So, the perps pulled off Grand Theft, Supreme Court as expected. This action further degrades a court that was indelibly tainted by Grand Theft, Presidency circa 2000 anyway. But it seems quaint to worry about that kind of shit now that a demented con man is busily turning the entire U.S. government into a sick joke. Open thread.
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JPL
Washington Post twitter feed said it was a big win for Trump and McConnell. It’s time to reward theft.
Trentrunner
Of the forseeable GOP acts, this one is the most consequential and the most enraging.
They fucked us good, hard, and very completely.
schrodingers_cat
R occupation proceeds full swing. What next, demanding tribute from MA and CA.
Corner Stone
Achievement Unlocked: Master Obstructionist
Your Reward: Government
Major Major Major Major
Stealing this Supreme Court seat will if we are lucky be much much worse for the country and world than Bush v Gore or the election of Trump.
ArchTeryx
In a way, it’s refreshing. The U.S. government used to have a veneer of civility underneath its raw power plays. That veneer is now completely stripped away. It is ALL about raw power now, and thanks to our archaic election conventions, the Republicans have a damn close to insurmountable advantage on a national scale, in all three branches of government.
In the “it’s all about projection with these people” department, the Republicans have long pitched themselves as a persecuted minority, but we’re all about to find out what it’s like to be the real deal. Then, quite a bit of our coalition have been persecuted minorities for their entire time in this country. It’s just that us urban white folks are about to get a very strong taste of the same thing.
Yeah, it’s pessimistic and defeatist. I’m open to being convinced otherwise, but right now that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
bystander
Trump is all win today. No makeup man needed at MSNBC. They’re going all in on brown noses for everyone.
A tainted Justice nominated by a guy under investigation for treason.
Spanky
@schrodingers_cat: CA and MA are two of the 14 states getting less in Federal money than they pay in. So yeah, they’re already paying tribute, of a sort.
South Carolina, OTOH, is getting over $7 in return for every $1 they pay in.
Tenar Arha
The past 5 months has been a master class in understanding the impulse to spit at a person’s feet in disgust/anger.
Spanky
@Major Major Major Major: Or, he could have an accident in the bathtub.
James E Powell
The two phenomena of the last 20 years that I have the most trouble understanding are: a) how does Belichick manage to succeed with all those cast offs and UDFAs? and b) how do the Republicans manage to stay in power despite being total assholes who do nothing for anyone but the richest assholes in the country?
We always seem to be sitting & watching & wondering “How do they get away with this?” “Why isn’t everyone angry about this?”
Hal
Am I wrong in assuming the real target was the next anticipated opening on the court? The calculus McConnell undoubtedly made was to do away with the filibuster on SC nominees now so when/if RBG or one of the other “liberal” justices retire, they can nominate anyone they want, now matter how terrible.
The Moar You Know
@schrodingers_cat: They already have it. We CA citizens only get back 66 cents on every dollar of income tax paid. The rest goes to the red states that are busily trying to destroy our way of life.
Yes, I’m bitter.
I suppose they could always ask for more.
SatanicPanic
How is this a big win for Trump? He had this opportunity handed to him and there was nearly no way he could fuck it up. This is like giving him credit for putting his pants on facing the right way.
ETA- also, get on the phones and start telling your Senators to get ready for court packing when a Democratic president gets elected.
Kryptik
@Trentrunner:
I said it yesterday, but as predictable as this is, it’s still mournful that this will ensure America remains, at its core, a fundamentally, repressively conservative country for at least a gen, if not two.
We’ve essentially lost the country outside of hoping irrationally that Kennedy will save us on those essential 5-4 votes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I forget who said that McConnell’s greatest win is pulling off a historic norm-destruction without making a dent in Brodeorist both-sidesism.
Major Major Major Major
@Spanky: at this rate that just means that you’d be looking at Justice Kushner.
Kryptik
@Tenar Arha:
Just don’t do so unless you’re conservative, and especially if you’re a white male. Otherwise, you’ll likely be arrested and tried for assault with a deadly weapon, unless they kill you on the spot right then and there out of ‘self-defense’
Paul W.
The only thing that keeps me from completely giving into the dark side and openly advocating armed insurrection against what is becoming a more and more authoritarian government is that Gorsuch is replacing Scalia and we have had to live with that shit already in terms of how it affected the court. I pray to God that none of the other justices kick it and give the crazed GOP another sport to fill.
Other than that, it is utterly depressing to think about and I don’t how the country will ever get back in the majority’s hands.
Betty Cracker
@Hal: That’s why I’m glad most Dems didn’t go along with the charade and confirm Injustice Gorsuch in exchange for preserving the filibuster. McConnell, et al, wouldn’t have honored any agreement. They’ve proven again and again that they’re liars and scoundrels. Total opposition is the only rational response.
Kryptik
@SatanicPanic:
It’s a win in the sense that Dolt 45 will now, most assuredly, have the Supreme Court backing of all his god awful misadventures with no recourse on our end. Yeah, it was predictable since the election. Doesn’t make it any less painful or depressing.
ArchTeryx
It’s times like this that I like to pull out the Daniel Day Lewis biopic Lincoln and rewatch it. Quite unlike all the other Abraham Lincoln biopics, it doesn’t focus on the Civil War nor the man himself. It focuses on Congress. Getting the Thirteenth Amendment through the House was a raw power play and, in hindsight, one of stunning magnitude, especially since very few Congressmen really had that much sympathy for the “negro”. They just wanted to stick it to the Democrats (i.e. the Confederate states) more. There were a few noble liberals, but they were in the extreme minority (and there was one particular scene where the noisiest “purity pony” had to be publicly shot down to avoid queering the entire deal). Many, many votes for the Amendment came either from spite or from outright bribery. Worse, there was a very steep time limit: Once the Civil War ended, the Confederate states would get their Congressional representation back, and guaranteed they’d vote down the amendment.
Take a look at that movie if you want a perspective that raw power plays have always been a part of our government. Lincoln was smart enough to use it on the side of the angels. Trump, and most conservative presidents, is on the other side.
SFAW
At times like this, I want to find that alleged Dem voter, interviewed on NPR, mentioned by me (and others here, I think) more than once, who wanted someone to give her a GOOD REASON to vote for Hillary, “without mentioning Trump or the Supreme Court.”
Fucking moron. I hope she suffers for her idiotic purity. And by “suffers,” I mean that she loses whatever material and existential comforts she had before 11/8. Not sure whether I want her to kill herself as a result, but I’m open to persuasion (as Joan Armatrading might say).
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
The scary thing is that with this dumbass it’s not inconceivable. The right would howl but do you think he’d back down like Bush did when he nominated Harriet Miers? I’d almost like to see it just to watch the meltdown that would ensue. Is Jared 35, does he need to be?
Just think of it Jared on the Supreme Court and then when Twitler’s done, Ivanka runs! Talk about a legacy of historic proportions! No one has ever had that much winning!!!
SatanicPanic
@Kryptik: It’s a win for him, I guess, but it’s not like he did anything to get it. I don’t see how this reverses his approval ratings slide.
Corner Stone
@bystander:
To quote the great man Elijah Cummings:
“Trump is a great, great President. The best, believe me.”
Spanky
@James E Powell: Republicans stay in power without everyone being angry about it for 2 related reasons: 1: A large portion of our voting public is easily (mis)led by reasonable-sounding arguments because 1a) half the population is below-average intelligence and 1b) critical thinking is no longer taught in most schools, and 1c: this makes it OK to dismiss “elites” as being ivory-tower eggheads as opposed to those salt-of-the-earth true Amerkins. 2: There’s a huge press/public-relations apparatus owned and operated by the monied interests that also owns govt representatives at all levels.
Put ’em together and you’ve got today’s idiocracy.
Kryptik
@Paul W.:
But, and I can’t believe I even am saying it at this point, at least with Scalia, you only had Bush at the helm at the worst of it. Now you have the manchild in the Oval Office, and Gorsuch has essentially proven that he may be more extreme than Scalia but just with a more genteel veneer. There’s no telling the atrocities that will come to pass on a 5-4 margin at this rate.
RinaX
@ArchTeryx:
It’s not pessimism if it’s what actually happening. The core issue is just how uninformed people in this country are, and unfortunately, that’s on both the left and the right. And it’s clear that our media actually hasn’t learned anything. Trump had to fuck up enormously to the point that even they couldn’t ignore it before they started giving him any sort of scrutiny. And they’re ready to throw all that out because he gave them the war porn that Obama did not back in 2013.
Spanky
@Major Major Major Major: I’m sure that’s already being floated.
Kryptik
@SatanicPanic:
It doesn’t. What it does is potentially make that approval slide matter not a whit, because he’ll have the tacit approval of the highest court in the land.
D58826
@ArchTeryx: I suspect, baring some event like the Great Depression, it will be several generations before the D’s are anything more than just a minor regional power in places like CA and Mass. The GOP and the Kochoptopus will own the country and redistribute every last dime of GDP to the poor underprivileged 1%. And if possible, history will record that POTUS went from W to Der Fuhrer. That black guy with the funny name will be erased from history
Jim, Foolish Literalist
for anyone who says last night was all about “optics” and stagecraft…. compare the photos.
SatanicPanic
@SFAW: bringing up SCOTUS was blackmail! Bare statements of facts about situations you didn’t create is unfair!
danielx
Because I seriously NEED some badass boogie right now to improve my outlook. If this doesn’t make you at least mentally shake yer booty, get checked to see if you have a pulse.
Gary Clark Jr. – Don’t Owe You A Thang
SFAW
@SatanicPanic:
I don’t follow. (Sorry, musta killed a few too many brain cells last night.)
Donna K
I hope Gorsuch understands that he is about to take a seat on a Court that is facing the greatest crisis of legitimacy in its history, and he is at the center of the crisis. I am hoping that a movement will develop for mass civil disobedience and resistance to SCOTUS dictates. The Republicans cannot skate away from this outrage without being made to pay a huge political price, and if the Democrats can’t exact it, the people must. If they think we’re “woke” now…
EBT
@hovercraft: When do we get the rooftop voting loons again?
James E Powell
@Spanky:
Yeah, I kinda know that stuff, but I needed to vent.
Now, explain Belichick.
Ksmiami
@Spanky: I don’t think America is worth saving at this juncture- do what u can to enjoy your lives and be prepared to help the less fortunate.
SatanicPanic
@Kryptik: SCOTUS isn’t totally immune to public opinion though. I mean, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito probably are, but Roberts and Kennedy seem to not want to go down in history as hacks.
Donna K
If, for example, marriage equality goes down, we are going to make Stonewall look like a stroll in the park.
Cacti
@James E Powell:
His deal with Lucifer.
Which would also explain why he never seems happy, even when he wins.
hovercraft
Maybe this will calm the right down, many of them were pissed off about the Tomahawks yesterday.
Alt-Right Turns on ‘Neo-Con Puppet’ Trump After Bombing Syria
Citing a Russian talking point that a chemical weapons attack in Syria was a ‘false flag,’ the alt-right begged President Trump to lay off Syria. The U.S. struck anyway, and now many are ‘off the Trump train.’
And after the president announced that the U.S. had launched 50 Tomahawk missiles at Syrian military targets Thursday night, many alt-right figureheads went a step further, publicly denouncing and pulling their support from the administration in statements on Twitter.
“I guess Trump wasn’t ‘Putin’s puppet’ after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet,” wrote InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson. “I’m officially OFF the Trump train.”
White-nationalist agitator Richard Spencer, founder of the term “alt-right,” appeared to switch his support to Hawaii Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who had met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in January. On Thursday night, he tweeted, “I absolutely condemn Washington’s military strike against Syria. #Syria #NoMoreWar,” then “Tulsi Gabbard 2020.”…………….
Creator of Dilbert and noted Trump supporter Scott Adams called the chemical weapons attack a “fake war crime.”
“I’m going to call bullshit on the gas attack. It’s too ‘on-the-nose,’ as Hollywood script-writers sometimes say, meaning a little too perfect to be natural,” Adams wrote. “This has the look of a manufactured event.”
……………..
Mike Cernovich—one of the main drivers of the debunked “Pizzagate” – “#SyriaGasAttack was sponsored by deep state,” he wrote late Wednesday night………..
InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson. “Your supporters didn’t vote for this @realDonaldTrump.”
So SAD!
But now look over here, we got a fascist onto the highest court in the land!! Yay!!
ETA: To all the proad progressives who keep trying to talk up Tulsi Gabbard, Richard Spencer is right there with you, wow. Yes I know you can’t help who supports you, but still wow.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Donna K: someone on MSNBC said that polls showed the Dem base wasn’t really fired up about Gorsuch, they didn’t show the poll or cite numbers, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Someone here told the story about a tote-bagger, more-or-less liberal friend who challenged our Juicer to make the case that Clinton was better than trump without (implied eye roll here) mentioning the Supreme Court. I can’t quite grok it, but our side doesn’t seem to grok the importance of the judiciary. The right gets it down to their bones.
Kryptik
@Donna K:
You realize of course that this is where Sessions’ DoJ likely comes in and ensure that those ‘woke’ people will probably be tried for rioting and treason, right?
Corner Stone
@Kryptik:
Even worse than that. With his faux aw-shucks downhome mannerism he will be robbing the courtier press the chance to giggle like school children just as they did when Uncle Antonin issued his increasingly demented and ranty dissenting opinions.
“Oh, what a brilliant legal mind!”, they all mewled. And giggled at some completely unhinged non-logical connection or interpretation Scalia had used to justify his process. “Oh, his language! It’s so terse and ranty! How could you not love and be entertained by such a brilliant man!”
lollipopguild
@Tenar Arha: Its a master class in understanding why you might want to grab someone by the throat and choke them to death.
SatanicPanic
@SFAW: That was the claim I kept hearing from lefties- that a mere statement of fact (Trump will get a Supreme Court nomination) was BLACKMAIL. I was just making a joke about how that’s a poor understanding of what blackmail is.
debit
@SFAW: Yeah. My real estate agent, who is an otherwise awesome guy, was one of those assholes at the convention screaming over Hillary. He just emailed me the other day to see how things were going and I’m having difficulty not responding with something ugly.
SFAW
@James E Powell:
Um, he knows what he’s doing? And manages to get the talent to implement his “vision”? And, of course, Brady. I don’t have any particular love for Brady — hey, I’m a Jets fan for the last 50-plus years (which may explain why I look 20 years older than what my [non-Hawaiian] birth certificate says) — but he a pretty outstanding QB.
Betty Cracker
@Donna K: Agreed, but sometimes I wonder how much worse things will have to get before people wake the hell up. On the other hand, I have been amazed by the passion and energy among local Democrats since the election (and that I witnessed at the Women’s March in DC). But will it be enough? Or will people “Netflix and chill” until it’s too late? Fuckifino.
SFAW
@SatanicPanic:
OK, thanks for ‘splaining.
Corner Stone
@Donna K:
That is at least three SCOTUS justices seated by illegitimate R administrations, in less than 20 years.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @SFAW: ah, it was SFAW– h/t and all
SFAW
@debit:
That’s because you’re an extraordinarily good person.
I, on the other hand, am not. So if you want to farm that stuff out to me, no problem, glad to help.
SatanicPanic
@Betty Cracker: It didn’t take a huge uprising for the Tea Party to win in a wave election in 2010. There were a lot less of them than there are of us.
schrodingers_cat
Hitler seemed unbeatable in 1942. Sun did set on the British Empire, now they are going to lose Scotland too. Rich People’s Party’s time will come too. Sooner, than we think.
OGLiberal
I see Fareed Zakaria didn’t learn his Van Jones lesson and announced that yesterday, Trump became President of the United States. Because he ordered some missiles shot at an empty airstrip from a ship hundreds of miles away and gave Russia/Syria a heads up before he did that. That takes bravery, balls, brains – manliness.
They are all useless. All of them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Betty Cracker
@SatanicPanic: Great point! And unlike the teaturds, the issues that animate us are real.
schrodingers_cat
@OGLiberal: All said and done, Fareed Zakaria is a neocon, so no wonder he is happy now. Idiot.
Betty Cracker
@OGLiberal: I’ve got a post in the hopper that includes that clip, which made me roll my eyes so hard they almost got stuck. Delayed it for the breaking news about the heist.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: I cut my Bernie sis friend, who voted for JS and now has become T supporter loose. It felt good.
Starfish
@debit: One of my BernieBro purity ponies who voted for Jill Stein was disparaging Al Gore when another person presented the false choice of Bernie Sanders or Al Gore. ?
Kryptik
@SatanicPanic:
There’s a key difference though: Those tea party folk were treated, from the very start, like ‘Real Americans’ and catered to hand and foot by both gov’t and media. We have none of that. We won’t get any of that. Fucking ever. And arguably, if this election is any indication, there really were far more of them and their supporters than we ever fucking though, and they have all the goddamn power now.
@schrodingers_cat:
Considering how many died in the course of the former’s ambitions, and how long it took the latter to fall, this really doesn’t give me that much hope you realize. Either brief but violent, or drawn out, soul draining, and torturous….I’m really hoping a third option is on the table, even if I don’t see one.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@hovercraft:
What the everlasting F***? This schism in the right between sociopathic alt right thugs and corporate “eat the poor” GOPers is just bizarre. They’re all just horrible people. Can I please time shift to when the United Federation of Planets is on the ascent?
schrodingers_cat
@Kryptik: It took Rich people’s party almost 50 years to gains its objectives ( Nixon to T) so it will take at least that long to reverse course.
EBT
@OGLiberal: None of the cruise missiles even hit the actual runways. We hit prefab garages like you can buy at home depot for a couple hundred bucks each. 90 million USD well spent!
SatanicPanic
@Betty Cracker: I’m very optimistic right now. The resistance is stronger and more durable than people are imagining. I hope I’m not stereotyping here, but the fact that it’s largely being driven by middle-aged women is a great sign- these are people with real world experience and some wisdom, i.e. not the usual flakes. So I can’t get with the hopelessness, if people are despairing they should get involved.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Have you read his first book, where extols the virtues of capitalism vs. democracy? (S. Korea is better than India was one of his comparisons). Fareed is a scion of a wealthy and political family in Mumbai, his family were bigwigs in the Congress, which ruled India until the 90s. T has nothing over the nepotism of post Indira Gandhi Congress. I am so not surprised.
LurkerNoLonger
It’s unfortunate, but there’s not a whole lot that could have been done to prevent this once Trump won*. Dems filibustered, McConnell changed the rules. It sucks.
Another Scott
RawStory:
As usual, lots of the initial reporting seems to be contradicted by later reports.
Kinda weird that they were willing to blow up a bunch of stuff but spared the runways themselves…
Cheers,
Scott.
SatanicPanic
@Kryptik: Nonsense. Have you seen how Democratic politicians are acting in the last few months? That’s not business as usual, and it’s because people are making an effort to contact them.
CaseyL
Well, the US is cooked – but we knew that on November 9 of last year.
I did have some hope after the massive demonstrations in January, and after the travel ban and AHCA failed. But that has faded. On FB, I see the activist Democratic posts regularly get hijacked by the Wilmer/Stein faction, which makes me despair of the Democrats doing well enough in 2018 to take back the Senate and/or House.
Not to mention, with Gorsuch on SCOTUS, voter repression is going to be legal.
Sorry for the gloom. I’m battling depression and anxiety disorder, and so far I’m losing.
Aleta
It’s not a big win, it’s a theft.
This is a bad day. I already woke up this morning from a nightmare, to a worse nightmare.
I know there will be worse days ahead, and there will also be good days and solid wins ahead.
Mike J
@Another Scott: Here’s the damage that was done. http://www.imagesatintl.com/us-strike-syria/
schrodingers_cat
@SatanicPanic: Agreed, every meeting I have had in my blue corner of this blue state, from my writer’s group to book club to an information session about solar power, has turned into angry political discourse with women telling me how many calls they have made, post cards they have written etc. If you know Yankees, they are not usually chatty about religion or politics. This energy is unusual.
OGLiberal
@LurkerNoLonger: Was just telling my wife that the Democrats had no power to force a vote on Garland and had no power to stop Gorsuch because Democrats don’t do enough to win fucking mid-term and state-level elections. The filibuster was the right thing to do but the best thing to do would have been to get enough voters out in 2014 so Harry Reid could have been the one to pull the nuclear option when the GOP filibustered a vote on Garland.
glory b
@SFAW: I’ll vote for giving it to you, provided you share with the class.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: it’s like the Yemen moment from his big speech. He called it highly successful and said they had gained a lot of valuable intelligence, contradicting every report, I believe including on the record, of the previous two weeks. All anyone on TeeVee noticed was that he brought a soldier’s widow to use as a prop, and they thought it was great.
ETA: on the one hand, it’s good if this means we’re not really getting into a hot war, but if you saw this tweet, and I saw this tweet, did Fareed and Andrea and Chuck see this fucking tweet? FFS
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: I hope you’re right. My not-very political brother brought up political stories on his phone when we were having lunch the other day
LurkerNoLonger
@OGLiberal: Right. This was the unfortunate outcome of the 2014 elections.
SatanicPanic
@schrodingers_cat: yeah, get involved people! Making the calls feels good. We send out postcards every week, it feels great to drop them in the box, and our Indivisible group has been regularly meeting with our rep, so it’s not like it’s all going nowhere.
PaulW
there is something seriously wrong with most moderate-leaning and left-leaning voters that are a clear majority against the far right voters and yet they can’t be f-cking bothered to SHOW UP TO VOTE.
Aleta
@CaseyL: Me too, but thousands of brilliant minds and honest hearts and talented angry people are standing with us.
The Moar You Know
@OGLiberal: Trump’s forte, like most malignant narcissists, is manipulation. He did a really good job with the GOP base, and I think he’s just figured out the media’s weakness, so be prepared for a lot more of this.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Did I read correctly that each Tomahawk is priced at a low, low 90 million? And we launched fifty-nine of them? My phone calculator can’t even go that high.
hovercraft
Today is supposed to be a glorious day for Twitler, he bombed Mslims, he stole a seat on the high court from that illigitimate blah man, and he’s meeting with China! So successful!
But everyone wants to spoil his big day with Fake News!
Report: Trump considering ousting Priebus, Bannon
By Max Greenwood – 04/07/17 09:02 AM EDT
resident Trump is considering ousting both White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Axios reported on Friday.
Aides and advisers to the president told Axios that, while Trump is considering a major shakeup in the West Wing, it’s not clear when it would happen or if Trump will “pull that trigger.”
“Things are happening, but it’s very unclear the president’s willing to pull that trigger,” one top aide said………..
The reshuffling of the NSC came as Bannon, a self-described “economic nationalist,” finds himself locked in a battle with Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, for influence.
Bannon and Priebus represent divergent forces in the Trump administration, with the latter, a former Republican National Committee chairman, serving as the voice of the political establishment in a White House full of political neophytes.
Firing them both would be an enormous upheaval for the young presidency, which has yet to hit its 100-day mark.
Axios did not say who could replace Bannon as Trump’s chief strategist but reported that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn were among those being considered to replace Priebus as chief of staff.
Good God, Kevin McCarthy, he makes Twitler sound eloquent! Such a well oiled machine.
Starfish
@CaseyL: There are demonstrations scheduled for this month too.
April 15 Tax March
April 22 Science March
April 29 Climate March
germy
From what I’ve read, Kagan and Sotomayor are outspoken on the court. They aren’t shy about expressing themselves. I wonder what they make of their new colleague.
Mike J
@Starfish: I looking forward to the Pepsi march.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The guy who admitted that the Gowdy committee was all about Clinton, 2016. What could possibly go wrong!
Another Scott
@Mike J: Interesting. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
OGLiberal
@Another Scott: See, I did something Putin didn’t like and he’s mad at me now. (or he says he is – wink, wink) Plus, all the folks on TV are saying that I look strong, that I’m willing to change my mind, and that I’m now so good at Presidenting – the best. I’m winning – because I’m always winning. So let’s just forget the last 3 months and all that Russia stuff – we’ve got to MAGA!
Chris
@ArchTeryx:
I loved that movie, and especially the interaction between Abe Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens that’s at the center of the ultimate bill. Coming so soon on the heels of the ACA and the whole giant “Obot” vs “Emoprog” arguments that were going on on the left side of the aisle, it resonated particularly well.
(Was also nice for giving Thaddeus Stevens his due, who was one of the great villains of the “war was all a great misunderstanding and we whites need to reconcile” narrative, and whose main previous exposure in pop culture had been as a card-carrying villain in Birth Of A Nation).
amk
@OGLiberal: Good god. They all have willingly swallowed the this is all about children lie. They will drum beat another war since twitler is always about going one up on kenyan.
EBT
@West of the Rockies (been a while): 1.53 million each, 90 million total to NOT take out the airfield.
hovercraft
@Another Scott:
Twitler and Vlad both get something out of the strikes. Twit gets to say he’s tough and his own man, Vlad gets to pretend there is conflict while also cutting off the direct Syria line to show his own toughness back home, win win. I understand though that Russian media is mocking the effectiveness of the missiles, they were showing how little damage there actually was from the strike. Vlad gets to keep bombing civilians and anti-Assad forces, and Twitler gets to play war president.
Betty Cracker
@SatanicPanic: Stereotyping or no, I also draw comfort from that fact.
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t know much about him — I’ve read a few newspaper columns and seen snippets of his show a time or two, and he seemed somewhat more informed and coherent than, say, Don Lemon and the other CNN bobbleheads. However, his comments on Trump ensure I’ll never take him seriously again.
germy
I didn’t watch the interview but I remember seeing the promo for it and wondering why she was allowed to discuss a pending case like that?
Chyron HR
@OGLiberal:
Surely at some point (as crazy as it sounds) the actual voters need to take some responsibility for the outcome of elections.
SFAW
@glory b:
Not only am I good with that, I may ask for input/editing before I deliver the “love note.”
Hell, I may even sub part of it out to Lee Papa.
OGLiberal
@amk: How many of them have mentioned that in his speech announcing the strikes, Dear Leader was visibly moved by the images he saw on the TeeVee of dead and dying children. He’s so compassionate.
How about letting those fucking kids come here where we don’t gas our own people.
Peale
@SFAW: Yep. Funny. I was thinking about that little girl, too. And yes, I mean to be derogatory about her age. I don’t really know what exactly is going to change our voters. We need all of them, but our own low information voters…we need to do something about them. They only want to vote for president. They don’t care about the party. Yet they need to be at the center of everything. Unfortunately, the kind of candidates they prefer don’t appear all that often. Basically charismatic types who can claim that they don’t have ties to any “establishment”, who have never needed to make a hard political decision so they can appear to be trustworthy. So basically we have to have relative political novices like Obama or not really democrats like Bernie. That’s going to reduce the pool of candidates who’ll impress them. And doesn’t solve the problem that they don’t care about the courts or their assemblymen or who is in control of Congress. And they claim to want “fighters” who’ll stick it to the GOP, but turn their noses at negative campaigns. Its like we can only win when the “just so” candidate is found. But don’t let the party search for that candidate – because once they get wind of the party actually promoting candidates to appeal to them, they’ll turn on that candidate for being an “insider.”
Starfish
@Mike J: I only drink Mexican Coca-Cola because it is made with real sugar and not corn syrup. Does that make me un-American?
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: He has a PhD from Harvard IIRC, so yes he is smarter than the average CNN bobble head. He used to be fairly right wing but the Rich People’s party has got crazier than Fareed could keep up.
Aleta
Good 2 min. video reminder
Video here: https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/849707356279656448
Chris
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Well, if we’re living in the Star Trek timeline, I should point out that the future for much of this century involves world wars, nuclear exchanges, and lunatic eugenicist conquerors nearly destroying the planet before we finally meet the Vulcans and get our excremental matter together. So, you know. Keep your head down for a few more decades.
SFAW
@Starfish:
No, commenting here makes you un-American; the Messican Coke thing is just a freebie/add-on.
A Ghost to Most
@OGLiberal:
Yet.
As for responding to fucktards, I’ve become fond of “sorry, I don’t collaborate with fascists”.
D58826
@West of the Rockies (been a while): that’s for all 58. not for each. still a lot of money for not destroying runways because you didn’t want to upset the Russians.
Aleta
@amk: Like the Cheney Bush invasion of Iraq was suddenly all about Muslim women’s rights. (Which is being used again by the ICE and HSD against anyone with a name that sounds Muslim to them.)
The Moar You Know
@germy: Because she’s a fucking crooked-ass racist cop and can do whatever the fuck she feels like. This is America, after all.
Chris
@OGLiberal:
Yeah, I know. It’s almost enough to make you forget that he didn’t want to let any of those kids in because they were all scary dangerous terrorists.
Donna K
@Kryptik: Of course. I didn’t say it was going to be easy.
Chris
@Aleta:
That’s actually even worse when you consider that women’s rights, like gay rights and minority rights, got worse after the 2003 invasion, not better.
As my favorite antiwar blogger from the era pointed out, not because the CPA and company were shy about remaking Iraqi society: this is the same group that disbanded the military, de-facto disbanded the civil service (de-Baathification) and destroyed government revenues by turning it into a Fair Tax playground. Protecting women, gays, and religious minorities simply wasn’t a priority for the CPA. (Why should it be? It isn’t one for them here, either).
glory b
@germy: “Judge Doug Drummond issued the formal rebuke Thursday, cautioning attorneys that further publicity could jeopardize the chance of having an impartial trial.”
I think that was the idea.
Look! I can use quotation marks! Supreme Court here I come!
Baud, are you listening? I’d be a great pick!
Brachiator
I freely admit that reading about this confirmation is like a punch in the gut. It reminds me of how much has been damage to the country has been done, and will continue to be done to the country, because Hillary Clinton did not win the election.
Everyone who was even the slightest bit liberal should have known how critical the Supreme Court is, and voted accordingly.
Instead, here we are.
Make me wanna holler,
Throw up both my hands
Donna K
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, sometimes I am bursting with sunny optimism and bold determination, and other times I sink into the depths of despondency, much like John’s current wretched state. On the whole, however, I remain encouraged by the new spirit of passionate resistance I’m encountering, even here in notoriously pessimistic Central New York. I really believe we have a good chance of ousting our bogus “moderate” Congresscreep, John Katko, in 2018. I don’t see any sign of flagging commitment among my fellow activists.
gvg
@hovercraft: Bush backed down on Harriet Miers because he didn’t have the votes. She was personally very connected to him but not so much the rest of the republicans and they didn’t want her. I thought they were partially embarrassed by her lack of qualification and partially they wanted someone they knew better.
Trump has a tendency to fight with everyone including the rest of the GOP. I had hoped it would be more definitive to save us but it turns out he doesn’t have stable positions and doesn’t always fight where predicted. He isn’t as ideological as I have come to expect. Luckily he is more incompetent than I expected. At any rate I don’t think he could get Kushner confirmed. Someone dreadful though, probably. I was kind of surprised he managed to pick someone the rest of the party liked. I thought he would pick a personal donor.
NR
@PaulW: If you want people to vote for you, you have to give them something to vote for.
Maybe moderate and left-leaning voters don’t want to vote for a party whose tagline these days is “We’ll be ever so slightly less friendly to the corporations than the Republicans.”
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: His first book got a favorable review from none other than Niall Ferguson.