Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

The words do not have to be perfect.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Let there be snark.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / ABL for the Win!

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  4. 4.

    dedc79

    This is not the first time the MSM has run an “_____ is the most powerful jewish woman” story. It’s an offensive premise for an article. Period, And it’s made far worse by CNN filling in that blank with Ivanka’s name.

  6. 6.

    cleek

    what has Ivanka Trump ever done ? using her Daddy’s name and money to put her own name on things isn’t really an accomplishment.

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    @dedc79: I dunno. As a Jewish woman, most of the time I am happy to see my teammates highlighted. But yeah, a different hook, rather than “most powerful,” would be better.

  9. 9.

    Butch

    @cleek: I want to barf every time I see her described as an “entrepreneur.” Using daddy’s money on a venture that involves absolutely no risk to you whatsoever is not an “entrepreneur.”

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This is one of Cillizza’s regular pleas for access, isn’t it?

    I’m not her biggest fan, but Dianne Feinstein comes to mind, too

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    @cleek:
    Ivanka is supposedly a moderating influence on President Daddy. But I have not heard of her successfully moderating anything he said or did.

  22. 22.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @satby:
    Ditto. I learned an enormous amount from ABL. She really shaped my view of racism in America. Why DID they leave? I know Cole was filtering out huge numbers of overtly racist hateful comments every time ABL posted.

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    @Amir Khalid:

    Ivanka is supposedly a moderating influence on President Daddy. But I have not heard of her successfully moderating anything he said or did.

    I heard she got him to cut back on ice cream from three scoops to two. That’s pretty impressive.

  28. 28.

    scav

    She’s had minimal if any influence on her father’s actions. But then, being a pretty blond, daughter to a rich man, wife to another, a mother to at least something, sitting in some board meetings (Putin’s desk!! and whatever that EU thing was!!) can’t hurt if restricted to visuals and, critically, appearing on telly, is all the POWER required (or desirable) in once-again great “merka.

    (doen want that mean mommy that yells and makes one pick up things. mean voice. shill voice want boofer lady. no frighten the economically anxious white man that will not be replaced.)

  30. 30.

    Hunter Gathers

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): He’s young-ish, doesn’t foam at the mouth, has mastered ‘concern face’, acts like he knows what he’s talking about (he doesn’t; he sounds like a software vendor selling you a solution you don’t need) and is always available for a TV interview. He’d be number one, but doesn’t have Ivanka’s rack.

  31. 31.

    Josie

    I fail to see how Ivanka is powerful. She has no influence over policy or legislation. She oversees nothing of importance. She is quite visible, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to powerful.

  33. 33.

    kindness

    All that rain is going to make for some grumpy hens.

    I’m hoping that’s the worst that comes of it.

  34. 34.

    randy khan

    The notion that Ivanka Trump is “powerful” is borderline hilarious. I don’t think I’ve read a single story about any policy issue where’s she’s reported as having done anything more than urge her father not to do what he ultimately did. She has less power over U.S. policy than I have other whether my cat jumps in my lap.

  35. 35.

    Mike in DC

    ABL blocked me on Twitter. To be fair, i had no pic and very few followers, so I assume she thought i was a bot.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @Aleta:

    Oh come on. Her spa offers “curated rituals.” She’s not just an entrepreneur, she’s an architected one.

    Ivanka has delusions of being Gwyneth Paltrow?

  37. 37.

    SFAW

    @Aleta:

    Her spa offers “curated rituals.”

    WTF?

    When I’m declared God-Emperor of this country, use of phrases like that will be grounds for immediate, painful execution.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    Dave Weigel‏Verified account @daveweigel 2h2 hours ago
    More
    In one hour, I found four legit NH voters whom Kobach accused of being fraudulent.

    Kobach is lying about voter fraud in New Hampshire. It’s already spread all over Right wing sites (including Fox News) and the lie was then endorsed by a Pence hire. The Pence hire probably doesn’t know anything about voting but Kris Kobach does- he is deliberately misleading people.

    Individual voters will have to do the work of protecting their own voting rights against attacks by Trump hires.

    Check your registration well prior to the next election If some poor quality Trump hire has somehow purged you from voting rolls you will need to personally appear at a county elections office and protect your right. It’s inconvenient and obviously one shouldn’t have to volunteer to undo the shoddy, half-ass, poor quality work of these Trump people, but you’ll have to.

  39. 39.

    SFAW

    @randy khan:

    The notion that Ivanka Trump is “powerful” is borderline hilarious. I don’t think I’ve read a single story about any policy issue where’s she’s reported as having done anything more than urge her father not to do what he ultimately did.

    Oh, bullshit. She recently let it be known that she was OK with unequal pay for the wimmins, right? A clear break with Lying Littledick’s polic- uh, never mind.

  42. 42.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Calling Ivanka “powerful” draws on an old belief that women achieve power by acting through their men. They’re the power behind the throne. It’s offensive. A woman like Ginsberg or Kagan has achieved power on her own. I think some people are less able to see women like that as women and forget about them.

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: I give Weigel credit, I think the trump phenomenon has shocked him a bit, but the lack of coverage of voter suppression is a rolling media scandal. Matt Yglesias a while back was using his twitter feed to point out the lack of real diversity in the media, I wish he, or someone, would get back to that.

  46. 46.

    Spanky

    @Josie:

    I fail to see how Ivanka is powerful. She has no influence over policy or legislation. She oversees nothing of importance. She is quite visible, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to powerful.

    And here I think we have an answer. To a Villager, visibility IS power. And of course, power gains you visibility. See John McCain for Exhibit A.

  47. 47.

    Marmot

    @SFAW:

    When I’m declared God-Emperor of this country, use of phrases like that will be grounds for immediate, painful execution.

    You can count on my vote!

  48. 48.

    Kay

    Just to add insult to injury, when Kris Kobach launches idiotic unfounded allegations against lawful voters, be aware that we’re all paying him for this garbage “work” he produces.

    It literally wouldn’t pass muster if an ordinary poll worker was this stupid and uninformed about voting and they make 90 dollars a day. Trump is paying much, much more than that for Kobach’s phony “commission” – you’re all paying for this low quality effort.

    Why can’t Donald Trump find at least nominally qualified people to hire? He’s wasting our money. Any random pollworker could do a better job than these people, for less than a hundred dollars.

  50. 50.

    hitchhiker

    Ivanka has a freakishly long neck and a pretty good stylist. She’s trained to find the light in any photo opportunity.

    These are her skills.

    Competent women everywhere despise her for being stupid enough to think she’s earned a place at any table where significant things get done.

  51. 51.

    Marmot

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Calling Ivanka “powerful” draws on an old belief that women achieve power by acting through their men.

    As weird and alien as that seems, I can think of no better explanation for the fawning coverage Ivanka gets.

    It’s clear she has zero power and no influence. But she’s perennially in the news!

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @hitchhiker: She also knows to check in on Daddy when he’s having important meetings, to make sure he doesn’t, say, declare war on Qatar or Venezuela before Mattis says it’s Ok. And to make sure the conversation veers off to talking about the last dinner party in the Hamptons, or something…

    :-/

    Hey, given the times, it’s an important skill!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @Smiling Mortician:
    Well, they’re both blond, rich, and Jewish. But even if her parents were well-known in show business, Gwyneth made her own way as an actress and online New Age maven; we don’t think of her as merely Bruce Paltrow’s or Blythe Danner’s kid. Whereas Ivanka is a mere dabbler in business who rides on her family name and connections.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    It is 100 times better than it used to be. Compared to the period prior to 2012 it’s excellent.

    I was suspicious of Weigel because he used the term “ballot security” once. There are sort of code phrases in far Right voting rights literature and that’s one of them. Anyway. He’s better now :)

    I think it became impossible to ignore, which is usually when something gets their attention, right? North Carolina and Texas went so far they gave the game away. Even federal judges are taking notice, and they’ve been asleep at the switch for a decade on this.

    It’s a real bad mark on Justice Roberts record. He was not only dead wrong, he was shown to be dead wrong almost immediately. There isn’t usually that sort of “cause and effect” connection. He unleashed a wave of suppression.

    I think it’s an example of REAL elitism, as opposed to eating arugula or whatever. They cannot imagine not having a bank account or not boarding a plane or having a driver’s license that is suspended for lack of reinstatement fees. That just doesn’t exist in their world. I always think municipal court judges should be making these decisions. They understand low income people and ID. It’s a CONSTANT in their courts. The Texas law was an example of this. It is really hard for low income people to travel- it’s having a car and child care and gas money and time off hourly work. It’s complicated. They’re setting up a hoop they can’t jump thru.

  58. 58.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Forecast from Weather Underground for my sister’s coastal town on Sunday:

    Daytime: Hurricane conditions likely… winds 60-80 mph… 3-5″ of rain expected. Evening: Major hurricane conditions possible… winds 80-100 mph, increasing to 100-115 mph… 5-8″ rain expected

    I think the way WU words their predictions, precipitation is cumulative. So that’s 8-13″ cumulative rainfall in 24 hours. Plus storm surge.

    Nevertheless, they’re still home. They have a hotel reservation, but she says she’s concerned about going the wrong way if the storm comes in from the Gulf. Plus getting stuck in traffic.

    Yeeeaaargh! OK, I’ve never lived through a hurricane, but it seems to me you should not be in your home right now on Friday afternoon if the 90% probability projections put you smack in the middle of Irma on Sunday.

  59. 59.

    Ladyraxterinok

    Isn’t it sorta weird someone thinks the ‘most powerful Jewish woman’ is a woman who did not grow up as Jewish? Seems pretty odd.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The laws are impossible to defend when one delves into the details:

    The law’s intent is “purposely discriminatory,” Ginsburg concluded. Citing the U.S. District Court ruling that declared the Texas law unconstitutional, she observed that since 2000, Texas has become a majority-minority state. That gave its Legislature and governor “an evident motive to ‘gain partisan advantage by suppressing'” the votes of blacks and Latinos.
    Her views parallel those of Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, who dissented in the same vein, as we reported here, from a decision of his bench colleagues to uphold a Wisconsin voter ID law.

    It’s ludicrous. States like Texas are showing up with 2 cases of voter fraud and trying to use that to justify disenfranchising 600K AA and Latinos. They are transparently and obviously discriminating. You could ignore it for a while but the evidence is so piled up now after a decade of this that you have to be a hack to deny it. It’s overwhelming.

  64. 64.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Spanky:

    To a Villager, visibility IS power.

    It’s that weird “famous for being famous” thing we have in our culture. I don’t know if it’s uniquely American, perhaps mostly a Hollywood creation, or if other countries have it too. But every once in awhile one of these people swims into my consciousness and I puzzle once again why they’re supposed to be famous and why I’m supposed to care what they ate for breakfast or who they’re dating.

    Last one that broke into my consciousness was Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner. I followed [his] decathlon win in the 1976 Olympics, but was completely bewildered by why a 70s athlete was suddenly everywhere in pop culture. Eventually I learned that it’s because Jenner swims in the Kardashian circle, but that just made me wonder again why the Kardashians are everywhere in pop culture.

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Marmot:

    I can think of no better explanation for the fawning coverage Ivanka gets.

    Villagers do no research on whether anything they’re told is true, beyond checking if it conforms to their prejudices. They desperately want Republicans to be a serious daddy party not run by racism, while being too superficial themselves to know what seriousness is. This model explains Ivanka, Ryan, and McCain’s popularity.

  69. 69.

    Gelfling 545

    @Ohio Mom: And, actually, what power does she exercise beyond that of any very wealthy person? Yes, she has Trump’s ear but there’s no sign that he actually pays any attention. She has accomplished exactly nothing with all this supposed power. I’d be willing to wager that there are any number of women in Washington of the Jewish faith with more actual power to affect the course of events.

  70. 70.

    mai naem mobile

    Now now, you guys are puncturing poor wittle Vanka’s self esteem bigly. She’ll tell daddy on you guys and he can send you a nasty tweet.

  71. 71.

    TriassicSands

    If by powerful they mean Ivanka can influence her father, I’d say no way. From what I’ve seen, Ivanka has virtually no influence over her father at all — if by influence we’re supposed to think she has a moderating effect on him.

    I’ve read a number of stories about her failure to get him to do what she wanted and none about her actually getting her way. She wants people to think she’s the great force of moderation. It’s now part of her brand.

  74. 74.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TriassicSands:

    She wants people to think she’s the great force of moderation.

    The Villagers WANT a great force of moderation. Badly. So very, very badly. They are inches from having to admit that Republicans knowingly, even deliberately voted for an idiot white supremacist as president. On the other hand, “Semi-figurehead whose hot temper is balanced by the cool deliberation of his aides” they can handle. They can even think of it as a balanced system where all sides come together to prove Republicans are right, which is their golden image of democracy.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    keeping their one-man base riled up

    Fox NewsVerified account @ FoxNews
    Vanity Fair outrage: #MichelleObama, not #MelaniaTrump, makes International Best Dressed List

    Kevin M. Kruse‏Verified account @ KevinMKruse 20h20 hours ago
    Imagine being outraged by anything in Vanity Fair.

  77. 77.

    StringOnAStick

    @schrodingers_cat: OK, so I buy a brand of tea called Tulsi and the boxes tell me that “tulsi” means “holy basil” in India and it is in all their teas. Does this mean that Tulsi Gabbard is actually Holy Basil Gabbard?

  78. 78.

    HRA

    @Sab:

    This is from Wikipedia.

    “Feinstein was born Dianne Emiel Goldman[1] in San Francisco, to Betty (née Rosenburg), a former model, and Leon Goldman, a surgeon. Feinstein’s paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her maternal grandparents, the Rosenburg family, were from Saint Petersburg, Russia.[6] While they were of German-Jewish ancestry,[7] they practiced the Russian Orthodox faith as was required for Jews residing in Saint Petersburg.[6][8]”

  80. 80.

    burnspbesq

    @Kay:

    they’ve been asleep at the switch for a decade on this.

    With all due respect, that’s crap. Judges only get to decide the cases that are on their dockets, and after Marion County, (which was an own goal), there weren’t cases for a long time. It took truly egregious actions by emboldened legislatures to re-open the spigot.

  81. 81.

    amorphous

    @satby: Sheesh, John has really employed a lot of people posting at this little old blog since the old days. I’ve probably forgotten half.

  84. 84.

    mai naem mobile

    Anybody see this yesterday? I just saw it on twitter. The wife of the ethics lawyer that was hired the Trump Organization was arrested for having sex with a prison inmate in the backseat of her car. The lawyer is also one of the high ups at Crossroads GPS. The inmate was one of those who was allowed to work in the prison complex outside the cells.
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/trump-lawyer-wife-arrested-alleged-sex-inmate-article-1.3478274

  85. 85.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:

    Why can’t Donald Trump find at least nominally qualified people to hire? He’s wasting our money. Any random pollworker could do a better job than these people, for less than a hundred dollars.

    Kay, sometimes it costs a lot of money to get the counter-factual results you want.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this is nuts

    The prankster, who has also targeted other White House officials, sent the email from “dan.scavinojr (at) emailprankster. co. uk” with the subject line “Nipping it in the bud.”
    “Good evening Ty, I’ve sent a complaint to twitter about the content that drugged up extremist, Natasha Bertrand, is spouting about your correspondence. Things like this on social media die quicker than a Mexican’s hopes of Citizenship, Ha! but I wanted to tick all the boxes. I presume you’ve had no further contact from Ms Bertrand? Dan.”
    Cobb responded: “You the Man! She is insane. Thanks Buddy.”
    He wrote “Scavino” again three minutes later: “When can we get together? I have emails saying off the record and two hours of trying to help her. Nutty! Ty.”
    Cobb never asked for any part of his exchanges with Business Insider to be off-record or not for publication.
    The email prankster replied: “We we can sit down tomorrow afternoon, if that’s good for you? What was she pushing for? She has a reputation for being a bit cuckoo.”
    “Deeply grateful!” Cobb replied. “Any drone time left?”

    “any drone time left”– this is a White House Counsel, not trump’s personal lawyer. And he let Manafort and Flynn know they’re going under the bus, if they hadnt’ figured that out

    “One final thing Ty, I’ve been really worried recently about the whole Russian situation,” wrote the prankster, still impersonating Scavino. “The White House will be okay won’t it? I love my job, and the people I work with, I don’t want the dream to end up derailing. Dan.”
    “I have great confidence there is nothing there implicating the President or the White House,” Cobb wrote. “Manafort and Flynn have issues separate and apart from the WH that will cause the investigation to linger but am hoping we get a clean bill of health soon. Best, Ty.”

  89. 89.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Marmot: They (mostly men) think she’s powerful because she makes them hard. What else can it be? She’s never had even a minor mediocre achievement. She’s never worked a job that wasn’t given by Daddy, she has no causes she champions. I don’t think she’s even lived anywhere but NYC. Real power for women usually comes with wrinkles, stretch marks for babies, and the look that comes from hours of poring over documents. You may be attractive (Michelle Obama, Nicola Sturgeon), but you don’t look like Barbie all grown up. And even if you do, there’s a depth to the eyes that hint of substance.

  90. 90.

    Jeffro

    Been so distracted these past couple of days that I missed all this good news:

    GOP moderates retiring/fleeing party as Trumpism takes it over (headline mine ;)

    THE BIG IDEA: Exhausted from his ideological battles with the House Freedom Caucus and clashes with Donald Trump’s White House, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) has decided to retire.

    “As a member of the governing wing of the Republican Party, I’ve worked to instill stability, certainty and predictability in Washington,” Dent said in a statement last night announcing that he will not seek an eighth term. “I’ve fought to fulfill the basic functions of government, like keeping the lights on and preventing default. Regrettably, that has not been easy given the disruptive outside influences that profit from increased polarization and ideological rigidity that leads to dysfunction, disorder and chaos.”

    Dent is the co-chairman of the moderate Tuesday Group, which has about 50 center-right members. That’s more than the three dozen or so guys in the Freedom Caucus, but the tea partyers punch above their weight because they mostly vote as a bloc.

    — The retirement gives Democrats a prime pickup opportunity, and some veteran GOP strategists are increasingly nervous that a stream of others will follow – especially if the House fails to put more legislative points on the board (e.g. overhauling the tax code) and the political winds continue to suggest major Democratic gains in the 2018 midterms.

    — Dent has increasingly drawn the wrath of the Trumpist movement for his willingness to publicly express concerns about Trump that many of his House GOP colleagues are still only willing to say on background. The congressman called for Trump to drop out when the “Access Hollywood” tape emerged last October and then voted for independent Evan McMullin. Since January, he’s spoken out against the president’s travel ban, his firing of James Comey as FBI director and his false moral equivalency after Charlottesville.

    Pennsylvania state Rep. Justin Simmons announced on Wednesday that he would challenge Dent in a primary next year, emphasizing the incumbent’s lack of support for Trump. “Like many Republicans, I used to support Charlie Dent,” Simmons said in the news release kicking off his campaign. “But in the past year, Charlie Dent has completely gone off the rails.”

    Dismissing the challenger as an opportunistic “phony,” Dent released embarrassing text messages that he received from him last year. One asked him to host a fundraiser to help in a contested primary. Another asked, “Do you think there’s any chance the party can replace Trump on the top of the ticket?”

    Instead of facing off with Simmons, though, Dent is now stepping aside.

    — That surprise news came just one day after another seven-term moderate announced he will retire. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), who represents a suburban Seattle district that Hillary Clinton carried, is chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade. Breaking with the protectionist president, Reichert wrote a goodbye statement emphasizing the importance of free trade to the Pacific Northwest. “From serving on President Obama’s Export Council to battling to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank to leading the fight to pass the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement, I have always fought to give our exporters the chance to sell their goods and services around the world,” he wrote.

    — A third moderate, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), also expressed concern about the direction of the party when she revealed her plan to step down this spring. The first Cuban American elected to Congress expressed confidence she’d get reelected, even though Clinton won her Miami district by 20 points, but she said the prospect of two more years in the current environment just didn’t appeal to her. “It was just a realization that I could keep getting elected — but it’s not about getting elected,” she told the Miami Herald in April.

    Ros-Lehtinen, the former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has spoken out loudly against Trump since then, on issues like deportations (including DACA this week), transgender rights (her son is transgender) and budget cuts. “I’m not one of those name-callers that think the Democrats don’t have a single good idea,” she said. “Too many people think that way, and I think that’s to the detriment to civility and of good government.”

    — Even as relations continue to fray between Republican congressional leaders and Trump, Democrats say these retirements are just the latest proof points that the Trumpists have completed their hostile takeover of the GOP. “With Trump in charge of the GOP, they might as well have a sign on the door that says ‘Moderates need not apply,’ ” said Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson, who previously ran the independent expenditure arm of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “The last cellblock has fallen and now Trump’s rabble of inmates are running the asylum

    Such language! “Inmates”? LOL

  91. 91.

    schrodingers_cat

    @StringOnAStick: Indeed for Vaishnavas (Devotees of Vishnu, Gandhi was one too) Tulsi is sacred. Most traditional Hindu homes have tulsi growing in their courtyards. Tulsi is too bitter to be used in cooking but has many antiseptic properties.

  95. 95.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jeffro:

    the governing wing of the Republican Party

    IE, the people who want to pass horrible laws that will cause death and suffering, but at least are trying to pass some laws. The “at least it’s an ethos” wing.

    EDIT – @gene108:
    Thankfully, he has not been hired at voter suppression. He has been hired to cheerlead voter suppression. The actual suppression is still up to the states, who need no encouragement. I am continually grateful that Kobach’s position is entirely ceremonial.

  96. 96.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    but the evidence is so piled up now after a decade of this that you have to be a hack to deny it

    I believe all Republican appointed judges are pure partisan hacks. Period.

    They do what is good for the Conservative Revolution. They are the vanguard of the Revolutionary Tribunal, whose goal is not to weigh the merits of a case or decide what is just, but to find out how each case can further the Revolution.

    This is pretty fucking clear from Roberts (expanding the scope of Citizen’s United) all the way down to the local traffic court judge.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @burnspbesq:

    The key change from the early state laws to the more egregious laws was photo ID. They should have made that distinction, instead of allowing the noose to tighten. They weren’t diving in, asking for specifics, they started with a general assumption that asking for ID was reasonable and then applied that to the next group of states. The details of ID laws matter a lot. Ohio’s is MUCH less restrictive than Texas. That change can mean half a million people. Small change, big effect.

    There’s supposed to be a concept in election law that the harm, once done, can’t be remedied as to that voter and
    that race. That’s why there are so many emergency processes available. A Voter doesn’t get an appeal – the election is over. That’s why Ohio puts a county court judge in place in each county until the polls close. It has to happen fast.

  99. 99.

    SFAW

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    The FTFNYT Style columnists go first.

    OK, but schrodinger’s_cat might disagree with you. I think she wants more than just the Style group to get it.

    Of course, you may be OK with that.

    @Marmot:

    You can count on my vote!

    It’s not an elected position, but thanks for the support.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    IE, the people who want to pass horrible laws that will cause death and suffering, but at least are trying to pass some laws. The “at least it’s an ethos” wing.

    Exactly! It’s sort of like the difference between chaotic evil/demons and lawful evil/devils. ;)

    (h/t D&D)

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @trollhattan:

    I support this action by our new god-emperor. I beseech you to simultaneously ban leaf-blowers. Thx, GE!

    Jesus H. Christ, am I going to have to start making a list, checking it twice? Well, as they say, no rest for the weary God-Emperors

  103. 103.

    trollhattan

    @mai naem mobile:
    I like this tidbit.

    A request for comment from Teresa Burchfield’s lawyer was not immediately returned on Thursday afternoon.

    “I’m the lawyer’s lawyer?”
    “Do you also have a lawyer?”
    “You mean the lawyer’s lawyer’s lawyer?”
    “Triple yes.”

  105. 105.

    Kay

    One of my sisters wasn’t politically active until Trump and she just sent me the 2017 fall congressional guide. I don’t even know what that is.

    Diving right in there! She was always a hard worker. I love the anti-Trump newbies. They’re earnest.

  107. 107.

    scav

    @SFAW: They didn’t warn you about the writer’s cramp involved?! You’re going to love the repetative stress injury in your favored smiting arm.

  109. 109.

    Tenar Arha

    @Mike in DC: Me too. I just put it down to Twitter newby pains of hitting reply when I shouldn’t & treated it as a learning experience.

    ETA took my first month or two, but on Twitter mostly it’s better to learn when to STFU in other people’s mentions.

  110. 110.

    germy

    @mai naem mobile:

    The wife of the ethics lawyer that was hired the Trump Organization was arrested for having sex with a prison inmate in the backseat of her car.

    There’s a screenplay waiting to be written.

  113. 113.

    germy

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    but that just made me wonder again why the Kardashians are everywhere in pop culture.

    the reflected, long-lasting glow of the O.J. Simpson saga? “Journalists” made their careers with that one.

  114. 114.

    Spanky

    And in this installment of “Rush Limbaugh is a Lying Liar, and a Fucking Idiot to Boot” ,,,

    Limbaugh then accused The Washington Post and other news outlets of twisting his words while simultaneously doubling down on his conspiracy theory on Thursday.

    “I explained how severe weather events are opportunities for big ratings boosts in the media and explained how it happens,” he said. “I explained how severe weather events impact retailers and how some retailers are smart enough to coordinate advertising with television stations. It happens!”

    Limbaugh said something else on Thursday: He indicated he is evacuating his Palm Beach mansion, from which he broadcasts daily, for “parts unknown.”

    “May as well go ahead and announce this,” he said. “I’m not going to get into details because of the security nature of things, but it turns out that we will not be able to do the program here tomorrow. … We’ll be on the air next week, folks, from parts unknown. So we’ll be back on Monday. It’s just that tomorrow is going to be problematic. Tomorrow it would be, I think, legally impossible for us to originate the program out of here.”

  116. 116.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mike R: @Mike R:

    My grandfather once told entrepreneur is French for thief

    How can that be? One of your Presidents said the French don’t even have a word for entrepreneur!

  117. 117.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    “Dear Penthouse advisor,

    “I never thought this would happen to me, but I’m serving 24 months for vehicle theft (which I totally didn’t do) when in she walked….”

  118. 118.

    Peale

    @germy: LOL. I think he means if he makes his production assistants drive through the storm to get to his house, he might be liable when they die. Or he doesn’t want to have a sleepover in the mansion. I’m sure there are enough rooms to house everyone, but he’s worried that they might open the drawers and find – ummm – things that even a tabloid would be ashamed to reveal about him.

  120. 120.

    Hungry Joe

    Ivanka is more powerful than Natalie Portman? NOBODY is more powerful than Natalie Portman.

    And what about Naomi Klein? (She’s Canadian, but it says “America’s” most powerful woman) Barbara Boxer? Fiona Apple? (I like Fiona Apple.)

    Aly Raisman? NOBODY is more powerful than Aly Raisman.

  122. 122.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @tobie: Well if we’re going celebrity edition I’d like to point out that Babs is still alive.

  123. 123.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    You could ignore it for a while but the evidence is so piled up now after a decade of this that you have to be a hack to deny it.

    Which is why only Republican hacks are elevated as judges by Republicans.

  124. 124.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    Leaked DOJ memo recommends making rape victims’ sexual history fair play in campus hearings

    Of course.

    Making campus hearings just like jury proceedings.

    Remind me again the conviction rate for sex assaults at the state level? //

  125. 125.

    trollhattan

    The boy king worries his is shorter.

    Emir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah was in Washington Thursday for talks with Trump over shared security interests and the ongoing fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in the region. According to Politico, Trump marveled at the jet the Kuwaiti ruler flew in on. During a later meeting with congressional delegations from New York and New Jersey, Trump is even said to have complained that the emir’s plane was longer than his own.

    It is not clear whether Trump was referring to his personal private jet or Air Force One. However, as Air Force One is similar in length to the Boeing 747-400 that carries the emir, Trump likely was referring to his Boeing 757 personal plane, which is about 75 feet shorter than the Kuwaiti ruler’s.

  126. 126.

    The Moar You Know

    Fox NewsVerified account @ FoxNews
    Vanity Fair outrage: #MichelleObama, not #MelaniaTrump, makes International Best Dressed List

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Melania dresses like a fucking street hooker. Not a high-dollar escort, knew a couple of those in my musician days, they dress nicely. You could take them to church and nobody would bat an eye. Most women dress better than Melania, in part because if you dressed like she does you’d get run in for soliciting.

  127. 127.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So can CNN remind us what branch of government are the president’s adult children? Is this the fabled fifth branch, after Cheny’s Vice President’s forth branch?

  128. 128.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:
    The impression I’m getting is that Trump lit this fire, but congress’s ‘kill the ACA’ session was the fuel that’s made it rage. The newly awakened aren’t just pissed at Trump. They have the whole GOP in their sights. Thank goodness.

    @The Moar You Know:
    …which brings us back to the Kardashians.

  129. 129.

    trollhattan

    Ya think?

    As southern Florida prepares to take a direct hit from Hurricane Irma, officials have warned people in downtown Miami to take special care because of the 20 to 25 tower construction cranes that loom over the area, hundreds of feet tall. The tower cranes are “designed to withstand winds up to 145 miles per hour, not a Category 5 Hurricane,” the city said in a news release this week. Irma is now a Category 4 storm, but it’s bringing maximum sustained winds of 150 mph — and gusts of more than 180 mph — as it churns toward Florida’s coast.

    As member station WLRN reports from Miami, “City Manager Daniel Alfonso says officials knew Irma could be a serious threat with about a week’s notice, and that wasn’t enough time to take all the cranes down.”

    The issue, Alfonso said, is that the cranes take time to be dismantled, and the process also calls for blocking traffic on city streets. “It takes five to six days per crane, and they can be up to 900 feet tall and include 10,000-pound counterweights,” WLRN reports.

  130. 130.

    SgrAstar

    @Ohio Mom:

    At best, Ivanka is in third place.

    Ivanka is not even on the chart. There are countless Jewish academics and philanthropists who squash any pretensions to position that Ivanka might cherish. She has no accomplishments. Total loser.

  132. 132.

    NorthLeft12

    I’m not sure what their definition of powerful is. I don’t think she can deliver on anything you ask of her, unless it is something that she wants herself. And I don’t mean that fake wanting that she keeps going on about……you know…world peace, competent government, justice and equality, etc. Yeah, you know, all that stuff that the poors and libs want.

  133. 133.

    SFAW

    @trollhattan:

    when in she walked….”

    Umm, given that it’s Rushbo, you might want to re-think your choice of pronouns. Or did you think that all the 13-year-old boys serv(ic)ing him in the Dominican were just bringing him Perrier or Evian or some such?

  134. 134.

    germy

    Tonight at 8:00, all three major networks will be showing a live broadcast of XQ Super School Project?

    What is this? Another attempt to end public education? Since November I’m suspicious of everything.

  135. 135.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @The Moar You Know: That’s an interesting question why is Melania so badly dressed, most American designers love for the First Lady to show off their work. Perhaps it’s because those designers are in NYC and NYC knows the Trumps all to well?

  136. 136.

    Yutsano

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Tulsi is too bitter to be used in cooking

    Huh. Maybe the Thai use a different kind because ผัดกระเพราไก่ (Pad kaprow gai) uses rather copious amounts of tulsi.

  137. 137.

    bemused

    Ha, Ha, gotta love ABL! Immediately also thought of NYT Lindy West piece on Ivanka.
    The entire family thinks they are perfection, just because.
    Media still playing into giving that family some strokes is pathetic.

  138. 138.

    trollhattan

    @SFAW:
    We were riffing off this, not the sexually ambiguous Limbaugh. I know it’s hard to untangle them all!

    The wife of the ethics lawyer that was hired the Trump Organization was arrested for having sex with a prison inmate in the backseat of her car. The lawyer is also one of the high ups at Crossroads GPS.

  139. 139.

    NorthLeft12

    @Spanky:

    Tomorrow it would be, I think, legally impossible for us to originate the program out of here.”

    Jabba the Limbaugh

    Legally? If being under five feet of water is illegal in Florida, then he is probably correct. I am surprised this fine example of conservative principles and courage does not take a stand against BIG Government and decide to stay in his seaside broadcast booth. That would show us!

  143. 143.

    ruemara

    @Iowa Old Lady: I honestly think it’s youth and beauty giving her that pass. Like the way your idiot male friends can find a vapid pretty 20 something to be intellectual and spiritual – as long as they believe they have a shot in hell of getting into her pants. trust me, I’ve been in creative fields all my life. Plus a smart lady, not a pretty lady.

  144. 144.

    Ohio Mom

    @Ladyraxterinok: The traditional Jewish approach is to discourage would-be converts. If they are undeterred, it is very bad form to mention they are coverts once all the um, paperwork is completed.

  145. 145.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @Frankensteinbeck: Me too. I paid very little attention to racism until I started reading ABL here, which prompted me to start listening to TWiB, read more Black writers, etc., etc. The shitty way Imani was treated here, was actually one of the first times I realized that racism is just as much of a problem on the left. A realization that sadly has been supported by continuing examples, ad infinitum all over the Left Blogosphere ever since.

  146. 146.

    Ohio Mom

    @Gelfling 545: I’m not interested in Ivanka — I was reacting to dcde79 saying he/she didn’t like the “most powerful Jewish woman” angle as applied to anyone, ever.

    I wouldn’t be offended if that tact was used in a story about someone/just about anyone else but of course it’s beyond sloppy reporting to use it for Ivanka, for all reasons discussed in this thread.

    Ah, the inevitable misunderstandings created by hastily typed comments!

  147. 147.

    PlaneCrazy

    I miss ABL too. The last time I followed Twitter with anything like attention was when she and John went to the convention together. Those were some epic posts and tweets. Sigh.

    Getting old, we all are. (I guess I’m channeling Yoda now?)

  149. 149.

    Ohio Mom

    @SgrAstar: I was just riffing on ABL’s tweet.

    The only accolade I’d ever give Ivanka is “woman whose personal style is most reminiscent of Barbie.” Though Melania might also be in the running. Both of them do not look like real human people to me, I find them downright creepy.

  150. 150.

    SFAW

    @trollhattan:

    We were riffing off this, not the sexually ambiguous Limbaugh. I know it’s hard to untangle them all!

    Shit. I guess I just aced myself out of the running for G-E.

    Too bad, I was going to name you as Keeper of Lists, too. Sorry for letting you down.

  152. 152.

    No One You Know

    @dedc79: I find myself feeling a little touchy about “powerful Jew” narratives. Haven’t we seen this movie already? I for one didn’t like the ending…And I wasn’t even born,then.

  153. 153.

    ExpatDanBKK

    @schrodingers_cat: Point of contension, Mr Cat. Tulsi/holy basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) aka ga-prao (กะเพรา), is a staple in Thai cuisine. So it is most definitely used in cooking. In fact, I had some tonight for dinner!

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