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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Please don’t feed the bears.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“Look, it’s not against the rules anywhere, but a black woman with power was dating and there has to be something wrong with that.”

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: How It Should Be Done

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: How It Should Be Done

by Anne Laurie|  February 15, 20176:11 am| 239 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Your Place Is In The Resistance, Daydream Believers

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Honored that this will be included in RESIST! being distributed at the @WomensMarch by @FrancoiseMouly ,@NadjaSpiegelman, & @desertislandbk. pic.twitter.com/0Cz4uVHpnl

— Scott Hassell (@scotthassell) January 12, 2017


.

What’s on the agenda as we buckle down for another day?

Trump has had more scandals in the last week than Obama had in 8 years https://t.co/81rkRpoEHV

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) February 15, 2017

So VP was in the dark, liar Flynn allowed in room for every NatSec decision, & only POTUS complaint is that his own staff leaked it? Yikes.

— John Dingell (@JohnDingell) February 15, 2017

If only someone had warned us.

pic.twitter.com/bR4Sz6KYxN

— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) February 15, 2017

got my hands on the first page of tomorrow morning's presidential briefing pic.twitter.com/oKM5RvVxz9

— Bob Vulfov (@bobvulfov) February 15, 2017

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Previous Post: « Late Night Scumbags Open Thread: If This Is History Repeating, Did It Have to Be Such A Lousy Farce?
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Reader Interactions

239Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    February 15, 2017 at 6:13 am

    Good Morning, Everyone???

  2. 2.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 6:13 am

    Kept in the Dark and Fed only Horseshit

  3. 3.

    amk

    February 15, 2017 at 6:15 am

    what scandals did Obama exactly have?

  4. 4.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    February 15, 2017 at 6:18 am

    @raven: Is that a Girl Scout / Boy Scout patch? Uh, how do you earn it? (Long-time motto of mine from being a parent: don’t ask a question if you don’t want to hear the answer)

  5. 5.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 6:19 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  6. 6.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 6:19 am

    @amk: FAST AND FURIOUS AND BENGHAZI!!!!!!!!

  7. 7.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 6:20 am

    Could someone explain to me why MorningHo & his girlfriend have gone 100% against Trump – after spending a year doing everything in their power to get him elected.

  8. 8.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 6:21 am

    @TS: They both hammered Trump repeatedly during the campaign.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 6:21 am

    @TS: Appearance of reasonableness and moderation.

  10. 10.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 6:23 am

    @raven: They praised him much more than they hammered him – which was why I stopped watching. Maybe they changed but I didn’t hear about it.

  11. 11.

    Mustang Bobby

    February 15, 2017 at 6:24 am

    If Mike Pence had any scruples, he’d tell Trump to get bent and then resign. Yeah, that’ll happen.

  12. 12.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 6:25 am

    @TS: They did both, let me see if that adds up to 100%.

  13. 13.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 6:25 am

    @Baud: They change with the wind and the weather – and then deny it.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    February 15, 2017 at 6:25 am

    @TS:
    I hope that Kay comes in here and unloads on Murdering Joke

  15. 15.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 6:26 am

    @Mustang Bobby: To Mike Pence, scruples is a game he played in the 80s.

    And lost.

  16. 16.

    Quinerly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:26 am

    Good morning from Bernalillo, NM! We are settled into our rental and where we will be for week two of the 6 week great American road trip. Did a slight detour when leaving Abiquiu…the drive past Abiquiu Lake on Highway 96 through Coyote and Regina was beautiful. Great, cheap lunch in Cuba (El Bruno’s). Poco, the ex inner city street dog, snoozed most of the way. He did seemed a tad disappointed when we got here. No wide open spaces like his previous days in Tucumcari, Cerrillos, and Abiquiu, NM. He is adjusting to the courtyard with a coyote fence…back to city noises…we are within walking distance of The Range and the train station in the area known aa “Las Cocinitas”…on the main drag of Camino del Pueblo. His mom loves the location and the two story casita. Have a great day! Again, thanks for all the interest and kind words.

  17. 17.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    February 15, 2017 at 6:27 am

    “We tried RoboCop as well but it turns out he’s a character in a movie”

    A truly decisive CEO president would pound the table and say, “I don’t want to hear excuses! Make it happen!”

    it’s been my good fortune never to have a boss like that (who thought that yelling was the way to motivate employees to overcome the laws of physics) but I’ve heard stories. There was a legendary boss like that in my first workplace who retired just before I got there.

  18. 18.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 6:28 am

    OT: Yikes! I just looked at the Weather Underground forecast and they’re predicting almost 4″ of rain for Friday.

  19. 19.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    February 15, 2017 at 6:29 am

    @Mustang Bobby: From what I’ve heard, it’s not even clear Pence has sentience, let alone higher order functions like scruples.

  20. 20.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:30 am

    @amk: t3┘pЧ0ИЭ məTД ΔaTД

  21. 21.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:31 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: the weather underground is bad. someone should lok them up.

  22. 22.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 6:31 am

    @Quinerly: Sweet!

  23. 23.

    Mustang Bobby

    February 15, 2017 at 6:32 am

    @Quinerly: Enjoy the sunrise, and then tonight if the sunset is like it usually is, you’ll see why they named that mountain range east of Albuquerque the Sandias… the color will look just like watermelon.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:33 am

    Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck….. Alex Reyes may need Tommy John surgery.

    @Quinerly: You suck.

  25. 25.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 6:33 am

    @rikyrah: Kay’s posts on anything are worth waiting for. Her political understanding and comprehension are way ahead of anything I can do or say. She would make an amazing member of a dem administration.

  26. 26.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 6:33 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Heh, that’s the problem, they usually underestimate the amount of rain.

  27. 27.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    February 15, 2017 at 6:37 am

    I don’t believe Pence was in the dark . That stretches incredulity for me.

  28. 28.

    Quinerly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:38 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Technically, I still suck.

  29. 29.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:38 am

    David Rothkopf ‏@djrothkopf

    Trump’s team colluded with an adversary government as it sought to tip balance in our election to Trump. An extraordinary scandal.

    14 replies 149 retweets 252 likes

    Is our media learning (Rothkopf ‏= editor and chief Foreign Policy magazine)

  30. 30.

    p.a.

    February 15, 2017 at 6:39 am

    What’s that plant that flowers once a year with a bloom that smells like shit? ‘We’ elected one that blooms daily!

  31. 31.

    Quinerly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:39 am

    @Mai.naem.mobile:
    His colleagues in the House didn’t call him “Dense” for nothing.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    February 15, 2017 at 6:39 am

    Trump has had more scandals in the last week than Obama had in 8 years

    Trump had more scandals before being elected than Obama had in 8 years; the stuff now is just a continuation.

  33. 33.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 6:40 am

    @Mustang Bobby: My exes sister lived in a house just on the border of the National Park up there way back when.

  34. 34.

    Immanentize

    February 15, 2017 at 6:40 am

    @Quinerly: it sounds like this is going to be a great week for you and Poco. Pics? Please?

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:41 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: What drought?

  36. 36.

    Immanentize

    February 15, 2017 at 6:41 am

    @Quinerly: don’t you love the way Ozark flirts?

  37. 37.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:41 am

    Here’s an interesting photo of Trump and Melania from the early 80s – they look so young (photo)

  38. 38.

    Immanentize

    February 15, 2017 at 6:43 am

    I just read a tweet:
    “What if Putin has been picking all The Apprentice winners?”

  39. 39.

    The Thin Black Duke

    February 15, 2017 at 6:43 am

    @TS: I think it’s because they can smell the blood in the water.

  40. 40.

    bystander

    February 15, 2017 at 6:44 am

    @TS:

    Could someone explain to me why MorningHo & his girlfriend have gone 100% against Trump – after spending a year doing everything in their power to get him elected.

    Because MSNBC had to prove both sides do it during the election. The fact that they routinely smeared Clinton with innuendo and lied about how trustworthy Trump is starting to damage the brand further. This may explain why Joe and Meeka may have delayed any wedding plans.

  41. 41.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 6:45 am

    @p.a.: I’m not sure about once a year, but the Huntington has one that blooms every couple of years called the corpse flower or something like that.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:45 am

    @Mai.naem.mobile: I believe he was in the dark. He can’t even find the light switch.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 6:46 am

    Now I’m depressed because we are talking about Joe again in the morning threads. It’s like Trump’s election changed nothing.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:47 am

    @Quinerly: And your little dog too.

  45. 45.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:48 am

    Laura Rozen ‏@lrozen

    Iran contra/Watergate, but with Twitter, 24/7 access to news

    1 reply 16 retweets 45 likes

    I guess this is what Watergate was like:

    Breaking-in to steal opponents files in middle of campaign.
    Media uninterested in crime.
    Crime would have been buried but FBI leaked to papers after election.
    Public/media initially in denial that scandal goes to top.
    Crime eventually revealed by tape recordings and consumes principals.

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 6:48 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yup, it’s the Corpse Flower.

  47. 47.

    p.a.

    February 15, 2017 at 6:49 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes that’s it. Corpse flower; corpse democracy. Or at least corpse admin.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    February 15, 2017 at 6:50 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    If Mike Pence had any scruples, he’d tell Trump to get bent and then resign.

    If Mike Pence had any scruples, Trump never would have offered him the VP slot.

  49. 49.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:54 am

    Foreign Affairs magazine is pretty boring, but their centerfolds are pretty hawt (photo)

  50. 50.

    satby

    February 15, 2017 at 6:54 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning???

  51. 51.

    gene108

    February 15, 2017 at 6:54 am

    @Roger Moore:

    If he had any scruples he would not have accepted the job.

  52. 52.

    Quinerly

    February 15, 2017 at 6:56 am

    @p.a.:
    We have a Corpse Flower in St. Louis at our MO Botanical Garden. I went one year at night to be there when it opened. Think I read recently that they are now blooming more often than in the past. Unexplained. A sign?

  53. 53.

    satby

    February 15, 2017 at 6:56 am

    @Quinerly: I hope you send a couple of pictures to Anne Laurie so she can post them.

  54. 54.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:58 am

    Rats fleeing sinking ship.

    Video of Kellyanne Conway running away from reporters outside her apartment. (clip)

  55. 55.

    ThresherK

    February 15, 2017 at 7:02 am

    For those wondering, Nadja Spiegelman is Art (Maus) Spiegelman and Francois (RAW comic graphics mag) Mouly’s daughter.

    I can see where she gets it.

  56. 56.

    NorthLeft12

    February 15, 2017 at 7:05 am

    Unfortunately for your country, you have a large segment of the voting public who really don’t care about this shite that is going on now. They don’t care about what the congressional Republicans do or don’t do. They just vote for Republicans because they are motivated by fear and hate for progressives/DFHs and people who do not look like them.
    I am pretty sure their newsfeed does not include events that portray Rs in a bad light.

  57. 57.

    bemused

    February 15, 2017 at 7:06 am

    Reading Malcolm Nance tweets, I learned there is a BenedictDonald twitter feed. From now on, I will refer to the current White House mafia as Team Benedict Donald.
    Charlie Sykes, disillusioned conservative former radio talk show host who regularly appears on msnbc dropped a clever line last evening re: WH staff communications with Russia, “We saw what you did last summer”.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    February 15, 2017 at 7:07 am

    Is it me, or did Scott Hassell kind of miss the point with his “Trump Town” graffiti on the wall behind the Ruby Bridges stand-in? I mean, it’s better than that stupid-and-assholish, Cleek’s Law-ish Betsy DeVos abomination, but it ain’t quite there.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 7:07 am

    I know that it should be some patriot in the US government who blows the whistle on the Trumpsters, but I sort of love the idea of Russia getting pissed at them and releasing something to punish them. It has the necessary “no honor among thieves” aspect of a good crime story – makes it so they’re even incompetent criminals and criminals are often incompetent.

    In my experience people don’t cheat or do underhanded things because they’re super-duper smart. They cheat and do underhanded things because they know they need a competitive edge they don’t have on the merits. A lot of criminals are dumb, which is why they’re criminals. It’s the only way they succeed.

  60. 60.

    bystander

    February 15, 2017 at 7:07 am

    It looks as if the saving grace of the Trumputin Presidency is fancy First Lady Melania. Her #powerofthefirstlady program is just as successful as you might expect.

  61. 61.

    Quinerly

    February 15, 2017 at 7:08 am

    @satby:
    I feel like I have been hijacking these morning threads enough but it is kinda nice to check in with all of you first thing.❤ Maybe some Poco pics from Winslow, AZ (there’s a corner there, I hear) or the Grand Canyon…we are car camping on and off through Utah in March. I’m calling it a “two bedroom (Ford) Escape with Poco.”

  62. 62.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:08 am

    @NorthLeft12: Those people are lost. The fight is for the hearts and minds of moderate white people who vacillate between protecting their privilege and their sense of responsibility as Americans for the nation’s well-being.

  63. 63.

    Hal

    February 15, 2017 at 7:09 am

    Susan Sarandon is going to be on Chris Hayes tonight to talk about Trump’s first weeks as president and I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t see any difference between Trump and Clinton.

  64. 64.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:09 am

    @Quinerly:

    Maybe some Poco pics

    You do this right now!

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    February 15, 2017 at 7:10 am

    @satby:

    I hope you send a couple of pictures to Anne Laurie so she can post them

    Like one of the prickly pear cheesecake, for starters.

    No, I ain’t gonna let it pass. (Jes’ tryin’ to look out for ya, Ozark.)

  66. 66.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:12 am

    @Hal: Unless he’s going to burn her at the stake, fuck Hayes for inviting her on, especially at this time. She’s no one. Not worth the air time. It’s the equivalent of click bait for the TV.

  67. 67.

    Amir Khalid

    February 15, 2017 at 7:13 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
    That’s some moves. They should cast her in the next Catwoman movie.

  68. 68.

    Quinerly

    February 15, 2017 at 7:16 am

    @SFAW:
    Actually, I did take a picture of it in it’s native habitat…smothered in that exotic coulis.

  69. 69.

    Immanentize

    February 15, 2017 at 7:17 am

    @Kay: This. This is so true — I tell my students that the prisons are not filled with clever people.

  70. 70.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:17 am

    NYTimes — (WASHINGTON) Trump administration moves quickly to fill vacant security post naming Konrad Siegfied as new National Security Advisor.

    Mr. Siegried is currently the Vice President in charge of Public Relations and Terror at KAOS, a Delaware corporation, headquartered in Budapest.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 7:17 am

    Kellyanne Conway has also been discriminated against for being a wealthy white Republican:

    President-elect Donald Trump’s future counselor said she is “amused” by the chilled response she has received so far as she begins to search for a private school for her four children in Washington.
    Kellyanne Conway is concerned her work for Trump may impact her school search upon relocating to the nation’s dark-blue capital, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
    “I would not characterize myself as ‘worried’ so much as amused by the silence and sighs on the other end of the phone when friends and allies have made preliminary inquiries on my behalf,” she told the Post while visiting schools in the District.

    I love how she or her husband don’t contact these schools themselves- they send an advance team. Just like ordinary Americans.

    Stop barring the pricey private school door, Leftists.

  72. 72.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 7:18 am

    @Hal: Ah, another reason that I’m happy I don’t get MSNBC anymore.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:18 am

    @Amir Khalid: Hey, Amir. How are you doing? Hope things are less interesting in Malaysia, although I guess you have to deal with poison dart throwing women assassins.

  74. 74.

    GregB

    February 15, 2017 at 7:18 am

    Sen. Angus King just said his work on this Russia-gate matter is probably the most important thing he’ll ever do in his life.

  75. 75.

    Tony J

    February 15, 2017 at 7:18 am

    ‘Administration sources’ are circling the wagons around President-Elect Pence so frantically you’d almost think they’re worried about something. Anyway, did you know Pence knew nothing about Flynn other than what Flynn told him? Nothing at all. No other sources of information were available to the Vice-President of the United States. Apparently he doesn’t read newspapers, hasn’t got a Staff and has never received an Intelligence Briefing. Presidential material right there or what, eh? I know this because the BBC told me, and they got it from the rolling news tape their DC Correspondent could see over the shoulder of some guy in a Sports Bar this morning while he was waiting for his order of Buffalo Wings and Fries to arrive. So it must be true.

    And yet, with all this rudeness being thrown his way by the Fake News Posse, not a lot is coming out of Tangerine Tweetstorm’s bunker. Could it be that someone with a clue wormed their way through the air-vents of the Oval Office to drop a note on Feathery Bin-Lid’s desk with “STOP TWEETING AND HIDE!!” scrawled in Ivanka’s favourite shade of lip-stick?

    And it’s only Wednesday.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    February 15, 2017 at 7:21 am

    @Kay:

    President-elect Donald Trump’s future counselor said she is “amused” by the chilled response she has received so far as she begins to search for a private school for her four children in Washington.

    I guess she’s just going to have to send them to public school. ETA: Though maybe she shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry. There’s no telling if she’s going to have a job by the time she can find her kids a place in a DC school.

  77. 77.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:22 am

    @Hal: the silicon implants and foie gras have rotted out her brains.

    if she had any self awareness and decency, she’d apologize, then get in a convertible and drive off a cliff.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:23 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    if she had any self awareness and decency

    And if Mike Pence had scruples….yada, yada, yada.

  79. 79.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:24 am

    Democratic People’s Republic of Korea News Service ‏@DPRK_News

    Donald Trump minister of spies Michael Flynn resigns after being unmasked as Russian agent. All DPRK agents in Trump cabinet still in place.

    50 replies 2,183 retweets 2,742 likes

  80. 80.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 7:26 am

    @Immanentize:

    I’m not making fun of them but this a regular conversation I have “you called the police?”

    I’m really reluctant to call the police even if I need one and I’m not doing anything illegal. They call the police all the time.

  81. 81.

    amk

    February 15, 2017 at 7:27 am

    @Hal: hyper boy and wilmer girl. what could go wrong?

  82. 82.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:27 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Heh.

  83. 83.

    Amir Khalid

    February 15, 2017 at 7:28 am

    @Baud:
    Those of us who are not members of North Korea’s royal family are perfectly safe, I am assured.

  84. 84.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 7:30 am

    @bystander:

    This may explain why Joe and Meeka may have delayed any wedding plans.

    Your comment reminds me that Trump threatened to tell all about their relationship which was when they started to support the shitgibbon.

    And that reminds me yet again – How can a world leader speak to his country – and the world – via twitter. This is more insane than everything else he does.

  85. 85.

    p.a.

    February 15, 2017 at 7:30 am

    What did the MSM know and when did they know it?

  86. 86.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:32 am

    @Amir Khalid: Glad to hear it!

  87. 87.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:33 am

    @p.a.: Relevant.

    Scroll to bottom.

  88. 88.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 7:33 am

    @Baud: Sorry – as long as you promise to include Kay in your administration I’ll not mention them again.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 7:33 am

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s more whiny bullshit from perpetually victimized white conservatives. How many Republicans are there in DC after any given cycle? They’re barred from private schools? It’s a dumb premise. The people moving there and enrolling their kids in private schools are by definition not ordinary Democratic DC voters- not permanent residents.

    You know what Trump said about DeVos yesterday? That she was treated “unfairly”. Whine, whine, whine. She sucked at that job interview. She would not be hired by any reputable school district in the country based on her performance at that interview. It’s not surprising! This is her first job outside the family lobbying business.

  90. 90.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 7:34 am

    @TS: Has he been anywhere outside of DC excepting his place in Floriduh? I know he was planning a couple of trips, but both were canceled.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:35 am

    @TS: That’s a given. I need at least one person who knows what they are doing.

  92. 92.

    raven

    February 15, 2017 at 7:36 am

    @Amir Khalid: Where ya bean frijole?

  93. 93.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:36 am

    Charlie Sykes ‏@SykesCharlie

    Intel community to Trump: “We know what you did last summer” *click*

    49 replies 583 retweets 1,123 likes

  94. 94.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 7:37 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    I guess this is what Watergate was like:

    Yeah, pretty much.

    Just listened to an NPR interview with a Rep. Goodman (R-LA) who hopes the issue of leaking doesn’t get lost in all the investigations, especially the fact that the name of the American involved in questionable foreign phone calls is supposed to be kept secret.

    In his mind, the worst thing is that Flynn’s name came out at all.

  95. 95.

    Iowa Old Lady

    February 15, 2017 at 7:40 am

    Morning tweets. The man is a fool.

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 57m
    57 minutes ago

    More
    The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 30m
    30 minutes ago

    More
    This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 20m
    20 minutes ago

    More
    Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 11m
    11 minutes ago

    More
    Thank you to Eli Lake of The Bloomberg View – “The NSA & FBI…should not interfere in our politics…and is” Very serious situation for USA

  96. 96.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 7:41 am

    @Baud: I see some familiar names in those nested comments.

  97. 97.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:42 am

    Rick Wilson ‏@TheRickWilson 40m40 minutes ago

    Did none of you see this coming? You really thought Trump was the masterful CEO and manager he played on a TV game show?

    50 replies 362 retweets 1,064 likes

  98. 98.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 7:42 am

    Every single problem Trump is dealing with was caused by either Donald Trump or someone Donald Trump hired.

    Wait until they have a real problem. They will make it worse.

  99. 99.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:43 am

    @debbie: I’m sure he was really upset when the FBI leaked info that led to nowhere against Clinton

  100. 100.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:45 am

    @debbie: Ain’t no one left with any credibility to complain about what the IC community is leaking.

  101. 101.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 7:45 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    “The NSA & FBI…should not interfere in our politics…and is”

    Neither should the FSB.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 7:47 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: He’s president because FBI interfered in our politics. Live with it.

  103. 103.

    randy khan

    February 15, 2017 at 7:48 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    That third one reminds me of some comments by Bernie or Busters in the last week or so. Maybe he’s reading BJ. (Okay, maybe someone’s reading it to him.)

  104. 104.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    February 15, 2017 at 7:48 am

    They sold our country. They should all be shunned for eternity. I want the Trump name extinguished.

  105. 105.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    February 15, 2017 at 7:49 am

    Bob Corker’s upper lip is sweating.

    On a cool morning, before 8 am.

  106. 106.

    Lurking Canadian

    February 15, 2017 at 7:50 am

    @Hal: Actually, continuing to claim not-a-dimes-worth would, though mad, at least show an admirable intellectual consistency.

    She’s more likely to talk about how awful Trump is, without confronting her own part in bringing the Trump era about, which I find worse.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 7:50 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    I don’t even think he played a masterful CEO and manager on the game show. If you have to fire people that means you’re bad at hiring people and it’s better not to hire bad people in the first place.

    A good manager wouldn’t have hired all these low quality people. I mean, listen to them. They’re a bunch of misfits and weirdo cranks. Normal organizations have one or two misfits, cranks and people walking around with a chip on their shoulder. He managed to assemble an entire team of them.

  108. 108.

    Bupalos

    February 15, 2017 at 7:52 am

    Why isn’t peeotus giving endorsements and commercials for fox news the same kind of ethics violation Conway is getting slapped for?

  109. 109.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 7:53 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I wish someone would point Trump to Nixon, who did what Trump’s doing now (deflecting, distracting, denying, d’etc.), and ask him if he really thinks this is a winning strategy.

  110. 110.

    bemused

    February 15, 2017 at 7:53 am

    I’m somewhat curious how Faux news is covering or not covering the Russian scandal. As I was scrolling channels last night, I stopped there a couple of times for a moment but nada.

  111. 111.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 7:53 am

    Penn Jillette says that Trump is an unusually incompetent candidate: “However bad you think he is, he’s worse.”

    September 20, 2016

    If only someone who worked with him could have warned the media.

  112. 112.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 7:54 am

    @Kay:

    Shorter version: Omarosa.

  113. 113.

    amk

    February 15, 2017 at 7:54 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: Do the rethugs like mcturtle and the granny starver read these clear nutjob’s tweets? Whatever little reputation of us of a has around the world is being shredded every fucking day by this thug.

  114. 114.

    Lurking Canadian

    February 15, 2017 at 7:56 am

    @Kay: The Apprentice is actually a good predictor of how the Trump administration is going to run. I actually watched (most of) one season. In each episode, before the “You’re fired” scene, there was a “board meeting” in which “teammates” did their best to throw their “co-workers” under a bus to save their own worthless skins. To me, it was a textbook example of dysfunctional management style, but what do I know? I’m not the President of the USA. SAD!

  115. 115.

    Waldo

    February 15, 2017 at 7:59 am

    On the SS Trumptanic, Joe and Mika have scuttled back and forth between state room and lifeboat several times. Yesterday they got a look at the gaping hole in the hull.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 8:01 am

    @debbie:

    Right but it’s not just her. Bannon standing around glowering, absolute unhinged weirdo Stephen Miller who behaves as if he’s some kind of revolutionary in the movie playing in his head – these people are odd and not good “odd” – not at all appealing or reassuring or appearing competent and in control.

  117. 117.

    JMG

    February 15, 2017 at 8:02 am

    If Mike Pence was about 1000 times smarter than he is, he’d be out leaking like the Andrea Doria right now. Trump can’t fire him, and obviously Pence has the most to gain from Trump’s sudden removal from the scene.

  118. 118.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 8:05 am

    @Kay: He’s a complete disaster. He’s filed for bankruptcy SIX times. He ran THREE càsinos into the ground. He killed an entire American football league. He blew his inheritance. Trump steaks. Trump Shuttle. Trump vitamins. Trump University. The ultimate confidence-man, he lives off other people’s saps’ money.

  119. 119.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    February 15, 2017 at 8:07 am

    @Lurking Canadian:

    “I wouldn’t be a millionaire if I fired a fifteenth of my workforce every week.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ss-59fi4nM

  120. 120.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 8:08 am

    @Lurking Canadian:

    Americans say they like calm competent people but what they really promote is this idea that everything is easy if only we had asshole “leaders” who hired bad people and then fired them- a lot of useless and counterproductive “action!”.

    Trump’s whole campaign was “these people are stupid and this is easy”. It’s not easy. He, for example, is bad at this job. It’s childish to believe this. Almost nothing is easy. If it were easy it would have been fixed.

  121. 121.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 8:09 am

    @debbie: Nixon is their playbook, the only mistake Nixon made in their view is he quit.

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    February 15, 2017 at 8:09 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Hey, she’s in pretty good shape for someone who looks like she gets 20 minutes of sleep a night (if that)!!1

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  123. 123.

    El Caganer

    February 15, 2017 at 8:09 am

    @JMG: As Dirty Harry observed, “A man’s just got to know his limitations.” Pence is dumb as a rock (shoot, his colleagues thought he was dumber than Louie Gohmert), but he might have sufficient self-awareness to know that actually being POTUS is way, way out of his league.

  124. 124.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 8:11 am

    @debbie:

    Shorter version: Omarosa.

    You know Omarosa worked in the White House before, in the East Wing for FLOTUS Hillary Clinton.

  125. 125.

    El Caganer

    February 15, 2017 at 8:12 am

    @Kay: He’s hiring people using the same management theory as that bozo who runs Sears Roebuck. And we know how well that turned out.

  126. 126.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 8:13 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I did not. I’d check her phone records if I had any say.

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 8:14 am

    @Bupalos: When the President does it, it’s not against the law.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 8:15 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    I watched him reading off a piece of paper yesterday when he met with “parents and teachers” to promote DeVos and it hit me what a bore he is. He’s the person at the table who talks about themselves constantly but in the most boring and unimaginative way possible. His sole contribution was to ask “what’s up with autism?” He can’t even phrase a question in an interesting and informed way. It’s like banal country club table boasting – the kind of “conversation” one can check in and out of because no one is saying anything you haven’t heard from them before.

  129. 129.

    Elizabelle

    February 15, 2017 at 8:15 am

    Good morning all.

    I feel safer this morning. Flynn’s gone, and there’s blood in the water with an actual scandal.

    Watching the news last night was like being in a parallel universe where dogs run the White House.

    is unfair. To dogs. (Congratulations Rumor, the German Shepherd. Named after an Adele song.)

  130. 130.

    Shalimar

    February 15, 2017 at 8:16 am

    @SFAW: Hassell’s cartoon was done after the election and he obviously wanted to make it clear that the protection the little girl required was in response to Trump’s rhetoric against Muslims. You’re right that it isn’t a direct echo of the graffiti on the wall in the original Rockwell painting.

  131. 131.

    Another Scott

    February 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

    @SFAW: The “Trump Town” tag works the same way as it does in the original, for me anyway. It’s meant to intimidate the little girl (“This is our place, not yours…”), and to horrify the audience (“How can America be like that?”), and show the importance of good people standing up together (via their government) to do what’s right.

    It works for me.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 8:18 am

    I’ve been binge watching Game of Thrones (just finished Season 5), and it has become very tame in comparison to actual events.

  133. 133.

    Eric S.

    February 15, 2017 at 8:22 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: re Alex Reyes, what you said!

  134. 134.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 8:24 am

    @El Caganer:

    shoot, his colleagues thought he was dumber than Louie Gohmert

    Jeez, that’s the gold standard.

  135. 135.

    gene108

    February 15, 2017 at 8:24 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    @debbie: Nixon is their playbook, the only mistake Nixon made in their view is he quit.

    Bush, Jr used Nixon as a model. He filled his Administration with ex-Nixonites, like Cheney and Rumsfeld.

    The mistake Nixon made was he left a “paper trail” that clearly lead back to him.

    Note that Bush 43 never recorded anything, never used email, and what emails they did use were on a private server they controlled and were permanently deleted.

    Trump’s crew are something utterly different. They lack the basic skills needed to abuse power the way Nixonites envisioned it should be abused by the President.

    No disciple of Nixon would have made calls on an unsecured line, which could be recorded by anybody.

  136. 136.

    Bruce K

    February 15, 2017 at 8:26 am

    My feeling is: the sooner Pence is sworn in, the sooner he goes into the fishbowl and under the microscope, the sooner the general public will learn who and what he truly is.

    Yeah, I get people wanting to see the cheeto last a little longer so that when he goes under for the final time, he takes Ryan, McConnell, and the rest of the bastards down with him in the upcoming elections, but right now I’m kind of worried about the collateral damage. I don’t want the cheeto to bring down the whole country with him when he falls.

  137. 137.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 8:26 am

    @gene108: Agree. Sooner or later, they’ll trust the wrong courier.

  138. 138.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:27 am

    Re that tweet from yesterday…did Spicer really say that Obama’s DOJ should have looked more closely into Flynn?

  139. 139.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:28 am

    @gene108:

    Note that Bush 43 never recorded anything, never used email, and what emails they did use were on a private server they controlled and were permanently deleted.

    Big problem is that Democrats didn’t subpoena his ass off after Iraq.

  140. 140.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 8:29 am

    @Bruce K: Pence is more likely to reflect badly on the Republican brand than Trump will. If things go south with Trump, the GOP will claim he was never one of them and the media and half this country will accept it and move on.

  141. 141.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:29 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I feel safer this morning. Flynn’s gone…

    I feel better now that Flynn’s gone, too. Though some commenter at Larison’s blog over at The American Conservative said, amusingly, Better the crackpot you know than the crackpot you don’t know.

  142. 142.

    Gindy51

    February 15, 2017 at 8:30 am

    @TS: The checks bounced?

  143. 143.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:31 am

    @Kay: Agreed, but a big part of the problem is this idiotic shit that business leaders are, by default, competent.

  144. 144.

    father pussbucket

    February 15, 2017 at 8:31 am

    @amk:

    what scandals did Obama exactly have?

    Presidenting while Black?

  145. 145.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    February 15, 2017 at 8:32 am

    @gene108:

    Zero core competence – it reflects directly on everything that Trump is. The IC knew it before the election, which is why so many military and national security professionals – Republicans as well as Democrats – stepped up before the election to warn about him.

    When he exits, we very well may need a “national unity” government to undo the damage.

  146. 146.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:32 am

    @bemused: Just stepped over a copy of The Boston Herald entering my workplace. Headline wasn’t friendly to Trump, despite it being a right-wing rag.

  147. 147.

    bemused

    February 15, 2017 at 8:33 am

    Heard reporter say on a morning news show short time ago re: Trumpgate, “EVEN some Republicans are worried”. That’s where we are now. Expectations of GOP having standards are that low.

  148. 148.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:33 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    When he exits, we very well may need a “national unity” government to undo the damage.

    That presumes a Republican Party that isn’t a “revolutionary power,” as Krugman put it.

    There could be mushroom clouds all over major American cities, and those fucks would still be pushing to eliminate the capital gains tax.

  149. 149.

    gene108

    February 15, 2017 at 8:35 am

    @liberal:

    They tried. Bush & Co were not at all cooperative. I believe Rove was in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify, at some point. They tried getting emails, but they were deleted.

    Bush & Co really mastered not leaving a “paper trail” behind. There was nothing there to incriminate anybody. The only person, who got in trouble was Scooter Libby for lying to the Feds.

    They really thought through how to not leave finger prints behind, and have plausible deniability in all circumstances.

  150. 150.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:35 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Did he come out and endorse Clinton? He’s a libertarian, after all.

  151. 151.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 8:36 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Might have spent a night in New York? He can go nowhere without being met by protests. Doubt he’ll become a world traveller. Mightn’t last long enough to get to the UK – QEII has her fingers crossed.

  152. 152.

    Shalimar

    February 15, 2017 at 8:36 am

    @Kay: I suspect the kind of people who run the most prestigious private schools in the country don’t react well to having the help call up and enquire about a place for junior. Even if Kellyanne Conway wasn’t nouveau riche in her own right, that would be a big initial strike against her.

  153. 153.

    Another Scott

    February 15, 2017 at 8:37 am

    @Tony J: Pence didn’t know much about Flynn, Jr., either. CNN from December:

    Washington (CNN)Officials from President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team attempted to distance themselves Tuesday from Michael G. Flynn — the son and former top aide to his father, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who is Trump’s pick for national security adviser and was involved in the transition effort.

    However, government sources tell CNN that the Trump transition team had requested a security clearance for the younger Flynn.

    When asked about the request for clearance on CNN’s “The Lead,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence wouldn’t answer Jake Tapper’s repeated questions about whether he knew the transition team sought security clearance for Flynn Jr. Instead, Pence repeated that the younger Flynn was merely helping his father with scheduling and administrative matters — and no longer is doing so.

    Pressed on seeking a security clearance for Flynn Jr., Pence said: “Well, whatever the appropriate paperwork was to assist him in that regard, Jake, I’m sure was taking place. But that’s no longer the case.”
    “All of our families want to be helpful, and four weeks to the day from Election Day, we’ve got a lot of work to do. But Mike Flynn Jr. is no longer associated with Gen. Flynn’s efforts or the transition team, and we’re focused eyes forward,” Pence said.

    For months, the younger Flynn has spread deranged conspiracy theories, including one making the unfounded and nonsensical accusation that a pizzeria in Washington is a secret home of a Satanic pedophilia cult. On Sunday, that wild lie almost had tragic consequences, with a North Carolina man entering the restaurant armed with guns.

    I mean, of course Trump needs people with security clearances “helping out” to spread nonsense about Pizzagate from the White House. The Teabaggers aren’t going to stay riled up on their own, you know.

    :-/

    Pence is lying, of course. Flynn, Jr. wasn’t just some qualified “administrative assistant” or other just keeping track of his father’s calendar.

    Lots of Trump’s people didn’t have their security background checks done before their confirmation hearings were scheduled. I don’t think the National Security Adviser requires Senate confirmation, so Gen. Flynn’s checks were likely even more cursory. But this shows what happens when process is thrown out the window.

    Not that Donnie cares – he obviously hires the “best people” and lets them do what they want. Trump doesn’t care about policy – he cares about having yes-men around him and controlling (or trying to) the media. Pence only cares about his Teabagger policies – he’ll hand-wave away anything Trump and his minions do as long as he can stay in power and destroy our civil institutions and the federal government in service of his dangerous brain-dead goals…

    (sigh)

    Let’s remember that Pence isn’t somehow the “victim” in this Flynn mess. He knew (or should have know) that Flynn was a kook that was too dangerous to have as NSA and nothing he (or his son) said (of any consequence) could be trusted. America was (and is) the victim in this Flynn mess…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  154. 154.

    Elizabelle

    February 15, 2017 at 8:38 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Ah, another reason that I’m happy I don’t get MSNBC anymore.

    I’m happy for you too. I bet your teeth are even whiter.

  155. 155.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 8:38 am

    @liberal: A fair number of the emails they deleted were under subpoena.

    @gene108:

    No disciple of Nixon would have made calls on an unsecured line, which could be recorded by anybody.

    It’s worse than that. Flynn called the Russian Ambassador on a line that he as a former long term member of the IC, knew, knew was tapped. (the NSA listens to all conversations on official diplomatic lines, especially the Russians) And he did it anyway. So either he didn’t care, or … he didn’t care.

  156. 156.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:38 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: IMHO the FBI stuff was way more damaging than the Russian stuff. Though of course Trump colluding with Russia is ridiculous.

    My only fear is that the other rats (congressional Republicans) will flee the ship before it sinks.

    As I said before: any Democrat in 2018 running for Congress who doesn’t “nationalize” his/her election is dumber than a brick.

  157. 157.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:39 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: No, I’m referring to the entire conduct of the war, and the decision to go to war, not just what was on the private email server. The Dems didn’t do shit.

  158. 158.

    Oldgold

    February 15, 2017 at 8:39 am

    David Corn ‏@DavidCornDC 9h9 hours ago
    I think we need to temporarily suspend all White House action until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

  159. 159.

    SFAW

    February 15, 2017 at 8:40 am

    @Shalimar: @Another Scott:

    Well, except that the graffiti in the Rockwell version/prototype specifically used a term (“nigger”) directed at the Ruby Bridges character. Had it been something like “white power,” then the “Trump Town” would have been a good use of “parallel structure” (so to speak). Even the DeVos abomination gets that right, with “conservatives” scrawled on the wall, aimed at that poor little Betsy.

    Look, I know that Hassell’s heart is in the right place, I just would have preferred him to get it all-the-way right.

  160. 160.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 8:40 am

    @gene108: No, Nixon is their playbook; they’re just 4th string talent.

  161. 161.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 8:42 am

    @gene108: No they didn’t. I remember at the time thinking how much of a complete pussy Rockerfeller (e.g.) was.

    There’s a lot more than emails, and live testimony is mostly a dog-and-pony show. AFAICT the real work is obtaining actual documents and working from there. I don’t see any evidence the Democrats did that.

  162. 162.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 8:42 am

    @Baud: Yup, they’ll say: “He used to be a Democrat, ya know”.

  163. 163.

    Peale

    February 15, 2017 at 8:42 am

    @Bruce K: I think that he’s got to take the country down with him somewhat, or voters will just elect another one. Better our country than someone else’s. I mean, do we want it to be like 43, with 500,000 shock and awe deaths in another country? That doesn’t seem fair. Our system produced this hairball. We should chocke on it awhile.

  164. 164.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 8:43 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Morning tweets. The man is a fool.

    He really doesn’t think ahead – or read what he wrote 30 seconds ago
    Tweet 1. The information is fake
    Tweet 2. I won, Hillary lost
    Tweet 3. Information is being illegally given to the media {mmm sounds like it wasn’t fake}
    Tweet 4. The NSA & FBI should not interfere in our politics {didn’t notice him saying that to Comey a few months ago}

  165. 165.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 8:44 am

    @liberal: It would incentivise the rebuilding process.

  166. 166.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 15, 2017 at 8:45 am

    @Baud:

    Those people are lost.

    Do remember John Cole was one of the lost. Something like Benedict Trump is the kind of thing that gets these people thinking, but it doesn’t happen over night. Speaking as one of the Lost myself that’s why I say attack the ideas and arguments, not the people; That’s why all Right Wing media is filled with nothing but trolls now, to keep it nothing but personal attacks and avoid any serious discussions.

  167. 167.

    sherparick

    February 15, 2017 at 8:45 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Even as a Cubs fan, I think this sucks. I just keep wondering though how these things happen at the beginning of Spring training. What have Reyes and the Cardinals been doing the last 4 months in the way of communication? Mutual denial that the elbow pain would go away?

  168. 168.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 8:45 am

    @liberal:

    Oh, I agree. The elevation of CEO’s to near-mythical figures has a lot to do with it. Just stop. Stop kissing their asses.
    Stop behaving like children. They’re not all that and they’re not the father figure you’re looking for.

    Trump actually said it at his banal and really dull “conversation” about education. He said the point of his education “plan” (such as it is, which is non-existent) is so people can make more money. That’s his single measure of worth.

    Have you ever been to business training? Like 90% of it is slogans. It’s just not “brilliance”. It’s fine for what it is but it isn’t more than that. It basically takes two forms- “disruption” and then it cycles back to “tried and true”. Repeat every decade. You could skip like a hundred years of it and miss nothing.

  169. 169.

    hovercraft

    February 15, 2017 at 8:47 am

    @amk:

    what scandals did Obama exactly have?

    He had the fast and the furious, gun walking scandal,
    Bailout gate, Wall Street and Detroit,
    About a hundred “Obama’s Katrina’s”,
    Arugula gate,
    Mustard gate,
    Obamacare gate, forcing people to stand before death panels,
    BP Gulf spill gate, where he failed to fix their fuckup fast enough,
    Tan suit gate,
    and of course the mother of all scandals, Benghazi, where he and Hillary held the ambassador down while the terrorists killed four of our citizens.
    There are many more, but those are the biggest ones the right talks about.

  170. 170.

    SFAW

    February 15, 2017 at 8:48 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You know Omarosa worked in the White House before, in the East Wing for FLOTUS Hillary Clinton.

    Well, that’s before the name change from “Earl” to “Omarosa” (among other changes).

    [Sorry, a little NYC sort-of-humor there. May he RIP]

  171. 171.

    Baud

    February 15, 2017 at 8:49 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m not saying people can’t change. People go in the other direction too, unfortunately. But almost know one changes because of a fact based argument. They have to undergo their own religious experience, and if and when that happens is anyone’s guess.

  172. 172.

    gene108

    February 15, 2017 at 8:51 am

    @liberal:

    My point is there were no fucking documents to get. Bush & Co were very careful not to leave any documents behind that could be used against them. Every document that did exist was structured to give maximum plausible deniability to any accusation of wrong doing.

  173. 173.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 8:52 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    And it continues:

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 1h1 hour ago
    More
    Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?

    Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 39m39 minutes ago
    More
    The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy. Very un-American!

    “Scattershot” has become an inadequate descriptor.

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    February 15, 2017 at 8:52 am

    @gene108: The (20M?) deleted e-mails were eventually found. They’re at the Archives and will be released in 20 years or so (the usual waiting period).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  175. 175.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 8:53 am

    @liberal: OK. I have to say that they did do something, tho wholly inadequate. I understand why Obama wanted to let it go, but it has long been obvious that that was a mistake.

  176. 176.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 8:54 am

    @Kay:

    In my experience people don’t cheat or do underhanded things because they’re super-duper smart. They cheat and do underhanded things because they know they need a competitive edge they don’t have on the merits. A lot of criminals are dumb, which is why they’re criminals. It’s the only way they succeed

    That’s essentially what my former-cop dad told me when I was younger: “Fortunately for us [cops], criminals are SO DUMB and don’t think anything through.” There’s something to be said for executive functioning and building up that skill in kids as early as possible! =)

  177. 177.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    February 15, 2017 at 8:54 am

    @hovercraft: You left out Gatesgate.

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 8:55 am

    @Hal:

    Susan Sarandon is going to be on Chris Hayes tonight to talk about Trump’s first weeks as president and I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t see any difference between Trump and Clinton.

    I’m sure she’ll try to finesse it: “Well, back during the campaign I said there was no real difference…but who knew Trump was going to be this bad??”

    (65 million voters raise their hands: “WE DID! WE DID, YOU GOOF!!”)

  179. 179.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 15, 2017 at 8:56 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?).Just like Russia

    Except the information is from your own staff Donny ROFL

  180. 180.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 8:57 am

    @Kay:

    I love how she or her husband don’t contact these schools themselves- they send an advance team. Just like ordinary Americans.

    Stop barring the pricey private school door, Leftists.

    Maybe Kellyanne could wave a voucher in their faces? I hear those solve everything that’s wrong with schools.

  181. 181.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 8:58 am

    I have a Twitter question. There are always 20-some thousand likes on each of Trump’s Tweets. Is there an app where you can automatically like the Tweets of someone you’re following or are that many people actually reading all of this garbage as it is posted?

  182. 182.

    SFAW

    February 15, 2017 at 8:58 am

    @Quinerly:

    Actually, I did take a picture of it in it’s native habitat…smothered in that exotic coulis.

    Did you post it here and I missed it? If not, then what are you waiting for?

  183. 183.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 8:59 am

    @Tony J: They’re trying to keep Pence viable for when Trump is taken out (impeached or 25th amendment). What we ought to be pushing is that if (since) Russia helped Trump’s campaign win, that is an act of war that denied 65 million Americans of their right to equal protection. It should go to SCOTUS and they should rule for either a new election or having HRC sworn in as the rightful 45th president.

    (Has the side benefit of taking Trump out of the hall of presidents, portraits, he doesn’t even get a number…just a footnote in history as a pawn of Vladimir Putin)

  184. 184.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 15, 2017 at 9:00 am

    @liberal:

    AFAICT the real work is obtaining actual documents and working from there. I don’t see any evidence the Democrats did that..

    I take it you haven’t heard about the “Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program” then? Intel committee staffers went so far as to sneak out damning documents from the secure room so they could not be destroyed.

  185. 185.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 9:01 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: Wait…I thought he LOVED the intelligence community? Didn’t they give him like a 3-hour standing ovation in front of the CIA wall?

  186. 186.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 9:02 am

    @Thoroughly Pizzled:

    They sold our country. They should all be shunned for eternity. I want the Trump name extinguished.

    Help push for this to be taken to SCOTUS – a hostile foreign power deprived 65 million Americans of their vote. New election or HRC is 45th president. No number for Trumpov!

  187. 187.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 9:05 am

    @El Caganer:

    Pence is dumb as a rock (shoot, his colleagues thought he was dumber than Louie Gohmert),

    That’s a bit harsh even for Pence.

  188. 188.

    TS

    February 15, 2017 at 9:06 am

    @Jeffro: New Elections – not only did they steal the Presidency, the fallout gave the senate to the GOP. If Hillary had won the election, the dems would have won the senate.

  189. 189.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 9:10 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    When he exits, we very well may need a “national unity” government to undo the damage.

    Ah, so at least one person has been reading my newsletter…;)

    We will need that, and a 2-part “truth & reconciliation” commission as well. One to look into and fully air the extent of Russian hacking and interference (including who has been blackmailed into looking the other way during all of this…you hear me, Mitch and Paul?). And another to look into the full extent of voter suppression tactics in recent years, to include recommendations for concrete steps to take and ensure everyone has the right to vote in the future.

    And while I’m wishing, how about if both major parties come to terms on what they both will insist from their national candidates (MoCs and president) in the future, with 10 years’ worth of tax returns being an obvious starting point.

  190. 190.

    amk

    February 15, 2017 at 9:11 am

    @debbie: from 2016, it’s all bots and bots .

  191. 191.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 9:12 am

    @liberal:

    No, I’m referring to the entire conduct of the war, and the decision to go to war, not just what was on the private email server. The Dems didn’t do shit.

    I think it’s probably because so many Dems went along with it (the decision to go to war). They put their trust in the president and got burned.

  192. 192.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 15, 2017 at 9:14 am

    @debbie:

    Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?

    Crimea was taken under Peter the Great by the Russians. Was King William of Orange to soft on Russia?

  193. 193.

    Jeffro

    February 15, 2017 at 9:14 am

    @hovercraft: I think you forgot the “beer summit”, the scandal that revealed post-racial Obama to be the true champion of all that is non-white/put the white man at the bottom of the totem pole, right? At least to hear the RWNJs tell it…

  194. 194.

    jonas

    February 15, 2017 at 9:15 am

    @amk: A lot of made up ones in the fever swamps of talk radio and places like Infowars. Very, very few actual ones in the world where objective reality still counts for something.

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 15, 2017 at 9:16 am

    @Hal: Nice he’s brining some balance to his regular roster of Mike Coffman, Mo Brooks and Eli Lake.

  196. 196.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 9:21 am

    @amk:

    Thanks. It also seems that most of the people who do follow him do so just to abuse whatever he says. Which makes his claims — that he’s so good at Twitter and that Twitter is the future — so ridiculous.

  197. 197.

    jonas

    February 15, 2017 at 9:23 am

    @bemused: Their news desk actually reports on it to a certain extent, but then that’s interspersed with one of their hack hosts complaining that this is all just a big liberal media pile-on and they’re being so unfair to Trump and what’s wrong with Vladimir Putin anyway and Obama made phone calls and no one suggested impeaching him for those and why don’t they just shut up?

  198. 198.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 15, 2017 at 9:23 am

    only halfway through my first cup of coffee, I thought Weigel was actually reporting from Ironsburg and this second one seemed completely believable

    Dave Weigel ‏@ daveweigel 10m10 minutes ago
    What we need now is a dispatch from Ironburg, Ohio, where 80% of voters picked Trump and now sit around in a diner defending Flynn
    “Mike Flynn was good,” said Joe Wierzbicki, a coal miner who blamed the Obama EPA for his mine shutting down in 1987

  199. 199.

    hedgehog mobile

    February 15, 2017 at 9:24 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Da fuq…

  200. 200.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 9:26 am

    It will do no good, but this ending exchange between Miller and Stephanopoulos on his Sunday show is refreshing:

    “I’m asking you as the White House senior policy adviser,” Stephanopoulos interrupted. “The president made a statement saying he was the victim of voter fraud, people being bused from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. Do you have any evidence?”

    “If this is an issue that interests you, then we can talk about it more in the future,” Miller responded.

    “Just for the record, you have provided absolutely no evidence,” Stephanopoulos eventually said. “You have provided zero evidence that the president was the victim of massive voter fraud in New Hampshire. You have provided zero evidence of the president’s claim that he would have won the popular vote if 3-5 million illegal immigrants hadn’t voted. Zero evidence for either one of those claims. Thanks a lot of joining us this morning.”

    Like that woman on the game show: Guhbye.

  201. 201.

    O. Felix Culpa

    February 15, 2017 at 9:27 am

    @Quinerly: It was great to meet you at San Marcos! Enjoy the rest of your trip. And scritches to Poco.

  202. 202.

    debbie

    February 15, 2017 at 9:27 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The heart wants what it wants.

  203. 203.

    Bruce K

    February 15, 2017 at 9:31 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: How’s about this for a national unity government: Congress agrees to confirm Pence’s nominee for Vice President, on the condition that the nominee is Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Obviously this won’t work until the 116th Congress convenes in January 2019.)

    Then if Pence is caught in the Trump-Kremlin imbroglio, justice for 2016 is done.

    And while I’m at it, I’d like a pony.

  204. 204.

    Tony J

    February 15, 2017 at 9:34 am

    @Another Scott:

    I’d forgotten all about Flynn Jr and his flair for the fantastic. In my defence the one quality of Trump’s ongoing campaign that reaches outstanding levels is its ability to shoot out jaw-dropping scandals faster than Shakira can shake her booty. It’s mesmerising and very hard to keep up.

    And yeah, Pence is obviously lying. I don’t care how dense he is. At some point over the last year – someone – will have had ‘a conversation’ with him about how Trump’s close relationship with Putin’s regime is going to leave a President-shaped hole in DC that he can fill with his love of Jeebus and all things Evangelical. Whether that someone was on his staff, a representative of the IC, or of the GOP leadership in Congress is irrelevant, the conversation will have been had.

    As far as the quality of Trump’s hire go, I think people here were right when they said before the Election that he had no intention or expectation of winning. He had no lists of candidates because he never thought he’d need them, and when he did squeak in thanks to the Alliance of Acronyms (FSB/FBI/MSM) everything was done on the fly. Professed loyalty and membership of the right reddit community/country club/high-class escort agency were all it took to get the Low-Class Lindbergh’s nod, background checks be damned.

  205. 205.

    Immanentize

    February 15, 2017 at 9:40 am

    @liberal:

    @gene108: No they didn’t. I remember at the time thinking how much of a complete pussy Rockerfeller (e.g.) was.

    Rockefeller wasn’t one. He was just always looking for some. Distracted.

  206. 206.

    Elizabelle

    February 15, 2017 at 9:42 am

    @Bruce K: In all honesty, I think it’s cruel to ask Hillary to serve under Mike Pence.

  207. 207.

    Tony J

    February 15, 2017 at 9:43 am

    @Jeffro:

    Pleasing as that prospect is to all right-minded people I can’t see the Supreme Court making that ruling. They’d either throw it back to Congress as rightly their affair or go 8-0 that the Election stands. Yes, Russia interfered and threw out illegally obtained information to favour one candidate over another, and the FBI Director broke with tradition and decency to put his finger on the scales, but that wouldn’t have had the effect it did if the US MSM hadn’t puke funnelled it into the ears of – just – enough American voters to make the difference on Election Night.

    The only chance you have of getting a Democrat in the White House lies in winning the House before an impeachment of – both – Trump and Pence (unlikely) or by winning big in 2020, which is a loooooooonnnng way off.

    tldr – Nope. That’s not a fight you’re going to win.

  208. 208.

    Timurid

    February 15, 2017 at 9:45 am

    So how are the Bridge and Tunnel Borgias going to get out of this one?

  209. 209.

    Ksmiami

    February 15, 2017 at 9:46 am

    @Mustang Bobby: he’s the back up. The GOP can impeach trump leaving pence to satisfy their main base.

  210. 210.

    Ruckus

    February 15, 2017 at 9:53 am

    @Mustang Bobby:

    If Mike Pence had any scruples

    You made a funny.
    And that’s not the worst of his problems.
    Also, he doesn’t seem to be smart enough to have found any. Ever.

  211. 211.

    Peale

    February 15, 2017 at 9:53 am

    @Bruce K: nah. Putting in Clinton would just demoralize the Bernie Crew. We would need to have a VP primary. It would last months.

  212. 212.

    amk

    February 15, 2017 at 9:54 am

    @Tony J:

    Alliance of Acronyms

    Good one.

  213. 213.

    Ohio Mom

    February 15, 2017 at 9:54 am

    @Kay: I just watched Trump’s presentation at that parents-teachers conversation (inspired to do so because you mentioned it yesterday) and heard that bit about how his goal is to have every child grow up to have a well-paying job, or better yet, start their own business.

    Putting aside the real purpose for public education — to develop an informed citizenry — what he says doesn’t make mathematical sense. Everyone can’t be a business owner, everyone can’t have a well-paying job (unless you want to raise the minimum wage a lot and I don’t think that is a goal of his).

    But most of all, as an autism mom, I continue to be fascinated by his obsession with autism. It is the biggest reason why I am convinced that Barron is somewhere on the spectrum.

    In my experience, people without a direct connection to the world of autism just don’t spend that time on it. Frankly, I don’t spend a lot of time on other disabilities, and I’ve developed a broader, deeper knowledge of the range of disability than most people-on-the-street. Just human nature, I suppose.

    And FWIW, I wish he’d leave “my” disability alone. No good can come of his (admittedly,scattered) attention.

  214. 214.

    Patricia Kayden

    February 15, 2017 at 9:55 am

    @Hal: Sarandon said that Clinton would be more dangerous than Trump so there’s that. She may actually praise Trump for being more restrained vis-a-vis hawkishness than Clinton. She was a diehard Bernie Bro and many of them are still bitter.

    P.S. So glad I gave up MSNBC. My health thanks me.

  215. 215.

    Aleta

    February 15, 2017 at 9:58 am

    The Sen. vote to abolish the Obama admin. regulation of methane release should be coming up this week. It will be close. It passed the House around Feb 3rd. H. J. Res. 36.

    … Venting or, when the methane is burnt off, flaring, is done when a well lacks a “gathering system” to pipe the natural gas that accompanies oil from the well to the market. Meanwhile, methane can leak from nearly every step of oil and natural gas production, from drilling, to fracking, to piping, to processing.

    Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with at least 86 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over the short term. If methane is leaking, then so are harmful hydrocarbons, such as benzene, a known carcinogen. …

    The stuff leaking from the pipes and being vented and flared is natural gas, a marketable commodity. … More than $300 million worth of gas is lost annually from federal and tribal lands alone, according to a 2015 Environmental Defense Fund analysis. That adds up to millions in lost royalties for the feds and local communities, too.

    Reducing waste—which is clearly within the department’s mandate—is the main purpose of the Department of Interior rules, which impact some 100,000 onshore oil and gas wells. Reducing pollution by an estimated 566,000 tons of methane and organic volatile compounds each year is a favorable byproduct. …
    The rules are the type of measures that a sensible company would take on its own. Nevertheless, industry advocacy groups claim that the cost of compliance, as high as $50,000 per well, would shut down thousands of oil and gas wells across the country. …

    (But) productive wells bring in millions of dollars per year, even in this low-price environment. So, $50,000 isn’t going to kill them. Indeed, those operators stand to recoup some or all of their costs by selling the natural gas. … As for the hundreds of low-production “stripper wells” out there, they can be exempted from provisions of the rule if the operator can demonstrate that the rules could put them out of business. …

    And, as industry spokespeople like to point out, many operators have already replaced valves, improved liquids unloading processes, or otherwise modernized their equipment, so they are already in compliance and the new regulations should not impose any additional costs. Take ConocoPhillips. Its San Juan Basin facilities collectively make up one of the biggest emitters of methane in the nation. But between 2013 and 2014, it cut emissions from those facilities in half—mostly by implementing the same measures required by the new rules—and then continued to cut into 2015. It didn’t damage the bottom line: The company reaped a $6.9 billion profit in 2014.

    (from Denver Post) “The royalties lost from wasted methane “is millions of dollars that could go to state infrastructure needs, schools and emergency services,” the Democrats wrote. “Under the law, BLM has the obligation to conserve the oil and gas resource, prevent waste and ensure that taxpayers receive a fair return on production from federal leases.”

    Oil and gas industry leaders (are backing) lawmakers’ attack on the rule. “As a land management agency, BLM lacks not only the statutory authority but the resources and expertise to regulate air quality,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Denver-based lobbying group Western Energy Alliance. “The Western Energy Alliance strongly supports use of the Congressional Review Act to roll back this clear overreach of federal authority in the form of a rule that will provide very little environmental benefit but at great cost.”

    U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl in Wyoming concluded that BLM officials do have the authority to regulate air pollution on public land.

    The pollution and the lost royalties seriously affect a lot of tribal land. In research, methane is thought to be one of the largest contributors to co2 production and climate change. It’s said to dissipate after 10-15 years.

  216. 216.

    Patricia Kayden

    February 15, 2017 at 10:00 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: In 1987? So Obama was President in 1987 in Rightwingistan? Bizarre. At the very least, if he’s looking to blame Democrats, he could actually point to President Jimmy Carter. But no, somehow President Obama has to be blamed.

  217. 217.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 15, 2017 at 10:00 am

    @Patricia Kayden: other than pointing and laughing and the rich crazy lady whose chauffeur is helping her up on the custom made mahogany soap box she brought to Speaker’s Corner to yell about Dear President Sanders and the United Nations of Aquarius he would have made, what possible point is there of giving an otherwise gifted actress a platform for a role and a script she, unfortunately, wrote herself.

  218. 218.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 15, 2017 at 10:01 am

    @Patricia Kayden: Weigel was making a joke about all the “but what do Trump’s most loyal voters think?” pieces that are published every three hours

  219. 219.

    Aleta

    February 15, 2017 at 10:06 am

    @Aleta: correction: In research, methane is thought to be one of the largest contributors to climate change. (not to co2 production)

  220. 220.

    Kay

    February 15, 2017 at 10:06 am

    @Jeffro:

    Maybe Kellyanne could wave a voucher in their faces? I hear those solve everything that’s wrong with schools.

    The voucher bit to choose “any” school is an obvious lie. You can’t choose Kellyanne’s school with a voucher. It costs too much.

  221. 221.

    Ruckus

    February 15, 2017 at 10:20 am

    @Kay:
    He’s so good he wants life to be a mirror. So he hires people just like him. But without the charm. That’s why everyone is as bad or worse than him. Fun house mirrors. What he sees is nothing like what a normal human sees and it’s reflected in every thing he says and does.
    ETA Also I was taught to hire people better than me. That doing so would insure that the work got done better, that relations would be better. To be able to do this one has to know their own limitations, what they have to work on, that they can be better if they try. He is, in his tiny mind already perfect so none of that is possible.

  222. 222.

    Elizabelle

    February 15, 2017 at 10:22 am

    @Ruckus: That could be a short story. Of the horror genre.

    I hope that Trump’s term will be short, too. We deserve better.

  223. 223.

    Elizabelle

    February 15, 2017 at 10:24 am

    @Patricia Kayden: Yes re giving up Msnbc. Blessed relief.

    It’s another purposely distorted mirror. Better to be free of it.

    I find it easier to take in news on current US politics in a quick written scan. Not broadcast. Too slow and tailored.

  224. 224.

    The Moar You Know

    February 15, 2017 at 10:26 am

    Trump actually said it at his banal and really dull “conversation” about education. He said the point of his education “plan” (such as it is, which is non-existent) is so people can make more money. That’s his single measure of worth.

    @Kay: In undeserved fairness to Preznit Carrotface, this is how at least 95% of the parents I know feel about education and especially college. My wife (HS teacher) and brother (tenured professor, U of I) give even higher numbers. If you took moneymaking out of the equation, you’d close most of the colleges in this nation.

  225. 225.

    Larkspur

    February 15, 2017 at 10:42 am

    @debbie: Jeez. I suddenly had a mental image of Nixon with Twitter capabilities.

  226. 226.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    February 15, 2017 at 11:03 am

    @Larkspur: Twitter Nixon.

    People who knew/study Nixon, like John Dean and Elizabeth Drew, say this guy nails Nixon’s voice.

  227. 227.

    EBT

    February 15, 2017 at 11:03 am

    @bystander: Mika probably just doesn’t want to end up dead in Joe’s office.

  228. 228.

    Ohio Mom

    February 15, 2017 at 11:17 am

    @The Moar You Know: Yes, because that’s the era we live in. It is in good part the knowledge that it is harder than ever to pass down middle-class privilege — many parents are always in a slow panic about that, even if they can’t even articulate it.

    I live in a suburb where I am surrounded by moms who take all those standardized tests as seriously as you would cancer biopsy results. They have no critique of the system at all. Makes me lonely.

    But teachers should always remember that their true calling is furthering democracy through the development of the citizenry.

    Can you tell I’ve read way too much Dewey?

  229. 229.

    Miss Bianca

    February 15, 2017 at 11:42 am

    @Baud: Or would that be, “the lead standard”?

  230. 230.

    leeleeFL

    February 15, 2017 at 11:48 am

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Is this the Onion? C’mon, it’s gotta be the Onion.

  231. 231.

    chopper

    February 15, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    @Kay:

    he didn’t even play a decent CEO and manager on the show. he kept picking the idiots and the producers had to keep recutting the episodes to make it look like he was making smart choices.

  232. 232.

    J R in WV

    February 15, 2017 at 12:14 pm

    @Quinerly:

    I’m glad you still suck, milkshakes are great when you’re on the road!

    Bernalillo, NM looks like a great base between the big city and Santa Fe. Albuquerque is OK for a night on the road, and we’ve visited Old Town, which is nice but expensive. We spent a week in Santa Fe one spring, it was the weekend of the big Native Art show on Museum Hill, which was why we were there.

    That was the trip we visited Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelle, Toadlina Trading post, Monument Valley, stopped in Gallup on the way back to ABQ to fly home from. Keep us filled in on Bernalillo.

  233. 233.

    J R in WV

    February 15, 2017 at 12:19 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Where the hell did you find that? And so timely!!

  234. 234.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 12:27 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s just a minor detail (yes, minor, against the overall crime of the invasion itself) regarding the war’s conduct. It doesn’t deal with the actual decision to go to war and the brazen bullshitting done to sell it to the public.

  235. 235.

    liberal

    February 15, 2017 at 12:31 pm

    @Jeffro: Yeah, could be.

  236. 236.

    J R in WV

    February 15, 2017 at 12:58 pm

    @hovercraft:

    @amk:

    what scandals did Obama exactly have?

    He had the fast and the furious, gun walking scandal,
    Bailout gate, Wall Street and Detroit,
    About a hundred “Obama’s Katrina’s”,
    Arugula gate,
    Mustard gate,
    Obamacare gate, forcing people to stand before death panels,
    BP Gulf spill gate, where he failed to fix their fuckup fast enough,
    Tan suit gate,
    and of course the mother of all scandals, Benghazi….

    You left out one of the first scandals – when famed Professor Henry Louis Gates
    was arrested for unlocking his own front door, in his own home, and President Obama said That was just stupid, and wouldn’t have happened to a white man! and then, THEN, had to gall to drink imported beer with Uncle Joe Biden, Henry Louis and the Sargent arresting officer at the White House.

    Plus, tall Black guy with bootylicious wife living in the White House !!!!!! So wrong!

    Words fail me.

  237. 237.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 3:46 pm

    @leeleeFL: actually, I wrote it. it’s pretty good, only I screwed the spelling. anyways, it’s based on something you may have seen as a kid: this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart#KAOS

  238. 238.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 3:49 pm

    @J R in WV: There is a documentary on the making of Dr. Strangelove. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfJTld0baG4

  239. 239.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    February 15, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    @liberal: nah, he voted for johnson. the polls actually hurt clinton. a number of people would have reluctantly voted for her to stop trump, but with pollsters like Sam Wang saying her victory was 99-100 percent certain, enough people they could cast a protest vote in comfort.

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