I’m as hopeless and as despondent about this country and its future as I have ever been.
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This post is in: Go Fuck Yourself
I’m as hopeless and as despondent about this country and its future as I have ever been.
Comments are closed.
Kevin Moore
Good job, everybody!
zhena gogolia
Me too.
James E Powell
I’m right there with you and have been since November 8, 2017.
JPL
It appears that Assad had some type of notification, and was able to remove a lot of equipment. I feel like this is Comey sprouting his bullshit all over again. Early voting in my area starts on Monday, and the district 6 election is the 18th.
Betty Cracker
I continue to vacillate between hope and despair. But yeah, some days, it seems like we’re too dumb to live as a species, let alone as a country. It makes me want to go on a neck-punching rampage in the town square. Someday, the “Florida Woman” in the headline will be me!
amk
Peak wingnut finally achieved. Courtesy rwnj’s and loony left.
The Moar You Know
You’re not alone in that, John. We have fucked ourselves but good.
Timurid
The only institution still functioning is a fragment of the judicial branch… the low and mid level federal courts. (Even that will be lost as vacancies are filled.)
Everything else is now in the hands of the enemy.
JPL
Just saw this
Breaking: Pentagon now investigating possible #Russian involvement in #Syria chemical weapons attack in Idlib – US military officials
yeah fk it
gvg
Gorsuch confirmed but news is mostly Syria. Rage at the Trump voters.
A Ghost to Most
I’m starting to channel the spirit of W.T. Sherman.
Prepare.
TaMara (HFG)
Me, too. And I cannot find a way around it today. Try me again tomorrow. Sigh.
trollhattan
Oh hey, why not invite the neighbors over to join the fun?
JMG
@JPL: If they find it, what will they do then? Sweet fuck all is my guess. But it would put a permanent crimp in any plan to lift sanctions on Russia, so I could see Mattis getting this in as a preemptive strike. Since so many people in the administration, including of course Trump, have no idea what they’re doing, those with an idea can get a lot accomplished on the sly.
Doug!
That upset about the Pepsi ad?
JPL
@trollhattan: We all know that if he’s white, he is mentally ill. l
ruckus
I wrote yesterday, just before I’d seen the news about the missile strike that I expect us to be either in a war or massive recession within a year. Today I’m even more sure but I think it might be both.
Yeah I’m not too up beat these days.
patroclus
We had been doing well for the first few weeks – health insurance/Medicaid destruction was stopped, the Muslim ban was held up in the courts, the Russian connection was being investigated, Trump has been massively incompetent, the media actually seemed to be fighting back. But this week, with Trump getting the U.S. involved in another war, losing the USSC for another generation (coupled with the way they did it) and the Nunes/Watnick counter-op changing the media narrative and the complete and utter gushing by the Village over the Syrian bombing have been real body blows. This has been the worst week since November and it looks like it’s just the start.
Chris
@James E Powell:
I had trouble sleeping for that entire week.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
On election night I went to bed in the United States of America. The next morning I woke up in a Russian client state. Now I’m just watching to see what shape it will ultimately take. I know it won’t be good.
Also, re Syria — were the Syrians and Russians told in advance? I distinctly remember Dolt 45 bitching during debates that our military actions shouldn’t be announced in advance.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: Let me take a guess as to why he’s not already in jail. One guess. I bet I nail it.
JPL
@JMG: Hope you are right.
I would like to mention that Russia is you are listening, release the p p tape now.
crawdad
I love this blog.
ArchTeryx
I’m just hoping against hope that, even though we’re at a nearly hopeless minority, that an abject lesson was learned by most Democrats today: The GOP is now the party of the naked power play. Nothing more. Nothing less. In the end, this wasn’t a “stolen” Supreme Court seat. It merely was one in which the Majority Leader of the Senate used *all* the power at his disposal to make sure the seat was filled by a Republican. Comity be fucked. Voters, particularly white voters, did the rest.
And when the last vestiges of the unions are abolished by the newly empowered right wing Supreme Court majority, and we get returned to the 1920s? I hope that all those union Trump voters enjoy what they voted for.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: “The Armageddon Gun Shop” for realz? Sweet banjo-strumming Jeebus, I don’t know how “The Onion” keeps up.
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan:
……
ETA: Damn, missed it by that much!
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I thought I had perceived a pattern where after Trump did something particularly odious, some IC info was leaked to take him down and keep the fire hot.
With Trump going all strong man military yesterday though, I wonder if the IC (or whoever the leakers are) will go radio silent for now.
JPL
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: GMA and CNN said that Russia new, and ABC has this on their website
http://abcnews.go.com/International/eyewitness-syrian-military-anticipated-us-raid/story?id=46641107
So much for a sneak attack.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Major Major Major Major:
Man, Armageddon tired of this….
Timurid
And we haven’t had a terrorist attack yet.
It’s been amazingly quiet after that crazy run of attacks (Charleston, Lafayette, Colorado Springs, San Bernardino, Orlando, Dallas, Baton Rouge) in just over a year. Imagine what that would have been like with the Donald in charge…
Yutsano
@patroclus: There will always be setbacks. But nothing that happened this week stalls the investigations or should change our resolve. Resistance should still be done even with the Gorusch appointment and the media getting its war hard-on.
PJ
@Chris: Well, if it’s anything like November 8, 2016, we’re in for a hell of a decline. BTW, if you guys have a time machine, can’t you go back and do something about Comey, or Weiner? Maybe have Billy Bush give Jeb a little oppo research at the beginning of the primaries?
Chris
@patroclus:
I have some hope from the number of Democrats, previously apolitical or fair-minded or whatever, who seem to have finally “woke” in the last few months. Against that is the fear of whether they’ll actually remain that way for long enough, the rage at “how the fuck have you waited this long to be ‘woke?’ Most of you were alive through George W. Bush,” and the fear that it might not be enough to overcome the vote-suppression bulldozer that Sessions has every intention of going all-out on.
trollhattan
@JPL: @The Moar You Know: I also love the detail that he held up the Armageddon Gun Shop. How the ever lovin’ fvck does someone stroll into a survivalist gun store and walk out with several armloads of guns without a scratch? I would have expected the headline “Shootout in area gun shop kills four, injures seven”
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: Why would that affect a sneak attack?
I mean, it’s not like Russia would warn Assad.
//
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Betty Cracker:
Who would Jesus blow away?
The Moar You Know
@ArchTeryx: Berniesis on my Failbook feed blames Dems for “not running the better candidate.”
We are, as John notes, truly fucked.
sukabi
@ruckus: since Drumpf is an expert at turning everything he touches to shit what we’ll get is a war that crashes the world economy…it’ll be lose-lose all the way around.
EBT
@trollhattan: Is Pauly boy home for recess?
Mnemosyne
@Timurid:
We will probably see fewer attacks by white dudes. The guys who would do them are happy right now, because the white supremacist daddy of their dreams is in charge.
jacy
This too shall pass. Bad day. Doesn’t mean we stop fighting the good fight.
JPL
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Wasn’t it just yesterday, that we discovered that Nunes is being investigated for releasing classified info. and Jared didn’t inform anyone that he met with foreign officials. Nothing sticks, that why I’m asking Russia to release any tapes that they might have showing Trump in a bad light.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: My local range/store, all employees pack, but there have been times I’ve gone in there and only one person was working. At that point, as in most gunfights, the guy with the gun out has already won.
However it went down, the staff is damn lucky none of them were killed.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost to Most: Lately, I’ve heard non-crazy people in meat space openly consider the merits of political violence. Not in the sense of planning specific actions, but rather speculating that there’s no other way to save democracy. Never heard that kind of talk before (internet blowhards aside), though I’m aware it was fairly common in the 60s.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@JPL: Thanks. I’d been hearing conflicting reports.
Yeah, this was total bullshit. But I’m sure Raytheon’s happy, so there’s that.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker:
Me too, and not just anarchists/cosplayers.
Mnemosyne
@EBT:
We can only dream.
trollhattan
@EBT:
Good question. He’s such a chickenshit I bet he either doesn’t hold town halls or screens who is allowed in. Can’t have those feefees hurt by either 1. indignant hard liners who want Obamacare dead, dead, dead or 2. Area Man who finally discovered he and his family have been accessing the ACA for six years, so what was Obamacare, again?
JMG
Russia had to be informed in advance to prevent them trying to shoot down the missiles and to prevent us from killing or injuring any Russian troops. So it also had to be assumed Syria would then know and remove troops, weapons, planes, etc. There’s a real WWE quality to this encounter. Look, there are two ways this could go. If it’s a one-off, Trump will get a Village glow and possibly a bump in the polls until the next time he goes off the rails, so until Wednesday at the latest. If he’s listening to Graham, McCain etc., and really means it with that regime change stuff (I doubt it), we are in trouble plenty.
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
Yup. What I keep telling those people is, “You wanted anyone but Hillary. You got your wish. Congratulations.”
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: the 60s where only the good politicians (in this country) were assassinated….
gene108
@A Ghost to Most:
Sherman was head of the army, in the 1870’s, leading us in the Plains War to clear the way for white settlers.
He was not a liberal hero. He fought a good fight, but he rampaged the South as both necessity- to move quickly cut off Johnston’s Army from being reinforce, after taking Atlanta – and to deprive Lee of support.
He was not in it for the Revolution. He had a job to do and did it.
It just bothers me that liberals are treating Sherman like a hero for the cause. He wasn’t.
hovercraft
As a member of a group that has had more than it’s fair share of dark days, I can tell you that no matter how bad it is or gets, we have to not give in to despair, we have another generation behind us that we have to fight for. It’s our job to make sure that progress is made, we have to leave this world better than we found it. Days like today make you want to throw in the towel, but we can’t. Moan and bitch, it’s cathartic, then get to work.
Timurid
At this point the Russia investigation is our only way out.
And if this winning streak continues, how long before Trump and Sessions muster up the stones to just shut the whole thing down and transfer the principals to, depending on their agency, a radar base in Greenland, an embassy in Central Asia or a biker gang task force in South Dakota? Sure, that’s contrary to precedent and policy… maybe even explicitly illegal… but such distinctions only matter so long as we have working institutions. And right now we mostly don’t…
ruemara
Tissue paper.
No offense, but this isn’t even remotely the time for the luxury of despair and despondence. 300 years of slavery and oppression for black folks. The racism and hatred directed at minorities for decades. The life-threatening decision to live your real self as a trans-woman or man for decades. Come on, people. Panic and fall apart later. Take a breath and push back now. This wasn’t exactly a big surprise for Donnie’s foreign policy and it was more likely as more things fell apart in his administration. Take your despair moment, but, really, let it be a moment.
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Probably not. He’s more of a clear & present danger than ever.
Yutsano
@Betty Cracker:
I hate to be that guy, but that would just give the Hairy Yam all the motivation he needs to declare martial law and then never give it back.
Villago Delenda Est
My roommate heard me muttering this morning about “fuck this shit” and was uncertain if it was about the political news of the last 16 or so hours or about wrestling with Windows 10.
My reply was “a bit of both, actually”.
EBT
@trollhattan: His feelings are not the part of him I was curious about if Mr Jakubowski may try to perforate.
Timurid
@JMG: My question from the moment Trump first called out Assad was… Is this a shoot or a work?
Miss Bianca
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Armageddon nervous, myself.
Ksmiami
@ArchTeryx: pretty much done. still going to my old refrain: the only good Republican is a dead Republican.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: Well said. Despair is a luxury we can’t afford. We have to fight for what is right. We may win some and lose some. But giving up guarantees the victory of the Rich People’s party.
EBT
@gene108: He didn’t even rampage the south. Retreating confederate forces pillaged way more than Sherman’s forces did. I mean if nothing else Atlanta is full of antebellum architecture.
Jeffro
@JMG:
“WWE quality” – you said it
“…until Wednesday at the latest.” – you said it.
Take heart, folks. Next week will bring a fresh round of Trumpsubstantiation, as sure as the sun rises in the east…as sure as tax cuts are the answer to every question…
hellslittlestangel
Yes, it is clear that this country has enough simpletons, shit-heads and fascists to blow the whole thing up. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil …
Regnad Kcin
has anyone thought to check DJT for the Mark of the Beast? This is all getting a little too Chick Tract-y for me
donnah
With the foxes guarding the henhouse, soon the hens will all be dead and gone. Our system of checks and balances is tipped and so is the Supreme Court. Trump is a hero and no one will dare stop him now. He has tasted blood and will never hesitate to fire again. The media has fed into that bloodlust and the Republicans glory in it.
Gotta say I’m feeling pretty low, too. When the president refuses to allow Syrian refugees to find sanctuary in the US and then turns around and bombs Syria supposedly on their behalf, I sense a world turned upside down and inside out. I don’t know how to recover from it.
Mart
Amazing how the media falls instantly in line with Obama a pussy, Trump strong leader, I got my wargasm on.
Brachiator
I noted this in a previous thread, and repeat it here …
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. And the mindless air strikes in Syria, totally disconnected from any foreign policy or strategic thinking, adds to my woe.
Make me wanna holler,
Throw up both my hands
hovercraft
Is this real or Kabuki?
After U.S. Strikes Syria, Russian PM Says It’s ‘On The Verge Of A Military Clash’
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that U.S.-Russia relations were “completely ruined” after U.S. President Donald Trump approved a military strike against a Syrian air field Thursday night, and that the United States was “[o]n the verge of a military clash with Russia.”………….
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that the missile strike was “an act of aggression.” The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also suspended the memorandum of understanding that established the deconfliction channel, by which the two countries U.S. and shared military flight information in order to avoid confrontations or collisions.
Medvedev said Friday that “The last remaining election fog has lifted. Instead of an overworked statement about a joint fight against the biggest enemy, ISIS (the Islamic State), the Trump administration proved that it will fiercely fight the legitimate Syrian government.”
“Beyond that is absolute mistrust,” he added later. “Which is really sad for our now completely ruined relations. And which is good news for terrorists.”
ArchTeryx
@The Moar You Know: Well, admittedly I was speaking of Democratic politicians. Purity ponies will never be happy until we’re all burning, because if the world’s burning, maybe the contradictions will be heightened enough to finally usher in the liberal Utopia, just like in Star Trek!
I have more hope when it comes to “is our politicians learning?” based on the vote in the Senate. The only D Senators voting with the Rs are in extremely red Trump states, and those voters are peachy keen with naked displays of power, so long as it’s THEIR strongman that’s putting the boot on people’s faces.
Cleardale
We warned Russia, they and Syria moved anything important out of the way. We bomb empty buildings. Russia is “very upset” at us for blah blah blah. We “broker” a deal that includes removing the sanctions on Russia. trump gets to act tough, and down the road there’s now a “reason” for lifting the sanctions on Russia.
geg6
@James E Powell:
Yeah, I don’t understand why it’s taken him this long to come to that point. I’ve been there for months.
BlueDWarrior
@donnah: To be fair, the tipped status of the court depends on how Kennedy is feeling that day. So it’s less a tip than a tilted wobbly spin.
hellslittlestangel
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: More likely this will embolden them.
hueyplong
@ruemara: Yes. People had best unfuck themselves and resolve not to leave the field to the assholes, dissemblers, and down-punchers.
Oatler.
Cheer up, the poison cup is half FULL, not half empty!
Seriously, this is a crisis (as in ‘turning point’) and the more we’re stepped on as weeds, the more vigorously we’ll flourish like weeds.
Mmmm….weeds…
Chris
@gene108:
The thing about the U.S. Army is that they’re loyal to the lawfully elected civilian authority, and follow its orders.
Which is as it should be. An army that picks and chooses which orders to follow, much as Hollywood loves the concept, is on a very short trip to destination Pinochet. But, yeah. The unglamorous truth about the army is that they’re only as heroic as the wars they’re sent to fight. Order them to put down a white supremacist insurrection and they’ll do it… order them to perform ethnic cleansing on behalf of other white supremacists? They’ll do that too.
Major Major Major Major
@BlueDWarrior: I’m so sick of people saying this. The balance of the court was at 4-4, because that is what the balance of the court was at until this morning. And it should have been at 5-4 liberal. So yes, this changes the balance of the court.
Jeff
Read American history. We’ve seen this shit show before.
trollhattan
@hovercraft:
I presumed from day 1 that Syria would force Trump to pick between his two boyfriends, Putin and Netanyahu, because Hezbollah. We may have our answer.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cleardale: Meanwhile, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania have learned what Czechoslovakia learned in 1938. Can’t trust the western powers to live up to their rhetoric.
schrodingers_cat
Whoocodoonode that fluffing GG and Snowden as bwave whistleblowers would be consequence free. Also droning about drones.
A Ghost to Most
I’m not a leader or a joiner. BJ is as social as I get.
We will go into the mountains, and attempt to become serious pitas, if shit goes south. That would be later.
For now, I let far saner folks than me try to save our country. They are doing a better job than I initially feared. The arrogance and incompetence of our adversaries helps.
Hopefully, we reverse this.
If so, then all thanks to the social resistance. If not, well, some folks should be prepared to carry on. We owe it to our country.
Eta lost the reply link to Betty Cracker reply to my comment
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah. Going back at a minimum to Thomas replacing Marshall, SCOTUS “balance” be fucked up, yo.
Betty Cracker
@Cleardale: I’ve seen similar speculation on Twitter, and it would honestly not surprise me if Trump’s people hatched such a scheme. But Trump himself is the wild card. The raging war boner might make him ignore strategic angles.
Spanky
@Kevin Moore: Dude wins the thread at Comment #1!
Spanky
I wonder how the US military establishment feels to be relegated to playing a bit role in Putin Theatre?
Steve in the ATL
@James E Powell:
Moi aussi
hovercraft
Someone please tell these morons to stop writing as if Twitler will suddenly wake up one day and begin to a rational person. He will never be credible or legitimate, Putin helped get him there and he can’t bomb his way away from that fact. The media may fall all over themselves as they get a thrill up their legs about a new war, but it will be short lived, we’re all so used to being at war, that in a couple of days they’ll need something new to chew on.
Donald Trump has jumped into a quagmire with his eyes shut
It may be hard to believe, but Donald Trump is even more simplistic than George W Bush in matters of war. George W Bush enjoyed all the certainty of a very simple man: you were either with us or against us, good or evil, marching for democracy or plotting terrorist attacks.
Yet Donald Trump contrives to make Bush look like a Baron von Metternich of complexity. He just launched military strikes against a brutal Syrian regime he used to describe as “NOT our problem.” That’s the same Syrian regime propped up by his own Russian friends.
There’s a lot to be said for moral clarity after the Assad regime’s disgusting chemical attacks that murdered so many civilians in northern Syria this week. But that’s not what Trump represents. His moral certainty was nowhere to be found in 2013, after the first large-scale chemical attacks that crossed Obama’s infamous red line. “President Obama, do not attack Syria,” tweeted Trump. “There is no upside and tremendous downside.”
Now Trump himself is upside down on Syria. He initially blamed Obama and his red line for the chemical attacks this week, insisting that the overblown rhetoric had hurt the United States. This from a man who told this gem to reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday: “I think we’ve had one of the most successful 13 weeks in the history of the presidency.”
Yes, Donald Trump is a great big bag of contradictions and he just swaggered his way into the single most complex civil war in living memory. A war that is even more complicated than raising a high-rise hotel in a foreign capital.
At least Bush took more than a year after 9/11 before he invaded Iraq. Trump hasn’t reached the 100-day mark and he’s already walking into his own quagmire.
Because he can’t stop with one volley of Tomahawk missiles. There will be more human rights abuses and more massacres. And Trump will be forced to decide between bombing regime targets or bombing targets belonging to its biggest rebels: the Isis forces Trump has already condemned as the most evil group on the face of the planet……………..
Trump now cares deeply about the suffering of Syria’s civilians and refugees. Under any circumstances, this is a development we should all welcome. The most vulnerable people on the planet need all the help they can get from anyone with any power to make a difference.
“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed, and failed very dramatically,” Trump told the cameras on Thursday night. “As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.”
It is very hard to square this Donald Trump with the Donald Trump who described Angela Merkel’s refugee policy as “an utterly catastrophic mistake” and called the Iraq invasion “possibly the worst decision that has ever been made in the history of our country.” That other Donald Trump only made those pronouncements two months ago. ………….
“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council,” Trump said on Thursday night.
The challenge for this all-new season of Trump is that his first and biggest test is credibility. The world needs to trust the United States: that these bombing targets are legitimate, that the Syrian regime is indeed responsible, and that the president has the legal authority and political support of the international community and the Congress.
Credibility and legitimacy, it’s fair to say, have not been Trump’s strong points to date. He has rejected the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies on Russia’s interference in his own election. He believes climate change is a Chinese hoax. He insists on lying to world leaders about the size of his inauguration crowds and the non-existent margin of his election victory.
geg6
@gene108:
I’m a liberal and I consider Sherman a hero to the cause for which he fought, preserving the Union and punishing the traitors. I’m not ashamed of that at all. In fact, I certainly wish he’d been assigned to the South rather than the West, post-war. His effectiveness at his job may have saved us all a lot of the heartache we’ve had to live with in the subsequent 150 years.
Steve in the ATL
@Betty Cracker:
Moi aussi, and it’s both freaking me out and exciting me
SiubhanDuinne
I had forgotten this (or maybe repressed it) until now, but remember last October during the NLCS and World Series, when I kept imploring everyone to read the great short story “Last Pennant Before Armageddon” by W. P. Kinsella?
The basic premise is that if the Chicago Cubs were to win the WS, it would mean the end of the world.
randy khan
Something to cheer Cole up (or depress him even more, not sure which): The New York Times Men’s Style section has an article about overalls today. Key nugget:
“Everyday Elegance”
planetpundit
Gorsuch’s confirmation is another indication of Republican political weakness. They had to go thru all of this partisan warfare merely to KEEP a SC seat they already had; this is not a net gain for them but a hold. Also, view it in context; they hold the House primarily thru gerrymandering and the inept national political leadership of the Democrats and they have not won the popular vote in a national election (with the exceeption of GW Bush’s somewhat unusual re-election when he had not won election prior) since Reagan left office. They have played their position of weakness with soem skill however it is a weak and steadily wworsening position. I don’t see given the demographics of their base and their reliance on white nationalism and crony capitalism how this ends well for them……or the Country.
Villago Delenda Est
@Spanky: They’ll never let on how they feel. It’s part of the entire “civilian control” thing. You don’t say critical things about the civilian leadership. There’s a UCMJ article that specifically addresses that.
A Ghost to Most
@gene108:
Never said he was perfect.
Real heroes never are. Even Lincoln was an imperfect man.
Sherman could do the math. He knew that you can never back up with these people. Put your head down, and keep going.
Steve in the ATL
@gene108:
In my 40+ years of living in the South, I have never heard anyone, liberal or conservative, treat Sherman like a hero. YMMV.
Keith G
Fuck man, this isn’t April 1861 nor Dec. 1941. It sucks that our two political parties could not keep this con man away from the presidency, but we are not yet facing existential threats.
We will get through to the other side battered and bruised, as we should be for being stupid yet self-satisfied. The Democratic Party, if it chooses to act rationally and work like a motherfucker, will have some strong opportunities in about 18 months and there’s just a bit over 3 and a half years until the Democrats get to hold both the Senate and the presidency.
Edit: And what @ruemara: said.
Ella in New Mexico
Call me a cockeyed optimist, but like all of Trump’s supposed “big victories”, the #FAIL appears to be right around the corner, and I, for one smell the sweet, sweet scent of more Trump shitstain action coming down the pike:
Putin supposedly removed all chemical weapons from Syria in agreement with US in 2013 to avoid further military strikes by us. Now, 4 yrs later, Putin’s guy in the WH needs to look strong and commanding. Putin’s guy Assad suddenly has the supplies to launch a gas attack on a limited geographic area w/few tactical targets, just horrific civilian deaths that get headlines. Trump says how horrible the pictures made him feel (even though he railed against Obama doing anything in Syria and regularly stated we should go after the families of terrorists, including their kids, just to show how tough he is). Pulls out plan from Obama administration, and proceeds to launch 59 missiles on what we now know was an empty airbase, only after giving Russia and the Syrians a heads up on the target, barely damaging the airstrip and allowing equipment to be moved and resulting in ZERO casualties.
This was so obviously conducted to help Trump look like a man with a penis and distract from the coming criminal chandelier crashing down on his head for Russian treason it is hilarious.
Aaaand….They’re already reporting on the possible links between Russia and this gas attack in the witless MSM!!!
This will not bode well for Komrade Trumpenfraud. Enjoy the weekend and party on, folks! ???????
hovercraft
Hey FP’s can we get some puppies or some kittens?
Something to alleviate the doom and gloom.
Cute Dogs Acting Guilty
All The Puppies | Cute Dog Video Compilation 2017
Spanky
@hovercraft: Kabuki.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
is this a sort of “original sin” argument for Chicago natives? Maybe you and raven are ok, but I was born and lived on the north shore so I can’t escape my Cub heritage.
Brachiator
@Jeff:
Not with someone like Trump.
@planetpundit:
What an odd viewpoint. An advantage is an advantage, no matter how you got there.
randy khan
@Major Major Major Major:
I understand that feeling, but 4-4 always was a temporary state. It was 4-1-4 (with a lean towards the right from the 1) before Scalia died and it’s 4-1-4 again. That doesn’t make me less steamed about how Obama and Garland were treated (I always will be steamed about how Obama was treated from Day 1), but I see it more as an opportunity to improve the court that was denied us rather than anything else.
Similarly, when someone says that the court is now lost to the right for a generation, which I’ve seen a lot of in these precincts in the last couple of days, I want to point out that an actuary would note the ages of Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Roberts, and conclude that it’s quite unlikely that they all last 10 years, let alone 20. (I acknowledge the risk on the other side, of course, but it’s not all one way.)
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
I’m in the same boat. THIS video was a 2 minute diversion that helped a little. And either tomorrow or next Saturday we’re having a rescue dog come for a sleepover.
Swannie
This from a guy who lives in a secluded small town in the peaceful hills of West Virginia, has a salary from a private little college sufficient to buy and renovate his own home in the past six months,drives a Subaru, has an income from his blog, both parents still living, keeps multiple pets,and has a new GF.
The kind of guy who kicks out his roommates if they disagree with him politically.
Yeah life is tough for poor John.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan: OK, but if all of them croak tomorrow and get replaced by republicans, it will somehow both “not change the balance of the court” and “lose the court for a generation.” It just doesn’t make sense to talk about supreme court seats this way.
Steve in the ATL
@randy khan: SCOTUS has me more depressed than any other element of the GOP/Trump clusterfuck, but maybe that’s because I’m a lawyer.
Ironically, his opinions will probably make my professional life easier, even as they gnaw at my gut and hurt my friends and other fellow Americans.
amk
small mercies.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
G keeps saying the same thing. But, then, he’s a Sox fan.
randy khan
@Major Major Major Major:
Well, if Kennedy goes, it absolutely changes the balance of the Court; he’s not within 5 miles of the kind of person who’d be nominated to replace him, whether chosen by a Republican or a Democrat. (Okay, maybe he’s within 3 miles of a likely Democratic replacement choice.)
And, again, I don’t want anyone to think I’m minimizing how bad Gorsuch is – unless something strange happens, he’s going to be awful. It’s just that Scalia was awful, too.
Mike J
@amk: Since the feds were using CBP to try to get the info, my guess is they didn’t want to be laughed out of court.
Had they gone after a mom & pop website, chances are they would have gotten everything they wanted. Twitter could say no because they’re big.
randy khan
@Mike J:
It’s true that Twitter could say no, but it’s also still something of an act of courage. A lot of big companies would have given the information without a fuss.
Brachiator
@Steve in the ATL: RE: Lately, I’ve heard non-crazy people in meat space openly consider the merits of political violence. Not in the sense of planning specific actions, but rather speculating that there’s no other way to save democracy. Never heard that kind of talk before (internet blowhards aside), though I’m aware it was fairly common in the 60s.
Only problem is that political violence has a spotty record when it comes to saving democracy.
Major Major Major Major
@randy khan:
Right, but it’s not “Scalia’s seat”, it’s an open seat. Right now the seat is at 0, not -1. Gorsuch puts it back at -1, but Garland would have put us at +1. You’re not losing two points but you’re still losing one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@randy khan: scary, but I think our best hope (along with RBG having had a really skilled oncologist) is that Kennedy is enough of an institutionalist to not want trump to have a rubber-stamp for his replacement. IIRC and from what I’ve read, which I guess amounts to gossip, he has enormous regard for himself as a high-minded, above-the-fray type.
Miss Bianca
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: This video is the one that’s doing it for me. “Fuck off, Jake!” has become my go-to cry in moments of despair.
hovercraft
With apologies to @Baud.
NY Times is smoking something, says end of the SCOTUS filibuster makes the Senate more bipartisan
By Joan McCarter
Friday Apr 07, 2017 · 2:00 PM EST
Oh, lordy. Spare us, please.
WASHINGTON — The conventional Washington wisdom dictates that the end of the judicial filibuster is also the end of life as it is currently known in the Senate.
In truth, it may not make that much of a difference at all. In an unexpected way, it may well herald the beginning of a better era for the Senate.
Oh? Do tell. After first telling us that this really is the Democrats’ fault for doing it first in 2013 (because no one at the Times remembers McConnell’s SCOTUS nuclear threats of 2005, apparently) and how that “set off a far bigger firestorm, and Republicans have now simply extended that precedent.” Uh, huh. Convenient that you don’t remember why the Democrats did that in 2013.
Republicans are quick to point out — and many Democrats privately agree — that had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the White House last year and Democrats taken the Senate, a similar confrontation would have been likely in the other direction, and that Democrats might have needed to take the same step Republicans took to confirm any Supreme Court nominee Mrs. Clinton had chosen.
Hmmmm … now why would that be? Oh, yeah, because Republicans and their allies were loudly and very publicly plotting over how they were going to deny Clinton any nominees for the entirety of her tenure.
Even as members of both parties railed against one another on the Senate floor on Thursday, appropriators and party leaders in the House and Senate were working to come up with a plan to fund the government for the rest of the year that would most likely ignore Mr. Trump’s request for a large pile of cash to build a wall on the border with Mexico and cut programs that have bipartisan support.
Except for that part where McConnell is telling the world that everything is normal and the White House is having bipartisan meetings on the budget and Chuck Schumer’s spokesman has to come out and say “nope.” This collective amnesia over McConnell’s noxious and toxic stewardship of Senate Republicans for the last decade and a half isn’t just irritating. It’s dangerous. New York Times—stop it.
The NY Times is fucking garbage.
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: Boycott them.
George Lehman
“‘The best thing for being sad,’ replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn.”
The Sword and the Stone, T.H. White, 193
hedgehog the occasional commenter
/incoherent rambling/ Right there with you, Cole. Will admit I swing between “oh fuck it all” and “hand me the pitchfork and let’s get the fuckers.” Doesn’t help that my MIL is entering home hospice care. She’s 95 and has been sick for a long time, so it’s not unexpected, but it feels like the topping on the shit sandwich. Planning to unplug this weekend (except for the cell phone). We’re headed to an SCA event near Buena Vista, CO, tomorrow with a stop planned for some lovely hot springs on the way home Sunday. /incoherent rambling/
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just like James Comey. This should end well!
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Miss Bianca: ZOMG that’s funny! Thanks so much.
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: You’re going to be in BV? I’m going to be in Salida – so near, and yet so far!
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: IKR? I sent it to Adam a few days back – go bug him to to FP it! ; )
Amaranthine RBG
@Brachiator:
Unfortunately, this is all just talk.
Reminds me of Erik Loomis prattling on about how ICE agents are nazis and it’s always okay to punch Nazis and how “SOMETHING must be done.” I imagine he made himself an extra strong cup of tea and that was the extent of his insurrection.
But, if folks are serious, the Second Amendment still mostly exists and in many states you can find fairly good small arms. Remember, perfect practice makes perfect.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Miss Bianca: Hee. Actually, we will be in Salida (I think more people know where BV is, so that’s why I mentioned it). Plan is to hit Mt. Princeton on Sunday before heading home.
Miss Bianca
There’s a SCA event going on in Salida? What, sword-play in the park? I know they do that…
I’m going riding, myself…but there’s music happening at Hub-bub (or is it Soulcraft? – new brewery in town) tomorrow eve, 6 pm…mini-meet?!
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Miss Bianca: We’ll be at the Boys and Girls Club in Salida and there will be some stuff going on outside. FP or someone more knowledgeable, how do we trade emails? (Not sure what my evening looks like, but a mini-meet would be great!)
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: I will ask Adam to perform the email exchange!
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Miss Bianca: woot! Thanks.
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: Done! If that fails, I can always wander by the B & G Club with a green balloon! ; )
PaulW
I saw my doctor today for my annual checkup.
I told her I was feeling stressed out and depressed, and that I’ve been feeling that way since November. She said, “oooooh.”
She talked about starting on some meds, and seeing a counselor, and that one of the things I need to do to unstress is to “accept this change.” I wanted to tell her I didn’t want to accept any damn part of this disaster, and that the best way for me to unstress would be to find 62 million morans and groin kick each one.
So, anyway, I’m trying to find some therapists on my BlueCross/BlueShield…
lol chikinburd
You know it was the most 2016 twenty-four hour stretch of 2017 when Don Rickles dying was only the third-worst thing that happened.
But what I’m wondering is: Why are we even still the same country? The U.S. seems to have become genuinely a multi-nation state, with two distinct nationalities — the non-genetic melting-pot America our side always considered the country to be, and the white Herrenvolk their side always assumed it was — inhabiting the same nation-state, and fighting over the name and the territory, and that don’t end well. We’d have no business sharing a polity with them even if there was any “sharing a polity” with them, ever.
Tehanu
@geg6:
Me too. Sherman wasn’t a liberal, but he was an honest man and in some ways a wise one, and he knew exactly how greedy, selfish, and belligerent the war makers of the South were. They hate him down South for good reason: because he was much better at stealing wealth from them than they were at stealing wealth from their exploited, mistreated slaves. I wish he was here today to put them and their alt right political descendants back in the woodwork where they belong, along with the rest of the cockroaches.
AxelFoley
@schrodingers_cat:
Heh, I do recall some fluffing of GG and Snowden going on at this very site. And the droning about drones.
AndoChronic
“I’m as hopeless and as despondent about this country and its future as I have ever been.”
Me too bud, me too.
Starfish
@Swannie: What is this trolling nonsense? On Monday, I am buying a Subaru.
tybee
@PaulW:
har.
a friend of mine, diagnosed with ptsd, also suffering from “what the fuck just happened to my country” syndrome, was asked by his VA supplied shrink, “do you sometimes feel like you could do harm to others?”
now he has a new prescription. he told me after the visit that he told the doc that he “only wanted to harm the assholes who voted for the orange asshole, not real citizens” but the shrink wasn’t having any of it.
Sherparick
My thought on 8 Nov 2016 & still. We are so fucked.
marv
Take heart, Cole, and remember your Shakespeare: So long as we can say This is the worst, it is not the worst.
Concerned Citizen
The human race ain’t worth it. Have a cheeseburger.