Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

This fight is for everything.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

This blog will pay for itself.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

We still have time to mess this up!

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Morning Open Thread: Repubs Can’t Govern, and Trump Is Head Repub

Friday Morning Open Thread: Repubs Can’t Govern, and Trump Is Head Repub

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(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
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BUT DADDY’S GOT BIG PLANS FOR HIS LONG WEEKEND!…

What’s that lawyerly phrase? — oh, yeah, asserts ‘facts’ not in evidence.

Reader Interactions

237Comments

  2. 2.

    Ryan

    MSNBC was reporting last night it was $100k, not $10. Trump will be celebrating his anniversary with a shutdown. Fitting.

  7. 7.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Drumpf needs a reenactment of a Schoolhouse Rock cartoon on how a bill is passed starring Stormy Daniels and some hot lesbians.

  8. 8.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I can’t wait to throw a party to celebrate Drumpf’s first year in jail.

  9. 9.

    danielx

    @Ryan:

    Really, all you need to know is that it was signed by Louie Gohmert and Jason Chaffetz.

    Now, what happens if Obama says using an autopen was completely constitutional, and why don’t the signees all partake of a large bowl of salted dicks?

  10. 10.

    ThresherK

    “Trump tweet averts shutdown” is similar to the reverse of “coach’s challenge flag stops play”.

    Except in actuality, right? Is this only going to learned by actually trying it?

  11. 11.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Joe Scarborough Blasts Trump Physician As ‘Political Hack’

    Why does Joe hate the troops?

  14. 14.

    ThresherK

    @Quinerly: To steal from the best Center Square ever,

    Peter Marshall: You’re on a heavily-traveled two-lane road. As you near a curve, a large truck appears going the wrong way, right towards you. What do you do?

    Paul Lynde: I’d grab that little plastic figure on my dashboard.

  16. 16.

    JPL

    I had been wondering if Trump would continue his jaunts to his club during a lock down. Government spending at it’s best.

  17. 17.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll — January 13-16, 2018 — (link Page 31)

    ***2020 Democratic presidential candidates***

    Handsome Joe………………………..27%
    [Expletive Deleted]…………………16%
    Oprah Winfrey…………………………13%
    Hillary Clinton………………………….13%
    Elizabeth Warren…………………….10%
    Cory Booker…………………………….04%
    Kamala Harris………………………….04%
    Andrew Cuomo……………………….02%
    Kirsten Gillibrand…………………….01%

    There were a number of good arguments against Biden in yesterday’s morning thread. But what I like about this poll is that it confirms [Expletive Deleted]’s weakness.

  18. 18.

    Ryan

    @JPL: McConnell probably wants him to go; Trump has caused nothing but trouble this week. Of course, he does take his phone with him…

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    Neglected to mention this last week. The “today” in the snippet is January 11.

    The fine print of Trump’s deal has now turned into reality for Carrier’s Indianapolis employees. Roughly 340 workers lost their jobs in July. The last round of layoffs mean 250 workers will clock in for their final shifts today despite Trump’s pledges.

    Duane Oreskovic is one of them. “Tomorrow will be the last time I clock in, at 5:00 p.m.,” he told In These Times. “We’ll get off at 3:30 in the morning, and that’s the last time we’ll clock out.”
    [snip]
    When asked how he feels about completing his last day, he responded, “Emptiness.” Source

  22. 22.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    What kind of name is Stormy Daniels anyways. It makes no sense. If ya gonna make a play on words, then it should be Stormy Weathers or Stormy Knight or Stormy Raine, etc.

    In business strategery, since adult sites list performers in alphabetical order, you should have a last name that starts with the letter A, like Stormy Addams or Stormy Abbott.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly: from your Daily Beast link:

    As for Trump, he would see an impact too. The Executive Office of the President would be forced to furlough workers in light of a shutdown. The operational impacts of that, as one Obama White House official explained, would be felt in the form of innumerable nuisances.

    “We didn’t have any press wranglers. We didn’t have anyone to do Jay Carney’s book when he briefed. We didn’t have anyone to run the conference calls. We didn’t have anyone who knew how to do the press list,” the [former Obama admin] official said. “I don’t think people understand how hard it is. Though, I suppose, [the Trump White House] may not be able to tell the difference.”

    This earlier paragraph is alarming:

    Even without up-to-date contingency plans, however, a shutdown would have major effects across government. Parks would close. Certain services would be curtailed or ended. Funding for research gets suspended. And then there is the human toll. According to the most recent plans, 14,536 of the 18,530 employees at the National Institutes of Health would be furloughed while 8,440 of the 12,974 staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would experience the same fate. And it happens to be the height of flu season.

  26. 26.

    Quinerly

    For all you MJ fans, read yesterday that Donny Deutsch is dating Marla Maples. I think it was in a “Page Six” piece. They were together last weekend.

  28. 28.

    ThresherK

    The Intercept is bleating that Cory Booker destroyed the chances of importing cheaper drugs from Canada, per my FernieFroze. Anyone know if there’s a real news article I can read on this?

  34. 34.

    bystander

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    As a 6’3″ guy who weighs 235 pounds, Moanin’ Joe takes particular umbrage at being compared to twitler’s “physique”.

    Today they’re linking the blackmail Putin has to on twitler to Stormy Daniels.

  36. 36.

    bystander

    I’ve been on the side of the Dems not showing up at the SOTU. Now I think they should all come in black and every one should be accompanied by a sex worker.

  37. 37.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @ThresherK: There was a vote on it last year and he didn’t support the motion to proceed, but even if it did make it to the floor, it wouldn’t have passed the Senate or House and certainly it would have been vetoed.

    Now he opposed it because New Jersey is the capital of pharmaceutical jobs. Senators vote for local job sectors.

    I say this as someone who doesn’t like Booker because of his attack on Obama during the 2012 campaign. (link)

  38. 38.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: I don’t know if The Intercept’s bit is new. Because I’m not clicking on it.

    There’s a “Red Sox nation watching videotape of Bucky Bleeping Dent” to all FernieFroze, isn’t there?

    Also, PolitiFact says “Mostly False” for the claim.

    It was an amendment to a Senate budget resolution, which is a non-binding measure that doesn’t get signed by the president or become law.

    It’s important to know that every one of the 13 senators listed in the meme voted in favor of a separate amendment that did urge lower drug prices.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @ThresherK: Right. The only reason it was news in the first place is because Booker voted differently from Wilmer. I believe they eventually came to terms on a drug importation amendment.

  41. 41.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Ryan: Cue NYT rushing to interview Trump supporters about their undying love for Trump despite his raging incompetence.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    Hazzah (WaPo)

    Hours after 37-year-old Jacinda Ardern was elected leader of New Zealand’s Labour Party in August, two different television hosts asked about her plans for a family. One of the hosts specifically asked whether it was acceptable for a nation’s prime minister to take maternity leave while in office.

    “It is totally unacceptable in 2017 to say that women should have to answer that question in the workplace,” Ardern fired back. “It is a woman’s decision about when they choose to have children, and it should not predetermine whether or not they are given a job or have job opportunities.”

    In October, Ardern became New Zealand’s youngest prime minister in more than a century. And on Friday, she announced that she would be taking on another role — that of a mother. Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, are expecting their first child in June.

    “I am not the first woman to multitask. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby,” Ardern said in a news conference Friday. “We are going to make this work, and New Zealand is going to help us raise our first child.”

  47. 47.

    Quinerly

    @NotMax: I consider myself a bit of an expert on the ins and out of Yellow Page Directories at their height in the the 1980’s. Did legal work all over the state of Missouri for YP. Sued businesses who didn’t pay for their listings and ads, breach of contract and in some cases promissory note cases. Have a lot of now useless knowledge about unsavory sales practices by YP and normal Mom and Pop businesses changing their name to “Aardvark” whatever to be the first plumber, etc under a classification. What can I now do with all this knowledge??

  48. 48.

    debbie

    The Dems had better be ready to be out front and non-stop in countering the GOP’s efforts to pin the blame on them if there’s a shut-down. I just listened to an NPR interview with RWNJ Garret (VA) and it will not be an easy job to avoid being labeled in the midterms.

  51. 51.

    mai naem mobile

    I hope the Dems have spent a little time on creating something embarrassing for Dolt45 if the govt does shut down like the GOP did with the Veterans not being able to get into Arlington Cemetery or whatever it was when the shutdown happened during Obamas presidency.

  56. 56.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @debbie: Even the liberal Bill Kristol said yesterday republicans will be blamed and it’s good politics for Dems.

  57. 57.

    Chyron HR

    @debbie:

    “He is the most protected president in history. His superior genes allow him to manifest a shield against physical harm. If he watches his diet he will live until the sun burns out and lead his children on a galactic exodus to their new home.” – Dr. Ronnie Jackson

  59. 59.

    ThresherK

    @Quinerly: Sounds like you have an exciting and lucrative career ahead of you in the field of search engine optimization!

    (J. Lo, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Bennifer, Jennifer Aniston, Rachel, The Rachel)

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    Piece of work. Never heard of the guy before that interview Gish-Galloping lying monologue. His go-to phrase seems to be #SchumerShutdown.

  61. 61.

    Quinerly

    @debbie: Deutsch has called Trump’s physic “physically repulsive.” Something like that…the quote was in the piece. I’m pretty sure Donny Deutsch’s dick works and I’m pretty sure he can at least see it.? I love the way his suit coats fit.

  65. 65.

    Quinerly

    Wonder if Trump thinks in a government shut down he doesn’t have to work? Kinda like a snow day when in the first grade. No school and snow cream!

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Yes, I’ve heard this Schumer Shutdown thing. I hope he’s out early today reframing that as just more empty branding by the GOP, call it what it is: the GOP’s Schumer Shutdown, and then enumerate the many effects of the GOP’s Schumer Shutdown, brought to this country by the GOP.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I’m not sure people care about the shut-down that much. Obviously CHIP recipients and those affected by the immigration issue will, but are there really people who are like “I was gonna vote for that Claire McCaskill right up until the shut-down thing last January “. They might- I don’t pretend to know- but they didn’t care the last time.

    Connie Pillich called me yesterday. I donated to her months ago (which is why she called) but she also said that she had a 1. running mate and 2. “national Democrat” endorsing her. It’s Ed Rendell. I wanted to say “oh? is he a Democrat?” but I like her and I thought it was too mean.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    @Kay: That would have been mean. She’s probably hurting now with Cordray in the race and Ed is what she can get.

  72. 72.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    LOL, it’s not good to be mean this early in the race. Let her think she has a chance.

    Does anyone know if Wall funding is included in this CR?

  76. 76.

    Baud

    IMHO we can’t keep telling Dems to fight and then worry about all the ways they might lose when they do.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Trump is the big beneficiary of bipartisan deals because many of his fans believe he is not a Republican, which is good, since they don’t really like Republican policy. One of the fans the NYTimes highlighted in that free campaign ad they ran said what she likes best about him is how he is opposed to “foreign wars”- he’s ended all the wars. Conversely, the Democratic base loathes Trump, so they don’t want Democrats to make deals with him.

    The extent to which Donald Trump ran against Republican policy is underplayed.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I just saw someone arguing that all the Democrats jumping into election races early are doing it wrong–that just gives the other side time to collect oppo; instead they need to raise money in secret from big-dollar donors and then declare at the last possible moment, so negative stories don’t have time to develop. I think she took the Hillary Clinton story too much to heart (a quarter century of lead time on the oppo is a pretty extreme case).

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I told her I’m supporting Cordray two weeks ago. This is the first time this has happened to me, where the other candidate in the primary continues to contact me. I don’t really mind, I have no trouble saying “no” when I don’t want to donate and as I said I like her. Maybe she forgot. They’re always exhausted, these candidates. They work such long hours. She ran for a different office in ’14 and I came late to one of her events and came upon her changing her clothes in the back of her car as I was walking thru the parking lot. I completely sympathize with in-car costume changes :)

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @Quinerly

    Phone book trivia:

    Ma Bell was grumpy about a gentleman in Altoona, Pennsylvania whose listing (name plus address) in the 1951 directory ended up taking three lines of valued space – Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Herbert B.

  89. 89.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: Well, you don’t call, you don’t write your co pilot. He’s thinking of starting his own ticket…he’ll be Poco/???? 2020!?? He’ll be top dog! God knows he will look good on the campaign trail. He has had 1000 miles and two nights of beauty rest. His chauffeur looks like crap, though; and if she could stay away from BJ, she could at least take a shower. (Pro tip…park rangers are hot. Chauffeur needs to look her best for Carlsbad today?)

  90. 90.

    MJS

    Jesus, is that picture of Pirro from Mar-a-Lago? It looks like they took the set of the old Merv Griffin show after it was used on that Seinfeld episode. Nothing says class and style like gold lame’ curtains.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    …also, since you can only get around contribution limits with something like a super PAC, I don’t know how that is supposed to work.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Well. The “news cycle” though. As you know Donald Trump is enormously disciplined and his administration runs like a top and there will be no news cycle events intervening. They’re all quiet competence over there.

    As I said I don’t pretend to know but I went to a school committee meeting last night and they were all talking about the MSU gymnastics doctor scandal.

  95. 95.

    JPL

    @MJS: I can’t imagine what would happen if while on vacation an Obama surrogate said this ain’t no shithole. Trumpettes are deplorable.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    I have to go to the dentist this morning. I have a long-time hygienist and “our” relationship is bizarre. My husband goes to the same dentist and he thinks it’s funny- if she sees him there she asks where I am like we go to the dentist together to socialize- but I might actually switch dentists because I don’t know how I got into such an intensely personal relationship with this woman. I want to go back to our former distant relationship but it was so long ago I don’t even remember that.

  103. 103.

    Chyron HR

    @Patricia Kayden:

    DACA is supported by 87% of Americans according to the latest CBS poll.

    Okay, let’s be fair, the approval rating of DACA in a vacuum is probably very different than “DACA but it costs me something personally”.

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: And if it’s actually true that everything you might possibly do is OK for Republicans but a disaster for Democrats, well, you’re boned out of the starting gate, better just give up. (Or, I guess, do what some candidates are doing in Alaska and just run as an “independent” instead of a Democrat.)

    But Democrats have been massively overperforming and often winning special elections elsewhere, so this doesn’t seem to be true in practice. The question is just whether we can keep it up to November and beyond. I get worried gut feelings based on Trump’s poll numbers, which seem to be rising right now in spite of everything (I think I was right, the “shithole countries” thing was a win for Trump). But there’s no way through but forward.

  111. 111.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Daniels says one time he made her sit with him for three hours watching “Shark Week”. Another time he had her spank him with a Forbes magazine.

    Most people are laughing at that the spanking part. Me, I’m laughing at the Shark Week part.

    We all had a good laugh at The Gorilla Channel parody. Only it was true in a slightly different form (sharks, instead of gorillas).

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    . I get worried gut feelings based on Trump’s poll numbers, which seem to be rising right now in spite of everything (I think I was right, the “shithole countries” thing was a win for Trump).

    I tend to think it’s because the economic news has been so positive lately. It seems like every day there is a glowing news report.

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    Meanwhile, Fox News dot com is making great hay of a truly dumb article in Newsweek…where Lawrence Lessig (yes, that noted realistic thinker-NOT) notes that if Trumpov is impeached, and Pence is impeached, and Ryan becomes president, why, naturally he should and would appoint Hillary as his VP, then resign.

    Lessig first envisioned this scenario in a blog post back in October.

    “If Ryan became President because the Trump/Pence campaign committed treason, who should he nominate as his Vice President?” he wrote. “The answer seems unavoidable: He should nominate the person defeated by the treason of his own party, and then step aside, and let her become the President.”

    Yes, absolutely, Lawrence. Today’s GOP is all about honor and restoring norms and doing the right thing.

    I’m all for a multiverse of infinite possibilities, but in no realm of possibility does this scenario exist. There are two scenarios where Hillz eventually COULD become president but…it’s Friday…let’s just not even go there. Nov 2018 awaits!

  117. 117.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @JPL: yes. every summer they have it on the Discovery Channel. They cap it off with a cheezy made for tv horror film “Sharknado”. It’s about a tornado turning sharks into land sharks. They’ve actually made 5 films (link)

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Yeah, and, I mean, I really don’t want the economy to tank! There’s probably a limit to how badly Trump can do if it’s in good shape. It is a little annoying that the people who are still screwed in this situation were a huge “American carnage” story in 2016, but don’t matter now (except it’s important that the whitest ones still support Trump).

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    Btw Michelle Goldberg lays out the NRA-Trumpov-GOP connections quite nicely here: Is This The Collusion We Were Waiting For?

    (h/t to her for noting that Sheriff Clarke is mixed up in this)

    …If a relationship between the N.R.A., Trump and Russia exists, Torshin and Butina appear to be the nexus of it. Torshin helped create a Russian gun-rights group called Right to Bear Arms, and Butina runs it. The purpose of the group is ambiguous. Gun laws in Russia are strict, and if people close to Putin actually wanted to change them, creating a group alluding to America’s Second Amendment seems like a weird way to do it. As Simpson said in his House testimony: “Vladimir Putin is not in favor of universal gun ownership for Russians. And so it’s all a big charade, basically.”

    If so, the charade has been useful in building relationships between Putin allies and American conservatives. In 2015, Right to Bear Arms hosted a luxurious trip to Russia for N.R.A. leaders, where, according to McClatchy, they met with “a senior Kremlin official and wealthy Russians.” (Among the American delegation was former Sheriff David A. Clarke, the Trump supporter and Fox News regular.)

    …Last year, the Daily Beast reported on the figure Butina, a woman in her 20s who formerly owned a Siberian furniture store, cut in Trump’s Washington: “Now she’s wheeling and dealing with D.C. think-tankers, Republican strategists and a Russian bank chief with alleged mob connections.” The article said she repeatedly boasted of her role as an intermediary between the Trump campaign and Russia.

    As McClatchy reported, Erickson — the author of the “Kremlin Connection” email — and Butina set up a limited liability company together in 2016. Erickson told McClatchy that the company was founded to provide Butina with money for her graduate studies, should she need it. That, noted McClatchy, is “an unusual way to use an L.L.C.”

    Hmm…ya think?

    Here’s another way L.L.C.s could be used: as an intermediary between foreign agents and tax-exempt organizations that are not required by law to disclose their donors, often called dark money groups. Indeed, in July the left-leaning Center for American Progress put out a report warning that loopholes in campaign finance laws make it easy for foreign citizens or governments to influence our elections in precisely this way.

    Speaking of the F.B.I.’s investigation into the N.R.A., Liz Kennedy, the senior director of Democracy and Government Reform at the center, told me, “If this investigation in fact finds that illegal behavior occurred, this would really be the kind of illegal foreign spending that we were warning would happen.” (During the Obama administration, Senate Democrats twice tried to pass the Disclose Act, which would require greater transparency about the sources of political donations; both times Republicans filibustered.)

    Of all the so-called dark money groups involved in the 2016 election, none spent more than the N.R.A. The $30 million it expended to elect Trump was three times more than the N.R.A. spent on Mitt Romney’s behalf in the 2012 election.

    That $30 million, however, is just what the N.R.A. spent on the presidential race. It also backed other candidates, reportedly spending $55 million overall. The organization helped Republicans cement control of Congress. If it did so with Russia’s assistance, the whole party is implicated.

    Of course, the citizenry has no way of knowing where any of that money came from. But the F.B.I. almost certainly does. We’re far from understanding what role, if any, the N.R.A. played in helping Russia help Trump. But a scandal that encompasses both the Trump campaign and the right’s most powerful lobby would be bigger than most people imagined before Thursday.

    “In terms of what the Russians are doing in the United States, it’s far broader than just the Trump campaign,” Schiff told me. “In that sense when people think that the Russian intervention was just about tipping the scales to one of the candidates in 2016, they’re thinking far too narrowly.”

  126. 126.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jeffro: What drugs are being heavily consumed by Lessig? We may all need to smoke them if Trump lasts a full term.

  128. 128.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Baud: I no longer trust aggregates. GOP outfits will put out skewed polls, knowing it will affect the polling aggregate directly and indirectly though herding. They did that in Virginia. The aggregate had Northam at 3% while Q had him at 9% and he won by 9.

  129. 129.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Sab:

    It was a loud and screechy woman, and the message went on forever.

    That must have been Susan Sarandon.

  130. 130.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: Didn’t even look at the author…now that I’m looking back, I don’t recognize either the FN or Newsweek authors’ names. I need to study up on my inside baseball!

  131. 131.

    different-church-lady

    @TS: I can hardly wait for the usual suspects to show up and lecture us about how referring to him as [Expletive Deleted] is a homophobic slur (or an antisemitic slur or an anti-phobic-somethingorother slur…).

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    @JR:

    Where are the sans culottes to storm Mar a Lago and put heads on pikes?

    They’re all too busy using their phones to buy things on Amazon and have Chicken McNuggets delivered to their apartments.

  136. 136.

    Thoughtful David

    @debbie:
    You misspelled his name: It’s the RWNJ Coward Tom Garrett. He’s a first termer, and one of Republican cowards who has had only two meetings with non-paying constituents, both before very small screened groups and in remote parts of his district. He has sent his staff to a couple more, and had a couple of conference calls, but is too cowardly to appear in person.
    One of his points against his opponent in 2016 was that he was in the Army in Iraq (as a lawyer) and that his opponent was a woman.
    Total POS.

  137. 137.

    satby

    Good morning everyone! Getting a late start here at Casa De Chaos today. Serves me right for commenting at 3:30 am on John’s seed thread.

  139. 139.

    Steeplejack

    @JPL:

    Yes, it’s an “event” on the Discovery Channel. But it comes on only once or twice a year, usually in the summer.

  143. 143.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: Sorry…the article was written by someone else, and the article included Lessig’s comments. It wasn’t actually written by him.

  146. 146.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Great column — thanks for sharing the link. Every time I read about how the Citizens United decision may have played a role in allowing a hostile foreign power to hijack our government, I think about when President Obama called out the SCOTUS for that ruling during a state of the union speech. Alito was shocked at the effrontery and mouthed, “That’s not true!” Yeah, it WAS true, Alito, you fucking hack, and you and your fellow GOP-appointed incompetents on that court have done more to undermine our democracy than the Nazis, commies and fundamentalist crazies in the Middle East combined and squared.

  147. 147.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia:

    That’s terrible! Why did the doctor say his cholesterol was good?

    Um, Shit Midas has corrupted him, as he has with everything/everyone?

    ETA: Perhaps he felt it was “good” because it was better-than-expected for an obese, non-active fat fuck. Of course, were Shit Midas “obese,” which allegedly is not the case.

    And I’m the King of England.

  149. 149.

    TriassicSands

    Trump wants to be out of town when the government shuts down. He thinks that will protect him from blame.

    @JPL:
    Maybe the crew of Air Force One will be furloughed in mid-flight and have to parachute out somewhere between DC and Shithole-lago. We can hope.

  150. 150.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yep, it WAS true, Alito, you fucking hack, and you and your fellow GOP-appointed incompetents have done more to undermine our democracy than the Nazis, commies and fundamentalist crazies in the Middle East combined and squared.

    True. But not as much as Obama did to destroy this country and Government, of course. Or Hitlary would have done.

  152. 152.

    SFAW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    So I guess it’s HRM SFAW from here on out.

    Um, I guess I should have written “former” King of England — I abdicated to be with the blog woman I love.

    But I appreciate the thought.

  153. 153.

    hedgehog mobile

    Judge Jeannine needs a low tumbrel number. Also we need bigger tumbrels. /channeling VDE

  155. 155.

    rikyrah

    They Only Want White Immigrants
    by BooMan
    Thu Jan 18th, 2018 at 04:07:02 PM EST

    As Ron Brownstein points out, the real goal behind the immigration plan that Republican Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas are floating is an overall sharp reduction in legal immigration. That this is couched in a preference for high-skilled labor shouldn’t mask that their bill would reduce the influx of high-skillet workers, too. Yet, as Brownstein also points out, the country needs a healthy level of immigration to help pay for our entitlement programs and to meet our overall employment needs. So, one of the primary problems with the Perdue-Cotton approach is that it would set immigration levels too low. As a result, even many moderate or centrist Republicans don’t see their approach as feasible or desirable.

    Of course, the problem driving this call for reduced immigration is that most immigrants these days are not white. If, as President Trump has suggested, we could convince more people from white countries like Norway to immigrate, then we wouldn’t see this resistance to reasonable immigration levels. Unfortunately for people like Trump, Perdue, and Cotton, there just aren’t that many Europeans who want to immigrate to the United States. And, that being the case, they’d rather cause a deficit in labor than permit the browning of America to continue apace.

    The president is willing to say this until he decides he wants to deny having said it. But the outrage his comments sparked shows just how unpopular these sentiments are to most Americans. That’s why the policy proposals are always disguised. They’re about preventing terrorism. They’re about reducing crime. They’re about combatting drug addiction. They’re about protecting the taxpayer. They’re about preferring high-skilled labor or “the best people” over a bunch of losers who just looking for a handout.

    What you’re never supposed to say is that it’s about making America white again. You’re not supposed to say “we want Norwegians, not brown people from shithole countries.”

    The thing is, even for the people who want Norwegians, they don’t have a plan for attracting enough of them. And this is typical from Republicans. There are host of areas where their policy is based on fantasy. Why don’t people just avoid getting pregnant if they don’t want a baby? Why don’t people just make enough money that they can afford to pay for their health insurance? Why don’t people just move if they can’t find a good job or their schools are no good?

    They never account for people’s limitations or frailties or simple misfortunes. Therefore, their policies don’t account for things like “that’s never going to happen” or “you have to be crazy to think that will work.”

    It’s always, “if people would just do x, then we wouldn’t have this problem.” Except people aren’t going to do x. White Europeans aren’t going to immigrate here in the numbers we need. Their racism is as impractical as it is immoral.

  156. 156.

    tarragon

    The joys and sorrows of using a common word as ‘nym…

    I was looking for an old thread I had posted in and searched on my ‘nym. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but was, that half the threads I found were cooking or gardening related.

  157. 157.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    The US astronaut Jeanette Epps has been removed from her upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS) just months before launch.

    Dr Epps was to have been the first African-American astronaut assigned to the space station crew.

    She would have flown aboard a Russian Soyuz flight in June but is being replaced by another astronaut.

    Nasa has not given a reason for withdrawing her but says she will be considered for future missions.

    Jeanette Epps, born in Syracuse, completed a doctorate in aerospace engineering in 2000. After graduating, she worked in a laboratory for two years before being recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    /

    Nasa offered no reason for the decision to remove her from the Expedition 56/57 mission. In a statement, they said she would “return to Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to assume duties in the Astronaut Office”.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42747272

  158. 158.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: My husband was a regular Pillich contributor when she was running to represent us in Columbus — our house is a couple of miles from hers.

    But I told the volunteer who called us a few weeks ago that we were going for Cordray. Left the poor fellow speechless, and I felt a little bad for that.

    I always thought governor was too big a stretch for her. Of course I’ll vote for any Democrat. I even voted for what’s-his-name who didn’t have a driver’s license.

  161. 161.

    rikyrah

    Trump World’s payment to porn star comes into sharper focus
    01/19/18 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    It’s been a week since the Wall Street Journal first reported on an unexpected controversy surrounding the president and a porn star. The article said that Donald Trump’s lawyer “arranged a $130,000 payment to a former adult-film star a month before the 2016 election as part of an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.”
    The story was met with a series of denials about the alleged extra-marital relationship, though the relevant players didn’t deny the apparent six-figure payment to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

    Since then, there have been a series of revelations about the alleged affair, but I continue to think the focus should be on the money. Where’d the $130,000 come from? How was the payment made? Did it raise any legal concerns?

    With these questions in mind, the Wall Street Journal moved the ball forward with a new article late yesterday, reporting that Trump’s attorney used a private Delaware company to pay Daniels in exchange for her pre-election silence.

    The lawyer, Michael Cohen, established Essential Consultants LLC, on Oct. 17, 2016, just before the 2016 presidential election, corporate documents show. Mr. Cohen, who is based in New York, then used a bank account linked to the entity to send the payment to the client-trust account of a lawyer representing the woman, Stephanie Clifford, one of the people said.

    Mr. Cohen’s decision to establish the company in Delaware offered him privacy and simplicity, hallmarks of a state that has attracted more than one million business entities. Unlike some states, Delaware doesn’t require companies to publicly disclose the names of their managers.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yeah, it WAS true, Alito, you fucking hack, and you and your fellow GOP-appointed incompetents on that court have done more to undermine our democracy than the Nazis, commies and fundamentalist crazies in the Middle East combined and squared.

    Ay-effing-men.

  163. 163.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: Well…(as the tweet I saw a bit ago goes)…”who among us hasn’t set up an LLC to pay a porn star to keep quiet about the affair we were having immediately following the birth of my wife & I’s child?”

    Heck, Obama could have set up an LLC just for funsies and the GOP would have impeached him for ‘preparing to do something shady, we’re pretty sure’. Just setting it up – none of the rest.

  171. 171.

    opiejeanne

    @rikyrah: IF I understand correctly, I find it astonishing is that Cohen set it up that way for anonymity. Then he put his own name on it somewhere that it could be seen. Genius.

  172. 172.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    Heck, Obama could have set up an LLC just for funsies and the GOP would have impeached him for ‘preparing to do something shady, we’re pretty sure’. Just setting it up – none of the rest.

    Well, it’s not as if blacks are allowed to set up LLCs. Well, at least, not after Congress gets done with them.

    Along those lines, I’m wondering when Congress is going to make a push to repeal the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. And while they’re at it, the 16th, 17th, 24th, and 26th for good measure.

  175. 175.

    danielx

    @rikyrah:

    One of the only things that have surprised me regarding the Stormy Daniels….affair? Issue? Clusterfuck? Anyway, why did she settle for a measly 130 large? If shutting her up until after the election was that important, she could/should have held out for more, a lot more. A million sounds like a much nicer and rounder number than $130,000, which seems kind of a weird number.

    ETA: She should have gotten a lot more just for having a sexual relationship with the shitgibbon. Have had some bad dreams about that whole side of things.

  180. 180.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: I just saw that linked to on Twitter. Schiff sure is doing yeoman’s work for the Dems (and oh, the cause of truth and justice in general).

    Jesus, what will it take for people to wake up? “NUNES & CO ARE LYING ABOUT THE FBI + OH HEY TRUMPOV WAS MONEY LAUNDERING FOR THE RUSSIAN MOB FOR YEARS!!!” Media response: *yawn * Public response: *yawn *

  181. 181.

    opiejeanne

    @rikyrah: Oho, the House did release it? I knew they were talking about it but I didn’t know it had happened. Or did Schiff release it?

  183. 183.

    Sab

    @tarragon: I like the privacy of a common nym. Anyone who wanders on to BJ who actually knows me will recognize it’s me, but nobody could find me by googling my nym. My brother, on the other hand, had a weird nym. I can still google his nym and find comments he made on Calculated Risk ten years ago, and he hasn’t commented anywhere on line for at least seven years.

  184. 184.

    SWMBO

    @debbie: Haven’t read the entire thread and am about to go out the door for a doc appt but….I sent this to a friend last night. On Facebook I have tried to push back on the bullshit some. ===================== My cousin and my sister have both posted Cult of Trump bullshit this week. My cousin said it was going to be the Democrats fault if the government shut down. I pointed out that the Republicans control the House, Senate and White House. If they were so incompetent that they couldn’t pass a CR without Democrats helping, they were the reason the government would shut down. He came back with “nuh uh. It takes 60 votes or the government shuts down. ” I explained that it only takes 51 votes for a continuing resolution. They have 51 votes. He deleted his post because I was rude. Yeah facts have that quality about them don’t they?
    My sister posted the meme that she’d rather explain shithole to a kid rather than blowjob like when Clinton was president. I asked what about porn stars? She said Trump didn’t do that in the White House. I said you don’t know that and I don’t either. I haven’t read Fire and Fury yet. She stopped posting about it.================================
    I have had enough of this Cult of Trump bullshit to do me for at least 3 years. I realize it isn’t much, but I’ve pushed back when I can.

  185. 185.

    rikyrah

    Tom Cotton Is Simply a Less Impulsive Trump
    by Nancy LeTourneau January 18, 2018

    ……………………………………………………………….

    That’s the guy who is angling to become the next CIA director when/if Trump decides to get rid of Rex Tillerson and replace him with Mike Pompeo. If we were to grade Republican members of congress on how much they are kissing up to Trump these days, Cotton would get an A+. But just as we’ve seen with John Kelly, that isn’t a stretch for him. Cotton might not be as impulsive as Trump, but you’d be hard-pressed to find much daylight between the senator and the president.

    Most of us became acquainted with Tom Cotton when he took the unprecedented step of wiring a letter to the mullahs in Iran in an attempt to undermine the Obama administration’s negotiations to end their nuclear weapons program. His alternative was to suggest that war with Iran would be no big deal.

    On a more personal level, there was the case of Obama’s nominee to the Bahamas, Cassandra Butts. Cotton first put a hold on her confirmation over an issue he had with the secret service. But that was eventually cleared up and Cotton continued the hold. Frank Bruni got the story about why.

    Butts confronted Cotton over his continued hold. “She told me that she once went to see [Sen. Tom Cotton] about it, and he explained that he knew that she was a close friend of Obama’s — the two first encountered each other on a line for financial-aid forms at Harvard Law School, where they were classmates — and that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president.”

    Cassandra Butts died two years, three months and 19 days after she was nominated, with Cotton’s hold still in place.

    Other than lying about Trump’s shithole comments in the White House, here’s the latest from Arkansas’s junior senator.

    #TraitorTommy @TomCottonAR scared of his constituents calling so he’s sending out cease and desist letters. You’re too ? to lead CIA if you can’t even listen to constituents! #arpx pic.twitter.com/N1HAGCmbW6

    — Ozark Indivisible (@OZRKIndivisible) January 18, 2018

    Apparently having constituents contact his office because they disagree with their senator is annoying to Cotton. So he’s told them to cease and desist. Isn’t that lovely?

    What we have is a senator who is willing to lie in support of nativist immigration policies, undermine negotiations in pursuit of war, hurt an individual in order to inflict pain on Obama and demonstrate his authoritarian tendencies by threatening constituents who don’t agree with him. Remind you of anyone?

  186. 186.

    rikyrah

    ‘I Can Describe His Junk Perfectly’
    January 19, 2018 at 7:51 am EST

    InTouch has posted the full interview with porn star Stormy Daniels on her affair with Donald Trump.

    An excerpt:
    IT: Going to the bathroom, did you think you were going to come out and encounter that?

    Stormy: That he was going to be in bed? No, I just had to pee. So anyway, the sex was nothing crazy. He wasn’t like, chain me to the bed or anything. It was one position. I can definitely describe his junk perfectly, if I ever have to. He definitely seemed smitten after that. He was like, “I wanna see you again, when can I see you again?”

    IT: Did he initiate or did you?

    Stormy: Here’s the weird thing. He had one of my DVDs and he asked me to sign it for him and I did.

  187. 187.

    rikyrah

    Turnover In Trump’s White House Is ‘Record-Setting,’ And It Isn’t Even Close
    January 19, 20185:00 AM ET

    If President Trump’s first year in office seemed chaotic from a staffing perspective, there’s a reason. Turnover among top-level staff in the Trump White House was off the charts, according to a new Brookings Institution report”

    Turnover in Trump’s first year was more than triple that in former President Barack Obama’s first year, and double the rate in President Ronald Reagan’s White House. A full 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired or moved into different positions in this first year of the Trump presidency.

  193. 193.

    opiejeanne

    @rikyrah: The WH just announced that Trump will not be going to Mar-A-Lago. They’ve cancelled the weekend trip because of the optics.

    I hope those 15 people who popped for the $100,000 tickets can get a refund.

  195. 195.

    catclub

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Even the liberal Bill Kristol said yesterday republicans will be blamed and it’s good politics for Dems.

    That is still the bill Kristol who is always wrong. he said Hillary would win. He said that passing healthcare would make the democrats winners forevah.
    yeah, right.

  198. 198.

    jeffreyw

    Just stopping by to drop this in: Mrs J came out of her ankle repair surgery with a plate and 6 screws. The drugs are making her sick to her stomach so they prescribed some sort of anti-nausea medication. Ins said she didn’t need it and they did not approve it. I came back from the pharm counter to find her in the car with puke in her lap. Those bastards.

    Had some trouble getting her Dr to write an order for a wheelchair, seems I need a Dr’s order to rent a chair. Her Primary Dr said those peeps at the surgical center should have done that and he refused to write one. That bastard.

    Fortunately we didn’t need an order to just buy one. Amazon has them, one is on the way. Karma says if we buy one we won’t need it. Fingers crossed. She is wobbly on crutches and slow with a walker, but she wheels a chair like a pro with the practice she got with her broken pelvis a while back.

  200. 200.

    Spanky

    So the WaPo tells me this this morning:

    Comey to teach course on ethical leadership for College of William & Mary

    Gonna be a very short syllabus.

  205. 205.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax: I get the impression that the laid off Carrier workers still believe in the power of Trump

    “There’s a lot of things that Trump could sign as an executive order, because he has that power, that would keep American workers working. But Trump’s sitting on his ass not doing any of it,” he said. “I would say to Trump, ‘You made a decision and ran on a campaign promise that you were going to help the American worker. Stand up and do it.’”

    Another worker cites “politics,” implying that the president and both sides of Congress are at fault.

    They will stubbornly hold onto this false hope until the bitter end.

  208. 208.

    PaulWartenberg

    I think Batocchio posts here at Balloon Juice, but under another name, but I wanted to thank him for adding my blog to Friday’s Blog Round Up at Crooks And Liars site. Danke.

  209. 209.

    Emma

    @jeffreyw: do you get your insurance through work? My previous employer’s HR would sometimes take on the insurance company on crap like this. They hammered them when the insurance company did not want to cover some of the stuff done during my emergency gall bladder surgery.

    Also, I got vicious nausea during my radiation therapy. Ginger herbal tea did wonders.

  210. 210.

    opiejeanne

    @jeffreyw: I’m so sorry about this. All of those people are bastards. I hope she recovers quickly.

    We have the other kind of wheelchair. Didn’t cost much but the patient can’t wheel themselves. Bought it for Dad when we took him to DC, in case he got tired walking. He was 87, wanted to see the WWII monument.

  215. 215.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Ha! My dentist and the entire staff are all missionaries. They are so irritatingly nice and I should just enjoy it, but the jackal in me is on guard for any type of attempted conversion.

  216. 216.

    Sab

    @opiejeanne: I don”[email protected]jeffreyw: Wow. Thanks for the update. I hope itgets better. Even in the First World life isn’t always easy if you or yours are sick.

    I think it to evil to wish ill on our caregivers, but for a select few I have found it hard not to.

    The rest of them are amazing.

  219. 219.

    Sab

    @opiejeanne: I think it’s called a transport chair. On the one hand they can’t wheel themselves. On the other hand, it’s cheaper, and they won’t break their fingers in the spokes if an inattentive caretaker is wheeling them somewhere. Also, transportchairs are urban only: useless on any sort of irregular terrain.

  221. 221.

    MomSense

    @jeffreyw:

    I’m sorry, jeffreyw. Opioids made me really sick and my insurance co. didn’t cover the nausea meds either. They also denied the anesthesia for the surgery which I thought was pretty terrible. We sorted it out eventually with the help of the state insurance superintendent. If you have one in your state, call their office. Sending my best to both of you.

  222. 222.

    Jeffro

    @Spanky: There’s a Tribe alum in our office…she’s conflicted as to whether this is a good or bad thing for W&M.

    I guess he’ll be teaching at their DC campus?

  223. 223.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: How the hell do they deny anesthesia for surgery????

    @jeffreyw: shit, shit, shit. That’s all so wrong. Before all the mass shootings, in a situation like this I would say “this is why there’s a 3-day waiting period to buy a gun”, just as a way to express how frustrating that might be. I will have to get to work on a new way to do that.

  224. 224.

    Ohio Mom

    @jeffreyw: Sounds like it’s time to put “Look for a new PC doc” on the to-do list.

    Anesthesia makes me nauseous, and one thing I have learned is that the anti-nausea drugs really work. Phooey on the insurance.

    Are you sure you can’t get the surgeon’s nurse to take on the insurance company? She is probably more invested in your wife’s comfort and recovery than the pharmacy staff. It is hard to heal when you are in pain and miserable.

    Congrats on your wife getting out of the hospital though. It’s a good milestone to reach.

  225. 225.

    opiejeanne

    @Sab: Right, and that’s just what we needed for Dad. He wasn’t to be trusted wheeling himself. He thought it was funny if he ran over someone’s foot with a motorized cart. That was at Disneyland and I was embarrassed beyond belief. He wasn’t losing the plot but he had kind of a mean streak.

    It’s sitting in my garage now, waiting for a Crisis of the Aging.

  227. 227.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    Omarosa may have taped confidential White House discussions.

    This is hilarious. When she got the boot last month she was all like “I have a story to tell that people will be very interested in.” Fishing for a book deal, no doubt.

    Now she finds out: “Yeah, you’ll be telling your story, but it will be to Mueller’s people. And you won’t get paid!”

    Sweet.

  228. 228.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator: “Both sides are equally bad” is always the immediate fallback position from “my side is awesome”. It seems to be a relatively easy leap; actually endorsing the other side that you’ve heard terrible things about for decades is very, very hard.

  230. 230.

    WaterGirl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Story said she didn’t want him to pay her for sex because she’s not a prostitute and didn’t want to be treated like one. Not that there was anything wrong with prostitution, she said; she just doesn’t do it.

    edit: I believed her, for what its worth.

  232. 232.

    J R in WV

    @Jeffro:

    I sadly learned yesterday that Newsweek is wholly owned by International Business News, which is wholly owned by two Russians, one of whom has a $1,200,000 tax judgement against him by the IRS. So not reading them so much anymore. It was once a proud example of journalism!

  234. 234.

    Jeffro

    @J R in WV:

    I sadly learned yesterday that Newsweek is wholly owned by International Business News, which is wholly owned by two Russians, one of whom has a $1,200,000 tax judgement against him by the IRS. So not reading them so much anymore. It was once a proud example of journalism!

    Did this purchase happen in the last year? b/c Newsweek was publishing some of the best, most insightful, Trump/Russia stuff even back in the summer of ’16. I’m pretty sure that they were one of the main sources that set my personal alarm bells ringing that spring and summer.

  235. 235.

    gvg

    @jeffreyw: When i was being treated for cancer, the docs office had a specialist to help with problems like insurance companies denying something. A lot of offices do. My sister is a doctor and in a prior job, she would spend hours on the phone every week making the insurance companies quit modifying some of her prescriptions for a preferred drug that patients can’t take because of reactions to other required prescriptions or already found out allergies or doesn’t work for them. It was pretty infuriating to overhear all the nonsense contradicting the doctors. I found out that generics often use a cheaper buffer or coating which sometimes causes a problem. One patient was allergic to the generic coating which you would think was inert. Anyway, see if you can enlist a pro to do the pushback for you.

  237. 237.

    SWMBO

    @jeffreyw: My mother was seeing every specialist they could think of to try to diagnose her problem (it was a tick borne disease). They would deny tests ordered by specialists and she was left hanging trying to get help. One of the things we found is to call and ask for claims. Ask why they were denying the claim. Ask for the HIPPA officer. They have to have one. If they announce that the call may be monitored for quality purposes, ask for a transcript of the conversation. If they deny there is a recording, ask for the name or badge number of the person monitoring. If/when you get the HIPPA officer, ask for the names and qualifications of the board that denied the claim. They don’t want you to know that they have high school GED education folks overriding a medical doctor. If they only give you nurses and doctors, get the names of everyone involved and ask for their extensions. Call them directly and ask why they denied the claim. Ask them if their judgment is overriding the doctors who have seen and treated the patient. It usually gets resolved way before this.
    Call the doctors offices directly and ask who to talk to about changing the insurance company’s mind on this. Ask if there is a slightly different code or prescription to get her what she needs. If you have someone inside the doctor’s office that is helpful, that is better than going nuclear.
    If you want to stir up the doctors offices, call the Department of Professional Regulation (in Florida, don’t know what it’s called elsewhere) and ask if there are complaints against the doctors. Ask if they are abiding by the state code by not following through on a surgery patient regarding medication or durable medical equipment.
    There is more than most folks know about getting the doctors and insurance companies to decide that the patient comes first. And most of it can be dealt with over the phone.

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