Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We won’t go back.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The words do not have to be perfect.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Priceless

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Priceless

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Apart from the usual Trump-related shenanigans, what’s on the agenda for the day?


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Reader Interactions

129Comments

  2. 2.

    Phylllis

    Districts all around us have already decided to dismiss early due to the expected severe weather. The ‘leaders’ in my district? Couldn’t be bothered to even have a conversation about it yesterday.

  6. 6.

    ET

    I am going to start the day/thread passing on some positivity. Saw the documentary Kedi about the cats of Istanbul. It was a lovely 80 minutes of cats being cats and the people in their lives.

  7. 7.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Quinnipiac Poll — Trump Ratings — April 4, 2017

    Approve……………35%
    Disapprove………58%

    “President Donald Trump continues to struggle, even among his most loyal supporters. Many of them would be hard pressed to see even a sliver of a silver lining in this troubling downward spiral,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

    “President George W. Bush, who hit a negative 28 – 67 percent on May 14, 2008, had less support, but it took eight years, two unpopular wars and a staggering economy to get there.”

    A total of 52 percent of voters say the American economy is “excellent” or “good,” while 45 percent say it is “not so good” or “poor.” Former President Barack Obama is more responsible than President Trump for the current state of the economy, voters say 66 – 18 percent, including 64 – 26 percent among Republicans.

  8. 8.

    Sab

    Can I just say how much I love this site that I can comment (often idiotically) without registering or signing up to whatever.

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    @David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch:

    Former President Barack Obama is more responsible than President Trump for the current state of the economy, voters say 66 – 18 percent, including 64 – 26 percent among Republicans.

    Wow. So even Repubs have to admit the truth from time to time. That makes me hopeful that they’ll give up on their Liar-in-Chief as everything continues to collapse.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @Phylllis: Stay safe. For me it’s a good day to stay home and clean closets.
    A few schools in west GA are closed.

    The weather geeks are hyping the storms, and hopefully they are wrong.

  13. 13.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Derek Johnson‏ @derekjjohnson Apr 3

    Pretty stunning reminder that white “economic anxiety” only happens when the president is black.

    Stunning evaporation of “economic anxiety” in one graph (photo)

    233 replies 5,260 retweets 7,933 likes

  15. 15.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    John Schindler @20committee

    Russian spies suddenly got a lot better at cyberwar just months after Snowden defected to Moscow.

    Weird.

    4:18 PM – 4 Apr 2017

    36 replies 441 retweets 908 likes

    what a coincidence!

    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONODE!

  17. 17.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Maxine Waters‏ @MaxineWaters

    Susan Rice didn’t ask the FBI for immunity from prosecution. Mike Flynn did. Obama’s campaign was not under FBI investigation. Trump’s is.

    1,293 replies 17,956 retweets 35,443 likes

    The Queen of WHUP-ASS

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Sab: You can say anything you damn well please here. Except Ca$in0. You can’t ever say that. Or Pv$$y for that matter.

  19. 19.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: As a future Presidential candidate, you’re supposed to encourage hope, Baud. Trump is doing his best to screw up so I can be hopeful that he’ll do enough to damage himself and his Party and get the Senate back in the hands of Democrats in 2018. That is very doable.

  20. 20.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Tulsi Gabbard‏ @TulsiGabbard

    (2/3) Whoever is found responsible, be it the Syrian govt, al-Qaeda, or ISIS, (all have access to chemical weapons) must be held accountable

    2:58 PM – 4 Apr 2017

    277 replies 228 retweets 464 likes

    Disgusting Gabbard floats gas attack was false flag. I said from Day One there is something really wrong with these people.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: They came thru here last night. They aren’t wrong. I haven’t seen lightning like that in a long time.

  24. 24.

    Chet Murthy

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Two thoughts:

    (1) maybe gabbard’s right. And just as Syrian or Russian planes attacked, the rebels (or ISIS) shot rockets loaded with chemical weapons? Could be. Could be. Would take excellent timing, placement, intelligence. Of course, there are simpler stories (like Assad decided he had the green light to take the gloves off ….)

    (2) She’s really shitting her bed, isn’t she? An embarrassment (to the Dem party, to America, and humanity, in ascending order of importance). And not just this tweet, but her behaviour over the last few months.

  25. 25.

    Immanentize

    @Patricia Kayden: I think you are misreading it a bit — modtbof the people who think the economy is in the dumper are Republicans. They blame Obama for how bad things are. So they are part of the 64% who say Obama is more responsible for the economy than Trump

  26. 26.

    hueyplong

    @Baud: Once you’re in the rarified air of horse/boat ownership, you can’t go with anything as pedestrian as “Tired of Winning.” It needs to be something like Victory Fatigue, which has the added benefit of being a name the more violent Trumpters won’t even get.

  28. 28.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Immanentize: Okay. Thanks. I was reading it as “the economy is pretty good and we acknowledge that President Obama is more responsible than Trump for that.” My bad.

  29. 29.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: yup. she a Manchurian candidate

    Tulsi Gabbard Is Not Who You Think She Is

    From homophobia to Islamophobia to cultism, she is no progressive’s dream.
    By Eoin Higgins | November 22, 2016 | 9:12am

    To some progressives, the news Monday that Tulsi Gabbard was meeting with President-Elect Donald Trump for consideration of a position in his administration must have been confusing.

    Gabbard’s February 2016 endorsement of Bernie Sanders’ quixotic run for the Democratic nomination for president involved publicly resigning her seat as DNC Vice Chair. Her name has been floated as a possible candidate for 2020. And at a glance, her positions seem in line with the liberal wing of her party.

    But a deeper look at Gabbard’s political career shows that she is devoted to attaining power and to the perpetuation of extremist, fringe ideology. She adopts and sheds extremist positions at will, but one thing remains constant: her consistent embrace of hard-right politics.

    Dem Rep Gabbard: Criticism of Generals on Trump Cabinet ‘Offensive’

    Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii congresswoman, has a worldview that aligns closely with President-elect Trump’s.

    Tulsi Gabbard: War Vet, Surfer Gal, and Trump Democrat?

    Tulsi Gabbard Conveyed Trump’s Offer of Cooperation to Assad.

  30. 30.

    debbie

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I loved Trump’s tweet the other day about the last 16 quarters being so good. He hasn’t even gotten his first quarter under his belt and he’s still trying to grab credit!

  31. 31.

    Patricia Kayden

    @David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch: Thank you, Representative Waters. I hope her aggressiveness and righteous anger rubs off on other Congressional Democrats. With all the mess in Trump’s regime, we should not normalize his presidency in any way.

  35. 35.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?

    Tired of rain, super tired of all the winning. Lincoln’s Coopers Union speech talked about “they will rule or ruin”. Even in the dark days before the Civil War, they didn’t anticipate a party deciding to both rule AND ruin.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    I’m not so sure. I’ve heard a number of Republican small business owners say the economy was fine. While they’d be happy with less taxes, their businesses were running pretty well.

  39. 39.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: Would that be ABC?

    I watched the newscasts last night and NBC & CBS exposed Turnip’s hypocritical tweets, but GOP mole Jon Karl (Shocker) didnt.

  46. 46.

    Chet Murthy

    @rikyrah:

    We can be Purity ponies here.
    She’s in Hawaii.

    Whoa there, pardner. Nothing “purity pony” about demanding that Dem officials in Blue states toe the line and not consort with the enemy except upon orders or permission of leadership. If this were Manchin or Heitkamp (or, heck, Tester), it might be understandable. They’re in tough spots.

    Speaking of, shit, Tester did us a solid with his Gorsuch stand, eh? The man’s earned some love when re-election time comes.

  47. 47.

    NorthLeft12

    I am sure that Deadbeat Donald is loudly complaining to anyone within earshot about how his amazingly yuge generosity is not getting the standing ovation that it deserves, and that the press and Americans in general are ingrates.

    That entire production of signing over his check is one of the most selfish and egotistical acts I have ever heard of from a President. The guy has absolutely no class.

  48. 48.

    p.a.

    Normally I’d be angry about the Fed raising rates to choke off nonexistent inflation (and… ummm… coincidentally I’m sure) choke off the extremely modest wage hikes we’ve seen, but if it helps crater the current degenerates in charge in the polls, I guess I’m good…

  50. 50.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: Like a child, Trump wants to take the credit for all that’s good but take the blame for absolutely nothing. So delusional.

  53. 53.

    bemused

    Reading RWNJ comments on local blogs and papers this week makes me crazy. One called Trump noble for his salary donation. An opinion piece on Trump betraying rural america and how it affects our neck of the woods, another commenter thinks he already sees progress ahead for business investments with Trump cutting red tape, “streamlining” permits such as water protection will allow copper/nickel mining in our area. Prosperity for all! They give Trump credit for creating jobs that were in the works long before he got in the WH. They go on and on like that, one trick issue ponies, pinning all their hopes on “only I can fix it” Trump totally ignoring opeds clearly pointing out the con being played on them.

    They act like they haven’t noticed any Trump/WH problems, completely oblivious to the blundering, incompetent, amateurish chaos. It must be exhausting to be a wingnut. It has to take up a whole lot of mental time and effort keeping inconvenient facts from seeping into what awareness they have left. As one columnist described it, they cling to their “totalitarian fever dreams”.

  54. 54.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    She wasn’t the only one who thought there were some Republicans with some decency, some humanity. But no, not a one, not a shred.

    Even now, even after he’s shown that he is a disaster, they stick together, stick with him. Is it the tax cuts?

  55. 55.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    ERIC WRIGHT™????‏ @therealeric916

    21 Advertisers Flee From Bill O’Reilly’s> THE O’ REILLY FACTOR Fox News Show OVER SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASES

  56. 56.

    Patricia Kayden

    @bemused: They’re delusional but that’s something we already knew. Doesn’t really matter because they will get screwed along with the rest of us.

    Prosperity for all!

    Really? Prosperity for the 1% doesn’t equate to prosperity for all. Never has and never will.

  57. 57.

    Sanjeevs

    @rikyrah: Democrats should be very wary of what happened in the U.K. Corbyn took control in a very dubious takeover. He has been pathetic in opposing Brexit and has made Labour unelectable opening the way for the far right.
    Corbyns views on Putin are ambiguous but his closest aide, Seamus Milne is an unabashed Putin lover.

  59. 59.

    germy

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I like the way he defends himself. “Men who have reached my extraordinary level of success, power and influence will inevitably be targeted by lying, opportunistic women using easily disprovable smear tactics.”

    (paraphrased, but that’s basically his logic)

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:
    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Crazy simultaneous thunder and lightning going on right now in Duluth, straight overhead. Was planning to go see the matinee of North by Northwest this afternoon, but not sure I even want to leave the house if it’s going to be stormy all day. Guess I’ll decide in a few hours and hunker down in the meantime.

  62. 62.

    Ohio Mom

    I couldn’t fall asleep last night and couldn’t bear the thought of reading anything more related to any news, so I started reading the first few pages ever of Balloon Juice.

    It’s almost all there: John’s self-depreciating humor, his honesty, snarky insights about public figures and current events, mentions of Mom, Dad and his military experience, descriptions of fabulous sounding food, references to over-drinking, the Steelers, reviews of whatever was watched on TV.

    The politics were different of course, and no pets or other front pagers yet. And most interesting was the contrast between writing styles — sometime in the intervening 3,000 pages, it’s become much more confident and authentic.

    I wonder where I will end up the next time I can’t sleep.

  64. 64.

    JPL

    Spoke to soon, the local tornado warning signal just went off, so now I’m in the closet for a few minutes.

  66. 66.

    Another Scott

    @Sanjeevs: Indeed.

    Too little time to check, but my recollection is that Corbyns’ people opened up party membership to anyone who paid the 5# fee, and got lots of new people to join. Yay! But lots of those people apparently had no conception of how to win elections and instead trashed the people who had the best chance of leading the party forward. Purity First! :-/ Once Corbyn became head of the party, it was his way or the highway and disastrous election results wouldn’t change his approach. And so the death spiral began.

    There are so many lessons there, even without the potential Putin influence. (Putin messing around behind the scenes would explain a lot, but it’s not necessary.)

    Democracy depends on people being involved and accepting that progress is slow and can be reversed if people don’t keep pushing forward. But it also depends on leaders who don’t sell-out the masses of people to reward the 0.01%. Once people decide “the system isn’t fair”, they’ll tear it down even if it makes themselves much worse off.

    Eternal vigilance!

    We must fight them every single day…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    In a little over 24 hours I go for my first surgical follow-up, which will involve having this goddamned fucking cast/splint removed, albeit only temporarily. Last night I dreamed I had it off and felt fantastic. Do you think I’m eager for this day to come?

  68. 68.

    Ohio Mom

    @germy: No, that was a disappointment, all the threads were closed and empty.

    There are over 3,000 pages and even with my current sleep issues, I don’t think I’ll manage to get through them all to see everyone’s inaugural comments. But wouldn’t that be fun?

  70. 70.

    Kay

    I’m doing my first same sex married couple child adoption this morning. I was thinking about how far it’s come because about 10 years ago I had a gay, male relative of a child seek to adopt a child and I didn’t want to waste his money and time and take a risk on our wingnut probate judge holding it up so we worked really hard to switch it his home county, which was urban and a more favorable venue- less bigotry . I hated to let it go because jurisdiction belonged here and all this fancy footwork felt like a capitulation and sort of hiding something, but it was also the practical reality and the goal was the adoption going thru, not making a statement, especially since I wasn’t paying the legal fees of making the statement :)

    Anyway! Progress! An adoption like anyone elses. They’re fun, generally. Celebratory.

  71. 71.

    JPL

    Whatever set off the local tornado siren, passed over quickly, but the storm continues.

  72. 72.

    Ohio Mom

    @Humboldtblue: I’ll bet that just about everyone on the Chapman campus now believes in vaccines, and will forever more keep in compliance.

    I’ve always thought the anti-vacation movement is ultimately going to be time-limited — though not without a few tragedies that could have prevented. Experience being the great teacher it is.

  75. 75.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ohio Mom: I know it’s auto-correct, but let me be the first to line up in opposition to the anti-vacation movement.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The assistant calls them “stranger adoptions” (as opposed to adoption by a relative or a step-parent – which is a different process) and I had to tell her to stop using our internal “legal lingo” in public because it sounds awful, “stranger adoption” :)

    She’s all business. Not that caring :)

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    That’s so nice to read, and must be very gratifying for you. Congratulations to the new family!

    It’s so important, in these days of bleakness, to remember that good things have happened and will continue to happen. Thanks for reminding us, Kay.

  85. 85.

    Steve in the ATL

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You can say anything you damn well please here. Except Ca$in0. You can’t ever say that. Or Pv$$y for that matter.

    So much for our ” novels of Ian Fleming” discussion group

  86. 86.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @ET:

    Saw the documentary Kedi about the cats of Istanbul. It was a lovely 80 minutes of cats being cats and the people in their lives.

    We enjoyed Kedi too…and we’re dog people!

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    Yikes, just heard that there are reports of 2-1/2″ hail in west GA. In other words, in the second wave coming into the area from Alabama.

    Hailstones. Two-and-a-half inches in diameter.

  89. 89.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    My Kindle is a wingnut, it randomly capitalizes words for no discernable reason.

    New keyboard needed! And the dog’s nap on my lap was disturbed. :)

  91. 91.

    Tony J

    @Another Scott:

    Sorry but, uh, no.

    ‘Corbyn’s people’ didn’t change the rules on who got to vote in leadership elections. That was the previous Labour leadership team under the sensible, moderate, highly electable former Minister Ed Milliband. Remember him? The one who led the Party to a disastrous election result that left the Tories as the sole party in Government? No? Well, not many people do. And the last changes to the rules on who gets to vote for leader were imposed in a highly dubious backstage manoeuvre by Corbyn’s opponents on the right of the party who demanded even more money from the new voters in an effort to drive the unemployed and working poor out of the Party. Charming, eh? It didn’t work. And since he’s been leader you can correct me if I’m wrong but I think that Labour have lost exactly one by-election out of the three or four they’ve contested. This in the face of a puke-funnel of really vile propaganda from the usual pro-Tory media and their allies on the right of the Labour Party that makes the anti-Clinton animus of the US MSM look like a gentle rain of billet-douxs and unicorn kisses.

    Don’t get me wrong, I have major issues with Corbyn’s views on Brexit and think he’s often his own worst enemy when it comes to getting Labour’s points across, but pretending that there’s some heroic Leadership-in-Exile that would totally sweep the Tories out of power if the Loony Left hadn’t staged an illegitimate coup is just nonsense. Britain comprehensively rejected ‘New Labour’ in 2015, as in they held an Election after 5 years of Tory/Lib Dem austerity and the electorate said no thanks, and in the aftermath the Party only started attracting hundreds of thousands of new members when an alternative to New Labour was allowed to stand. Corbyn might not be the guy to lead the Labour Party into the next decade, but until someone with similar policies and more charisma comes along he’s got the top job.

    tl:dr – Sorry but you’re wrong on just about all of your facts.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    Via GOS

    VA-Gov: On Tuesday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed ex-Rep. Tom Perriello in the competitive June 13 primary to succeed termed-out Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe. While Sanders did not do well in last year’s Virginia presidential primary, his backing could help Perriello raise money from the senator’s huge financial network, and gives Perriello the chance to earn more attention with two months to go before Election Day.

    Campaign Action
    Candidate filing closed last week for the primary, and as expected, the Democratic contest will be a duel between Perriello and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. While Sanders’ endorsement makes it easy to portray this as a race between the Democratic establishment and an outsider, or as a straight up proxy-fight between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Sanders, we’ve noted before that this primary is really more complicated than that.

    I don’t have a dog in this primary. I just hope for unity regardless of who wins.

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I’m doing my first same sex married couple child adoption this morning.

    Kay,

    I’m smiling just reading it. A family is being created -backed by the state. A child is going to a home where they are wanted. Yeah!!

  96. 96.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud:

    I just hope for unity regardless of who wins.

    With Wilmer involved now, that’s a vain hope.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @Gin & Tonic:
    I wish I didn’t even have to worry about it, especially these days.

    As far as I know (which is next to nothing), both Dems are decent candidates.

  98. 98.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    What a tone deaf descriptor.

    Not directly related but that reminded me of the two year old white girl in SC who picked out a black, doctor doll as reward for successful potty training. The white female store cashier asked little girl, “Wouldn’t you like a doll that looks like you?” Little girl said she does look like me. She’s a doctor, I’m a doctor, see her stethoscope?, She’s beautiful, I’m beautiful.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    Obamacare has what Trump does not: popular support
    04/05/17 08:40 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Over the course of several years, the Affordable Care Act has been called many things, but it looks like we can add a new adjective to the list: popular.

    Fifty-five percent of Americans now support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a major turnaround from five months ago when 42% approved and 53% disapproved. This is the first time a majority of Americans have approved of the healthcare law, also known as Obamacare, since Gallup first asked about it in this format in November 2012. […]

    Republicans, Democrats and independents are all more likely to approve of the ACA now than in November, a few days after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election left Republicans in control of the legislative and executive branches.

    To be sure, Republican voters still don’t much care for “Obamacare,” but GOP support for the reform law has gone up 10 points since the fall, which has helped propel overall support for the Affordable Care Act above the 50% threshold.

    Gallup’s findings are consistent with the latest results from Public Policy Polling, which also recently found support for the health care law above 50% for the first time.

  104. 104.

    Ohio Mom

    @bemused: That is a great story — especially in light of the research done in the 1950s which showed AA girls picking out white dolls over Black ones because of their internalized discomfort. I forget the details but videos of the experiment are easily googleable.

    It is good to be reminded that there really is such a thing as progress.

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s Mar-a-Lago ethics mess gets worse ahead of Xi Jinping visit
    04/05/17 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen
    China’s Xi Jinping will arrive in Florida tomorrow for a couple of days of talks with Donald Trump, which will be held at the lovely Mar-a-Lago resort. The visit comes just two months after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended events at the same private locale.

    The fact that the resort has become a hotspot for meetings with foreign heads of state is a real commercial coup for Mar-a-Lago’s owner. Oh wait, its owner is the one arranging the meetings.

    No doubt Florida’s oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort is an impressive site for a summit between the presidents of the U.S. and China. And it’s a pretty nice business advertisement, too, for the owner of the luxurious, members-only private property.

    That would be Donald J. Trump.

    Even before this week’s summit, Trump and his aides had begun referring to Mar-a-Lago as the “Winter White House,” a marketing coup for a man who has made millions selling his personal brand. Now the president is writing his property deeper into American history books by meeting there with China’s Xi Jinping.

    This will be the American president’s sixth trip to Mar-a-Lago since taking office. Trump’s only been president for 12 weeks.

  108. 108.

    Phylllis

    @JPL: You be careful too. We’re closing at 11 & I won’t need to be told twice to hightail it out of here.

  109. 109.

    rikyrah

    How the Sexism of Trump and Pence Are Two Sides of the Same Coin
    by Nancy LeTourneau April 4, 2017 4:14 PM

    Adding to what we already knew about Mike Pence’s extremist position on reproductive rights, we were recently reminded that “he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.” That restriction for evangelicals dates back to what became known as the Billy Graham Rule.

    The most famous provision of the manifesto called for each man on the Graham team never to be alone with a woman other than his wife. Graham, from that day forward, pledged not to eat, travel, or meet with a woman other than Ruth unless other people were present. This pledge guaranteed Graham’s sexual probity and enabled him to dodge accusations that have waylaid evangelists before and since.

    On its face, that might seem to be the polar opposite of the kind of sexism exhibited by Donald Trump — who made a name for himself by bragging about committing sexual assault shortly after he married Melania. But in actuality, they are two sides of the same coin. Emma Gray summed it up this way:

    This history makes it all-the-more clear that this do-not-dine-with-women rule is predicated on the idea that the company of women is always first and foremost about sex.

    Pence’s sexism can be misleading because to some, it appears chivalrous. But in the end, it relegates women to being nothing more than sex objects. Being alone with a woman is first and foremost a temptation to infidelity. That is exactly the reason why women in some Muslim countries have been forced to wear burqas – so that men aren’t tempted by the mere presence of a female body.

    Karen Pence is cast as the shield that is the only thing standing between her husband and depravity. As the flip side of Trump’s promiscuity, we see the age-old binary way of defining women as either the Madonna (save me from my uncontrollable urges) or Whore (indulge by uncontrollable urges).

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    The Trump Administration Continues to Blame Obama For Its Failures
    by Nancy LeTourneau April 4, 2017 5:25 PM

    ………………………

    The attack came just four days after U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters, “our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.” That was followed by Sec. of State Tillerson saying that Assad’s longer-term status “will be decided by the Syrian people.”

    To further confuse things, on Friday Haley called Assad a “war criminal,” but said that the U.S. might cooperate with him to defeat ISIS.

    Today, when news broke about the chemical attack, Sean Spicer read this statement:

    ……………

    Spicer: “These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.”

    Note that the first instinct of the Trump administration is to find someone to blame. So let’s be clear. The person to blame is Assad.

    Secondly, the reason Spicer is so intent on pointing the finger of blame at “the past administration” is because the current crew has so obviously muddled the U.S. position over the last few days that it is hard to avoid the question of whether or not they signaled weakness to Assad.

    While the incompetence of the Trump White House might be what is saving us from even more draconian domestic policy, it is literally a ticking time bomb on foreign policy.

  111. 111.

    satby

    @Gin & Tonic: I wonder if Wilmer backed up his endorsement with any of the cash he’s raised from his fans. You know, the donations to keep the revolution going?
    I crack myself up sometimes.

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    “The stars might lie, but the numbers never do…”

    Or as a certain ex-POTUS put it, “Reality has a way of catching up with you.”

    Be happy warriors today everyone! If you have some Democratic MoCs, call ’em just to say thanks. If you have some Republican MoCs, call ’em and remind them they’re there to represent their constituents, not the Russians and not the Mercers.

  116. 116.

    bemused

    @Ohio Mom:

    Yes! Sadly, the cashier probably remained mystified. Two year olds are more evolved than far too many so-called adults. Devolved is my new term for them. I do have great hope in the young generation. Despite the far right’s desperate efforts to hold back culture and time, I think the young’uns have vastly different values.

  119. 119.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    A kids size too. The dusty pink isn’t as soft as the hot pink but it’s a bit bigger.

    ETA the bubblegum hat is a kids size.

  120. 120.

    Sebastian

    @Humboldtblue:

    It might be extremely cynical, but to me this is the “Obama should have told them not to drink bleach”. I am still torn, somewhat for ethical reason but mostly because innocents will become collateral damage.

    Isn’t this exactly what’s needed in the long run? Have the RWNJ go full on anti-vcxx, thus self-select and die off?

  123. 123.

    dww44

    @rikyrah:

    Pence’s sexism can be misleading because to some, it appears chivalrous. But in the end, it relegates women to being nothing more than sex objects.

    This brings to mind that anecdote that may have been posted here (most likely was) about the Indiana Dem state legislators having dinner with then Governor Pence at his state residence. The dinner was designed to improve Pence’s relations with Democrats in the state house. Attendees there were blown away by the fact that Mrs. Pence sat at one end of the long table from her husband and when addressing her, he continually called to her, not with her given name, but as “Mother”. Perfect one word descriptive of his overall attitude about women.

  124. 124.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    Like the picture of the HBCU people in the Oval Office, this picture of the Parks Service man is sad. The fact that he probably felt incredibly pressured to be a prop in this photo op because the Parks NEEDS even this trivial amount of $ is heartbreaking. I mean he clearly would rather not be there. The optics are disgusting.

  127. 127.

    gratuitous

    The look on the Park Ranger’s face is the same one you get when the boss says, “Here, gentlemen. Accept these paddle ball games in lieu of pay.”

    When your presidency looks even more ridiculous than Gov. LePetomane’s in the movie Blazing Saddles, you’ve got a problem.

  128. 128.

    TenguPhule

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Yes, she’s our state’s shame. Much like Lingle, she’s popular among our dumber voters. But all our party leaders hate her, the unions hate her and our business people are going to hate her once Trump kills our main industry. She’s not getting another term.

  129. 129.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    He ‘ slipped’.

    Natural Causes in Russia simply means that the pavement will naturally kill you when Putin’s goons slam your head into it.

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