Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

White supremacy is terrorism.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

T R E 4 5 O N

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Petty moves from a petty man.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Fight On

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Fight On

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We are besieged by the armies of would-be Supreme Leaders, with all their orcs, trolls, wargs, and zombies (aka, the Media Village Press Corpse). And yet… if we must live without hope, there is always vengeance.

From the NYTimes, “Eric Holder to Lead Democrats’ Attack on Republican Gerrymandering“:

As he prepared last week to deliver his farewell address, President Obama convened three Democratic leaders in the White House for a strategy session on the future of their party. The quiet huddle included Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the top Democrats in Congress, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia.

One topic of urgent concern, according to people briefed on the meeting: how to break the Republican Party’s iron grip on the congressional map.

Thwarted for much of his term by a confrontational Republican Congress, and criticized by his fellow Democrats for not devoting sufficient attention to their down-ballot candidates, Mr. Obama has decided to make the byzantine process of legislative redistricting a central political priority in his first years after the presidency.

Emerging as Mr. Obama’s chief collaborator and proxy is Eric H. Holder Jr., the former attorney general of the United States and a personal friend of the president. He has signed on to lead the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a newly formed political group aimed at untangling the creatively drawn districts that have helped cement the Republican Party in power in Washington and many state capitals…

Mr. Holder is set to kick off his initiative on Thursday with a speech at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington. The first major fund-raising event for the group is to take place in Chicago this spring; David Jacobson, a former ambassador to Canada and an Obama campaign fund-raiser, is hosting the event.

Mr. Holder said he anticipated that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would also be involved, along with other “present and former cabinet members.”…

Mr. Holder said his initiative would unfold on three fronts: In court, where Democrats will challenge Republican-drawn maps they see as violating the law; on the campaign trail, where they will seek to win offices that influence redistricting; and through ballot referendums in states that allow voters to give direct approval to laws mandating new procedures for legislative apportionment…

***********

Apart from fighting back, what’s on the agenda for the day?
.

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Senate Dems stood strong on Obamacare repeal last night. All voted against. Time for haters to STFU.

  2. 2.

    John S.

    @Baud:

    Kind of sad that it took a Trump presidency and a GOP majority eager to burn everything down for them to achieve solidarity, but credit where it’s due.

  10. 10.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    I mentioned last night that the kid might not be able to join us for my (early) b-day dinner on Friday since her sister might go into labor at any moment and the kid would have to take care of her niece while her sister is otherwise occupied(so to speak). Madame informed my that this is no longer a problem due to the kid now having a nephew in addition to her niece.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    I wish there was something in place to fight voter suppression as it ramps up- now with the full weight of the federal government behind it. I’m not disparaging all of them, I’m sure there are lots and lots of staff in the DOJ who are fine people who do their jobs, but the person at the top really matters and Sessions is a horror on voting rights.

    Private orgs litigating just isn’t enough. It has to be multi-pronged, state-specific and proactive, with a big voter education piece. It has to be a “campaign” in the sense of a war, not individual battles. I was looking and I think we’re talking about 18 states where voters are vulnerable. 18 states is a LOT of ground to cover if one thinks about it as essentially replacing the role of the federal government in voting rights with what will be a private entity. That’s like Presidential campaign size.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Sherrod Brown is holding meetings on health care specifically – I was invited to one in Toledo Friday. I can’t go because I’m working but I thought it was a good idea.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, all.

    Good thoughts to dmsilev and his mom and pop. dmsilev catching a 7:00 a flight from LAX to Boston today to visit said foiks. Dad starting chemo, and his mom was hit by a slow moving car yesterday while out walking. She’s OK, but in hospital. Details about 3 threads back.

    Waving at dm. He might already be up at O dark hundred.

  21. 21.

    JordanRules

    @Kay: Saw a blurb yesterday about former AG Holder leading the charge. Not sure how or via what entity.

    Looking for a link and all I’m finding is an NYT story. Uggh NYT, what a waste they are right now. That is not where I saw it.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    With the announcement of son-in-law Jared Kushner as “senior advisor to the president,” the inner circle of Donald Trump’s White House has now taken shape. For those of you who want to understand the role each member plays, here’s a quick reference:

    Jared Kushner = Rasputin
    James Flynn = Dick Cheney
    Reince Priebus = H.R. Haldeman
    Steve Bannon = Louis Howe
    Mike Pence = Cardinal Mazarin
    Kellyanne Conway = Baghdad Bob
    Sean Spicer = Ron Ziegler
    Mick Mulvaney = David Stockman

    Any questions?

    -Kevin Drum

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t know. Not to be pessimistic but I don’t think they’re up to it. Democrats rely too much on litigation. I mean, these voter protection divisions are run by lawyers so it’s not a big shocker that’s the focus but there needs to be actual door knocking and person to person contact in places like Milwaukee or rural North Carolina. If I was running it I would think “pretend there are no courts- now what do you do?” Don’t assume some emergency petition will save the day.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Russia Today.

    All links from a U.S. site will send one there eventually. May as well get a good seat in the front of the bandwagon.

    ;)

  29. 29.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    We’ll be back to pre-existing condition exclusions, lifetime caps, cherry picking and nonrenewals for customers with chronic conditions (along with tort reform and binding arbitration in some zero regulation Confederate shithole) because Freedom(spit), Jesus(spit), Jean Calvin(spit) and Ayn Rand(spit-loogie) before you know it.

    But hey, some grinning white asshole in a nice suit gets to make money off your misery and death, so it’s all good, right?

  32. 32.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was – allegedly – a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign.

    It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created.

    The taskforce included six agencies or departments of government. Dealing with the domestic, US, side of the inquiry, were the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Justice. For the foreign and intelligence aspects of the investigation, there were another three agencies: the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency, responsible for electronic spying.

    Lawyers from the National Security Division in the Department of Justice then drew up an application. They took it to the secret US court that deals with intelligence, the Fisa court, named after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They wanted permission to intercept the electronic records from two Russian banks.

    Their first application, in June, was rejected outright by the judge. They returned with a more narrowly drawn order in July and were rejected again. Finally, before a new judge, the order was granted, on 15 October, three weeks before election day.

    Neither Mr Trump nor his associates are named in the Fisa order, which would only cover foreign citizens or foreign entities – in this case the Russian banks. But ultimately, the investigation is looking for transfers of money from Russia to the United States, each one, if proved, a felony offence.

    A lawyer- outside the Department of Justice but familiar with the case – told me that three of Mr Trump’s associates were the subject of the inquiry. “But it’s clear this is about Trump,” he said.

    (BBC)

    Worst than Watergate. As bad as Watergate was, it didn’t involve a hostile foreign government.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    Here’s the original post by dmsilev, #48 on “What the Bleep happened…” thread.

    Since this is an open thread, I feel the need to, I guess, vent at life’s ups and downs, and today was a hell of a down in my family. Both of my parents are now in the hospital, my dad being prepped for a first round of chemo starting tomorrow and my mom who got hit by a car while she was walking home after visiting him this afternoon. Car wasn’t moving very fast and there don’t appear to be any bones broken, but still. Today really sucked.

    I’m on a plane at the crack of dawn tomorrow headed their way.

    and later:

    Thanks. My parents have good medical coverage, so they’re getting the care they need, but then there’s all the little things like making sure the dog is walked and fed, etc. etc. We’ll get through it, but it’s going to be hard for a while. Parents are in Boston…

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    This seems to be targeted to “activists”- they’re not just general public meetings. Maybe Brown feels more comfortable because Kasich did his own media blitz about how Ohio needs the Medicaid expansion.

    During the health care law Brown came to my county and we met with him. I told him that the CEO of the hospital here had disparaged the health care law in the local newspaper. Turns out that same CEO had lobbied Brown personally for additional federal funding for rural hospitals to cover slow pay or no pay- which is what Medicaid expansion does. Brown was laughing – said this happens all the time- their public position is much different than what they lobby their Senator for.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    After that presser yesterday, I am back to waking up frightened.

    Unbelievable that no one can stop this train.

  40. 40.

    mai naem mobile

    @Baud: March because it makes sense to have a leader three months after most of the first 100 days of the new oppo party POTUS are over.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: They sound great. Trevor Potter’s group; lot of litigators and activists.

    Campaign Legal Center

    Trevor Potter
    PRESIDENT

    Trevor Potter is a former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. He is one of the country’s best-known and most experienced campaign and election lawyers, he is the founder and President of the Campaign Legal Center and a Senior Adviser to the reform group Issue One, as well as head of the political law practice at the Washington firm of Caplin & Drysdale. To many, he is perhaps best known for his appearances on the Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow,…

    ETA: Norm Ornstein is on their board. That’s gold standard.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: How much you want to bet that if it were a DEM being investigated they would have approved the warrant at the speed of light?

    (and while I am being sarcastic, I’m not sure how much)

  45. 45.

    greennotGreen

    I agree with Josh Marshall: I don’t think Trump can divest because he’s underwater on too many of his properties.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @mai naem mobile: Well, they couldn’t get started until after the election, and there are a lot of people vying for the job. Not sure how long the process usually takes when we don’t have a president, but if they rushed it, I’m sure there would be howls of a rigged process. (Probably will be anyway.)

  49. 49.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    You just can’t make this up. The lawyer Trump had at the news conference yesterday is a partner at a firm named “Russia law firm of the year” (link)

    I know it’s early, but a pattern seems to be emerging.

  50. 50.

    Iowa Old Lady

    The more I thought about that so-called press conference yesterday, the more it scared me. Here were the circumstances under which it apparently had to be held.

    1. Staff members standing by to cheer for Trump
    2. Family members there for reasons we can only speculate about
    3. Lawyer there to speak for him
    4. Word salad the only thing on offer

    What’s going to happen when there’s a real crisis and he’s the one who’s supposed to lead?

  51. 51.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning, rikyrah! The fight is just beginning.

    @Elizabelle: Echoing good thoughts and best wishes to dmsilev and his parents! I read that way after he probably had gone to bed. I’m glad that the prognosis is good for both parents and send healing thoughts to both.

  53. 53.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Chris Humphreys ‏@CJH_News

    The BBC’s Paul Wood, a respected foreign correspondent, says he has another source claiming multiple #Trump tapes exist. This story has legs

    183 replies 2,415 retweets 2,627 likes

    #TrumpPornHub.com

  55. 55.

    satby

    @Iowa Old Lady: the part that scares me was after, when the rest if the media appeared to consider the whole mess business as usual. They’re as much enemies of the country as Russia is now.

  60. 60.

    JPL

    @JordanRules: Comey perjured himself under oath, when he said he didn’t talk about open cases. His mission was to take the Clintons and after all these years, he achieved his goal. It’s possible that he thinks Trump will be impeached, and then Pence will become President.

    Perjured might be to strong a word, because his statement was crafted carefully. Maybe he’s just a liar.

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Yeah.

    But the real story, I would think, is going to be Trump’s funding and tax returns. They will come out, or at least credible information.

    He may very well be underwater. The whole campaign looked like a brand-building and grifting operation, and goddamn the morons who voted for him or declined to vote for Hillary because [pure, pure reasons].

    This is a bad novel.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    You know how I am :)

    I want like one of those lawyers nationally and then locals in-county. DOWN. Not up. Push it down.

    The model should be more like fast food restaurants and less like EXXON. It’s frustrating because Democrats have such a strong moral case. They have an opportunity to be genuinely noble because this is not just about electing national politicians- it’s not self-serving. Voter suppression impacts every race and it’s much more profound in smaller races where 100 votes decide the election. It’s a beautiful issue for them. As far as the “war” comparison there’s just endless opportunity to be creative and pro-active and catch the GOP off-guard. Do a voter protection effort in Alabama. Arrive somewhere unexpected. Not to carry the state in a national or Senate election but simply because voters need it. Instead of focusing exclusively on “blue” cities in North Carolina organize a rural county with 30k AA voters.

  64. 64.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    The Guardian has a really great background article on the investigation. It seems the dossier was leaked out of fear a cover-up would occur and bury the investigation once Trump’s flunkies took office.

    (link)

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    @satby: Maybe it’s not bad to know that the media serves its owners.

    We’ve known that for a while. Maybe some other peeps need to figure it out.

    I caught CBS Evening News last night in a bar. Close captioned, but they seemed to do a very realistic and non-puffing coverage of the presser and conflicts. They’re not laughing and bowing.

    On that close captioning: done initially by a computer program, I would guess, because typed in “and now to Extension Cord” when Pelley had said “Nancy Cordes.” Corrected pretty quick.

    And a cold ale and fried calamari are the way to watch the news.

  67. 67.

    James E Powell

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I said the same thing I wasn’t being sarcastic. There seems to be an effort to protect Trump. Maybe some deficiencies in the application, put there deliberately. I’m sure we’ll never find out.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    It’s frustrating because Democrats have such a strong moral case.

    That’s why they vote against us, Kay.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: The arc of justice.

    I agree with others that Trump is likely to stroke out before too long. But President Pence?

    It’s so disgusting. That’s Hillary’s office they’re parking their disloyal butts in.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    We have a drug court now and I went to one of their meetings yesterday. I was rushed so out of sorts when I got there and there was a grief counselor there. So I’m cranky and I’m thinking “why is this person here?”

    Well. They get a grief counselor because so many of their friends and family members have died of overdoses. I just never considered that these people are trying to recover from their own addictions while attending funerals of other addicts. It’s such a big thing and it just flew right over my head. There’s this profound sadness about them when you deal with them individually and I never considered that so many of them are grieving people they have lost in addition to all their other problems. So THAT was humbling, I must say!

  74. 74.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Quinnipiac Poll — January 10th

    President Obama

    Approve…………..55%
    Disapprove……..39%
    ——————————————-

    Donald Trump

    Approve…………..37%
    Disapprove……..51%

    There’s never been a president entering office with an underwater approval rating.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:

    Trump was in Scotland, in a bar, talking to a young man.

    He said, “Lad, look out there to the field. Do ya see that fence? Look how well it’s built. I built that fence stone by stone with me own two hands. I piled it for months. But do they call me Trump-the-Fence-Builder? Nooo…”

    Then he gestured at the bar. “Look here at the bar. Do ya see how smooth and just it is? I planed that surface down by me own achin’ back. I carved that wood with me own hard labour, for eight days. But do they call me Trump-the-Bar-builder? Nooo…”

    Then the old man points out the window. “Eh, Laddy, look out to sea…Do ya see that pier that stretches out as far as the eye can see? I built that pier with the sweat off me back. I nailed it board by board. But do they call me Trump-the-Pier-Builder? Nooo…”

    Then the old man looks around nervously, trying to make sure no one is paying attention.

    “But ya get pissed on by one Russian whore…”

  77. 77.

    JordanRules

    @JPL: During an unprecedented, coordinated investigation that may reveal Watergate level (at least) corruption with a hostile foreign power though? He goes after Clinton knowing what he knew. Well, obviously he did but something else in the milk aint clean.

  78. 78.

    EZSmirkzz

    Achy Breaking News Fixed!

    Og says: “Me big rich man, no Pol Pot, no Piss Pot, no No Pot to piss in. Сделать Америку великой Снова!

    Meanwhile back at the ranch- Look! A butterfly! At the same time Rex Twitter changes his socks that his aunt Igor gave him at the Fritz Karlton in Berlin in 1932, a decade and a half before he was born, and also too, although having died in 1837, Igor still refused to shave, even though Boris refused to marry a woman with a mustache or a beard, dead or alive, who wears her hair in a mullet.

    In the meantime a crowd of well wishers gathered at the old saw mill to sing Polly Wally Doodle All A Day and She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain with melody and lyrics swapped.

    In other news …

  79. 79.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle: There’s no way to avoid an awful person in the office until January 2021. But Pence’s damage will run along traditional lines and will be less existential.

  80. 80.

    NeenerNeener

    If media companies thought Trump’s rallies and debates were great for their bottom line, just imagine how great his treason trial would be. The ultimate Trump reality show. I would be watching news broadcasts for the first time since forever. Make it so, media.

  82. 82.

    JPL

    CBS This Morning is covering the ties that Trump has to Russia. I just caught the end of the interview, but as soon as it’s online, it might be worth another view.

  83. 83.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @satby: I forgot to include that he also threatened to throw out a reporter who asked a question he didn’t like.

    This guy can’t even stand up and answer predictable questions from reporters.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    His staff applauding him for showing up at a press conference is bizarre. You wonder when the serious weirdness of Trump and his entourage will sink in – these are some odd people. it’s like a collection of misfits with chips on their shoulders. Every interaction, every communication, is strangely adversarial and bitter. The grudge posse.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    I wonder if it makes sense for the Dems to offer the GOP a deal: Impeach Trump and we won’t use him against you. They’ll say no, and then we can use their refusal to impeach against them.

    I suppose if they say yes, we could renege on our promise. But even if we keep the promise, it might be worth it to get Trump thrown out of office. It would be a nice talking point to have the only two presidents driven from office be Republican.

  86. 86.

    JordanRules

    @JPL: Aha! That definitely makes sense as part of the Comey dynamic. I knew there was a piece of the puzzle I had pushed off the table and kind of forgot about.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @NeenerNeener:

    I have to hand it to him though. His tactic of pretending CNN and the NYTimes are adversarial towards him when they are the least adversarial is very smart. He’s flattering them by making weak coverage out to be tough, which leads to even weaker coverage. He’s essentially choosing his opponents, picking two he is beating. He ignores the Washington Post and they’re doing all the heavy lifting.

  88. 88.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    I can see the ending of this movie already. Trump ends up buried in the Kremlin Wall right next to John Reed and Putin.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’ve been thinking about “moral hazard” and elections. I was always in the “limit the damage” camp but maybe there needs to be a “correction” – maybe limit the damage is a kind of bailout that had to end eventually.

    And I know it’s easy for me to say, but I’m not causing or creating this situation. Maybe a “correction” to political markets is both inevitable and overdue. like this massive load of bullshit is the top of a bubble.

  90. 90.

    NeenerNeener

    @Kay: classic bully tactics, maybe? Picking on someone he knows won’t fight back. Never having been a bully myself I’m not sure, tho. Anyway, I still want 24/7 treason trials. Must see/Must pee tv.

  91. 91.

    albertZ

    @OzarkHillbilly: Someone should ask Trump: what’s the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea?

    (The answer of course is I’ve never had a garbanzo bean on my face.)

  92. 92.

    FlipYrWhig

    @satby:

    the part that scares me was after, when the rest if the media appeared to consider the whole mess business as usual

    I got home late and ended up watching two shows I never do, the Brian Williams show and the repeat of Chris Matthews. Both of them were repulsive. Williams’s show kept devolving back to various pundits saying that Trump was combative and his people really like that so it was great for him. Women on the show especially took that angle. It was like, Oh, yeah, that Trump really hates us, and we can’t help admiring him for that. Matthews’s show did that too, and women did the same thing again, and then bringing in Hugh Hewitt and Andrew Sullivan, among others, added a big dollop of excoriating Buzzfeed for the damage they did to the sacred trust of journalism by putting out a fake story (has this been at all established?). What the fucking fuck? Hillary Clinton has to watch these morons and think, Holy Hell what has gone so very wrong with all of you?

  93. 93.

    Applejinx

    @Kay:

    Well. They get a grief counselor because so many of their friends and family members have died of overdoses. I just never considered that these people are trying to recover from their own addictions while attending funerals of other addicts. It’s such a big thing and it just flew right over my head. There’s this profound sadness about them when you deal with them individually and I never considered that so many of them are grieving people they have lost in addition to all their other problems. So THAT was humbling, I must say!

    Yeah. I’ve lost a lot of people. Including a young woman I crushed on really hard, and the guitar player from my band in college, whom I did an album with not so many years ago, and a guy I spent a lot of time talking to a couple years ago. When I’m pissy around here that can be a factor. It’s like I don’t get to know people who won’t just die, or people not wrecked by constant grief, and this crowd can seem smug when they’re like ‘fuck this, I’ll just move to my summer house in France. Also, we should let rural losers die, they’re a bunch of Trump voters’.

    I figure some of those Trump losers are insane with grief and loss, which isn’t an excuse but does make you stop and think. Maybe.

    I need to be more gentle because some of you will begin losing friends with ‘pre-existing conditions’ and you’re not as used to it. That makes a difference.

  94. 94.

    Shalimar

    @Kay: We need to add a national voter registration card to the Census drive in 2020. If they’re going to insist everyone have ID, then give everyone free ID. When we’re already hiring tens of thousands of people to take the census is the easiest time to get the information and process the cards.

  95. 95.

    AxelFoley

    @Baud:

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Cool. I’ve been thinking of adding a link to my nym. Still trying to decide between Instagram, Tumblr, Vine, Medium, Pinterest, and Pornhub

    You had my interest, now you have my attention.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Applejinx:

    Some Trump voters certainly could be, but my general experience with marginalized people is they don’t vote. They don’t even consider voting. It’s not part of what they think about, which is a shame because I bet 90% of people in our drug court were on Medicaid, are on Medicaid or qualify for Medicaid. Kasich argued that addiction services would be hardest hit by repealing Medicaid expansion. There are two drug therapies they use now to get them past the initial withdrawal and someone is paying for that- Medicaid. There are some bright spots. They have enough experience now where they have lots of data. They (now) know it takes 18 months (on average) just to get them to a place where there’s a shot they’ll recover. Judges have to know this or they’ll lose patience and hammer them and then they have to start all over again.

  98. 98.

    JordanRules

    @Applejinx:

    because some of you will begin losing friends with ‘pre-existing conditions’ and you’re not as used to it. That makes a difference.

    You don’t read here enough apparently. Check out the Caregiver’s post that front pager Hillary put up a while back. It was heartbreaking, amazing and instructive. Also, waving hi from the urban areas dealing with the intermingled crime/drug issues for decades minus all the general concern of a good deal of the country.

  100. 100.

    satby

    @Applejinx:

    I need to be more gentle because some of you will begin losing friends with ‘pre-existing conditions’ and you’re not as used to it. That makes a difference.

    I’m torn between calling you out for the fucking moron you are and just asking how dare you say such an obnoxiously false thing.
    I think I’ll just go with both statements.
    Some of us (me for one) have pre-existing conditions that may kill us, several people here have talked about their fears. You probably missed all those in your endless focus on yourself and your special insights.

  101. 101.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @NeenerNeener:

    Except that you’ll probably not be seeing it on TV, but hearing it over a crackling wind up radio by a campfire under a wrecked overpass. Later, as a Chinese/African Union/EU relief and de-Trumpification team comes into your area, you’ll be obligated to watch video of the trial and the depredations and war crimes that led to it projected onto an exterior wall of a ruined Walmart…

    Power will be supplied by portable generator.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Applejinx:

    The non-responsiveness of them sometimes is frustrating- the flat affect, the really agonizing slowness and inability to focus. Grief explains a lot because they’re coming up clean and yet this sadness imitates how they sound when they’re high so it made people suspicious. If drug courts are going to last they have to work better than regular courts, so the biggest supporters of drug courts are often the most frustrated with addicts who fail.

  105. 105.

    sherparick

    Recruit strong candidates for Governors even in Red of Red states. With all the Republican corruption there is going to be a backlash. If a Republican can get elected in Maryland or Massachussetts, a Democrat can get elected in Arizona, Georgia, and Florida (a Democrat did get elected in Louisiana). A Governor can at least veto redistricting that is unfair.

    A progressive and Democratic organization like ALEC needs to be formed for state and local governments. It won’t get the funding of ALEC, but voluntary action and creative social media will have to make up the difference.

    I joined “Working America” which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. I would see this group start organizing down to the precinct level and support Democrats (and independent Republicans who will support labor, pro-women, and environmental goals). Especially in Red States that are becoming more and more one party states, progressive inclined people have start attacking the Tea Party and Evangelical Christianists death grip on the Republican Party. Especially if the Trump and Ryan put a really unpopular agenda in place, there may be a lot of antii-Trump Republicans looking to vote for someone in a primary.

    Finally, also protest the Kochs and their ilk and organize boycotts as much as possible of their businesses. Make their political activities start to hurt their bottom line. No good progressive should go to a Sheldon Adelson or Trump owned casino if that is the way you like to spend your entertainment dollar.

    Finally, there was so much shit (and urine apparently) that came out of yesterday’s press conference the fact that Trump repeated his claim that there are “96 million Americans” who are unemployed went by with little note in the press outside of Steve Lisman at CNBC. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/11/donald-trumps-colossal-error-on-jobs-during-his-presser.html Again, this shows PEOTUS proclivity of grabbing on to a fake Breitbart talking point as if it is the revealed truth of the FSM and not budging from it despite all argument. The type of policies that this administration is likely to follow based on just made up right wing stories just cannot end well. Nevertheless, I do think Trump’s and Ryan’s reactionary Keynesianism (tax cuts, Defense, and immigration enforcement spending) will boost growth in 2017. It will also boost interest rates and strengthen an already over valued dollar. We have seen this story before (1982-86 and 1997-2005), and it devastates manufacturing and agriculture, the very regions that voted for Trump. If the dollar and interest rates keep rising in 2018, a financial crisis and a recession will eventually hit the economy.

    There is also a possibility of a 3rd Persian Gulf war as Trump decides to “take the oil” and since he sees Iran and ISIS as the same “enemy.” Wars, at least short wars and the run up to them usually rallies people to a President, but I have to wonder about the unique circumstances at the moment, where even in right wing circles outside of the Washington elite fatigue with war is so palpable. 2003 Iraq oil was not on the market and the disruption was short, but a long war of attrition for Iraq’s and Iran’s oil, with strikes by Iran at tankers and installations through out the Persian Gulf may lead to a long a permanent disruption.

  107. 107.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Revisionist history is funny. Now it’s Obama didn’t pay enough attention to down ballot races. For much of his term, from roughly 2010 through 2014, down ballot Dems didn’t want anything to do with him. THEY treated HIM like he was politically toxic. Now that his approval rating is back up they’re all like, why didn’t he help us more? He would have, but if you recall, at the time, you asked him not to.

  110. 110.

    JordanRules

    @NeenerNeener: Yeah, I was banking, heh, on that remedy for a while too.

    But of course there’s this and it all becomes sad and disgusting again. #whoarethe400

    It’s on you now deep state.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @Applejinx:

    Also, Applejinx, there is definitely a race issue with this particular drug war. It’s blatant in the white rural counties where I work. Giant photo of blonde white teenager and the presenter says “you KNOW these people!” like we’re all just shocked that white people are using drugs. You know when conservatives jumped aboard the drug court train? When white people started dying of drug overdoses. They have this map they use- the map fills in first with the 3 urban counties in Ohio. Nothing when that happened. It was only when it reached counties like mine that it became Our Problem and we had conservative judges turn into social workers overnight.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: A dear friend of mine lost her 20-something son to a heroin overdose a while back and remains destroyed by grief. Another couple I know are at their wit’s end trying and failing to get help for their heroin-addicted daughter, who was a bright kid with a promising future. It’s an awful thing. I’m glad the drug court recognizes that dimension of the problem.

  114. 114.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    Besides, isn’t the destruction of our safety net, access to health care, economy, etc all part of the necessary grand plan to make things soooooo terrible that the masses will rise up and join the revolution?

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Applejinx:

    There was a genuine bipartisan effort at the state level for criminal justice reform, too. It was real. They know they’re pouring money into incarceration. You know when I stopped hearing about it here? When Black Lives Matter took it up

    Republicans won’t touch it now. They can’t risk even accidentally sounding like they might apply it to black people. Trump did that already. That’s the immediate damage.

  116. 116.

    AxelFoley

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Revisionist history is funny. Now it’s Obama didn’t pay enough attention to down ballot races. For much of his term, from roughly 2010 through 2014, down ballot Dems didn’t want anything to do with him. THEY treated HIM like he was politically toxic. Now that his approval rating is back up they’re all like, why didn’t he help us more? He would have, but if you recall, at the time, you asked him not to.

    Bingo. I call these revisionist idiots out when they try this shit.

  117. 117.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    the part that scares me was after, when the rest if the media appeared to consider the whole mess business as usual. They’re as much enemies of the country as Russia is now.

    Sadly true. They’re in the category of collaborators. They could disseminate the truth, but instead aid and abet gaslighting and lies. They are worse than a disgrace. They have become a threat to the body politic by degrading the information needed for an informed electorate.

  118. 118.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: France is ghastly this time of year. Phuket remains relatively untouched by the rabble, and there are many affordable estates featuring helo-pads. I highly recommend it if you tire of Provence.

  121. 121.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay: Or Trump attack on NYT and CNN it fits a narcissists; escalates demands on the people who the narcissist can manipulate while trying to exclude those the narcissist can’t.

    Someone mentioned the whole weird adversarial attitude for the whole admin – of course, again narcissism in action. Everything everyone else does is a deliberate personal attack on a narcissist, only the narcissists is right.

  122. 122.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Well the repeal of the ACA will not help with the treatment of opioid addiction. It’s going to get so much worse.

    My older boys have lost a number of class mates to overdoses. They’ve also lost some to prison, for possession and trafficking.

  123. 123.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Applejinx:

    I figure some of those Trump losers are insane with grief and loss

    I figure they’re overwhelmingly aggressive, belligerent asswipes who have always been that way, and hate me, and hate people like me. If you’re “insane with grief and loss” and vote for DONALD TRUMP, disgusting asshole who’s obviously never done anything for anyone other than himself and literally lives in a gilded chamber in a tower in Manhattan, you’re not a struggling human being who just needs some sympathetic identification, you’re an idiot and ridiculous.

  125. 125.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense:

    Well the repeal of the ACA will not help with the treatment of opioid addiction. It’s going to get so much worse.

    My older boys have lost a number of class mates to overdoses. They’ve also lost some to prison, for possession and trafficking.

    We had finally turned a corner with regards to addiction and the justice system.

    Now, we’re going backwards.

  126. 126.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s trainwreck press conference ushers in a shambolic presidency
    Richard Wolffe

    It’s safe to say that the Trump administration already looks clueless – and it hasn’t even started yet

    Donald Trump is not what he seems. The supposed master of media manipulation stumbled so often at his first press conference, it is hard to recall why anyone thought the TV star was good at this stuff in the first place.

    If the potentially explosive story embroiling him weren’t so salacious, you might say this is a case of the emperor’s new clothes. Instead, it’s safe to say the Trump presidency is already in shambles. And it has yet to reach its official start.

    For a showman who promised to restore the Reagan era – and even ripped off Reagan’s slogan – this is just one of the most surprising revelations of the past few days.

    Reagan and his advisers knew how to project a sunny image that kept the presidency separate from whatever the pesky media wanted to focus on, such as high unemployment or secret gun-running to enemy states.

    Judging from Wednesday’s trainwreck press conference – the first since July – Trump and his handlers have no self-discipline and no strategy to deal with the Russian crisis that has been simmering for the best part of the past year.

  128. 128.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    It’s tragic that we are going backwards when it didn’t have to be this way. All the human misery we are going to suffer was completely avoidable. The whole country is now the idiot gun fetishist who shoots his own ass when the gun stuffed in his pants accidentally discharges.

  129. 129.

    FlipYrWhig

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    He would have, but if you recall, at the time, you asked him not to.

    The Democratic Party’s current problem is that conservative voters who used to vote for conservative Democrats at the state and local level but conservative Republicans for president decided to stop ticket-splitting and vote for conservative Republicans at all levels instead, because Republicans succeeded in “nationalizing” almost all elections. The only way to offset this would be to bring in entirely new voters to replace the ones lost by that worrisome trend. Obama is pretty good at that in some places, places where there are young people, liberals, and people of color. Places where there are fewer young people, fewer liberals, and fewer people of color, Obama can’t help, because Obama is the face, ahem, of what they see as the problem.

  132. 132.

    Chris

    @резидент американской области Российской Федерации:

    But hey, some grinning white asshole in a nice suit gets to make money off your misery and death, so it’s all good, right?

    It’s not even that: from what I understand, the health insurance industry is itself very ambivalent about ACA repeal.

    We’re not even dying for rich people’s profit margins. We’re dying for the pleasure of psychopathic ideologues everywhere from Congress to the Heritage Foundation to your wingnut relatives’ living room who just know How The World Ought To Be and don’t give a fuck how many corpses it takes to make it that way.

  133. 133.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @NeenerNeener:

    The rich and wannabe rich of Red State exurbs will be looted, enslaved, raped, killed and eaten by camo-clad MAGA cap wearers. Some of the more attractive young women and teen boys will be kept around for breeding stock for the camo dudes, with the approval and participation of their preachers.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    His staff applauding him for showing up at a press conference is bizarre.

    I just keep on asking..

    What if President Obama had done this?

    Then, once I stop laughing…..we all know what the response would have been.

    The ridiculous curve that is given to this incompetent White Man is breathtaking.

  135. 135.

    MomSense

    @Chris:

    We are dying so that the very wealthy can get tax breaks. That’s all it ever is. Stupid tax breaks for the wealthy.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Revisionist history is funny. Now it’s Obama didn’t pay enough attention to down ballot races. For much of his term, from roughly 2010 through 2014, down ballot Dems didn’t want anything to do with him. THEY treated HIM like he was politically toxic

    .

    Keep on pulling those receipts!

    They ran from him like a bunch of punk azz bytches.

  137. 137.

    satby

    @Chris:

    We’re dying for the pleasure of psychopathic ideologues everywhere from Congress to the Heritage Foundation to your wingnut relatives’ living room who just know How The World Ought To Be and don’t give a fuck how many corpses it takes to make it that way.

    And don’t forget the psychopathic ideologues that just couldn’t sully them selves or their precious, precious vote by voting for the only possible alternative to the psychopath-elect.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    @FlipYrWhig: Bingo — the blue dog dilemma. GOP-controlled states are going to continue to disenfranchise all the voters they can. We’ve got to counter that, not only to prevent further losses but to expand the pool of voters. I am heartened by state party recognition of this problem and hope it translates into action.

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    They have this map they use- the map fills in first with the 3 urban counties in Ohio. Nothing when that happened. It was only when it reached counties like mine that it became Our Problem and we had conservative judges turn into social workers overnight.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    Wish all this understanding and compassion was present during the crack epidemic.

    I’m just saying.

  140. 140.

    Chris

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Revisionist history is funny. Now it’s Obama didn’t pay enough attention to down ballot races. For much of his term, from roughly 2010 through 2014, down ballot Dems didn’t want anything to do with him. THEY treated HIM like he was politically toxic. Now that his approval rating is back up they’re all like, why didn’t he help us more? He would have, but if you recall, at the time, you asked him not to.

    The number of Democrats who accept and integrate Republican memes into their own mentality before the fighting even starts is, if you’re a Democratic voter, frankly terrifying and really revolting. This isn’t even a judgment on the “DLCers” or the “Berniebros,” or “state level” or “national level.” This is a problem all over the board.

  141. 141.

    PaulW

    on the bright side, one of my co-workers noticed Balloon Juice on my bookmarks on my personal laptop and is now reading you all with the fevered devotion of a newfound acolyte.

    She thinks you’re heroes.

    on the dark side, Republicans are about to kill Obamacare after all without any sign of a realistic replacement (or even a FAKE one) and Trump is about to slam into the Emoluments Clause like a train hitting a 50-foot-tall border wall at Warp Factor 9.99999.

  145. 145.

    hovercraft

    @PaulW:

    She thinks you’re heroes.

    HA !!
    Just make sure that you let her down gently, we are a rabid pack of jackals, gently bred, but jackals none the less.
    Welcome to our new lurker, via PaulW ;-)

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    @JordanRules:

    Also, waving hi from the urban areas dealing with the intermingled crime/drug issues for decades minus all the general concern of a good deal of the country.

    You speak that truth

  147. 147.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Lucifer is actually a pretty good guy. The grinning white asshole in the nice suit who is ripping you off and gaining something by your death is Jesus.

  148. 148.

    MomSense

    @Major Major Major Major:

    @резидент американской области Российской Федерации:

    But hey, some grinning white asshole in a nice suit gets to make money off your misery and death, so it’s all good, right?

    That’s always how I envision Lucifer.

    AKA Kelly Anne Conway

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    About Those Meetings Between the Trump Campaign and Russian Officials
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    January 11, 2017 3:59 PM

    In light of the allegations that the Trump campaign had direct ties to Russian officials, Steve Benen reminds us of something important today. Back in November, this was pretty widely reported in the press:

    Russian government officials conferred with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday, a disclosure that could reopen scrutiny of the Kremlin’s role in the president-elect’s bitter race against Hillary Clinton.

    The statement came from Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who said in an interview with the state-run Interfax news agency that “there were contacts” with the Trump team.

    “Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Ryabkov said.

    “We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for those purposes,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying.

    Ryabkov provided no further details, and his remarks drew a swift denial from Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks, who said the campaign had “no contact with Russian officials” before Tuesday’s election.

    As an aside, I’ll point out that this might be the one and only time that Trump and/or his spokesperson has ever contradicted something a Russian official said. Nevertheless, it is important to keep this statement from Rybakov in mind when they categorically deny any contact with Russia prior to the election.

    The documents released by Buzzfeed name three Trump staff/advisors who held meetings with top-level Russian officials on behalf of the campaign: Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen. At the news conference this morning, it was alarming that Sean Spicer said this about Carter Page:

  150. 150.

    MomSense

    @JordanRules:

    Also, waving hi from the urban areas dealing with the intermingled crime/drug issues for decades minus all the general concern of a good deal of the country.

    Hey you don’t even need to wait for the crime/drug issues, all you have to do is be a black student and you can go directly into the prison pipeline.

  151. 151.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: How long before we see the next chorus of “spineless dems” courtesy of our Worshipers of The One or WOTO’s.

  152. 152.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Betty Cracker: Right. And the earlier solution to this trend was the Mark Warner approach, which was in a lot of ways previously the Bill Clinton approach: peel off white professionals and suburbanites, who used to be the Republican base, with talk of prosperity, streamlining, efficiency, and competitiveness. But that seems to have run its course. Hillary Clinton counted on it and had less traction than anyone expected, alas. And BTW the politicians who pull this off end up being some of the least-loved Democrats in the liberal blogosphere. I’d love to see someone like Raul Grijalva or John Yarmuth make a statewide run, because if they pulled it off it would upend all kinds of default assumptions about red-state politics, but I don’t have a lot of faith it’d come out a rip-roaring success.

  156. 156.

    Chris

    @MomSense:

    At this point, I think it’s at least as much ideology (and pure spite) as an actual search for profit. Like I said, a lot of the usual greedy assholes are worried about this.

  160. 160.

    Chris

    @Major Major Major Major:

    That’s always how I envision Lucifer.

    In Christian mythology, the devil is in fact usually portrayed as a capitalist, part salesman and part loan shark, whose goal is to lie and pressure you into signing deals that’ll leave you under his thumb forever.

    There’s a reason the only time you see Jesus completely losing his shit in the stories is on the moneylenders in the temple.

  161. 161.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @FlipYrWhig:

    John Yarmouth is a great guy and an outstanding progressive, but there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that a secular Louisville Jew wins a statewide Kentucky race. Plus, given the ducking that Louisville is taking from the General Assembly and Bevin right now, I suspect that the plan is to “Austinize” Louisville in the 2020 redistricting – allocate it into at least three districts running from the Ohio River to the Tennessee border in order to ensure that we never get such a progressive ever again. I can see them giggling over the Christianity(spit) of it all already.

  162. 162.

    Corner Stone

    @satby:

    Some of us (me for one) have pre-existing conditions that may kill us, several people here have talked about their fears. You probably missed all those in your endless focus on yourself and your special insights.

    Ohhhhh…what did the five fingers say to the face? Suh-LAP!

  163. 163.

    Corner Stone

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I’d love to see someone like Raul Grijalva or John Yarmuth make a statewide run

    Have you ever listened to Grijalva? Not the roundest spoon in the drawer.

  164. 164.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @Kathleen:

    True. It would have been interesting to see them turn on their heels and walk out, cameras being switched off last.

  167. 167.

    hovercraft

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    What’s going to happen when there’s a real crisis and he’s the one who’s supposed to lead?

    Josh Marshall was disturbed by the so called press conference. In his write up: STILL NOT NORMAL: Why Trump’s Presser Was So Jarring, the last paragraph is the most frightening:

    “I think Donald Trump has one mode,” he said. “That is the kind of Trump as a larger-than-life figure who is on the one hand doing tremendous, beautiful, great things, and on the other hand is surrounded by vicious enemies who will do everything to tear him down.”

    If you are surrounded by enemies who are determined to destroy you, surely doing everything in your power to destroy them is justified, no? WASFF

  168. 168.

    Corner Stone

    @FlipYrWhig:

    the Mark Warner approach, which was in a lot of ways previously the Bill Clinton approach: peel off white professionals and suburbanites, who used to be the Republican base, with talk of prosperity, streamlining, efficiency, and competitiveness. But that seems to have run its course. Hillary Clinton counted on it and had less traction than anyone expected, alas.

    I actually didn’t get a lot of that from HRC’s run this time around. To the extent she tried targeted messaging in some locations, I would disagree that it was the core strategy she counted on. Her core message was quite clearly a lifting of all boats and bringing in disenfranchised minorities.

  171. 171.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s ACA claims descend deeper into incoherence
    01/12/17 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    With congressional Republicans divided over how best to proceed on health care, Donald Trump talked to the New York Times this week about his own preferred roadmap – which didn’t make any sense.

    At yesterday’s press conference, the president-elect was asked about his replacement model for the Affordable Care Act, and Trump’s answer was amazing in its incoherence. It’s worth unwrapping:

    “They can say what they want, they can guide you anyway they wanna guide you. In some cases, they guide you incorrectly. In most cases, you realize what’s happened, it’s imploding as we sit.”

    It’s always fun when a politician argues that “they” may provide facts that the politician finds inconvenient, but Americans should ignore the facts and believe what the politician wants you to believe.

    “Some states have over a hundred percent increase and ‘17 and I said this two years ago, ‘17 is going to be the bad year.”

    He didn’t explain what “a hundred percent increase” referred to – I suspect even he doesn’t know – but if the president-elect was referring to premiums, he’s mistaken. As for the idea that 2017 is going to be the “bad” year for premiums, the evidence points in the opposite direction.

    “We’re going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary’s approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan.”

    That’s news to congressional Republicans, who thought they were responsible for finishing the plan they started working on seven years ago, and were never told about Trump’s intention to present his own blueprint.

    “We’re gonna get a health bill passed, we’re gonna get health care taken care of in this country. You have deductibles that are so high, that after people go broke paying their premiums which are going through the roof, the health care can’t even be used by them because their deductibles bills are so high.”

    According to Republican policymakers, current deductibles are too low, not too high. Trump may not realize this, but his party is committed to changing the ACA to increase deductibles – a lot. The president-elect’s understanding of this is backwards.

  172. 172.

    резидент американской области Российской Федерации

    @satby:

    My youngest daughter had a birthmark removed at about age 14-15. In the biopsy of the removed material, some atypical cells were noted which, pre-ACA, would have been a complete block to her insurability on the individual market. In the 2009-10 era, my RWNJ mom, true to form, still objected to the ACA and said “well, she may have to skip her dreams of being an archaeologist and settle for work at some big company so she can get group coverage”.

  173. 173.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Corner Stone: Yeah, I’ve had that reaction too to his TV appearances, but it seems like he wouldn’t be designated a leader of the Progressive Caucus if he didn’t know a few trucos.

  174. 174.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    Defending Sessions, GOP congressman sees a ‘war on whites’
    01/12/17 10:05 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Sen. Jeff Sessions’ (R-Ala.) nomination to be the next Attorney General is facing considerable pushback from civil-rights organizations, and for good reason. By any fair measure, the Alabama Republican’s record on race and civil rights is deeply controversial.

    But for some of his allies, this isn’t a legitimate subject of inquiry. Indeed, as CNN reported, one of Sessions’ Alabama congressional colleagues believes the GOP senator is a victim – facing discrimination because of the color of his skin.

    Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks said in a radio interview on Tuesday that criticism of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is Donald Trump’s pick to be attorney general, is part of an ongoing “war on whites” by Democrats.

    “It’s really about political power and racial division and what I’ve referred to on occasion as the ‘war on whites.’ They are trying to motivate the African-American vote to vote-bloc for Democrats by using every ‘Republican is a racist’ tool that they can envision,” the Republican congressman said on “The Morning Show With Toni & Gary” on WBHP 800 Alabama radio. “Even if they have to lie about it.”

  175. 175.

    Kathleen

    @Betty Cracker: Why go to France when our socialist savior The One who loves the great unwashed has 2 I believe and would be happy to provide refuge to huddled masses.

  176. 176.

    rikyrah

    Congressional GOP has a (health care) bridge it wants to sell you
    01/12/17 08:43 AM—UPDATED 01/12/17 08:51 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Senate Republicans did not vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act overnight, but they did take the first important step down that road. If you’re wondering what’s at the end of that road, you’re not alone.

    Following the so-called “vote-a-rama,” in which senators considered a series of amendments in rapid secession, the chamber voted 51 to 48* in support of something called a budget resolution. How does this affect “Obamacare”? Substantively, it doesn’t. Last night’s vote was largely about process: the Senate got the ball rolling on giving itself the ability to use reconciliation to repeal key parts of the ACA with 50 votes instead of 60.

    The bill now heads to the Republican-led House, which will almost certainly approve it tomorrow. Because it’s a legislative blueprint, the bill does not go to the White House for a signature. (This is effectively an outline Congress is creating for itself.)

    Of course, for the GOP, this was the easy part. The party still has no health care blueprint, despite seven years of effort, and Republicans remain divided over their legislative strategy. In an instantly memorable line, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) said overnight, ”We’re loading a gun here. I want to know where it’s pointed before we start the process.”

    But at least for now, most Republicans are content to worry about where the bullet will end up later.

    Republicans say the 2016 elections gave them a mandate to roll back the health care law. “The Obamacare bridge is collapsing, and we’re sending in a rescue team,” said Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “Then we’ll build new bridges to better health care, and finally, when these new bridges are finished, we’ll close the old bridge.”

    Congratulations, America. You’ve elected a Congress that actually has a bridge it wants to sell you.

  177. 177.

    Miss Bianca

    @Applejinx: You know, you’re not the only one around here who’s lived on the edge or lost loved ones to ODs – contrary to what you might believe. Some of the rest of us, myself included, have faced that. So first of all, sorry for your losses. Second of all, please take your projections about people here and shove them. Hard, and repeatedly. Or, if you really can’t give up on your grudgeful fantasies, if you’re really that disgusted with the phantasms that you’ve turned us into, why not leave? I’m so sick of your “all BJers are Bourgeois Enemies of The People Just Like Hillary Clinton ™!” schtick. And I’m sure I’m not the only one.

  179. 179.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Corner Stone: I agree about the big themes and rhetorical core, but I still feel like the electoral strategy of the whole party this time around involved trying to capitalize on a slate of hardworking, levelheaded professional women who could appeal to hardworking, levelheaded professional women. Like McGinty in PA, Ross in NC, and Kirkpatrick in AZ. Especially when the other guys got behind a lout like Trump. But it didn’t work as planned.

  182. 182.

    Chris

    @rikyrah:

    “We’re going to be submitting, as soon as our secretary’s approved, almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter, a plan.”
    …
    That’s news to congressional Republicans, who thought they were responsible for finishing the plan they started working on seven years ago, and were never told about Trump’s intention to present his own blueprint.

    I strongly suspect that this is basically the blueprint of the next four or eight years: congressional Republicans do what they’re going to do while Trump just babbles incoherently, says twenty incompatible and contradictory things a day, gets into scandals and pointless media debates, and then just signs whatever the Republicans put in front of them. Norquist and the rest always said that all they need from a president is the capacity to use a pen, and that’s what they’re getting.

  183. 183.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: As an added bonus Sessions also hates all immigrants. They are going to bring the restrictionist immigration platform of the 1920s. Also, the same economic policies with tariffs and lax banking regulations that led to the Great Depression. Its coming, just look at how frothy the stock market is right now.

  184. 184.

    Tazj

    NBC news at the top of the hour on the radio “Repeal and Replace in the Senate.” Repeal just Repeal, there’s no Replace, get it right. This is the definition of irresponsibility and mendacity, repealing this law but having no viable plans for a replacement.
    We’ve gotten to a point now in the opioid epidemic where even funeral directors are needing counseling. According to an article in my local paper, the directors are used to dealing with death but not the deaths of so many young people. I’m sure the repeal of the ACA will solve all our problems.

  186. 186.

    hovercraft

    @Baud: It has been documented that our last republican president already conquered that barrior, his low was 22 %.That is the challenge for the PEEOTUS, can he get below 20 %, now that would be an achievement.

  188. 188.

    Corner Stone

    Since we are discussing crazy shit, implacable evil enemies, racial tension and painful loss can I just ask – will the fucking back button ever work correctly again?

  190. 190.

    Chris

    @Corner Stone:

    But it is, of course, the entire point of doing away with the safety net: putting as many people as possible under the thumb of people who can offer and withdraw it at a whim, and therefore use it as a carrot and stick to control you. (Employers, churches, the mob).

  191. 191.

    hovercraft

    @Kay: He watched Obama’s farewell speech, the night before, he saw all the rapturous applause he got, and so he wanted, no needed to show that he too could have a rousing cheering section for his um words.

  193. 193.

    satby

    @Corner Stone: that was me being restrained. I am out of fucks to give for special snowflakes.

    @Miss Bianca: very obviously you aren’t the only one. But that he said something so offensive after the very real pain and fears people have expressed here (one of whom suggested that if it got bad enough suicide was his only other option) made my already hot blood boil.

  194. 194.

    hovercraft

    @Kay:

    There was a genuine bipartisan effort at the state level for criminal justice reform, too. It was real. They know they’re pouring money into incarceration. You know when I stopped hearing about it here? When Black Lives Matter took it up

    Damn those black people for raising their voices about over incarceration of black and brown people. The problem for these republicans who have run away from criminal justice reform, is that the problem that brought them to the table in the first place is still there. States are spending an ever increasing exorbitant amount of their budgets on incarceration. They are slashing spending on things people care about, schools and roads, but raising what they spend on incarceration, tax payers do not like this, they can’t just ignore the problem, it’s getting worse every year. It turns out you cannot, slash taxes, jail more and more people and maintain a good school system, infrastructure, and be “tough on crime”, at the same time. When tax payers realize that more of their tax dollars are going to prisoners than to their kids, they get a wee bit testy. Who knew?

  196. 196.

    lol chikinburd

    The 8:00 AM show on my local community radio station has this guy who they regularly have call in and do an extended weather forecast, which he gives in addition to his own non-weather commentary. He’s always been a crank of the Nader-Stein variety, but he’d gotten more and more vicious about it over the election season.

    Anyhoo, said crank just called the Democratic Party “the enemy” minutes ago, accusing them of, among other things, “using fake news to blame Russia for the election”. When the host asked him if the R party or the D party were the greater enemies, he insisted on answering with the question “Who’s worse: a real enemy or a fake friend?”, IOW giving a clear answer he was too gutless to own.

    Granted it’s anecdotal evidence from one crank, but he’s one crank who enough people at that station trust to give him regular air time. To the extent that lefties in said community agree with him, we can pretty much confirm the existence of a collaborationist far-left, and a continuation of the far left’s war on accessible center-left opposition to tyranny into a second century.

  197. 197.

    catclub

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    How much you want to bet that if it were a DEM being investigated they would have approved the warrant at the speed of light?

    Kevin Drum also pointed out that the more specific the target is, the harder it is to get the warrant – since you need to show cause in those cases.
    But if it is just general surveillance of everybody, those get approved.

  198. 198.

    catclub

    @hovercraft:

    They are slashing spending on things people care about, schools and roads, but raising what they spend on incarceration, tax payers do not like this

    I wish it was true. But I think that most will accept more on jails rather than fight to cut jails to spend on education.

    “we have to have the jails, the education is just optional.”

  199. 199.

    FlipYrWhig

    @catclub: “We’d have plenty of money for education if it weren’t for those greedy teachers’ unions and all these illegal immigrants you see everywhere nowadays.”

  200. 200.

    hovercraft

    @catclub: @FlipYrWhig:
    The cuts have gotten so deep that people are finally asking where the fuck is all our money going. Rick Perry, Gregg Abbott and the like did not suddenly start to worry about the over incarceration of people one day, they reached that point because their tax cutting binge has reached a point where the only place in the budget that still has adequate funding is prisons. Kansas voted several of Brownbacks handpicked legislators out because of the cutbacks to schools and roads. Even these law and order, cut my taxes morons wake up when schools have to close a month early because there are no funds to complete the school year, and the roads are falling apart because of a lack of funds.

  201. 201.

    rikyrah

    @Tazj:

    We’ve gotten to a point now in the opioid epidemic where even funeral directors are needing counseling. According to an article in my local paper, the directors are used to dealing with death but not the deaths of so many young people.

    Just talk to funeral directors in Urban Areas…they probably could help them :(

  202. 202.

    Neldob

    @Betty Cracker: I hope they stay connected with her, don’t give up. Drug education in this country is horrible. Good regular supportive counseling was essential for me when my wonderous young-un went off the rails.

  203. 203.

    lol chikinburd

    …And said radio station just had Jacobin’s Charlie Post on as a guest on its 12:00 public affairs show, telling us all that Clinton is an enemy on an exact par with Trump, and that we’ll keep getting Trumps until we remold the entire “opposition” to him in the white brociulists’ image. It’s officially a theme, and officially a threat: if the white left can’t carry the banner, they’re going to make sure no one else can.

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