Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

In my day, never was longer.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

There are no moderate Republican – only extremists, and cowards.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

No one could have predicted…

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Go Senator Whitehouse!

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

How are Republicans going to find someone with more charisma and personal charm than Jim Jordan?

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

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Reader Interactions

342Comments

  1. 1.

    magurakurin

    dementia. Are we going to pretend everything is just fine like we did with Reagan?

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Thank you. Thank you for rescuing this blog from the nightmare that was 100% Massholes.

  6. 6.

    Pogonip

    When I saw the headline I rather expected pantsless video..,

    I wonder what that rustly tinkling sound in the room is?

  8. 8.

    Mike in NC

    We don’t have any kids or grandchildren, which means we’ll never have to explain to them how we as a nation got stuck with Trumpolini the Lunatic.

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    Dense goes after him and was like, “Bruh. Sign this shit.”
    And Trump was all, “Allah muh lakum, muh bruh. I have to poo.”
    Dense: “Oh.”

  14. 14.

    Trentrunner

    The Internet has already spliced this video into the Veep credits ending, and it’s genius.

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Also, that room full of his enablers, trying to pretend this is just normal and not the weirdest and most awkward moment yet since January 20th.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    I think the thumbs up as he left the room was the physical version saying “Fine.” when you really mean “Fuck you.” Twitler’s version of giving the finger.

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    @Mike in NC:

    We don’t have any kids or grandchildren, which means we’ll never have to explain to them how we as a nation got stuck with Trumpolini the Lunatic.

    Man, my kid is now 12. He has a full grasp of what just happened. May God Have Mercy On My Soul.

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    @Pogonip:

    I wonder what that rustly tinkling sound in the room is?

    Camera shutters. ETA: Actually, I think most of the noise is from the reflex mirror moving out of the way rather than the shutter, but it’s from the news photographers’ cameras.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    Maxine Waters‏Verified account @MaxineWaters

    “Republicans: Where are the Patriots”? Please read my op-ed concerning the latest developments in the #Trumprussia investigation.

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “I’m taking my pen and going home!”

    I so want to see this guy being frogmarched into Leavenworth…

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Oh shit, and this is Shabbat, isn’t it? So Jared and Ivanka won’t be around to govern the electronic twitter machine.

    Tomorrow morning promises to be EPIC!

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    I get so sick of Huh Huh Joni Ernst trying to sell me services from Angie’s List bullshit.

  27. 27.

    Pogonip

    @SiubhanDuinne: No, you can’t hear that; my father was incontinent in his final days. I think adult diapers are soundproof.

    Had occasion to learn that baby diapers still rustle loudly, and I hope they always do.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jerzy Russian: The President comes to the podium to questions and then sign the EOs, Major Garrett (not an actual officer at that rank in any military organization) asked the President about LTG Flynn. The President then immediately leaves the podium, walks to the door, flashes someone in the back of the room a thumb up, opens the door. VP Pence, looking more befuddled than usual follows him, puts his hand on his arm, gestures to the President’s desk with the EOs, and seems to ask (they’re off mic) what he wants to do. The President appears to tell him to bring them. Then the President leaves the room. The VP goes and gets the EOs and follows him. No press conference, no public signing of the EOs.

  33. 33.

    Pogonip

    @Corner Stone: Angie’s List originated in Clumbus, Ahia, home of THE Ohio State University, and, in fact, Angie only lived a couple of miles from me, though I did not know her. At the beginning Angie’s List was legitimate.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: I had to rewind the video a bit to get it to play, the fawning from Pence and the guy who preceded him, and knowing that they know they have to do that… dignity wraiths, again and again.

    Also, too

    FBI probing whether Trump aides helped Russian intel in early 2016
    CBS News has learned that U.S. investigators are looking into whether Trump campaign representatives had a role in helping Russian intelligence as it carried out cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee and other political targets in March 2016.
    This new information suggests that the FBI is going back further than originally reported to determine the extent of possible coordination. Sources say investigators are probing whether an individual or individuals connected to the campaign intentionally or unwittingly helped the Russians breach Democratic Party targets.

    “unwittingly”– I increasingly think that my hunch that Giuliani and/or people around him and in the orbit of the NY FBI office may have been useful idiots for Putin might not be quite so far-fetched and crack-potty. Though Stone is the only figure named in the post.

  36. 36.

    Quinerly

    Several of THE shows led with it tonight. Maybe the demented asshole is watching. We can’t continue as a nation at this pace. Maybe I’m on overload, though. Had those wonderful 6 weeks chauffeuring Poco (as in my dog, not the band) around New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah…got back home and promptly got sick with a terrible cold/flu. Been trying to pull it together but think I have done myself in with too much news this week. Had pulled away from it while on the road. This is truly the never fucking ending week. How can we continue? Will we eventually just be numb to it?

  38. 38.

    Aunt Kathy

    Am I the only one who thinks he did it on purpose? I don’t think he wanted Russia/surveillance questions shouted at him any more than they already were. Only smart thing he’s done since inauguration.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    Looking forward to tomorrow when we find out that the Trump administration is the most awesome April Fool’s stunt ever.

  46. 46.

    Pogonip

    You know, I don’t really mind Pogonip Junior not picking up the Mop of Power for a few days, but if that kid doesn’t stop missing the Bowl of Righteousness with his precious bodily fluids, there will be blood!

  49. 49.

    geg6

    @Quinerly:

    If you hadn’t had that lovely journey, you’d be as inured to it as we are. It’s been insane every day for 70 days. Amazing what humans can tolerate.

  50. 50.

    mainmata

    @Pogonip: In the old days, it would be photo flash bulbs, maybe someone is still using them or at least loud SLR cameras with flashes.

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I won’t believe they’re observing Sabbath until there are pictures confirming it. Nothing spoken by any Trump has been honest in I don’t know how long. I demand proof!

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Pogonip:

    No, you can’t hear that; my father was incontinent in his final days. I think adult diapers are soundproof.

    Your father (mine, too, in his final days and throughout his life) was a gentleman. I don’t think the Depends has yet been designed that can muffle Trump’s rusty tinkle.

  56. 56.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Gin & Tonic: OK, that does sound awkward. I assume the thing he was supposed to sign is some bad executive order, so the fact that it did not get signed is a good thing?

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    But….it was supposed to be JUST CRIMINALS….remember?

    ………………

    ICE Arrests Green Card Applicants In Lawrence, Signaling Shift In Priorities
    March 30, 2017

    Federal immigration officers arrested five people in Lawrence on Wednesday when they showed up for scheduled appointments at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office.

    WBUR has confirmed that at least three of those arrested were beginning the process to become legal permanent residents. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says the agency had orders to detain each of the five individuals for deportation.

    ‘They’re In A Sort Of Catch-22’

    Brian Doyle, the attorney for one of the three people who were seeking green cards before they were arrested, says he knew there was a chance his client would be taken into custody at the appointment.

    His client, a Brazilian national who had been ordered deported before she married a U.S. citizen, understood the risks as well, but ultimately decided that she wanted to keep the appointment and begin the green card process.

    This, Doyle says, is an example of the difficult situation for many immigrants living in the country illegally, who are forced to weigh the costs and benefits of keeping an appointment with an immigration official in light of new deportation priorities set by President Trump.

    “Now, they’re in a sort of catch-22 where, ‘All right, I’m being called in for this interview. I want to have this first step approved.’ If they don’t show up, it’s what’s called abandoned … USCIS just sort of assumes that they don’t want to go forward with it,” Doyle said. “But now, if they do show up, trying to take that first step and they’re detained, it can lead to them being removed.”

    Because Doyle’s client is married to a U.S. citizen, she is eligible for a specific application process sponsored by her husband. Both Doyle’s client and her husband were present at the USCIS office for what’s called a marriage petition interview, a process used to screen for fraudulent marriages. Doyle said his client, a small business owner with no criminal record, had just completed her 40-minute question and answer session when an ICE agent entered the office and informed her that she was ordered removed and was being taken into custody.

  61. 61.

    Quinerly

    @Roger Moore:
    I have had thoughts that Trump will truly crack up…can’t take the pressure, the failure, the lack of control. There were rumors swirling back in the day that he had to be institutionalized when he had that string of business failures/ the bankruptcies. Can we even believe that we would be hoping for the leader of the free world to crack? This is deadly serious stuff. I’m really struggling these last few days. It’s like I don’t even know where I am.

  62. 62.

    p.a.

    @mainmata: I doubt any photojournalists at the level of Presidential press conferences use mirrorless SLRs, but they are quieter without mirrorslap.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Adam, ever listen to the classic radio play The Investigator?

    Used to have the original album but it was lent out and never returned long, long ago. Actually belonged first to the parents who, at the time, hosted furtive after dinner gatherings of the like-minded during the 50s to play it, with the curtains all tightly drawn and the lights dimmed.

    Some background on the play and its writer on Wikipedia.

  65. 65.

    germy

    The CBS Evening News showed Major Garrett asking the question, showed drump walking out, but it was edited to look like the press conference had simply ended. I saw the uncut version online, with Pence’s awkwardness, etc.

    I don’t know why CBS couldn’t say “When asked, he walked out of the room without signing his order, to the confusion of us all.” Maybe they were too embarrassed to.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    Kay, did you see this wretchedness?

    ……………………

    Student Loan Forgiveness Program Approval Letters May Be Invalid, Education Dept. Says

    By STACY COWLEY
    March 30, 2017

    More than 550,000 people have signed up for a federal program that promises to repay their remaining student loans after they work 10 years in a public service job.

    But now, some of those workers are left to wonder if the government will hold up its end of the bargain — or leave them stuck with thousands of dollars in debt that they thought would be eliminated.

    In a legal filing submitted last week, the Education Department suggested that borrowers could not rely on the program’s administrator to say accurately whether they qualify for debt forgiveness. The thousands of approval letters that have been sent by the administrator, FedLoan Servicing, are not binding and can be rescinded at any time, the agency said.

    The filing adds to questions and concerns about the program just as the first potential beneficiaries reach the end of their 10-year commitment — and the clocks start ticking on the remainder of their debts.

    Four borrowers and the American Bar Association have filed a suit in United States District Court in Washington against the department.

  69. 69.

    Quinerly

    @geg6:
    I didn’t shut myself out. Kept up with pretty much everything from an online perspective…here, TPM, Digby, Washington Monthly. Always have been a news junkie. It just something particularly dark this week to me. Actually, it might be because I have been watching Spicer’s briefings. I find them particularly disturbing…especially the exchange with April Ryan.

  70. 70.

    Spanky

    @p.a.:

    I doubt any photojournalists at the level of Presidential press conferences use mirrorless SLRs,

    My neighbor, who covers the WH for Getty, uses the slappy kind.

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jerzy Russian: He just signed it in the Oval Office with no one around. But he lost his photo op, which is going to be a negative blow to his NPD and require him to lash out later. Tomorrow morning is going to be nuts.

  72. 72.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @geg6: This is part of what pisses me off so – they’ve provoked me in to becoming a worse person. I recognize it’s my choice of course, but g*d damn it I used to be better than I am now. I want to see them all frogmarched, Bannon, Pence and the entire Trump Crime family, excluding Tiffany and Baron. Along with the other Russia connections; I’ve lost track of the ones we know about, and we have to rely on the FBI to tell us who the ones we don’t know about yet. Ideally by unsealing indictments.

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    The GOP’s Favorite Health-Care Idea Is to Stick It to Mothers
    By Jonathan Chait

    The single most unifying idea to change Obamacare among conservatives is to eliminate the law’s “essential health benefits.” These burdensome mandates of which treatments insurance has to cover make Obamacare too expensive, conservatives say. Their problem is that the list of required essential health benefits includes actually only, well, essential ones. If the list did include any frivolous treatments, like cosmetic surgery or some goofy alternative-medicine quack scheme, that’s all you’d hear about. But it doesn’t. So the single example conservatives come up with, over and over, is maternity care. Today it appears in Charles Krauthammer’s column:

    ………….

    Krauthammer himself has been a paraplegic since the age of 22. That’s an expensive medical condition. Probably he has group insurance through the Washington Post or another institution with which he’s affiliated, allowing him to spread the cost of his expensive medical care onto a risk pool that includes healthier, cheaper-to-cover people. Or perhaps he has a different arrangement. I do not for one moment resent that my insurance helps cover either childbirth or mechanized wheelchairs, even though I personally need neither service, and nothing Krauthammer says would make me reconsider.

    It is callous enough that Republicans apply their every-man-for-himself logic to health care, and land on the belief that those fortunate enough to be blessed with good health should not be burdened with the cost of paying for the medical needs of others. But when the advocate of this argument himself has expensive medical needs, the callousness rises to a level of solipsistic barbarism. A paraplegic man resents having to pay for women who need help breastfeeding their babies. Why should those women have to buy insurance that covers wheelchairs?

  76. 76.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: Betsy DeVos and her vile kkklan should be forced to pay out of their own funds any judgement against DoEd.

  77. 77.

    p.a.

    aaaaaannnnndddddd… There’s one more!

    In the 17th century, the term “commonwealth” referred to an organized political community, or what today is called a “state.” Four states in the Union—Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Virginia—are still officially called commonwealths. When they joined the United States, they chose to keep the old form instead of using “state” as their title.
    In modern times, the term commonwealth also refers to “a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the U.S.” Examples of these types of commonwealths are Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

  78. 78.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: Krauthammer needs to be dumped from his wheelchair on the Mass Pike in a January snowstorm and left to fend for himself.

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @p.a.:

    I doubt any photojournalists at the level of Presidential press conferences use mirrorless SLRs

    I think Pete Souza used a Leica rangefinder for much of his photography of Obama, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear he chose it in part because it’s quieter than a SLR.

  83. 83.

    rikyrah

    Stop. The Mostly Republican led state bullshyt.
    Even when there is a DEMOCRATIC Governor, the GOP state Houses block them. There is not one DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR that hasn’t tried to expand Medicaid.

    ……………………………………

    No Obamacare cease-fire in red states
    After the collapse of the GOP’s repeal bill, most states refusing Medicaid expansion won’t give up the fight.
    03/31/17 05:13 AM EDT

    The epic collapse of the Obamacare repeal bill created an odd opportunity for 19 states that have long shunned Medicaid expansion.

    Billions in Obamacare cash remain on the table. And for the first time, that cash comes with a Trump administration promise to give states unprecedented flexibility to remake the program with a conservative slant — for instance, by imposing work requirements or requiring more recipients to pay premiums.

    Yet with few exceptions, most of the holdout states are walking away from the money and what they regard as a broken entitlement program. Some even want to shrink the program they have.

    ……………………………………

    For years, these 19 holdout states have walked away from piles of federal cash to expand the program — even after two Supreme Court rulings and the reelection of Barack Obama in 2012 further entrenched the Affordable Care Act. These mostly Republican-led states argued that expanding the program would bust their budgets and make it harder to dismantle the health care law once Republicans gained full control in Washington.

  84. 84.

    Quinerly

    How as a nation did we go from a President Obama to this mess? I still can’t believe it.

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: It was reported earlier this week that on orders of Tom Perez every person working for the DNC was fired. At the same time he issued instructions that select individuals would be interviewed to either retain the position they were just terminated from or for different positions. While it is somewhat standard for new party chairs to clean house when they take over, it is speculated that this was done this way because the DNC leadership thinks it had one or more moles and/or double agents during the 2016 election.

  86. 86.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And now you know why Perez just fired everyone. They think they have a mole. Remember what I keep saying: penetration at all levels.

    Gadzooks! I missed a big story

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Nice that someone had the perspicacity to finally put it up on YouTube. Used to be one had to jump through hoops to find muddy audio copies squirreled away in online academic archives.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: @Villago Delenda Est: And had it not been for the Canadian health care he hates, he would never have lived long enough to immigrate to the US and become a burden on us.

    Everything you need to know/understand about Krauthammer can be found below:
    http://washingtonmonthly.com/2006/08/09/a-personal-moment-with-charles-krauthammer/

    A PERSONAL MOMENT WITH CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER….M.J. Rosenberg shares a Charles Krauthammer moment:
    About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace ? peace essentially on Israel’s terms ? but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to “shush” him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?

  90. 90.

    germy

    Will history repeat itself in 2020? If, I don’t know, Kirsten Gillibrand gets the nom, am I going to see a bunch of people complain about her not being perfect enough? Who will they find to split the vote? Nader will be too old. Stein, maybe?

  91. 91.

    Roger Moore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And now you know why Perez just fired everyone. They think they have a mole.

    Firing everyone seems like a bad response to that; you’re just providing more chances to everyone who wants to insert moles.

  92. 92.

    Quinerly

    @Spanky:
    Thanks for the kind words. I think I’ve been in a dark place this week because of this flu bug and too much tv plus 5 days of St. Louis rain. Poco is chillaxing waiting for his May NC beach trip. He loves the beach. “Luckiest ex inner city street dog, ever.”

  94. 94.

    PsiFighter37

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: If this Russia stuff doesn’t uncover anything, Trump will simply golf away the next 4 years. The GOP will only impeach/remove him from power if they think that it will be politically opportune to do so. Right now, as long as he’s obliviously signing whatever crap is being put in front of him, they will keep it up.

    The fact that Dense Pence and Granny Starver are next in line is not reassuring.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Roger Moore: They’re being a bit more careful:
    It was reported earlier this week that on orders of Tom Perez every person working for the DNC was fired. At the same time he issued instructions that select individuals would be interviewed to either retain the position they were just terminated from or for different positions. While it is somewhat standard for new party chairs to clean house when they take over, it is speculated that this was done this way because the DNC leadership thinks it had one or more moles and/or double agents during the 2016 election.

  98. 98.

    Debbie1

    Did it seem to anyone else that Donald was chased out of the Oval Office by a question? Or, as he would say to the Prime Minister of Japan, “The very famous Oval Office?”

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    Obama Officials Made List of Secret Russia Probe Documents To Protect Them
    March 31, 2016

    Obama administration officials were so concerned about what would happen to key classified documents related to the Russia probe once President Trump took office that they created a list of document serial numbers to give to senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a former Obama official told NBC News.

    The official said that after the list of documents related to the probe into Russian interference in the U.S. election was created in early January, he hand-carried it to the committee members. The numbers themselves were not classified, said the official.

    The purpose, said the official, was to make it “harder to bury” the information, “to share it with those on the Hill who could lawfully see the documents,” and to make sure it could reside in an Intelligence committee safe, “not just at Langley [CIA hq].”

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PsiFighter37: As painful as it is, you want this to limp along, picking up energy, speed, and size along the way. You want it to hound the GOP in the 2017 off year elections and the 2018 midterms. Let it weigh them down like a sea anchor. As painful as it is, use it as the gifted weapon that it is. If the enemy provides you with free ammunition and cedes the high ground, use it.

  104. 104.

    ET

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I agree with Steele. I have never thought Trump would last the 4 years. Either he would be impeached or just leave it all after it all went so wrong and take his toys back to Trump Tower and pout. There would of course be a lot of blame tossing because nothing is ever his fault.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: Everyone dies? Bitsy Tulloch’s character got a third, final personality? They all moved to Smurf Village?

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @PsiFighter37: The fact that Dense Pence and Granny Starver are next in line is not reassuring.

    Pence I think would be very weak in a post-Trump world, both the taint of scandal and the fact that he will be associated by the true Trumplings with the Dread Establishment. How, if it looks like trumpy is circling the drain, Ryan manages to stay away from the Veepship will/would be interesting (with the understanding that this is all still rank speculation)

  109. 109.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for the explanation. So, could be Trump is getting slightly funny in the head due to age and obese sloth, or he can’t be bothered to learn anything about the job, or he is settling into ‘Fuck All this Shit and All You Punks’ mode.

    Which brings to mind the opinion of someone who did goofus president with far more falir when this shebang all got started:

    Report: George W. Bush Said Trump Inauguration ‘Was Some Weird S***’

    “That was some weird shit,” Bush said after leaving the dais, three unnamed sources told New York magazine.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/george-bush-that-was-some-weird-shit

    OTOH, Trumf hasn’t started any shooting wars yet.

  113. 113.

    germy

    @Adam L Silverman: The Smurf Village part is correct.

    My wife has followed the show. I’m not a big fan. I won’t give away any endings, but she was happy with the way the finale was handled.

  114. 114.

    JGabriel

    @Aunt Kathy:

    Am I the only one who thinks he did it on purpose? I don’t think he wanted Russia/surveillance questions shouted at him any more than they already were.

    Check the video. Trump was, in fact, already walking away from the podium before the first question was asked.

    Trump seemed to just … forget to sign the EO’s. Since he was walking away, instead of towards his desk, reporters started asking questions about Flynn. Even they didn’t seem to realize Trump forgot all about signing the EO’s – until he was out the door.

    Just about the clearest sign of Presidential Alzheimer’s since Reagan.

  117. 117.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Adam L Silverman: My understanding is that Perez asked everyone for their resignations; while this is effectively “fired” it’s more diplomatic than Donald on “Celebrity Apprentice”. But then again Donald has no use for diplomacy, as both his SoS choice and his lack of concern about empty billets at Foggy Bottom indicate.

  119. 119.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Charlie Savage @charlie_savage

    Exclusive: Trump declares Somalia a war zone, lifts Obama’s civilian protection rules for airstrikes, commando raids

    6:25 AM – 30 Mar 2017

    244 replies 2,759 retweets 1,117 likes

    but, but….. revolutionary Susan Sarandon assured us Trump was a pacifist.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: If, I don’t know, Kirsten Gillibrand gets the nom, am I going to see a bunch of people complain about her not being perfect enough?

    Yes, but fewer. Michael Moore and Bill Maher publicly begged Ralph Nader not to fuck up 2004, even nut job Sarandon and Robbins endorsed John Edwards in 2008. Cornel West OTOH will probably be roaming the halls of the networks, desperate to get someone to pay attention to him, maybe even declaring himself the candidate! West/Wilmer, 2020?

  126. 126.

    WaterGirl

    @jl: Lovely to see that nothing has changed. W can say “he said some weird shit” and it’s folksy. Imagine if President Obama had said that publicly.

  128. 128.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    I think it would have to be a Shabbas goy taking the pictures. Pretty sure it’s forbidden for Orthodox to operate a camera on the Sabbath, but glad to be corrected by people who actually know.

  129. 129.

    JGabriel

    @Debbie1:

    Did it seem to anyone else that Donald was chased out of the Oval Office by a question?

    It seemed to me that Trump was already heading towards the door before the first question was asked. It’s possible that the questions kept him from turning around to go back to sign the EO’s, though.

  130. 130.

    jl

    Question I have is why would we expect anything other than this kind of show? Look at Trump’s nearly random tweets on health care reform. He’s back to bashing the Freedom Caucus, dangling the possibility of working with moderate Dems as some kind of stick. And the Freedom Caucus responds with demands for even more punitive and reactionary, and deadly cruel changes to health care policy, that look designed to flip the House to the Dems, if they were ever enacted.

    Trump’s tweet behavior suggest a kind of inverse Turing Test to me. Can you distinguish a human’s responses from a random sentence generator? I’m not sure what it tests yet, but seems to me Trump would be the natural subject for pilot tests.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: Nah. Pence would nominate someone for veep who is so distasteful that his own position would be assured.

    That is what I’ve wondered is, constitutionally, can Ryan refuse the job, if trump resigns or… becomes incapacitated (can you OD on snickers and KFC enough to go Sunny Von Bulow?)? I”m sure some ‘special legislation’, special like Bush v Gore, could be drafted to stick some other goat underneath Pence so Paulie can keep himself, in his mind, clean for a future shot at the WH.

  135. 135.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: honest to God, every time I think I’ve reached a new level of contempt and hatred for these authoritarian assholes, and that I can’t go any further, I end up slipping further into darknes. God damn them all.

  136. 136.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Would the Villagers demand Pres. Pence pick a Democratic VP, to bring the country together?

    Of course not. But they’d do it if a Democrat were leaving. Except a Democrat wouldn’t have reason to.

  138. 138.

    jl

    @WaterGirl: I’m one of those who think Obama had several occasions to say just that with more than just cause. And he should have. So, I;m not the best person to respond to that observation.

  140. 140.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: JoJo Lieberman, Your Life Is Calling? Evan Bayh, please come to a purple sell out phone? Joe Manchin, are you ready for your close-up?

  143. 143.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jl: which would have done.. what? there was no magic spell to undo the election results

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You know I’ve been suspicious of Tad Devine ever since the Russia thing started to blow up. And if someone who’s been working for the Democrats as long as Devine has could potentially have been suborned by the Russians …

  148. 148.

    Quinerly

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Heartbreaking. Plus, remember all the bright, qualified, attractive (healthy) people who came in with Obama? I get sick to my stomach when I think about Bannon, Spicer, Conway et al. It’s a study in contrasts.

  149. 149.

    jl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was talking about many episodes of where Obama had more than just cause to say that during his term.

    But I think bipartisan expression of the truth is always helpful, so would be interesting to see a quote of what Obama had to say at the time.

  150. 150.

    dm

    @Quinerly:

    Can we even believe that we would be hoping for the leader of the free world to crack?

    What have you got against Angela Merkel?

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @jl: I’ve been missing Luther lately – if President Obama can’t speak out against Trump, I would like to see Luther do it.

  154. 154.

    randy khan

    @JGabriel:

    That’s what it seemed like to me, too – he said his sentence or two and thought he was done, so he walked out. I actually ran the video back a bit to see if I could figure it out, and that’s what seemed to be happening. I’m not really sure if I think that’s better or worse than leaving because he was annoyed by a question. (And, truth be told, he seemed more annoyed while he was waiting for Pence to finish than he did when he left the room.)

  156. 156.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t understand that suspicion cast on Tad Devine, as opposed to, say Weaver. I think Devine was much quicker to go along with the primary results than Weaver, Weaver was running around suggesting that SSSSSSS would play very hard ball at the convention, and Devine was not. Am I misremembering?

    What did Devine do specifically that makes him suspicious?

  158. 158.

    Quinerly

    @Mnemosyne:
    #147 I’m with you on Devine. Had a blow up with a Wilmer cultist just this week over Devine. I’m not prone to conspiracy theories but who would have thought we could have ended up with a Pres Trump? I’m beginning to think anything is possible.

  159. 159.

    WaterGirl

    @opiejeanne: ha!

    It’s even more concerning to me that Twitler would forget that he had to sign the papers than it was to think he was an incompetent asshole who couldn’t bear to be questioned by a reporter.

    It really is true that he appeared to be leaving the room even before the question was asked. Holy shit, he really is coming apart. He can’t even keep it together for a 5-minute signing.

  160. 160.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Quinerly: twitter is abuzz with the relative recent silence and absence of Mrs Conway. I wonder if two high-profile magazine profiles were seen as bumptious, or if she’s preparing for unspecified family issues to force her to go back to the leafy Jersey suburbs and please respect our privacy at this difficult time.

    and speaking of Mrs Conway, I’ve said that one of the reasons I hate trumpy is that he has forced me to often agree with Mr Axis-Of-Evil, but this made me smile

    David FrumVerified account @ davidfrum
    The Spicer show is so fascinating precisely because he remembers when he used to have a conscience, and the memory troubles him.
    David Frum Retweeted David Frum
    Kellyanne Conway doesn’t bear this moral burden, so she’s much smoother.

    @jl: ah, sorry, I misunderstood

  163. 163.

    WaterGirl

    @randy khan: I was composing my comment at #159 while you were writing pretty much the same thing I did. Except that I know which one seems worse to me!

  165. 165.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: I can think of a part of it they can have, one house, maybe… IIRC it comes equipped with a sat-linked TeeVee studio

  166. 166.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Topic suddenly made me remember the brouhaha over the modernist mink-covered bed freshly installed v.p. Rockefeller donated to the still newly designated official residence of the veep (which Rockefeller did not choose to occupy, BTW).

  167. 167.

    germy

    @WaterGirl: Jordan Peele has said he is done with sketch comedy. He wants to focus on writing and directing films. He’s a talented guy. I was pleased Get Out was a success.

  169. 169.

    Quinerly

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    The Frum thing has bothered me too. I used to despise him. Now, I look at him and even find him somewhat attractive. I’m so a shame. Kidding aside, he has been pretty spot on in his writings. He genuinely seems deeply troubled when he’s on THE shows.

  170. 170.

    Zinsky

    A little context would have been helpful, Mr. Silverman. Trump is unquestionably stupid and vulgar. If he has dementia, we are well and truly fucked. Impeach the sack of shit and get it over with…

  171. 171.

    jl

    @Baud:

    ” Haha. Rachel is reporting that Russia wants Alaska back. ”

    But how much is Trump willing to pay? We know how good he is with great deelz.

  172. 172.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: I almost overcame my loathing of movie houses to see it, couldn’t quite, so I can’t wait till it streams somewhere. Seems to happen quick these days, what with yer inter tubes and such. And I’ve even managed to avoid spoilers!

  175. 175.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore: I keep thinking that one of these days they’re going to ban those things at the White House. They’re far too loud and distracting, and digital cameras are good enough that they don’t need to permit all that flapping noise. In a few years, I figure all the photographers will simply “film” everything at 240 frames/s and they’ll just grab whatever frame they want, rather than taking individual photos.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  176. 176.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: That was great. “I got my eye on you, puzzy grabber!”

    I miss Barack. Still, most of the time when I read “the president” or “the white house” for just a split second I think it’s President Obama and a sane white house. Just for part of a second. That denial is probably what is keeping me sane.

  179. 179.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: for some reason, the words “President Trump” are most jarring to me from the radio– wasn’t much fun typing them just then. I remember having the same reaction in 2001.

  180. 180.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: Interesting. I have never even heard of Get Out. Of course, working 60-80 hours a week will do that to you. Glad that is over.

  181. 181.

    germy

    @WaterGirl: “He was shook! He didn’t expect to win!”

    They’re funny because they tell the truth.

    When I first heard about Get Out, I thought it would be a little film in limited release, and nobody would see it. I was pleasantly surprised it was a hit.

  182. 182.

    Baud

    Speaking of awkward

    President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2017 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

  183. 183.

    Shana

    While that was indeed weird the thing that really stuck out for me was that the woman in the three person group standing there didn’t walk out right behind Pence. One of the men moved to the front of their little line and put himself in between Pence and the woman. Is this another one of Pence’s odd rules? You can’t even walk next to a woman who isn’t your wife. The dude is seriously nuts.

  196. 196.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne: That was my reaction as well. He strayed and a bunch of rules were imposed. So as not to have the marriage ended and embarrassing details exposed.

  197. 197.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Wow. That’s billboard level awkward. Skywriting level awkward. What a fucking pig. (Not you!)

  200. 200.

    germy

    @WaterGirl: Wrote and directed it. He said he was inspired by Rod Serling, who addressed social issues through the medium of suspense and horror.

  201. 201.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    From twitter:

    (((DeanObeidallah)))‏ @Deanofcomedy

    When I hear people speaking Russian
    I ask them if they know Trump

    Actually it was spoken, but Max Blumenthal was offended by the “xenophobic” nature of the joke and Obeidallah retweeted that. I thought it was fcking hilarious.

  203. 203.

    smintheus

    @debbie: He walks like he has a catheter in. Is that what Major Garrett asked him: “Dude, do you have a catheter?

  206. 206.

    germy

    @Doug R: The Villagers wouldn’t demand it, and he would never do it.
    Democrats, like the press, are enemies of the people.

  211. 211.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne: OK, but pretty much all the big consultants in both parties have worked for authoritarian regimes around the world. And Devine has worked for very establishment Democratic candidates in the past.

    So, if they had something on him, doesn’t seem to me he performed well for them, as opposed to Weaver. Weaver’s big money maker is a fricken comic book store, IIRC. Seems like if Russians were just buying services, they could have gotten Weaver more cheaply. But maybe you are suggesting blackmail. Then maybe nothing on Weaver, since he just sits in the back room reading comics, while Devine has been such a big establishment consultant for so long, they had something on him.

    Sorry, I just don’t take the theory that Bernie and his henchmen were Russian agents all the seriously. I also think that continuing, after almost 5 months, to blame the Democratic defeat entirely on sinister outside forces, from Trump’s delplorables, to BS’s treachery, to Roosky spies is healthy or productive of future success.

  212. 212.

    Gin & Tonic

    Interesting development, as both Verizon and Comcast say they will *not* be selling individual customer browsing histories, despite the removal of the Obama-proposed FCC rule,

  219. 219.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl:

    I also think that continuing, after almost 5 months, to blame the Democratic defeat entirely on sinister outside forces, from Trump’s delplorables, to BS’s treachery, to Roosky spies is healthy or productive of future success.

    Especially when the obvious answer is Baud.

  229. 229.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    I suppose that Devine’s ties to Putin could be totally innocent and coincidental. But I sure wouldn’t bet any money on it, if I were you.

  233. 233.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: hmm, I am not a horror girl. maybe I should skip this one. but good for him for doing something so different and choosing something not safe for his first new venture.

  234. 234.

    mai naem mobile

    @Mnemosyne: Somebody asked David Crosby(yes,that David Crosby)on Twitter about Pence not allowed to be alone with a woman not his wife. His answer was ‘he doesn’t like girls.’ I think your theory is more plausible though.

  235. 235.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Again: NO! Devine was a minor player in Ukraine.

    What you see with Devine and Manafort is the actual reality for a large number of the campaigning professionals in the US. When they’re not running or working for campaigns in the US, they’re working on them in Britain or Israel or Canada or Australia or wherever.

  236. 236.

    J R in WV

    @Quinerly:

    I have only missed a couple of days of it, and I’m still pretty livid at the declining ability of Trump to be a president in any sense of that word. He has no business being in the White House as occupant. He’s an evil fool.

    Fortunately I believe the counter-intelligence services will deal with this issue, indictments will be handed up against every involved person but Trump, and he will be impeached after the indicted staff resign.

  239. 239.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: It’s a long standing thing for sure, but he is the wrong messenger! He assaults women and has absolutely no self-awareness. Ugh. Totally creepy. Can I call him a fucking pig one more time before I go to bed?

  240. 240.

    JGabriel

    @randy khan:

    That’s what it seemed like to me, too – he said his sentence or two and thought he was done, so he walked out. I actually ran the video back a bit to see if I could figure it out, and that’s what seemed to be happening. I’m not really sure if I think that’s better or worse than leaving because he was annoyed by a question.

    The political optics are worse for Trump if everyone thinks he walked away in senile forgetfulness, than if people think he walked away in anger from a reporter’s questions. Trump and/or Spicer can spin the latter as Trump walking away from “rude” or “inappropriate” questioning during an EO signing.

    There’s no way to spin walking away from an EO signing without signing the EOS’s as a senior moment, though. Not when you’re President of the US.

  244. 244.

    Adam L Silverman

    @WaterGirl: He was either not prepped properly for the event. Or what he was prepped to do didn’t take. Either of those is bad. The latter is the worse of the two.

  245. 245.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    We’ll see. I still don’t think it was a coincidence that somebody was whispering in Sanders’s ear that he could totally still win by taking it all the way to the convention. And it’s awfully convenient that Wikileaks just happened to release the emails most calculated to incite his supporters. Devine is still the most likely suspect for that, IMO.

  247. 247.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: They’ve been making this argument for a while now. And part of it is based on the Putinist/Duginist argument about Russia being the protector of ethnic Russians no matter where they are. There is a large ethnic Russian population, right down to its own ethno-religious component, in Alaska.

  249. 249.

    JGabriel

    @Mnemosyne:

    Those are the kind of rules that a wife often puts in place after she discovers her husband has a wandering dick.

    … Or the kind of rules that a closeted, married, male politician might put in place if he wants a reason to surround himself with manly men.

  250. 250.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: Not really. Devine and his company had a small piece of a public relations contract with the Ukrainian government. The Prime contractor, to use the US terminology, which was also the omnibus contractor for the Ukrainian government (when Yanukovych was running Ukraine) was Manafort’s company.

  251. 251.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JGabriel: I said last night, I get the same vibe off Pence that I get off Santorum, I don’t know what ain’t right, but something about that boy ain’t right.

  252. 252.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: They finally got an actual, bona fide subject matter expert to do something in the Trump Administration! Progress!

  255. 255.

    JGabriel

    @Baud:

    Haha. Rachel is reporting that Russia wants Alaska back.

    Let’s give Russia the finger by selling it to Canada. Sure, Alaskans will be pissed off at first, but they’ll be grateful once they get their single-payer health care instead of whatever monstrosity Trump & Ryan are dreaming up.

  258. 258.

    jharp

    @GrandJury:

    Could not agree more. Thank you for putting it so well.

    And fuck Mike Pence too. Can’t stand that smarmy asshole any more than Trump.

  259. 259.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Nothing the Republicans can do will make me stop believing in the common good, that we all should help each other to the maximum extent we can. The Golden Rule as spelled out in all the great holy books.

    That doesn’t mean I would not prefer Krauthammer be forced to pull himself along sidewalks on a mechanic’s creeper with his gloved hands, selling pencils and playing cards in hope of being able to afford a Big Mac and Fries for dinner. But then I stop, and realize that he can’t help his hatred for everyone else who is not injured as he is.

    Naw, fuck him, he’s a despicable creep who has no business writing opinion pieces full of hate for a good living. Disgusting piece of work. I can’t believe he hasn’t been fired for the horrible things he writes.

  264. 264.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    It had to be arson, it was in the 80’s yesterday.

    Or could have been accident. One of my FB friends is going on about crack-smoking homeless people. If in fact this is the case, we as a society should (but probably won’t) take a long, hard look at the numerous costs and consequences of our lack of decent mental health policies, drug treatment programs, and various slashed or nonexistent safety nets.

    Also, all that PVC stored under the bridge, that we were all saying yesterday how stupid it was to stash it there? Seems it was GDOT that decided to use it as a handy storage space for construction equipment. Sheesh.

  265. 265.

    WaterGirl

    @Adam L Silverman: How much prep do you need to sign an executive order??

    I could teach a-7-year-old how to do that in 5 minutes, and she wouldn’t even have to understand what an executive order was! So even worse than the no prepping or the prepping not taking was the need for any prepping at all.

    Our side needs to make sure they don’t get away with spinning this as an angry response to a question he didn’t like. How do we do that?

  270. 270.

    Adam L Silverman

    @WaterGirl: Everything should have a scheduled agenda that is run through with the boss. Either as a table top briefing or as in actual walkthrough depending on the event. If there are going to be cameras there, unless it’s an emergency, you don’t wing it. And even if it’s an emergency, you try to stall for a few minutes to do a quick prep session to ensure you don’t make things worse. When we’ve seen those now humorous open mic moments – Reagan ordering the bombing of the Soviet Union, Bush 43 stating it’d be so much easier if he was a dictator – those are not supposed to have happened and the prep is supposed to ensure they don’t.

  271. 271.

    Quinerly

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Didn’t mean to imply that they worked for the same company…only that they had Ukraine and Yanukovych in common. Like I said, I’m not prone to crazy conspiracy theories but quite frankly nothing would surprise me at this point. I think Devine is slime. He was the “professional” in the campaign and he certainly knew BS didn’t have a chance after a certain point.

  272. 272.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thank you, Omnes. I can always count on you!

    I was thinking of you earlier during the music thread. I listened to April Come She Will by Simon & Garfunkel, mesmerized by beautiful voice and thinking about the wonderful harmony they had together and was reminded of the awesome song you posted probably more than a year ago.

    I thought I was going to have to ask you what it was but finally remembered it was a linda ronstadt song. I pulled up a list of her songs and found it, then had to try to figure out who had sung it because it wasn’t linda Ronstadt!

    Love this song!

  273. 273.

    JGabriel

    WaterGirl:

    Our side needs to make sure they don’t get away with spinning this as an angry response to a question he didn’t like. How do we do that?

    Viral video with slow motion, pointers, and footnotes?

  275. 275.

    No One You Know

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Obviously!

    And if we want to support something, maybe we should try supporting a priority. Not a person. The trigger words for “misogynist” have been evolving for some time. Attention must be paid.

  277. 277.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    @p.a.:

    mirrorless SLRs

    Technically, if it’s mirrorless, it’s not a SLR.

    Single Lens Reflex. it is surely a Single Lens camera… and when I Google Single Lens Reflex, it tells me in the first definition that

    adjective: single-lens reflex
    .
    .
    denoting a reflex camera in which the lens that forms the image on the film also provides the image in the viewfinder.

    Of course now we use a big light sensitive chip instead of film, but still. The lens the photographer views his potential image is the same single lens that will focus the image on the sensor. After being automatically focused and having the exposure setting adjusted according to the photographer’s intent.

    Technically.

  278. 278.

    WaterGirl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes. Yes. Yes. So it’s not just the women who see it. There’s something wrong with his dead eyes and the way he carries himself. It appears to me that he has no soul.

    I bet little girls don’t like to be around Pence, either. Just like little girls pull away from Trump and Santorum’s own daughters pull away from him. Ugh.

  279. 279.

    randy khan

    @Gin & Tonic:

    That’s probably because any reasonable interpretation of the underlying privacy provision of the Communications Act would forbid them from selling browsing histories without customer permission. Or because they think they can make more money if they keep the information for themselves and just sell chunks of demographics. (That’s how cable ads are sold.)

  282. 282.

    magurakurin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: yeah Pence has a major creepy vibe coming off of him. If you saw on CNN that the police had surrounded his house and were now exhuming 50 half-eaten bodies from his basement, you’d be all like, “yeah, makes perfect sense. Totally not surprising.” To quote Travis Bickle, “he killed somebody.”

    and I agree with Crosby, he doesn’t like girls. And, obviously, there is nothing wrong with that, but going through life as a self-hating, repressed gay man is just so many kinds of sad.

  283. 283.

    WaterGirl

    @Adam L Silverman: Okay, i stand corrected. But the whole point is to sign the executive order – is there any world in which we can imagine Barack Obama forgetting to sign something at a signing ceremony? That’s just screwed up. No surprise there, I guess.

  287. 287.

    Bill Arnold

    @Quinerly:

    This is deadly serious stuff. I’m really struggling these last few days. It’s like I don’t even know where I am.

    It started ramping up to the point of obviousness in early/mid January.
    As you note, not pretty, and it has been and continues to be very dangerous given nuclear arsenals.

  288. 288.

    Quinerly

    @NotMax: @Omnes Omnibus:
    Nesmith puts on a nice show. Saw him here in St. Louis in a small venue a few years back. Shook his hand, got his autograph and smiled really big when I told him about my crush when I was 6… Back when all the OTHER little girls loved Davey.

  290. 290.

    JGabriel

    @WaterGirl:

    Are you volunteering?

    I think that would probably be handled better by someone with better video chops than my very basic transcoding skills.

  292. 292.

    Quinerly

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Nesmith wrote a few Side B Monkees songs on the albums. Peter Tork left first..was it over drugs? Don’t quite remember. Nesmith is quite talented. I think he still tours once in awhile.

  294. 294.

    Bill Arnold

    @Quinerly:

    Can we even believe that we would be hoping for the leader of the free world to crack? This is deadly serious stuff. I’m really struggling these last few days. It’s like I don’t even know where I am.

    It started ramping up to the point of obviousness early/mid January.
    As you note, not pretty, and it has been and continues to be very dangerous due to nuclear arsenals.
    (Think of the future(s) as possibility distributions.)

  295. 295.

    Bill Arnold

    @Quinerly:

    This is deadly serious stuff.

    It started ramping up to the point of obviousness early/mid January.
    As you note, not pretty, and it has been and continues to be very dangerous due to nuclear arsenals.
    (Think of the future(s) as possibility distributions.)

  296. 296.

    Quinerly

    @NotMax: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Omnes Omnibus:
    Can’t link on the phone. For a smile, pull up “Never Tell A Woman Yes” from The Monkees Present album. Pretty sure Nesmith wrote it. I played that song over and over as a kid…had a little dance routine to it. I can still hear my dad laughing when I would play it.

  297. 297.

    CaseyL

    @Quinerly: I loved the Monkees when I was but a lass, and I liked them even more long afterwards, when I learned more about them.

    It was such a cynical thing, creating a band from whole cloth (this was before reality TV, kiddies), with each member of the “band” meant to fulfill a specific “role” (the heart-throb, the serious smart one, the sweet-but-dumb one, and the happy goofy guy) and then it turned out they actually had talent, and made some great tunes.

    Also, I may be one of two dozen people in the whole country who saw and liked the movie they made, “Head.”

  298. 298.

    Lizzy L

    @magurakurin: I doubt Pence is gay, and not liking women doesn’t mean he’s gay. Unfortunately, plenty of straight men don’t actually like women and don’t believe women are fully human. Trump, I think, is one of them. Pence is probably another.

  300. 300.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Lizzy L: I agree. Pence isn’t a repressed gay man who doesn’t like women. He is simply a man who doesn’t like women.

  303. 303.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:

    People tried to “shush” him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?

    That’s … terrifying. I’ve served as usher a few times for Yom Kippur; not entirely sure how I would have handled that. Probably would have gotten … testy.

  304. 304.

    dm

    @Quinerly:

    I think Devine is slime. He was the “professional” in the campaign and he certainly knew BS didn’t have a chance after a certain point.

    I made you chuckle, earlier, I don’t want to make you snarl, now, but this is the sort of thing that drives me crazy about some of the commentary here.

    After some point halfway through the Spring, it wasn’t about “a chance” it was about influence. If you’re building a movement, you keep going even when you’ve been mathematically eliminated, you keep encouraging your troops that there’s a reason to go on.

    And as a result, Bernie got his planks into the platform — turning some things into mainstream Democratic ideas. Bernie got voters in California and other late-primary states into his email lists and raising funds for down-ballot candidates (I’ve read it claimed, but have been unable to verify it for myself, that he raised more money for down-ballot candidates than anyone else on the Democrats’ side (though perhaps everyone else (e.g., Elizabeth Warren) was focused on the presidential contest), so the competition might not have been all that fierce).

    I don’t argue that there wasn’t a lot of bullshit tossed around by alleged Bernie-bros (and, now I wonder how much of it was egged-on by Russian trolls), and the disruptive behavior in the Convention was annoying, but I suspect the bullshit only stuck because Republicans had been priming the surface for twenty years.

  305. 305.

    Bill Arnold

    @Quinerly:

    This is deadly serious stuff.

    It started ramping up to the point of obviousness in early to mid January.
    As you note, it’s not pretty, and it has been and continues to be very dangerous due especially to nuclear arsenals. (Think of the future(s) as possibility distributions.)

  307. 307.

    BellyCat

    @Quinerly:

    Will we eventually just be numb to it?

    Numbing prior to open-heart surgery is always advisable.

    Boondocking in Sedona currently (in possibly the best site ever) and definitely feeling the vibe you’ve been on.

  308. 308.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bill Arnold: The age old question of the sages who wrote the Talmud:
    how does one sush a deranged, paraplegic psychopath during Kol Nidre services? Unfortunately Judah HaNasi never provided a responsa (answer) to that query…

  309. 309.

    dm

    @CaseyL: I didn’t care so much for Head, but I remember enjoying a strange episode they did that involved an eye atop a pyramid and… did they chant “Na mu myo renge kyo”? That’s what I remember them chanting, anyway.

  310. 310.

    Quinerly

    @CaseyL:
    I was Monkees obsessed as a child. So in 1967, when I was 6 my teenaged cousin took my 7 year old cousin and me to our first concert in Greensboro, NC. I still remember it now 50 years later…I was really confused when this Black guy played first. Consider myself really lucky to be able to say I also saw Hendrix at age 6. I forget now how many shows he opened for them..6 or 7…several were in the South (2 of those in my home state of NC)…he left the tour in Florida I think…race issues. The concert program is still a prized possession. Saw them again in the 1980’s when they were doing the reunion thing and had cut that new album….just wasn’t the same without that Hendrix opening.?

  311. 311.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @dm: Some of us disagree. He chose bad arguments for staying in. He called her out for stupid things that happened to coincide with right-wing attacks. Step back.

  312. 312.

    Quinerly

    @BellyCat:
    I was so disappointed in Sedona but did check out those great campsites for future reference. I was there on a very gray Sunday in February, thinking that it would be a great escape from the weekend crowds at the Grand Canyon. Instead, I ended up in a terrible traffic jam in Sedona and with a $20 mediocre breakfast. I was so pissed that I fled to some pueblo ruins and later to Jerome. Loved Jerome…didn’t have enough time there. Try to check it out if you get a chance. Couple of clubs with live Blues that Sunday. Lively little town.

  313. 313.

    Mnemosyne

    @dm:

    In 2008, Hillary Clinton managed to leverage her position as the runner-up into the Secretary of State gig and a role as the heir(ess) apparent. And she did it without undermining or sabotaging Obama’s general election campaign.

    Compare and contrast.

  314. 314.

    Quinerly

    @dm: @Omnes Omnibus:
    No snarls. I will always blame BS and Jill Stein voters/dead enders almost as much as the Trump voters. Mostly lurked here when you guys were fighting it out a year ago. With that said, I just downed a couple Santa Fe Happy Camper IPAs and threw on some old Monkees vinyl. Dance Party! Poco (the dog, not the band) thinks his mopey mom might be coming around. Music saves me yet again!

  317. 317.

    magurakurin

    @Omnes Omnibus: certainly could be the case.But it seems to me that people who think being gay is a lifestyle choice that can be cured by resisting urges is probably gay.

  318. 318.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yup. He’s too much of an asshole to really be the leader of a movement.

    I’ve read it claimed, but have been unable to verify it for myself, that he raised more money for down-ballot candidates than anyone else on the Democrats’ side

    Hard to square with this

    Sanders on fundraising for Democrats: ‘We’ll see’

    and his reluctance to endorse candidates who hadn’t endorsed him first (that reminds me of…. somebody)

    And as a result, Bernie got his planks into the platform — turning some things into mainstream Democratic ideas.

    and…?

    last I heard “free college” had become “tuition-free, two year community college”, something Obama had been proposing for a couple of years, maybe since the time when Sanders was calling for someone to primary Obama in 2012. Not sure.

  319. 319.

    Lizzy L

    @magurakurin: Or else “is probably” insanely uninformed about actual live gay people living actual lives. Fifty years ago, he would have insisted he didn’t actually know any gay people. ETA: there are still people like that. They mostly live in religious bubbles. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Pence is one.

  320. 320.

    CaseyL

    @dm: I don’t remember entire individual episodes, alas. I remember scenes. One episode had the actress who played T’Pring on ST:TOS. I don’t remember what her role was in the Monkees episode; I remember thinking it was interesting to see the same character actors on different TV shows.

    @Quinerly: Jimi opened for the Monkees?! Holy shit. What an amazing concert to have gone to – I’m really envious – and good on you for hanging onto the program! I hope it’s framed and in a place of honor on the wall.

  321. 321.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @magurakurin: or he thinks of sex as something dirty and shameful (this is my hunch about Santorum) and something that he, for that reason or some other, can’t really enjoy or appreciate. Close your eyes and think of a full quiver.

  322. 322.

    laura

    @Quinerly: I’m sorry that you are sick after your Epic Road Trip, but glad that you weren’t sick while away from home.
    I so enjoyed your reports and cannot express how much Poco and his adventures brightened my winter mornings.
    I hope he’s still basking in the memorit’s of the toad, and satisfied to be home.

  323. 323.

    dm

    @Omnes Omnibus: It’s been pretty clear that some of you disagree for quite a while. I can’t help that except by explaining what I saw going on. I didn’t see much in the way of stupid arguments for staying in — desperate arguments, yes (and I thought the reversal on the super-delegates was hypocritical). But I also was pretty uninvolved in the primary (so I think I view it with a bit more objectivity, but everyone thinks that).

    I gave money to Sanders up until just before the Iowa Caucuses, hoping he would move the Overton window (and he did!) then I switched to giving money to down-ballot candidates, as I thought Clinton was by far the stronger candidate for the general.

    I bit my tongue at that time as the Bernie Derangement Syndrome raged in the comment threads here. It seemed clear to me that it was a matter of tugging on the Overton window all the way up to the convention.

    I’ll try not to make a pest of myself, but I’ll probably mention my own point of view from time to time.

  324. 324.

    dm

    @Mnemosyne:

    In 2008, Hillary Clinton managed to leverage her position as the runner-up into the Secretary of State gig and a role as the heir(ess) apparent. And she did it without undermining or sabotaging Obama’s general election campaign.

    Bernie has leveraged his runner-up position into head of outreach for the Senate Democrats.

    Had Obama lost, “PUMA” would have been the “Bernie-bros” of 2009. I thank god that McCain didn’t tap Romney for his running mate — I’m afraid that Romney’s “business acumen” might have been a strong selling point after the financial crash of 2008, especially in contrast to Obama’s apparent inexperience. I really felt we dodged a bullet then.

  326. 326.

    Mnemosyne

    @dm:

    So Bernie leveraged himself into a position even though his actions helped lose the election.

    I think you missed the lesson here. Hint: it was not that Bernie was supposed to make himself powerful at the expense of the party. A party, by the way, that he is not actually a member of.

  328. 328.

    CaseyL

    @dm: Well, everyone else might, but I didn’t.

    OT: I just saw on FB, and The Daily Buzz, that George Takei is going to run for Nunes’ seat in Congress. He and his hubs bought a house in Visalia for that purpose. Anyone here live in Nunes’ district?

  329. 329.

    Quinerly

    @laura:
    Thanks for the sweet words. We enjoyed sharing. I think the red dust and dirt caught up with my sinuses. Sure hope Alain keeps that AM “On the Road” thread. I think it could be a fun resource for folks…plus I enjoyed waking up to it when we were driving those 7000 miles. Poco sure enjoyed his fame.?

  330. 330.

    Quinerly

    @CaseyL:
    All the back story on the Monkees is pretty interesting. That program got filed away (nerdy, overly organized only child) and is in great condition. I was a teenager and Hendrix was dead before I realized the significance…an adult before I learned the background of that ’67 tour…college boyfriend was a Hendrix nut and guitar player.

  331. 331.

    Quinerly

    @dm:
    I think as the story goes is Stills recommended Tork, thinking he (Stills) was already in. Then Still didn’t make it because of his looks (teeth???).

  332. 332.

    dm

    @Mnemosyne: Perhaps he’s not trying to be part of a party, but trying to build a movement, that, maybe, the Democratic Party can hitch itself to.

    And I’m afraid the Republicans had been sharpening their knives for Clinton for 25 years. Nothing Sanders did in the primaries would have hurt her without the work the Republicans had done for a generation. I’d hoped that Clinton could overcome that legacy, but she wasn’t able to (Sanders, on the other hand, would have gotten creamed by what the Republicans could have dug up about him).

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: “We’ll see”, and it seems we did, as a month later, he was raising money for down-ballot candidates.

    Look, 2016 was a hard year for a Democrat to win — the incumbent party often loses after eight years, economic growth — in particular income growth — was lackluster and its benefits poorly distributed. In the winter of 2015-2016 that political scientist who bases his predictions solely on economic factors (and whose model has performed well in every election since WWII) predicted a Republican victory in 2016. I really thought Trump was going to prove him wrong, but 2016 really caused me to wonder just how much campaigns matter in the face of fundamentals.

  335. 335.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dm: Bernie Sanders Is Fundraising For State Legislative Candidates

    Oh.

    State legislature candidates.

    But thank god he got Cornel West on the platform committee. What a guy.

    And here I said he was an asshole.

  337. 337.

    J R in WV

    @NotMax:

    But wouldn’t opening the door or moving pots and taking lids off, isn’t that work too?

    I mean, if depressing the button on a camera 1.7 mm to take a picture is work, then moving food from a pot onto a plate, that’s way more work right there. So a special setting on the stove, that’s not even a good cheat.

  338. 338.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @dm: When we all thought Hillary was a shoe-in, the Senate was known to be hanging by a thread, the House was considered a long shot, Merrick Garland’s nomination was in limbo, Joe Manchin was thought to be a flipping threat. What was more important, even without hindsight, state legislatures (in CA, wise use of resources there, Bernie!), or Katie McGinty, Patty Judge, and Patrick Murphy?

    But we got planks in the platform! Woo-hoo! Thank god for Bernie!

  339. 339.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My WASP ass asks, isn’t that cheating?

    You know, two of my (kosher) uncles had an argument for decades at family gatherings, about margarine being put out with a meat meal. One said, why not, it’s vegetable oil, neither milk nor meat; the other said, it’s the spirit of the rules: No dairy with meat; margarine is a stand in for butter, therefore forbidden.
    Never resolved, over decades, as far as I know.
    The shabbas goy is a long tradition, going back to before electric lights.

  340. 340.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    how does one sush a deranged, paraplegic psychopath during Kol Nidre services?

    A blackjack would do fine, as long as it isn’t made from pigskin.

  341. 341.

    dm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That was early Summer, how about later in the campaign?

    In just three days last week, the Vermont Senator brought in over $2.4 million dollars from 500,000 contributions to help 13 Democratic Senate and House candidates ….

    Or, before the convention:

    “What’s successful here is that there is a large group of people who’ve been activated and there’s a good chance to keep them active, and that’s terribly important to rebuild our democracy,” said Eric Kingson, a congressional candidate in upstate New York who has also received an endorsement and fundraising email from Sanders. Kingson said that the day of Sanders’ email, he received over 5,000 individual donations, whereas the most he had previously received in one day was fewer than 30.
    Along with Pearson and Kingson, Sanders has raised funds for a number of congressional and state-level candidates to a degree unprecedented in presidential campaigns. Indeed, as Sanders slows down his campaign, he has continued to raise funds for other candidates as recently as Saturday.

    This, by the way, was going on while there was a chorus here saying, “Where’s Bernie? Why isn’t he helping?” and “He should just go away. Nobody wants to hear from him any more.”

    Perhaps this helps us see why the Democratic Senators decided to name him as their outreach chair.

  342. 342.

    Miss Bianca

    @dm: dead thread and all, but…I just can’t with the Bernie-fluffing. Not when the guy takes every opportunity he can to trash the Democrats and make excuses for Trump voters. I think putting him in charge of “outreach” is a huge fucking mistake. Democrats are all that stand between Trump and disaster, and *Democrats* are still the enemy. Yeah, fuck Bernie and the ego-driven purity pony he rode in on.

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