Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

T R E 4 5 O N

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

This fight is for everything.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: “Fewer, But Better!” Repubs

Open Thread: “Fewer, But Better!” Repubs

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He may not be well-informed about politics, but when it comes to Potemkin-village-style showmanship, Donald Trump knows his audience!

And much of that audience is Village-Idiot pundits…

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Good. But no longer identifying as Republicans and not voting Republican are two different things.

  2. 2.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: Perhaps in their discouragement and/or embarrassment, they neglect to vote? I live in modest hope.

    ETA: AL, that movie clip is priceless. Thanks!

  3. 3.

    Baud

    @O. Felix Culpa: That would work too. They are more consistent voters than our side is (and less suppressed), but it’s not as if it’s impossible for them to be discouraged.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    I want all of the Republicans to stay home on election day, all huffy and Facebooking “We’ll show them!”

    And a kitten.

  5. 5.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: Conversely, I hope that our side is super motivated to get to the polls going forward. No more “no difference between the parties” bullshit. That the kids turned out in yesterday’s UK elections after the Brexit disaster suggests that some people are capable of learning.

    Oh, and fighting voter suppression with everything we’ve got is important too.

  6. 6.

    Eric S.

    Good morning from the Chicago Red Line. I know all internet conventions are to say that in the last thread but this thread is so much fresher.

    I just wanted to throw out a big thank you to one of you. Last year I had an ant invasion and they were feasting on Ozzie the Cat’s food. One of you, I don’t recall who now, suggested putting His dishes in pie pans surrounded by water. I did that and also had a friend who works as exterminator come in. The ants returned early this year and I went straight to the pie pans. A couple of days not finding food and they are gone.

    So whoever you were, THANK YOU!

  9. 9.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: Agreed on not drawing too many inferences for ourselves based on events across the pond. I like to think that some people are capable of learning basic life lessons from experience though. Hopeless optimist, I am.

  12. 12.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud:

    That would work too. They are more consistent voters than our side is (and less suppressed), but it’s not as if it’s impossible for them to be discouraged.

    Look at this way – these Republican voters been sold the conservative myth that TRUE Conservationism will mean paradise for them since Regan and Trump will be the fourth time it failed. Considering how tepid these voters were to the other GOP candidates last year it’s ether go into wingnut alt facts land or drop out now.

  13. 13.

    bystander

    Just saw Susan Collins on Moanin’ Joe. She reminds me of what the French say: Ah ‘ate ‘er.

  14. 14.

    eric

    @Baud: “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
    ― Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

  17. 17.

    jonas

    @Baud: Precisely. “Independents” are mostly just reliably conservative voters too embarrassed to call themselves Republicans.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @eric: Oh, good call. I suppose it’s bad form to quote myself in a speech when talking about what “A wise man once said…”

  19. 19.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes

    Always assume the worst of conservatives – they will ALWAYS be willing to compromise with the harder side of the right to cling to power and shut out liberals. Theresa May joining with the Paisleyite Ulster Unionists to form a government is a case in point. Why worry about Islamic terror when you can reinvigorate the IRA?

  20. 20.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: LOL. That’s what I love about this blog – the concatenation of the absurd and the sublime.

  22. 22.

    germy

    In my town we have the “Independence Party” and they just released their list of endorsements. Surprise, surprise, every name they endorsed is a republican.

    The independents are independently republican.

  24. 24.

    raven

    So about three years ago a couple with a child moved in across the street. When the first moved in their maibox post was broken and I went over and fixed. In the interim the mother turned out to be very troubled and forced to leave. The father has bounced from one thing to another, alienated many of the parents at the local school, ing bad paper all over town, and is now being evicted. Some people here thought I was nuts to get involved at all and, I guess, they turned out to be right. We have tried to help when we could but the father has proven to be more that we can handle so we just backed off. The little girl is very sweet and we worry about what is going to happen but it doesn’t seem like there is really anything we can do. such

  25. 25.

    tobie

    @JPL: This is encouraging. I actually think an Ossoff victory would have a huge impact on the Senate’s healthcare plan. Any fence-sitting Senators would get mighty nervous seeing Price’s district turn blue. All this is to say we need to walk, chew gum, carry groceries, herd the kids and/or pets, etc. and work our heart out on this race while keeping the phone lines in the Senate jammed.

  28. 28.

    MomSense

    Along a parallel track with this fewer better Republicans thing, do we have any information on drug use and voting for trump?

    I’m wondering about counties with high meth and heroine rates and votes for Dolt 45.

  29. 29.

    Chris

    @jonas:

    @Baud: Precisely. “Independents” are mostly just reliably conservative voters too embarrassed to call themselves Republicans.

    “Independent” replaces “Republican” as the word defined by “what conservatives call themselves when they’re trying to get laid.”

  31. 31.

    willard

    Reading the press this morning
    1) Evidence is not the same as proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We have tons of evidence.

    2) It is not a leak for a private citizen to release his recollection of an unclassified conversation

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    I know that I’ve posted this , but I love it, because of the contradictions.
    In their zeal to make excuses and grade on the curve for the inadequate, unqualified White Man in the White House….
    they pretend that this is more complex than it is.

    Yet, here is Pookey from the Hood..with a mouth full of gold teeth..
    Who’s not supposed to be interested in politics..
    Who’s not supposed to understand such ‘ complex’ issues..

    breaking Comey’s testimony down to the muthaphuckin’ fraction:

    https://twitter.com/plies/status/872956528378204160/video/1

  34. 34.

    MomSense

    @raven:

    Sorry to hear this, Raven. Do you know if DHS is involved? A good caseworker could help a lot.

  35. 35.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:
    Lenny the security guard here is one of those better republican’s, I walked by a few minutes ago and all I caught was but, but Obama was worse, so I just kept walking.

  36. 36.

    Booger

    @jonas: No where is that truer than when you are listening to the callers to C-SPAN’s segregated lines...’independent‘ callers are just republicans without the courage of their convictions.

  39. 39.

    hovercraft

    @Baud: The Morning Joke crew were noting that Theresa May is a woman of a certain age, widely expected to win based on polling and conventional wisdom, but then she “lost” to a crazy man, just like another woman of a certain age, who knows there may actually be something in all the misogyny stuff. No one there to point out that while Corbyn may not be their cup of tea, he is not Twitler, or that May was part of the austerity that is the cause of much of the populism roiling Britain.

  40. 40.

    Raven

    @MomSense: My assumption is that people at the school are very aware of the situation. He’s become a problem there by writing bad checks for after school programs and such. As I mentioned, we just got burned out and withdrew from other than casual hello type stuff. If we thought a bit of money would help we’d do it but I think it is beyond that.

  41. 41.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Well, if we break “sublime” into it’s component parts, apparently it means you’re beneath a fruit.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    @Booger: They pride themselves on voting for the man! Not the party!
    Oddly, the best candidate for every election that earns their vote seems to always have an R by their name.

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    Funny of the day: Jason Isbell on Twitter after secretly donning a Predators jersey and hitting the ice to play last night…”I’d like to apologize…it was on my bucket list.”

    Not-so-funny: Brooksie claiming that “It’s Not The Crime, It’s the Culture” in today’s NYT

    Sure, [Trumpov] cleared the room so he could lean on Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn. But he didn’t order Comey to shut down the investigation as a whole or do any of the things (like following up on the request) that would constitute real obstruction.

    And sure, Trump did later fire Comey. But it’s likely that the Comey firing had little or nothing to do with the Flynn investigation.

    Saywhutnow?!?!? And then he spends about half the column noting…yup…Bill Clinton’s many ‘scandals’ and failings, as if they were about the same thing (although he does note Trumpov is a obsessive rageaholic, so, progress!)

    Here’s the wrap-up:

    The good news is the civic institutions are weathering the storm. The Senate Intelligence Committee put on a very good hearing. The F.B.I. is maintaining its integrity. This has, by and large, been a golden age for the American press corps. The bad news is that these institutions had better be. The Trump death march will be slow, grinding and ugly.

    Hey Dave, you know what would make it less ugly? If you and those like you didn’t always feel the need for false equivalence or to drag Dems into it (and mostly ginned-up D ‘scandals’ at that). Just help us take out the fucking trash for once without uttering the word “Clinton”. We’ll be a better nation for it.

  45. 45.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    The thing that flashed all the warning lights at me yesterday was when Comey said that the FBI had information about Sessions that caused him to think Sessions should recuse himself from Russia investigations before Sessions recused himself.

    The way I see it he gave the memos to a trusted person outside of government as a way to fight against cover up.

    This is really shocking stuff. We are looking at treason at all the highest levels of government.

  46. 46.

    hovercraft

    @germy:

    Surprise, surprise, every name they endorsed is a republican.

    The independents are independently republican.

    Standard GOP procedure, every time their president becomes unpopular they pretend to abandon the party, W. fucks up Iraq, they become independents, he tanks the economy, they become the Tea Party, now shit for brains can’t stop shitting himself so they are once again calling themselves independents. This is all bullshit, they are republicans, there is a reason that “independents” have voted for the republican nominee in droves for years now, they are embarrassed republicans.

  48. 48.

    GregB

    Every person in Trump’s inner circle looks like they were cast from scumbag central.

    Every one of them.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @raven:
    Sometimes people won’t accept help, but at least you tried. My heart goes out to the little girl.

  51. 51.

    John S.

    @Baud:

    They won’t self-identity as vandals, but when they go into the voting booth, they still smear feces all over the walls.

  56. 56.

    Unknown known

    @Baud:

    I suppose it’s bad form to quote myself in a speech when talking about what “A wise man once said…”

    Correct.

    The accepted form is to say “As a a good man once said… A wise man. The best man. But not like at a wedding, the best man, the man who is the best. With the best words. And the best brains, everyone says that. Believe me, everybody loves him. And he’s me. That man is me. I said it. In a speech. And I give the best speeches. They’re terrific. The crowds love them. I have the biggest crowds. All my speeches are to the biggest crowd ever, in all of history. Every one of them. Ad lib. No, you don’t write ‘ad lib’ on the prompter, I do that on my own. I do the best ad libs. The words ‘ad’ and ‘lib’ only cling together because they are jealous that they aren’t me.” For bonus points, you then walk out of the room without signing anything.

  57. 57.

    germy

    @hovercraft:

    Standard GOP procedure, every time their president becomes unpopular they pretend to abandon the party, W. fucks up Iraq, they become independents

    Yes, I started noticing that during the end of W’s second term. “Independent” this, “independent” that. During local elections, campaign flyers in my mailbox with no party affiliation (“He must be a republican” I’d tell my wife) and every time I vote I see judges running on the “independent ticket.”

    In order to win, they have to hide their affiliation, they have to lie about their positions, they have to suppress the vote. Not a normal group of people.

  61. 61.

    donnah

    Republicans voted for Trump as a poke in the eye to Democrats and Federal Government. They did so in spite of every atrocity he committed, from insulting Mexicans to abusing women to being a cheat, liar, and fraud. Literally anything he does gets a shinola treatment from the Administration and FOX news, and the Trump followers believe it.

    Whatever these voters claim in public or in polls doesn’t matter. They will continue to cheer Trump and the Republicans on, no matter what. They will give up their pensions, their health care, and their rights because Trump is going after Big Government and every single positive thing Obama put into place.

    I got chills yesterday when Comey said that Russia is coming after us. But the Republicans are too busy slashing health care and eliminating big banking safeguards to care about democracy. It’s a nightmare and we can’t seem to wake up.

  62. 62.

    rikyrah

    Dear Mr Attorney General: Go before the Senate Intel Committee and say that under oath. @20committee @morgfair https://t.co/Cfx69Loixz

    — John Perkowski (@john_perkowski) June 9, 2017

    .@realdonaldtrump isn’t the only one disputing Comey’s testimony https://t.co/GfGr6nVZiY

    — Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) June 9, 2017

    Interesting how Sessions remembers these meetings in detail but forgets that he met with the Russians.

    — Jonathan Drake (@Duck_person) June 9, 2017

  63. 63.

    Unknown known

    @rikyrah: Because regardless of votes in the commons, Brexit will largely be negotiated by the executive, and she has to make sure that this is her, so she can finish properly fucking over the country and/or continent.

  64. 64.

    rikyrah

    The President’s Lawyer Fails Miserably in Defending His Client
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    June 8, 2017 4:42 PM

    ………………..

    Let’s break that defense down into three general categories. First of all, both the president and most Republicans are determined to highlight the statements from Comey about Trump not being personally under investigation. That ignores one of the critical things Comey said during the hearing in response to questions about whether or not the president attempted to obstruct justice.

    “I don’t think it is for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct,” Comey said. “I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that’s a conclusion I’m sure the special counsel will work toward: to try and understand what the intention was there and whether that’s an offense.”

    It sounds like Trump is now the subject of an investigation by Mueller into whether or not he attempted to obstruct justice.

    In the second category, Kasowitz said that Trump never suggested that they “let Flynn go” and never asked for Comey’s loyalty. In other words, he wants to make this a he said/he said between Trump and Comey. As Ed Kilgore wrote today, “Trump is not going to win a credibility contest with James Comey.” A president whose supporters have to refer to “alternative facts” and parse out whether he should be taken “literally” or “seriously” is going to lose that contest every time. And that isn’t even taking into consideration that Trump lies an average of five times a day. This is precisely where the president’s mendacity will come back to haunt him.

  65. 65.

    ruemara

    So May isn’t resigning and will try to form a government with Northern Ireland. Yeah, that’s gonna work.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    Trump sets up a contest of credibility he simply cannot win
    06/09/17 08:42 AM—UPDATED 06/09/17 09:22 AM
    By Steve Benen
    The list of Donald Trump falsehoods exposed by former FBI Director James Comey over the last two days isn’t short.

    Trump was asked on Fox News last month whether he ever asked Comey for his loyalty. Trump responded, “No, I didn’t.” Trump was asked at a White House press conference last month, “Did you at any time urge former FBI Director James Comey in any way, shape, or form to close or to back down the investigation into Michael Flynn?” Trump replied, “No. No. Next question.”

    Trump was asked by NBC News’ Lester Holt about the private dinner he had with Comey, and the president said Comey “asked for the dinner.” Trump said Comey had called him on the phone in the weeks that followed to tell the president he wasn’t under investigation. Trump said Comey was fired in part because FBI personnel had “lost confidence” in the bureau’s director.

    Each of these claims now appears to be a brazen lie the president told the American public.

    But wait, Republicans will argue, we don’t know for sure that Trump was lying. What we have here is a “he said, he said” dispute. For all we know, the GOP argument goes, perhaps Comey’s claims are untrue and the president has been completely honest.

    And while that may make the White House and its allies feel better, this posture isn’t quite right.

  67. 67.

    satby

    @raven: it’s so tough to have to witness a kid with bad parents. Is it likely the father would lose custody? Would you be willing to offer to have her stay with you (for what could turn out to be a long time)? It could make a huge difference in that kid’s life.

    At least three of the teenaged boys who ended up living with my family were unofficial foster kids, their parents had washed their hands of parenting and were perfectly happy to have their kids gone. None of the kids were particularly troubled, the parents were. One father had been throwing out his kid to sleep in the park starting at age 12, my kids brought him home like a kitten they had found. That foster son is who grew up to be the Marine.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    Away from the national spotlight, GOP guts Wall Street safeguards
    06/09/17 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    As much of the country probably noticed, it was a rather dramatic day on Capitol Hill yesterday. The former director of the FBI gave sworn testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggesting the president of the United States may have obstructed justice. The hearing generated quite a bit of attention, and for good reason: Donald Trump’s presidency is facing a genuine crisis.

    But on the other side of Capitol Hill, House Republicans were only too pleased to take advantage of the fact that their latest moves unfolded far from the national spotlight.

    The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that would roll back key parts of the Dodd-Frank act aimed at Wall Street and financial industry regulatory reform which was passed in the wake of the mortgage meltdown.

    The House voted 233-186 to approve the Financial CHOICE Act.

    …………………………

    The Choice Act would exempt some financial institutions that meet capital and liquidity requirements from many of Dodd-Frank’s restrictions that limit risk taking. It would also replace Dodd-Frank’s method of dealing with large and failing financial institutions, known as the orderly liquidation authority — which critics say reinforces the idea that some banks are too big to fail — with a new bankruptcy code provision.

    In addition, the legislation would weaken the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under the proposed law, the president could fire the agency’s director at will and its oversight powers would be curbed.

    The bill would also eliminate the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule, which requires brokers to act in the best interest of their clients when providing investment advice about retirement. The first parts of the rule are scheduled to go into effect on Friday.

  69. 69.

    James Powell

    @Baud:

    But no longer identifying as Republicans and not voting Republican are two different things.

    Exactly. I get slammed a lot for being a negative person, but for most of my life all a Republican has had to do to improve his/her standing is run against just about any Democrat.

  70. 70.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft:

    Standard GOP procedure, every time their president becomes unpopular they pretend to abandon the party, W. fucks up Iraq, they become independents, he tanks the economy, they become the Tea Party, now shit for brains can’t stop shitting himself so they are once again calling themselves independents. This is all bullshit, they are republicans, there is a reason that “independents” have voted for the republican nominee in droves for years now, they are embarrassed republicans.

    Wait…I hear some of them are “libertarians” too.

  72. 72.

    rikyrah

    anyone not a WHITE MALE would be afforded this.

    under ANY circumstances.

    ……………………………..

    Trump’s allies point to his ignorance and inexperience as a defense
    06/09/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 06/09/17 08:05 AM
    By Steve Benen
    As Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has intensified, and evidence of alleged obstruction of justice has mounted, the president’s allies have argued repeatedly that the Republican did not do what he’s accused of doing. The allegations, the right has insisted, are wrong.

    This week, the party line changed. Maybe he did do some of those things, Trump’s defenders have begun arguing, but it’s just because he’s so ignorant.

    Here, for example, is what House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters yesterday:

    “[O]f course there needs to be a degree of independence between DOJ, FBI, and a White House and a line of communications established. The president is new at this, he is new to government, and so he probably wasn’t steeped in the long running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, FBI, and White Houses. He is just new to this.”

  74. 74.

    gvg

    @raven: Are the father’s problems the kind that mean DHS should be involved? Sometimes even just being poor and a really bad money manager cause DHS to need to step in. They’ll try to find cheap housing but some people can’t even handle things with help and then the children may be put in foster care.
    The reason I bring this up is when we did foster parent training, about 1/2 the people in the class were doing it to get custody of a specific child and it wasn’t always family. Sometimes it was long time neighbors who knew the situation or parents of a school friend. People can be very good, but it does take strength and not everyone can do it. One woman was trying to adopt the child of a grown up former foster child of hers who had not handled life well and was in jail. She did succeed in adopting her “foster grandchild” and I run into them at the library sometimes. Another couple was just neighbors.
    Teachers often end up being the ones to keep an eye on the children of the feckless. The ones who don’t warrant legal intervention but need extra help.

  75. 75.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @donnah:

    In spite of every atrocity he committed, from insulting Mexicans to abusing women

    Because of. It’s a philosophy of hate. Trump is not an accident, he is what Republican voters want.

  77. 77.

    Unknown known

    @ruemara: Unfortunately it might. The DUP is a seriously regressive political organization, and having travelled through Northern Ireland, and see the phalanxes of British flags lining all kinds of random places at a completely ordinary time of year (nothing wrong with flags per se, but after a certain point you are overcompensating for something), this is not a political culture that is relaxed and sincerely comfortable in its own skin. These guys are going to encourage all of the worst Tory instincts.

    Best case scenario is probably that they start making crazy ultimatums and blow everything up – but it would have to be CRAZY, because no way is May giving up the Brexit negotiating mantle unless there is a gun to her head, with the trigger already pulled.

  79. 79.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Because of. It’s a philosophy of hate. Trump is not an accident, he is what Republican voters want.

    Trumpov, Ryan, and McConnell are the logical end points for a party that has only one principle: Cleek’s Law

  81. 81.

    schrodingers_cat

    There are some moronic “independents” who fluctuate wildly between lunatic right fringe to the lunatic left. My friend who I have talked about before is one such person. Voted for O twice. First voted for Gore and then Bush II because he would keep us safe. Last year she voted for JS bought all the anti-HRC rhetoric that BS was peddling and then defended the first travel ban.

  83. 83.

    satby

    @gvg: there’s a world of kids not with their parents and not in the system either: friends, relatives, neighbors, teachers all stepping up to take care of kids whose parents can’t for multiple reasons. If the parent agrees to have the children left in an alternative situation, and it’s a stable, safe home DCS normally won’t interfere. They have bigger fish to fry.

    And no, it’s not easy. But it very often isn’t nearly as difficult as we imagine either.

  85. 85.

    James Powell

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Because of. It’s a philosophy of hate. Trump is not an accident, he is what Republican voters want.

    Absolutely. And the really amazing but not really covered story from 2016 wasn’t Trump beating the horrible Hillary Wall Street email server Clinton, but rather the way he bent, folded, and spindled the well-funded, politically experienced, press/media darlings of the Republican Party.

  86. 86.

    Fair Economist

    @Unknown known:

    Brexit will largely be negotiated by the executive, and she has to make sure that this is her, so she can finish properly fucking over the country and/or continent.

    Who negotiates Brexit is irrelevant, because there will be no deal. There’s not enough time. There’s something like 50 major treaties that have to be negotiated, and many are quite complex in terms of internal conflicts of interest on both side.

    In 21 months the British will likely have a choice between a hard Brexit and remaining under EU rules but with no say in them rather like the EFTA (by extending the negotiations). It is possible the rest of the EU will make an example of them and just kick them out.

  87. 87.

    Emma

    @rikyrah: She formed a coalition with the DUP. But all the rumbling says she’s in deep do-do with the Conservative boffins. The DUP is pushing for a soft border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit, has a hard line opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, at least one of its leaders is a climate change denier, and have some very conservative tax views. If May caves in on some of these things the Tories might be looking at electorate debacle down the road.

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    Meanwhile, K-Thug points out the obvious: “Think, for a minute, of just how much damage this man has done on multiple fronts in just five months.”

    MEDIA! Let’s see some articles about how well things were running after 8 years’ guidance from the previous WH occupant, please!!

    The point, again, is that everything suggests that Trump is neither up to the job of being president nor willing to step aside and let others do the work right. And this is already starting to have real consequences, from disrupted health coverage to ruined alliances to lost credibility on the world stage.

    But, you say, stocks are up, so how bad can it be? And it’s true that while Wall Street has lost some of its initial enthusiasm for Trumponomics — the dollar is back down to pre-election levels — investors and businesses don’t seem to be pricing in the risk of really disastrous policy.

    That risk is, however, all too real — and one suspects that the big money, which tends to equate wealth with virtue, will be the last to realize just how big that risk really is. The American presidency is, in many ways, sort of an elected monarchy, in which a temperamentally and intellectually unqualified leader can do immense damage.

    One last chance to get on the right side of history…before the storm breaks…

  89. 89.

    Unknown known

    @Fair Economist: If there was good will on all sides, something would be worked out. With the crazies May has unleashed running it, your scenario is infinitely more likely.

    But as of right now the British will not have a choice in 2 years, because May will not give them one. If she has her way, there will be no second referendum or parliament vote to ratify or reject any negotiated deal. She says that this would destroy her negotiating power because then the Euros would just try to offer a horrible deal to make us stay. But if there were a deal, every other EU country would get such a vote to approve their end of it, and apparently that doesn’t destroy their negotiating power.

    But unless the DUP screw them over, they now hold all the cards. A prime minister with a majority in parliament is pretty much a benevolent dictator.

    The good thing that this election has created is that her majority is going to be razor thin, and so that hands an enormous amount of leverage to her backbenchers, because only a handful of defections would end it all for her. Any backbencher that invoked that power would pay an enormously steep cost for it (Parliamentary systems have much better party discipline), but there are a LOT of MPs, and some of them will be pretty pro-remain… so… Things could end up becoming very fluid again.

    All of which, of course, presupposes that Britain COULD call off Brexit, and return to status quo, even if it wanted to. Not at all clear that would be allowed to happen. The EU would probably demand a bit of a steep price for that, including repealing a lot of the special deals that the UK had formerly had running for them.

  90. 90.

    Peale

    @Jeffro: While it will be a shame to go without a modern financial system, I really do think that getting rid of Dodd-Frank so that they can be rich, rich, rich, will blind them again to a disaster. And because of their extremely selfish behavior in 2009 over their precious bonuses, we’ll gladly give up access to cash at ATMs for a few months if that would make them have to sell some art at a loss to feed themselves.

  92. 92.

    Peale

    I wish I could get giddy about these kinds of polls, but the Democrats are never behind on party identification, even in 2014 when they were pretty much destroyed as an effective national party. Sorry, but unless this data is plotted on a map, it is worthless.

  93. 93.

    debit

    @Peale: After the polls were so wrong during the last election I have no faith in them and take no comfort in this one. Some Republicans may currently have enough of a sense of shame to be unwilling to identify as such, but that won’t stop them from pulling the lever for the GOP in the privacy of the voting booth.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:
    The obvious rebuttal is to point out: “A President of the United States simply doesn’t have that excuse.” I wonder if anyone important enough over there is able to say that in public.

  95. 95.

    hovercraft

    @Unknown known:

    From The Guardian

    One crucial thing those looking on the politics of Northern Ireland should be aware of is the coherence and unity of the Democratic Unionists.

    For a party founded out of Ian Paisley’s Evangelical Christian base in Protestant Ulster the DUP sometimes literally all sings from the same hymn sheet.

    So while Theresa May or her eventual successor will have to look over their shoulders at their own backbenchers, particularly those potential malcontents on the hard Brexit spectrum, the minority Tory government can rely on a fairly reliable partner to shore up the administration.

    The 10 DUP MPs will act as a solid unit together and will be dragooned to accept leadership policy from the top down.

    They will act as one and should not pose any potential rebellions that would de-stabilise their arrangement, which the Guardian reported late on Thursday night would operate on a “confidence and supply” basis.

  96. 96.

    Fair Economist

    @Unknown known: Brexit tears up *every single one* of Britain’s trade treaties (because they’re written with the EU) and requires them to be renegotiated, in addition to requiring a set of treaties with the EU itself. Doing all that in 21 months is just impossible regardless of the goodwill of the parties involved. Goodwill will affect the treaties that will eventually get written down the line, and the chance Britain will be offered more time in 21 months. I agree May’s reelection will reduce what goodwill is left, and that she’s not going to allow a second referendum, etc.

    I do think Brexit will be doom for the Tories. It’s going to be a mess and they will be (rightly) blamed for it. The big problem is that a substantial part of London’s financial business will have to move to the Continent, because the continentals want it, so they’re not going to make the quite generous special deals needed for it all to stay. That’s going to pop London’s monstrous housing bubble and produce a depression. It’s going to be very ugly, and with her reduced majority May will probably get forced into an election in the middle of it. IMO her main goal in this election was to delay the next election, which would have happened smack in the middle of it. That has effectively failed, because she doesn’t have a government strong enough to soldier on through an economic crash and depression.

  97. 97.

    Unknown known

    @debit: The polls weren’t all that wrong in the aggregate. They said a 3% lead, and it was 2%. Factor in the undecideds breaking at the last minute for Trump, and they were pretty much bang on. The problem was the distribution, and Trump squeaking out some very VERY close results in a couple of states.

    The problem wasn’t the polls, it was the models that were built on them. Five Thirty Eight (and the Trump guys internal polls) said that Hillary was more likely to win, but might not, because they took more seriously the possibility of correlated error – that something could drive several close states in the same direction, all together. When that happens, extremely unlikely things can suddenly happen. It may be very rare to roll ten dice, and get all fives and sixes, but if something suddenly adds 2 to each dice roll, then it can become really quite likely – without necessarily making that much difference to each individual dice roll.

  98. 98.

    Unknown known

    @Fair Economist: There’s a lot of truth in that, but if both sides were coming with full goodwill, there would be options. You wouldn’t try to negotiate everything in full, all at once. You would presumably have to set up a series of phased withdrawals that set up the UK pulling out a bit at a time, as negotiations happened.

    Take the Tories “great repeal bill” – they want out from European law, but even they don’t want to re-invent it all from scratch. That just would not be possible. So they have a bill that incorporates all existing European law into the British law, en masse, with the option that Britain could then go about change bits it didn’t like after exit. With that kind of kludge you could spread things out a fair bit, and give yourself breathing room.

    Even moves this aren’t easy though, of course. They’re discovering, frinstnace, that you can’t just port European law in DIRECTLY into the books of a fully independent UK, because tons of bits of it refers to specific EU institutions that need to be consulted in different eventualities, so all those need replacing with some UK equivalent…. which may or may not exist.

    (so yes, even a good will clean Brexit was always going to be a huge freaking mess, which is part of why it was such a spectacularly DUMB idea to to start with, but that’s a rant for another day).

  100. 100.

    hovercraft

    @Amir Khalid:
    Or better still point out that the reason we have a two month transition period, a tax payer funded transition headquarters and complete access to outgoing officials and a :deep state” is so that all this stuff can be explained, is just so that each new administration can be brought up to speed on how to run a nation this size. Even if his bullshit claims about his company were true, it is a tiny speck compared to the Federal Government. Did the moron follow any of the protocols and procedures set up for the transition? Of course not, he sat in Tacky Tower and made people trek up there to kiss his ring, the transition offices in DC were basically empty except for a few low level staffers who I’m sure have never spoken to him or his inner circle. When they did get into the WH, they all blew off the ethics meetings, and fired everyone who knew their asses from a hole in the ground. These people are the asshole who kills his parents and then pleads for clemency because he’s an orphan. He’s unqualified, his appointees are unqualified, his staff is unqualified, and his family unqualified and corrupt.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    This deserves its own thread: J-Rubs, Comey’s Testimony Changed Everything, and Not In Trump’s Favor

    You see, there was ‘Before Comey’, and now there is ‘After Comey’, for the GOP:

    Before Comey, impeachment talk was not a real concern for Republicans. While they may still insist there is nothing to see here, Comey testimony’s turned impeachment into a serious topic of discussion. When you are debating whether an appalling course of conduct is illegal or “merely” impeachable, or whether it is as bad as the facts that led to Richard Nixon’s removal, the incumbent party is in deep trouble.

    Before Comey, the 2018 elections might have been a referendum on the Trump agenda. After Comey, they surely will be a referendum on Trump, and specifically whether he should be impeached — unless, of course, Republicans decide to cut their losses and get rid of him before the midterms.

    Before Comey, Republicans and Democrats had many bones to pick with Comey. After Comey, both sides avoid questioning his integrity. Republicans carped about his refusal to rebuke the president in the Oval Office (for a group that has never seriously confronted Trump on much of anything, this is rich). They made hay out of — gasp!– a leak of unclassified materials after Comey was fired. Not once, however, did any senator say he disbelieved Comey’s account or try to shake his recollection. Aspects of Comey’s factual account can be supported now by others, which will further bolster his own credibility and diminish Trump’s. Comey may be prickly, overly concerned with his own reputation and even a little schoolmarmish, but few will argue that he is a liar.

    Before Comey, it was possible (although not likely) that Trump could have righted his ship, moving beyond the Russia scandal. After Comey, it is impossible to imagine that the “cloud” Trump so badly wanted to dissipate will vanish before the end of his term — which might well end before January 2021.

    Before Comey, Republicans could argue that Trump had done nothing improper. They could say that he was in the clear, not involved in any criminal or counterintelligence investigation. After Comey, the best Republican members can say about him is that his conduct was “obviously” inappropriate. They cannot say with certainty that he is not under investigation for obstruction.

    Before Comey, Republicans could argue that Trump understood the requirements of the job. After Comey, as Benjamin Wittes (a friend of Comey’s who spoke to him during the events at issue) put it, “There is no evidence that any chains can bind this president: not lawyers, not norms, not procedures, not repeated screw-ups of the sort that educate other leaders, and certainly not the mere expectations of decent public servants. But the problem is that the United States is responsible for his actions—and we are paying daily the price for them, particularly in our international relations but also in our domestic governance.” We have a legitimate question as to the president’s fitness for office.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    Before Comey, it was possible for national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other members of the administration (as well as GOP lawmakers) to argue that a secret back-channel with Russia was no big deal. After Comey, Americans understand that in setting up a channel to hide discussions from the intelligence community, you put American security at risk. Comey said, “You spare the Russians the cost and effort to break into our communications channels by using theirs. You make it a whole lot easier for them to capture all of your conversations. Then to use those to the benefit of Russia against the United States.” Comey, in other words, made clear that those seeking such an arrangement were just asking to be blackmailed by the Russians. (Other than Sessions, no one has sacrificed more credibility than administration officials such as McMaster who tried to rationalize such an arrangement.) This realization will prove very problematic to Jared Kushner and others trying to justify alleged involvement in such a scheme.

  104. 104.

    Peale

    @Unknown known: And these results weren’t wrong per se, because Democratic Candidates overall recieved more votes in 2014 (or something like that), its just that all those votes for Governor Brown and Mario Cuomo look great on paper, but they don’t make up for losses in places like Maryland, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    as a “PS”: take a minute today and think about how far we have come in a very (relatively) short while…shocked speechless by Trumpov’s election ‘win’ seven months ago, we are now at the point where this is dominating the news coverage every day and jamming up much of the GOP’s ability to do damage to the Obama Admin’s achievements. We’re openly talking about impeachment in regular, mainstream media. There’s a special counsel in place. Kushner is in serious trouble, as are Sessions and Trumpov himself.

    It didn’t, and still doesn’t, have to be this hard (thanks, GOP cretins!) But slowly and surely things are turning around.

  106. 106.

    hovercraft

    @Jeffro:

    It’s June of his first year in office. it will get worse, we are overdue for a recession.

    From Gallup
    Donald Trump’s Presidential Job Approval Ratings — Historical Comparisons

    Average for U.S. presidents 53 1938-2017

    Average for elected presidents’ 2nd quarter 62 various

    Other elected presidents in June of first year
    Barack Obama 61 Jun 2009
    George W. Bush 54 Jun 2001
    Bill Clinton 41 Jun 1993
    George H.W. Bush 70 Jun 1989
    Ronald Reagan 59 Jun 1981
    Jimmy Carter 63 Jun 1977
    Richard Nixon 63 Jun 1969
    John Kennedy 73 Jun 1961
    Dwight Eisenhower n/a Jun 1953

    “keep fucking that chicken GOP”

  107. 107.

    sukabi

    It’s the “little” obstructions that may be drumpfs tipping point for repubs..

    Grassley said it “completely misses the mark.”

    “It erroneously rejects any notion that individual members of Congress who may not chair a relevant committee need to obtain information from the Executive Branch in order to carry out their Constitutional duties,” Grassley said. “It falsely asserts that only requests from committees or their chairs are ‘constitutionally authorized,’ and relegates requests from non-Chairmen to the position of ‘non-oversight’ inquiries — whatever that means.”

    The senator continued, “For OLC to so fundamentally misunderstand and misstate such a simple fact exposes its shocking lack of professionalism and objectivity. Indeed, OLC appears to have utterly failed to live up to its own standards. You are being ill-served and ill advised.”

    All members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate should have the power to make requests and to obtain whatever information they need from the Executive Branch, Grassley said, in order to maintain accountability.

    “The powers vested in the Congress — both explicitly and inherently by the Constitution —
    impose significant and far-reaching responsibilities on the people’s elected representatives,” he said. “They include the authorization and appropriation of federal funds, the organization of federal departments, the enactment of laws executing the enumerated powers, the confirmation of nominees, the impeachment and removal of officers, and the investigation of the execution of the laws and of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs. These responsibilities are all forms of oversight, all mechanisms that support the legislative check and balance of the executive power. All members participate in deciding whether, when, and how Congress will exercise these authorities.”

  109. 109.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jeffro:

    Just help us take out the fucking trash for once without uttering the word “Clinton”. We’ll be a better nation for it.

    Truth.

  110. 110.

    Mike in DC

    “Recent event/election outcome X confirms that only my candidate/policy preferences Y can save the party/lead the party to success.”

    Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

  111. 111.

    Stan

    @Unknown known: I’ve spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland too, and those union jacks in all the unionist neighborhoods (not really ‘random places’ although I can see how you might think so) crack me up. These folks are INSISTING they’re British, goddamit. And I don’t think they know that the English consider them Irish regardless. That would really frost them. To paraphrase “The Commitments”, the irish are the blacks of the UK.

  112. 112.

    Stan

    @satby:

    there’s a world of kids not with their parents and not in the system either: friends, relatives, neighbors, teachers all stepping up to take care of kids whose parents can’t for multiple reasons.

    Yes, and as the child of one of those kids – PLEASE help out who you can. Even little stuff. You really can change a life and then the lives of a whole following generation.

  113. 113.

    SteveKnNKY

    I like Yglesias’ tweet. it conveys the same idea Cardinal Ratzinger held about the Catholic Church. Smaller, purer, rotten at the core but that is okay. everyone is lock step with blinders.

  114. 114.

    No One You Know

    @Jeffro: Consumer protections from investment predators have been rolled back as of today. The AHCA allegedly meets reconciliation requirements and it’s being scheduled for a vote. Disability payments in Social Security got trashed in The Washington Post today. If I heard all of these things correctly, we are not slowly turning anything right. The gap opening between Republicans and Trump mean we get bread and circuses with Trump as the target, while the Republicans do what they want with their majorities.

    How is that better news?

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