Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

In my day, never was longer.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Monday Morning Open Thread: Women #Resisting

Monday Morning Open Thread: Women #Resisting

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Yeah, we’re gonna have to take the trash out on our own. There were more marches on Sunday, especially (as far as I can tell) in the West. More pics later today — send yours to [email protected] if you want to share.
*************

Apart from resisting the racists, sexists and general monsters, what’s on the agenda as we start the new week?

Dave Weigel, in the Washington Post, “Las Vegas Women’s March pivots from feminist protest to politics”:

LAS VEGAS — The Women’s March “Power to the Polls” rally unfolded 2,417 miles from the Capitol, in a city where the daily work of Washington feels even further away. But the day’s biggest cheers came when activists thanked Senate Democrats and said that the government shutdown should not end until immigrants brought to the United States as children won legal status.

“We stand in solidarity with the dreamers and with the senators who are fighting back and saying, they are Americans, too,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.

“People are choosing my life for me right now,” said Astrid Silva, a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. “You can protect us, every single one of you, here.”

The rally had been designed for politics, pivoting the Women’s March — the official organization, which has clashed with some affiliates and spinoffs — into a campaign to end Republican control of Congress and the states through mass voter registration.

The shutdown, which many activists said they had not expected, had clarified just what those politics were. Republicans have largely tied their fates and their 2018 organizing to their president; Democrats have largely followed the lead of a base that believes it can change the electorate by giving left-leaning non-voters reasons to join it…

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  1. 1.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    It involves less drama/unpredictability, however, so news outlets deem it to be less newsworthy.

    They deem it less newsworthy because IOKIYAR.

    If 10 million had marched against a Dem it would have been wall to wall coverage.

  3. 3.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Dick Vermeil deserves a lot of credit for taking the Eagles back to the Super Bowl with a back-up quarterback he found on a sandlot.

  9. 9.

    ThresherK

    Picking up a new (2004) car today.

    To nobody’s surprise, it’s a Volvo wagon, big enough to sleep in. All I had to say to sell Spousal Ms ThresherK was “heated leather seats”.

    It is, however, silver. Yuck. Indicates what the market has, and my eye tells me that’s not gotten less common in 15 years.

  13. 13.

    martian

    Hey, y’all. Anybody else following the Twitter drama on Chelsea Manning? She’s been palling around with fascists and people are putting up the receipts!

    I cannot wrap my brain around the weirdness of the world now. Starting to seem like every crazy conspiracy theory will eventually manifest as true facts.

  19. 19.

    martian

    @rikyrah: I’m frankly amazed the receipts exist. Manning is a stone cold moron apparently, taking smiling pics with her Nazi buddies.

    Rose Twitter is gobsmacked and spinning. Much shitposting of Hillary Clinton and Trump/Kissinger/Weinstein pics has ensued. And Chelsea went to the Nazi party ironically, liberals don’t get irony apparently.

  20. 20.

    NorthLeft12

    booked more than dozen lawmakers/officials the morning after massive women’s march and none were women

    Really Michael? And you were surprised by this?

    The political media has been ignorihg women and their issues for decades. Nothing has changed for them.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @martian:

    Much shitposting of Hillary Clinton and Trump/Kissinger/Weinstein pics has ensued. 

    So they believe Manning = Hillary? How is that good for Manning?

  26. 26.

    JR

    The Sunday news shows are dying. They have no cultural capital. They are pretty much just a circle jerk for inside media types. Maybe they can be cancelled once and for all and Chuck Todd will actually have to work for once in his life.

  27. 27.

    martian

    @Baud: Noooo. It seems to be something more like…

    1) Hillary Clinton is a corrupt monster
    2) Shitlib Russophobes are hypocrites
    3) ??????
    4) Chelsea Manning is [email protected]@@[email protected]!!

    It makes no sense. Attacking Clinton is just a blind, stimulus response at this point. A reflex as direct as a doctor tapping your knee with a mallet.

  30. 30.

    JR

    @ThresherK: Silver never fades. For people who like to hang on to their cars 10+ years that’s a big plus. Also, beats the hell out of the beige variants that dominated the late eighties-mid nineties.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @martian:

    Attacking Clinton is just a blind, stimulus response at this point.

    I’ve said many times that Hillary is my litmus test for folks.

    Baud’s Postulate states that people with a Trump-like obsession with hating Hillary are Trump-like.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, all.

    Not surprised to hear that MSM missed the significance of the women’s marches. They are always way behind the curve.

    Recall: you cannot find a voter who happily voted for Hillary Clinton, and Doug Jones is not turning out the African American vote. They always tell us that shit.

    However, it’s a special touch to have Sunday shows without women guests. Is that true? Wow. Proof of irrelevancy.

    Whoever said the Vichy Times etc would fall into line re the GOP talking points had it correct. At least, in headlines. Which is pretty much all a lot of folks ever see.

  35. 35.

    martian

    @ThresherK: People identify as socialists by putting a rose in their Twitter handle. Whether they are in any meaningful sense actual socialists… ehhhh. But it serves as a team signifier, like shirts vs. skins. Roses usually indicate Berners. Anarchists put up black flags. They also seem to be mostly Berners.

  41. 41.

    ThresherK

    @JR: I know. And silver hides dirt better than white or black. I’ve been tired of it since the 80s, when I had my first silver auto.

    A silvery blue would be fine by me. That does exist in some models. But as one can tell by my habits (here, replacing a ’99 with an ’04) actual paint color doesn’t rate high on the list.of factors.

  42. 42.

    martian

    @Baud: You are dead on. The reasons for hating her on both left and right just blur into each other and become indistinguishable.

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    Dammit. Put in my order at budgeted amount for gewgaws and gimcracks from Amazon for the month and totally spaced out including the one thing had been set on getting.

    *sigh* There’s always next month.

  44. 44.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @eclare: I like the clouds and the cars on the road at the right. You can see the exposure increasing by the light trails on the cars. While I installed a mod on my camera that does exposure ramping(automatically increasing exposure time over the time of the shot), I wasn’t able to get it to work(because I didn’t practice with it beforehand and I’m a moron). So I ended up setting the interval to shoot 50 pictures and the manually increased exposure time.

  45. 45.

    ThresherK

    @martian: I…had no idea that was the case. Thanx for the warning.

    Then again I didn’t know there was a “horse twitter” until Roy Moore did his trick riding.

  46. 46.

    Chyron HR

    @martian:

    So I guess when the “left” decided that America was better off under nazi rule than voting for Clinton, that was just because they really like nazis.

  48. 48.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Reading up, it looks like a hyperlapse is a timelapse with more camera movement, so I guess you could do a timelapse with a cellphone. You’d have to have a tripod mount* for the cellphone and I’m really not sure how well it would work.

    *Your comment reminded me to dig mine out of the camera storage box(I also found the missing lens end cap).

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: If you JUST did it, there may be time to cancel something you don’t really need and substitute the thing you want. I’ve found they’re pretty forgiving about cancellations unless the item has actually shipped, in which case, SOL…

  51. 51.

    martian

    @ThresherK: I have only recently become aware, myself. I don’t have an account, but I’ve started reading around. A lot of writers I used read on blogs gone by are now on twitter. There’s good writing to be found, but the signal to noise ratio makes it possibly not worth it.

    It’s been really disheartening to find out how absolutely loathed liberals are by the self-declared left. Twitter seems to me to be distilling disagreements, debate, and advocacy amongst neighboring groups into pure poison. Better to know, I guess, but I question the unreality of it.

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    The only time the corporate media cares about women is when they present as Republicans — like “Soccer Moms”

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    I remember at least once (perhaps more than once) during President Obama’s two terms, the networks ran a Republican rebuttal and a “tea party response” to PBO’s State of the Union address. If those so-cons in patriot drag warrant that kind of treatment, surely the Resistance, which has mobilized millions of people without KochBucks, does too?

  59. 59.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Good point. Still, it rankles that the astroturf tea party nonsense was taken so seriously. I’d love to see a comparison of coverage between the two groups. If, FSM willing, the GOP loses congress this year, maybe then the Resistance will get some goddamned respect.

  60. 60.

    martian

    @Chyron HR: Certainly a segment of the super performative twitter loudmouths appear to hate liberals more than the Nazis. I figure it for the apostate effect – heretics are far more threatening than unbelievers.

    With Manning, though, a startling number of people seemed to find it plausible that Manning was reaching out to de-radicalize the Nazis and white supremacists she was hanging with. Lots of talk about diversity in friendships. Not that anything like that excuse would be extended to a liberal, I’m sure. I could almost wish that Manning would start fangirling Hillary on twitter just to take the excuse making straight to the breaking point.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @eclare: A sitting U.S. senator vs. a person who lost an election by 20+ points and famously complains about receiving doughnuts?

  64. 64.

    eclare

    @Betty Cracker: Just an example, no more ridiculous than the Tea Partiers. I see your point, but once the suggestion is out there to have a separate response, it will be hard to control who gets to give it. And some of our progressive betters seem to get butthurt quite easily when their demands aren’t met.

  66. 66.

    Patricia Kayden

    Shutdown is obviously huge story. But still striking the major Sunday shows booked more than dozen lawmakers/officials the morning after massive women’s march and none were women:

    That says a lot. Not even shocked at the blatant bias shown by the so-called MSM.

  68. 68.

    ThresherK

    @Betty Cracker: Does Nina Turner have a lot of Fernie Froze with her, or only the ones I personally know?

    And is Tulsi (now One Name famous) the most accomplished pol they like? I get a whiff from them that anyone who wasn’t born perfect is not only fallible, but irredeemably fallen. (See: Harris, Booker, Obama.)

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @martian:

     I could almost wish that Manning would start fangirling Hillary on twitter

    She already named herself after Hillary’s daughter. What more do you want?

  72. 72.

    Kay

    Gov. Sam Brownback abandoned the tough words he once had for the Kansas Supreme Court during his State of the State speech earlier this month. He didn’t criticize excessive government spending. And he suggested the state spend $600 million more on schools over five years.
    Has he shifted his stances, or is something else going on?
    Lawmakers say Brownback is either offering a final “screw you” to them, or that Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer is actually behind the change. For his part, Brownback says he’s reacting to the Kansas Supreme Court.

    The worst governor in the country. By far.

    So of course Trump hired him. They seek out the absolute worst people in the country and then hire them. You have to be dramatically bad- not just minor league “poor manager” stuff- you have to bankrupt your public schools – destroy them to the extent where a court has to order funding. After bankrupting them and right before you leave for your new job working for Trump, fearing the schools might actually close while you’re still *technically* governor, you say the funding you took to give tax cuts to rich people should be restored, but don’t do anything about it.

    Brownback is a far Right nutjob but it isn’t formal education he lacks, this isn’t “not understanding” budgeting or policy, he’s just a bad person who was a bad hire. How do I know? After all, I can’t see what’s in his heart, can I? The only way I can know- because of his behavior.

    They’re saying now Trump doesn’t “understand” immigration- that he’s too lazy to read anything and of course he’s a bad listener so forget telling him anything- and so his “deals” are impossible to agree to because his “offers” have no actual terms or substance. But that’s not it at all. If he had “understanding”, technical mastery of details of the arguments on both sides, he’d still be a bad person and do bad things. He’d renege. He’d lie. He’d do nothing until the last minute and then say he wanted to fix whatever mess he made but not do anything to fix it. Like he did. Like Brownback did here.

  74. 74.

    NorthLeft12

    I read an article on the weekend about the US losing its “soul” since the election of Trump. As someone who has read a great deal of American history, my feeling is that the battle for the soul of America has been ongoing since sometime around 1776.
    I’m not even clear as to what a collective soul looks like or if it is something that the majority/the powerful impose on the rest of the population.
    Any thoughts?

  75. 75.

    Immanentize

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I am glad it was helpful. I only get to be here in small bits of time together. So I worry such comments just sound assholish. So thanks for getting back at me. And happy Day after Your Birthday.

  77. 77.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I don’t know. If the result is the capitulation it’s being reported as, then I’ll be disappointed. I do hope to be wrong.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @martian: The super duper Left-with-a-capital-L has always hated liberals. It’s just that until Internet culture you never heard about any of it unless you were on or near a college campus.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    Trump “not understanding” immigration isn’t some kind of disability. He’s of at least average intelligence and according to that physician he passed the basic competency test that shows he doesn’t need a legal guardianship or POA. He passed the test that means he shouldn’t, right now, be someone else’s ward.

    Trump “not understanding” immigration means ONE thing. He’s too lazy to learn anything about his job. He could! He chooses not to. Hence, his behavior is bad. That won’t change.

  81. 81.

    Sloane Ranger

    CNN’s Reliable Voices had a section on coverage of the shutdown versus the Womens’ March and they were patting themselves on the back that they had a split screen up showing both. No mention of the fact that the vast majority of the punditry was on the shutdown with only occasional dips into reporting from the marches.

    Likewise they were well put out by the pushback on the NYT publishing letters from Dump supporters. They implied that progressives/liberals wanted censorship.

    They had someone from a progressive group on who asked why they weren’t giving as much attention to those who had become politically active as a result of Dump’s election or minorities.

    The reporters tried to argue that as all the experts had been taken by surprise by the result, it was important to find out what had motivated people to vote for Dump. She asked why they weren’t interested in those who had voted for him but changed their minds since and why.

    The only comeback they had was that a media outlet somewhere had recently done a round table of black voters. Weak!!!

  83. 83.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NorthLeft12: Several years ago I read an article by a Boomer who said America’s soul died the day JFK was killed. If that’s true, I’ve never known a country with a soul.

  84. 84.

    Chyron HR

    @martian:

    With Manning, though, a startling number of people seemed to find it plausible that Manning was reaching out to de-radicalize the Nazis and white supremacists she was hanging with.

    So when Maninng explicitly said she was only there to beat up nazis, that was a… lie?

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @NorthLeft12:

    US losing its “soul”

    I’m impatient with this. “The US” doesn’t get to ride on its reputation, real or imagined. You don’t get to claim you’re somehow “better” than what you do. This isn’t how this works. Trump is the President. This is what the US is.

    Because what’s the incentive here? No matter what we do we get to claim we are somehow “better” than what we do? Then we can do anything. Good actions, bad actions, doesn’t matter. We’re still “better”. “Better” means something. It’s measurable against something else. “We’re better than this” to me means “we’re better than what we are”. No, we’re really not. We could be! But right now we are this.

  89. 89.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @Patricia Kayden: When Chris Hayes used to do a two hour Saturday show, he set a policy of no all-male panel and no all-white panel. I think you need that. Otherwise it’s easy to replicate what feels like a normal pattern. Plus they think white guys are wisest.

    A number of years back there was an artist whose work consisted of altering the front page of the NYT every day for a year. She eventually got a stamp that said “buncha white guys” to save herself from having to hand print that repeatedly.

  90. 90.

    NorthLeft12

    @Kay: This is gold;

    After all, I can’t see what’s in his heart, can I? The only way I can know- because of his behavior.

    I use a variant of this when dealing with people who say racist/misogynist/bigoted [and generally act like assholes] things. I can never know how you really feel, I can just judge you by what you say and do.
    I have actually had more than one person tell me that just because a person is bigoted and/or racist does not mean he/she is not a good person. Where have I heard that before?

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Likewise they were well put out by the pushback on the NYT publishing letters from Dump supporters. They implied that progressives/liberals wanted censorship.

    Because holding the Presidency and both chambers isn’t enough representation for Trump supporters? They and their representatives in DC are not heard enough? They run the whole federal government. Every day Trump and Trump supporters in Congress do nothing BUT talk. They’re not some silenced minority.

    Trump embarrasses Trump supporters because of what he does and says, they aren’t comfortable with Donald Trump espousing their views, so Trump supporters ALSO need a forum to explain Trump’s views in a way that is comfortable and cleaned up and acceptable to Trump supporters. Trump gets two bites of the apple. We get 24/7 Trump views and then we get endless hours of Trump supporters translating Trump’s views and inserting things that don’t exist, things like “good faith” and “honesty”. They have to do that because of course Trump himself shows none of those qualities.

    I never had to explain why I was supporting Obama although Obama is a bad person. I never had to do that because Obama handled that, by not being a bad person.

    Trump supporters have their representative. He’s it.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Oh it’s nothing crucial, nothing time sensitive. More that am peeved at my own (growing) forgetfulness, as had been planning for like the last three weeks on ordering it this month. Budget doesn’t allow for anything more until late February.

    Have a saved text file of labeled Amazon URLs for items for purchase later on or which caught my eye as maybe worth another look sometime down the road or as gift possibilities and somehow opened that and entirely managed to miss seeing the thing I neglected to include.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @NorthLeft12:

    It’s so funny, right, because a big part of Trump conservatism is jeering at people for being “snowflakes”. They’re held accountable for what they say and do and they immediately retreat to some bullshit notion of “I’m actually BETTER than what I say and do”. Talk about “everyone gets a trophy”. What’s the incentive structure here? What you say doesn’t matter and what you do doesn’t matter so everyone can just be deemed internally and secretly great – no way to tell! Everyone gets an A+. Martin Luther King or Donald Trump, no difference.

  97. 97.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: I thought use of the B word would trigger alerts, and months ago I fell into the habit of “Fernie”. Additionally alliteration acts as an ace accomplishment, so, “Froze”.

  98. 98.

    martian

    @Chyron HR: Did she say that about the Cernovich soireè? So far as I know, Manning hasn’t been talking since the posting of that cheery group shot of her and the freak of fascists she did the escape room with. Nazi got her tongue, I guess.

  106. 106.

    Kay

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

    There is no Republican party apart from the Republican party.

    Agreed. The obviousness of this drives me crazy. An organization is the members.

    It’s become so stupid. The platonic ideal of conservatism exists completely apart from actual conservatives. Instead of saying “gosh we never seem to govern aligned with our ideals, I wonder if our ideals are unworkable or we don’t actually believe them?” they instead say “oh, that’s not REAL. Real would be better.”

    I’m doing bylaws for a volunteer group. Nice people! Earnest, law abiding, charitable. I’m trying to get a sense of what they want in their bylaws and they’re waving these decisions away- as if these rules they’re adopting are some kind of technicality unrelated to their actual behavior. They’d adopt gibberish because really, what does it matter? It’s what’s in their hearts that counts.

  109. 109.

    JR

    @martian: that is pretty much modus operandi for radicals since modern political thought emerged some time around the French Revolution.

    However, the old radicals made sure to purge/remove from power the right wing first. not really the concern of bad faith trolls and/or dilletants of the modern “far left”

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: Last I heard from Kitty John Lennon he was stoned out of his mind on the homegrown cat nip provided by his dealer, “The Nip Queen.” Poco was spooked all day yesterday. Terrible wind from Carlsbad to Cloudcroft to Ruidoso. He’s much better. No wind this AM, long walk. He enjoyed the pillow top bed in this Quality Inn.?

  112. 112.

    ThresherK

    @Quinerly:

    Last I heard from Kitty John Lennon he was stoned out of his mind on the homegrown cat nip provided by his dealer, “The Nip Queen.”

    Be careful: There’s still a war on Nip.

    Wait, that’s not allegorical?

  115. 115.

    Kay

    So for the people who went to the marches (I didn’t go) are you upset that national media ignored them? Do you feel there should have been coverage or do you not care?

    Is there a possibility that pretending the (overwhelmingly female) marchers weren’t there helps with organizing/follow thru? Sort of “we’ll show YOU in November”?

    Because media coverage that reflects or chronicles events would be nice, but since it appears that’s not in the cards we need a way forward. Is this the way forward? Be the tree that DOES fall in the forest. regardless of who heard?

  116. 116.

    Another Scott

    Twitler 20 minutes ago: “Democrats have shut down our government in the interests of their far left base. They don’t want to do it but are powerless!”

    Help me!! My powerless opponents are stopping me!!11

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  118. 118.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: This is why I think Governor Charlie Baker in Massachusetts could become vulnerable with the right attacks. He’s a Republican. Period. He refused to vote for Hillary. His buddies gave hundreds of thousands to the failed Charter School ballot initiative. He really doesn’t care at all about public transportation. And, he is a Republican. There is only one type of Republican right now….

  119. 119.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay:

    What you say doesn’t matter and what you do doesn’t matter so everyone can just be deemed internally and secretly great – no way to tell! Everyone gets an A+. Martin Luther King or Donald Trump, no difference.

    This is also their view of religion. You go to the building and it makes you special and good rather than ordinary and bad.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    Not that there will be any accountability, but I’d just like to remind you-all that political media gave President Trump an A+ on this deal because he showed up and sat upright in a big, manly chair:

    CNN’s Dana Bash on Tuesday praised President Trump after a bipartisan meeting on immigration.
    Bash said the meeting, in which Trump and lawmakers said they settled on parameters for a deal involving border security and protections for “Dreamers” — immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children — gave a glimpse into a leadership style that many Trump supporters had hoped for.
    “I’m sure I’m going to get hit for this and I don’t really care,” Bash said. “The bottom line is … this is the presidency that many people thought Donald Trump was capable of.”

    “The bottom line” for Dana is not results- it’s sitting in a chair and looking leader-ish.

    That’s the standard. Dana Bash saw nothing to justify this victory lap she gave him. Nothing. In fact, she missed the President spouting vicious racial slurs about whole countries. She had NO information, he had literally accomplished nothing that she saw and what she didn’t see was worse- he was actually BLOWING the deal. Yet she made this pronouncement and nothing at all will happen. She’s still get millions of dollars a year and she’ll still be an expert. And we’ll be told to trust her.

    This was a week ago.

  121. 121.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: They’re still hoping for the “on this day he truly became President” moment. Whereas for Obama it always felt like they were hoping for the “he screwed this up worse than the last guy screwed up Katrina!” moment.

  122. 122.

    Kraux Pas

    You know, until this morning I would have been happy if Democrats got a deal on DACA OR a deal on CHIP…then I saw that Mitch McConnell tweet.

    FYI Mitch, funding for CHIP expired months ago and this is the first time I’ve seen you or anyone in your party suggest it was a priority, however cynically. It has also been shown to be far less expensive than the status quo. That you think this is even a bargaining CHIP just goes to show how perverse your whole sick death cult is.

    And yeah, DACA doesn’t expire for a couple months yet and helps people I suspect you, Mitch McConnell in absentia, don’t want here anyway. What harm is there having a cloud of foreboding hanging over the heads of hundreds of thousands of people, after all?

  124. 124.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Right, because the trolls are so stupid that they would never think to set an alert for “Wilmer” after seeing it the first time. Jesus Christ.

    P.S. Bernie Sanders! Bernie Sanders! Bernie Sanders!

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Please. There are too many Obama moments to count. One of the worst for me was when he told the truth about the police officer and they went on a five day bender of couch-fainting. A Trump appointee had to RESIGN last week because he said soldiers with PSTD were faking.

    And don’t kid yourself. THAT’S why he had to resign. His vicious racial slurs were A-OK. Trump would have promoted those.

  127. 127.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kraux Pas: Two things, many Dreamers are losing their status everyday. The R bill in Congress plans to criminalize loss of status. And several former DHS secretaries have weighed in and said that any new program will take 3 to 6 months to get rolling.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Trump paying off his girlfriend does bother mainstream Republicans though. Key to their sense of superiority over liberals was their (utterly phony) image as “family men”. They’ve lost something there. They took a hit.

    There are more girlfriends who were paid off too, which they all know. “Bad” isn’t the same as “stupid”- they’re not stupid.

  130. 130.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: Do you hear David Brooks on Friday’s Snooze Hour? According to his “sources” T is affable and knowledgeable. So don’t believe your eyes but believe the paid professional R liar on prestige media. Hell no.

  131. 131.

    germy

    No comment of today’s football games but I was flipping through Tom Brady’s book at the bookstore and he claims the human body can’t properly absorb water unless you add his proprietary blend of electrolytes (which he sells on his website)

    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 22, 2018

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Go back and compare the coverage of the Obama’s inability to personally plug the hole in the floor of the bay – the oil spill- with Trump’s abandoning Puerto Rico. One was insolvable. The other was not. Obama got an “F” and Trump got an “A+”.

    I don’t know- do you need any more? Is there a SOUPCON of bias for the big white guy here, or is it me?

  133. 133.

    Kraux Pas

    @schrodingers_cat: So, the fake news told me that DACA wasn’t ending until March. Could you do me the favor of pointing me toward some more nuanced and thorough reporting?

    Also, the R bill wants to criminalize loss of status? Again…sick death cult.

  134. 134.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay:The Obama years proved that, our media is more than a little bit racist. I am looking at you NYT, PBS and Atlantic. Think about it, they are the prime R demographic, rich, old, and predominantly male and white.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Even during that meeting you could see that Trump didn’t know what he was talking about. He agreed to a deal with Dianne Feinstein, and a senior Republican senator practically jumped out of his chair and tackled Trump to shut him up.

  138. 138.

    Kraux Pas

    @Steeplejack:

    senior Republican senator practically jumped out of his chair and tackled Trump to shut him up.

    Representative, actually, Kevin McCarthy I believe. To tackle, or even touch, Trump would be below the dignity of a Senator.

  140. 140.

    schrodingers_cat

    @germy: I suspect Kelly has higher political aspirations. He could lead the racist Rs when the current incarnation of hate in WH inevitably sputters out of gas. Our media will not question a great general whose son died in action. Look at how he is treated now even though the evidence of his bigotry is piling higher and higher everyday.

  142. 142.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: I remember Keith Olbermann pummeling Obama daily for the response to the Deepwater Horizon. Meanwhile Puerto Rico is still a literal disaster from a storm, and so is California from fires, and Trump avoids their even being in the news AT ALL. SMH.

  143. 143.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    So for the people who went to the marches (I didn’t go) are you upset that national media ignored them? Do you feel there should have been coverage or do you not care?

    I didn’t expect them to cover them, Kay.

  144. 144.

    Kraux Pas

    @schrodingers_cat: Thanks, that seems like some very good reading…interspersed with some right-wing deadhead reading.

    I wonder if loratadine will help my horrible Twitter allergy.

  148. 148.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Trump paying off his girlfriend does bother mainstream Republicans though. Key to their sense of superiority over liberals was their (utterly phony) image as “family men”. They’ve lost something there. They took a hit.

    They would have sold their mothers to Lucifer to get this kind of scandal from 44.

    I’m telling you…it bothers them to no end that 44 was a loving husband and devoted father.
    KILLS THEM!!

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Kraux Pas: Two things, many Dreamers are losing their status everyday.

    UH HUH

    The R bill in Congress plans to criminalize loss of status.

    The entire point.

    And several former DHS secretaries have weighed in and said that any new program will take 3 to 6 months to get rolling.

    Ridiculous!

  150. 150.

    martian

    @Kay: Manning seems to be associating herself with the Pizzagate crew, essentially. There’re two big known incidents, one being Cernovich’s big to do that she just attended, apparently with Cassandra Fairbanks. The other was a fun outing to an escape room in DC a couple months ago with, again, Fairbanks, but also with people like Jack Posobiec and Lucian Wintrich. They’re all alt right. Organized officially, no, but significant and interlinked activists.

    I’m thinking she’s actually friends with Fairbanks and that’s what’s drawing her into that crowd. I think Manning is just malleable to anyone who blows a little sunshine up her ass. That is possibly too generous an assessment, though.

  151. 151.

    rikyrah

    Paul Ryan and the GOP Take Legal Bribes from the Kochs
    by David Atkins January 21, 2018

    The corruption is right out in the open:

    Just days after the House passed its version of the federal tax law slashing corporate tax rates, House Speaker Paul Ryan collected nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions from billionaire energy mogul Charles Koch and his wife, according to a recent campaign donor report.

    Koch and his brother David spent millions of dollars to get the tax law passed and are spending millions more in a public relations campaign in an attempt to boost support for the law, The Wall Street Journal reported.

    Koch Industries, one of the largest private corporations in the nation, operates refineries and manufactures a variety of products. The new tax law — which slices corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 21 percent, slashes estate taxes and includes a special deduction for oil and gas investors — is expected to save the Koch brothers and their businesses billions of dollars in taxes.

    The GOP’s commitment to the defense of Donald Trump was in large part about this: helping their billionaire donors. The donors made it clear that they wouldn’t keep funding their bought-and-paid-for congressmembers without a tax cut payoff. And they needed a president with five working digits to sign the legislation.

  152. 152.

    rikyrah

    The Government Shutdown Began November 8, 2016
    by D.R. Tucker January 22, 2018

    Let’s face it: it’s not the Trump Shutdown, it’s the People’s Shutdown.

    The 62 million people who decided to turn the United States into a shithole country by electing Donald Trump fourteen months ago deserve the blame for the disorder and chaos in the District of Columbia. There is no logic or basis to the nonsense that officially began at midnight on January 20, 2018…but there was no logic or basis to the nonsense that was the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

    Think about the argument that those who voted for Trump wanted to “shake things up in Washington.” The problems affecting Washington could not be solved by “shaking things up”; those problems were caused mainly by right-wing hyperpartisanship and big money in politics, and voting for Trump would not have done a damn thing to remedy either problem. Those who claimed to have voted for Trump because he would “shake things up” actually did so because they wanted him to prevent the government from providing any assistance or fair treatment whatsoever to people they consider “undesirables.”

    They’re loving this shutdown, because they figure that a profoundly dysfunctional federal government is preferable to a federal government that’s providing “handouts,” “welfare,” “food stamps,” “Obamaphones,” etc.

    Their hatred–their fear and loathing for anyone not like them–is responsible for this government shutdown. If they had their way, armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would smash into the homes of every DACA beneficiary and force those beneficiaries to get on the first plane back to their countries of origin. If they had their way, every woman who marched this weekend would be denied equal pay for equal work, the right to control their own bodies and possibly even the right to vote. If they had their way, the bill that made Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a federal holiday would have been repealed long ago–even though their previous hero, Ronald Reagan, signed that bill into law.

  153. 153.

    rikyrah

    No One Elected Stephen Miller or Tom Cotton President
    Trump is allowing even worse nutcases to run the circus.

    by David Atkins
    January 20, 2018

    Government services are shutting down today because the president has outsourced all of his decision-making functions to the farthest extremes of the conservative white nationalist movement.

    It would be simple to respond that this is because the president himself is also a far-right white nationalist-—which is to a large extent true. But there’s more to it. Donald Trump’s racism is born of ignorance: his views on racial issues are stuck in the 1970s-era pages of the New York Post, and his views on international relations more resemble clash-of-civilizations ethno-nationalist war games than anything resembling reality. But the president’s understanding of any issue–even his signature ones–is paper thin. He’s also susceptible to being persuaded by the very last person he talked to, and liable to change his mind with maddening frequency.

    ……………………………..

    The president cannot make a deal on his own terms when he doesn’t even know what those terms are. The extremist march of the Republican Congress and the inability of its leadership to stand up to its worst elements means that without the president’s leadership, the radical Freedom Caucus controls the House. Ultra-conservative zealot Tom Cotton functionally runs the Senate. Within the White House, blood-and-soil racists like Stephen Miller dominate the conversation, and Chief of Staff John Kelly appears to be much in agreement. So much so, that Kelly was passing out a hardline memo of White House demand that Trump had apparently never seen and did not agree with.

    Needless to say, this is not what the American people voted for. It’s not even what most of Trump’s supporters voted for. Yes, racial hostility was a key component of Trump’s appeal. But even Trump’s ugly campaign of white supremacy was more nuanced than today’s Republican embrace of pure ethnic cleansing. Trump promised to build a border wall, yes, but he also committed to protecting Dreamers, and his rhetoric around deportations was centered around “getting rid of the bad hombres.” Even many of Trump’s supporters would not have gone along with mass deportations of children and immigrants with no criminal record. And we know that Trump himself even very recently was supportive of making a deal on DACA.

    Which means that White House policy is now far to the right of even the nasty virulence of Trump’s presidential campaign, simply because the president is not the president. A small band of unelected ultra-racist extremists is presiding in his absence.

  155. 155.

    Tenar Arha

    @Elizabelle: I dunno. It does depend on what you consider a Sunday Show. Joy Reid had quite a few women in to talk. But maybe he was talking about the 4 broadcast networks, which I now avoid like they were the plague.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Go back and compare the coverage of the Obama’s inability to personally plug the hole in the floor of the bay – the oil spill- with Trump’s abandoning Puerto Rico. One was insolvable. The other was not. Obama got an “F” and Trump got an “A+”.

    I don’t know- do you need any more? Is there a SOUPCON of bias for the big white guy here, or is it me?

    The curve for Unqualified White Men is REAL

    On top of that, the deliberate incompetence is LITERALLY killing American citizens – TO THIS DAY.

  157. 157.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: Hmm…give folks like the Kochs billions (which they can then use to fund hard Randians like Ryan) while taxing blue state voters to pay for it…why, it’s almost like it was by design…

  161. 161.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: yep. This bill is what Romney meant by “encouraging” immigrants to self deport. If I’m reading this correctly, were the business a Dreamer worked for to go out of business, not only would that dreamer be ineligilble for unemployment benefits, not only would they be deported for violating their work status, but they would be imprisioned for 6 months. For losing a job and falling below 125% FPL. At any point in their lives.

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    As millions participated in Women’s Marches, Trump sought credit
    01/22/18 08:40 AM—UPDATED 01/22/18 08:50 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Donald Trump was probably feeling a little antsy on Saturday. On the first anniversary of his presidential inaugural, the Republican expected to be at his private club in Florida, but was instead stuck at the White House, detached from the process surrounding the government shutdown, pretending to be busy.

    Assuming Trump turned on the television – as is his wont – the president likely saw coverage of a shutdown he helped create, but was powerless to end, coupled with coverage of massive national protests, featuring legions of activists who are resisting his agenda.

    So, naturally, Trump thought it’d be a good idea to take credit for the progressive activism. “Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months,” the president declared.

    …………………………………………………..

    Indeed, I continue to wonder if activism of this scope, and on this scale, is an underappreciated national story. In 2010, if a few dozen guys with tea bags and tricorn hats got together in a park, it was seen as an important development. Nearly eight years later, news consumers are treated to “Trump voters still like Trump” stories with unsettling frequency – as if supporters of a historically unpopular president are the constituency that deserves the most attention right now.

    But whether those who marched over the weekend are able to keep the spotlight or not, the fact remains that the Women’s Marches represent some of the most impressive political activism in a generation.

    After last year’s events, I said, “The political world may be frequently jaded and cynical about the electorate’s whims, but Saturday’s marches and rallies demanded attention. To look past them is to ignore a brewing backlash of national significance.” A year later, that backlash is bigger, louder, and hopefully more intimidating for those who stand in their way.

  164. 164.

    rikyrah

    After Four Months Without Power, A Puerto Rican Town Strings Its Own Lines With Volunteers …The “police chief – a retired employee of the utility – and a bunch of other men from this municipality, all volunteering to restore power to their town”https://t.co/Y1xQmLGN4l

    — David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) January 21, 2018

  165. 165.

    Tenar Arha

    @Immanentize: That reminds me. I need to call & poke at him again about not rejecting what 45 said a week and a half ago & tell him “hey, you want to really prove not all GOP are anti-immigration you’ll sign on to the SAFE Communities Act.” (Not that I think he’ll do it, but the fact that I also still can’t find a press release rejecting 45’s racism is revealing).

    ETA typo

  166. 166.

    FlipYrWhig

    @schrodingers_cat: The Republican Party is solely dedicated to punishing brown people “on welfare.” That’s the whole reason anyone who isn’t wealthy is a Republican in the first place. It’s their creed. Every Republican will start in on this subject within minutes of meeting me, if the general subject of politics or society comes up, or pretty much anything besides the weather, sports, or celebrities.

  169. 169.

    rikyrah

    Let’s see:

    Bots are going apeshit ✔
    Hitpieces are sprouting like weeds ✔
    Said hitpieces all have RU ties ✔
    Writers of hitpieces have RU ties ✔
    Manning, Posopiec, & Fairbanks all become bosom buddies ✔
    Trump is in hyperpanic mode ✔

    We are close my friends ?

    — Pinche-Rolled Up Forbes (@Pinche_Pi) January 22, 2018

  170. 170.

    Doug R

    @NorthLeft12:

    I read an article on the weekend about the US losing its “soul” since the election of Trump. As someone who has read a great deal of American history, my feeling is that the battle for the soul of America has been ongoing since sometime around 1776.
    I’m not even clear as to what a collective soul looks like or if it is something that the majority/the powerful impose on the rest of the population.
    Any thoughts?

    I think it’s just that the racist agenda is out in the open. Our white privilege has shielded us from the worst of it until now.
    We didn’t have to deal with slavery, the trail of tears, lynchings, Jim Crow, redlining, being forced into high interest mortgages because of your skin color, etc.
    Just a taste doesn’t feel good, does it?
    Let’s help that BLUE WAVE in 2018!

  171. 171.

    chopper

    @rikyrah:

    if this was the extent of right-wing reaction to a democratic win, millions in the streets, it would be wall-to-wall coverage and the pundits would all be suggesting it’s the end for the Democratic Party, and why doesn’t the prez just quit while he/she’s ahead.

    instead it’s crickets. gornisht.

  173. 173.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: Sadly, Trump got away with ignoring Puerto Rico and refusing to help them after Hurricane Maria. The media doesn’t even talk about Puerto Rico anymore. I believe the count for how many died due to the Hurricane was well over 1000. You would think the media would ask Trump and his officials about that but no.

  175. 175.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    So for the people who went to the marches (I didn’t go) are you upset that national media ignored them? Do you feel there should have been coverage or do you not care?

    The local press did a good job covering the area marches. Of course the MSM should have covered the marches too, but I’m not surprised they didn’t. Just a buncha wimmen, doncha know. Not worthy of notice, just like the millions of HRC voters somehow don’t exist either. Maybe it’s an advantage to be a stealth movement. We can surprise the bastards at the polls.

  178. 178.

    Miss Bianca

    @Quinerly: Hey, Q! Since I unexpectedly have some time on my hands right now, I am thinking maybe a couple days in New Mexico myself next month. How long you going to be around? A BJ meet-up in the Santa Fe area – or maybe a BJ meet-up/hike in Chaco Canyon – would be da bomb!

  179. 179.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Betty Cracker:

    maybe then the Resistance will get some goddamned respect.

    The Resistance has received and is receiving loads of respect from the people who matter — the vast majority of actual voters. We are in the majority. The MSM’s obsession with Trump’s relatively small base is mind boggling but will stop once the November elections reveal exactly how unpopular Trump and the GOP actually are.

  180. 180.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Miss Bianca: Let me know if you make it to NM – would love to see you! And I saw something about getting laid off in one of yesterday’s threads. Are you ok?

  181. 181.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Patricia Kayden:

    The Resistance has received and is receiving loads of respect from the people who matter — the vast majority of actual voters. We are in the majority. The MSM’s obsession with Trump’s relatively small base is mind boggling but will stop once the November elections reveal exactly how unpopular Trump and the GOP actually are.

    I think you’re absolutely right, except possibly for the last part. I doubt the MSM will give up its obsession with the holy WWC male demographic regardless of electoral outcome.

  183. 183.

    Miss Bianca

    @O. Felix Culpa: I’m fine – more than fine, actually. Got a nice severance check from the boss, actively pursuing new career opportunities, and scheming for ways to have just enough money to pay my bills, and just enough in bills not to outrun the bank. ; )

    But I would love to see you, Cheryl, Quinerly, and any other NM jackals who care to pile on! I won’t have any obligations to family this time, so free to meet-up with BJ-ers!

  185. 185.

    Patricia Kayden

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I doubt the MSM will give up its obsession with the holy WWC male demographic regardless of electoral outcome.

    To be honest, I assume that by November, between the shift in Congress to Democratic control and the ramifications of Mueller’s investigation (which should be done by then), I can’t imagine anyone will be interested in anything hardcore Trump supporters have to say about anything. The focus will be on whether Democrats have enough votes to impeach Trump at that point in time.

  186. 186.

    Chyron HR

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I doubt the MSM will give up its obsession with the holy WWC male demographic

    So we’re calling the guy from Vermont “MSM” now? Jeez, pick a nickname and stick with it, guys.

  187. 187.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Patricia Kayden: I hope you’re right! And that there will be enough votes for impeachment. But I’m not relying just on hope. We’re working hard on registering voters and getting them to the polls.

  188. 188.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Miss Bianca: Glad to hear that you got a good severance deal. Please come visit while you still have the luxury of time! Quinery has a meetup scheduled at a winery near ABQ on Feb. 15. You’d be most welcome to join us!

  190. 190.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    I have to think that a large number of ICE employees are sociopaths and haters. How could anyone do that job and not lose sleep unless they lack heart and soul.

  191. 191.

    marcopolo

    @Kay: Good morning BJers. I marched in 2017 and again Saturday here in St Louis. We had roughly half the 2017 crowd this year on 8 days notice (StL organizers didn’t announce anything until Jan 8–stories vary on the whys and hows) which I thought was fantastic. Media coverage of StL was middling. We weren’t ignored but I thought the articles that were written were B grade (not long enough to say anything more than pro forma coverage). I honestly don’t think that really matters though. Everyone takes their own photos and shares them around. We know what we are doing. The important thing is that there are a lot of groups doing political organizing work now. Then yesterday my Indivisible St Louis group did our weekly GOTV postcard writing for MO legislative special elections in Feb. We had 3 D state reps from nearby drop in to say hi and thank us for what we are doing. I was surprised by that but that meant a lot more to me than decent media coverage of the march. And it means we are making enough waves that the folks with their fingers on the pulse recognize it.

    Anyways, I think what I am experiencing personally (and I think we saw this in the media coverage of both VA and AL) is that there is a ton of organizing and political work being done NOW (which is really early–primaries in MO are in Aug) for the 2018 midterms and it is mostly under the radar of the mainstream media. I can already see the articles/shows for the second week of Nov. Hopefully, after we win back the House the FTFNYT will write a long article in the Sunday magazine about how all these formerly non-politically active people (mostly women) shook everything up.

  195. 195.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @bemused:
    A large number of smiling and polite and friendly people everywhere are like that, because they know they’re not allowed to get their sadistic freak on. Trump gave the worst assholes in the ICE permission to go to town.

  198. 198.

    rikyrah

    @bemused:

    I have to think that a large number of ICE employees are sociopaths and haters. How could anyone do that job and not lose sleep unless they lack heart and soul.

    That entire agency needs to be emptied out. Period.

  199. 199.

    Ken Brown

    @germy:
    There’s a big difference between being one of the men behind the throne jockeying to be the man with his hand up the dummy’s behind and being the man on the throne.

  200. 200.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    No doubt. Even if there are or were some that had some basic moral decency, empathy and conscience when they started out in ICE, they’d have to abandon all that to work there or quit.

  201. 201.

    rikyrah

    Stephen Miller’s Plan Has Always Been to Hold the Dreamers Hostage
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    January 22, 2018

    Republican Senator Lindsey Graham finally said out loud what many legislators are saying behind closed doors.

    Senator Graham: “As long as Steven Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration we are going no where. He’s been an outlier for years.” pic.twitter.com/6aR42Jeiu7

    — Alan He (@alanhe) January 21, 2018

    The reason there will be no agreement as long as Miller is in charge of negotiations is because he is holding Dreamers hostage in order to force changes to legal immigration. He made that clear during a meeting last fall that he arranged with people from Breitbart.

    Miller’s goal on this occasion was to sell the group on a compromise: a possible deal offering protections to the young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” in exchange for tougher immigration provisions, such as an end to family-sponsored migration…

    “Be a possible ‘yes,’ be open to doing something that makes you very uncomfortable on DACA in exchange for substantive structural reforms that may have been out of reach,” a senior White House official said, summarizing Miller’s pitch on the condition of anonymity to share details of a private moment. “That’s the whole game.”

  202. 202.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: This policy has had Kelly’s blessings since Aug 2017 when DACA was rescinded and he was the DHS secretary. This has been the plan from the get go. If anyone is acting surprised right now they haven’t been paying attention.

  204. 204.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Elizabelle:

    At least, in headlines. Which is pretty much all a lot of folks ever see.

    For years I have been firmly convinced that the Far Right has cleverly slipped its operatives into every US news outlet with any significant reader/viewership, not at the editorial or reportorial level but as the faceless, unaccountable types that write the headlines. Which are to the 21st century illiterate what Nast’s cartoons were to the 19th. We need to save space in the tumbrels for those SOBs.

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