Drug testing floated for White House press corps via @PageSix
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 15, 2017
Proposal: in exchange, the WHCA could oversee random drug tests of White House staff. https://t.co/ssNbd9vfB9
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) January 16, 2017
.
“Well, we don’t actually test it… See that little camera up there? The boss just likes to watch.”
***********
Apart from the obvious jokes (and the President-Asterisk is an endless source for those!), what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Roger Moore
Narcissism is a hell of a drug, but I don’t think it shows up in urinalysis.
Baud
Chuck Todd would let him watch.
amk
@Baud: while being peed upon.
Just One More Canuck
The peasants are revolting? They certainly are!
Major Major Major Major
Friendly reminder to download the free Signal app so you and yours can have easy-to-use secure messaging that the authorities can’t read. Great for planning protests, actions, house parties, whatever!
lamh36
FUQ YOU ERICK ERIKSON!
@KeshRue 8h8 hours ago
Ready4revolutionesha Retweeted Erick Erickson
This is a real tweet!
In response to this from Erickson on PBO commuting Manning sentence…
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: Isn’t it a kind of urinalysis to speculate about the mental health of a man who pays hookers to put on a pee show for him?
BBA
“Do you really need twelve gallons?”
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: total goat-fucking child molester. CNN still paying him?
Baud
@lamh36: He represents his party and ideology well.
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: A friend of mine sent the invite to me about a week ago. Using it now. Very good advice!
Dog Dawg Damn
Anyone else following this Betsy Devos hearing?
What a slap in the face to the american people to nominate this ridiculous person to oversee such an important institution.
Yarrow
Corporate donations are nearly double the record for an inauguration. Drain that swamp!
Oligarchy. Kleptocracy.
Totally draining the swamp. No swamp here. You’re the swamp!
lamh36
Couldn’t stand it no mo’…had to get me a new cheap but good laptop!!!
Next up…transferring my old files to the new laptop
A cheap lil HP Notebook from Wallyworld…cost $299 + tax and $45 extended warranty
15.6 inch screen…enough to keep me going until I get everything settled and am able to get another PC
I also went ahead and bought the Roku Express + streaming device. I’m not at my moms tonight, but when I get to her house I’ma give it a try and see how I like it.
If I like it, I’ll keep it, if I don’t whenever thing gets settled and when I leave my mom’s house, I’ll let her have it and get me something else
laura
@amk: during the filming of a crush film.
Just sayin’
Baud
@Dog Dawg Damn: Watching Chris Hayes. The prior segment was about how people now support Obamacare. In the black for the first time. I hope it helps, but at the same time, screw the switchers.
Starfish
@lamh36: Oh look! BlockTogether blocks Erick Erickson for me. Good call, BlockTogether!
Kathleen
@Baud: You, Sir, win the Internets for a year!
I am finding the taunting of the White House Press Corps pretty amusing. I’m being short sighted and childish. A Trump tweet would call this “Sad”.
Baud
@lamh36: Congratulations!
GregB
@Dog Dawg Damn:
I just saw one question at the tail end from new NH Sen. Maggie Hassan drilling down about the ADA. Ms. DeVos will be sensitive about federal law, yes she will.
The question is important to Hassan as she has a son with serious physical challenges.
Who is the next candidate in Trump’s Ask a Plutocrat?
Peale
@Baud: I’ll just stand over here, waiting for widespread drug testing. Hopefully it’s not just for welfare queens any longer.
Baud
@Kathleen: They can stand up for themselves, if they choose to.
Kathleen
@lamh36: I saw that on Twitter! Cool!
Kathleen
@Baud: Should we start a betting pool?
debbie
@lamh36:
I hope the Secret Service sees that. I think it crosses the line.
Major Major Major Major
@eclare: tell everyone! The more coverage the more we can all use it.
Baud
@Kathleen: On who will stand up for themselves first or who will succumb to Trump’s fetishes first?
Peale
@Baud: wait until it sinks in that it’s not just immigrants who’ll be getting Medicare vouchers and blacks who’ll be required to work until 73.
debbie
With all his sniffing, they should also test Trump.
Yarrow
@debbie: The Trump who had his crazy doctor sign his name to a letter that proclaimed Trump the healthiest person ever? Yeah, he’ll submit to a drug test. Sure.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: i hear his urine isn’t hard to come by.
Baud
@Peale: Never let them live this down.
lamh36
Alright… Hidden Figures was the #1 movie this past weekend. And I think there are still folks who haven’t seen it yet…wouldn’t it be something if it was in the top 5 or even #1 for a 3rd week?
So whoever hasn’t seen it…go ahead and check it out this weekend. You will NOT be disappointed.
lamh36
@Luvvie 4m4 minutes ago
Awesomely Luvvie Retweeted Girl Scouts
This is not justifying it at all. How about you teach your girls that they NEVER have to celebrate a man who doesn’t respect their bodies?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Trump really does have a thing for urine doesn’t he?
geg6
Gotta say, this is hilarious. A Shitgibbon/Villager civil war is nothing but pure win/win.
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: Just sent three invites, also I think my friend said it covers texts worldwide?
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Murphy: ok, Ms. DeVos, IN THE ABSENCE OF GRIZZLY BEARS…
DeVos: well, it’s not the government’s role to say where there is and isn’t a threat from grizzly bears.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Holy crap, she’s definitely mental. Grizzlies?!?
Truegster
@Baud: I think that they support “Obamacare” not because it’s in the Black now, but because it’s called the Affordable Care Act and it’s run by “whites” now. /snark
Major Major Major Major
@eclare: it’s data-based, so yes, since it’s not SMS texting.
lamh36
@TerryMoran Terry Moran Retweeted Michael Flynn Jr ??
DISTURBING: @GenFlynn’s son tweets story (for which he is clearly a source) about dad’s plans–on a Kremlin-backed, 9/11 truther website.
Would love to know if Adam S saw this?
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: My friend has a lot of relatives in India, so that was important.
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s a triple whammy, if you think about it (and you probably already did).
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: And don’t use your primary phone if you’re worried about the gubbmint reading your stuff.
If you’re organizing protests, they’re almost certainly in your network. Just don’t take your phone with all your contacts in to a protest where you might be arrested even if you’re not doing anything wrong. Get a burner phone and put nothing but stuff you need for the protest on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: She wants to protect the little Wyoming children at recess, when they pour honey over their heads and drape themselves in roadkill carrion.
It’s a local tradition.
PsiFighter37
The only joy I gain from the upcoming kleptocracy is that I will likely personally benefit at the expense of Trump voters’ idiocy. Of course, that dance only lasts so long.
As for everyone else, I am really sorry. It will be up to us living in the out-of-touch states where the majority resides to figure shit out. Too bad for CA that they are about to get someone who likes their self-perceived image more than doing the right thing (Newsom).
Steeplejack
Finally getting into a “normal” routine here in Las Vegas. Came out last Thursday to house- and dog-sit for three weeks while my RWNJ brother takes a motorcycle trip in Chile and Argentina. The dogs—whippet Polly and greyhound Woody—have quickly adapted to Uncle Steep’s regime. They laze around most of the day but are punctilious about keeping me to the mealtime schedule. Polly sleeps on the bed with me at night. Woody seems to prefer one of the couches in the family room, although he has a big dog bed in the master bedroom.
Going to Wahoo’s for dinner in a bit: slightly trendy taco chain, I think. Never been there, but a friend said it’s worth checking out.
The weather is great: mid- to high 50s, lows around 40°. Sunny, of course, although we did get a shmitz of rain on Friday.
tpherald
What’s your guestimate on how long it takes Trump’s poll #s to reach the magical mystical 27% ?
Kay
I had a depressing evening listening to the DeVos hearing. She’s terrible. She can’t answer a single specific question on any issue.
I almost felt bad for her. She’s simply not qualified in any way for that job and it shows. “Almost” felt bad for her, because there’s real arrogance in accepting a job you are in no way qualified for- a normally prudent person would have said “thanks, but I’m not qualified for that, obviously”.
I love how that is now unimaginable- that a person would voluntarily decline to take a job based on having the ordinary humility to admit “I have no fucking idea what they even do at this place, let alone me running it”.
We have low quality elites. They look like elites, they have the money and trappings of elites, but they lack basic essential qualities, like a recognition of their own limits.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: use Signal on your burner too though.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The public ed community seems slowly, finally, roused to try and run Betsy DeVos to earth…she’s just about the most ignorant person Trump has nominated so far and as we all know, that’s saying something.
– thinks the federal IDEA law should be left to the states to enforce
– thinks guns in schools are ok (as you noted)…because GRIZZLIES! (Colbert is going to have a fucking field day with that one)
– won’t commit to not enforcing Title IX in higher ed
– had to have Al Franken explain to her the difference between ‘proficiency’ and ‘growth’
– won’t commit to defunding public schools(!)…yes, seriously…
She’s unbelievably appalling. She and her family have given over $200M(!) (!) (!) to the GOP over the years – pay for play anyone? – but it all hasn’t been specifically for vouchers and other crap like that. They’re mostly such big givers because they hate unions (of any kind, not just teachers)
I hope she goes down in flames, but given how poorly she’s handling her own hearing, she’s not likely to get a whole lot accomplished at DoE. Thank. God.
Jeffro
@Kay: Great angle Kay – great point. Why would she take the job, indeed?
Another Bannon “burn it all down” pick.
Baud
@Jeffro: The one thing that gives me comfort is that had Hillary won, the majority of us (excluding BJ) would not have appreciated her.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Everyone’s password will be “golden shower.”
hovercraft
@lamh36:
How is a man who walks into a church and murders 9 innocent people the same as a person who blew the whistle on things she felt were illegal, the same? Chelsea may have been misguided in how she went about disseminating the info, but she did not deliberately murder anyone. EE is as vile a piece of shit as he has ever been. Don’t think I don’t see the implication that the only reason Roof has no chance at commutation, is that he murdered black people. Racist fuck, always has to reduce everything to race.
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack: i used to go to Wahoo’s years ago in Denver. I recall it was pretty good.
Mike in NC
Went out to dinner tonight and glanced up at a TV, where they were quoting the bloated narcissist as claiming he’ll have the biggest crowd ever to attend an inauguration. More likely the smallest on record even though the Park Sevice no longer estimates numbers.
Just One More Canuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: only a good grizzly with a gun can stop a bad grizzly with a gun
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: Heh. Nice work.
Lizzy L
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: FOR REALS? The woman is worried about grizzly bears in Wyoming schools? According to Wikipedia, there are about 600 grizzlies in Wyoming; they live in the Yellowstone-Teton area, i.e. in the mountains. Nah, she isn’t worried about a grizzly bear wandering into a Wyoming school, she’s worried about the NRA.
GMAB.
@Kay: Yes. She simply isn’t qualified.
Jeffro
By the way…folks, earlier I mentioned that the Drive-By Truckers are heading out on another leg of their “Darkened Flags” tour in support of their latest and truly greatest album, AMERICAN BAND (with “What It Means”, “Ramon Casiano”, and “Surrender Under Protest” among other instant classics)
For you NoVA/DC-area folks, they’re going to be at the 9:30 Club on Fri April 21 and Sat April 22. I’m going to catch the Friday 4/21 show, and if anyone else ends up going that night, please let me know – 1st round’s on me! Unless there are like 20 of you! And then restrictions apply! =)
I looked and there appears to be a pre-sale link here, effective sometime tomorrow (10am or noon, so check it out at 10:01!) If you miss the pre-sale, you should be able to get them through the 9:30 Club’s site starting noon on Friday. Don’t wait too long as I’m sure they’ll sell out!
Thanks
Baud
Elitists liberals want to deny Wyoming kids their ability to protect their pic-a-nic baskets.
amk
@SiubhanDuinne: niiice.
Kay
@Jeffro:
I would be terrified if I were her and you know, a lot of fears are rational. They’re a warning. They mean “don’t take this job because you don’t know the first thing about it”.
Never worked in a school or college, never had a single employee reporting to her, never served in any government role of any kind, not even a school board. That voice inside her head that tells her “you’re not qualified”? That’s not something to be overcome. That’s true, what that voice is saying.
You know, normal people don’t aspire to start at the top. Normal people wouldn’t want to do that because it’s crazy and they’ll fail. Normal people say “I should study this for a while, get better at it, and maybe take an entry level job, like president of a university or something” :)
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: she’s not smarter than the average bear
PsiFighter37
@Baud: Wyoming kids don’t have a future in fuck-all if they don’t move somewhere that has some goddamn jobs outside of tourism.
Angry PF37 +7 IT”S LIEK THE GLORY DAYS
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Feel the dignitude.
Mike in NC
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Howard Huges was another whack job billionaire who collected jars of his urine.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Our ambassadors? The ones he fired?
hovercraft
@Baud:
Stupid people are stupid, now that the media are starting to point out what they will lose the prospect of losing benefits is no longer an abstract. Fuck them and fuck the media for spending the last seven years spreading GOP lies about Obamacare.
Jacel
@Just One More Canuck: Support the right to arm bears.
GregB
I believe in egalitarianism and I fully feel that the soft bigotry of low expectations should apply to plutocrats and oligarchs too.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: downloaded, thank you!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I think ambassadors to US. Foreigners.
SiubhanDuinne
(WTF, WP?)
‘Twas the night before Friday, and all through the Nation,
The people were braced for Trump’s inauguration.
The tickets were hustled and given away
In hopes that a crowd would assemble that day.
The G.O.P. stalwarts had gathered at dawn
While normal folks shrugged, gave a “meh” and a yawn.
Melania tried to give Barron a wake up
Before spending hours applying her makeup.
While Marla and Tiffany pimped “Go Fund Me,”
Because their hair stylist would not work for free.
And Ivana, the mother of Don’s adult kids,
Tried to figure what quos she could ask for her quids.
(With memories of nonconsensual sex,
She held out to be an envoy to the Czechs.)
Ivanka and Jared were thinking “Ka-CHING!”
As they pondered their influence in the West Wing.
Don Junior and Eric were not the least sorry
That they’d soon be doing another safari.
And up on the dais the LDS Choir
Were clearing their throats for some brimstone and fire,
While Radio City’s high-kicking Rockettes
Hoped that they would be paid, but afraid they’d be debts.
The sun, as it rose on the Capital fair,
Seemed to challenge the day, saying: “No! Don’t you dare!”
Away to the teevee I flew like a flash,
Every channel had Trump, like a genital rash.
To my scandalised eyes came the Lord of the Midgets
With two miniature hands and ten tiny wee digits.
More rapid than typists his fingers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“On Teeny, on Tiny, go Fingerlings, Thumbkins,
Go all my small fingers, the color of pumpkins,
You can’t hold a scalpel to do surgery,
But with hand on the Bible, commit perjury!”
He repeated the Oath, heard the Choir sing a ballad,
Then delivered a speech that was purest word salad,
And I heard him exclaim, with a scowl and a glower,
“I’m not staying in D.C.! I’m off to Trump Tower!”
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: very very well done.
lamh36
@shadowandact 8h8 hours ago
Perfectly-Timed, PBS Announces First Documentary Bio of John Lewis, ‘Get in the Way,’ Premiering Feb. 10 (Trailer)
Kay
@Jeffro:
It’s like they’ve been told their whole lives they can “do anything!” and they were dumb enough to take that literally and to assume it meant “with no experience or training of any kind, just because you’re fabulous!”
That’s not at all what it means. No, no, no. Wrong.
SiubhanDuinne
Front Pagers: Please delete my #65, which is FUBAR, and leave #83, which is not.
chris
@SiubhanDuinne: !Clapping! That’s great!
Baud
@efgoldman: Hey! He’s a good neurosurgeon.
amk
@efgoldman:
it’s not a competition.
otoh, it fucking is.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Really liked this line.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Well you know grizzlies have been know to wander into populated areas. Why don’t you think it’s better to allow guns on the one in a billion chance that there is a grizzly, vs the much greater danger of a kid getting their hands on the gun.
PsiFighter37
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The sound you hear is a lot of resumes being sent out to foreign-policy think tanks post haste.
Baud
Why do I have a feeling that there will be a false flag grizzly attack at a kindergarten soon?
ArchTeryx
Okay, I’m angry, frightened, and more then a little tired, but I’ll put out a little positivity for a change.
I’m engaging in a hobby I haven’t done for nigh-on 30 years: Worldbuilding. While I’m not anything like an Asimov or a Tolkien, I love worldbuilding and creating sci-fi alien races, and I and an artist came up with a winner.
Sentient vuitures. Who aren’t just trusted but revered, mostly for their treatment of the dead and the survivors. Ethics are part of their religious bearing, and who happen to occupy a keystone role in their “Federation”. In a world where it seems human weasels, vultures, and other assorted monsters rule the roost, I thought it’d be nice for a change to create a race of vultures that was quite firmly on the side of “good” for a change.
It isn’t without conflict, though. They have two factions, the “Reverents” which are rather monk-like, staid, and formal, and the “Irreverents” which believe in the Irish Wake style of honoring the dead. In either of their cases, though, you’d want ’em to be running your funeral parlor, because quite unlike their human counterparts, screwing over the living is considered the height of dishonor – and a mortal sin – against the deceased.
Baud
@ArchTeryx: Go for it! I’ll admit, though, I thought of Tolkien’s Eagles when I read your description.
Kay
It’s not minor, because there’s a federal law that says public schools have to understand that. It’s not even hard to understand. We’re talking about 15 minutes prep with no education background.
She also doesn’t know what the “gainful employment” rule is, if I interpreted that panicked smiling and lack of any response at all correctly. That’s the entire basis of another federal regulation.
So you tell me. What kind of a person says “sure! I’ll take that job! I’ll just wing it”. The initial failure of these people is personal. They lack important..things, qualities, whatever. They’re quite old, too! Its not like they will be picking them up along the way. That ship has SAILED.
amk
@Kay: and they whine and rail about affirmative action. failing upwards is the white privilege.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Favorite playground apparatus: the giant pic-a-nic basket.
ETA shakes grizzled fist at Baud.
Mai.naem.mobile
@tpherald: 13 weeks. Starts at 40% losing 1% weekly = 13 weeks.
p.a.
@Baud:
What’s the SS code for tRump? Chief Littlehands? AuWater? KremlinPipeline?
Kay
@Baud:
The smiling was awful and inappropriate- because I knew it was Murphy and I knew he was talking about Newtown and the anger on his face was real.
Painful to watch. But, you know, she’s a big grown up billionaire and pride goeth before a fall.
Baud
@p.a.: If they read BJ, I assume it’ll be shitgibbon.
SiubhanDuinne
@amk:
@Major Major Major Major:
@chris:
@Baud:
Thanks!!
frosty
@SiubhanDuinne:
Pure gold, pure comedy gold!!!
Anne Laurie
@Baud:
… in North Carolina.
Look! A jackalope!
Kay
@efgoldman:
DeVos is the wealthiest Trump appointee. She’s never depended on a paycheck her entire life and either will her children or grandchildren or great grandchildren. She basically purchased the Michigan statehouse- one individual. She just bought it outright and she has PLENTY left over.
A Ghost to Most
@Jeffro:
First album on the headphones every morning at work. Puts me in the proper spirit to face an office full of wingnuts.
Betsy Devos must have seen some grizzlies down by Pulaski’s candy store.
Baud
@Kay: I’m glad I have no more connection to the education system.
Cacti
I agree that the White House Press Corps is revolting.
p.a.
@Baud: I’m partial to Circus Peanut. President* is good too.
Turgidson
@PsiFighter37: can we amend the state constitution to force grandpa Jerry to stay in office until he kicks the bucket?
Jeffro
@Kay:
So very very true. And that’s because most normal people have to get an education, then get a job, then work their way up in the world. She can’t picture starting at anything below SoE because, well, she’s been at the top her whole life.
eclare
@lamh36: Excellent! Used to live in his district. Surprisingly, never noticed fires or an apocalyptic hellhole. Will look to see when my local channel will broadcast.
chris
Grizzly bears! Best put Sarah Palin in charge.
SiubhanDuinne
@p.a.:
Yep. I love the way Anne Laurie always refers to him as “President-Asterisk.”
(Donny had an airplane,
and through the air he’d frisk.
Now wasn’t he a silly boy
His little *?)
Jeffro
@efgoldman:
I would say so, yes. At least Carson had to work his way up in the world and get trained at something over many years. He’s a loon, but at least he has some accomplishments and knows what it means to work hard. It doesn’t qualify him to run HUD of course.
This lady has done absolutely nothing in her life except have a shit-ton of money and use it to manipulate our democracy, against unions most especially but public education as well (which, yes, has unions).
And no offense to people who work in housing, it’s very important, but compared to someone who can do real damage to one of the cornerstones of our democracy, good public schools…it’s no contest to me which one is more dangerous.
Cacti
I just read that deplorable inauguration poem by some Trumpkin internet Shakespeare.
I’ll never get that minute of my life back.
frosty
@Kay:
Not even that. I’d never heard of it and had no idea what you were talking about. Type “education proficiency growth” into Google, click on second link, read. 3 minutes, tops. Now I know that growth is a relative measure of how well student achievement changes, and proficiency is an absolute measure of student performance.
These people are clueless uncurious idiots, and you’re absolutely right that any sentient being wouldn’t interview for a job it knew nothing about.. WASF.
Steve in the ATL
Thank God I went to private school so I never had to worry about grizzly bears on campus. Needless to say, there were no black or brown bears either….
This woman is a fucking nutjob.
mai naem mobile
So I clicked on the Inaugural ticket banner just so I could make John a little $$$ if he doesn’t get stiffed by whoever is paying the bills. Anyhow, I made up the email address etc. Just wondering can they mail the tix now? Isn’t it too late? I kind of wondering if we could prank them a little by ordering tickets and not showing up. Make them think they’re going to be packed and then empty stands and no crowd fillers because they won’t hire them?
TriassicSands
Allowing conventional wisdom to substitute for thinking and reporting (from the NY Times):
This is so obviously not true for Obama. Yes, his approval ratings were low, but any failure he had in getting legislation passed had nothing to do with his poll numbers and everything to do with Republicans in both the House and Senate dedicating themselves to making Obama a failure. In fact, when his approval numbers began rising in 2016, the Senate Republicans gave us their most outrageous example of obstruction — they refused to give Obama’s SCOTUS nominee any consideration at all.
Jon Stewart has said he considers “laziness” to be one of the MSM’s worst attributes. I think the quoted material above gives a good example of that laziness. Conveniently, it also ends up with the conclusion of both sides being equal.
Jeffro
@Kay:
And that’s the other thing, right? Well, two things actually:
1) What kind of family would spend $200M – unbelievable! – supporting think tanks and publications and candidates and parties just to try and dismantle working people’s unions?!? (I mean, I know the answer…”a family whose businesses and investments expect a return greater than $200M for that spending…but still. How do you have $200M and not spend it doing good things, instead of fighting people’s right to organize at work??
2) How in the hell can anyone look at $200M in political spending by one family, noting the results they got (i.e., buying an entire legislature) and NOT find that completely anathema to democracy, ‘one person, one vote’, and equal representation under the law? It’s like a piccolo soloist trying to play their tune for someone, when a half-bright trombone player has hired an entire marching band or orchestra to play behind him: whose music’s going to get heard?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Kay: Yet she owes OH how much? She’s just like her nominator – she’s a bad person. How dare she be flip about guns with Murphy?
On the subject of Putin’s Circus Peanut, I saw this on twitter:
I forgot it too.
Jeffro
@A Ghost to Most: “Ramon Casiano” was a great choice to start the album off with.
Those shows are gonna rock, too. =)
JordanRules
@efgoldman:
Ha! I hollered! That is just perfect.
mai naem mobile
I saw the Al Franken/Devos clip. She had that Sarah Palin -stalling for time to make up bullshit because I have no idea what the hell hes talking about’ look. Embarrassing.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
This is phucking crazy ????
rikyrah
@Kay:
She disgusted me , Kay ???
Jeffro
@frosty:
See for Betsy, the question is, “Is God in the classroom?” This whole proficiency/growth thing is just a distraction. It’s the same with all the Trump/Bannon nominees…their agenda is not even remotely related to what these departments do, especially the good that they can do…it’s either how to destroy them from within, or how to use them in the service of some corporation’s immense profits. Or both.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: The Vulturekin aren’t nearly as overpowered as Tolkien’s Eagles. They’re just meant to bust a bad rep, rather like Anne McCaffrey’s Pernese Dragons originally were meant to. Vultures are generally awesome birds and serve a very valuable purpose in nature. My fictional race reflects more of their true nature then “vulture capitalists”.
Us Democrats are vultures. We clean up the mess everyone else leaves behind, and get no thanks or gratitude whatsoever for it.
father pussbucket
@Cacti:
Vogon poetry is now officially the fourth worst in the universe.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Disgusted me
Millard Filmore
@frosty:
On the other hand, if she thinks her job is to shutdown and close out the Department of Education, whats to know?
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: trust fund grizzlies are the WORST!
TriassicSands
@Kay:
See Ben Carson, future head of HUD. He even publicly admitted that he isn’t qualified for the job, but then, after speed reading the Cliff’s Notes on “Running a Government Department” and giving “Cabinetry for Dummies” a look, which confused Carson because they kept talking about making stuff out of wood and the safe use of power tools, Carson reconsidered and realized that Republican “qualifications” depend on one’s devotion to bad governance and ensuring that your department fails.
The most successful Republican department secretaries will leave their posts with their department either abolished or utterly incapable of carrying out its mission.
ArchTeryx
@father pussbucket: Personally I think Trump hired a Vogon to ghostwrite that poem for him.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Lately I miss the West. But I was only in LV once. It was 1978, and now I think of that neon as ‘classic.’ I remember the strip as easy to walk. The little place where I stayed was right near the center on it, but quaint even then.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This is real?
ms_canadada
@Kay: Please, NEVER feel anything for THEM. They would gleefully strip funding for special needs, increase classroom sizes, get rid of Ed. Assistants, Child & Youth workers, and so many more professionals who help our children learn.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I have to take Trumpkins in smaller doses. It’s very upsetting actually listening to them. Anyhoo, they rushed the DeVos hearing because they know damn well she’s not qualified for this job but she’s a far Right political hack so they’ll put her in charge of a giant portfolio of student loans, because who gives a shit about merit as long as she has the right ideological views. The whole thing was a shitshow. Another crappy Trump hire.
Lizzy L
@rikyrah: We’re going to spend the next _ number of years asking that.
Cacti
@ArchTeryx:
That poem is the worst adaptation of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” that I’ve ever read.
Yarrow
@Kay:
They’re not in it to do the job. They’re in it for the money. Also promoting their racists, sexist, Christianist ideas. It doesn’t matter if they can do the job or not. The job itself doesn’t matter. It’s how much money they can make, steal, funnel to family members and how much they can force people to go backwards to the 1950’s. That’s what they want.
JordanRules
Poor Betsy getting all the attention today because they didn’t have other hearings or any other fascist announcements scheduled today. She’s just as disgusting, conflicted and unqualified as 99% of the other appointments.
Screw her and all of them!
Steve in the ATL
@Baud:
Well played. Wish you were be inaugurated on Friday!
Ksmiami
@ms_canadada: Ding Ding Ding. Trump supporters are dumb as dirt and / or mean as hell. FUCK THEM ALL
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: looks like, and this probably is, too
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: @Steve in the ATL: ha! I missed that. Well done, Baud!
SiubhanDuinne
@ArchTeryx:
@Cacti:
HEY!
Sad_Dem
I think it is missing the point to mention that she is unqualified. She is there to wreck the place and help her friends steal everything worth taking.
amk
whatev happened to the shitgabbon’s sidekick rabble rousers like that fat fucker from nj, racist rudey and oops moron from moroner tx? didn’t they all fellayte the lil dick for cabinet posts?
jake the antisoshul soshulist
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Cal Thomas had a column today telling us how great DeVos and Ben Carson would be.
That ought to tell us something.
Villago Delenda Est
So, cokehead asshole wants to subject others to drug tests.
Yeah, right.
Villago Delenda Est
@jake the antisoshul soshulist: Cal Thomas: vile dominionist shit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jake the antisoshul soshulist: Cal Thomas, one of the finest minds of the 15th century.
-Molly Ivins (and yes, she grossly slandered the 15th century there, but it was a good line)
Pogonip
@Just One More Canuck: Deplorable, in fact!
amk
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ouch.
Kay
@JordanRules:
It would be one thing if she said she wanted to learn on the job and just try for competence, which will be difficult enough. Oh, no. She wants a “revolution”. She wants education to be like Google, whatever the hell that means. This isn’t confidence. It’s arrogance. It’s wildly overestimating her own abilities based on absolutely nothing.
Yarrow
@Kay: She doesn’t care about the job. She wants the money.
Let us also remember that she thinks children should work. To hell with those child labor laws.
Kay
And, lying. So there’s a shocker in Trumpworld. The mother’s organization is controversial because it’s anti gay people. Just broadly. Opposed to gay people generally. Their existence.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@SiubhanDuinne: Yours was inspired.
Peale
@Kay: who knew Arne Duncan would look like a champion public school stalwart in the end?
joel hanes
@PsiFighter37:
Angry PF37 +7 IT”S LIEK THE GLORY DAYS
I know Vegas and drinking are like mustard and wurst, but I hope you find another way to cope during the coming four-year clusterfuck, because it’s going to be so bad that if you rely on alcohol to dull the pain, the drink will kill you in short order.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: O’Donnell is playing/reading clips of the Shitgibbon’s appearance in front of the assembled diplomatic corps. You figure the people other countries send to the US are their best and brightest. They come together now to watch that buffoon shoot word salad.
Kay
They keep asking her if she will follow various laws and rules and she seems to believe they are optional or a matter of her discretion. Sometimes she tries to dodge with “states rights” but obviously that’s a non-starter because these are federal laws and rules. The problem with this is one of credibility. Every assistant principal knows these laws because they have to. This isn’t like “advanced level” here. They will know much, much more than her.
BruceFromOhio
Osama Bin Laden is looking up through the flames and laughing his ass off.
Kay
@Peale:
I knew Baldwin hit pay dirt with the questions on gay students and civil rights protections. DeVos was visibly uncomfortable.
JordanRules
@Kay: It would be better (her expressing a willingness to learn on the job), but we know that isn’t enough and shouldn’t be a standard for these critical federal positions.
I know we agree here, just stating for emphasis. I’m kinda annoyed they all aren’t even trying to hide their contempt for us and our institutions better. It’s like all of their privilege and disgusting ideology finally gets a manifestation and they are just going for it. 0 to 100
Let’s hope that dynamic contributes to their downfall.
Ksmiami
The Scamway DeVos family are an affront to decent hard-working Americans. They can all go to hell. And really, we should increase the estate tax on more than 100 million. Extreme inequality has completely warped our Democracy.
jonas
@Dog Dawg Damn: Shorter DeVos: “Education Department? Why, I’ve never even heard of this curious government agency until just now. I really can’t say how I’d run because I’m just so new here, oh me, oh my! I just can’t say what my opinions on federal education policy would be! Is there such a thing?”
Kay
@Peale:
I feel like dismissing experience as unimportant or unnecessary is one of the many ways we devalue peoples’ work.
I’m offended by it because experience is earned. It has value. It’s not true that anyone in any job is just as good as anyone else. That’s insane. I mean what are we saying here? People spend years, decades, working in specific fields and they learn nothing? They are at exactly the same level as the day they walked into work? Then why bother to learn anything or work hard at anything? There’s no point. There’s no cumulative gain. We can just draw numbers for jobs or something. Random assignments.
jonas
Do people know that Betsy DeVos’s brother is Erik Prince, founder of the Blackwater mercenary firm that so distinguished itself in Iraq? Yeah, we’re getting these people back again.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Kay:
Of course they do, because it’s their profession, and they have experience. It isn’t widget boxing on an assembly line, and it is offensive to imply – as these nominations do – that experience is worth nothing and people are interchangeable bodies.
amk
@jonas: jeebus. this shitshow ain’t gonna end at all, is it?
Yarrow
@Kay:
In Trump world this would be standard. You think the Trump kids know much about anything? No, but they’re still in charge. That’s how it works.
Kay
@Peale:
If Betsy DeVos is qualified to do that job then I am, and I’m not. I know I’m not. She doesn’t. What is that, I wonder? Can she do my job, too? Yours? Anyone’s? That’s extraordinary. It’s unbelievable because it’s not true. It’s this weird mass fantasy that inexperience is actually a plus. It doesn’t even mean she’s “innovative”. She could be dull as dust and also be inexperienced. That’s actually MUCH more likely than her turning out to be some freak genius who is a “natural” and is just brimming with stuff people who know what they’re doing never thought of.
Omnes Omnibus
Are we sure that DeVos wasn’t just concerned that Andrew Sullivan might wander into a classroom?
GregB
@Kay:
It is a plus because they want to destroy the Dept.of Ed.
This woman will auto sign away the entire budget on field trips to the frigging Creation Museum.
Yarrow
@Kay: She’s completely qualified to do the job as she sees it should be done: gut public education, loot the Treasury, funnel money into for-profit education outfits run by her friends and family and also funnel money into religious schools so she can force Christianist beliefs on everyone. That’s what she sees the job to be and she’s very qualified to do that job.
mai naem mobile
@jonas: yes,I do and I think the gun thing is so that Erik Prince can get a federal contract “protecting” schools.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: VP does not equal board member.
jonas
@mai naem mobile: Oh fml. You’re probably right.
burnspbesq
@Steeplejack:
You’re likely to really dig Wahoo’s. It’s a SoCal chain, founded by a bunch of brothers in OC in the 80s; one of them was a tennis buddy of mine, so I had lunch at the initial location in Costa Mesa the day it opened. Very healthy Mexican food. Go for the blackened fish tacos.
burnspbesq
@Jeffro:
My favorite album of 2016, period, full stop. Will it stand the test of time like, say, Mahan Esfahani’s “Goldberg Variations?” Maybe yes, maybe no. We’ll see.
Peale
@Kay: yep. That type of policy will be made quickly – the one where teachers and counsellors need to tattle about sexuality. Based on her background, a good ole focus on abstinence education for the straight kids, “homos can change if they want to” with a little “no gay propaganda near children” will be the order of the day. That may be the only curriculum change they’ll make, though. The rest will be funding related, to please those folks who hate that they have to pay for schools every year because they haven’t yet figured out that people continue to have new children who keep getting older by one year each year.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Kay,
this is why the Steve Harvey thing pissed me off.
Harvey needed to stay in his lane. He’s talk show host. A comedian.
What he credibly knows about American Housing Policy would fit into a thimble. After all, he didn’t even know who Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was.
RME.
So, when they use Carson and Harvey to put a BLACK FACE on the impending DECIMATION of housing policy…..they won’t care…they’ll be shinning and grinning. He’ll point to some insignificant crumb of a project that is maybe 1 or 2 buildings, while BILLIONS will be stolen and public housing PRIVATIZED, harming millions of low income people
President Barack Obama went out and found Black professionals in every area. I always say- it’s Washington DC, not Idaho. There has been a Black professional middle class in Washington since generations before Brown. Within 2 hours of DC, you can find a Black person, who is a professional and trained for that area of expertise in just about any subject possible. There is absolutely NO excuse to find clowns like this, and push them out front, as representing ANYTHING serious about the Black community. It is an insult.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: I think that Trump can’t see POC as anything but servants or entertainers. You know what that says about him.
The Lodger
@Just One More Canuck: In these parts, we call that supporting the right to arm bears.
ETA: And Jacel beat me to it. Damn 2 1/2 hour lag.
stinger
@ArchTeryx: I want to read this! Sunday is the next BJ writers’ chat, I believe. Tell us more about it!
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Do you know if Steve Harvey has taken any kind of a hit after his visit with Trump? I mean as far as his fans boycotting his shows or anything?
JordanRules
@rikyrah: Yessss! Speak on it! With purpose!
Gretchen
@Kay: Yes, that was awful to watch – the cluelessness of talking to Sen. Murphy about guns and not even realizing that she was walking into shit. What a horrible, clueless, priveledged, entitled person who has never had to work for a single thing for a single day of her life. If she gets this job, I hope she goes down in an epic flaming dumpster fire of failure.
Aimai
@Baud: so true!