Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The willow is too close to the house.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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Monday Afternoon Open Thread

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  2. 2.

    Droppy

    This may go a long way toward explaining my own distinct lack of worms and my dog’s unusually low blood pressure.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Personally, I think all these accusations against Roy Moore were planted by the Trump admin. They want us talking about anything else but the indictments that haven’t dropped yet from Mueller! It’s a distraction!

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    The only problem with Allred presenting another accuser this afternoon is that it needs to be 15 or 20.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    Both the dog and yours truly are taking glucosamine & chondroitin so this truly would not be an issue at the Fro household. Hers come as these little chewy nuggets, though…now I feel like I’m getting the short end of this deal!

  9. 9.

    mai naem mobile

    @Corner Stone: nah,I think they were planted by McConnell but didn’t detonate in time for the primary. I think Mueller has this all planned out and is setting up all the dominoes. I think Mueller couldn’t do certain things while Dolt45 was out of town. I think there is stuff that he has to be in town for so that Mueller can observe his reaction.You don’t become head of the FBI by being stupid. You can,however,be a moron and become POTUS.

  13. 13.

    CaseyL

    I think it would be amazing if the switch made both of you feel terrific. I see you and the boxer trading guilty glances and mutually thinking, “Maybe making the same ‘accident’ once a week wouldn’t be so bad?”

    In other news, I hear that Gal Gadot is refusing to make the next Wonder Woman movie if Brett Rattner is still involved in any way, shape or form (despite being fired, he still apparently has some contractual financial connection to the DCU franchise). The more I learn about Ms. Gadot the more she impresses. Not afraid to leverage her stardom for the greater good!

  15. 15.

    different-church-lady

    Repeating this from earlier:

    Sean Parker unloads on Facebook “exploiting” human psychology

    “The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’”
    “And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments.”
    “It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.”
    “The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.”

    Basically the same thing cigarette manufacturers did with nicotine, except without the literal cancer.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    More
    News: 2 WH officials float SESSIONS as potential fix to Moore problem. Appoint him back to his old seat if… >>

    OMFG we are never going to be rid of him. My theory is that everyone else is wrong (!) and Trump is beholden to Sessions because Sessions knows too much about the Russian connections. Sessions owns Trump, not vice versa.

    I’m completely convinced of this. He threw us off the scent because he’s so itty bitty and ass-kissing, but really he’s the one they have to keep inside the (crime) tent! :)

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    @CaseyL: Yes, kudos to Gadot. Another satisfying aspect of that story: Gadot wasn’t locked into a multi-film contract like most male stars who’ve done similar movies, so now the producers are probably kicking themselves for that!

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    @Redshift:

    Yes, I look forward to self-satisfied tweets from super progressives starting with “while you were distracted by the Roy Moore business…”

    “…you were completely ignoring the economic angst of the WHITE WORKING CLASS!!1!”

  20. 20.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I agree. Sessions’ fingerprints are on every aspect of the Russian collusion issue. Papadopoulos meeting, his meetings with the Ambassador, the fact that his trusted aide, Steven Miller, ran Papadopoulos when he was contacting the Russians, his involvement with the Ukranian language change at the convention…. Every bit of it.

  21. 21.

    Redshift

    @Kay: Er, who do they think it’s going to “appoint Sessions back to his old seat”? If they could do that, we wouldn’t be having a special election.

  22. 22.

    trollhattan

    @Corner Stone:
    This one’s claiming attempted rape.

    “At some point he gave up. He then looked at me and said, “You are a child. I am the District Attorney of Etowah County,” she continued. “If you tell anyone about this, no one will believe you.” He finally allowed me to open the car door and I either fell out or he pushed me out. I was on the ground as he pulled out of the parking area behind the restaurant. The passenger door was open as he burned rubber pulling away leaving me laying there on the cold concrete in the dark.”

    Wonder if Trump knew about Moore’s skeevy past and that’s why he backed Strange.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Wouldn’t it be funny if KKKeebler had the Shitgibbon by the balls? LOL! Doesn’t quite dovetail with the account of Sessions’ describing how humiliating it is to be publicly yelled at by Trump, but maybe that was just smoke to obscure his role as the mastermind! I have no doubt Sessions is a towering intellect compared to Trump. Hmmm. Still, it sure would be convenient to have a non-recused AG who could stymie or end Mueller’s investigation…

  24. 24.

    feebog

    @Kay:

    The Sessions scenario has been floated by various pundits for days now. It all supposes that Sessions would be willing to return to the Senate. I would not place a bet on that.

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    @Kay: How would that even work? Sessions isn’t a Senator any more, he can’t just say ‘I undo my resignation’ or similar. Well, he could say it but it wouldn’t matter. The Senate seat is occupied by Mr Strange, and unless he resigns it will remain his until the special election.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    FFS and FSM: Beverly Young Nelson accusing Moore. Just reading about it on Twitter is heartrending.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Another satisfying aspect of that story: Gadot wasn’t locked into a multi-film contract like most male stars who’ve done similar movies, so now the producers are probably kicking themselves for that!

    She certainly seems to embody Wonder Woman as well as, for example, Robert Downey Jr nailed Iron Man.

    And that’s no knock against Wonder Woman emeritus, Lynda Carter.

  28. 28.

    The Moar You Know

    Basically the same thing cigarette manufacturers did with nicotine, except without the literal cancer.

    @different-church-lady: I am trying to decide which is worse: cancer or having my mind manipulated for the benefit of anyone who wants to pay chump change to a social media platform with a long track record of utterly irresponsible behavior.

    Draw, at the moment.

  31. 31.

    Immanentize

    @dmsilev: The whole crazy scenario goes like this — First, Roy Moore has to win the election. Second, Moore has to THEN step down (Ha!) or be kicked out of the Senate. That would create an open seat, so Third, the Governor of Alabama would have to dis Strange and appoint Sessions who would have to quit his position at the DOJ. Further, Sessions may not be allowed to come back with all his seniority intact. In other words, it will never happen.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    @The Moar You Know: I’ll bet the mind control is hella easier to fight than the cancer.

    Just so I’m clear here, there’s no way in hell I’m putting cigarette manufacturers and Facebook on a 1:1 scale. But dayum, they just are NOT innocent or benign, they have intent.

  36. 36.

    hueyplong

    @trollhattan: “Wonder if Trump knew about Moore’s skeevy past and that’s why he backed Strange.”

    Really? I would think Trump admired Strange’s ham-handed quashing of the ALA governor’s impeachment for skeevy behavior.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    Wonder if Trump knew about Moore’s skeevy past and that’s why he backed Strange.

    I doubt it. If he knew Moore’s past, it would probably make him think better of him. My gut feeling is that he backed Strange because he was encouraged to by his political advisers, not because he knew squat about either candidate.

  38. 38.

    lamh36

    Wait…saw on CNN, the newest accuser has a yearbook signed by Roy Moore in 1977 to corroborate that he knew her… “to a sweet girl…” w/a Christmas greeting…ugh.

    So he was 30!

  41. 41.

    germy

    @Betty Cracker: Takes tremendous courage for these women to step forward. A certain online publication has sent two “reporters” to dig up whatever they can find in their pasts. After they find nothing incriminating they’ll move on to phase two: “Making shit up”

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    @trollhattan:

    Wonder if Trump knew about Moore’s skeevy past and that’s why he backed Strange.

    Trump doesn’t know anything about anything. One of his advisors might have, and somehow steered Trump away from Moore.

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    @mkraju
    5m5 minutes ago
    More
    Cory Gardner, NRSC chairman, says Senate should vote to expel Roy Moore if he wins “because he does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of the United States Senate.”

  46. 46.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    OMFG we are never going to be rid of him. My theory is that everyone else is wrong (!) and Trump is beholden to Sessions because Sessions knows too much about the Russian connections. Sessions owns Trump, not vice versa.

    Of all the people involved in this….
    Flynn and Attorney General White Citizens Council KNEW- beyond a shadow of a doubt- THAT EVERYTHING THEY WERE DOING WAS ILLEGAL.

    Didn’t we pretty much say, from the beginning, that he wasn’t going anywhere, because he is getting to live out his White Supremacist fantasies, Kay. That’s why he was willing to knowingly break the law.

  49. 49.

    jacy

    Cory Gardner just said that if Moore is elected, the Senate should vote to expel him. Pretty soon only the mangiest rats will be left on this ship…

  50. 50.

    germy

    Sen. Susan Collins ✔ @SenatorCollins
    I have now read Mr. Moore’s statement and listened to his radio interview in which he denies the charges. I did not find his denials to be convincing and believe that he should withdraw from the Senate race in Alabama.

  52. 52.

    lamh36

    This is what Moore wrote!

    “To a sweeter, more beautiful girl I could not say ‘Merry Christmas’. Christmas 1977, Love, Roy Moore D.A.””

    The mofo singed it.. D.A.!!!! If that ain’t a power move…ugh

  56. 56.

    lamh36

    @BillKristol
    Follow Follow @BillKristol
    More
    Straightforward from here:
    1. McConnell endorses Sessions as write-in candidate for AL Sen.
    2. Sessions quits as AG to run.
    3. Sessions wins.
    4. Trump appoints someone already in Senate-confirmed position as new AG.
    5. New AG fires Mueller.
    6. Sen Sessions votes to impeach Trump.

  59. 59.

    GregB

    @lamh36:

    Reminds me of the guy in NH who was bagged for a campaign of racist graffiti written on the outside walls of apartments where immigrants lived.

    The kicker was the police matched his writing on his gun permit to the writing on the walls.

  60. 60.

    Immanentize

    @lamh36: I wish a bit that they had waited to produce the yearbook until Moore denied knowing her at all, like he denied ever knowing Ms. Corfman (the 14 year old victim).

  62. 62.

    germy

    @rikyrah:

    because he is getting to live out his White Supremacist fantasies

    True. His whole life has been leading up to this.

    The Mueller unpleasantness and all the poking from people like Al Franken has him worried, though. Sometimes in photos he has a haunted, faraway look, like he’s wondering if he’ll be able to hurt all the people he wants to hurt before the hammer falls on him.

  63. 63.

    hueyplong

    1. He’ll be ok because he said “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.”

    2. Are some of you fantasizing about the Trump administration vetting a white guy?

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    @trollhattan:
    Had Trump known about Moore’s skeeviness, he would have endorsed Moore as a kindred spirit. Seriously, though, it’s my suspicion that Trump doesn’t know jack about either Moore or Strange, and that he endorsed Strange only because someone told him that Strange was the party’s preferred man. Trump might be a little sore that he got steered wrong about Strange’s support, but I doubt that after this election he’ll even remember, let alone care, whom he endorsed or why.

  68. 68.

    hueyplong

    @germy: Sessions seems like the type who would have spent every day worrying about the details of how a slave revolt would have gone down on his plantation.

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    @germy:

    he has a haunted, faraway look,

    Sessions is no Spring chicken. He will be 71 in December. Both he and Trump were born in ’46. He may just be losing it all together….

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    I think she went with Allred, because, unlike the other accusers…she had receipts…that yearbook signature WITH THE DATES!!!!!! YALL!!

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    A whole metric crapton of angry people will be compelled to pretend to boycott a magazine they do not presently read, upon learning of this.

    GQ magazine has named former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who got President Donald Trump’s attention by kneeling in protest of police brutality during the national anthem at NFL games, its “Citizen of the Year.” Kaepernick declined to speak to the magazine, instead curatings a series of interviews with people he admires, including filmmaker Ava Duvernay and rapper J. Cole. Joining Kaepernick on a series of GQ covers are Stephen Colbert (“Bad Hombre of the Year”), Gal Gadot (“Wonder Woman of the Year”) and Kevin Durant (“Champion of the Year”). Still a free agent, Kaepernick remains without a team following the controversy prompted by his peaceful protest.

    Not as fun as smashing the coffee machine, but still….

  74. 74.

    Feathers

    Saw something a ways back about how the US fights against child marriage abroad but allows it at home. (Kind of like secret accounts and money laundering.). The gist was that there should be a strong push to ban under 18 marriage in the US. I’m all for such a fight, if only to force the Talibangicles out in the open defending it. They have held the moral high ground far too long.

  76. 76.

    schrodingers_cat

    OT A feast for the eyes:
    Latest musical promo from the upcoming movie, Padmavati. . Sanjay Leela Bhansali, highlights the culture of the desert state of Rajasthan for this movie. In Devdas it was Bengali culture while Bajirao Mastani was set in my ancestral home state of Maharashtra.
    SLB’s movies are a feast for the eyes. No one makes Indian textiles and jewelry look as gorgeous as SLB.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize:

    I wish a bit that they had waited to produce the yearbook until Moore denied knowing her at all, like he denied ever knowing Ms. Corfman (the 14 year old victim).

    Truly. Boom.

    FWIW, it’s been rather quiet from Robert Mueller-land, hasn’t it?

  84. 84.

    germy

    @Adam L Silverman: I remember seeing Mr. Kristol on a talk show. This was a few years back, maybe around the time McCain was running for pres.

    Bill was asked about bombing Iran. His reaction was odd. He squinted and grinned and hunched up his shoulders. Like a little thrill went through him. I found it distasteful and frankly unwholesome.

  87. 87.

    Calouste

    @lamh36: Also, her allegations seem to be more serious, i.e. attempted rape vs sexual assault. I assume that there are cases we don’t know of yet where Moore raped a girl where they are still working on dotting the i’s.

    Btw, how many girls did the perv “date” at the same time?

  89. 89.

    hueyplong

    Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol could fuck up a wet dream. If I follow him, his scenario would have Sessions voting to convict, not to impeach.

  92. 92.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: Sounds about right to me. In his cringe-worthy rally for Strange before the primary, Trump seemed puzzled that he was backing the candidate who wasn’t popular with the mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers and said, “I might have made a mistake.” What a maroon!

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle: Moore apparently ate quite a bit at the restaurant. He’s stupid and stubborn but even he has to see that there are dozens of people who may come forward and say he paid quite a bit of attention to the young waitress.
    Still, it would have been fun.

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    Open thread: I took a baby step in guitar-modding today and fixed The Girl’s loose strap-lock button. All it took was a toothpick and a drop of cyanoacrylate glue.

  96. 96.

    MazeDancer

    Beverly Young Nelson’s account of Moore’s attack was most moving.

    Here’s the full press conference. Her account starts at 8:00

    Many women who voted for Trump are going to think, gee, she looks like me.

    She also sounded so relieved to be free of the burden of that molester having power over her.

    Moore assaulted Ms. Nelson years before he molested Ms. Corfman. So the chances of more women coming forward is high.

  97. 97.

    Calouste

    @lamh36: I’m pretty sure step 4 doesn’t work like that. Didn’t the acting DHS Secratary just go through the confirmation process?

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    @germy:

    The Mueller unpleasantness and all the poking from people like Al Franken has him worried, though. Sometimes in photos he has a haunted, faraway look, like he’s wondering if he’ll be able to hurt all the people he wants to hurt before the hammer falls on him.

    You see it too…he’s mad …he should get to hurt the non-White folk uninterrupted.

  100. 100.

    Schlemazel

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Absolutely as gorgeous as advertized!
    There used to be a decent Indian deli we would eat at & they ran movies all the time, I have to admit I could not understand them. It was more than a language barrier, there were things I assume were culturally significant that I could not comprehend. Many of them looked cheap with a lot of action but others did look beautiful & I feel poorer for not getting them.

  101. 101.

    lamh36

    @clairecmc
    4m4 minutes ago
    More
    As an experienced sex crimes prosecutor I recognize the shifts in Roy Moore’s “denials”. They completely undermine his credibility. I agree with many of my R colleagues. He doesn’t belong in the Senate. Period.

  103. 103.

    Corner Stone

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s got to be a petite stereotyped Asian female computer geek with glasses, doesn’t it? That way when she takes off her glasses and kicks some bad guys’ ass it’s the big reveal.

  104. 104.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    The GOP’s Evolution into a True Fascist, White Nationalist Party Is Inevitable
    https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/09/the-gops-evolution-into-a-true-fascist-white-natio.html

    The Authoritarians and White Supremacists in Waiting

    One of the most alarming developments of the Trump era has nothing to do with Trump but with Republican leadership. There is a direct line from the House GOP’s weaponization of the debt-ceiling to Mitch McConnell’s attempts to ram through an Obamacare repeal in the Senate. The former was a jaw-dropping abuse of power, when a small faction of the hard right attempted to take the U.S. economy hostage in order to extract policy concessions from the Obama administration. Now that it’s been done once, it will become a consistent weapon for authoritarian-minded pols looking for a shortcut to policy victory. Trump himself could threaten a default if he does not get his border wall. Meanwhile, McConnell’s absolute trashing of all Senate norms in order to push forward a disastrous and unpopular bill shows where we’re headed. Trump continues to demand that McConnell destroy the legislative filibuster as he did for the judicial filibuster so Republicans could appoint Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Rest assured, if McConnell doesn’t end the filibuster, some future Republican senate leader will. The other wild card is the Supreme Court itself. If Trump or Mike Pence can get another far-right judge in the next three years, it will tip the Court towards authoritarianism for a generation.

    On the cultural front, during the past year of Trump’s improbable rise, we’ve been introduced to a hilarious cast of characters: buffoons, con men, shills, hacks, and sycophants. Yet it’s the nativist, neo-fascist ideologues, the Steve Bannons, the Sebastian Gorkas, the Stephen Millers who have been awarded the largest prize.

    David Duke is resurgent. Richard Spencer, a young, wealthy white supremacist, who can effortlessly relate barbaric ideas in a calm, disarming manner is on his way to becoming a household name. Who will be the first Republican candidate to appear in a picture with him in order to signal to the primary audience? Are we sure Spencer himself couldn’t win a senate seat in Texas or Louisiana, where his family has roots?

    Roy Moore, a promoter of the birther conspiracy who believes Keith Ellison should not be able to sit in congress because he’s Muslim, may very well be the next senator from Alabama. Kris Kobach, who helped draft Arizona’s gruesome deportation law SB 1070, and who’s the head of Trump’s “voter fraud commission,” will likely be the next governor of Kansas. Following his pardon, American ethnic cleanser Joe Arpaio will become a serious candidate in any Arizona Republican primary.

    All this is to say nothing of “alt-right” acolytes currently filling up the ranks of College Republicans. As its radicalization grows, this feeding tube for the GOP will turn off its typical ranks of pasty, pro-life suburban kids and attract fearsome idiots and cunning racists. This political moment is breeding a generation of ambitious storm troopers while detestable young ideologues like Stephen Miller will become major players in Republican circles for the rest of their lives.

    Of course, there will remain a cuticle-thin patina of multicultural, big-tent respectability. The rise of a truly white supremacist party will be aided and abetted by a rainbow coalition of accommodationists. We already had a preview of this when Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Economic Advisor Gary Cohn stood behind Trump as he gave his rambling defense of the “very fine people” at Charlottesville. The Asian-American woman and two Jewish men chose not to resign nor impede Trump’s nightmare of a presidency in any way.

    The African-American senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott, and the Latino senators from Texas and Florida, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, have grumbled that they’d prefer white nationalism not be a thing, but they’ll never stand up to Trump or his base in any meaningful way. Nikki Haley remains comfortable serving the president at the UN as does Ben Carson at HUD. Though he got turned down for a job in Homeland Security (not because he tortured people, but because he plagiarized) Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke remains a potent public figure. Omarosa continues to serve as a political aide in the White House—a sentence likely first conceived for a discarded joke in a Jay Leno monologue.

    No doubt as the party becomes ever more explicit in its racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic appeals, it will recruit ambitious and unscrupulous women, Jews, and people of color as decorative baubles for a frightening revanchism. Meanwhile, we probably do not yet know the name of the most dangerous individuals, the ones who will use the infrastructure of Republican politics to advance a previously unspeakable agenda.

  107. 107.

    lamh36

    @Elizabelle: I think Mueller is waiting for Chump to get back on US soil. Unlike Chump…I think realizes how bad it would be to US interest for things like that to drop while Chump is actively handling US bidness overseas…

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    Incidentally, anything up out of Bowling Green? Hoping there will be some salacious details, eventually, on why Rand Paul was attacked while mowing his own lawn.

    The attacker is a former physician with a head injury from a bike accident. I’ve told you, I know of someone who had a personality change and wreck of his life after a bike crash without his helmet. Brain buckets, they’re valuable.

    Please let there be more to this story … and I mean, that Rand Paul’s behavior ticked the guy off, for some reason …

    Also: do you think NJ’s Robert Menendez’s trial will end in a hung jury? It’s sounding that way. Do they need a unanimous verdict in NJ?

    At the very least, it gets his Senate seat to a Democratic governor for a fresh appointment.

  110. 110.

    Millard Filmore

    @MomSense:

    I got it. Former Vegas showgirl who becomes a private investigator.

    Toward the end of the black-and-white TV era, there was a show along those lines. The star was a beautiful blond (I was too young to know if she was ever a showgirl) private investigator. I think the show was “Honey West”. You would be in good company.

    Yeah, here it is:
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058814/

  111. 111.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Schlemazel: The Indian film industry is much more prolific than Hollywood so there is a lot of chaff but there are some absolute gems too. The last 10 to 15 or so years has seen a renaissance, in the types of subjects tackled and the technical mastery.

  112. 112.

    lamh36

    @Only4RM
    Following Following @Only4RM
    More Only4RM Retweeted Gabriel Debenedetti
    Republicans know there are more shoes to drop.
    They have also done the polling.
    They have not suddenly found a sense of decency.
    They’re trying to salvage the seat before it’s won by a Democrat.
    https://twitter.com/Only4RM/status/930168800959455233

    I think this is correct…I saw a reporter on MSNBC report that RNC still have folks on the ground in AL, actively canvassing and polling

  113. 113.

    germy

    @trollhattan:

    That would be pure holiday gravy.

    The sound of that fat hissing and crackling in the oven…

    I still say I want to see kkkeebler taken into custody by two Black officers. A man and a woman.

  114. 114.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
    Continued:

    Capital’s Coming Accommodation

    For lack of a better term, let’s call the current Republican platform of steroidal supply-side economics the Ryan Agenda, after the Speaker of the House who has been the “intellectual” “force” behind it. Backed by Koch money, the agenda has one primary goal: cut taxes for the richest of the rich. There is no nuance to this. During the attempt to repeal Obamacare, every analysis pointed out that each version of the bill had little to do with healthcare and everything to do with cutting billions of dollars of taxes for the wealthiest people on the planet.

    Of course, there’s not actually a huge voting constituency for the Ryan agenda. No one but millionaires, billionaires, and their ideological mouthpieces want to privatize social security, block grant Medicaid, turn Medicare into a voucher program, and cut home heating oil subsidies. If they do, it’s solely because of an implicit racial appeal.

    Go back to the last Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his remarks on 47 percent of the country. This “takers versus makers” paradigm uses the image of welfare queens, gangbangers, and Mexican drug dealers to make the case for stripping programs like Medicaid and food stamps and anything else that can be propagandized as a government handout advantaging minorities. Few would support the Ryan agenda without the specter of an unworthy Other from whom government benefits must be stripped (tellingly, Republicans never go after the home mortgage interest deduction or the tax write-off for private jets; their small government fanaticism extends only to programs that benefit the poor, the marginalized, the non-white).

    And this is how a more classical fascism will take root in the GOP, because it’s doubtful there are many compromises Capital would not be willing to make so long as the agenda of short-term profit continues to advance. Merck CEO Ken Frazier faced Trump’s Twitter wrath following Frazier’s resignation from The White House Business Council, and even more brouhaha erupted when several other CEOs followed suit, but this is all such cheap theater. Did Frazier announce that Merck would no longer donate to the campaigns of politicians that support Trump? Did he express regrets about the $1.6 million his company spent to influence the 2016 election, the majority of which went toward electing Republicans because they are the most eager deregulators? Of course not.

    Capital, in the form of Wall Street, in the form of enterprising plutocrats like Ron and Rebecca Mercer, in the form of corporations like Under Armour and Campbell’s Soup will eventually make their peace with whatever radical racial politics erupt. The corporate state and the moneyed elite who suckle off its diseased tit have nowhere else to go. They will continue to buy what influence they can in the Democratic Party, but the insurgent candidacy of Bernie Sanders suggests that this is not safe territory for them. In order to ensure the state continues to serve the interests of corporate profit, these institutions will have to accede to whatever insanity bubbles up from the ranks of the Republicans. Furthermore, look to the example of Arizona’s SB 1070, which was written in part by private prison companies. There is a lot of money to be made in a police state—not just by private prisons, but by the already booming national security-industrial complex that began raking in huge profits following 9/11.

    A truly fascist political movement will be great for the bottom line.

    What Could Stop This?

    This all may sound over the top—as it always does when a nation’s politics take a sharp turn into unprecedented territory. Do you think we’re the first people to ever try to tell ourselves, “Things will go back to normal eventually”? This is about the slow, intractable logic of decisions already being made and trends already under way.

    There are basically only two ways the Republican Party can avoid becoming a de facto fascist, white supremacist organization. The first is a robust challenge to Trumpism from within the party itself. This would require not just impeachment, removal, or a primary challenge in 2020 but independent conservatives running third party candidacies in states and congressional districts where the most ideologically frightening people win primaries. It would require spoiler candidacies and honest outreach to minority communities in the form of policy, not just photo ops. In short, it would require a civil war within the GOP to step back from this cliff. Let’s just say I find this scenario highly unlikely. Political courage is already in such short supply these days, but it’s particularly absent in the Republican caucus. The craven, gutless acquiescence to Trump will make up whole chapters in history books.

    The second possibility is that in 2018 and 2020 voters hand Republicans such a brutal electoral rebuke that it changes the party forever. I have real doubts that a free and fair election will actually occur. With their monopoly on government, Republicans have chosen to, of course, degrade protections from election hacking, restrict access to voting in 17 states, and empower Kris Kobach with a national scheme to repress the vote. It’s not out of the question that violence breaks out at the polls or some other excuse is concocted to curtail elections, which, apparently, Republican voters would be okay with. Another wild card is the role of Russia and its attempt to globalize right-wing animosity and export its brand of repression, human rights abuses, and kleptocratic rule.

    But let’s say a two-cycle landslide does occur. What then? Democrats and their allies must, at minimum, win back state houses to overturn voter suppression laws and reduce gerrymandering. More likely, what’s needed is a new Voting Rights Act with a nationalized effort to protect the integrity of the ballot and extend the vote to marginalized communities. New laws to check the Presidents ability to pardon, to hire and fire in the Justice Department, and to launch nuclear weapons should also be on the table. At the end of this road is the elephant in the room: taking on the insidious influence of big money, which creates fertile ground for fascism and white nationalism to take root. Even before Citizens United, the situation was bad, but the last three election cycles have proven that the reign of dark money will continue to turn our democracy into a sick global laughingstock.

    If neither of these paradigm shifts occurs, we know what to expect, because we’ve seen it before. Even after Trump is long gone, candidates will rise to prominence with hot rhetoric and noxious policy notions. Anti-immigration measures will grow harsher, law enforcement will operate with even greater impunity, and brutal crackdowns on voting, protest, the media, and other democratic institutions will follow.

    When we reach that point, even with History’s warnings, our journey will be over uncharted land.

  116. 116.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Jeffro: Putting the pill in the middle of a ball of cheese always looked like fun for the dog, but not sure that would work out for people unless you have the same habit of swallowing large chunks without chewing.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I’d say dementia is an issue but Bill K has been this stupid for way too long for that. He’s the anti-journalist, always wrong.
    He’s so stupid that he can’t figure out to write with his eyes closed so he has a better chance of getting at least one right.

  120. 120.

    Mnemosyne

    @sheila in nc:

    Who will be Roxie’s sidekick?

    Her former bouncer, Donald Washington, of course. And they’ll have some ust than runs through the whole series.

    The Rock will play him in the movies.

  122. 122.

    The Moar You Know

    Open thread: I took a baby step in guitar-modding today and fixed The Girl’s loose strap-lock button. All it took was a toothpick and a drop of cyanoacrylate glue.

    @Amir Khalid: This may become an ongoing issue, I have a few basses where it was. I did not want to end up with a bass made half out of toothpicks and cyanoacrylate – bad for tone. I solved it by heading to the hardware store, getting the same diameter screws as the original strap buttons, but at two inches long. Drilled the hole out to 2″ deep using a 1/16″ drill bit, reinstalled old button with new, stainless steel screws. They haven’t moved for the last several years and I suspect won’t move ever again.

  124. 124.

    Immanentize

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    unless you have the same habit of swallowing large chunks without chewing.

    That is exactly why the Heimlich maneuver was invented. Usually at steak restaurants where drinking has occurred….

  128. 128.

    catclub

    @lamh36: I am interested in what the rules are for the election. Is 50%+1 majority required or a plurality, in order to win?

    If it is 50%+1 then I would guess there will be a write-in campaign and then the votes will go about55% GOP and 45% for the Democrat.
    But I have hopes that plurality is enough. It is usually only in a primary that 50% is required to win the whole thing. And then the write-in campaign would only help the Democrat.

  129. 129.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Major Major Major Major:
    It’s one of the best articles I’ve read yet on the nature of the modern GOP and the danger we face as a nation. I didn’t excerpt all of it. One of the biggest problems it discusses is the voter suppression.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    Republicans take church politicking bill in a radical direction
    11/13/17 12:53 PM
    By Steve Benen
    …………………………………………

    Under the amendment, churches and other nonprofits with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status would be able to engage in political speech from 2019 to 2023. The initial bill would not have had a sunset date but would have only applied to houses of worship, rather than all 501(c)(3) organizations.

    Let’s unpack this a bit. Under current law, tax-exempt houses of worship that engage in partisan political activities risk losing their tax exemption. Under the initial Republican plan, the law would be changed to allow ministries to intervene in elections and keep their tax-exempt status anyway.

    Under the latest GOP proposal, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday, all tax-exempt groups – houses of worship, universities and other educational organizations, charities, publications, etc. – could engage in partisan politicking without fear of punishment from the IRS.

    In other words, every U.S. non-profit that is now, by law, non-partisan could start endorsing candidates, aligning with super PACs, contributing to political parties, etc.

    Faced with a controversy over their efforts to repeal the Johnson Amendment, Republicans managed to make their effort quite a bit more radical.

    And why should anyone care whether every tax-exempt entity starts getting involved in partisan politics? Because as we discussed over the summer, the consequences have the potential to be dramatic.

    Imagine the campaign-finance mess that would exist if parties, candidates, and PACs could funnel campaign donations through tax-exempt entities, free of oversight.

    For that matter, imagine if a foreign government, eager to secretly help put a specific candidate in power, decided to start funneling money to specific non-profit organizations – including churches – knowing that those entities would in turn use the resources to support that candidate. The 501(c)3 groups would never have to disclose any of this, and the public would be kept in the dark.

    The GOP proposal fixes a problem that doesn’t exist. There’s no public demand for such a change, and there’s no reason to create this campaign-finance nightmare.

  137. 137.

    Gin & Tonic

    @catclub: Write-in votes go to that candidate. So if, say, Luther Strange gets 5%. Roy Moore get 47% and Doug Jones gets 48%, say hello to Senator Jones.

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    there’s no reason to create this campaign-finance nightmare

    I gotta disagree with Steve about this part. What better way to hide illegal contributions from Russia than by burying them in a haystack and daring regulators to find them?

  139. 139.

    MCA1

    Betty, you owe yourself a break from front-paging on Cole’s blog. The demands of the position clearly can grind down even the best. Take a day or two off, before you find yourself mopping in the buff and hallucinating about misplaced jars of mustard.

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    Watching a Keurig commercial on CNN, on in background.

    Pundit panel just said no way, no how Roy Moore is ever going to be suing the WaPost for its original story. That it is well crafted and “bullet proof.”

  145. 145.

    lamh36

    So Roy Moore’s statement focused on Gloria Allred and her stance on Roe vs Wade…no DIRECT “I don’t know that woman”

    uh..huh…smart people know and will see this as the fake out it is!

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    He’s playing the card that will get the fundamentalists to vote for him, though — since no crime in the whole world is worse than abortion, they have to vote for him, because a serial pedophile is more morally upright than an abortionist.

    I would call it a dogwhistle, but it’s more like a foghorn.

  148. 148.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne: Very portable too. Bred to insinuate themselves into tight spaces. And possibly bilingual. Photogenic. Look good in sweaters …

    Dachshunds rule.

  151. 151.

    catclub

    @rikyrah:

    The GOP proposal fixes a problem that doesn’t exist. There’s no public demand for such a change, and there’s no reason to create this campaign-finance nightmare.

    Sounds just like voter ID laws, so a winner as far as the GOP is concerned.

    The key point to me is that 501(c)3 corps DO have to list their large donors (there is a test for whether donors are listed in the tax [information] form), but churches typically do not have to. One wonders which way the present amendment tilts.

  152. 152.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    It echoes the persona of the detective: looks sweet and harmless, but it has sharp teeth and never gives up.

    I hope IOL is keeping notes!

  153. 153.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Elizabelle:
    I don’t think Roy Moore gives a shit about the law or how well-crafted the WaPo piece is as an example of good journalism. Every indication to me is that he is a defiant authoritarian asshole. I’m glad all of this pedophile stuff came out about him, otherwise in 4-8 years that Christo-fascist would have a real shot at becoming President. If Trump could do it… and we know the future of the GOP is Roy Moore. He strikes me as the sort who would love to have his enemies killed.

  154. 154.

    catclub

    @lamh36:

    uh..huh…smart people know and will see this as the fake out it is!

    one is reminded of what Adlai Stevenson said when told all the smart people would be voting for him. “But madam, I need a majority”

  155. 155.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    While never aspiring to rise above Grade B material, at the time it was kind of fun, possessing a tongue in cheekiness which permeated throughout. Probably doesn’t hold up well almost 50 years later, though.

  159. 159.

    Schlemazel

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Are you sure? Some former slave states have a 50+1 system where there is a run off if no candidate gets 50%+. It was an effective tool for keeping whites in power. I don’t know it Assabama is one of them & if it holds true for this election.

  160. 160.

    Bill Arnold

    @lamh36:

    Straightforward from here:
    1. McConnell endorses Sessions as write-in candidate for AL Sen.

    I read that as an at-least-slightly-amusing joke. (due to the number of steps.) It was not?

  161. 161.

    lamh36

    @Violetskyye
    Follow Follow @Violetskyye
    More
    Replying to @docrocktex26
    So strange that both of Moore’s underage victims voted for an admitted sexual predator as president. ?

    Not really strange, IMHO…racism always wins out…and to be clear…it’s Alabama…racism plays ALOT into their politics…IMHO

    ETA: Or something as basic as “us vs those people”

  162. 162.

    HeleninEire

    Just got back from seeing Murder on the Orient Express. The movie was fine, but the real experience was the theatre. Stellatheatre.ie. It originally opened in the 1920’s and was closed for years. Just went through a major renovation that brought back the splendor of that time. Absolutely beautiful. They have footstools that open up to hold your coat and bag. You then sit back, put your feet up and enjoy the show.

    And get this: you can also purchase a couch or a bed. Yeah that’s right. You can lay in bed and watch the show.

    Also, too, cocktails. Delivered to your seat.

  166. 166.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Schlemazel: No, I don’t know for sure. I’m uninformed and too lazy to look it up, so I make up an authoritative-sounding answer and state it as fact. Just like most people here.

  169. 169.

    prostratedragon

    @different-church-lady: Possibly apropo:

    “Fake Celebrities”: Meet the latest Hollywood couple to hit the world stage: [photos] Neither of those people are real, though. Instead, they were generated by an AI algorithm by researchers at NVIDIA. The algorithm was trained using 30,000 images of real celebrities (using a NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPU for 20 days), and then was able to generate an essentially infinite series of “celebrity-like” images.
    […]

    The same process applies to other types of images as well: given suitable training images, the researchers were able to generate convincing images of fake buses, fake bicycles, fake furniture and fake horses. Make you wonder about the future of stock photography…

    Among other things. The accompanying video is worth a look.

  179. 179.

    Elizabelle

    Some woman on CNN just suggested that Luther Strange resign his seat, setting up a different election date. Don’t know what that would do.

    Think she’s a journalist. Stop helping the Republicans, pundits.

    And why do we never, ever hear the name “Doug Jones” in any of this? Listen for it.

  181. 181.

    geg6

    @Elizabelle:

    The jury said they couldn’t come to a unanimous verdict on any charges. I think this is a federal jury, but could be wrong. Anyway, the judge told them to go home and get a good night’s sleep and try again tomorrow.

  182. 182.

    sheila in nc

    @lamh36:

    So strange that both of Moore’s underage victims voted for an admitted sexual predator as president.

    Also, I sometimes wonder how much of what we see and read even crosses the radar of the average Fox Noise viewer. For some of these behaviors, I bet Fox simply doesn’t say anything about them. Maybe they never even heard about the whole trolling the teenage beauty pageant dressing room thing…

  188. 188.

    burnspbesq

    Mattel is trying to recover from the disaster that was Man-Bun Ken by introducing the first hijabi Barbie, modeled after Duke grad and Olympic fencing medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad (who, if she weren’t cool enough already, is also a Jersey Girl).

    You go, Ibby.

  191. 191.

    randy khan

    @Elizabelle:

    I’m pretty confident a unanimous jury is required to convict Menendez. Even if he is convicted, I think it’s unlikely he could be forced out of the Senate before the turnover in the Governor’s seat in New Jersey.

  193. 193.

    lamh36

    Ever notice how when media wants to do “both sides” headlines on this Roy Moore story, they bring up Bill Clinton’s accusers…but conveniently NEVER seem to bring up Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. Sitting SCOTUS accused of sexual harrassment?

  199. 199.

    Humdog

    @Corner Stone: I see a large man sidekick, who keeps the P.I. office running like clockwork, looks menacing, but who eschews violence. Roxie kicks butt on her own.
    Funny the different projections..

  200. 200.

    Corner Stone

    @Humdog: Roxie takes care of her own business, natch. They could have a male office manager as you describe. But I still see a non-assuming sidekick/partner that brings the surprise when needed but generally just outsmarts everyone. I am also picture a retro or throwback timeframe. Back when the mob not only owned c@sin0s but also enforced some bad shit on the streets. Showgirls Roxie knows go missing – either dead or in hiding from something they’ve seen. That kind of thing.

  202. 202.

    Gelfling 545

    @hueyplong: Aha. But that shows the true cleverness of the plan! No one would be expecting it! Seriously, if one can use the term in this context, it reads like an Underpants Gnome plot.

  204. 204.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    My wife takes a medication, has for years, to help her. The co-pay was $500 for a 90 day supply using her crummy Medicare supplemental. She mentioned the high cost to the prescribing doctor who works at a non-profit health co-op on salary, and he told her to check the cash price at the co-op pharmacy. Their cash price was $50 for a 90 day supply.

    You know the co-op was making a little on that sale to pay the pharmacy employees, utilities, etc.

    Who was making the insurance payment + $450 for that script when she paid the $500 co-pay at our commercial pharmacy at the big box store??? That’s a lot of money for a disabled retired person. Like us.

    Betty, so glad no one has to worry too much about the pill swap!! Friend is OK, dog is happy, all is well. Coat is shiny, tails are wagging. Pretty hilarious.

  205. 205.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: Yes, there was a problem. You see, the leaders of evangelical churches would like to become rich taking money from Billionaires. But that leaves out too many non-church leaders from that gravy train. Sure, they can pay themselves handsomely, but at some point the non-profit ratings agencies notice. Under this law, the wingnut wealth is more evenly distributed.

  209. 209.

    MomSense

    Oh my! My Vegas showgirl Roxie is a big hit. Could be a lot of fun. Has balloon-juice ever crowd written a novella before?

    Let’s use M4’s website to write it!

  213. 213.

    Fair Economist

    @MazeDancer:

    Moore assaulted Ms. Nelson years before he molested Ms. Corfman. So the chances of more women coming forward is high.

    It was obvious from the description of Moore molesting Ms. Corfman that he was an experienced molester.

  215. 215.

    Steve

    @Millard Filmore: The wonderful Anne Francis . Honey West was a spinoff from ‘Burke’s Law’ Starring Gene Barry as a millionaire police Captain.. Yeah, it’s as bad/good 50’s/60’s as you could imagine.. He’s no Mannix, but a nice guilty pleasure..

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