Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Second rate reporter says what?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Resist

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No garden pics this week — in much of the country, it’s too late for outdoor shots and too early to start planning for next year. It was such a crappy garden year for me that even before the election I was thinking about taking next year off from the Tomato Temptation. Theoretically, that would leave me time/energy to deal with the rest of the (badly neglected) garden, dig up all the flower beds & separate the perennials. We’ll have to see what I feel like in February…

What’s on the agenda as we wrap up the long weekend?

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Charles Blow, despite his position at the NYTimes, is another conscientious objector to the New Trump Normalization:

… I have not only an ethical and professional duty to call out how obscene your very existence is at the top of American government; I have a moral obligation to do so.

It’s not that I don’t believe that people can change and grow. They can. But real growth comes from the accepting of responsibility and repenting of culpability. Expedient reversal isn’t growth; it’s gross…

So let me say this on Thanksgiving: I’m thankful to have this platform because as long as there are ink and pixels, you will be the focus of my withering gaze.

I’m thankful that I have the endurance and can assume a posture that will never allow what you represent to ever be seen as everyday and ordinary.

No, Mr. Trump, we will not all just get along. For as long as a threat to the state is the head of state, all citizens of good faith and national fidelity — and certainly this columnist — have an absolute obligation to meet you and your agenda with resistance at every turn…

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Ain’t No Such Thing as a Beautiful Loser

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Here’s my latest thinking on Democratic strategy going forward – it got long but I have more to come.

First, I know she’s not a Democrat, but fuck Jill Stein.  As Scott Lemieux points out, the recounts will focus the issue of Trump’s legitimacy on the one issue where we’re almost certain to lose. I can lay no blame on the Clinton campaign joining in the recount because once Stein got that ball rolling they had little choice but to hitch on to her clown car.  The Green “Party” is simply a terrible, rickety, grift-ridden institution.

Second, I’m not ready to continue tolerating our weak Democratic establishment or any of the top leadership of the Clinton campaign who try to remain as part of it.  To pick just two of many examples, where is our fucking Congressional effort?  Look at this:


Pete Sessions ran unopposed.
And read how the Clinton campaign did not once contact the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin and made no campaign appearances there.

Democrats gave millions of dollars to the Democratic establishment and the Clintons in hopes that they would advance our interests and run a competent campaign. Where were those millions spent? How did we fuck this up so badly? Those questions need answers so we are sure that we aren’t pouring money down the toilet in 2018 or 2020.

I’ll also mention that, along with a few of the rest of you, I am skeptical about Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy. I have relatives active in Democratic politics in the Dakotas who saw little or nothing of that strategy, but they did see a major push by the Obama campaign in 2008 when South Dakota looked in reach. So, 50-state or 40-state or whatever it is called, I won’t be donating to an effort pours a little money into every race — I will donate to one that has realistic targets like TX-32, coupled with a quality candidate screening program that picks early-starting, hard-working candidates that raise funds and energize Democrats in tougher districts.

My third item is “identity politics”. It is a terrible term, and Democrats who use it to criticize other Dems are using the opposition’s words to define them. We are the party that defends civil rights of all Americans, period. We do not compromise on that, but it is not the whole of our platform. We need to be economic populists as well as defenders of civil rights. It is not an either/or, and it is the acme of stupidity to have an argument about which one of these we’re going to talk about. We will talk about both in the right contexts. That said, anyone who missed how Sanders’ economic message caught fire missed one of the major political truths of this election. We need to hone, craft and simplify this message so it resonates in contrast to greedy-ass Paul Ryan’s compulsive need to fuck the poor and the middle class out of their entitlements.

Speaking of that asshole Ryan, one of the first two big tests of the current Democratic establishment will be their messaging on Medicare. The second will be whether they just roll over in Louisiana or if they put a few million into that race. Privatizing or voucherizing Medicare is, from the point of view of almost everyone who pays into the system, taking money from our pockets. If the messaging on this isn’t something easily grasped, harsh and personal (“You paid into Medicare for years, now Paul Ryan and Donald Trump want to take your money away”), then we have learned nothing from this election.

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Open Thread: Wrestling with A Plague-Ridden Pig

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Never a winning strategy — it just spreads the pathogens, whether or not the pig knows what’s going on.

… “We stand behind our election results, which accurately reflect the will of the American people,” a senior administration official told POLITICO late Friday.

“The federal government did not observe any increased level of malicious cyber activity aimed at disrupting our electoral process on election day,” the official added. “We believe our elections were free and fair from a cybersecurity perspective.”…

My emphasis.

… On Saturday, the Clinton campaign broke its long silence on the issue with a statement from the campaign’s general counsel, Marc Elias.

In a post on Medium, Elias confirmed that independent experts had briefed the campaign on potential irregularities that could be the result of hacking, but he said that ultimately the campaign found no “actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology.”

Still, he said, the campaign is joining Stein’s challenge in Wisconsin and will do the same if she requests recounts in the other states.

The senior Obama administration official reiterated the government’s accusation that Russia had directed its hackers to go after U.S. political organizations and political operatives’ email accounts with the goal of interfering in the election.

Moscow, the official said, “probably expected that publicity surrounding” leaked emails and documents “would raise questions about the integrity of the election process that could have undermined the legitimacy of the president-elect.”…

Instead of talking about deliberate voter suppression by U.S. legislators, James Comey’s Repub-friendly publicity stunts, or targeted/doctored leaks by foreign agencies, “we” are letting ourselves get distracted by dark tales of SCIENTERRIFIC HAXXORS somehow screwing with the black boxes from a vast distance. Oldest magicians’ trick in the world!

And so, as the true stories about voter-ID monkey-mischief and undersupplying sites and equipment to ‘undeserving’ neighborhoods continue to accumulate, the GOP and its media enablers have been given a shiny gift-wrapped package of ‘Democrats and their dumb conspiracy theories‘ misdirection… by Jill Stein, her foreign backers, and a bunch of third-party-voting special snowflakes retroactively embarrassed by the success of their efforts to keep Hillary out of the White House.

But it’s very good news for the Trump team!

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College Football Open Thread

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trumpkin-bar

It’s Rivalry Week (say that out loud three times), so some interesting games are on tap today. The ones I’ll be watching with the most interest — in chronological order and ascending importance (to me) — will be Ohio State and Michigan, Alabama and Auburn, and, of course, Florida vs. Florida State (Go Gators!). But there are many other consequential matchups today. Which teams are you pulling for, if any?

Got into a somewhat slurry bar argument with a Trumpkin last night. It all started when hubby decided he didn’t want Thanksgiving leftovers, so we went to the local Greek restaurant/lounge to have a cocktail and order a pizza to take home. Turns out many people in town had the same pizza idea, so it took much longer than expected.

While we waited at the bar, my husband and the guy seated next to him struck up a conversation. I was only half paying attention. But then the man said something about the economy getting better since there will be a businessman in the White House, causing me to aspirate bourbon while laughing bitterly.

The man inquired if I were unhappy with the outcome of the election. I answered in the affirmative. It escalated from there and got mildly snarly. To be honest, I don’t think either of us acquitted ourselves particularly well, though I was correct on the merits.

Anyway, poor, long-suffering hubby. On the bright side, I am a pretty good cook, and today I’m making my famous shrimp etouffee, so he’s got that going for him. Open thread!

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Anthem

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Goddess bless the Queen!

Longish read for a (hopefully) quiet weekend morning… Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:

If you care about whether the Democratic Party can rebuild itself anytime soon out of the smoking wreckage left behind by the disastrous 2016 elections, something very important is happening a lot sooner than you think.

There are more than three dozen gubernatorial races taking place in the next two years. And they could do a tremendous amount to set the party on the path out of the wilderness in the Age of Donald Trump — with potentially significant national ramifications that could stretch well into the next decade, for instance by having a substantial influence over the redistricting of House seats, which could help determine control of the Lower Chamber in the 2020s…

… The vast majority of these races take place in 2018 (only two, Virginia and New Jersey, take place next year), so we’re really talking about the 2018 map here. It has big transformative potential for Democrats, since many of the states in which Republicans are defending seats are ones Barack Obama (and to a lesser extent Hillary Clinton) won.

There are four reasons why these contests are so important to the long-term prospects of the Democratic Party:

1) They represent a major opportunity to reverse the tremendous state-level damage done to Democrats in 2010…

2) Winning back gubernatorial mansions could have real impact over the redistricting of the House in the next decade…

3) These races give Dems a chance to turn things around in swing states and “blue wall” states that Trump won…

4) Winning back states could have a big influence on policy…

Interactive map & full details at the link. Remember, those of you on (other) social media — Sharing Is Caring!
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Apart from preparing ourselves for the next battle(s), what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Fidel Castro Is Dead

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A long time ago, a reporter friend in South Florida told me that the City of Miami has for decades maintained a “Castro Dies” plan, filed away next to the municipal plans to deal with hurricanes, etc., to govern the outburst of civic joy expected in reaction to the death of Fidel Castro. Presumably, that plan has been dusted off and put into action:

Most of us Floridians — Cuban-Americans and non-Cuban-Americans alike — don’t remember a time when Castro wasn’t lurking 90 miles off our coast, serving as a useful foil for American politicians and vice versa. He endured 11 American presidents, from Eisenhower to Obama.

Hatred of Castro has been such a unifying political force in South Florida that one wonders what, if anything, will replace it. There was a joke down here about Castro receiving a tortoise as a 75th birthday present and, upon being told that the tortoise has a 150-year life expectancy, lamenting that just when you get attached to a pet, it dies on you. From the Miami Herald:

Now, after surviving countless assassination attempts, communism’s bankruptcy, economic collapse, his failed revolution, Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz has passed into history.

This is a moment to celebrate the prospect of a future without Fidel Castro. He should be remembered as the cynical dictator who nearly destroyed Cuba for the gratification of his own ego. Building a free, open and prosperous democracy would be the Cuban people’s greatest, most satisfying payback.

The totalitarian dictator is dead. May his police state and inhumanity be buried along with him.

We’ll see if Castro’s death changes anything in Cuba. My guess is it won’t, at least not right away. Eighty-five-year-old little bro Raúl appears to be firmly in charge. But the party will go on in Miami.

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