Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

You cannot shame the shameless.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Let there be snark.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Protest Is the New Brunch / Can’t mail it in, can’t phone it in, can’t send it in

Can’t mail it in, can’t phone it in, can’t send it in

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Senators’ phones are blowing up so they’ve decided to whine and say that only outside agitators are doing the calling.

Here’s something that will be harder for these clowns to dismiss: massive turn-out at town hall meetings. You can see a fairly comprehensive list of town halls for the House and the Senate here.

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    Chris

    Here’s something that will be harder for these clowns to dismiss: massive turn-out at town hall meetings. You can see a fairly comprehensive list of town halls for the House and the Senate here.

    “Yeah but they’re all paid Soros operatives. PS I am not an antisemite.”

  4. 4.

    Major Major Major Major

    Somebody should make a compilation of things GOP congressmen and operatives are saying now vs what they were saying during the rise of the tea party. I mean, what, did they think we weren’t going to go and slam their town halls full of protesters, especially after it worked for them?

  5. 5.

    Mike in DC

    Border state Republicans are about to enter a world of shit. The Great Deportation War is about to begin.

  6. 6.

    FlyingToaster

    While I’m waiting for the snow to pile up (and then I go shovel/snowblow/dance in the thundersnow), I made a postcard template and will be ordering blank postcards.

    While my representation is all “D” (Sen. Warren, Sen. Markey, Rep. Clark), I can certainly mailbomb both the White House and the various Senate and House leadership offices. And postcards go through fast, since they don’t have to open them to check for anthrax.

  8. 8.

    Yarrow

    What do you do when your Representative doesn’t have any town halls scheduled? I called last week and asked specifically about that–called the national office and the local office. I was told one wouldn’t be held until at least April. One of the people I talked to first told me that “The Speaker won’t release the Representatives to go back to their districts” so my Rep can’t leave Washington. Uh huh. What about weekends? I pressed the issue further and got a lot of mixed information. My Rep is here on weekends, my Rep can’t leave D.C., it’s the Speakers fault, we don’t know when a town hall might happen. It was supremely frustrating.

    Any ideas on how to press for your Rep to hold a town hall? Or at least give constituents more idea of when one might happen? My Rep’s a Democrat, btw. Terrible office staff, though.

  9. 9.

    bystander

    This may have been posted previously, but it’s worth a repost.

    It’s an ad they supposedly planted in some morning show that Trumputin likes, so he’d be sure to see it. (Moanin’ Joe, no doubt.) I do hope he saw it and was enraged. Infarct that myocardia!

  10. 10.

    Fester Addams

    What is, I wonder, the proper etiquette for showing up at your adopted, next-door district’s town hall (because your own district is a gather-up-all-the-Democrats gerrymander)?

  11. 11.

    Yarrow

    @bystander: Oh, I saw that ad somewhere. I didn’t watch it, but recognize the guy with the weights–saw it as I was FF’ing through something. Wonder what it was now.

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    Their whining would be amusing if it weren’t so insulting. They don’t phucking work, and gonna complain when people come and participate in democracy?

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    @Yarrow:

    Can you write a letter to the editor for a local paper?

    Everyone has local beat reporters. Can you email or tweet them and ask them why the Congressman isn’t having any townhalls? Get 5 friends to tweet the reporter too?

    I believe this story is won on the ground with local reporters. While they can try ‘ oh, it’s being paid by George Soros’ on Fox Noise…this story plays well on the local level. The visuals of the actual townhalls is good for them…or, if the Congressman runs away or tries nonsense…it’s on camera.

  15. 15.

    Woodrow/asim

    This was one of the 1st things I’d advocated for post-Election, and they are running scared from the town hall turnouts as well.

    They know what they are doing is unpopular, and (for now) hope the protests are transitory and they can ride it out under Daddy Trump’s hate-brella and all the dark money they get from people like Devos.

    We’ve got to show them this isn’t going away, and isn’t going to save their seats. Another service I just found is Knock Every Door — a bunch of Bernie folks are actually going to organize leg work to start talking to people, well in advance of 2018! I’m on their list and lookign to see how serious/diverse they are.

    And, per the AM Open Thread, getting people out on the State level is important as well. If we don’t take back the State legislatures we’ll be right back at this in another generation or two.

  16. 16.

    The Dangerman

    @bystander: I could see Trump stroking out; Dude is wound way, WAY too tight…

    …and now that he ain’t getting any from Melania and Secret Service approved hookers in DC might be outside his price range (“KellyAnne, can I expense the prostitutes?”), he might be ready to blow.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    The Role of the Church in Bannon’s White Nationalist Movement
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    February 9, 2017 10:46 AM

    As it became clear that Steve Bannon is the man behind the throne in much of what Trump has undertaken in the first weeks of his presidency, a lot of attention was paid to his remarks to a conservative group inside the Vatican with connections to Cardinal Burke – one of the most vocal critics of Pope Francis.

    In his presentation, Mr. Bannon, then the head of the hard-right website Breitbart News and now Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, called on the “church militant” to fight a global war against a “new barbarity” of “Islamic fascism” and international financial elites, with 2,500 years of Western civilization at risk.

    As Jason Horowitz notes, Bannon has a lot in common with that faction of the Catholic Church. Here is how he described a meeting between the president’s chief strategist and Cardinal Burke.

    In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites.

    As Horowitz chronicles, Bannon continues to develop ties with this faction in the Vatican on behalf of the Trump administration, taking charge of who will eventually be named as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

    It is interesting to note the similarity between the worldview expressed by people like Bannon and Cardinal Burke with what Russian President Vladimir Putin has been saying.

    …………………..

    As Casey Michel demonstrates in a must-read article today titled, “How Russia Became the Leader of the Global Christian Right,” that is no accident. In order to understand the significance, it is important to know about an organization called the World Congress of Families (WCF).

    ………………………….

    As Michel says, all of this fit quite well with Putin’s move toward the hard right in an attempt to “return to Tsar Nicholas I’s triumvirate of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.” And it has been welcomed by many on the American religious right.

    …it’s not as if it’s difficult to unearth the fundamentalists fawning over Putin’s putative turn toward God. For instance, according to Bryan Fischer, who until 2015 was a spokesman for the American Family Association, Putin is the “lion of Christianity.” Evangelical Franklin Graham has likewise lauded Putin as someone “protecting traditional Christianity,” while Buchanan only continues praising Putin.

    ………………..

    This combination of fear-mongering, anti-liberalism and white nationalism is nothing new to Christianity – whether Protestant or Catholic. We’ve seen these strands emerge in the Church throughout history from the Crusades to the KKK in this country. It has almost always been coupled with vicious violence. So it is important to note the confluence as it is currently taking shape – not only in this country – but in other places around the globe. That is the movement Steve Bannon is tapping into and attempting to build.

    But it’s also important to note that there are countervailing forces. The Black Church has always been a strong force in this country against these movements and Pope Francis is beloved around the world, with a special connection to Catholic Latinos both here and abroad. Beyond that, a group of White Evangelicals are making their voices heard when it comes to the actions of the current administration.

  18. 18.

    currants

    @O. Felix Culpa: Have you not seen this? You ARE being paid and that handy little piece will help you figure out how to invest it. Had thought I found it here, but could have been Wonkette (which is really helping my sanity these days).

  22. 22.

    p.a.

    Hey George, thanks for throwing us Bluestaters that sweet sweet outside agitator $! Only problem is, we have to go to Red States and Red Districts. Damn hard to find arugula, not to mention Ethiopian restaurants, there.

  24. 24.

    Kay Eye

    I made my three calls to the district, not national, offices of my R senators and representative this morning. Nice way to start the day. Talked to a staff member each time. Stated my name, zip code, phone number, gave one sentence on my issue, said no response needed. I rewarded myself with a splash of half-and-half in my coffee.
    This morning, for rep(rehensible)resentative,no to Bannon and support of HR 804; for senators, yes to ACA which my friends and family count on.
    I think I sounded pleasant.
    I have started a little log book for my daily calls.

  25. 25.

    The Dangerman

    @Timurid: well, I’m assuming he orders that little blue pill by the barrel. Plus, he can always call Ivanka over to his office to help get his stiffy in a jiffy.

  26. 26.

    hovercraft

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Stop trying to use their own words and actions against them, that’s cheating and mean. Don’t you liberals realize yet that what’s okay for them is unacceptable for you. Liberals should just accept that we are in charge whether we win or lose, you have to do as we say all the time, no matter what the voters say. Even when they vote against us they are still voting for our policies.

  28. 28.

    Hal

    Any big names in the Senate and House up for reelection in 2018? I can at least spend the next two years fantasizing about Mitch McConnell giving a tearful defeat speech.

  29. 29.

    Goku

    @liberal:
    I like the way you think >:D. I live in Ohio and I’d like to go to these town halls but they’re either in DC or all the way across the state. I don’t have the time or money to be able to do that.

    I also don’t feel like driving several hundred miles just to meet my congressmen. Any suggestions?

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: These people hate the Enlightenment and all its fruits, to include the Constitution of the United States of America, which they perversely claim was written by some fucking deity and handed to Madison, Franklin, et al on stone tablets by an archangel.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    …it’s not as if it’s difficult to unearth the fundamentalists fawning over Putin’s putative turn toward God. For instance, according to Bryan Fischer, who until 2015 was a spokesman for the American Family Association, Putin is the “lion of Christianity.” Evangelical Franklin Graham has likewise lauded Putin as someone “protecting traditional Christianity,” while Buchanan only continues praising Putin.

    Lion of Mammonism is more like it. All these fuckers are Mammon worshipers. They are NOT Christians in any way, shape, or form.

  33. 33.

    low-tech cyclist

    I’ll repeat my idea that that House Dems should challenge the GOP Reps to have a single, nationwide town hall day for all House members. Because there’s no way the ‘outside agitators’ (boy, does that phrase take me back!) can be everywhere at once.

    I know it’s a bullshit accusation, but why not (a) refute it, by (b) cornering them into having town halls?

    Besides, it would be a good tradition to start. If everyone knew that, say, the last Saturday in February was town hall day in your Congressional district, no matter where you were, people would be more likely to show up just in general.

  34. 34.

    Iowa Old Lady

    You could always tweet. Trump is feeling besieged.

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3h
    3 hours ago

    ..Ryan died on a winning mission ( according to General Mattis), not a “failure.” Time for the U.S. to get smart and start winning again!
    36K

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3h
    3 hours ago

    …long he doesn’t know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in – bogged down in conflict all over the place. Our hero..
    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3h
    3 hours ago

    More
    Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He’s been losing so….

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 3h
    3 hours ago

    Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave “service” in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!

  36. 36.

    FlyingToaster

    @slakko: In his database, I’m a non-person, so he doesn’t have to read my postcard.

    Note: Most of my ancestry came here as colonists; the last people to hit these shores were here before the (last) Civil War. Not like the kleptocrats in charge now. But my gender, religion, and residence (the Commonwealth) make me irrelevant.

  37. 37.

    hovercraft

    @FlyingToaster:
    This is when I’m glad I live in a townhouse, I get to just sit back and watch them clear everything. Kids behaving like they’ve been trapped in here for a month on the other hand, I’m thinking we’ll be out of food by soon*, it’s been non-stop eating since they woke up, it’s only 11.30 and I’m ready to scream already.

    * I think I’m kidding, we have plenty of food, but it’s disappearing at an alarming rate.

  39. 39.

    Goku

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I read the text of the Spicer presser this morning of that and I felt my jaw drop. The fucking gull of these people! They’re using the corpse of that Petty Officer as a meat shield to deflect criticism of something *they* fucked up. Newsflash Sphincter, we don’t owe that petty officer or his family an apology for something that you messed up.

  40. 40.

    JMG

    Four winters ago, my daughter was working at the biggest liquor store in our town. There was a big storm, like a two-footer. The day before the storm, they had their highest dollar volume day of the year except for Christmas Eve! Bigger than the day before Thanksgiving!!

  41. 41.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense: I wonder if that would work? I don’t want to shame my Dem rep too much. Wondering how far to go.

    @rikyrah: That’s a good idea. I’ll see if I can convince some neighbors to call and request a town hall. Start with that and then move to Letter to the Editor and working through press. Not convinced local press is great with my Rep so not wanting to push too hard and have a bad article show up.

  42. 42.

    FlyingToaster

    @hovercraft: Thank goodness my daughter started listening to her pediatrician. The snacking has reduced to manageable levels and is geared toward carrots and apples instead of crackers.

    Today, however, WarriorGirl skipped breakfast, and is hiding somewhere so I don’t drag her out to shovel. I think we’re having French Toast for lunch.

  43. 43.

    randy khan

    @Fester Addams:

    Get there early; bring snacks you can share with the other outside agitators. (Oh, and just in case they’re being jerks, memorize an address inside the district.)

  44. 44.

    tobie

    @Woodrow/asim: Didn’t know about “Knock on Every Door.” It’s a great idea..both because it helps us reach people we otherwise might not and because it capitalizes on the eagerness of so many of us to do something right now. Given the Republican majorities in Congress we can’t win there right now but we can and should start preparing for 2018.

  45. 45.

    randy khan

    For what it’s worth, I assume the whining is something of a performance – they want to convince the media it’s not their constituents, and they want to convince people not from their districts to stop bothering them. They actually know what the call counts are, and that they’re getting a ton from their states and/or districts.

    If they don’t realize that, then they potentially are in for some nasty surprises when they do finally hold town hall meetings or when election time comes. But that’s okay.

    In any event, the whining means that what we’re doing is working – it’s a big concern for them, and they’re afraid they will pay the price. That’s the really important takeaway.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Evangelical Franklin Graham has likewise lauded Putin as someone “protecting traditional Christianity,”

    WTF?

    Just sad how craven and hypocritical these fools are. Kissing up to Putin? Damn.

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Trump is feeling besieged.

    He really comes across as a vain, petty, pathetic little man. With little hands.

  47. 47.

    Goku

    @low-tech cyclist:
    That’s a great idea, but as I’m sure you’re aware, the Republicans would never such a thing as that means they would have to interact with libturds that live in their districts. Not gonna happen. Would be fun to watch them squirm and tie themselves into knots tho.

  48. 48.

    Tokyokie

    My congresscritter apparently doesn’t do in-person town-hall and does them by phone only on an unspecified date. Too much of a coward to even try to defend the indefensible without a remote audience that’s largely been stacked with sycophants.

  49. 49.

    randy khan

    @rikyrah:

    Bugging the newspapers is a fine idea. Reporters love to report on elected officials hiding from their constituents, and it’s a story that’s easy to run again and again until something changes.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    Aww poor baby, perhaps he’d like Chris Cuomo to ask him about his own brave service during Vietnam, and how he’s handling the PTSD he must have from having braved the AIDS epidemic back in the eighties.
    Get used to it Shitstain, you signed up for this, we are going to spend the next four years second guessing and criticizing every single thing you do. Enjoy.

  55. 55.

    Goku

    @Brachiator:
    Remember when it was the hip thing for conservatives to say that Obama was a pantywaist when it came to dealing with Putin and foreign policy in general?

    But hey, they looked into pooty poots’ heart and found they we’ren’t so different after all. Also helping to swing the election so their guy won didn’t hurt either. Craven hypocrite.

  59. 59.

    hovercraft

    @FlyingToaster:
    The 14 year old is usually pretty good about her diet, she wants to look good, but today is behaving like she hasn’t seen food in days, she started with pancakes, then there was popcorn, and then she had an apple, and last time I saw her she was off in search of Ramen noodle, as I said it’s not yet noon. The boy had his oatmeal, popcorn, and some applesauce. I think knowing that they are stuck inside all day, even with all of their normal entertainments available is causing the boredom that’s causing the eating.

  64. 64.

    Lizzy L

    @rikyrah: Appreciate this comment. I feel personally ashamed that Bannon is Catholic — though of course, the Catholic Church is a big tent, “Catholic” means “Universal,” yadda-yadda. It does not surprise me that he has found an ally in Cardinal Burke. However, if he thinks he’s going to take on Pope Francis, he’s stone crazy. Just sayin’.

  65. 65.

    randy khan

    @Cain:

    My thinking is that it won’t be a rational reaction, but that McCain will lose his temper (which is something he does all the time) and do something that he wouldn’t do if he reflected on it and considered the potential impact.

  66. 66.

    dedc79

    Has anyone had any luck getting through to Chaffetz’s office? I’d like to ask his staff when he’ll be holding a town hall in Washington, DC to discuss his plan to nullify our assisted suicide law. Chaffetz, like most Republicans, believes in federalism until the moment it becomes inconvenient.

  68. 68.

    Kelly

    The only Oregon Republican Congress critter is Greg Walden. He only does telephone town halls. I’m not in his district but nobody knows when a cell phone owners domicile is. But is it worth even getting on the list? Seems like I’d just be able to listed to his carefully selected questioners.

  69. 69.

    The Moar You Know

    Any big names in the Senate and House up for reelection in 2018?

    @Hal: Yes, unfortunately most of them are Democrats.

  72. 72.

    eclare

    Going to my rep’s this Saturday to show support. He’s one of the good guys who boycotted the inauguration. The Fightin’ 9th! And he did do one of Colbert’s Better Know a District.

  73. 73.

    Brachiator

    @Goku:

    Remember when it was the hip thing for conservatives to say that Obama was a pantywaist when it came to dealing with Putin and foreign policy in general?

    But hey, they looked into pooty poots’ heart and found they we’ren’t so different after all. Also helping to swing the election so their guy won didn’t hurt either. Craven hypocrite.

    The Republican leadership and Republican voters are heavily in denial as they sit back and passively buy into the mantra, “We are going to make America great again by doing whatever Putin wants us to do.”

    Absolutely craven. Absolutely hypocritical.

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Perhaps these motherfuckers will finally comprehend when it’s pitchforks and torches.

  77. 77.

    Shalimar

    @Yarrow: If your rep won’t hold a town hall, talk with local dem organizations and see if the highest-profile Democrat in the district can hold town halls to talk about healthcare, immigration, and anything else that is important to constituents. This would be a great opportunity for 2018 opponents who know they are running to gain local stature and publicity.

  78. 78.

    Chris

    @Brachiator:

    Evangelical Franklin Graham has likewise lauded Putin as someone “protecting traditional Christianity,”
    …
    WTF?
    …
    Just sad how craven and hypocritical these fools are. Kissing up to Putin? Damn.

    Recall Pat Robertson’s business dealings with Rios Montt and Charles Taylor, and the American missionaries who put all that effort into promoting the “kill the gays bill” in Uganda.

    The American religious right has always been my religion’s version of the Saudi zillionaires that every jihadist group on the planet can hit up for its start-up loans. Any authoritarian thug who makes a show of being Christian has a reasonably good shot at their support. Putin certainly fits the bill, especially since he doesn’t even need their money, just their moral support.

  80. 80.

    rikyrah

    Blumenthal is Right, Trump is Wrong
    by Martin Longman
    February 9, 2017 12:02 PM

    This morning, our president woke up and decided to trash Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut because Blumenthal revealed that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee told him privately that he found the president’s attacks on the judiciary “demoralizing” and “disheartening.”

    Sen.Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie),now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017

    Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave “service” in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017

    It’s fair to say that Sen. Blumenthal successfully avoided serving in Vietnam. Instead, much like Dick Cheney, he received five military deferments between 1965 and 1970. And much like Dan Quayle, he was able to meet his military obligation by landing a job in our reserves: “He served in United States Marine Corps Reserve units in Washington, D.C. and Connecticut from 1970 to 1976. He attained the rank of sergeant and received an honorable discharge at the end of his enlistment.” It’s also fair to say that Blumenthal has, on at least two occasions, given speeches in which he left the impression that he actually did serve in Vietnam.

    The most well known of these examples came in 2008 when he said, “We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam.” That seemed like an open and shut case of lying until people read the entire speech and realized that prior to making the above comment he had said that he “served in the military during the Vietnam era in the Marine Corps.” The latter comment was accurate, although admittedly open to misinterpretation. Blumenthal said he misspoke, and the best evidence to support him is that he’s made many speeches about his military service and in only one other known case did he make any questionable claims. That other case happened in 2003 when he suggested that he was among those who “returned home” from Vietnam.

  81. 81.

    Hal

    This may have already been posted, but along with Jeff Sessions there will be a real winner of a Solicitor General:

    http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/02/washington-attorney-charles-cooper-likely-get-nod-u-s-solicitor-general/

    “In addition to his role defending California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Cooper also signed a brief on behalf of the federal government supporting Bob Jones University in its challenge to the constitutionality of an Internal Revenue Service policy denying tax exemptions to religious institutions that discriminate based on race. The university had argued that its ban on interracial dating was based on its sincere religious beliefs, but the Supreme Court upheld the IRS policy, by a vote of 8-1. And in 1986, as the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Cooper signed an OLC opinion that argued that employers could reject job applicants with AIDS if they were concerned about contracting the disease.”

  83. 83.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I don’t recall the term “town hall” being a thing fifteen years ago. Did I just miss it, or is it some folksy, down-home term conservatives invented? It just seems an archaic, sentimental term to me.

  84. 84.

    Chris

    @Jacel:

    @Chris: It’s just busloads of paid outside agitators. Their press releases with that message are already in hand.

    Remember all the complaints throughout history that black people were naturally happy and content in their status, and it’s only because those rabble-rousing Yankees are coming in and trying to whip them up that there’s any trouble in race relations…?

  86. 86.

    Chris

    @rikyrah:

    It’s fair to say that Sen. Blumenthal successfully avoided serving in Vietnam. Instead, much like Dick Cheney, he received five military deferments between 1965 and 1970. And much like Dan Quayle George W. Bush, he was able to meet his military obligation by landing a job in our reserves

    FTFY.

  89. 89.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Chris: It’s true for Dan Quayle, too. The difference being that Cheney, the deserting coward, and Quayle all vocally supported the war in Vietnam but had “other priorities” than putting their own precious butts on the line for their country and the war they supported.

  91. 91.

    hovercraft

    @Hal:
    It’s like the Shitgibbon knows he is the worst person in the world, so he keeps looking for and finding terrible people to try and make himself look better. It’s not working, they just make him look worse, talk about “bad judgement”, he has the worst, and his ego will never allow him to back down once he announces all these terrible appointees. A competent person would vet them first for something other than being batshit crazy, (i.e. in sync with him), and check for embarrassing/disqualifying things in their backgrounds.
    I’m beginning to think kakistocracy is too mild an adjective for this lot.

  94. 94.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Villago Delenda Est: I live only a few miles from BJU, so not so much with the nuking, please. Fallout can be a real PITA, I hear.

    The shaming and running out of town on a rail, however, I’m 1000% down for.

  95. 95.

    Mary G

    @rikyrah: My letter to the editor of the local paper about Darrell Issa’s rigged telephone town hall was printed in the local paper. They put a weaselly headline on it about “apparent favoritism” in the calls he took, but it’s the first one! It’s not online yet, but the paper came this morning and I am in it.

    His office has stopped responding to me, but I’m going to put it on my FB, which no one probably reads, but I will put on his too, if I can figure out how.

  96. 96.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G: That’s amazing! Great job!

    His office has stopped responding to me

    You mean they don’t even pick up the phone when you call? Or something else?

  97. 97.

    hovercraft

    @Chris:
    That’s why being the “uppity ni**er” was so dangerous, most of them knew their place, but those uppity ones, under the influence of outside agitators were the problem. Sadly for them, we uppity ni**ers are everywhere, and we don’t need anyone to tell us to be offended, we were the first to see the Shitgibbon for what it is, we were not taken in, we did not vote for it, score one for us.

  98. 98.

    ET

    For a long time the GOP and conservatives have mostly been hearing from to and only listening to those that agree with them. They assumed more/everyone but a few cranky liberals were on board with their agenda and their management style. But that was just projection with a heavy does of denial. They tended to think that that silent majority was on their side.

    Trump’s ascendance and GOP Congressional fuckery have done something – though I don’t think it is what they intended…. It revealed that the silent majority wasn’t necessarily on their side and that even some that sided with them passively may not be totally on board. Now they are in denial because it goes against everything they deluded themselves into thinking. Now that is not to say that it will make a difference in what they do and how they respond (except to make them whiny and defensive) only time will tell on that one.

  99. 99.

    Shlemazel

    @JMG:
    We have friends who move to Louisville Kentucky. There was a terrible snowstorm down there one winter and the governor closed all the roads unless you had chains. Our friends having moved from Minnesota just happened to have chains they sold them to a neighbor who had a liquor store for $1,000. He used them to make deliveries and told our friends “hey I could have paid you five times that much and still made money!”

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tokyokie:

    My congresscritter apparently doesn’t do in-person town-hall and does them by phone only on an unspecified date.

    Same with mine. And I’ll go you one better. My craven congresscritter, on his official website “Contact Me” page, doesn’t even provide an address for his district office, just the city and ZIP. Well, and phone/fax numbers. It is, of course, possible to figure out his location if one has tolerably good google-fu, but that may not be the case with constituents who need or want (or should be entitled to) a personal meeting with him or one of his staffers.

  102. 102.

    mai naem mobile

    For Metro Phoenix Juicers Paul Gosar R AZ 4 has a town hall on February 23rd 6 p.m. Thursday at the Best Western in Gold Canyon Gold Canyon is about half an hour from the East Valley. I really feel that this is a trial run 4 the GOP Representatives from Arizona because I think they are scared. I think they have intentionally done it in Gold Canyon because a lot of people don’t know where Gold Canyon is and don’t realize that it is not that far from downtown Phoenix. He could have held it in Apache Junction which more people know the location.

  104. 104.

    D58826

    Well they won’t have to worry about clogged phone lines at the rate Das Fuhrer is going:

    Exclusive: In call with Putin, Trump denounced Obama-era nuclear arms treaty – sources

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the call.

    When Putin raised the possibility of extending the 2010 treaty, known as New START, Trump paused to ask his aides in an aside what the treaty was, these sources said.
    Trump then told Putin the treaty was one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama administration, saying that New START favored Russia. Trump also talked about his own popularity, the sources said.

    (bolds mine)
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-call-putin-trump-denounced-obama-era-nuclear-171036908.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    That’s great news! Congratulations to you! Can you/would you share the text with us here? (Or maybe you already did and I missed it, in which case, apologies.)

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    Congress’ oversight of the White House is put on indefinite hold
    02/09/17 12:52 PM
    By Steve Benen

    The Atlantic’s David Frum, lamenting the “ominous indicators of a breakdown of the American political system,” recently noted that raw partisanship has led to a collapse in congressional oversight of the executive branch. “Congress has increasingly become a check only on presidents of the opposite party,” Frum wrote.

    Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) seems a little too eager to prove the thesis correct. TPM reported yesterday:

    House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said Wednesday that he doesn’t think President Donald Trump’s tweet attacking department store Nordstrom for dropping his daughter Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories line is “a big deal.”

    “Is it appropriate, do you believe, is it ethical – and you oversee the executive branch of the government – for the President to be commenting about his daughter’s business like this?” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Chaffetz.

    “I think most people can relate to the fact that a father, a doting father with very successful children is going to look after those children and, you know, if he sees something going wrong, he’s going to call it out,” Chaffetz said. He said that he doesn’t “pay much attention to it.”

    …………………………

    Indeed, when Kellyanne Conway used her official position to endorse Ivanka Trump’s product line on national television this morning – in apparent violation of the law – she did so with the comfort that Jason Chaffetz seems prepared to look the other way no matter what White House officials do.

    He hasn’t even been subtle about it. When Team Trump considered getting rid of inspectors general through the administration, Chaffetz dismissed it as little more than a “mistake” from a low-level staffer. When the head of the Office of Government Ethics did his job in advising the White House, Chaffetz took an immediate interest – in targeting the ethics chief instead of the West Wing.

    When Democrats asked the Oversight Committee to take a closer look at Trump’s conflicts of interest, the GOP chairman responded soon after that he remains interested in Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    The Washington Post reported last week that Chaffetz’ committee has unveiled a list of 43 areas of interest to explore over the next two years, but the list “includes no planned inquiries into the Trump organization’s global entanglements and the potential for conflicts of interest.”

    The New York Times’ David Leonhardt made the case for alarm yesterday:

    This combination – an anti-democratic president and a quiescent Congress – is very dangerous. Even though many members of Congress think [Trump’s] approach is wrong, they have refused to confront him because he is a member of their party. He has the power to sign bills that Republican legislators have long favored, and their political fortunes are tied to his popularity.

    So they look the other way. They duck questions about him, or they offer excuses. They enable him.

  111. 111.

    ? Martin

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah, I think it’s fair to say at this point that Trump believes himself to be such an epic negotiator that any agreement negotiated by anyone else could possibly be fair to the US.

  112. 112.

    sukabi

    @Major Major Major Major: yeah, that’s not happening ever. What slim shred of honor he had left has long since departed…pretty sure it was when he decided that picking the tundra twatwaffle as his running mate and ramping up the racism was a “winning” move.

  113. 113.

    burnspbesq

    @rikyrah:

    Bannon is backing the wrong guy, and it’s likely to blow up in his face. It’s been apparent for some time that His Holiness wants Burke gone (or at the very least stripped of all his influence), and Bannon’s moves give him all the pretext he needs.

  114. 114.

    ruckus

    From reading the link I noticed that a lot of the emails and letters landing in congressional offices are just copied/pasted. These probably have limited value, no matter how many there are.
    Write in your own words,it will be far more effective.

  115. 115.

    randy khan

    @ruckus:

    Your own words definitely are more effective. That said there’s no reason you can’t send the same words of your own to many people.

  116. 116.

    JoJo

    @Yarrow: In some places, groups of people are showing up at district offices demanding town halls. If you could combine doing that with rikyrah’s suggestions it might convince your rep that not having a town hall is a bad look.

  118. 118.

    gene108

    On the House side, where members do not have any say on Trump’s cabinet nominees, multiple members told BuzzFeed News they are not experiencing the same flood of calls.

    We need to change this.

    House Reps need to be flooded with calls too.

    The nasty damage of undoing the ACA, gutting Medicare, Social Security, etc. will all originate out of the House.

  121. 121.

    ruckus

    @randy khan:
    Should have been clearer, meant don’t copy other people and send it in. They will notice that much of what we send them looks like it isn’t actually from constituents. And just ignore it. This is really bad if you have a republican congressperson/senator.

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