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The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

This fight is for everything.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

This really is a full service blog.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let’s finish the job.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Let me file that under fuck it.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Thursday Morning Open Thread: “Make This Fight Your Fight”

Thursday Morning Open Thread: “Make This Fight Your Fight”

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Some people are gonna be disappointed she didn’t call the other candidate in the 2016 Dem primaries out, but that’s not Sen. Warren’s style.

(I was originally gonna post Maddow’s latest interview with Sen. Warren, but FYWP isn’t cooperating.)

Apart from continuing to fight all the good fights, what’s on the agenda for the day?

And a reminder, because I’m allergy-addled and cranky, from Mr. Charles P. Pierce — “Why Trump Won”:

… [O]ne of the more interesting sidelights of what certainly will be a deluge of post-mortems regarding the 2016 presidential campaign is the widely held notion that Hillary Rodham Clinton was gifted with a uniquely easy opponent. This idea is central to the narrative that holds that HRC’s campaign was a uniquely bad one, and she a uniquely bad candidate. She couldn’t even beat a reality-show star who doesn’t know North Korea from East Hampton. True, there were a number of things that HRC and her campaign did badly, but they did get three million more votes than did Trump, which counts for something…

Consider this: Whatever you may think of how he won the presidency, and we’ll get to that in a minute, Trump took on a Republican field composed of what was alleged to be the best that party had to offer, the deepest part of its allegedly deep bench, and he utterly destroyed it. Scott Walker, popular scourge of middle-school history teachers, never even made it to the starting gate. Rand Paul, brogressive libertarian heartthrob, was reduced to invisibility. Chris Christie was demolished as a national political figure. Marco Rubio—The Republican Savior, according to Time—is still wandering the political landscape looking, as Abraham Lincoln said of General Hooker after Chancellorsville, like a duck that’s been hit on the head. And, when he finally got around to it, he took the heart out of Tailgunner Ted Cruz in Indiana, alleging on the morning of the primary that Cruz’s father hobnobbed in New Orleans with Lee Harvey Oswald.

That Trump never paid a price in the eyes of his voters for that kind of meretricious goonery is the best evidence there is that, in 2016, anyway, he was in every sense a formidable political force. And, let it not be forgotten that he brought with him a Republican Senate, a Republican House, and massive gains out in the states as well.

Moreover, and I owe a hat tip to Scott Lemieux here, it’s likely in retrospect that Trump’s plan of action, while unconventional in the extreme and relentlessly eccentric, also was based in a kind of mad logic. There really was a big slice of the electorate, concentrated in states that were vital in the Electoral College, that was uniquely susceptible to Trump’s appeal. He and his people spotted it and campaigned accordingly.

The myth of Trump’s vulnerability has two sources, I think. The first is the apparently irresistible impulse in some quarters to score some sort of final victory over the Clinton family… The other is the reluctance of Republicans—and of the elite political classes at large—to accept the reality that Trump is merely a cruder manifestation of the political prion disease that has afflicted conservatism and the Republican Party since it first ate the monkeybrains 35 years ago. It was all leading to someone like Trump, and something like last year’s election.

So many people had been driven away from the voting booths — deliberately or not — and so many other people at both ends of the political spectrum had allowed themselves the luxury of believing that their votes were tickets to an entertaining spectacle… that all it took was a few million rubles’ worth of monkey-mischief and the deliberate collusion of the FBI to hand the Oval Office over the Donald Effing Trump. But none of the guilty parties, least of all in Our Major Media, are willing to accept their share of the blame; ergo, it must be That Woman’s fault. Mom should’ve made us not drink a mixture of bleach and ammonia, what a horrible failure she is for assuming that telling us it was poison & we’d regret it later would be enough to deter us!

That’s not how it works, fellas. You’re (putative) grownups now, and you have to take responsibility for your own failures. And, no, those of us with better sense are not gonna ‘get over it’ any time in the immediate future, nor make the mistake of trusting you further than we can see you.

Reader Interactions

225Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    There really was a big slice of the electorate, concentrated in states that were vital in the Electoral College, that was uniquely susceptible to Trump’s appeal.

    Yup. It was one of the populations that was susceptible to xenophobic racist nationalism but that was also immune to the Southern Strategy. Trump tapped one of the remaining pockets of racial resentment.

  3. 3.

    Patricia Kayden

    A simple explanation for Trump is that too many voters have no shame. He’s an embarrassment and his campaign was run as if he was a thug. I would be ashamed to admit that I had anything to do with such a lout being in the White House but alas too many of my fellow Americans are okay with giving a stupid, incurious man so much power.

  7. 7.

    AnonPhenom

    Some people are gonna be disappointed she didn’t call the other candidate in the 2016 Dem primaries out,

    That’s not how it works, fellas. You’re (putative) grownups now, and you have to take responsibility for your own failures

    Uh-huh…

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    And a reminder, because I’m … cranky,

    Hey! That’s Cole’s domain! You nasty wimmins, always trying to take things away from the menfolk!

    Good luck/best wishes with the allergies. Mrs. SFAW gets it bad from grass pollen. Not a lot of fun.

    I, of course, have an allergic reaction to work, which is not as bad.

    ETA: “Not as bad” meaning I don’t start sneezing from it. On the other hand, paying bills becomes a little more of a trial.

  10. 10.

    ThresherK

    From below thread: It is also tree pollen season here. Now whichever of us falls asleep last gets to hear the other snore.

  11. 11.

    R-Jud

    It’s peak tree pollen season here in England. I’m basically a mass of hot running snot. I was woken last night by the Child who ordered me to “Stop honking in your sleep.”

  13. 13.

    Goku

    I do have to wonder Anne, why you decided to take a huge shit on Louise Mensch, who so far, has been right about a lot

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A bomb squad examining a suspicious package Wednesday morning to see if it was dangerous were barking up the wrong tree, it turns out.

    The package was reported as suspicious in a grassy area near the federal courthouse on 10th Street. The package was found at about 7:30 a.m. in a grassy area east of the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse downtown. Schron Jackson, a police spokesman, said the scene has been secured. “The suspicious package is a box of dog biscuits,” she said in an email.

    A package that was very suspiciously disguised as…. A box of Purina dog biscuits. (if you look at the screen grab, it is instantly recognizable) When I was a kid, if I found a box of Purina dog biscuits, I didn’t call the cops. I ate them. (so deliciously tasty, and cleaner teeth too!)

  17. 17.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Improved your breath too!!

    I remember trying dog biscuits as a kid. I didn’t mind the taste but they made me so thirsty I couldn’t get enough water. But I used a glass, not a bowl.

  19. 19.

    bystander

    Listening to Joe, Meeka and Richard Haas parsing the ravings and stumblebum random fireworks displays into a hilarious “policy” discussion. Hilarious because it’s like listening to the fawning courtiers discussing how beautiful Trump’s new jacket is. The frightening part is when they start rationalizing Trump’s threats to withdraw from the Iran nuclear limits agreement. Joe always hated that deal, probably even more now because it’s working and Iran is abiding by the terms. So, let’s show the world that big tough guys don’t honor their side of the bargain and we pick and choose when our word is good.

    I hate these people so much it’s not healthy.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: One of my earliest memories is of eating one while hiding behind a bush so Mom wouldn’t see me and yell at me. I think my constant barking was really beginning to bother her.

  21. 21.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Nick Walden Poublon‏ @NWPinPDX

    So much winning! Tomi Lahren fired, Beck sued. O’Reilly w/o a show, Milo’s book kaput, Alex Jones is sorry and Chaffetz going home. Win!

    6 replies 56 retweets 121 likes

    #BillOExit

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @bystander:

    I hate these people so much it’s not healthy.

    What you need is a nice bowl of ketchup with all it’s natural mellowing agents that help combat feelings of hatred and fear of the coming orange tinted armageddon. Plus extra seratonin, to help you sleep at night.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    @bystander:

    So do I have this right: The Trump Administration acknowledges that the sanctions and treaty have in fact been working, so they are forced to change direction?

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    @Major Major Major Major:
    They wanted to cling to the Whiteness.
    They are the people who read the stories about iCE going and picking up, NOT the criminals that they were supposed to be getting, but just folks going about their lives. They read the same story that I do, and instead of being appalled and disgusted as I am, they cheer. I have absolutely no interest in finding common ground with muthaphuckas like that.

  27. 27.

    kindness

    I’m thankful none of us are discussing Andrew Sullivan’t latest Clinton Fatigue Syndrome piece. Screw that dumb idiot.

  29. 29.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    BillO sexually harassed an African American employee at Fox, calling her “Hot Chocolate”.

    What’s hilarious it’s a plot point of the movie “The Birdcage”.

    Barbara’s parents are the ultraconservative Republican Senator Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman) and his wife Louise. Keeley, who is a co-founder for a conservative group called the “Coalition for Moral Order”—a society developed on traditional views and moral codes—becomes embroiled in a political scandal when his co-founder and fellow Senator is found dead in the bed of a black prostitute, whom he used to call “Hot Chocolate”.

    #BillOExit

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    @debbie:
    As he betrays them, and proves them to be the suckers that we know them to be, it’s up to us to bring every receipt possible to them, pointing out just how big a sucker they were.

  32. 32.

    Major Major Major Major

    @rikyrah:

    They are the people who read the stories about iCE going and picking up, NOT the criminals that they were supposed to be getting, but just folks going about their lives. They read the same story that I do, and instead of being appalled and disgusted as I am, they cheer.

    Except when it’s their husband getting deported, then they whine about the leopards eating their faces.

  40. 40.

    Iowa Old Lady

    The internet just coughed up an ad for me that reads “Exclusive dining, fitness, and entertainment options.” One of those things is not like the others.

  41. 41.

    satby

    Good morning all! So we have AL back, and David Koch, but still missing Baud. A day without all of you is a day without sunshine.
    Literally, because it’s rainy here.

  42. 42.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: I remember eating one once on a dare from my brother. I don’t remember it as a pleasant experience. And I was a kid who liked everything the school cafeteia served.

  43. 43.

    bystander

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for the prescription, Dr. Ozark.

    @debbie: No. That would be an open admission about Obummer having done the right thing. (Although Haas admits it’s working, but it’s not the really great treaty a great leaderly treatybuilder like Haas would have negotiated, because we all are familiar with the great treaties Haas has built in the past.). It’s the Trump administration, silly! They just deny reality and talk about how terrible and one-sided it all is. Therefore, it must be destroyed.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A Qatari plane sent to collect 26 kidnapped members of Doha’s ruling family has remained in Baghdad for a fourth day, as a regional deal that ties their release to the evacuation of four besieged Syrian towns resumed earlier this week.

    The jet, which Iraqi officials suspect was carrying millions of dollars, arrived on Saturday ahead of the group’s expected release, which was later stalled by the bombing the same day of a convoy carrying residents of two Shia towns in northern Syria, Fua and Kefraya, whose fate had been central to the plan.

    The suicide attack killed 126 people and wounded nearly 300 more in one of the most lethal strikes of the Syrian war, further complicating 16 months of negotiations that were underwritten by Iran and Qatar and involved four of the region’s most powerful militias.

    Qatari officials arrived in the Iraqi capital on Saturday with large bags they refused to allow to be searched. Senior Iraqi officials said they believed the bags to be carrying millions of dollars in ransom money, to be paid to the Iraqi militia holding the royals, Keta’eb Hezbollah, and two Syrian groups who had agreed to secure the Shia leg of the swap, the al-Qaida inspired Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham.

    Two Sunni towns near Damascus, Madaya and Zabadani , are also being evacuated to rebel-held areas in a choreographed swap that Syrian opposition leaders say has clear implications for the country’s demography. Dozens of residents were bused out of all four towns on Monday as the deal resumed.

    As revealed by the Guardian on Saturday, the plan has immersed some of the Middle East’s most prominent players, exposing their support for powerful militias, and the influence that those same proxies wield over weak central governments in Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut.

    The Syrian regime has played no role in the negotiations, and the Baghdad authorities have repeatedly said they did not known who was holding the Qataris. As their release has neared, it has shown no interest in confronting the hostage takers.

    But the Donald is gonna fix everything with another empty demonstration of impotent resolve. This time he’s gonna send the missiles in the opposite direction. That’ll teach them. Certainly made Kim Jung-un sit up and pay attention.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @Major Major Major Major: I forget which rag was reporting on people picking up food at a food bank who voted for Trump and even knowing the food bank they needed was in danger of closing they supported him. And they figured it was an idle threat and money would be found somewhere for them to still get the free food they needed. I hate these people, because they’re making me hope that the place closes and they go hungry, since personal suffering is all they understand. And I don’t like wishing ill on other people, but apparently it’s the only way they’ll be reached. If then.

  48. 48.

    randy khan

    I’m a little stunned that an hour and a half after this post went up, we don’t have anyone insisting that Pierce is wrong and that Hillary was the worst candidate ever.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @amk: it’s like MarALago is Lake Wobegon “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average”.
    With the most beautiful chocolate cake.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    The TV show Underground is back to taking a part of the soul as you watch. Last night’s episode was a reminder of last season, when it would take days for you to recover from watching.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @kindness:

    The election post mortems are all so bad. They’re just dumb. They all settled on “didn’t go to Wisconsin” but that doesn’t mean anything all by itself. She spent time in Pennsylvania. She lost Pennsylvania.

    They all start with “series of factors” and then they all ignore the factors they don’t like. “Series of factors” means something – it means you don’t get to settle on the 3 things that validate your preexisting opinion of Hillary Clinton and use only those.

    Democrats were in serious trouble in the rust belt from 2010 on. I know this because they lost tons of state races. Now maybe Clinton should have been able to pull it out like Obama did in 2012 despite the fact that Democrats were in serious trouble in the rust belt since 2010, but she didn’t create the condition – the whole Democratic Party did.

    It doesn’t matter if you’re Andrew Sullivan. He hates Democrats anyway. But it should matter if Democrats want to fix the problems. Blaming Clinton, singly, won’t help. They knew they were bleeding D voters in Great Lakes states because they were losing so many state races. They didn’t respond to that and eventually it hit the top of the ticket.

  53. 53.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Nate Silver‏ @NateSilver538

    It’s telling that there’s been *some* media self-reflection on how it covered Trump, but really none at all on how it covered Clinton.

    350 replies 5,956 retweets 13,221 likes

    Paul Krugman @paulkrugman

    Note: When journos who hyped email pseudo-scandal pile on over HRC campaign errors, it’s partly CYA over their own role in Trump disaster

    9:35 AM – 18 Apr 2017
    304 replies 3,278 retweets 7,417 likes

    Benghazi Jim Halpert @Wilson__Valdez Apr 18

    Oh look it’s Maggie “Don’t blame me I was just an innocent bystander” Haberman. Absolute trash.

    2 replies 8 retweets 17 likes

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    So do I have this right: The Trump Administration acknowledges that the sanctions and treaty have in fact been working, so they are forced to change direction?

    Obviously. I mean, anything Shitgibbon does is by definition more bigly better (and classier!) than anything done by the blackity-black black man who usurped the Presidency.

    We’ve been over this and over this; how many more times must we ‘splain this to you?

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I am interested in why they won’t talk about those disenfranchised by the voter Suppression laws. The number of people denied their right to vote in those states was 3-4 times the margin of his ‘victory’

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Maggie “Don’t blame me I was just an innocent bystander” Haberman

    She’s terrible on Hillary Clinton. The NYTimes has been terrible on the Clintons since the 1990’s. It’s part of the culture at this point. It’s not solvable. They STILL flog breaking the server story. Trump will be running for re-election and the NYTimes will still be riding on the Clinton server story.

    They flog breaking the server story WHILE DENYING vastly over-covering the server story. If we give them credit for the Clinton email story will they then start covering Donald Trump, the guy they helped elect? Clearly they’re not backing down on the essential public interest in their obsession with the emails, so we’ll spot them that. Now can they start? I’m willing to negotiate. Whatever it takes!

  62. 62.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Maxine Waters‏ @MaxineWaters

    On O’Reilly: There’s something wrong with him psychologically. I hope he seeks some help.

    324 replies 972 retweets 2,798 likes

    Maxine Waters‏ @MaxineWaters

    Trump will not release his taxes b/c he has something to hide. He’s only out to enrich himself, his wealthy cabinet, & White House swamp

    732 replies 7,576 retweets 18,649 likes

    Maxine Waters @MaxineWaters

    It can’t be lost in the chaos that Trump’s campaign is still under FBI investigation for colluding w/ Russians to undermine our democracy

    855 replies 15,859 retweets 30,189 likes

    Maxine Waters‏ @MaxineWaters Apr 18

    The President is a liar, his actions are contemptible, & I’m going to fight everyday until he’s impeached.

    2,750 replies 18,395 retweets 57,843 likes

    She’s En Fuego!?‏ ???

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Because that’s not manly and it’s whining. Hillary Clinton needs to man up and take responsibility for everything in the world, including Donald Trump. Donald Trump is HER FAULT.

    Voter suppression really worries me with Sessions and them having a majority on the SCOTUS again. Worries me like “equivalent of a coup” worried. I do my little thing in-county but I have a job and stuff- I can’t fret about it because there’s so little I can do. I don’t run the Democratic Party but if I did I would reallocate money from media buys for political ads and hire thousands of 32k a year organizers. Organizers would be LOCAL and also experts on voting regs in their respective states – they would serve two roles. I would examine all the assumptions about how money is spent. They could do something truly different- make a new model. They have tons of money. I want them to look at how they spend it and not in dumb ways- not “how many flowers did Clinton buy” but in real ways- where do they allocate big chunks of it. Their biggest expenditure is ads. What about radically moving away from that assumption?

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Stop shipping people into Milwaukee every 2 or 4 years. Hire people in Milwaukee. I feel like they are following some horrible corporate model for campaigns that relies on cheaping out on low level workers. It’s not just that it doesn’t align with their stated values- it also doesn’t work very well. Push the money down to the voter contact level.

    Bernie Sanders seemed to me to be the person to do this but he didn’t. He SPENT money in such conventional ways! It all stayed at the top- consultants and tv ads. If Democrats believe that money should be more evenly distributed then model that in your own campaigns! Their campaigns look exactly like the corporate structure they shout about.

  65. 65.

    Tripod

    Midwestern labor, as dominated by old line industrial, white male dominated unions is dead.

    Whether public and service sector workers can get out from under that corpse, idk.

    The Democrats will make up the difference with voters like those in GA6 – suburban sunbelters, indifferent to labor and tax averse.

    The bros don’t get what they put up as collateral for not supporting Clinton – lots of bullshit from the trolls but it always boils down to the feelz.

  67. 67.

    Kathleen

    @rikyrah: Yes. Missed Baud and Schroedingerscat and if i misspelled I apologize in Betty’s thread about he who shall not be named. I am at the mercy of my crappy phone and it messes with what little comment mojo I have.

  68. 68.

    geg6

    And, no, those of us with better sense are not gonna ‘get over it’ any time in the immediate future, nor make the mistake of trusting you further than we can see you.

    This. And this goes for the “progressive” assholes that keep telling me the same shit. Fuck them. So done with their shit.

  71. 71.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    I think this might be about the anniversary of his mom’s passing. We all miss him when he’s not “here”.

  72. 72.

    Kathleen

    @randy khan: Actually I’m so sick and tired about reading how many horible mistakes she made. I challenge any of these pundits including Pierce could run a bake sale much less fight mainslime media, FBI, Russia, Trump and Wilmer. WTF, FFS.

  73. 73.

    satby

    @MomSense: Oh! I’m not sure if I ever realized it at the time, since my own mom died at the beginning of April last year. First anniversaries are tough.

    Though in my mom’s case, her passing was a release from constant pain and confusion, so a bit of a blessing. But we miss her.

  77. 77.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    It just continues the misogyny, making her responsible for factors she didn’t control because she’s a woman.

    Exactly. I find it revealing that virtually none of these post-mortems address (nay, don’t even mention) misogyny, much less voter suppression as critical factors in her loss. I guess because it’s about wimmenz and blahs and such, who don’t really count and who are all to blame for their condition anyway. Just like Hillary.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @BernieSanders in Miami: “@realDonaldTrump did not win the election. The Democrats lost the election.”

    Oh, Bernie. SUCH a mistake to become a pundit and a rigidly conventional pundit to boot. He sounds like a high school football coach.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    I think it would be easier for Democrats to accept Sanders’ scolding on ‘the Democrats” if he were one.

  80. 80.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kay:

    He isn’t a good person, and won’t stop doing bad things until a stroke, Alzheimer’s or dementia shuts his flapping jaws. At that time pint, I’ll light a candle, guffaw and spit in the general direction of Burlington for having foisted the fucking idiot upon the rest of us.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    Gabriel Sherman‏Verified account @gabrielsherman 2h2 hours ago
    More
    The Fox News nightmare continues this morning. According to two sources, more women are joining the ongoing racial discrimination suit.

    Raise your hand if you’re surprised that FOX is an absolute sewer of racism and sexual harassment and they all covered it up until it started to affect their bottom line.

    Donald Trump’s favorite pals.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I get why Sanders says shit like that and remains unaffiliated — it glorifies himself and bolsters his cred with folks who think the Democrats are Republican Lite. But I’m not interested in him beyond the extent he can be useful or harmful to actual Democrats. Perez seems to have made the calculation that Sanders’ shtick can help the party.

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Perez is wrong. Sanders has been sticking a shiv into Democrats for about 18 months, from the moment he entered the 2016 race.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: That would go a long ways towards establishing some kind of credibility.

    @Betty Cracker:

    I get why Sanders says shit like that and remains unaffiliated — it glorifies himself

    You could have stopped right there.

  87. 87.

    ruemara

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: agreed. But his brand is rising. I’m speaking from a marketing point that he’s popular. He’s not popular due to policy or statesmanship or anything other than being a bitchy guy who criticizes those people doing things. It’s getting him on tv and getting those toxins out into the public even more, just when we don’t need it.

  89. 89.

    different-church-lady

    ELECTORATE 2000: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have an idiot be president?”

    ELECTORATE 2008: “Okay, having an idiot be president was not cool.”

    ELECTORATE 2016: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have a racist idiot be president?”

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Voter suppression really worries me with Sessions and them having a majority on the SCOTUS again. Worries me like “equivalent of a coup” worried. I do my little thing in-county but I have a job and stuff- I can’t fret about it because there’s so little I can do. I don’t run the Democratic Party but if I did I would reallocate money from media buys for political ads and hire thousands of 32k a year organizers. Organizers would be LOCAL and also experts on voting regs in their respective states – they would serve two roles. I would examine all the assumptions about how money is spent. They could do something truly different- make a new model. They have tons of money. I want them to look at how they spend it and not in dumb ways- not “how many flowers did Clinton buy” but in real ways- where do they allocate big chunks of it. Their biggest expenditure is ads. What about radically moving away from that assumption?

    I understand, Kay.

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Stop shipping people into Milwaukee every 2 or 4 years. Hire people in Milwaukee. I feel like they are following some horrible corporate model for campaigns that relies on cheaping out on low level workers. It’s not just that it doesn’t align with their stated values- it also doesn’t work very well. Push the money down to the voter contact level.

    I wish we could get an entire paper of your ideas, because they are so on point.

  93. 93.

    Chris

    @Kay:

    Not really (speaking for myself). It’d be easier if he weren’t still behaving like it’s primary season with him versus the Democratic Establishment, period. If even something on the scale of Trump’s election can’t make him take a break from punching on the left at least for long enough to win the real war, he’s doing more harm than good.

  94. 94.

    Weaselone

    @Betty Cracker:
    I’m not sure that’s the case. Perez’s decision may be based on minimizing the damage Sanders does, not because he thinks Sanders could be helpful. It may be an example of keeping your enemies closer.

  96. 96.

    Chris

    @different-church-lady:

    Though actually, in both cases, the electorate said “no, it would not be cool,” rather more emphatically the second time around. The founding fathers just screwed them 200 years ago.

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    @geg6:

    And, no, those of us with better sense are not gonna ‘get over it’ any time in the immediate future, nor make the mistake of trusting you further than we can see you.

    This is how I feel. There will be no forgiveness nor understanding.

  102. 102.

    Tarragon

    Day 4 of my wife in the hospital for a crippling migraine.

    So far they best been been able to do for her is about 4 hours of relief last night. We we hoping it was broken and she could return home.

    Fuuuuuck.

  103. 103.

    Chris

    @Weaselone:

    Perez’s decision may be based on minimizing the damage Sanders does

    I think that’s it.

    It really is a no-win scenario for the Democrats. You can’t antagonize him or he’ll take his ball and go home, and while he won’t take most or even many voters with him, we’re in a place where we can’t afford to lose any. Showering him with goodies and status, letting him continue to speak at all the rallies, and crossing your fingers that his anti-Trump lines and the fact that he’s at your rallies end up making more of an impression than his Democrat-punching, is literally the only play.

    He really is a one-man Tea Party Movement for our side of the aisle. (Without any of the elite support that gave the teabaggers real teeth, but just enough support to fuck things up for his party).

  105. 105.

    Kathleen

    @ruemara: That’s just one of the things that enrages me about him. And this vile media landscape. I could rant foreever. Also too agee with all your comments.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Chris:

    (Without any of the elite support that gave the teabaggers real teeth, but just enough support to fuck things up for his party).

    Correction: to fuck things up for OUR party. Bernie is still a party of one.

  107. 107.

    Betty Cracker

    @Weaselone: Great point. In that scenario, Perez has to balance the benefit of containing the damage Sanders inflicts on Democrats against what it costs the party to embrace Sanders. I don’t envy Perez his job.

  108. 108.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Chris:

    They could always run an actual Democrat in Vermont. Torpedo his incompetent ass and stop the bleed, even if it means a GOPer.

    He’s killing us.

  110. 110.

    Elizabelle

    The reader commenters are tearing the NY Times a new one on their moronic and normalizing headline this morning.

    Yes, the Fuck the Fucking New York Times still has this one up:

    Bold, Unpredictable Foreign Policy Lifts Trump, but Has Risks

    comment by “Seriously”:

    Journalists – stop. Stop writing about a President that does not exist. Stop fitting Donald into your writing models. Write about what is in front of you in the Oval Office – even if you don’t know how – or step aside and let others inform us about what is actually governing our country.

    Donald has no approach, no policies, no thoughts. He is playing whack-a-mole. Your readers can see this, as can you. You are harming us and our children (and yours) by your one-size-fits-all journalism.

    We need you to repot on what we are actually facing. Your coverage becomes a farce when you go along and actually help to create a President that is not there.

    The painful irony is that the coverage of Donald is so extremely politically correct, it does more harm than good and certainly fails journalists’ primary and vital role in a democracy – to inform the citizenry.

    and from NYTimes reader JT:

    Bold and unpredictable? It seems more like bravado and incompetence.

    I really get tired of the media’s incredible drive to normalize this man. The default coverage of politics by the media is what allowed Trump to rise in the first place. Acting as if abnormal is normal does not mean that you are operating from a unbiased position.

    From NYTimes reader Joan Breckwedel:

    Bold? Unpredictable? More like “tragically unprepared and desperately unprincipled.” Trump has no moral compass so he crashes from one policy position to another, like a drunken bumble bee in black-out jar.

    Joan! You are a writer!

    Paul Krugman got it so right upstream, about the journalists piling on Hillary because they did not do their FUCKING jobs.

  111. 111.

    hovercraft

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Cove NY Daily News (photo)

    I wish the media would just leave Malia alone*. Stop following her and telling the world her every move, she’s a private citizen, just let her be a young woman. Does anyone know if she still has SS protection or do her parents have to provide her with private security?

    * I know that reporting that she has/had a stalker is legit, but maybe if the paparazzi didn’t keep following her around, she wouldn’t have acquired him in the first place.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: I quit subscribing to that flaming pile of garbage of a newspaper back in the primary, but I am heartened that readers are taking them to task so eloquently!

  115. 115.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    It’s no accident that so many Fox news segments panels aren’t sitting behind a desk. They’ve got the attractive women made even more attractive in short skirts with long bare legs crossed. I always have this mental picture of old white rightwing drooling men in their lazyboys who can’t take their eyes off the tv screen.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Jesus. I just went over there to look at the tail end of the thread and almost felt compelled to write a “fuck you” comment to one of the trolls myself. That is some toxic shit right there. But addictive.

  118. 118.

    hovercraft

    @rikyrah: the reluctance of Republicans—and of the elite political classes at large—to accept the reality that Trump is merely a cruder manifestation of the political prion disease that has afflicted conservatism and the Republican Party since it first ate the monkeybrains 35 years ago. It was all leading to someone like Trump, and something like last year’s election.

    This debacle we are enduring was a very long time in the making, Poppy Bush knew Raygun was selling bullshit, but in order to win he legitimized that bullshit. Between their voo doo economics and the “Southern Strategy”, the republicans ceased to be a legitimate serious party, they were peddling ever more fantastical bullshit, but their voters didn’t care because more important to them was the promise to return things to the good old days, when ni**ers, womens, and gays knew their place. Throw in the constant vilification of the media as liberal tools of the democrats and their Stockholm Syndrome and you get what we have today, a media obsessed with the splinters in the eyes of the democrats, whilst ignoring the planks in the republicans eyes, they are not equivalent, but the media refuses to acknowledge it.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    and remains unaffiliated

    Right, because you’re familiar with the pride in not being on “Team Red” or “Team Blue”- that means you’re really ethical and principled and super-smart :)

    I became so familiar with that over the years in Ohio because of Dennis Kucinich. I can recite the whole rap. There was this attitude where I was a person who “compromised” and they were pure – it was hugely patronizing a lot of the time because I get it, I know the argument and I considered it and rejected it. I DON’T “vote for the man, not the Party” because that doesn’t make any sense in our system.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Steeplejack: You are a braver man than I. I very very rarely read the previous days comment threads, but I NEVER read one that goes over 300. One that goes over 500? I’d rather have my balls dipped in honey and get stacked to an ant hill.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker: I just keep the NYTimes to see what they’re doing. Have realized I don’t believe their reporters or editors on politics, but do find value in the contributors and op eds. It’s a flaming ship of shit, with Dean Baquet and Maggie Haberman at the wheel. Should be fired. Fuck ’em.

    ETA: No idea how much self-awareness at the top, but those readers this morning are saying, loud and clear, stop shoveling shit at us and calling it reporting. We can see with our own eyes that you are lying or out of your trees. I’d start wondering how many of them decide paying for this level of fantasy is a waste of money.

  123. 123.

    Tarragon

    @OzarkHillbilly: Her first was about 8 months ago. They just keep getting worse. This time we were on day 11 when we went to the ER to try and get it broken.

    We had some hope in the ER with a mad scientist doc who had some crazy ideas and a good attitude. He tried a nebulizer filler with Lidocain pushed by pure oxygen[1]. It worked for about 30 minutes.

    I’m just losing my mind not being able to help and having to leave her side to go to work is killing be. But we need to keep that insurance.

    Anyway, thanks all

    [1] he had a paper backing this, it wasn’t just a mwahahahaha idea.

  126. 126.

    geg6

    @Betty Cracker:

    Perez seems to have made the calculation that Sanders’ shtick can help the party.

    Very bad calculation, then. Because it’s just alienating people like me. The only way I’m every working hard for Dems again is if they dump this asshole like the smelly piece of shit he is. All he does is slag on us and I am militantly against bringing him any further into the tent. The further he and his ilk come in, the further I inch out of it.

  127. 127.

    hovercraft

    Huckabee Channels O’Reilly: ‘Can’t Kiss A Woman Leaning Away From You!’

    Huckabee was whining to The Factor (no O’Reilly there anymore) guest host Dana Perino about how Poor Donald Trump can’t get any kind of fair shake from the media.

    “The coverage on network news—the broadcast networks—has been 89 percent negative,” Perino said, going on to complain that Barack Obama got great coverage during his first 100 days. Of course, she forgot to mention that he got a lot done in that first 100 days, including getting a stimulus bill passed to help the economy.

    Huckabee went all in on that complaint. Apparently it really bothers him that journalists were almost uniformly negative about Trump’s claim he was wiretapped. It didn’t occur to him that it could have been because it was possibly false?

    And then he got really weird.

    “You know there’s three things you can’t do,” Huckabee told Perino with a perfectly straight face. “You can’t spit into the wind, you can’t climb a ladder leaning toward you or kiss a woman leaning away from you,”

    Uhhhhh. Let’s ask O’Reilly and Ailes about that, shall we?

    He added, “Add one more to the list if you’re Donald Trump: You can’t get a fair shake from the media.”

    Unless, of course, you’re appearing on Fox News. Then you can say whatever you want.

  128. 128.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s a flaming ship of shit, with Dean Baquet and Maggie Haberman at the wheel. Should be fired. Fuck ’em.

    Haberman has Access so she’s not going anywhere anytime soon. But man is she awful.

    And I don’t remember her being this bad, but the other day MSNBC had Molly Ball of The Atlantic and she was full on fucking awful. Kept interrupting to spit out some hateful talking point. I can only guess she’s bucking for a more prominent spot on the Team Mean Girls.

  129. 129.

    Emma

    @geg6: co-signed. If the Dems decide to run on yet another version of “let’s soothe the inflamed white men” I am out.

  130. 130.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this is D-Kos, but there seems to be a broader consensus that this is a good candidate against Comstock

    Daily Kos Elections‏Verified account @ DKElections 2h2 hours ago
    Huge get for Democrats: State Sen. Jennifer Wexton will challenge #VA10 GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock

    Also, Ossoff has raised half a million dollars since the primary
    6
    ETA: anyone on the ground or nearby in GA-6 think Handel’s record with PP and Komen will be a drag on her? IT’s a very tote-baggery district, and it seems to me a lot of tote-baggers react very differently to PP than to “abortion”. Erick Ericsson, a GA native, is already saying Handel “doesn’t like to fund-raise”, which seems like an preemptive excuse

  132. 132.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Tarragon: My wife has multi day/week long migraines on a frequent basis. If it gets bad enough for long enough she’ll take some kickass drugs and sleep for 12 hrs or so after which she can usually function again. But she has never had to go to the hospital for one. I can empathize on that feeling of helplessness. There is nothing worse.

  133. 133.

    geg6

    @Chris:

    This tiptoeing around this asshole and his supporters is no different than what the idiot GOP field did with Trump during the primary. Fuck that. Fuck him, fuck his supporters and fuck everyone who thinks we need this dickhead for anything. He’s toxic to the party and I won’t have anything to do with him or his supporters any more than I will with Trump and his.

  134. 134.

    Corner Stone

    @Tarragon: It’s odd that it would start in her adulthood. They normally start in youth like teen or pre-teen and start to level off in mid/late 20’s. Some people are lucky enough to age out of them. Mine are down to one or two a year these days, thankfully.
    Everybody’s different, of course, but it seems strange to just now be starting so I would suggest everybody take a step back and see what the hell is going on. Not an MD so fwiw.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @geg6: I keep saying, it should be up to his supporters (enablers) within the party (Ellison, Wyden, I’m looking at you) to sit him down and explain why trolling Democrats in tight races isn’t good

  138. 138.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker: @Elizabelle:

    South Korea Mocks Trump’s ‘Ignorant Remarks’

    America’s buffoon.

    Source: news.com.au

    SOUTH Korean officials have demanded the White House confirm that remarks made by US President Donald Trump are accurate, after they sparked fury among political leaders in the country.

    On Thursday the South Korean foreign ministry said it was working to find out whether Chinese President Xi Jinping told Mr Trump that the country “used to be part of China”.

    The comments were quoted in a Wall Street Journal interview with the President where he was recounting what the Chinese leader had told him in a recent meeting.

    While the comment was not used in the initial article, it was later posted in a transcript online with Trump saying about Xi: “He then went into the history of China and Korea. Not North Korea, Korea. And you know, you’re talking about thousands of years … and many wars. And Korea actually used to be a part of China.”

    A Quartz article later drew attention to it, calling the comment a “glaring historical inaccuracy that has, somehow, not yet enraged South Korea which is usually extremely defensive about suggestions that it is lesser than China or has ever been dependent on it.”

    Since then, South Korean media has picked up the comment despite it being dismissed by the foreign ministry as “not worthy of a response” according to news agency Yonhap.

    Watch the anchor introduce the piece, she says the segment is about Twitlers ignorant remarks, no sugar coating, no hedging, just plain ignorant, why can’t our supposed paper of record just do that, report the facts without trying to make excuses for his ignorance, the rest o the world knows he’s a buffoon, why not tell his constituents? Garbage paper.

  141. 141.

    Chris

    @geg6:

    The problem the GOP primary field had was that, while they might indeed have been idiots, most of their electorate wanted what Trump was selling. There’s not really anything they could’ve done to counter that – even running as a bigger Trump than Trump wasn’t going to convince anyone.

    We’re not exactly in the same situation, because most of our electorate isn’t in the Sanders camp, but the fact remains that enough voters are to make a difference if he decides to take his ball and go home.

  142. 142.

    Kropadope

    @randy khan:

    I’m a little stunned that an hour and a half after this post went up, we don’t have anyone insisting that Pierce is wrong and that Hillary was the worst candidate ever.

    I can’t speak for anyone else but, while having made some mistakes, I rather like HRC and thought her campaign hit a lot of the right notes right from the beginning. Her deranged cultists, however…

  143. 143.

    Chris

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Totally. But he also has to listen, which I have a funny feeling he isn’t inclined to do. Everything about him indicates a guy whose voice is too loud in his own head to leave much room for anyone else’s.

  145. 145.

    rikyrah

    Despite his promises, Trump’s cybersecurity plan doesn’t exist
    04/20/17 10:09 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Two weeks before his presidential inauguration, Donald Trump met with leaders of the U.S. intelligence community, who briefed him on the Russian hacking scandal. Almost immediately after the private discussion, Trump straight-up lied about he’d learned, insisting in a statement that intelligence professionals told him Russia’s operation had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”

    The intelligence community hadn’t said that at all. Trump just made it up.

    But in the same written statement, the Republican added that the nation’s cyber infrastructure is at risk and he announced that his team would produce new cybersecurity plan “within 90 days ” of his inauguration. A week later, he had a related tweet pointing to the same deadline.

    Politico published an interesting status-check today.

    Thursday, Trump hits his 90-day mark. There is no team, there is no plan, and there is no clear answer from the White House on who would even be working on what.

    It’s quite a fine-tuned machine, isn’t it?

  146. 146.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Iowa Old Lady: an old man who got addicted to the applause he got for dumbing down politics and convincing (often willfully naive) people that the only thing that stood in their way was the “corrupt” on their own side? I can think of another comparison

    ETA: @Chris: probably, like a lot of his younger supporters, he’s fallen into the trap of “everyone I know agrees with me!”

  147. 147.

    Kropadope

    @Kay:

    The NYTimes has been terrible on the Clintons since the 1990’s. It’s part of the culture at this point. It’s not solvable. They STILL flog breaking the server story. Trump will be running for re-election and the NYTimes will still be riding on the Clinton server story.

    Well, Trump is already back to running campaign rallies, so MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: 90 day cyber security? That was the long term. ISIS was gonna be wrapped up in 30 days, and Obamacare replaced with SomethingTerrificCare on day one!

  152. 152.

    zhena gogolia

    @rikyrah:

    When I get his messages in my in-box with Wilmer’s name plastered on them, I delete with extreme prejudice. Next time I get a message from him with Maxine in it, they’re getting a contribution.

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    Mike Conaway Isn’t an Improvement on Devin Nunes
    by Martin Longman April 19, 2017 3:30 PM

    Do you remember the ironically named Arbusto Energy corporation that George W. Bush ran into the ground in the 1980’s? From 1981 to 1986, the chief financial officer of Arbusto was a former high school football star and personal friend of the future president named Mike Conaway. Conaway would later be the beneficiary of a controversial mid-decade redistricting effort that took place at Tom DeLay’s direction. It carved out a congressional seat that Conaway has occupied since January 3, 2005.

    Now, Conaway may be a Bush family kind of guy, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know that the man who savaged Jeb for being “low energy” is still pretty popular with his constituents. So, if you thought that the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Trump’s Russia connections was going to be more robust with Devin Nunes having recused himself, you should think again.

    With Nunes on the sidelines, Conaway will be calling the shots as the effective chairman of the investigation. And, as Ryan Lizza reports, the early indications are far from promising.

    Even though there is now some bipartisan agreement that Nunes’s description of the intercepts was wildly inaccurate, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are still preparing to focus on Obama’s national-security team, rather than on Vladimir Putin’s. Last week, Democrats and Republicans finalized their witness lists, and the names tell a tale of two separate investigations. The intelligence source said, “The Democratic list involves all of the characters that you would think it would: Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Carter Page,” speaking of the three Trump campaign officials who have been most closely tied to the Russia investigation. “The Republican list is almost entirely people from the Obama Administration.”

    The fake scandal created by Trump and Nunes is not over yet. The first name on the Republican list is Susan Rice.

  157. 157.

    Kropadope

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I keep saying, it should be up to his supporters (enablers) within the party (Ellison, Wyden, I’m looking at you) to sit him down and explain why trolling Democrats in tight races isn’t good

    We like the term “progressive” so his refusal to call someone a “progressive” is obviously trolling that person. Ergo hoc propter sum. The political makeup of the district and deferring to someone else on how they identify don’t factor in, nope.

    @Chyron HR: Clue yourself in. “Disagrees with you” or even “disagrees with most people” is not trolling. As far as I can tell, Jim is trolling, Mnem was trolling, this irrelevant babble you just posted was an act of trolling. Sawdust and planks.

    ETA: You wanna see trolling? Some of you are due for another round.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    Hillary Was Right. Trump Is Temperamentally Unfit to Be President.
    by Nancy LeTourneau April 20, 2017 7:00 AM

    Just as comparing Trump’s actions with things he has tweeted in the past shows a level of hypocrisy that is unparalleled in politics, an occasional review of what Hillary Clinton said during the campaign can show us how well she identified the risk this country would be taking if we were to elect him as our next president. Today I’m thinking of all the times she described Trump as “temperamentally unfit for the presidency.”

    I was reminded of that warning when I read what Ryan Lizza wrote about “the continuing fallout from Trump and Nunes’s fake scandal.” To put this in perspective, it all started when the president became furious that AG Sessions recused himself from the Trump/Russia probe after it was revealed that he lied during his confirmation hearing about meetings with the Russian ambassador. In his fury, Trump tweeted that Obama had wire tapped him during the election.

    We now know that at the time Trump sent that tweet, he didn’t even know the process for obtaining eavesdropping warrants from the FISA court. But in a fit of rage he made up a scurrilous lie about his predecessor and ran with it. What Lizza wrote picks up what happened from there.

    The intelligence source told me that he knows, “from talking to people in the intelligence community,” that “the White House said, ‘We are going to mobilize to find something to justify the President’s tweet that he was being surveilled.’ They put out an all-points bulletin”—a call to sift through intelligence reports—“and said, ‘We need to find something that justifies the President’s crazy tweet about surveillance at Trump Tower.’”

    So after the president lied, the White House mobilized to find something…anything…that would justify what he had tweeted during a burst of outrage. That is where former National Security Advisor Susan Rice comes in. As Lizza explains, she had to log her “unmasking” requests on a White House computer, which Trump aides had access to. They grabbed some of those intelligence reports, showed them to Nunes, and he told the press that he had seen “evidence” that Trump associates had been surveilled. The president and right wing media immediately announced that he had been vindicated and Susan Rice was accused of doing something criminal. Sebastian Gorka went so far as to say that Watergate was a little spat in the sandbox compared to what Rice had done.

    As I wrote previously and Lizza now confirms, all of that was a lie too.

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    Quick Takes: What’s Up With Pence’s Investigation Into Voter Fraud?
    by Nancy LeTourneau April 19, 2017 5:30 PM

    * Because Trump depends on our short attention span to avoid accountability for his lies, I’m going to occasional revisit the outrageous one he told about 3-4 million people voting illegally. His attempt to cover that one up was to say that he was appointing VP Mike Pence to lead an investigation into the matter. So what’s up with that? Here is the most recent report I could find. It’s from NPR over a month ago:

    You might be asking yourself, whatever happened to Vice President Mike Pence’s investigation into President Trump’s claim that millions of people voted illegally in November? It’s been over a month since the president said he would ask Pence to lead a “major investigation” into those claims and the overall issue of voter fraud.

    Well, apparently, not much has happened so far. A spokesman for Pence said in an e-mail this week that they’re “still doing the necessary groundwork.” And White House Spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday that the Vice President has been “talking to folks potentially to serve on” his task force and that several secretaries of state have expressed interest.

  161. 161.

    rikyrah

    Debate over pesticides enters Donald Trump’s ‘swamp’
    04/20/17 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen
    At first blush, it may seem like an obscure, technical debate. The Associated Press reports that a four-year review conducted by government scientists of three pesticides – chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion – found that they “pose a risk to nearly every endangered species they studied.” Federal agencies are poised to issue findings on how to limit use of these pesticides.

    The story takes on a broader political significance, however, when we consider what one of the pesticide manufacturers is up to. The AP explained:

    Dow Chemical is pushing the Trump administration to scrap the findings of federal scientists who point to a family of widely used pesticides as harmful to about 1,800 critically threatened or endangered species.

    Lawyers representing Dow, whose CEO also heads a White House manufacturing working group, and two other makers of organophosphates sent letters last week to the heads of three Cabinet agencies. The companies asked them “to set aside” the results of government studies the companies contend are fundamentally flawed.

    As one might imagine, Dow is pointing to its own research, which is in conflict with the information compiled by government scientists.

    If this sounds familiar, there’s a good reason. 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 chlorpyrifos, one of the insecticides in question.

  162. 162.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kropadope: It’s beyond comical how far up Wilmer’s ass you have planted your head. Beyond comical and all the way to pathetic. You never really recovered from finding out about Santa, did you?

  163. 163.

    Corner Stone

    @rikyrah: I read that Ryan Lizza piece recently and it is just scathingly brutal. People that wanted to believe the conspiracy anyway will never see it but it is still good to have it on record and laid out so well.

  164. 164.

    rikyrah

    Roy Moore becomes the latest Alabama Republican to fall
    04/20/17 08:41 AM—UPDATED 04/20/17 09:39 AM
    By Steve Benen
    When it comes to the state’s elected leaders, it’s been a rough 10 months for Alabama. In June, Mike Hubbard (R), the state’s former House Speaker, was forced to resign in disgrace after being convicted of multiple felonies. Last month, Robert Bentley (R), the state’s then current governor, was forced to resign as part of a plea agreement in the wake of his sex/corruption scandal.

    And then there’s state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore (R). The Alabama Media Group reported yesterday:

    The Alabama Supreme Court today upheld the decision that removed Roy Moore from his position as chief justice. […]

    Moore can’t appeal the ruling to the federal courts because there are no federal issues. “This is it,” he said.

    Moore’s term on the state bench wasn’t up until 2019, but the suspension is effective immediately, and it has the effect of ending his judicial career. Because of his age, AL.com’s report added, “he cannot run for the office again.”

  166. 166.

    Corner Stone

    Steeplejack still in da house? Where my pedants at?
    Can I get a ruling on this – my brain wants to use “layed” when the correct term is laid. Was it ever correct to use “layed” as the form of “lay” as in “I layed out new sheets yesterday.”

  167. 167.

    geg6

    @Chris:

    Well, good luck to the DNC when people like me decide to take their ball and go home, then. Because that will be the result of this debacle. I’m one foot out the door right now.

    ETA: I’m sure Bernie’s minions will pick up all the slack in canvassing and phone banking hours that I’ve put in over the years and surely they’ll pick up on all the donating I’ve done, too. /sarcasm

  170. 170.

    hovercraft

    The Judge Trump Smeared As ‘A Mexican’ Will Preside Over DACA Deportation Suit

    The same judge who Donald Trump smeared as “a Mexican” during the presidential campaign will preside over the case of the first known recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections to be deported.

    USA Today first reported that Juan Manuel Montes, 23, would have his lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security heard by Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Curiel’s assignment to the case was coincidental, the publication reported, as judges are selected based on a rotating schedule…………..

    According to the Associated Press, DHS acknowledged that Montes had received DACA protections in 2014 and renewed them for two years in 2016, but that he lost those protections when he left the country without permission.

    Montes’ attorneys said he did not leave voluntarily, but rather was deported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    In a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times, Montes said he was walking to a taxi stand in Calexico, California when he was approached by CBP, and, not having his identification with him, was taken to a border patrol station. Montes alleged that he was made to sign documents without seeing an attorney or an immigration judge, and that he was not given a copy of the documents, according to the Times.

    CPB said in a statement, according to the Times, that Montes admitted to illegally entering the United States by climbing over a fence in Calexico. But the paper reported Montes’ lawsuit contends that he climbed a fence only after he was suddenly deported while being protected by DACA.

    In his lawsuit, the report continued, Montes also noted he requested records of his interactions with CPB, but has not received any information from the agency.

    DHS originally claimed that Montes’ DACA protections had expired, the AP reported, but they later acknowledged that he would have been eligible to remain in the country under the program through 2018.

  173. 173.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah:
    They’re (the chemical industry) also going after the EPA’s moves on trichloroethene (TCE) an industrial solvent and (very) widespread groundwater contaminant. I have a copy of the letter courtesy of an EPA employee.

    All should note that the time it takes to wreck a program or agency or law or hunk of our environment is miniscule compared to the time it takes to build lasting protection. Even one year of Trump is too much.

  176. 176.

    Kropadope

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Punching bags aren’t supposed to resist. What gives?!?!?!?

    Just because I don’t ascribe to your hateful delusions about the man doesn’t put me on the other end of your false dichotomy.

    We’re saving our rocks for Republicans Berniebros.

  178. 178.

    Betty Cracker

    @Corner Stone: Nah, I was genuinely curious about what my fellow neoliberal establishment shills here thought about the Sanders roadshow strategy, if they still trust Perez, etc. Now I know! ;-)

    As I said in the OP, I’m trying to keep an open mind about it and looking for clues about Perez’s long game. I’m active in local party politics and meatspace discussions with Sanders and Clinton primary voters, which don’t necessarily reflect the…vehemence I see online.

    Maybe Perez is trying to lance the boil and plans to quickly move on to other things. I’m not ready to say he’s doesn’t know what he’s doing yet — too soon.

  179. 179.

    Quinerly

    NPR’s “One A” devoting its first hour to Bill O’s firing. The ad revenue from his show represented 19% of ALL ad revenue on Fox Noise.

  183. 183.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Quinerly:

    NPR’s “One A” devoting its first hour to Bill O’s firing. The ad revenue from his show represented 19% of ALL ad revenue on Fox Noise.

    this makes me weep for my country. how do we have that many people who are that stupid?

  184. 184.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: I’m active in local party politics and meatspace discussions with Sanders and Clinton primary voters, which don’t necessarily reflect the…vehemence I see online.

    an important point– in ’09 there was a poll– I don’t know how accurate a poll like this could be, but in broad strokes I think it had some cromulence– that said (IIRC) only ten percent of self ID’d Dems read political blogs, and only ten percent of those readers commented. We are a small subset even of political junkies.

    I think Perez is trying to make the best of a bad situation, and hopefully more and more Democrats are coming to understand that, policies and methods aside, Bernie Sanders is not a lovable curmudgeon, but an asshole, an attention-seeking asshole, and that matters.

    ETA: @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: D’oh! I was wondering if I had that wrong as I typed. Thanks

  186. 186.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Betty Cracker:

    Nah, I was genuinely curious about what my fellow neoliberal establishment shills here thought about the Sanders roadshow strategy, if they still trust Perez, etc. Now I know! ;-)

    If I’m not on record yet, let me say: fuck that shit.

  187. 187.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tarragon:

    Not to freak you out, but have they done a CAT scan or MRI to confirm that it’s not a hemorrhage? There’s a specific way they need to do the scan, but I’m blanking on what it’s called.

  188. 188.

    Chris

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    an important point– in ’09 there was a poll– I don’t know how accurate a poll like this could be, but in broad strokes I think it had some cromulence– that said (IIRC) only ten percent of self ID’d Dems read political blogs, and only ten percent of those readers commented. We are a small subset even of political junkies.

    Which is why I largely sat out/ignored the entire Hillbot/Berniebro war during the primaries. Primaries are always acrimonious. As long as all it is is a subset of politics junkies punching each other online, it doesn’t really make much difference in the long run.

    On the other hand, when one of the candidates himself is getting in on the action, that’s a big difference. It’s expected and normal during the primary. And it’s fixable as long as the candidates shake hands, lock it up, and concentrate on the real enemy after the primaries are done. That’s why the 2008 primaries didn’t cause any lasting rift in the Democratic Party – Hillary and Barack are both grown-ass adults, and as long as they were acting like that, most of the PUMA sentiment just withered away.

    That’s what we haven’t seen from Sanders, it’s why he’s a problem that goes beyond just a few butthurt trolls online, and it’s why while I had no real beef with him during the primary, I sure as hell have beef with him now.

  189. 189.

    WafflesTasteGood

    Yawn. Are we still talking about why he won instead of how to get rid of him?

    I can tell you why he won and don’t need to write a whole column to do it.

    He won by being a damagog. It wasn’t some planned genius political move either. That’s just who he is. He is still trying to do it. Doesn’t work so well when you actually have to govern. It will come back to bite him hard.

  190. 190.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Corner Stone:

    Steeplejack still in da house? Where my pedants at?
    Can I get a ruling on this – my brain wants to use “layed” when the correct term is laid. Was it ever correct to use “layed” as the form of “lay” as in “I layed out new sheets yesterday.”

    I’m not Steeplejack but I am a freelance pedant. I understand your confusion here as you have probably had very limited use of the term “laid”. [zing!]

    But “laid” is the correct past tense of the verb “lay”. But remember that “lay” is also the past tense of “lie”. English, amirite?

    tl; dr: “laid” is a word; “layed” is not.

  191. 191.

    Kathleen

    @schrodingers_cat: Happy Belated Birthday! I hope you enjoyed your day. You were however missed and I’m sure by more than just me. After all it is all about me, I mean, us.

  192. 192.

    Quinerly

    @Steve in the ATL:
    I “get” the ultimate firing for the sexual misconduct/harassment. (I, too, was a target of harassment by my first boss when I was fresh out of law school in 1985). But it’s a sad statement that the ad boycott took him down ultimately. No punishment for his lies, bullying, hate mongering…they would have let the harassment go on but for the bottom line. With that said, I take my victories where I can. This is a victory.

  193. 193.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    But at least we all know now that “paternalism” is a totally gender-neutral term and there’s nothing weird about a guy telling a group of women to stop acting so paternalistic towards him. ?

  194. 194.

    NotMax

    Peak recoil?

    Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) visited the White House by President Donald Trump’s invitation on Wednesday night and the guest list was exactly what you’d expect.

    Palin posed for photos in the West Wing with conservative rocker and National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, his wife Shemane Nugent, Trump supporter and musician Kid Rock and his fiancée Audrey Berry. Source

  196. 196.

    The Moar You Know

    It’s odd that it would start in her adulthood. They normally start in youth like teen or pre-teen and start to level off in mid/late 20’s. Some people are lucky enough to age out of them. Mine are down to one or two a year these days, thankfully.

    @Corner Stone: Mine started in my mid-30s after some fairly serious jaw surgery. They seem to have tapered off in the last year or so, maybe three or four per year. Thankfully, mine are not disabling like some people I know. Miserable, but I can still function.

  197. 197.

    Tarragon

    @Mnemosyne:
    She had an MRI when they started. I appreciate the idea and we’ll start pushing for another now that things are worse.

    It was mentioned as a possibility a few days ago but I think it got dropped somewhere.

  198. 198.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kropadope:

    Mnem was trolling

    Yes, all us mean wimmens were being so totally paternalistic towards you and Bernie. Why can’t women stop being paternalistic by promoting a woman candidate and let men be in charge? ?

  199. 199.

    Goku

    @Chris: Would that also include his dying as well? Or something else incapacitating? I wonder if those voters would leave then as well

  203. 203.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kropadope: ETA: You wanna see trolling? Some of you are due for another round.

    You’re gonna get drunk and beclown yourself again if we don’t stop being big meanies to you and Bernie Dumbledore? Jeepers, I’d best get out my checkbook and give Our Revolution a couple grand to prevent your bold, effective and admirable tantrum of “activism”!

    Seriously, go drink a big glass of water, put on that Best of Maude DVD you find so comforting, and lay down on the couch to sleep this one off. I’m worried about you.

  204. 204.

    Chris

    @Goku:

    Don’t think so, which is why I’d quite frankly not be all that fussed if he were to have a heart attack.

  206. 206.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Chris: From the Harry Potter books/movies: an infinitely wise and powerful (grand) daddy figure who can make everything okay, because magic. What a lot of not always young Bernistas want/need to see in their idol.

  207. 207.

    Steve in the ATL

    This is turning into a repeat of last night’s thread. Mnem and krop are going to TBogg the shit out of this one too!

  208. 208.

    Corner Stone

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Mnem and krop are going to TBogg the shit out of this one too!

    I’m not really sure what either of them is going on about.
    I’ve been much more interested in trying to solve the question of Mac v PC. And did I mention that I first had a TRS-80 when I was young?

  209. 209.

    rikyrah

    @Quinerly:

    The ad revenue from his show represented 19% of ALL ad revenue on Fox Noise.

    If true…no wonder they stuck with him as long as they did and paid out the lawsuits.

  210. 210.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I live with a test case of that theory: my husband, a registered Democrat who voted for BS in the primary and Clinton in the general. He doesn’t follow politics beyond reading mainstream news sites, catching an occasional episode of Maddow and listening to me yap about it. He always votes a straight Democratic ticket.

    When I brought up the roadshow, his initial thoughts were that it’s smart for the party to use Sanders to bring his primary voters closer to the Democrats, and he believes I’m overreacting about the effect of Sanders criticizing the party. He was also surprised at how negative I got about Sanders in the run up to the election and my abiding mistrust of the man.

  212. 212.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Chris: I thought it was odd that someone could be totally immune from the Potter-verse, but I have a brother who probably doesn’t know the name Dumbledore, and his kids were both Potter-obsessives. Pretty sure my brother slept through a couple of the movies, in the back row, maybe with headphones on.

  213. 213.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Corner Stone:

    I’ve been much more interested in trying to solve the question of Mac v PC. And did I mention that I first had a TRS-80 when I was young?

    I also had a TRS-80! And that machine would lose any competition; would probably get beaten by a TI scientific calculator.

    Mac v. PC is easy for me: (1) I am a corporate joe, and we use PC’s at work, ergo much easier to use one at home as well, and (2) I have spent so much money buying Macbooks for my kids that I can’t afford one for myself.

    So PC wins for procedural reasons; this opinion does not address the merits of the debate.

  214. 214.

    Miss Bianca

    @Chris: Lucky you. When I was a delegate at the CO state convention, I got to deal with Bernie as Dumbledore AND Bernie-Wan-Kenobi themes, both of which I found thoroughly nauseating. “Great White Hope”, because OF COURSE we need a white guy to save us!

  215. 215.

    J R in WV

    @satby:

    Where’s Betty Cracker? I want some more scorn and fiery disdain of all those Republican rascals and nincompoops!!!!

  216. 216.

    Steeplejack

    @Corner Stone:

    Holy shit was Molly Ball bad! I saw that and couldn’t believe she works at The Atlantic, which is not typically that unhinged.

    There was some woman from the Washington Post on last night who was equally awful in the same way, talking about Trump’s “strengths” and edginess.

  217. 217.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Oh lord. I’m in a slow line for lunch and listening to a foxbot behind me describing his views of Hilary and T to his lunch partner. I already laughed out loud once, but I really don’t want to engage this guy.

    Oh, now he’s on boys in the girls restroom.

    You will not be surprised by his ethnicity or age.

  218. 218.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I really want to get out my notebook, put Krop on the couch, and go all Dr. Freud on him. It’s just so fascinating that he reached for a gendered word like “paternalism” to describe how having a group of (mostly) women defend another woman made him feel.

    But I only have experience as a patient, not an actual psychotherapist, so I’d probably get in trouble for practicing without a license. ?

  220. 220.

    J R in WV

    @ruemara:

    Can I stand with you? I’ve hated the creepy bastard since I first heard of him. I’m more pure a socialist than that rat bastard is!!! Which is to say, he isn’t one at all, it’s just his schtick, claiming to be one without ever having to do anything with is.

  221. 221.

    J R in WV

    @Sab:

    @rikyrah: The Ohio Democratic Party has three paid community organizers for the entire state.

    OMG!!! They need 30 just for Columbus, registering people and getting them their IDs. Same in Toledo, Cleveland, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Dayton, etc, etc.

  222. 222.

    El Caganer

    @hovercraft: That is completely deranged. It reads like something from an alternate universe, where people do comedy improv by riffing off of episodes of Black Mirror.

  223. 223.

    Steeplejack

    @Corner Stone:

    From my store of knowledge and some quick research, laid has always been correct, but layed is known as a “popular variant,” probably for the reasons you gave for yourself. But go with laid.

    Also, if it’s you doing the action yourself and not doing it to an object, you’re lying. You lie down and you lie low.

    ETA: Although if you did it yesterday, you “lay down yesterday” and you “lay low for a while yesterday.”

    But this does get into an area that jangles on the ear a little bit.

  224. 224.

    ger

    to the scott walker golf channel and his wife. cbs anchor otis livingston recently had sexual relation with walker’s wife. livingston also looking to kill scott walker’s wife if she will open her mouth. walker’s famely is in danger. otis livingston is maniac.

  225. 225.

    J R in WV

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I never had a TRS-80, but I did buy a KayPro 64K luggable computer once. One floppy drive for the program, and one for the data… amazing that it was so useful in the 80s. I still have it, dunno why.

    Linux machines mostly now. Or Android tablets.

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