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You are here: Home / Politics / America / At the quarter post

At the quarter post

by David Anderson|  January 20, 201811:59 am| 42 Comments

This post is in: America, Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Enhanced Protest Techniques, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

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25% done of this era of errors.

The upside of extraordinary pessimism is that surprise is a positive. I am surprised that the core of the ACA ( Medicaid expansion and guarantee issued/community rated subsidized insurance) is still strong. Medicaid expansion may still expand in Maine and via referandum elsewhere.

I am happy at the counter-reaction that is trying to defend our values from reactionaries.

And I look forward to working my ass off to gain a veto point next November.

What say ye….

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Previous Post: « It’s right there in black and white…
Next Post: Let’s Make The Best of the Situation »

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    BluegirlFromWyo

    January 20, 2018 at 12:05 pm

    In the immortal words of Team America, fuck yeah!

  2. 2.

    Tom Levenson

    January 20, 2018 at 12:07 pm

    We shall fight on the tweeches. We shall fight on the books of face. We shall fight in the streets of every damn Congressional district….

  3. 3.

    Baud

    January 20, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    @Tom Levenson: We have not yet begun to tweet!

  4. 4.

    Tom Levenson

    January 20, 2018 at 12:09 pm

    @Baud: ;-)

  5. 5.

    JMG

    January 20, 2018 at 12:14 pm

    Jeff Greenfield, last relevant in 1975, has a big article in Politico about how the Democrats will lose the midterms because reasons. The real reason of course, is that he knows clickbait gets published.
    BTW, I read Robert Costas’ twitter mention that some House members were complaining about a lack of towels in the House gym this morning. It occurred to me that were a member of the House or Senate, I wouldn’t eat in the House or Senate cafeterias until the shutdown ends. No telling what’s in that omelet prepared by unpaid workers.

  6. 6.

    Thaddeu

    January 20, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    balloon-juice.com does not show up google search results now (for me at least). Though some links to posts and tweets does.

    Google screwing around with its rankings, or someone screwing around with SEO’ing BJ out of the results?

  7. 7.

    Mike J

    January 20, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    How scared are they? Paul Ryan’s superpac has opened an office in Spokane to prop up Cathy McMorris Rodgers in an R+8 district.

    Lisa Brown looks like a good candidate.

  8. 8.

    scav

    January 20, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    I regret that I have but 280 characters to give for my country?

  9. 9.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    January 20, 2018 at 12:15 pm

    What I hope Schumer is saying to McConnell.

  10. 10.

    NJDave

    January 20, 2018 at 12:26 pm

    So say we all!

  11. 11.

    p.a.

    January 20, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    NO COMPLACENCY! We must remain shrill. We’re fighting an infantile racist Presnit, his infantile racist base, a treasonous House and Senate majority, a billionaire-owned ( to ?%) federal court system, and a mainstream press that’s in large part a clone of the Fux News/Hate Radio nexus.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    January 20, 2018 at 12:36 pm

    @Aardvark Cheeselog: Perfect! One of my favorite signs was from an airport protest of the first Muslim ban: First they came for the Muslims, and we said not today motherfuckers! Love that attitude.

  13. 13.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    January 20, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    I know this isn’t terribly insightful. but it seems to me the Rs are incapable of governing. It’s partly because they lack the skills and knowledge. And it’s partly because they don’t believe in the value of governing. And of course their people score high in free-floating hostility which makes it hard for them to cooperate even with one another. But also, as a group, they’re more like a philosophical society or a religion, interested in right thinking rather than practical activity.

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    January 20, 2018 at 1:12 pm

    @Mike J: I wish the wave was enough to spike Newhouse but he’s such a milquetoast non-entity that all I can hope for is Didier getting salty again and knocking him out in the jungle.

    There’s a lot of migrant workers here. The farmers want solutions. McMorris-Rodgers isn’t coughing those up because she’s trying for higher ambitions. I would LOVE to see her go down.

  15. 15.

    lowtechcyclist

    January 20, 2018 at 1:15 pm

    @eclare:

    One of my favorite signs was from an airport protest of the first Muslim ban: First they came for the Muslims, and we said not today motherfuckers!

    I’d forgotten that one! Gives me a smile to remember it. Thanks!

  16. 16.

    Emerald

    January 20, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    As for overriding vetoes, that will be impossible in the Senate, at least. There aren’t enough Republicans up for re-election to give us a 2/3 majority even if we won ’em all.

    Or to convict and remove Trump/Pence/Gorsuch if any or all were to be impeached by, say, a newly Democratic House.

    So. Interesting times.

  17. 17.

    Gvg

    January 20, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    I think the optics on TV today are good for our side. Talking heads about gov shutdown and how Congress might reach a deal with background saying anti trump protests breaking out across the country. 3 split Windows showing pink hat crowds Chicago, Denver and New York…..people home for weekend watching that. I know it wasn’t planned for both at the same time but it to me makes a point.

  18. 18.

    Gvg

    January 20, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    @Emerald: how bout if a few more were removed for bribes, money laundering, and other crimes and there were special elections? Given the way they have been behaving and the inevitable results of Citizens United I think that is possible and even likely.
    We need to aim for Govenors and Attorney Generals too this election. A lot of states have those elections in mid term to avoid too much imput from the rabble.
    A big deal is the census for apportioning seats in future elections. Our future prospects long term need fair census.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 20, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    @Gvg: I was just clicking around. The New York march looks huge, at least fifty thousand in Chicago, I haven’t seen numbers for DC, but it’s got to be driving The Rough Beast nuts. He can’t go to his big party, Davos has got to be iffy, and all the TeeVees– Teacher, Mother, Secret Lover– are showing him people who hate him

    Kyle Hester makes movies.‏ @ KyleDHester
    #WomensMarch2018
    This is New York.
    Amazing.

    (edited to remove random apostrophe though it increasingly feels like that’s a fight I’ve lost even in my own head)

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    January 20, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    We just wrapped up our women’s march in Augusta. The executive director of Emily’s List was one of our speakers. As if this morning, over 26,000 pro-choice women have told Emily’s List they want to run for office! The future is female!

  21. 21.

    Emerald

    January 20, 2018 at 1:30 pm

    @Gvg:
    I like your thinking!

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    January 20, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    @Mike J: Cathy McMorris Rogers definitely needs to go. I noticed her when she pulled that stunt with the people she dug up to testify about the ACA, blah blah blah.

  23. 23.

    joel hanes

    January 20, 2018 at 1:34 pm

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

    the Rs are… more … interested in right thinking rather than practical activity

    Close.

    They’re most interested in the appearance of right thinking, in public poses and postures.
    In their prayers, it’s not the conversation with God nor the self-reflection that’s important — what’s important is to be seen as more prayerful and more “Christian” [-ist] than some despised Other.
    Jesus had their number, and calls them out in Matthew 6, and again at Matthew 23:5

    They don’t really have any interest in thinking, per se, nor in actual ideas — they never challenge their own assumptions, but instead rationalize and choose axioms to support positions they already have, and to valorize people Like Them.

  24. 24.

    chris

    January 20, 2018 at 1:37 pm

    Just a little march. Video from DC.

    ETA: “Men of quality do not fear equality”

  25. 25.

    opiejeanne

    January 20, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    @chris: Holy cow! Any estimates? Because that reminds me of the one last year.

  26. 26.

    JMG

    January 20, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    @opiejeanne: Ordinarily, National Park Service would provide a crowd estimate, but they’re off today for some reason. DC police might give crowd guesstimate.

  27. 27.

    Sloane Ranger

    January 20, 2018 at 1:53 pm

    @Thaddeu: Me too! I thought it was just me!

  28. 28.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    January 20, 2018 at 1:54 pm

    @chris: Are you sure that’s not last year?

    ETA: People on that thread are saying it’s last year, offering the cloudy skies as proof. Today is sunny.

  29. 29.

    joel hanes

    January 20, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    Ima blogwhore a little.

    Lance Mannion, today :

    Four of the last six Republican presidents either ran their administrations as criminal enterprises or harbored and nurtured criminal enterprises within them. Nixon, Reagan, George W. Bush, and now Donald Trump.

    You could argue it’s five. I left George Herbert Walker off the list because I’m still not sure his one term shouldn’t be counted as Reagan’s third term and don’t know how to judge whether or not the Iran-Contra conspiracy was continued by him. That he eventually pardoned everybody who needed pardoning is pretty damning.

    But whether it’s four or five, it’s pretty damning of the Republican Party. It’s indicative of Republicans’ attitudes towards the law, governing, and democracy itself.

    The law doesn’t apply to them, only to others who get in their way. They can do whatever they want, run things any way they see fit. The country belongs to them and the only people’s voices they have to listen to are those who say Yes, sir! to whatever they’re told.

    They can lie, stonewall, cover it up. They can get the money even though it would be wrong. They can trade arms for hostages with the enemy, arm and train death squads who will rape and murder nuns, and connive to start and fund wars even when there are laws that explicitly tell them they can’t do it. They can lie us into wars of plunder and conquest and turn us into a nation of torturers. And they can foist upon us a presidency dedicated to enriching the president, his family, his senior aides and advisors, and anybody connected to them who has their eye out for the main chance.

    They’ve done this literally, run the government as criminal enterprises, on large and small scales, at all levels of government, from town to state to federal.

    They do it because they can. They do it because they think they have the right. They do it because they’ve convinced themselves it is right.

    They do it, because if a Republican does it, it’s not wrong.

    Here

    Lance could use some help just now; if you feel like kicking in a nickel to help out someone who writes like that, I’m sure it would be appreciated.

  30. 30.

    chris

    January 20, 2018 at 2:09 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Damn, you’re right! Sorry, people, I just went by the hashtag.

  31. 31.

    Gelfling 545

    January 20, 2018 at 2:11 pm

    @chris: Damn. I bet Trump REALLY wishes he were in FL now!

  32. 32.

    Uncle Omar

    January 20, 2018 at 2:12 pm

    I know Don is upset that he can’t go to Florida and get his tongue bath, but couldn’t he just fly on his 707 rather than burning taxpayer jet fuel, which could be going to the military who need it and deserve it, and causing wear and tear on AF 1? Will the Secret Service guys be going unpaid during the Trump Shutdown?

  33. 33.

    Mike J

    January 20, 2018 at 2:12 pm

    @opiejeanne: Trib says 1/4million in Chicago march.

  34. 34.

    catclub

    January 20, 2018 at 2:16 pm

    @Gvg:

    how bout if a few more were removed for bribes, money laundering, and other crimes and there were special elections? Given the way they have been behaving and the inevitable results of Citizens United I think that is possible and even likely.

    What are you smoking? That is the good stuff.

    A big deal is the census for apportioning seats in future elections.

    That can now happen anytime you get a working majority in your local state government. Every ten years is just the minimum.

  35. 35.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    January 20, 2018 at 2:17 pm

    Will Trump’s party go on without him? It’s joint fundraiser for him and the RNC. He must be beside himself.

  36. 36.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    January 20, 2018 at 2:18 pm

    @chris: It would be lovely if it were this year’s too. It was so wonderful.

  37. 37.

    Gelfling 545

    January 20, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    @Uncle Omar: Apparently crowds of protesters are amassing there too. Just in time to greet his high $ guests.

  38. 38.

    Gelfling 545

    January 20, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Googled inages for today’s march. Looks pretty good!

  39. 39.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    January 20, 2018 at 2:32 pm

    Sorry I posted in two threads that disappeared but Shitgibbon is posting how it is a good weather day for a woman’s march to celebrate the wonderful things the Trump presidency has done and Nancy Pelosi posted right after “who is going to tell him” best tweet of the day.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    January 20, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    @Sloane Ranger: Most likely it’s related to Cole have letting his domain lapse. It was just for a few hours, but I wonder if BJ is being seen as some newbie on the internet, rather than a top 10k blog.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    January 20, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    I was on the fence about the Dems holding out because of DACA. Chris Hayes did a tweet saying that the GOP wants to deport all the Dreamers, but won’t come out and admit it. I realize that he is.absolutely correct. And, those stories that we post, here and there.. doing it to DACA would put it Front and Center for many Americans who don’t read those stores like we do. They want the Dems to do the dirty work for them. To that I SAY HELL NO ?
    We will not abandon these young people.

    There are certain things that need to define us as Democrats. Fighting for these young people is worth it. I see them as the future of America.

    No, we will NOT go along with Making America WHITE Again.
    They must be forced to OWN THAT.

  42. 42.

    Tsukune

    January 20, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    @WaterGirl: You can’t even search for BJ using the old reliable ‘Skull Fuck a Kitten’…

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