Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

In my day, never was longer.

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

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Republicans in disarray!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Thursday Morning Open Thread: “Don’t Agonize – Organize”

Thursday Morning Open Thread: “Don’t Agonize – Organize”

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Apart from that, what’s on the agenda as we start another day?

I may have to add yet another category to the ever-growing list…

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  1. 1.

    p.a.

    I know they’re repeats, but yesterday’s Get Fuzzy should get your day off to a good start, at least, especially pet owners.

    Also too: FRIST! and Good Morning!

  2. 2.

    Phylllis

    Next to last workday in the office for this school year. Off to a conference in Greenville SC Sunday thru next Wednesday and then wrap up the year next Thursday. After that, 220 days until retirement. From this job anyway.

    ETA: Call your senators, even if you’re stuck with a couple of shitheels like Tim Scott and Lindsay Graham like I am.

  3. 3.

    Brachiator

    Trump’s Iowa rally is his pivot. Feeling frisky with GOP wins in the various special elections, he now says that of course his cabinet should consist of rich people. The poor are such losers. And now he talks about asking Congress to pass a law preventing immigrants from getting welfare for five years.

    Oh yes, the shoe has dropped.

    Resist!

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Tropical Storm Cindy is making land fall right now. Flash flooding and tornado watches for Baton Rouge. I’d tell my youngest to keep his head down, but living where he does, if he keeps it too far down he’d go “glub glub”. I’m not really worried, this isn’t his first rodeo, just a little anxious.

  14. 14.

    JPL

    @Yoda Dog: It’s Pelosi’s fault that we lost special elections in heavily republican districts.
    Actually it’s not unusual, for some to cast stones, even if it makes no sense.

  15. 15.

    Jinchi

    I don’t think most liberals are agonizing about the loss in Georgia as much as they are exasperated by a Democratic party that continues to play only on “safe” turf. They went all in on Georgia 6th and lost by 3.7%. They completely ignored S.C. 5th and lost by 3.2%. They lectured activists, who want to compete everywhere, about the need to focus on a single race – and then they lost that race. If they had invested in Kansas, Montana and South Carolina as well as Georgia and the results had been the same, the story line would be that Democrats have shifted the margins by 10-15 points. Instead it’s “Our brand is worse than Trump”.

  16. 16.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Yoda Dog: they want the return of inoffensive, white bread men as leaders.

    Just give up on “social issues” and economic justice they will say.

    Though to be fair, telling people that the Republicans want to let your boss keep screwing you out of a fair wage is something that can’t be said often enough.

  20. 20.

    Feathers

    @Yoda Dog: Dicks before chicks, amiright?

    They don’t have Hillary around to blame anymore and are just a bit lost. But it also shows that they are just the flip side of the Repub lie machine – building a community through hate, not shared goals.

  21. 21.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Jinchi: we did put money into those races, just that everyone wanted to pay attention to GA-06 exclusively.

    I’d also fault some liberal activists for falling to that perception trap. ‘We’ aren’t blameless for letting SC slip under the PR radar.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Today in STL shootings:

    A woman has been charged with shooting and critically injuring another woman early Tuesday morning after they fought over a stolen phone at a Holly Hills home, police say.

    The stupid, it hurts.

    An off-duty officer and a suspect were wounded in a confrontation that followed a police pursuit of a stolen car late Wednesday. Interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole said the officer had come out of his home to help when he was hit in the crossfire between officers and suspects who had been in the car.
    …..
    O’Toole said the car came to a stop near the intersection of Park Lane and Astra Avenue and three people inside got out and opened fire at officers. The off-duty officer who was hit had heard the commotion and came out of his nearby home with his own gun, the chief said. The officer was shot in the exchange of gunfire but it was unclear by whom, O’Toole said.

    Ah yes, unidentified good guy with a gun walks out of his house and is promptly shot at by both sides. The article does not state whether he was in uniform or not, but it would not surprise me in the least if he had been and got shot by a fellow cop anyway. Getting involved in a gunfight is never a good idea, no matter who you are.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @ThresherK: No, Tim Ryan — the guy who tried and failed to unseat Pelosi — made that stupid comment. Most Democrats aren’t dumb enough to fall for it, but it sure is catnip for Fox News, etc.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jinchi: You know who said, “Our brand is worse than Trump”? Tim Ryan, the congressman who tried and failed to unseat Pelosi a while back. He has an agenda, and he doesn’t mind if he shovels massive amounts of catnip to Fox News and Donald Trump with a line like that. The rest of us shouldn’t fall for it.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    I’m working on my fax to Rob Portman, the hypocrite. I intend to send it after I know exactly what is in the bill.

  30. 30.

    Lounger

    So I skimmed the front-page Times article, and the person who gave them the “Our Brand is Worse than Trump” headline is … wait for it …

    Rep. Tim Ryan.

    The article does contain some possibly constructive critiques from some Progressive Caucus members, but you wouldn’t know that from the headline, of course.

  31. 31.

    Yoda Dog

    @ThresherK: Fuck yea, they are… Some chucklehead (white, of course..) dem congressman on MSNBC was just talking this nonsense. Also, the dem brand is “toxic” now too, apparently, because Ossof lost and the republicans say so.. He’s not the only example I’ve heard since the elections either.

  32. 32.

    Thoughtful David

    I see that frat-boy Jared read a speech poorly about the government technology issue, demonstrating no knowledge or understanding. No surprise there.
    But he seems to be very sensitive to mocking. After his “St. Laurent of Arabia” moment back in April, and the hilarious and well-deserved mocking he got for that, he disappeared from public view for more than a month. I suspect that’s the reason for no photos on his trip to Israel, too.
    So I think everyone should mock the shit out of him for this too. Make sure he’s too humiliated to show his face again until his espionage trial. Of course, he’ll be able to cause plenty of damage while out of sight, but at least we won’t have to look at the fucker.

  33. 33.

    PsiFighter37

    One of the top NYT comments on the ‘Dems in disarray!’ article cites Democrats needing to talk about economic issues 100%. Sure, that is (and should) be the focus for districts that need it, but GA-06 has a pretty high median income in an economy that is near its peak. Not sure how well that message would play to the voters Ossoff needed to swing.

    Right now, the DCCC and national Democrats are disorganized as hell, and that’s the one thing that worries me about 2018 – that a complete lack of cohesion will lead to chaos. If there’s one thing Bloomberg had right in his assessment that Teump has a better-than-even chance of being reelected, it is that the left is almost completely broken. We have St. Wilmer to thank for that on a continuing basis.

  38. 38.

    ThresherK

    @Betty Cracker: I had to look up who he is.

    That’s quite a fail on his part for someone with an interest in politics like I have. It’s akin to saying, now, in late June, “Oh, Hollywood made a CHiPs movie? I forgot all about it.”

  42. 42.

    ThresherK

    @debbie: I think I just got out of the car before that interview aired. DIdn’t hear Ryan’s name, but did hear how tilted NPR’s language was leading up to a story about Dems regaining power.

  43. 43.

    ThresherK

    @maurinsky: “Wilmerites shit down a stovepipe about the Democratic party, and it’s on the front page of the NYT” is almost a given as of late.

  44. 44.

    BlueDWarrior

    @PsiFighter37: these are people who can’t let 1968 go. In some cases literally.

    I don’t know what it’s going to take for the left on this country to realize you can’t win elections without real organization and infrastructure. It’s almost as if they’d rather lose as a disorganized diaspora than compromise with each other and centrists to at least try and win.

  47. 47.

    kd bart

    @Baud: South Carolina race was probably that close because it slipped under the radar. The GOP paid little attention to it either. Very low turnout.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    Primary Tim Ryan!

    And fuck the fucking NY Times for going with that “our brand is worse than Trump” shit. Not true. And at least one of the FTFNYTimes reporters is a Republican-whispering Politico alumni. Politico is their farm team.

    I heart Nancy Pelosi. Because hers is in the right place, inside a woman of steel. (Fuck the dudebros too. I dropped a guy I was dating a while back when I realized he was one… other reasons too, but that was the “aha” moment.)

  49. 49.

    kd bart

    @maurinsky: I bet if you asked your average Bernie Bro, they’d think that the Dems loss seats in the House in the 2016 election when in actuality they picked up 6 seats.

  50. 50.

    Keith G

    I have a friend who lives in the Georgia 6th Congressional District. He’s voted for Ossoff, but he told me last night that he was very disappointed in Ossoff’s campaign. He said it seem to him that Ossoff, through his advertising, appeared to be a Democratic candidate who did not want to offend Trump voters by hitting Trump and the GOP hard on the issues that Democrats overwhelmingly care about.

    I was told in one of Ossoff’ main ads, he listed four things he was going to do once in office. Third on the list was to fix Obamacare. Tax cuts, the environment, issues of corporate regulation were not even mentioned.

    Maybe it’s the case that playing it safe was his best strategy. It just seems that playing it safe has not been a friend to the hopes of the Democratic Party.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    @kd bart: Yup. Team D picked up 2 seats in the Senate in 2016, also too. Yet it was a [klaxxon]GOP Blowout of Historic Proportions[/klaxxon], or something.

    Political reporting is broken, not Democratic party politics.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“Who recognizes we do not live in the best of all possible worlds…”)

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Keith G:

    It just seems that playing it safe has not been a friend to the hopes of the Democratic Party.

    Playing not to lose is not the same as playing to win.

  62. 62.

    Aimai

    @Keith G: this is so weird–Ossof’s strategy brought him very close to winning–how many republicans had to vote for him to get as far as he did? How many democrats were there in that district in the first place. Voters like your friend make the mistake of assuming every other voter shares their particular constellation of fantasies, fears, lusts. They don’t. its far from clear where ossofs extra votes needed to come from.

  63. 63.

    efgoldman

    @Yoda Dog:

    Why are some Democrats calling for Pelosi’s job?

    Must be something about congresscritters named “Ryan.” Tim has obviously had a brain-ectomy, the same as Granny Starver.

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    George Clooney’s Tequila Company Sold for Up to $1 Billion
    By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
    JUNE 21, 2017

    George Clooney is an award-winning actor, a new father and a world-class prankster.

    Now he can add “start-up founder who hit the jackpot” to his résumé.

    Casamigos, the tequila brand that Mr. Clooney founded with his friends Rande Gerber and Mike Meldman in 2013, said Wednesday that it had sold itself to the spirits giant Diageo. The deal values the company at up to $1 billion: $700 million in cash upfront and up to $300 million more if it hits sales targets over the next decade.

    “If you asked us four years ago if we had a billion-dollar company, I don’t think we would have said yes,” Mr. Clooney said in a statement. “This reflects Diageo’s belief in our company and our belief in Diageo.”

    The transaction makes Mr. Clooney one of the most successful celebrity investors around.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    Want to know what GOP’s Medicaid cuts would do to poor people?
    This letter from insurers is really striking:https://t.co/syUoeimE0z pic.twitter.com/SEi1jhS8xB
    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 22, 2017

    Interesting how “repeal” has become “reshape.” cc @philipaklein https://t.co/yALZxuCzPM
    — Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 22, 2017

    AP sources: Senate GOP health bill would reshape Obama law (from @AP) https://t.co/gwFXMg4dSa
    — DonnaCassataAP (@DonnaCassataAP) June 22, 2017

    RESHAPE must be a Frank Luntz focus group approved word.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Not on that occasion. ;-) And he does say he voted for HRC, and I believe him.

    I think he thought I would wise up and come running back to his superior intellect and presumed appeal. Uh, no.

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    For accuracy’s sake, let’s go a bit further. The ACA actually limits undocumented immigrants from receiving many of its benefits. https://t.co/95dbKHUFW2
    — Craig Garthwaite (@C_Garthwaite) June 22, 2017

    And to be clear: ACA doesn’t require providing care to undocumented immigrants. Some counties chose to do it anyway. https://t.co/6AZMN1ggT5
    — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) June 22, 2017

    Some undocumented *do* get access and free care. But overall, they get much less than their counterparts. https://t.co/kzwUdBONtM pic.twitter.com/vcaGYj6ykd
    — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) June 22, 2017

  71. 71.

    Tenar Arha

    @Yoda Dog: This person @CandyAppleAlly on Twitter said what I think is happening better than me.

    The “Pelosi must go” campaign reminds me that if Republicans demonize a successful woman enough, Democratic dudes will eventually join in

    ETA This process works with successful Democratic men, but it’s much longer and more difficult –

  72. 72.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    Trump: I’m gonna intro legislation so new immigrants can’t get welfare for 5 years (It’s been the law for 21 years)

    This has been the law since 1996. It was signed by Bill Clinton.

    Then of course it’s not REALLY a law at all, not even a suggestion.

    Christ what an asshole

    Fuckem

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah: Wondering how much of that sale is the tequila’s quality, and how much of it is the link to George Clooney and Mr. Cindy Crawford.

  75. 75.

    JMG

    It should be a mission to primary any Democratic congressman who’s doomsaying. Clearly, these persons are unsuited for the hard and often dismal work of being the opposition party.
    I have no idea if a different tack would have helped Ossoff get more votes, but it never hurts to throw a little red meat out there for your side, if only for morale purposes.

  76. 76.

    mai naem mobile

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well, don’t tell your.youngest that FEMA doesn’t have a director because according to Dolt the Democrats are filibustering his (non existent) nominee.

  77. 77.

    weaselone

    @Jinchi:
    1. The Dem’s actually did donate money in all of these races. For example, the SC campaign got something on the order of 200K directly from the party. Not to mention all the money from “activists” or as they can be more accurately described “core Democrats”. You know, like the ones on this blog who were donating to these races and supporting these candidates regardless of whether they received the Bernie stamp of approval early, or begrudgingly days before the election.
    2. It’s still uncertain how it’s best to compete in special elections in traditionally strongly Republican areas. Do you go all in, like with Ossoff, or do you engage in more of a stealth campaign. Slide a little money in under the radar, maybe get a few organizers to help out and hope you can steal one by goosing your turnout to higher levels while the Republicans nap.
    3. Focusing specifically on the SC race. Archie got support from the DNC and Democrats. Perez rallied with him, as did O’Malley. Even the evil hag herself, Nancy Pelosi donated to the campaign. The weakness was actually those activists you talk about. Seems they weren’t so keen to help out a Goldman Sachs alum.

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    In other news, GovExec: Power Causes Brain Damage:

    When various lawmakers lit into John Stumpf at a congressional hearing last fall, each seemed to find a fresh way to flay the now-former CEO of Wells Fargo for failing to stop some 5,000 employees from setting up phony accounts for customers. But it was Stumpf’s performance that stood out. Here was a man who had risen to the top of the world’s most valuable bank, yet he seemed utterly unable to read a room. Although he apologized, he didn’t appear chastened or remorseful. Nor did he seem defiant or smug or even insincere. He looked disoriented, like a jet-lagged space traveler just arrived from Planet Stumpf, where deference to him is a natural law and 5,000 a commendably small number. Even the most direct barbs—“You have got to be kidding me” (Sean Duffy of Wisconsin); “I can’t believe some of what I’m hearing here” (Gregory Meeks of New York)—failed to shake him awake.

    What was going through Stumpf’s head? New research suggests that the better question may be: What wasn’t going through it?

    The historian Henry Adams was being metaphorical, not medical, when he described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” But that’s not far from where Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, ended up after years of lab and field experiments. Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.

    Sukhvinder Obhi, a neuroscientist at McMaster University, in Ontario, recently described something similar. Unlike Keltner, who studies behaviors, Obhi studies brains. And when he put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, “mirroring,” that may be a cornerstone of empathy. Which gives a neurological basis to what Keltner has termed the “power paradox”: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.

    […]

    Hmm….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  79. 79.

    mai naem mobile

    @efgoldman: its like the Planned Parenthood and federal funds for abortion garbage. Hyde Amendment has been in force for decades but the GOP screeches about fed funding about abortion.

  81. 81.

    Mowgli

    @Aimai: This… I live in GA-6 and it is a +10 to +20 GOP district. IMHO Ossoff’s campaign actually did a great job of targeted messaging, where the known D voters got daily mailers about saving Planned Parenthood, defeating Trump’s agenda, etc while the TV ads stayed focused on “mainstream” issues like bringing tech jobs to GA and keeping government accountable.
    This district was never going to be an easy flip, and once it became a proxy for the larger ideological and political battle, the GOP poured a ton of money and effort into holding it.

  83. 83.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: yeah. That was my thought. Like how many times are they going to pass that same law? My guess is that they’ll extend “public assistance” to include “allowing your kids t have a textbook at school” or go after refugees again

  86. 86.

    Peale

    @Quinerly: well,that’s the problem of all those grand gentlemen’s agreements. They require gentlemen.

    But short of voters shooting GOP campaign senators, what pray tell are we supposed to do about it?

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    @Mowgli: What makes me ill is the Wilmer contingent out crowing on Facebook about Ossoff losing because he’s a corporatist. Ready to unfriend some of those mother-effs. Eyes on the prize, morons.

  89. 89.

    MomSense

    The Republicans, aided and abetted by “journalists”, have been lying and fear mongering about ObamaCare since the beginning. In spite of it all we managed to pass the law and then they tried to obstruct and block and prevent it from taking effect because they knew that once people had access to health care they wouldn’t want to lose it. This is exactly what has happened judging from the current poll results. So now they are trying to sabotage the ACA exchanges so they can pretend they have no choice but to “fix the broken ObamaCare”. The problem for them is that at the same time they pretended that it would be so simple to fix it, that they had all these super duper “market solutions” except that mean black president and Democrat Senators and Reps were going nuclear, ramming it wherever, etc. We all remember the bullshit.

    And now their lies are all being revealed. They don’t have market solutions. They never gave a shit about process. They don’t care if people die. They don’t care about the opioid crisis or seniors or kids with cancer. They just want all those life saving, health care dollars for their tax cuts for themselves and their wealthy benefactors.

    They are evil.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: I have read of studies elsewhere showing that sociopaths have a better chance of becoming CEOs of large corporations, etc. Sounds like a “chicken or egg” question.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @Peale: But it’s not really the same law. They keep stretching the restrictions.

    1) Hyde: No public money to directly fund abortions.
    2) UN restrictions: No US money to directly fund abortions over seas.
    …
    3) Hobby Lobby: No private money from “religious corporations” to directly or indirectly fund health insurance that covers abortion (whether the policy is used for that or not).
    4) House and Senate bills: No government money to Planned Parenthood for medical services whether or not those services include abortion.

    Pretty soon they’ll try to pass something like:

    X) US currency cannot be used to pay for any aspect of abortion services or any person or organization that provides them. Such people and organizations are banned from the US banking system….
    Y) No person or organization that provides abortion services can use the Interstate Highway System or Common-Carrier transportation or communications systems in the US.

    Etc.

    Abortion will never go away as an issue for these people. No restriction is enough. They’ll pass the Hyde amendment every month if they want. They have to keep it alive as an issue to keep their “religious base” riled up.

    We have to fight them every single day and never assume that any gain is safe.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    The underappreciated detail about Nancy Pelosi’s public standing
    06/21/17 04:03 PM
    By Steve Benen

    About a month ago, when Republicans were quite concerned about losing special elections in Montana and Georgia, the GOP leaders made no secret about their plan to prevail: they’d just keep complaining about Nancy Pelosi and count on conservative voters to have the conditioned, knee-jerk response.

    “I think we’ll see if it works,” NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) said. “I believe it still works.”

    And despite four congressional special elections in which Dems easily outpaced last year’s Democratic performance in red districts in red states, there’s apparently a growing consensus that the House Minority Leader has become a political problem for her party. NBC News wrote this morning, “Democrats have to admit they have a Pelosi problem.”

    Politico reports today some on Capitol Hill are drawing the same conclusion

    There is no challenge to Pelosi’s leadership, and none is going to happen at this point, said numerous Democrats. But it’s clear frustration is growing with the longtime Democratic leader following the extensive losses Democrats have suffered over the past half-decade.

    And the fact that Republicans spent millions of dollars on TV ads tying Democratic hopeful Jon Ossoff to Pelosi – and the brand of progressive policies she represents – shows that she will once again be an issue for Democratic challengers in the very districts that the party needs to win to make her speaker again.

    Some Democrats want to replace Pelosi atop their caucus, as they have since last November’s poor showing at the polls; they say there is no way to get back in the majority with her as their leader. And others who backed her in last year’s leadership challenge have now flipped their stance.

    While I don’t know the degree to which that’s true, it’s plainly obvious that for much of the right, the House Democratic leader is effectively a culture-war totem. We don’t see multi-million-dollar ad campaigns attempting to tie various candidates to Chuck Schumer; we never really saw comparable attacks featuring Harry Reid; and we’re long past the point at which connecting Dems to Barack Obama would be effective; but Nancy Pelosi, for reasons that deserve quite a bit more scrutiny, remains the villain of choice for Republicans and their allies to bash with glee.

    There’s just one salient detail that gets overlooked amid this discussion.

    Less than a month ago, Quinnipiac released the results of a national poll, which included gauging public attitudes on congressional leaders. The results showed Nancy Pelosi with 30% favorable rating and a 50% unfavorable rating.

    And while numbers like those won’t win any popularity contests, the same poll showed House Speaker Paul Ryan with a 27% favorable rating and a 54% unfavorable rating.

  95. 95.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense:
    Southerner. In defense of Southerners, we have a long history of using family last names as first names. Could have been his mother’s maiden name.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    After tough talk, Trump is poised to deliver for the drug industry
    06/21/17 12:51 PM—UPDATED 06/21/17 01:42 PM
    By Steve Benen
    One of the few key areas on which Donald Trump broke with Republican Party orthodoxy was lowering prices on prescription drugs. In fact, shortly before taking office, he complained bitterly about the pharmaceutical industry’s powerful lobbyists, and said drug companies are “getting away with murder.”

    For some on the left, this offered at least some hope that the Trump administration would be progressive on the issue, though those hopes faded soon after the president took office. In late January, Trump reversed course, saying he no longer wanted to use the government’s buying power to lower costs, denouncing such a policy as “price fixing.”

    Vox explained at the time that the White House’s approach appeared to amount to little more than “lowering taxes” and “getting rid of regulations.”

    That turned out to be exactly right. Five months later, the New York Times reports on a draft of an executive order the president intends to sign on drug prices that “appears to give the pharmaceutical industry much of what it has asked for.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/after-tough-talk-trump-poised-deliver-the-drug-industry

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    Trump defends economic team: ‘I just don’t want a poor person’
    06/22/17 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    After last fall’s presidential election, as Donald Trump’s team took shape, it was hard not to notice that the new administration would be led in part by several Wall Street billionaires. Last night, the Trump campaign hosted a rally in Iowa, where the president shed some light on his perspective.

    “So somebody said, ‘Why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy,” Trump said to a group of his supporters at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. “I said, ‘Because that’s the kind of thinking we want … because they’re representing the country. They don’t want the money.”

    “And I love all people – rich or poor – but in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person,” Trump continued.

    As the Washington Post’s report added, in context, “those particular positions” referred to Trump’s secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross, whom he called a “the legendary Wall Street genius,” and Gary Cohn, his economic council director who was the president of Goldman Sachs – a title that Trump repeated four times.

    …………………………………

    What’s more, note the underlying assumption behind the boasts: the president genuinely seems to believe that it’s just common sense to put Wall Street millionaires and billionaires “in charge of the economy” – because they’re Wall Street millionaires and billionaires.

    Trump doesn’t “want a poor person” in a position of authority, because in his mind, a poor person must be incompetent. Otherwise, as the president sees it, he or she wouldn’t poor.

    It was an unscripted peek into Trump-brand populism: rich people should be seen as smart, Wall Street insiders should be seen as capable, Goldman Sachs must be synonymous with expertise, and it’s best to be skeptical of poor people.

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    WEDNESDAY, JUN 21, 2017 11:00 AM CDT
    No regrets for Trump voters: The media needs to stop looking for buyer’s remorse
    Psychological research shows people are too tribal and afraid to admit they were wrong to regret their votes
    AMANDA MARCOTTE

    What’s it going to take to get Donald Trump’s supporters to see the light? It’s a question on the minds of not only liberals but also anyone who still cherishes our democracy, and it grows more intense as evidence piles up of corruption and even suspicions of criminal activity by members of the Trump administration. Indeed, waiting and watching for signs of buyer’s remorse among Trump supporters has become a minor cottage industry within the mainstream media, with reporters and TV anchors displaying an almost pornographic interest in watching the mental hoops that Trump voters will go through so as to stand by their man.

    “Trump voters want jobs. Not noise about Russia,” reads a May 16 headline from CNN. A June 7 Vox headline notes that Trump voters are “disappointed” but “still voting Republican.” After the congressional hearing with former FBI Director James Comey, CNN held an on-air focus group of Trump voters and correspondent Gary Tuchman could barely contain his surprise at how they had not budged one bit from believing Trump was a good guy.

    When will these people see? Those of us who are not in the cult of Trump keep tuning in to find out. How many times does he have to admit to obstructing justice in public? How many angry, incoherent tweets about the investigation before his guilty-acting behavior gets to them? How long do we have to wait for Trump’s biggest fans to call their friends and apologize for their votes?

    Well, folks are going to have to keep on waiting because the answer to the question of when Trump voters will come around is somewhere between “a long, long time from now” and more likely “never.” Don’t be fooled by news stories for which journalists have dug up the occasional person who was willing to say he or she was wrong to vote for Trump. Those people are the exceptions, not the rule. Don’t be fooled by polls that show his approval ratings slipping; he’s losing only people who didn’t like him that much to begin with. Meanwhile, that quarter to a third of Americans who love him now will likely stay with him to the bitter end.

    And those who do change their minds about Trump? Most will never admit it but will move seamlessly into pretending they were never that into him in the first place.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    40 seconds to death: The horrifying truth of Philando Castile’s killing
    Dashcam video shows Officer Jeronimo Yanez took less than a minute to decide that Philando Castile had to die
    D. WATKINS

    The dashcam video of Philando Castile’s public execution was finally released, days after the acquittal of his killer, Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer, on charges of felony manslaughter and reckless discharge of a weapon.

    Castile was shot by Yanez almost a year ago, on July 6, 2016. Many remember the incident vividly because Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, live-streamed a huge part of the disturbing tragedy on Facebook.

    The dashcam video shows Castile’s car pulling over and coming to a complete stop. Yanez exits his vehicle and approaches the driver’s side of Castile’s car. He tells Castile, who is calm and wearing a seat belt, that the car’s brake light is out, before asking for Castile’s license and insurance documentation. Castile reaches for his paperwork and properly informs Yanez that he has a weapon.

    http://www.salon.com/2017/06/21/40-seconds-to-death-the-horrifying-truth-of-philando-castiles-killing/

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    Trump loves to talk about his TIME covers—was reportedly annoyed when Bannon got one
    New cover: Special Counsel Mueller: “The Lie Detector” pic.twitter.com/7JasZH7I15
    — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) June 22, 2017

  104. 104.

    rikyrah

    CNN: Intel chiefs Coats and Rogers tell investigators Trump suggested they publicly refute collusion with Russians.https://t.co/GRwtMUXIdL
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2017

    Coats and Rogers described interactions with Trump about Russia “as odd and uncomfortable”, did not believe Trump ordered them to interfere. https://t.co/N4NVhCQszw
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2017

    “Both men told Mueller’s team they were surprised the President would suggest that they publicly declare he was not involved in collusion.” https://t.co/N4NVhCQszw
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2017

    “One source said that Trump wanted [Coats and Rogers] to say publicly…that he was not under investigation for collusion.” https://t.co/N4NVhCQszw
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 22, 2017

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    @RepTimRyan focus pls; Dems have few days to save Obamacare; energy of ALL Dems is needed 2 pushback vs corrupt gop & devastating #Trumpcare
    — Linda Kyambadde (@globalcitizenln) June 22, 2017

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    Colbert: “GOP has set July 4 as deadline to gut Obamacare. So if you’re going to blow off your fingers with fireworks, do it on July 3.” pic.twitter.com/owMHHVH4ox
    — Roger Simon (@politicoroger) June 22, 2017

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    @Tenar Arha: This is part of the madness of King Donald. I don’t expect to see effective or competent governance, but a mean spirited appeal to the mob under the pretense that he is making America great for those who “really deserve it.”

  111. 111.

    Blueskies

    @Jinchi: I agree. At some point you can’t keep TELLING activists they are wrong (in this case, about challenging for every seat) if you yourself continue to be wrong (in this case, if you keep LOSING the one or two races you target). This is obvious, though some people would like to ignore this obviously obvious obviousness.

    It’s not that Nancy Smash isn’t smashing, but it’s not like she’s a genius at this specific task. I think she’s brilliant at heading up the House, whether in majority or minority. I hope she lives to be 121 years old and never retires.

    That said, and I don’t know if this is true, but I have been told that Ossoff was chosen by the party as THE candidate. He may have looked great to them, but there wasn’t as snowball’s chance in hell that he was going to win that district. The candidate and campaign were the product of the national party. A child could’ve told them that they needed to run someone who was truly progressive (to capture the base) but also very aggressive in taking right at Trump (to capture the independents and to gain the grudging respect of the fence-sitters). That was the only chance they had to win. Ossoff was neither and it was obvious that he was neither from the very beginning.

  112. 112.

    low-tech cyclist

    Michael Crowley’s tweet (“I was waiting in a GOP Senator’s office today and the front desk phones were ringing nonstop with angry health care calls”) was good news. I’d heard that for awhile, phone traffic at Congressional offices had dropped to pre-Trump levels. Looks like that’s fixed.

    (I’m doing my bit, but all of my Congresscritters are solid Dems, so I’m not changing anyone’s vote.)

  113. 113.

    sherparick

    @Keith G: The consultant class of the Democrats constantly counsel Democrats to stress “Fiscal Conservative” as a way of attracting “Republican moderates.” The problem is in Georgia, these Republican “moderates” are really not that many and most whites have aligned with the Republican party on the theory that the Democrats are the part of “those people” who will raise their taxes to “give benefits” to those People. Also, Ossoff failed to point out what a horrible person Handel, Ryan, and Trump are and go negative in his ads.

  114. 114.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I had read about him in April and was pleasantly surprised. Hoping your son will be ok. Now on a serious note ❤, will your other son build me a 12 ft by 5 ft built in bookcase? Getting bids. Red suggested that I call him. She’s going to be here most of the day. Do you have my email?

  115. 115.

    Juice Box

    @Blueskies: But Ossoff did “capture the base”. He had a spectacularly high vote total for a Democrat in that heavily Republican district. Quite a lot of those Democrats are not very progressive.

  116. 116.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah:
    I’m just so fucking sick of this shit. Can you even imagine if this was HRC? Even 1/2 of this? I don’t even understand what kind of world we are living in.

  118. 118.

    Peale

    @Yoda Dog: yep. So toxic that every democrat and his uncle showed up to vote in that district.

    @Blueskies: oh BS on the hand picked by national. he had to be. If there was more than 1 democratic candidate, neither would have made the run off. Sometime, you actually have to coordinate with Other party members if you want a seat at the table. It’s not like there was a party primary. Or some long list of candidates in that district to run. The reason there was a race at all is that the party didn’t put up 2 candidates and a dozen cranks in the jungle primary to split up votes.

  119. 119.

    ThresherK

    @rikyrah: He…loves to talk about his Time covers?

    I enjoy ye olde medieval arte. Y’know. those paintings which show scenes from the Bible or mythology, from when perspective hadn’t been invented yet, and everybody’s body positions, furniture and backgrounds are oddly shaped and placed.

    I went to enough Catholic school to figure out what’s going on in these paintings, and some of them are incredible in communicating stories to a population which was (except for certain Catholic monks/etc, and lords/kings/etc) basically illiterate.

    For all the other things Trump lacks, we can add “Doesn’t realize those Time covers are not flattering”? He’s art-illiterate, too?

  120. 120.

    Chyron HR

    @Blueskies:

    A child could’ve told them that they needed to run someone who was truly progressive

    Because Georgia Republicans yearn for a TRUE PROGRESSIVE! The senator from Vermont issued a holy decree proclaiming this to be true, now and forever. Death to Nancy Pelosi and all others who defy His divine will.

  121. 121.

    kd bart

    @Mowgli: So many mailers were sent out that it reached a point where The Law of Diminishing Returns took effect.

  122. 122.

    kd bart

    @BillinGlendaleCA: The 2 month lag between the two elections was bad for Ossoff. It allowed the GOP plenty of time to coalesce around Handel and campaign against him. He might’ve been able to steal it if the election had been a month earlier..

  123. 123.

    tobie

    @PsiFighter37:

    We have St. Wilmer to thank for that on a continuing basis.

    I really wish there could be some referendum in the Democratic party about whether we want him as a standard bearer for the party at all. There’s this assumption that he has a huge base and I actually don’t think that’s true any longer. Putin couldn’t have invented a better figure to destroy the Democratic Party.
    EDIT: The primary should have been that referendum but unlike any other election cycle it didn’t end when the voting was over.

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: still waiting for some brave national Dem to stand up and tell Trumpov, “It’s. Not. Just. About. YOU, mr. president*…we need to look into this attack on our country and get the word out, quickly, or they’ll do it again. The fact that you don’t give a shit about what Russia did, how they did it, and that they plan to do it again already tells us – collusion investigation or no – that you have broken your oath of office to defend this country and its constitution, and you should resign immediately.”

  125. 125.

    tobie

    @Blueskies:

    A child could’ve told them that they needed to run someone who was truly progressive (to capture the base)

    Um, he got the base. And turned a lot of GOPers over, too. What planet do you live on? Obviously not one where facts are relevant.

    By the way how are Congressman Quist (MT) and Congressman Thompson (KS) working out for you?

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    @Blueskies:

    .A child could’ve told them that they needed to run someone who was truly progressive (to capture the base) but also very aggressive in taking right at Trump (to capture the independents and to gain the grudging respect of the fence-sitters)

    Was there anyone available who fit the bill?

  127. 127.

    Jeffro

    Btw, this crap is fucking irritating: comparing U2 to Trumpov when they could not be more opposite: U2 Goes MAGA At FedEx Field

    No red ballcap, but Bono still wants to make America great again. So he’s taken U2 on a tour across our damaged nation to perform “The Joshua Tree,” his 1987 love letter to the home of the brave that remains his band’s most enduring document. These are U2’s most capacious songs, and despite being filled with the best of intentions, there’s still lots of room for everyone to pile on in. “Whoever you voted for, you are welcome here tonight,” Bono declared at FedEx Field in Maryland on Tuesday evening. “We will find common ground reaching for higher ground.”

    That’s nice, but the between-banter music didn’t feel like too strenuous of a reach. Instead, the band ceremonially delivered its signature blend of grandeur and uplift, hoping to repair the burning bridges of 2017 by transporting its adoring crowd 30 years back to a moment of global optimism, when prosperity was on the rise and the Cold War was drawing to a close. Strangely, U2 won the night the same way that Donald Trump won the presidency: by promising to improve tomorrow by making it feel more like yesterday. (Plus, there must be some morsel of cosmic significance in the fact that Trump first published “The Art of the Deal” in November of ’87, a mere eight months after “The Joshua Tree” sprouted.)

    So…”find[ing] common ground to reach higher ground” = just another way to Make America Great Again. Uh huh. U2 “won the night the same way that [Trumpov] won the presidency…” Uh huh. Post writer, you suck.

    Well, except for this line:

    Adam Clayton still appears to be enjoying the easiest job in rock-and-roll.

    I have to give him that one…

  128. 128.

    chopper

    pelosi’s job isn’t to win special elections. her job is to keep the dem caucus together and united in opposition to the garbage the goopers are flinging at us and in that regard there’s nobody I can think of who can do a better job. certainly not tim ryan.

  130. 130.

    Jeffro

    @Quinerly: That’s one heck of a defense all right. Blaming the bank robbery on the the teller being slow to call the cops, instead of, you know, the robbers.

  131. 131.

    hovercraft

    To all the morons bitching about Nancy Pelosi, and how she’s polarizing and old, I have one question for you. When was the last time we had an effective leader who was not the most polarizing partisan person evah?
    Leaders are supposed to lead, and since the opposition disagrees with our side, of course they call them partisan, they are looking out for the interests of our side, it’s their job.
    Harry Reid – evil, lets defeat him, failed
    Tom Daschle – evil, lets defeat him, succeeded
    Nancy Pelosi – evil bitch, lets defeat her from the right and left, can’t touch her, so lets whine to the media since she’s the most effective leader the house has seen in decades, and see if they can rid them of this meddlesome bitch.
    Someone yesterday pointed out that Pelosi and ZEGS have similar numbers, but no one calls him polarizing, funny that. Also too, Pelosi like Hillary scares the shit out of the pathetic losers on the other side, so they’ve spent a lot of time ans money on demonizing her. Fuck anyone who wants to give the GOP what they want, someone who isn’t a master at herding cats, just ask Ryan and Boehner, it’s a lot harder than it looks.

  137. 137.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Quinerly:

    Can you even imagine if this was HRC?

    Alas, we don’t need to imagine: Bill met with Loretta Lynch for 20 minutes and talked grandkids, and the GOP is still howling about it.

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    Democrats Should Do to McConnell What the GOP Does to Pelosi
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    June 22, 2017 8:00 AM

    The three leaders of the Republican Party right now (Trump, McConnell and Ryan) pose very different threats. The threat Trump poses as president is on obvious display for everyone but his most ardent supporters. His lies are blatant and his attacks are vicious, but childish. In many ways Trump would be forgettable in any public office other than the one he now holds. As the executive in charge of the entire federal bureaucracy and the leader of America’s foreign policy, we’re seeing how dangerous it is to have someone as mentally unbalanced as Trump in that role.

    Ryan is the only real ideologue of the group. His philosophy is rooted in the survival of the fittest as espoused by people like Ayn Rand. While that is a challenge, it is his youthful-looking sincerity as he obfuscates and lies that poses the real threat. That worked so well that most of the media even bought into the idea that he’s some kind of policy wonk with his power point nonsense.

    Mitch McConnell is no ideologue. He rose to power in the Republican ranks by raising money and defending the right to do so by any means necessary. Jordan Weismann has a pretty good run-down on the way in which McConnell poses a threat.

    …………………………………..

    Given how we’ve seen the Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare unfold, I think it is safe to say that McConnell poses a bigger threat to our democracy than Ryan. With the latter, his ideologically-based approach appeals to those who already agree with him. When he lies and obfuscates, it is possible to call him out. As a result, the American public was pretty energized in fighting back when the AHCA was making its way through the House.

    As Weismann suggests, McConnell’s approach relies on complicity from the public in order to be successful. Neither voters nor the media are willing to engage on the minutia of congressional processes to hold him accountable. That is what Mike Lofgren was on to way back in 2011. He walked through the strategy as well as why it works with both the public and the media.

    ……………………………………

    The media is never going to tackle this threat because their only tools are to lay out the process in a technical way and readers just aren’t interested. Democrats tend to either craft ideological arguments against each position or critique the process is a technical way. Neither of those ever get the public engaged in the root of the problem.

    In the wake of the special election in Georgia yesterday, there is some talk about how Karen Handel ran endless ads linking Jon Ossoff to Nancy Pelosi. As Kevin Drum pointed out so effectively, Handel wasn’t making a direct connection to the policy positions of Pelosi. What Republicans have done over the years is make the minority leader the symbol of the threat Democrats pose to conservative values.

    That made me realize that McConnell poses a threat to “people who genuinely value the tenets of democracy, meaning no more than the passionate desire to settle differences by debate and argument, rather than by power and cruelty and clan.”

    My suggestion is that Democrats should start making that argument against McConnell (which, unlike the attacks against Pelosi, has the benefit of being true). Then in 2018, every Democratic candidate for Senate could make the case that a vote for their opponent is a vote for McConnell and against our values in a democracy. This is one time when I don’t mind taking a page out of the Republican playbook.

  142. 142.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Quinerly:

    Think I need a couple days break.

    Not a bad thing to give yourself some mental health days off. I am dialing it back too. I’m still engaged of course, but can’t sustain the 24/7 elevated cortisol levels indefinitely.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    This is a good point. It IS bizarre and the response of the tech support guy at the DNC makes more sense in that context- he thought it was a crank call because he assumed information like this would be bigger– that it would be more than a single FBI agent. I can see that. I can see thinking “if this is real there will be a real response- bigger than calling me and leaving messages”

    It’s almost a token effort, “leaving messages” about it- it’s what people do when they want to make a record and cover their ass but not do anything else.

    As I wrote at the time, the Times article was jarring and a bit bizarre in that its narrative was framed around the alleged indifference and fumbling nature of the DNC’s response, which led to the committee’s further victimization. As the Times put it, “The D.N.C.’s fumbling encounter with the F.B.I. meant the best chance to halt the Russian intrusion was lost.” This is an amazing gloss, almost certainly the product of the Times reporters working mainly with the FBI to understand the story.

    it is astonishing that the FBI had learned that Russia had compromised the computer networks of one of the country’s two main political parties and was content to have a single agent leave messages with someone at the DNC’s tech support help line to try to sound the alarm. It’s simply astonishing, and even more so since the FBI, as late as December was still in CYA mode spinning the story to reporters as the DNC’s fail.

  144. 144.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @rikyrah: Mitch McConnell is blandly evil, which is why I think he’s escaped significant scrutiny so far. I agree with the article that he is actually much more dangerous than Paul Ryan. McConnell is wily, knows how things work in the Senate, and has no principles beyond enrichment and power.

    ETA: To clarify antecedents.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, talks with Rachel Maddow about the threat of the Republican health bill to American women’s health care

    Two very important side issues for the Republicans are to repeal the taxes on the rich that help fund ACA, and to kill all government assistance to Planned Parenthood.

  146. 146.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    I think we need to know what efforts the FBI made, besides leaving messages at the DNC help desk. Mueller can certainly call FBI agents and officials as witnesses or interview them and ask them what they did. That can’t be classified or just generally secret, can it? If it can then no one would ever know if they’re doing a good job, or indeed any work at all.

    The problem with election systems conspiracy theories on the Right is they would have to be conspiracies. To work they would need a lot of people in on it and some of those people would have to be on the inside. That’s where the voter fraud theories on the Right always fall apart – you ask “well, what about the real voter who tries to vote after the fake voter- he has to be in on it too, right?” – you would need hundreds, thousands, of people and also poll workers and county election officials – just a big group.

    This really was a conspiracy. So a rational question to ask would be not “which Trump hires were in on the conspiracy?” but much broader- “which people were in on the conspiracy”? If I’m running a conspiracy to subvert a US election I need more than campaign people- I need people who already work for the government.

    I’m reading about Depression-era criminals- criminal gangs really- and the successful gangs, the gangs who made real money and took a long time to get caught were the gangs who had people inside. Police officers to look the other way, disgruntled or paid-off bank employees. They couldn’t have succeeded without the insiders. There were really two tiers of criminals. The upper tier thieves worked cooperatively with management and government, because they needed management and government. They were part of a criminal conspiracy but it wasn’t limited to “criminals”.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    the Mueller cover makes me nervous. We’re really fond of the Single Great Man theory of history. If it’s this corrupt one man isn’t going to rescue us. People made fun of Trump for “I alone will save you” but Americans actually love that. “oh thank God- the person who will save us is here”.

    Mueller is the One Honest Man? Jesus Christ. If that’s true we are in big trouble. Probably need more than one.

  149. 149.

    ellie

    @Juice Box: Agreed. Here is a good article on the situation:

    I was on my way to the Jon Ossoff watch party at a fancy Westin in North Atlanta when I got a call from a good colleague of mine. Somewhere between a black millennial and Gen Xer, he was someone who’d worked on campaigns in Georgia and had a pretty good feel for what was going on throughout Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs.

    “That white boy ’bout to lose,” was the first thing he said.

    http://www.theroot.com/that-white-boy-bout-to-lose-the-inescapable-racial-po-1796294201

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