Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Republicans in disarray!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Come on, man.

In my day, never was longer.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I was promised a recession.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Night Open Thread

Reader Interactions

248Comments

  3. 3.

    Gin & Tonic

    Having just spent most of the week in the company of the most delightful toddler on the East coast, I refuse to be horrified. By the time she is my age and I have been consumed by worms, I believe the US will be able to laugh at the stupidity of 2016 voters.

  4. 4.

    lamh36

    @liamstack

    Trump just referred to his campaign manager as “my Kellyanne,” invited her on stage then told her “thank you, baby, thank you.”

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    @Gin & Tonic:

    By the time she is my age and I have been consumed by worms,

    Do that toddler a favor and have your corpse placed on sheets of cardboard so they have something to work with as she tries to grow plants on top of you.

  6. 6.

    Hal

    Watching a bit of Trump’s pre-inauguration speech and once again I think to one of my favorite pieces of dialogue from the HBO version of Angels in America:

    I hate America, Louis. I hate this country. It’s just big ideas, and stories, and people dying, and people like you. The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word ‘free’ to a note so high nobody can reach it. That was deliberate. Nothing on Earth sounds less like freedom to me. You come to room 1013 over at the hospital, I’ll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean. I live in America, Louis, that’s hard enough, I don’t have to love it. You do that. Everybody’s got to love something.

    Belize, Angels in America

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    The Great Humiliation of Trump has begun, and I couldn’t be more pleased at least not in this alternate reality. 10k attendees tonight compared to Obama’s 400k.

    Trump’s inaugural parade is going to be short stupid and in the rain. The march on the 21st is going to have 10 times as many people and that’s not even counting the sister city marches going on around the US and the world.

    If we keep it up it might just give these yahoos in Congress something to think about… The country is not with them and it certainly is not with Trump.

  10. 10.

    Comrade Jake

    I wonder if Trump is kind of bugged he doesn’t have as much free time to sexually assault women these days because there’s so many goddamn meetings and the secret service guys are always there.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    My 12 year old is basically inconsolable tonight about what is to come tomorrow afternoon.
    I feel like a failure because he is aware enough to understand how fucked we are moving forward.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Jake

    @Jeffro:

    I pointed the difference out to a Trump fan who replied “well he raised the most money!”

    Shocker that corporations lined up to hand over cash for this clown’s inauguration. I can’t imagine what motivated them to do that.

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    Just got a Flickr notice the WH Flickr account reverts to Trump and Obama WH account is now handled by National Archive. Somehow the unkindest cut of all.

  20. 20.

    Bobby D

    Saw the approval polls out today:
    CBS: 32% Fox: 37% CNN/ORC: 40% ABC/WashPost: 40% NBC/WSJ: 44%

    At some point, very soon I’d guess, this cannot hold and something will erupt. Whether that’s riots, mass protests, or widespread violence; you know it’s coming when 2/3 of the population is actively hoping this guy has massive coronary on the inauguartion stand, or gets popped by the CIA. Feels surreal, and scary. WASF.

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    @Comrade Jake: seriously though it’s almost as if they think that money votes , not people

    Reminds me of those morons who would like to point out the vast swaths of uninhabited red state territory that Republicans often win in presidential elections … Who fucking cares ? PEOPLE vote

  22. 22.

    Jeffro

    @Bobby D: all I know is that his office in Trump tower is on the 26th floor. That’s what I hear anyway – that it is on the 26th floor. And he lives in the penthouse most nights

  26. 26.

    Felanius Kootea

    Got an email from my local NPR station asking me to dig deep because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will likely be privatized and funding for public radio will come mostly from listeners. I started thinking – there should be a push on the left to take over the CPB when it gets privatized before Rupert Murdoch gets his hands on it and further decimates NPR and PBS. Imagine if they didn’t have the constant threat of Republican lawmakers yapping about defunding them. We might go from Nice Polite Republicans to Nervy Probing Reporters.

  27. 27.

    p.a.

    @Jeffro: Well hell, money is speech, why can’t it be votes too? Who assigns SS to the pres? Will they not assign females to avoid, ahem, issues?

  28. 28.

    Svensker

    Does anyone else think it’s totally weird and skeevy that Baron Trump has a facebook page (two of them, actually, I think) and posts fascist political stuff on it all the time. I mean, first of all, no 10 year old should have a FB account. But for the president’s kid to be posting? And for the kid’s parents to expose the kid to all the horrid crap that comes back at him on social media? I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere else but he crops up on my page a couple times a week now.

  30. 30.

    Kryptik

    @Bobby D:

    Honestly, Trump himself would probably double down even worse in the face of disapproval, and just like the Republicans in DC, conservatives will fall inline eventually, because the only alternative would be to treat Democrats as an actual valid alternative, and that’s a step too abominable for most of America it seems. No matter how much the GOP fucks up, it’ll never be discredited. Ever.

    And far as inauguration goes…I half expect Trump to order the immediate arrest of the Clintons and Obamas during his address, and his approval rating to spike among GOPers on that metric alone.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    According to the Washington Post, Marla was trying to get a deal on her hair styling from a local stylist, for the inauguration and now this for CBS News
    Eric Trump: Ivana will be “front and center” at inauguration
    JANUARY 19, 2017, 6:18 PM| In an interview for the CBS News special, “Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Donald Trump,” Eric Trump talks to “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King about his mother, and the role she’s played in his life. See more of the interview during the live special, hosted by King and CBS News political director John Dickerson, Friday at 8/7c. For a sneak peek, watch “CBS This Morning.”

    All my exes don’t stay in Texas.. wtf

  44. 44.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Comrade Jake: Lol!! No because he’ll always find time to do important stuff like grabbing women by the p—-ies. I believe he has his own personal bodyguards whom he can shoo away when he wants some alone time.

  46. 46.

    ET

    Did Three Doors Down really play “All Star” and Donny sang along?

    Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me
    I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed

  47. 47.

    JPL

    Trump is bringing all his exes to the inauguration. I assume that this is the first time in history, that the peotus brought all his exes. Of course, I assume that this is the first time in history that the first lady posed nude, but a gal’s gotta make a living. .

  49. 49.

    danielx

    @Corner Stone:

    Speaking of images I could do without…..

    Difficult to avoid though since pain meds have me lounging on a cloud at the moment, sort of like the caterpillar on his mushroom in Alice in Wonderland. Therefore I cannot be held responsible for anything I blurt out, not that anyone could tell the difference between my current ramblings and those uttered/typed at any other time.

    I am consoling myself at the moment with thoughts running parallel, more or less, to those of John Scalzi….apologies for a long block quote:

    Okay, seriously, what do you think is going to happen in the next four years?

    I have no idea. But I know a couple of things. One, where I stand, and with whom. It’s not with racists and bigots and the people who would hurt the lives of others just for a goddamned tax cut. I don’t believe every Trump voter intended to enable racists and bigots and the greedy (even if that’s what they ended up doing), and I think in time some of them will regret their vote. At this point, I’ll take regret over a double-down, and welcome them when and if that happens. And in the meantime, I’m happy with where I’m standing.

    Two, you know what, if I’m going to resist for the next four years, I’m gonna have fun doing it. I mean, come on: Thumping on racists and bigots and greedy assholes, and shoving sticks into the spokes of their shitty little plans? That’s holy work, that is, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. Opposing Trump and his pals is serious business, but I think if you can approach the work with some joy, it will help. I’m going to take pleasure in sticking up for my country. I hope you will, too.

    So let’s get to it.

  51. 51.

    JPL

    @Corner Stone: According to that great statesman, the end of the world, is the end of the world. We need to keep moving forward, but it’s gonna suck.
    We’ll never have a pres like Obama though.

  52. 52.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Corner Stone: Shit, I’m inconsolable. And that’s after a day of loading muscle relaxants for back spasms and 2 margaritas at dinner. Plus 1/3 of Mr. Q’s when he was in the loo. So I have empathy for your 12 year old.

    I cannot believe our next president addresses professional adult women as “my ___” and “baby.” It’s horrifying, as is the legislation that’s going to get passed. G*d help us.

  53. 53.

    danielx

    @Jeffro:

    seriously though it’s almost as if they think that money votes , not people

    Well, yes, that’s pretty much exactly what they think. The Supremes have said that money is speech, pretty much, and no less a personage than the Marquis du Mittens feels the same way: Corporations are people, my friend.

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    @Another Scott:

    I dropped off five more today with some women who are driving a van full of pu_syhats to D.C. It has been a lot of fun. Tonight I’m finishing one I can wear to a sister march on Saturday.

  63. 63.

    Patricia Kayden

    @efgoldman: That’s why he doesn’t want to use the Secret Service and wants his own personal bodyguards to continue to protect him.

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So will Trump have a fog machine, fireworks along with an escort of fake bikers tomorrow? That would just be perfect.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I know someone who arranged surgery on a broken ankle for tomorrow so she could avoid the shitshow. How hardcore is that, breaking one’s own ankle to avoid the day?

  70. 70.

    delk

    I’ve been watching the X-Files on Netflix. Just saw a scene with Mulder watching an old news tape from the ’50’s. The TV announcer says: J. Edger Hoover and McCarthy team up to wipe out the Red Menace within our own Federal Government.

    How the times have changed.

  71. 71.

    Major Major Major Major

    @MomSense: reminded me of an old D-minus-list ‘thought leader’ I had as a web client who occasionally scored a big booking. He would glom onto anything that would have him, and feel like a total rock star because a super famous whatever was fetêing him, even if it was somebody like Three Doors Down and he hadn’t heard of them before that week. Pathetic.

  75. 75.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Immanentize: Even without kids I’d be in tears but for medicating spasms and birthday margaritas. So I can’t even imagine how I’d be as a parent.

    OT: a comment you made earlier today seemed to imply that the federal government hasn’t abrogated treaties with Native American nations as long as there have been treaties. I know you know better – did my medication impair my reading ability?

  78. 78.

    danielx

    @efgoldman:

    From his “Cinemax Theory of Racism“, 11/10/16:

    And they say, okay, but you still subscribe to it, and you knew that in order to get HBO you had to get Cinemax, and you signed on anyway. You’re a Cinemax subscriber whether you ever watch it or not.

    And you say, well, look, I really wanted HBO.

    And they say, sure, enough that you were fine with accepting Cinemax to get it. Just don’t pretend you’re not currently subscribing to Cinemax, too. You clearly are. Look, it’s right there on your cable bill. You’re a Cinemax subscriber.

    Now, to bring that analogy back to the point at hand. This election, you had two major Presidential providers. One offered you the Stronger Together plan, and the other offered you the Make America Great Again plan. You chose the Make America Great Again plan. The thing is, the Make America Great Again has in its package active, institutionalized racism (also active, institutionalized sexism. And as it happens, active, institutionalized homophobia). And you know it does, because the people who bundled up the Make America Great Again package not only told you it was there, they made it one of the plan’s big selling points.

    As with racism, so with the legislative program.

    “Well, I didn’t vote to cut my Medicare and Social Security or to cut my (ACA-provided) insurance benefits! I just don’t think those people should get free stuff!”

    You did know the dearest desire of the Republican Party is to cut those programs?

    “But Trump said…”

    You did know Trump lies like an Oriental rug, right?

    “I still think he will do good things for me and take them away from those people.”

    Aw, fuck it.

  80. 80.

    GregB

    Make sure you say that the Trump Government raised the most mammon.

    Also now we know why Roger Stone faked a polonium poisoning a yesterday.

    He’s under investigation.

    These clowns who were talking about Hillary Clinton and her ruthless murder mill. See how you fare against Trump and his Russsian pals.

  82. 82.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: from your mouth to God(dess)’s ears. When I was his age, Ford had recently pardoned Nixon. And I am doing my part. So

    Long Live the Chief!

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    Congresswoman Maxine Waters Will Read You Now

    By R. Eric Thomas
    Jan 18, 2017

    Hello, come in, sit down. United States Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California will read you now.

    Honey, Maxine Waters is not the one. You may have been told that she is the one but you were lied to. She would like to cordially invite you to not come for her unless she sends for you.

    The Representative from California’s 43rd District has been on a grand reading tour of D.C. and I am living for it. She doesn’t care who you are—member of the press, president-elect, young pope, Alexander Hamilton—she’s going to let you have it. She is going to take you down a peg. There are no pegs left in Washington. The town is peg deficient.

    I’m tempted to elect Congresswoman Waters as this week’s Shade Bae, but shade is subtle. Waters doesn’t have time for subtlety. Waters knows that desperate times call for shadier measures. She is reading this town for filth.

    Dr. Carla Hayden may be the Librarian of Congress, but Congresswoman Maxine Waters has read everything in that building, honey.

    ………….

    Waters’ reading tour began last week at the world’s quickest and sassiest press conference.

    Y’all it is 21 seconds long and yet it will give you your entire and complete life.

    Here’s the whole transcript:

    Rep. Waters: [already over it] Yes?… Can I help you? What do you want?

    Okay, we have to pause here for a praise break. She walks into a press conference, stands in front of a set of microphones, and then has the nerve to get salty. I live. She’s treating the press like they’re a bunch of vacuum cleaner salespeople who barged into her living room in the middle of Days of Our Lives. Like sands through the hourglass, this is a read of your life

    Reporter: How did it go today?

    Rep. Waters: It went fine.

    Y’all. How are you going to lead with “How did it go today?” like Rep. Waters is a sullen teenager who tried out for the soccer team this afternoon? How did it go today? You need to play her in better than that. How did it go today? I don’t know. Fine. We’re three minutes to doomsday but there was soft serve in the cafeteria so I’d give it a B+. How are you? How’s your cholesterol level?

    Waters is pleasant but she ain’t here for pleasantries. This reporter, y’all, God rest his soul because with three words she just shaded him into the afterlife.

    Okay, next question:

    Reporter: Can you tell us anything about the discussion in the—

    Rep. Waters: No, it’s classified and we can’t tell you anything. All I can tell you is the FBI director has no credibility.

    AND THEN SHE THROWS THE WHOLE PRESS CONFERENCE IN THE GARBAGE AND WALKS AWAY.

    She didn’t even need to drop the mic. She dropped the whole room. She shows up to a press conference, acts like it’s the biggest inconvenience she’s ever had to endure, and then says that she can’t say anything…except that the director of the FBI has no credibility.
    …………………….

    I have never seen anything like this outside of a family reunion. Rep. Waters is definitely that auntie who got rich selling Avon and doesn’t really like your father. Or any of these low-rent people. But you sit by her so that she can stage-whisper critiques with a mouth full of potato salad.

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

    ……………………………………..

    Rep. Maxine Waters shows up for an interview with Tamron Hall, which, I presume, began with Waters saying, “Yes? Can I help you? What do you want?” She then goes all the way in for 60 whole seconds. If this was a movie it would be called Journey to the Center of the Read and Meryl Streep would play Waters.

    The whole thing reaches its peak when she says of the president-elect, “I don’t honor him. I don’t respect him. And I don’t want to be involved with him.”

    I don’t want to be involved with him!

    …………………..

    You can’t out-read this woman. She is 78 years old (y’all when I tell you it don’t crack…) and she’s over it. All of it.

    When Maxine Waters has a word for you, you need to just bow down. And then get back up and get out because she’s already left the room.

  89. 89.

    magurakurin

    @Immanentize:

    “Never get out of the boat.” Absolutely goddamn right! Unless you were goin’ all the way… Kurtz got off the boat. He split from the whole fuckin’ program.

  94. 94.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    One of the star hand knit designers lives in Somerville and I think she is originally from Maine. I don’t think she has a yarn shop though.

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): on the treaty issue. I know (sadly) better. What I was saying was that the current plan is to end all native sovereignty. All. Reservations, fishing and hunting rights, state division agreements, BRAC preference, resource rights, heritage and sacred site protections…. all of it. No more Native Americans. Just Americans, see??

    Now I am very sad

  101. 101.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Community Organizer. Editor-and-Chief Harvard Law. Civil Rights Attorney. Best Selling Author. Constitutional Law Professor. Husband. Father. State Senator. US Senator. President of the United States.

    Only he, with all of his remarkable gifts and knowledge, could appreciate extent of his accomplishments and achievements.

  102. 102.

    Bobby D

    @Jeffro: They really do think it’s an argument. As a Californian the one I really love is “well, if you don’t count California, because it’s full of illegals, then he won by…”.

    Sure. And we’ll keep our tax dollars, produce/milk/nuts, wine, tech companies, 3 of the 5 busiest container ports, sixth largest economy in the world…etc.

  103. 103.

    tobie

    @GregB: I don’t know if anyone has linked to this latest article in the NYTimes about the intelligence community investigating intercepted communications and financial transactions between the Russian government and Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Roger Stone. These investigations evidently started BEFORE the FBI received the MI6 agent’s dossier. What’s compelling IC members to speak is their fear that these inquiries will be shut down once Trump takes office.

    We really have gone through the looking glass.

  106. 106.

    Mike in NC

    Silver lining: Trump Administration will work Banker’s Hours. 10 AM to 3 PM from Monday to Thursday, and knocking off at noon on Friday. Closed weekends because nothing bad ever happened then (except for that one time the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor).

  110. 110.

    MomSense

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I don’t know but during one of my recent sleepless nights I stumbled across a middle school performance of Star Trek the Musical. It was a lot more entertaining than the disaster today.

  112. 112.

    lamh36

    ‪@Green_Footballs @existentialfish ‬

    Jesus fucking Christ.

    ‪@existentialfish ‬
    Jim Hoft just announced that Gateway Pundit will be in the White House press room

  117. 117.

    Cacti

    Now that the Barbarians have entered the city, I just wanted to say…

    Fuck you Bernie Sanders, and all you did to help make it happen.

    I hope all the little college shits who worshiped you and went on to vote Stein/Johnson/Trump see their tuition triple, before they get thrown off their parents’ health insurance when the ACA is repealed.

  119. 119.

    hilts

    Cole,

    The horror squared or cubed. Tonight, I feel doubly ashamed. First, I’m ashamed to be an American. Second, as a native New Yorker who grew up in Queens, I’m ashamed that the city I love will forever be closely associated with the hideous monstrosity named Donald Trump. Fuck him and every single asshole who voted for him.

  121. 121.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    The NYT story is pretty damning, and I imagine indictments are imminent if they are leaking names to the press.

  123. 123.

    Immanentize

    @efgoldman: It has been set up as an issue for Congress to decide. Judges will go along — you should know, the first circuit is one of the worst federal courts on Indian rights.

  130. 130.

    Cacti

    @Kryptik:

    Tell that to the bots that are more concerned with crucifying Hillary and her allies for purity ponies rather than focusing on Trump.

    Or the cotton headed toad who leads them going on a national “this is why the Democrats suck” book selling tour.

  131. 131.

    Immanentize

    @efgoldman: sadly, yes. Paul
    Clement argued a gaming case for the evil ones in which I did an amicus brief for some tribal interests. It was horrific.

  133. 133.

    Cacti

    @efgoldman:

    The first circuit? In Boston? Really?

    The eastern states ethnically cleansed their native populations long ago.

    Why would their local judiciaries care for tribal rights?

  136. 136.

    Mike in NC

    @hilts: Celebrate every Trump supporter who:
    – loses their job in the upcoming recession
    – loses their health insurance when ACA is repealed and never replaced
    – loses their home and/or life savings from Wall Street corruption
    – bonus points if Trump invades some country that slights him and their children or grandchildren get slaughtered or maimed for life

  137. 137.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Jeffro:

    NYT article just went up about communications between Paul Manafort and the Russians

    I assume the article is focused on Hillary’s emails

  139. 139.

    Immanentize

    @Cacti: There are still a lot of active tribes in the northeast. Most cut deals with states in the 70’s (and gave up certain federal recognition rights like the Penobscot Nation in Maine) but the Mashpee Wampanoag of Cape Cod held out and are a federally recognized tribe. Complicated and interesting histories.

  140. 140.

    hovercraft

    @lamh36:
    The dumbest man to ever live in the WH of course would want someone there to make him look like a genius. Bush had Gannon, so of course the shitgibbon would take it to eleventy. We are in for one hell of a shitshow, it would be hysterical if only we weren’t going to all get splattered by the shit.

  143. 143.

    lamh36

    ‪not planning on being on online…where can you watch The Obamas last moments after the inauguration w/ having to see the cheeto & wife?‬

  146. 146.

    danielx

    @efgoldman:

    I hate to feel schadenfreude towards those less fortunate than I. But goddamnit when a man tells you he’s going to do something contrary to your best interests and you vote for him anyway, under some vague feeling that he won’t really do that. Because…because…something something…he’s different from those other Republicans and he’ll only take things away from those who don’t deserve them plus he’ll give me a pony.

    These coal country voters backed Trump. Now they’re worried about losing Obamacare.

    I find myself running short on sympathy and compassion. These people aided and abetted the election of the loosest of cannons and we’re all going to pay for their idiotic feelings.

  147. 147.

    Timurid

    @efgoldman:

    Until judges start randomly falling down stairs and out of windows.
    .
    .
    .
    I’m joking. Mostly. That was probably at least 53% joke.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I just saw an ad for “Morning Joe.” Based on what I saw, I do not understand why people watch it. I never have seen an episode.

  151. 151.

    joel hanes

    Dumbest president for sure, but somebody in 200+ years must have had an idiot live-in brother in law or nephew….

    Might still be the case.

    The Donald is functionally illiterate. He does not read printed material longer than a paragraph with comprehension.

  152. 152.

    danielx

    @Cacti:

    Or the cotton headed toad who leads them going on a national “this is why the Democrats suck” book selling tour.

    Would that be my man Newt and his Neuticles™?

  153. 153.

    Lizzy L

    I mourned the first month after the election. I’m done mourning. Gonna fight this m-fer and his vampire friends with all my strength. Word is there will be 200,000 people in D.C. on Saturday, and who knows how many in over 600 locations across the country. Every single state in the Union has at least one march (though some, like Montana and ND, only have one.) There are sympathy marches in Canada. Yes, he’s gonna do damage, some big damage, but there’s going to be lots and lots of pushback, from all kinds of places, like the IC. Like the federal judiciary. Maybe even from the folks who voted for T, but don’t want to lose their healthcare.

    As rikyrah says, No one is playing with them.

  156. 156.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: But so many people on our side watch it. I cannot fathom it. What it must do to people’s blood pressure. What must Zbig think?

  157. 157.

    lamh36

    ‪@LorettaLynch ‬It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve the American people as the 83rd United States Attorney General.

  158. 158.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Immanentize: There’s another whole community of mixed Native and African American origins, that lived in marginal places like cranberry country in SE Mass. Jokingly referred to in my youth as the Moneg tribe (mostly Negro). Harvard’s recently-deceased D-school leader Peter Gomes came from that millieu.

    After state emancipation in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s it’s where the only affordable land was, and the tattered remnants of earlier tribes often lived there. Their distinctive communities were swamped when suburbanization reached out that far from Boston and Providence.

  159. 159.

    Cacti

    @danielx:

    I find myself running short on sympathy and compassion. These people aided and abetted the election of the loosest of cannons and we’re all going to pay for their idiotic feelings.

    Sympathy? Is that the feeling where you’d like to dance and spit on their graves after they die from treatable illness?

    No?

    I guess I’m not having it either.

  160. 160.

    hovercraft

    @hilts:

    First, I’m ashamed to be an American. Second, as a native New Yorker who grew up in Queens, I’m ashamed that the city I love will forever be closely associated with the hideous monstrosity named Donald Trump. Fuck him and every single asshole who voted for him.

    I’m with you on the first part, I’m ashamed of what way too many of our country men and women voted for this monstrosity. But I have to take issue with the second part, just as you cannot entirely blame the parents for the way the kid turned out, especially if the parents try to warn everyone that their kid is fucked up and a fuck up. New Yorkers screamed it from the rooftops they voted against him, and Moron America chose him anyway. While there will always be the stigma/stain of having spawned him, they also rejected him, so at least you have the satisfaction of saying you didn’t do this. This shit is on “real” America, they bought the act hook, line and sinker.

  162. 162.

    zhena gogolia

    Yeah, I’m not in “mourning” mood any more. (I don’t look at any pictures or video of Obama, so that helps.) I’m just mad as hell.

  164. 164.

    Yarrow

    @lamh36: I’m hoping someone will do a clip of the Obama’s leaving on the helicopter and leave out everything related to the orange usurper.

  165. 165.

    Davis X. Machina

    @hovercraft:

    This shit is on “real” America, they bought the act hook, line and sinker

    There aren’t too many parts of ‘real’ America realer than 60-40 Staten Island, come to that.

  167. 167.

    hilts

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    A more accurate title for the program would be Morning Blowjob. It’s a putrid steaming pile of excrement that daily proves the point made by Danny Schechter “The More You Watch, The Less You Know”.

  171. 171.

    Cacti

    @efgoldman:

    I haven’t noticed anybody is particularly intimidated, in spite of Citron Shithead’s bluster.

    The only lasting good from Dubya’s Presidency is that the GOP wore out any possible mileage from “you’re a bad American if you’re against the President”.

    Nobody’s going to be cowed by that shit again for a looooooong time.

  172. 172.

    Mike in NC

    @joel hanes: Trump is like the idiot boss most of have worked for who insisted that everything be distilled into a half page Executive Summary.

  176. 176.

    SgrAstar

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I wonder if ultimately having his own security will turn out to be a major error. The Secret Service guys are sworn to serve- most take that pretty seriously- while the private cops are just mercenaries. I can imagine serious, um, leaks coming. Heh.

  178. 178.

    hilts

    @hovercraft:

    I see where you’re coming from, but I remain disappointed that many New Yorkers supported Trump. Bottom line for me is that everyone who voted for Trump is an asshole in my book. I have as much contempt for a Trump voter who lives in Idaho as I do for a Trump voter who lives in Suffolk County, New York.

  179. 179.

    hovercraft

    @Major Major Major Major:
    See he has Latino’s dammit, why must you people nitpick, always trying to divide us and label people, the shitgibbon doesn’t see race he sees white people the real people, and everyone else.

  180. 180.

    Davis X. Machina

    @danielx: between the Goethals and the Pulaski and the Outerbridge, and what not, there are a lot of available overpasses in that corner of the world.

  181. 181.

    hilts

    @efgoldman: @Davis X. Machina:

    I miss Danny Schechter as well as the late great Wayne Barrett.

    I can’t count how many times during the campaign that I wished I could have raised Eric Severeid, Howard K. Smith, Peter Jennings, and Walter Cronkite from the dead.

  182. 182.

    Lizzy L

    @efgoldman: Same here. I don’t watch any of it. I don’t miss it, either. And I gave up on NPR during the campaign when it became clear that they were going to pretend that T was somehow not a reprehensible racist grifter, and oh by the way EMAILZ.

    The only folks who seem intimidated by T are the companies/boards/executives whose stock price nosedives when he tweets about them. I’ve got zero fucks to give for them, most of them are capitalistic bloodsuckers who deserve a little uncertainty in their over-privileged lives. Karma, dudes.

  183. 183.

    Larkspur

    @efgoldman: I’ve never seen Morning Joke but I do check in on Hayes, Maddow and Joy Reid. If I tune in Chris Hayes early, I mute Tweety. So I will admit to that much self-inflicted MSNBC viewage.

  185. 185.

    J R in WV

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    I sympathize, I have had both acute spasms and chronic pain following them. And politics, OMG!

    WASF… and it’s really bothering me.

    I have signed up for monthly automatic donations to Planned Parenthood, OFA, going to hit up ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks White Supremacist activity nationwide. Maybe that will help!

    Hope you feel better soon. If you can use a hot tub, that really helps me with my cramping, it’s like a charley horse in my lower back, mostly. Heat, exercise and stretching was what got me through the worst. Now it’s just nagging chronic as opposed to acute crippled. Better than it was, not as good as it could be.

  187. 187.

    Larkspur

    @hilts: You could raise them and I’d thank you for it, but they existed in a whole different news universe than what we have today.

  190. 190.

    hilts

    @Mike in NC:

    Speaking of assholes who voted for Trump. check out the buyer’s remorse from this moron:

    I remember the precise moment that I realized I regretted voting for Donald Trump.

    It was during his 60 Minutes interview after the election. I was, like everyone else, shocked that he had won. It seemed so unlikely based on the polls and the confidence the media had that he would lose. It was a pleasant surprise, and I went to bed on election night thrilled that he would be our president.

    But sitting on my couch, sipping coffee as I watched the interview, I saw with my own eyes who Trump really was as a person. He backtracked on one of his signature campaign promises: pursuing an investigation into the Clinton email scandal. It’s not that I want Clinton to be crucified or “locked up” — it’s the nonchalance with which he went back on his word after hammering it repeatedly during the campaign. The ease and quickness with which he reversed his position shook me to my core. I realized in that moment that I had voted for a demagogue. And it was sickening.

    h/t http://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/1/18/14300952/donald-trump-vote-regret

    As Bob Dylan would say, it’s a wonder that this Trump voter still knows how to breathe.

  191. 191.

    GregB

    Trump is going to have to deal with people other than American’s real pronto.

    I expect China will do something to challenge him poste haste.

    Also remember that he has owned everything even before taking office. Recessions, lay offs, terror attacks.

    It’s all fucking yours bucko.

    Third Intafada the day your arrogant son in law announces Jerusalem as the new home for a beautiful embassy?

    All yours.

  192. 192.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m definitely stuck in anger right now, and its evil twin, THIRST FOR RETRIBUTION.

    I enjoy envisioning Trump voters homeless, hungry, and without healthcare. While Clinton voters prosper and occasionally give them a few bucks while they stand on the median with cardboard signs.

  195. 195.

    Cacti

    @Suzanne:

    I enjoy envisioning Trump voters homeless, hungry, and without healthcare. While Clinton voters prosper and occasionally give them a few bucks while they stand on the median with cardboard signs.

    I might ask first if they were a Trump voter.

  196. 196.

    Jeffro

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I assume the article is focused on Hillary’s emails

    You’d think (and I would too, normally) but this one appears to actually be on point: Manafort and others directing Russian dough and ‘technical assistance’ to help Trump from the primaries to the WH.

    My dream/fantasy/vision of Trump at a standard TV cop-show interrogation table, face buried in his hands…it’s a little premature. First we need to hear from Manafort and Stone and Page.

    Jesus my RWNJ dad and bro are going to be pissed that I stuck the landing on this one. For what it’s worth, I sure wish it had all been libtard paranoia…

  198. 198.

    Lizzy L

    @efgoldman: Most of my (not large) retirement fund is in solid equities. And I’m prepared to sell everything if I have to — and I fully expect to have to. Not gonna wait and ride it out, not this time — I’m too old, and I remember 2008 too well.

  199. 199.

    Cacti

    @GregB:

    I expect China will do something to challenge him poste haste.

    China just announced they’re scrapping plans for 104 coal fired power plants.

    Hey coal country deplorables! Fuck you! lol

  200. 200.

    Jeffro

    @hilts:

    Trump is definitely the dumbest man to serve as President. In addition, he’s the most dishonest.

    And given our history…winning either ‘title’ would be quite an achievement. Winning both means we get to break out the tar & feathers in short order…prepare for another walk down Pennsylvania Ave, Il Douche!

  201. 201.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Jeffro:

    Manafort and others directing Russian dough and ‘technical assistance’ to help Trump from the primaries to the WH.

    Archibald Cox is dead, and Jeff Sessions is alive. The rest, as Rabbi Hillel said, is commentary.

    Trump will get his coverup, and one the thoroughness of which Nixon could only dream.

  202. 202.

    Yarrow

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think Congress will soon find themselves intimidated by him too. The man’s got fans and they vote.

    I said last night it depends what the intelligence community does. If the intelligence community puts pressure on the members of Congress then they’ll be stuck fearing the voters or fearing going to prison–because you know the IC has stuff on the GOP leadership.

    Another heartening thought is that enough stuff is out there that the press in other countries is having a thorough look into it. Our Congress can drag their feet but if enough gets found and reported in other countries eventually there won’t be that much they can do to avoid the fact that Trump is tucked up in bed with the Russians. I posted this excerpt earlier today but if anyone missed it, here it is again:

    Neither are the Senate and the IC all that Trump has to worry about. Several European intelligence agencies have watched the new president’s clandestine ties to Putin with interest and alarm. For small countries close to Russia, the prospect of an American president colluding with the Kremlin is terrifying. What they know was hinted at in a tweet by Harri Ohra-aho, in response to an all-caps claim tweeted by Trump: “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” Ohra-aho’s response, which translates as “Lord, give me patience, AND NOW!” is important mainly because the tweeter is a two-star general serving as the chief of Finnish military intelligence.

    Plenty of intelligence services know parts of the truth about our 45th president’s potentially unsavory ties to Moscow. Starting tomorrow, Trump will try hard to shut down IC inquiries, but he cannot curtail the Senate investigation and doesn’t have any power to silence worried allies and partners who consider him a threat to their countries.

    Of course Trump is supposed to visit the CIA on Saturday so who knows what that means.

  203. 203.

    hilts

    @Larkspur:

    Yes, you’re right of course, I’m just spinning wheels here because I still can’t believe how many millions of dummies were deceived by a clownish huckster like Trumpenstein.

  206. 206.

    Jeffro

    @Timurid: The folks in these agencies aren’t going to let this die just because Orangemandias takes office and tells them to STOP INVESTIGATING ME! lol – think about what would happen then, both behind the scenes and in our ahem ‘public discourse’.

    It’s all coming out. They can spin it, they can try to cover their tracks, they can try to throw Manafort under the bus, whatever: it’s all coming out.

  209. 209.

    GregB

    @Jeffro:

    Yep. Manafort, Page and Stone are toast. At the very least they will be point of cauterizing..Now they have to watch out for the Russians and the Trumpists.

  210. 210.

    Jeffro

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think Congress will soon find themselves intimidated by him too. The man’s got fans and they vote. But then again I’m a pessimist.

    I think a barely-attended inauguration + well-attended/loud town halls will help them (SOME of them) realize that this clown and the Pence/Ryan agenda are not at all popular. It would have to be an extremely red district for a Rep to not hear about people who’ll die without Obamacare coverage…people who don’t want our national parks sold off…people who may have voted against HRC but most certainly do not want their Medicare messed with.

    It all comes down to whether or not Dems stay frosty and stay organized (to the degree that Dems CAN stay organized, right?) =)

  211. 211.

    Yarrow

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh. Thanks. I wondered if you saw that last night. No big deal. It is a huge (yuuuge?) looming ethics issue for Trump. I wonder if someone is going to bring an ethics violation charge at 12:01 p.m. tomorrow?

  212. 212.

    Suzanne

    @Timurid: All I have is dreams right now. I am keenly aware that this is going to suck for good people.

    The best I can hope for is that it will suck MORE for bad people.

    And, because I have a cold, shitty, shriveled heart, I want to watch bad people in bad circumstances and enjoy it.

  214. 214.

    hilts

    @efgoldman:

    Right now, there’s nobody I find more repulsive than a Trump voter, like the idiot who posted on Vox, who has suddenly discovered that Donald Trump is a lying SOB who doesn’t give a fuck about his supporters.

  216. 216.

    Chet Murthy

    @hilts: NO. This is wrong:

    Bottom line for me is that everyone who voted for Trump is an asshole in my book

    Not an asshole. A TRAITOR. A RUSSIAN USEFUL IDIOT. America, love it or leave it. Those shitbirds need to get their tickets for Russia, see how much they love that shit.

    They burned down my democracy out of pure racist spite. Fuck them.

  217. 217.

    Jeffro

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Archibald Cox is dead, and Jeff Sessions is alive. The rest, as Rabbi Hillel said, is commentary.

    Trump will get his coverup, and one the thoroughness of which Nixon could only dream.

    Yeah, it might look that way at the moment, but I think the combo of Trump’s spectacular unpopularity, plus Dems getting in their MoCs faces’, will help get through to some of Congress that the vast majority of the country detests this clown and that everything he touches turns to shit. His crowds are for crap, our people are getting organized and getting loud…

    …I like our chances. Unchecked pillaging by Trump & Co is not a done deal

  221. 221.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow:

    Of course Trump is supposed to visit the CIA on Saturday so who knows what that means.

    Let’s hope it means that some cards are laid on the table, and Don the Con’s given one last chance to come clean/fly straight before they lower the boom on him.

    And then they lower it anyway…

  223. 223.

    hovercraft

    @Davis X. Machina:
    As a New Yorker for many years, I can tell you that Staten Island and that other appendage Long Island are nothing like real NY, and by real I mean where the people are. Even with SI voting heavily for the asswipe though, he lost the state badly. Think of NYC and it’s suburbs as a blue state that sends all it’s money to Albany for the rest of the state (red), mooches off of us and constantly bitches and denigrates us as they rob us blind. The true conservatives run as fast as possible away from all our liberal policies to the enclaves of Staten Island and Long Island. I am being deliberately simplistic.

  224. 224.

    Yarrow

    @Omnes Omnibus: Probably mine too. I had a look through his works the other night and thought I should have another look at “Resistance, Rebellion and Death.” I’ve read some of those essays but probably not all. Or at least it has been a long time.

  225. 225.

    Jeffro

    @tobie: Thanks…I’m the one who mentioned the article (albeit w/o a link) a thread or two ago. ;)

    The intelligence folks are not ‘scared shitless’. They can’t believe they’ve been forced to this point by their own PEEOTUS & his crew, but they’ll still do what they need to do. Having the President installed due to Putin’s machinations and then seeing him WILLINGLY betray his own country is the last of last straws.

  227. 227.

    Lizzy L

    @Major Major Major Major: His voters are a minority of the eligible voters. The folks who are going to sink T are not his voters but the non-voters, the people who could have voted, but didn’t. There are A LOT of them; they are approximately 43% of the voting population. I think T is going to wake them up, and he isn’t going to like what happens when he does. They don’t like him. (They didn’t like Hilz, either, but that’s old news.) They didn’t vote for him. They don’t especially want to lose their healthcare, or to watch rich people’s taxes plummet, or for the U.S. to get into a trade war with China, or a shooting war with God help us North Korea. They like having weather satellites, they probably even like public schools. They don’t want mama’s Medicare coverage to change, they don’t want cousin Alma’s Medicaid payments, which she needs because she has no job and Type 1 diabetes, to turn into something called a block grant (whatever the fuck that is), and they think Paul Ryan’s a creep.

    Let’s see if T and his shiny new Cabinet appeal to them.

  228. 228.

    Aleta

    Tonight I gave up looking for housing over the internet for the DC march. So now I’m going to go to Boston, stay with friends, march there, then go to a concert. I think it would be just amazing to be in DC, but it’ll be wonderful anywhere else too. I’m glad I’m not going to stay here where I would surely continue to feel this bad.

  231. 231.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Lizzy L: doesn’t matter if he appeals to them if they don’t vote. Voting is a habit and so is not voting and for whatever reason the inertia is very hard to break. I’m not aware of any time in American history when a politician has been unpopular enough to mobilize nonvoters to vote against him. Even 2008 turnout against republicans wasn’t as high as you’d expect, if your theory is true, given W’s 27% approval ratings.

  233. 233.

    Jeffro

    @Davis X. Machina:

    His congressional party faces a prisoner’s dilemma. Somebody has to sell out.

    The GOP doing whatever it took to avoid its own civil war is what got us here…rather than change and grow, they kept doubling down, lying to their own voters, promising the impossible, and lowering their standards for their own behavior/candidates in every possible way. By the time 2016 rolled around, it was clearly a race to the bottom…the extremely low-info, paranoid, InfoWars-reading, rabid bottom. (nothing you don’t already know, I know)

    But here it is: proof that people in Trump’s campaign were colluding with a hostile foreign power to get their guy through the primaries, and then to get him elected. For Putin’s revenge against Hillary, for Putin’s/Exxon’s $500B oil deals that got sidelined due to sanctions, for Trump’s revenge against Obama’s – the guy who humiliated Trump more than once – chosen successor.

    So, choose, GOP. You’re about to take away plenty of your constituents’ health care (when they already haven’t had a raise in 30 years); you’re about to give away the store to Goldman Sachs instead of ‘draining the swamp’; and worst of all, you’re about to be hit with evidence that your POTUS and his guys colluded with Russia to taint an American presidential election.
    – what did Trump know and when did he know (that Manafort was getting instructions and cash from Russia? or Page?)
    – what did Giuliani know about the FBI leaks and Comey letter that was coming?
    – who told Comey to write that letter?
    – why did Manafort tell Trump’s campaign to focus on Wisconsin & Pennsylvania specifically?
    – what has Page been up to with all his trips to Russia?
    – what does Pence know about all of the above, and when did he know it?
    – why did McConnell tank public disclosure of the Russia connections, and was there a job promised to his wife (Chao) in exchange for his help?
    – how did Trump manage to keep afloat during the primaries? what promises were made to Cruz and Rubio and Kasich in exchange for them not blowing up the GOP?

  234. 234.

    rikyrah

    @Jeffro:
    that is how I see it. The Spooks are not in the situation where they think that the President is weak, in terms of policy positions.
    They are in the situation where they think that the President is a wholly owned subsidiary of a hostile foreign power.
    I commented on this before – RARELY does the MSM in reporting about Russia include the most important detail about Vlad-

    He used to one of the HEADS of the KGB?????

    This is a detail NEVER EVER far from the minds of The Spooks.

  235. 235.

    frosty

    @Mike in NC:

    Trump is like the idiot boss most of have worked for who insisted that everything be distilled into a half page Executive Summary.

    I worked for a County Manager like that. Finished a 20 page report and my boss told me to cut it to one page. And bullets. Sheesh.

  236. 236.

    hilts

    @Lizzy L:

    Gonna fight this m-fer and his vampire friends with all my strength.

    Well said. I’m holding out a sliver of hope that his hubris and greed will somehow lead to his downfall before the midterm elections.

  237. 237.

    Lizzy L

    @Major Major Major Major: Which is why President Obama has said that he’s going to put his energy into voting rights, voting suppression, early registration, making voting easier, vote-by-mail. We’re in new territory here. T is like no one else. You could be right, maybe the apathy is too great to make any difference at all, but I think T is going to overreach. I don’t expect the Republicans to impeach him (unless things really go south on the security front, or it looks like he’s going to start a war). But this may be the one time when the non-voters turn.

  238. 238.

    hilts

    @Yarrow:

    Another heartening thought is that enough stuff is out there that the press in other countries is having a thorough look into it.

    Thank God for this development given the fact the American media, with few exceptions like David Fahrenthold and Kurt Eichenwald, took a dive during the campaign and will continue to do so for the next 4 years.

  239. 239.

    hilts

    @hovercraft:

    Think of NYC and it’s suburbs as a blue state that sends all it’s money to Albany for the rest of the state (red), mooches off of us and constantly bitches and denigrates us as they rob us blind. The true conservatives run as fast as possible away from all our liberal policies to the enclaves of Staten Island and Long Island. I am being deliberately simplistic.

    That’s a fairly accurate thumbnail sketch of NY’s political landscape.

    I hope this idiot Trump will make some effort to see that NY gets more money to handle the outrageous cost of providing security for his goddamn fucking Trump Tower.

  241. 241.

    Aleta

    @Jeffro:

    – what did Giuliani know about the FBI leaks and Comey letter that was coming?
    – who told Comey to write that letter?

    Some say that G. and friends pressured Comey into doing what he did, by telling him they would leak it if he didn’t make the announcement.

  242. 242.

    Peale

    @hilts: I doubt it. There really isn’t anything in his platform that the Republicans haven’t run on in the past, so getting rid of him would just disavow their whole shtick. I’m hoping that the voters wise up, but I’m not holding my breath. (See “We Hate Rick Scott, so let’s not vote to get rid of him”). From what I can tell, the “natural democratic constituency” enjoys getting kicked in the teeth and can be just as easily tricked into staying home as any number of vote suppression laws can accomplish. They could pass that “cut 1T in spending, lay off 700,000 government workers, purposefully kill endangered baby otters, set the retirement age to 80, lower the minimum wage to $1.00 a day, toss disabled kids out of school, allow employers to opt out of unemployment insurance, end medicare for existing seniors, send so many Mexicans home that there aren’t any fresh vegetables on the shelves, kick all the gays back out of the military, try all Muslims in the service for treason, and announce strict jail time for the mothers and fathers of kids killed by the police, and maybe our voters will turn out. My guess is that like the last time, people will have to die and the economy will have to collapse. The good news is that once the banks reaize that there is no enforcement of laws and companies realize that the SEC won’t call anyone out for false financial statements, that we’ll be heading into a complete financial meltdown just after mid terms. It really won’t take that long to ruin the economy. Heck, if we start an actual shooting war with China, it might only take a few months.

  243. 243.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve been on Dick Francis novels since early November.

    Love Dick Francis. I’m reworking my way through Sayers (for the umpteenth time) but will likely re-read DF starting soon.

  244. 244.

    J R in WV

    @Yarrow:

    Marcel Camus, of course, the famous Mime!!!

    ;-)

    Just kidding. I hate mimes.

    I would have trouble picking out one of the novels. He was a combination of creative and philosophic, and the philosophy was remorselessly depressing, but the message was to go on fighting anyway. I think the long, long WW II affected him so much he couldn’t think about anything else without the filter of human horror between his self and the subject of his thoughts. The characters seemed very determined to continue, without any hope that it would do them any good.

  245. 245.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    James Lee Burke. I like Dick Francis too, a little veddy British, which I don’t care for that much, but still well done, characters to care about, plots that twist like a drill.

    But James L Burke has the mist on the bayou down pat, which I enjoy. Spent a decade in MS one year, like a dimly remembered hjorror (sic) story you actually lived through. His novels catch the reality to perfection.

  247. 247.

    jonas

    @Lizzy L: They *may* turn out and vote against Trump’s agenda next time. Or they could just double down on the “all politics is bullshit and pointless” attitude that made them non-voters in the first place.

Comments are closed.