the same person).

  16. 16.

    Raven

    November 28, 2016 at 5:49 am

    @Baud: Proly Ari Fleischer

  17. 17.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 5:51 am

    @Raven: No, the person I’m thinking about was one of the regular MSNBC guest hosts.

  18. 18.

    Raven

    November 28, 2016 at 5:53 am

    @Baud: Well he’s on there a good bit but maybe it’s someone else?

  19. 19.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:04 am

    @Raven: I googled it. Ari Melber.

    Too many damn Aris in politics.

  20. 20.

    raven

    November 28, 2016 at 6:05 am

    @Baud: Damn

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 6:08 am

    Morning, Everyone ????

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 6:10 am

    @Kay:
    Berman has been all over this.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 6:10 am

    @Baud: Not enuf Bauds.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 6:14 am

    Someone should make a t-shirt:
    Don’t blame me: I’m part of the 5% that didn’t vote for him.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 6:17 am

    @rikyrah:
    Editing posts on the tablet sucks: 54% should be on the t-shirt ?

  26. 26.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:20 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The number of Bauds is to damn low!

  27. 27.

    Yoda Dog

    November 28, 2016 at 6:21 am

    Morning, all.

    So my 18 mo girl has been pure sweetness up until about two weeks ago when we brought home her baby brother. But now, since then, she has been a holy terror. She cries constantly, especially, god forbid, if I hold or feed the baby. That is an automatic full meltdown. So this has been keeping me very busy.

    If I can find time after work and babies, I’m planning on calling Thom ‘Shithands’ Tillis and/or Richard Burr. Kindof tough to decide where to begin voicing my greivances with these two fine gentlemen, well aware they couldn’t give a royal fuck what I think. “Please don’t break democracy? Please?” Something like that?… I mean, Im going to say “NO changes to Medicare, SS, Obamacare etc” but other than that I’m not sure where to even start or what to omit. I could write an entire book about this ongoing trainwreck.

    Happy belated Bday, Anne!

  28. 28.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 6:22 am

    @Baud:

    Ari since I saw him join in on the complaints about Clinton’s press conferences. (If I’m thinking of the same person).

    I don’t know but he’s worth it. He’s the only mainstreamer on the voter suppression beat.

    One. Without him it’s… none. Don’t get too choosy :)

  29. 29.

    raven

    November 28, 2016 at 6:23 am

    We were supposed to be driving back from the beach today after our great 2 week holiday! Like oh well.

  30. 30.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    November 28, 2016 at 6:25 am

    A flower for you all this Monday morning. I’m thinking of heading to San Juan Capistrano, yet again, or maybe DTLA. You all stay safe out there.

  31. 31.

    sebastien

    November 28, 2016 at 6:28 am

    According to newspapers front pages (I prefer my cartoonish idiots sniping at each other in the Borderlands games than in electoral TV programs), the surprise was only on the first turn, and as such, François Fillon is the right’s candidate. Thatcher’s economic policies and the ultra-catholics rancor against abortion and gay marriage… Joy…

    Maybe that will motivate the left’s electorate, because the potential candidates don’t, at least for now…

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 6:30 am

    @Baud: Maybe we could name some honorary Bauds?

  33. 33.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:32 am

    @Kay:

    I was thinking of Ari Melber.

    Don’t get too choosy

    It’s my god-given right as a Democrat to find indispensable people too imperfect to support.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:33 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I like that. We’ll call them, Children of the Baud!

  35. 35.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:36 am

    @sebastien:

    Maybe that will motivate the left’s electorate,

    Famous last words.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 6:39 am

    @Yoda Dog:

    “Please don’t break democracy? Please?”

    They already broke it and are quite proud of that fact.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    November 28, 2016 at 6:44 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The founding fathers didn’t mean for us to have nice things.

  38. 38.

    bmoak

    November 28, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @Kay:

    What makes you think there will be confirmation hearings? They’re not mandatory, and are held at the discretion of the relevant Senate committee. McConnell will go for a straight up-or-down vote with no discussion,

  39. 39.

    DCF

    November 28, 2016 at 6:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Max Sawicky (MaxSpeak) on FB this week:
    https://www.facebook.com/max.b.sawicky/posts/10154712269363659

    OK, folks. This is the game.

    Bernie Sanders is taking the line of resisting the intolerant, warmongering Trump & Co. while simultaneously challenging him to put real money into infrastructure and to write better trade deals, Trump’s signature overtures to the working class. Most if not all Senate Democrats are taking the same line.
    An alternative strategy would be to emulate what Mitch McConnell did with Obama, to just oppose everything, regardless of whether or not it is congenial to his ideological interests. This worked well for the Republicans, but that doesn’t mean it would work for the Dems, since their constituencies and policy priorities are different. It makes for a debate in which reasonable people can disagree. But that’s not what’s happening.
    Justifiable hysteria over Trump’s appointments, such as the unspeakable Senator Sessions for Attorney-General, is making rational discussion more difficult. Some are accusing Sanders of collaborationism, ‘reaching out’ to racist Trump voters, folding in the face of fascism. In other words, they are resuming the Clinton primary campaign of libelous gossip and the failed general election campaign against deplorables.
    In this setting, every single Trump voter is irredeemably racist from top to bottom, with no mitigating concerns. As a matter of fact, I don’t doubt that many of them are, but to win a national election, Democrats don’t need all of these people; they only need a handful. After all, the total margin of defeat in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin – the electoral vote difference that put Trump over the top – was less than 110,000. Tiny.
    I don’t normally defer to authority, but in this case it ought to be noted that Sanders’ line is the same as other Senate Democrats, who know more about electoral politics than I do. So some consideration is merited, and the onus of the position should not be put on Sanders alone.
    The Clinton line about her defeat is that nothing was their fault. It was all the FBI, Wikileaks, and the media. To be sure, all of those factors exerted a malign influence and any one of them could have flipped the result. So might any number of decisions by the Clinton Campaign. The upshot of the Clinton line is that no course corrections for the Democratic Party are warranted, except in the realm of technical operations. The strategy going forward is to hope for better luck and demographic rescue in the years (decades!) ahead.
    The Clintons and their elite cronies are not going away. They want to retain power. Their attacks on Sanders should be rejected by the left; these attacks are an effort to demobilize his movement, which as things stand is The Movement. There is no Clinton movement; there are Clinton elites and apologists. There is no Clinton-led grassroots mobilization against the impending racist, sexist, xenophobic wave led by Trump. The Clinton plan is to hunker down and broker the next neo-liberal champion. Corey Booker, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
    There may be good arguments for a stance of wall-to-wall opposition to all things Trump. Let them be made. At the same time, the only impact from stigmatizing Sanders and his followers is to perpetuate the current Democratic sclerosis that has led us into this abyss.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:50 am

    @bmoak: Nothing is beyond their pale, but we don’t know what they are going to do.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 6:52 am

    @bmoak:

    I don’t know- this would be good to explore though:

    There were also accusations that Sessions’ office in Mobile targeted blacks for voting fraud allegations while ignoring cases of fraud perpetrated by whites.
    Albert Turner, a civil rights activist and adviser to Martin Luther King, was among three black Perry County residents prosecuted by Sessions’ office. He and the other defendants were acquitted of the charges.
    “My own opinion is that the case was political,” Turner told NBC News in 1986, accusing Sessions of harassing him and the other defendants. “I actually don’t think Jeff Sessions came in with an ounce of evidence.”

    Wow. That’s pretty scary for the attorney general in a Trump Administration with a far Right Congress- voter fraud is a serious crime. False charges can ruin lives. If he did it once…

  42. 42.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    November 28, 2016 at 6:54 am

    Hello, everyone.

    Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll be filing for bankruptcy. After years of having good credit, a few months have undone everything. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find gainful employment in 2017. God, I hope next year is better than this one has been….for everyone.

    I’ll probably be on later. Sorry I haven’t been around much in the past week. Needed to take a break from politics for the sake of my sanity. RuPaul’s Drag Race has helped.

    Stay safe out there, fam.

  43. 43.

    Xenos

    November 28, 2016 at 6:57 am

    @sebastien: Fillon is expressly refusing to run on changing the abortion law in France. The focus will be on taxes, economics, and Islam. Not good, but may marginalise the rally far right.

    Hollande is screwed, He over-promised and under-delivered, and a change election is upon us.

  44. 44.

    sebastien

    November 28, 2016 at 6:57 am

    @Baud:

    No, that would be Hollande FINALLY announcing his decision, and saying something along the lines of ‘I like my chances’.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 6:57 am

    @bmoak:

    It’s more important because the President-elect is a voter fraud conspiracy theorist. If his AG is tarnished on voter fraud too we have a serious problem- that’s a huge risk for black voters. They can’t be asked to risk political prosecution simply for exercising the right to vote. I know we;’re all being ordered to coddle the toddler-President but this has serious repercussions for ordinary people.

  46. 46.

    Shalimar

    November 28, 2016 at 6:58 am

    @Kay: The case file should be on microfilm in the Perry County Clerk’s office in Marion, if an enterprising news outlet wanted to send a reporter to investigate. There wouldn’t be anything online. It was also a major point of contention in his 1986 judicial confirmation hearings, so there might be something in the Congressional Record. Beyond that, it was heavily covered by the 3 major Alabama newspapers at the time, but I don’t think their archives from the 1980s have ever been put online. They have merged their online presence in recent years, http://www.al.com

  47. 47.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 6:59 am

    @Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire): Best of luck with the process. Remember our new president went through bankruptcy and is now doing great. Just remember to be corrupt and evil and already rich.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 7:02 am

    @Shalimar:

    , if an enterprising news outlet wanted to send a reporter to investigate.

    I learned last night that People magazine is now our best source for investigative journalism.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 7:04 am

    @Shalimar:

    Thanks so much. I think the record of the proceedings will be more important now that we have Trump as President and a GOP that is heavily invested in accusing voters of fraud.

    The acquittal is interesting. He must have been very determined to convict some (black) people of fraud.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 7:07 am

    @Kay: it’s the economic anxiety, Kay.

  51. 51.

    Shalimar

    November 28, 2016 at 7:10 am

    @Kay: It was a dumb case to ever bring before a jury. Basically, he charged voting rights activists (including Martin Luther King Jr’s former assistant, who was the main target) with filling out absentee ballots for elderly and illiterate voters. All it took for the defense to get an acquittal was a string of witnesses testifying that the defendants filled out the ballots exactly as they requested.

  52. 52.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 7:10 am

    I see from DCF’s post that the Berners still haven’t absorbed how well and truly fucked we are for the next generation or two, thanks in part to Bernie’s adoption of the “crooked Hillary-rigged election” scorched earth strategy.

    We had our chance, and it went away. Shit, we don’t even have her (and can’t call upon her) to be that dissident voice to rally around, as the moment she speaks up, bullshit indictments will fly.

    Thank you, anti-blue dogs from the ’10 cycle. Thank you so FUCKING much in the ’16 cycle, Berners. We’ll feel such comfort in your purity and mocking media presentations of your drum circles and giant puppets for the next generation, as we return to Lochner jurisprudence, ridiculous gerrymandering (they’re going to Austinize Louisville and every other blue city in red states), and a shitton of federal pre-emption favoring Movement Conservatism on everything from abortion rights to voting rights to creationism to local tax policy to insurance regulation.

    Progressive nirvana is surely and swiftly upon us.

    John posted something yesterday about energized liberal Californians – which only leads me to believe that we’re within 5 years of a West Coast secession crisis.

    I’m not sanguine, not hopeful.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 7:15 am

    @Botsplainer: DCF is a consummate Bernie spammer. Feel the way you want to, but I wouldn’t rely on his comments for anything one way or the other.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 7:15 am

    @Baud:

    Suraj Hegde, the secretary of the All India Congress Committee, a national body of Indian National Congress party members, said he was troubled by the dual roles Mr. Trump and his family would play in Indian affairs — particularly given real estate’s important role in India’s fast-growing economy, and the clout the United States has on the world stage.
    “Basically this is the globalization of lobbying across countries, which then tries to establish monopoly over real estate,” Mr. Hegde said in an interview. He added that he was already calling for an independent parliamentary investigation of such maneuvers, including Mr. Trump’s real estate ventures in India.
    “Establishing monopoly at the cost of small players by business connections to Mr. Trump is very worrisome,” he said. “This is not at all healthy for a democracy.”

    He gets it. It’s not just about using the office to benefit his business. It’s about using the office for an unfair advantage and crushing legitimate businesses. When he wins other people lose.

    Meanwhile, the United States does nothing. Did anyone predict this is how it would end? A sleazy game show host and his family would bring down the mighty US?

  55. 55.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 7:18 am

    @Kay: I still refuse to click on NYT links.

  56. 56.

    Dadadadadadada

    November 28, 2016 at 7:23 am

    @sebastien: Well, look on the bright side: Fillon could lose the general election. To Marine Le Pen. Happiness all around!

  57. 57.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 7:24 am

    @Baud:

    It’s a good piece. It’s just too bad they waited until after the election to do it. It’s inexplicable to me. I feel as if they didn’t want to alienate a NYC real estate developer unless they had to, and they didn’t think they had to because they assumed Clinton would win. It just doesn’t matter now. It’s too late.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    November 28, 2016 at 7:24 am

    @DCF: What, no unmarked Young Turks videos for us today?

  59. 59.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 7:25 am

    @Kay: They have good articles when they are not lying to us.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 7:27 am

    @Baud:

    Ugh. Those emails and the shilling for Comey! That’s lying about Iraq territory right there. Very bad work. One for the history books.

  61. 61.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 7:27 am

    @Kay:

    Monied interests quit learning to not bubble up real estate long ago.

    It is like some cognitive deficiency on a massive institutional scale. Rather than applying capital toward production, it gets applied to the thing that won’t return on the investment at near the correct ratios once markets are saturated.

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 7:27 am

    @DCF: As one who is not on board with the demonization of all things Bernie, I still feel the need to point out the main weakness of Bernie: He is not now, nor has he ever been, a Democrat. He is a man with a cult of personality but with out a party. This is by his own choice and it is neither a good thing nor a bad thing of and by itself.

    But it is the death knell of everything he says he stands for if he tries to hijack the Democratic party to satisfy his own desires/ego/ends/??? (I can not say exactly what motivates him, only allude to what appears to) DEMs who have given their political lives to the party will quite understandably resent and resist a man who has done very little to nothing at all for the party over his own very long political career.

    If Bernie wants to win DEMs over, he has to show some humility, something I have seen precious little of from him.

  63. 63.

    Dadadadadadada

    November 28, 2016 at 7:30 am

    I see from Twitter that Shitler is now proclaiming as a goes-without-saying given that “millions” of Clinton votes were “illegal.” Interesting line for him to be taking.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    November 28, 2016 at 7:32 am

    @Kay:

    Other than Schumer saying the Dems won’t go along to get along, I haven’t heard much from them. I hope that’s not a sign of things to come.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @Botsplainer:

    Congressional Republicans are doing nothing to rein in Trump Family sleaze and corruption. I knew they wouldn’t.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    November 28, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @Yoda Dog:

    This happened with my niece and nephew. By the time they graduated from high school, they were best friends. Good luck toughing this out!

  67. 67.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 7:39 am

    @debbie: FWIW, I don’t want the Dems to announce their strategy to the world.

  68. 68.

    JMG

    November 28, 2016 at 7:40 am

    @Kay: Some want in on it, and some want to run their own smaller scams/rackets using the powers of their own offices. Some are ideological fanatics who think their dreams will come true, and the rest are just cowards.

  69. 69.

    Ian

    November 28, 2016 at 7:43 am

    @sebastien:
    Add two tablespoons of salt and you get Marine LePen! That’s where France is going. The last hope of Western Democracy is Merkel. Someone should drag that Samuel Huffington guy out of whatever retirement home he is in and show him his premise of history is over as well and truly dead.

  70. 70.

    sebastien

    November 28, 2016 at 7:44 am

    @Dadadadadadada:
    I can’t but hope she’ll get as much success as her father when he reached the 2nd turn against Chirac. But damn, voting for Fillon is going to require a lot of… Well, I don’t drink so I have to find something, but in quantity nevertheless..

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    November 28, 2016 at 7:47 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sanders has a single note, and he’s playing it for all he’s worth. That’s understandable. There’s a vacuum in the party leadership now, and he’s rushing to fill it, as are other power-seekers.

    My objection isn’t to his ego or lack of party affiliation (though of course these are factors that may be significant); it’s that I think his remedy — “I was right all along, so everyone do what I say” — is too simplistic and won’t work. It fails to recognize that there’s a reason the party’s base rejected him. It fails to account for major factors that Sawicky hand-waves away as unimportant in the screed reproduced above.

    If Sanders himself doesn’t get that, at least some of his people who are actually Democrats do. I’m not convinced Keith Ellison is the guy to lead the DNC going forward, but at least he has a grasp on what happened in the election and doesn’t boil the plan for the future down to “get rid of identity politics and kiss the WWC’s ass.”

    I think it makes more sense to listen to people who understand the complexity of the challenge ahead. Just my $.02.

  72. 72.

    Applejinx

    November 28, 2016 at 7:50 am

    @DCF:

    An alternative strategy would be to emulate what Mitch McConnell did with Obama, to just oppose everything, regardless of whether or not it is congenial to his ideological interests. This worked well for the Republicans

    No it did not. It created conditions under which they all lost to Trump. They’re not in control of the Presidency, and it’s dangerous, and they can’t be sure they’ll get what they want out of Trump (which should, I think, be encouraged: drive wedges)

  73. 73.

    Van Buren

    November 28, 2016 at 7:50 am

    Anyone unaware of contingency and randomness was not paying attention at the time of the great butterfly ballot snafu of 2000. After all, a simple design issue only led to the deaths of about half a million people.

  74. 74.

    Iowa Old Lady

    November 28, 2016 at 7:51 am

    @JMG: At the moment, they’re too busy preparing their bucket list of repressive legislation to spare a thought for Trump.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    November 28, 2016 at 7:52 am

    I’m escaping politics and getting out today. Bro’ Man took the day off because he was on call all weekend, so we’re motoring out to Marshall, Virginia, to go to some allegedly fantastic bakery that is there. Whatever. I always like a road trip (it’s about an hour away), and I have already scouted a couple of likely Mexican restaurants and a barbecue place for lunch. I’m sure we’ll talk politics at some point, but we’re both on the same page, so no worries there. Disagreements involve how awful things will be and in which areas.

  76. 76.

    Applejinx

    November 28, 2016 at 7:52 am

    @Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire): Sorry to hear it. You’re not alone, far far from it. Keep posting even if the trolls get to you :)

  77. 77.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 7:53 am

    @Kay:

    Remember what it took to get the 2006 turn? An incredible social conservative overreach into the pain of a single family using uncritically analyzed spam from a relative handful of activists and one wiped out city dealt an incompetent response by the horse show judge and volunteer fire department lawyer selected to head FEMA.

    Media missed both of those ahead of time – they were busy focusing on horse races and messaging and viewing polls as sports scores.

    In 2008, it took a popping real estate bubble that conservative propagandists had been denying existed for four solid years – and the media lapped that shit up until it became undeniable.

    Conservatism in this country really IS the default mode for white people. We’re venal and corrupt, and while we may briefly tuck our heads in shame we always seem to roar back after liberals begin fixing it.

    Propaganda is powerful.

    We will be best served to look at our beleaguered minority communities to semi-isolate from the shitstorm that comes next. I feel like the Clintons are sort of doing that right now.

  78. 78.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 7:54 am

    @raven:

    Tell me what it takes to rid a team of Todd Grantham….

  79. 79.

    debbie

    November 28, 2016 at 7:54 am

    @Baud:

    No, not the strategy, but at least the intent to oppose when necessary.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    November 28, 2016 at 7:55 am

    @efgoldman:

    LOL. First laugh of the day. You two are like the Statler and Waldorf of Balloon Juice.

  81. 81.

    satby

    November 28, 2016 at 7:58 am

    @Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire): Adria, it may be the best thing you ever did. If you need to file don’t delay until it doesn’t help much. I ended up waiting too long and then bankruptcy wouldn’t have helped, everything was pretty much gone anyway. The big guys preemptively file and end up richer.

    I’ve been where you are, and you’ll get past this. So many people have been through it too. It’s not a failure in your part, our system is more like a lottery and more people lose at that than win, even when they follow all the rules. But you’ll get past this.

  82. 82.

    Applejinx

    November 28, 2016 at 7:58 am

    @Botsplainer:

    Monied interests quit learning to not bubble up real estate long ago.
    It is like some cognitive deficiency on a massive institutional scale. Rather than applying capital toward production, it gets applied to the thing that won’t return on the investment at near the correct ratios once markets are saturated.

    They can’t. They can’t learn that. It’s in the nature of capital itself. When it accumulates enough you get tulip bulbs and real estate bubbles, top-tier cities that are ghost towns because the property is absentee owned by impossibly wealthy people or corporate entities in other countries, and the concentrated value of the bubbled-up thing is the REASON capital wants it.

    We’re talking about situations where investment in the stuff you want is way not as valuable as the tulip bulb, or the empty flat in London. Production is not valuable when the consumer class is poor. That’s just the way it is. Bubbles and ‘madness’ aren’t deviations, they’re the system working as intended.

  83. 83.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    November 28, 2016 at 7:59 am

    “54% of American voters preferred the ‘nasty, nasty woman'”

  84. 84.

    raven

    November 28, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @Botsplainer: ha!

  85. 85.

    Another Scott

    November 28, 2016 at 8:02 am

    @Baud: Yup.

    Even without a filibuster/cloture system, Senators still have a lot of individual power to stall action by the majority. Withholding “unanimous consent” could slow things down a lot. But I think they have more tools in the tool chest than that.

    At least I hope so…

    I think we should also remember that the Senate absolutely hates when the House is in the lead. Remember how the Senate slowed things down in 2009 when it came to the Stimulus and the early ACA actions. Nancy passed lots of good legislation and the Senate just sat on it or gummed up the works for months on end. That same dynamic will happen in the Senate even with the GOP in charge (but maybe not to the same extent). The GOP isn’t united no matter how much they say otherwise. We can try to exploit those divisions.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    Applejinx

    November 28, 2016 at 8:05 am

    @satby:

    I’ve been where you are, and you’ll get past this. So many people have been through it too. It’s not a failure in your part, our system is more like a lottery and more people lose at that than win, even when they follow all the rules. But you’ll get past this.

    This. I’ve been homeless and I’m currently using some middle-class (think they’re rich, but they’re under seven figures!) relatives as a backstop for emergencies. I’ve got other relatives who are more like seven figures, and those ones want to play socially friendly but would sooner shoot me in the head than bail me out of any sort of jam, which is tough for me to be around. You’ve got to avoid the people who think it’s a meritocracy system, that stopped many decades ago even if you were male and white from a good family. Never existed for others at all.

    I do like the idea of following the rules, though. There should be some sort of guarantee that simply following all the rules will be enough at least to avoid starvation, bankruptcy and penury, so long as you can settle for a humble life. We could call it a New Deal. Or something with ‘security’ in the name.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 8:06 am

    @Betty Cracker: Agreed, both more and less. And I think Bernie has something to add to the conversation but he comes into it with a severe deficit of trust (“the primaries are rigged against me!!!”) and saying things like “I was right all along, so everyone do what I say” just exacerbates it, especially when one has to ignore everything Obama did for the last 8 years to accept that statement.

    When it comes to what went wrong in this election I have to be honest and say that I am not really even paying attention yet. It is way to soon and there is way too high of a noise/data ratio. In 6 months I will begin to read the autopsies, by then there will be some legitimacy to them.

    As to the leadership vacuum…. shrug I have no opinion other than that in all likelihood none of those now rushing to fill the void are the right person. The only thing I am sure of is “All politics is local.” Somehow or other we lost sight of that truism. Time we went back to it.

  88. 88.

    Gindy51

    November 28, 2016 at 8:09 am

    @debbie: On the other hand, when my sister arrived right before my 2nd birthday the feud never ended and today we live less than 300 miles apart and haven’t spoken since 2009.

  89. 89.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 8:10 am

    @raven:

    He’s killing us, and I’m surprised he was even hired for that salary, given his history. My position is that weak D leads O to take needless risks in order to outscore the deficiency.

  90. 90.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 8:12 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think we’re within a pubic hair of a supermajority GOP senate and House, once all the ratfucking is done.

    Think PRI in Mexico in the 70s and early 80s, but without the pretense of doing anything for the working stuff or impoverished.

  91. 91.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 8:14 am

    There has been a mountain of articles, comments, posts, etc about the media’s failure to cover der Fuhrer’s various business dealings prior to the election. All true but I think it still misses the much bigger story.

    Almost from the day that der Fuhrer came down that escalator he demonstrated that he did not have the temperament to be POTUS. Most of us probably do not, but he seemed especially ill-suited. Whither it was the Khan family or the judge he proved over and over again that he could be baited by a tweet. These twitter storms were covered by the media, usually with the puzzled comment that ‘this would destroy an other politician’.

    Yet, 59 million people were willing to vote for him. I understand CDS and tribalism and all of the rest in explaining how people vote, I just don’t think any amount of media coverage on his business conflicts would have made a difference. He showed from day 1 that he didnot have the temperament, or gravitas if you will, and it made no difference.

  92. 92.

    satby

    November 28, 2016 at 8:15 am

    @Applejinx: Most people in this country, certainly most of the white ones, already think that following the rules IS a guarantee against starvation, bankruptcy, and penury. That’s why they moan about welfare cheats and try to pin down what mistakes were made when individuals they know run into trouble. Until they or a close family member or friend runs into the random buzzsaw of modern life they hold on to the illusion that “following the rules” keeps you safe, and if someone has trouble they must have done something wrong. Admitting that life is random and that our protections in this country are scant is too frightening.

    And the Republicans exploit that magical thinking for all it’s worth.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 8:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    saying things like “I was right all along, so everyone do what I say”

    Centrists could make the same argument.

    The only thing I am sure of is “All politics is local.” Somehow or other we lost sight of that truism

    We haven’t decided if we want to be an ideologically pure party or a mass party.

  94. 94.

    sunny raines

    November 28, 2016 at 8:17 am

    the tweeter misses the best way to get to trump: assault on his businesses worldwide. A sustained boycott would bring the orange maggot blubbering to his knees. Money is the only thing outside of his Narcissim that trump understands.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    November 28, 2016 at 8:20 am

    @satby: Absolutely true. With the Trump kleptocracy forming and the GOP Congress lining up to abet it to secure more tax breaks for fat cats while shredding the social safety net, those folks may meet that buzzsaw sooner rather than later. That will be scant comfort to those who saw it coming.

  96. 96.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 8:22 am

    @Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire): @satby: Let me 2nd what Satby said. My wife and I had been together for about a year, a time during which she had been trying to sell her house for less than she owed but was unsuccessful. Finally, after she had run out of money, she found a buyer to take it for $2,000 less than the mortgage. The bank rejected it. This was in 2006 and the bubble was obvious for any to see (at the very least on the local level), all they had to do was open their eyes.

    Anyway, pissed me off. I said “Fuck ’em. Let them have it and see if they can do any better. Here’s the money for your bankruptcy.” She filed, she fucked ’em, then the market fucked ’em, then the economy fucked ’em…

    All she lost was the money she put into the house and that was already gone to begin with.

  97. 97.

    Botsplainer

    November 28, 2016 at 8:26 am

    Here’s an easy one to start with – DiBlasio can pull NYPD off Trump Tower and refuse to permanently divert traffic out of those lanes.

    It is an easy thing to do; all he has to say is “I have a city budget to mind and I have a traffic pattern to manage. He can divest himself if he doesn’t like it”.

  98. 98.

    amk

    November 28, 2016 at 8:27 am

    @D58826: The fifth columnist fourth estate did manage to destroy Hillary’s credibility on nothingburgers. While framing every issue on rw pov. Your media is your worst enemy. It’s time you recognized it.

  99. 99.

    satby

    November 28, 2016 at 8:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I looked last night for my old house in auctuon.com. It’s not there, somebody must have finally bought it, and I hope they bought it knowing about all the structural damage. It was listed at an opening bid of $17k on a reserve of $70k, I had purchased it for $125k, and the best estimate of market value when I was trying to short sell with no takers was $89k. Now that it’s off the market, Zillow shows it’s value as $179k. Which is impossible. Unless someone knocked it down and built an entirely new house in the last month.

    Edited to add: it’s all a game. I don’t trust the “market value” of anything anymore.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 8:28 am

    Michael CalderoneVerified account
    ‏@mlcalderone
    WSJ irresponsibly promotes Trump’s false “millions” claim across the front page

    This doesn’t surprise me. The WSJ has done more to promote bogus voter fraud claims than any news outfit, with the possible exception of Fox. They are the people who gave it credibility.

  101. 101.

    Baud

    November 28, 2016 at 8:29 am

    @amk: I agree. I thought enough of us were savvier by now. Proven wrong in the worst way.

    GOP voters wouldn’t have fallen for media spin.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 8:30 am

    @Botsplainer: There is that danger. The GOP no longer even gives lipservice to Democratic norms. The only thing they care about is power. We all know what power does, the only question is will voters notice or even care if they do?

  103. 103.

    amk

    November 28, 2016 at 8:33 am

    @Baud: for years, gopee has adopted a very successful policy of ridiculing the msm (lame stream media is a good one) even as those asskissers constantly promote 24×7 gop lies and ‘policies’. the dem ‘establishment’ never learnt that trick.

  104. 104.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 8:40 am

    @amk: OH I’m not letting the media off the hook on this. I’m just saying that I don’t think any amount of coverage of his business dealings would have made an impact. Exit polls have shown that a significant number of people thought he was unqualified but still voted for him. It would seem that once you have decided a candidate is unqualified for the job anything else negative the media would have to say is just icing on the cake. And once you have decided that you will vote for a candidate that you admit is unqualified, then I don’t think there is any amount of news coverage that will change your mind.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Ron Fournier ‏@ron_fournier 3h3 hours ago
    Raising doubts about legitimacy of election, even w/out overturning result, is part of Clinton’s plans to keep her options open for 2020

    The evil scheming bitch is at it again!

    Christ almighty, media. See a therapist. There must be a group rate.

    It never ends with these people. They are going to dog her for the rest of her life. No women in her right mind would run for President after watching the ridiculous ethical double standard that was applied to Trump.

    I read Gillibrand was considering a run. Don’t do it, Kirsten. It sucks.

  106. 106.

    satby

    November 28, 2016 at 8:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Only when their own ox is gored. And even then, most will blame nefarious others, their own poor timing, or simple bad luck rather than honestly face what has happened to that party. Good Germans all.

  107. 107.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 8:45 am

    @Kay: It’s obvious that Hillary or Bill did a mind meld with Stein to get her to file the recount petition and with der Fuhrer to go on a twitter rampage. Those Clintons are just so crafty. She knew that 2016 wasn’t her year but 2020 would let her implement all of her nefarious schemes while still keeping the seat warm to turn it over to Chelsea.

  108. 108.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 8:47 am

    @Baud:

    Centrists could make the same argument.

    Right now everybody, except me, seems to be making that argument. I repeat, too much noise.

    We haven’t decided if we want to be an ideologically pure party or a mass party.

    A party has to have a few core beliefs that allows for some maneuverings around other issues. The GOP believes in profit and power, nothing else as far as I can see. Everything else is just to get the rubes out to vote. I don’t think it’s any secret what I believe should be our core beliefs. Others may feel differently. I am willing to listen anyway.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    November 28, 2016 at 8:51 am

    @D58826:

    The President-elect accuses 3 million Americans of committing a felony and Hillary Clinton is the evil conniving bitch.

    I bet she knows the President isn’t supposed to threaten the people who voted for the other candidate with prosecution.

  110. 110.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    November 28, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @Botsplainer:

    John posted something yesterday about energized liberal Californians – which only leads me to believe that we’re within 5 years of a West Coast secession crisis.

    Why is that a problem. No reason if the rest of the country is determined to drive to country into the trash heap no reason for us to go with it. And it’s about time the Noe-Confederates had this asshole shit thrown back in their face.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 9:00 am

    @satby:

    I hope they bought it knowing about all the structural damage.

    By law they have to disclose that. Some friends bought a house and 2 years later the basement floor had a 1″+ lift on one side of it. The previous owners had tried to hide the cracked foundation behind a furred out wall and the broken floor under ceramic tiles. (I took one look at it and said, “You got fucked.” ) My friends sued and won w/o a trial, it was so obvious and their mortgage holder was not about to let it go. Did not make up for all their worries and everything else they suffered but at least it covered their financial losses.

    And yes, it is all a game, one my wife and I checked out of at our earliest possible date. We own it free and clear and we do what we want with it w/o a thought for resale, only for what makes us happy. This is where we die.

  112. 112.

    amk

    November 28, 2016 at 9:04 am

    @Kay: Amazing isn’t it how the media minions spin this? murkkka must rank as the worst brainwashed nation.

  113. 113.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    November 28, 2016 at 9:04 am

    \@D58826: again, Trump’s not a politician, he’s a celebrity. His TV show established this flawed hero mem in his voters mind.

    I think Trump’s real undoing will be when he is office and becomes another boring politician and that replaces the media myth he has. Same thing happened to Arnold.

  114. 114.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 9:05 am

    @Kay:

    illary Clinton is the evil conniving bitch.

    A testimonial written across the sky from their favorite savior would not change their minds.

  115. 115.

    amk

    November 28, 2016 at 9:09 am

    @D58826: Sorry, if the fucking fourth estate had done its job as it was supposed to do, this corrupt clown wouldn’t have gotten past the primaries. They are the prime reason for this bloodless coup.

  116. 116.

    GregB

    November 28, 2016 at 9:10 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Seconded.

  117. 117.

    Raven

    November 28, 2016 at 9:12 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: what would you do if you knew that had been done to a house in the neighborhood? The PO built a wall to mask big time foundation problems.

  118. 118.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    November 28, 2016 at 9:13 am

    Thank you to everyone who has offered kind words and some advice. I will explain more later, but right now, it’s back to school work.

    Again, thanks.

  119. 119.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    November 28, 2016 at 9:13 am

    @amk: Trump had twenty other politicans running against him in the primary. Remember Jeb and Rubio was the establishment darling and it’s quite clear the establishment loathes Trump. This isn’t the MSM, this is this block of voters are living in a fantasy land.

    Also, Trump is willing to promise people anything to make the sale. Normal politicians don’t do that because they know there will be hell to pay when in office if they don’t deliver.

    Also consider that they all voted for Trump “because he isn’t a politician” That means in derpland they know something is seriously wrong, just their to stupid to come up with a good fix.

  120. 120.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 9:17 am

    @Betty Cracker: Sanders apparently does not understand how his rhetoric divides the working class by making a distinction between working class who didn’t vote for Clinton — who are by and large white — and the “identity politics” represented by “diversity.” I KNOW he supports civil rights and equal pay, but by putting “diversity” on one side of a divide and support for workers on the other, he uses the rhetorical sleight of hand that implicitly sees issues of workers as being issues first and foremost of the white working class. No one has yet explained to me how exactly the WWC has such distinctive problems that they are not amenable to the same measures that would help all working class people. The only legitimate issue that might exist is that they are on average older, and therefore, less able to move or train their way out of loss of status or obsolescence. But in most other measures, such as access to quality education, and current employer provided health coverage, the white working class are still well ahead of the average worker who is not white. They have more seniority, and are more likely to own a house.

    Also, because it seems to keep getting lost, there is an argument that “stagnant wages” over the last 30 years are almost wholly attributable to the outrageous cost of health care in the U.S., because so much of that cost is funneled through employer provided health insurance, and, moreover, there are strong tax incentives to put significant dollars in that bucket. It is also in no small part responsible for at least some of the outsourcing that has occurred (but that’s a more complicated issue).

    As for his reaction to Trump, all I can say is, from what I have seen so far, the the odds are exceedingly long that anything Trump touches will actually help the working class. I don’t know that I am advocating a full on wall of resistance. Rather, I think the correct response is, “Prove it” before anyone shows a willingness to work with him.

  121. 121.

    amk

    November 28, 2016 at 9:18 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: He started off with a loss in IA. If the corrupt media hadn’t been helping him with 24×7 coverage, he would have lost NH and he would have quit. Remember how pissed off this nut was when lost IA and called them stupid?

  122. 122.

    Jeffro

    November 28, 2016 at 9:23 am

    Suggested article: A Time for Refusal

  123. 123.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 9:25 am

    @Raven: Being in the biz, I probably would not make the mistake their neighbor did in assuming the POs had disclosed it but make sure they had. This was a severe situation, not just a little movement that made it hard to close a door after a hard rain. The neighbor knew there were problems, knew they were not good tho he did not know just how bad they were, but assumed the POs disclosed it.

    When my friends asked, he was like, “What? You didn’t know?” I think it was his affidavit that sealed the verdict. It was pretty damning with all his observations of concrete trucks and construction crews etc etc.

  124. 124.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 9:26 am

    @satby: Yes, indeed. We are seeing this reaction firsthand with the alarming increase in opioid abuse, including both legal and street drugs. When heroin abuse resides in mostly poor places, it’s the fault of the poor for not avoiding drugs. When white kids start overdosing it is either the fault of the dealers or a recognition that addiction is actually a disease that needs to be treated. People who work hard and play by the rules and stick by their kids and make sure they are well-dressed for school every day are not supposed to be dealing with drug abuse.

  125. 125.

    cleek

    November 28, 2016 at 9:29 am

    The fact that 54% of those voting voted against Trump clearly has him unnerved. Let’s remind him every day.

    he’s trolling.

    you took the bait.

    now we have to debate reality while the GOP goes about their business

  126. 126.

    Raven

    November 28, 2016 at 9:30 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: This house is built on a bank and the block wall against that bank was compromised by a huge oak that they took down as part of our sewer project. I guess it’s none of my business but I’d hate to see some family buy it without knowing.

  127. 127.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 9:32 am

    @Barbara:

    I KNOW he supports civil rights and equal pay, but by putting “diversity” on one side of a divide and support for workers on the other, he uses the rhetorical sleight of hand that implicitly sees issues of workers as being issues first and foremost of the white working class.

    Not a sleight of hand. He’s an unreconstructed Marxist and this is what he actually thinks.

  128. 128.

    tobie

    November 28, 2016 at 9:36 am

    @Kay:

    Ron Fournier ‏@ron_fournier 3h3 hours ago
    Raising doubts about legitimacy of election, even w/out overturning result, is part of Clinton’s plans to keep her options open for 2020

    This is hideous. I can only hope that with each and every passing tweet Fournier’s colleagues finally accept what we in the blogosphere have known for a long: the guy is venal partisan hack.

  129. 129.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 9:38 am

    @tobie: I think it’s hilarious.

  130. 130.

    tobie

    November 28, 2016 at 9:38 am

    Happy birthday, Anne Laurie.
    Good luck sorting out your affairs, Adria McDowell.

  131. 131.

    tobie

    November 28, 2016 at 9:39 am

    @Major Major Major Major: Maybe in a gallows sort of way.

  132. 132.

    Drunkenhausfrau

    November 28, 2016 at 9:39 am

    I am darkly chuckling at all those misogynists who didn’t want Hillary because it sure looks like the person in charge of Trump is KellyAnn Con.

  133. 133.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 9:40 am

    @Major Major Major Major: Let me be clearer: His rhetoric suggests that he does not see non-whites and women as part of the working class population, when they clearly are. He is still fighting battles from 1935, a battle that, even then, the working class in the United States never joined in on the side of Marxists. Insofar as he represented something that seemed new to younger voters, he received their support. But his policies are actually old and tired and not aimed at addressing issues for the 21st century workforce.

  134. 134.

    Yoda Dog

    November 28, 2016 at 9:41 am

    Fuck Ron Fournier.

  135. 135.

    tobie

    November 28, 2016 at 9:44 am

    @cleek:

    he’s trolling.

    you took the bait.

    now we have to debate reality while the GOP goes about their business

    But we’re trolling, too, while trying to figure out a strategy to protect Medicare and Social Security with the limited resources we have. One doesn’t rule out the other.

  136. 136.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 9:45 am

    @Barbara: I think the class-struggle-trumps-all Marxist rhetoric is quite intentional; that it erases women, POC, etc. is a bug, not a feature, but he also doesn’t seem to give a shit.

    ETA: In a charitable reading, his supporters don’t notice, though how they can’t is beyond me. In a less charitable reading, one that is based on what they actually say, they think that his “avoiding uncomfortable issues like ovaries and black people” approach is the correct one.

  137. 137.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 9:50 am

    @Raven: Getting “involved” is uncomfortable, you never know how people are going to react. I would mention it to the new owners. There are several approaches they could take to deal with the situation, starting with having a soils engineer look at it. S/he might find they have nothing to worry about and I would bet it would cost less than $1K. Cheap money for a sound night’s sleep, and if remedial actions are necessary it is entirely likely they could get compensated for them. The last thing one wants is to wait until after the damage is done. By then everybody is fucked.

  138. 138.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 9:51 am

    @amk: I disagree. You have to look at the media performance at different points in the campaign.

    Initially there were 17 members of the clown car. The media does not have the resources to do a deep dive into the backgrounds of all of them. The public wasn’t paying attention and the non-serious candidates would be gone before the first snowfall. Trump was covered because he was famous and entertaining not because he was really a serious candidate.

    Then came the comment about McCain. CW said that Trump should be burnt toast, only he wasn’t. That was followed by a number of other foot-in-mouth comments and finally the shot some one in Time Square. Trump was still an entertaining but non-serious candidate, or so everyone thought.

    By the time it was obvious that he was a serious candidate, ‘brand’ Trump was fixed in peoples minds. As long as the voters were willing to over look that he was manifestly unqualified both in terms of experience and temperament, nothing was going to change that brand image.

    Even now, with all of the reporting about his business conflicts his poll numbers have ticked up a bit.

  139. 139.

    Betty Cracker

    November 28, 2016 at 9:53 am

    @cleek: I’ve seen this meme propagated far and wide and agree with it to some extent: Trump says outrageous things to distract us from more important issues. But sometimes I think it gives him too much credit.

    Trump is, in fact, a petty narcissist, so of course resounding losing the popular vote sticks in his craw. He’s gone off on self-destructive Twitter-binges before; that they weren’t enough to sink his candidacy isn’t to say they weren’t ill-advised.

    Bottom line: I think we need to walk and chew gum. It’s genuinely newsworthy when the 70-year-old toddler who is poised to take possession of the world’s most fearsome nuclear arsenal rage-tweets about stolen elections using InfoWars as a source. For anyone hoping to delegitimize and discredit Trump to minimize the damage he’s about to cause, baiting him into further tantrums isn’t a bad strategy.

    We shouldn’t ignore the unfolding con either, of course, and Trump has demonstrated that firehosing sewage makes it difficult to focus on the individual turds. But I’m not sure the answer is to pick one turd to dissect at a time. Maybe we have to be multitaskers.

  140. 140.

    Raven

    November 28, 2016 at 9:54 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: thanks, this gives me something to think about while I wait to get “fitted” in to see the Doc to take this damn thing out of my ear!

  141. 141.

    Procopius

    November 28, 2016 at 9:55 am

    @Baud: How can you tell when they’re lying to us? Easy. Whenever they print something.

  142. 142.

    Corner Stone

    November 28, 2016 at 9:55 am

    I sometimes wonder how it must feel to be President Obama and see this buffoon beclown the entire nation on a daily basis. And watch real time Trump undue all the decency he brought to the office before the POS is even sworn in.

  143. 143.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 9:57 am

    I was reminded yesterday during some background reading for a meeting today of Miller’s “seven plus or minus two” magic number for information bandwidth. Basically it’s the number of disambiguation units you can reliably hold in short-term memory if you try, but it pops up a lot of other places too. So, for instance, a phone number.

    I think something like this is in effect with the media. There are only a few stories per day that they can/will actually report on/follow. Republicans are good at turning any story into their preferred talking points about anything and they usually don’t get cut off. We need to pick something (Medicare? Voting rights?) and pound that square peg into whatever round hole we’re presented with.

    We can walk and chew gum, but ‘they’ can’t.

  144. 144.

    Corner Stone

    November 28, 2016 at 9:59 am

    @Kay:

    Ron Fournier ‏@ron_fournier 3h3 hours ago
    Raising doubts about legitimacy of election, even w/out overturning result, is part of Clinton’s plans to keep her options open for 2020

    How in the absolute fuck could a grown person type something so damn stupid? A lifetime of hate in your bloodstream must cut way down on available oxygen to the brain.

  145. 145.

    Darkrose

    November 28, 2016 at 10:01 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Given that a Black man was lynched recently in fucking Richmond, I really think we need to lay off the smug. CA is hardly the lefty paradise we like to imagine it is.

  146. 146.

    Miss Bianca

    November 28, 2016 at 10:02 am

    @DCF: Who is this person saying “Oh, give Bernie a chaaaaance and btw Hillary still sux” and why do we give a rat’s ass what he says?

  147. 147.

    Procopius

    November 28, 2016 at 10:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Bernie was not a Democrat, but he caucused with the Democrats and he was such a reliable vote that people took him for granted as a Democrat vote. We see that when we see people talk about how the Democrats had 60 votes (they count the slimey Weepin’ Joe Lieberman as a Democrat, too, which shows how they ignore reality) for a brief period in 2009.

  148. 148.

    gogol's wife

    November 28, 2016 at 10:05 am

    I just subscribed to WaPo. I like their website. We’ll see how good the crossword puzzles are.

  149. 149.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 10:05 am

    @Raven: I guess the firehose in the opposite ear didn’t work then.

  150. 150.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 10:08 am

    @Darkrose: details?

  151. 151.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 10:12 am

    @Major Major Major Major: We all like to think that we have come further than we actually have. I cannot speak for non-white people, but as a woman, I have found that most women realize within 5 years of actually working how much more progress needs to be made. You also, literally, don’t notice how much society has been shaped around your preferences and habits until it starts to change. This is like the phenomenon of driving in the fast lane and not noticing the slow lanes around you — until you are in the slow lane, then you notice. For people who are expected to transition from a manual labor to a knowledge based set of skills, this seems like being shoved into the slowest and longest lane with a lot of other people that they are used to being ahead of. I think you can’t separate the two: the resentment that the economy no longer revolves around their habits and skills, and resentment that they are all of a sudden “no better” than many people they had been ahead of for a long time. They see the past, they don’t see a future that even includes them let alone rewards them over and above others. Not that Clinton had all the answers, but to the extent that both Sanders and Trump stoked nostalgia for what was they are making the problem worse in the long run.

  152. 152.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 10:15 am

    @Procopius: Bernie was a reliable ally, and could be again, as long as it suited his very narrow interests. Bernie was never going to fall on his sword for some larger Democratic Party interest. I still can not fathom DWS’s decision to allow him to run for the DEM nomination. It made very little sense then, in hindsight it makes no sense at all. Even I can see that now.

  153. 153.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 10:17 am

    @Barbara: yeah, there IS legitimate economic anxiety that exists in Trump voters, but what actually drove their vote is status anxiety. I should also note that the WWC people who voted Trump are better off than the WWC people who voted Clinton.

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 10:19 am

    @Kay:
    Yes, he did this, and it should be in every story about him

  155. 155.

    SWMBO

    November 28, 2016 at 10:20 am

    @Kay: Remember 2001? They were all about dissing Al Gore (Wimp! Metrosexual! etc) well after the election which Gore won the popular vote. One of the reasons the 9/11 conspiracy theories started in left-wing-nut-stan was because there was a big vote report on the 2000 election that came out October 1 or so. Conveniently, the Towers fell, we were at WAR! and questioning Dear Leader during WAR! wasn’t done in polite society. Or the media. He turned out to be the President we needed when we needed him most (eye roll). But the results of the voting “irregularities” were buried in the blood lust for WAR! //some snark may have found its way into this paragraph.
    Part of the continued Hillary bashing is to discredit any recount/audit/questioning of Dear Orangeade. Instead of Brooks Brothers riots, we have man-baby rage tweets.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 10:22 am

    @Kay:
    The man was deemed too racist during the REAGAN YEARS. And, he has not stopped being racist -AS A PUBLIC OFFICIAL.
    Mother Jones has a story out about him questioning whether nominee Sotomayor could be fair to WHITE PEOPLE????

  157. 157.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 10:25 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Tell that truth!

  158. 158.

    Iowa Old Lady

    November 28, 2016 at 10:27 am

    If Sanders wants to make himself useful, he’d get those million people marches going, stat.

  159. 159.

    Iowa Old Lady

    November 28, 2016 at 10:28 am

    Active shooter on OSU campus.

  160. 160.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 10:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: @rikyrah: I would say this is what at the end of the day bothers me the most about him. I don’t particularly care for many of his policies but my god he makes it hard to respectfully disagree.

  161. 161.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 10:29 am

    Waiting with the missus who is having surgery on her hand this morning. She has stenosing tenosynovitis AKA “trigger finger”. I’ll be her caregiver for a few days until she can use her hand again. That should be mostly light duty for me so I might hang out here more than I have been. Been an interesting AM so far.

  162. 162.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 10:30 am

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah, I get it. The Trump voters probably think they are protecting what they have, as if identifying with the wealthy relatives will prevent them from becoming the kind of “losers” that vote for Clinton. And I also agree that it’s not just or even mostly economic anxiety, instead, it’s the kind of anxiety that they feel when they see an advertisement for appliances in a really cool looking kitchen where an Asian looking couple are the putative consumers. Or the Samsung commercials with the parody of the white professional couple, where the dad is trying to wash the stuffed animal with juice on it before the toddler notices it is missing, or can’t find his frozen gravy because the wife has moved it from the compartment than can be used as both a freezer or a refrigerator.

  163. 163.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 10:30 am

    @Darkrose:
    WHAT?!

    Links please, this is news to me

  164. 164.

    tobie

    November 28, 2016 at 10:31 am

    @Barbara:

    Not that Clinton had all the answers, but to the extent that both Sanders and Trump stoked nostalgia for what was they are making the problem worse in the long run.

    “Stoking nostalgia” seems too kind a phrase. I’d say stoking hate. Both DJT and BS changed politics indelibly in the country and I don’t see how anything good can come of it. Both made their campaigns about branding and weaponizing hate. It’s why their pasts never came back to haunt them. Trump’s bankruptcies…who cares! Sander’s vote against the auto bailout…who cares! Absence of any concrete plans to get shit done…who cares! It’s so much more fun to scapegoat.

    I was talking to a German acquaintance recently and asked her if she was worried that a Russian misinformation campaign might affect elections in Germany. She said no because the electoral system in Germany was so different and above all because people liked that politics was hum drum and boring and about policy rather than theatrics. Maybe she’s looking at things through rose-colored glasses. It’s hard for me to judge from this distance but I do know that with the exception of HRC this year there was little attention to policy and that didn’t seem to bother either Trump supporters or Bernie’s most ardent fans.

  165. 165.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 10:32 am

    @Kay:
    John Fund has never seen a legitimate Black voter

  166. 166.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 10:32 am

    Bouie has another good Slate piece, about what we can learn from Jesse Jackson.

    A liberalism that doesn’t, for example, engage with the specific problems of black workers or undocumented immigrants is one that can’t engage with “Americans as Americans,” if American is a stand-in for the citizens and residents who exist and not a euphemism for a certain kind of imagined American of decades past.

    here

  167. 167.

    dww44

    November 28, 2016 at 10:32 am

    @Applejinx: I agree. Divide and conquer will be the path forward for Congressional Democrats and for us.

  168. 168.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 10:35 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    The NRA field office establishes a new location. SIGH, can we please have MORE guns in America

  169. 169.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 10:36 am

    AP is reporting that Ohio state has sent a warning to students of an active shooter on campus. be prepared to run/hide or fight. no other details

    nbc/cnn/ govenors office all reporting same

  170. 170.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 10:38 am

    @Barbara: and then they also get upset because those ads are “perpetuating the ‘stupid father’ misandrist stereotype, negating his life-shortening struggle to work hard and provide for his family.”

  171. 171.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 10:44 am

    @Major Major Major Major: As if women don’t come in for more than their fair share of “stupid chick” commercials. My current choice for companies to avoid comes from some on-line shoe vendor, which shows a woman in a humongous closet surrounded by dozens of shoes that she bought for $35.99 apiece, “I mean WHO DOES THAT!!!” Then, hubby comes in looks around and says, “Oh come ON!” and she says, “Sorry!” then, when he leaves, “NOT sorry.” Okay, it’s an effective ad because I have just related it in its entirety, but the point is, it shows women as being obsessed by shoes. As if we all really, really, want to be Imelda Marcos clones.

  172. 172.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 10:44 am

    @D58826: I guess Jim Harbaugh is still upset over the game.
    .
    .
    .
    sorry, sorry, sorry, I know it’s serious, and I know it’s too soon, but….
    but….
    but….

    I just can’t help myself.

  173. 173.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 10:46 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I’m a sick bastard & that was my second thought too. This has gotten so common that I have to push the horror aside with the darkest humor

  174. 174.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 10:46 am

    @Barbara:

    it’s an effective ad because I have just related it in its entirety

    No it isn’t–you didn’t mention the brand!

  175. 175.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    November 28, 2016 at 10:47 am

    @Shalimar: I’ve got a Mobile Register article here that says Spiver Gordon was convicted in Federal court in 1985 of mishandling absentee ballots.

    Sessions failed to get a conviction, and then the US Attorney brought charges.

    The Mobile Register is online at GenealogyBank, BTW.

  176. 176.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 10:48 am

    @Schlemazel: Sometimes it’s all we have.

  177. 177.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 10:49 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: gallows humor:-) :-)

  178. 178.

    The Moar You Know

    November 28, 2016 at 10:51 am

    John posted something yesterday about energized liberal Californians – which only leads me to believe that we’re within 5 years of a West Coast secession crisis.

    @Botsplainer: I know we’re putting a measure on the ballot to do just this. When they get serious, that’s full “sell my house and give them the money” territory for me. As a CA native whose family is from the deep south, I know what I have here and how the rest of America works and I want the fuck out. It’s worth paying a lot for that privilege. And I’m not even close to the only one who feels that way.

  179. 179.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 10:52 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Third thought: “This proves we need more guns!” “If OSU allowed open carry this would have been stopped sooner”
    Fourth thought: I don’t want to live on this planet any longer

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    November 28, 2016 at 10:54 am

    David Petraeus for SECRETARY OF STATE?
    A man who gave his HO state secrets?????

  181. 181.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 10:54 am

    @D58826:
    Dang me, Dang me,
    They ought a take a rope and hang me.
    High for the highest treeeeee….
    Oh woman would you weep for me?

  182. 182.

    Corner Stone

    November 28, 2016 at 10:56 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    As a CA native whose family is from the deep south, I know what I have here and how the rest of America works and I want the fuck out. It’s worth paying a lot for that privilege.

    So you will sell your house in CA and move somewhere else? Or you will sell your house wherever else you live now and move to the new country of CA?
    Having a hard time parsing the comment.

  183. 183.

    Timurid

    November 28, 2016 at 10:56 am

    Jesus H. Christ…

  184. 184.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 10:57 am

    @rikyrah: remember, it’s always projection with these people.

  185. 185.

    Chris

    November 28, 2016 at 10:57 am

    @rikyrah:

    But did he have his own email server? Checkmate, libz.

  186. 186.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 10:58 am

    @Chris: @<a href="#comment-No but General Flynn had his own internet connection.

  187. 187.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 11:00 am

    @Schlemazel: You need more Roger Miller. He’s good for what ails you.

  188. 188.

    Raven

    November 28, 2016 at 11:01 am

    Well, it turns out that getting the hearing aid Tulip caught in my ear was a good thing. The doc took it out and found another one way deeper! That ear had Ben sore for a while, now I know why!

  189. 189.

    Keith G

    November 28, 2016 at 11:02 am

    My friends who live and work around the Ohio State campus are reporting that there are half a dozen or so injuries due to the shooting. That area of North Campus at OSU is still an active crime scene.

  190. 190.

    Iowa Old Lady

    November 28, 2016 at 11:04 am

    @Raven: Ouch.

  191. 191.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    November 28, 2016 at 11:05 am

    Ohio State Active Shooter

  192. 192.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 11:06 am

    @Raven: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. gasp….. wheeze…….. If I look up Heckouwi in the dictionary will I see a picture of you?

  193. 193.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    November 28, 2016 at 11:08 am

    “Students are reporting students were outside the building after a fire alarm went off, at which point a car drove through the crowd. They said gunfire followed.”

    “Photos from the scene show a body on the ground. We are working to confirm reports the body belongs to the shooter.”

  194. 194.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 11:09 am

    @Raven:
    YIKES! you should do a full inventory every night i guess!

  195. 195.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 11:17 am

    @rikyrah: It’s hard to say what’s going on here. My assumption is that Trump and/or Priebus want someone at least marginally credible and free from taint, like Corker or Romney, but that credible people don’t want to be part of Trump’s burgeoning banana republic and so may be setting conditions or demanding a certain level of independence that is considered to be unacceptable. Whereupon, he starts floating names like Giuliani or Petraeus (who would be better than Giuliani). Petraeus is vain and f*cked up big time, but still, he had a public career that was mostly distinguished. Whereas, Giuliani has been nothing more than a grifter for going on two decades. His conflicts of interest would be enormous.

  196. 196.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 11:19 am

    GAWD! If I have to listen to endless coverage with nothing to report I am going to demand the doctors give me anesthetics too!

    I hate a world where I am trapped in a room with a damn TV. Being just a surgical center there is no chapel which is the one place I could go with no TV.

  197. 197.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 11:26 am

    @Schlemazel: “Welcome to Hell. Parson!”

  198. 198.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 11:27 am

    @Timurid: They are overreaching before he even takes the oath of office.

  199. 199.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 11:27 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    hang on, I’m still painting my wagon

  200. 200.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @Barbara: I think this is a big part of it, and one that I’m grateful for. Nobody competent (and non-evil) wants to touch this with a ten-foot pole. And I mean evil in the actively evil sense.

  201. 201.

    Barbara

    November 28, 2016 at 11:35 am

    @Major Major Major Major: I am not sure gratitude is the right reaction. The odds are high that these positions will be filled by evil people.

  202. 202.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 11:38 am

    @Barbara: I’m hoping for evil yet incompetent.

  203. 203.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 11:42 am

    Interesting here. November 28th on the frozen tundra and we are having a hail storm at the moment

  204. 204.

    Poopyman

    November 28, 2016 at 11:47 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, there was a Twilight Zone episode that went somewhat along these lines.

  205. 205.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 11:49 am

    @Poopyman: there’s a great futurama clip that parodies like five of the TZ twists in a row. “A ca $ino where i always win? I must be… in hell!”
    “You’re not in hell, you’re on a plane!”
    “There’s a gremlin destroying this plane, you have to believe me!”
    “Why should I believe you? You’re Hitler!”

  206. 206.

    Lizzy L

    November 28, 2016 at 11:50 am

    @Schlemazel: I live a mile from where this occurred; I pass the place almost every day.

    http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/11/26/mayor-butts-saddened-over-alleged-hate-crime-killing-of-richmond-man/

  207. 207.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 11:54 am

    @Schlemazel: Heh, you caught it.

  208. 208.

    Philbert

    November 28, 2016 at 11:54 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: More Roger Miller, complete with kittehs
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2lcyt9GIfo

  209. 209.

    Major Major Major Major

    November 28, 2016 at 11:55 am

    @Poopyman: (reposted cuz moderation) there’s a great futurama clip that parodies like five of the TZ twists in a row. “A ca $ino where i always win? I must be… in hell!”
    “You’re not in hell, you’re on a plane!”
    “There’s a gremlin destroying this plane, you have to believe me!”
    “Why should I believe you? You’re Hitler!”

  210. 210.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 11:56 am

    @Lizzy L:
    Thanks
    OK, so not a lynching, using that term indicates something differences in actions if not intent. There have been a few of these sorts of things recently and we need to push back against the hate that generates these sorts of people and encourages them to kill.

  211. 211.

    raven

    November 28, 2016 at 11:59 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The funny thing its that I really don’t wear them much and wearing them when hanging out with screaming kids makes no sense. I’m glad I did it or I might not have know for who knows how long!

  212. 212.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 12:03 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    My wife’s second favorite Clint Eastwood movie & favorite Lee Marvin movie (Kellys Heros #1 and Cat Ballou #2 in those categories) and my favorite musical by a huge margin so I have seen it once or twice

  213. 213.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    I have seen it once or twice

    Is that all? I can quote it backwards and forwards and will sing “the best things in life are dirty” at the drop of a hat. I love Lee Marvin and his vocal work in PyW is truly inspirational.

  214. 214.

    OzarkHillbilly

    November 28, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    @raven: A friend of mine swore to her mother that a cockroach crawled into her ear. A week later the ear infection got so bad her mother relented and took her to the doc. And was absolutely horrified when he pulled a dead cockroach from this poor innocent child’s ear.

  215. 215.

    Schlemazel

    November 28, 2016 at 12:27 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I probably should have said “8 or 11 times”. a couple of my favs
    You should read the Bible, Mr. Rumson.
    I have read the Bible.
    Didn’t that discourage you about drinking?
    No, but it sure killed my appetite for readin’!

    Your missing the second & third best things in life!

    You can’t buy a woman with money!
    You just try to get one without money.

    THERE IS A BABY IN SHERMAHORNS PRESSING A WOMAN TO HER BREAST!

  216. 216.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 12:29 pm

    @Schlemazel: One of my favorites also

  217. 217.

    J R in WV

    November 28, 2016 at 12:46 pm

    @Baud:

    I think I’m older than you, but at least I know what a baud is. First worked with bauds back in about 1973… amazin how far those little dabs of data have taken us since then, ain’t it?

  218. 218.

    D58826

    November 28, 2016 at 1:11 pm

    @Yoda Dog: nothing worse than a diva with a nose out of joint. My six year old diva/queen of the walk is about to be joined by a little brother. A little someone does not know what is about to befall her. :-)

  219. 219.

    J R in WV

    November 28, 2016 at 1:14 pm

    @Kay:

    Kay, the Wall Street Journal is Faux News on paper. Same ownership, same goals, same methods. It’s a shame, back in the day, in spite of their deranged editorial pages, the news was once solid facts. Then the family ownership fell out, wanted to sell out for the high dollars, and Murdoch bought it.

    Seems like illegal concentration of influence in a small market to me, but what do I know, I’m just a retired dude.

    Fuss about Trump, but Murdoch is the guy destroying modern democracy with witless propaganda.

  220. 220.

    Paul in KY

    November 28, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    Best wishes on your birthday, Anne!! Hope you have many more!!

  221. 221.

    J R in WV

    November 28, 2016 at 3:11 pm

    @tobie:

    Major^4 : This is funny…

    @Major Major Major Major: Maybe in a gallows sort of way.

    Maybe the best humor we have left is gallows humor!!

    ETA: You all fuss about phone autocorrects and such. Never gonna beat trying to type with a cat being affectionate all up and down your front, table, keyboard… You don’t want to whack your affectionate kitty, but, holy cow batman… how to type it even half right?

    So much retyping and backspacing and all. But the purrz are good – esp right now.

  222. 222.

    satby

    November 28, 2016 at 4:26 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Late reply, but there are no disclosures with a real estate auction or HUD house. Strictly buyer beware. I had to delist the short sale when the tree fell in the house, because it’s not eligible for FHA loans needing major repairs. So I just ended up mailing in the keys too. There’s a chance somebody bought that place without knowing about the damage, but I hope not.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Martin on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 16, 2024 @ 3:49am)
  • YY_Sima Qian on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 16, 2024 @ 3:46am)
  • Princess on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 16, 2024 @ 3:40am)
  • Jay on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 16, 2024 @ 2:55am)
  • YY_Sima Qian on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 16, 2024 @ 2:41am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!