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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

It’s a doggy dog world.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Come on, man.

“Look, it’s not against the rules anywhere, but a black woman with power was dating and there has to be something wrong with that.”

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

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

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

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

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

“But what about the lurkers?”

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Holiday Drama

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Holiday Drama

by Anne Laurie|  December 20, 20164:20 am| 202 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads

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From long-term commentor and Walter-adopter Debit:

This is Oscar. While he’s not wearing a demeaning hat or little outfit, he is posed so the decorative tree gives him some dramatic back lighting.

Oscar is a long term, probably permanent foster. My boss was diagnosed with liver cancer earlier this year, and her daughter moved in to help with care. The daughter’s cat, Oscar, didn’t get along with the mom’s cats, so I volunteered to take him. He’s settled in to our house and family, and I say probably permanent foster since a) my daughter loves him beyond all reason, and b) any animal that enters this house stays forever, no matter what the original foster time frame might have been.

***********
It has been ten days of non-stop First World Problems around here, culminating (please Murphy the Trickster God) with some outpatient surgery for the Spousal Unit later today. With luck and positive thoughts, I’ll see you all eventually…

What’s on the agenda for the day?

(Non Sequitur via GoComics.com)
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Reader Interactions

202Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    December 20, 2016 at 4:51 am

    Is this any way to run a business? Uber’s losses from January through September total at least $2 billion.

  2. 2.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 4:57 am

    @NotMax: Wait, Trump runs Uber?

  3. 3.

    MazeDancer

    December 20, 2016 at 5:12 am

    How wonderful of debit to give another sweet animal a home!

    May all be well with your husband, Anne Laurie

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 5:20 am

    Wishing a full and speedy recovery for your hubby!

  5. 5.

    EBT

    December 20, 2016 at 5:22 am

    @NotMax: This feels good to me.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 5:34 am

    Good luck to your husband, Anne.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 5:36 am

    All the best to AL’s man.

    Morning, rikyrah.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 5:36 am

    Morning Everyone ???

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 5:37 am

    Debit-you are good people ???

  10. 10.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 5:38 am

    @NotMax: Someone’s CEO needs to be made Secretary of Transportation ASAP.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 5:39 am

    AL,

    Positive thoughts and prayers are being sent to Mr. AL,???

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 5:47 am

    @NotMax: @Baud: It’s the hot new investment.

  13. 13.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 6:00 am

    Hey gang, I’ve updated my annual album of Christmas pics, Wonderful Christmastime(no the song doesn’t play on an endless loop, or at all for that matter).

    ETA: I took a trip up to Los Angeles’ Mayberry, aka Montrose for their Christmas lights.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 6:14 am

    Arctic ice melt ‘already affecting weather patterns where you live right now’

    Clearly what we need is to burn more oil, gas, and coal.

  15. 15.

    Michael Bersin

    December 20, 2016 at 6:23 am

    I covered the Elector protest in Jefferson City yesterday. Most of the protesters were outside lining the sidewalk near the underground parking entrance to the capitol. It was cold, around 12 degrees when we got there around 11:00 a.m. Interestingly, there was a Russian theme to the day.

    Have a Great Day!

    The reactions of Trump true believers made the whole effort well worth it.

  16. 16.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 20, 2016 at 6:33 am

    Best wishes to your Spousal Unit, AL.

    Counting down the days until I take off for the long weekend to visit Mom and Dad in Cincinnati. Two of my three siblings will be there so it will be nice for the parents to have the kids around for a day. Dad’s having memory issues so we try not to overload his hard drive with too much data.

    I’ll be back in warmer climes by Monday night and then settle in for two weeks of loafing, writing, and car maintenance. The Mustang is getting a complete new top since you can’t just replace the rear window glass in a convertible. Fortunately it’s covered under the comprehensive clause (minus the deductible); a new top costs more than what we paid for my first Mustang in 1969. The Pontiac wagon gets a new power steering pump and headlight alignment.

    I’ve decided that I will give the new president as much respect and deference as the Republicans gave President Obama. It’s only fair, right?

  17. 17.

    J.

    December 20, 2016 at 6:34 am

    I think Time should have made Debit Person of the Year.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 6:42 am

    @Michael Bersin: Nice write-up and photos!

  19. 19.

    Schlemazel

    December 20, 2016 at 6:43 am

    AL – hope your old man has an easy time of it and you guys are getting back to a better streak soon!

    I am proud to have debit as a ‘neighbor’ obviously a person with a great heart.

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 6:43 am

    Debit you really are the best. AL sending best wishes to the spousal unit for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

  21. 21.

    RSR

    December 20, 2016 at 6:45 am

    Oscar! That’s our youngest’s name. (human kid, sorta like a pet, but costs more)

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @J.: Co-signed — a much superior choice to the hirsute, screeching jack-o-lantern!

  23. 23.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 6:46 am

    All the best wishes for a quick recovery for the Spousal Unit!
    Good morning to rikyrah and everyone!
    I got the news my youngest son, his gf, and their dog and cat are coming up to spend Christmas with me; we’ll run over to Chicago for brunch with oldest son and daughter-in-law on Christmas day. So I’m happy, because I haven’t seen #2 son for about a year. It’s the first Christmas in about four years they’re both going to be here. May even have a foster son sighting too.

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 6:47 am

    @Michael Bersin:

    Well done!

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 6:49 am

    @satby:

    Satby that is great news. Happy for you.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 6:49 am

    @satby: That’s wonderful, satby. Sounds like a good time.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 6:52 am

    @Michael Bersin: Proud of you for protesting.

  28. 28.

    JPL

    December 20, 2016 at 6:52 am

    Anne, We’ll be thinking of you.

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Thank you for sharing your photos with us.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 6:53 am

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve had hemorrhoids that would have been a superior choice for person of the year … Or for president.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 6:54 am

    @Michael Bersin: Makes me sorry I missed it.

  31. 31.

    Central Planning

    December 20, 2016 at 6:54 am

    Hey, Alain, the cat picture above shows up rotated 90 degrees clockwise on my iPhone 7. My old iPad too.

  32. 32.

    Michael Bersin

    December 20, 2016 at 6:56 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    You had to have been there. The righteous indignation on the part of some of the Trumpistas is amazing. I’ve been covering this kind of thing for a long – the Trumpistas can’t handle any opposition. It absolutely sets them off.

  33. 33.

    Michael Bersin

    December 20, 2016 at 7:00 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    An important thing about protest: one person with a sign (make it a good one, poster board, 4 to five inch high block letters, filled in with solid color) has a huge visual impact. You don’t need a special occasion or a special invitation. I did this from 2003 to 2005 for hundreds of marches, protests, and vigils, many times on my own.

  34. 34.

    ThresherK (tablet)

    December 20, 2016 at 7:03 am

    Good luck AL on family surgery.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 7:04 am

    @satby: Nice. Not going to get to see my youngest this year. He had tentative plans to come up but I don’t think they have financially recovered from the flooding yet.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 7:15 am

    @Michael Bersin: I’ve been to a couple. I always feel a little uncomfortable because of my inability to “fit in”. I think for me, discomfort will be the new norm, whether I like it or not.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 7:16 am

    @Michael Bersin: I’ve noticed that too — they’re like cultists and cannot bear any suggestion that Cheeto Benito is a fraud. They’ll need to develop thicker skins.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 7:18 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Welcome to my world.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    December 20, 2016 at 7:18 am

    @Baud:

    I’m surprised all of these CEOs are willing to sell off assets to avoid conflicts.

  40. 40.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 7:19 am

    There are rumors that Bocelli is not going to sing for der trump. Ha! Guess it’s that former voice competitor.

  41. 41.

    Iowa Old Lady

    December 20, 2016 at 7:19 am

    @Betty Cracker: Their touchiness suggests we hit a nerve when we point out Trump’s insanity. They see it, but can’t admit it even to themselves.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 7:20 am

    @MomSense: Oh good. I didn’t want to hate Bocelli (although I was willing to give him a bit of a pass since he’s not American).

  43. 43.

    debbie

    December 20, 2016 at 7:21 am

    @satby:

    What a nice surprise! Hope the iciness stays away.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 7:21 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: I don’t know. I think they just don’t like it when people don’t respect their authority.

  45. 45.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 7:22 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: yeah, that stinks. Mine moved from CA to Kentucky a couple of months ago because his gf trains racehorses; he’s going to try to get a job at the Toyota plant nearby. He liked living in CA, but it’s just too expensive; and it was too expensive for me to go visit. Once I could have afforded it, he moved. I’m glad it’s going to be easier to see him more often.

  46. 46.

    debbie

    December 20, 2016 at 7:23 am

    @Michael Bersin:

    Pity there weren’t a bunch of “No, No, No” guys there to counter the Trumpsters. That’d really piss them off.

    ETA: I like the idea of signs in Russian. Trumpsters need to get used to that. Second languages are tough for older brains. They’ll need practice.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 7:25 am

    @Baud:

    I hope artists continue to shade him.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 7:25 am

    @debbie: Your sarcasm is noted.

  49. 49.

    JPL

    December 20, 2016 at 7:26 am

    @debbie: When they sell of their assets and put them in a blind trust, you don’t have to pay taxes. Also they understand that their assets might be worthless after Trump’s presidency.

  50. 50.

    debbie

    December 20, 2016 at 7:28 am

    @JPL:

    It’s only money. I think most CEOs enjoy the power of their position even more.

  51. 51.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 7:31 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: I think that’s true. And that they know that they’re in a minority and they resent it.

  52. 52.

    Botsplainer

    December 20, 2016 at 7:32 am

    So MoJo got a recording of Mulvaney’s speech to the JBS. He is going to be Trump’s budget director.

    It is even stupider than you think.

    Update 3:45 p.m.: Mother Jones obtained audio of Mulvaney’s speech to the John Birch Society chapter. In the speech, Mulvaney blasted the Federal Reserve, saying its actions have “effectively devalued the dollar” and “choke[d] off economic growth.” He praised bitcoin as a currency that is “not manipulatable by any government.” He told his audience, “You all put out some really good stuff and it’s always interesting.” He said he was “looking forward to reading The Shadows of Power,” a 1988 book by James Perloff with the subtitle “The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline.” The book advances conspiracy theories about the New York-based think tank, alleging that it advocates “the creation of a world government.” After referring to this book, he told the crowd, “Keep doing it.”

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 7:32 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    Thank you for sharing your pictures with us.???

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @debbie: I don’t for a second believe that these trusts they are putting their assets into are any blinder then they are. Considering who they are going to work for, a wink and a nudge is all it will take. These people are not patriots, they are in it for the money.

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 7:34 am

    @satby:
    Sounds like a great Christmas for you ???

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 7:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Con man grifters all the way.

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 7:36 am

    @satby:
    And, they can’t stand that we are not just falling into line like they thought we would.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    December 20, 2016 at 7:36 am

    @Botsplainer:

    Well, then. I’ll enclose a note with my tax returns: “The bitcoin are in the mail.”

  59. 59.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 7:37 am

    @debbie: Money is fungible. It’s not like they are taking vows of poverty.

  60. 60.

    debbie

    December 20, 2016 at 7:37 am

    @rikyrah:

    Ironic, since they refused to, also.

  61. 61.

    Gindy51

    December 20, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The powers that be, who selected the thing we will have as president for the next who-knows-how-long, need that oil and gas to keep coming or they will lose their shirts, pants, socks and underwear. Petrodollars are what keep Russia a float and THAT is why they infiltrated our election, not some slight towards Clinton or any other reason. They need their investors to suck up their product and when they lose their shirts (as they will) the fossil fuel folks will laugh all the way to the bank.
    The oligarchs and their US counterparts are scared to DEATH the Carbon Bubble will pop too soon for them to extract every last cent, ruble whatever they can. It’s coming and sooner than they wish, they know this so they have to keep the illusion of their viability alive and well to scam their investors. Look at how long it took Russia to sell some petro assets… way longer than it should have because the US slapped sanctions on Russia. Once the thing was selected, those assets started to sell. The illusion is secure as long as those in power are fossil fuel hacks and executives.
    Google this title and read it, it makes more sense than anything else I have read about this monstrosity “Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere”

  62. 62.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 7:42 am

    @debbie: That’s the nature of privilege.

  63. 63.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 7:45 am

    @debbie:
    Oh, when we bring the 8 years of receipts collected throughout the Obama Presidency, they really get huffy.

    Respect the office?
    Like you have the previous 8 years?

    He will get the same amount of respect that he showed President Obama during his racist Birther-in-Chief period.
    PS-never forget to add Racist in front of Birther.

  64. 64.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 20, 2016 at 7:54 am

    @efgoldman:

    ETA: The hard-core Berniebros are the same way.

    I am so fucking sick of Berniebros.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 7:55 am

    @Gindy51: Yep, the motive behind everything they do: $$$$$$$$$$$$$

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 7:56 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: In my experience, the thing that really lands is suggesting that they’ve been hoodwinked by a known conman. Nobody likes getting played for a sucker, and boy, did they ever, and more evidence of it piles up every day. I’ve rolled my eyes at Trump-voting relatives and said, “You trusted a real estate developer?” That resonates here because everyone in Florida knows real estate developers are lying scumbags, LOL!

  67. 67.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 7:57 am

    @Betty Cracker: I agree with going with the “you were conned” route.

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 7:58 am

    @efgoldman: “Cult45” shall be the title of my comprehensive account of the Trumpocalypse.

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @Betty Cracker:
    Consider that stolen.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 8:05 am

    Kasich and the other Republicans delivered a “unity lecture” to the public yesterday. Trump has no responsibility in this, apparently. He can say and do whatever he wants and it’s wholly up to us to create “unity”.

    It’s a complete capitulation to lower standards. They’re demanding much more from the public than they are from the President. Trump himself hasn’t done one thing to create “unity”- in fact he’s still running an ugly, divisive political campaign. We’re ordered to rise above that in the hope that if we pretend he’s a decent human being he’ll follow our example and treat others decently. They’ve removed him from the whole sphere of adult accountability.

  71. 71.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:07 am

    @JPL:
    @rikyrah: Thanks, I enjoy taking them and sharing them. I was out cleaning the deep fryer, so I was away from the ol’ computer.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 8:10 am

    @efgoldman: Good morning.

    Unfortunately, I don’t think very many of [the BernieBros] will become actual Democrats, either.

    Why “unfortunately”? They’re insufferable, from what we’ve seen here.

    Jesus, I hope that doesn’t bring effing NR down on our heads. Too damn early.

  73. 73.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:14 am

    @Kay:

    They’ve removed him from the whole sphere of adult accountability.

    That’s because even Republicans know he’s not an adult.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 8:15 am

    @Kay:

    Kasich and the other Republicans delivered a “unity lecture” to the public yesterday.

    He’s welcome to unify with us against Trump.

  75. 75.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:15 am

    @Elizabelle: Seems like Not Relevant is off the clock.

  76. 76.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:16 am

    @Baud:

    He’s welcome to unify with us against Trump.

    You’re a funny guy, Baud.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 8:16 am

    O Canada. Go Canada.

    They’re giving us all a free national parks pass for 2017, to celebrate their 150th birthday on July 1.

    But for the weather, they would never get us to leave.

    LA Times: Kicking off the festivities on New Year’s Day, the stewards of the country’s protected natural treasures, Parks Canada, has a gift for all: a free, multiuse pass to the country’s 47 national parks and national park reserves.

    Parks and reserves, which indicate areas earmarked as national parks pending native land claim settlements, are located in every one of the country’s 13 provinces and territories from coast to coast to coast (Pacific to Atlantic to Arctic).

    The Discovery Pass also offers free access to 171 national historic sites and national marine conservation areas.

    Here’s the link to the pass information. It’s got this cute stylized beaver on it. Free entry to parks, but camping and activity fees remain.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 8:19 am

    @Betty Cracker: @Baud: It definitely pisses them off. Or at least it does when I do it.

  79. 79.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:20 am

    @Elizabelle: I think we got a free weekend for our National Park Service Anniversary. We’re cheep bastards.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 8:20 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: It’s not like I’m asking Kasich to support Baud! 2020!…yet.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 8:20 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I went to a state Party meeting where Marcy Kaptur spoke and I was thinking about her as a kind of “real life Bernie Bro”- she works really hard to recruit Left/Labor candidates in Ohio and they run. She endorsed Sanders as you may recall. She was BernieBro before there were BernieBros.

    I have personally been involved in races for two of her candidates. We haven’t won any. I think Bernie Bros have to explain that to me. She’s Toledo. It doesn’t get any more WWC than that. She’s powerful too- along with Sherrod Brown she’s often the only national Democrat at these meetings. There literally ARE no “neoliberals” standing in her way. The Great Lakes races that are coming up are wide open. The state Parties are shattered and dejected. If they want to take over and run races in MI, OH and WI they should have at it. It’s ripe for the picking. No one is stopping them from testing this theory.

  82. 82.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:23 am

    @Baud: Heh.

  83. 83.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 20, 2016 at 8:23 am

    Hoping that Mr. AL’s surgery goes smoothly and he recuperates quickly.

    @Kay: Where was Kasich’s unity speech during the Obama years? I must have missed it in between President Obama being called a liar during his first SOTU and McConnell promising to make him a one-term President.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 8:23 am

    @Kay: The long, invisible arm of DWS continues to hang over them like the Scythe of Death.

  85. 85.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:25 am

    @Kay: Will they go away if they lose?

  86. 86.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 8:26 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I refuse. It feels like propping him up. Screw that. It’s time he accepted responsibility for his own actions. It’s not my job to be the better person in a relationship with the President. I don’t have a relationship with him. I believe he is currently on a national tour jeering at me. Maybe they should direct these lectures at him.

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 8:29 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    It was a whole week! I took my youngest and visited two. Happily it was school vacation week. We danced salsa at the visitor’s center in Lowell with a bunch of kids from the local schools. I heard so many languages spoken that day. Seems like a lifetime ago now.

  88. 88.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 20, 2016 at 8:30 am

    @Betty Cracker: Calling Trump a conman is perfect because he’s not going to fulfill any of his fantastic promises, i.e., build the wall, jail Secretary Clinton, kick out all illegal immigrants, etc. Just ask Trump supporters what they expect him to do to better their lives. He’s not going to do a thing for them. He’s going to help his 1% buddies save taxes, off shore their earnings, protect their assets from the government, etc. That’s about it.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 8:30 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Cheap is good, just be nice and polite too.

    I’ve ordered my pass. Tra la tra la. Keeping the passport close at hand too.

  90. 90.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:31 am

    @Kay: And we heard pretty much the same thing with Jr. 16 years ago, I agree.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Love the pic of Oscar with the Christmas lights decoration. Quite elegant.

    Pets do love chez Debit.

    Your tree decoration reminds me of a luminary, out on the cold white snow.

  92. 92.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:33 am

    @Elizabelle: The kid has a US national park pass since she’s veteran. Though we haven’t been with her on any excursions.

  93. 93.

    JPL

    December 20, 2016 at 8:33 am

    The President-elect feelings were hurt

    Bill Clinton stated that I called him after the election. Wrong, he called me (with a very nice congratulations). He “doesn’t know much” …

    Let’s just call him the toddler who took over America.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 8:33 am

    @Baud:

    One thing she said was true. She said Clinton came to the Toledo rail station and talked about Warren Buffett. That was part of the “Trump is outside the norm” messaging. She said very few people in that crowd would know who Warren Buffett is or care what he said if they did know. That’s true. Democrats have to get over the idea that these people are “validators”, that we’re all just waiting for elite validation of our candidates. It makes them sound out of touch, like they live on the editorial pages of the NYTimes. Drop the Tom Friedman references. Just remove these people from the vocabulary. No one cares what they think.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 8:34 am

    @MomSense: The National Parks are one of the best things ever about the US of A.

    We have to keep them safe and available for everyone. No changing the rules to allow guns, etc.

    Stand your National Park. And state ones too. Parks rule.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 8:34 am

    @JPL: Toddler in Chief.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 8:35 am

    @Kay: Graciousness, good sportsmanship, humility and public-spiritedness seem to be utterly foreign concepts to Trump and his obnoxious minions. You’re right — they’re on a national “nyah-nyah-nyah!” tour, and they lie about the election results at every opportunity, as if saying they won in a landslide enough times might make it so. Screw that whole bunch. They’ll have my respect when they earn it, which will be never.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 8:36 am

    @JPL:

    Trump is petty and small. However. We must rise above the President of the United States and be the better man.

    Fucking ludicrous. You can’t be a leader and order people to behave better than you do. That won’t work.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 8:37 am

    @Kay: That’s fair. I just don’t know what people do care about. It’s easy to tell people what not to do.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 8:37 am

    @JPL: Here was my reply on Twitter:

    @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/D9rApjZ88w

    — Betty Cracker (@bettycrackerfl) December 20, 2016

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 8:39 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    because he’s not going to fulfill any of his fantastic promises, i.e., build the wall, jail Secretary Clinton,

    Not so sure about the last, I’d like to see the betting line on it.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    December 20, 2016 at 8:39 am

    @Kay:

    You can’t be a leader and order people to behave better than you do.

    Trump can’t be a leader. He won not by leading but by being an entertainer for people who want to enjoy hating others.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 8:40 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    The thing about Kasich was he learned. He grew. He started out as big an asshole as Trump but he was smart enough to change. Part of the reason he had to change was the public revolted. They didn’t give him a pass. He was headed for disaster. He was running around insulting people and pushing thru radical changes. He didn’t change because we coddled him. He changed because he was stopped on one of his big initiatives. It was literally humbling.

  104. 104.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 20, 2016 at 8:42 am

    @Kay: Virtually to a man, ahem, they are whiners, poseurs, and grad lounge armchair revolutionaries who romanticize class struggle because they think of it as a John Hughes-esque fable about the outcasts getting back at the rich kids.

  105. 105.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:45 am

    @Kay: I really don’t think the ShitGibbon understands how short his leash can be. Congress has the power of the purse and there’s the 25th Amendment, Section 4.

  106. 106.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 20, 2016 at 8:45 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: You mean not “lose” but “get stabbed in the back by the Neoliberal establishment, no fair,” right? :P

  107. 107.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:47 am

    @FlipYrWhig: Oh, that’s right; the all powerful Neoliberal establishment.

  108. 108.

    Betty Cracker

    December 20, 2016 at 8:49 am

    @Kay: I didn’t know that about Kasich. Interesting. I doubt very much Trump is capable of a similar transformation.

  109. 109.

    D58826

    December 20, 2016 at 8:49 am

    @JPL: And as usual he is running his twitter account ahead of the facts from yesterday’s violence in Europe. Berlin looks suspiciously like terrorism but the German authorities haven’t quite gotten there yet. The assassination in Turkey looks more like a good old political assassination rather than something uniquely inspired by Daesh. Only thing I saw on the Swiss incident was that three men were shot while at prayers in a mosque. At first blush sounds more like anti-Muslim violence than anti-Christian.

  110. 110.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 20, 2016 at 8:51 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: They’re always up to something, those neoliberals. They’re like Keyzer Soze.

  111. 111.

    opiejeanne

    December 20, 2016 at 8:52 am

    @Betty Cracker: Did he block you?

    ETA: Good for you.

  112. 112.

    JPL

    December 20, 2016 at 8:53 am

    @Betty Cracker: He views that as a compliment.

  113. 113.

    bemused

    December 20, 2016 at 8:53 am

    I don’t know what it’s going to take for Trumpbots to catch on they’ve been had. It’s not like Trump and company nor Republican legislators or even rightwing media are bothering to speak in code anymore. Kevin Drum posted an interesting comment on this. Rich Lowry, National Review wrote a couple of days ago “Obamacare repeal without replacement…a deficit increasing, traditional Republican tax cut for the rich.”

  114. 114.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 20, 2016 at 8:55 am

    @satby: That’s lovely.

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 20, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @D58826:

    Only thing I saw on the Swiss incident was that three men were shot while at prayers in a mosque.

    Also one person killed a short distance from the mosque. The Swiss are not yet linking the 2.

  116. 116.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 20, 2016 at 8:57 am

    @bemused: “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”(for Republicans).

    Dick Cheney

  117. 117.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:01 am

    I think we are all going to have to model gracious and kind conduct in our lives, to try to be a countervailing force to the mendacity and stupidity that is overtaking America.

    Some kid or younger person is watching. Give them hope.

  118. 118.

    zhena gogolia

    December 20, 2016 at 9:01 am

    @Michael Bersin:

    Unfortunately that Russian sign actually says, “We fucked so much.”

    You need something like “ПИЗДЕЦ”

  119. 119.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 9:02 am

    @efgoldman:

    Unfortunately, I don’t think very many of them will become actual Democrats, either. We’re too corrupted by, you know, real politics, for them.

    yeah, I hear this too: the Democrats are as corrupted as the Repukes are and that they’re the same. Thanks Bernie, you bastard.

  120. 120.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 9:05 am

    @Elizabelle: Sounds like a plan. Meet up in Canada maybe? Can we claim refugee status by this summer?

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:07 am

    @satby: Glad to hear you are having a holiday reunion with your sons, and with such a nicer house this year. Life is looking better for you, on the micro level.

  122. 122.

    bemused

    December 20, 2016 at 9:07 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Republican voters didn’t notice that either while they were so worked up about Dem debt and deficit, screaming their heads off and writing letters to newspapers. Deficits under Republican president and control, crickets.

  123. 123.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:10 am

    @satby: Now that is an idea. Taking Balloon Juice international. A drop in, drop by camp out. Hmmmmm.

  124. 124.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 9:11 am

    @Elizabelle: It is, for now. And as long as we protect SS hopefully the worst is behind me for a while, at least as long as my health holds! Because when you have that, everything else is good.

  125. 125.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 9:11 am

    In case anyone missed this back in September: the rise of GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer

    i.e., Palin with an inheritance

    i.e., every know-nothing busybody who gets all of her info from her RW friends on FB

  126. 126.

    satby

    December 20, 2016 at 9:12 am

    @Elizabelle: I’m game. Have tent(s), love to travel!

  127. 127.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 9:17 am

    Here’s a good (if rock bottom) standard we could hold Donald Trump to- he could stop lying constantly. The President-elect is still running around the country lying constantly. At those rallies he holds he tells a series of untruths.

    Is that a standard he can meet, or too high a bar for the pampered toddler-President?

    Track lies. When he stops telling so many we’ll know he’s making an effort. He could go from, oh, ten a day to one a day. We’ll put a chart up on the fridge and let him pick a sticker of his choice to put on days where he doesn’t lie at all. He needs something to shoot for.

    We all agree the lying is unprecedented, correct? Fix that. Stop lying. That’s the rock-bottom bar for “Presidential”.

  128. 128.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 9:18 am

    And a great current read: the Dems had a knife, and the GOP had a gun , comparing Obama’s handling of Russian election hacking with how NC Gov McCrory handled his own election (even as he was losing it)

    In sum: McCrory tried to change the election’s rules to help himself; pretended he did not lose afterward; and is ultimately overturning some of the election’s consequences.

    I’m not an either/or person; more of an ‘and’ kind of guy. So my inclination is to both a) get Dems to fight more like Reps, and b) find ways – if possible – to get Reps back to some sort of norms. Back in a bit with some thoughts on each…

  129. 129.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:20 am

    Apropos of nothing, this was a hoot. Circa 1960s Palm Springs home, on the market, Barbie and Ken or Helen Gurley Brown meets Mad Men interior intact. From sfgate.

    You can imagine sitting there, coming up with a screenplay, it is so period perfect. Middlebrow (if that) taste.

  130. 130.

    Tazj

    December 20, 2016 at 9:20 am

    @Michael Bersin: Truck Fump -I like it.
    Oscar looks like my Star. You do good work Debit.
    Good luck to AL and Mr. AL, hope everything goes smoothly.

  131. 131.

    Martha

    December 20, 2016 at 9:23 am

    @Betty Cracker: This is a perfect retort. I served on a board with 2 developers and 2 lawyers and 1 insurance executive, all men of course. You know it’s bad when the guys rolled their eyes at the developers for being craven and inconsistent.

  132. 132.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 20, 2016 at 9:23 am

    @bemused: That’s because to Republicans “deficit” means “welfare.” How else would The Government run short on money if not by over-generous handouts to Those People? This is why they think Obama increased “the deficit,” irrespective of how he handled the deficit.

  133. 133.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:28 am

    @Kay: You had me until your last paragraph.

    Lying is not unprecedented, but lying on this scale is. It’s all scale, and Trump and his spokesliars are off the charts. Blown through norms, as you’ve said.

    Did you see Krugman’s column yesterday, How Republics End.

    [A republic’s] institutions don’t protect against tyranny when powerful people start defying political norms. And tyranny, when it comes, can flourish even while maintaining a republican facade.

    He blames it on the Republicans, too, which is cold comfort. They’ve been rewarded. For now.

    Why is this happening? I’m not asking why white working-class voters support politicians whose policies will hurt them — I’ll be coming back to that issue in future columns. My question, instead, is why one party’s politicians and officials no longer seem to care about what we used to think were essential American values. And let’s be clear: This is a Republican story, not a case of “both sides do it.”

    So what’s driving this story? I don’t think it’s truly ideological. Supposedly free-market politicians are already discovering that crony capitalism is fine as long as it involves the right cronies. It does have to do with class warfare — redistribution from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy is a consistent theme of all modern Republican policies. But what directly drives the attack on democracy, I’d argue, is simple careerism on the part of people who are apparatchiks within a system insulated from outside pressures by gerrymandered districts, unshakable partisan loyalty, and lots and lots of plutocratic financial support.

    For such people, toeing the party line and defending the party’s rule are all that matters. And if they sometimes seem consumed with rage at anyone who challenges their actions, well, that’s how hacks always respond when called on their hackery.

    They’re hacks in a gilded petri dish. And they got away with it. With not allowing a Democratic president to appoint a Supreme Court justice in the last year of his presidency. With all of it.

    So far.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 9:30 am

    @Kay: \

    We’re ordered to rise above that in the hope that if we pretend he’s a decent human being he’ll follow our example and treat others decently.

    Nope

  135. 135.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 9:33 am

    Jonathan Martin ‏@jmartNYT 1h1 hour ago
    “Trump Is Too Rusky” is nifty, but the left now must decide how to best confront Trump.

    The NYTimes now define “Left” as everyone who is not a Republican.

    It’s weird to watch this newspaper become Politico. Do we need another Politico? Isn’t Politico enough of a Politico?

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 9:34 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Calling Trump a conman is perfect because he’s not going to fulfill any of his fantastic promises, i.e., build the wall, jail Secretary Clinton, kick out all illegal immigrants, etc.

    The correct term is con man grifting hustler.

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:35 am

    I think Jonathan Martin got his start as a Politico Republican whisperer.

    And good catch on “Left.”

    They often go with “Democrats” and “Liberals” as the only source of opposition to The Risky One.

    Politico is a poison. It is, it is.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 9:39 am

    @rikyrah:

    He blatantly lied about Russian interference. He said he didn’t know and that’s not true- he was briefed.

    He’ll lie about anything. No one can believe a word he says and he’ll be President of the United States in a month.

    It really does matter. It’s not up for debate whether it’s “important”. The President of the United States can’t continue to lie constantly. He discredits the country.

  139. 139.

    JPL

    December 20, 2016 at 9:42 am

    @Elizabelle: Thanks. The twin spreads, look vaguely familiar.

  140. 140.

    Kay

    December 20, 2016 at 9:43 am

    @rikyrah:

    He’s been a crazy liar for a long time. His own lawyers made sure there two in a room when they had any interaction with him because he would lie about it unless there was a witness. They said this in a deposition. His 40 year lying problem is public record.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 9:44 am

    Trump Voters Think African Americans Are Much Less Deserving Than ‘Average Americans’
    12/19/2016 06:16 pm ET |

    ……………………………

    A few astute analysts, however, have noted that the sympathetic focus on white America’s problems stands in stark contrast with conservatives’ lack of empathy for communities of color. Indeed, when African Americans protest against profound racial inequality—unequal conditions that are directly traceable to discriminatory governmental policies—they are often condemned by the right as “whiners“ who should simply try harder to remedy their own situations.

    …………………….

    Perhaps most importantly, the display shows that the main dividing line between Clinton and Trump voters was on the question black deservingness. Most voters, regardless of who they supported in the presidential election, thought that average Americans are getting less than they should. Yet, Clinton’s voters were a great deal more likely than Trump’s to say that blacks have also gotten less than they deserve (57 percent to 12 percent respectively).

    It appears, then, that Trump voters weren’t simply motivated by their widespread belief that average Americans are being left behind. Rather, their strong suspicion that African Americans are getting too much—a belief held by the overwhelming majority of Trump voters—was a much stronger predictor of their vote choices in last month’s election.

    Racially resentful beliefs that African Americans are getting more than they deserve were so strongly linked to support for Trump, in fact, that their impact on both the 2016 Republican Primary and the general election were larger than they had ever been in before.

  142. 142.

    MomSense

    December 20, 2016 at 9:45 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I have to put in a plug for the newest member of the Parks/Monument family. The Katahdin Woods and Waters Monument is a stunningly beautiful area in Maine’s Penobscot County. That area has long been a favorite for artists around the world and now it has a chance to be preserved and enjoyed. The challenge is that Maine’s governor is opposed to it and will make things as difficult as possible. The other big challenge is that it doesn’t have the infrastructure that the National Parks have.

    I do encourage people to visit the monument. It really is an amazing place.

  143. 143.

    bemused

    December 20, 2016 at 9:50 am

    @FlipYrWhig:

    It’s bizarre how Trumpbots scorn elites but give a pass to billionaire banksters, hedgefunders and don’t quibble about huge tax cuts for them while meekly accepting cuts to their SS/Medicare/disability etc. The difference is if they’ve been told which elitists are “liberals”.

  144. 144.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 9:54 am

    @Kay:

    He’ll lie about anything. No one can believe a word he says and he’ll be President of the United States in a month.

    It really does matter. It’s not up for debate whether it’s “important”. The President of the United States can’t continue to lie constantly. He discredits the country.

    tell that truth, Kay.

  145. 145.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 9:59 am

    @MomSense:

    The National Parks Service website for Katahdin Woods and Waters. Thank you. It’s on the five-year (or less!) bucket list.

  146. 146.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 20, 2016 at 10:00 am

    @bemused: I’ll bet Goldman Sachs’s approval rating will be up sharply by this time in February with Republicans. If not already. I don’t know if people track that.

  147. 147.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 20, 2016 at 10:01 am

    @Kay: His election and his campaign have discredited the country.

  148. 148.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 20, 2016 at 10:02 am

    @Kay: His very election and his campaign has discredited the country, why the future tense?

  149. 149.

    bemused

    December 20, 2016 at 10:09 am

    @Major Major Major Major:

    If not sooner. Didn’t take long for Republican approval rating of Putin to go up.

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 10:15 am

    We Must Have Trump, Because Colonialism
    by Martin Longman
    December 19, 2016 4:03 PM

    Let’s think about this:

    “Liberals say Mr. Trump’s victory is proof that the Electoral College is biased against big states and undemocratically marginalizes urban and nonwhite voters. Conservatives say the Electoral College serves as a necessary bulwark against big states, preventing California in particular from imposing ‘something like colonial rule over the rest of the nation,’ as the conservative analyst Michael Barone put it. California sided with Mrs. Clinton by a vote margin of four million, or 30 percentage points.”

    “Both sides have a point. But in the end, Mr. Trump won for a simple reason: The Electoral College’s (largely) winner-take-all design gives a lot of weight to battleground states. Mr. Trump had an advantage in the traditional battlegrounds because most are whiter and less educated than the country as a whole.”

    We can reconfigure this argument just a little and state it differently. For Michael Barone, it’s desirable that less educated people not be imposed upon with the “colonialism” of more educated people. If you don’t like that, you can say, instead, that white people, particularly white people with below-average education, should not be governed by a diverse group of better-educated people.

  151. 151.

    D58826

    December 20, 2016 at 10:18 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: update from daily beast

    The gunman who shot up a Swiss mosque Monday, wounding three Somali immigrants before turning the weapon on himself, was not connected to terrorism, Zurich officials said at a press conference Tuesday. “There were certain indications that the perpetrator may have had an interest in the occult,” said Christiane Lentjes Meili of the Zurich police. “There is no indication of a link to terrorism or to Islamic State.” The suspect, a 24-year-old who authorities said held a Swiss passport but have not identified further, fled the Islamic center and was found later to have shot himself, hours after a manhunt was launched across the city. Swiss officials say they have seen no connections to Monday’s attacks in Ankara or Berlin.

    One of these days der Fuhrer will learn to wait for the facts before picking up his phone. Hopefully the world survives till that happens
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/20/police-zurich-mosque-attack-not-terror.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl

  152. 152.

    Yarrow

    December 20, 2016 at 10:19 am

    @Kay: I read somewhere that the better tactic is not to counter his lies one by one but to acknowledge the pattern. “Trump is lying again. Why does he lie so much? What is he hiding?” That kind of thing. If you get down in the weeds and try to counter each lie you’re working on his turf. Calling out the lying as a pattern and then focusing on that may work better.

    He wants people to focus on each lie because then they’re distracted and looking over there while he’s over here doing something much worse. Don’t fall for it.

  153. 153.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 10:20 am

    @schrodinger’s cat: You got your apostrophe back! May it stay.

  154. 154.

    cosima

    December 20, 2016 at 10:21 am

    Went to the salon today and my lovely hairdresser told me one of her other American clients told her that Hillary is just as bad as Shitegibbon. I told her that person is obviously stupid. Here the odds are great that any American will be a R stooge, living an overprivileged expat life, which is why we live as far from the city as is reasonable for my husband’s commute. Ugh.

    But here’s a piece from The American Prospect to give a little bit of a pep talk to us lefties: http://prospect.org/article/who-are-we-americans-now

    “But crises are also the undoing of governments; leaders who take their countries to war often miscalculate their odds of a quick and easy victory. Crises may arouse a discouraged opposition and enable it to get back on its feet after being knocked down. When reversals of fortune come—whatever the occasion—the opposition must be ready with its own alternatives and its own story.”

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 10:23 am

    We need to stop journalists from saying “partisan” when they should be saying “Republican”.

    Partisan is “both sides do it” and that’s how the press normalized us into President Trump.

    I actually think Trump will be bad for business. How many of you watch broadcast or cable news any more? How many of you pay to read journalism?

    Do we want to pay to keep up with Trump’s latest idiocies? Maybe we don’t.

    Maybe we fucking deserved better.

  156. 156.

    J R in WV

    December 20, 2016 at 10:23 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I didn’t know vets could get one. I got one for $10 that appears to be good permanently forever, as a “senior” old! We’ve done a lot of parks and monuments in Arizona, all the way up to the Grand Canyon! It’s great!

  157. 157.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 10:24 am

    Notice that Tom Perez is not attacking his opponents for DNC chair but taking the fight to the GOP and Trump. #TeamPerez

    — Laura (@SheWhoVotes) December 19, 2016

  158. 158.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 20, 2016 at 10:28 am

    @rikyrah: Has Ellison been speaking ill of a democrat? Doesn’t seem like his style.

    @Yarrow: I like this! I’m going to start using that. You know, in the style guide for my vast media empire.

  159. 159.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 10:34 am

    @Yarrow: Great point.

    Call out the lying in total, and as a way of operating. Don’t get down to the individual lies.

    It’s like talking about gun violence. You have to stay out of the weeds, because nomenclature about the precious is so important to the gun humpers. If you don’t know the precise words, you have no standing to talk about the carnage the precious is causing. Uh. No. Hell no.

  160. 160.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 10:40 am

    Obama’s last battles are our frontlines

    Spandan Chakrabarti
    December 19, 2016

    As of earlier this month, President Obama held the distinction of having granted clemency to more individuals than LBJ, and he continued that streak today with 153 commutations and 78 pardons today. The president is using his plenary power under the pardons and commutations clause to address a lifelong fight for justice: the lengthy imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders.

    The President said something in his recent interview with Trevor Noah that caught my ear: the federal government, he said, is more analogous to an aircraft carrier than it is to a speed boat. Turning it around 180 degrees is a time consuming, difficult process.

    That may explain why President Obama is now engaged in a series of actions to protect liberal priorities. A lot of that is by executive order, but at least one big part of it is now law.

    Earlier this month, in a rare victory for the administration in Congress, both the House and the Senate passed the renewed 21st Century Cures Act – the bill better known as Vice President Biden’s moonshot bill. The bill was signed into law by President Obama on Tuesday, November 13. While the $1.8 billion in taxpayer investment into cancer research is the headline star of this bill, its $4.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health and streamlining of the drug approval process was something patient advocates from a wide ranging disease communities (including lupus, kidney disease and lung disease advocates) had been pushing. This was a major victory given the Republican Congress’ aversion to science.

    Moving on to more obvious and partisan liberal priorities, on December 14, the Obama administration finalized a rule prohibiting states from using federal dollars to discriminate against organizations like Planned Parenthood simply for providing abortion services. While these administrative rules are reversible (though such reversal may be subject to legal action), it requires the full rule-making process to be repeated, which gives advocates and activists time to create political groundswell against it.

  161. 161.

    phoebesmother

    December 20, 2016 at 10:40 am

    Since this is an OT, here’s something I did (donating to the NC NAACP) thanks to a link on BJ from another commenter.
    Today it’s in honor of my sister who was among the NC citizens arrested in Raleigh this week protesting the Republican power grab. She’s been part of Dr. Barber’s Moral Mondays for a few years now. They’ve built a people-power movement that’s truly integrated and gives white progressives a way to support our “identity-politics” brothers and sisters by fighting our common enemies on voter suppression and attacks on teachers and education, et al. My sis even made the news on WRAL as one of the arrestees (it’s her second time).
    So here’s something positive to do that’s unifying and well-organized, what all the critics call for:

  162. 162.

    phoebesmother

    December 20, 2016 at 10:43 am

    My link doesn’t show up even as text. I’m doing something wrong. Here’s the text with a spaceband after //:
    https:// naacpnc.nationbuilder.com/donate2016

  163. 163.

    rikyrah

    December 20, 2016 at 10:46 am

    Which means…NO NO NO NO to ‘accepting’ Cheeto Benito.

    What Those Who Studied Nazis Can Teach Us About The Strange Reaction To Donald Trump
    While it’s important to watch the president-elect closely, we also must be mindful of our own response to him.
    12/19/2016 07:13 pm ET

    ………………..

    These reactions to Trump and his supporters have a way of separating ideas that usually move in tandem. Facts and truth are suddenly unrelated. Power no longer implies responsibility. Legitimacy and decency are now somehow passengers on separate ships. In this dynamic, People magazine can champion both the perpetrator and the victim and see no contradiction or betrayal. Lilla can use the victory of a campaign steeped in identity politics to highlight the ineffectiveness of identity politics. And Lerner can argue that a campaign “advanced” by sexism, racism and xenophobia can tell us much about the targets of that bigotry, i.e. that they need to behave differently, but little about the supporters of that campaign.

    So, why the rush to defend Trump’s supporters? Why the self-recriminations? Why the willingness to stretch the bounds of legitimacy to accommodate Trump’s antics? Much has been written about Trump’s demagoguery and its similarity to totalitarian leaders of the past, but what about Trump’s opponents? Are many of us borrowing a page from totalitarianism without realizing it? Are we empowering him? Are we coordinating?

    The word Gleichschaltung is often translated from the German as “coordination” and refers to the process of ― politically speaking ― getting in line. It often appears in books about the Nazi era. German Jewish philologist Victor Klemperer and German journalist Joachim Fest wrote about the personal cost of coordinating in their respective memoirs. German author Sebastian Haffner and Americans including journalist William Shirer wrote about the propaganda and politics of coordination.

    German-born Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt, in one of her last interviews, explains it best.

    “The problem, the personal problem, was not what our enemies did, but what our friends did. Friends ‘coordinated’ or got in line.” And this coordination was not necessarily due to the “pressure of terror,” said Arendt, who escaped Germany in 1933. Intellectuals were particularly vulnerable to this wave of coordination. “The essence of being an intellectual is that one fabricates ideas about everything,” and many intellectuals of her time were “trapped by their own ideas.”

  164. 164.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 20, 2016 at 10:54 am

    @D58826:

    One of these days der Fuhrer will learn to wait for the facts before picking up his phone.

    Haha–good one!

  165. 165.

    Mnemosyne

    December 20, 2016 at 10:58 am

    @Baud:

    Seconded. I’m happy to unify against Trump.

  166. 166.

    Mnemosyne

    December 20, 2016 at 10:58 am

    AL, I hope all goes well for Mr. AL.

  167. 167.

    Yarrow

    December 20, 2016 at 11:01 am

    Someone upthread mentioned that Trumpism is a cult. We need to read up on how to deprogram people from cults. Could we have a front page post on this?

  168. 168.

    bemused

    December 20, 2016 at 11:04 am

    @rikyrah:

    Excellent on Biden’s moonshot bill. Not so many months ago, I heard Biden on NPR/MPR speaking somewhere on moonshot/coordinating different health care providers and groups on cancer strategies. He was awesome. I know I bookmarked it and sent it around to friends. Now to find it again.

  169. 169.

    hovercraft

    December 20, 2016 at 11:10 am

    I was just talking to a couple of people about the events of yesterday, truck, assassination and hat not, it started off okay, but quickly went wobbly when it was stated the truck driver was a refugee, who had been allowed in. I kept going anyway, but then next thing you know we were onto how China is not scared of Obama, and they know him and how he does things, and how they found one of our Navy drones in the sea, and they said they were going to keep it, but then our fearless leader said you better give it back or else, and China totally backed off and said of course we are giving it back, we never meant to imply we weren’t. I don’t know anything about this drone or what he’s talking about, but I did point out that China does things for it’s own reasons, and that when we had the ultra tough Bush-Cheney administration China had no problem shooting shit out of the sky, so I doubt they are scared of the Shitgibbon, ,I pointed out that the world is a lot more interdependent than it used to be, and so any actions the Shitgibbon takes will have repercussions here at home . That’s when the conversation sideways, Lennie (the security guard, who is an ex-cop), said that whatever the deal is with that the real problem is the “one world government” is real. I asked what he meant, it he went into Bilderberg conspiracy territory. I’m talking Alex Jones, North America ‘Super Highway’, shit. I cut him off, and told him that if that is where he’s coming from, the Shitgibbon is our last chance to take the country back and save us from the UN and Bilderberg one world government, then there is no point trying to have a conversation. I knew he was a supporter, but he seems like a normal guy, to think that all this time I’ve ben friendly with a true believer, I’d ask how many guns he has at home but I’m scared.
    I guess another thing we ‘liberals’ missed was that as an ‘owner’ of so many golf courses, the Shitgibbon signaled to ‘real America’, his determination to fight the UN takeover of America, as a course owner he would never let them steal our golfs!! The signs, they were everywhere.

  170. 170.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 20, 2016 at 11:18 am

    Here’s a screenshot of Alex Jones on Russian TV, with a chyron saying “Alex Jones: Trump’s Secret Weapon.” Note that the guy he’s on screen with, Alexandr Dugin, makes our Alex Jones look as sane and sober as an Ivy League professor of philosophy by comparison.

  171. 171.

    Larkspur

    December 20, 2016 at 11:20 am

    @Elizabelle: This is exactly what I’ve been trying to do, too. It’s small-scale, it’s not political, but it’s important. I’ve been doing small stuff like being extra-cooperative when letting other drivers merge into traffic, keeping a real close eye on anticipating pedestrians in cross-walks, holding doors for people, thanking clerks as well as other shoppers, letting other people go first when I can, smiling at children (when they’re with their parents or caregivers – ya gotta be careful about engaging with youngsters these days, even when you’re an old lady like me), all that kind of stuff. I walk dogs a lot, so I’m constantly encountering gardeners and construction people and I always try to say hi. Part of it is modeling behavior, but honestly, most of it is trying, by action, to quell or disperse or dilute my inner feelings of rage and despair. So yeah, it’s self-serving. Whatever. I do what I want.

  172. 172.

    Lizzy L

    December 20, 2016 at 11:20 am

    @hovercraft: I’ve had this experience: talking with someone who seems grounded in reality, only to discover that she believes in all kinds of insane things. In my case, it happened five years ago, when a woman I know absolutely refused to sign up for the ACA, even though she has no medical insurance and is quite poor, because she believed that if you did, the government would put a microchip in your head. Oh, and she also believed in all that U.N. “one world” stuff. Oy.

  173. 173.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 11:20 am

    Commenter “What have the Romans” put up a beautiful recipe for Swedish Spice Cookies on Adam’s jelly donuts thread from last night. Here is the recipe:

    From commenter What have the Romans Ever Done for Us:

    There are many great Christmas cookies, but only one is the best…and that is the Swedish Pepparkakor (translation: spice cookie). My family has been making them using this recipe for at least three generations (me & sister, mom and dad, and paternal grandparents). Here it is:

    1/2 lb. butter
    1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
    1 Tablespoon corn syrup
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 egg
    3 and 1/4 to 3 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour (amount varies to get the dough to the right stiffness)
    2 teaspoons cinnamon
    1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
    1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
    juice and grated zest from one orange

    Sift the flour with the baking soda and spices
    Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
    Add syrup, egg and orange juice and zest
    Add flour mixture and mix thoroughly
    Chill dough thoroughly in refrigerator.

    To roll out the dough it really helps to use a well floured cloth rolling pin sleeve and a well floured pastry cloth to roll the dough out on. Otherwise the dough will stick to both your countertop and the rolling pin and will be impossible to cut.

    Roll dough very thin, and use cookie cutters to cut dough into cookies. Place cookies on baking sheet and sprinkle with colored sugar granules (we always use green and white because Christmas). Bake at 400 degrees until brown – should be somewhere between 4-8 minutes depending on how thin you’ve rolled the dough.

    The leftover dough from cutting the cookies can be chilled and re-rolled once. After that it picks up so much flour that it’s too brittle to roll out again. They’re a wonderful combination of spicy, sweet and citrusy.

  174. 174.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 11:22 am

    @hovercraft: Yes. They walk among us.

    But their thinking styles are not of the rational world. Deeply concerning there are so many out there.

    I blame the internets.

  175. 175.

    hovercraft

    December 20, 2016 at 11:27 am

    The rubes will celebrate this as a victory over both Mexico a victory over both Mexico and the corrupt lying NY Times.

    Trump Dines With Campaign Trail Target And Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim

    Donald Trump invited Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to dine with him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach this weekend after targeting him during the presidential election as a puppet-master pulling the strings of the “corrupt media.”

    Trump described the meeting to the Washington Post as “a lovely dinner with a wonderful man.”

    The Post reported that the meeting had been arranged through back-channel negotiations that Slim opened up with the President-elect’s former campaign manager and informal advisor, Corey Lewandowski. Anonymous people briefed on the dinner told the newspaper that the sit-down was intended to warm frosty relations between the two moguls and open up lines of communication between Mexico and the United States, rather than to discuss policy proposals in detail.

    Slim’s son-in-law and spokesman, Arturo Elias, told Fortune that the telecom magnate and New York Times investor left the meal with a “very positive” outlook about U.S.-Mexico relations.

    These words are far sunnier than anything Trump and Slim had to say about each other during the 2016 race. The President-elect blamed the number of women who went public with allegations that he groped or inappropriately touched them on Slim and his media empire, claiming that the Mexican magnate was working in cahoots with Hillary Clinton to harm his campaign.

    At an October campaign rally, Trump repeatedly pointed out that Slim was “from Mexico” and a shareholder in “the failing New York Times.”

    “Reporters of the New York Times, they’re not journalists, they’re corporate lobbyist for Carlos Slim and for Hillary Clinton,” he told a North Carolina crowd.

    Elias told the Wall Street Journal at the time that Trump’s comments were “totally false” and that Slim was in no way “interfering in the U.S. election.”

  176. 176.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 20, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @Elizabelle: don’t blame technology for people believing stupid shit.

    But yes, they walk among us. It’s like They Live, except when you put on the sunglasses, normal people are suddenly wearing tricorn hats with teabags hanging off them and a sign that says DON’T ROB MEDICARE TO PAY FOR SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

  177. 177.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:30 am

    @Kay:

    Kasich and the other Republicans delivered a “unity lecture” to the public yesterday. Trump has no responsibility in this, apparently. He can say and do whatever he wants and it’s wholly up to us to create “unity”.

    I’m a little surprised at Kasich, but with other Repubs, not so much.

    It’s a complete capitulation to lower standards. They’re demanding much more from the public than they are from the President. Trump himself hasn’t done one thing to create “unity”- in fact he’s still running an ugly, divisive political campaign. We’re ordered to rise above that in the hope that if we pretend he’s a decent human being he’ll follow our example and treat others decently. They’ve removed him from the whole sphere of adult accountability.

    This is exactly right-on, Kay. We have no need to adhere to any higher standard than Unfit-elect Trump does…and since he’s running around congratulating himself (or as SNL put it, “holding rallies so that people can cheer for me”), we have every reason to ramp up our criticism of it, not temper it.

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:31 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It definitely pisses them off. Or at least it does when I do it.

    it’s because they are authoritarians to the core, and Unfit-elect Trump is their idea (gag) of a true strongman leader. Defy him, and the whole mindset reacts in fury (partially because they know they’re so quick to get on their knees themselves)

  179. 179.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:32 am

    @Betty Cracker: “like”

  180. 180.

    Larkspur

    December 20, 2016 at 11:33 am

    Wouldn’t it be cool? As soon as Trump takes the oath of office, a hundred thousand signs pop up in the crowd: “YOU LIE!”

  181. 181.

    JanieM

    December 20, 2016 at 11:34 am

    @Patricia Kayden: @@Baud: Kay:

    Fnck them and their fncking unity all the way to Betegeuse. As Patricia Kayden says, where was it for the last eight years? Where is it in NC today, after a Democrat has been elected governor? I can’t say fnck them enough times or strongly enough.

    This went on in the non-immediate aftermath of 9/11, too. “United we stand” blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Every time I heard/read it, all I wanted to say was: Okay, if we’re going to unite, let’s unite behind *my* views. Then someone with (relatively speaking) my views gets elected, and we see just how much they give a flying banana about unity.

    Fat fncking chance.

  182. 182.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:37 am

    @Elizabelle:

    And they got away with it. With not allowing a Democratic president to appoint a Supreme Court justice in the last year of his presidency. With all of it.

    I’m looking forward to that being the standard in the fourth and final year of Unfit-elect’s time in office. Supreme Court vacancy to fill in 2020? Why Mitch, I believe we need to let the people weigh in on that in November!!

    (yes, I know they’ll come up with something creative and lame to try and tell us why this is different…”but…but…Trump won Pennsylvania, so therefore he gets to nominate SCOTUS judges up until noon on Election Day”…”but…but…Trump’s judges are automatically great Americans, so he gets to nominate…” etc etc)

  183. 183.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:39 am

    @Yarrow:

    “Trump is lying again. Why does he lie so much? What is he hiding?” That kind of thing.

    I like this way of responding, a lot. I’d only add “Trump is lying again…lying and distracting from ______. Is that why he lies so much? What is he hiding?”

  184. 184.

    mai naem mobile

    December 20, 2016 at 11:40 am

    Good luck on the surgery Anne.

  185. 185.

    hovercraft

    December 20, 2016 at 11:40 am

    These people just can’t help themselves. If they are this brazen before it’s inaugurated, how much will it be once it’s official?

    Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are behind a newly-founded non-profit that is hosting a charity event over inauguration weekend offering top-tier donors access to the President-elect and themselves, the Center for Public Integrity reported Monday.

    An invitation for the Opening Day Foundation’s “Opening Day 2017” event, first reported by TMZ, offered donors who spend $250,000 or more a “private reception and photo opportunity with President Donald J. Trump,” as well as other prizes. Those who fork over $500,000 or more would also receive a “multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion” with Trump’s adult sons, according to the invitation.

    The Center for Public Integrity’s review of Texas incorporation records found that the Opening Day Foundation was created just one week ago, on Dec. 14. The foundation lists four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach, and Tom Hicks Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire…

    “This celebration, independent from official inaugural events sponsored by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, is in support of conservation organizations all over our beautiful country,” he wrote in an email. “All net proceeds from this private event will be donated to support conservation efforts.”

    Yes because when I think conservation, I think Uday and Qusay.

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    December 20, 2016 at 11:46 am

    @Jeffro: The denied Supreme Court nominee is what drives my despair.

    I am still glad every single day that fucking Antonin Scalia is dead, dead, dead.

    But it’s insane that Obama was not allowed to appoint the new justice. That will come back to haunt us.

  187. 187.

    Yarrow

    December 20, 2016 at 11:55 am

    @Jeffro: Yes, there are many ways to use the “Trump is lying again” structure and strategy. I say any way that focusing on the pattern and not the specific lie is the way to go.

  188. 188.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:57 am

    @Elizabelle:

    The denied Supreme Court nominee is what drives my despair.

    I am still glad every single day that fucking Antonin Scalia is dead, dead, dead.

    But it’s insane that Obama was not allowed to appoint the new justice. That will come back to haunt us.

    Per Krugman’s column yesterday, continued violation of norms is indeed what threatens the republic today, just as it did a couple thousand years ago. We have to keep pointing it out, not normalize it, and push hard to restore it. Things like Scalia/SCOTUS, the NC Gov issue, restricting voting rights, threatening to not raise the debt ceiling, Rs’ reactions to the Bundy standoff, Rs embrace of people like Alex Jones…it’s all part of the same madness, all because they know that in an increasingly multicultural US and increasingly global economy, just ‘being white’ doesn’t mean much.

  189. 189.

    Jeffro

    December 20, 2016 at 11:58 am

    @Yarrow: Great point and thanks for the ‘framing’ & the reminder!

  190. 190.

    catclub

    December 20, 2016 at 12:13 pm

    @Baud: I already am not a big fan. He seems to be able to express one emotion in his singing.
    Since it is not joy, or happiness, he would still be suitable for a Trump inauguration.

  191. 191.

    catclub

    December 20, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    @hovercraft:

    Trump’s comments were “totally false” and that Slim was in no way “interfering in the U.S. election.”

    As a Mexican, Slim cannot interfere in US elections. But once he owns a US corporation, he ( or Russia) can interfere to his hearts content.
    Huge loophole in the system. Owning a US corporation is equivalent ( or better!) to citizenship.

  192. 192.

    Mnemosyne

    December 20, 2016 at 1:00 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Wasn’t one of the right-wing beefs with Obama that he was purportedly “anti-colonialist”?

    I guess colonialism is A-OK as long as it’s non-white people who are being subjected to it.

  193. 193.

    hovercraft

    December 20, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    https://www.facebook.com/AmericanKennelClub/videos/10154369720859121/

  194. 194.

    Feebog

    December 20, 2016 at 1:01 pm

    Wishing your hubby a speedy recovery AL. And Debit, it takes a very special person to adopt multiple pets. You are my hero (keep the Walter pics coming).

  195. 195.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    December 20, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    Here’s wishing an uneventful procedure for Mr AL and a speedy recovery.

    Debit, you are a role model well worth emulating. Thanks for that, and for Walter and Oscar, and all the rest.

  196. 196.

    Mnemosyne

    December 20, 2016 at 1:33 pm

    @Larkspur:

    I’ve been doing the same thing. I am a natural introvert, but I’ve been trying to make friendly, casual conversation with strangers (especially strangers of color, if you will) more often.

  197. 197.

    hovercraft

    December 20, 2016 at 1:38 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Wasn’t one of the right-wing beefs with Obama that he was purportedly “anti-colonialist”?

    Ye it was the big hypothesis of one of Dinesh D’Souza’s books, quickly adopted by Newton Leroy Gingrich to explain Obama’s repeated snubs of our traditional western allies, particularly the British. When did he abandon them you ask, why on day one, when he removed the bust of Churchill from the oval office and replaced it with one of MLK. The fact that the bust in question had been LOANED to Bush, and that there is another bust of him in the White House, never seemed to penetrate.

  198. 198.

    Mnemosyne

    December 20, 2016 at 1:40 pm

    @Jeffro:

    Defy him, and the whole mindset reacts in fury (partially because they know they’re so quick to get on their knees themselves)

    Actually, I would say it’s something slightly different — since they support the strongman, if they can get you to bend a knee to Trump, you’re bending a knee to them. So of course they’re enraged that you’re refusing to acknowledge their superiority that was conveyed to them by their Trump support.

  199. 199.

    hovercraft

    December 20, 2016 at 1:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    Come on over and chat, we are friendly, especially those of us past the first blush of youth. The youngsters can be abrupt with anyone who interferes with their intertubes time, and it’s hard to find them not engaged on their devices.

  200. 200.

    Miss Bianca

    December 20, 2016 at 2:06 pm

    @Kay: That’s WORK, Kay. The Berners I kow seem to be way more comfortable sniping from the sidelines than rolling up their sleeves and actually, you know, trying to RUN things.

  201. 201.

    Aleta

    December 20, 2016 at 2:52 pm

    Best wishes, glad tidings, and a sane drive back home to you and your spouse.

  202. 202.

    Michael Bersin

    December 20, 2016 at 7:35 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    That’s where individual blog/commenter/community comes in handy. We could use a clearinghouse of sarcastic Russian phrases that will fit on a protest sign. That was someone else’s sign – still, the sentiments expressed work. Unfortunately we’ll have at least two years to work on perfecting our Russian and Chinese protest sign language skills.

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