Another day, another Republican House retirement. Let’s kick in some money into the fund that’s split equally among all Democratic eventual nominees in all House districts currently held by Republicans.
Thought you might might like this picture of my dog with Santa. When we hit 25K on this, I’ll put up some baby pictures.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Awesome. They know they’re going to get creamed in November.
debbie
I so, so, so want the next resignatee to be Rob Portman.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Shameless! I’m torn between a groan and a chuckle.
I’m a little confused:
So the plan is to divide it up and give to every Dem challenging a sitting R?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@debbie:
You and me both. He’s one of my senators and he’s such a phony fake moderate.
(((CassandraLeo)))
Top-quality earworm. I will probably kick in some dough later tonight.
debbie
I’m not sure what the tag means; this may be O/T, but tough.
Has Wolff’s publisher’s response to Trump’s Cease and Desist demand been shared at BJ yet? it’s really quite cheering:
John Sargent takes shit from no one. This came out before the publisher’s attorneys offered their response (at the same link, but drier).
ruemara
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I think they’re hoping to avoid jail. Not just losing seats, imprisonment. Too much tainted money and info.
debbie
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I had to stop emailing and faxing him. It was all I could do not to call him a pu$$y.
DougJ
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Son of a ….
The guy is a thug.
KS in MA
@debbie: Fabulous!
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@ruemara:
They can try. I’m young so I don’t have a memory of Iran-Contra, but this seems to much bigger than previous scandals. I read that Mueller is planning on interviewing Trump.
debbie
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Iran Contra was pretty big. Let’s just think of them all as being pretty big.
MomSense
@debbie:
I’m thinking of taking a week/10 days to visit my mom in Akron and do voter registration. I have to figure out when the campaigns will be doing that phase of work.
There’s also some family things I want to do like see the old haunts and visit the grandparents at the cemetery. That sounds so morbid but they’ve been on my mind a lot lately.
Bruuuuce
If we’re sharing our retirement hopes, I am going to give a callback to Schoolhouse Rock, and hope for No More Kings. (But if only one goes, let it be that momzer Steve King.)
VeniceRiley
Royce’s seat is an easy flip. Been trending away from R for ages now.
Elizabelle
You’ve got a great looking dog, Doug.
tobie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The people in the audience are also thugs. They lap up farm subsidies a.k.a. entitlement, govt spending or welfare and then complain about layabouts in the cities who expect government help. I’ve often wondered whether we should pay for crop insurance in years when it’s not used. I understand covering it in years when crops fail but shouldn’t we expect farmers to pay for it in bumper years?
Mel
@debbie: @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Count me in as number 3. He’s a spineless, heartless weasel.
B.B.A.
@debbie: I remember neither, but from this millennial’s perspective, Iran-Contra was bigger than Watergate. Yet Nixon resigned in disgrace while Reagan is going on Mount Rushmore. How do you like them apples?
zhena gogolia
Sweet puppy!
debbie
@MomSense:
When I moved back, I found that many of my old haunts had disappeared, like that Pretenders song. Very depressing.
debbie
@B.B.A.:
They were similar to me. Both were law-breaking, lying presidents.
zhena gogolia
I’ve been giving via SwingLeft. I guess I’m betraying BJ?
MomSense
@debbie:
Oh yeah. The family farm became a mall in the 80s.
Sab
@debbie: Me too. Aside from his reprehensible voting record, have you ever had a call back from his office on anything?
Sab
@MomSense: I am in Akron. Please let us know when you decide to come.
MomSense
@Sab:
Oh cool. Definitely. My mom is heading back on Thursday. She’s driving which makes me nervous but I can’t tell her anything!
Arcadia Berger
The Iran/Contra Conspiracy was bigger than Watergate. Donald’s swamp of corruption is bigger than both put together, and then some.
And yes, let’s all say “No More Kings”: no more Steve King, and no more King Donald.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvOZs3g3qIo
raven
I’m nervous as a cat crappin ground glass.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Bruuuuce: I now have an earworm in fragments from (good god I’m old) forty odd years ago
(Gonna e-lect a president!)
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m in. You better not be lyin’ about the baby pix.
debbie
@raven:
They’ll win. Are you feeling better?
debbie
@Sab:
No, but I would get a form-letter email 5 to 6 weeks after. Totally bogus.
Gelfling 545
@debbie: It was seriously downplayed, though. I remember at the time thinking “How are they getting away with this?”
MomSense
Anyone else think this Michael Wolfe fella looks a lot like Dr. Evil?
Crashman06
@debbie: I used to work for a Macmillan company. Sargent was a good guy and a good leader. I was always impressed when he’d come to the office at the end of the year to talk with us and take questions.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
My recollection is, the public pretty much went along with this. And Poppy Bush perjured himself. And liberal columnist Richard Cohen said that was fine, cause he and Cap Weinberer used to nod hello to each other in the Piggly-Wiggly
Quinerly
@MomSense: He’s an interesting looking guy. Kinda odd duck. Just clicked on MSNBC…caught a bit of a psychiatrist essentially saying the mentally ill are offended by being compared to Trump….the times we are living in…..
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m watching Tweety for the first time in a long while, out of sheer bone laziness. Jonathon Swann (I think?) of Jim Vandehei’s Axios is personally offended by the Wolff book
Bruuuuce
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You’re welcome. :-) If you want to clear it out of your head, I find that listening all the way through works well. Arcadia Berger posted the video @29 for your convenience.
MomSense
@Quinerly:
Interesting times for sure.
Kathleen
@debbie: When I call his office I say I’m not a “constituent” but I live in Ohio and give my zip code.
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: So you’re seeing other blogs? That swing?
Kathleen
@Sab: I get emails telling me all the great stuff he’s doing for Ohio. When he isn’t trying to kill us.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
it’s like they’re trolling BJ
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Now I feel like I’ve been insulting garbage.
debbie
@Crashman06:
I worked at Macmillan also, but before S&S took over. I remember Sargent having a good reputation in the industry, unlike so many others.
raven
@debbie: A bit, a bunch of friends just called and the bars are full so we’re having an impromptu game party. I got pretty sad an hour ago, this will probably help.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@raven: I don’t usually follow sports ball and it only just dawned on me that this game is tonight. Go Dawgs!
p.a.
My scandal is the biggest. No one has had bigger scandals than me! Pfft… other scandals?? SAD SCANDALS. Me me me big big big. goo gooo gaa gaa gaaa…
p.a.
@raven: @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): espn bogarting the game? or will ABC have it too?
debbie
@raven:
The last thing you need is a bar crammed full of germs, young man.
debbie
@p.a.:
Not on ABC at all. :(
raven
@debbie: It’s coming here, the bars are packed. I went to the Doc, didn’t go to the game, if my friends need shelter from the storm I’m here.
p.a.
@debbie: dang
Fair Economist
OMG, it’s like Christmas hasn’t ended yet! Royce (my Representative for many years) is one guy I really wanted out and was expecting to have to work really hard against. And now he’s gone, before I had to do anything!
p.a.
@raven: What’s the drink of choice at SEC games?
raven
@p.a.: I have’t had a drink in 25 years, don’t mean shit to me.
raven
OK, crowd shuffle in. Laters
p.a.
@raven: Good for you. Still a valid question though…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
he was talking to farmers, basically– as somebody said on twitter the other day, I’d bet even money he’ll announce during the SOTU that Ivanka’s birthday is a national holiday
woodrowfan
still can’t order the 2018 Balloon Juice pets calendar.
Jeffro
Hey (since I guess this counts as an open thread?) see if this sounds familiar: Kansas Lawmaker says African-Americans are More Susceptible to Drug Abuse Because Reasons
It’s heartening to see the Post push right back, right there in the article:
And see if this sounds familiar (BJ was there first! This week, anyway!!)
Getting ‘sympathy’?? Is that what they called it back in the 30’s?? Ah well…
I’m starting to think that NCLB was created so that American students would spend less time learning history…maybe the solution is to go all-in on history and science (screw math!)
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Didn’t he say something like if they didn’t clap loudly enough, he’d take back whatever it was he had miraculously delivered to them?
B.B.A.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’s gonna lead Congress in a “LOCK HER UP” chant.
Steve in the ATL
@p.a.: bourbon
chopper
@B.B.A.:
iran-contra should have been bigger than watergate.
Gelfling 545
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Seems to me that there was no taste for a Nixon style hoopla among the public at that time.
Central Planning
Anybody got any dimes?
J R in WV
@chopper:
Iran-Contra WAS bigger than Watergate.
Watergate was criminal conspiracy to steal an election by bugging the DNC HQ and learning what they were doing… never mind that Nixon had that election nailed in a box from the get-go.
Iran-Contra was conspiring with a foreign enemy power (Iran) first to gain election by encouraging Iran to hold US diplomatic staff hostage until after the inauguration. Secondly to sell arms illegally to Iran, then using those funds to provide illegal support to right-wing death squads in Central America.
Those Salvadorans being threatened with deportation back to El Salvador, they are victims of Reagan’s (and Oliver North, and, and … ) treasonous plots, which are still paying off for death squads in Central America. Reagan should have been tried, convicted and punished for his treason.
But Republicans working all levers of power were able to cut things off way short of the President, even though he pleaded guilty in that speech he made. And then the prosecution (probably deliberately) made errors in Oliver North’s trial, in which he was convicted of multiple felonies, so that he squirmed out of all the crimes he committed, and has spent the rest of his life on the RWNJ gravy train.
Gelfling is right, the public had no taste for political hoopla at the time. I think times have changed. I hope! Trump is far worse than Reagan, and his conspiracy went far further than Reagan’s. Conspiracy with the most dangerous rogue state in the world, with more special (nuclear) weapons than we have.
Citizen Alan
@Jeffro:
Jesus fucking Christ. From the last paragraph:
“I’m not a racist. I just think blacks are genetically predisposed to be inferior.”
Chris Rock called it years ago. The only way a white conservative can possibly be a racist is if he personally assassinated Medger Evers.