Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This blog will pay for itself.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

I really should read my own blog.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

No one could have predicted…

Let there be snark.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Profiles

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What’s on the agenda as we prepare for another week?

Not quite up to the standards of the last First Lady, but then…

And speaking of fierce woman warriors…

Reader Interactions

212Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I am sick to death of the “bankrupt Social Security” lie. It’s a tweak here and a tweak there away from fiscal health but Dog forbid one of those tweaks be a hike in taxes, no matter how small the hike might be.

  2. 2.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: Back when I was in grad school, they had a commission on Social Security and Medicare and they raised taxes and delayed eligibility for full benefits and fucking guaranteed us that it would fix all the problems and be ready for us boomers when we retired.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: And this was when, the 80s? When Reagan was still halfway** in the White House? And now you are shocked, shocked you tell me, that it wasn’t sufficient? Drum has run the #s, repeatedly, it is easily doable if we kill all the Republicans first.

    **hard to say exactly when he began leaving

  6. 6.

    Lapassionara

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: yes, and since my spouse was self-employed, we wrote a check to the IRS every quarter that was a stretch for us then. A certain percentage right off the top, no deductions. The percentage increase was noticed. I think raising the cap makes sense, not lifting it entirely, just raising it. Sheesh!

  7. 7.

    p.a.

    @OzarkHillbilly: Drum and everyone who’s not a liar have run the numbers and the fix is easy for SS. Medicare has more issues, but it has been helped greatly by PPACA, so of course that’s in the crosshairs. If/when the Rethug ‘plan’ is announced, look to see what honest accounting estimates its effect will be on Medicare.

  8. 8.

    magurakurin

    over at Josh Marshal’s place they got a thread on the Madness of King Donald that is now over 1300 comments. It feels like the shit is really hitting the fan now.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: As long as compromise is the name of the game, we will always have to settle for a glass half full. It’s the way politics works and it means the job is never really done, no matter what they say.

  11. 11.

    Zinsky

    I find it fascinating how much conservative’s hate Social Security – and for very odd and abstract reasons. As everyone should know, Social Security is funded by a tax on employees of 6.2% and a comparable percentage levied on your employer. So, in essence, it is a social contract between you and your employer that says, “we both have an interest in you reaching retirement age and not being destitute”. It is more like insurance than a forced investment program. Of course, the tax is capped at around $120k annually, so it is by design, regressive, and falls hardest on those who make the least. Yet, it is the wealthy you hear complaining most loudly about it. This makes no sense. Only greed can explain that reaction. The technical name of the program is an acronym: OASDI, which stands for old age, survivor and disability insurance program. I think it is the survivor and disability portion that irks the wealthy. They wouldn’t want their hard-earned (haha) money going to help orphans, widows and disabled people. Those lazy bums need to pull themselves by their bootstraps (although some may not even have feet). Forcing people to help others is apparently the worse sin imaginable in the twisted logic of the conservative mind.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @p.a.: Yes, Medicare is a true problem, one I think that stems more from the advances of modern medicine than anything else. We are now capable of keeping a person who would have died within hours in the 60s, alive for years longer. People get sick. Old people get sicker, for longer, and far more often. Old age is not for the faint of heart.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Zinsky:

    They wouldn’t want their hard-earned (haha) money going to help orphans, widows and disabled people.

    Yes. People like….. Paul Ryan.

  20. 20.

    magurakurin

    @rikyrah: good morning, boss. Another day, another tweet storm of madness from the Shitgibbon, eh?

    what a world.

  22. 22.

    Patricia Kayden

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. If Trump doesn’t bring down the entire Republican Party, he will have failed bigly at the one job he can do well. He’s doing his very best though. I’ll give him that.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    Rules? We don’ need no es-stinkin’ rules. (*sigh*)

    The White House asserted this week that broad swaths of federal ethics regulations do not apply to people who work in the Executive Office of the President. Ethics experts say this sets the Trump White House apart from past administrations.
    [snip]
    Richard Painter, who served as the George W. Bush administration’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, said that expansive assertion breaks with the past.

    “Every White House has instructed employees that these OGE rules are binding rules for White House and other EOP staff,” he wrote in an email to NPR. “The only exception is the President and in some cases the Vice President.” Source

  26. 26.

    magurakurin

    @amk: that front page of the NY Daily News is brutal. Niagara Falls…slowly I turned…step by step…inch by inch…

  46. 46.

    ThresherK

    Patrick Stewart, a citizen? I dunno, he and mutants aren’t all that…trustworthy. Do we really need more of their kind in my country?

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Speaking of my sons, my youngest had a laugh-in one evening this week. He was walking out of his apartment and saw the front door to his building (which is directly adjacent to his apt door) standing wide open. Again. He and his fellow denizens of this building have been complaining to management for sometime about their non-locking building door to no avail. As he is looking at the door and thinking once again about this unacceptable situation (especially so in the neighborhood they live in) he hears his upstairs neighbor yell,

    “WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!”

    and then footsteps pounding down the stairs. Without thinking, my son kicked the door shut as someone hit the bottom of the stairs running at full speed, just in time for them to run full on into the now closed door, and then collapse on the floor in a semi-conscious heap. At this point the upstairs neighbor has arrived with a now superfluous baseball bat.

    The guy had tried to rob him by throwing a brick at his head which he had just managed to duck. Cops were called and the perps** were dutifully hauled away.

    **(there were actually 3, a longer more involved story which is beside the humor that is the point of this post)

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @NotMax: So not only the President, but every person working in the White House, can be as sleazy as possible with no repercussions, right? What a scam. They can’t help but reveal that this White House jaunt is all a big hustle for the lot of them.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    This is from political wire

    President Trump “is expected to sign on Monday a new executive order on his controversial travel ban at the Department of Homeland Security,” Politico reports.
    “It is unclear how significant the changes to the current order will be or whether the White House will continue a court fight over its old order.”
    This is odd: “Employees at DHS were instructed to work from home on Monday morning.”

    What are the odds that their office is going to be checked for leaks?

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    the humor that is the point of this post

    You seem to have a different definition for “humor” from the rest of the world.

    You kids, with your hippity-hop music and you’re so-called “humor.”

  58. 58.

    BellyCat

    @OzarkHillbilly: I once read that something like 80% of all medical costs in the US are in a person’s last 15 mins of life. (Wish I still had this link, sorry)

    Of course, old age is a big one but emergency responses must also be a big factor.

  59. 59.

    SFAW

    @magurakurin:

    Another day, another tweet storm of madness from the Shitgibbon, eh?

    Any nuggets from the HNIC? [Head Nutcase In Charge, not the alternative version, of course] I wonder if he’s seen the Obama “Profiles in Courage” Award thing yet. I would be amazed if it didn’t set him off.

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @BellyCat:

    like 80% of all medical costs in the US are in a person’s last 15 mins of life.

    I can see “15 months,” not 15 minutes.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: After, my son was laughing at the limp worthless bag of bones in the hallway. During, there was no time for thought or fear or anything else, it was just a bangbangbang 2 1/2 seconds. Truly worthy of the 3 Stooges.

  64. 64.

    satby

    @BellyCat: This country in general has a problem with the inevitability of death. It’s understandable that when a terminally ill or injured person is young that it’s hard to accept, but I’ve seen too many people essentially torture their loved ones by insisting on continuing extraordinary measures for days or even weeks after any semblance of independent life (not just quality of life) is gone. Terry Schiavo is an extreme example, but they exist in every hospital in this country.

  67. 67.

    debbie

    @SFAW:

    Unvelievably, Trump’s started up again, implying it was the Dems who were cozy with Putin. Isn’t Sabbath over? Where is the First Daughter?

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: Who you calling a kid? And as referred above to JPL, it was something straight out of a Stooges short.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    For the second time in three years, the Ititarod dog race will have its official start in Fairbanks, Alaska instead of Anchorage, due to insufficiently wintry conditions.

    The ceremonial start of the race was still staged in the state’s largest city on Saturday, where trucks had brought in snow overnight.

    A few hundred miles north, the Alaska Range – a mountain span that includes Denali – has little snow and open-water conditions. That prompted race officials to move the competition’s official start.

    ETA I blame Obama

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @debbie: True. But insanity can take many forms. Trump in particular likes to attack Dems with doing what he is accused of doing.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Unvelievably, Trump’s started up again, implying it was the Dems who were cozy with Putin. Isn’t Sabbath over? Where is the First Daughter?

    And it was Dems pushing the Iraq invasion, no doubt.
    I expect that, some day, perhaps not too far in the future, we’ll read about how the North were the REAL slaveholding states, how the Jews asked to be sent to the Camps, and so forth. I think we’ve already had the “slaves LOVED it” come from his idolaters.

    @Baud:

    He really is peak Both Sides.

    Get real. As with Peak Wingnut, Peak Both Sides will never be reached. There is ALWAYS someone crazier/stupider.

  76. 76.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: Classic projection. Accuse someone else of doing what you’re doing to divert attention from what you’re doing. Trump isn’t quite smart enough to pull it off though. It’s obvious that he’s a hustler and his accusations fall flat for those who are sane.

  77. 77.

    pluky

    @magurakurin: As I recall, to get the initial legislation passed, FDR had to agree to an exclusion for agricultural and domestic workers (i.e. black and brown folk).

  78. 78.

    satby

    @Baud: the projection is so reliable we can use it as a guide. Or some enterprising journalist could.
    Hah! I crack myself up sometimes.

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Who you calling a kid?

    I never said that. It was the Dems who said it.

    @Baud:

    Trump in particular likes to attack Dems with doing what he is accused of doing.

    Well, of course. Projection is everything with the Rethugs.

    ETA: Or, as you just put it, “I know you are but what am I” is his go-to response type. (Yes, I know your comment was taking a slightly different tack.)

  83. 83.

    satby

    On another topic: anyone see Watergirl in comments? I emailed her, but haven’t gotten a reply; she could just be buried in work. And I just don’t stay up late enough for the really hopping late threads.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @satby: I figured she was taking a break. I had heard second hand she was busy with work, but that was a while ago.

  86. 86.

    satby

    @pluky: not everyone, but if there’s any unresolved family drama, it’s going to happen in the ICU with at least one family member insisting on dragging out death for as long as possible.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: Hmmmmm….. Coulda swore I pulled that quote from you and not somebody named ‘Dems’. Computers, I’ll never figure them out.

  88. 88.

    TriassicSands

    @p.a.:

    PPACA…so of course that’s in the crosshairs.

    More like the rear view mirror. It seems that the Republicans first priority is to kill the PPACA no matter what it takes or what it costs. It worked and that makes it republican enemy #1. A government program that works is always anathema to the GOP. If they were a responsible political party that cared about the welfare of the American people, they would sit down with the Democrats and fix what needs to be fixed. But they aren’t responsible and don’t care about the welfare of the people. What they do care about is another successful government program proving, yet again, that the government is not the problem and can be the solution if applied thoughtfully — something else that is beyond the GOP.

    In the end, they may try to do what Trump said they wouldn’t do — let the PPACA die. But it won’t be suicide, it will be murder because the Republicans will undermine it until all the insurance companies abandon it and then the Republicans will say, “See, we told you.”

    Hate. Loathe. Despise. Abhor. Execrate. I could go on, but I’m afraid we need to invent some new words. The old ones aren’t really adequate to describe my feelings toward the Republican Party.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Coulda swore I pulled that quote from you and not somebody named ‘Dems’.

    Did I say Dems? I meant “Obama.”

    Computers, I’ll never figure them out.

    Maybe Poco can help you, if you get one of them “keyboards with paws” that I think Quinerly was wishing for in another thread.

  90. 90.

    Craig McMahon

    Morning all!

    An update: last time I was here, I was interviewing with temp agencies. I got placed in a nice temp gig at Northeastern in Boston, helping coordinate international travel for the students/faculty on various study abroad programs this spring/summer. My first day was Friday and I’m beyond relieved. In the 12 years between my first job and now, I’ve been unemployed for one 10-month stretch during my senior year of college and the past not-quite-four-months.

    Re: Trump’s paranoid projection party, I hope all of the pundits who said “Trump became president with this Magnificent Speech” are ashamed of themselves. I hope they still have the capacity for shame–but that must be my starry-eyed millennial optimism poking through.

    Unrelated observation: does anyone else still live in a home/apartment heated by those giant iron radiators? New England is enjoying the last few kicks of a strangled winter, and I’m reliving a childhood habit of sitting on the floor and reading, my back propped up against the radiator, enjoying the warmth. Growing up, we usually only heated the house to 55-58, which is a habit I’ve retained.

  92. 92.

    TriassicSands

    @SFAW:

    Well, of course. Projection is everything with the Rethugs.

    Don’t you think Trump is even worse than the average Republican?

  94. 94.

    Another Scott

    @BellyCat: An old paper from 2005 has lots of interesting information (like how hard it is to get good data) – The High Cost of Dying – What do the data show?:

    Finally, and most important, the data available at present—and they are admittedly meager—do not support the frequently voiced or at least implied assumption that the high medical expenses at the end of life are due largely to aggressive, intensive treatment of patients who are moribund. For one thing, the data show that the number of decedents with very high medical expenses which suggest the use of expensive, high-technology interventions is quite small. For another, we do not know how many of the patients who died were clearly terminal patients. As cited above, of the 49,000 Medicare beneficiaries with Medicare reimbursements of $20,000 or more in 1978, slightly less than one-half (24,000) died; the rest survived. Given the uncertainty of medical prognosis, it is not at all clear that resources were “wasted” in treating those who died. What the data suggest, although they do not prove it, is that today, as in previous periods, most sick people who die are given the kind of medical care generally given the sick—and such care is expensive, especially for patients who are sicker than the average. Thus, the data from the studies conducted to date do not provide a basis for a policy of singling out one group of patients for cost-containment strategies.

    The available data seems perfect for cherry picking, but as with most complicated human systems, it’s dangerous to make sweeping conclusions.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  96. 96.

    stinger

    @Craig McMahon: Congrats on the job! But, yikes, 55 all day long and all night long would kill me. I couldn’t turn the pages of a book for the mittens!

  97. 97.

    Kay

    So I had an organizing event at my house yesterday. Turns out there are already county “indivisible” groups in my county and surrounding counties. Three women started the group here and they came yesterday. I had never met them before but the one I would term “the leader” (she spoke the most) was a Bernie supporter and this is her first political action. They told us about going to Portman’s office in Toledo. Portman wasn’t there so an aide let them in and listened to them for quite a while and took notes.

    I love that sort of thing- introducing one group to another- so I was thrilled there was something interesting going on to talk about and new people.

    There was some concern expressed by what I would term The Democrats in the group about “fragmentation” – if I’m reading what they said right and I think I am. The members of the county Democratic Party asked the Indivisible people if they were “registered Democrats” which is always a kind of sorting question or might be a little bitterness left over from the primary. Anyway, I’m going to one of the Indivisible meetings on March 14th and they will send one of their people to the county Democrat meeting.

  98. 98.

    TriassicSands

    @Craig McMahon:

    Congratulations on the temp job. Maybe it will turn into something permanent.

    If not, fear not, there will be thousands, maybe millions of high paying jobs opening up on the coal mines in the very near future. And don’t worry, coal mining is both safe and clean now. Trump’s EPA will determine that coal dust is actually good for your health. So are cave-ins and explosions.

    I hope they still have the capacity for shame…

    Sorry, you starry-eyed millennial dreamer, but that would be a big fat “NO!”

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: A keyboard with paws? I have enuf trouble with the one I got now. What do I want with one that runs away from me?

  100. 100.

    D58826

    Not quite up to the standards of the last First Lady, but then

    Hmm find myself in the odd position of defending a Trump. Given that Melania probably never wanted to be First lady and Michelle didn’t start out as MICHELLE, lets give Melania a bit of time to settle in. But she does have to move to the WH,

  102. 102.

    Another Scott

    @Craig McMahon: Glad things are looking up, job wise. Here’s hoping it continues.

    When I first moved to NoVA, I rented a basement condo with big, poorly sealed sliding windows and a heat pump. It never felt warm, and the drafty noise of the 75-degree “hot” air coming out of the vents only made it seem colder. And my electric bill was huge. So, I ended up turning off the heat in the winter. It usually didn’t get below 60 or so. I hated it, but not spending the money was a bit of a necessity. And it taught me that I really, really didn’t want to have a house with a heat pump!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    TS

    @debbie: He just wants to campaign forever, wants the days back when he was doing the attacking rather than getting attacked. The last two days have definitely gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Still a case of insanity or impeachment or both.

  104. 104.

    D58826

    @OzarkHillbilly: Just one example. When medicare was passed cataract surgery was expensive and required an extended hospital stay. Not many folks went in for it. Today it is an outpatient procedure.

  105. 105.

    Craig McMahon

    @stinger: Thanks! Also I should disclose that while my thermostat is currently set to 58, the actual temperature of my living room (which has the most radiators) is a balmy 64.

  106. 106.

    Barbara

    @Craig McMahon: I have radiators and I love them compared to the forced air I had growing up — but I used to sit right next to the warm vents to keep warm. Congrats on the job.

  108. 108.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    There was some concern expressed by what I would term The Democrats in the group about “fragmentation”

    That would be unprecedented.

  109. 109.

    satby

    @Craig McMahon: I used to love the radiators when I was a kid, the low fat ones under windows in the dining and living rooms of old houses and apartments made perfect comfy window seats for reading.
    And I keep my thermostat at 66° almost always in winter, though I turn it up when I have guests.

  111. 111.

    liberal

    @Zinsky: almost all economists think the true burden of the tax falls mostly on the employee.

    Tax burdens depend on the relevant price elasticities, not on who nominally remits the tax.

  112. 112.

    Pogonip

    @satby: My father thought it all over carefully, announced “This isn’t living, it’s just existing,” put in his DNR order, and died a couple of weeks later. Since he had already died and been revived once, I figured he had all the information he needed to make an informed decision, so I didn’t interfere.

  113. 113.

    PPCLI

    @Baud: In this case, he’s recycling one of his projection greatest hits: “No Puppet! No Puppet! You’re the Puppet! No, you’re the puppet.”

  114. 114.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Most NYC apartments had radiators, the loud, clanging kind that took some getting used to every fall when they first kicked on. Sitting on a hot radiator was the only way I could get my Ben and Jerry’s fix during the winter months.

  116. 116.

    Pogonip

    @Craig McMahon: Wow! Were your parents among the few people who followed President Carter’s advice to keep the heat on 55? Mine tried it a couple of days and then Mom decided it was too cold.

  118. 118.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @D58826: Just one example: Heart surgery.

    Another example: Cancer treatments.

    Both have advanced far beyond what was imaginable when Medicare was dreamed up. Both are relatively successful, adding years to what in earlier times would have been an abbreviated life. Neither are cheap, in any way shape or form.

  119. 119.

    debbie

    @Pogonip:

    My dad fought death to the end despite the pain of brain cancer. Thirty years later, when my mom was told she had 6 months left, she accepted it and remained calm and stoic to the end. Due to advances in those 30 years, there was little pain, but I’m sure her main motivation was remembering my father’s pain, which was substantial.

  120. 120.

    Pogonip

    @satby: I got stuck with the medical POA, but not one person insisted on keeping him alive against his will.

  121. 121.

    Hal

    11th dimensional chess:

    9h
    Jon Favreau‏ @jonfavs
    Barack Obama’s master plan:
    1) Wiretap the opposition
    2) Gather damaging info
    3) Say nothing
    4) Let him win
    5) Ride off into the sunset

  122. 122.

    PPCLI

    @D58826: I’d be more inclined to cut her slack if she hadn’t gone on talk shows claiming Obama’s birth certificate was fake. And if she hadn’t lied to slander/discredit a woman who had been sexually assaulted by her husband. And…

  123. 123.

    SFAW

    @Craig McMahon:

    I hope all of the pundits who said “Trump became president with this Magnificent Speech” are ashamed of themselves.

    Wow, in addition to the Northeastern job, you can also do standup! Although I’m guessing the comedy club scene in Boston is not what it once was.

    Also, congrats on the new job.

  125. 125.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    A keyboard with paws? I have enuf trouble with the one I got now. What do I want with one that runs away from me?

    Well, if you;’re as old as you seem to be claiming you are, it will keep you spry.

  128. 128.

    Baud

    WaMo

    Approximately 20.1 million environmentalists are registered to vote, according to Environmental Voter Project research. But in the 2014 mid-term elections, only 4.2 million of them voted, and in the 2012 presidential election barely 10 million of them voted…

    Millions of long-registered voters likely stayed home on Election Day [2016], which is particularly bad news for the environmental movement, because we tend to be poor voters.

  130. 130.

    Yarrow

    I saw this yesterday and it cheered me quite a bit.

    No one – not even President Trump’s children – will be off limits as Congress starts to investigate purported contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

    “I don’t think anyone is beyond the scope of what we need to look at,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, when asked whether the probe will look into an October appearance by Donald Trump Jr. at a French think tank with such strong ties to Russia, it nominated Vladimir Putin for a Nobel Peace Prize.

    Yes! Take down that whole corrupt and treasonous family.

  131. 131.

    satby

    @Pogonip: my father did the exact same thing in 1989 after they resuscitated him once. He had mesothelioma and was only 55, so there was a lot of medical encouragement to keep fighting, but he created his DNR and made us all promise to honor it. Still, he was in the hospital for about 8 weeks before he died, though not in ICU. Hospice wasn’t so much a ing then, though it was around.

  133. 133.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    And I keep my thermostat at 66° almost always in winter, though I turn it up when I have guests.

    Brrr! I struggled with the cold weather after years of living in the subtropics and on the equator. Silk long johns are a lifesaver!

  136. 136.

    Craig McMahon

    @Pogonip: Not to be a bummer, but no, we were just poor. On the upside, though, I now have a very nice collection of comfy sweaters.

    Starry-eyed millennial jokes aside, one of the toughest things for me to get over is the realization of just how craven the GOP really is. The first election in which I was eligible to vote was 2008 (though I volunteered for Kerry in 04) and I remember thinking that I strongly disagreed with the “conservative” sides of the argument, but I “got” their point of view. By that I mean I could see their point of view in terms of mainstream GOP positions, even though I didn’t agree.

    It wasn’t a revelation or epiphany all at once, but over the eight years of the Obama presidency, it became clear that there was no principal in GOP opposition to the Democratic agenda, just opposition for opposition’s sake. It’s horrifying to come to the understanding that the GOP members of Congress and the Senate didn’t ALSO want what’s best for everyone. They’re a “reactionary” party not only in the political sense of the word, but in the sense that they have no agency on their own. The GOP exists to respond “NO, THE OPPOSITE” to whatever the Democrats suggest.

    It’s one thing to know you have a Congress full of people trying to govern, but disagreeing on the best course of action. It’s another to realize a significant part of the government (even now, a majority!) has no interest in governing, only in grabbing whatever they can and sticking it to members of the outgroup hard, fast, and profitably.

    I was arguing with someone last week about how “both parties” were corrupt, only out for their own power, seeking control, etc etc. I insisted he was only half right- the Republicans were exactly that, but the Democrats were not. As part of my argument, I said “I want Trump people to have healthcare and good jobs, and I think the Democratic Party’s policies are going to help pretty much everyone.” The guy literally couldn’t believe it. He refused to take me at my word that I didn’t have an exactly-symmetrical hatred of Trump voters.

    I mean, what can you even do with that? When one group is saying “hey, we’re willing to listen, we’re willing to compromise to govern, we’re willing to hire some of you as voices of the opposition within the Administration, and we want to help” and the other exists to say “lol suck it libtards, u lose” how can you insist the first group is dealing dishonestly?

    I don’t know how people fight the good fight for years on end. I did this for four months and just following the news is exhausting.

  137. 137.

    satby

    @O. Felix Culpa: I wear microfleece pullovers inside in winter, so I just need to throw on a wrap to take out the dogs, which is often. More than 67 starts to feel too warm. I can go all winter in a fleece vest and ruana, but I just bought my first coat in about 5 years… microfleece. For windy days when wraps are hard to manage.

  138. 138.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: My mother had a DNR in place for many years before her heart surgery. Still it was 4 months of a slow downhill in and out of ICU decline. I finally asked her if she wanted to go home, and she said, “Sure, when I’m ready.” And I replied “What if you’re never ready?” When I went to see her the next day, she said, “I want to go home.” Her doctor was at best, indifferent.

    My old man had a long terminal descent into Alzheimer’s, His body kept ticking long after his brain stopped performing any conscious part of it.

  141. 141.

    ThresherK

    Stockholm Syndrome update: CBS Sunday Morning is running a profile puff piece of Kellyanne Conway.

    CBS, keep at it. Certainly the beatings will stop with just one more apology.

  143. 143.

    glory b

    Ouch. Joy Reed just described Trump as “cosplaying” the role of a soldier during his speech), when he avoided military service.

    She also wondered if a war would be used to distract from the Russia stuff.

    Of course, it was also mentioned that we can’t have the massive military upgrade, the infrastructure upgrade and the corproate tax cut without a fiscal blowup.

  147. 147.

    SFAW

    @randy khan:

    The Administration has demanded that Congress include an inquiry into whether Obama abused his executive powers as part of the investigation into the Russian issues in the election.

    Coming soon to an Administration near you: White House asks Congress to investigate whether the Obama Administration bred a race of giant, flesh-eating, lizard-people commandos, which are hiding in the lower levels of the No-Longer-Black House, waiting for the right moment to attack all the valiant-but-unsuspecting heroes trying to get Shitgibbon’s agenda through Congress. Amoral Prick Speaker Paul Ryan said “These are serious accusations, and I will immediately empanel a special Subcommittee to investigate. I am concerned that this breach of power is as serious as Benghaziiii!!!!”

  148. 148.

    frosty

    @Craig McMahon:

    Unrelated observation: does anyone else still live in a home/apartment heated by those giant iron radiators?

    Yeah, I’ve got one next to me in our 1923 house. This was the second heating system, since I can see the patch job on the floor where the grill used to be that heated the whole house with convection. It’s great to sit on to warm up after shoveling snow.

    The first house we bought was newer (1928) and had the same kind of radiators, but steam heat instead of hot water. They hissed and banged and the noise made you feel warmer.

  150. 150.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I was looking at it more transactional. Broadly. Allied groups which is so much a part of Democratic politics I’m very familiar with it. So at one point I set it up as “they would do THIS and the The Democrats would do THIS” as an attempt to sort of broker what looked like a tense thing building and my problem was I couldn’t come up with what The Democrats (of which I am one, remember) offered this allied group. That to me seems like a problem, not for the allied groups but for The County Democrats. I want to look at this differently. Not what they can do for us but what we have to offer them.

    Not to be too “disruptive” Baud but I think we have to change the whole way we think :)

    One of them said they came because we are “seasoned”. Okay so that means they think we have something to offer them. I know they have something to offer us- new people, a certain energy that was lacking, but what do we offer them? I was sort of taken with the Indivisible leader. She and I hit it off. She’s 37 with a teenage daughter and she manages low income apartments for 11.50 an hour. Our low income housing is privately-owned but rent is subsidized and there are (low) income requirements. The truth is any Democratic candidate wants this person as a supporter. She’s exactly who they want to reach.

  153. 153.

    Yarrow

    Out of curiosity, I watched the opening five minutes of Meet the Press. Chuck Todd went down the list of various members of Trump’s team that have connections to Russia–Sessions, Flynn, Manafort, Page, even Jared Kushner. He then went over their original stories (“no connections to Russia”) and their more recent stories (“Oh, yeah. Forgot about that connection. And that meeting. Also that other one.”).

    If Chuck Todd is setting up the story that way, it doesn’t look good for Trump.

    Edit: Rubio is the first guest. As usual he’s lame. Trying to pivot to “the president is doing what he said he was going to do and that’s why people are mad.” Uh huh.

  154. 154.

    amk

    Watching bbc and aj broadcast to the whole world the twitler’s madness. Unlike the redeeming election of the kenyan after dumbya disaster, murkkka is not going to come back after this shithead’s election.

  155. 155.

    frosty

    @OzarkHillbilly: My parents moved to a continuing care facility when Dad got diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Both he and my mom had a fairly long decline, hers with vascular dementia. She not only had a DNR notice, she had one for “Do Not Hospitalize”. At the end my siblings and I discussed her infection with the counselors and nurses, took her off antibiotics and gave her hospice care for her last week or so. It was clearly what she wanted and she had told us as much.

    Oddly, I found this a lot like dealing with our pets and the end of their lives. We had to make the decision for Mom, since she couldn’t do it herself.

  156. 156.

    MomSense

    @Yarrow:

    Good. Is it wrong that I enjoy imagining Ivanka fleeing the Kennedy Center like Glenn CLose at the end of Dangerous Liaisons?

  157. 157.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    So, broadly, if the Democratic Party is The Institution then what would genuinely helpful institutional support look like on a local level?

    “fragmentation” is the negative way to look at this – what labor organizers call “slice and dice”- it means you lose. But the flip side of that is just as valid and it’s positive- “coalition” – which is so much a part of (effective) Democratic politics it’s part of the DNA. Because we’re the institution we make the offer to them, not the other way around. When the Obama Administration invited Fight for Fifteen to the White House that’s the institution making an offer.

  158. 158.

    JMG

    My Mom died in December. She was able to make the no-heroic measures decision herself, as she was basically dying of lung failure, but was still mentally aware and capable. It took four days (about four days longer than her doctor expected) for her to pass, but hospice care given by Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. was tremendous. She had no pain thanks to morphine. There’s a point in hospice care (my those people have seen some things) were you realize the caregivers are focusing on the loved ones more than the patient, and you are grateful for their help.

  160. 160.

    D58826

    @SFAW:

    into whether Obama abused his executive powers

    These are the magic words (just like Hillary doing anything) that will launch 1000 congressional investigative ships.

    But forgetting that framing for a moment, last summer and fall the media was alive with reports of Russian meddling in the election. The FBI was conducting an investigation. Even Inspector Clouseau would know enough to look into the activities of campaign/personal associates with ties to Russia and or Putin. In this case that would include folks like Manafort and Page. If the FBI develops enough evidence they will try to get a FISA warrant which would include Trump Tower. This isn’t abuse of power. It’s how the system works and it is the FBI that is doing the asking not Obama.

  161. 161.

    Baud

    @Kay: I don’t know the situation in Ohio obviously more, but I think transactional thinking is why we are weaker than we should be.

  162. 162.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @randy khan: the Lugar-Boxer or or Powell-Albright Commission? I’m all for it. I only wish Janet Reno had hung on long enough to co-chair, or John Warner– who I believe is still with us but I think is no longer active.

  163. 163.

    Yarrow

    @MomSense: I want their access to their money stopped and them to have to live like regular people. TV camera while they move out of that fancy house they’re renting in D.C. and kids having to go to public school. They’re all tied to Russia. They all need to be investigated.

  164. 164.

    Kay

    I think it’s a function of Trump’s giant ego that he never considers that survelliance is two-way. This is, incidentally, an error made by the dumbest criminals. They never imagine that the person being watched is the person they are talking to, not them. They say “but why were they watching me?” They weren’t, you dumb shit. They were watching your friend, the notorious criminal. You’re just the dope who was blabbing to him so they rounded all of you up.

  166. 166.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: It also doesn’t seem to occur to him that other countries conduct surveillance as well. Some of the information might not even have come from US intelligence services!

  169. 169.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m going to work with them. These are people who went online, read this “Indivisible” organizing tool and then actually did it. I want those people and I don’t care if they’re “registered Democrats”. If they’re not we’re doing something wrong.

  170. 170.

    SFAW

    @D58826:

    I know, but unfortunately, Rethugs are not known for their long memories (nor their honorable intentions) when it relates to Rethug evil, and I would guess that much/most of the electorate didn’t/doesn’t follow things that closely. Also, the Shitgibbonistas would believe Shitgibbon if he told them up was down, etc., and they’re the ones that those pricks ZEGS and Turtle fear, so Shitgibbon could say Obama started the Holocaust, and there would be a Congressional investigation started within 48 hours.

    So, thanks! to Nixon and Reagan for more than 35 years of destroying public education, and helping to destroy the manufacturing base in this country. It’s led to Government for Morons and Government by Fear.

  171. 171.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:

    I don’t care if they’re “registered Democrats”. If they’re not we’re doing something wrong.

    This is a key point. If these people are doing things that Dems want and still don’t want to be Democrats, then the party definitely needs to figure out why.

  172. 172.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @frosty: I was listening to a radio show (Radio Lab?) and one of the hosts talked of a doctor he knew who told him that a lot of doctors have “No Code” tattooed on their chests.

    @D58826: How naive, everyone knows that Obama is the evil genius who can bend the entirety of the federal govt to his will.

  173. 173.

    Taylor

    @frosty:

    The first house we bought was newer (1928) and had the same kind of radiators, but steam heat instead of hot water. They hissed and banged and the noise made you feel warmer.

    A properly maintained steam system is silent.

    Banging pipes usually arise when pipes are no longer pitched right (it’s a gravity system) due to house settling.

    Or a badly piped boiler. Amazing when you get a plumber who doesn’t understand steam and won’t RTFM.

  174. 174.

    JPL

    MTP is talking about the 6th District, and Chuck said that if the dems don’t win, it bodes poorly for 2018. What he failed to mention is that it’s a 60/40 district. If Ossoff wins it bodes well for 2018, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it bodes poorly.

  176. 176.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    One of the things that is getting missed in the flood of leaks and clumsy implementation of policy is the extreme level of discord that now exists in the Executive Branch.

    My personal operating theory is that it is rooted in some factors which compose a crisis in and of themselves, which have an interrelationship in business culture:

    1. This government is currently being headed up in vital areas by people whose primary level of experience doesn’t involve managerial responsibility in government. They are used to autocratic levels of authority and a level of “rule by decree” where there are no specific standards of conduct, along with mostly pliant boards that don’t get ruffled unless money stops flowing (Tillerson, Ross, Mnuchin).

    2. Due to the nature of his holdings, Trump himself has never really been answerable to even the minimal oversight of a board. He doesn’t understand control, and has always surrounded himself with “yes” men who were eager to affirm his ideas, his brilliance and to carry his water on every task. As a result, he’s flailing and not even functioning well as a proper American autocrat, because he thinks that you tell people how you want matters handled, and then spin the result for the maximum praise or bit of shifted blame. He doesn’t recognize that the amorphous “government” isn’t his to command as CEO, but instead an entity bound by very specific rules that he cannot just decree away. Note his reported anger at McGahn for failing to justify it all away.

    I don’t think it to be fixable for him, outside of Congress digging in its heels defending him in service of repealing the “general welfare” phrase of the Constitution in order to make it easy for sleazy white scamsters to rip off the middle class. He is too ingrained with thinking that he’s entitled to do what he wants to modify his conduct or change his rhetoric in order to claim a softer side.

  178. 178.

    john fremont

    @debbie: On Book of Faces, there is a meme going on about how Democratic Reps and Senators had met with the Russians during Obama’s negotiations of the Iran deal. Therefore, Both Sides!!!!

    Yes, I’m sure they also met with the UK, France and the other UN Security Council members.

  179. 179.

    SFBayAreaGal

    @OzarkHillbilly: I can’t remember if it was 1977 or 1978 in January my platoon was sent to Fairbanks for Jack Frost training. We were expecting temperatures below zero. Instead temperatures were in the low to high 30s. It was colder in Florida that year than Fairbanks. A person that lived there for over 20 years told me it can get below -70°

    Hardly any snow on the ground. It was a little nerve wracking when we had to drive across ice bridges with our deuce-n-half. You could hear the cracking of the ice.

    The day we left temperatures finally dropped to -20°.

    Bonus for me was seeing the northern lights on the clear nights and being able to see Denali on clear days from the motor pool.

  180. 180.

    Kay

    @Yarrow:

    Party line voting is a kind of shortcut. Honest people will admit this. They don’t pretend to be parsing every issue. They know (broadly) what each Party stands for and they vote accordingly. I always like them when I canvass them because it’s so honest. “I just vote for the Democrat- usually works out!” It gets dissed but it’s really rational and efficient because that’s actually how it works. Individual Senators don’t “pass legislation”, political Parties do.

    So. Because the Democratic Party is the The Institution in this scenario The Democratic Party has failed at show people the value of alliance with their institution in broad terms- what can they be counted upon to do or not do?

  181. 181.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    @JPL: that’s really stoopid, but typical of Chuckles.

    it would be like predicting the Nov 2006 landslide based on a single sample in march of 2005.

    it would be like predicting the Nov 1992 election based on Bush’s 90 percent approval ratings in Mar 1991.

  182. 182.

    Baud

    @Yarrow:

    then the party definitely needs to figure out why.

    I find the answer to why is often related to race and privilege. I prefer not to ask the question.

  183. 183.

    ruemara

    @Kay: I’m wary of working with the indivisible locals, largely because I’m not sure if they learned much. Like, registering democratic gives you a vote in the primary and what is it with the Bernie worship?

    My tolerance for nonsense is low to nope & I may stick with minority rights groups over yet another side class progressive response. Yes, I’d like to be less cynical, but I see no reason to yet.

  184. 184.

    Another Scott

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yup.

    Look at the people in his twitter banner picture. There’s some cut-off military guy in the back with a bunch of medals on his jacket. There’s Priebus there on the left with a blank stare (like “what have I gotten myself into now”), there’s Jr right behind him, with the other son missing half his head just to the left. There are the Stepford Wives, etc., etc.

    It looks like a bad “candid” photo for some “royal family” and it’s clear that it’s intentional.

    Only Priebus had any government or political experience, and he knows he’s powerless under Donnie and the rest.

    Pence isn’t even there.

    This administration is a continuing, never ending, disaster of incompetence and none of them even care. It’s all about Donnie and his image. It has nothing to do with governing the country and making things better or even preventing things from getting worse.

    Congress and the Courts have the power to check his dangerous actions. There’s little sign thus far that Congress will use that power. So we have to fight them every single day.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  185. 185.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: There is supposed to be an air chamber at all locations where a pipe exits a wall. It is a newer innovation not used in older construction but common in all new construction.

  186. 186.

    Kay

    @ruemara:

    Okay but they don’t have to do everything, because we have a Democratic Party. There can be a division of labor. They were asking me about fundraising rules for local candidates. That’s something the local Democratic Party knows and can do for them. We have to offer them something of value. Here’s an example. They are always desperate for poll workers so one of the county Democrats suggested they become pollworkers. That’s replicating what the Democratic Party is supposed to be doing. All of us don’t have to do everything. They like “action” things-so give them that. Honestly, the last thing you want is people who don’t know what they’re doing registering voters. It’s rule-bound. It has to be exactly right. They wouldn’t be good at that.

  187. 187.

    tobie

    @Kay: Weren’t the authors of the “Indivisible” guide Democratic staffers on the Hill? Wasn’t one of the aims of the project to create an indivisible, i.e., unified, party? Yes, the party needs to expand the net dramatically, and it would be fantastic if the national party put resources into local organizations, but I do think it’s important that leftists join the party. Who else in American politics represents these interests? Who else in a two-party system has a chance to retake the house and enact reforms? Why are we so reluctant to tout the achievements of the party? I don’t get this stance at all.

  188. 188.

    ruemara

    @Kay: I want to see them take direction first. There’s a streak of “I am right and the party is too corporate to do what I want“ in a number of them. I just need to see them actually learn and ally themselves. Still early, still could happen.

  189. 189.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    What does “join the Party” mean? There are thousands of registered Democrats in this county who never lift a finger for the Party. “Activists” was always a subset of a subset. Why are these people valuable and worth working with? Because they’re rare.

  190. 190.

    Aleta

    @Craig McMahon: My house has. They are the steam kind in which the water does not circulate through their bodies, only the steam. I love them. Before this, I lived in a forced air (oil heat) through floor vents, and the air was drier.

    Last year we got a heat pump to save on heat costs, and saved a bundle of money in the shoulder season. Also the thermostat on the heat pump causes it to get the jump on the furnace ahead of its thermostat.

    But I missed the good feel radiating radiators, so this year I used them a lot again. In comparison, when the heat pump is primary, the house air is much drier again. Everyone’s sinuses do much better with the radiators.

  191. 191.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    And, Tobie, obviously this is anecdotal but the resistance I was hearing yesterday was not coming from the Indivisible people (who are brand new at this) it was coming from the county Democrats. I’m pretty sure I pissed them off by giving the Indivisible people so much floor time but Trump is a fucking catastrophe and I want to hear from people I haven’t heard before. I’m not in a position to start setting conditions. We need them. They may also need us but that’s for them to decide.

  194. 194.

    tobie

    @Kay: Joining the party means registering as a Democrat. For those with an activist bent, it means helping with the canvassing efforts for local elections, it means running for local office, it means working with groups to get the necessary number of signatures for ballot initiatives either sponsored by the party or aligned with the party’s principles. I’ve been doing door-knocking and phone-banking for Democrats for donkey’s ages and the people who are there, even for local elections, are the party faithful. It’s that group–the “party faithful”–that needs to be expanded. My hope would be that people inspired to act after the debacle of 2016 would become active in that group.

    Too many of my leftwing friends are far too comfortable ragging on the party and doing nothing. Given how easy (and smugly self-satisfying) it is to hate the party, I think someone actually needs to speak up for it. I’m reminded of Bill Weld very late in October speaking up for HRC and when asked why he said because someone needs to do it. Well, the same thing is true now for the Democratic Party. I’m not embarrassed to advocate for the party, and I actually think it’s necessary if we want to achieve anything in 2018.

  195. 195.

    D58826

    Just saw an somewhat tongue in cheek explanation of the fisa wiretap (if it exists)
    1. IC is wiretapping the Russians
    2. IC is not wiretapping Trump/campaign
    3. Trump/campaign keeps calling the Russians
    4. oooops

  196. 196.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @JMG:

    My father passed in hospice care in northern California in ’08. Yes, they were extraordinary in their compassion and dedication.

  197. 197.

    Craig McMahon

    @tobie: with you 100% on this.

    I “officially” joined the Party after it hired me, incidentally. I was one of those “registered independents” who also voted Democrat in every general. In my defense, in NH, we have semi-open primaries. If you’re an Independent, you can change your registration to D or R to vote in their respective primaries, then change back to I before you leave the polling place. If you’re a D, though, you can’t change to R at the door to vote in an R primary, and vice versa. Since most of the local offices in my hometown are Rs, voting in the R primaries gave me at least some influence on the outcome of the general.

    Now I’m a committed party hack, I suppose- and they say there’s no one more zealous than the recently-converted. My values haven’t changed, nor my priorities–but being a “registered Democrat” still feels significant.

  198. 198.

    tobie

    @Craig McMahon: Welcome to the club and good luck with the efforts in New Hampshire. I gather the NH GOP is a pretty venal group. Didn’t some NH Republican activists get convicted for wiretapping Democratic offices once? I recall something like that.

  199. 199.

    StringOnAStick

    @Craig McMahon: Excellent summary of your political evolution, Craig. I’m always collecting stories of how people come to their political home, and yours made my dad!

  201. 201.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    Right, but as a practical matter there could be a division of labor. Voting process is perfect for the Democratic Party. It’s rule bound and legalistic and amateurs fuck it all up. What are the Democratic Party’s institutional strengths and how could they lend those strengths to the activists? Rather than asking people who are willing to travel to Rob Portman’s office to also be poll workers, just say “we’re the institution, we’ll handle pollworkers, you guys go out and visit Rob Portman”.

    Record-keeping, data management, those are the strengths of large organizations. Do that well before worrying about managing activists. These people are a gift. Take the gift. Get better at being the institution they turn to for help.

  203. 203.

    Craig McMahon

    @tobie: In 2002, a couple of GOP activists got charged with jamming phonelines the NH Dems were using during GOTV efforts. Jeanne Shaheen lost her Senate race that year by ~20k votes out of ~1million cast, if memory serves. In addition to some jailtime, some GOP organ (forget if it was the NHGOP, the RNC, or some other arm) had to pay the NH Dems a six-figure settlement.

    @StringOnAStick: my apologies to your dad! Seriously, though, I was always a Democrat, even if not “officially” til recently. I’m a product of the welfare state (WIC, food stamps, housing assistance, free school meals, Pell grants, etc) and the beneficiary of unions (mom is a public schoolteacher, former union rep for her building). To be anything other than a Democrat given those circumstances would be breathtakingly hypocritical and an act of pulling the ladder up behind me after climbing to safety.

  204. 204.

    Craig McMahon

    whoops, only about 450k votes cast, not a million. I was right on the margin, though- just under 20k.

  205. 205.

    tobie

    @Kay: Regarding the gift part, I agree completely, and it’s heartening to hear stories about people who’ve sat on the sidelines for years suddenly getting involved in the democratic process. I also think it’s great that you’re hosting house parties. I know you live in a red county, so the fact that there’s this groundswell of support for Democratic/progressive efforts and policies is particularly meaningful. My only point is that the Democratic party is the institutional structure for progressive politics in this country. I see “progressive” and “Democratic” as complementary terms and think the effort to oppose them to each other spells doom for anyone who believes in the value of the social contract and government of, by and for the people.

  206. 206.

    Kay

    @tobie:

    so the fact that there’s this groundswell of support

    “Groundswell” might be too strong- these are very small groups. The coverage is pretty impressive, though. This is three very red counties and they have groups in all three.

    But here’s the thing I’m thinking about. When these people wanted to organize they did not turn to the county Party. So if I’m the institution I should think about why that is because they knew enough to read about get together on a Facebook page and come so they’re pretty interested in this! :)

  207. 207.

    Smedley the uncertain

    @Craig McMahon: Yeah, radiators here in W NY. New part of the house (ca 1850) has real radiators Old part (ca 1837) has HW baseboard. Same newer gas boiler for both. Remnants throughout reveal initially no central heat then hot air and now hot water. We love the old style radiators. Tho’ valve maintenance and bleeding is required.

  208. 208.

    J R in WV

    @frosty:

    Sounds like my family. My grandfather had a stroke which ended his self-awareness. He would chew and swallow if someone put food in his mouth, but that was it. Because he was physically strong from walking on crutches (missing whole right leg all his life) he lasted for years with no more care than being fed well.

    That made all of us pretty shy of major medical intervention past when you are capable of having fun, even if it’s just laughing at a good joke on TV, which seems good enough. DNR for sure.

  209. 209.

    catclub

    @magurakurin:

    they got a thread on the Madness of King Donald that is now over 1300 comments. It feels like the shit is really hitting the fan now.

    It sounds to me like the leftish wing is as excited about this as they were about Fitzmas. Remember that? When Dick Cheney (and Maybe George W as well) was just about to be indicted?

  210. 210.

    Debbie1

    Now, I’m not a New York taxpayer (neither are the Tr*mps, for that matter), but would they consider that 1 hour reading effort to offset the extra costs they’ve had to incur because Melanoma lives in NY, instead of D.C.?

    Asking for a friend.

  211. 211.

    Debbie1

    @OzarkHillbilly: I agree w/ you about the Soc. Security fixes, but I WOULD NOT want a Republican Congress or president making those fixes, no Sir. That goes for the ACA too. That’s like having Jack The Ripper perform your gallbladder operation. I mean, sure he was good with a knife but… Unqualified.

  212. 212.

    Debbie1

    @D58826: Michelle was always empathetic (if you’ll pardon the expression), and she did not question the place of birth of the previous U.S. president – white though he was. YOU give Melanoma a chance, if you want. F-her and her little dog.

Comments are closed.