Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

We still have time to mess this up!

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

This blog will pay for itself.

šŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockinā€™ šŸŽµ

This year has been the longest three days of putinā€™s life.

Reality always lies in wait for ā€¦ Democrats.

You donā€™t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

Wow, I canā€™t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Let there be snark.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just donā€™t know how.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Jason Kander sums it up…

Jason Kander sums it up…

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Here’s a tweet from Jason Kander, who would make a much better senator than that grinning potato sack Roy Blunt:

Matter #1 alludes to the growing bipartisan consensus that Trump is full of shit about the wiretap. Via WaPo:

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee joined the chorus of lawmakers stating they are not aware of any current evidence supporting President Trumpā€™s claim that his campaign headquarters was wiretapped during the presidential election.

Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Thursday released a joint statement with the ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), stating that they have not seen data supporting Trumpā€™s claim.

ā€œBased on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,ā€ they said.

Burr and Warner are leading the Senate investigation into Russiaā€™s suspected interference in the 2016 elections to aid Trump. They are also examining alleged ties between Trump aides and Russian officials. They were joined last week and again on Wednesday by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ā€” leading a similar investigation in the House ā€” who also stated that he has not seen evidence to support the presidentā€™s complaint that his offices were wiretapped during the campaign.

Nunes, who served on Trumpā€™s transition team, declared flatly Wednesday that there was no evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped while Trump was a candidate.

Matter #2 refers to a story in The Forward, which was referenced in the thread downstairs by valued commenters Jeffro and Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

Sebastian Gorka, President Trumpā€™s top counter-terrorism adviser, is a formal member of a Hungarian far-right group that is listed by the U.S. State Department as having been ā€œunder the direction of the Nazi Government of Germanyā€ during World War II, leaders of the organization have told the Forward.

The elite order, known as the VitƩzi Rend, was established as a loyalist group by Admiral Miklos Horthy, who ruled Hungary as a staunch nationalist from 1920 to October 1944. A self-confessed anti-Semite, Horthy imposed restrictive Jewish laws prior to World War II and collaborated with Hitler during the conflict. His cooperation with the Nazi regime included the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews into Nazi hands.

But Ivanka! I’m sure Spicer is spinning like a top at this very moment, but I’ve got more interesting things to watch, like the fungal growth on the bottom of the birdbath outside my window. Open thread?

Reader Interactions

215Comments

  4. 4.

    low-tech cyclist

    What Kander said is EXACTLY the sort of bluntness we need from Dems these days.

  7. 7.

    PST

    I’m guilty of repeating a comment, but it belongs in this thread. Youā€™ve got to give Gorka some credit for not trying to hide his fascism. I think the bocskai he chose to wear to the inauguration with his medals proudly on display make him look like Neoreactionary Cat. He certainly has the right politics. ā€œThe opposite of quality is equality.ā€

  8. 8.

    Roger Moore

    @Corner Stone:

    These wordsā€¦what do they mean again?

    They mean the order was intended to bring the country’s elite closer to their leader. ETA: It’s kind of like describing the Order of the Garter as an elite order.

  9. 9.

    raven

    These are my 2 favorite days of the year, wall-to-wall hoop. Trump hasn’t taken that away yet but i don’t know why Princeton shot a 3 when a 2 would have won the game!

  14. 14.

    Mike in DC

    The word for the day is “adjacent”. As in, “fascist-adjacent”, “racist-adjacent” and “treason-adjacent”.

  15. 15.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    In my one line role playing game this group of German players came to me upset their characters got called Nazis by the other players and that was culturally insensitive to them and all that. My reply was “perhaps next time you (their characters) shouldn’t be bundling sticks and axes together?” Same goes for dumbass Donny. Likely the stupid twat doesn’t get that a lot of European countries had fascists and thinks a facists is some kind of ranting lunatic like in Inglorious Bastards.

  16. 16.

    germy

    YPSILANTI, Mich. ā€” Authorities say they’ve identified a 16-year-old boy as a suspect in a fire that destroyed a mosque in Michigan.

    The Pittsfield Township Department of Public Safety said in a statement that authorities are not investigating the fire as a hate crime. The statement says the decision followed a “thorough review of evidence and investigative information.”

    Saturday’s fire destroyed the Islamic Center of Ypsilanti in the Washtenaw County community of Pittsfield Township. An investigation involving police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the FBI identified the teen as a suspect in that fire and another fire Feb. 27 at a vacant house.

    Police say the teen and his parents cooperated with investigators. The Ann Arbor News reports he has been released from custody, pending charges.

  17. 17.

    germy

    WASHINGTON ā€” Documents released in a congressional inquiry show former national security adviser Michael Flynn was paid more than $33,750 by RT, Russia’s government-run television system, for appearing at a Moscow event in December 2015. Flynn had retired months earlier as head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

    Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wants the Defense Department to recover the payments, saying they violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits retired military officers from accepting gifts from foreign governments.

    Russia’s RT network was identified last year by U.S. intelligence as a propaganda arm of the Russian government.

    Flynn was also paid $11,250 each by two other Russian firms, including a major cybersecurity company.

    A Flynn spokesman said Thursday that Flynn informed the government before he went to Moscow and on his return.

    Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try.

  18. 18.

    Humboldtblue

    First it was our local police chief who issued a statement that they would in no way cooperate with Federal immigration actions. Then it was the undersheriff and earlier this week the Sheriff who issued similar statements. They are nice and all, but it doesn’t mean they won’t cooperate when it comes to drugs (evil weed) and the Sheriff’s office tried to paper over ICE agents on a local drug bust with the excuse they needed interpreters. But, we do have a sizeable immigrant population (bulb farm, goat farm and dairy farm grunt labor and all) and they at least recognize that allowing immigrant communities to think ICE will show up to a 9-1-1 call is something they truly want to avoid.

    Now Trump has caught the eye of our state Supreme Court justice and she aint happy neither.

    And Mike Flynn has been on the Russian payroll for quite a while.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    You Lie-berals just don’t get it. Why, as we “speak,” You-Know-Who has sent his cracked team of investigators, led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, to Hawaii and Chicago and various other places, where they will unearth the TRUE facts about Obummer’s birth certificate wire tapping or “wiretapping” EO, wherein he targeted President Bannon’s executive assistant.

    This will be proved any day now, BELIEVE ME!

  22. 22.

    Major Major Major Major

    @germy:

    Documents released in a congressional inquiry show former national security adviser Michael Flynn was paid more than $33,750 by RT, Russiaā€™s government-run television system, for appearing at a Moscow event in December 2015.

    Was this the one with Putin and Jill Stein?

  24. 24.

    danielx

    ā€œBased on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,ā€ they said.

    Translation: we are not interested in following you as you jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft. Without a parachute.

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wants the Defense Department to recover the payments, saying they violate the Constitutionā€™s emoluments clause, which prohibits retired military officers from accepting gifts from foreign governments.

    I sometimes consider moving to MD, just so I could vote for the excellent Rep. Cummings.

    [Well, not really, because the lacrosse down there is pretty pitiful, but otherwise I might.]

  26. 26.

    germy

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Stein had traveled to Moscow, Russia, in December 2015 to participate in a panel organized by RT, a television network funded by the Russian government. She said that both the United States and Russia spend too much on the military. Stein also attended a dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “While the objective of that dinner was not to engage in serious discussions, Putin did appear to respond in his formal remarks to the call for greater dialogue and collaboration made by myself and three other political figures on the foreign policy panel earlier that day,” Stein said.

    https://ballotpedia.org/Jill_Stein_presidential_campaign,_2016/Russia

  27. 27.

    Yarrow

    @raven: I love the first days of March Madness where all the smaller and lesser known schools get to play. Best part of the whole thing unless a Cinderella team gets really far.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    If Trump’s top anti-terrorist adviser was a Nazi, obviously Jews are the new terrorists.

  29. 29.

    The Moar You Know

    Bannon and Gorka. Truth be told, I’m somewhat surprised that the actual count of overt Nazis in this administration is that low.

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    @The Moar You Know:

    Truth be told, Iā€™m somewhat surprised that the actual count of overt Nazis in this administration is that low.

    Only that we know of right now.

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    @TenguPhule:

    Money, dear boy.

    Do we know that he’s actually getting paid? It seems to me that Shitgibbon’s modus operandi is to stiff the help.

  37. 37.

    different-church-lady

    @germy: Hey, c’mon, it’s not like the kid did something horrible, like
    possessing Skittles or iced tea or something…

  38. 38.

    TenguPhule

    @SFAW: The government cuts the checks, not Trump.

    Otherwise the Whitehouse would be a ghost house by now.

  39. 39.

    ruemara

    It’s a bit of a marvel how America has allowed itself to be the toadying servant state of Russian fascists and Nazis. I can’t phrase it any kinder than that. Enough Americans decided to turn a blind eye to a categorically unfit personality surrounding a core of bombastic ignorance, stupidity and malicious, petty, criminality. You didn’t even need the Russian shit to come to that conclusion. But misogyny, racism and bile was enough to be conned. Amazing.

    @Yarrow: UC DAVIS! Go Aggies! This concludes my attempt at sporting the sports for the week.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @GovWalker tells @AP he will oppose @realDonaldTrump budget proposal ending funding for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

    I saw their giant research vessel on Lake Michigan a couple of summers ago. They had a sign on the beach that they were there and that it was the Restoration Initiative. I was thrilled by this even though I don’t know what they were doing out there :)

  42. 42.

    TenguPhule

    @ruemara:

    Itā€™s a bit of a marvel how America has allowed itself to be the toadying servant state of Russian fascists and Nazis. I canā€™t phrase it any kinder than that. Enough Americans decided to turn a blind eye to a categorically unfit personality surrounding a core of bombastic ignorance, stupidity and malicious, petty, criminality.

    The problem is our founders didn’t think we’d get to this point of Imperial Facism short of Civil War, so never planned for this eventuality. Now that we’re here, nothing less then Civil War is gonna fix it.

  45. 45.

    Yarrow

    @SFAW: Somebody somewhere eventually gets paid. As for Spicer, I wonder what Bannon has on him. He looks so uncomfortable in that role. It can’t be fun. The money wouldn’t be that great. And he’s being turned into a laughingstock on SNL. The only thing I can think is that quitting would be even worse for him.

  46. 46.

    Mike J

    @raven:

    These are my 2 favorite days of the year, wall-to-wall hoop. Trump hasnā€™t taken that away yet but i donā€™t know why Princeton shot a 3 when a 2 would have won the game!

    The gov of NC has neither UNC nor Duke even making it to the finals, let alone winning.

    May not be smart, but he’s honest.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    @ruemara:

    Itā€™s a bit of a marvel how America has allowed itself to be the toadying servant state of Russian fascists and Nazis. I canā€™t phrase it any kinder than that. Enough Americans decided to turn a blind eye to a categorically unfit personality surrounding a core of bombastic ignorance, stupidity and malicious, petty, criminality. You didnā€™t even need the Russian shit to come to that conclusion. But misogyny, racism and bile was enough to be conned. Amazing.

    QFT. 50 days in, it still seems surreal.

  49. 49.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    I was thrilled by this even though I donā€™t know what they were doing out there

    Cleaning it up of all the muck being brought in by all of the cargo ships going through there.

    If they lose their funding, All Republicans should be forced to drink that untreated water till they die.

  50. 50.

    The Moar You Know

    I just cannot grasp why Spicer would want that job.

    @Gelfling 545: He’s set for life with this on his resume. If I needed a serious PR guy who will say whatever I want without question, he’d honestly be on my short list. Or a guy who can handle stress. Or a guy who can handle working for a literal psychopath. There are a lot of high-paying jobs for a person who can pull that off. No shortage of demand. Dude can walk out to the podium and deliver utterly nonfactual horseshit without blinking. And then defend it. He’d have been a great lawyer. I frankly think he’s done a great job under circumstances that would have had me – or most anybody – running for the nearest exit within seconds.

  53. 53.

    TenguPhule

    @Yarrow:

    The only thing I can think is that quitting would be even worse for him.

    The retirement plan involves a cup of tea, I’m told.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @TenguPhule:

    The government cuts the checks, not Trump.

    Yeah, I know. But it was an interesting “thought” exercise.

    Well, actually, it wasn’t that interesting, and it didn’t take much thought. But outside of THAT …

  62. 62.

    Major Major Major Major

    @TenguPhule:

    The problem is our founders didnā€™t think weā€™d get to this point of Imperial Facism short of Civil War, so never planned for this eventuality. Now that weā€™re here, nothing less then Civil War is gonna fix it.

    Being your usual pleasant self, I see.

  64. 64.

    jl

    But, hey, wait! up a minute! No fungus at the bottom of her birdbath pic from Cracker? Sad. I always look forward to her nature pics.
    Would be more appealing than news from the egregious Trump regime.

  68. 68.

    raven

    @japa21: The calcutta is such a different approach. It’s easy to be out of it after the first day but when you hit, boom!

  70. 70.

    germy

    WTF?

    This week we learned that between 2008 and 2015, our new secretary of State, a man who already bears the macho moniker Rex Tillerson, had, while working as chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, used the name ā€œWayne Trackerā€ to send emails related to climate change. This discovery was made as part of New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermanā€™s ongoing investigation into whether or not Exxon had misled investors and the public on the issue of climate change.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    I’m praying for Easter to be the weekend when we all get to rise from the dead. Seriously.

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Standing by for Adam to inform us all about Gorka. He’s had dealings with the guy, peripheral, but dealings none the less.

  75. 75.

    raven

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Calcutta auction is an open auction held in conjunction with a golf tournament,[1] horse race or similar contest with multiple entrants. It is popular in backgammon, the Melbourne Cup, and college basketball pools during March Madness[2] (originally in Calcutta, India, from where this technique was first recorded by the Colonial British) bid among themselves to “buy” each of the contestants, with each contestant being assigned to the highest bidder. The contestant will then pay out to the owner a predetermined proportion of the pool depending on how it performs in the tournament. While variations in payoff schedules exist, in an NCAA Basketball tournament (64 teams, single elimination) the payoffs could be: 1 win – 0.25%, 2 wins – 2%, 3 wins – 4%, 4 wins – 8%, 5 wins – 16%, tournament winner with 6 wins – 32%.

    Ours pay 5% for the team that gets beat by the most points and the biggest upset. That provides a rationale for buying the lesser teams. The bidding for the big boys is way out of my league so I generally look for bargains. I got Michigan State for only $35 and they could advance a good bit. There is about $6k in the pool this year.

  82. 82.

    raven

    @schrodingers_cat: Most folks don’t, it’s pretty obscure stuff. A couple of years ago some dopes in Atlanta did one in a bar out in the open and got busted with thousands of dollars on the table. You gotta be cool.

  83. 83.

    Patricia Kayden

    Something fun in this awful age of Trump: Some nice President Obama memories from Elle magazine.

    His emotional speech for Ellen Degeneres is one of my favorite memories.

  84. 84.

    Mike J

    Tommy Christopher ā€Verified account @tommyxtopher
    Wow. Mulvaney says they’re cutting programs like Meals on Wheels because they “don’t show results,” “they just don’t work.”

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    @Major Major Major Major: And when the other side refuses to accept the results?

    Which, may I remind you, Trump has already telegraphed ahead of time that he will not accept any result he doesn’t agree with. And a non-trivial amount of Republicans agree with him.

  88. 88.

    HeleninEire

    It’s 7:48 pm on Thursday and St. Patrick’s Day has started here in Dublin. The pubs are packed cuz no one has to go back to work until Monday. The SP day celebrations will last until Monday. In addition, the fecking English are gonna be here on Saturday to challenge the Irish in Aviva Stadium in the 6 Nations league championship. That means that the pubs will be filled with both drunk Irishmen and drunk Englishmen on Saturday.

    Good God I love it here.

  91. 91.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: Fuck your lax attitude. Rep. Cummings IS my Congressman, & FYI the living down here is just fine. Eat your heart out, asshole.

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    @LAO: Can you imagine saying out loud that feeding kids should be based on school grades or test scores?
    The banality of evil just got frog stomped by simple evil.

  98. 98.

    TenguPhule

    @HeleninEire:

    That means that the pubs will be filled with both drunk Irishmen and drunk Englishmen on Saturday.

    So another weekend of rooting for injuries from the Scotts then?

  100. 100.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    Can you imagine saying out loud that feeding kids should be based on school grades or test scores?

    Trump will twitter it in 30 days or less. Bu-lieve it!

  102. 102.

    HeleninEire

    @Baud: I do not want that shit to start again. Sein Fein needs to STFU about that. The majority in both Ireland’s are content. I did not move here to live thru a fucking civil war. That is why my mother moved from Belfast to NY 60 yrs ago; to escape the civil war.

  104. 104.

    LAO

    @TenguPhule: He doesn’t need to twitter it — his OMB director said it. Out loud. During a press conference. Where people could hear him and record him.

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    @LAO: *sigh*

    *Tears up “Worst Case Scenario” and starts over*

    Once again, back to the drawing board.

  107. 107.

    trollhattan

    @germy: Yeah, Wall Street being in New York makes the NYAG a powerful force, especially when the feds are off playing cribbage. If Schneiderman can hang this on Tillerson’s ass it will enrage investors bigly.

  108. 108.

    TenguPhule

    @HeleninEire:

    I did not move here to live thru a fucking civil war. That is why my mother moved from Belfast to NY 60 yrs ago; to escape the civil war.

    I’ve got bad news for both of you……

  109. 109.

    The Moar You Know

    50,000,001 democratic voters.

    @Major Major Major Major: Didn’t work. We had 2,999,999 more than that margin and still lost.

    I don’t think this comes to a shooting civil war, although it could. The end result of that would not favor those of the liberal persuasion, quite the opposite. I DO think we could see absolute GOP control of government – local, state and federal – for the next 40 years minimum. We’ve been eating our seed corn and it’s finally caught up to us.

  110. 110.

    HeleninEire

    @Baud: Yeah. It will affect the economy negatively here by about .20 points than originally forcasted. Luckily we are thriving now. Unemployment is at 6% which is very low for here and 2% lower than last year.

  114. 114.

    themann1086

    @raven: Maybe. It was a good look though, and Princeton is a great 3PT shooting team. Hoping Bucknell can close the gap here against WVU (sorry John!)

  115. 115.

    Raoul

    How Trump got elected, in one tweet:

    @DanaHoule
    Reporters/pundits in my feed: Mulvaney good at this. Everyone else =
    RT @linnetCT: Mick Mulvaney has no conscience. Mick Mulvaney has no soul.
    2:40 PM – 16 Mar 2017

  116. 116.

    Miss Bianca

    @HeleninEire: JEALOUS. This is the first St. Paddy’s Day in ages that I haven’t had a gig, so my partying will probably be kept to a minimum this year.. Wish I were in Dlblin right now!

  117. 117.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Anecdote: I was just in Oklahoma City visiting a friend whose employer moved her there, so we’re talking deep red state. We went into a high end furniture store and got to talking with a sales lady who said last year was her worst year ever and they were incredibly slow now. She said she blamed it on the election because it made people scared and uncertain.

    Of course, OK depends on oil money which is shorter right now with prices down, so she may be wrong. But it was interesting that she thought that and was willing to say it out loud with no prompting from us.

    PS. I missed you ravening jackals.

  120. 120.

    Elmo

    @HeleninEire: My grandparents fled in 1916, separately (they met here). Grandfather from County Tyrone; Grandmother from County Mayo. Both Catholic, of course.

    I’ve read that County Mayo was one of the hardest-hit areas of the Great Famine, and it’s always struck me that my grandmother’s people survived that horror and stayed, and it took the unrest and repression of the Easter Rising to make her leave. The Civil War followed, of course.

    I’ve often considered getting Irish citizenship, just in case. More strongly recently, but you raise a cautionary note that I honestly hadn’t given much thought. Ugh. WASF.

  121. 121.

    Mike in DC

    @The Moar You Know:

    I don’t. Mainly because they are so terrible at actual governance. You can’t maintain a majority when you keep disappointing and depressing your base, firing up the opposition and regularly crashing the economy.

  122. 122.

    Jeffro

    Today should be good from both a 2018 soundbite perspective and also for those willing to do a little math. As in, how many school lunches a single Mar-a-Lago weekend costs. Or perhaps how many Meals On Wheels could be purchased if Melania would just move to the White House.

    Proposed Trumpov defense spending increase: $54B

    Meals on Wheels (actually, the entire Community Development Block Grant program, which pays for MOW in addition to other services): $3B

  126. 126.

    ? Martin

    California’s Chief Justice has banned ICE from state courthouses. ICE may not use the courthouses as bait to catch immigrants.

    The chief justice is one of the more conservative members of the CA supreme court.

  127. 127.

    HeleninEire

    @Elmo: If you want citizenship do it now. You can only do it if your parents did it. There is a way to do it through your grandparents, but it is more difficult.

    Ireland says that you can never renounce your Irish citizenship. So even though my mom went to America at 21 and became an American citizen, as far as Ireland is concerned, she died Irish. And as her daughter I am Irish too.

    Also, even though she was born in Belfast and technically a UK citizen, Ireland says FU to that. I had a choice: The Republic of Ireland or UK citizenship.

  130. 130.

    Aleta

    Is Gorka the one who wore his medals (Hungarian rightwing WW2 era I think, so must be him) for public event photos not long after the inauguration? They tried to wave it away at the time as though he had an offbeat collector’s interest in those obsolete medals. It seemed like another ugly signaling to WPTrumpbackers but at the time, there was no mention of active membership. Why can’t these guys be dumped? US WW2 vets must be outraged, and as a group they wouldn’t let this stand if their number were greater. It’s an outrageous insult to their memory. How can we get these nzi scum out now?

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Fuck your lax attitude.

    Taking lessons from Shitgibbon, are we? Or just mad because MD lax’s rallying cry is “We’re Number 3! We’re Number 3!” (Behind LI and Upstate NY, of course.)

    In any event, I didn’t say there was anything wrong with MD.

    ETA: But thanks for letting me troll you.

  133. 133.

    raven

    @HeleninEire: Colm Toibin, author of “Brooklyn” was supposed to be at a screening of the film last night but the weather kept him away. He got here for another event today but, alas.

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TenguPhule:
    The founders just came out of a revolution, dealt with multiple small rebellions, and early American politics made this look tame. They would not blink an eye at this, although they would be incredibly sarcastic. It was the style.

    And yes, there will continue to be elections and Trump will accept them, even if he personally has to be thrown out the White House door by the secret service. When the courts have smacked him down so far, the courts have won. Our ongoing worry is voter suppression, which is a different thing.

  137. 137.

    TenguPhule

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    And yes, there will continue to be elections and Trump will accept them, even if he personally has to be thrown out the White House door by the secret service. When the courts have smacked him down so far, the courts have won.

    His supporters are already calling for an Andrew Jackson moment.

    And he still has his own personal security people with him, not just the SS. Is he truly stupid enough to try and have a showdown between mercenaries and the SS? I think he is.

  138. 138.

    Kathleen

    @Yarrow: I don’t even follow college hoops but am curious about how the No Ky University Norse will fare against UK Cats.

  140. 140.

    Yarrow

    @? Martin: That’s awesome news.

    @TenguPhule:

    Is he truly stupid enough to try and have a showdown between mercenaries and the SS? I think he is.

    I think he is too. I don’t think it’ll go well for him, though. If there’s one thing that will make Congress finally do their fucking job it could be something like that.

  142. 142.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TenguPhule:
    His supporters can call for anything they like. We’ve already seen Trump either doesn’t have the balls or doesn’t have the support within the government bureaucracy.

    If he is stupid enough to ask his guards to fight the Secret Service, his guards will either refuse or die. Most likely the former.

    The question of whether Trump will defy the system and be a dictator has already been asked and answered. He will not. He will whine, instead.

  143. 143.

    Yarrow

    @Kathleen: That’s the great thing about March Madness. You don’t have to be a big fan to enjoy it. Lots of schools and there’s always an underdog to support. I love the fans of the schools that rarely make the tournament. They’re so excited to be there.

  144. 144.

    HeleninEire

    @raven: That movie made me cry. She was my mom. He was my dad (except my dad was Polish, but still, the same).

    LOVED that movie.

  146. 146.

    TenguPhule

    @Yarrow:

    If thereā€™s one thing that will make Congress finally do their fucking job it could be something like that.

    Nothing will make Republicans in Congress do their job. Nothing.

  148. 148.

    TenguPhule

    @Yarrow: They would rather commit further crimes to avoid going to prison then do their jobs. Even if it takes them 10x more effort to do so then simply doing their jobs.

  149. 149.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TenguPhule:
    Thankfully, we don’t need them to do their job. We only need them to twiddle their thumbs. They’ve shown they’re fantastic at that.

  150. 150.

    Kathleen

    @LAO: My brother in Dallas posted this righteous rant on Facebook:

    The science bears out that the climate has been doing absolutely nothing to Make America Great Again. Until the climate can start pulling itself up by its own bootstraps, we shouldn’t just keep feeding it entitlements so it can sit around producing weather left and right at such a high cost to the American taxpayer.
    I saw a story about the climate in Detroit that had 11 weather fronts and was working on a 12th just so it could get a check every month. Unless we do something to break the cycle, it’s just going to keep pumping out weather, and much of that weather is just going to end up piling up the streets with “snow.” This is an epidemic, and we’ve got to put our foot down and stop it!

  153. 153.

    TenguPhule

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Weā€™ve already seen Trump either doesnā€™t have the balls or doesnā€™t have the support within the government bureaucracy.

    Not true. Customs and Border are already corrupted and that he hasn’t gone all in yet doesn’t mean he still can’t do so. He’s been pushing the boundaries every day and getting away with it. I fear its only a matter of time until he starts pushing harder and there’s nothing to stop him with any actual teeth.

    Courts rely on the executive branch for enforcement, remember. The whole social contract relies on basic civility and decency. When you have neither in charge, it all begins to fall apart.

  154. 154.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kathleen:

    Very witty!

    Fat jerk Christie (and yes, I’m fat-shaming him, he’s the one person on the planet it’s just fine to do that to) was dumping on the National Weather Service the other day. Lock him up!

  156. 156.

    Kathleen

    @raven: My grandfather came from Enniscorthy (the setting for move Brooklyn) in County Wexford in the early 20th century.

  157. 157.

    Lizzy L

    A note for the dog lovers: Theo, my dog, is still with us. When I took him to the vet today, for what I thought would be his last visit, because he’d stopped eating, the vet suggested I try a sub-q anti-nausea drug, in addition to all the other meds, and a special diet. She administered the drug. I took six cans of food. When I got him home, he ate a whole (small) can of the food!

    She said if indeed this liver disease is an inflammation, and not cancer, and if I can keep him eating, it will give the antibiotic a chance to work. If it is cancer, then all I can do is keep him comfortable, but again, if he’ll eat, he should be around a few more weeks at least.

    So he’s home. I am happy.

  158. 158.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TenguPhule:
    Customs and the ICE are being allowed to be as big assholes as they feel like. Their behavior is technically legal. This is a million miles from refusing to obey the courts. There were noises about that with the first travel ban. The bureaucracy and marshalls supported the courts. Maybe if Trump were organized he could pull off a coup. Maybe. But instead he’s a bumbling incompetent who hires bumbling incompetents who work hard to neuter their own organizations, thus weakening their power over lower levels.

    We will not see a dictatorship, and we will not see elections ended/ignored. Again, our big worry is voter suppression. Hard to say where that will go.

  160. 160.

    Mike J

    German Lopezā€ Verified account @germanrlopez 1 hour ago
    Sean Spicer: “There’s this assumption in Washington that if you get less money, it’s a cut.”

  161. 161.

    catclub

    @Aleta:

    Why canā€™t these guys be dumped? US WW2 vets must be outraged, and as a group they wouldnā€™t let this stand if their number were greater.

    The US Army names its forts and camps after Civil war generals…..for the treasonous side.
    You would think that US WW2 vets would be outraged, but things are always fucked up and bullshit.

  163. 163.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck: Agree. They’ve been fairly slow on new voter suppression efforts, thankfully. Since most of the suppression is done at the state level, hopefully we can win back some seats in 2018 before they get a chance to implement the worst of it.

  164. 164.

    Aleta

    A judge has dismissed a misdemeanor charge a senior White House aide (Sebastian Gorka) was facing for bringing a handgun to a security checkpoint at Reagan National Airport a year ago.

    Gorkaā€™s attorney, Christopher Oprison, and a prosecutor appeared before Circuit Court Judge William Newman, who dismissed the case under an arrangement that left Gorka with no conviction after he stayed out of trouble with the law for six months.

    Court records show that last August, Gorka entered an Alford Plea, in which the defendant concedes enough evidence to convict but does not admit guilt.

    Transportation Security Administration screeners found the gun in Gorkaā€™s carry-on bag when he was preparing to board a flight at National bound for Florida in January 2016. Oprison said Gorka simply forgot it was there.

    -Politico Feb. 2017

  165. 165.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Lizzy L:

    I’m so glad you have a bit more time with him. But you can still keep the hugs I sent this morning for you and Theo. I have more than I need.

  166. 166.

    Kathleen

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: Justifiably angry African American pastor speaks truth that hurts white people’s feelings vs. actual Nazi Adjacents in the White House. Rule of IOOKIYAWP (It’s Only OK If You’re A White Person) trumps everything.

  167. 167.

    Bill Arnold

    @germy:

    a man who already bears the macho moniker Rex Tillerson, had, while working as chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, used the name ā€œWayne Trackerā€ to send emails related to climate change.

    To be scrupulously fair, his middle name is Wayne.

  168. 168.

    ThresherK

    @Kathleen: Sounds more like “World’s Most Obvious Private Eye, Wayne Tracker: The Man of A Thousand Single Disguise s“, however.

  170. 170.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:
    They’ve been slow on everything except terrorizing non-citizens. Even the remarkably tiny handful of godawful abominations Ryan has passed, McConnell has gone ‘Legislation? I see no legislation.’ I don’t know why the GOP congress is paralyzed, but I’m grateful.

  171. 171.

    Aleta

    @Lizzy L: Oh that’s so great! The anti nausea drugs worked great on a cat I knew with feline Aids, revived him back from ‘no hope’ and kept him alive a long time.

  172. 172.

    Kathleen

    @Yarrow: Oh, yeah. No Ky University is about 15 minutes from me and it’s wall to wall coverage. We also have Xavier and UC in the tournaments. I’m really basketball agnostic but I do enjoy the David vs Goliath games, which I think this one will be.

  174. 174.

    debbie

    I hate all of them, but I hate Gorka the most. His snide, condescending attitude of knowing everything, when he really only knows how to insult and belittle, is infuriating. I hope he comes to a shameful end.

  175. 175.

    The Moar You Know

    @Lizzy L: Good. The world needs more dogs. Mine has made me a much better human being and will continue to do so.

  176. 176.

    Yarrow

    @Lizzy L: Oh, that’s great news! I hope it works and Theo starts to feel better and you get to enjoy being with him for a bit longer.

  178. 178.

    trollhattan

    @Mike J:
    What color is the sky in Spicey’s world? Getting less isn’t a cut? If the dealer knocks five grand off a car, is that not a price cut? If the Army disbands two divisions, isn’t that a troop cut? If we dismantle two-hundred nukes, isn’t that an arms cut? If I work the same # of hours for a thousand less dollars, isn’t that a pay cut? Christ.

  180. 180.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    And he still has his own personal security people with him, not just the SS. Is he truly stupid enough to try and have a showdown between mercenaries and the SS? I think he is.

    The obvious thing to do would be to let Air Force One take him down for a weekend in Mar-a-Lago and leave him there.

  181. 181.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck: Agree. If we can get through this year with minimal damage, then next year is an election year and they’ll be even more paralyzed. Then hopefully we can win back at least one house, if not both if we can get a 2006 type election.

  187. 187.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:
    Could they do that and just not take his calls? “They’re not picking up; Goddamnit where’s my plane? I want my Air Force One! Ivanka!!!“

  190. 190.

    Lizzy L

    @trollhattan: He really said that? What a knucklehead. I bet he thinks he’s one of them.

    “I bet you think this song is about you, don’t you, don’t you…”

  193. 193.

    trollhattan

    @Kathleen: @Lizzy L:
    Behold, the hunk ‘o manmeat that is “our” Gorka.

    ā€œOur foreign policy has been a disaster,ā€ Gorka told Foxā€™s Sean Hannity before the inauguration. ā€œWeā€™ve neglected and abandoned our allies. Weā€™ve emboldened our enemies. The message I haveā€”itā€™s a very simple one. Itā€™s a bumper sticker, Sean: The era of the Pajama Boy is over January 20th, and the alpha males are back.ā€

    But…what about my PJs?

  195. 195.

    efgoldman

    @Humboldtblue:

    Now Trump has caught the eye of our state Supreme Court justice and she aint happy neither.

    Good for her. but if she thinks either of them will give a shit or even notice, she’ll be disappointed; very disappointed.

  197. 197.

    Kathleen

    @trollhattan: Stuff ’em, Pajama Boy. Put on your ill fitting alpha male suit and swagger!

    These guys may think they’re “alpha males” but for all their “Nazi Adjacent” bluster they are far from perfect Aryan specimens.

  198. 198.

    Barbara

    @Corner Stone: Re: Mulvaney:

    Trump Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters today that eliminating food for senior citizens via the Meals On Wheels program was the compassionate thing to do because if a program canā€™t demonstrate results, it should get cut.

    He went on to say that it was compassionate when you balance the interests of the recipients against those who are “giving the money.”

    Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons? Are there no crematoria?

  200. 200.

    Roger Moore

    @Barbara:

    He went on to say that it was compassionate when you balance the interests of the recipients against those who are ā€œgiving the money.ā€

    Funny how that’s never the standard when it comes to military spending.

  205. 205.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    You have a better idea for how to solve the problem of 50 million batshit insane Republicans?

    OK, big mouth. Get your weapon(s) and ammo and food and survival gear and get out there and go to work.
    Otherwise you’re just another La-Z-Boy kommando like the RWNJ nut job penis substitute fondlers. Big talkers.
    Or you could just shut the fuck up.

  209. 209.

    raven

    Vandy had a one point lead with 15 seconds to go and one of their players thought they were behind and fouled. The free throws gave Northwestern the lead and most likely the win. There are times when this game is cruel.

  212. 212.

    Ian

    One minor historical quibble. Horthy was a terrible man, and did indeed enact anti-Semitic laws, but the deportation of people of Jewish origin from Hungary did not start until Horthy was replaced by the even more right wing Iron-Guard in October 44.

  213. 213.

    J R in WV

    @LAO:

    National Security requires that your spouse die in agony in a Michigan hospital, because we won’t allow foreign Canadian nurses and medical specialists to enter the US to work, in spite of their visas and the treaty (which has the force of law!) requiring us to allow them to go to work.

    Trump: Hurry up and die in misery, poor person!!

  214. 214.

    Asus Guy

    @HeleninEire: “Ireland says that you can never renounce your Irish citizenship. ”

    You can renounce Irish citizenship any time you want. Official term is “declaration of alienage”. You just fill out a form, sign it and get the local notary public to witness it, and drop it in the mail. No fee and no waiting in line for months at the consulate the way the US makes you do.

    https://www.dfa.ie/media/dfa/alldfawebsitemedia/passportcitizenship/declaration-of-alienage-form.pdf

  215. 215.

    SWMBO

    @Lizzy L: Dead thread but that is good news! We had 3 dachshunds over the years with Cushings. They had inflamed livers, nausea, cramps, etc. All 3 lasted over 2 years with it. Watch the diet and keep an eye out for pancreatitis. I had to administer sub q fluids a few times and they would bounce back. If Theo is only eating boiled chicken, you might add chicken jello (maybe with boiled chicken in it like fruit in jello). Unflavored Knox gelatin made with chicken broth. 1 cup broth per packet. Our dogs thought it was chicken candy. It doesn’t hurt their stomach as much as other foods. Boiled chicken with overcooked white rice is good too. Over cook the rice until it is almost paste because it’s easier to digest. (Brown rice is harder for them to digest when they are sick according to my vet.) Feed small amounts multiple times a day. Steady digestion is easier than twice a day large meals.

    You have no idea how happy it makes me to read this. I was getting depressed with all the other dogs not making it lately and any good news is wonderful.

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