May his shadow never grow less! Politico:
Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is encouraging federal employees to reach out to Congress if they are alarmed by the Trump administration’s policies.
“I want to make sure all of those federal employees who have anything they want to say to Congress, because there is some confusion as to whether they can talk to us, I’m telling you the law protects you and I will do every single thing in my power to make sure you’re protected,” the Maryland Democrat said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday. “Call me. I want to talk to you.”…
Reports that employees at several agencies, including the EPA, were asked to limit their public communications have riled members of Congress, especially Democrats, who hope to play an oversight role during the Trump administration.
Amid a public outcry, several federal agencies, including the Agriculture Department, have backtracked on their restrictions this week.
My emphasis. Rep. Cummings, as well as continuing to stand up for the best of the American ideal, would seem to be putting his committee fellows — especially the Repubs, some of the noisiest deplorables in the GOP basket — on notice. More power to him!
What else is on the agenda for the evening?
dr. bloor
Spending my evening raging at previously-reliable New England Democratic senators for voting to confirm Trump’s Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight. Reed and Whitehouse have completely lost the pulse on what’s happening, and I crossed interstate lines to launch into Warren as well for her Carson vote.
None of these guys have a fucking clue. We’re screwed.
Smiling Mortician
Hey, could somebody maybe tell Politico about that whole “checks and balances” thing? Pretty sure Congress doesn’t just “hope” to play a role here.
Lizzy L
OT — but I have a serious question. I got a $$ request from the DNC today. Does it make sense to give them money? I absolutely want to support solid Democratic candidates for 2018 and beyond — is supporting the DNC useful and productive, or is it throwing money down a rat-hole? I live in the SF Bay Area and my representative is solidly blue, so I have no need to donate locally. Again, serious question.
dr. bloor
@Smiling Mortician: Actually, Congress has demonstrated no interest in exercising constitutional controls. Ryan and McConnell will keep the Alzheimer’s Patient-in-Chief on his feet until he’s unmanageable and vetoes some element of their pre-Enlightenment agenda, and then they’ll impeach his ass off with instructions to Pence to do better.
Spanky
What’s on the agenda is bed. I realized I needed to take Adam’s advice a couple of days before he gave it, so no late nights for me. And 4:30 comes too quickly.
See ya on the flip side.
amk
so, once again, the dem party needed a black man to give it some backbone?
Thanks AL. Women to the rescue. Yet again.
@dr. bloor: WASF.
dr. bloor
@Lizzy L: No. Never give money to the DNC–putting a match to your currency and watching it burn is probably more productive, insofar as it can’t be used to shoot the country in the foot.
Find individual candidates, action committees, and public interest groups with an agenda you like and give until it hurts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Lizzy L: I do. I don’t think it’s throwing money down the rat hole, but they’ll do things with it you don’t like. Probably. But if we’re serious about rebuilding the party– “fifty state strategy” or not– that’s one of the main vehicles to do it. I would say don’t give them all the political money you have budgeted. Save some for individual candidates like.
My half a cent
Lizzy L
@dr. bloor: Yeah, well, that’s what I have been doing. Can’t say I’m entirely satisfied with the result. Mind you, I’m not arguing with you. Just sayin’.
khead
Wanted to share this. From a friend.
I have a pretty swell life. I am college educated. I have a house, an SUV and an iPhone. I am married to the love of my life. I have a goofy, tender-hearted, rock & roll loving kid who makes me warmer than a southern summer day. I go to spin classes and have leisurely lunches with my friends. I tote my MacBook to funky coffee shops and write stories. I have money in the bank and I am never worried about paying my mortgage, let alone making sure that my daughter has dinner. I go on vacations and take smiling pictures that I post on social media.
That is my experience – today! My happy, charmed life experience.
If I chose to only share my present experience, most of you wouldn’t know that I was born some straight up white trash; that my parents were high school dropouts and raging drug addicts; that we were on welfare and often without electricity or water. If I had never started writing, the vast majority of you wouldn’t know that my parents went to prison and that I’ve lived in houses where rats the size of poodles also resided.
And, from my beaming pictures with jaunty captions you wouldn’t know that there have been times in my life when I have been so filled with black rage that I feared that it would consume me like a fast moving fire. During those times, when it all felt unfair, I lashed out at loved ones and strangers alike.
When I smile in those pictures you can’t see that I am missing a tooth because in college it became abscessed and I couldn’t afford a complete root canal – even at the dental school.
But, just because you wouldn’t know it, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen and that it didn’t shape who I am, good and bad, to this day.
When speaking to my friend, Yasmine Jeffers, about the protesting and rioting in Charlotte after the Keith Lamont Scott shooting she said something extremely profound that I carry with me every day. Yasmine tells her young sons, “Just because it hasn’t happened to us, doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened.”
— Just because you’ve never been followed through a store because of the color of your skin, doesn’t mean that it it hasn’t happened to my brilliant, beautiful friend Yasmine.
— Just because you’ve never been objectified or made to feel less than, doesn’t mean that there are some men who really do think it is okay to grab you by the p***y.
— Just because you’ve never made less money for the same job, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
— Just because your hard work and determination has always been rewarded, doesn’t mean that everyone’s has.
— Just because your little boy has never wanted to wear a princess dress, doesn’t mean that that nice mom in carpool’s little boy doesn’t desperately want to wear his beautiful Elsa dress to school.
— Just because you support alternative energy and a healthier planet, doesn’t mean you can’t have immense pride in the men who crawled into a dark hole and carried out the black rocks that moved this country forward.
— Just because your daughter wasn’t offered Princess Camp instead of Scientist Camp, doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened.
— Just because you’ve had access to birth control or enough money for an abortion, doesn’t mean that the 17 year old pregnant barista did.
— Just because you feel like your voice is heard, doesn’t mean that a lot of people don’t feel as if they’ve been put on mute.
— Just because you’ve never been sexually assaulted and then had to talk about how many drinks you had or how short your skirt was, doesn’t mean that a college freshmen isn’t starting to think that maybe it was her fault.
— Just because you call something an alternative fact, doesn’t mean it’s not a lie.
— Just because I support your right to be pro-life, doesn’t mean that you get to tell me what to do with my body.
— Just because you’ve never been thrown through a plate glass window, doesn’t mean that my mom wasn’t.
— Just because you’ve never worked endlessly at a cheap shoe store to provide for the three grandchildren you adopted and still couldn’t make ends meet, doesn’t mean that my grandmother didn’t.
— Just because you’ve never been told that you should be ashamed for loving the person that you do, doesn’t mean that my funny, smart friend, Bridget, wasn’t told this by a family member.
— Just because your mom never threatened to pawn your little brother’s bike if you didn’t send her money for the electricity bill (although you knew it was really to buy dilaudid), doesn’t mean mine didn’t.
— Just because I accept that he is the 45th President of the United States, doesn’t mean that I have to get over it and support his narcissistic, racist, misogynistic, homophobic views and lies.
— Just because you feel that you control your body, doesn’t mean that someone isn’t skipping her annual pap or a mammogram to pay for her kid’s field trip or basketball shoes.
— Just because your parents always encouraged you to do well in school and told that you could be anything that you wanted to be, doesn’t mean that deep in a WV holler or high in a Hell’s Kitchen tenement or even in a Beverly Hills’ mansion parents aren’t just shrugging their shoulders or shaking their heads when their kid flunks out.
— Just because you’re free to worship where you would like, doesn’t mean that a mosque or a synagogue isn’t being vandalized or threatened right now.
— Just because you think protestors who destroy a window should be shot dead, doesn’t mean that this country wasn’t started by people dumping someone else’s property into the ocean.
— Just because you have the right to vote, doesn’t mean that your great-grandmothers weren’t beaten and jailed to give you that beautiful privilege.
— Just because your fridge and pantry are stocked with healthy snacks, doesn’t mean that a teenager left in charge of her siblings while their mom works her third job of the day isn’t trying to make dinner with eggs and peanut butter.
— Just because you don’t see your privilege, doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be checked.
— Just because you don’t see the point in a march where the participants wear silly hats and carry signs that you deem offensive, doesn’t mean that it isn’t their constitutionally-given right to do so.
— Just because you’ve never been so ashamed and embarrassed for simply existing, doesn’t mean that I haven’t.
— Just because we disagree, doesn’t mean that we’re not all in this together.
And, just because we are hurt and confused, dumbfounded and bewildered doesn’t mean that we don’t still have a responsibility to be kind.
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I read that as fifty shades strategy. That would make town committee meetings a lot more interesting.
ThresherK
@khead: Very nice.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MomSense: I can think of a number of the Departed I would summon to address the next DNC meeting. I would start with Molly Ivins.
Old Dan and Little Anne
@khead: Damn straight.
B in the D
Loved the line about dumping somebody else’s property in the ocean. Loved the whole thing, in fact. Thanks.
jenn
@khead: I love this, thank you for posting it! Please tell your friend thanks, too! :) I hope she’s had a lot of positive feedback.
khead
I want to give full credit to Sosha Lewis. I am just passing it on.
Gin & Tonic
Just got back from viewing Hidden Figures. I know it’s been said here before, more than once, but what a wonderful movie!
That is all.
momus
This just means that Kim Trump-un will issue an EO requiring federal employees to sign Trump Organization NDAs.
chris
@dr. bloor: Agreed though not everyone here does. The Dems can’t stop this train but they could at least give it the finger as it goes by. Instead they’re being …what? Civil? Collegial even? With Republicans? FFS
My concern is that these votes will be used against them in the future. Hillary voted for the AUMF, yes, but many people still hold her personally responsible for the Iraq war. And she lost. I doubt that Sen. Warren gained any voters by voting for Carson.
Just sayin’
Major Major Major Major
@dr. bloor: hey, I used to get paychecks with ‘DNC’ on them! ??♂️
Major Major Major Major
Silicon Valley did something embarrassing again.
dr. bloor
@efgoldman: I think Reed is a yes for Sessions, although don’t quote me. These clowns seem to think Jacob Javits is still sitting on the other side of the aisle.
Warren explained her Carson vote despite her “deep, serious concerns” about him on her FB page. Most of it was self-soothing blather suggesting she thinks she’ll be able to exercise some control over him after he’s confirmed.
I’ll be pleasantly surprised if any of Trump’s cabal is rejected. These votes are purely symbolic. The fact that so many Senators are choosing to give the R’s a bipartisan fig leaf rather than show solidarity with their constituents is galling. The next time they encourage me and mine to scrape up transportation costs, child care arrangements, etc. to stand in the cold and protest, I’m going to tell them to engage in intercourse with a heavily oxidized farm implement.
dr. bloor
@Major Major Major Major: SEE! Donation dollars going to deadbeats who sit around and comment on subversive websites all day. :)
Millard Filmore
from this link given at No More Mister Nice Blog,
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trump-tells-abc-news-david-muir-alleged/story?id=45047764
Trump says “You have people that are registered who are dead …” Well DUH!
Are you the voter register office?
Yes, this is the place. How can I help you?
Well I died last week and need to unregister.
Adam L Silverman
@MomSense: We’d like to think Father Smith for that inspiring, ecumenical invocation. Now before I ask for a motion to waive the reading of the minutes, I’d like to inform you all that tonight’s safe word is banana…
Lyrebird
Rep. Cummings is so awesome.
More people who are awake:
from the executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect:
PsiFighter37
@dr. bloor: The one who had the best chance of getting KO’ed was Tillerson, but Lil’ Marco showed his lack of spine again on that one.
This is going to be the worst cabinet we have in ages. Really our only hope for a modicum of sanity is if Ryan/McConnell get bogged down fighting with Trump over infrastructure. My guess is they give him a tiny victory (or none at all – just look at how we’re going to pay for the stupid wall with Mexico in the end) and move on to the bigger agenda items, such as dismantling the ACA and the Great Society programs while we are at it.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@momus:
Kim Trump-un… I LOL’d.
amk
@chris:
Exactly. Not covering themselves with glory, are they?
Kay
I told you-all the Trump Administration would Birtherize voting. They’ll muddle everything up with their idiotic statements and all of media will pretend it’s hugely complex and impossible to understand, when it isn’t- registering and voting are two different things. That’s it. That’s the whole mystery. They don’t need an expert of voting to explain this. Any idiot can figure it out.
I wonder what low quality hacks will be appointed to Trump’s voter fraud commission when the President who is appointing them doesn’t know how voting works.
We’ll now be treated to misinformation on basic election process for the next year- a process literally tens of thousands of ordinary poll workers understand, but no one in the Trump Administration can figure out.
Someone needs to ask Sessions about this. If the attorney general believes, like Donald Trump, that there are people “who don’t look like they should they be voting” millions of voters may be disenfranchised by their own government.
PhoenixRising
A note on ‘the Democrats sold us out’: Your youth and naivete are adorable, love you, really.
Let me try this one more time in case the static breaks up at the perfect moment…The Democrats in office are the opposition. Yes, they should *oppose* every damn thing Trump proposes, and the winners (Gillibrand/Heinrich 2020) have that figured out. But they are not going to resist. That is not their job. It is our job. And if we do it long enough, and thoroughly enough, by pushing, pulling and dragging citizens who don’t care about politics out of the grey zone and onto our team…elected Democrats will do what we tell them to. Because they will be afraid not to.
And that, ladies and germs, is how we got Democrats to govern in the 20th century. The New Deal, the Voting Rights Act, health insurance that has to cover mammograms, marriage equality…all of those nice things didn’t just happen because Democrats are nicer, smarter and more enlightened. (Though that has since become true, more’s the pity.)
When I first attended a topical protest, 19 states enforced sodomy laws. Don’t try to tell me protest doesn’t work, because I know it does. I also know that no elected Democrats got in front of the tidal wave for marriage equality until the alternative was to lose their seats.
Light up their phones and faxes, one issue at a time, be consistent, and don’t be afraid to mass. Democrats aren’t going to lead us, but they will follow us.
lol chikinburd
Neil Cicierega’s latest, Mouth Moods, is a good sanity stabilizer. I’ll spoil no surprises.
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
At the risk of pissing you off further, I honestly can’t get that upset about the Carson vote. He’s going to be a disaster, but it’s not like there’s a better nominee waiting in the wings. In fact, the second choice would probably be even worse.
And I think it’s a bit of strategy for later — it makes it harder for the Republicans to run to the press with a sob story about the mean ol’ Democrats blocking every little thing they do.
Remember, both Hillary and John Kerry were confirmed with 90+ votes. The Republicans were more strategic with their obstructionism than we remember.
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: yes. Apparenteley these guise never went too church and lurnt to spel ‘savor’
lollipopguild
@Adam L Silverman: Banana? I thought the safe word was swordfish.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Kris Kobach is Trump’s primary strategist on voting.
Excuse me, I’ve got to go throw up now.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: @lollipopguild: This won’t end well.
Demomom
I live in CA & thought I was safe in not calling my senators about the Sessions vote but I just read that Feinstein said she might vote yes because they haven’t gotten that many calls! I’ll call Harris, too, but she has already said she’ll vote no. Thank heavens for twitter!
Belafon
@momus: That one would be shot down pretty easy: The government would be punishing someone for not signing an NDA.
amk
@Mnemosyne:
wow. people do have memories of a gnat. no wonder thugs now control almost all levers of power.
enough
excuserope was provided for dem cong critters and they decided to hand themselves with it. that’s the reality despite all the spin.MomSense
@Adam L Silverman: @lollipopguild:
Blue dogs! Once you picture Ben Nelson, the meeting is over.
gbbalto
@dr. bloor: Lessee – H Clinton got confirmed as SoS with a vote of 94 to 2. Clearly the Repubs were unanimous in voting against her. But your essential purity guides you to stop supporting our party? I hope that you will rethink.
ETA: Mnem got there first
lollipopguild
@Omnes Omnibus: One evening I shot an elephant in my pajamas. What he was doing in my pajamas I will never know.
Major Major Major Major
@gbbalto: more recently Kerry was confirmed… 96-4 or something.
Millard Filmore
@khead: Nice list. Since I am a smidge more confrontational, I would change
to this
In fact, I know just the facebook page to put this.
gbbalto
@Major Major Major Major: OMG!
Kay
This is what the Trump Administration are basing their voter fraud investigation on:
The story is a lie (of course). Langer doesn’t vote and isn’t a friend of Trumps- so of course the Trump Administration are launching an investigation based on it, because, why not? It’s not like truth matters to any of them.
We did learn something, though. We learned that Donald Trump believes there are people who “don’t look like they should vote”. What an embarrassment this President is.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: Ya know, if Kim Trump Un wants to clean up voter registration rolls and wants to get Congress to provide money to the states to a) get people off the rolls when they die*, and b) provide a protocol for states to notify each other when people register to vote in another state**, I’m good with that. Until then Kim Trump Un can shut his trap.
*And they damn well better be 6′ under.
**They better have registered in another state.
amk
To peeps who keep pointing out Hillary and Kerry as examples of rethug’s ‘strategic voting’, they were fucking ridiculously qualified for the jobs.
dr. bloor
@Mnemosyne: Not really. Most of what pisses me off is that there was never any chance that Carson would be rejected. As bad as he is, there was never going to be “someone worse.” It was a purely symbolic vote.
It’s kind of pathetic. Warren runs all over the country and jumps in front of every fucking camera she can find, and goes off on her righteous rant. When it comes time to throw a rubber bone to a starving constituency who are trying to get things going at the grassroots level, she can’t be bothered. Fuck her.
Edit–and, just to be clear, Clinton and Kerry were both able to recite the alphabet and demonstrate an awareness of the basics of the responsibilities they would be taking on in their respective positions.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not a big Feinstein fan, but that’s still a surprise. She wants to ensure she gets that sweet, sweet CA Republican vote when she runs again when she’s.. 86?
dr. bloor
@Demomom: DiFi is a treasure, but she’s hardly alone. “Gee, I haven’t heard from very many of my constituents about the avowed racist and xenophobe nominated to be the Attorney General, so “Yes” it is!” WTF?
gbbalto
@dr. bloor: Great! Withdraw the hem of your garment. It’s not like we had a problem on Nov 9 with folks who just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the impure one.
ETA: Kerry and Clinton were not qualified from the Repub POV.
p.a.
@dr. bloor: @efgoldman: Whitehouse town meeting Sun 1/29 5pm Nathan Bishop Middle 1Sessions St Pvd (across street from Brown Stadium)
Sab
@Mnemosyne: Thanks for saying that. I trust Sherrod Brown.
Lizzy L
@Demomom: DiFi’s SF office number is 415-393-0707. The staff is there from 9 am to 5 pm, but the comment line is always on, and you can leave a message that you don’t want Jeff Sessions to be head of the Justice Department. I just did. CALL. PLEASE.
dr. bloor
@gbbalto: Hmm…Hillary Clinton was a sitting senator with foreign policy expertise when she was nominated to be Secretary of State. Ben Carson–a fucking physician–said he wasn’t qualified to be Surgeon General, but then gladly took on a position in an area that he has absolutely no experience in.
Connect the fucking dots, rocket man.
dr. bloor
@gbbalto:
And as we know, alternative facts are equally as important as real ones.
Kay
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Don’t put anyone in the Trump Administration anywhere near voting. You would be better off hiring 10 county clerks. Much higher quality hires and they won’t believe there are people who “don’t look” like they should be voting- by that he means “brown people”.
Any 10 random poll workers would do better work than anyone in that administration. A lottery of poll workers, first 10 out of the barrel.
Major Major Major Major
Boys, boys.
Here, a blog post about opposing populists from somebody who lived under Chavez. https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/01/20/culturejam/
gbbalto
@dr. bloor: It’s as obvious to me as to you that the Dem appointees were superbly qualified, and Carson ain’t, jet boy. What bothers me is your attitude FIVE DAYS IN. You’re going to withdraw your support, really? Maybe our Reps and Senators are doing some kind of politics?
stinger
@khead: Fantastic — thanks so much for posting it!
gbbalto
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks!
Omnes Omnibus
@gbbalto: @dr. bloor: Let’s not start a circular firing squad. Carson isn’t a line in the sand vote. The Supreme Court, there is a line in the sand. Unless Trump nominates someone left of Merrick Garland, no Dem should vote for the nominee. Sessions matters too.
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: You’ll be dead by the time you mumble that around your ball gag. Based on what I’ve been told… ?
Adam L Silverman
@lollipopguild: With your nym, one would not think that your pajamas would fit an elephant.
gbbalto
@Omnes Omnibus: I totally agree, and I apologize to dr. b who I don’t think is a splittist. Bad times, we need to keep calm.
BBA
I can actually see why Dems would support Carson for HUD. He’d basically be an empty chair, and an empty chair would be much better than anyone else the Schmuck-in-Chief would put there.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: This is going to run through all 50 state secretaries of state. 33 of them are Republicans. The association for the state secretaries of state issued a statement that there were no issues. All he’s going to do is further reduce his de facto legitimacy.
dr. bloor
@gbbalto:
The other side has done quite a lot of damage in that “only five days” you’re talking about. And if they’re playing politics with a bunch of greedhead nihilists in the hopes that Ryan and McConnell will somehow exercise the restraint to refrain from doing their worst, they’re idiots.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay: I said, if they want to advocate for Congress providing funds. IOW, put their money where their mouth is.
Lizzy L
@Adam L Silverman: “there were no issues” meaning the association does not believe there was any voter fraud, thank you very much…
amk
mehico to the dick: go fuck, yourself.
Adam L Silverman
@Lizzy L: You’re welcome.
O. Felix Culpa
@Demomom:
It is never safe not to call. And it’s a super low time commitment to make that call. Bliue legislators need to know what we want them to do just as much as the red ones. Then, when they do the right thing, thank them. It makes a difference.
Lizzy L
@Adam L Silverman: I doubt T is even aware that voting in the U.S., even for national office, is handled state by state. I’m willing to lay money down that he has no idea that by saying there was widespread voter fraud, he’s impugning the competency or the honesty of elected officials in 50 states. Or maybe he thinks the voter fraud was confined to the blue states…?
lollipopguild
@Adam L Silverman: Elephants are sneaky/devious.
? Martin
@Adam L Silverman: Only one of those Secretaries of State matter – California’s. That’s who Trump is targeting. He can’t handle the state of Reagan going over 4 million votes against him. That we’re a majority minority state only serves as evidence to him that the vote is fraudulent. He knows we’re the opposition.
We’re not going to allow any more of a wall on our southern border, we’re not going to cooperate with his immigration plan, we’re going to fight his climate plan harder than anyone else, fight any restructuring of NAFTA that hurts the state, and Brown is calling him out louder than any governor will. He’s trying to de-legitimize us. This will turn into a targeted effort against CA. Mark my words.
Adam L Silverman
@Lizzy L: No argument here.
Omnes Omnibus
@lollipopguild: The elephants are kindly, but they’re dumb.
mainmata
@efgoldman: My daughter goes to URI – such a great, welcoming school, especially for bright minorities like my daughter. To the point: Democrats (I think) know that the Trump Administration is self-destructive and that his idiot Cabinet members will be totally ineffective in their agencies not the least because they know nothing about the agencies they run and have been told to destroy their missions BUT federal bureaucrats are soooooo much smarter than those clowns. Trumpers can institute Soviet-style propaganda organs but agencies have many other ways of communicating. We’re in a Soviet/Fascist world but one run by amateurs. Expect massive frustration for Trump Fascists
Another Scott
@Lizzy L: If you read the About page on the DNC’s web site, they run the Convention and they support state parties. Unless they have a deficit as a result of the 2016 cycle (and I don’t think they do), there may be better places to send money at this time.
I get several e-mails a month from the DCCC and the DSCC, and occasional ones from the DNC. They’re lower on my political giving list than candidates in Virginia for this fall’s elections, and groups that are fighting Trump’s policies.
The national party is very important in the Congressional and Presidential races, but those are a ways off yet (in Virginia anyway).
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@amk:
We already know that Trump isn’t going to nominate anyone to HUD who’s qualified, or competent, or sane, and voting against Carson isn’t going to make a qualified, competent, and/or sane nominee magically appear. Is it really a life-or-death matter?
Attorney General is life or death. Secretary of State is life or death. HHS is life or death. But HUD?
@dr. bloor:
If you’re this incandescent with rage at the Democrats only 5 days in, there’s no way you’re going to make it to 2018, much less 2020.
Sometimes you have to pick your battles. As I asked above, is it really worth it to go to the mat over the secretary of HUD?
HRA
A few months ago I joined a site for the ward where I finished growing up in WNY on FB. It was started by a woman from the majority of the residents who came after we left and are Muslims. They are having a hard time understanding the EO about barring Muslims to the US. I went out to check on information about it and read what was written on Vox. I read it 3 times and then decided to post the url on their site for them to read it. I spent some time reassuring them as best I could under the idiocy of it all.
This is what I am up to tonight and so many days or nights after this election.
MCA1
@Mnemosyne: Agreed. Carson is unqualified in the subject matter and will no doubt be incompetent, but he’s not an outright criminal, and he’s not as morally and ethically compromised for this particular position as, say, Tillerson and DeVos are for theirs. He’s a terrible choice, but the President should have the prerogative to make this kind of terrible choice.
Not to mention, given that his marching orders are going to be to do as much harm as possible in a systematic way, his total lack of subject knowledge and competency outside of neurosurgery should be seen as a good thing. He’ll probably be very ineffective at what he’s been tasked to do. Were I Warren or Franken or someone I would have spent five minutes grilling him about his lengthy background in public service and housing policymaking, made him look foolish by asking about his thoughts on some made up acronym, and then vote thumbs up to essentially say “Yeah, whatever – you want this clown in your cabinet? Vaya con Dios, dumbass.”
Jordan Rules
I called and emailed DiFi but I’m from Arizona so I don’t know if she’ll even care. We shouldn’t have to do this. It should be a no-brainer. I was simply confused and wondering what the hell was going on yesterday in the comments when discussing Yes votes for Carson, but now I’ve really got nothing. As a woman of color, this is very scary to me that she, a Cali democrat no less, would even think about this. This might be the first time I’ve gone from really angry to just really hurt and sad.
This is not even a “purity” argument, not in the slightest. This is something different from where I sit. SMDH Gonna go for a walk……
….still will be fighting with yall…make no mistake about it
Xenos
@dr. bloor: don’t we need to have a few cabinet appointments complete in order for the XXVTH amendment to be effective?
Shalimar
@dr. bloor: Carson has no experience or qualifications, which still could make him worlds better than whatever slumlord Trump nominates if Carson isn’t affirmed.
EBT
And for anyone who thinks the marches did nothing: 1 state GOP lawmaker resigns already, after his crude tweet takes off. http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/01/nebraska-lawmaker-bill-kintner-resigns-over-womens-march-tweet.html
momus
Early in his first term, Eisenhower would sit at his desk and issue orders, much like trump, and nothing would happen. Ike figured it out, will trump? “General, this isn’t the army.”
dr. bloor
@Mnemosyne:
So I’m guessing you’ve never been, known, or worked with anyone who’s basic safety and housing needs are dependent on HUD policy?
Omnes Omnibus
@momus:
No.
? Martin
@Jordan Rules: What’s the opportunity cost for voting for Carson? That’s the real question. If they vote him down, who gets nominated in his place – maybe someone who is actively malicious, rather than just incompetent. Compare to the nominee to head the EPA.
cmorenc
Holy crap – in addition to some better-known douche canoes, such as Darrell Issa, Trey Gowdy, and of course chairperson Jason Chaffetz (who got over not being able to support Trump or look his daugher in the eye regarding Trump’s sexual abuse real quick) – there’s Virginia Foxx (grandmotherly looking, but she’s a nightmare piece of work), Mark “Appalachian Trail” Sanford, and Mark Meadows (head of the far-right “freedom caucus”).
Let’s make a slight but apt correction to name of this committee of Republi-thugs: the “Government overslight committee.
dr. bloor
@Shalimar: The slumlord in question is Trump himself. He’s got the perfect, too-ignorant-to-betray-a-sense-of-wrongdoing mouthpiece in Carson.
sdhays
Liberal Democrats (rather than people like Manchin or Heitkamp) finding some Trump appointees to vote for are not doing so for the sake of votes in their next election (either way, these votes are unlikely to have any bearing on their next election) – they’re doing it for credibility with their Republican colleagues. “See, I’m so reasonable, I even supported Ben Freakin’ Carson, so listen to me now when I say the Trumpenfuhrer needs to be impeached.” It means that people like Warren are planning to maximize their influence in Congress to limit the damage during the Trump years, so they’re picking their battles in order to maintain lines of communication with people on the other side of the aisle that just might be reachable at important moments.
Anyone planning to run for President in 2020 shouldn’t be doing this. None of Trump’s appointees are going to be remotely qualified and Trump himself is unbelievably toxic, so having a clean record of opposition will be important, especially in a Presidential primary. But if the Senator in question’s plan is work through the Senate to try to peel off votes from destroying Obamacare or re-enabling torture, it’s not “selling us out” or being cowardly. Whether or not this is a good strategy is open for criticism (I certainly have my doubts), but at least I think it’s obvious why they’re doing it and it’s not because they’re thinking of the next election.
But god damn it, I expect a united filibuster of Jeff Sessions…
Cleardale
So, all this talk about strategy, tactics, planning. Vote yes for Carson so you can vote no on Sessions. Ok then, can someone tell me how many no votes senators get so I can figure out the plan? I mean I understand you can’t just waste a no vote just because someone is completely unqualified for the job. You have to save them for some other unqualified person. Is there somewhere tracking all the votes so we can know how many no’s each senator has left? I mean I understand you can’t just vote yes or no based on actual qualifications, you have to make sure to appear unbiased for all those moderate republicans who are sure to cross party lines to vote next time. I mean there is absolutely no history of republicans just lying about democrats to their voters. Meanwhile there is such a largess of evidence showing moderate republicans voters choosing democrats when the republican party does things that affect them personally in a negative way.
So can someone let me in on the plan?
frosty
@PhoenixRising:
Hot damn, it might be working! Casey (D-PA) just announced he’s voting against Sessions, DeVos, and Pruitt. Maybe my calls made a difference!
(Got to remember to call tomorrow and say thanks)
dr. bloor
@? Martin: There is no opportunity cost with Carson. The universe in which Carson is rejected is also populated by evil Jim Kirk wearing a sash, Spock wearing a beard, and Sulu sporting a scar across his forehead.
cbear
@? Martin:
Bingo!
sdhays
@dr. bloor: For Trump appointees, I think “stupid and incompetent” is probably the high bar…
Omnes Omnibus
@dr. bloor: You have made your position very clear. OTOH, others may see a different way of opposing Trump. The idea being that pure knee-jerk opposition to everyone and every thing would, for example let the MSM easily characterize a fight against Sessions as more of the same. It may be right of it may be wrong, but it isn’t capitulation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think voting for HUD secretary is pretty deep inside-baseball, I can’t imagine Howie Carr or John Kasich Republicans using it as an (effective) attack on Warren or Brown. I wouldn’t have done it, but I can’t get real worked up that they did. Sessions and Mulvaney are the ones Dems are going to want to be able to say they stood against, and voting for Pompeo was a mistake.
ETA: And Price. Voting against Price is three kinds of no-brainer
Another Scott
@Kay: And even if someone is registered multiple places at the same time, that doesn’t mean there’s an attempt at fraud, either. When I lived in Chicago for 4 years in the early ’80s, I lived in 3 or 4 different places and was registered to vote in each of them. I registered at my new address when I moved. I assumed (like any normal person would) that the board of elections would take care of updating the rolls. I eventually found out (don’t recall how) that I was still registered at one or more previous addresses.
Since I never tried to vote in the wrong place, and never tried to vote multiple times, it was just a surprise, not some sign of fraud.
Why wasn’t my registration updated? I assume it was mainly because it would cost time and money to do so.
As you say, registration and voting are completely different things. Dead people don’t vote. Special ID cards don’t fix registration issues. Someone finding Bill The Cat on a registration roll (as I think someone claimed once) doesn’t mean that Bill The Cat voted.
Voting should be made easier not harder.
Without fair and easy access to voting, the legitimacy of our government is under threat.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
Name a cabinet department that is not life or death in some way. Are we allowed to rank them, or are they all exactly equal?
I do not currently have any relatives in Section 8 housing. Please note “currently.”
cmorenc
@? Martin:
That’s exactly the way I see Carson, too – he’s well-intended (if incompetent) and the only Trump civilian-agency side appointee who’s not a raging, malicious sociopathic asshole. Vote him down, and his replacement will certainly be of the latter type. The perverse upside (and simultaneous downside) of Carson as head of HUD is that his incompetence is more rather than less likely to result in an administration-damaging scandal committed by the corrupt underlings team Trump appoints to actually run the nuts-and-bolts of the department.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Yes he is. But, I’d much rather we used much stronger language. Embarrassment sounds like someone passed gas loudly. This man is a dangerous, deranged, dumbfuck. It’s not that he doesn’t want to do the job, it’s that he has no idea how to do the job and no idea where to even start. He’s writing executive orders like he was a monarch or a dictator, he doesn’t have the concept of what his power is or more importantly isn’t. He has no actual concept about laws, propriety…….
He is everything I expected of him. A 5 yr old in a 70 yr old body.
Mnemosyne
@cmorenc:
Carson will probably have a nasty bribery and/or grafting scandal on his hands sooner rather than later.
rikyrah
@khead:
thank you
catclub
@Lizzy L: I would like to see a planned budget for voter registration and countering gerrymandering, then an update on how fundraising is going.
Rather than simply: give us more money- we need whatever you can give – we always need whatever you can give.
Adam L Silverman
@dr. bloor: That’s also the universe with Uhura wearing a two piece and thigh high leather boots, so I’m not really sure what the problem is…
Another Scott
Atrios points us to goings on at the GOP Retreat in Philly tonight.
Nice.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
That’s quite heartening for Pennsyltucky. Good idea to let Republicans know that even states that went for Trump are not going to be safe spaces for them.
amk
nice run down of what are the federal agencies the dick is closing down (aka sock to the libruls vindictive agenda) and how much they actually cost to the americans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: Big, spontaneous demonstrations in NYC and DC, too, per MSNBC
Adam L Silverman
@Another Scott: Philadelphians know how to show the hospitality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh2DwRkLIQE
Lizzy L
Surrounded by hundreds of supporters on the steps of Seattle City Hall, Mayor Ed Murray called Wednesday “the darkest day in immigration history in America since the internment of the Japanese Americans” and said he’s prepared to lose “every penny” of federal money the city of Seattle gets.
I’m told the cities of NY, San Francisco, and Santa Fe said more or less the same thing.
Jordan Rules
@? Martin: It’s my understanding that we couldn’t stop it anyway (so there would not have been a worse candidate to avoid) so why not vote no because he’s not qualified?
It is interesting to see how reactions to these votes are breaking down, anecdotally of course, on twitter and other sites. It’s not the traditional bros who are disappointed this time around. It’s really interesting. Also too, housing is important.
I’ve gone round and round on this even before the possible ‘yes’ vote on Sessions from Difi. So I’ll just step back, move on and discuss something else. We’ve certainly got plenty to mine from.
ETA: It was a nice walk. Getting pretty cool for Phoenix standards tho.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lizzy L: These actions mean far more than the average Senate confirmation vote.
Adam L Silverman
@Lizzy L: And the President of Mexico:
And:
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Doesn’t Mexico have just one embassy in the US?
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes they do.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Primary embassy in DC. Mission to the UN in NY is also an embassy, but is officially labeled as a mission. The rest are consulates and it probably got translated wrong. Here’s the list:
https://mexico.visahq.com/embassy/united-states/
cthulhu
Our family has skin in the game on HUD issues and yet I honestly can’t get too worked up by Carson nom. He’s terribly ill-informed about everything outside his profession but he doesn’t strike me as particularly “actively evil” compared to other noms and other possibilities that the admin might put up for HUD. Yes, he will toady to Trump but I also see Carson as equally malleable to career underlings. Frankly I see very little of any admin preference (or anything else) getting accomplished at HUD under Carson there unless they are on top of him constantly. And if they are really willing to do that, it really doesn’t matter who is there.
Ultimately I am fine with all incompetents they put up because this is the best we can hope for (ugh) other than forcing the position to stay open for years. That option doesn’t seem tenable.
Mnemosyne
@Jordan Rules:
I think reasonable people can disagree on the smaller cabinet department votes.
But I’m calling DiFi tomorrow to stiffen her spine against Sessions. I don’t want to just leave a voicemail — I want to talk to a staffer.
? Martin
@Jordan Rules:
Well, you at least have a chip to play on the Sunday shows that Democrats were willing to vote for Trump’s candidates, as a presumed antidote to accusations that they simply voted because they don’t like Trump.
Not that I think it’ll work, or that anyone other than Chuck Todd cares, but I can see that. For the same reason that Schumer has signed on with the infrastructure plan, even though there’s no fucking way that these two guys have similar ideas.
Mandarama
@khead: Thank you so much for sharing this. It really hit home because with just a couple of details changed, I could have written the first two paragraphs. Many of us who have struggled to climb out of family poverty and addiction end up liberal, because the ladder we grabbed was provided by the government.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: @efgoldman: I know. Just being me.
dr. bloor
@Mnemosyne: I quite agree they’re all important. You’re the one that suggested that HUD wasn’t as big a deal as the others, so I take Carson’s nomination every bit as seriously as the others noted.
Btw, intimating that HUD’s brief amounts to “Section 8” isn’t a flattering look for you.
patroclus
@Cleardale: The plan is the same as Benjamin Franklin’s vote in favor of the Olive Branch petition to King George III in the Continental Congress. It was going to pass anyway, he knew, from having lived in London and been subjected to a Star Chamber, that the British were going to ignore it, but he was trying to get the Southern members to see that he was being “reasonable” so that he could ultimately win them over for independence. John Adams was the purity pony and voted “no” and the Southerners wouldn’t even listen to him. Franklin’s strategy worked in the end. Will it work now? Probably not, but that’s the plan.
CaseyL
The entire Cabinet is going to be Grand Guignol bad. Assuming the Dems have a strategy (I say that more in hope than certainty) perhaps they’re saving their powder for the worst of the worst; e.g., Sessions, DeVos, and Price.
Carson, being “merely” a vacuous grifter, is comparatively small beer.
Lizzy L
@CaseyL: I’d put Pruitt and Mulvaney on the worst list.
Omnes Omnibus
@dr. bloor: Okay, get on with your bad self.
Mnemosyne
@dr. bloor:
Well, feel free to go ahead and resolve to never vote for another Democrat because they didn’t vote in lockstep against every Trump nominee. That will totally fix all of our problems in 2018’s elections.
Me, I’m going to stay focused like a laser on voting rights for the next 2 years, because if we can’t win back the House and Senate, it really will be game over.
opiejeanne
@? Martin: Off topic, but are there two Martins? Or do you just randomly change your yellow diamond to a pink tulip?
Omnes Omnibus
@opiejeanne: One has a beard. We still haven’t been able to determine which is the evil one.
Cleardale
@CaseyL: Again, where is the place I can track their powder, since it’s apparently limited.
We know nothing they do will make republicans vote for them. We know the republican senators don’t give a shit about compromise and meeting in the middle, and that’s when they didn’t have all the power. So you are trying to appear reasonable, and it’s appear because every damn candidate put up is either unqualified or explicitly evil, for who? The sunday morning shows? How many votes did that get us? The MSM? How much has being reasonable in the past helped us get fair coverage from them? I get the “be reasonable and willing to compromise” concept, but it doesn’t work when the other side is neither reasonable or willing to compromise.
Republican voters punish anyone who even utters a contrary word, let alone take an action. Democratic voters are supposed to “understand”, “stay the course”, and “plan for the long game” when Democrats vote for Carson, Devos, and Sessions.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cleardale: There is about 10% of the voting public that isn’t locked into one party of the other. The fight is to get it. The problem our side has is that any effort to appeal to the mushy weirdos pisses off our left flank and they stay home or vote for dipshits. On the other side, any effort to appeal to the mushy weirdos pisses them off and they still vote GOP.
dm
15% of Trump supporters would rather believe Trump than their lying eyes.
Cleardale
@Omnes Omnibus: I understand trying to appeal to that 10%. I don’t understand pissing off our “27%” in attempt to get that 10%. I don’t understand how voting for Devos or Carson attracts that 10%.
It’s pretty clearly established that the 10% aren’t voting on actual policy, and certainly aren’t going to look at day 5 and think “hmmm in 2018 I’m gonna remember this!” We were reasonable and compromising for all of Obama’s years. What did that get us? A crooked FBI head leaking bullshit information and the MSM following along on a leash. Why are we still trying the same method when it objectively doesn’t work.
Mnemosyne
@Cleardale:
DeVos and Sessions haven’t been voted on yet.
I posted Dianne Feinstein’s office numbers to the activist group I’ve gotten involved with so we can all call her tomorrow and tell her to vote against DeVos and Sessions. What is your plan for tomorrow?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cleardale: I am not sure that you got my drift.
Mnemosyne
@Cleardale:
When push came to shove in the Electoral College, our 27 percenters voted for Colin Powell, Sanders, and that nice lady who led the Standing Rock protests.
Our 27 percenters can’t be relied on. That’s why we have to chase the mushy middle. Those electors had a chance to take a stand against actual fascism, and they fucking blew it for a vanity anti-Hillary vote.
Cleardale
@Mnemosyne: I call when I can, but mostly send emails since I’m bad on the phone. Exactly what does that have to do with my question?
Regardless, why should I have to? Think about what you are saying. You are saying the democratic party is such a shit show, that we have to independently call and threaten democratic senators to oppose Jeff Fucking Sessions as attorney general. How broken is our party?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I tend to be suspicious of new ‘nyms showing up with purity goals. But I also am trying to be accepting of new commenters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cleardale: “Our ‘27%'” didn’t vote for Jill Stein in numbers that gave Trump WI, MI and PA because of DeVos or Carson
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Lol!
Have I mentioned recently how much I adore you?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cleardale: They represent us. Tell them what you think. Be the change you want. Did you ever listen to a word Obama said?
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Very big of you.
I mean that sincerely; my reaction to newbies is a bit less kind
Mnemosyne
@Cleardale:
Because it’s your goddamned duty as a citizen, you lazy asshole.
You know what the teabaggers spend their days doing? Calling their representatives. They call them constantly, regardless of party. The staffers learn their names. Because the teabaggers call all the fucking time.
No matter how liberal your representative is, if the only people they hear from are the teabaggers — who they hear from every single day — they assume that the rest of us don’t give a shit.
Your representatives are not goddamned psychics. They can’t guess what you want them to do. That’s why you have to call and tell them, dumbass.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am accepting up to a point. That point is reached when someone doesn’t understand something as basic as why they need to call their representative to tell them what they want them to do.
Omnes Omnibus
@opiejeanne: Thank you. A bit embarrassed. But thank you.
Cleardale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Compromising for eight years of Obama didn’t get us the Gary Johnson vote either. Both Devos and Carson are against supposed core principles of the Democratic party. Quality public education and affirmative action. That alone is reason enough to oppose them.
@Omnes Omnibus: I am 100% serious. The party that is supposed to represent my views, who I vote for, has to be reminded that Jeff Sessions shouldn’t be the attorney general. Sure calling them on debatable issues, complex issues that you have knowledge of, small things they might miss. Jeff Sessions should be an automatic no vote, I shouldn’t have to remind them of my position. It shouldn’t be a “change” for a democrat to oppose him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: This guy(?) is more and more coming across as a fake.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Don’t be too embarrassed; it was funny. I enjoy your usually dry sense of humor, not that this was particularly dry; I just didn’t expect the response.
Cleardale
@Mnemosyne: No my duty is to vote. I vote for a party that has a platform and a plank that presumably the senator fucking knows. If you are a democrat that needs psychic fucking powers to know to oppose Jeff Fucking Sessions what in the fuck are you doing in the democratic party and why in the fuck should I ever vote for you?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think I have a sense of who you are.
You can fuck off now.
Mnemosyne
@Cleardale:
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is why we lose. Republican voters work year-round to pressure their representatives and push their agenda, and Democratic voters push a button once every couple of years and think their job is done.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cleardale: You completely missed my point. At this point, I assume it was deliberate. Good night.
Cleardale
Seriously, I’m the problem? None of you see a problem with having to spend time reminding democrats to vote against Jeff Sessions? This isn’t TPP or some other issue where party ideas conflict. This is a guy who was too racist to be a judge. Everything he stands for is against Democratic, and democratic, principles. I don’t get it, shouldn’t the fact that we elected you mean something? Shouldn’t there be some default things all Dems should be for and against? You are saying we have to fight and stay active to keep Democrats from voting for Jeff Sessions.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cleardale: Fuck you, you dishonest fuck.
Cleardale
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not dishonest, regardless of what you want to believe. I’m not asking for perfection. I’m asking my representatives in government to know that Jeff Sessions shouldn’t be AG. That Rex Tillerson shouldn’t be Sec of State. These are not small fucking differences, these are not minute details of some huge complex deal. These are core fucking principles that our party is supposed to support.
Gretchen
@Mnemosyne: Yes. This. Carson and Perry are well-meaning seat-warmers who won’t do much one way or the other. DeVoss and Pruitt are zealots who are ready to destroy the departments they will lead. If Carson and Perry are rejected, destructive zealots can and will be found. Confirm the seat-warmers and let the permanent staff run things. Fight the zealots. As much as I hate Comey, I don’t want him fired and Rudi Guiliani in his place.
Gretchen
Adam’s comment yesterday that having the CEO of Exxon as SoS will convince Arabs that we’re planning to steal their oil seems like that nomination is a line in the sand.
Mnemosyne
@Cleardale:
Nope. I also “reminded” my representatives to support the Iran deal and PPACA, among other things. Not because I was truly worried that they were shaky on them (and I’m not actually that worried about Feinstein voting for Sessions), but because they need to be reminded that they have voters who support them, not just people who push a button and then bitch about everything they do.
Gretchen
@Cleardale: Here’s the plan: vote for the unqualified but well-meaning guy because the next nominee may be someone absolutely toxic who is determined to destroy the department he is put in charge of. I would love to see James Comey fired. The problem is, Trump will nominate Rudi Guiliani to fill the space if that happens. Comey bad, Guiliani disastrous. Carson bad, anybody else that Trump nominates when his feelings are hurt after his nominee is rejected, far, far worse.
Gretchen
@Cleardale: Now is the time for Democrats to hold out for more purity ponies.? Jeff Sessions and Ben Carson are not the same degree of evil by a long shot.
Kat
Who should Senators and Representatives call if they’re worried about what Trump’s doing?
Trump’s ‘Voter-Fraud’ Investigation Targets States That Opposed Him
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trumps-punitive-voter-fraud-investigation/514424/?google_editors_picks=true
mai naem mobile
Lumpy is flooding the zone with really bad candidates for most of the cabinet. If you oppose every single nominee you scatter media attention. They are going to pass.anyway so I think you concentrate on Sessions,Pruitt and Devos. These are also the ones you can go refer to in ’18 and ’20 and point to what you had warned about during the nomination hearings.