Did Ted write "I luv u" on his eyelids too? pic.twitter.com/iTVanoxBbr
— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 21, 2017
Question thread: was it a mistake for Democrats to concede #TheStolenSeat by participating in the Gorsuch hearings and debating his views?
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 20, 2017
@JoyAnnReid I think the democrats should take a simple position: until Garland gets a hearing and a vote, Gorsuch should not be considered.
— Chris Dorr (@chrisdorr) March 20, 2017
@serenityatsea @JoyAnnReid Until the investigation into Trump's Russia ties is complete.
— Sherry Burton (@empiricalgirl) March 20, 2017
@Deemoney521 @JoyAnnReid After all, it's not right to consider a new Supreme Court Justice in the last year of Trump's presidency.
— Joe Carlin (@joe_nca) March 20, 2017
.
I am not, in general, a big fan of the ‘Trump’s using this as a distraction’ theory — flinging all the crap he can find to see what sticks is not advanced strategery. But when it comes to their golly-gosh SCOTUS nominee, the Repubs are sure making a valiant, all-out effort to turn the slightly steaming pitcher of vodka-scented yellow liquid of this week’s Trump/FBI revelations into something that could plausibly be sold as lemonade…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
AL- can you turn off the autoplay of trump down the page? as hilarious as I find the whole “most people don’t know Lincoln was a Republican”
Thru the Looking Glass...
Sounds like Donnie also learn’t about the Transcontinental Railroad today too… also sounds like he’s AMAZED the railroad actually ran from ocean to ocean…
It’s a YOOUGE railroad… and no one build better railroads than Republicans!
Keith P.
Heh…”If Lincoln were alive today, he’d say ‘Do you want some cocaine?'”
Seth Meyers and Colbert have just been merciless on Trump…I watch them first thing in the morning to get me in a happy mood.
bluehill
I wonder how many repubs have decided that they have already compromised so many of their “principles” in order to support trump that they can’t go back. Like Nunes, he can’t turnaround and claim that the intel warrants a special investigation without making it plainly obvious that he was putting party over country. What incentive do these guys have to do the right thing when they have already taken actions that were clearly harming the country?
TenguPhule
@bluehill:
All of em, Katie. All of em.
efgoldman
@bluehill:
The biggest incentive of all: Follow the prime directive – Re-elction uber alles!
ETA: While many of them are from ultra-red, ultra safe districts, many are also from districts that HRC won or that were very. very close.
Yarrow
I had the misfortune of hearing Ted Cruz’s voice when I turned on the radio today and the hearings were being broadcast. I changed the station immediately. That look on his face..I could just hear that look in his voice. Gross.
bluehill
@efgoldman: In those close districts, those guys are done. Given everything that’s happened, I don’t think a pivot back to the middle will win over moderate repubs or independents. Other than doing the right thing and likely losing, their only other option is to be even more extreme and hope that trump prevails and the repubs restrict voting even more.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: They interviewed some southern gentleman shithead today on the radio who made it clear that ‘they’ would primary anybody who voted no. Sounded establishment to me.
Mnemosyne
I have to admit, I did love that an 8-0 decision against one of Gorsuch’s decisions came down while he was testifying. Call me cynical, but I have a feeling that even Roberts, Alito, and Thomas are not eager to have this asshole as a colleague.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
“Southern” and “shithead” are the two key words here. I don’t expect this steaming pile of pig shit to turn any of the traitor state KKK reps’ districts blue or purple.
Even though parts of PA are Pennsyltucky, it ain’t Alabama.
amk
Guess the msm was too stupid to ask this valid question to the fifth columnist?
cain
OK, I don’t know what’s up, but everytime I visit balloon-juice, I have that stupid Trump video clip playing (the one about Lincoln) and I have to scroll down several stories to turn that shit off. Can we do something to stop the thing from autoplaying when surfing to this site???? Imagine having to hear cheeto’s voice everytime you visit your favorite political blog EVERYTIME.
TriassicSands
There is an editorial up at the WaPo tonight which raises an interesting question: Should the Democrats make a deal with McConnell on the Gorsuch nomination?
One school of thought says that since Gorsuch has been chosen to fill a stolen seat — and, yes, it is a stolen seat — Democrats should pull out every stop to defeat Gorsuch. Realistically, however, there is no way they can stop Gorsuch’s confirmation if the Republicans are willing to pull the plug on the filibuster. I’ve thought for a long time that it was just a matter of time before McConnell found a reason to get rid of the filibuster once and for all. Now would be as good a time as any.
I know who the Editorial Page editor at the Post is and I loathe him. I tend to recoil at virtually everything that could be coming from him. But if I understood the editorial’s proposal, it could be worth considering (for a nanosecond). If Gorsuch’s approval is a done deal, then why not agree to give Gorsuch an up or down vote with no filibuster if McConnnell will agree to keep the filibuster in force for all future SCOTUS nominations?
Gorsuch’s confirmation will, unjustly, move the Court more or less back to where it was with the deplorable Antonin Scalia bloviating from on high and the aging Anthony Kennedy occasionally saving the day. It’s the next nomination that could be critical. If it is to fill a seat vacated by either Breyer or RBG, then the Court will be moved to a 6-3 right wing majority (and agenda with the Most Objective Man in the Universe or at least in Mayberry voting repeatedly in ways his Senate testimony would never have even hinted at). And the new radical right winger will join in creating one solid radical decision after another.
If McConnell could be trusted, the idea might have merit, but I don’t see what McConnell has to gain. He’s going to get Gorsuch, filibuster or not. If he gets rid of the filibuster now, then it won’t be there in the future and McConnell will be able to waltz every new right-wing nominee through the hearings and onto the bench with up or down votes. If the Dems choose not to filibuster Gorsuch, McConnell still gets his man, and he can always kill the filibuster when the next nominee comes up.
How does that work for Democrats? Tragically, the GOP and McConnell hold all the cards right now and that is unlikely to change until after the midterm elections, if then.
What am I missing?
Viva BrisVegas
I never understand why Obama didn’t go to the mat for Garland.
He should have given the Senate a time limit and then made a recess appointment.
So the Republicans would currently be trying to explain why Gorsuch is so much better than the guy already in the seat, instead of just riding their guy into the job.
gene108
I hope the Dems filibuster Gorsuck.
Fuck the Republican.
We are in a non-shooting (so far) civil war in this country, where all the old rules of political comity have been shoved out the door.
BlueDWarrior
To the people who say the Democrats shouldn’t have participated in the hearings, I’m not sure how that resolves the issue vis-a-vi Gorsuch getting the confirmation.
The only relevant factor here is that McConnel is seemingly immune to anything resembling decency, and Democrats hardly seem to get credit outside of their base for what we’d consider last stands.
I’m not sure how to crack this particular nut, because the Republican party, from President on down, is dedicated to the destruction of all opposition, and barring that, permanently paralyzing any and all government.
BlueDWarrior
@gene108: well that’d stop Gorsuch, the problem then becomes of McConnel pulls the trigger and decide to eliminate the Judicial filibuster entirely.
We’re at a point where Democrats can’t afford to lose any election (regardless of level) because the Republican party, top to bottom, is completely of the rails.
gene108
@Viva BrisVegas:
Obama believed too much in process, procedure and precedent.
I don’t think he ever fully wrapped his head around the fact modern Republicans are about winning at all costs, are proto-totalitarians, and would like nothing more than one party rule, with a token opposition for appearances sake, with all aspects of the media working hand-in-glove with the Republican government to advance their agenda.
If Democrats regain power, they need to do everything they can to obliterate Republicans.
We are either going to be ruled by one party or the other, with no middle ground.
SgrAstar
@Major Major Major Major: OTOH, the Koch Bros have promised to support everyone who *does* vote no. Maybe we can hope for a mutually assured destruction outcome.
gene108
@BlueDWarrior:
Democrats cannot afford to lose any election. Period.
The era of compromise and peaceful resolution of differences is over.
One Party rules and rams through their agenda or nothing gets done. There is no middle ground anymore.
Republicans have set the playing field like this and this is the way the game will be played, until Republicans lose so much, they want to change the rules.
Major Major Major Major
@SgrAstar: Obviously I’m rooting for injuries, but I have a feeling this passes the House. The question now is whether it dies in the senate because it breaks the Byrd Rule with the new EHB regulation rollback, or the Repubs bully the parliamentarian into submission, override her, or something else that skirts said rule.
gene108
@Major Major Major Major:
At this point Republicans would murder their own mothers to repeal Obamacare.
They’d have no problem breaking the Senate, in order to do this.
TriassicSands
@gene108:
Some of them may well be murdering their own mothers if they repeal the ACA. Or at least putting them out on the streets.
k
Watching Gorsuch at the hearings, he seems kinda like a Bizarro Anthony Bourdain. No disrespect to Bourdain intended.
TriassicSands
@k:
I thought he acted like Opie of Mayberry all grown up and gray.
Gosh! Gosh! Gosh! Gosh!
His assertion that there are no Democratic judges and no Republican judges, only judges was preposterous. As more than one Democratic Senator pointed out, if that were true then Gorsuch would still be sitting on the 10th Circuit Court and Merrick Garland would be sitting on the SCOTUS. He didn’t flinch — he’s entitled.
eemom
I am too tired to rehash it all now, but Democrats need to die on this hill. If they don’t fight tooth and claw to keep this black hole of a human being, Scalia retched forth from hell, off the Supreme bench, I am done with them.
amk
@k: he was a pathetic show of huckstering.
Chet Murthy
@TriassicSands:
I could be wrong but, there are two pitfalls with going along with some bargain:
(1) Rs are the definition of bad faith. When the time comes, and Dampnut (or Fat Termite) puts up a hard right-winger, do you really think Yertle will keep his word? He specializes in breaking norms, as we’ve seen. His promises aren’t worth the paper they’re not written on.
(2) -IF- we manage to take back the Senate and the Presidency, then the Rs will be in a position to use the filibuster. Knowing that we, the Dems, -are- people of our word, and we believe in norms, etc, etc, etc.
It’s a one-sided bet, Yertle’s making. Heads he wins, tails we lose. Unless you REALLY believe that Yertle is just YEARNING to be a decent man.
TriassicSands
@Chet Murthy:
That was what I thought. I was surprised that the WaPo editorial didn’t see the flaws in the plan. Trust McConnell? Really?
BlueDWarrior
@Chet Murthy: there is also asymmetry in the ‘rewards’ each side gets. Democrats get punished when the government does nothing, Republicans get rewarded when the government does nothing.
The big problem to me is that Democrats also get punished when the government does something but it’s not in the precise way people want, while Republicans can pass whatever they want so long as they are only taking from undesirables.
This doesn’t even speak to the incoherence of the Republican base versus the Democratic one.
Chet Murthy
@TriassicSands: yeah, I don’t take the WaPo editorials seriously. Fred Hiatt still runs that page … and he can DIAF. It’s part of why I haven’t subscribed to the WaPo (even though they have eichenwald, farenthold, balko). Hiatt is just …. lordy, and he controls the fricken’ editorial page.
Aleta
Sweet story, 18 yr old dog leaves shelter for new home
http://www.today.com/pets/18-year-old-shelter-dog-just-got-adopted-t109523
Aleta
@TriassicSands:
I only read this, didn’t see it. But he supposedly said “Democrat’ (judges or party) or whatever, using the incorrect adjective instead of ‘Democratic.’ He’s said to be so painstaking that this had to be intentional, not a mistake in grammar. It’s a tell that he is a pretty extreme right winger; they avoid saying Democratic Party.
Chet Murthy
@Aleta:
Oho! yeah, that’s a pretty serious tell there. They just can’t help themselves, can they? Gotta blow that dog-whistle when … “guys, we can hear you, really we can”.
Peale
@BlueDWarrior: the problem is that Democrats have tailored their appeal to too many non-voters and it doesn’t seem that any mix of conservative or liberal or progressive policy offerings can get them to the polls on their own in enough places to matter. There’s a great deal of hope that eventually they’ll show up, but I think we’re just preaching to an empty room. Even the choir has decided to attend in spirit.
Chet Murthy
@Peale: Might be true. If it is, I predict civil war. B/c ain’t no way California is gonna sit still for this shit forever. And ain’t no way we’re givin’ up any serious percentage of our undocumented, at least, not without a fight.
Ian
@Viva BrisVegas:
This has never ever happened, in the history of ever, for the Supreme Court.
I am not a lawyer, but I expect the SC would not accept such an unprecedented move (at least from a Democratic president).
TriassicSands
@Aleta:
@Chet Murthy:
I’ve heard him use both democrat and democratic as adjectives. I don’t think it was intentional in this instance — I think he reverted to what he normally says, which was a slipup. I think the other times were probably carefully scripted and rehearsed so he wouldn’t offend the Dems on the committee.
I found his presentation to be the phoniest I’ve ever seen. When someone in the gallery sneezed, he snapped around and said, “God bless you.” It was ridiculous. He was desperately trying to prove that he’s the world’s nicest guy with the biggest heart, but darnit-all he’s bound by the law and when the law says screw the little guy, well, gosh, he just doesn’t have a choice.
Mary G
@TriassicSands: This won’t work because Republicans cannot be trusted to keep their word on any deal. If it’s convenient, they will use alternate facts to declare the sky is pink with purple polka dots and flying pigs.
I say filibuster away. I think McConnell and the saner members of their Senate caucus (I know, it’s relative) are capable of imagining Trump fucking something up royally, the Freedom Caucus demanding more and more lunatic shit, the economy tanks, and voters get fed up with the experiment and give the Democrats a wave election. Then if the filibuster is dead Republicans have no power at all. Trump will never veto anything popular the Dems send him in 2019.
TriassicSands
@Viva BrisVegas: @Chet Murthy:
The Court has narrowed the definition of “recess” to the point where the GOP can easily be effectively in recess and still maintain the minimal presence necessary to prevent Obama from making a recess appointment.
Mary G
@Aleta: Aw, another debit. What a sweet face on that pupper. And he changed her name from Julep to Tutti Frutti, so she has to be fun.
TriassicSands
@Mary G:
I wrote a comment on the WaPo site in response to the editorial and I pointed out that the Democrats couldn’t really trust McConnell. But I don’t think that is the real flaw in the plan. McConnell doesn’t have to make any agreement or deal to get Gorsuch and the next nominee confirmed. He can kill the filibuster when he needs to.
Further, I imagine McConnell is looking at 2018 without a lot of concern. The Senate is really stacked against the Dems and regardless of whether they have a real chance of taking back the Senate, I don’t think McConnell is worried. I saw a poll (it was before the election, I’m pretty sure) and McConnell was the most unpopular Senator of all. And yet he won re-election.Just because people come to hate Trump doesn’t mean they’ll vote for a Democrat in ’18. If we’re lucky, a lot of them might stay home or vote for the New Reformed Nazi Party or some other attractive third party, but they aren’t likely to vote for a Democrat. These are profoundly stupid and/or ignorant people.
TheMightyTrowel
OT… well sort of… this is a rant about male ego…
today i got an irate email from a very very senior american male archaeologist. He’s a retired prof – just writes books these days. I’ve never met him or crossed paths with him before in my life but some of his recent work is, on the surface, similar to some of mine. I have a book proposal out with a UK university press and they seem to have sent it to him. Today he wrote me directly (highly inappropriate in itself) to relay that he’d had to withdraw himself as a peer reviewer because how could he give a fair review to someone who had SO MISUNDERSTOOD his latest book (which I mentioned in 1 sentence about competing literature). What followed was a 3 page bullet point list of why my 1 sentence totally miscast his book, demonstrated my ignorance of his VERY IMPORTANT contribution and made clear I was ignorant. He ended his email with the delightful signature ‘in case you don’t understand why you should take this critique seriously, i’ve attached my CV’.
What. The. Fuck. I mean, who does that? Also why are old man egos so weak? And more than that, is it any wonder that all the women I know in academia have impostor syndrome? I get shit like this all the time from old men and because they’re the gatekeepers I know it has an effect.
Anyhow, i must continue to take my sustenance from old men’s tears. rant over.
TenguPhule
@gene108:
You could have shortened all of this down to “Civil War”
I don’t think enough people have realized just how bad things have gotten and how much worse they will become.
TenguPhule
@TriassicSands:
Never.
The only deal that is going to be acceptable is unconditional surrender.
TenguPhule
@Viva BrisVegas:
He did what he could, President Obama was trying to avoid the whole Republic going up in flames while still trying to keep the evidence from being destroyed.
And our worthless media had the attention span of a 2 week old kitten when it came to focusing on the obstruction of Garland. As soon as the new shiny object came along (EMAILS!), they completely stopped reminding people of it (BOTHSIDES!).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TheMightyTrowel: I’ll let President Obama answer this.
Chet Murthy
@TheMightyTrowel: Only one thing for it, eh? When it’s your turn, make sure you only raise up women. And I say this as a man in a very technical, competitive field. Men raise up men preferentially, *unconsciously*. Return the favor, eh? And remember, it’s not discrimination — it’s *leveling the field*.
After 10,000 years of leveling, maybe the field will actually -be- level, and we can all be judged for what we offer.
P.S. Gotta believe OldFartProf is suffering from B(ig)B(ook)S(mall)D(**k).
Bruce K
Point one: at this point I can’t see how anyone in our country can trust Mitch McConnell with their wallet, let alone the fate of the United States.
Point two: the country’s back is to the wall on this one. People who actually care about the country have got to start fighting against the reactionary coup like there isn’t going to be a tomorrow, because the day’s coming pretty soon when there won’t be.
TriassicSands
@TheMightyTrowel:
On behalf of old men everywhere I apologize for that jerk’s behavior. I hope you don’t think we’re all like that.
His message to you sounded almost Trumpian — “Hey, I’m incredibly insecure and I need to overreact and lord it over you so that I can feel comfortable in my ill-fitting skin.”
I think it goes without saying that to the extent possible it is best to ignore people like that. It doesn’t sound like he can directly affect your own career or success. If that’s true, it’s a good thing.
I understand the need to vent and this is as good a place as any to let go. I’m torn between advising you to forget the creep or sending him a brief, carefully-crafted response. The latter option could take many forms, but generally there would be the high road and the low. On the low road you might recommend a fictional medication designed to help him deal with feelings of inadequacy. You could also thank him for making your day (week, month, year/) by pointing out how important your own work must be if a single mention of him elicited such a lengthy rebuttal.
I often work through a variety of responses to unpleasantness on the part of others and then, finally, just let it go realizing it’s not worth my time. The time spent deciding how to respond is cathartic and obviates the need to do anything.
Good luck with your book proposal.
TriassicSands
@Chet Murthy:
After 10,000 years we’re going to have gills…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@TheMightyTrowel: There’s a reason Max Planck famously said[1] “Science progresses one funeral at a time”. And he was talking about the scientific culture of his time (old German guys). I’m sure it’s much worse for a woman. I haven’t heard too much about being a women in academia that gives me warm fuzzies about women having a fair shake.
[1] As Lincoln (did you know he was a Republican?) famously said, 80% of the quotes on the internet are misattributed. This one seems to be actually said by Planck, but not in those exact words. The original quote is here:
https://todayinsci.com/P/Planck_Max/PlanckMax-Quotations.htm
maryQ
I wonder how all those a88holes who complained that Garland wasn’t liberal enough feel now.
Scamp Dog
@gene108:
No, the Democrats will split. We won’t wind up in a one-party state.
My worry is that the Koch brothers and their ilk will throw enough money at the more conservative of the two to change it into what the Republicans are now.
Ruviana
@TheMightyTrowel: I suspect I know who it is just from yr description. In my lost years as an academic secretary I saw it more than one would think. Drop that sucker in the round file and chortle that he stopped being a referee on the proposal.
Uncle Cosmo
@TriassicSands: I think the most caring & sensitive thing you could do is to write back & offer him your deepest sympathy. Because you understand that at his stage of life, he is hard up against the distressing prospect that in a very short time he will encounter his own mortality–& before that, in all likelihood, the deterioration of his higher faculties–with the certain knowledge that in a few years his life’s work will be relegated to obscure footnotes & in a few years more no one will remember who he was or what he spent his time on earth doing.
If that doesn’t provoke the old mofo into a massive stroke, nothing will.
Debbie1
@gene108: Yeah, here we go again. Obama didn’t fully understand. YOU understood but Obama didn’t. Thanks, Trump.
No One You Know
@TheMightyTrowel: Gakk,I’m sorry. The more insulation anyone, but especially men, get as they advance in status, the more irritating and important trivial things get…because the trivial no longer has any competition.
To say nothing about no longer having groupies — otherwise known as adoring undergrads — and slave labor — otherwise known as gradstudents. Or worse… competition for their uncritical acceptance.
I also think that the sending of a CV and withdrawal is a sign real weakness. It just screams “how dare you assume a position of such equality as to call yourself a competitor?”
No One You Know
@No One You Know: ETA: Said better, by more qualified folk, upthread, but I’m glad to be in such erudite company.