I didn’t get around to doing a Moral Mondays type post yesterday. Today, I’m recommending that you get involved with local protests against Republican in Congress that target townhalls and district offices. I just rejoined my local chapter of hard-core hippies (it’s called Metro Justice) so I can be plugged into whatever they do along these lines.
The pressure is starting to work:
House Republicans during a closed-door meeting Tuesday discussed how to protect themselves and their staff from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare, sources in the room told POLITICO.
If these clowns are really afraid of bunch of hippies and mildly teed-off totebaggers, then they’re even bigger babies than I thought. But if they are, it’s to our advantage.
schrodingers_cat
The 9th circuit hearings are about to start soon.
Mike in DC
I agree. Keep up the pressure. At some point, though, a pivot to the midterms needs to happen.
Rathskeller
What’s the best way to find out about the town halls? Get on their mailing list?
Corner Stone
It’s getting hawt in heeerr, so take off all your clothes!
EdTheRed
Evil, I’ve come to tell you that she’s evil, most definitely
Evil, ornery, scandalous and evil, most definitely
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: That thread is downstairs.
Doug!
@Rathskeller:
I haven’t figured that out yet.
Doug!
@EdTheRed:
I really like Sublime.
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: In this house, all threads are downstairs baby. Now, where did I put my bathrobe?
EdTheRed
@Doug!: RIP Bradley. :-(
p.a.
Coming soon: the return of Rethug Free Speech Zones. Cowards.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
It’s February, a bit early to be pulling out that old chestnut ;-)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The are afraid, period. Fear has been the underlining theme for Conservatives for the past decade at lest.
Wag
@Mike in DC: Agreed. But 2 weeks in to the new administration is a bit early.
Miss Bianca
Dear God, what freaking COWARDS. And to a man, they were probably all extolling the Tea Partiers as “honest and healthy dissent”.
Major Major Major Major
This is, ah, a bit of editorial language on the part of the Politico writer!
@p.a.: Oh yeah, I remember those. They couldn’t have come up with a better name??
Ohio Mom
@Doug!: I just got an email the other day with a link to a spreadsheet of all the town halls. It makes get take me a while to copy rhe link but I will be back.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
I thought it was 3pm Pacific Time, but maybe I misheard the news report.
Napoleon
@Rathskeller:
Obviously the website of your Sen or Rep is a start, but I have seen in the last week or so someone is keeping a central data base on them. I bet you could find where on Daily Kos.
Ohio Mom
@Doug!:
Google Town Hall Project
It is a google doc spread sheet
Mike J
Interesting how many headlines explicitly say, “left using tea party tactics.” Do you ever remember both sides do it working to our advantage and actually being reported on?
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: You are right, I just saw the 3pm and assumed it was EST.
GregB
I smell Republican Incumbent Safe-Zone legislation coning.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The GOP fears Trump more than they fear the voters. And their fear has not prevented them from staying focused on their goals.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
So, here’s the deal:
Each attorney will have half an hour to speak, and I think the hearing will be live streamed at various sites.
Corner Stone
@hovercraft: It is 88F here today. You tell me.
Mnemosyne
IIRC, Rep. Tom McClintock here in California ran scared because a little old lady and her poodle confronted him as he tried to sneak out the back door after a raucous Town Hall in Roseville.
They should be scared. All of their moms, grandmas, aunts, older sisters, and teachers are coming out of the woodwork to say, What the hell did you DO?!?!
Keep the pressure up.
Mike in DC
@Wag:
True. I think the August recess is a good time for a partial pivot, building infrastructure, recruiting candidates, etc. Once January 2018 rolls around, the pivot should commence in full, making allowances that we might still need active resistance to stop legislation that year.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
They fear the voters more than they fear Trump. What they fear about the voters is that they like Trump better than the rest of the party.
Mnemosyne
@Mike in DC:
We don’t need to “pivot.” We need to identify Democrats who can run against EVERY Republican in the country.
Personally, I want to replace the 14 House Republicans from California and send an all-Democratic block to Congress in 2018. Which of my fellow Californians are with me?
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: Yep. This. Time and again these voters have shown that they’ll change their opinions and buck GOP orthodoxy (for example, on free trade) if Trump says to.
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: 71F here, with a chance of snow on Thursday.
Antarctica is having some issues, also too.:
Hey, but it may snow on Thursday so it’s all good.
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Starfish
@Ohio Mom: Was it this one?
Mike J
For a good time, google tea party town hall, and change the date range to 1/1/2009-1/1/2010. You may need to remind some people of what things were like then.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Fair enough.
VFX Lurker
@Mnemosyne:
Red Two, standing by. Let’s do this.
trollhattan
Never thought I’d see this, but Trump is Making CNN Relevant Again.
And it’s not even lunchtime.
Jeffro
Here’s tension for you: the GOP screwed over Obama’s nominees, and for once, we’re paying them back in spades. (Check out the graph at the end of the article)
As ye sow, Trumpublicans…
Belafon
Maybe Republicans are also afraid of all of the people they’ve encouraged to exercise their second amendment rights that might be worried about losing their health care.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Brachiator:
The fear him because they know they can’t get elected without him. If the 27% bail, even in a severely gerrymandered district, they don’t stand a chance.
They need the carnival barker out there diverting attention from the Pence Dominionist agenda and the impending looting of the Treasury.
Mnemosyne
@VFX Lurker:
I went to Swing Left and got CA-25, which is Palmdale. MaryG is down in Issa’s district and Doug Applegate has already announced that he’s running again in 2018 since he came within 1,000 votes of beating Issa.
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne:
I’m not a Californian, but as a native Chicagoan I am trained to vote early and often in elections I am not eligible to vote in. So count me in–multiple times!
Shlemazel
Can’t help myself. Saw the headline and all I could think of was
And Leon is getting larger!
Roger Moore
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
More importantly, the 27% will bail to a different candidate in the primary, which means no reelection no matter how red the district. The extreme right wing of the party has proven its willingness and ability to throw out the impure, and the whole party is terrified of it.
DougJ
@Ohio Mom:
Thanks. Email me when you have it set up!
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
As long as the nominees end up getting confirmed, the GOP will be happy to pay the price.
hovercraft
Who has babysitting duty tonight, they better be on their toes.
Trump Has Worst Disapproval Numbers Yet In Gallup Tracking Poll
Disapproval of Donald Trump’s performance as President reached a new high on Monday in Gallup’s daily tracking poll.
The tracking poll, which averages results over the previous three days, found that 54 percent of respondents disapproved of Trump’s performance in office, while only 42 percent approved. On Jan. 22, two days after his inauguration, respondents were split 45-45 percent on Trump’s performance……
Trump’s net approval rating in the Gallup poll dropped 8 points during his first week in office, though the gap between approval and disapproval has never been higher for Trump than what the poll currently reflects, a 12-point spread.
Gallup tracks the percentage of Americans who approve and disapprove of the President’s performance in office every day, based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults, according to the company. The poll’s margin of error is 3 percentage points.
SAD !
The media and their fake polls trying to make the most popular president evah look bad.
Mnemosyne
@Steve in the ATL:
Thanks, but we all need to concentrate on our own states. Go to Swing Left, find out what the closest Republican-represented district is to you, and get to work.
Since you’re in GA, it’s possible that the calls are coming from inside the house!
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: even Cantor wasn’t safe.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
If the price is getting thrown out on their ears, they’re gonna be pissed. And I have a feeling that Trump’s not gonna be that interested in helping out reps and senators who might get in electoral trouble. In fact, I’m hoping that by January of 2018, Trump will be so toxic that Republicans will be begging him to stay home and not help.
Jeffro
@Mike J:
And then compare the Tea Party crap (complete with posters of Obama with a frickin’ bone through his nose) with our stand against someone who’s had it in for public education since forever. And oh NO…we’re calling and showing up at town hall meetings like we’re supposed to. It’s ridiculous.
rikyrah
Fredreka Schouten Verified account
@fschouten
House Administration panel just voted 6-3 to get rid of the Election Assistance Commission, charged w/ helping states improve voting systems
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
They will, until enough of their voters catch on, get disillusioned, go for an even more extreme RWNJ, etc. 2018 is not far off, and now they are directly supporting known quantity Trump.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA
Abbs Winston
@AbbsWinston
Netanyahu visits the British government and finds the door closed, and no one is around to welcomes him.
gene108
@Major Major Major Major:
GOP orthodoxy – I am being polite here – was an unwieldy alliance between social conservatives and big business.
Oppose abortion and comprehensive sex-ed to keep the social conservatives in line, while cutting taxes for big business and the rich.
Something had to give and with Trump, the social conservatives have, in their minds at least, come out on top.
Rasputin's Evil Twin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The last decade? I thought their fear of fear, and everything else, began in 1929.
Spanky
Moderately on-topic (particularly to Californians), Kos has an article near the top on a the same topic with a picture with this caption:
Yeah! Soil some Republican trou!
joel hanes
@Mike in DC:
a pivot to the midterms needs to happen.
It’s five weeks to the end of the current deal over the debt limit.
Bonfire of the Treasuries
http://juanitajean.com/bonfire-of-the-treasuries/
I’d like respectively submit that preventing the feckless Rs and the idiot Republican President from defaulting on the full faith and credit of the US might be our most important near-term task, unless Trump attempts to impose martial law or starts a nuclear war.
rikyrah
IndieWire Verified account
@IndieWire
#HiddenFigures has earned $119.4 million; it passes “La La Land” to be the year’s highest grossing Oscar nominee
Timurid
They’re preparing for the transition from representing people to ruling them.
TenguPhule
First, armed security. Second, security that opens fire on the dirty hippies. Third, blame fake news.
I wish I was joking.
dmsilev
@hovercraft: Fake polls!
And that’s after an entirely self-made set of face plants. What happens when there’s some actual crisis where mere bluster and some seriously unnatural hair prove to be no substitute for actually having a clue about the world?
rikyrah
This is Awesomely Luvvie
Deadline Hollywood Verified account
@Deadline
Shondaland To Develop Luvvie Ajayi’s Book ‘I’m Judging You’ As Cable Series
Major Major Major Major
@gene108: yeah but the actual base voters still held all those competing ideas in an incoherent Whole in their minds.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro: Its not who votes, its who counts the votes.
We’ve had our last election. Now it will just be a mockery of the process.
The Republic is dead. The Empire lives.
dmsilev
@Spanky:
Philosophical question for our time: is it possible to simultaneously be full of shit and scared shitless?
TenguPhule
@joel hanes: No hope there. The Republicans WANT to shoot that particular hostage.
trollhattan
@Steve in the ATL:
We have a big-ass tent (the yuugest, klassiest tent you’ve ever seen, believe me!) and you and your many voting personalities are welcome. C’mon in.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: helpful!
rikyrah
Keeping America White!!!
GOP Senators To Intro Bill That Could Curb Number Of Green Cards
Source: Talking Points Memo
By CAITLIN MACNEAL
Published FEBRUARY 7, 2017, 8:37 AM EDT
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) will introduce a bill on Tuesday that would limit who could sponsor an immigrant to receive a green card, Politico reported Tuesday morning.
Currently, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can sponsor family members to obtain green cards, but this bill would only allow someone’s spouse or child who is an unmarried minor to sponsor them for a green card, according to Politico. The bill would also allow for children to bring over elderly parents, per Politico.
The legislation would also limit the refugee program to 50,000 people per year and eliminate the diversity lottery, which sets aside 50,000 visas each year to citizens from countries from which few people immigrate to the U.S., per Politico.
Cotton’s office told Politico that the bill would reduce legal immigration by about 40 percent in the first year of implementation and by 50 percent over ten years.
p.a.
@Major Major Major Major:
read down to Bannon bragging about Cantor’s defeat.
From Haaretz today. For some reason I can copy/paste the link but not the paragraphs here. ‘Paste’ won’t come up.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
They will certainly send up the bat signal to their cammo-wearin’, truck-drivin’, MAGA-hat topped mouthbreathers to clog up their future meetings. Hijinks will ensue.
Spanky
@dmsilev: Do click over and see the terrified Republican running away from a middle-aged woman. To be fair, she looks like she means business.
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
This is true up to a point, if as is already happening his poll numbers keep going down, they will eventually try to distance themselves. I don’t know how their plan to blame ever bad thing the public hates on him is going to work. He will not sit back and let them blame all of it on him first of all, and since they are the ones actually passing the terrible legislation number one, and justifying all his EO’s number two, they are welded to him and his disastrous policies, and he to theirs. It’s funny how the party of personal responsibility is doing everything in their power to avoid all responsibility for what they are doing. Between the congresscritters hiding behind closed doors to figure out how to kill Obamacare without being blammed for it, to the Trumpenfuror abdicating responsibility for any attack on America because Mattis, his own SoD won’t torture is breathtaking.
Right now the price of going along is not high, a year from now, I suspect it will be a lot higher. It’s only been tow and a half weeks, we’re still in the honeymoon phase. Hard to believe, I know.
Gvg
Afraid means something different to them than it did to democratic congress people back then. They are afraid of losing future elections. Gabby Giffords got shot and her fellow congressmen refused to do anything about it. They don’t care if we are actually threatened with harm. They don’t care if some poor Americans will die when Obamacare is cut. They aren’t shutting down Trump for setting the stage for possible stupidest wars in our history and blathering about why not using nukes.
Nobody is actually threatening them with anything except being talked loudly at, being told we don’t like their position and maybe losing elections. They are being babies. I guess now we need to tell them that too.
VFX Lurker
@TenguPhule: I wish the pie filter worked on the mobile version of this site. Your violent hyperbole and hand-wringing helplessness contribute nothing to these conversations.
I’m going to focus on SwingLeft efforts and do my utmost to ignore you.
Spanky
At least Sen. Al Franken asked the question that needed asking in the DeVos vote:
“At long last, sir …”
ETA: But sadly, we know how this turned out.
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: oh jesus
@Major Major Major Major: I know, right? Why does TP even post if the world’s about to end? Be happy warriors, people!!
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: I’m just pointing out the problem. We need engineers to devise a solution.
Major Major Major Major
@p.a.: I saw that elsewhere. Utterly unsurprising, and the way he revels in it without quite mentioning Judaism is a sight to behold.
The lack of a paste option is a JavaScript trick they use to force you to visit the site and use up one of your free monthly views. I didn’t click through. But I assume it’s the quote I saw elsehwere.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro: Congress just killed funding to improve voting across the States. What do you think is going to happen? Unicorns and Rainbows? Remember, the infrastructure was already starting to break down in 2012.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: where in that post have you asked anybody for a solution?
currants
@joel hanes: Well yeah, until they want to attach horrid bills to debt ceiling increase approvals. I mean, it seemed clear last time that they’re willing to let it all burn down, and the Dems aren’t, which puts them at a disadvantage in a hostage situation. Well, to be honest, I don’t do hostage negotiations–hope I’m wrong.
jl
No, there is a dire threat to the safety of the GOpers. An older lady with a poodle chased, or at the very least, walked quickly looking pretty mean in the general direction of GOPer Houser McClintock, in Roseville CA.
It’s out of control!
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
That would be glorious. Much like the Dems who told Obama to stay away from their districts, all it would do is cost them enthusiasm.
Iowa Old Lady
@joel hanes: The debt limit scares me. I look at my TIAA-CREF and think it was the stocks that were supposed to be risky. The govt bonds paid little but were supposed to be safe.
mai naem mobile
@Another Scott: Dolt 45 and his Congress is going to get rid of NASA and the satellites so don’t worry,none of this will happen. Dolt will be fat and unhappy whining about Mornin Ho talking about his admins crappy response to Hurricane Donaldo and why it was named Hurricane Donaldo in the first place – how it should have been named Hurricane Barrack…..
Peale
@rikyrah: What I don’t understand is the “Unmarried Minor” sponsorship. I get the “elderly parents”. They can claim that they are in favor of extended families, just not people who would work. Plus since the elderly parents aren’t eligible for medicare, insuring them would mean that only the “most successful” immigrants could afford to sponsor them. But it seems odd that adult married children couldn’t sponsor their parents until their parents were elderly. I know its not supposed to make sense and it is supposed to stop “chain migration” by limiting immigrants to nuclear families. But it still makes little sense. My guess its that because the first family member sent to the US with a green card isn’t a child without his or her parents, but a single male adult.
rikyrah
Switchboard actually jammed by “Alternative People.”
LOL!!!!
Kellyanne Conway believes liberals jamming Capitol Hill switchboard are not ‘real people’: report
Source: RawStory
DAVID EDWARDS
07 FEB 2017 AT 10:22 ET
-snip-
According to Capitol Hill staffers, citizens opposing Betsy DeVos’ nomination have flooded the Capitol Hill switchboard with a record 1.5 million calls a day.
-snip-
Politico reported that Conway dismissed the callers during a meeting with lawmakers on Monday.
During Monday’s morning meeting, Conway, multiple sources said, shrugged off the concerns from thousands of people jamming phone lines critical of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, explaining that she’s more worried about her own “RPI” or “Real Person Impact” meter.
“She basically said the people jamming up the phones don’t matter to this White House,” one Republican senator’s communication director reportedly said. “That this administration just cares about what matters to ‘real people.’”
Mike in DC
@rikyrah:
They’re going to be stunned and shocked at how this blows up on them. There are Latinos here legally who weren’t bothered by the wall rhetoric because they figured it didn’t affect them. This, however, does affect them and their family and friends living in their countries of origin. I fully expect the bill to be filibustered. Indeed, it wouldn’t surprise me to see enough border state Republican senators to jump off this train. How will little Marco square this circle, I wonder?
TenguPhule
@VFX Lurker: Sorry to deflate your hopes. But honestly, what do you do when all legal means of redress are either ignored, belittled, negated or simply made illegal by the Republicans?
People are laughing at the Furher’s incompetence. But the damage is spreading and growing across the Nation.
You think that we can use the old rules to swing things back, that we can muster a shining moral majority to take control.
I’m saying, what happens if that doesn’t happen? What’s Plan B? Because Plan A sure doesn’t seem to be working.
rikyrah
White House leak reveals how staff manipulated Trump to get him to approve failed Yemen raid
Source: RawStory
SARAH K. BURRIS
07 FEB 2017 AT 09:40 ET
The one way a White House staffer can get President Donald Trump to do what they want is by telling him that President Barack Obama would never have done it, a new report reveals.
According to the Independent, an anonymous staffer leaked that the way military leaders were able to urge Trump to act on the failed Yemen raid was by telling him Obama didn’t want to do it.
General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, were reportedly able to persuade Trump to move forward by claiming Obama would never have been so bold to actually go through with it.
The military action was in the works for months prior to Trump taking over but Obama advisors didn’t want to do the raid until it was a moonless night.
Jeffro
@Spanky: It’s a theme with them…institutions are failing because Republicans are not enforcing any principles or standards other than “we’re in power; we’re going to do any & everything we want”
RNC supposed to put forth suitable, vetted candidates for president (i.e. tax returns, not supported by hostile foreign powers)? NOPE
Electoral College supposed to act as a check when the candidate is unsuitable, in thrall to a hostile foreign power, etc? NOPE
House supposed to impeach when Prez is in violation of the emoluments clause? NOPE
Prez supposed to put forth qualified cabinet nominees? NOPE Bonus: nominees who don’t lie to the Senate under oath? NOPE
Senate supposed to listen to voters instead of their big donors? NOPE Bonus: Senators supposed to recuse themselves when a cabinet nominee is a donor to their very own campaign(s)? NOPE
They are failing to enforce any standard, law, rule, norm, or…dare I say it…the Constitution. All in the service of one of the world’s worst human beings and his mouth-breathing voters. All so that they can inflict the .01%’s vision of America on the other 99.99% of us – WHEN THINGS WERE GOING JUST FINE, ANYWAY!!
That’s the most galling thing about all of this: if any of the GOP’s fever-dream fear-fantasies about the economy, or immigrants, or basically anything were even remotely true, they’d at least have a rationale (albeit a lousy one) for change. But everything was going really well until they decided to Trumpsubstantiate it all…
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
lol
p.a.
@Major Major Major Major: Bit OT but as a Patriot fan I can’t fathom how the Krafts, as Jews, can maintain their relationship with tRump considering who he surrounds himself with. Belichick, however, as a Croat… well Ustaše…
Gin & Tonic
@TenguPhule:
Ritual suicide. You go first.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: A Trumpista would certainly know about fake accounts and bots giving the false impression of popular support, that’s for sure…
Peale
@Iowa Old Lady: There’s just too many who have been fed the lies about the consequences. The fallout won’t be immediate, although it will effect the value of your holdings. However, this is the kind of Congress that somehow thinks that the “Chinese” own the debt and that you can just fuck them over – har har har. Suddenly force short term interest rates to 3-5% would be interesting indeed.
hovercraft
WH Claims CNN Retracted Concerns About Conway’s ‘Credibility’ (It Didn’t)
White House press secretary Sean Spicer incorrectly claimed on Tuesday that CNN “denied” reports that the network passed over booking President Donald Trump’s top advisor Kellyanne Conway due to issues with her “credibility.”
“CNN reportedly declined to interview Kellyanne Conway on Sunday because of questions about her credibility,” Yahoo! reporter Hunter Walker asked at the daily briefing. “Is the White House willing to offer alternative representatives to networks that refuse to work with specific spokespeople?”
“My understanding is they retracted that, they walked that back or denied it, however you want to put it,” Spicer said. “I think Kellyanne is a very trusted aide of the President. I think for any characterization otherwise is insulting.”
He said that if networks choose not to book a specific spokesperson the decision is “up to them.”
“I think we’re going to continue to put out key leaders in this administration including Kellyanne that can articulate the President’s policies and agenda,” Spicer said.
CNN refuted Spicer’s claims in a statement posted Tuesday afternoon.
“We have not ‘retracted’ or ‘walked back’ those comments,” the network’s communications team tweeted. “CNN was clear, on the record, about our concerns about Kellyanne Conway’s credibility.”
It sure is getting hot in there.
Patricia Kayden
@Mnemosyne: Little old ladies with doggies are thugs. Doncha know?
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: And a pope takes a dump in the woods.
I pity our privates right now. The Generals are as krazy as their commander in chief.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: We’re right behind you.
Chris
@rikyrah:
I can’t imagine why.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
So you just have to double dare him and say well Obama was too much of a wuss to do it, why don’t you show how much of a man you are?
Loser.
Faceplam.
Patricia Kayden
@hovercraft: CNN was okay with Trump liars during the lead up to the election. What changed?
TenguPhule
@Jeffro: Its been said before, if you were to to propose a movie like this it would be thrown out as completely unbelievable.
Another Scott
@p.a.: Cantor didn’t lose because of Bannon. Cantor lost for lots of reasons, including taking his voters for granted and making them hate him. (posted a couple of weeks ago).
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who is in favor of fighting every narrative that attempts to pump up Bannon as being some sort of political genius.)
Millard Filmore
@Mike J:
Ah yes, oppose the socialist agenda of Democrats, because socialism is a privilege that is reserved strictly for the rich.
Baud
@Another Scott: Agree. Bannon is evil and aggressive, but nothing yet suggests that he is smart.
TenguPhule
@Patricia Kayden: They realized that they were the new target.
Peale
@TenguPhule: We need to protect our privates and be their biggest supporters.
TenguPhule
@Millard Filmore:
Fixed that for you.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
They’re showing it at work on Thursday night and I’m going to go. G is going to go on his own because it turns out I’m difficult to see movies with. These are kinds of things you only find out after 10 years of marriage. ?
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
You need to act like that isn’t true, even if you believe it.
hovercraft
@Patricia Kayden:
First they came for………..
They realized that they were not safe despite of hiring a whole bunch of his sycophants, it wasn’t enough.
Gravenstone
@rikyrah:
Gee, ya think an ad or twenty might stem from this? “Everyone who called the White House to express your opinion? Yeah, they don’t think you’re real. They don’t think you matter. Now, let’s get out there and show them just how real you are.”
Seth Owen
@rikyrah: Puts a big lie to those who claim “oh, it’s not legal immigration, it’s the illegals we are concerned about. It’s about rule of law.” Bullshit. I always knew it was a smokescreen and they’d come after legal immigrants, too.
TenguPhule
@Peale: Thank you. I needed that smile.
TenguPhule
@randy khan: The problem is I am a terrible actor.
rikyrah
Laura
@SheWhoVotes
DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, colluded with Comey, Giuliani, & the NY FBI to help Trump win the election:
TenguPhule
@Seth Owen: The more worrying part is, who’s next in line?
rikyrah
Hollering!!
Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer on SNL is My New Favorite Thing
Awesomely Luvvie — February 6, 2017
The administration of Tangerine Voldemort are doing one good thing: giving us ample material for jokes. In fact, they’re making SNL great again, because those writers are now having a field day with Habanero Hitler and his Troop of Trifling Troglodytes. Everyone who works closely with him is a bumbling idiot. But that’s because he’s a raving dumbass himself. It’s like the worst game of “follow the leader.”
The latest episode had a surprise appearance by Melissa McCarthy, who is one of my comedy sheroes. She made me fall in love with her even more with this skit of her playing press secretary Sean Spicer.
Peale
@Seth Owen: Yeah. The excuse the squishy use who know this is wrong is that “its a shame, but then it wouldn’t have to happen if Obama hadn’t let standards deteriorate so much.”
dmsilev
@Chris: Werewolves. Duh.
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
Then practice.
Or adopt my attitude – if it happens, I’m in a lot of trouble already (I mean, campaign contributions are public knowledge, and if the day comes, they’ll have access to plenty of online information about people), so there’s no harm to being an activist and fighting against the darkness.
I’m not being flip, by the way. Despair is weirdly attractive (and believe me, I get that), but despair helps them. You have to fight it.
bemused senior
@TenguPhule: Luckily I am reading this thread on my laptop. I can therefore add you to the pie filter. Adios, and enjoy the delicious pie!
rikyrah
Eric Boehlert Verified account
@EricBoehlert
NBC reporting that the Yemen raid was the largest US action of its kind since the killing of bin Laden–slightly different results.
Gravenstone
@Chris:
The moon was one day past New on the night of the raid, so the timing fit as far as that small detail. The phases of the moon are of course predictable years in advance. The rest of the failed intelligence, however …
Gravenstone
@Patricia Kayden: Getting attacked personally and repeatedly by Trump apparently took the bloom of the rose offered by his sundry propagandists and liars.
Mnemosyne
@VFX Lurker:
I’ve been getting involved with a local group called Rise Up, and for their January meeting, they had a speech from a woman whose name I’m blanking on who worked for civil rights in Alabama when she was a teenager. She was beaten. She was tear-gassed. She had people threaten to kill her to her face. She was on the motherfucking Edmund Pettis Bridge and got the crap beaten out of her.
But she survived. And she won.
Ohio Mom
@Starfish: yes!
From townhallproject.com
Thanks!
Chris
@rikyrah:
I have no idea how much truth there is to that link, but if there is, this line –
– made me laugh.
You’re the head of the FBI, you fucking [deleted]. The most powerful law enforcement body in the nation. If you can’t stand the heat, get the fuck out of the kitchen.
Dave
@Iowa Old Lady: With Republican control of executive I doubt we will hear much at all about the debt limit. Maybe that has changed much has but I will actually be surprised. Though I can see the attachment of poisoned legislation to the increase.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator:
And it was fear that got Trump his so call victory and it’s his voters fears that keeps his support going.
Percysowner
@Rathskeller: Here’s the database of the meetings. It’s being kept up by volunteers, so you may want to check your representative’s website to see if any got missed. You can check their Twitter for updates or to let them know if you find out about a meeting.
TenguPhule
@randy khan: I’m sorry. I just can’t see a happy ending. Protests and calls only work when the other side feels shame, remorse and/or guilt. Three weeks down this rabbit hole and we’ve already got “Fake News” and 40% of Americans who refuse to believe their lying eyes that this administration has no shame, feels no remorse and seems to actively enjoy being cruel.
I know the Republicans are evil. But this…this is cartoon villainy. This is the world going crazy and I can’t understand how its simply happening like this.
MisterForkbeard
@Dave: No. They’ll pass the debt ceiling upgrade and basically promise to reduce government spending. Essentially: use it as a cover to gut social security, medicare, the EPA, etc. And then funnel a bunch of those surplus funds to tax cuts or Trump’s Infrastructure/GiveRichPeopleMoreMoney plan.
rikyrah
Mandel, Keller blasted for following Trump’s lead on immigration
Tuesday
Posted at 11:58 AM Updated at 3:03 PM
By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
A pair of Democratic lawmakers pushed back this morning against Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel and a fellow House member for “following the same dog whistle as President (Donald) Trump.”
Republican Mandel and Rep. Candice Keller, R-Middletown, proposed a state law on Monday to ban sanctuary cities and hold local officials in such cities criminally and civilly liable for crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.
Democratic Reps. Dan Ramos, of Lorain, and Stephanie Howse, of Cleveland, today denounced Mandel’s and Keller’s “dangerous language.” Ramos and Howse said they are developing legislation to forbid the state from punishing cities and local officials for immigrant-friendly policies.
“Fighting elected officials for crimes committed in their communities is beyond ridiculous,” Ramos said. “It’s clearly unenforceable and likely unconstitutional. We in the United States of America don’t arrest and lock people up for crimes they didn’t commit.”
The sparring comes amid a fight in the federal courts over an executive order by Trump to suspend travel by refugees to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority counties, a move the new president says will help deter terrorism.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: Well, since there’s nothing that can be done apparently, what else are you doing? I watched Toni Erdmann the other way, that was a great way to pass the time.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard: I agree. I could be wrong, but I don’t see why they’d want to crash the economy while their are in control of the entire government.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: The fish is rotting from the head down. And it is moving too damn fast to catch up to.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
The states will stick with the voting methods they’re already using. Nobody in Congress is forcing them to change to a worse system than the one we’ve been using; they’re just not providing them with money to upgrade. Given who would create the new voting machines, I’m not convinced this is a bad thing.
Dave
@Patricia Kayden: They didn’t take it seriously because they were idiots. They deserve side eye for that but if they are learning to actually feel their way to something akin to an almost adversarial press then they should be [email protected]Dave:
TenguPhule
@Baud: Declare State of Emergency. Seize Power through Martial Law. Screw Due Process and Enemies of the State.
Or was that a rhetorical question?
Baud
@TenguPhule: No, I would accept a legitimate answer to my question. Yours isn’t it.
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
There’s a principle for bridge players: If the only way you can make a contract is if the cards in your opponents’ hands lie a certain way, then you have to play based on the assumption that they lie that way. (Even if the odds are drastically against it.)
I think the same principle applies here. We have to assume that our actions can make a difference. We might be wrong, but we won’t be any worse off as a result of taking action than we would be if we didn’t.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: I’ve been going down my checklist of things I’ve always wanted to do. Near the end of the list is being able to piss on the graves of many current and former Republicans in power.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: It’s like Pascal’s Wager, except actually convincing.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
We are just beginning to see what a Trump administration will be like. We’ve only had this run of alienating executive orders (which have thrilled Trump supporters down to their toes).
We have not seen what his cabinet appointees will do to run, or destroy, their departments. We have not seen what legislation will be run through the Congress, or what its impact will be on the country.
Right now, we see the GOP solidly behind Trump despite all carping and protests. And Trump is toxic only to those here who detest him, and sane world leaders. But while we can hope, no one can say for sure that this will spell any kind of electoral threat to the Republicans.
TenguPhule
@Baud: Why? Its obvious that they’re fishing for something, anything to use to declare a state of emergency.
sunny raines
republicans have no answer to the simple question about their Obamacare elimination quest: why are you doing this? Not all that comfortable for a class of people used to being thoroughly comfy to be in the spotlight stammering non-answers – tends to amp-up the questioners ire.
Dave
@TenguPhule: You are taking to short term a view we aren’t even three weeks in, A whole boatload of bad policy and results will happen accept that as a given. That has consequences they only know how to attack when they have no actual responsibility watch the surrogates and the MOC’s on it’s obvious. This feels more like 2005 Bush than the beginning of some great success. They will suppress vote we must oppose that. Loud and proud resistancec may actually be key in preventing what you fear has already happened. Work for 2018 see how it plays out and then work for 2020 if we really are done that’s a different story but despair is useless and makes that more likely. Hell even the media is doing better than they were.
Baud
@TenguPhule: No, it’s not. They don’t need to declare a state of emergency. They currently have all the power. And frankly if they were going down that route, they would do something with national security. Refusing to raise the debt ceiling would hurt their corporate backers and cause all the blame to fall onto the party.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore: But the states most pivotal to holding the legislature and executive branches haven’t even bothered to pay necessary upkeep for their systems on their own. They’re using out of date systems, easily hacked and prone to breaking down and not enough of them to boot.
The votes are only as good as the means to count them.
Dave
@MisterForkbeard: Agreed that’s the most likely outcome.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: They won’t – I mean, they’ll lift the debt ceiling again, and use “savings” as their reason to do so.
Screwing Social Security, welfare, medicare and other useful programs will dent the economy, but not crash it like running into the debt ceiling would. It’ll take a couple years or more for it to crash hard, and in the meantime they’ll make out like bandits and retain just enough power in the next election to keep Democrats from actually fixing things.
TenguPhule
@Baud: Not all of it. Not quite yet. A declaration of war or national emergency would strip the last constraints away. Because it would take the judiciary completely out of the picture as far as oversight is concerned. It would truly be anything goes then.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: Jesus, where to begin with this? The votes are being counted just fine, in aggregate.
Out of curiosity, do you think Republicans stole the 2004 election?
Baud
@TenguPhule: Yeah, but then you have to fight a war. Didn’t work out so well for Bush at the end.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Right. The bigger issue is people not being able to cast votes because of voter suppression tactics.
schrodingers_cat
Do not feed the troll spreading despair, the fight has just begun.
TenguPhule
@randy khan: There’s a poker corollary, betting on the river card rarely ends well.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: We need a new thread.
Dave
@TenguPhule: Fine we all doomed no matter what because nothing these idiots do can be countered apparently so why the fuck are you even talking about it. You may as well live life as joyfully as you can until the end. I get the worry but this crumpling in the face of adversity is not helpful. Nothing lasts forever including the reign of the kleptocrats, also the human race but what can you do, despair is useless if all is lost then go and live while you can instead of screaming about it.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Second.
@schrodingers_cat: Is despair trolling a thing?
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: I think you can make a good case for voter suppression and a lot of weird occurrences that happened to benefit Bush, but “stolen” is a bit much. At least, in the sense that they actively hacked voting machines to get pro-republican results. I take it you mostly agree with that?
Dave
@Major Major Major Major: It certainly seems like it’s become one.
TenguPhule
@Baud: His head didn’t end up on a spoke. He got away with torture, murder by fiat and trillions pissed away to the worst offenders. And he was the one who still respected the American transition of power.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: Yeah I was wondering if he believed the hacking stuff.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: Hope in the innate goodness of the enemy is not a plan.
Baud
@TenguPhule: If you’re if you’re saying that Trump won’t be punished and will do great harm, I agree. If you are saying all is doomed, I don’t.
I remember at dkos at the time, there was a lot of hair-on-fire speculation that Bush/Cheney wouldn’t let Obama take office. You remind me of that.
DesertFriar
@rikyrah:
House Administration panel just voted 6-3 to get rid of the Election Assistance Commission, charged w/ helping states improve voting systems
schrodingers_cat
I have seen TP’s handle before, he/she is a long time commenter but do not recall seeing it during this election season. But has shown up after the inauguration to spread doom and gloom.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: I think it wouldn’t have been too hard for the Russians to hack just enough machines in a few states where it would really matter. The figures were already so close anyway, a small nudge could go completely undetected if done subtly enough.
aimai
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, I don’t like this guy. He seems like a determined agitator/provocateur. I skip his posts.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Major Major Major Major: It’s a tasty new flavor of concern trolling.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat: I’m sorry.
Dave
@Baud: Right even though it was obvious at the time that Bush wanted to spend zero extra time in that office and couldn’t wait to get home and paint potraits. And the only way we end up in a situation where Trump is officially punished is if we get a near worst case scenario (worst being blundering into full scale nuclear exchange then there won’t be anyone to punish anyway) and well I’d rather he just be driven by humiliation as a failure. Not enough but not most important to me.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: in 2004?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@TenguPhule: Therefore it must be true. Get a grip, dude.
Dave
@TenguPhule: In 2004? The Russians?
Roger Moore
@Baud:
There is no reason. Fights over the debt ceiling were not a principled stand over the right level of spending; they were an attempt to extort concessions from Democrats. It’s the same old thing about deficits only mattering when there’s a Democrat in the Oval Office. They’ve already approved trillion dollar deficits for the next decade in their budget resolution with nary a peep. There’s no reason to think they’ll freak out over the debt ceiling. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they gave up on the debt ceiling nonsense permanently.
Baud
@Roger Moore: They won’t do it permanently because we could have a Dem president again. They might suspend it for four years, however.
Dave
@Roger Moore: I really hope they do otherwise next time Dems have control ,hopefully soon, need to just get rid of it (even though they will be demagouged regarding that) it’s a pointless sword hanging over the economy.
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Whatever. There is not much point in speculating about what crazy shit the Trump administration may do or what the reaction may be.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
Neither is complete capitulation in the assumption that you’re unable to accomplish anything. The point is simply this: we have two choices:
1) Fight the Republicans as well as we can and hope it makes a difference
2) Roll over and let them do as they please
One of these has some chance of success; the other guarantees the Republicans a clear field. Why are you arguing in favor of the one that gives them a clear field?
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: it would make sense if he were advocating spending that extra free time on something. Building a shelter, visiting your parents, adopting stray animals…
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: We’re on it. We’re trying to narrow down the candidate to run in our district. Want to start the campaign now.
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: Show me where I have made that assumption.
BTW are you a supporter of a certain senator from Vt?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Major Major Major Major: or, you know… fantasizing about an exciting civil war – way more fun than boring political action or wimpy passive resistance \snark
AnotherBruce
@TenguPhule: Great, then what is your plan? All I’m seeing is a bunch of pants wetting despair.
schrodingers_cat
@AnotherBruce: Some might even call it extreme.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule:
Aren’t you the brave Centurion.
Doug is right, the smell of fear and horror from the GOP and the Trump admin is quite palatable. Everything they are doing has all the signs of the kneejerk reactions of someone in a panic and sliding into tunnel vision.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
No one can say for sure that a devastating earthquake won’t hit the San Andreas Fault tomorrow. No one can say for sure that I won’t get hit by a bus.
I’m not advocating that we sit back and hope the Republicans fuck up. I’m advocating that we start acting now on the assumption that we need to be ready when they do fuck up.
If you’d rather huddle in your bunker and hope for the best, that’s your decision.
A Ghost to Most
@AnotherBruce: This. Do you have a plan, if all the good people fail, and our worst thoughts become real? If not, focus on your plan. I find it incredibly calming to be preparing for trumpageddon, and letting the social folk try to head this shit off at the pass.
Focus, and breathe.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud:
It’s not impossible that the Trump admin simply doesn’t understand the implications of the Debt Cealing and they are so insular they would be unwilling to listen to even other conservatives on it.
schrodingers_cat
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Its up to the Congress not the White House.
Chris
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
They’re going to do a hell of a lot of stupid things when they’re in office, and whenever it’s over, the line from the GOP and a big big chunk of the media will be “but it’s all you liberals’ fault! If only you’d been nicer to him, he wouldn’t have felt the pressure to go all crazy… See what you made him do? See what you made him do?”
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Donnie doesn’t have a coherent team trying to implement sensible policies, he has a bunch of plutocrats that he will let do what they want, as long as they tell him how great he is.
That’s how one ends up with stuff like this:
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Mnemosyne:
The deadliest thing to dictators is to get a reputation for incompetence. What the Despair Troll forgets is once the fear turns to contempt then all the machine guns and tanks in the world won’t work. Just look at Arab Spring. If anything, these protests and scenes of them hiding from groups of ladies with funny hats help with the narrative that the Trump admin is incompetent and afraid.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chris:” from the GOP and a big big chunk of the media will be “but it’s all you liberals’ fault! If only you’d been nicer to him, he wouldn’t have felt the pressure to go all crazy… See what you made him do? See what you made him do?””
If we sat on asses and did nothing they would say the same thing. It’s not like we can chose to go along with them.
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
Poker and bridge are very different games.
That said, the bridge analysis is based on the idea that you have to take whatever chance is available to you, even if it’s not much of one. I’m not entirely sure what the analogy would be in poker, although I would think that if you’re very close to being tapped out, there may come a point when you might as well go all in even if the odds are against you.
randy khan
@TenguPhule:
Bridge is a very different game. (I have a longer comment in moderation; not sure why.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Another Scott: Well that’s an option I hadn’t seriously considered; they are so incompetent they end up murdering each other. God Lord, a encomic crisses because the adminstration is to bussy back stabbing each other.
Aleta
It will only take 10 Republicans to stand up and instigate impeachment proceedings.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
We don’t necessarily disagree. But the major action will be voting in the mid terms.
What else you got?
Right now, Republicans are solidly behind Trump. It’s fine if people want to try to peel them away.
Aleta
At least some of the Rs in Congress believe in the Constitution. This administration is actually doing all the things they accused Obama of wanting to do. This is the chance for Congress to take back the powers it’s been losing to the presidency since before Clinton.
Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)
@randy khan:
Poker is a bad, bad word.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Redacted.
cmorenc
@joel hanes:
That would have tragically disastrous results that would drive the economy into a recession even while inflation ticked up enough to bite – Stagflation II (Stagflation I was in the mid-1970s through about 1982). About the only good in it would be to guarantee a large majority of voters would be ready in 2018 and 2020 to run the GOP and Trump out of Washington decked out in tar and feathers.
LongHairedWeirdo
Well, and we remember what stand-up folks the Republicans were when the tea party decided to try to harass town halls; they sure did preach… ahem. They preached decorum and policy disa… BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I’m sorry, I tried to deadpan that and couldn’t.
LongHairedWeirdo
(reading the article)
For people who aren’t brain dead, you should learn that “the bum’s rush” is when you get a person’s center of mass below their hips so they can’t control their forward motion – you do this by grabbing their belt/back of their pants in one hand and their collar in the other, and bending them forward. You can then forcefully eject them from your establishment, as if they were a bum.
People do not “bum rush” you by charging at you.
SenyorDave
@p.a.: Bit OT but as a Patriot fan I can’t fathom how the Krafts, as Jews, can maintain their relationship with tRump considering who he surrounds himself with. Belichick, however, as a Croat… well Ustaše…
Follow the money. I’m guessing that Kraft will figure out some twisted logic to convince himself that our so-called President trump is basically a decent guy who has done a lot of good. trump goes against every jewish value I can think of. He stole from his own charity! Tzedukah (charity) is an obligation for Jews who are able to give, and this pos not only doesn’t give to charity, he steals from his own foundation.
Another Scott
@LongHairedWeirdo: The meaning seems to be morphing over time, like many idioms.
The way I picture a “bum’s rush” is colored by old westerns of people being thrown out of bars. Now it seems to be related to “bum a smoke” and similar – to rush into some place without paying.
Cheers,
Scott.