Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I really should read my own blog.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

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

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

In after Baud. Damn.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Monday Morning Open Thread: Tick, Tick, Tick…

Monday Morning Open Thread: Tick, Tick, Tick…

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Apart from keeping up the good fight(s), what’s on the agenda as we start the new week?

Reader Interactions

165Comments

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning.

    Update overnight from greennotGreen’s sister:

    greennotGreen
    May 14, 2017 at 11:16 pm
    (gnG’s sister reporting) gnG has now entered the pre-active phase of dying. She is able to verbalize her desires so seldom now that it’s a real surprise when she does. For example, instead of the “sponge on a stick” method of giving her water, this evening she very clearly said, “No, I want an *actual* cup of water!” Which made us all laugh. And she was indeed able to take a sip from one. She still recognizes everyone, and we have no doubt she understands much of what is going on, she just can’t get words out. Occasionally, she reaches for her dogs and pets them and smiles. We have soft classical music going on in the room, which is full of soft natural light and green plants. The hospice nurse today said she wished all her patients could have this type of environment! Yesterday, gnG recognized the opera Prince Igor (one of her early favorites from high school), and today it was the Star Wars New Hope overture that she most enjoyed. She’s always had eclectic tastes!
    Sorry if I’m breaking blogging rules, I hope this fits BJ guidelines. I’m just trying to fulfill my sister’s wishes, but she also didn’t want to bore people with whiny minutiae, so just let me know if I’m overstepping the boundaries.
    Thanks to everyone for their good wishes.

    Best wishes to chez green, and chez Immanetize, and yarrow: you comment again soon, you hear?

  3. 3.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: I wish we would not let Trump back into US airspace. Used to wish the same for Richard Bruce Cheney.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @Elizabelle: Elizabelle, thank you so much! Though I read the night threads,I usually fall asleep with the Kindle in my hands, and miss these late night updates though I look for them all day. Sending much love and peace out to gnG, her loving sister and family.

  8. 8.

    Kansi

    He seems to think the job consists only of EOs and Oval meetings with heads of state. Anything for the whir of cameras.

  10. 10.

    gene108

    RTP, NC is a great area, but having been away for the last 20 years, returning to visit my mom on occasion, I have realized that Jesus-Mary-fucking-Christ the area needs good breakfast joints that open earlier than 7:00 am on a weekday.

    I think a southern food oriented diner, that opens early would do bonkers business here.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: Thank you so much for reposting GnG’s families messages. What an amazing family, and I’m sending my thoughts. Someone needs to let them know though, that we don’t have boundaries.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    @JPL: I know. That was amusing, about boundaries.

    A jackal in training. Jackal curious, at the least.

  13. 13.

    JWR

    @Kansi:

    He seems to think the job consists only of EOs and Oval meetings with heads of state.

    Wut? You mean there’s actual work involved?!!

  14. 14.

    Proudgradofcatladyacademy

    Peace, peace and light to Gng as she stands in the threshold between life and death. Peace be on her loved ones as they bear witness at the same threshold.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    Now I’m worried the Comey disaster will take attention away from the disaster of the health care bill.

    Voters are big babies. Don’t confuse them! :)

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    I love that greennotGreen still has the doggies in the house, on the bed, even though they have their rehoming assignments. That’s the spirit.

    Also, FWIW, read that the sense of smell is the very last to go. That gives us all options, as we encounter the end of life as green’s family is going through now.

  18. 18.

    debbie

    Back to the unimportant stuff, I think Trump’s screwed. Refuse to produce tapes, he’ll run into a confrontation with Congress. Admit there were never any tapes, he’ll be mocked mercilessly and lose whatever credibility he had. Destroy the tapes, and he’ll run into legal issues. Listen to the tapes and find out there’s nothing there (I can’t believe Comey would be stupid enough to pledge loyalty or anything else Trump said he did), and again, mocking and loss of credibility. Lose – lose – lose – lose. No winning whatsoever.

    If Trump thought he could stonewall this the way he could stonewall his taxes, he’s very mistaken.

  21. 21.

    debbie

    @JWR:

    If nothing else, Trump should destroy the myth that government should be run like a business and that a CEO is the best choice for president. As we’re seeing, the CEO’s minimal accountability doesn’t transfer well to government.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    I went to see my mother in law yesterday and she watches Rachel Maddow now! She was always a Democrat but she watched those Meet The Press type programs- she lives in Indiana and she loves Evan Bayh.

    Claire has been radicalized by Donald Trump.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie: I hope he takes the Republicans down with him.

    Deja vu: after Sandy Hook massacre of innocents and teachers: what, like 90% of Americans wanted background checks?

    But the Republicans did the bidding of their NRA masters. No gun control for us, while they hide behind enhanced security in their office.

    Now: dangerous mental case in the White House, singlehandedly trying to overturn his predecessor’s accomplishments, even though Trump lost the popular vote by over 3 million and I have my doubts he actually won the Electoral College :

    Republicans put party before country. Over and over again.

    Passing a House lack of healthcare bill that was wildly unpopular with the public at large, and with just about every health group? Party before country.

    I hope they burn.

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    If Trump thought he could stonewall this the way he could stonewall his taxes, he’s very mistaken.

    Is that because Turtle and ZEGS (and all the other traitors) have shown their unflinching integrity, their fealty to the Constitution, and their unstinting efforts to “do the right thing”?

    Asking for a friend.

    PS: I think your assessment will eventually be proved correct, but there’s going to be a lot of Rethug obstruction to wade through, to get there.

  29. 29.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @debbie: Your post warmed the cockles of my heart (and who doesn’t like warm cockles?) but then I got pessimistic again.

    I’m betting he’ll go with “I was just kidding” and not produce the tapes, whether they exist or not. And he will ignore any and all subpoenas on those and on any other records he is ordered to produce, and no doubt begin destroying evidence. I’d be surprised if he hasn’t already.

    So how does it play out then?

  30. 30.

    Mustang Bobby

    Playwriting update: I’m getting rejections from places I don’t remember submitting to for works that other theatres are in the middle of producing. Beat that with a stick.

  32. 32.

    oldster

    I had not heard about the March for Truth.

    Done. I’ll be there, in DC, June 3.

  34. 34.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    There are a lot of Democratic leaning or would-be Democratic voters, who loathe Republicans, but are not sold on Democrats.

    I don’t know what Dems need to do to close the deal. The media’s right-wing bias plays a major roll in shaping people’s trepidation.

  40. 40.

    satby

    @oldster: wish I could. I was surprised to see I have the entire Memorial Day weekend off, so getting the following Saturday off would be impossible. And I am not giving up my mini-vacation of 6 days in a row off!

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Oh, he’ll try all of those things; I just don’t think any of it will work. The more he fights back, the more stupid Tweets, the deeper the hole he’s digging for himself.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @gene108: they knew what they were doing when they got rid of the fairness doctrine, we’ve been swimming in propaganda since. Some much more than others obviously, but it effected all of us.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    @SFAW:

    Of course not. But at some point, they’ll bale on Trump to (try to) save themselves. They’re politicians.

  46. 46.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    Kay, I hope that you would consider doing a frontpager post about the Townhall that you’re going to. Tell us what happened, deep in Trump territory.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @gene108:

    I know what you mean but that’s not her. She just votes for Democrats. Straight ticket voters are under-appreciated. It makes a lot of sense. It’s a shortcut that will probably work out okay if the voter leans Left. It’s kind of admirably honest- she knows she’s not investigating each of these candidates (because she has no real interest in figuring it out) so she makes a pretty safe bet and votes Party. It also makes sense within the context of our system. My experience is it takes them away from a focus on personalities too, so in that way they’re oddly more “policy oriented” than people who pick apart each candidate- they’re not as invested in This Person so they don’t swing wildly when elated or disappointed.

  51. 51.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    A DEM PAC needs to be collecting video of these Townhall meetings, making ads, and playing them on a loop. Time to attack is NOW

  52. 52.

    BC in Illinois

    @oldster:

    I had not heard about the March for Truth.
    Done. I’ll be there, in DC, June 3.

    There are also regional events.
    St Louis March for Truth, 10am – 12pm June 3, Union Station to the Arch
    Featuring local favorite Sarah Kendzior

    We deserve to know the truth about Russia’s actions during the 2016 election and its relationship with the Trump Administration. We cannot waste any more time on investigations in committees where key members are playing partisan politics with America’s future. We need an immediate, nonpartisan, independent investigation to provide answers.

  54. 54.

    James E Powell

    Saw someone on twitter (forgot who, sorry) state that the same press/media that kept Hillary’s emails going for two years now regard Trump firing Comey story to be over, yesterday’s news.

    Amazing, no?

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @Kansi:

    He seems to think the job consists only of EOs and Oval meetings with heads of state. Anything for the whir of cameras.

    Let us all remember, this is the clown who was going to delegate both domestic AND foreign policy to his VP. And then, according to Don Jr, Sr was simply going to run around “making American great again”.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: And don’t forget, both FinCEN and the NY AG are looking into Trumpov’s business dealings, i.e., money laundering for foreign interests (most especially, Russian billionaires). He’s going down no matter what happens. It’ll make the Big Finish even uglier as he attempts to intimdate some, bribe others, and pardon many, but it’ll be awesome to see him get his just desserts.

  59. 59.

    oldster

    @satby:

    AS BC in Illinois says, there will be lots of other marches around the country, and I hope one will be closer to you.

    Driving to DC is a pain for me, but being retired now I have a bit more time. I have a few more years while I can still walk and make noise. I did not think I would spend them trying to rescue my country from Russian subversion.

  61. 61.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So Mika just stepped on Kellyanne Conway’s neck, but she stepped on her own (and Joe’s dick) in the process.

    What she said was how disgusted Conway was with herself for the things she stated when she was off-camera.

    They should have body-slammed Conway back in the fall, but there was that all important “access” bullshit to consider.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I got an email last night and the Wednesday event is getting bigger. It now includes coffee before in addition to lunch after and car pooling. I only took an hour out so I’ll skip the eating and socializing. Rep. Latta is an extremely boring person- has no personality at all- so I doubt there will be you tube-worthy fireworks.

    I think I’m going to start posting again but only on voting rights. Sessions is upsetting me with that. We could follow the bullshit “voter fraud” commission- see what they’re up to. I’m reluctant to say it since I’ve said it before and haven’t done it but it’s maybe a good time and if I can limit it to one topic it won’t feel overwhelming or hopeless.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    They’re a good measure, though, a good indicator of “acceptable opinion”. I used to listen to them as a kind of preview of what would be “conventional wisdom” when I had satellite radio in a car – I no longer have that car so I don’t listen to them anymore.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: Yea! You go, girl. Voting rights needs more attention.

    Rikyrah put this up in an earlier thread, about Wisconsin. AP story. In Wisconsin, ID law proved insurmountable for many voters

    By one estimate, 300,000 eligible voters in the state lacked valid photo IDs heading into the election; it is unknown how many people did not vote because they didn’t have proper identification. But it is not hard to find the Navy veteran whose out-of-state driver’s license did not suffice, or the dying woman whose license had expired, or the recent graduate whose student ID was deficient — or Harris, who at 66 made her way to her polling place despite chronic lung disease and a torn ligament in her knee.

    She had lost her driver’s license just before Election Day. Aware of the new law, she brought her Social Security and Medicare cards as well as a county-issued bus pass that displayed her photo.

    Not good enough. She had to cast a provisional ballot that ended up not being counted.

    In the end, Wisconsin’s 10 Electoral College votes went to Republican Donald Trump, who defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by roughly 22,000 votes. But the battle over voter ID laws continues.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    More from that AP story on Wisconsin:

    Trump maintains, without evidence, that he would have won the popular vote had it not been for millions of people casting ballots illegally. Democrats and voting rights groups said Trump’s commission is merely a front for allowing Republican state officials to enact tough registration and voting requirements that would restrict the ability of minorities and the poor to cast ballots.

    Courts also have weighed in on the topic, upholding laws that are generally narrow in scope while striking down others considered too broad. A federal appeals court last year struck down a package of laws passed in North Carolina, including voter ID, saying they targeted black voters “with almost surgical precision.”

    The politicians and the lawyers may be at loggerheads, but to Harris, the injustice is beyond dispute.

    “They prevented us from voting,” she said, simply.

  69. 69.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay:

    she loves Evan Bayh

    I was in an elevator with Evan Bayh once. Maybe there something about elevators and folk from Indiana, I was also in an elevator with John R. Wooden*.

    *At UCLA, we just generally refer to him as Coach.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Voting rights is one of those things where opinion among Democrats really changed. So many (white) Democrats were ambivalent about it during the Bush years but opinion has really shifted. Non-obsessive people now care about it. I think that came about because of better mainstream (and non-mainstream) coverage of the issue. I think Republicans underestimate how much it angers our base.

    You could watch it happen in real time. “Serious” outlets started to cover it in great detail. I think the big shift was complete by 2012. When I started writing about voter ID here I got regular comments like “what’s the big deal?” – that changed as time went on.

  72. 72.

    Elizabelle

    And more, AP/Wisconsin:

    Overall, nearly 3 million people in Wisconsin voted last November, about 91,000 fewer than in 2012. Milwaukee, a power center for Democrats, reported that 41,000 fewer people voted there than in 2012; lack of enthusiasm for the candidates may have played a role.

    Lack of enthusiasm? Really? In Milwaukee? That’s almost double your “winning the state’s electoral college votes” right there.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Claire had 2 consecutive husbands who were both wealthy and both “powerful” (in Indiana) so she met a lot of these people over the years in that role. She’s twice a widow. She lives in an upscale retiree community that is very Republican so I admire her sticking to her guns like she does.

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I just wanted to know the lies that the Rep. Will say with a straight face as to how this is better for your community than Obamacare.

  78. 78.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Jeffro:

    but it’ll be awesome to see him get his just desserts.

    This wouldn’t be B-J if there weren’t someone to point out that the correct usage is “just deserts” (the root being “deserve.”) I’m not going to be the one to do it, but surely someone else will.

  79. 79.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Denny Crum (former UCLA player, Louisville BB coach, won some final fours and NCAA tournaments) ALWAYS reverentially refers to him as “Coach” as one does a respected elder – and Denny is now 80 years old. I last heard him do it two years ago.

  81. 81.

    Ohio Mom

    I was always more like Kay’s mother-in-law than not, always voting a straight Democratic ticket. I understood that sometimes a clunker of a candidate got through but all in all, the odds were on my side.

    In the midst of the horrors that are our current events, I am at peace with myself. I didn’t vote for any of them, my conscious is clean.

    Which is something I’ve taken to declaring every time I am with anyone who is upset at the news but whom I suspect voted for the Republicans who represent southwest Ohio. A category that sadly includes most of my neighbors, so I have plenty of opportunities to be smug.

  82. 82.

    Elizabelle

    AP story on Wisconsin, again:

    Backers of the ID law say it was a success. The number of provisional ballots, issued to voters who are unable to provide the required documentation, represented a fraction of all ballots cast — less than one half of 1 percent, according to a report by the Wisconsin Election Commission. Election officials are currently reviewing 86 reports of possible voter fraud, of which 70 involved felons who may have voted before having their rights restored.

    The story does not tell us how many actual voter fraud cases Wisconsin officials identified. But it’s got to be miniscule.

    Examples in the story: a woman who misplaced her driver’s license; it showed up a few days after the election. A Navy veteran who showed up at the polls with an out of state license (duh, what were you thinking? And did you not have a passport?).

    An 85 year old woman with cancer, whose driver’s license had expired. She was told to schlep 15 miles to get a fresh one.

    A recent Wisconsin college graduate with out of state ID — very common — who actually Ubered to DMV to get better ID, but

    Tindall, 24, had graduated in May, but wasn’t sure whether she would stay in Wisconsin so she kept her Ohio ID. Her student ID had her name, photo, a barcode, school logo and the most recent academic year she attended. But her student ID didn’t have an expiration date or say when it was issued, so she was forced to cast a provisional ballot.

    She doesn’t have a car, so she took an Uber to the DMV to get an ID. She was told the ID would arrive by express mail the next day.

    By then, she said, her work schedule at a Starbucks prevented her from going to the local clerk’s office with the ID so her vote would count.

    “At the time I was thinking, ‘At least tried, so I can’t feel too bad about it,’” she said.

    She felt differently when Trump won Wisconsin, her home for now as she looks for freelance work with her degree in communication design and illustration.

    “When I would see people saying, ‘What’s wrong with you Wisconsin, what are you doing?’ I would feel like, ‘Oh my God, I’m part of the problem,’” Tindall said.

    A survey conducted by the Brennan Center in 2006 estimated that while as many as roughly 21 million voting-age U.S. citizens did not have a valid government-issued, photo identification, an additional 4.5 million had a valid ID but one that did not have their current name or address.

  83. 83.

    Peale

    @gene108: the deal can’t really be closed because those leaners are further to the left than the party or further to the right than the party. Two groups large enough to make a difference. But they respond to different things.

  84. 84.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    1h
    Christopher Moore @TheAuthorGuy

    So maybe this is the strategy: “For a guy to step on his dick this much it must be be yuge, believe me. Look at these giant gloves.”

  85. 85.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So does the Nuncio accept the credentials of Callista Gingrich, or does Pope Francis sharply condemn the administration for such a disrespectful choice by rejecting her and making a public statement?

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    He’s canny. Just completely lacking in any type of belief. He once held a farmer town hall here where he spent the whole time getting them all worked up about food stamps.

    Food stamps are a voucher to buy ag products. Un-fucking believable that farmers are angry about a voucher to buy what they produce. Cry me a river, assholes.

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Kay:

    I think I’m going to start posting again but only on voting rights. Sessions is upsetting me with that. We could follow the bullshit “voter fraud” commission- see what they’re up to. I’m reluctant to say it since I’ve said it before and haven’t done it but it’s maybe a good time and if I can limit it to one topic it won’t feel overwhelming or hopeless.

    Great news, Kay! Please do!

  92. 92.

    Yellowdog

    @debbie: The most likely scenario is stonewall, stonewall, stonewall and the GOP will do nothing, nothing, nothing.

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: Unless one is wishing barren wastelands upon them instead of ice cream sundaes with a nice arsenic syrup topping

  96. 96.

    efgoldman

    LEGAL UPDATE / POSSIBLE CLOSURE

    Some regulars, especially the late night/overnite crowd, might remember that one of mrs efg’s younger sisters’ was shot and killed a year ago February, by the abusive, alcoholic bastard she’d been living with for ~25 years.
    We have gone to Vermont a couple of times, to settle her affairs and to clean out her house. Most of the stuff has been sorted and parceled out; some to other sisters, some to mrs efg, some to their mom, some to Savers, the church thrift shop, and the Salvation Army.
    The prosecutor (and victim’s advocate office) have been really terrific, encouraging mrs efg and her mother to call or email with any questions, making suggestions, being a liaison with the sheriff and the prosecutor. This afternoon, we are going to have a conference call with the prosecutor for the purpose of discussing the next step. We think they are going to tell us about a plea deal. He was originally charged with murder2. We think it’s likely they have negotiated a man1 plea. Frankly, nobody gives a shit as long as he’s in prison for at least 10-12 years served; he is asthmatic, a heavy smoker, and already in his 60s; he’s likely going to die without getting out. mrs efg’s mother would be satisfied with that – she’s 86. not in the best of health, and probably isn’t going to live much longer. As long as the murdering bastard is still behind bars when she dies she’ll be fine. mrs efg is more the vengeful type – I have a feeling she’ll go ballistic if the sentence is anything less than 10 years.
    Of course, they could be telling us that he’s refused a deal and wants a trial. Doesn’t seem very smart to me – sheriff found him with the weapon in his hand, and he admitted he shot her. But IANAL.
    I hope at the end of the day, mrs efg and her mom (and by extension, the other two sisters in Ohio and PA) find closure today.
    I’m all for prison/sentencing reforms, but I hope the murdering bastard gets tuned up in state prison like he did in county jail. Thinking in the abstract is one thing – it’s different when it’s personal.

  97. 97.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I leave tomorrow for Spain, flying into Bilbao. After taking a day or two to visit the Guggenheim and recoup from jetlag, will travel to Irun and walk westward on the Camino del Norte along the northern coast. I did the Camino Frances two years ago and am rejoining a Danish friend for the trek.

    I welcome the opportunity to detach from political life for a few weeks and enjoy the simple act of walking, the beautiful landscape, good food, and – especially – good, cheap Spanish wine at the end of the day.

  98. 98.

    satby

    @efgoldman: it is very different when it’s personal. I’m hoping he did take a deal, and that it’s of sufficient severity to help the rest of the family feel a bit of closure in that (though I understand “closure” probably isn’t the right word. Can’t think of a better one). Condolences again to you and Mrs.ef, as every interaction around this refreshes the trauma.

  100. 100.

    MomSense

    @Elizabelle:

    Oh thank you for that update. Love going out to gnG and her family.

    I’m also keeping vigil with some families I have been with at the ICU. There is a special kind of camaraderie that forms in the waiting room.

    I’m a bit haunted today. Physically my dad is improving but Saturday in the middle of the night he started with ICU psychosis. It is very upsetting. I’m home and going to work and then will try and figure out my schedule to get back tonight or tomorrow.

  101. 101.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Elizabelle: Thanks for keeping us abreast of gnG’s condition. It’s wonderful that her family is surrounding her at this time and that she has moments of lucidity when she can recognize her loved ones.

  102. 102.

    Betty Cracker

    @efgoldman: Here’s hoping the murdering bastard dies in jail and that your family gets whatever comfort they can for that measure of justice.

    I wonder if the jails up there have stopped letting inmates smoke like the ones down here have? That could be a level of torture for the murdering bastard outside of whatever the courts mete out. I’ve got relatives in the thriving corrections and criminal psychiatric care industries here in FL, and they tell me that many inmates view the smoking ban as worse than the death penalty.

  104. 104.

    Hal

    @Kay:

    she loves Evan Bayh

    Which is funny to me because isn’t Bayh the one Maddow use to pretend to fall asleep when talking about his potential VP candidacy?

  107. 107.

    Patricia Kayden

    @BC in Illinois: This is great to hear. It feels that this administration is so outrageous and scandalous that we could spend our entire time just marching in protest. So uplifting to see people from all over the country getting out and resisting Trump.

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @Patricia Kayden: We should march. A lot.

    Screaming on the internet is of limited use. It’s pretty lazy, actually. Preaching to the choir.

    Make them see us. Give the press a visual to work with.

    Allow the wingnuts to be amazed at how many folks are walking around with SorosBucks. Because, you know, they pay us to turn out.

  110. 110.

    jharp

    “new NBC/WSJ poll: Americans approving of Trump job performance 39%”

    Just stunning that 4 out 10 Americans approve of Trump’s job performance.

    Holy fuck. We have a lot of work to do.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    @Patricia Kayden: Ah, yes, the Fuck the Fucking New York Times. How surprising, they could not find anyone (except someone’s grandmother) enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton.

    Both sides! No difference!

    What a bunch of dolts. The FTF NYTimes political correspondents, and these nonvoters.

    I have a feeling that some of them got schooled.

  113. 113.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby: @Elizabelle: Thanks! I’ll try to send pix, if I can figure out this newfangled technology the kids are all using these days.

    I hadn’t read the early comments before posting, so love and peace to gnG and her family.

    And to Kay – YES! to a voting rights focus. I’ve been supporting VoteRiders, who do good work, but their reach is limited. We need to redouble – triple – quadruple – efforts to ensure that our citizens have access to the polling booth.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    @jharp:

    Trumpcare is below the crazyfication factor of 27%.
    Him firing Comey is just above the crazyfication factor at 30%
    So, 39% is the right direction. On its way down to 27%.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    If I were running the Democratic Party (which I’m not! ) I would fold Trump/Russia into a broader corruption indictment.

    I feel like people know on some level all this shit is corrupt- the nepotism, the deals, the huge bills to taxpayers for the Trump Family, the weirdo political operatives Trump surrounds himself with.

    It doesn’t have to be a huge international plot. The whole fucking crew stinks to high heaven, big picture. They’re liars and cheats and they’re greedy. Kushner and Ivanka don’t make the slightest effort to even hide how they’re cashing in on the Presidency. There doesn’t need to be “collusion” – this stuff is right out in the open.

    Take the obvious opening rather than going down a Russia rabbit hole. There’s PLENTY to work with.

  119. 119.

    tobie

    @efgoldman: Wanting someone to go to prison for murder is hardly bloodlust. You’ve got no reason to feel guilty about this wish at all.

    Peace to you and your family as you go through this ordeal. I can’t imagine how hard this must be on Mrs. EfG and her mother.

  122. 122.

    Ian G.

    @debbie:

    Maybe it can also destroy the myth that wealth is in any way correlated with intelligence and hard work in this country, rather than simply winning the sperm lottery. I feel like there’s nobody who could possibly demonstrate this more than the half-wit 4 year old in the White House. Even Kim Kardashian wouldn’t be this much of a joke as president.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    Because when I look at the Trump Team sleaze that makes them hide it’s shit like golfing all the time and promoting his resorts and hiring Ivanka and Kushner to run the country.

    Promoting those two wasn’t good for Trump politically or we would still see them.

    I would ask what does he hide, because that’s an actual change in behavior. He hides how much time he takes off and how much the Presidency is benefiting his business interests and family members. He wants to be seen as “good” and of course he’s not good so that’s where he’s needy and vulnerable.

    It’s true of a lot of these people. It’s not enough that they make piles of money. They insist we LOVE THEM too. They’re weirdly needy. Ivanka has to be told again and again that she’s self-sacrificing and a secret humanitarian. Trump is one of those people who feels he has to say “I’m a good person” because everything he does contradicts it.

  124. 124.

    tobie

    @Kay:

    If I were running the Democratic Party (which I’m not! ) I would fold Trump/Russia into a broader corruption indictment.

    Amen to this. I would just add that the stink of corruption should apply not only to Trump et. al., but the whole Republican party that enables it. The GOP’s patriotism is on the line. Hit them where it hurts: their supposed love of country. The three stories I’m keeping close tabs on besides the Russia scandal are what happens with healthcare, voting rights, and the judiciary. Chuck Grassley is doing away with the blue slip process for Court of Appeals appointees. This makes my blood boil.

    On another note: I leave for a trip to Switzerland tomorrow. I’m still debating whether to bring my laptop given the question about whether passengers on flights from Europe will be allowed to bring their computers on planes. (My laptop is valuable to me and I don’t want to see it damaged in cargo.) I’m gone a week. Anyone have any clues about how long it will take to put these new insane rules in place?

  125. 125.

    Ian G.

    @Kay:

    They need us to love them because the high society of New York has always rejected them as low-rent vulgarians. Hell, I was born in the same borough as Trump (to a teacher and an NYPD officer, not a zillionaire real estate developer) and I also reject them as low-rent vulgarians.

    They are and always will be a poor person’s idea of rich people, and a failure’s idea of successful people.

  126. 126.

    rikyrah

    These are people who came to work everyday. This is a problem?

    Six-Figure Payouts for Sick Leave Spur Outrage, Calls for Overhaul

    When the president of a Massachusetts community college retired in March, in addition to his pension, he received a one-time $266,060 payment for 1,250 unused sick days earned over his 46-year career.

    In Pennsylvania, a state police major who retired in October netted $142,315 for 242 sick days he never used. And in Florida, 45,000 eligible state workers are due to receive a total $154 million in sick leave payouts.

    Liabilities for public workers’ sick leave haven’t drawn as much attention as hulking pension and health care costs faced by states, but they still add stress to strained state and local budgets. In several states, giant payouts are prompting outrage and calls for changes from taxpayers and lawmakers.

    Colleen Garry, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, said she would like to see sick day payouts eliminated for public workers earning more than $100,000. “That is just greedy as far as I’m concerned,” Ms. Garry said.

    Public worker advocates, however, say that large payments are generally limited to police and fire officials and top management, with most retirees receiving far more modest sums. “It’s a small retirement benefit,” said Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey director of the Communications Workers of America, a union representing public workers in the state.

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    Despite what you hear on Twitter today, Republicans don’t give a damn about women

    Trevor LaFauci May 14, 2017
    No, GOP.

    No matter how many “I love mom” twitter messages you post today, you don’t get to proclaim your admiration for a group you clearly hate.

    And hate women you do. You hate them because they threaten the patriarchy that you feel you are entitled to maintaining. You much prefer a world where women are seen and not heard. A world where women have the good sense to maintain the home and raise the children while the men go out and bring home the bacon. A world where women are content to work in entry-level positions where they won’t have to worry about career advancement. A world where advanced degrees for women are unnecessary and are unbecoming of a woman who has the audacity to even appear ambitious. You prefer this world because it makes sense to your antiquated sense of manliness and its intrinsic relationship to one’s power.

    Powerful women scare you. They threaten you because they don’t fit your preconceived notion of how the world works. If a woman can be equally talented as you then that means you actually have to compete with that woman. And if that woman proves to be more talented than you then that means she is actually superior to you and you simply can’t have that. You can’t have that because it goes against everything you’ve come to believe. Because you’ve been conditioned to believe that through hard work, life will work out for you in the way that it should. White privilege is a hell of a drug and the White male patriarchy is that drug on steroids. It gets you all fired up and convinces you that you can do anything. You see the world as your own personal oyster, simply there for the taking.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    Comey Threatened Consequences for FBI Agents Who Leaked to Giuliani
    by Nancy LeTourneau May 10, 2017 2:44 PM

    In light of the fact that FBI Director James Comey was just fired, this testimony from him last week could be significant:

    In case you are unable to watch, Comey threatened that there would be “severe consequences” for anyone who leaked information to Rudy Giuliani and others about the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

    As a reminder, three days before Comey released the infamous letter on October 28th, Giuliani told the hosts at Fox and Friends that the Trump campaign had “a few surprises left” during a discussion about Clinton’s emails. A few days after Comey’s letter, he was back on the program saying:

    “I did nothing to get it out, I had no role in it,” he said. “Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it, and I can’t even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents.”

    Under questioning by Sen. Leahy, Comey indicated that they were investigating who might have leaked that kind of information to Giuliani. So someone other than Donald Trump had a reason to want to “shut that whole thing down.”

    Giuliani’s ties to the New York Office of the FBI—which seems to be a hotbed of rogue agents— are deep.

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep. “I’m the least racist person you’ve ever met,” he says, as a preface to try to explain away the latest racist thing he’s done. “No one respects women more than I do.” Yeah right.

    I agree 100% about tying the Russia business to general corruption. I honestly don’t know whether or not Trump himself was involved in the Russia election malfeasance, though the circumstantial evidence suggests strongly that his campaign peeps were, at the very least.

    Regardless, Trump is corrupt as fuck, and the Russia business is of a piece with that and a natural fit with the overall theme of corruption. He’s used the US government to pimp his properties and promote his daughter’s ghostwritten book of faux feminist pablum. Just those two examples would have tied a normal administration up in investigations for years. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    Brothers in Harm: O’Reilly and Beck Would Make a Gruesome Twosome
    by D.R. Tucker May 14, 2017 11:00 AM

    Former Fox News star Glenn Beck has already proven that it’s hard to keep a bad man down–and now, he wants to revive the career of ex-colleague Bill O’Reilly:

    I would like to say publicly, honestly — and I know you’re not going to get into this, so just shut the fat trap — it’s why I would like for you to work for TheBlaze. Because I could not get the cable coverage by myself because — not powerful enough unless you have a giant corporation behind you, and when you have that, then you’re beholden to somebody. But if we could unite our powers for good as opposed to evil — but that’s another conversation.

    It wouldn’t be that much of a surprise if O’Reilly casts his lot with Beck: as we speak, Billo is groping for continued media relevance, and a move to Beck’s outfit would certainly make headlines. A man with O’Reilly’s ego needs a platform bigger than his own podcast to influence media narratives; TheBlaze isn’t Fox, but it’s presumably good enough for him.

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    The Danger Within: Those Who Voted for Trump Threatened Our Institutions
    by D.R. Tucker May 15, 2017 5:00 AM POLITICAL ANIMAL

    To rework a famous line from Senator Marco Rubio, let us dispel with the fiction that our democracy will magically heal the moment Donald Trump leaves office.

    Jake Tapper’s interview with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on CNN’s State of the Union yesterday was profoundly frustrating, because Clapper would not define the true magnitude of the threat to our democracy. He seems to limit that threat to Trump and Vladimir Putin:

    JAMES CLAPPER (FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE): Well, I will just say that the developments of the past week are very bothersome, very disturbing to me. I think in many ways, our institutions are under assault, both externally, and that’s the big news here, is the Russian interference in our election system. And I think, as well, our institutions are under assault internally.

    TAPPER: Internally from the president?

    CLAPPER: Exactly.

    TAPPER: Because he’s firing the checks and balances?

    CLAPPER: Well I think, the Founding Fathers in their genius created a system of three co-equal branches of government, and a built-in system of checks and balances. And I feel as though that’s under assault and is eroding.

    Yet Trump is, from a certain perspective, not the greatest threat to our institutions. The greatest threat to our institutions comes from those who choose to embrace nihilism and ignorance at the ballot box–a problem that will remain with us long after Trump has left the White House.

  133. 133.

    rikyrah

    It’s Time to Investigate the President for Possible Obstruction of Justice
    by Nancy LeTourneau May 12, 2017 10:03 AM\

    Last night I wrote about the bombshells in the clips released from Trump’s interview with Lester Holt. To recap, the most significant being that the president admitted that, on three separate occasions, he asked the former FBI director if he was under investigation. That alone was jaw-dropping because it points to a possible obstruction of justice.

    When the entire interview was released, it became even more so. Here is the significant exchange:

    He [Rosenstein] made a recommendation, he’s highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. The Democrats like him, the Republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of [the] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. Knowing there was no good time do it!

    And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, “You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”

    The President of the United States just admitted on national television that, when he made the decision to fire Comey, he was was thinking about the Russia investigation and implied that he wanted to end it.

    Meanwhile, the president isn’t the only one dropping bombshells. Friends of James Comey are starting to talk too. Michael Schmidt reports that a couple of them said that Trump invited Comey to a dinner in which he asked the FBI director for loyalty.

  134. 134.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker

    I agree 100% about tying the Russia business to general corruption. I honestly don’t know whether or not Trump himself was involved

    I don’t know why you say that, his obsequiousness with respect to Putin as opposed to the dominance displays about everyone and everything else is a definite tell.

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    White House’s source balks at Trump’s dubious Russia assertions
    05/15/17 08:40 AM
    By Steve Benen

    White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Friday that Donald Trump believes allegations about collusion between his campaign and Russia “is a hoax.” Spicer added, “It’s been reaffirmed by several people, including [Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck] Grassley and others who have spoken to him.”

    Later in the briefing, Spicer again pointed to the Iowa Republican, saying Chuck Grassley and others have said that on the question of collusion, “there was none.”

    Grassley has been quite loyal to this White House, and he’s voted with Donald Trump’s position this year more than 97% of the time, but when Yahoo News followed up with the senator’s office, Spicer’s claims ran into a little trouble.

    Just hours after White House spokesman Sean Spicer said President Trump had received assurances from a key senator that the idea of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was a “hoax,” a spokesman for the senator, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, denied any such conversation.

    “Sen. Grassley has not spoken to President Trump about what he has learned in briefings related to investigations into Russian interference in our elections, and he has never referred to the notion of collusion as a ‘hoax,’” Grassley’s spokesman, Taylor Foy, emailed Yahoo News. Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and together with ranking minority member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has been briefed on details of the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election.

    Oops.

  136. 136.

    Ian G.

    @rikyrah:

    I had a similar scary thought the other day that the only reason we may hold onto the rule of law and civil liberties is Trump’s bottomless incompetence and stupidity. What happens when a much smarter, more talented demagogue takes notes of where Trump failed, and doesn’t make those mistakes next time. It’s clear the GOP base is ready for a dictatorship since democracy means that black people can win the presidency.

  137. 137.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodingers_cat: He admires Putin and thinks (wrongly) that Putin admires him. Could be as simple as that, or there could be more to it. I’m not 100% convinced either way, though if I were placing bets, I’d wager he was involved and doesn’t see anything wrong with the Russians helping his campaign.

  139. 139.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Thanks for the gnG update Elizabelle. I think of her every day, keeping vigil as best I can with her, and with her family. I don’t know what it is about this BJ place that offers such a safe space for this kind of sharing, but I’m grateful for it for gnG and her family’s sake.

    @efgoldman: I was wondering where the legal process was in your personal nightmare, and didn’t get to ask at the meet-up. Good grief, what a waste of oxygen and everyone’s time that murdering asshole is. Human garbage. I hope there’s closure somewhere in this – it’s hard to imagine dealing with any aspect of this, frankly.

  140. 140.

    clay

    @rikyrah: If state takes away payouts for unused sick days, then employees are going to start taking a LOT more “sick” days.

    So either way, it’s going to cost the state.

    I mean, I teach public high school, and I will only stay home if I absolutely have to. I feel I owe my students as much education as possible, rather than having them waste time with a substitute. But if I’m going to “lose” n number of unused sick days a year, well then, I might stay home if I have a minor cold, or if I have a small headache, or some other minor ailment.

    EDIT: And saying that you’ll only remove the payout for those making six figures doesn’t help. It’s unlikely that people know how much money they’ll be making by the end of their career. I’m well below the cut-off line — do I save my sick days? Do I use them in case I end up making “too much” money in 30 years?

  141. 141.

    dogwood

    @clay:
    As a retired teacher my accrued sick leave pays for my health insurance. I retired early, so I will pay for my insurance for about a year before I go on Medicare. Without that incentive, there would have been many days I would have stayed home. You go to school sick all the time because it’s just too hard to disrupt the important flow of ongoing lessons. But as a high school teacher, there were many days when my presence was irrelevant. Days when unit exams are administered, days that were taken up by state testing, days when assemblies disrupt the schedule, and most of all days when student teachers have advanced to the point where they are in charge for a brief period of time.

  142. 142.

    burnspbesq

    @gene108:

    RTP, NC is a great area, but having been away for the last 20 years, returning to visit my mom on occasion, I have realized that Jesus-Mary-fucking-Christ the area needs good breakfast joints that open earlier than 7:00 am on a weekday.

    You’ll have Waffle House and you’ll like it! But if you move back, you’ll be able to vote. Supremes denied cert in the NC voting rights case, letting the Fourth Circuit’s ruling that the state acted with discriminatory intent stand.

    In theory, the ruling on discriminatory intent means that NC goes back into preclearance, but I imagine that Mister Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Esquire, will find a way to make that not happen.

  143. 143.

    Aleta

    @efgoldman: Thank you for the update. I think of your sil and wife often. These fucking violent and nonv domestic abusers are as destructive as any other terrorist imo. So many shooters of multiple victims have prior ‘domestic’ violence records, and so many abusers go on to another person, and every victim has family. I know police and courts have mostly evolved (due to intensive women’s work from the 70s on) past ‘private matter’ or ‘she started it’ and worse, but not far enough. And police officers and military who are abusers still get a pass and their colleagues look away.

    Sorry, I get riled up too, because the cases keep coming. And the effects from my sister’s violent husband, 20+ years after she left him, keep surfacing.

    I hope the door opens today to somehow let some future peace come to your mil wife and family.

  145. 145.

    Seth Owen

    I don’t see the scandal in people getting paid for unused sick days, although most places I worked capped how many you could carry over on the theory that you are supposed to use them when you are, indeed, sick.

  146. 146.

    hovercraft

    @Elizabelle:
    Thanks for re-posting.
    To greennotGreen and her wonderful family I wish you all peace and strength. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. Keeping you in our thoughts.

  147. 147.

    opiejeanne

    @clay: When my husband retired in 2009 from a job with the City of Torrance, CA his unused sick leave pay was applied to his health care insurance. He thinks it changed to that system that year.

    This was amid all the screaming that public employees’ pensions were evil plots to bankrupt municipalities, etc, despite the fact that at that time CALpers was doing so well that only the employees were contributing to their retirement plans and munis had been coasting for several years.

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of tick… tick… tick…. Bye, Kellyanne

    ‘Morning Joe’ Hosts: Conway Said She Needed A Shower After Defending Trump
    The co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, claimed on Monday that senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway used to say she needed a shower after defending Donald Trump on air.
    “This is a woman, by the way, who came on our show during the campaign and would shill for Trump in extensive fashion,” Brzezinski said. “And then she would get off the air, the camera would be turned off, the microphone would be taken off and she would say, ‘Blech, I need to take a shower,’ because she disliked her candidate so much.”
    “And also said, it was very interesting, also said that, ‘This is just like my summer in Europe,’” Scarborough said.
    “I’m just doing this for the money,” Brzezinski interjected.
    “‘I’ll be off this soon.’ I don’t know that she ever said ‘I’m doing this for the money,’” Scarborough said. “But she said, ‘This is just my summer vacation, my summer in Europe and basically I’m just going to get through this.’”
    “‘But first I have to take a shower because it feels so dirty to be saying what I’m saying.’ I guess she’s just used to it now,” Brzezinski said.

  149. 149.

    Elizabelle

    @hovercraft: such a pleasure to still have greennotGreen in this world. If you guys see any updates from her family, plz post them.

    On my iPad, allegedly learning Spanish. With Sangria on the side. This bar has it on tap. Yea!

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    @clay:
    A number of public service employees, like my mother and others, use those sick days , fell into two categories: 1. Pay off their house, and/ or two, buy their last new car. Eliminates a financial problem. No notes, while going into retirement.

  151. 151.

    clay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve always suspected that, when the cameras are off, the conversations were much more real. (Not just on Morning Joe, but all the chat shows.) But journalism “ethics” prevented the hosts from bringing up “off the record” conversations.

    But “off the record” protections are only deserved by people who go “on the record” in good faith. If someone is willing to go on the air and offer lie after lie after lie, then they are not contributing to journalism and don’t require protection. So good on Mika and Joe for burning Conway!

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @clay: I think a couple of well-timed hot mikes could save the republic, if we can still keep it

  153. 153.

    rikyrah

    @clay:
    My mother was one of those workers. She never took off until my Daddy got sick. Then for the last 3 months of my Father’s life, she did half days. But, she had over a year accumulated when she retired. They forced her to take off until it worked itself down to a year.

  154. 154.

    Aleta

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: She probably knows the best shower products.

    In the 1990s, George Conway was … working to undermine President Bill Clinton by offering secret legal aid to his accusers and reportedly funnelling salacious details to the Drudge Report. “This one disgruntled New York lawyer almost single-handedly brought down the president,” David Brock, the conservative provocateur-turned-Clinton-acolyte, later wrote.

    Years later, George would marry Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, a publicity-prone Beltway pollster and move with her to an apartment in Manhattan’s Trump World Tower. There, he caught the future president’s attention by arguing to the condo board against stripping Trump’s name from the exterior. The speech earned him an appreciative call from the mogul and an offer to join the board. He declined, but Kellyanne said she’d do it.

    (The Hill in Feb when he was up for soliciter gen:) George Conway is what President Trump would call a “strong” man.

    In the 1990’s, he helped litigate Paula Jones’ sexual harassment suit against President Clinton in the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The Court ruled unanimously in Jones’ favor, that the proceedings not be deferred, and ordered Bill Clinton to be deposed in the Paula Jones litigation. Clinton was deposed, and he lied under oath committing the crimes of perjury and obstruction of justice for which he has eventually impeached by the House of Representatives.

    Not many Wall Street lawyers working on the side litigate a case that nearly leads to the overthrowing of the president of the United States, but George Conway pulled that one off.

    A few years later, George Conway showed again that he was a “strong” man when he became the first Federalist Society Lawyer to loudly and publicly denounce George W. Bush’s nomination of his crony Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers.
    …
    George Conway screamed bloody murder and soon former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork did too, and the Harriet Miers nomination fell apart.

    As a result, conservatives got Sam Alito on the Supreme Court, a strong conservative, and for that we can thank George Conway.

    When Kellyanne Conway joined Trump’s administration, she and her husband, New York City lawyer George T. Conway III, disclosed assets worth up to $39.3 million. -from aol

    Apparently now it’s time for him to serve the nation in the justice department.

  155. 155.

    hitless

    @rikyrah: I’m always amazed that receiving agreed upon, contractual benefits is scandalous for public employees. And the news coverage is always the same: report on two or three big payouts. Never mention what the average payout is or the aggregate. Also, never mention that someone maybe took a public job with a lower salary than a private sector offer, because the benefits were better…that’s the free market at work. And sure, maybe that policy should be changed. But it’s not clear there’s problem without real data, and it’s not gaming the system or doing something illegal to receive a contractual benefit.

    American exceptionalism…the ability of the people to decide they are poor because of taxes and teachers, and ignore the vast sums of wealth accumulated by American oligarchs.

  156. 156.

    SFAW

    OT for this OT:

    Apparently Tesla is now selling roof tiles which are actually solar cells. Someone estimated the cost at around $2200 per square (i.e., 100 sq. ft.), which translates to around $85K for a 3,000 square foot house.

    No idea if they’re actually available yet, nor if they’re of any value, but I thought all you tree-huggers might be interested. Of course, given how out of touch I am with the modern world, this has probably already been noted here, and commented on extensively. (For which I blame either Obama or Hillary.)

  157. 157.

    hitless

    @hitless: Can’t edit for some reason….to be fair, at the end of the article we do get this:

    Kevin Preston, state director for the National Association of Government Employees union representing about 15,000 public workers in Massachusetts, said for lower earning employees, sick-day payouts help cover the bills after retirement.

    The median payout per state employee in fiscal 2015 was $2,264, according to a state analysis.

    Which is light-years better reporting than, for example, you see when the Chicago Tribune covers public employee issues.

  158. 158.

    Spanky

    @SFAW: “Textured” and “smooth” can be ordered now. “Tuscan” and “slate” are coming in 2018. All according to hovering over the pics in your linky.

  159. 159.

    SFAW

    @Spanky:

    Thanks. I was too lazy/addled/clueless to do the “hover” thing. [Besides, hovercraft might get upset if I horned in on her action.]

  161. 161.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    It’s not enough that they make piles of money. They insist we LOVE THEM too.

    I know. It’s bizarre. I once read a kind of sad story about Saddam Hussein having a novel published anonymously after he came to power, hoping it would become a popular best-seller. It landed with a thud and critics said it was mediocre, so they “accidentally” let the word spread that he had written it and suddenly it was a major work of genius.

    Still, I have this vision of him sitting there reading the mediocre reviews and getting more and more depressed because they didn’t love him for his hidden talents. It’s like something from an Adult Swim cartoon.

  163. 163.

    steverinoCT

    Trump to the Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday. He will land at Groton-New London Airport and limo over the river to New London. I live within sight of the airport, and the only intersection to my house is on the route. I’d love to stand there with a sign, but I have a doctor’s appointment, and my concern now is that I be able to get back home. Feh. All sorts of articles in the local paper about where and how protesting will be permitted.

  164. 164.

    sheila in nc

    @gene108: Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen opens from 6-2:30. 1305 E Franklin St in Chapel Hill. It’s a drive-through, so you have to go somewhere else to eat your food, but the biscuits are heavenly.
    Also there’s Elmo’s Diner; there’s one in Durham and one in Carrboro. They open at 6:30.

Comments are closed.