Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

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

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

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

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Bark louder, little dog.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Let there be snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Let’s finish the job.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Come on, man.

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Thursday Evening Open Thread: Same As It Ever Was

Thursday Evening Open Thread: Same As It Ever Was

by | 222 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Our own Southern Beale went to that Nashville rally:

What a bizarre event.

Trump’s campaign started robo-calling supporters in a four-county area 48 hours ago offering free tickets. The optics they were going for, of course, was, “thousands of people lined up to get in,” which isn’t as hard as it sounds when your venue is the Municipal Auditorium, not exactly the largest rink in town. However, they got the crowd they wanted: thousands of people were, indeed, lined up … all the way down James Robertson Parkway, all the way up to the state capitol, all the way around the building. I’m guessing there were 15-20,000, but I’ve heard other figures that are higher. Let it be said: most if not all of these folks could have fit inside the Titans’ football stadium. But that wouldn’t have provided Trump with the necessary ego-gratification that comes with a “standing room only/thousands turned away” narrative…

Click over to SB’s blog for more — including photos of the event.
***********

Apart from catching up, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

222Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    I had a BOSS nap yesterday. I felt like a fucking Champion when I was done. I tried to recreate today and sadly I only feel like a mid-level napper. It was fine and all, but meh.

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    so i bought this stupid air chair from walmart just to have someplace to sit in the living room, but the stupid thing kept needing air. so i decided i need to get me a cheap lil “club chair” to sit in until i get my living room furniture so i could watch tv and not have to sit on the floor.
    i figured when i get my living room furniture i could put the club chair in the sun room as an extra seating area.

    So i looked online and saw this cute thing on amazon…$164…dark leather reclining chair…self assembly, great reviews. it was delivered today and i put the chair together and….

    Voila…my new club chair. Is it the most comfortable chair ever? Ah nope. Does it get the job done..i.e. am I no longer sitting on the floor? Ah yep!

    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/842517172081647617

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    It sounds odd but I am actually considering going for a Mickey D’s run for dinner tonight. That “hacked” tweet somehow subliminally made me start remembering my yoot when we used to go to McD after a long night of hooliganism and my buddy sweet talked cashier girls out of bags of the cheap small cheeseburgers and fresh fries.
    It was amazing. He’d smile at them and they’d see those dimples and pearly white teeth and just melt. I probably saved a whole $3 a week off those dimples! Which was a fortune at the time.

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    @lamh36:
    What’s wrong with sitting on the floor? I find I wind up on the floor a lot of the time, both because too many chairs don’t fit me well and because my cat prefers sitting next to me when I’m on the floor.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    Did anyone else see Keith Ellison go all neoliberal Establishment shill on Twitter today?

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    If Trump is flying to Florida again for the weekend, I hope someone stands their ground against him there.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Did anyone else see Keith Ellison go all neoliberal Establishment shill on Twitter today?

    No, but seems unpossible. I mean, wasn’t he Wilmer’s man?

  12. 12.

    efgoldman

    @Corner Stone:

    He’d smile at them and they’d see those dimples and pearly white teeth and just melt.

    When a new Starbuck’s opened across the street from the CVS where my daughter worked in high school, she (a red head with BIG blue eyes) got a lot of free lattes.

  17. 17.

    ruemara

    @Baud: I did. lol. He may be wondering about the so-called leftists that can’t tell the difference between losing & winning.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    Rep. Keith Ellison‏ @keithellison
    Lori, big picture. Trump is dismantling of all programs that help people and throwing 20m off of health care. No time to be “done”

    Lori‏ @iCounterSpin
    I’m done. Keith is aligning himself with Clinton politics? (link: https://twitter.com/keithellison/status/842376385616330752) twitter.com/keithellison/s…

    9h
    Rep. Keith Ellison‏ @keithellison
    Can’t understand why some (thank goodness only a few) people have a bigger beef with HRC than Trump. I just don’t get it.

    Rep. Keith Ellison‏ @keithellison
    Honored to stand up for HRC!

    Peter Daou‏ @peterdaou
    Very nice to see @keithellison standing up for Hillary.

    Rep. Keith Ellison‏ @keithellison
    Regardless of your spin of HRC, she would never cut Meals on Wheels, CDBG, Weatherization Assistance, LIHEAP, Nat’l Endowment Arts, Big Bird

    Fuzzy Chimp‏ @fuzzychimpcom
    If only we could have gotten a millionaire former First Lady w/ poor ethics record and a crooked charity foundation to save us…

  20. 20.

    efgoldman

    @ruemara:

    that can’t tell the difference between losing & winning.

    That’s not quite right. They think losing IS winning, unless you win the right correct way.

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud: Hillary at Benghazi. Kerry and kitesurfing. Obama’s birth certificate? Obama’s birth certificate! OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!

  29. 29.

    p.a.

    @Corner Stone:

    I probably saved a whole $3 a week off those dimples! Which was a fortune at the time.

    Summer 1975 I turned 16, had a real date I was picking up driving with my just-earned driver’s license, looking for work but no job yet. Asked my dad (born 1918, Depression kid yadda yadda) for some $ for my date. He handed me $2.
    “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”
    “Jesus Christ whadda ya got planned??!!”

    Burger King here we come…

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: obviously a Hannity-O’Reilly plant because they didn’t mention WALL STREETS SPEECHES!

  37. 37.

    germy

    @p.a.: Wow! In ’75 I was 17, and my father was born in 1917. He was so poor during the Depression he told me he didn’t have a good meal until he volunteered for the army (right after Pearl Harbor)

  38. 38.

    Josie

    I’m glad to see an open thread. I want to thank everyone who responded several days ago to my sad news. Your kind words and thoughts meant more to me than you can imagine. We are dealing with the loss as best we can. My other two boys are absolute champions, and I feel so lucky for that. We found that his death was caused by a heart anomaly that no one could have foreseen unless by some very specialized imaging, so I guess it was just meant to be. We had forty good years with him, which is more than many people have. I am doing ok, at least until someone is nice to me, and then I fall apart again. I am walking every morning and working on my writing and reading a lot. Thanks to everyone in this wonderful community. I tried to explain to my kids why I have been coming here for ten years, but only someone who has experienced it can understand.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Fuzzy Chimp‏ @fuzzychimpcom
    If only we could have gotten a millionaire former First Lady w/ poor ethics record and a crooked charity foundation to save us…

    And a sketchy immigration history.

  40. 40.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    obviously a Hannity-O’Reilly plant because they didn’t mention WALL STREETS SPEECHES!

    I can’t even tell anymore. The wingnuts are so devious and they love playing make believe sockpuppet on message boards. Of course, they’re only following the lead of the prez and tillerson, who used aliases to troll for profit.

  42. 42.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    I said it from day one – these people are damaged.

    These are the people who cut themselves because they know it will hurt their parents.

    They call themselves socialists and revolutionaries but are content that the poor are getting fucked over as long as that hurts Clinton.

  46. 46.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:

    Fuzzy Chimp‏ @fuzzychimpcom
    If only we could have gotten a millionaire former First Lady w/ poor ethics record and a crooked charity foundation to save us…

    No he/she’s not bitter, has not lost the plot. WTF is wrong with these people? What am I missing, are they so far gone that they don’t see what’s happening to our country? Fuck them, there’s no point in even trying to talk sense into them.

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @p.a.:

    He handed me $2. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” “Jesus Christ whadda ya got planned??!!”

    My dad (b. 1915) yelled at me the first time I had to leave a green money tip at a Chinese restaurant (which means the bill was ~$6.) Mid-1960s.

  49. 49.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Corner Stone: On my way to get my hair cut today I walked by Taco Bell and it occurred to me there are two places that I’ve not eaten at and have no desire to do so since I quit the bottle: Taco Bell and Mickey D’s.

  53. 53.

    Corner Stone

    The people running The Addiction Network need to run an ad with a spokes “Dr” that is approximately 95% less skeevy than the guy they currently are using.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Josie: Josie, just no way to express my sympathy with a few poor words. Bolt out of the blue, and harder to grapple with than a traffic accident or a known condition. Those are comprehensible. This is simply not.

    Huge hugs to you and all yours.

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Corner Stone:

    O..M..G..!!
    Did you just … say … Wilmer?!?

    :: cringes ::
    :: small voice ::

    yesimafraidididsir

    ::flinches::
    ::scuttles off::

  58. 58.

    Yarrow

    @Josie:

    I am doing ok, at least until someone is nice to me, and then I fall apart again.

    Well, you’re in the right place with all of us vicious jackals, then! Seriously, though, glad to hear you are doing okay. Been thinking about you and hoping everything was going okay under the circumstances. The news of his heart issue sounds like it was of some comfort. Sending warm thoughts.

  59. 59.

    hovercraft

    @gene108:
    Yes, but it just runs on HBO first, and then on PBS, Big Bird is a symbol, it’s PBS that’s the issue, they don’t want the government competing with the FREE MARKET or being in the propaganda business. Someone should mention that Twitler placing his people inside the VOA is, kettle meet pot.

  61. 61.

    p.a.

    @germy: My mother was 1917. Both sides did ok, my grandfathers never lost their jobs (railroad and GE) but all the kids (both sides 5 girls 2 boys) had to quit school at 16 to work to support the families.

  62. 62.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I second this. Someone once got in trouble with the Secret Service for quoting Hemingway to the deserting coward (“Do not ask for whom the bell tolls…”). They interpreted that as an overt threat.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I get a sausage egg and cheese mcgriddle with a hashbrown about 3 times a year for breakfast. It completely destroys me for a weekend but I seemingly have no choice when it happens. I have not been to McD’s for lunch or dinner in probably over a decade.
    Taco Bell is a another story. I know full well when I go there I am going to regret it. But I can’t stop myself. There’s no way to talk me out of it. Four or so times a year I get crunchy taco supremes and a chicken quesadilla with fire sauce and that’s just how it’s going to be.

  65. 65.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: I went shopping for books for my freshman year of college in 1978 with my dad, born in 1919, and my cousin who was about 30. My dad handed me $40 for my books and my cousin said, “unk that may buy one book and handed me a hundred”.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I pride myself on the fact that I have never ever even once in my entire life eaten at Mickey D’s. I will own to having gone through the drive-through lane a few times to get fries for my dad — he was dying at the time, so it would have been churlish to refuse. And I think I had a cup of their coffee once, that someone else bought for me. But otherwise, uh unh.

  68. 68.

    Corner Stone

    Hayes getting rolled again. Asking questions it seems he is not expecting the answers to.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Someone once got in trouble with the Secret Service for quoting Hemingway to the deserting coward (“Do not ask for whom the bell tolls…”). They interpreted that as an overt threat.

    They were, of course, quoting Donne. If only we had some kind of government-funded national entity that endowed, I dunno, the humanities or something, then they might have known. We could even call it, trying to think of something clever here, I know! How about something like the National Fucking Endowment for the Fucking Humanities??

  80. 80.

    lamh36

    @Roger Moore: bad for my knees…sitting on the floor isn’t the real problem, it’s getting up that hurts…

    besides…it’s hell on my coccyx

  81. 81.

    Corner Stone

    Minivan Dad’s, Soccer Mom’s, Security Mom’s, Coal Country.
    Give me a fucking break, media.

  82. 82.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud: Unfortunately it was Tom Perez on Hayes. He must have said the word “coal” about 15 times in his segment.

  83. 83.

    efgoldman

    @Corner Stone:

    I am sick to death of fucking coal country.

    Meh. They are dying as quickly as Granny will starve without Meals on Wheels. They won’t mine if nobody’s buying. Industries are not going to retrofit, at the cost of billions, and use more expensive fuel, just to make president pigshit for brains look good.

  87. 87.

    hovercraft

    @Josie:
    Glad to see your post. Hold on to your boys tight. Best wishes, make sure you take care of yourself as well as everyone else. {{{{{{{ }}}}}}}

  92. 92.

    raven

    @Josie: From Joe Biden

    “Just when you think you’re going to make it, you’re driving down the road and you pass a field and you see a flower, and it reminds you. Or you hear a tune on the radio. Or you just look up into the night and, you know, you think, ‘Maybe I’m not going to make it, man.’ Because you feel at that moment the way you felt the day you got the news.”

    But there is hope, Biden told the military family members in the audience.

    “There will come a day, I promise you and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later.. But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I’m telling you it will come.”

  95. 95.

    OGLiberal

    O, fer fuck’s sake!…


    Who to trust when it comes to health-care reform? Trump supporters put their faith in him.

    By Jenna Johnson
    March 16, 2017 at 7:41 PM

    NASHVILLE — Soon after Charla McComic’s son lost his job, his health-insurance premium dropped from $567 per month to just $88, a “blessing from God” that she believes was made possible by President Trump.

    “I think it was just because of the tax credit,” said McComic, 52, a former first-grade teacher who traveled to the rally from Lexington with her daughter, mother, aunt and cousin.

    The price change was actually thanks to a subsidy made possible by former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which is still in place, not by the tax credits proposed by Republicans as part of the health-care bill still being considered by Congress.

    It has been difficult for many Americans to keep up with the changes brought by Obamacare and exactly how the Republican proposal, if enacted, would affect their lives. But for Trump’s most dedicated supporters, it’s simply easier to trust the president is making things better and will follow through on his promise to provide “insurance for everybody” and “great health care for a fraction of the price.”

    McComic said she’s not worried about her disability benefits changing or her 3-year-old granddaughter getting kicked off Medicaid or her 33-year-old son’s premiums going up.

    “So far, everything’s been positive, from what I can tell,” she said, waiting for Trump’s rally here to begin Wednesday night. “I just hope that more and more people and children get covered under this new health-care plan.”

    McComic says she has never trusted a president the way she trusts Trump. Ahead of the election, she and her relatives turned their cars into a “Trump train” and drove across Lexington, waving flags and shouting: “Trump! Trump! Vote for Trump!” She has watched all of the president’s rallies on television and got in line for Wednesday’s event at 7:30 a.m.

    “We said: ‘Who else would we do this for, besides Trump?’ ” McComic said. “We agreed on the Lord. We would stand here for the Lord, but that’s about it.”

    Trump waited until the final minutes of his speech that night to discuss health-care restructuring. He glossed over the details of the legislation, blaming its troubles and complex path to enactment on Democrats and urging his followers to not believe their “dishonest attacks.” And he did just enough to distance himself from the bill, describing it as a plan created by House Republicans “based on the principles I outlined.”

    “The end result is . . . it’s going to be great,” the president said to gentle applause. “It’s going to be great.”

    Tennessee has become one of the GOP’s go-to examples of why the Affordable Care Act is not working. Premiums for plans offered to state residents through a federal exchange skyrocketed last year — especially for those who earn too much to qualify for subsidies — and competition has dried up, with residents of most counties having access to only one insurance company.

    “It’s a catastrophic situation,” Trump said, as some of the supporters seated behind him held up campaign signs that read, “Promises made, promises kept.”

    Serge Martin, a 63-year-old optometrist from Murfreesboro, said he doesn’t particularly like the proposed legislation but considers it a “framework to get started with” that will be strengthened before it passes.

    Serge Martin, 63, a doctor of optometry and Trump supporter, in an exam room in Murfreesboro, Tenn. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
    Martin and his wife purchase health insurance through the exchange and have watched the price climb each year. For 2017, there was only one insurance company offering coverage in his area, UnitedHealthcare, and the couple’s bill now totals $1,800 per month, with prescriptions costing another $250. With a deductible of $6,400, they rarely go to the doctor.

    “There just aren’t any alternatives,” he said. “That’s the problem. There are no choices.”

    Martin earns too much money to qualify for subsidies, but under the Republican legislation, he would be likely to receive a tax credit of several thousand dollars — although by the time that perk kicks in, Martin will probably be old enough to switch to Medicare. In the meantime, he’s using savings to pay the bills.

    His friend Tim Weinberger, a 48-year-old owner of a small maintenance company, doesn’t have that kind of cash and hasn’t had insurance in at least a decade. The last time he saw a doctor was six years ago, after an accident. When Obamacare first started, Weinberger said, it would have cost him about $250 per month for a plan, which he couldn’t afford. He assumes the price is even higher now. So Weinberger goes without insurance, as do his two employees. When filing his taxes, Weinberger says, he claims to have insurance to avoid having to pay a penalty he considers unfair.

  99. 99.

    TenguPhule

    @OGLiberal: Those people need to have their blood drained and their organs involuntarily harvested to pay the rest of us back for their mooching and stupidity.

  100. 100.

    efgoldman

    @OGLiberal:

    ‘Who else would we do this for, besides Trump?’ ” McComic said. “We agreed on the Lord. We would stand here for the Lord, but that’s about it.”

    So Weinberger goes without insurance, as do his two employees

    Some fucking people are too fucking stupid to be allowed to live.
    Where’s fucking Darwin when we need him?

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I love Joe Biden very, very hard. No idea what kind of President he might have been, and we’ll never know, but damn if he wasn’t the best VPOTUS and cranky crazy wacky zany old Uncle Joe cheerleader, and nobody did it better, ever.

  106. 106.

    dopey-o

    @Baud: Hillary at Benghazi. Kerry and kitesurfing. Obama’s birth certificate? Obama’s birth certificate! OBAMA’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!

    Has anyone even THOUGHT to look for Obama’s birth certificate in BENGHAZZZZZZZIIIII?
    Inquiring minds want to know.

  107. 107.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @germy: I’m only seven years younger than you, and yet your dad was born the same year as my grandfather.

  110. 110.

    Lyrebird

    @Josie: So glad if our breaks from rabble rousing and grumping could help lift you up. More good thoughts coming your way.

  111. 111.

    efgoldman

    @TenguPhule:

    These people don’t believe in Darwin.

    Doesn’t matter. The stupidest, slowest reacting wildebeests or deer are the first to get eaten, and they never heard of Darwin, either.

  112. 112.

    Immanentize

    @SiubhanDuinne: in the summer of 1976 I also turned 17 and my first post-paper route job was at — McDonalds. We used to write “Ronald was here but disappear” graffiti.

  113. 113.

    hovercraft

    @OGLiberal:

    said McComic, 52, a former first-grade teacher ……

    McComic says she has never trusted a president the way she trusts Trump.

    The most frightening thing is this woman was responsible for educating our youth. What hope is there that she didn’t do permanent damage? The fact that she thinks that Trumpcare is already enacted and impacting her son, shows that she never had any business in a classroom.

  114. 114.

    HeleninEire

    @Corner Stone: I will give you a million dollars if you tell me how you got that BOSS nap. No shit. I haven’t slept well in, like, 20 years.

  116. 116.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    Trump’s campaign started robo-calling supporters in a four-county area 48 hours ago offering free tickets.

    Just free tickets? Are we sure there wasn’t some other enticement?

    Free microwave?

    Chance to punch a hippie?

    Handful of Vicodin?

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @OGLiberal: The price change was actually thanks to a subsidy made possible by former president Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which is still in place, not by the tax credits proposed by Republicans as part of the health-care bill still being considered by Congress.

    I always wonder if these people read these articles that detail their ignorance. Then I remember the woman in IN whose adult son got coverage for lymphoma, first on her policy, then after he turned 26, on Medicaid expanded by O’Care. When the facts was explained to her, she said she still would’ve voted for Trump because of “life”

  120. 120.

    Gian

    Just going to say the rally totally would’ve been better in an outdoor stadium, at night, with the crowd carrying torches.

  122. 122.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: Ellison needs to start blocking Bernie Bros and other Clinton haters. They’ve won and now we’re all paying for it under the Trump regime. Sick of them.

  123. 123.

    Edward Brennan

    @TenguPhule: How do I get Colorado boycotted too! Dammit Hawaii, I was already jealous of your beautiful beaches, your incredible scenery…. and now this…

  125. 125.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Gian: Yeah, but then, as SB points out, the venue would have been underutilized. Donald’s minions DELIBERATELY choose small venues so they can claim the lines were long, the place was packed, people were turned away. The scum of the MSM buy into it EVERY SINGLE TIME. ZERO critical thinking skills collectively.

  132. 132.

    different-church-lady

    @from Baud’s twitter-quote:

    Fuzzy Chimp‏ @fuzzychimpcom
    If only we could have gotten a millionaire former First Lady w/ poor ethics record and a crooked charity foundation to save us…

    And YOUR FUCKING BULLSHIT, MR. “CHIMP” is a huge part of the reason we got a billionare with NO ETHICS WHATSOEVER and a crooked EVERY GODDAMNED THING instead.

    As I saw on another blog this morning: he could cover himself in clue bait and walk through a clue forest filled with clue wolves and not get a single bite.

  133. 133.

    JPL

    @Lizzy L: Cutting funding for nutritional supplements for infants and children, is a sign that they promote life.
    I really hate people like that.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @japa21:

    As is the case with a fair amount of poetry, I first learned “No Man Is an Island” in a choral setting, so to this day (55+ years later) I’m unable to see the words without hearing the tune.

  141. 141.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @different-church-lady: @Tilda Swintons Bald Cap: It was with us before “wilmer” was.

    Aye, Ralph Nader ran again in 2004

    (BTW, has a decision been made on the province and further suitability of the code name?)

    Seems to annoy all the right people…

  143. 143.

    Lizzy L

    @satby: I am, thank you SO MUCH — because Theo is still with me. The vet suggested an anti-nausea drug and some special expensive of course food, to see if those could get him to eat. She administered the drug, and he ate a can of the food when I got him home. If I can keep him eating, and he doesn’t have cancer, the antibiotic he’s on may knock out the infection that may be causing the liver inflammation. And if he does have cancer, but he’s able to eat, I may be able to keep him comfortable and with me for a few more weeks.

    So he’s home. How are you doing? I hope the rest of your menagerie is comforting you.

  144. 144.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: even if abortion didn’t exist she would have found another excuse. the wingers have been trying to get rid of social security and medicare since their inceptions, yet Indiana still voted against their interests before roe v wade. Indiana has only voted for a Democrat 4 times (Obama, LBJ, FDR 36′ 32′).

  151. 151.

    different-church-lady

    @BlueDWarrior:

    how high do the contradictions need to be heightened before the rubes get it and we have our socialist utopia?

    As always, the answer is: “All of them, Katie.”

  153. 153.

    Gian

    @Patricia Kayden:
    an ex wife said Donald kept a book of some famous German Dictator’s speeches by his bedside. (come up with your own ideas of why reading Hitler’s speeches would be soothing bedtime reading, or something to get your blood flowing for other bedroom activities)

    http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trumps-ex-wife-once-said-he-kept-a-book-of-hitlers-speeches-by-his-bed-2015-8

    – from the linked vanity fair article inside the business insider one:

    Donald Trump appears to take aspects of his German background seriously. John Walter works for the Trump Organization, and when he visits Donald in his office, Ivana told a friend, he clicks his heels and says, “Heil Hitler,” possibly as a family joke.

    Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.

    “Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?” I asked Trump.

    Trump hesitated. “Who told you that?”

    “I don’t remember,” I said.

    “Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” (“I did give him a book about Hitler,” Marty Davis said. “But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”)

    Later, Trump returned to this subject. “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

  155. 155.

    Josie

    @raven: I was thinking about this quote today. I am copying the whole thing to look at when I need it. Thanks. Love Joe Biden.

  157. 157.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    And five gallon cans of gasoline under every other seat.

    “YOU get a five-gallon can of gasoline, and YOU get a five-gallon can of gasoline, and EVERYBODY gets a five-gallon can of gasoline!!”

  158. 158.

    Baud

    Given the crap Rachel went through in the last couple of days (including from us), she’s good tonight on this Flynn story.

  159. 159.

    different-church-lady

    @Gian: Brilliant: the man has Jewish friends who aren’t Jewish.

    It’s like a black hole made out of ultra-dense bullshit: reality cannot escape its gravitational pull.

  160. 160.

    efgoldman

    @BlueDWarrior:

    how high do the contradictions need to be heightened before the rubes get it and we have our socialist utopia?

    Millions of them will go to their graves – from treatable medical conditions, drunk driving, “hold my beer and watch this,” or just plain utter stupidity and ignorance, without ever having an aha moment.
    So the hope is, sooner rather than later.

  166. 166.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gian: any way a prosecutor or Congress could give Ivana and Marla immunity from whatever NDAs they signed to get their settlements? could we crowd-fund buying them out?

  167. 167.

    efgoldman

    @Kathleen:

    “We can’t hurt white people’s feelings”.

    Anybody that voted for Tangelo Trashy doesn’t have any fucking feelings.

    Fuckem.

  170. 170.

    amk

    @Baud: Doesn’t Keith have better things to do, like planning for 2018 elections, instead of wasting his time with these obvious trolls?

  171. 171.

    hovercraft

    Not Good
    Speaker Paul Ryan just gave two back to back live interviews on MSNBC (Meet the Press Daily) and CNN (Wolf Blitzer). He struck me as agitated and defensive, occasionally verging on sarcastic. They weren’t great interviews. I’m tempted to call them meltdowns. But that’s probably overstated; I’m going to wait to hear what others think. What I will say is that, having heard Ryan make his case, I think he and his bill may be in a worse position than I realized.

  178. 178.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hovercraft: I heard clips on NPR that he was pushing the idea that “the president” is all in as a partner on the bill. Something tells me that trumpy won’t like that, and even if he doesn’t care, it won’t stop him from tossing Ryan under the bus

    also heard on those top-of-the-hour reports today: Mulvaney (I think, maybe Spicy?) talking about how this is a HARD power budget, not a SOFT power budget. Paging Dr Freud, Dr Howard, Dr Freud!

  180. 180.

    hovercraft

    @Gian:

    Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.

    I don’t believe it. Not because I don’t thin he’d enjoy them, but unless it’s an audio book, I doubt his reading comprehension is good enough to get through any book. I don’t even think he can read the greatest, best selling book ever written by a man, Art Of The Deal.

  182. 182.

    efgoldman

    @hovercraft:

    having heard Ryan make his case, I think he and his bill may be in a worse position than I realized.

    Last week, when they introduced this rotting carcass of a piece of legislation, they were going to get it thru committee and bring it to the floor for a vote within 7-10 days. Now he has two choices, equally bad for him personally and his speakership: pull the bill, or bring it to the floor to go down.
    I’m not THAT old, and I remember when the speaker of the house actually knew how to run it and round up the votes s/he wanted and needed. You know, like Nancy SMASH! did for the ACA in the first place.
    Hmm… Just thought for the first time how it must been eating all those asshole woman-haters from the inside that an old lady from San Francisco could do that and they can’t.
    [Nelson Muntz ha ha]

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Observer Politics‏Verified account
    @ ObserverPols
    Trump’s Budget Would Rip Out ‘the Backbone’ of the NYPD’s Counter-Terrorism Apparatus, Commissioner O’Neill Warns

    we need the money for the Wall, and for the lawyers to appeal the shut down of the Ban Not-a-Ban

  186. 186.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Kathleen: Oh, to fucking hell with “white people’s feelings”. These white people are exactly what Eros talked about in Plan 9 From Outer Space: “Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!”

  187. 187.

    Seth Owen

    @different-church-lady: Yep.

    We kept being told that it would be a good thing Trump won because he’d be so bad the revolution would come sooner. I’m so happy to see that their plan is working out so well.

  189. 189.

    efgoldman

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    These white people are exactly what Eros talked about in Plan 9 From Outer Space

    Holy shit. If your exemplar for anything is a supposedly serious movie with pie plates on visible strings for alien space ships, we’re in more trouble than I thought.

  190. 190.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    I believe the T-shirt said “Fuck Your Feelings.”

    If I had designed it, it would have said “Fuck Your Fucking Feelings,” but the basic underlying premise is the same.

  191. 191.

    hovercraft

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Love Martin Short. I merely linked to the clips, can’t abide any of the participants so I didn’t watch them. I fell off the no cable wagon the other night to watch Rachel’s dud, I’m firmly back on.

  192. 192.

    Barbara

    @hovercraft: Boy Wonder has never been challenged by the press in a pointed way. Paul Krugman has long pointed out his fraudulence but everyone else has been happy not to look below the surface. It doesn’t surprise me he doesn’t do so well once they actually expect answers.

  193. 193.

    janelle

    Nissan Stadium (where the Titans play) seats just under 70,000 people. Had Trump held the rally there, it would have been in a 2/3 empty venue.

  194. 194.

    Seth Owen

    @Gian: So in Trump world, apparently only Jews are named Marty. It’s the only reason I can think of why he thought his friend was Jewish.

  197. 197.

    Anne Laurie

    @ruemara:

    He may be wondering about the so-called leftists that can’t tell the difference between losing & winning.

    LOL — I think Ellison got the full course on that during the recent DNC primary. (Assuming being a Black Muslim Democrat in a party overloaded with well-meaning white purity ponies wasn’t enough of a life lesson.)

    Some people need to have Seeger’s Beautiful Loser lyrics tattoo’d backwards on their foreheads…

  198. 198.

    hovercraft

    @efgoldman:

    an old lady from San Francisco could do that and they can’t.

    It’s what’s driving them nuts, a Granny from San Francisco, a whispering Mormon, and a skinny black guy with big ears and a Muslim sounding name, beat them, they threw up every road block they could and still they accomplished a bunch of liberal shit, and now they have all the power and can’t get a goddamn thing done. For shame, for shame.

  199. 199.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hovercraft:

    Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.

    Okay, somebody needs to ask this question: What kind of illiterate pretentious Nazi douchebonnet shitgibbon keeps any book, let alone Hitler’s Collected Speeches, in a fucking CABINET?? That’s just wrong and not normal. They’re supposed to go in a pile next to the glasses, the Kleenex box, the water, the overnight pharmaceuticals, the remote, and the tube of KY jelly. Jesus, do we have to teach this guy EVERYTHING?

  202. 202.

    hovercraft

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Now that’s an interesting dilemma, on the one hand he wants to be tough on terror, and he has a noun, a verb, 9-11 on his team, on the other he knows NYC hates him with the heat of a thousand suns, and we all know with him it’s always about payback. What to do?

  204. 204.

    Barbara

    @SiubhanDuinne: You forgot to include the magazines, face cream, ereader, and in my case the Suzuki violin music plus class notes from the last violin lesson. That’s just the table. Don’t get me started on the floor.

  205. 205.

    Anne Laurie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    What kind of illiterate pretentious Nazi douchebonnet shitgibbon keeps any book, let alone Hitler’s Collected Speeches, in a fucking CABINET??

    One who doesn’t want ‘the help’ to know what he’s reading during those late-night hours.

    (As if they didn’t already know the worst about him… )

  208. 208.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OGLiberal:

    Soon after Charla McComic’s son lost his job, his health-insurance premium dropped from $567 per month to just $88, a “blessing from God” that she believes was made possible by President Trump.

    Well, that explains it all, these people are just dumber than dirt.

    “said McComic, 52, a former first-grade teacher ……”

    Want to bet it was at some church school?

  213. 213.

    gwangung

    @germy: Yup. Swallowed whole by some on the left.

    I can refute, but what do I know? I just worked in the non profit field for 30 years, analyzing non profit foundations….

  214. 214.

    efgoldman

    @Barbara:

    You forgot to include the magazines, face cream, ereader, and in my case the Suzuki violin music plus class notes from the last violin lesson.

    So it’s NOT just mrs efg! I’ll be damned.

  215. 215.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Ok, time for a tip here

    From the Blog

    May Weathers
    March 16, 2017 at 6:51 am

    You folks keep telling each other that, and it is cute, but outside of a few huge metros primarily in CA this country is red to the absolute core.

    Arguing with May Weathers here is pointless, they are an ignorant twat with a child’s mind an proud of it. The correct reply is mockery “That’s hilariously post truther, tell me May, how do magnets work? How big of dinosaur did Jesus ride on that ranch he worked on?” Force May to cite facts and then May will start thinking, but she is never going to listen if told.

  216. 216.

    catclub

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Want to bet it was at some church school?

    We can hope, but our kids have run up against some real idiots in the public system, too. It is, after all, employment central for relatives of the school board.
    And in my county, candidates for that proudly state they only went to high school.

  217. 217.

    Anne Laurie

    @Kathleen:

    Not “racist”. “Racist Curious” or “Racist Adjacent”. Rule #1 in WhiteWorld is, “We can’t hurt white people’s feelings”.

    As they say in the Off-White Lady (NYTimes), “some would say racially insensitive”. Or the all-purpose “politically charged”.

  218. 218.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So, it sounds like Trumpcare is in the shiter

    So Trump does this rally. A little to late for this.

    Hmmm it’s this so Trump can convince himself he is still a winner? Some ego boosting.

  220. 220.

    laura

    @Josie: it is indeed a comfort to know that this bloggy place is is a net and a web of caring and commiserating. Wishing you and your family peace and grace, and solace for your loss.

  222. 222.

    Juju

    I know I’m very late to this rodeo, but I watched a bit of that rally on Wednesday, and some of those people behind Trump looked like they could have been Hitler Youth in another era. I guess now they would be called Twitler Youth.

Comments are closed.