Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

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

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

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Republicans do not trust women.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: Some Happy News, for Non-Revanchists

Open Thread: Some Happy News, for Non-Revanchists

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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III made his career using the full weight of “Law & Order” to abuse unruly people of color, uppity women, young people and poor people with ever-more-restrictive drug laws, capricious enforcement of petty regulations, and statutes restricting the lives and freedom of ex-felons. He was an earlier rider on the ‘Trump train’ because he saw, in a Trump administration, a cushy future where he would be able to enforce his eighteenth-century prejudices on even more people over a wider range.

Were he to end up bankrupted and emotionally broken due to the application of those expansive “Law & Order” codes… well, it wouldn’t improve my estimate of the Trickster God’s script-writing abilities, but I would enjoy the final act.

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  2. 2.

    James Powell

    Amazing how all this is being treated like normal stuff, nothing to see hear, not nearly as bad as Whitewater or any of the other stuff the Clintons supposedly did, certainly not anything we should be alarmed about, let’s everybody just act normal.

    I hate half of the country and nearly all of the press/media.

  3. 3.

    efgoldman

    Cooper reportedly helped to counsel Sessions ahead of his testimony last week before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
    In his testimony last week before the panel, Sessions strongly denied any suggestion he colluded with Russia to help swing the 2016 presidential election.
    Sessions repeatedly expressed personal outrage at the “innuendo” surrounding his conduct during sharp exchanges with several Democratic senators.
    “I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country that I have served with honor for 35 years, to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie,”     Sessions said during his opening statement.

    Just kind of skipped the part where you perjured yourself in your testimony and falsified a sworn document, eh Jeffy boy?

  5. 5.

    Waratah

    I was expecting him to retain legal council before the hearing and was surprised he did not.
    How soon for him to throw Trump under the bus if he gets charged?

  6. 6.

    efgoldman

    @Waratah:

    How soon for him to throw Trump under the bus if he gets charged?

    It will be the first non-fictional use of negative time

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Waratah: This may be why he formally retained Cooper. Cooper worked with him on his testimony and by retaining him he has now bound Cooper to attorney-client privilege.

  10. 10.

    hellslittlestangel

    Yes, now that Handel has won in Georgia, let’s just breeze on to another fantasy of a Republican getting his comeuppance.

  11. 11.

    ArchTeryx

    Well, in a real way, I *am* doing something, albeit by the luck of the draw.

    I work for ACCES-VR, that specializes in two things: Getting special ed students through college, and getting disabled people living-wage jobs. As Office Assistant 1, I basically am the grease that keeps the gears turning, and I take that shit very, very seriously.

    The counselors are seriously bemused why a white dude PhD would tear so avidly into a secretary job. Well, part of it is, “I’m on this lifeboat and I’m going to row like hell.” But that’s not all. The other part of it is that I’m helping, indirectly, dozens of disabled people get out from under Damocles’ Sword. The harder I work, the more time the counselors have to devote to their cases – and to help these people find work.

    Looking up a local Albany Indivisible chapter is a good idea too.

  14. 14.

    Kraux Pas

    I mean I’d love to see Sessions go down and all, but hiring a lawyer tells us nothing about what happened or any future outcomes.

  15. 15.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @hellslittlestangel: The future isn’t written in stone. Do you have a crystal ball?

    Newsflash: Republicans tend to vote for Republicans. Ossoff was only off by 4 points in Newt’s old district. The national GOP had to spend 18 million to defend a supposedly safe seat. That’s foreboding for the GOP.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Remember, the best-known trickster god story in American culture is Br’er Rabbit convincing Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear to throw him in the briar patch.

    (And for those watching American Gods, Br’er Rabbit is a transplanted version of Anansi, the West African trickster god.)

  18. 18.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Kraux Pas: It means he’s scared enough that there’s a real chance he’s going to get taken down in this mess. And remember he’s not the only administration flunky to hire his own lawyer.

  20. 20.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    He amended his testimony, so it’s all good.

    I really don’t understand this bullshit. If you testify in front of a judge and lie, are you allowed to “revise” or “correct” your testimony?
    I understand that the senate has to make the complaint for Evil Leprechaun (or any other of the lying sacks of shit) to be charged, and they won’t. But still…

  22. 22.

    Timurid

    Did that nutty Rosenstein memo actually have some effect? The daily newsdumps stopped right after it was posted…

  24. 24.

    Kraux Pas

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:

    It means he’s scared enough that There’s a real chance he’s going to get taken down in this mess. And remember he’s not the only administration flunky to hire his own lawyer.

    It could mean that. Or it could just mean he expects to be hauled into court. After all, only a complete fool represents himself.

    Speaking of which, anyone got odds on Trump representing himself?

  25. 25.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Kraux Pas: Given everything we already know about his contacts with Russia, that seems highly unlikely at this point.

    Trump will be reduced to having his tax attorney representing him

  27. 27.

    hellslittlestangel

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: I think Handel’s win will convince those Republicans purportedly wavering that they can safely vote on Thursday to fuck over 23 million Americans. Neither “moral victory” nor the fact that the Republicans successfully invested a few weeks worth of fund-raising is anything to cheer about. This is a serious blow to liberalism and democracy, and pretending that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is in any danger of going to prison won’t change that.

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    “I was your colleague in this body for 20 years, and the suggestion that I participated in any collusion, that I was aware of any collusion with the Russian government to hurt this country that I have served with honor for 35 years, to undermine the integrity of our democratic process, is an appalling and detestable lie,” Sessions said during his opening statement.

    Random thoughts re: Evil Elf’s perjury “testimony”:
    1) I’m shocked, SHOCKED that anyone would impugn Mah Honah, suh!
    2) If he were really as “honorable” as he professed, he would have committed seppuku long before now.
    3) I am SO hoping that he is one of Mueller’s “persons of interest”
    4) It’s probably too much to hope for that he spends so much time trying to stay unindicted, that he won’t have time to fuck over any more persons/groups he’s dying to fuck over.
    5) Fuck you, you traitorous motherfucker. I hope there’s a Hell for you to burn in. You fuck.

  29. 29.

    Bupalos

    I’m pretty tired of “this is not normal.” It actually is. Or anyway, it doesn’t matter if it’s not or wasn’t or whatever, it’s really starting to feel like the country has just lurched over a cliff and there’s just no point in talking about whether it’s “normal” or not.

    This country just sucks. It’s a racist, lying, terrified shitpile of greedy, empty, brain dead fucks that is getting worse by the minute, and im sick to death of it.

  34. 34.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @hellslittlestangel: I didn’t say a moral victory. I implied that trends don’t look good for Republicans electorally. It was a safe GOP district that has been in their hands since the 70s. Both Ossoff and Parnell came with an few points of winning when in the past R’s won by double digits. It suggests the possibility of a sea change.
    As far as Sessions going down for anything, I’m leaning towards something happening, but I simply don’t know. I can’t see the future. I doubt the election outcome would have had any real effect on the AHCA vote anyway. Since it was so close, one could make the argument that these same squishy R votes might still say no. And anyway, the fight isn’t over yet. I plan on calling Portman tommorow. I can’t just give up.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @hellslittlestangel:

    I don’t think Turtle gave two shits about GA-6. He’s going to do what he’s gonna do, and fuck over whoever he can that doesn’t have the power to do anything about it. About the only effect it might have on him is redoubling efforts to suppress votes/registration wherever he can (either himself, or through others).

    McConnell is unmitigated evil, further proof that there is no such thing as a Just God.

  37. 37.

    Bupalos

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
    Or you could look at the dark side, since that’s actually like 80% of the surface area here. After a hundred and whatever days of the worst administration in history, who’s every shifty vulgar move has been covered wall to wall, a really crappy repuke beat our candidate by a larger margin the than trump beat Clinton there. I’m not seeing it.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Good message here, which I bolded for emphasis:

    If you take the average Democratic over-performance in these districts and apply it to the entire House, Democrats are quite likely to take the House next year. What I take from this is that Republicans are struggling under Trump and Democrats are energized. But Democrats need to keep refining both their message and improving their electoral infrastructure. The most challenging takeaway I take from these races for Democrats is that even though Republicans have lost substantial ground and are operating in a tough environment they’ve nevertheless been able to mobilize money and partisan affiliation to hold on in tight races. That can’t be ignored. It’s also very significant.

    What Democrats need to resist at all costs is the temperamental inclination to fall into spasms of self-loathing over this defeat – specifically, the idea that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the party because of this loss. I saw one Democrat on Twitter tonight ask if Ossoff’s loss didn’t mean “the Democratic party apparatus needs a total overhaul on every single level?”

  40. 40.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    What Democrats need to resist at all costs is the temperamental inclination to fall into spasms of self-loathing over this defeat – specifically, the idea that there’s something fundamentally wrong with the party because of this loss. I saw one Democrat on Twitter tonight ask if Ossoff’s loss didn’t mean “the Democratic party apparatus needs a total overhaul on every single level?”

    After reading though the comments on the last few threads, I think this paragraph and the one that follows is what some here need to read.

    ETA: Beaten by Mnemo once again.

    (Shakes fist @ Mnemo.)

  41. 41.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Bupalos: They had to spend a lot of money to defend this seat. That should have never happened. It’s been a safe R district since like 1976 or so. He was probably never going win there now. But came really close, closer than anyone before him. That suggests to me that the political landscape is changing and that R districts won by 20 points or less are winnable by Dems

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bupalos:

    Given the fact that Price was re-elected by 20 points in November, I suspect that Hillary’s smaller margin of loss was due to Republicans leaving the presidential line blank or voting for Gary Johnson rather than splitting the ticket. Those numbers are probably out there somewhere.

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Timurid: Not necessarily. There have been several in the past two days that have gotten lost in the shuffle about the runoffs and the Senate health care bill.

    You have to avoid falling into a pattern recognition trap. Some of the stories that are reported, with some of the most damaging material, began months ago. One of the big ones from two weeks ago started with a legal leak (as in nothing was leaked that was classified) back in December.

  46. 46.

    Lizzy L

    @Cheryl Rofer: Thanks; good take. Here’s the piece I keep returning to. It’s vital.

    There’s [ ] a toxic desire on the part of many to use this painful defeat as an opening to re-litigate intra-party grievances. Losing is hard. Taking a loss and getting up the next day to keep fighting to get to the next level takes endurance and guts. Many cannot resist the temptation to trade that sting for a toxic self-validation. All I can say to that is that parties build majorities by finding ways to unite competing factions over common interests and goals…. They almost never get there when they are locked in internecine struggle or when either faction thinks it can or does destroy the other. That’s just not how it works.

  47. 47.

    ArchTeryx

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, I fell headlong into that trap, though my spasms of doom aren’t typical purity pony rantings, that doesn’t make ’em any less self-loathing or destructive.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    The circle inexorably tightens (although personal opinion is that the estimate provided is a lowball one).

    Iraq’s army said it encircled the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group’s stronghold in the Old City of Mosul on Tuesday after taking over an area to the north of the densely populated historic district.
    [snip]
    The fall of Shifaa means the Old City in the eastern half of Mosul is now surrounded by US-backed government forces.
    [snip]
    The Iraqi army estimates the number of ISIL fighters at no more than 300, down from nearly 6,000 in the city when the battle of Mosul started on October last year. Source

    In a more unusual vein –

    Argentinian police believe they have found the largest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country’s history inside a hidden room in a home near Buenos Aires.

    Authorities found 75 objects in a collector’s home in Beccar, a suburb north of the capital. The artifacts include a bust relief of Adolf Hitler, a large statue of the Nazi Eagle and a box of harmonicas containing swastikas.
    [snip]
    Authorities are trying to determine the origin of the artifacts and how they entered Argentina. Source

    Hmm. How could Nazi booty possibly have found its way to Argentina? (Rhetorical question.)

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mnemosyne: I saw one Democrat on Twitter tonight ask if Ossoff’s loss didn’t mean “the Democratic party apparatus needs a total overhaul on every single level?”

    I wonder if that was an elected or a campaign professional. Because I’d really like to know how they get there from this race.
    ETA: it’s like a certain individual who keeps saying the Democratic Party must abandon “top down decision making!”. Somebody ask him what the hell that means

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    The Boys from Brazil was a terrible movie, but a really good book. When Ira Levin was at the top of his game, nobody could beat him at ludicrous-sounding premises that worked like gangbusters.

  54. 54.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Thanks, @Mnemosyne and others, for pulling some of the good parts out of Josh’s post. We closed the margins significantly in a very red district in a very red state. It would have been great to win, but the trends suggest we can next year.

  57. 57.

    Dread

    I’m not finding much happy news. I don’t think the 2018 elections will be a wave election. Half the country doesn’t give enough of a shit to bother to go vote, and too many Democratic voters join them in sitting it out.

    And I think about the only way Trump might be impeached, is if a tape surfaced of him giving a BJ to Putin. Russian pee hookers wouldn’t be enough, so long as they were female pee hookers.

  60. 60.

    hellslittlestangel

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Not wanting to play “let’s pretend Sessions is in trouble” is not the same as curling up in a fetal position. But I’m sure you know that.

  61. 61.

    Mike J

    The new Arcade Fire song sounds like New Order.

    Wind N@12, gusting 18, got second, first, second, I had the tiller for the second race.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    @Mnemosyne: I think all the Georgia Numbers are here, but I don’t have time to sort through them.

    Happy hunting! Let us know if you find anything interesting to account for the differences between Price’s and HRC’s results.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    “Terrible” is mighty strong sauce when applied to any film Gregory Peck was in. Not near his best picture, sure, but terrible?

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Since it’s an open thread, here’s a weird little thing that happened.

    I wear glasses, but because I am paranoid that I’m always going to wreck my normal pair, I always carry a backup emergency pair. Almost never bothered with Pair 2 until today.

    Last night, as usual, when I went to bed I placed my usual pair on a shelf next to the bed. The way I do EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, and have done for years.

    When I woke up this morning, Pair 1 was nowhere to be seen. I looked everywhere, on the floor, behind and under the furniture, in the bedding. Nothing. Damnedest thing. Hauled out Pair 2 and wore them all day (they’re attractive, but cut painfully into the bridge of my nose, so I rarely use them. But boy, was I glad to have them today!)

    Out all day, poll-watching in the GA-6 special election. Treated myself to wine and dinner, got home about 11:30. Walked into the bedroom, and there were my glasses! On the floor, yes, but in an obvious place I had checked about 70 times this morning.

    I’m so glad they aren’t wrecked! And I’m so glad I had a back-up pair to get me through the day! There’s probably a major life lesson here that I haven’t yet grasped, but I’m grateful for the obvious and see no need at the moment to search for metaphors. Especially since, without my specs, I couldn’t find them in the first place.

  65. 65.

    hellslittlestangel

    @SFAW: Believe it or not, in addition to McConnell, there are 53 other Republicans in the Senate.

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: good lord

    Matt Stoller‏Verified account @ matthewstoller
    It’s not a safe Republican district, it’s trending Dem. Clinton nearly won it. Ossoff’s campaign was embarrassing.Matt Stoller added,

    His father the Wells Fargo VP ought to get in touch with Matty’s prep school and get a refund on tuition.

    And for Stoller, isn’t the fact that Clinton nearly won the district proof that it’s a hotbed of right-wingery and corruption?
    ETA: If you’re wondering what a non-embarrassing campaign looks like for Stoller, he worked for Alan Grayson

  68. 68.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: A nimrod “friend” on Facebook (teacher with a PhD, natch) got all hot and bothered tonight and posted something from someone with three names (none of which I had seen before, so I don’t know who was making the suggestion or how seriously) about how the Democratic Party was irredeemable and what there really needed to be was a party that stood for [list of good things like trans rights and young people] instead of millionaire billionaire Wall Street or whatever the fuck they’re on about lately. And immediately got a bunch of likes. Yes, if only there were a party that stood for the things I like, and not for the things I don’t like, that would be great. How many people would vote for this party, or why this party doesn’t exist in satisfactory form yet, didn’t seem to enter into it at all. SMH.

  69. 69.

    Lizzy L

    @Adam L Silverman: FFS. We (Democrats) really really need to stop doing that.

    Disappointed, sure; but tomorrow is another day and we keep fighting. Good night, jackals.

  70. 70.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have no idea. I’ve yet to see that guy write anything – from a tweet to an article – that makes any sense unless one is fully marinated in whatever his ideology is.

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Recently reread Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives. They are both really brilliantly constructed. Am about halfway through This Perfect Day, which I would have sworn I had read some years ago, but which, oddly, isn’t the least bit familiar. It’s well enough done but seriously drags in parts, which is why I haven’t scooted straight through the way I did with RB and TSW. But in my view, Ira Levin was one of the finest suspense writers in the history of the genre.

  73. 73.

    SFAW

    @hellslittlestangel:

    Believe it or not, in addition to McConnell, there are 53 other Republicans in the Senate.

    Yes, I have no doubt that all the Moderate Republican Senators will force Mitch to change course. Just as they have in the past.

    I would LOVE for my cynicism to be proved wrong.

    But in the meantime, I guess I gotta get off my fat ass and call the office of Noted Moderate Susan Collins, even though I don’t live in Maine — yet. Gotta figure how to word it, but I expect I can come up with something.

  74. 74.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like how the Mobile Goalpost Crowd goes from “the Democratic Party needs to speak to the issues of each district in a 50-state strategy kind of way, because the Party is too hidebound and one-size-fits-all!” to “the Democratic Party needs to run class-warrior pugilistic populism everywhere all the time because it obviously wins, if you don’t take into account the zero times it has won, but those were because of other reasons, like neoliberals neoliberal-ing it up too much beforehand!” Stoller = doofus.

  76. 76.

    James Powell

    @FlipYrWhig:

    How many people would vote for this party, or why this party doesn’t exist in satisfactory form yet, didn’t seem to enter into it at all.

    For such people, winning elections is not part of their political identity. In fact, focusing on winning elections is considered evidence of corruption, a thing to be disdained in other, lesser people.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: also, Democrats need to spend more money, on every candidate, everywhere, and only take money from people I approve of /WilmerCon ’17

  78. 78.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Adam L Silverman: I know this person because we were in the same degree program. I find this person endlessly irritating as an un-self-aware embodiment of everything _this person this person’s self_ claimed to hate about graduate school.

  79. 79.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: J lost her Bluetooth earpiece/microphone a month or so ago when she got out of her car at home. She looked around for it for a while, then I looked around for it for a while. Couldn’t find it.

    Oh well, order another one.

    About a week later, she found it in the driveway almost exactly where she thought she probably dropped it. A place we had both looked for it multiple times….

    Being outside, it is easy to think a critter (mouse, chipmunk, bird) might have grabbed it and moved it, or maybe it bounced into a drainage pipe and got washed out in the rain. If it had happened inside, well, … :-)

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    “Terrible” is mighty strong sauce when applied to any film Gregory Peck was in. Not near his best picture, sure, but terrible?

    Yeah, it was pretty bad. Not nightmare-inducing bad, but bad.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @Another Scott:

    I started looking, but for some reason they only listed the top three candidates for president. Seriously, they didn’t have a single write-in candidate for president in the whole state?

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @FlipYrWhig: I was just teasing. Hence the emoji. There’s at least one in every group – no matter the demographics of the group.

  84. 84.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Timurid: holy fuck. Even knowing little about the internal politics of the KSA, that is not calming news

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Timurid: This is huge news. This means the deputy crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman (referred to as MBS) is now the crown prince or is going to be. This cements his part of the family and his father’s legacy to him. And is indicative of a palace coup. Moreover, he, in conjunction with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince Muhammad bin Zayed (MBZ), has been pushing the realignment I wrote about yesterday.

    Give this a read:
    politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/13/saudi-arabia-middle-east-donald-trump-215254

    The main impediment to MBS’s advance to the throne, though, is the Saudi crown prince, his 57-year-old cousin Muhammad bin Nayef, whose dour demeanor means he is sometimes described as being comatose, former U.S. officials say. MBN—whose late father was the powerful hardline interior minister and later crown prince, Nayef bin Abdulaziz, a brother of the current king—is thought to be contemptuous of MBZ, a consequence of a 2003 WikiLeaked cable in which MBZ is quoted as saying that Nayef had a bumbling manner, ‘suggest[ing] that “Darwin was right,”’ widely interpreted as implying that he was like a monkey. So MBZ apparently regards the prospect of MBN becoming king as genetically flawed—and is cultivating his nominal deputy instead.

  89. 89.

    FlipYrWhig

    @James Powell: My take is slightly different. My take is that people who are surrounded by like-minded, activist-leaning people brainwash themselves into thinking that there are so many of them — practically everyone they know! — that the only reason the political world hasn’t be reshaped already to their satisfaction has to be corruption or just plain evil. They want to win; they think they’d win easily without even trying because nearly everyone already agrees with them, just ask. So they get to feeling like someone is out there keeping them down. I live in Virginia and three of my neighbors are fire fighters, IT workers for the fire department, or retired cops, and the dominant population is retired military. There is NO FUCKING WAY ON GODS GREEN EARTH that what my neighbors have been waiting for is a more black-friendly, trans-friendly, “woke” social democracy. Even if they vote for Democrats — and I’m not sure they in particular do — it’s far more likely that they’ll vote for the kind of Democrat who’s a bald white guy who headed a local economic development nonprofit. This is not that hard to understand. I don’t get why “the left” is so intent on refusing to understand it.

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    @Mnemosyne: I see Johnson in the detailsxls.zip file (in the spreadsheet, tab “2”, scroll over to the right). Column “Q” is Johnson’s total – he got 14466 in Cobb County.

    I haven’t seen the votes broken down by Congressional District, but you can probably get fairly close by combining the results for the 3 counties in GA-6: Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb.

    Gotta run. Let us know what you find!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Did you see the stupid fucking headline in the Globe? Ran two days in a row in the web paper.

    In fact I had. Fucking Globe, first it starts turning into Herald Lite, now it’s being written by morons. Who’s the editor. Michael Sheehan? He and John Henry are living up to the Rethuglican “ethos” (i.e., destroy something [like government] that was working reasonably well, then scream about how terrible it is). Henry should have just bought the Herald, let Bezos have the Globe.

    It’s among the reasons we cancelled our subscription after almost 30 years.

    As a wise man once wrote:

    Fuckem

  94. 94.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Adam L Silverman: No, I get that. I was mostly trying to clarify that I wasn’t trying to pull the “eggheads, whatcha gonna do?” maneuver. I teach and have the same degree the person in question has. Also, I’m posting here because if I post on his FB feed about his endless poseur bullshit it’s going to end up being a whole bitter thing that burns up like 8 20-year-long quasi-friendships.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: a similar but separate kind– the ones who are so convinced that their cause(s) is/are infallible, if people only knew! If the people just heard Dennis/Ralph/Dennis…. Bernie! (and always first names). The endless bleat of the Wilmerites at the Convention last year: “We just want our voices to be heard..”. Me: “For the love of christ, you never shut up!”

    Reminds me of the line from the Rainmaker: “I see your side, Billy, I just ain’t on it”

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    @Another Scott:

    I’m probably going to have to look for “missing” votes between the totals for president and the totals for the House race. Can’t do it tonight, though, and definitely not from the iPad.

  97. 97.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Another Scott:

    Glad your J found it. But that is the mystifying thing to me: how one can look multiple times in one place and totally miss seeing (whatever it is one is looking for), and then, when you’re maybe not actively searching, it’ll pop right up in the exact same place.

    Fucking Trickster Universe.

  98. 98.

    efgoldman

    @SFAW:

    It’s among the reasons we cancelled our subscription after almost 30 years.

    I’d cancel if I could get the Boston TV stations, but I can’t.
    For better or worse, it’s still my home town paper. Although all I really read now are the Metro and sports sections.

  99. 99.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    For better or worse, it’s still my home town paper. Although all I really read now are the Metro and sports sections.

    I thought the ProJo sports section was semi-reasonable?

    Maybe if the native Rhode Islanders could read without moving their lips, they might get a better hometown rag?

    ETA: Mrs. SFAW is under the impression that the Boston stations are streaming their news shows. I have no idea if this is true — Mrs. SFAW is not, shall we say, the most tech-savvy person.

  100. 100.

    efgoldman

    @SFAW:

    Maybe if the native Rhode Islanders could read without moving their lips, they might get a better hometown rag?

    No matter how hard they try, it’s still a small town paper

  101. 101.

    Peale

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: top down decision making basically is a nice way to leave it to the grass roots. But for some reason, the grass roots are wise. And know how to organize themselves, and the iron Law of oligarchy isn’t going to apply. It’s kind of like wanting to be disruptive these days. It’s good for a couple of billion in theoretical market cap, but no one wants to actually test those valuations in the actual market since disruptive entities are usually worthless.

  102. 102.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Peale: top down decision making basically is a nice way to leave it to the grass roots.

    in this particular case, I think it refers to one very specific decision, and the only valid grass roots are the one who made the right decision

  104. 104.

    patrick II

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    ETA: it’s like a certain individual who keeps saying the Democratic Party must abandon “top down decision making!”. Somebody ask him what the hell that means

    It means the DNC should not have helped Hillary at Bernie’s expense.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @patrick II:

    It means the DNC should not have helped Hillary at Bernie’s expense.

    Good thing they didn’t, then. Or do you still think that Wikileaks released emails stolen by the Russians from the DNC because Assange was just so concerned about Bernie getting a fair shake after he had been mathematically eliminated from winning the primary?

  106. 106.

    Mel

    @ArchTeryx: You are doing work that is so vital, so important, and potentially life-changing for the clients with whom you and the counselors work. Thank you for this. And thank you, thank you, for your compassion for and dedication to your clients.

    Too many people who struggle with a serious illness or disability become invisible / negligible in the eyes of society.

    To find an engaged, intelligent, welcoming person ready to help navigate the red tape can feel like nothing short of a miracle to someone struggling against the odds.

  107. 107.

    Kryptik

    @Mnemosyne:

    Honestly, the thing that depresses me is precisely that this will not be heeded.

    I mean, my brain understands that the inroads made in all those districts and special elections were big, and it should be taken as a good harbinger. On an intellectual level, I understand that.

    But my heart refuses to take that to…well…heart, knowing that I only really understand that as a political junkie, and most folks, especially the media types, aren’t going to see the inroads. They’re just going to see the L. And sadly, that still matters: a moral victory can sustain only so much, and lessons toward the future applied so much, but a loss is still a loss, and most folks simply aren’t going to see past that, and the narrative will only become “YOu keep losing, you’re losers and everyone hates you because you’re losers, why should we care about you or vote for you if you’re always losing!!!” Success begets success, and a lot of people will only feel safe to jump on the wagon if they think there’s a ‘win’ there, and if the media, the lefter-than-thou folks, and the GOP themselves continue to be lockstep in the refrain of ‘Democrats always lose, they must lose because America hates them for everything!’ and that gets repeated ad nauseam, it gets ingrained. You already get a lot of induced apathy of ‘why should I vote when it won’t matter?’ shit, and taking repeated Ls just makes it even easier. We get our dander up because we’re invested in this shit, but from the outside looking in, losses piling up will beget more losses precisely because of that induced apathy.

    And that’s what makes me depressed: that the lesson to be learned from this will all too likely go unheeded, and the exact wrong lesson of ‘This loss means the Democratic party is wrong about everything and needs to be blown up’ will remain the prevailing narrative forever and anon.

  108. 108.

    James Powell

    @Kryptik:

    This loss means the Democratic party is wrong about everything and needs to be blown up’ will remain the prevailing narrative forever and anon.

    People also say this after narrow wins. The habit of disparaging the Democratic Party is so deeply embedded in the political class and the press/media that it is almost impossible to avoid it.

  109. 109.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mnemosyne:

    Someone was saying in the thread below that it’s now estimated that about $50 million was spent on the GA-6 race, and the Republicans spent 2.5 times more than the Democrats did. Someone else will have to do the actual math, though.

    D spend = x
    R spend =2.5x
    Total spend = 3.5x = $50M

    Ergo D spend = $14.3M

  110. 110.

    Kryptik

    @James Powell:

    At this point, we need an outright win, just for the psychology. And I don’t know how we get that anymore. Not when we seem to be getting kneecapped from all sides.

  111. 111.

    sharl

    OT – from a NYT tech reporter: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

    Travis Kalanick stepped down Tuesday as chief executive of Uber, the ride-hailing service that he helped found in 2009 and that he built into a transportation colossus, after a shareholder revolt made it untenable for him to stay on at the company.

    Mr. Kalanick’s exit came under pressure after hours of drama involving Uber’s investors, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential.

    Earlier on Tuesday, five of Uber’s major investors demanded that the chief executive resign immediately. The investors included one of Uber’s biggest shareholders, the venture capital firm Benchmark, which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber’s board. The investors made their demand for Mr. Kalanick to resign in a letter delivered to the chief executive while he was in Chicago, said the people with knowledge of the situation.

    In the letter, titled “Moving Uber Forward” and obtained by The New York Times, the investors wrote to Mr. Kalanick that he must immediately leave and that the company needed a change in leadership. Mr. Kalanick, 40, consulted with at least one Uber board member and after hours of discussions with some of the investors, he agreed to step down. He will remain on Uber’s board of directors.
    ……
    The move caps months of questions over the leadership of Uber, which has become a prime example of Silicon Valley start-up culture gone awry. The company has been exposed this year as having a workplace culture that is rife with sexual harassment and discrimination, and has pushed the envelope in dealing with law enforcement and even partners. That tone was set by Mr. Kalanick, who has aggressively turned the company into the world’s dominant ride-hailing service and upended the transportation industry around the globe.

    Mr. Kalanick’s troubles began earlier this year after a former Uber engineer detailed what she said was sexual harassment at the company, opening the floodgates for more complaints and spurring internal investigations. In addition, Uber has been dealing with an intellectual property lawsuit from Waymo, the self-driving car business that operates under Google’s parent company, and a federal inquiry into a software tool that Uber used to sidestep some law enforcement.
    …….
    Uber has been trying to move past its difficult history, which has grown inextricably tied to Mr. Kalanick. In recent months, Uber has fired more than 20 employees after an investigation into the company’s culture, embarked on major changes to professionalize its workplace, and is searching for new executives including a chief operating officer.

    Mr. Kalanick last week said he would take an indefinite leave of absence from Uber, partly to work on himself and to grieve for his mother, who died last month in a boating accident. He said Uber’s day-to-day management would fall to a committee of more than 10 executives.

    But the shareholder letter indicates that his taking time off was not enough for some investors who have pumped millions of dollars into the ride-hailing company, which has seen its valuation swell to nearly $70 billion. For them, Mr. Kalanick had to go. …

  113. 113.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kryptik: At this point, we need an outright win, just for the psychology.

    I agree. I’m not one of the “give up the ship” crowd, but a loss is a loss

    And I don’t know how we get that anymore.

    next big races are VA and NJ govs, AFAIK. It would be great if the Resistance movement turned its focus to local and state level races

  114. 114.

    JR in WV

    @SFAW:

    Here’s a tip for speaking to Republicans about health care. Remind them that in Matthew the Lord said “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” I’ m not a christian, but there’s a lot of good work in the Bible to put to good and proper use; this so clearly means that we need to provide health care to the least of our countrymen, if we expect any credit for providing it to the others who receive it.

    And the ACA attempted to and intended to provide health care to everyone, as it should be done. The right to be healthy, and to be cared for if not healthy to the maximum extent possible, may not be a human right everywhere, but in the wealthiest nation on earth, should it not be the rule that all the sick receive care?

    When did we decide to just take the ill folks who are poor or disabled out to the landfill to wait ti die? Surely that isn’t the goal of Mr.Trump’s administration! Or of Mr. McConnell’s Senate?

    Now I suspect it is the goal of Mitch, but we don’t need to say so, we can just allow others to infer that that is what we suspect Mitch’s goal is. At least to start out. We can get more explicit as things progress.

    I think Mitch would be happy in an air conditioned cab burying poor black folks at the dump. But I doubt if he wants folks to think that of him. Especially other senators on the bubble.

  115. 115.

    Peale

    @James Powell: it’s embedded into the psychology of liberals. Trump tomorrow could abolish the EPA and not just allow but command chemical manufacturers to dump their waste into Flint’s water supply and a very notable and vocal contingent of nominally democratic “voters” will show up here to blame the democrats for letting it happen.

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kryptik:

    As Jim noted, the VA governor’s race is coming up. It’s a blue state with a Dem governor who’s done a good job, so the odds of holding the seat look pretty good.

    I don’t know much about NJ, except that Chris Christie is about as popular as syphilis there right now. No idea if that translates into a D win.

  119. 119.

    SFAW

    @JR in WV:

    Thanks for the tips/ideas/thought.

    Of course, devout atheist that I am, were I to quote Scripture, God might smite me for being a fucking wise guy. [To be more serious about that: if I start doing that, I run the risk of being asked about it, and being “found out” might negate my attempt.]

    But I can probably work some variant in there.

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