Cnn: US House and Senate republicans are pissed at Trump over the executive order. pic.twitter.com/NE2oWSaWcP
— John Aravosis (@aravosis) January 30, 2017
And yet they lack the courage to say this publicly, or to do anything about it. https://t.co/v4lZX6P6Jb
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 30, 2017
President Trump’s temporary ban on refugees and other foreigners has significantly deepened fissures in his already fragile relationship with congressional Republicans, as GOP leaders on Capitol Hill complained angrily Monday that they were not consulted before the order was issued.
At least a dozen key GOP lawmakers and aides said Trump’s order took them by surprise, even as the White House insisted that it collaborated with Congress. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s political team sought to reassure donors and other supporters that the temporary ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries does not amount to a “religious test.” And a steady stream of Republican lawmakers released carefully tailored written statements expressing concerns about the order…
The disarray over Trump’s fulfillment of a core campaign promise underscored the increasingly strained relationship between the new White House and the Republican congressional majority. It comes after a rocky first week-and-a-half punctuated by confusion over health care and tax reform, as well as frustration with the president obsessing over crowd size and his loss of the popular vote in November…
Not that they’re liable to do anything useful, like stand up to some of Trump’s more egregious appointments, but hey: REPUBS IN DISARRAY!
Protests are getting to House Republicans https://t.co/msuPBOjsw8
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) January 31, 2017
It's going to be fascinating to see how much WH can publicly kick GOP congress before it genuinely kicks back. https://t.co/lVHsLB26dh
— Christopher Orr (@OrrChris) January 31, 2017
Even the godsdamned kids are whining to Vanity Fair — the magazine that originated the “Trump, short-fingered vulgarian” meme, back in the 1980s!
… Little more than a week into the Trump presidency, the timing of the Friday sunset seems to be growing increasingly important. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and West Wing adviser, has been positioned as something of a mollifying presence upon his mercurial boss. “I have a feeling that Jared’s going to do a great job. He’s going to do a great job. You’ll work with him,” Trump recently declared at his pre-inaugural gala to assorted well-wishers and friends from the business community. In a White House split between those seemingly loyal to the Republican Party (Reince Priebus, the former chairman of the R.N.C., now Trump’s chief of staff), and its rabid base (Breitbart chairman turned chief strategist Stephen Bannon), Kushner appeared to be a Valerie Jarrett type—a steady familiar voice who could suss out the signal from the noise.
Kushner, along with his wife, Ivanka Trump, is also an orthodox Jew who observes Shabbat. From sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, the couple abstains from technology and work. And early in the incipient Trump administration, that brief period has been unusually fraught…
When the Kushners decided to relocate to Washington, on the heels of Trump’s surprise win, they stepped out of a comfortable life in New York and their respective family real-estate empires. The potential for the young couple, ostensibly a gate to the president, appeared enormous. But after a week, it appears that the de facto First Couple may have underestimated the potential pitfalls. Less than a fortnight into his new post, Kushner appears unable to control both his father-in-law and those around him… Ivanka, meanwhile, may be impeded in her attempt to lobby on behalf of working women by various measures, from Trump’s executive order to dismiss parts of the A.C.A. to his derision of the Women’s March, that appear to have set them back. The question is whether the couple’s combination of unbridled ambition and inexperience will cause them to influence the president as never before, or whether they will be among the first to go…
"It's sad that our politics has come so politicized," Stephen Miller says on MSNBC
— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) January 30, 2017
Line of the night? @MattKLewis on @AC360: "Sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the far right hand is doing…"
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) January 31, 2017
But possibly the cruelest snub of all…
.@oreillyfactor: Protecting Americans is…priority #1, but the nobility of our nation demands we help suffering, helpless people if we can. pic.twitter.com/rPifHXeL9x
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 31, 2017
Somewhere America's Cable Watcher in Chief throws the taco bowl he is eating against the wall and reaches for his unsecured Android phone https://t.co/yKZPht9MEd
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) January 31, 2017
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
raven
I there was a snake here I’d apologize. . .
Groucho
satby
@raven: how about it? Snakes are an important part of the ecosystem. Trump does not, he’s just a blight.
NotMax
Asp and ye shall receive.
Immanentize
Any further purges while I slept?
amk
wtf does the stupid steve even mean?
Matthew B.
“Short-fingered vulgarian” was Spy, not Vanity Fair.
They used it a lot.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@amk: it’s sad that the snow has become so snowy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Unsecured Android phone, but emails!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
bystander
Call me weird but I was hoping he was going to push this to the tipping point domestically by enshrining discrimination against LGBTQ government employees.
Instead, I’m waking up to hear Iran is testing weapons, and the world is pissed at us. If this maniac decides he’s going to teach everyone a lesson – especially one he thinks will prove he’s not an anti-Semite – we’re going to wish we were discussing LGBTQ rights.
OzarkHillbilly
And so we have an answer to the age old question of “What is lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut?”.
amk
@bystander: nut n yahoo poutraging over iran’s missile test despite ‘UN security council resolution’ is hilarious. Respect UN for thee, Fuck UN for me. what a muthafuckah.
BruceFromOhio
Even a blind snake can find an acorn once in awhile.
Nevertheless, glad to see O’Really making good sounds for once.
bystander
@amk: Nothing good will come of Trump and Nut’n yahoo.
So far my choice for Most Punchable Face in the Trumputin Admin is easily Sean Spicer. When he starts in with that high pitched, whiny, prissy nasal mewling….
OzarkHillbilly
I give you Trump’s direct ancestor.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: An example of devolution?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I can definitely see a family resemblance.
XTPD
Ya know, say what you want about the farmer and the viper, but at least in the original fable he was trying to do the right thing – although you’d think he’d be able to wrap it in a bag first.
This is more like a farmer stumbling across a lethargic cobra in his back yard, stuffing it in his pants to throw it on his libtard neighbor, and it waking up & repeatedly biting him in the dick.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t know. From no anus to all anus? That’s quite a change.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: We Are DEVO.
Hal
NY Times out with a story about Trump supporters who support the immigration ban. One, a gay man who was shaken by the Pulse Nightclub shooting. A shooting committed by an American of Afghan descent, but why let the fact that an immigrant ban wouldn’t have had any affect on that shooting get in the way of someone’s Muslim fear.
Also, congrats on the times for finding a gay man of color to back up Trump in what’s clearly going to be endless stories from the paper of record featuring people who agree with everything Trump does.
Baud
@Hal: The NYT is garbage.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Hal: The NYT is garbage, not even good enough for fishwrap.
debbie
@XTPD:
I think we’re more at the tortoise and scorpion stage.
zhena gogolia
@Matthew B.:
But that editor is now the VF editor.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Figured you’d beat me to it.
amk
@Hal: guess it’s their way of showing how the local boy made it big. fuck’em. they could have called out this con man decades ago instead of sucking up to him.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@bystander:
No, Spicer is just a pathetic toadie. The most punchable face is Bannon’s, repeatedly, while holding a brick. Kushner 2nd (I’m thinking “sock full of coins”) and Kellyanne Goebbels 3rd (tire iron).
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s important work. Appreciate the help.
Jack the Second
@bystander: Is that really most punchable face? Or if his voice were coming out of some other face, could it reach new levels of punchability?
Yoda Dog
Morning everyone.
Patricia Kayden
I’m with Joy Reid. If Congressional Republicans are so opposed to Trump’s immigration ban, they need to be all over our televisions saying so. This cowardly whispering doesn’t cut it — especially since they were not shy about running their mouths publicly against President Obama for the last 8 years.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
On reflection, I find myself vaguely disappointed that the anti LGBTQ EO may be pocketed for a while.
His signing it would have the benefit of destroying Thiel’s sex life (he’d be the Great Betrayer forevermore) AND would put an end to the Log Cabinet Republicans and the other gay white men who quietly support conservatism. Milo would certainly have some ‘splainin’ to do, too.
JGabriel
@Matthew B.:
I was just about to post the same thing – with the added caveat that Vanity Fair’s editor, Graydon Carter, was the man who founded and ran/edited Spy magazine, as well as being the man who originated the “short-fingered vulgarian” description of Trump. So Anne was only off by a little bit, not a lot.
I loved Spy back in the 80’s and 90’s. It is sorely missed, particularly today.
Yoda Dog
Priebus should at least get an honorable mention in any discussion of punchable faces.
Adrift
Start by punching Ryan and McConnell and work upwards.
Patricia Kayden
@Hal: Hope they interview that exact same gay man of color when Trump’s anti-LGBT Executive Order comes down the pipe. I’d love to hear his reaction on that.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
Their cowardice needs to be very publicly pointed out by the Dems.
Starfish
@bystander: I don’t want to watch the world burn. I was glad that LGBT protections are not being rolled back.
I may be Iranian-American, but I do not wish badness on anyone else.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Well, considering all the non-stop shit that comes out of Trump’s mouth, I thought he had his anus sewed shut. This new species tells me it is possible he was born without one, a possibility I have to consider.
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I think at some point, it will be modified and enacted. Trump lets go of nothing.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: Trump hasn’t evolved much since then, I see.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
A stunning twitter exchange with Neera Tanden in which Maureen Dowd confirms that she is and always shall be, a “mean girl”.
It’s apparent that she took relish in what she did to Hillary.
Matthew B.
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, I know Carter edits Vanity Fair nowadays. But I still miss Spy. It was gaining in popularity when it went under, but they expanded distribution too quickly.
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: Meanwhile, our closest relatives beat up, murder and cannibalise their former tyrant.
JGabriel
@Immanentize:
Only of Trump’s colon – though I suppose that sums up the entirety of his presidential term so far.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No surprise there. The forces of evil got their gal. They should be proud of their work.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
But no mustard, because there is no mustard.
Kay
The lower chamber in the Ohio statehouse once introduced a bill that was word for word from ALEC. They had to pull it from the floor because they’re so lazy and sloppy they forgot to draft their own caption. It had the ALEC generic “your state HERE” caption. They couldn’t put 5 of their own words together.
Patty Murray has done a good job as an advocate forcing DeVos to answer questions. She insisted DeVos respond to written questions when DeVos’ hearing turned into a train wreck and Republicans rushed to bury it. The responses are boilerplate ALEC but at least DeVos was forced to do some work to get this job.
Patty Murray was on a school board at one time. There should be a mandatory school board service requirement for all Senators who serve on ed committees. She is so far above the rest on real world practical matters it’s not even a contest. When you get involved in governance matters in public schools you realize that people like DeVos are a dime a dozen- they’re useless. They issue a series of proclamations with words they like at every meeting : “excellence!” “equity!” “rigor!” “accountability!” – it’s like they have their own boring, meaningless language with a 100 word vocabulary. They move the words around- sometimes it’s a proclamation, sometimes it’s a complaint, sometimes they tack a question mark on at the end but it’s all the same. I’ve heard it so many times I can do a kind of speed-listening. I ignore the “filler” words and look for something they came up with themselves. There’s never anything there.
Iowa Old Lady
This morning’s Trump tweets:
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
They are not opposed to the ban. They are opposed to being held accountable.
Patricia Kayden
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And keep in mind that it’s not just Trump using an unsecured communication device. It’s pretty much everyone in his administration who is doing this. So, as we now know, it was never about Secretary Clinton’s email server. It was always about destroying her Presidential candidacy.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: Dems should retweet those tweets with pride.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: That was obvious to anyone who wanted to see it.
Starfish
@Iowa Old Lady: That is the sound of winning!
bystander
@Starfish: Me neither. I blame Trump for putting these impure thoughts in my head.
I am glad, however, that I have provoked some discussion of the merits of punchability of our new administration.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Wish I could shit-can my NYT subscription AGAIN.
Patricia Kayden
@Iowa Old Lady: Good for Democrats for delaying the appointment of an avowed racist like Jeff Sessions. They should do everything in their power to stop his confirmation. That is not obstruction. That is justice.
amk
@Iowa Old Lady: heh, mofo, you now that DC. man up, you pos.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Iowa Old Lady: Dude needs to put on some big boy pants, WATB.
bemused
@Iowa Old Lady:
Fake tears! Of course, he thinks they are fake. There’s no way he can produce real emotional tears and I have my doubts he could even fake tears.
Baud
@Starfish: Yes it is.
OzarkHillbilly
@Starfish: Hmmmm, nature imitating Republican party politics?
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Quit whining! Junior G-Man James Comey will be all over that shit, issuing statements designed to cast doubt on this Administration, right about …
…
… never
Patricia Kayden
@SFAW: Right after he finishes accepting hugs and blown kisses from Trump.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Seconded. That Sessions is even under consideration is a crime against humanity.
Not that Shitgibbon would know anything about humanity.
TriassicSands
Has anyone read anything about Kushner’s response to Trump’s snub of Jews in his comments about the Holocaust? How well is Kushner getting along with anti-Semite Bannon?
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: I am shocked, shocked I tell you!
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: What have they done to deserve your subscription in the first place. They are Bannon-News Lite. Might as well read the original without filter.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
Well, at some point, Comey will get on Shitgibbon’s bad side. But even when that happens,
traitorous fuckJunior G-Man Comey will not do what he should, because he still hates the Clintons a lot more.mai naem mobile
They’ll sell their souls for tax cuts. Really dumb because the loss in the economy destroys the value 9f the tax cut.
Ian G.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Agree, although I fear that one’s fist would get caught in the mass that is Bannon’s head and you’d be able to free yourself. It’d be like punching the Blob.
Kushner has that “Look at me, I’m a Serious Businessman Above All This”. No you aren’t. You’re exactly the same fucking thing your FIL is, except your old man is an even more vile crook than Fred was.
Singing Truth to Power
@JGabriel: And Graydon Carter, who originated “short-fingered vulgarian” while at Spy, says “To this day, I receive the occasional envelope from Trump. There is always a photo of him—generally a tear sheet from a magazine. On all of them he has circled his hand in gold Sharpie in a valiant effort to highlight the length of his fingers. I almost feel sorry for the poor fellow because, to me, the fingers still look abnormally stubby. The most recent offering arrived earlier this year, before his decision to go after the Republican presidential nomination. Like the other packages, this one included a circled hand and the words, also written in gold Sharpie: “See, not so short!” I sent the picture back by return mail with a note attached, saying, “Actually, quite short.” Which I can only assume gave him fits.”
NotMax
@bemused
If faced with the choice, would take fake tears over fake brains any day of the week.
OzarkHillbilly
@TriassicSands: I read yesterday that Bannon special ordered a large oven.
SFAW
@TriassicSands:
Was it rikyrah who compared Kushner to a slave catcher? It’s probably not a completely bogus comparison. I’m not saying Kushner’s another Heydrich, but he (so far) has not appeared to have a problem with Shitgibbon’s anti-Semitism. And it’s not as if Trump woke up five days ago and said “Fuck the Jews!” for the first time.
ETA: And I realize I may be mixing together a “slave catcher” comment about somebody else with an unrelated slam on Kushner.
Kay
If Democrats learned anything over the last 8 years, they learned that there is no political price paid for obstruction.
They lost a Supreme Court seat due to GOP obstruction. The big prize the winner of the election gets.
I hope they block every move Trump makes. “Norms” aren’t “norms” if one Party and President ignores them. Trump and Republicans benefited from violating norms. We can’t go back to the rules now. That gives them a built in advantage.
Let it burn. I’m hoping Trump takes a good portion of the campaign industrial complex down too, along with the government. It’s bloated- too many pundits, too many consultants, too much money going to media outlets for ads which just fuels the bubble. Time for a brutal market correction. One Morning Joe = lots and lots of statehouse reporters. The market needs to reallocate resources towards value.
rikyrah
@bystander:
Don’t worry…He is coming for the DACA folks soon enough
mai naem mobile
Kushner was the one who was said to be amazed by Dolt 45s rally crowds and felt that there had to be a way to monetize the crowds. Nothing about using the crowds to do some good, just how can we make money off the rubes.
Eric S.
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: don’t brooks hold back. Tell us how you really feel.
I’d use brass knuckles on Bannon. I want to feel the crunch.
rikyrah
@Kay:
There was always nothing there
NotMax
@mai naem mobile
Working to undermine America 24/6.
Ella in New Mexico
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’d put Kellianne just under Bannon. If I could punch two faces at the same time it would be them.
Punching Spicer seems almost like punching the little fat kid on the playground who’s finally been accepted by the bully and is being goaded into taunting other victims. It just wouldn’t feel satisfying at all.
bemused
@NotMax:
His whole being is fake. Everything about him is phony.
rikyrah
@TriassicSands:
Kushner is a slave catcher. It’s so obvious, I don’t know why people continue with the ‘I wonder what Kushner thinks of this White House’s insult towards the Jewish community.’
Ella in New Mexico
How bout this story? Goodlatte’s Congressional staff secretly helped Bannon and Miller “craft” this bullshit ban order, and signed non disclosure agreements to boot?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-is-the-big-story
bemused
@Ella in New Mexico:
Kellyanne must have gotten no sleep over the weekend, she looked even more haggard than she usually does which I didn’t think was possible.
Davebo
William Prior out as potential Supreme Court nominee by his own choice.
Good decision.
NotMax
@bemused
No rest for the sneery.
Baud
@Kay:
I’m not yet if this is true for Dems due to IOKIYAR. But it really doesn’t matter anymore because there is no better option.
Jeffro
@Iowa Old Lady: It’s hard to overstate just how much I’m looking forward to Trumpov’s last tweet, because the circumstances are going to make my day for days…
Jinchi
There is no reason to believe that this is a temporary ban, unless you assume that we’ll get rid of it once Trump is out of office.
FlipYrWhig
@Davebo: Interesting. Do you think Republicans are starting not to want the stink of Trump on them? That’s sure how most of them acted during the election season.
MomSense
If I’m going to protest every weekend in the cold with a cold I’m going to have to up my vitamin game. They should make a once a day extra anti-fascist strength.
The good news is that I used to see just familiar faces at all the protests, meetings, and demonstrations. Now we have a lot of first time activists showing up. The key will be to turn this into an organizing model.
We have to be consistent enough that we demonstrate to Democrats that we will have their backs at midterms and drive der gropenfuror’s poll numbers down. I was thinking maybe we should start circulating a voting pledge at our demonstrations. It could be something simple like I pledge to vote against Donald Trump and any member of Congress who votes to support his agenda. Or it could be more specific and we could ask people to sign to vote for specific candidates by District or for Democrats. It would also give us some names and contact information to follow up on more activities like phone banks, press conferences, demonstrations, visits to the offices of our congressional delegations, etc. Any thoughts on this idea?
Kay
@rikyrah:
DeVos believes that “online learning” is new in public schools but it’s been around for a decade. It’s actually made one full cycle- from groovy fad to disappointment to reality. Our school is using “not recommended” as a course description for online classes for students who aren’t doing well or are average. They get nothing out of the courses – they need human interaction. We know that now. DeVos is saying what people said in 2004. She’s a decade behind reality. It’s a problem that she never enters a public school. She’s not credible and credibility matters. They will know she’s a fraud because they do this work every day. They will know.
Jeffro
The always on-point Catherine Rampell in the WaPo today: where’s the GOP’s red line?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: What about nuclear weapons?
Jeffro
Per Rampell:
sherparick
@Iowa Old Lady: This works great for Democrats because now MSM has to go to them to respond to and point to the ethical problems and ignorance of so many of his nominees.
It would be nice if 3 Republican senators (looking at you Flake, Collins, Heller, or Toomey) who would vote against Sessions since he is the real author of the Muslim Ban and the basically wants to reinstate the America of 1925, if not 1860.
Betty Cracker
@Ella in New Mexico: That’s a great way to build trust w/ the GOP congress. It’s not like those noxious shitbags are prideful about lording it over their fiefdoms. Trump should continue to poach their ranks.
@Kay: Amen to that. The only good that can possibly come out of this debacle would be whatever functional system arises from the current one’s ashes.
@Iowa Old Lady: Despite the many horrors that creature’s every utterance engenders, the most overwhelming feeling I have is shame that such a small, classless shithead is nominally my president. If I were 20 years younger and didn’t have old folks to look after and children to fend for, I’d seriously consider joining Helen in Ireland. As it is, I guess I’ll have to stay and fight.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m on board with the resistance. BUT- I am still a traditionalist so I’m fretting that I don’t get enough notice of these protests and I need to plan my week :)
Aren’t liberals supposed to have tons of tech people? Give me an online clearinghouse schedule. If it’s OH. MI, IN or western PA I’m there.
raven
@Kay: It’s “been around” longer than that.
Jeffro
@FlipYrWhig:
He is, with each passing day, an unmitigated disaster for them…he’s crossing into net disapproval ratings so low that even if things started turning around today, 2018 might be tough sledding.
Now we find out that Trumpov and Co had congressional staffers working on the immigration ban without even telling their bosses in Congress? That he had them sign NDAs? Picture yourself as a GOP congressman and that kind of shit is going on – what’s next??
As I mentioned last night, there are two things that are coming, and they can’t be avoided:
1) The counter-intelligence report is going to drop eventually and will most certainly note at a minimum that Manafort, Page, Stone, Cohen, and others colluded with the intelligence services of a hostile foreign power to take down Clinton. After that, it will be an unending chorus of “What did Trump know, and when did he know it?” And since he is a proven, 110% liar, no one is likely to believe his protestations of innocence…
2) …which is then carried into the 2018 elections. Why didn’t the GOP congress take action against their nominee, much less this president? Why are Ryan and McConnell so eager to look the other way? Why are there so many pro-Putin GOP congressmen? And so on. This is in addition to whatever votes take place between now and 2018 in terms of voucher-izing Medicare, dissolving Obamacare without a replacement (and for what reason?), giving huge tax cuts to the wealthy, etc etc.
2018 could very easily end up like 2006 or better for the Dems. All they have to do is oppose, oppose, oppose.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
This may already be mentioned, but is worth repeating for its brilliance:
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense:
That’s a brilliant idea! Getting people – especially newbies – to sign a pledge like that is the first step in getting folks to the polls. Collecting data for future follow-up and GOTV is great too. I’ll bring it up to our activist candidate for Democratic Party County Chair. We’re working on energizing the party. Ward elections are next month, followed by the county elections in March. We had an organizing meeting last night to get activists elected to party positions and I hope folks in other areas are doing the same.
Gin & Tonic
As I posted in the insomnia thread, Russia has seriously stepped up its shelling of eastern Ukraine in the last 2-3 days. The town of Avdiyivka is a humanitarian disaster – no power, no heat, freezing cold. There are plans to evacuate 8-9000 people today, something like half the population.
Now I read that Alexei Navalny was forcibly removed from his offices in Moscow to face retrial on highly questionable fraud charges.
I wonder whether anything has happened in the last week that would have emboldened Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Another Scott
@TriassicSands: My gut feeling, and it’s just that, is that Kushner doesn’t care about anything but enabling Trump’s personal power and expanding the resulting family grifting. Bannon could order camps and filling of train cars, or eliminating half the cabinet, and Kushner wouldn’t care as long as there was money to be made. He knows that any of Bannon’s policies won’t apply to him and people he cares about.
Bannon, on the other hand, doesn’t care about money. He cares about breaking the federal government.
They complement each other just “fine” (in the “this is fine!” sense). As long as they stay in their respective worlds, each will let the other do what they want.
Our best hope for a conflict between them is if protests against Trump’s policies start making the GOP stand up for the Constitution (reducing Bannon’s power), or if lawsuits against Trump’s businesses start reducing his economic power (reducing Kushner’s power). Until then, they’ll probably stay out of each other’s way.
It really is kinda horrifying that we’ve ended up at this place, isn’t it? :-(
Keep fighting!
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Kay: The revolution will be organized!
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: I wonder if John McCain still thinks we are all Ukrainians.
Patricia Kayden
@efgoldman: Alternative facts, man. Alternative facts.
NotMax
@raven
Participated in (and helped design) an online course in grad school way back when disco was still the rage. Instructor was in Wisconsin, we were in NY.
bemused
@Jeffro:
Terrific piece.
Patricia Kayden
@Gin & Tonic: It will be up to Western Europeans to oppose Russia. Putin’s American President Puppet will do nothing to stop him no matter what he does. Somewhere Reagan’s corpse is spinning around in shock and disbelief.
Gin & Tonic
Compare and contrast two headlines from my Google News feed.
CNN: Trump fires acting AG after she declines to defend travel ban
NYT: Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Who Defied Him
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I’m not really comfortable with it but I’m getting there. It’s like science fiction where the aliens are always hostile. So grim. There could be good aliens! Maybe there’s a better planet :)
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: Horrifying, and not at all surprising.
Trump isn’t going to do anything about Ukraine. Will the rest of NATO? AFAiK, there are still NATO troops in the country (or were recently, for training/exercises).
This is very bad. I hope the Baltics are thinking about and planning for their options.
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
How much of tRump’s neg numbers is the red state cut? Will Rethugs really be in trouble there as the national numbers drop? Also too pissed people who aren’t able to vote literally don’t count.
MomSense
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’m thinking a box for people to check saying that they are registered to vote or not/don’t know if they are registered would help, too. The second category would get an immediate follow up for voter registration. We really have to make sure people are registered and ready.
I’m going to suggest this idea to our town committee. I’m thinking cards would be better than something big requiring a clipboard. Sometimes people actively ignore people holding clipboards.
ETA: As I think about this I’m starting to lean towards a pledge to vote against Donald Trump and any elected official who supports his agenda. May scoop up more unaffiliated voters and scare Republicans more. I don’t have a good sense of who is at the demonstrations but I think there are a lot of newbies and unaffiliated voters.
Radiumgirl
@Hal: Truthfully I think you need to know what these people think, how they think. Otherwise how do you defeat the madness? It’s infuriating and frustrating, but I don’t the Times is wrong to run those stories.
Baud
@Kay:
Baud!/E.T.! 2020!
manyakitty
He’s a kapo https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kapos
amk
@Jeffro: love all that backroom backstabbing. the gopee fuckers built this.
raven
@NotMax: Yup, it did come much later to K-12 though.
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense:
Yeah, people tend to run from clipboard-holders. I wonder about pre-stamped post cards? Downside would be that many might not send them in. Upside is that the data one did get would indicate a higher level of commitment and might be more legible. It’s brutal trying to decipher clipboard sign-up scribbles.
ETA: Your edit showed up after I posted. :) I like the idea of cards with a pledge to vote against Trump and officials who support him. Even a simple, albeit unenforceable, step like that leads people to act accordingly.
amk
@Radiumgirl:
no need to get into their gutter racist lil minds. just turn up to vote when it counts.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker:
It would require the almost complete destruction of the GOP as we know it – something that sends its Tea Party crazykins out into the wilderness for a generation. The two things I mentioned at #104 could do it, but it would mean the Establishment half a) temporarily embraces the Democrats to oust Trump and his minions, and b) is victorious over the Tea Partyers.
Then we’d need two additional things (possibly more)
1) Something like a Truth and Reconciliation commission, to fully air not only what’s been going on with Putin and the GOP, but also how the GOP got away from its…ugh, I’m going to say it…core principles and devolved into Randian madness. This would almost necessarily include airing how big donor “Dark Money” has swayed pols at every level to do the bidding of the 1%.
2) Something like an agreement between the Democratic Party and Republican Party to work to police their own, to call out double standards (like IOKIYAR and ‘Clinton Rules’), and to agree on a mutual set of standards for MoCs and the Presidency (like disclosing tax returns, divesting/blind trusts, etc).
And yes, I would like pony…no, a unicorn…for next Christmas, why do you ask? =)
amk
@Jeffro: while you are at it, why not two ?
MomSense
@O. Felix Culpa:
I plan to keep the cards! I want to bring them right home or to a meeting and call them within a day or two.
JMG
The problem with the “Trump voters still love Trump” stories are twofold. 1. 135 million people voted, and you quote three or four? You could do a “Stein voters still Love Stein” story that way. 2. It isn’t news. Of course they do. He’s only been in office 11 days. People don’t repudiate their bad decisions that quickly. Takes years. The political point now is that Trump has united and energized an opposition that is larger than his side in raw numbers. That’s the story. But nothing will get mainstream media to stop going to places they wouldn’t stay overnight on a bet and talking to “real people,” real meaning white and kinda dumb, about the burning issues of the day.
gratutious
Compare and contrast, class, and as always, show your work. Republicans in Congress, 2010-2017: The president proposes something, even something as anodyne as, let’s say, passing a budget, and the Republican response is, “Imperial presidency! No King Obama! Kenyan Muslim Socialist!” Republicans in Congress during the last 10 days: The president issues order after diktat after fiat steamrolling the Constitution, our treaty obligations, and international relations, and the Republican response is . . . ?
Please do not refer to racism (which is totally over now, per the Supreme Court), partisan politics, or lack of conviction on the part of Republicans, in your answer.
You have five minutes to thread that moving needle and win a very lucrative spot in the popular media. Begin!
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I went to a local party meeting last night, and that was one of the major orders of business: coordinating resistance to the Trump regime across disparate groups. They’re on it, at least here. It was heartening.
Chris
@MomSense:
This. FDR’s “I want to do it. Now make me do it” applies here.
geg6
@Matthew B.:
It was Graydon Carter, formerly of Spy and now of Vanity Fair, who coined it.
MomSense
@O. Felix Culpa:
See I think we can persuade people to vote for Dem candidates. I’m imagining building a big group of seasoned and newbie voters so we can hold candidate forums and invite all the candidates to answer questions. It would bring the press in to cover it, and it is my experience that Republican candidates only do well in environments where they are not asked tough questions or follow up questions.
We have to get newly active people engaged in specific projects with outcomes and we have to get press coverage to scare the pants off our elected officials.
Starfish
@Betty Cracker: The people who put out the indivisible guide are trying to definitely inspire resistance on a national level. They said it is not enough for Democrats to oppose the Muslim ban. They must commit to slowing down procedural votes that need to be unanimous and refuse to hear anything until this is repealed. Markley in Oregon said he is opposing all Supreme Court nominations until Merrick Garland is nominated.
Jinchi
@sherparick:
1857, I think.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dred-scott-decision
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Nonsense, making her appear in her dress as an extra in Nutcracker is fitting punishment enough.
Jeffro
@amk:
Two ponies maybe, but two unicorns is a bit much. =)
In all seriousness, at some point the grownups – whomever that is – will have to try and put this country back together again. We can’t keep going on like this. W was horrible, Trumpov is exponentially worse, and the GOP base is now 50% people who reflexively reject the truth (like side-by-side crowd pictures of the Mall) and consider their fellow countrymen to be worse than a proven murderer/ex-KGB agent who’s hellbent on destroying Western society.
The only way out, as I see it, is a full airing of what’s been going on, and then a mutual agreement of principles for both parties. It’ll help the GOP reject future extremists. I think Obama has alluded to this several times – many Rs would like to work with him, but they can’t because of the crazies in their party.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@JMG: It also handwaves away the shockingly tepid support Trump is getting too. They can’t even be bothered to show up for his ingratiation. That says a lot right there.
Darkrose
So this is a thing:
bystander
Time Kaine was on this morning remarking that the Dems have little they can do about cabinet appointments. SupCt nominees are another matter, and he ran down the ways they can block anybody Trumputin names. That may be as close to a telegram on the issue that we are going to get since Schumer is smart enough not to trumpet his plan the way Turtleman does.
rikyrah
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.!!!!
What the phuck kind of illogic is this?
Democrats consider backing off big battle over Trump’s Supreme Court pick
CNN Digital Expansion DC Manu RajuTed Barrett-Profile-Image
By Manu Raju and Ted Barrett, CNN
Updated 8:28 PM ET, Mon January 30, 2017
Washington (CNN)Senate Democrats are weighing whether to avoid an all-out war to block President Donald Trump’s upcoming Supreme Court pick, instead considering delaying that battle for a future nomination that could shift the ideological balance of the court, sources say.
Democrats privately discussed their tactics during a closed-door retreat in West Virginia last week. And a number of Democrats are trying to persuade liberal firebrands to essentially let Republicans confirm Trump’s pick after a vigorous confirmation process — since Trump is likely to name a conservative to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
The reason for the tactic: Republicans are considering gutting the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees if Democrats stay largely united and block Trump’s first pick. By employing the so-called “nuclear option,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could move to reduce the threshold for clearing a filibuster from 60 votes to 51 votes.
That would mean Democrats could lose leverage in the next Supreme Court fight if Trump were to replace a more liberal justice, since the GOP now has 52 seats in the Senate.
Barbara
@Iowa Old Lady: There is probably no point at which Trump will begin to realize that all those people in his huge and magnificent crowds don’t tweet, and this kind of old hat political whining isn’t the kind of inflammatory tweet that gets picked up by the media. This is just Trump the cry baby emphasizing his own impotence.
rikyrah
The Immigration Ban is a Headfake, and We’re Falling For It
When I read about the incredibly active first week of the Trump administration, I struggle with two competing narratives about what’s really going on. The first story is simple: the administration is just doing what it said it would do, literally keeping its campaign promises. Lots of people won’t agree, but it’s playing to its base. They’re also not really good at this whole government thing yet, so implementation is shaky. The second is more sinister: the administration is deliberately testing the limits of governmental checks and balances to set up a self-serving, dangerous consolidation of power.
A legitimate argument can be made for the former: a relatively extreme and inexperienced administration was just put in place, and they haven’t yet figured out the nuances of government. But a few of the events in the past 72 hours —the intentional inclusion of green card holders in the immigration order, the DHS defiance of a federal judge, and the timing of Trump’s shakeup of the National Security Council — have pointed to a larger story. Even worse, if that larger story is true, if the source of this week’s actions is a play to consolidate power, it’s going really well so far. And that’s because mostly everyone — including those in protests shutting down airports over the weekend— are playing right into the administration’s hand.
I obviously can’t pretend to know the intentions of the new President, but let’s pretend the power consolidation move is what’s actually happening. In fact, let’s pretend we’re the Trump administration (not necessarily Trump himself, more likely his inner circle) for a second. Here’s our playbook:
We launch a series of Executive Orders in the first week.
Beforehand, we identify one that our opponents will complain loudly about and will dominate the news cycle. Immigration ban. Perfect.
We craft the ban to be about 20% more extreme than we actually want it to be — say, let’s make the explicit decision to block green card holders from defined countries from entering the US, rather than just visa holders. We create some confusion so that we can walk back from that part later, but let’s make sure that it’s enforced to begin with.
We watch our opposition pour out into the streets protesting the extremes of our public measure, exactly as we intended. The protests dominate the news, but our base doesn’t watch CNN anyway. The ACLU will file motions to oppose the most extreme parts of our measure, that’s actually going to be useful too. We don’t actually care if we win, that’s why we made it more extreme than it needed to be. But in doing so, the lawsuit process will test the loyalty of those enforcing what we say.
While the nation’s attention is on our extreme EO, slip a few more nuanced moves through. For example, reconfigure the National Security Council so that it’s led by our inner circle. Or gut the State Department’s ability to resist more extreme moves.
That will have massive benefits down the road — the NSC are the folks that authorize secret assassinations against enemies of the state, including American citizens. Almost nobody has time to analyze that move closely, and those that do can’t get coverage.
HeleninEire
@Betty Cracker:
You would be welcomed with open arms.
DUBLIN DRUNK COOKIE BAKE!!
Jeffro
@bystander: “Little they can do” or not, Dem Senators sure better vote against all of Trumpov’s cabinet nominees AND any Supreme Court pick that isn’t Merrick Garland.
@rikyrah: Agreed. There’s no point in worrying about ‘lost leverage’ as Trumpov & McConnell don’t care anyway. If Trumpov names a second justice, what’ll they do then, not filibuster so that a third justice isn’t a complete RWNJ? Filibuster away, Chuck Schumer, and get your troops to vote NO down the line.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffro:
A song for you.
Just one more mornin’
I had to wake up with the blues
Pulled myself out of bed, yeah
Put on my walkin’ shoes
And went up on the mountain
To see what I could see
The whole world was fallin’, right down in front of me
‘Cause I’ve a hunger for the dreams I’ll never see, yeah, baby
Ah, help me baby, or this will surely be the end of me, yeah
Pull myself together
Put on a new face
Climb down off the hilltop, baby
Get back in the race
‘Cause I’ve a hunger for dreams I’ll never see, yeah, babe
Lord, help me baby, or, this will surely be the end of me, yeah
Pull myself together
Put on a new face
Climb down off the hilltop, baby
And get back in the race
‘Cause I’ve a hunger for the dreams I’ll never see, yeah, baby
Ah, ah, help me baby, or this will surely be the end of me, yeah, ah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
-Gregg Allman
rikyrah
Trump’s Next Immigration Move to Hit Closer to Home for Tech
by Peter Elstrom and Saritha Rai
January 30, 2017, 12:57 AM CST January 31, 2017, 1:11 AM CST
President Donald Trump’s clash with Silicon Valley over immigration is about to become even more contentious.
After the new president banned refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Microsoft and others railed against the move, saying it violated the country’s principles and risked disrupting its engine of innovation. Trump’s next steps could strike even closer to home: His administration has drafted an executive order aimed at overhauling the work-visa programs technology companies depend on to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.
If implemented, the reforms could shift the way American companies like Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. recruit talent and force wholesale changes at Indian companies such as Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. Businesses would have to try to hire American first and if they recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to the most highly paid.
“Our country’s immigration policies should be designed and implemented to serve, first and foremost, the U.S. national interest,” the draft proposal reads, according to a copy reviewed by Bloomberg. “Visa programs for foreign workers … should be administered in a manner that protects the civil rights of American workers and current lawful residents, and that prioritizes the protection of American workers — our forgotten working people — and the jobs they hold.”
Darkrose
@rikyrah: OH HELL NAW!!!
Immanentize
@rikyrah: I am sorry, but I reject the “carefully planned evil genius” narrative. It is a way of defeating ourselves. Trump and team have racist and fascist instincts, but are bumblers.
Taylor
@Jeffro:
The alternative is civil war. Prompted say by coastal states seceding.
Which scenario do you think is more likely.
rikyrah
The Death of Pragmatism
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 30, 2017 3:38 PM
One of the things that has been pretty obvious for a while now is that Donald Trump and Barack Obama are polar opposites – and that applies to their personalities even more than it does their policies. Over the eight years of Obama’s presidency, one of the things that concerned some people on the left was his commitment to pragmatism – especially when it was not ideologically infused. No one captured that better than James Kloppenberg in his book, Reading Obama, where he describes Obama as a pragmatist in the mold of William James and John Dewey.
That pragmatism was on display with the two pieces of advice Obama had for Trump.
Two basic pieces of advice Obama gave Trump:
1. Put in place a process that’s respectful of law.
2. Reality has a way of asserting itself.
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) January 30, 2017
On the other side of the continuum, we have Trump. Here’s what Harold Pollack wrote about the president’s latest executive order on immigrants and refugees:
In a must-read piece on the same topic, Benjamin Wittes writes that Trump’s order is malevolence tempered by incompetence. On the latter he says:
Barbara
@rikyrah: Reconfiguring the NSC has been picked up. It was a main topic of Spicer’s idiotic presser yesterday. It is a very human trait that we look for order or purpose even in the midst of pure chaos. It doesn’t matter whether there is a method to what is happening, the important point is to focus on what matters most and try to do something about it. For instance, firing hold over Obama personnel in the middle of the night is mostly symbolic. They were not going to be around for long under any circumstance, and kudos to Sally Yates for making the absolute most of the remaining power she actually had.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I’m becoming impatient with these “Evil A” is a distraction from “Evil B” hot takes. All of the actions the shitgibbon regime is proposing are evil, and they’re all important, and they all must be opposed. We have to walk, chew gum, juggle chainsaws and keep flaming hoola-hoops aloft, all at the same time. Yes, it will be hard, but the alternative is surrender.
@HeleninEire: :)
Jack the Second
@efgoldman: Shit man, at least it wasn’t his password again.
sdhays
@Ella in New Mexico: Yeah, what the hell is up with that? Josh Marshall says it’s “THE big story”, but what I simply can’t comprehend is “why?”. Why would they do this?
1. Goodlatte would be a supporter of the EO, at least in principle.
2. Were there no other people they could go to in order to draft the order? I mean, it’s not like they have a high bar of excellence when it comes to these things, and they clearly have no compunction about bringing in inappropriate people, so why go to the trouble of screwing with Congress’ aides? The NDA shows that they knew what they were doing and that it would cause a fuss if it came out, but why the hell bother?
I just don’t get it…
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Headfake? Tell that to the green card holders who have been effectively deported.
Barbara
@Taylor: Well, I don’t know what I would have said last week, and I am still not willing to place big bets, but the pure chaos that seems to be the leitmotif of Trump and Bannon will not be kind to the U.S. I am confident that many Republican politicians — and nearly all Republican donors — will understand that at some point Trump’s unpredictability, his penchant for the political equivalent of punching people in the face regardless of their ability or inclination to punch back hard, is going to seriously sicken if not kill the goose that has laid the golden egg of American prosperity. One of the clear advantages we have over a country like China is that our laws are reliable and predictable. Even American companies will find it hard to do business in a country ruled by a madman.
Weaselone
@rikyrah:
It’s not a headfake. It’s all fucking important and this is why:
It also displays the resolve of his opposition.
Not doing anything is also information. In if we don’t resist, spill out into the streets and at least attempt to cajole, prod, or impel through the court system that the “enforcers” actually abide by the Constitution, then we’ve already ceded the field to President Bannon and his meat puppet. It would just show them that they can get away with this crap already and that they can move directly on to the next massive outrage.
Barbara
@sdhays: Goodlatte is pure scum. He was the guy behind the repeal of House ethics oversight.
chopper
@Yoda Dog:
or as a guy on TDS put it recently, there’s always eric trump, who has a face you’d like to hit if it didn’t already look like someone else got there first.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Word. When he starts rounding up the DACA kids, they will write the same thing.
sdhays
@Weaselone: Exactly. The whole “the Democrats are playing right into
Himmler’sBannon’s hands” always leave out the part of “what the Democrats should be doing”. That’s because, no matter what, the only tool in our pocket right now is “oppose”. Oppose everything.danielx
@Iowa Old Lady:
And whining* is even less attractive in a seventy year old than it is in a seven year old, and it’s not exactly endearing in a seven year old.
*or whinging, as our Brit cousins would say.
sdhays
@Barbara: Right, so why bother with an end-run around him?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sdhays: To show that they can, it’s a power play.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I think people are struggling to cope and understand an incredibly unstable situation. They are malevolent, arrogant, and incompetent. The incompetence could save us in one instance and destroy us in another.
Peale
@rikyrah: I think this is silly. The “headfake” that “misses the real issue” analysis of the immigration ban…”don’t fall for it” is the kind of “I’m savvy and see the big picture” bull crap that will get people killed in the end. Jesus. We’re reacting to an EO that harmed people. We aren’t distracted in this case. Not at all. This is a gross injustice to people. Yeah “only a few hundred detained people” seems small. But what’s the ACLU to do? Ignore it for the sake of the long game?
The author treats the immigration ban like it’s getting people upset about some pizza parlor in Indiana that has a homophobic owner. Or tricking us into protesting the return of the Winston Churchill bust to the Oval Office. Those are distractions. Those are largely meaningless things. O.k. Should we give a big round of applause to trump instead?
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
That’s how I see it. Exactly how I see it.
Total slave catcher.
Glidwrith
@sdhays: My hubby says that by using Congressional staffers they violated the law, something about separation of powers.
Spanky
@Weaselone: Seconded, and a note to remind folks that chaos is Bannon’s goal, not a side effect.
amk
wonder when will the msm start calling the thug a radical?
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
The only one holding Ivanka up as an “advocate for working women” is Ivanka.
danielx
@Betty Cracker:
Pretty much. It’s like watching a variant of the shell game, only instead of money under one shell, there’s a turd under each of the three. Whenever something awful is announced, there’s something just as awful in not more so waiting in the wings.
sdhays
@?BillinGlendaleCA: One of their first big power plays is to screw over an ally? To draft an EO so poorly written that no one can really figure out what it means? It’s the best explanation so far, but I still can’t quite comprehend it.
Spanky
@danielx: “Whinging” is a portmanteau of “whining” and “cringing”, so there’s some value added with that “g”.
Barbara
@sdhays: Here is what I think, for whatever it is worth. Anyone competent to draft this order would immediately have understood that there were some lines that needed to be drawn pertaining to those who already had received a valid visa or green card under the existing process, versus changing the vetting process going forward for those who were still in the pipeline. They probably also would have understood that there are guardrails around writing it in such a way that it would not be vulnerable to legal attack as being biased against Muslims. And finally, someone would have considered that there are a lot of Americans in certain countries, like Iraq, and that we have been expecting and expect more cooperation from Iraq in the future in order to eliminate the threat from ISIS. Those people would have redrafted and, probably, it would have gotten out and Congress might even have put pressure on Trump to include various committees and their legal staff, who are experts in existing law and how to draft legal documents, and maybe even providing advance warning to certain nations in order to shape the message and avoid international concern. But that would have spoiled all of the fun — the element of surprise, fucking with people who are in transit, putting handcuffs on five year olds, mooning foreign dignitaries. And that, apparently, is what makes Trump and Bannon a happy man. And then, to be extra sure no one inside the Trump cabal raised last minute objections or tried to get more input, they clearly and intentionally waited for the crown prince and princess to go on their 24 hour hiatus to release it. Anybody who likes disorder and chaos has been spoiled and protected from its consequences.
Spanky
@Glidwrith: And those non-disclosure agreements aren’t worth more than asswipe paper, I’m pretty sure.
Jeffro
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, I think!
@Taylor:
All I know is, if we do nothing, not only is civil war more likely, but we’ll have to tell our kids we did nothing. It’s possible to propose some quite idealistic things while being quite realistic about the opposition we face.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker:
Yes and yes and yes. Resist it all, fight it all.
SenyorDave
@danielx: And whining* is even less attractive in a seventy year old than it is in a seven year old, and it’s not exactly endearing in a seven year old.
My comment to friends since Trump got elected is that my six year old granddaughter sometimes whines, the key word being sometimes. Trump always whines. And when my granddaughter isn’t whining she is basically the most adorable person on the face of the earth (yes, I am a little biased). OTOH, Trump is a flabby, multi-chinned, nasty SOB who delights in the misery of others. Not exactly endearing to anyone.
low-tech cyclist
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
FTFY.
sdhays
@Barbara: I think you’re right on all counts, but it still doesn’t explain why they involved the Congressional staff at all. By the sound of it, the EO is a mess, so the input they received was either useless or ignored. This is what mystifies me.
patrick tolle
@Kay- That’s the answer to the wingnuts age-old howl about “local control”. I don’t recall precise numbers,but most of the elections I’ve voted in, and I’m 70 years old and have participated in every one since I was old enough, and got out of the Army. Had elections for the local school board.
Jeffro
Has this already been linked to and discussed? How Donald Trump Could Build an Autocracy in the US
Great long read. Be sure to watch the short video w/ David Frum embedded in the article.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Barbara:
Y’know, when he takes his tumble (and the economic crunch will be bad – REAL BAD, the dollar already took a little hit today), Trump loving conservatives will blame us for “not giving him a chance”, and will whisper whimper a lot of “they stabbed him in the back” rhetoric (wink wink).
On the good side, I’ve got a pretty solid 1 year, enter-Australia-multiple-times-and-stay-90-days visa that just came through. Plus, my Chinese visa is good for 10 years.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You know what? I think you should stop trying to predict the future reactions of people we don’t know and likely don’t understand.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
And then you wake up.
Oh, a storm is threat’ning
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Oh yeah, I’m gonna fade away
War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
War, children, it’s just a shot away
It’s just a shot away
– The Glimmer Twins
Some truths never change.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SenyorDave:
So where in the hell is Melanoma on her anti-bullying initiative she promised? She could start by taking his cellphone and not scrolling it, but smashing it on the bathroom floor like my wife did when I was particularly assholish in a facebook argument with an acquaintance’s father in law (the acquaintance is a facebook friend with her boss, who mentioned it to her because he thought it was funny).
eric
@rikyrah: i dont want to offend, but isnt he more of a house ^*&(^ than an active participant. So long as he is comfortable, the rest of his kind be damned.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Barbara:
Hearing too much “give him a chance” commentary to ignore it, and have been implored by too many whining voices to let him do it so we can all succeed – that to wish him failure makes us all fail.
Fuck that.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: On the BBC this morning, they mentioned off-hand that a “majority” support Donnie’s EO on entry into the USA. Horrifying, but it shows that it’s going to be an up-hill struggle to get this reversed and to take him down. We’re right, but it’s still going to be a hard struggle.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@sdhays: The point in the article is that when the White House asked for the help of congressional staff it required them to sign an NDA so that their bosses in Congress would not know. That is a pretty big deal. If I were Goodlatte I would fire those people immediately, just on principle.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sdhays:
Yes, it shows Congress who’s “in charge” and since it’s an ally, what are they going to do about it? Answer, nothing. Plain and simple, it’s showing their dominance over the Congress.
FlipYrWhig
@Jeffro: IMHO virtually the entirety of the Trump phenomenon consists of paranoia that black and brown people are proliferating, getting out of control, and on the verge of taking over. All the talk about trade and factory jobs and so forth is just icing on that fetid cake.
Shalimar
@Davebo: I don’t think it was Prior’s choice. I read several articles in the last week that referred to him as “the early frontrunner”. Once you have been vetted completely and lose that primary spot, you never get it back. They had decided against Prior but not which potential nominee they liked better would be the actual nominee.
Another Scott
@Barbara: He’s also the guy who killed the Senate’s bi-partisan immigration reform bill in the House.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No one here is saying give him a chance and that’s not what I said either. But, to your other point: Go. Go to China, go to Australia. I am not judging. There is only so much stress a person can take in life.
rikyrah
@Weaselone:
I agree. We must resist.
Iowa Old Lady
@efgoldman: Since he’s twice tweeted his password, it’s possible someone else retweeted The Onion. Still, it’s a beautiful thing.
He’s not going to last.
rikyrah
@eric:
The purpose of slave catchers was always to do the wink, wink, nod nod to ‘the group’; to lull them into a sense of security. And, then, they will betray them.
I would have NEVER thought that Jewish groups would be as calm as they’ve been with the consistent insults towards them.
They use Kushner to ‘ reassure’ them. All the while, there’s a phucking Nazi in the goddamned White House.
They phucking ALL LIVES MATTERED THE HOLOCAUST.
But but…Kushner is there….don’t ya know?
rikyrah
How Trump Will Roll Back Obama’s Progress on Gay Rights
The new administration poses a serious threat to LGBT people.
by Alison Gash
January 31, 2017
………………………
Trump’s Threats
Gay, lesbian and transgender individuals and families stand to lose significant ground under Trump.
The decision upholding the right to marriage for gay and lesbian couples is not in any immediate danger of being overturned, so long as the five justices who voted to overturn state bans on same-sex marriage remain on the Court. Any justice that the Senate confirms to replace Antonin Scalia will not change the 5-4 split in favor of marriage equality. If one of the five justices in the majority vacates his or her seat during Trump’s presidency, there would be room to reverse the decision, but the Court would need to be presented with a new case involving a new set of facts (for example a new state law barring marriage equality, a state regulation limiting access to marriage licenses). These avenues, although by no means impossible to traverse, are more difficult.
Where opponents could make significant gains, however, is in limiting access to marriage services or benefits. For example, if Trump’s Congress successfully repeals the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits LGBTQ discrimination, insurance companies could discriminate against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation—placing gay or lesbian spouses at risk of losing coverage.
Trump has also stated that, if brought to his desk, he will sign the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA)—federal legislation that would bar all federal officials from punishing an individual or entity that acts on their “religious or moral belief” that marriage “is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman.” A federal district court overturned a similar law passed in Mississippi. It is now on appeal. If the law is upheld (and if Congress delivers similar legislation), vital records clerks, bakeries, hotels, restaurants—or any service provider—may have legal coverage to refuse to work with gay or lesbian couples—despite the ruling in Obergefell.
Trump’s pledge to remove all Obama-era executive orders could also mean the reversal of protections against discrimination in housing and employment. This would likely be accompanied by a disinvestment of resources examining LGBTQ-based housing discrimination, and alterations to the EEOC’s interpretation of federal employment protections, which could limit the potential for courts to address workplace bias against gay or transgender workers.
Even if the EEOC changes course, some federal judges may decide to continue following existing precedent that protects gay and transgender workers. However, this precedent is far from stable. For example, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied a lesbian professor’s claim of discrimination when her community college decided not to renew her contract. The court found that federal laws do not cover sexual orientation discrimination. On appeal, gay rights advocates received a full panel 7th Circuit hearing and are awaiting the decision.
BellyCat
@Kay: Sane insights into correcting the MSM and related courtiers.
O. Felix Culpa
@MomSense:
Yes! I’ll be training with OFA next month to help lead projects like that with newbie activists.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
Hear, hear! It’s just a way of saying ur doing it wrong when we demonstrate against one evil thing. What if we had stayed home and remained quiet over the immigrant and refugee ban to what…meditate and write stern letters about the NSC? Our demonstrations and pushback over the weekend won at least partial victories and freed some people to enter the country. On Monday, I started calling my legislators about the NSC. Walk and chew gum. We can do it.
Timurid
@Jeffro:
Dr. Frumkenstein is having second thoughts about his monster? How touching….
ms_canadada
@rikyrah: Just as Naomi Klein wrote of in The Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism.
Debbie1
@Gin & Tonic: What’s with calling it a “travel ban” when it’s obviously a Muslim ban. Travel ban makes it sound like a temporary travel restriction due to contagion which applies to everyone equally.
Chris
@OzarkHillbilly: I love the Molly Hatchet version. Obviously D. Allman and co are awesome too!
Ksmiami
@Kay: Hi Kay- just wanted to share a few thoughts. I’ve been wracked with anxiety and and anger since the election but last night came to the revelation that if the other side doesn’t play by the rules or respect norms, then we don’t have to either- it’s liberating and maybe the answer is radical change to our creaky Democracy once we throw the GOP out. I mean maybe expanding the numbers in congress and the senate should be a priority- maybe transitioning to a parliamentary system etc. whatever the new system will be it’s time to move away from what’s obviously not working and a holdover from slavery days.
joel hanes
@Immanentize:
Any further purges while I slept?
Late last night we learned that the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ragsdale, is fired without comment or justification, and Homan will take his place.
Gelfling 545
@NotMax: Did much of my 2nd master’s work in online setting. It was quite challenging and possibly one of the best educational experiences of my life. Others I know have done online study with varying results. My feeling is that it works best 1. In areas in which the student is deeply interested; 2. the student is pretty competent and self motivated. It’s not too useful for students who are still learning HOW to learn: elementary, much of high school, beginning college; or for students who are struggling in the subject area. This also presumes that the body offering the online courses is competent to do so, which is not always the case. Essentially, I consider it a convenient assembling of source materials for students who are capable and motivated enough to be largely self-taught.
joel hanes
@raven:
[ cites 2002 study ]
It’s been around longer even than that.
Two of my junior-year courses at my Great State Land-Grant Institution of Higher Learning were completely computer-mediated, through the networked PLATO plasma-display terminals that had their servers at U Illinois Champaign/Urbana.
In 1980.
As you say, it worked poorly for the bottom half of the learners.
bendal
@Another Scott: Have you heard what the Russians are doing in the isolated state of Kaliningrad? That entire Russian-run enclave has been stuffed full of long range anti-ship and anti-aircraft missile launchers, as well as the ground forces there have dug in to the point it looks like a WWII era fortress. Kaliningrad is located west of the Baltic states on the coastline, and with those missiles can control any naval or air support to the Baltic states if there’s need of a NATO intervention…
Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)
@SFAW:
@rikyrah:
More likely the correct (very offensive terms) are “capo” or “court Jew.”
After the election I realized I was safer walking up to any random African-American person at my gym & talking politics, than talking to any random Jewish person I go to Temple around Rosh Hashanah with.
There’s a hard core of Jewish people (usually Conservadox or more in observance) who support AIPAC & Israel & by extension everything Republicans do. It’s partially a tax thing, partly a religious thing, and it’s also an enemy of my enemy thing. As far back as Louis Brandeis Jewish organizations have “accepted” the eschatological prophecy based help of evangelical Christians while realizing the danger of accepting help from people who actively pray for your destruction once you’ve returned to the “promised land.” The problem is that now these organizations don’t understand that it’s past time to forcefully point out to their “friends” to stop enabling Nazis. Perhaps not until the erasure of the six million on Holocaust Remembrance Day did these folks finally hear the siren call that has been going out for so long. & they may, even still, “want to believe.” (Which explains so much to me how so many families stayed behind until it was too late; too embedded within German culture & insulated by wealth to believe they were in danger).
(FWIW I can hear it because my father is an Old Dad & my mother was a historian. Even my relatives who didn’t vote for the cheeto because he was unfit, don’t hear the whistle (now siren) that’s been sounding in the Republican Party for a while now).
BellyCat
@O. Felix Culpa:
Pledge? Hell… create one of those rainbow colored rubber bracelets for people to wear as a public show of support.
Someone not wearing one would continually have to answer to friends’ queries of “Why not?”
Peer pressure, baby. Peer pressure.
StringOnAStick
@bendal: @bendal: So, this Russian build-up you described is probably the start of the Russian re-taking of the Baltics, with Putin planning on Dolt 45 hamstringing any NATO response. That sort of inherently destabilizing event for the world order is economy crushing on a world wide basis. You just know that Bannon will love watching the flames and is already anticipating the ashes.
Stan
@O. Felix Culpa:
Agree, great idea. Way to turn a demonstration into power.
Stan
@Another Scott:
There was a fair sized exercise and firepower demo in Poland the other day that included US troops from the 4th Infantry Division. That was a message straight from NATO to Vlad to stay the fuck away from Poland, at least. I doubt Trump knows it happened. Hope he’s not reading this.
Adrift
I just read this and I am in tears.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/31/public-lands-sell-congress-bureau-management-chaffetz
and to think it is all just starting.
TriassicSands
Alain, first let me say I appreciate all the work you do on this site. That said, please get rid of those obnoxious (and much too large) buttons on the lower right screen. The mouse and browser or touch screen already provide better, more efficient ways to scroll down. All these buttons do is take up space. The instant move to the bottom button was much more useful. If you can get that back it would be great. Thanks.
TriassicSands
We’re overdue for the day’s Disaster of the Day. Oh, wait, they voted DeVos out of committee on a party-line vote.
Miss Bianca
@Adrift: yep, that Chaffetz is one evil fuck. But this one may backfire on him. An awful lot of hunters and fishermen happen to be Republicans, and they’re not going to be happy about this. Won’t be the first time a dick move by a Republican has thrust unlikely partners together into the dreaded “enviro!” bed.
workworkwork
@NotMax: I teach and develop online courses. They’re definitely not for everyone. The one saving grace of the online courses at our school is that they have a live, interactive online class session each week. The key to teaching these things is to engage as much as possible with students and let them know they’re not just being hung out there on their own.
Still not for everybody.
No One You Know
@NotMax: I can haz reduced COBRA?
No One You Know
@TriassicSands: Hmm. I am liking the buttons. All of my accesses are by smartphone, and scrolling is a misery for someone recovering from tendonitis. They may be overkill for some, but my mileage varies…