Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Second rate reporter says what?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

This blog will pay for itself.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

The lights are all blinking red.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Racist Authoritarians Open Thread: California Schemin’

Racist Authoritarians Open Thread: California Schemin’

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I swear, these revanchists share some weird fantasy about a reverse-1860s (un)Civil War, where the bigots and blood profiteers cast out all the less-retrograde states and declare the rump (and the Treasury) their fiefdom. Because STATES RIGHTS!!! doesn’t apply, when the state fails to comply with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III’s prejudices:

The Justice Department dramatically escalated its war on “sanctuary” jurisdictions Tuesday, alleging in a lawsuit that the state of California has violated the Constitution with laws that are friendly to undocumented immigrants.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento just after 9 p.m. Eastern time, the Justice Department alleged that three recently enacted California laws obstruct enforcement of federal immigration law and harm public safety.

The Justice Department asked a federal judge to block the California laws, which restrict how state businesses and law enforcement agencies can cooperate with immigration authorities. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is to address the lawsuit in a speech Wednesday at the California Peace Officers Association’s 26th Annual Law Enforcement Day, saying, in part: “We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America. And I believe we are going to win,” according to an excerpt of his prepared remarks.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) said Tuesday night that while he had yet to examine what the Justice Department filed, he felt the state was abiding by the Constitution and cooperating with its federal partners to foster public safety.

“States and local jurisdictions have the right to determine which policies are best for their communities,” he said…

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    And to be clear: those who know Cohn say he stayed after Trump cuddled Nazis because of the possibility of getting through a massive tax cut for the super rich and corporations. Such a moral guy.

    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 6, 2018

    When you’re willing to ally with Nazi-cuddlers to get a tax cut for the super rich, THAT is Trumpism at its absolute, morally corrupting essence.

    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 6, 2018

    “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36 #GreedOverPeople

    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 6, 2018

  2. 2.

    Just the Facts

    We may want to clean our own house first. Everyone’s favorite uncle, Joe Biden:

    I know what it’s like, watching uncles, aunts, friends, neighbors losing jobs. My dad used to say, “Joe, remember: A job’s about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about your respect. It’s about your place in your community.” [edit] Some people in my party don’t even get it anymore. They don’t get it. It’s about our pride. It’s about our dignity. It’s about who the hell we are and what we’ve done. [edit] And it makes me angry; it makes me angry.

    Good to see Dems can still dogwhistle when they have to.

    Between shit like this and Farrakhan, we’re going to blow 2018 and 2020, aren’t we?

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    So, for those who say ‘ when will the KKKeebler Elf quit?’

    NEVER!!!

    NEVER!!!!

    He will NEVER leave this opportunity to fulfill out his White Supremacist fantasies.

    You will pry his chance to hurt the non-White out of his cold, dead hands.

  7. 7.

    Zach

    Jeez I can’t guess why Trump is using his office to promote a book he’s obviously never read (really if he were to start somewhere I doubt it’d be ‘box of butterflies’). It’s not like Mark Burnett is undoubtedly sitting on tapes that are interesting or anything.

  17. 17.

    Major Major Major Major

    Because STATES RIGHTS!!! doesn’t apply, when the state fails to comply with Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III’s prejudices

    Why, it’s almost as if it was a philosophy invented after the fact to justify racial animus

  19. 19.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Today in Trump Crime Family news: a fun new lawsuit by Stormy Daniels against DT aka “David Dennison”. Among other things, “David” never signed the hush money agreement.

    Too hard to find and link a good article on this from the phone, but Google Stormy Daniels lawsuit and you’ll find plenty.

  23. 23.

    kindness

    Thankfully Sessions is a terrible lawyer too. From what our previous Attorney General Holder has said, California will prevail in this one.

    Good. Suck on that Evil KKK Elf.

    @Just the Facts: Dude……a little early to be crapping your pants, no?

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    I don’t think Sessions’ speech is going to go over as well as he thinks it is. The LAPD in particular has been successfully battling MS-15 (or whatever the Scary Gang is called) for a couple of decades, and they don’t need some asshole from Washington DC to stroll in and tell them they’re doing it all wrong.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    It’s a good idea to be ready to discuss the “sanctuary cities” bullshit knowledgeably with non-politics focused family and friends. The issue has come up here in FL because the Republican state senate majority leader and gubernatorial hopeful is broadcasting a blatantly racist TV ad that shows a brown “immigrant” hunting a white chick on a suburban street with a voice-over denouncing “sanctuary cities” — of which FL has exactly ZERO.

    People hear “sanctuary city” and think it means an immigration enforcement free zone, whereas what it really means is that the local authorities decline to put their cops under the authority of ICE, since that is counterproductive as hell for community-police relations and ends up worsening crime and increasing immigrant victimization. Be ready to push back because Trump & Co have been demagoguing this issue to hell and back, and their project to demonize immigrants will ramp up as Mueller closes in.

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    America privileges whiteness. It exhalts toxic masculinity. It worships wealth. In other words, America is a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in which only a rich white man like Trump could even deign to do what he’s done, let alone be allowed to get away with it.

    — Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) March 7, 2018

  29. 29.

    germy

    Insightful geopolitical analysis here:

    "Of course, we say it's our land, the Torah says it, but they (Palestinians & Arabs) don't believe in the Torah. So that's the reason there is not peace." – Senator Chuck Schumer's speech at AIPAC. pic.twitter.com/g2q38YGuwN— Sacha Saeen (@_Saeen_) March 7, 2018

    Interesting. An entire occupation of land and bloodshed in its wake is simply justified because "Torah says it" and manages to pass as "strategic analysis" in the "land of free." Whereas extremism of other book represents "creed that is at war with free Western values." https://t.co/Jugrc5xINV— Shakir Mir (@shakirmir) March 7, 2018

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    If this article is true, it shows Cohen coordinated with @realDonaldTrump or his campaign. That makes the $130k payment to Stormy Daniels a felony in violation of federal election law.

    Last week @RepKathleenRice & I asked @FBI to investigate this suspicious payment. https://t.co/WbH4013apV

    — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 5, 2018

    Hush agreement & side letter attached to Stormy Daniels’ filing essentially shows coordination between @realDonaldTrump, Cohen & Daniels. That means the $130k payment from Cohen to Daniels to silence her during the campaign violated federal election law. Penalty is 5 year felony. https://t.co/L4DdhNCpv3

    — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 7, 2018

    Remember when Republicans insisted, and it was established in Clinton v. Paula Jones that you CAN sue a sitting president? Well, Stormy Daniels will have her day in court against Donald Trump. Off we go… https://t.co/6PDZaUJNRV

    — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 7, 2018

  31. 31.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Betty Cracker:

    People hear “sanctuary city” and think it means an immigration enforcement free zone, whereas what it really means is that the local authorities decline to put their cops under the authority of ICE, since that is counterproductive as hell for community-police relations and ends up worsening crime and increasing immigrant victimization. Be ready to push back because Trump & Co have been demagoguing this issue to hell and back, and their project to demonize immigrants will ramp up as Mueller closes in

    That reminds me of someone, who ramped up his divisive rhetoric as defeat loomed larger.

  32. 32.

    kindness

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t know about that Betty. Let’s use the case of Cubans and Puerto Ricans wrt Florida. Repubs were happy to take in every Cuban who’s foot touched dry land for years because Cubans tend to vote Republican. That was a written sanctuary government right there. Now with the influx of Puerto Ricans, who tend to vote more Democratic, the racists are letting their freak flag fly openly. The elections in your state this year and 2020 will determine a lot of outcomes.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    My only quibble with Joy is that this is not just trumpism. This is the GOP and has been for decades. They are trying to deRepublicanize trump and I’m just not going to fall for that.

    This morning Joe was going on about how trump is taking the Democrat position on tariffs and Cruz was all to happy to say that it’s Democrats in Congress who are preventing the GOP from doing anything about tariffs.

    They want to rebrand Republicans and turn trump into a Democrat so they can go back to being principled granny starving Republicans after trump is out of office.

    Fuck that.

  35. 35.

    Faction

    @germy:

    “Of course, we say it’s our land, the Torah says it…”

    “And hey, doesn’t Egypt owe us some reparations?”

  36. 36.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So I see as the good little old school Southern Smurf he is, to Sessions “States Rights” to Sessions means “the right of other states do as Southern whites tell them”.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @Just the Facts:

    we’re going to blow 2018 and 2020, aren’t we?

    Who is “we” in this scenario? There’s blowing going on, just not what you proclaim.

    Buh-bye.

  39. 39.

    low-tech cyclist

    @kindness: One big difference, though, is that the Puerto Ricans are already American citizens. The law says they’re not immigrants. Florida can’t keep them out, any more than they can keep people from Ohio out.

    The racists can act abominably towards Puerto Ricans to discourage their presence on the mainland, but a more effective strategy for keeping them back in Puerto Rico would be to get Trump to pay to rebuild everything that the hurricanes destroyed.

  40. 40.

    Dolly Llama

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: You’re responding to a troll post. I don’t believe you’re a troll, but I think there’s substantial evidence from your past posts that you’re a strange, mercurial dumbass who has some growing up to do.

  41. 41.

    Chyron HR

    Somebody needs to explain to Moonbeam that he has to stand aside and let the gestapo dismantle the untenable neoliberal status quo. Only then can we have Medicare for All.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    It was one thing to try and sue Trump when he was just some private sector rich asshole — he could lawyer any non-millionaire into the ground.

    But now he’s an unpopular president, and I bet there are lawyers in New York and California who are lining up to work pro bono for Daniels. ?

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    We need to learn how to blast our Democrats for saying dumb-ass shit while still supporting them when they oppose Trump. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: those tweets of hers…and many of Kevin Kruse’s…are quite hysterical

    Also saw someone ask the question: “How many Scarmuccis are there in an Infrastructure Week?” which quickly got kind of meta, as Infrastructure Week appears to be an infinite loop…LOL…

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    @Just the Facts:

    I saw that Biden quote and read the article at Shakesville. I don’t know that it’s a dog whistle so much as just cluelessness on Biden’s part. He, like Chris Matthews, has the blinders on—and hence a huge blind spot—when it comes to the “working class.” Biden and Matthews are old white guys from the Northeast; when they hear “working class” they automatically see (union) factory guys with hardhats and names ending in -sky. They don’t realize that’s not really the working class any more. Now it’s much more diverse—eek! women and people of color—and it’s much more about retail and service industries, not just manufacturing.

    Yes, Democrats need to woo and win the votes of those white working-class guys, but not because of specifically who they are—what, guys sitting around waiting for those high-paying jobs at the foundry to suddenly reappear?—but because they’re getting screwed along with everyone else under Republican economic policies.

    And, as an old white guy myself, I’d like to say fuck right off with that attitude of “Why can’t I have the same job my daddy and granddaddy had?! It’s not fair!” I got a degree in journalism about a hundred years ago, and through my long and checkered career I had to change careers four or five times. Hell, even within my long software career I had to change careers several times. That’s the way the world is now. Even manufacturing has changed radically in the last 40 years. Those old-time jobs aren’t coming back.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    @MomSense:

    this is not just trumpism. This is the GOP and has been for decades. They are trying to deRepublicanize trump and I’m just not going to fall for that.

    Exactly right. Trumpov has embraced every hard right, Randian, nutty Koch-head position there is. He’s the GOP on steroids: letting corporations dump coal waste into streams again, letting predatory lenders run wild again, making huge tax cuts permanent for big corporations and small ones temporary for workers, and on and on and on.

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    first they came for the muslims and i did nothing

    then they came for the mexicans and i did nothing

    then they came for women and i did nothing

    then they wanted tariffs so i resigned

    -a short poem by Gary Cohn

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    Beauregard’s talking at our new fancy-schmancy hotel today and there will be protests outside–so yay us. I hope they give him a melon crate to stand on while at the dais.

  54. 54.

    MomSense

    @Steeplejack:

    I don’t think it was a dog whistle. M at Shakesville is often really good, but she is not infallible. I think her take was a stretch.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    read the article at Shakesville

    I’m not getting out of the boat but good Christ, is Shakesville still keeping up their anti-Obama jihad? I stopped reading them in 2008 because they got so goddamn nutty.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    Despite his record, Cruz targets his Dem rival over his nickname
    03/07/18 10:42 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) generally isn’t seen as one of the year’s vulnerable incumbents, but now that the general-election season has apparently begun in the Lone Star State – statewide primaries were yesterday – the Republican senator feels the need to go on the offensive against his Democratic rival.

    As CNN noted, however, Cruz has picked a curious point to emphasize in his first attack ad.

    Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s first shot at his expected Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O’Rourke? Mocking his name.

    As Tuesday’s primaries were closing, Cruz’s campaign released a 60-second radio ad that was a country music jingle prodding O’Rourke for going by “Beto” rather than “Robert.”

    “Liberal Robert wanted to fit in, so he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin,” the song says.

    That’s not the funny part. Rather, what makes this interesting – aside from the fact that a Texas Republican feels the need to go on the offensive against a Democrat in the first place – is that Ted Cruz’s given first name isn’t Ted.

    In fact, the Texas senator’s formal name is Rafael Edward Cruz. He prefers to go by Ted, which is obviously his choice.

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    Perfect! And if someone can slyly let him know it’s used by a girl, all the better.

    And if it’s not available then a melon crate has the connection of being a tool used by–duh-duh-duh-daa–Mexicans!

  59. 59.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: If they have a debate and Cruz says, “Can I call you Robert?” (which one can imagine him doing, tone deaf nincompoop that he is), O’Rourke simply must reply with, “Only if I can call you Rafael.”

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I thought the exact same thing yesterday — the guy who picked a nickname to make himself sound more white is bashing someone else’s nickname?

    Sadly, it just might work in Texas, since they think that being more white is something to aspire to and being more “ethnic” is a bad thing.

  65. 65.

    scav

    @low-tech cyclist: If ah fine Southern gennlemen says an individual isn’t a continent-proper citizen, then it ain’t one, just as it’s ah fine Southern gennlemen’s prerogative to identify certain humanoid bipeds as prah-po-tey. And any and all members of any and all poo-leece forces better hop-to and obey without hesitation.

  66. 66.

    WhatsMyNym

    Biden just hangs out with too many rich folk nowadays. Plenty of folks still have pride in their work, even if the corporations they work for don’t.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    For the love of god, has this family not done enough already?

    George P. Bush, Texas’s current land commissioner, has won his GOP primary race outright, fending off a tough challenge from a former office holder and avoiding a runoff.

    Bush bested former land commissioner Jerry Patterson with help from a late endorsement from President Trump. The Associated Press projected him the outright winner shortly after 10 p.m. Central Time when he had about 58 percent of the vote.
    Patterson spent the final days of the race blasting Bush for a lack of campaign appearances and questioning his management of the historic Alamo site. But those attacks ultimately couldn’t stop Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, from being crowned the GOP primary winner.

  68. 68.

    Gex

    Also remember when unfunded mandates were the worst thing ever? Now they must be obeyed with respect federal immigration policy.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @trollhattan:

    Sarah Chadwick// #NEVERAGAIN
    ‏Verified account
    @sarahchad_
    12h12 hours ago
    Literally no one asked for this

    The student comments are funny. I think it’s healthy! They sound like the teenagers they are. One of them tweeted that she is glad she’s “sleeping in” :)

    DeVos is horribly uncomfortable with people. I can’t even imagine her with these angry students.

  70. 70.

    Mandalay

    Speaking of Authoritarians, the DCCC got a well deserved poke in the eye yesterday. Laura Moser, a Democrat the DCCC had attacked through smears and fake quotes, made it through to the runoff in May. The smears were actually retaliation for Moser’s excellent attack on the DCCC made in Vogue (of all places) last year:

    As a first-time Congressional candidate, I’ve been warned not to criticize Ben Ray Luján and the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. I’m running in one of the most competitive House districts in the country, and I’ll need all the support, financial and organizational, that I can get from party leaders and organizations. But I cannot hold my tongue while Luján and the DCCC abandon the commitment to human rights that brought me to the party in the first place.

    I believe that if Democrats—not any one Democrat, and certainly not just me—want to start winning races again, Luján’s statement that the DCCC would fund candidates who oppose abortion rights puts our country in danger, and makes it all the more likely that the Republicans will continue to defeat us in election after election.

    This may seem surprising. After all, Luján’s assertion that there will be no “litmus test” for Democratic candidates who oppose abortion seems like the kind of big-tent cliché with which it is hard to disagree. “As we look at candidates across the country,” Luján said yesterday, “you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America.” But we Democrats also need to stand firm on some basic principles, for a change. Like: Health care is a human right. And: The right to plan her own family is a cornerstone of a woman’s economic security. So yes, we realize that we live in a huge and diverse country, and that our party is huge and diverse as well. We can acknowledge that there are anti-abortion Democrats, just as there are pro-choice Republicans (including the state rep who represents my Houston district). While Luján’s position seems to embrace that reality, it actually does the opposite. For all the hand-wringing about what we Democrats can do to reach more voters, many Americans still see us as the “anti-Trump party.” That is true, and to our credit. But what they don’t see is Democrats taking firm stands in support of our values, and that’s the crux of the reason why we keep losing so many elections.

    Laura Moser shouldn’t be fighting the DCCC. She should be running it.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    Remember, we weren’t supposed to vote for Hillary because it would be empowering a political dynasty. And Chelsea Clinton is forced to publicly pinky-swear that she will never, ever run for office anywhere in any capacity.

    And, from our alleged allies, Sanders’ son and stepdaughter are both running for office this year. Levi is being touted by some of the very same people who whined about the “Clinton dynasty.”

    It’s almost like there are different rules for the Democrats … ?

  73. 73.

    Kay

    Alanna//#NEVERAGAIN
    ‏Devos came to my school, talked to three people, and pet a dog. This is incase the press tries to say something else later

    They’re on to her.

  74. 74.

    Mike J

    @Betty Cracker: I put this scenario to people: if your neighbors house catches on fire, do you want the fire department to stand around discussing which forms have been filled out or do you want them to put out the fire before it spreads to your house? If somebody witnessed a crime and can name a suspect, do you want them to have to wonder about talking to the police? In neither case is immigration status an issue and there’s no reason for them to be brought up.

    Making a society where everyone can use emergency services makes everyone safer.

  75. 75.

    celticdragonchick

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I agree. This has been Dem boilerplate since Roosevelt. Not sure why it would particularly controversial here no matter what the audience is. Dignity of being able to provide for your loved ones with a good job and good pay is one of our core beliefs.

  76. 76.

    gvg

    @evodevo: Every large group has a few dumb *holes. The antiwar movement is no different. My uncle the vet was refused service by a bank teller because he was a “murdering” soldier during that time. My aunt witnessed it. I have heard from both of them. No one else here would have any reason to believe a 50 year old 2nd hand story from someone you “know” on a blog but emotions were high. Statistically is it likely that everyone out of millions was perfect? On the other hand, it wasn’t all that common. My uncle only had that one time. Several other Vietnam vets her never experienced it by their account here and I don’t know of any other stories. I am certain their are SOME others. I can also think that this large size perception has impacted how everyone expresses their antiwar feelings about every war or threat of war since…carefully. My point is we should be cautious about total denial because we’ll be proved wrong on that.
    Also war deaths cause a big emotional sunk cost mistake that is unavoidable. I used to post on a sports blog around 9/11. later as the march to Iraq war heated up, some people posted links and they made a politics page. there was a sports fan whose brother was killed in Iraq. he could not accept the proof shown that the war was a lie and useless and didn’t want to pull out even as the casualties mounted. He explicitly said that that would mean his brother died for nothing and after that he also attacked anyone who argued for that. Several of us tried to explain tactfully but the honest truth was his brother had died for nothing and that saying or not saying that wasn’t blaming his brother. Bush and company were to blame. Relatives aren’t usually able to be that logical and detached from events.
    Attacking any war is going to be spitting into the faces of the dead to some of their family.

  77. 77.

    randy khan

    @Betty Cracker:

    That nice moderate Ed Gillespie ran the same kinds of ads in Virginia last fall, which happily did him no good. I’m going to guess that they actually motivated a good chunk of the Hispanic population to vote.

  79. 79.

    Major Major Major Major

    @celticdragonchick: we literally have a thing about taking pride in your work on the wall in our big conference room (because this is Silicon Valley and we put slogans on walls). Just because he was talking to white people doesn’t mean he was talking about white pride. FFS

  80. 80.

    Kay

    ‏

    @car_nove
    Follow Follow @car_nove
    More
    I thought she would at least give us her “thoughts and prayers,” but she refused to even meet/speak with students. I don’t understand the point of her being here

    Why has it taken us so long to figure out that we need to put them in rooms with teenagers? Tough crowd.

  81. 81.

    Josie

    @Kay:
    After working in middle school (junior high) for thirty years, I can wholeheartedly endorse this idea. To deal with teenagers, you have to commit to being honest and having a tough skin, neither of which applies to many Republicans.

  82. 82.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mnemosyne: Melissa MacEwan is a crazy person. I remember she went on a diatribe about the terrible, disgusting anti-Scottish stereotypes peddled in _Shrek_.

  83. 83.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: LOL! That’s the smartest thing DeVos ever did, staying away from those kids. They had Lil’ Marco and Dana Loesch for breakfast and would have made a snack of DeVos in seconds.

  85. 85.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mandalay: ANTI ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATE HAS STRONG WORDS FOR ESTABLISHMENT, SUCH AS THAT SHE’S AGAINST IT AND WON’T BE SILENCED BY IT

  87. 87.

    ruemara

    I cannot fucking forgive people who let this fucking bastard become AG.

    @Mandalay: Same Laura Moser that’s a Bernie diehard, offends POC and will lose the general. Big win.

  88. 88.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Faction: So I suppose he and every resident of the United States will be happy to give the country back to the Native Americans? I am sure no one will complain about that because Native American lore says that the land belongs to them. See how that works?

  90. 90.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Betty Cracker: I would have to go spelunking for it but I remember it well. I used to be a semi-regular there and asked where exactly Disney would be expecting to find an audience receptive to anti-Scottish dogwhistles.

    I also remember once she was giggling about how the Chicago Cubs had a player named “Reed Johnson” because it sounded like a p0rn name. I said if anyone on the Cubs had a p0rn name it’d be “Kosuke Fukudome.” She then said “othering” wasn’t funny.

    That place is weird, or was, at least 10 or so years ago.

  91. 91.

    FlipYrWhig

    @ruemara: I haven’t been following her closely but I get a strong whiff of the Darcy Burner / Christine Cegelis “everyone but me is a corporatist DLC stooge, send money fast!” approach that used to be prevalent in the heady days of Daily Kos.

  92. 92.

    TenguPhule

    At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America.

    Basically like the start of the Phantom Menace, only the alignments and IQs have been reversed.

  94. 94.

    Mandalay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    while the DCCC was being stupid and acted counterproductively here, uh, what’s any of that have to do with authoritarianism?

    The DCCC has an open policy of embracing the candidates they think have the best chance of winning an election. That sounds great in theory, but Moser’s point was that means you end up abandoning your principles, and standing for nothing except opposition to Republicans, and that makes you even more likely to lose.

    Fine; they can agree to disagree about that approach, but the DCCC went a step further, and publicly smeared Moser with some pretty thin gruel and a fake quote:

    LAURA MOSER
    Texas’s 7th (TX – 07)

    Updated: February 22, 2018

    NARRATIVE
    Democratic voters need to hear that Laura Moser is not going to change Washington. She is a Washington insider, who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress. In fact, she wrote in the Washingtonian magazine, “I’d rather have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia” than live in Texas. As of January 2018, she claimed Washington, DC to be her primary residence in order to get a tax break. And she has paid her husband’s Washington, DC political consulting firm over $50,000 from campaign contributions; meaning 1 of every 6 dollars raised has gone to her husband’s DC company.

    PROOF POINTS
    Moser just moved to Texas from Washington, DC. (BACKUP)

    In a November 2014 article, Moser said she’d rather have her “teeth pulled without anesthesia” than live in Texas. (BACKUP)

    As of January 2018, Moser was still receiving the DC Homestead Exemption on her property in Washington, DC. (BACKUP)

    In 2017, Moser paid over $50,000 in campaign money to her husband’s DC consulting firm. More than 1 of every 6 dollars spent by her campaign went straight into her husband’s DC company’s bank account. (BACKUP)

    That is where the authoritarianism kicks in.

  97. 97.

    VOR

    @gvg: My Father in Law is adamant that he personally was spit upon by anti-war protesters. Problem: He did his Army time in Germany in the early 1960s, well before the major anti-war protests. He now spends his days watching Fox News.

  98. 98.

    gwangung

    The DCCC has an open policy of embracing the candidates they think have the best chance of winning an election. That sounds great in theory, but Moser’s point was that means you end abandoning your principles, and standing for nothing except opposition to Republicans, and that makes you even more likely to lose.

    However, this is a factor in how the Republican party wins with its candidates, as there is an internal party discipline. You may agree or disagree with it as a tactic…but you cannot dismiss it as it is something successful for the opposition.

  99. 99.

    TenguPhule

    @trollhattan:

    For the love of god, has this family not done enough already?

    Obama’s greatest crime was not quietly burying the entire Bush clan into unmarked graves when he had the chance.

  101. 101.

    Josie

    @Mandalay: If these points are factual, and I have seen nothing that disproves them, then I don’t see how that is “smearing” her. It is just informing the voting populace of facts.

  102. 102.

    Elizabelle

    OT: Fyre Festival fraudrepreneur Billy McFarland may be seeing a lot of cheese sandwiches and guaranteed lodging in his future. FTF NYTimes link. You know the story. Bonus photo of him in a suit and tie. He looks … older.

    On Tuesday afternoon the festival’s main organizer, William McFarland, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud related to the festival and to his media company that prosecutors said had cost investors $26 million in losses.

    …. Both counts that Mr. McFarland pleaded guilty to carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison, though a sentence of that length seems unlikely. His sentencing is scheduled for June 21.

    He’s a free man prior to sentencing. Hope he sees a lot of concerts.

  103. 103.

    TenguPhule

    @Josie:

    To deal with teenagers, you have to commit to being honest and having a tough skin, neither of which applies to many Republicans.

    Point of order, that’s only if you want deal with them well.

    If you want to shit on them…..Republicans are the experts.

  104. 104.

    TenguPhule

    @Elizabelle:

    He’s a free man prior to sentencing.

    Did they confiscate his passport?

    Assholes that deep in the shit tend to run. Its in their nature.

    Freedom prior to sentencing for big money crimes and other felonies is bullshit.

  108. 108.

    Woodrowfan

    @VOR: one of my students did an oral history interviewing Korean War vets from the Air Force. one of them talked at length about loading bombers to bomb the Ho Chi Minh trail. He was a draftee so he was out of the service by 1954, but his memory conflated two different things, bombing the bridges along the Yalu and bombing Laos/Cambodia. Memory does weird stuff like that after decades.

  111. 111.

    Mandalay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Sounds like you’re confusing authoritarianism with politics.

    So authoritarianism and politics are separate beasts? It sounds like you don’t understand the meaning of authoritarianism.

    When the DCCC uses its resources to selectively attack its own candidates rather than letting voters decide who should win that’s authoritarianism.

  112. 112.

    Tim C.

    @low-tech cyclist: Which Floridans? I mean how many U.S. Citizens from Puerto Rico are moving to the panhandle? Florida is only “Southern” in it’s northern half.

  113. 113.

    Tim C.

    @VOR: Even if he was, it seems the operating theory of GOP patriotism was some hippies spit on Veterans 45 years ago, so they are the only patriotic party for ever. That’s the line I use at least.

  114. 114.

    different-church-lady

    @FlipYrWhig: Is she the one who went into a dither over a redhaired wig from the heroine from “Brave” because the kids could take it off but real redheads were stuck with their own hair?

  115. 115.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mandalay:

    When the DCCC uses its resources to selectively attack its own candidates rather than letting voters decide who should win that’s authoritarianism.

    That actually sounds like a pretty decent definition of electoral politicking.

  116. 116.

    les

    @Major Major Major Major:

    it’s not even awkwardly phrased! Pride in work, the dignity of labor, these are all kind of established sayings.

    Exactly. And they’re why the Dem platform emphasizes support for increased minimum wage, for unions, etc. All things that make work more valuable. Strange how we never hear (out loud) from our progressive betters what the white workers need, that no other worker needs.

  117. 117.

    Chip Daniels

    DeVos meeting with teenagers…
    Insecure self-absorbed immature emotionally stunted person versus adolescents.

  119. 119.

    Woodrowfan

    @Mandalay: When the DCCC uses its resources to selectively attack its own candidates rather than letting voters decide who should win that’s authoritarianism.

    um, not necessarily. it depends on the methods and reasons. it can be damn stupid and self-destructive, but that’s not necessarily authoritarian.

  120. 120.

    Amir Khalid

    @trollhattan:
    Girl, you say? Gillian Anderson hits the big five-oh in August. (She was 23 when she auditioned for the part, four years younger than Scully — too young by casting directors’ reckoning. Tempus fugit.)

  121. 121.

    different-church-lady

    @FlipYrWhig: I look back at the “heady days od Daily Kos” and think it was really just a Trekkie convention for lefties who didn’t like Star Trek

  124. 124.

    Mandalay

    @Josie:

    If these points are factual…

    Well here’s an example of a point that was false:

    This is the DCCC claim:

    In fact, she wrote in the Washingtonian magazine, “I’d rather have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia” than live in Texas.

    And this is what Moser actually wrote:

    On my pathetic writer’s salary, I could live large in Paris, Texas, where my grandparents’ plantation-style house recently sold for $129,000. Oh, but wait—my income would be a fraction of what it is here and I’d have very few opportunities to increase it. (Plus I’d sooner have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia, but that’s a story for another day.)

    Moser was referring to living in Paris, Texas but the DCCC just fabricated the allegation that she as referring to all of Texas. It wasn’t just a distortion from the DCCC or a mistake; it was a deliberate lie. The media are calling them out for it. Sweet.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Chip Daniels:

    Then it got worse for her, because someone they like came later:

    WSVN 7 News
    ‏@wsvn
    8m8 minutes ago
    More
    What an amazing lunch period for the students at Stoneman Douglas High School as @DwyaneWade made a surprise visit!

    I don’t know who he is but they sure seem to. MUCH more popular :)

  127. 127.

    Mandalay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    That actually sounds like a pretty decent definition of electoral politicking.

    Get back to me on that when to you learn that the Democratic Party drop their support for a woman’s right to choose. The DCCC is already there.

  128. 128.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Washburn:

    I was replying to the content (and link) in the comment by Just the Facts at #2 above. Didn’t see the need to repeat it since it was one click away. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.

  129. 129.

    Amir Khalid

    @rikyrah:
    It’s quite legitimate to go by one’s middle name or an appropriate short form thereof, like Ted for Rafael Edward, But picking on another person’s nickname because it sounds suspiciously ethnic is really silly. A nickname is what other people choose to call you, rather than something you pick for yourself. Supose Ted’s family had chosen to call him Rafa. (Maybe Ted is uncomfortable with his Latino heritage; I hear his Spanish is poor.)

  131. 131.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mandalay: that… also is not authoritarianism. I’m just arguing about one word, you’re welcome to disavow it and get back to your real point. It’s okay to be wrong!

    ETA more accurately it doesn’t actually have anything to do with your claim that dumping an oppo file is authoritarianism

  132. 132.

    But her emails!!!

    @Mandalay:

    Get back to me on that when to you learn that the Democratic Party drop their support for a woman’s right to choose. The DCCC is already there.

    Willing to support candidates that are antiabortion in races where being prochoice is a millstone around the candidates’ necks is not the equivalent of the organization being antiabortion.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    That went well:

    Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made a contentious visit to the site of last month’s Florida school shooting Wednesday, in which she was criticized by survivors and abruptly walked out of her own press conference.
    DeVos spent the morning at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where former student Nikolas Cruz gunned down 17 students and teachers on Valentine’s Day. Her visit immediately sparked criticism and backlash from shooting survivors and advocates on social media.

  135. 135.

    Mandalay

    @Woodrowfan:

    that’s not necessarily authoritarian

    It is in this case. The DCCC now support candidates who are opposed to abortion, and Moser attacked them for that policy. So they tried to crush her.

  136. 136.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    in which she was criticized by survivors and abruptly walked out of her own press conference.

    And her response is to unleash a wave of loansharks on their future student loans.

    Devos is the third most destructive person in charge of a cabinet.

  138. 138.

    Mandalay

    @les:

    That’s fucking lame, dude.

    Really? I think it’s fucking lame that you condone the DCCC fabricating quotes against their own candidates.

    Wait until the DCCC do it to the candidate that you support and get back to me.

  139. 139.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Mnemosyne:

    Still nutty from the firebagger side of the Hamsher/Uygur Poutrage, Our Progressive Betters set. Like them, when she started in 04 she was readable but like them, she went off the rails in 08 and probably thinks having the Popular Vote Loser in office is the best thing to happen to “progressive” politics in her lifetime. For the usual reasons in that it’ll bring about a Pure Progressive Tomorrow, blahblahblah.

    My favorite description of her: unhinged ideological twerp.

  140. 140.

    gwangung

    @Mandalay:

    Wait until the DCCC do it to the candidate that you support and get back to me.

    It occurs to me that this is not a good definition for authoritarianism.

  141. 141.

    trollhattan

    @Amir Khalid:
    Be that as it may, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, who would in her finally have an adult he could to look straight in the eye, would call her such, or perhaps “that little gal” on a day he was feeling charitable.

  142. 142.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mnemosyne: Definitely Shrek. The stereotype in Shrek was that Scots are gloomy and brutal. Apparently this is a stereotype about Scots somewhere and currently? I remember pointing out that I had read that it was originally supposed to be a vehicle for Chris Farley but passed to Mike Myers after Farley’s death. This didn’t budge her. It was bizarre. Arguing with her led to frenzied dogpiling by her crew of regulars.

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne

    @FlipYrWhig:

    IIRC, Mike Myers — who is part Scottish — was the one who decided to give Shrek a Scottish accent. (Also, it’s a Dreamworks movie.)

    I think she freaked out about the stereotypes in Brave as well, though I always think it’s silly to get bent out of shape about supposed stereotypes in a film set 500 years ago.

  145. 145.

    trollhattan

    @Mandalay:

    Wait until the DCCC do it to the candidate that you support and get back to me.

    Maybe not the convincing counterpoint you intend. Just sayin’.

  146. 146.

    Steve in the SFO

    @trollhattan:

    For the love of god, has this family not done enough already?

    From financing Hitler’s war machine during WWII to destabilizing the middle east, mismanaging the Alamo is a big step down for the Bush Crime Family.

  147. 147.

    Chyron HR

    @Mandalay:

    Get back to me on that when to you learn that the Democratic Party drop their support for a woman’s right to choose.

    Wow, that’s a neat trick–the Berning Man issues a holy decree that democrats must stop demanding support for reproductive rights from their candidates, and when the DCCC obeys, he sends his minions out to attack them for it.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Dolly Llama:
    You said it yourself, he’s young. Not that being old makes all that much of a difference, but experience can go a way in forming better references to history. Or worse. OTOH look at the kids from the FL high school, they are young and that doesn’t seem to have hurt their direction. Point being he’s learning, maybe we should have a little room for that.

  150. 150.

    Mnemosyne

    @Chyron HR:

    Wow, that’s a neat trick–the Berning Man issues a holy decree that democrats must stop demanding support for reproductive rights from their candidates, and when the DCCC obeys, he sends his minions out to attack them for it.

    They really have mastered the classic Republican move of “heads I win, tails you lose.”

  153. 153.

    randy khan

    @Mandalay:

    By the standards of political ads, that’s not even in the bottom 80% of misleading statements. I mean, really, she’s saying she doesn’t want to move back to her home town, which pretty clearly was in Texas.

    Truth be told, the part about the homestead exemption in D.C. probably is more misleading than that. Her husband can claim it if he lives there, whether or not she does.

  154. 154.

    lethargytartare

    @Woodrowfan:

    @Mandalay: taking a quote out of context is skuzzy but not authoritarian.

    and the missing context doesn’t make it any better

    shorter Laura Moser:

    DC is awesome, cheaper places to live suck so bad I’d rather be tortured than live there.

  155. 155.

    Citizen Alan

    @Amir Khalid:

    Wow. I would never have guessed that Gillian Anderson was that young when X-Files started. The gravitas and seriousness that she brought to the role made me think she was at least 30.

  156. 156.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    I’ve had three different careers and as my last job before retirement I’m back working a job like my first. It’s in mfg and really isn’t a lot different than it was thirty years ago. A lot different than fourty years ago though. But really, you are absolutely right, not much about working is the same as my dad’s days. We have entire industries now that only existed as ideas or even less in dad’s days.

  159. 159.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Dolly Llama:
    Actually i just quickly responded while on my way to work. Didn’t put much thought into it. Biden didn’t really say anything wrong at second glance.

  160. 160.

    john fremont

    @gvg: In 1985 , when I enlisted in the Marines I was asked at length what I would do when ordered to shoot babies or rape villagers by a few older folks. I was told by a few people that I was making a huge mistake with my life since you’ll never be able to find a job after I got out. Thry went on and told told me that I should be ashamed at the decision I was making. Definitely no “Thank you for your service” back then.

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