50 years ago Kathrine Switzer became the 1st woman to officially complete the Boston Marathon. On Monday she returns https://t.co/UhCZkb88Ng pic.twitter.com/nk5HJADDEI
— ABC News (@ABC) April 15, 2017
Elizabeth Warren Says Mitch McConnell Won’t Even Say Hello To Her https://t.co/4fK1Jhn7VG
— Sarah Lerner (@SarahLerner) April 16, 2017
Another book I look forward to reading. From the Boston Globe:
… Warren has produced a policy-focused (or, in her word, “nerdy”) book that is reflective of a politician whose future could depend on preserving Democratic alliances. Put another way, this is no Bernie Sanders-style screed.
In a rare interview at her home in Cambridge on Friday, Warren explained that she wanted to focus on how American government has stopped working for all but the very wealthiest citizens and corporations, and her worry that President Trump “is about to deliver the knockout blow” to the country’s floundering middle class.
Pressed on why she doesn’t use the opportunity of a well-timed book to offer a sharper critique of the Democratic Party, Warren’s answer is, essentially: Circular firing squads aren’t very productive.
“I never lose sight of the fact that Democrats have tried to do more for working people than Republicans,” she said. “Have Democrats failed? Yes. There have been places where we have not fought as hard as we should, but Republicans as a party have blocked every move that would have helped working families.”…
As Warren put it in the interview, corporate money invades Washington and “slithers through there like a snake.”
Warren was talking about campaign contributions and hired-gun lobbyists, but also about money that funds think tanks and other “experts for hire,” advertising, and even the courts that she argues also now “tilt in the direction of the rich and powerful.”
“And now, Donald Trump is in place and has assembled a team of billionaires and bankers that are pushing one blow after another to working families,” she said in the interview….
Her book ends with the Women’s March in Boston in January and thus stops before one of the most memorable recent skirmishes in her battle with Republicans — when Senate Republicans, led by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, voted to formally silence her during debate over the nomination of Jeff Sessions to be attorney general.
The moment went viral and earned Warren a round of generally favorable national press coverage — not to mention a fresh flood of campaign contributions from her national network.
It also, apparently, has earned her an enduring cold-shoulder from McConnell…
Pissy little fella, ain’t he?
Patriot’s Day holiday or not, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Patricia Kayden
Why does she want him to acknowledge her anyways? This is the man who boasted about stopping President Obama from filling a vacant SCOTUS seat and who explicitly stated that his entire goal was limiting President Obama to one term. He’s a nasty person. I would be the one not acknowledging him if I were Senator Warren.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Morning rikyrah!
SFAW
If an extremely-well-targeted meteorite were to get “up close and personal” with Turtle, America would be that much the better.
I keep hoping he’ll end up being a “person of interest” in the Russia investigations, but I think he’s probably too smart to have left tracks, even if he actually were involved (which he probably wasn’t).
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
The comity of the World’s Greatest [sic] Deliberative [sic] Body?
SRW1
Sucker knows his words about Warren – “Nevertheless, she persisted.” – is already a feminist meme that caught him in person on the wrong side of history.
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: Simple, to show everyone what a small minded grudge bearing little man he is, and by default the entire Senate GOP that elects him to be the majority leader.
satby
Pissy, petty, jealous little man. As are Drumpf and Ryan. They may be doing their paymasters bidding, but they know they’re despised and unpopular and it eats at them in ways that money can’t soothe. Just like their supporters, they’re the embodiment of spite.
Edited, and Fuck Kindle autocorrect.
geg6
@Patricia Kayden:
I would guess she doesn’t care he acknowledges her. She just knows it drives him crazy for her to acknowledge him. He wouldn’t turn his head if it didn’t. So she PERSISTS!
OzarkHillbilly
@geg6: Or yeah, shorter geg6, because it pisses him off.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: yep. I’d do it too. Just to bug the fucker.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
amk
@Patricia Kayden: Yup. Enough with the “senate decorum” bs. The thugs are traitorous corrupt scums and there ain’t no effing decorum there.
Chris
Bernie: take note. This is how you actually behave if you want to be a productive voice for the economic left in America.
Baud
@Chris: I want to know who is pressing her to attack Democrats.
Anne Laurie
@Patricia Kayden:
Any behaviorist would call this a classic dominance announcement — you can see it in faculty lounges as well as primate troops & dog parks.
If McConnell were really an “alpha”, like his fellow Repubs like to think of themselves, when Warren spoke to him, he’d look straight through her — the cut direct. But he’s not actually secure enough in his masculinity to carry this off, so he turns his head away & pretends he hasn’t heard her (like the little dog who’s always yapping at every other canine, until a larger / more dominant dog looks at him).
Warren pointing this out — on camera, no less — is a “gentle teacher lady” way of bringing attention to which half of the not-stare-downs actually has more self-respect!
OzarkHillbilly
@Chris: But then he’d have to actually (shudder) work with other people while it’s much more fun to climb back on his purity pony and lecture everyone else about how they’re doing it all wrong wrong WRONG!
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Dump skipped Easter services and not a peep from the wingnuts or the Village.
debbie
He’s afraid of her, as he should be.
JPL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I read online that he went to the same church in Palm Beach that he was married in.
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Except that I think he did. Doubt it was sincere, though.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: The Village take their cues from the Republicans. If the religious right isn’t complaining, then the Village won’t.
I hope this finally kills the need for presidents to be religious, like attending the National Prayer Breakfast. I’m already happy about the White House Correspondence Dinner losing its luster.
ETA:. Never mind.
OzarkHillbilly
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: As one Evangelical nut job lady said, “He is a tool in the hands of God and he will be wielded as God sees fit.”
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: He is a tool.
kindness
When I talk with some of my Bernie friends, it’s amazing how many still seem to have more animosity towards other Democrats than they do for Republicans. I’d have thought after this last election they would see the need to come together to beat our common foe.
Not so much sadly. Go Elizabeth!
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I was struck by that too but I re-read it and I think it was just lousy phrasing. She should be saying democrats can work harder, have made mistakes, whatever–not have failed. Voters love that “work harder” stuff.
debbie
@kindness:
Why? There are posters here who still hold Bernie supporters in contempt. I’m curious as to how productive the Perez-Sanders tour turns out to be.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
November wasn’t a failure?
Betty Cracker
I trust that Tom Perez knows what he’s doing, but it kinda chaps my ass that he’s doing a nationwide tour with non-Democrat Sanders. I get that Sanders has millions of fans — I used to be one!
But he’s done little since the election but mischaracterize the reasons for the loss and shit on Democrats. He was doing that as recently as yesterday.
I’d much rather see Perez tour the country with Warren. I guess she’s too busy doing her job, though. ?
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: It was a failure by the American people–the right ones, at least. My list of complicity goes people who voted for trump, people who voted for candidates other than Hillary, people who could but did not vote, the media, James comey, and they wayyyy at the bottom “the democrats”.
ETA: at any rate, still no because that’s not the context warren was using the term.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’m not sure who’s hands he’s in, but I know it ain’t God’s.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Wilmerbots and purity ponies, who else.
i.e. The Usual Suspects.
WereBear
That is who McConnell is, and all he is.
Baud
@efgoldman: I got the impression that the article was talking about someone in the media.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
I think you need to include things like not campaigning harder in the red states. No one’s faultless.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Basic common courtesy to a co-worker
amk
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Only muslins attend church.
Baud
@debbie: No one is perfect. But some people acted maliciously.
efgoldman
No Patriot’s Day in RI. Just another Monday, although it is school vacation week.
rikyrah
About the Turtle not acknowledging Senator Warren…
No more phucking stories from the Village about how folks should just go to cocktail hour more, like the old days. Have a drink with a muthaphucka who won’t even express common courtesy?
PHUCK OUTTA HERE ? ?
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Should be interesting. My inbox has been bombarded with notifications about the Perez-Sanders tour. I don’t plan on showing up, but I guess I’m not the target audience anyway.
Perez has a tightrope to walk between pissed-off Sandersites and folks who supported Clinton and are irritated with Sanders. He’s probably making the right choice by embracing Sanders, much as I find it objectionable.
My sense is the Sanders people are more loosely affiliated with the party — like Sanders himself — and thus require more coddling. Squeaky wheels, etc.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
What happened yesterday?
satby
@Major Major Major Major: and that’s the right list, in the correct order. After all 3 million more people voted for the Democratic nominee, and no one foresaw the lopsided vote split that would hand the White House to the joke candidate. Including the joke candidate himself. That the system put in to protect the republic from people like him failed because it’s been corrupted by the same “party before country” also wasn’t foreseen by the Founding Fathers. To our loss.
debbie
@Baud:
Absolutely.
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: that’s an acknowledged strategic error, but that is not anything like being a failure at working to help the poor, which is what warren is saying.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I’m not optimistic.
amk
beebs
Wish it happened in us of a instead of SK.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
Baud
@amk: You mean SK?
Sab
@kindness: I have been going to grass roots level (precinct and ward) political meetings and they are full of Bernie folks who are energized . They are remarkably naive about how things work, but anxious to learn. Some of them are in their fifties and never been politically active. Others are youngish (thirty year old parents). I have been sporadicallyou politically active since 1970, and I can’t remember this level of political intensity since about 1972. I am optimistic, sorta, since it’s still a hard fight ahead.
amk
@Baud: nitpicker.
efgoldman
@Betty Cracker:
He can embrace Wilmer all he wants. Enemy of my enemy, need everyone on deck, all hands working together, all like that. Let them raise hands together like boxers at the end of the match.
Then duct tape Wilmer’s mouth shut.
satby
@Betty Cracker: @Baud: Yeah, I’m of the opinion that most of the Sanderites aren’t and weren’t really Dem voters. Because the actual Dems I know who flirted initially with Sanders are now repulsed by him, but the mostly libertarian or non-voters I know are still on the BS bandwagon.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
keep your enemies close, and gather the receipts. I truly doubt that Perez would back Wilmer if he runs again, and if he starts whining about the DNC shutting him out, Perez can pull this receipt.
Wilmer lives under a phucking delusion to think that the ACTUAL Democratic base wants.to hear one word about how we’re supposed to shovel away our concerns in order to “appeal” to the WWC.
PHUCK OUTTA HERE ??
Baud
@satby: I think he drew support from independents, Dem progressives, and bros. Most of the people in the middle category are probably going to be ok. The problem is responding strongly to the haters without creating a larger civil war. That’s hard to do.
Major Major Major Major
I think it’s good if somebody brings energy and bodies into the party, but it’s bad that some of them want to burn it down. It’s okay if they read too much (any) Jacobin but it’s bad if they want to fundamentally redo the party into something pure and nonfunctional. It can be both.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: I read that as “failing at times”.
efgoldman
@rikyrah:
AT THE VERY MINIMUM, Perez, Ellison and Schumer ought to tell Wilmer that if he wants to speak for the Democratic party, the very least he can do – the LEAST! – is register and run for re-election in Vermont as a fucking Democrat.
p.a.
Instead of saying “Hi” she should have a little crib sheet of Kentucky statistics. Quote one whenever she passes him about how his state is a Human Development Index loser.
Baud
@efgoldman: Won’t happen. He’ll never be a Dem. That’s essentially saying goodbye to him.
OzarkHillbilly
@amk: South Korea still has a functioning democracy.
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: like I said, I think she just misspoke.
amk
@efgoldman: Won’t do it. Present shtick is paying him very well.
efgoldman
@Baud:
G’bye! G’bye! Don’t let the door hit you on the ass. They met him way, way more than halfway.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: And the problem is?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: We need votes from somewhere. Not enough self-motivating Dems to make up a majority.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Got it.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: He was on one of the Sunday shows saying UR DOIN IT RONG as usual. I don’t even necessarily disagree with what he said — maybe the Democrats should have put more money in the KS special election (though I’ve read the candidate in that election didn’t want them so involved by design, given the electorate he was trying to reach), etc. But Sanders validates every goddamned wingnut meme in these appearances, e.g., the Democrats are a coastal elitist party, blah blah blah. I’m fed up with it. But again, I’m not the target audience.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: @OzarkHillbilly: at the present moment it’s probably less trouble to keep him around.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: It’s why he gets to appear on these shows.
Thanks.
satby
@Baud: if course not. I do stop the bros cold when they treat me to another endless round of dumbassery about DWS by asking what Wilmer did with all the money he raised though. No one knows, he sure hasn’t spread it around to fellow progressives. Odd that.
efgoldman
@Baud:
Have you seen any evidence at all that Wilmer brought or is bringing significant numbers of voters TO DEMOCRATS, as opposed to Jill Stein, or himself as the purity ponies of the moment?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: The votes are ours, we just have to figure out how to win them where it counts.
Fact: more people voted for Dems.in the House than GOP
Fact: More people voted for DEMs in the Senate than GOP
Fact: More people voted for Dem in the White House than the dumpster.
Baud
@satby: That’s why I’m not optimistic. They’ll never accept Wilmer’s primary loss, and so they won’t accept it if he or his preferred candidate loses in 2020.
Gin & Tonic
What’s on the agenda? Another ortho follow-up, which means another opportunity to get this motherfucking cast removed. Probably not yet removed for good, but who knows.
Baud
@efgoldman: I don’t think he brought us votes in 2016. But we didn’t shun him in 2016. If we shun him now, even with cause, then how many votes does he take with him.
@OzarkHillbilly: The first isn’t true.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: he certainly revitalized interest in the local party elections in SF. A lot of that was led by longstanding lefty shit-stirrers though.
Where would one get evidence of that, though? Seems like it would be anecdotal.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: I do not disagree, and a lot of his supporters are of like mind with us. But I am tired of playing pattycake with someone who refuses to be a part of our party. Maybe it’s time we treated his supporters like adults and talked to them directly.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Agree. There’s only so much you can accommodate without losing dignity.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I have read that in multiple locations, I’ll try to find a cite, pls do same
satby
@Baud: Which makes them not actually our allies. Just political neophytes, or libertarian opportunists who saw Rand wasn’t going anywhere last time, or disengaged voters with an axe to grind. None of whom would be reliable enough voters for our side to waste time courting.
Edited to add, we don’t need to shun him, but we can stop pretending he’s a Democrat.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Tell that truth
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Good luck G&T!
efgoldman
@Baud:
If he’s half as smart as he thinks he is, he won’t run.
1) Too old, Not a Democrat
2) If he looks at all competitive, all the negatives that HRC never brought up will come out.
3) Too old, Not a Democrat
4) Tax returns
5) Too old, Not a Democrat
6) Wife’s finances
7) Too old, Not a Democrat
8) Past as a Socialist/communist
9) Too old, Not a Democrat
Oh, did I mention that he’s too old?
And not a Democrat
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
I hope that you get good news.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: You are correct:
Baud
@satby: I think stop pretending would equal shunning in his mind.
satby
@efgoldman: and propped up by right wing talking points and Russian disinformation.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks.
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah, I mean, part of me just says fuck him, he’s useful for now but he’s out on his ass the second he’s not. The rest of me doesn’t say that out loud.
satby
@Baud: Good
Betty Cracker
RE: Sanders voters — they’re not a monolith. IMO, most are Democrats or share enough values with us to be reachable by Democrats. The hardcore assholes like that Jabberwocky Hollandaise Buggeroff creature who used to foul this space with his post-Trumpocalypse victory laps aren’t typical of Sanders voters.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Right. But as I said above, the difficulty is responding to attacks by Jabberwocky Hollandaise Buggeroffs of the world without causing the Sanders supporters who are allies to take the wrong side in the fight.
It’s like the problem we face in challenging the religious right without pissing off Dem-leaning Christians, or fighting racist without pissing off decent white folks. Tribal loyalties are strong and hard to overcome.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Agreed. Hence we should be talking to them.
Kay
This is fun to read now that Chris Christie is the most unpopular governor in the country. He had to beat Sam Brownback so there was tough competition, but he did it:
Major Major Major Major
@Gin & Tonic: enjoy the freedom of movement, even if temporary.
Baud
@Kay: Trump is essentially a less intelligent Chris Christie. And neither are moderate.
Divf
Another finely-turned bit of invective to start the day. Thank you, Ms. Cracker.
Jeffro
Morning everyone! Back at work and back on east coast time without a hitch, apparently. SF’s a fun city to visit!
Hey if you want a good grin, as well as a good way of framing things for any disenchanted GOP friends or relatives, check this out: Josh Marshall takes a whack at Trump’s profound, militant ignorance, deriding him in ways that deserve to be spread around a bit. Or a lot.
Anyway, everyone have a great day!
Tenar Arha
@Anne Laurie: I imagine that Warren has got a pretty good Oaklahoma “bless your heart, Speaker” hello going on.
Elizabelle
NYT: United Airlines Staff Will No Longer Take Seats of Boarded Passengers
Civilian passengers? What? I think the word they’re going for is “non-employee”.
I always wondered why there was not more outcry initially about why United felt it needed to remove paying passengers. It’s because they did not plan and ensure seats for their own employees.
With all the money they lost over this incident, and the settlement they will likely reach with Dr. Dao, they could have chartered a plane for their own damn employees.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: LOL re the moniker.
Yep. That poster, if not a bot, was effing insufferable.
Betty Cracker
@Baud & @OzarkHillbilly: True. That’s why I’m reserving judgment on Perez’s “Feel the Bern” roadshow. He’s trying to thread that needle, and I wish him luck.
@Kay: That’s as good an explanation as I’ve ever read of the now-defunct Christie phenomenon, which I surely never understood on a personal level. I find him repellent in every aspect.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
And yet, who fetched who’s burger and fries?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Yep. Less intelligence is what the voters on the other side wanted.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: There is a reason he is head of the DNC and I’m not.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Only one?
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: Trump is an idiot but he’s damn good at ape-style dominance, to which Christie as a bully is weak.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yep, my papal armies would slaughter all the heretics but still lose all the elections.
Peale
@Betty Cracker: unpopular as he is, he yells at school teachers and locks up nurses in quarantine. And were he to run again against a woman, he’d probably get the backing again of a of the democrats and would probably come very close to winning.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: Yep, and if Christie had had a single ounce of intelligence he would have seen that his only hope was to grow a pair and tell Donald to go fuck himself. As is, he is now nothing but a political mistake.
OzarkHillbilly
FTFNYT: (goes to ThinkProgress)
No comment.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: One comment. The NYT is garbage.
Major Major Major Major
@OzarkHillbilly: assholes.
OT: we’re off to the circus!
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
They admire horrible people. That’s one explanation. This is why I reject the “smart elites versus unschooled rubes” explanation for Trump. This WAY pre-dated Trump and they played a huge role in it.
They’re poor judges of character and that doesn’t depend on income or education.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: bullies like more powerful bullies. Kind of a corollary to “hurt people hurt people”.
rikyrah
@efgoldman:
I hope that the Dems have put into their rules..
ANYONE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT UNDER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY BANNER HAS TO RELEASE THE LAST 10 YEARS OF THEIR TAX RETURNS.
That this muthaphucka never released his returns STILL chafes me.
Kay
@Baud:
Trump. Christie- see also:
The WSJ, 2 days ago. Giuliani is ethics-free. He is a crook. They love him. They admire bad people.
rikyrah
@Kay:
He’s a fat phucking bully. Period.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
Marshall has had his number from the beginning.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I thought Sanders was planning on using his list and his funds to promote progressive candidates? If he backed one in Kansas and the candidate won he’d have a great argument for Sanderism.
Why doesn’t he just do it? “Demanding permission” is weird. Either just take it or ask permission. Why this incessant need for affirmation? Who or what is stopping them?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Keep on telling it, Kay
rikyrah
@Kay:
NOBODY is stopping them, but backing candidates. Putting the effort in to getting them elected IS HARD WORK, and people expect RESULTS from these ‘ better’ Democratic candidates.
rikyrah
Trump-era damage to the EPA appears increasingly brutal
04/14/17 12:52 PM—UPDATED 04/14/17 12:53 PM
By Steve Benen
It’s been a difficult year thus far for the Environmental Protection Agency. Consider the developments from just the last couple of weeks.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s controversial far-right choice to lead the agency, decided two weeks ago to side with Dow Chemical – against the advice of the EPA’s researchers – on the use of an insecticide. The next day, the EPA’s scientific integrity office said it was reviewing whether Pruitt violated agency policies when he publicly questioned the role of carbon pollution in climate change.
Five days later, EPA officials proposed eliminating “two programs focused on limiting children’s exposure to lead-based paint.” The day after that, Trump’s EPA issued a press statement praising the Energy Star efficiency program that the Trump administration intends to scrap.
Kay
@rikyrah:
I feel like that’s a perfectly valid judgment. They admire bad people = they might be bad people. Probably are.
My 13 year old admires Obama. This is good because Obama is admirable, as a human being. If he admired Donald Trump I would be very concerned and rightly so. He didn’t need any policy background or a graduate degree to make this distinction.
Another Scott
@satby: J is still very much in Wilmer’s camp and still very angry at the Democratic party. I don’t know how common her views are, but it’s weird in my view.
E.g. she and he sister are going to the People’s Climate March on April 29, but she poo-poo’s the Science March on April 22 as being some sort of “anti-Trump political stunt”..?!?! I expect that the Science March will dwarf the Climate March, but we’ll see. The apparent enmity between at least some advocates for the latter seems like a waste of effort to me – we’re on the same side (policy-wise) and should be pulling together. (I’ll probably be at both.)
I don’t understand it. :-/
She’s basically still much more upset that Wilmer lost than that Trump won. If that view is common among Wilmer’s supporters, then we have a lot of work to do to run up the score to vote out the Teabagger monsters in office.
We can’t assume that enthusiasm among his supporters is going to be helpful to the party going forward….
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
Will Republicans Blame Trump if Jon Ossoff Wins?
by D.R. Tucker April 16, 2017 7:00 AM
It appears that Republicans remain nervous about holding on to the seat in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District vacated by current Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price–a seat the GOP has owned since 1979:
………………………….
Republicans are right to be nervous: Trump barely won the Sixth District last fall, and this is one of the rare recent Congressional races where Democrats and Republicans seem equally hungry for a victory. Note that Ossoff’s vigorous challenge has placed pressure on his main Republican rival to rhetorically de-wingnut herself:
…………………………………………………..
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: the word “civilian” is one of the most pernicious in our current public space vocabulary. Somehow “civilians” have become lesser folks. “Civilians” seems to refer to an occupation society. My most hated version of this is when the media talks about police versus “civilians.” Police are fucking “civilians” regardless how brutish or racist.
Nelle
James Thompson of Kansas Fourth District was an early Sanders supporter. Does anyone know how much Sanders contributed to Thompson’s campaign?
The Kansas Democratic party didn’t really support him (they turned down a last minute request for money) and the National party caught on that he was getting pretty competitive a week after the Republicans saw what was happening and threw money and people into the race. I was at an Indivisible meeting this last weekend here in Lawrence and each person there said that they had signed up to work in the local party but there was no follow-up. We’ll all try to be at the next meeting. Our Congresswoman is not running again – we are one of two reliably Democratic towns and are gerrymandered right down the middle of the town, so we’re represented by a woman positioning herself for big lobbying bucks after this term.
Baud
@Another Scott: For a third time, I am not optimistic.
Baud
@Nelle: I find it hard to believe that we could have won that election, given how red it is. But we’ll have another shot in about 20 months.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Dump skipped Easter services and not a peep from the wingnuts or the Village.
IOKIYAR and bonus points for being rich and white.
MattF
@Elizabelle: I had an odd thought about the United thing the other day. Airlines claim that when someone buys a ticket, they agree to a long list of terms and conditions. Which, apparently, include giving an airline the right to inflict as much physical pain as necessary to get any passenger to do what it wants them to do. But… doesn’t that violate the Geneva Conventions? No, seriously. The US did sign that treaty, after all, regardless of what Mr. Fart says.
ETA: Yeah, I know, airline passengers aren’t actually prisoners of war. But it sure feels like it.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Here’s a HuffPo account of Dem fundraising for the KS special election:
Maybe Perez should be on the road with Markos Moulitsas. ;)
rikyrah
It’s not just the golf: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago ethics mess gets worse
04/17/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
It seems like only last year that Donald Trump was not only mocking Barack Obama for unwinding too often on golf courses, but also promising voters to be an entirely different kind of president. “I’m going to be working for you,” Trump vowed. “I’m not going to have time to play golf.”
Wait, that was only last year.
………………………………..
I tend see this as a story with three angles. First, there’s the hypocrisy: Trump’s fascination with Obama’s golfing was endless – the line about Obama golfing more than professionals on the PGA tour was a staple of his stump speech – which makes it all the more striking that the president can’t seem to pry himself from the links.
Second, there’s the pointless secrecy. White House officials, apparently feeling a little embarrassed, have routinely tried to pretend Trump isn’t on the course while he’s golfing.
…………………
But even putting all of this aside, the ethics mess is what matters most: Trump owns the courses he keeps breaking campaign promises to visit. Mar-a-Lago isn’t just some pleasant presidential retreat or a nice place for a president to unwind; it’s a private business that Trump continues to profit from.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Ossoff has a ton of money. There’s a race in Montana that we need to focus on.
rikyrah
The Other Wingnut Who Wants Warren
by D.R. Tucker April 16, 2017 11:00 AM
Hey, you can’t blame ‘em for trying.
The right-wing hatred for Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) increases on an exponential basis, and like longtime Mitt Romney pal John Kingston, that hatred has motivated another far-right Republican to make an effort to unseat her:
rikyrah
The Next Voice You Hear…
by D.R. Tucker April 15, 2017 3:00 PM
It’s not that far-fetched of an idea. Not in this world, anyway.
Think about it: we are told that James Murdoch, the head of 21st Century Fox, wants rid of Bill O’Reilly in the wake of increased media scrutiny (and decreased advertisers) over his history of alleged sexual harassment–a history that reportedly caused Megyn Kelly to leave for NBC News. If O’Reilly is forced out of Fox News, it’s profoundly unlikely that he’ll wind up at CNN, and unlike his erstwhile colleague Greta Van Susteren, MSNBC will probably not bring him on board. A man with his ego and lust for the spotlight is going to need something to do.
Just over a decade ago, a former colleague of O’Reilly’s was given the opportunity to be the voice of a sitting Republican President. That former colleague was, like O’Reilly, a man who was able to convince many Americans that he was far less partisan than he actually was; he continued to demonstrate that unique skill in his new White House position, serving in that role for a year and a half before an illness that ultimately claimed his life forced him to step down.
Why couldn’t it happen again?
If O’Reilly is forced to leave Fox News, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he winds up replacing Sean Spicer as White House press secretary. He may well be more qualified.
MattF
@rikyrah: I just can’t see O’Reilly in the bunny suit. Now, Sean Hannity… much more likely.
bupalos
@Kay: Don’t forget that much like Trump he’s a waddling, blabbling personification of middle-aged herto-male double standards surrounding personal appearance.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: They might as well put a lying, self-aggrandizing, racist, bad-tempered, serial sexual harassing prick like O’Reilly in the press room. There’s already one in the Oval Office. The Republicans couldn’t express their contempt for facts, good governance, minorities, women, etc., more strongly than their embrace of Trump already has done.
Chris
@efgoldman:
It’s not just him, though, it’s “his preferred candidate” too. Look at the recent tiff over Perez and Ellison. By all accounts, there’s nothing wrong with the way Ellison behaved, but the Berniebro brigade still found a way to turn him into a hill to die on, and his adversary into a Corrupt Neoliberal Establishment Shill. Which isn’t auspicious for 2020, since they’re basically making it clear that they’ll take their ball and go home unless the party just hands them on a silver platter every position they want.
Woodrowfan
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree. She notes his attitude because it shows further what a huge ass the turtle is.
satby
@Another Scott: J is typical of the few die hard BSers I know (one is my 22yo godson). Way more angry at the only organization that tries to represent their interests than they are at the party and person who intends to destroy them. The power of propaganda, now we have oldsters with Fox propaganda and young’uns with BS propaganda to simultaneously do battle with.
Odd how both of those end up aiding a particular party though, hmm?
Chris
@Kay:
This is why I used to think Christie was their perfect candidate – he was rich and East Coast enough to make the centrists and establishment types swoon, but he also had that “tough” “masculine” image (in the sense that these people imagine, which is to say, the equivalent of a school bully walking the halls shoving people into lockers and laughing about it) and record of using it against liberals (especially uppity ones like the teachers’ unions) that the base would love. All the centrist cred the Villagers loved in Mittens, but without Mittens’ stiff-assed patrician demeanor.
Of course, then Hurricane Sandy happened and he actually did the right thing for his state instead of “standing on principle” and sticking it to Obama, so any presidential ambitions he had as a Repub died then.
Chris
@Kay:
This this this.
Woodrowfan
@satby: heritics are always treated with more anger than infidels
rikyrah
@Chris:
Then they are gonna run into a whole lotta people waiting for them with 2×4’s, cause, nobody has time nor patience for the bullshyt. These muthaphuckas won’t apologize for their role in 2016, and think that people are gonna be gingerly around them in 2020.
PHUCK THEM.
satby
@rikyrah: come sit by me ?
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
I like the way Marshall points out that not only is Trump ignorant, but militantly so, and about things that even most adults (much less actual subject matter experts) already know…and therefore Trump’s only way to play this is to act as if it’s a revelation to everyone, like a two-year-old.
It’s almost as if one day, Trump will be waddling around the golf course and realize he has no clothes on. “I’m naked”, the Emperor said, “How about that? Who could have known that not putting on clothes would result in me standing here on Hole #9, completely in the buff? Amazing!”
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Yes! Word creep with “civilians”, and pernicious it is.
My best to Mrs. Immanetize for a complete recovery. Sorry to hear she has to undergo chemo, but hope it does a world of good.
Betty Cracker
@Chris: Here’s what worries me: The hardcore Sandersites, in part thanks to Sanders himself, don’t seem to want to take YES for an answer. Their ostensible wish list WAS handed to them on a silver platter. The Democratic Party platform in 2016 was the most progressive ever in the history of the republic. That wasn’t good enough for at least some portion of the Sanders fan base.
And to hear Sanders talk sometimes, you’d think the party was still stuck in 1993, as if Obama never happened, as if the party hadn’t moved significantly to the left, a journey Sanders presumably entered the race to inspire.
I’m not sure what we can do about that group of voters in 2018 and 2020. Maybe they’ll come around since their hate-fetish object Clinton won’t be on the ballot. Maybe the sheer horror of the Trump administration will bring them around, much as GWB’s maladministration smacked my stupid Nader-voting ass with a clue-by-four and taught me to never again regard my general election vote in a swing state as a vehicle for personal expression.
But it’s hard to see how that happens if Sanders plans to continue crapping on the Democratic Party.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: You’d be the exception. The Naderites I know all, every last one of them, eventually went GOP. Lesson not learned.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@Elizabelle: I think this is the thing that they can’t defend in court, and know they can’t defend in court, as it’s the simplest and most practical fix to a situation that leaves them with limited choices: If they must give priority to traveling flight crews, and they have a crew needing transportation, then that crew should be on hand (or at least advising them of their need to be on a specific flight) well before boarding. An hour isn’t too much to ask of the travelling crew, who should be aware of where they need to be and what they have to do to get there.
My eldest nephew’s wife is a flight attendant, and her take on this is well past appalled and furious. An incident like this results in an angry and distressed group of passengers–and it’s the flight attendants who then must deal with them for the duration of the flight. So she’s somewhat self-interested in this, but she’s pretty outspoken about what poor customer service this is, in general–and how avoidable it was, if United had a good policy in place in advance that everyone followed consistently.
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, exactly. Should’ve clarified, when I said “every position they want on a silver platter,” I meant “position” as in “candidacy,” not as in “political stance.” They just wanted the Democratic candidacy of 2016 handed to Sanders no matter what (which makes the incessant whining about “coronation” especially ironic).
Honestly, the more I look at his candidacy, the more obvious it seems that as far as the national stage goes, he’s just a bandwagoner. He watched Obama and a ton of others shift the country to the left for the last eight years, realized that left-wing economics were finally a winning message again, and decided to pretend he’d invented the whole thing.
I have no idea. Honestly, I think a ton of it depends on Sanders himself. If he shuts the fuck up, goes away, and allows others, be it Keith Ellison or Elizabeth Warren or, honestly, almost anyone else in his corner of the party to take the lead, we should be fine by 2020. As long as he stays in the spotlight, not so much. If his brand was problematic before last November, it’s been absolutely toxic since. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening, especially as long as the media continues to massage his ego. Which is why I’m plenty worried for 2018 and 2020.
Gelfling 545
Today is Dyngus Day in Buffalo. I will not be attending any of the organized events as they are for heartier souls than I. I wiil however be dining on a friend’s fine, homemade pierogies and sausage.
The Moar You Know
@Chris: Canada ended up with Stephen Harper for over ten years – with votes totaling less than 40% of the voting populace, because the liberals couldn’t patch up some stupid split between them.
Like you, I am not hopeful this gets resolved anytime soon.
I lie far more on the side of what Sanders professes he wants, but am smart enough to look at his actions and realize that:
1. He doesn’t want what he says he wants (where’s those tax returns, Mr. Transparency in government?)
2. He is unelectable. Seriously, completely unelectable on a national level.
Betty Cracker
@Chris: I agree much of it depends on Sanders himself, and I’m not encouraged by what I’ve seen over the past few months. I don’t think he necessarily needs to shut up and go away (though I can well understand why many DO feel that way), but he needs to get with the goddamned program. I think it’s the first big test of Perez’s leadership, handling Sanders’ massive ego and convincing him to stay inside the tent and redirect the stream of piss OUT. Good luck, Tom!
@Gelfling 545: I had Easter dinner with several Buffalonians yesterday, and they fondly reminisced about Dyngus Day. Have a happy one!
Chris
@The Moar You Know:
And the worst part is that this is, literally, all about Sanders. Elizabeth Warren’s doing fine. Keith Ellison is doing fine. In terms of national politicians, it’s only him who’s continuously throwing the party under the bus. We’d be doing just fine if we had literally anyone but this smug and useless little shit representing that corner of the party.
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, I just don’t see him getting with the program. As I’ve said a few times, I didn’t really hate him until after November. If, even after an event of the magnitude of Trump’s election, your first reflex is still to pop right up and start braying about corrupt establishment Democrats, then it’s pretty clear you’re never going to get with the program and you’re as toxic to the party as Joe Lieberman used to be.
Jay C
@Chris:
Well, it certainly did wonders for his gubernatorial ambitions – even though anything but full-bore relief lobbying post-Sandy would have been political suicide. That, and the sleazy backroom deal he made with Trenton Dems to sandbag their candidate in 2013 pretty much guaranteed his reelection. However, Christopher the Large is term-limited out: barring some odd reversal in the time-honored political traditions of the Garden State, the next Gov. is likely to be a Democrat. Until he or she alienates the electorate as usual after a term or two, then flip time again…..
WVm
@Betty Cracker:
Wonderful way of spelling that boy’s name! Wasn’t he a pill?!?!?!
No more common sense than a wet hen! Probably not an AI, Perhaps an AS (artificial stupid) – certainly a troll. I probably interact too much with trolls, but sometimes they are just such tempting targets, large, full of hot air, slow moving, and with a satisfactory Pop! in the end.
WVm
@rikyrah:
Truly so!! And one more similarity between Sanders and Trump, to go with the Russia love!!!
nightranger
He looks so tough in that bomber jacket.