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.
Here’s Swing Left. They’re dedicated to grassroots activity in 70+ House districts currently held by Republicans.
Here’s Forward Majority, dedicated to state legislature elections.
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)
Chyron HR
That baby’s a poser. I bet it hasn’t rocked a day in its life.
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…
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:
I am always struck by how the GOP are all STATES RIGHTS until they’re not.
SiubhanDuinne
Just six weeks old and he’s already mastered manspreading.
Origuy
Air guitar?
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!
The Moar You Know
@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.
mai naem mobile
@Kristine: you have to be kidding me. Alito is such a partisan hack.
HeleninEire
BABBY!!!
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
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….
Kay
Okay. I am upset over the generic ballot though.
Concerned, but not yet troubled :)
Kay
That baby is precious, too, so he makes me feel a little better.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah:
SuzieC
Donated.
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.
Mnemosyne
@Elmo:
Today is payday, so I kicked in $50.
opiejeanne
Off topic, but have you seen the hit job Cenk Uygur’s “Justice Democrats” is doing on Joe Kennedy III?
https://flic.kr/p/FQViDQ
geg6
Awesome onesie.
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.
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.
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.
Kay
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.
It is huge. You wonder if this guy was specifically appointed to get rid of it.
bemused
@opiejeanne:
Seems like years since I’ve seen Cenk Uygur mentioned anywhere. Never liked the guy so I don’t follow him.
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.
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?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
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)
Timurid
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
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.
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
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Sending positive thoughts and prayers to Mr. IOL.
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.
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.
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Oh no. I hope he will be ok, but this is such a guy thing I can’t think straight.
Mary G
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Bridge players (especially, I would imagine, engineers) can be pretty obsessive about it. Hope everything turns out well.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@opiejeanne: @Mary G: At least he made the follow up appointment for Monday. He’s off to play bridge. I think I’ll go write. That will require me to concentrate on it and not on this.
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.
Spanky
Jennifer Rubin lays it on the table:
Is our Democrats learning? They’d damned well better, or get the hell out of the way.
opiejeanne
@rikyrah: I have a cousin who may or may not be a Democrat, I thought he was a Republican until the past couple of weeks, who has been posting a ton of stuff from NPR about grants from the EPA for programs to clean up diesel emissions. They’re state by state.
Hawaii: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-awards-diesel-emissions-reduction-act-grant-clean-air-project-hawaii
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Oh no! He has my very best thoughts for an easy outcome. (But I join you in the head-desking.)
Good thoughts for you, too. You are one of the sanest, most level-headed people I know (or “know”), but it’s still worrying.
Calouste
@Spanky: It should be a winning message, but a significant minority of the country actually wants that.
Elizabelle
Benjamin is rocking his onesie. What a doll.
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.
Kristine
@catclub: That’s good to know–fingers crossed.
I frequently fall behind when it comes to keeping up with posts/comments.
Aleta
@Lyrebird: Thanks; will contribute.
trollhattan
@Kay:
Hocoodanode that Rod Blagojevich would become the model for Every Republican Everywhere?
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL:
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.
Shana
@Elmo: Just kicked in a bit. The site said she was just under $800 when I donated, so now she’s a bit over that.
tobie
Just gotta say…that bundle of cuteness that is Benjamin in an AC/DC t-shirt made my day!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Go read the article and Zito claims that head of surgery is “blue collar”
Shana
Benjamin is awful cute, and band onsies are adorable, but I’m really loving the quilt.
rikyrah
@Spanky:
Jennifer Freakin’ Rubin!!
Immanentize
Wondering out loud — why aren’t we thinking that Gowdy will replace Sessions?
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.
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
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.
eric
@Immanentize: and there is no recognized privilege for GOP only political strategy meetings in the House ;)
LAO
@Immanentize: Great minds think alike — I said that yesterday. I shudder at the thought, though.
catclub
@Kristine:
I did not mean my post to be reassuring. When something happens that was considered ‘unpossible’, maybe the prediction/predictor was wrong.
Jewish Steel
Ben is already taller than Angus Young.
Immanentize
@LAO: He would be, I fear, effective.
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
Spanky
What’s good for business is good for America!!
Aleta
Eric Bibb – ‘Bring Me A Little Water Sylvie’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDXc0dAicQ8
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.
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.
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.
Yutsano
@Gravenstone: Won’t that affect his possible judgeship? Dolt45 spiked the South Korean ambassador for such criticism.
LAO
@Immanentize: Hmmm:
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…
rp
@Immanentize: Yeah, but being on the 4th cir. only increases his chances of getting on the SCt.
Gelfling 545
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I’d rather play bridge than be admitted to the hospital and I don’t even know HOW to play bridge.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): All my best thoughts for Mr IOL. Pqker I could understand but bridge? I’d have delayed it for the right card game myself, though, so I won’t criticize. All while understanding your view.
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???
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
If the ballot is tightening, then why do gop committee chairman keep retiring.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): That doesn’t sound like fun, but I am so glad it wasn’t something worse!
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.
eemom
Beautiful baby!! ❤️
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!)
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.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. Let’s hope so, anyway!
Citizen Scientist
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Hope everything goes well with Mr. IOL. We’re currently dealing with what appears to be pancreatic cancer in my MIL. Crossing my fingers.