Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

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

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

T R E 4 5 O N

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

You cannot shame the shameless.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

In my day, never was longer.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n’ roll

It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock n’ roll

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Don’t trip about the temporarily tightening generic ballot or temporary rise in Trump’s approval rating. It’s a long way from now to November. Plenty of time to get involved in local races. Plenty of time to raise money.

You can give here to the Balloon Juice fund that is split equally among all Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.

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Here’s Swing Left. They’re dedicated to grassroots activity in 70+ House districts currently held by Republicans.

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Here’s Forward Majority, dedicated to state legislature elections.

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Reader Interactions

82Comments

  1. 1.

    Lyrebird

    Thanks Doug!

    It’s slightly off topic, but I also give to VoteVets, and through a friend of a friend I just heard about Soldier On… Since we’ve heard so much lip service re: veterans while taking away their benefits, I want to give a shout out to this group. (houses homeless vets, provides various other kinds of support)

  3. 3.

    Timurid

    So what’s the latest on Schrödinger’s Memo? Reports last night were that it gets released today. Today the story is that Trump still hasn’t decided what to do with it…

  4. 4.

    Kristine

    Not sure if this is the right place for it, but apparently the US Supreme Court may not be averse to staying the recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court gerrymandering ruling:

    Republican legislative leaders asked Justice Samuel Alito, who reviews emergency appeals out of Pennsylvania, to block the decision. Because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision involved only state law, Alito should’ve denied the request outright. Instead, he has ordered voting rights advocates to respond, raising the real possibility that a majority of the justices will vote to halt the ruling. If they do, the intervention will mark an extraordinary expansion of the court’s power to prevent states from protecting their residents’ voting rights.

    I am always struck by how the GOP are all STATES RIGHTS until they’re not.

  7. 7.

    Elmo

    Re-upping for Ruemara: her niece has a gofundme to help defray the cost of attending a 6-day leadership conference. The goal is only a grand, and she’s a little over halfway there. Let’s put her over the top!

  8. 8.

    The Moar You Know

    I am always struck by how the GOP are all STATES RIGHTS until they’re not.

    @Kristine: Wait until Bilbo Biggot gets let off his little leash after the midterms and is given carte blanche to go after states with legal weed.

    You’re going to see the GOP take “states rights” and consign that idea to the ashheap of history, or at least until the next time a Democratic president gets into office.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    FISA warrants typically are big thick documents, 50-60 pages. If the Nunes memo about one is just 4 pages, you can bet it’s a carefully picked bowl of cherries. Made all the more dishonest by holding back the minority rebuttal memo. A real debate needs both. Someone fears that.

    — john mclaughlin (@jmclaughlinSAIS) January 30, 2018

  12. 12.

    Immanentize

    @mai naem mobile: It would be very hard for Alito to stay the case on his own for very long. This is the type of thing that a Justice generally refers to the whole court if Alito believed there were grounds for a stay.

    Also, I assume the federal hook is that the districts implicate congressional district lines which may or may not be exclusively in the jurisdiction of the federal courts….

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah:

    John O. Brennan Retweeted Adam Schiff
    I had many fights with Congressional Dems over the years on national security matters. But I never witnessed the type of reckless partisan behavior I am now seeing from Nunes and House Republicans. Absence of moral and ethical leadership in WH is fueling this government crisis.

  17. 17.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    I donated to Sherry Campagna, who is primarying Tulsi Gabbard. I live in Massachusetts, and will donate to anyone who can kick the cultists to the curb so let me know of any others. I’ve already donated to a couple of Senate Dem campaigns, and I donated to Doug Jones.

  21. 21.

    randy khan

    @Kristine:

    The backstory on the Pennsylvania appeal is that the Republicans made an argument based on the Elections Clause of the Constitution, essentially saying that the Court should butt out because Congressional districts belong to the legislature. However, the actual argument in their earlier brief was that the Court couldn’t order anything that was outside the requirements in the Pennsylvania Constitution. Since the Court’s initial order is quite clear that its decision is based on the Pennsylvania Constitution, this argument should be a non-starter.

    My personal guess is that Alito’s trying to gum up the works, more than that he expects to find five votes to stay the decision below. But we’ll see.

  22. 22.

    catclub

    @Kristine: all the smart people here posted that that was unpossible, no way,

    because it was strictly a state laws decision, when I said I would not be surprised if the PA GOP appealed it to the US Supreme Court.

  23. 23.

    Gelfling 545

    I don’t think your young one looks like an ACDC fan. He appears to be a serious thinker who would like more intellectual fare.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    The inspector general for the National Labor Relations Board is investigating whether a Trump appointee to the board breached government ethics rules, according to two congressional officials with knowledge of the investigation.
    The probe centers on whether the NLRB member, William Emanuel, took part in a case in December that had involved his former law firm and if so, whether his participation was improper because he had a conflict of interest. David Berry, the NLRB’s inspector general, opened the investigation several weeks ago, the officials said.

    It’s like one Trump appointee a week, on ethical violations. It’s like they don’t have any personal concept on what would be ethical behavior, let alone following rules.

    The labor board’s decision in Browning-Ferris, a high-profile dispute over corporate responsibility for violations of workers’ rights, is widely viewed as one of the most consequential labor law precedents of the past decade.

    The Obama-era NLRB decided the case in 2015, ruling against two companies in a dispute with a labor union. In doing so, the board revised its so-called “joint-employer rule” and made it easier for workers and unions to hold one company liable for the labor law violations of another company with which it’s associated, like a franchise holder or a contractor.

    It is huge. You wonder if this guy was specifically appointed to get rid of it.

  26. 26.

    FlipYrWhig

    @opiejeanne: My so-Bernie-bro-it’s-verging-on-stereotype quasi-friend (who _literally_ has a beard and _literally_ plays off and on in a band in Seattle while complaining that no one listens to his favorite music) was sharing a picture that purported to reveal how corporate something something Joe Kennedy was and also that he didn’t vote for various pieces of something-or-other legislation. (ETA: It turned out to be the thing you linked; I didn’t check before commenting.) He and his insufferable friends then stroked their literal and metaphorical beards about how terrible it was that The Democrats would never run An Actual Progressive for anything. Accomplishing this, say, by running someone who would get more votes than the hacks they love to hate, was apparently out of the question. It’s a sight to behold.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    Aaand another one! That’s three this week. Gosh, I wonder if the complete lack of ethics at the top has anything to do with all these problems with Trump Administration hires?

    ‏

    @JohnJHarwood
    13m13 minutes ago
    More
    ‘Using his position for private gain’: Ben Carson was warned he might run afoul of ethics rules by enlisting his son

  28. 28.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    Administration officials tell me #GOPMemo will be sent back to House Intelligence Committee on Friday with redactions from the #WH based on internal consultations w @FBI & other agencies. WH will not "release" memo but send it back to committee for it to release on its timetable— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) February 1, 2018

    As long as I’m OT, I’ll say I spent 5 hours in the ER this morning with Mr IOL. The upshot is he has a cyst on his pancreas and has to follow up. The ER offered to admit him and do it right away but he wants to play bridge this afternoon. (headdesk)

  29. 29.

    Timurid

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

    Administration officials tell me #GOPMemo will be sent back to House Intelligence Committee on Friday with redactions from the #WH based on internal consultations w @FBI & other agencies. WH will not “release” memo but send it back to committee for it to release on its timetable— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) February 1, 2018

    Ugh. For the umpteenth time Trump threatened to do something especially awful, he changed his mind at the last moment… and the Village will praise his “prudence” and “restraint.” It’s Gaslighting 101, but they fall for it. Every. Damned. Time.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    TRUTH

    Let’s just get this straight: America as we know it is under attack by its own president, and many in Congress are aiding and abetting the assault. This is a most precarious moment for the country.

    — Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) January 31, 2018

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Kay,

    Carson was completely unqualified from day one.
    I have said from the beginning that he’s going to be the Patsy that takes the fall for those who are in the process of robbing HUD Blind.
    Him, and that unqualified wedding planned placed in charge of the NYC division of HUD.
    Nothing but Patsies.

  33. 33.

    opiejeanne

    @FlipYrWhig: A friend posted that today on Facebook, and I’m pretty damned sure she wasn’t a Bernie Bro but fell into the trap laid for the lazy. She’s usually VERY sharp but I know she had something else on her mind, her husband’s LASIK today. She’ll probably take another look at the damned thing once she relaxes but meanwhile several of us Hilbots and/or people not willing to make the perfect the enemy of the good are talking about it.

  37. 37.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kristine: hypocrites to the end.

    I make this comment a lot, here and IRL, but it’s worth noting that STATES DO NOT HAVE RIGHTS.

  38. 38.

    Spanky

    Jennifer Rubin lays it on the table:

    If Democrats ever needed proof for the midterms that the GOP is a threat to national security and is unfit to govern, this should do it. The Republicans cannot with a straight face claim to be the party of national security while carrying on in such fashion. And even if a congressman in Iowa or Michigan were to say he played no part in Nunes’s conduct, his or her reelection by definition would help return Nunes to the intelligence committee chairmanship and Ryan to the speakership. In short, Democrats can argue that if you vote for anyone with an “R” after his or her name, you are voting to hobble the FBI, expose our secrets to our enemies and help Trump escape the consequences of possible wrongdoing. Talk about a winning message

    Is our Democrats learning? They’d damned well better, or get the hell out of the way.

  43. 43.

    Chyron HR

    @FlipYrWhig:

    You can always suggest to them that they move to his district and vote against and/or primary him since he’s not actually running for President no matter how much they want to whine about it.

  47. 47.

    Immanentize

    @Steve in the ATL:

    States don’t have rights!

    Hmmmmmm, not true that:

    US Const. 10th Amendment:
    The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

  50. 50.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Middle Aged White Soccer Dad Chaos Agent ?
    @BeauInMaryland
    1. Salena Zito wrote an intellectually dishonest, inaccurate, anti- everyone-but-rich-people column today. That, in itself, probably isn’t news. But it’s funny that she’s used the same exact same Trump supporter FOUR TIMES recently

    Go read the article and Zito claims that head of surgery is “blue collar”

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    Dem leaders call on Ryan to oust Nunes as Intel Committee chair
    02/01/18 12:49 PM—UPDATED 02/01/18 12:54 PM
    By Steve Benen

    Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post yesterday, condemning his panel’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), for pushing to release classified information, in a misleading way, for partisan political purposes. Nunes, Schiff wrote, has “crossed a dangerous line.”

    The question then turns to consequences. As CNBC reported, Democratic leaders this morning took their concerns to a new level.

    House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi wrote Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday demanding the removal of Rep. Devin Nunes as Intelligence Committee chairman, saying he has “disgraced” the committee with “dishonest” actions related to an ongoing probe of Russia and the Trump presidential election campaign. […]

    “It is long overdue that you, as Speaker, put an end to this charade and hold Congressman Nunes and all Congressional Republicans accountable to the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution, and protect the American people,” Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote Ryan, R-Wisc.

    “The integrity of the House is at stake,” she wrote.

  55. 55.

    eric

    @Immanentize: wouldnt he have to answer questions under oath? about what has happened in the House regarding the “investigation” and his knowledge of Nunes’ actons. That to me is a big reason he might want to stay away…though he is shameless

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @eric: Maybe. I think it depends where the Dems are in the Fall (assuming Sessions is out then). They may not want to continue that particular fight. But Benghazi might have sunk those chances permanently.

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @Kristine:

    That’s good to know–fingers crossed.

    I did not mean my post to be reassuring. When something happens that was considered ‘unpossible’, maybe the prediction/predictor was wrong.

  62. 62.

    catclub

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I know about it because it was mentioned in Alicublog, and Roy Edroso reads the wacky right wing so we don’t have to – thanks Roy. It was apparently in either the Washington Free Bacon, or the Washington Times.

    salt of the earth surgeon making $500k/yr. the real working class. oy

  65. 65.

    dww44

    @Kay: He is precious indeed! Doug, enjoy this adorable baby phase.
    @Immanentize: I read somewhere yesterday evening that there’s a judgeship vacancy somewhere close to his SC home that he might be wanting to get appointed to.

  66. 66.

    Gravenstone

    @rikyrah: From the reports, he (and his family) willingly enough partook of the looting of HUD. Not a patsy, but more of a co-conspirator.

  67. 67.

    Gravenstone

    @Immanentize: Possibly because he has publicly defended the work of Mueller and team, to the point of advising his Republican House colleagues to “leave him the hell alone”. Trump won’t for a moment consider someone who isn’t willing to prostrate themselves before the Cult of Trump.

  70. 70.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: Yeah, I saw that — Maybe he thinks he can get the next Sup. Ct. Appt. if Kennedy retires?

    ETA, I have not seen whether Kennedy has hired clerks for next year.

    ETA to my ETA — I looked it up, Kennedy has hired four clerks for the next term (the full compliment). So he is planning to stay at least another year. Trump would certainly scare me out of retirement. And the word is, Kennedy’s protege, Gorsuch, is well hated by everyone at the Court for being such a pompous jerk…

  74. 74.

    Yutsano

    Is this where I should mention that not only do appropriations lapse on the 8th but that the House ISN’T EVEN IN FUCKING SESSION RIGHT NOW???

  75. 75.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    If the ballot is tightening, then why do gop committee chairman keep retiring.

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: At first, Carson even said he wasn’t qualified, as I recall. Then he took the job anyway. Un-fucking-believable, except that at this point it’s not.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    Doug, your baby is gorgeous. Way cuter than the gerber baby.

    I just donated to the summer youth leadership fundraiser. She’s at 950, with a goal of 1,000. (sorry doug, for the competition!)

  80. 80.

    Yutsano

    @WaterGirl: He got convinced of the grifting opportunity and took it. It’s almost like they were guaranteed that they would face no consequences if they just stole everything not nailed down. And now it’s slow but it seems like consequences are starting to happen. Way too late but it’s going.

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