Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

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

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

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

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

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Second rate reporter says what?

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Be a wild strawberry.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Monday Morning Open Thread: Sisters Are Doin’ It

Monday Morning Open Thread: Sisters Are Doin’ It

by | 193 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,


.

Apart from savoring a hard-earned victory, what’s on the agenda as we start the new week?

***********

Jay Willis, GQ, three days ago:

At around 1:30 in the morning, after he was sure that he finally had the attention of the Senate clerk and of his nervous, exhausted colleagues who had been watching his every move, John McCain dramatically plunged his outstretched arm downwards, finally sealing the fate of Mitch McConnell’s “skinny repeal” bill in a gesture that had all the drama of a WWE heel turn. It was a wild, shocking moment that drew gasps from the gallery, and the only reason it mattered at all is because, from the very beginning of this debacle of an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, two women Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—never gave a fucking inch…

The Affordable Care Act is safe because of the courage of two women who were not swayed by threats, bribes, and every brand of public and private pressure. They might not be getting as much shine as John McCain today, but they are far more deserving of it.

#EveryVoiceMatters

Reader Interactions

193Comments

  2. 2.

    daveNYC

    Not that I’d turn down any of these No votes because their motives aren’t pure enough, but Collins has been pretty useless as a ‘moderate’ Republican and I’m not sure how she’d have voted if she weren’t interested in the 2018 governor race in Maine.

  7. 7.

    Hal

    Taking the bus to work and having a good laugh at Sam Seder and Michael Brooks impersonating Lindsey Graham.

  9. 9.

    Keith P.

    Just had my cat sit on my bed next to my head just staring at me. I’d stroke her fur and scratch her cheek, and she’d soak it all up, loving the attention. But she wouldn’t leave. So I go, “Are you hungry?”, to which she cocked an ear back. “Do you want food?” She jumps to the floor and leads me to the back patio and sits on a piece of wood she likes and just stares at me. I give her some dry food, and she just stares. Can of moist, she digs in, finally happy.

  10. 10.

    raven

    It’s 63 degrees in Georgia in JULY!! We had a fan in the window last night and something got drawn in that caused our hardwired smoke alarm to emit some low level, intermittent beeps. It caused Mr Bohdi to nudge both of us until we woke up and then he was shaking from fear (I guess). Years ago a water line broke on our clawfoot tub and he woke us up.

    Whose a good doggie?

  11. 11.

    TS

    So some twat on MJ says John Kelly will be a winner in the White House & will get it all together – hahahahahahaha

  12. 12.

    Quinerly

    @raven:
    I might be that cool here on the coast of NC. Slept with the bedroom deck door open, sound of the ocean…light blanket. Poco slept on the deck like he does when we are here in the Fall and Spring.??.

    Great picture!

  15. 15.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Christina Wilkie ✔ @christinawilkie

    Priebus warned Trump not to hire Scaramucci, saying SkyBridge Capital’s buyers overpaid because he’d promised them special access to Trump.

    Priebus then told Trump that he felt Scaramucci had been offered too much for SkyBridge by HNA Group. The deal, he implied, smelled bad — as if the Chinese might expect favors from within the administration for that inflated price. The source also said that Priebus mentioned there was email traffic between Scaramucci and the Chinese proving this. (link)

    11:59 AM – Jul 29, 2017

    Looks like there are intercepts showing Scaramucci committing treason.

    BUT WAIT! — THERE’S MORE

    Scaramucci’s spokesperson Arthur Schwartz responded to the news of treason on a now deleted tweet:

    “Hey @Reince45. Oops; @Reince – you’re unemployed now. Keep pushing this crap & I’ll start dropping oppo on you. Mistress much, ???,”

    Proving, yet again, Trump only hires the best people.

  18. 18.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    the low beeps indicate time for a new battery. I don’t know how it knows but ours always decides to start that at 2AM

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    I think I might have a gigantic comment lost in the FYWP twilight zone. Please rescue it, somebody in authority.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    @raven

    So the digging for leak remediation and pipe replacement is (as I predicted) a bigger job than the plumbers thought, and they’ll return Monday to finish up. Even with a gas powered trench digger it took them 5 or 6 hours on Saturday to complete the digging and do some temporary patching. Felt their pain, as part of the trench goes up a steepish slope. Replacement pipes will be Upronor, which sounds like a Russian super-hero name but in reality is a branded PEX material that originates in Finland.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    This Ivanka story. Good God.

    Ivanka Trump has had some victories. While she lost out on persuading her father not to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, she had much more success in limiting a religious liberties executive order to abortion and procreation issues, cutting out many other possibilities that would have angered the LGBT community.

    So if she had just not gone to work the last 6 months that executive order would have had more words in it. She tells us.

    She wants to lower expectations. She shouldn’t worry. Mine could not be lower. I think she should not go to her fake job at all, let alone do anything when she gets there.

  23. 23.

    Schlemazel

    @WereBear:
    We are very much at war with Russia currently. The battles are all taking place in cyberspace so no large numbers of dead bodies. BTW – in the war between Russia and the US China is winning

  24. 24.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    So are mine but they also have a 9v battery. You would think that they would keep the battery charged but no.

  30. 30.

    Patricia Kayden

    @daveNYC: You may be right to impugn her motives but in this one instance Collins’ vote was crucial to moving in the right direction. All three Republican Senators deserve praise for stepping out and doing the right thing which was something their colleagues weren’t prepared to do. And kudos to the Democrats for standing firmly with Schumer in the first place.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    she had much more success in limiting a religious liberties executive order to abortion and procreation issues

    That seems worse because it favors a particular set of religious views.

  32. 32.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    mine also does a blinky thing with the LED, if yours is not blinking save the trip and see if it stops on its own

  33. 33.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: But she completely failed at stopping her idiot father from tweeting an anti-transgender military policy (which took the Generals by complete surprise). No biggie for her but kicking transgender individuals out of the military as her father decreed is going to be difficult and demoralizing. Ivanka has no positive influence on her father that is useful or discernible to the public eye. She’s not fooling anyone by claiming otherwise.

  34. 34.

    Shrillhouse

    Successfully completed my first triathlon on Saturday.

    Perfect weather, and I felt strong the whole way through, although I was seriously under-prepared for the bike leg.

    Looking forward to the next one. NOT looking forward to going back to work this morning after a week’s vacation…

  35. 35.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Amen to that. She wants to have it both ways. “I’m not responsible.” But if anything good happens: “I did that!” Ugh.

  37. 37.

    bystander

    Watching Moanin’ Joe: Why do they keep calling a 71 year old man “inexperienced”? Trump has lots of experience – if only the Presidency required bankruptcy filings, fraud and sexual assault.

    I sure hope Kelly is going to be able to turn twitler into an entirely new and different human being.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    She heroically managed to make the religious Right focus exclusively on limiting women’s rights. We’re supposed to be grateful to her. I read that 25% of the words in the Trumpcare repeal were anti-abortion. One quarter. They could not make it more clear how they see women as exclusively for reproduction if they tried.

    It’s probably a pack of lies anyway. She planted the whole thing. I’d need to actually see names of the people quoted. Honestly at this point I’d need to re-interview each of them. I’m not sure they exist.

  44. 44.

    Quinerly

    @raven:
    And we had that storm on Saturday. (BTW, did Cole ever say where he is? He had rain on Saturday, too.) His photos sure do look like the NC coast.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Schlemazel: They interact. When one goes off, they are all supposed to go off. If the fire is in the basement and you are asleep on the 2nd floor, you will know. I have now plumbed the depths of my extensive knowledge of smoke detectors.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    They can’t kick 15,000 people out of the military and reserves based on a Tweet.

    Just because the President and Ivanka have no idea how laws work that doesn’t mean they can completely subvert process. The funniest part of that whole episode is Trump panicked. They told him they wanted something or other in exchange for funding for his spite wall and he gave them MUCH MORE than they asked for.

    Worst deal maker ever. No one asked that they be kicked out, because that’s ridiculous. They’re probably mad. They could have gotten just about anything in return for a billion for the spite wall. They’ll know in the next negotiation.

  50. 50.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kay:

    She wants to lower expectations.

    Cynics say that she’s using that phrasing as a signal to Jared’s creditors that this grift is harder than they expected.

  52. 52.

    debbie

    It’s really great to see that Collins and Murkowski are being thanked by their constituents. This is how it’s supposed to work.

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @debbie: I actually got into a blog fight with someone a long time ago because they were offended at the idea that we should thank Dems when they do good things and not just criticize them when they don’t.

  59. 59.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Yeah, I don’t get that attitude at all. You thank other people (hopefully), why not your legislators?

  61. 61.

    Baud

    @debbie: Too many people think of Democrats as their slaves, and one does not really thank a slave for the work they do.

  63. 63.

    Keith P.

    @Steeplejack: Mine likes 2 days of wet food, but then she wants a couple of meals of dry for crunch. She’s picky that way.
    @NotMax: I’ve got Uponor PEX in my house. I installed it myself, in fact. IMO, it’s the best PEX, as the connections are reinforced self-tightening. The only real downsides are that a) it’s easy to pinhole it, so you have to screw them down to prevent rubbing and then insulate it to prevent rats from chewing on it (really only if grease gets on it, but insulation is cheap), and b) the powered connection tool is specialized just for this brand and runs $400. But you can connect lines in 10 seconds…very simple.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I hope his perp walk off the property will be televised live complete with play by play by Harry Caray and color commentary by Howard Cosell.

  66. 66.

    BC in Illinois

    @debbie:
    @Baud:

    A while back, in the middle of city politics, someone (on my side) said, “Why should we thank [the city officials] for just doing their job?” The implication being that when the city people did what we wanted them to be doing, that was simply the way things ought to be. No thanks or recognition necessary.

    My response was–and is–that people thank me all the time for just doing what I’m supposed to be doing. From passing the salt to spending an hour doing what people have paid me to do that hour.

    Why not thank someone for doing something that has actually made people’s lives a little better?

  69. 69.

    Jack the Second

    @debbie: Especially compare Collins & Murkowski’s interactions with their constituents to the rest of their caucus. They still meet with constituents, listen to their needs, and act in accordance with them.

    As opposed to hiding from their constituents, acting against their interests, and lying about it.

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    @Keith P.

    My (limited) understanding is that it is somewhat analogous to printers and ink cartridges.

    The pipe is low cost yet durable but the connectors are pricey.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    Speaking of members of the administration planting favorable stories about themselves:

    TOP WHITE HOUSE adviser Steve Bannon is pushing for tax reform to include a new 44 percent top marginal tax rate, hitting people who earn more than $5 million a year, with the revenue paying for tax cuts for the rest, according to three people who’ve spoken to him recently.
    The top rate is now 39.6 percent and most Republicans have been planning to lower it significantly as part of tax reform. The plan Trump put out previously would have only three brackets, with the top one brought down to 35 percent.

    Glenn Greenwald would be dripping with contempt if this had come out anywhere except The Intercept. He’d be scolding all of us to “think critically” or whatever.

    Donald Trump’s actual proposal lowers taxes on the very rich. This bullshit about Bannon “wanting” to increase taxes comes EXCLUSIVELY from Bannon. It doesn’t exist outside him promoting himself.

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I’m so tired of these damn idiotic stories about her. She’s a phucking phony azz grifter like her Daddy. On another blog, they posted about how the blue-chip society folks are giving her the cold shoulder… unable to separate her anymore from her father, who has long been despised in those circles.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:I’m not one to forego giving a deserved thank you, but every time I heard that bullshit from a boss I always knew he thought that was all that was necessary and I should be grateful for the acknowledgement. I always gave them a “Fuck You” look in return.

    SHOW ME THE MONEY!

  80. 80.

    Quinerly

    @NotMax:
    The success and fate of Baud/Poco 2020 may depend on it. Close call in the dunes yesterday. There is a cover up. Can’t let the scandal get out.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    @Kay: Some idiot at Kos the other day was suggesting that Trump was going to support single payer soon so Dems should get there first.

  85. 85.

    Keith P.

    @NotMax: Uponor is the most expensive of the brands (but again, also considered the best), using the ProPEX connection. The connections are cheap, too. It’s just a regular brass or plastic barb and the PEX with a PEX reinforcing ring (maybe $.50 per connection, with a dollar or two for the barb). Uponor’s real cost is in the expander tool. But once you have it, it’s so cheap and easy to install the stuff, it’s crazy. Plus the connections are considered to be the most reliable of all the different kinds (as it wants to always squeeze the connector)

  88. 88.

    MomSense

    We’v been working hard here to expand Medicaid having been thwarted by 6 vetoes by our asshole governor. We qualified a Medicaid expansion question for the ballot this November. The hospital and nursing home associations have been asking for a Medicaid expansion this whole time. I cannot convey with words just how poor and rural much of this state is. Without Medicaid, lots of nursing homes and hospitals would close. It would be a disaster. I suspect Alaska has the same problem.

  89. 89.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: I’d bet my current pay check that Trump couldn’t even explain to anyone (intelligently) what single payer insurance is. That KOS commenter is being altogether too generous in regard to Trump’s world of knowledge.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    @MomSense: How many people has Cutler killed?

    @Patricia Kayden: He couldn’t explain it, but he can say “Single payer. It’s going to be so beautiful.” And a bunch of progressives will forget it’s Trump and lose their shit.

    ETA:. And unfortunately it was not a commenter. It was a front pager.

  93. 93.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: they used to give “guidance” to the managers at my old evil corporation on how to motivate and reward employees in other ways than a raise. Because the suits weren’t going to take a nickel less in compensation so that the employees could get a better than .5% raise.

  94. 94.

    ET

    Republicans have spent years lying to everyone including themselves, about Ocare. They also have a very strong and rigid feedback loop. All this meant that real world opinions that didn’t conform with their thinking and the silent opinions of the many didn’t exist. Except they did. That has been what members of Congress have been hearing even if some do not want to admit it because they have too much invested in believing that “everyone” hates it (they need to stop only listening to those that agree with them). McCain did them a favor even if they don’t want to admit it.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @ET: It didn’t help that people kept polling it negatively until they were about to lose it.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    It was really hard to get FMLA.

    Before the law finally passed, business lobbies including the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business had successfully defeated family leave bills in Congress for almost a decade. They predicted the worst, calling it a job killer, an assault on freedom, and an unnecessary government intrusion since businesses know what’s best for their workers.

    Ivanka Trump’s proposal costs 25 billion dollars. She’s planning on getting that thru a far Right one Party Congress – the same Congress who just tried desperately to kill medical care for low income people?

    The Trumps are wrong. This isn’t “easy”. It’s difficult. That’s why the Trumps can’t do it.

  99. 99.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:
    Where do these muthaphuckas get the idea that Dolt45 even knows what Single Payer is. That idiot who is Head of the California Nurses has uttered similar garbage.??

  101. 101.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @ET: They keep talking about how people are “suffering” under the ACA. People are suffering from problems the ACA hasn’t fixed but for sure didn’t cause. I hate that false sympathetic tone they use.

  102. 102.

    Baud

    @rikyrah: One of the reasons we have Trump is because so many people whitewashed who he was and blindly accepted his lies, simply in an attempt to gain leverage over Dems. And they are still doing it.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    There is a belief that everyone else’s job is easy and “anyone” can do it. The Trump Family are the perfect example of this idiocy.

    Trump’s whole campaign was people in government are stupid and I can do what they do better than them. Ivanka must believe this too if she thinks she’s getting a 25 billion dollar family leave program thru a Congress that is further Right than anything I have ever seen.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t understand why the single payer people didn’t defend Medicaid in Obamacare. It’s single payer. Does it have some taint because it’s a low income program? The people who get it love it.

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    We’ve got a tropical storm parked just offshore, and the frogs are singing with joy. The chickens, not so much. I like rainy, windy days like this in the summer because it blunts the heat.

    @Kay & @rikyrah: Aside from some of the dumber members of the Beltway media, who in the world expected knock-off bag and shoe peddler Ivanka Trump to be a force for good? I sure as hell didn’t, and neither did y’all. Neither did any thinking person I ever heard address the topic, online or off.

    I’m heartened to hear that she and her corrupt piece of shit husband are being frozen out by the smart set in NYC. The very least that should happen to these garbage people is to live the rest of their lives as social lepers.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @Kay: I don’t know. Maybe because it’s because

    (1) it’s inconsistent with “Obamacare is a Republican plan”

    (2) they are pushing Medicare for All and not Medicaid for All

    (3) they are middle class people who don’t benefit from Medicaid right now.

  108. 108.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: Exactly. This is a guy who thinks you can buy health insurance for $12. He probably thinks “Single Payer” means paying in one-dollar bills.

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    how to motivate and reward employees in other ways than a raise.

    I absolutely despise that shit. Instead of an employee, you’re a “team member”. I got sent out to one job and they always have a 1/2 hour orientation for the new guys. The assistant superintendent (some young kid just out of college) started with the “we’re all family here” bs and I replied, “I already have a family. You ain’t in it.” It went down hill from there. Eventually we got into “his feelings” and how I was “making him feel hurt.” I said, “Oh, you want to talk about your feelings? Well, you want to hear about my feelings? Do you? No. you don’t want to hear that.” The poor apprentice going thru the orientation with me had eyes as big as dinner plates.

    Obviously, I didn’t last long on that job.

  110. 110.

    donnah

    As a resident of Ohio, I made calls and sent emails to Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman before each healthcare vote. Brown’s office responded quickly each time, while Portman’s office either didn’t respond or answered much later.

    I wrote a thank you email to Murkowski, Collins, and Sherrod Brown after the most recent defeat. I think it took guts and conviction for Murkowski and Collins to vote against their party. I thanked Brown and the Democrats for not giving a single Yes vote. When I do good work, I appreciate being recognized for it, and I wanted to express my gratitude to them as well.

  111. 111.

    satby

    @Kay:

    Does it have some taint because it’s a low income program?

    Yes. Not only is it a low income program, but the presumption is that it’s used mostly by minorities, even though that’s false. But 30 years of propaganda about “the undeserving” have tainted it.
    @Baud: and this too.

  113. 113.

    Patricia Kayden

    @ET: “strong and rigid feedback loop” = Rightwing media which totally ignores information and news stories that don’t promote their agenda. Thus their viewers are kept in the dark about events which contradict the pro-Conservative worldview.

  114. 114.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: One of my husband’s old fishing buddies had a sticker mounted on the console of his boat that read: “This boat runs on gas, not thanks.”

  115. 115.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: the team member / door is always open / “everyone is valued” stuff is always such bullshit anyway. I take pride in doing a good job wherever I work, but the reason I work at a job is to get paid. If I want warm snuggies I can be at home with the critters.

  117. 117.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay:

    she had much more success in limiting a religious liberties executive order to abortion and procreation issues

    Those orders don’t represent any policy, unlike Bush or Obama’s executive orders, so her great accomplishment is she limited the offensiveness of Trump’s trollings.

  118. 118.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    If only she hadn’t injected her entire face with botox, they could run stories about how the poor, selfless beauty is destroying her face with worry lines for us. They can’t even run a brow furrowed with concern photo.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @donnah: There are a couple of folks who come out of the woodwork here occasionally (usually when the GOP wins a round on an issue like healthcare) to claim that communicating with legislators doesn’t make a difference. That’s bullshit, IMO. Al Franken, among others, says it definitely does make a difference.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Only batteries? If so that’s against code* for all new construction and the electrician could get in trouble for it. Or is it in an older part of the house and possibly grandfathered**?

    *code in STL, which conforms to national standards, but not all municipalities follow them to a T, here in Washington Co there are NO codes, not even one calling for a septic system. Before we bought this place I discovered that there was no septic field, just a tank dumping onto the ground. “Well, the first thing we have to do…”

    ** generally it depends on the scope of the work, as extensive as your work was I would be surprised if it could be grandfathered.

  122. 122.

    Sab

    My Dad’s 100 year old ceiling collapsed about two months ago. Fortunately didn’t collapse on my 92 year old dad. Took all summer to get a contractor in to repair it. He is in this morning doing the final touches on the dry wall . Told me about his wonderful trip through Appalachian Pennsylvania with his wife on the back of his motorcycle.

    His only concern here is that he is allergic to our 18 pound cat.

  123. 123.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    No, rikyrah, he’s an idiot for sure but he knows this issue from experience. On this issue he’s just evil and corrupt. When he was running for governor the first time he told a story about a valued employee of his at Marden’s (a local Big Lots type of chain store) who he really wanted to reward with a higher hourly wage but that would make her ineligible for MaineCare (Medicaid) so he had no choice but to keep her at a lower wage. When you stop and think about all that is packed into that one anecdote, you will want to break things.

  124. 124.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    Cutler is too busy to pay any attention. He’s trying to sell his multi million dollar home so he can downsize into an overpriced condo in Portland.

  125. 125.

    Ohio Mom

    @donnah: Portman’s staff didn’t even try to keep up with the call volume. I called a lot, and in the last few weeks, never got through to a person in the Washington office; couldn’t even leave a message a lot of the time because the mailbox was full.

    The Ohio offices were a mixed bag but in general, they did not start answering the phone until mid-morning, and even then, getting through to a person was tricky.

    The only conclusion I could come to is that his interns and staff are all slackers without work ethics. They didn’t have the courage of their convictions to put up with callers like me. A sorry bunch. Glad to have them out of my life for now.

    I did send thank yous to Brown, Murkowski, Collins and even McCain. Going to send one to the senator from Hawaii later today.

  127. 127.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I wondered why the Wilmer campaign didn’t push for Medicaid expansion instead of his convoluted single payer plan that assumed a GDP growth rate of 8%.

  128. 128.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I hope his perp walk off the property will be televised live complete with play by play by Harry Caray and color commentary by Howard Cosell.

    Win! Dead men talking.

  129. 129.

    FlipYrWhig

    @MomSense: I dunno, maybe because he is a delusional person who’s been dreaming about impractical ideology for 50 years?

    @Kay:

    Glenn Greenwald would be dripping with contempt if this had come out anywhere except The Intercept.

    Is Greenwald ever NOT dripping with contempt?

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: Thanks! I have visited that site many times; virtually any question a chicken wrangler might have is answered there. :)

  131. 131.

    Gin & Tonic

    More MSM fail. I’m sure everyone’s heard about Putin “expelling 755 US diplomats.” Well, he ordered the staff cut at the US Embassy. This will probably result in about 50 or so US citizens with diplomatic passports packing up and heading to their next assignment, and about 700 Russians with well-paying jobs at the US Embassy being laid off. Is it that hard to make that distinction clear?

  132. 132.

    Betty Cracker

    @FlipYrWhig: You’ll be shocked to learn he has emitted a squid cloud of butthurt this morning vis-à-vis the U.S. relationship with Russia:

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I don’t understand why the single payer people didn’t defend Medicaid in Obamacare. It’s single payer. Does it have some taint because it’s a low income program? The people who get it love it.

    Yes…falsely tainted.

    You know my feelings…the poster children for Medicaid should be Biff and Emily’s Grandma and Grandpa – THEY are the ones who take the highest % of Medicaid $$$$$.

    Not Shaniqua or Rosa Lita.

    76 MILLION PEOPLE get helped through Medicaid.

    76 MILLION?

    Everyone but the 0.0001% knows someone on Medicaid.

  135. 135.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    Retro mid century snacks it will be.

    Twinkies? Those pink cupcake balls with shredded coconut? Fruit salad with little marshmallows? I’m in!

  136. 136.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @raven:

    it takes batteries!

    My hardwired system takes batteries too. The alarms were doing the traditional 2 a.m. chirping and screaming (scaring the dog and me out of deep sleep), so I got lithium batteries to replace them all. Like you, I have high ceilings and the alarms were placed at the highest point, so it was quite an adventure. Lithiums are more expensive, but if they last the predicted 10-plus years, it was worth it.

  137. 137.

    Quinerly

    @O. Felix Culpa:
    Loved Hillerman’s “The Dark Wind.” Might be my favorite so far. Seemed the most real to me because I was just on the Hopi Mesas and in those villages in February…plus there’s a mention of Cerrillos. Starting the “The First Eagle” which is also part of the 3 part Hopi series. I gave up on reading them in order. Which one are you on?

  138. 138.

    rikyrah

    #TheResistance is now the largest demographics in America.
    And growing.
    Resist.
    Enlist.
    Persist.
    Repeat. pic.twitter.com/sHk6M7Bws0
    — Jamie #Resistance ❄️ (@JCTheResistance) July 30, 2017

  139. 139.

    rikyrah

    The Governor of Maryland just signed a bipartisan bill making it easier for people to vote by absentee ballot. pic.twitter.com/ePkcrClBE8
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 31, 2017

  140. 140.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Betty Cracker: He is so, beyond the beyond, fucking horrible. WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE MAKING SUCH A BIG THING OUT OF BLATANT CORRUPTION AND INTERNATIONAL KLEPTOCRATIC CONSPIRACY

  141. 141.

    rikyrah

    Mulvaney says the Senate should table everything else, including the debt ceiling, until they go back to healthcare: t.co/SuqRJK7r4I pic.twitter.com/kacP0S9deU
    — Conor Sen (@conorsen) July 30, 2017

  142. 142.

    MomSense

    @FlipYrWhig: @Betty Cracker:

    I feel like I’ve been taking crazy pills for years when it comes to him, Snowjob, and WL. At least now I think they have sufficiently blown their cover that it is apparent to everyone (except the delusional).

  143. 143.

    rikyrah

    Anatomy of the Trump presidency

    thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/anatomy-of-the-trump-presidency/article19391770.ece

    In an earlier article in this newspaper (“Understanding the Trump phenomenon,” August 5, 2016), I suggested that it was necessary to take Donald Trump’s candidacy and its implications more seriously than many were doing then. Six months into the Trump presidency, the American media remains fascinated with the new “reality show” that has entered the White House.

    As every small skirmish, move and tweet is given inordinate scrutiny and attention, it is easy however to lose sight of the big picture.

    /

    The fourth point is more crucial still, and concerns the projection of American power abroad. Since the end of the Cold War, and the emergence of the unipolar American-dominated system around 1990, speculation has gone on regarding the nature of potential challenges to it. These could come from other state-systems, such as China, or the European Union, or from unclassifiable systems and forms, such as al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. But few could have predicted that the real challenge would come from within the U.S. itself. Yet, this is what has happened. The Trump administration appears singularly unconcerned with, and inept in dealing with, foreign policy, and after all its core internal constituency is firmly ‘isolationist’ in its inclinations. The State Department is today in utter disarray. The Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is from the petroleum industry and seems out of his depth; so that rumours even surface regularly of his imminent resignation.

    Based on the past six months, it seems likely that by 2020, the systematic projection of American power on a global scale would have shrunk considerably.

  144. 144.

    rikyrah

    HHS’s Price gives members the wrong advice about health care
    07/31/17 08:40 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump’s far-right secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price, was a guest on “Meet the Press” yesterday, and NBC’s Chuck Todd asked the former Georgia congressman to reflect on the state of play after the latest Republican failure on health care.

    CHUCK TODD: Look, you were an elected official. You know how politics works. You know how to count votes. You know where the votes are. It’s pretty clear a full repeal can’t be done. It’s pretty clear somehow rescinding the Medicaid expansion, that the support is not there. So what’s realistic? What are you asking Congress to do now? What is one thing that you want Congress to do right now that’s doable, that’s realistic that can help you implement the affordable care act better?

    SECRETARY TOM PRICE: Well, what we want Congress to do is to go home and talk to their constituents.

    I don’t think that’s what the Trump administration wants at all. In fact, that’s almost certainly what Democrats want – because if members “go home and talk to their constituents,” the GOP’s regressive health care plans almost certainly won’t come back.

    Note, for example, that when Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) flew home on Friday, she was greeted with a round of spontaneous applause at the Bangor airport. She said yesterday, “It was just amazing…. It was very encouraging and affirming, especially arriving back home after a very difficult time.”

    Are these the constituents Tom Price wants the senator to listen to?

    What amazes me is the willingness of Trump and members of his team to pretend there’s meaningful public demand for a far-right Republican health care plan. Price may not realize this, but Americans, including a whole lot of voters on the right, have rejected GOP proposals by overwhelming margins.

    As we noted two weeks ago, it is no exaggeration to say the Republican health care measures are the most unpopular bills considered by Congress in the last three decades.

  145. 145.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Quinerly:

    Which one are you on?

    I’m early in the series – “Listening Woman.” I love the local settings and Hillerman’s treatment of Native American culture. His writing and characterizations also improve/deepen as he goes on, I think. I had read a few random books in the series over the years and now I’m going back to read them all in order, partly for the character development.

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    Trump faces pushback after endorsing police abuses
    07/31/17 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    ……………………

    But in a familiar pattern, a variety of police departments responded to Trump’s comments by making clear they disagree with his endorsement of abuses. BuzzFeed noted:

    President Donald Trump’s apparent suggestion that police officers be “rough” with suspects in custody is facing sharp criticism from law enforcement agencies across the country, with police chiefs from California to Florida and New York condemning the president’s remarks as an irresponsible encouragement of excessive force. […]

    Within a few hours, the Suffolk County Police Department was already distancing itself from Trump’s remarks, saying in a statement that the agency would “not tolerate roughing up prisoners.” Other police departments were similarly quick to rebuke the quip, warning that the apparent urging of the use of force could erode already fragile relationships between law enforcement and the public and set back efforts to address problems of police brutality.

    This was an encouraging reaction to a president whose approach to the rule of law is increasingly dangerous. But there’s a larger takeaway for others to keep in mind:

    Stop inviting Donald Trump to your events. Not to put too fine a point on this, but the president has shown he often doesn’t know how to behave himself in public settings. The Boy Scouts, of all organizations, had to apologize for Trump’s antics last week, which came on the heels of a controversial event in which the president tried to recruit active-duty troops into a White House lobbying campaign.

  150. 150.

    Major Major Major Major

    So according to some headline (Axios?) I saw on Memeorandum this morning, Everybody Knows™ that Trump’s post-vote flailing about healthcare won’t go anywhere, and congress is pressing full steam with tax reform. Thanks to the three republicans and every democrat and all of us who marched and called, this will be a lot less fucked than it could have been, as they won’t have the “savings” from gutting Medicaid to play with, so good job, team.

    @Betty Cracker: I’m gonna hold out judgment until I see what Snowden has to say.

  152. 152.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @rikyrah:

    Stop inviting Donald Trump to your events. Not to put too fine a point on this, but the president has shown he often doesn’t know how to behave himself in public settings.

    Yes. This.

  155. 155.

    rikyrah

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Thanks to the three republicans and every democrat and all of us who marched and called, this will be a lot less fucked than it could have been, as they won’t have the “savings” from gutting Medicaid to play with, so good job, team.

    I know…I know…I know..

    Thank goodness for that.
    They have to do their sociopathy all out in the open.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @Patricia Kayden:

    ..Ivanka has no positive influence on her father that is useful or discernible to the public eye.

    The idea that Ivanka’s role as policy adviser is to try to get him to soften the fundamental cruelty of his decisions is absurd.

    We’re only months into this travesty of an administration and journalists are normalizing the actions of a madman and his venal children.

  157. 157.

    Chris

    @Kay:

    Honestly, I also think this is just bullshit. I don’t believe for a second that she ever tried to change his mind on the Paris agreement, nor do I believe that she did any effort on abortion/LGBT. I agree that it’s just PR. Call me a cynic, but with that entire family it’s been very much warranted so far.

  158. 158.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Betty Cracker: I find the “NUCLEAR ARMED!” hysteria pisses me off more than anything. Yes, Russia has lots of nuclear weapons. Letting them interfere in American domestic politics because they have lots of nuclear weapons is what we used to call “appeasement”, usually allowed to be a bad thing that doesn’t work.

    I mean, seriously, don’t piss off the bully ’cause he might get mad and punch you? THAT’s how you want the US to run its domestic politics?

  160. 160.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s respect for military valor is, at best, haphazard
    07/31/17 10:01 AM—UPDATED 07/31/17 10:04 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Donald Trump announced via tweet on Friday that retired Gen. John Kelly, who’s served for months as heads of the Department of Homeland Security, will be taking over as the new White House chief of staff. A Washington Post report noted in passing that the staffing move reflects the president’s appreciation for decorated military service.

    Throughout his life, Trump has venerated military valor, and he recruited several generals into his administration, including Kelly.

    I wish this were true, but the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.

    On the surface, Trump tends to honor military service the way a child might: he seems to think it’s cool to be around those who served. The more impressive the service record, and the higher the military rank, the more Trump wants to be associated with the bravery others have shown.

    But below the surface, the picture turns darker. Far from venerating military valor, Trump is on record mocking prisoners of war, saying he likes those “who weren’t captured.”

    Trump, who avoided military service during the Vietnam War, also said he “felt” like he’d served in the military because his parents sent him to a military-themed boarding school as a teenager. The Republican went so far as to boast that his expensive prep school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

    Trump was caught lying about his financial support for veterans’ charities. He’s claimed more than once that he understands counter-terrorism better than American generals. He’s one of the few politicians in modern American life to publicly mock a Gold Star family.

  163. 163.

    Chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    When that guy finally dies, I hope they send his cremated ass to Moscow so the Russians can dump his ashes in whatever sewer they put Philby, Burgess and Maclean’s in.

  164. 164.

    rikyrah

    The Real Story Behind a Romney Aide’s Challenge to Elizabeth Warren
    by D.R. Tucker
    July 30, 2017

    So, is this the best the Massachusetts Republican Party can offer?

    Longtime Republican operative Beth Lindstrom, a former senior aide to Mitt Romney and manager of Scott Brown’s victorious Senate campaign, said Wednesday she is considering a challenge to US Senator Elizabeth Warren.

    Lindstrom has held a series of conversations with top state Republicans about the prospect of seeking the party nomination and is leaning toward running, according to several people familiar with her thinking.

    “I am actively exploring a run for US Senate,” Lindstrom wrote in an e-mail. “I’m a wife and mother with three kids who cares deeply about our state and where we are heading as a country. So much of our politics these days is pointless bickering.

    “We need a senator who will work with people of all political stripes to make progress for Massachusetts.”

    Of course, Massachusetts already has a senator “who will work with people of all political stripes to make progress for Massachusetts,” but Lindstrom is a Republican, which means she won’t let inconvenient facts get in the way.

    Of course, there’s a transparent political calculation behind this run–a calculation that involves the Bay State’s Republican Governor, Charlie Baker:

    Like Kingston, Lindstrom would represent the Romney/Baker wing of the party, while [pro-Trump GOP Senate candidates Shiva] Ayyadurai and [Geoff] Diehl have carved out more populist profiles. Republicans acknowledge that Warren, a leading national figure on the left, poses a tough challenge for whomever emerges from the GOP primary in 2018.

    Richard Tisei, a former state Senate minority leader who was Baker’s running mate during an unsuccessful 2010 campaign, called Lindstrom “a formidable candidate.”

    But he said Diehl was “the odds-on favorite” to win the primary, where the party’s more hard-core conservatives generally vote. The more right-leaning grass-roots also wield tremendous influence at the party convention earlier in the year.

  166. 166.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I had “On Point” on the radio coming home from the gym, and Thomas Ricks was on ripping Trump. He said Trump was easily the worst president the country has ever had. He’d deeply ignorant and possibly deranged. The Corleone family was running the country and the only thing saving us was that Fredo rather than Michael was running the show.

  167. 167.

    Barbara

    @Kay:

    They can’t kick 15,000 people out of the military and reserves based on a Tweet.

    I think you are going to see more and more agencies or at least the military stating in response to policy by tweet that they will await further direction pending the normal regulatory and policy infrastructure in place for implementing any change. I am not even that well-versed in military policy and I know that such a policy requires precise guidance regarding timing, nature of discharge, impact on benefits, analysis re readiness. What if some of these people are doing essential jobs for which no replacement can be immediately secured? A friend of mine has had his tour of duty extended by six months while they train his replacement because the first replacement had “issues” that made promotion impossible. This is not refusal to go along with what Trump wants, it’s insistence that change in policy needs to go through the normal process or they are just unleashing chaos.

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    @Chris:

    .When that guy finally dies, I hope they send his cremated ass to Moscow so the Russians can dump his ashes in whatever sewer they put Philby, Burgess and Maclean’s in.

    Philby’s life in the Soviet Union was not spectacular and he was carefully monitored. However, he was given a hero’s funeral, and posthumously awarded numerous medals by the USSR.

    His Memorial in Kuntsevo Cemetery, Moscow is pretty impressive.

    Moscow likes to make a show of honoring those who do good work for them.

  169. 169.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I wonder if the reception Collins, Murkowski, and McCain are getting will affect other senators. The angry pushback they got terrified them, but they almost certainly feared the same thing if they came out against repeal. Now they see it’s a way to get adulation from the crowds. They’re mean people with their heads up their asses, but it still might make abandoning the far right more palatable to them.

  170. 170.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Iowa Old Lady: We should be kind of glad that if a Republican was going to win last year, it was an incompetent idiot who did so because at least Republicans are thwarted from inflicting maximum damage on this country for this very reason. A President Cruz would probably be a lot more harmful since I assume he could actually get things done.

  171. 171.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Betty Cracker: So we are to blame for what exactly? Greenwald must be getting $$$ from Russia. His defense of Russia in light of all of the evidence that it engaged in inappropriate behavior vis-a-vis our last election is odd to say the least.

  173. 173.

    Dave

    @Patricia Kayden: Glenn is nothing if not intellectualy dishonest. His entire follow up response to people calling him on bullshit in that thread was essentially well the US is itself an imperfect actor so we can’t complain. It’s nothing but whataboutism with a side order of assholishness. So classic Glenn. (Edit) I left off that he’s basically equating any action taken against Russia by US as advocating for nuclear war but of course he includes a weasel word or two so that he can hammer anyone that points this out as being dishonest. Guys a prick.

  174. 174.

    J R in WV

    @MomSense:

    … I cannot convey with words just how poor and rural much of this state is. Without Medicaid, lots of nursing homes and hospitals would close. It would be a disaster. I suspect Alaska has the same problem.

    What state are you talking about MomSense?

    Could be Mississippi, WV, many others. I don’t recall which state you’re in right now, although after another cuppa coffee it may come back to me if I ever knew.

  175. 175.

    Chris

    @Brachiator:

    I did not know that.

    Honestly? Good for the Russians. It contrasts with what I’ve always heard about Benedict Arnold in England, that most of polite society shunned him as a traitor (even if he was working for them).

  176. 176.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    “I took a picture of it an blew it up, it takes batteries!” I would have bet on it, in case the power goes out before one of them detects smoke, they need to have that battery backup. We have plug-in CO & methane detectors that are the same way, they want a 9V battery hot enough to run them.

    They draw enough power that in just a couple of days running on the 9V battery they start to chirp that low-battery tune.

    Smoke detectors draw less from the battery, it lasts much longer, I’m not sure why the power draw is higher for gas detectors.

  178. 178.

    The Moar You Know

    I’m not one to forego giving a deserved thank you, but every time I heard that bullshit from a boss I always knew he thought that was all that was necessary and I should be grateful for the acknowledgement. I always gave them a “Fuck You” look in return.

    SHOW ME THE MONEY!

    @OzarkHillbilly: You need both. I worked for an asshole back in the mid-1990s. Went to China, set up our supplier’s factories, got his out-of-control returns issues under control, and he could never bring himself to say “thank you” much less give me – or anyone else – raises. So I left.

    He made the lethal mistake of asking why when I dropped my notice off at his office. I kind of lost my shit at that point. I’d provably saved the fucker a million bucks that year alone. I turned to the company president, said “you tell him, I don’t have time for this bullshit” and walked the fuck out.

    One year later, the former company president had his own company worth ten times the value, my old boss had moved into a shit building about a quarter the size of the old one, and I had a job where at least my boss said “thank you” every day and restocked the bar in the back every Friday with top shelf.

  180. 180.

    But her emails!!!

    @rikyrah:

    The Republican Party in Massachusetts doesn’t really have much to offer. There’s a handful of “moderates” like Baker, who can emerge from the business world and successfully run as pro economy, fiscally responsible “independents” and occasionally win statewide if all the stars fall into alignment. This is a consequence of there still being a lot of misogyny and racism in the state coupled with the inclusion of a lot of old Northeastern style Republicans into the Democratic Party (Senator Warren is a prime example) or sitting on the sidelines as independents who vote for Democratic Candidates 9/10 times. I’d also add, that electing a not completely crazy Republican to statewide office is pretty much the only check we have on Democrats who have a tendency to vote for stupid shit that you would normally only see coming from Republicans in other states.

    Baker’s most likely looking at his chances for reelection in 2018. He has strong favorables, because he has governed in a fairly independent manner and the state’s economy has continued to do well. He should coast to reelection, but there’s no guarantee given the liberal lean to the state. If lots of liberal voters turn out to vote for Warren and symbolically against Trump and a rabid Republican Senate candidate, there’s no guarantee Baker won’t be a casualty.

  185. 185.

    But her emails!!!

    @But her emails!!!:

    I’d also add that Massachusetts would be a great state for Berniecrats to actually focus on getting better Democrats into office at the state level. There’s a ton of corrupt and/or Republican-lite office holders at the state and local levels that could and should be looking for different lines of employment. Unfortunately, actual work is involved, some level of corruption is almost a requirement and constituent services are key in this state if they want to hold the office.

  186. 186.

    divF

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Those pink cupcake balls with shredded coconut?

    Sno-balls. Formerly made by Hostess. The IP is now owned by a couple of private equity firms.

  189. 189.

    Origuy

    @raven: Even the hardwired ones need to be replaced every ten years or so. The first time it mine started beeping, I replaced the battery and it kept going. I thought there must be something smoking that I couldn’t detect and called the fire department.

  191. 191.

    Steeplejack

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    In the Balloon Juice discussion yesterday, gluttony was the sin that some people thought was “wobbly”—not definite that Trump is in its thrall. Klaas makes a good point by referencing it as “gluttony or the lack of self-control.” Not wobbly at all when you think of it that way.

  192. 192.

    sukabi

    @Brachiator: yeah. I think she’s there to make sure he doesn’t wander off outside without his pants, and to keep him from assaulting other women.

  193. 193.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @satby: As a supervisor in state civil service, I am pretty much locked into the pay scale prescribed. This means that my motivational tools for positive reinforcement are pretty limited, moneywise, and performance evaluations, interim and final, are too far about to provide the sort of feedback people deserve when they’re doing a good job, especially in difficult circumstances. Telling people, plainly and to their faces “Thanks for your good work; I’m glad you’re here,” and not being an asshole about time off are among my more reliable tools in this sort of situation.

Comments are closed.