Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

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

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

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Republicans in disarray!

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

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

In my day, never was longer.

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

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

People are weird.

You are here: Home / Have you seen your mother, baby?

Have you seen your mother, baby?

by | 180 Comments

This post is in: 

Conservatives are weird:

While Mike Pence was governor, his relationship with the Democratic minority in the legislature was crap. Someone on his staff suggested having the Democratic leaders over to the governor’s mansion for dinner. The table was set for 20, but there were only around seven in attendance. One unlucky legislator stuck next to Pence tried to make conversation, but found even at dinner she couldn’t shift Pence off his talking points. Gov. Pence shouted to his wife, Karen, his closest adviser, at the other end of the table.

“Mother, Mother, who prepared our meal this evening?”

The legislators looked at one another, speaking with their eyes: He just called his wife “Mother.”

Maybe it was a joke, the legislator reasoned. But a few minutes later, Pence shouted again.

“Mother, Mother, whose china are we eating on?”

Reader Interactions

180Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    It’s been one month since Amir posted here saying he was doing fine. Amir, you need to check in if your are lurking.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Didn’t Reagan call Nancy “mother”?

    FWIW, I don’t think this is that weird. Isn’t it a Midwestern thing, like the parents on Little House on the Prairie who called each other “Ma” and “Pa”?

  4. 4.

    Davis X. Machina

    Mainers of a certain age routinely call their wives “Mother”… it’s a running joke in the “Bert and I” school of dialect comedy.

  6. 6.

    k

    Really? I hear it’s not unusual for some (maybe it’s regional or cultural) couples, when they are parents — as the Pences are — to use “mother” and “father” as nicknames. Not that I’ve ever encountered it here in the big city, but there you go.
    Even with such as they, one can go overboard.

  7. 7.

    quakerinabasement

    As others have pointed out, this is a way of speaking that is somewhat common, but not for a governor of a state at an official dinner.

  9. 9.

    A Ghost to Most

    Charlie Pierce has something to say about our new National Day of Patriotic Devotion

    My link fu for esquire sux

  10. 10.

    Bobby D

    This is not unusual language usage among southern Christians. I heard it regularly growing up in GA, including from many of my relatives.

  13. 13.

    Timurid

    The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
    He took a face from the ancient gallery
    And he walked on down the hall
    He went into the room where his sister lived, and then he
    Paid a visit to his brother and then he
    He walked on down the hall
    And he came to a door and he looked inside
    “Father?” “Yes son” “I want to kill you”
    “Mother? I want to fuck you”

  16. 16.

    vhh

    In Japanese, married couples not infrequently address each other as “husband” and “wife”.

  17. 17.

    Paul in KY

    In my opinion, gathered through observation over a number of years, the crackpot/assholeish/evil the Repub politician is, his/her spouse is worse.

    General observation, certainly exceptions exist.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    @vhh:

    In Japanese, married couples not infrequently address each other as “husband” and “wife”.

    I think this is true of Vulcans, as well.

  23. 23.

    Hunter Gathers

    I imagine his Rent Boy gets tired of being called Father, especially after being forced to watch Magnum P.I. for 4 hours in a seedy motel room in Anderson, Indiana.

  24. 24.

    Oatler.

    I always thought it was an Old World custom, like my Greek father used to do. Or Graham Chapman saying “Mother, get agent on the phone.” (that’s right, using my Python wisdom in the political world. That’ll get the girls!)

  25. 25.

    mai naem mobile

    I’ve seen elderly couples use it. Werre talking people who’ve been married 50+ years. Not. Pence’s age – nope and a formal dinner – absolutely not.

  28. 28.

    kindness

    You know what really sucks?

    There is a good chance Pence will be POTUS46. No, not after being elected silly. After a Trump impeachment or demise. I don’t see Trump filling a full term. Nope, I don’t.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    Just shows that Pence doesn’t have a clue how he comes across to people who are different from him, and probably isn’t even aware of the possibility that people could be different from him.

  30. 30.

    JDM

    Not just southern evangelicals, but many other evangelicals. Other than that, it’s just old people talk. Very old.

  32. 32.

    Bobby D

    Pink Floyd was onto something:

    Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb?
    Mother do you think they’ll like this song?
    Mother do you think they’ll try to break my balls?
    Mother should I build the wall?
    Mother should I run for president?
    Mother should I trust the government?
    Mother will they put me in the firing line?
    Mother am I really dying?

  33. 33.

    Yarrow

    @mai naem mobile: I think it’s the use at the formal dinner that’s weird. People use whatever name they want in private. Occasional slips in using the pet name in public are probably normal. But at a state dinner and shouting it down the table? Something is not right with that.

    @A Ghost to Most: Wait, that’s a real thing? I thought it was a joke. WTF?

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    @evodevo:

    You all have NO CLUE about midwestern evangelical types, do you ….

    Fun fact: Michele Bachmann calls Marcus “mother.”

  39. 39.

    grrljock

    Re: cultural practices, it’s fairly common for Indonesian couples with kids to call each other as “Papa” and “Mama” as well. That doesn’t mean Mike Pence is not weird.

  40. 40.

    Seanly

    @kindness:

    February 2019 is when we will officially get President Pence. So that way he can technically be President for 10 years (though I would hope we don’t elect that muthafugga).
    My late FIL called his wife Mother. Thought it was a little creepy, but I get regional usage. Would hope in a formal setting he’d call her by her name though.

  41. 41.

    Yarrow

    @kindness: I don’t see Trump filling out a full term either, but there is the whole “what did he know and when did he know it” issue. Was Pence in on it?

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    @Yarrow:

    I don’t see Trump filling out a full term either….”

    Hell, people didn’t see Trump winning primaries, winning the GOP nomination, getting elected. People really should give up on presidential prognostication. It is absolutely pointless.

    And I say this as someone who wakes up every morning and thinks, “I cannot believe that this clown is president!”

  45. 45.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    I work literally a mile from Indiana, an easy commute. Spouse went to middle and high school in another Indiana city.

    I have never heard anybody in Indiana do this, nor have I heard of it before tonight.

  47. 47.

    prob50

    “Mother, Mother, who prepared our meal this evening?”

    The legislators looked at one another, speaking with their eyes: He just called his wife “Mother.”

    Maybe it was a joke, the legislator reasoned. But a few minutes later, Pence shouted again.

    “Mother, Mother, whose china are we eating on?”

    Wait, I think I know how this ends…

    “Mother, Mother, who has been naughty and rude to his guests and needs a sound spanking after they all leave to go home?”

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    @Yarrow:

    I don’t see Trump filling out a full term either, but there is the whole “what did he know and when did he know it” issue.

    I’m thinking the bigger worry for Trump is his health, both physical and mental. I’d also be worried about his safety.

  54. 54.

    Calouste

    @Yarrow: People would likely be talking a lot less about that “what did he know and when did he know it” issue if the shitgibbon kicked the bucket rather than being impeached…

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Yarrow:

    I’m hoping the CIA will save us. It feels really weird saying that.

    The CIA was never really an effective organization in either reality or even the movies. I’m not seeing them riding to the rescue.

    On the other hand, some kind of CIA plot or coup is definitely the kind of fantasy that a conspiracy hound like Trump might envision.

  56. 56.

    Yarrow

    @Roger Moore: If he becomes a liability for Russia I wonder how long before they decide to take him out. With all the Russian connections in the White House already, it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to make that happen. Those guys probably don’t have to go through security since they’ve got security clearances and work there.

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:

    It’s not like they let the President’s deteriorating mental health stop them in the 80’s.

    True, but I suspect there are plenty of Republicans who would be happier with Pence than with Trump. I could easily see a 25th Amendment situation cropping up and the Republicans in Congress backing Pence because Trump is just so obviously off the rails.

  59. 59.

    cosima

    @Yarrow: Life goals. Fucking Hitler as his idol/hero.

    @A Ghost to Most: I really truly thought someone on the other thread was taking the mickey. Not sure that even the combined talents of The Onion + Doonesbury are up to the task, but by glob I hope they try.

    The thing that makes me most sick about this is that 63 million of the shittiest Americans have just consigned hundreds of millions of people on this earth to a lifetime of misery, and who knows how many millions more to death, even in their own fucking country. They have consigned themselves to a lifetime of misery, as well, they are just too stupid and venal to realise it. And still, when they are living in their shacks (or cars, or ditches) with no water, no electricity, no food, they will be saying ‘we showed you, libtards!’ They are irredeemable. I have not reached the place — if I ever will — where I am willing to forgive their hate & ignorance. Something must happen, and soon, that stops this.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore: Dick Cheney walks among us, so I’m not holding out any hope there. But still, charred-through steaks and taco bowls should be breakfast and lunch, daily.

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @Yarrow:

    If he becomes a liability for Russia I wonder how long before they decide to take him out.

    It makes me wonder who’s paying for his praetorian private security guard. Are they really there to protect him, or are they in the pay of somebody who doesn’t want him putting a toe out of line?

  62. 62.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mary G:

    Is our NYT learning?

    Not until they start fact-checking something more important than the weather.

    @Roger Moore: I think it comes down to how quickly the Trumpists can move to consolidate power. It’s going to be a race. Congress isn’t going to go through the scandal of deposing a sitting President while they still have bills they want signed.

  63. 63.

    bemused

    @Baud:

    I’m a midwesterner in my 60’s and I’ve heard men call their wives ma…like decades ago. I don’t hear anyone under 90 doing that now. They’d get their asses kicked.

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    Very strange.

    I don’t care if Pence was in diapers when he said it, either.

    Not interested in that fool. We can have pet picture thread?

    And AMIR: Come back! He is missed.

  65. 65.

    Roger Moore

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think it comes down to how quickly the Trumpists can move to consolidate power.

    How many of the people Trump is bringing in are genuinely Trumpists, though, and how many are Pence’s picks? The West Wing people are clearly a bunch of Trumpists, but most of the cabinet are Republican apparatchiks. If push came to shove, I’d bet they’d back Pence over Trump, especially if Trump did something so outlandish Pence decided to push the 25th Amendment angle.

  66. 66.

    PPCLI

    Everything else about Pence in that story was absolutely horrifying, and it causes dread to think of him as a potential president.

    Except the bit about calling his wife “Mother”. That struck me as benign and even a bit charming in a folksy way.

  67. 67.

    Hunter Gathers

    @PPCLI:

    That struck me as benign and even a bit charming in a folksy way.

    Fuck folksy. It ain’t the fifties. It’s time to punch some fucking Nazis. Everything that homophobe does is creepy, stupid and downright fucking evil.

  69. 69.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Roger Moore: That, I don’t know. But I have a suspicion we’ll find out soon enough.

    There’s a third possibility, of course–the Trumpists get the groundwork half in place for a permanent one-party state, then Congress deposes him and takes the reins.

  74. 74.

    Morzer

    @vhh:

    Also true in Korean, although it should be pointed out that in both languages it’s standard practice to use some sort of surname and/or title/role rather than a plain “You”.

  75. 75.

    bemused

    A few months ago I read an article that mentioned how often Pence used the words “broad-shouldered” to describe Twittler and other men. He’s used that a lot, seems to be a favorite descriptor. It did raise my eyebrows but he probably meant as an asset that strong male leaders have which would make sense since he is very conservative and thinks only men should be in leadership positions. Calling his wife mother implies that’s her designated role, imo.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @Morzer:

    Also true in Korean, although it should be pointed out that in both languages it’s standard practice to use some sort of surname and/or title/role rather than a plain “You”.

    Mr You?

  77. 77.

    NeenerNeener

    @Roger Moore: I still say a fake heart attack would let him exit for “health reasons” and make the most people, including him, happy.

    Although the phrase “President Donald Trump, dead at 71” spontaneously popped into my head last week, I’m not a psychic so I’m not getting my hopes up.

  80. 80.

    Paul in KY

    @Roger Moore: ‘Normal’ Repub crackpots would love to have Pence in there. He should watch any food ‘mother’ prepares for him. Just the same as if The Great Northern Grifter was his veep.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @Morzer:

    it should be pointed out that in both languages it’s standard practice to use some sort of surname and/or title/role rather than a plain “You”.

    Which has the odd effect, in Japanese at least, of making a plain “you” into a term of endearment, since it’s something you’d only use with somebody you’re very close to.

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Bobby D:

    O mither, mither, mak my bed,
    And mak it soft and narrow.
    As my love died for me today,
    I’ll die for him tomorrow.

  92. 92.

    sdhays

    @bemused: I’m a midwesterner in my thirties and my parents refer to each other as “Mom” and “Dad”. It started for my benefit and it stuck, although they use their given names more often now that I’ve been out of the house for lo these many years. But even when I was young, they typically referred to each other by their given names when talking to people outside the family.

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    @Seanly:

    You all are all seeming to think Pence remembers his wife’s name. Not demonstrated at all.

    Mother is easier for him to remember, every woman Pence knows will respond to that call.

  96. 96.

    Shalimar

    I don’t know why people are positive Trump will be the one who doesn’t last 4 years. I have seen this movie before. Strasser and Rohm get killed. Hitler lives for another decade.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @Comrade Scrutinizer:

    OTOH, they did okay with Diem and Allende.

    Actually, no. They just created havoc, with no greater purpose than soothing the brow of a paranoid American ruling class.

  100. 100.

    Calouste

    @amk:

    When the audience was asked how many of them welcomed Brexit, only one hand went up – and it turned out that belonged to a businessman who wanted more EU reform and was fed up with Britain slowing things down.

    German conservatives are Christian-Democrats, not Randians.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    I want him led out of the White House in hand cuffs.

    Handcuffs, leg shackles, and an orange jumpsuit, although with the latter, actually, how would one know?

  102. 102.

    EBT

    @Roger Moore: Or a very grave insult, depending on the position the two of you hold (both economically, and socially). Everything is contextual to those.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    Pence’s odd rhetoric aside, the first days of the Trump administration is marked with spiteful pettiness.

    From various news sources:

    Shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday, the White House introduced several changes to its website – among them: it is now an “English only” site.

    “Sorry, the page you’re looking for cannot be found,” is the message Internet users get when trying to access http://www.whitehouse.gov/espanol.

    The Spanish version of the White House page was created in the months following President Barack Obama’s swearing in in 2009. Up until Jan. 20, the site also had a blog dedicated to issues considered of interest for the Hispanic community.

    The majority of the Spanish content, however, can still be found at ObamaWhiteHouse.gov, a site with an archive of Obama-era materials and resources.

    According to EFE, the new Trump administration also has ordered the shutdown of other communication resources in Spanish such as @LaCasaBlanca account on Twitter and La Casa Blanca Facebook page.

    The move is consistent with President Trump’s criticism of the widespread use of Spanish in the United States.

    Make America White and English Only Again.

    ETA: And Pompeo has been confirmed as CIA director. All requests for coup plots to tumble Trump should be sent to his office.

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    When You Brag That The Women’s Marches Were Nonviolent
    When you brag that your protests had no arrests, I wonder what you think that says about you.

    “When someone asks me about violence… I just find it incredible. Because what it means is that the person asking that question has absolutely no idea what black people have gone through — what black people have experienced in this country — since the time the first black person was kidnapped from the shores of Africa.” — Angela Davis

    ……………………

    When you say that your protests were nonviolent, I wonder, how do you define violence?

    Is it a brick?

    Is it a rock?

    Is it a baton?

    Is it pepper spray?

    Is it a firehose?

    Is it a police dog?

    Or is it poisoned water?

    Is it a school suspension?

    Is it mass incarceration?

    Is it grinding poverty?

    Is it that “random” airport security check?

    Is it yet another traffic stop?

    Is it the toy gun in that kid’s hand?

    Is it that stop and frisk?

    Or is it the thought that you could march a million white women down the street without fear — and high five the same cops who wouldn’t hesitate to pepper spray black and brown faces begging for nothing less than their lives — and then call it progress?

  107. 107.

    EBT

    @Shalimar: a 70 year old man used to lazy work days, who is at least 60 pounds over weight and has 0 impulse control? Suddenly made president? It’s a recipe for a heart attack/stroke double feature.

  109. 109.

    rikyrah

    Jamil Smith ‏@JamilSmith

    You could argue block granting to states in lieu of Medicaid should be re-termed “medical rationing.” It is lazy and cruel governance.

  112. 112.

    Shalimar

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: I think Priebus is Strasser. They don’t really have a Brownshirt equivalent. Lewandowski could be the closest, if he starts bitching about being left out of the administration.

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Charles P. Pierce ‏@CharlesPPierce

    Can’t wait to see what, say, Sam Brownback will do with his block-grant Medicaid money.

  115. 115.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Calouste:

    The “broad-shouldered” comes from Pence’s suppressed homo-erotic feelings.

    Wasn’t it Tweety who referred, admiringly, to Mittens Rmoney as “someone whose shoulders you could land a 747 on”? And I’m also reminded of Bobo who said of (I think) John Thune that he was “tanned, in a prairie, sun-chapped sort of way.”

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    DA PHUQ?

    Louise Mensch Verified account
    ‏@LouiseMensch

    Louise Mensch Retweeted Ivanka Trump HQ

    Verified account for @IvankaTrump is pushing an FSB flying app that spies on Americans, coded by the GRU

  119. 119.

    Taylor

    @Brachiator: @Brachiator:

    The CIA was never really an effective organization in either reality or even the movies.

    I dunno. Bob Toricelli disclosed CIA dirty dealings in Guatemala on the Senate floor. A year later, he was out due to ethics problems. Pure coincidence, of course.

  125. 125.

    rikyrah

    Tim Hanlon‏@TimfromDa70s

    FOX NEWS:
    Leader of “Bikers For Trump” described being “assaulted” by a Woman at the March.
    “She screamed in my face & threw glitter on me”

  126. 126.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @rikyrah:

    These senators and congressmen actually violate the constitutional amendments that guarantee the people of that particular state or county the right to vote. And the Constitution itself has within it the machinery to expel any representative from a state where the voting rights of the people are violated. You don’t even need new legislation. Any person in Congress right now, who is there from a state or a district where the voting rights of the people are violated, that particular person should be expelled from Congress. And when you expel him, you’ve removed one of the obstacles in the path of any real meaningful legislation in this country. In fact, when you expel them, you don’t need new legislation, because they will be replaced by black representatives from counties and districts where the black man is in the majority, not in the minority.

    If the black man in these Southern states had his full voting rights, the key Dixiecrats in Washington, D. C., which means the key Democrats in Washington, D.C., would lose their seats. The Democratic Party itself would lose its power. It would cease to be powerful as a party. When you see the amount of power that would be lost by the Democratic Party if it were to lose the Dixiecrat wing, or branch, or element, you can see where it’s against the interests of the Democrats to give voting rights to Negroes in states where the Democrats have been in complete power and authority ever since the Civil War. You just can’t belong to that Party without analyzing it.

    I say again, I’m not anti-Democrat, I’m not anti-Republican, I’m not anti-anything. I’m just questioning their sincerity, and some of the strategy that they’ve been using on our people by promising them promises that they don’t intend to keep. When you keep the Democrats in power, you’re keeping the Dixiecrats in power. I doubt that my good Brother Lomax will deny that. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a Dixiecrat. That’s why, in 1964, it’s time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we’re supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don’t cast a ballot, it’s going to end up in a situation where we’re going to have to cast a bullet. It’s either a ballot or a bullet.

    In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system that’s known as gerrymandering, whatever that means. It means when Negroes become too heavily concentrated in a certain area, and begin to gain too much political power, the white man comes along and changes the district lines. You may say, “Why do you keep saying white man?” Because it’s the white man who does it. I haven’t ever seen any Negro changing any lines. They don’t let him get near the line. It’s the white man who does this. And usually, it’s the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he’s not your friend.

    So, what I’m trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we’re faced with a government conspiracy. Everyone who’s filibustering is a senator—that’s the government. Everyone who’s finagling in Washington, D.C., is a congressman—that’s the government. You don’t have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the government. The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education. You don’t need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro.

    Malcolm X. 1964. Fifty-three years later, how much has changed?

  130. 130.

    John Revolta

    Okay, even overlooking the “Mother” crap. what the hell is up with the stuff he’s talking about? If the conversation is being reported correctly, why is he asking her these kinda weird pointed questions? Sounds to me like he’s making some sort of point about gender roles and who wears the pants or something. Does anybody else hear that?

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    found this at another blog about the MSM covering for Spicer on his ‘ do over’:

    aleth

    I have said it before, the instinct of whiteness to prop up its mediocre male extends to the Press. Their families voted and like cheeto. It is their interest to prop it up.

    The insecurity of these men will kill this nations future. They cannot bare that any one who is not straight white male could be smarter than they are. It extends to the left characters as well. Each individual will have to work to save some part of themselves because depending on these stooges will go nowhere.

    POC get it. [I”ll say majority get it] but whiteness – nope. This is the audience they are playing too. Putin gets it and unfortunately he will win.

  132. 132.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Taylor:

    Tweetie also rhapsodized about Fred Thompson’s manly smell. I am not making this up.

    Oh ICK! Really? ICK.

  135. 135.

    Roger Moore

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    It’s as if they believe any courtesy to someone else diminishes them.

    That’s exactly what they think. They are bullies. They’re fundamentally weak people who think the way to hide their weakness is to constantly attack people even weaker than themselves, and that any display of anything less than contempt is a sign of weakness.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: June, 2007

    MATTHEWS: Can I ask you a gender question, Ana Marie?
    COX: You may.
    MATTHEWS: Does he have sex appeal? I‘m looking at this guy and I‘m trying to find out the new order of things, and what works for women and what doesn‘t. Does this guy have some sort of thing going for him that I should notice?
    […]
    MATTHEWS: Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man‘s shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of—a little bit of cigar smoke? You know, whatever.

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    PHUCK OUTTA HERE.
    8 years of receipts, Mr. “My only job is to make him a one term President.”

    Evan McMurry Verified account
    ‏@evanmcmurry

    .@SenateMajLdr: “The first thing we have to do is move beyond this ‘us and them’ mentality that has so often characterized the last 8 years”

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    Talia
    ‏@2020fight

    After all the outrage over Hillary Clinton’s emails, White House staffers are currently using their personal emails for official business.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    My (late) dad would occasionally call my mom “Grandma” or “Ma,” but mostly to tease her in front of the family. Mostly he called her by her name.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    What Department of Justice Lawyers Think About Working for Jeff Sessions

    ……………………………

    Of course, cabinet nominees generally share their boss’s worldview. But the attorney general is the one who must have the courage to think independently and challenge the president’s missteps, prioritizing the rule of law over their personal ideology. Senator Sessions’s record does not indicate that he would do so. To a startling degree, his views are in lockstep with Trump’s, and his nomination has spurred prominent conservative media outlets to gleefully speculate about the likely elements of his agenda. It’s a frighteningly regressive checklist that at times appears cribbed from another era: rolling back “the ‘radical’ notion of transgender rights,” stopping those pesky federal investigations into allegations of police brutality, enforcing the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act, neutering enforcement of key antidiscrimination laws, and “maintaining the accuracy of voting rolls,” which is still just code for stopping voter fraud that doesn’t exist.

    Lawyers in the Department of Justice are already speculating about what life would be like under Attorney General Sessions. Most of these attorneys are career civil servants whose tenures in the department span multiple administrations. These are people who have spent their careers ensuring that the system metes out justice in an apolitical, evenhanded manner. If Sessions is confirmed this week, they will suddenly find themselves working for a genteel yet unrepentant ideologue who has given no indication that he shares this vision.

    We spoke to a few of these career DOJ lawyers, who asked to remain anonymous, about how they see their employer’s roles, responsibilities, and priorities shifting under Attorney General Sessions. Many of them are very, very worried.

  143. 143.

    Larkspur

    @J R in WV:

    You all are all seeming to think Pence remembers his wife’s name. Not demonstrated at all.

    Mother is easier for him to remember, every woman Pence knows will respond to that call.

    My take exactly, especially considering the questions he asked “Mother” – who made the food? Whose dishes are these? WTF, dude, you don’t know either of those things? I mean, is this really your beautiful house? Is this your beautiful wife? Well, how did you get here? Same as it ever was.

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    Joy Reid Verified account
    ‏@JoyAnnReid

    Joy Reid Retweeted Sharon

    Luckily Barack Obama wasn’t needy. This is neediness on a scale I’ve never seen in a president.

  147. 147.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Said the Tweety to his Hardball guest:
    “Do you smell what I smell (what I smell)?
    An aftershave, reeking of Old Spice,
    English Leather, that would be nice.
    Aqua Velva, class beyond price.”

    Said the television guest to her host,
    “Yes, I smell what you smell (what you smell):
    An ass, an ass, ass of Huckabee,
    Follow close behind lustfully,
    Brownnose him on your bended knee.”

  148. 148.

    rikyrah

    Joy Reid ‏@JoyAnnReid 6h6 hours ago

    Spicer claimed today that only 10 people were brought with Trump to the CIA. CIA sources say 40. Someone is lying.
    174 replies 812 retweets 1,112 likes

    Joy Reid Verified account
    ‏@JoyAnnReid

    Spicer now inveighing against the meanness of people telling poor Donald what he can’t do.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    Matt Pearce Verified account
    ‏@mattdpearce

    Louisiana police chief says the state’s new “Blue Lives Matter” law makes resisting arrest a “hate crime.”

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    Michael D. Shear Verified account
    ‏@shearm

    The door from the WH briefing room to Lower Press, where the press secretaries are, has been locked. Normally open until late at night

  151. 151.

    Gravenstone

    To be fair, that is sort of a Midwestern idiosyncrasy in some corners. I’ve known many an older guy who referred to his wife as “mother”. Perhaps it’s more limited to some groups, since none of the Democratic legislators present appeared to have encountered it.

  152. 152.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I would like to put it another way, if we can: the white women who came created a protective barrier for those with less privilege.

    If having white women show up to a protest prevents the police from overreacting and harming people, then it is clearly the moral and civic duty of every liberal white woman — myself included — to show up to protests en masse to protect the more vulnerable protesters from police violence.

    Let’s turn this into a positive that protects people, not a negative that discourages white women from going to protests.

  153. 153.

    rikyrah

    Eoin Higgins
    ✔
    @EoinHiggins_

    Bernie Sanders, face of the resistance, votes to confirm both of Trump’s nominations for DHS and Sec. Def. The political revolution. FFS.
    8:00 PM – 22 Jan 2017

  154. 154.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mnemosyne: I like your framing. Especially since pushing too much wokeness on a crowd that contained many people who are just opening their eyes at all seems counter-productive.

    In the gay community there’s long been a “be with us on everything or don’t be with us at all” strain to the activism that I think is a strategic error, FWIW Dan Savage agrees.

  159. 159.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, several of us were celebrating the lack of violence because there weren’t any Black Bloc assholes or false flag attempts. The other possible interpretations didn’t sink in until later.

  160. 160.

    ed

    @JPL: liked the pelosi quote “Asked by reporters after the meeting if Trump made any surprising statements at the gathering, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi replied: “Well, I won’t even go into that.”

  164. 164.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    BTW, this was a popular shirt at the Raleigh March.

    Also, Gov. Mark Dayton fainted during his State of the State speech. It doesn’t seem to be serious, but at his age, who knows?

  167. 167.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow:

    Sorry to Godwin so early in the thread, but the parallels were striking.

    No need to be sorry, Reichminister Bannon is having a field day with this stuff. And the sad thing is, it’s all right out there in the open.

  168. 168.

    Jeffro

    @Roger Moore:

    I’m thinking the bigger worry for Trump is his health, both physical and mental. I’d also be worried about his safety.

    His declining physical health, mental health, and safety issues are really not ours to worry about, nor a detriment to the Republic.

  169. 169.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @rikyrah:

    FOX NEWS:
    Leader of “Bikers For Trump” described being “assaulted” by a Woman at the March.
    “She screamed in my face & threw glitter on me”

    Neither sheriff nor biker is safe from the savagery of mothers run wild in this Obama induced Post Apocalyptic Hellscape we live in now.

  170. 170.

    Jeffro

    @Roger Moore:

    I could easily see a 25th Amendment situation cropping up and the Republicans in Congress backing Pence because Trump is just so obviously off the rails.

    Since they have each other in a death grip, the only way they’d pull the 25th on Trump is if he were about to drop a nuke someplace. Everything else is completely acceptable, desirable even, to them. As long as he can sign whatever the GOP congress puts in front of him and keeps us tied down fighting his crazy ass, they’re ok with that.

  171. 171.

    Jeffro

    @JPL:

    I want him led out of the White House in hand cuffs.

    Yup. I’m telling y’all, I just cannot shake that image of him at a standard interrogation room table, melting down with his face in his hands…

    What do you say, Trumpov? Come clean and we’ll go easy on your “heirs”…or was it them that hooked you up with all that Russian mob money?

  174. 174.

    Mnemosyne

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:

    I do think that locking out the Black Bloc assholes was a big contributing factor. When there’s a huge mass of female protestors, it’s hard for the asshole dudes to act up and convince others to act up.

    But like I said, since we seem to have this unearned privilege and ability to keep the police calm, we need to be using it to benefit those who aren’t as lucky.

  175. 175.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Mnemosyne: Ayup. Just reflecting on what some of us were really celebrating when we were crowing about the lack of violence.

  176. 176.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    His declining physical health, mental health, and safety issues are really not ours to worry about, nor a detriment to the Republic.

    It’s a good thing we know your typical post(s).

    ETA: Meaning, my BP didn’t even go up. not even a point.

  177. 177.

    frosty

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Brownnose him on your bended knee.”

    Late to the thread and you may never see this, but you know what I like the best? It scans. So MANY people get the rhyme but not the rhythm. You hit it on this one!

  179. 179.

    Morzer

    @Roger Moore:

    In Korean, dangshin is often translated as “you”, but was originally limited to husband/wife interactions and is still used to mean “honey” or something similar. Much like anata in Japanese. In Chinese, you can apparently get a similar effect by using the first name without the surname, although one Chinese scholar of my acquaintance denied vehemently that even his beloved wife would ever think of taking such liberties.

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