Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I was promised a recession.

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

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

This blog will pay for itself.

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179Comments

  3. 3.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    On Wednesday, “Page Six” reported that “friends” of Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Vanessa, say the couple have been living separate lives and are considering divorce.

    “The problems have been there for a long time, the couple had hoped to stay together during the president’s time in office, but it is getting harder to resolve their issues. He’s never there,” one source said.

    Getting divorced before Ryan’s tax bill takes away their alimony deduction.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Went and visited my very sweet and kind neighbor as I do at least once every week since her husband died Jan 1st. Her oldest sister was visiting. WHOOOwoooooowee! I had no idea. Really. I had no idea illegal immigrants got free healthcare in California, and are also the cause of measles epidemics in schools because they don’t get their children vaccinated, and this is why good God fearing Americans (the ‘white’ part did not have to be said) like her son and family are fleeing California.

    And no, facts and logic played no part in our…. dialogue I guess. She would say this shit, have 0 facts backing it up, I’d poke holes in what she was saying, and she’d shift her argument to some other fact free demonization of illegal immigrants, I’d destroy that one too and the sands would shift again.

    It was amazing. I gotta give FOX credit, they really know how to program their audience.

  6. 6.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I had a similar discussion at work yesterday with a couple of ammosexuals but it revolved around the student walk out. It highlights that Putin didn’t have to do much to exploit the riff caused by wingnut propaganda.

  9. 9.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Last night, Rex Tillerson told reporters the attack “clearly” was undertaken by Russia. Then this morning Trump fired Tillerson, without any advance notice whatsoever. After that, Trump briefly appeared on the White House lawn, and when asked about the murder, said, “As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be.””

    Even now, mainstream reporters deny Drumpf and Putin are in cahoots.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Schlemazel: The hardest part was not calling B’s sister a brain dead racist who’s outsourced all her critical thinking to FOX news talking heads and was now incapable of doing anything more than quoting Roger Ailes’ zombie asshole’s farts.

  13. 13.

    Mustang Bobby

    @OzarkHillbilly: This is the same mindset of those people who gave their pension to Jimmy Swaggart and Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker even after it was revealed that — big surprise — Swaggart was a whoremonger and the Bakkers were con artists of the first order. They forgave them and sent them more. Trump and Fox know easy marks when they see them.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Magda in Black: Oh noooooo, it’s not her opinion, it’s her reality, and her reality trumps any other reality that might be. She ended it with “We’re just not going to agree on any of this, are we?”

    Meanwhile,

    Finland has overtaken Norway to become the happiest nation on earth, according to a UN report.

    The 2018 World Happiness Report also charts the steady decline of the US as the world’s largest economy grapples with a crisis of obesity, substance abuse and depression. The study reveals the US has slipped to 18th place, five places down on 2016. The top four places are taken by Nordic nations, with Finland followed by Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

    Geeeeezzz…. I wonder what happened to make 2017 so much worse than 2016? Inquiring minds want to know.

  15. 15.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    “This is the most toxic working environment on the planet,” one White House official explained. “Usually tough times bring people together. But right now this atmosphere is ripping people apart.”

    “There’s no leadership, no trust, no direction and this point there’s very little hope. Would you want to go to work every day not knowing whether your future career was going to be destroyed without explanation?” the official asked. (link)

    It’s like he’s running a company that’s filed for bankruptcy 6 times.

    If only someone had warned us.

  21. 21.

    evodevo

    @Chyron HR: Yes. It’s why I no longer follow Naked Capitalism. I used to be a fan, until the 2016 election and the constant Obama/Clinton hating, and the “no Russiagate evidence” meme became their go-to meme. They’re STILL doing it, while giving Stump a pass … I never thought they’d start to resemble Fixed News …..

  22. 22.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?!

    @Schlemazel: Yep. The right wing propaganda machine has been incredibly effective at using freedom of speech to lie and undermine the country. The regular media has been useless at countering that. That’s going to have to be a priority of a Democratic majority when we get one elected, to do something like reinstate the fairness doctrine or pass some penalties for wilful falsehoods in broadcasting.

  23. 23.

    TS

    Morning Ho calling trump a democrat and pretending there are some “real” conservatives in politics. Still not accepting that Trump IS the republican party.

  24. 24.

    Schlemazel

    @TS:
    Be prepared, that “he was never a Republican/conservative” bullshit is going to be their go to bullshit. They did it with Nixon and both Bushs

  27. 27.

    Schlemazel

    @satby:
    Given that most of this garbage is no longer transmitted over the public airwaves I don’t see how we can get the genie back in the bottle. What we need are smarter people and the GOP is working hard to prevent that from happening

  30. 30.

    NorthLeft12

    Regarding the RWNJs [Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone, and Martin Sellner] that were denied entry to the UK as their presence in the UK was judged to be “not conducive to the public good];

    Pettibone previously described herself as “one of the leading authorities on Pizzagate”

    from Digby.

    This has to be one of the lamest claims to expertise that I have ever read/heard about.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Because she is B’s sister and B is a very sweet and kind woman who while very Catholic is not racist and while somewhat conservative she knows that a lot of what passes for facts on the right is absolute BS. She sat there with a grin on her face just watching as her sister spouted this crap. At one point she just said with a shrug, “She’s the oldest.”

  36. 36.

    NorthLeft12

    @TS: The right wing/Republican pundit class are more delusional and disingenuous than Deadbeat Donald.
    They cannot/will not accept that their party has gone completely ignorant and racist and has jettisoned every last shred of whatever moral and ethical standards they may have once had in a desperate effort to cling to power.
    This includes selling out the people of the US to foreign powers and to the plutocrats who currently/sometimes reside in the US.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    That’s going to have to be a priority of a Democratic majority when we get one elected, to do something like reinstate the fairness doctrine or pass some penalties for wilful falsehoods in broadcasting.

    Lying in print or on TV is protected by the first amendment. One can’t legislate around that, and if one tries to one will have to litigate around that, and that is a losing proposition. I don’t know how one fixes this but that won’t work.

  39. 39.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Most Trump supporters think he has drained the swamp. He’s removed all those ‘special interest groups’ from the White House, after all.

    @satby:
    I hate to tell you guys, but I was hearing stuff like this before FOX existed. It was about blacks, of course. They had no idea America had enough Hispanics to bother with back then. And my mother heard it in her childhood. FOX is parroting them. At most there’s a vicious cycle involved.

    @Schlemazel:
    I think it will be that way with Trump, but with W I recall the go-to was “Who?”

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @Schlemazel:

    I don’t see how we can get the genie back in the bottle.

    I think we can only wait for the RWNJ audience to age out and die. Those students yesterday showed they possess far better critical thinking skills. There’s hope, but it isn’t imminent.

  44. 44.

    NorthLeft12

    @Baud: I shudder to think what is on resumes that the Drumpf administration receives now.

    I would assume that the format of choice is Berlin Sans FB font in bold and all caps.

  48. 48.

    NorthLeft12

    @debbie: Damn, can’t say I would be too excited about a strategy that boils down to “Lets wait until all/most of our opponents die of natural causes.”

    Do you work for the DCCC?

  49. 49.

    JPL

    @Baud: She made statements about their support for Assad. My speculation is that Fox doesn’t highlight her speeches so Trump doesn’t know.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    @NorthLeft12:

    The strategy is to stand up to them. It’s the only question the right asks itself: Will the people stand up to us if we do this?

    The whole purpose of “both sides” is to discourage people from answering “yes” to that question.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    I posted this in a dead thread yesterday, and it got no traction. There’s a lot of talk about Kudlow’s cocaine habit, and about many (many, many) edits to his Wikipedia page about that, but what I never see mentioned is how he avoided the draft. It’s mentioned that he was an “anti-war activist.” So far so good; lots of people were. But he was born in 1947, so he turned 18 and eligible in 1965. How’d he avoid conscription?

  56. 56.

    mad citizen

    Forget White Hoosier Supremacists, my Hoosier legislators had some fun last night, from Indianapolis Star: “Legislature ends in chaos, finger-pointing and the unintentional death of several bills”

    “The 2018 legislative session ended in chaos early this morning when lawmakers failed to meet a midnight deadline, causing the unintentional death of a handful of bills and setting off a round of finger-pointing among legislative leaders.

    The dramatic conclusion featured a mad dash to rush through half a dozen bills in the final minutes of the session and an unprecedented effort by Gov. Eric Holcomb to extend the deadline until 1 a.m.

    Democrats questioned Holcomb’s legal authority to make such a move, and Republican legislative leaders quickly backed down after a brief legal review, bringing the session to a close with five bills still pending on the House floor.”

    ” All five measures were favored by Republicans, who control both chambers with two-thirds “super majorities.””

    “Republicans from both chambers also pointed fingers at Democrats, who they accused of “slow walking” during the final hour of the session. ”

    “”Republicans control the whole process,” he said. “How do you slow walk something when you’re in the super minority? That’s the biggest, lamest excuse I’ve ever heard in my life.””

    whole story here:
    https://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/15/legislature-ends-chaos-finger-pointing-and-unintentional-death-several-bills/427160002/

  57. 57.

    satby

    @Frankensteinbeck: I heard it before Fox too. My best buddy’s parents were Birchers in the early 60s, but without the RW noise machine and with the Fairness Doctrine in place they were considered nutty and extreme. And they were pretty closeted about it.
    Racists and haters may always be with us, but we don’t have to let them get recruits without a fight.

  58. 58.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I had no idea illegal immigrants got free healthcare in California, and are also the cause of measles epidemics in schools because they don’t get their children vaccinated

    Worrying about those two things in juxtaposition is particularly nice.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    The students protested here yesterday. My son said they were about 100 which is pretty damn good turnout for a school with 700 in such a Trumpy county. I’m amazed by that. They took video and some of them are asking what they’re supposed to be doing out there so there was clearly a few who were just curious and may not be supporters, but still.

  61. 61.

    Gin & Tonic

    While Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters are busy covering themselves in ignominy on the Skripal attempted murder, the takedown of Craig Murray in this Twitter thread is a thing of beauty. I’ve long forgotten any chemistry I may have inadvertently learned, but it is still awesome.

  64. 64.

    Lapassionara

    @OzarkHillbilly: Not quite. Libel and defamation are still actionable. The problem is that the standard for a public figure to recover in a libel/defamation case is high, if the press is the defendant. The public figure has to show malice, not just inaccuracies.

  66. 66.

    MJS

    @Gin & Tonic: College deferment? (Admittedly, I basing this guess on an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the movie “Animal House”, in which the expelled members of the fraternity are informed by Dean Wormer that he’ll be informing their draft boards that they’re all available for military service. But there may be a more authoritative source for information on the draft in the 1960s).

  67. 67.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: The Fairness Doctrine was never overturned by the courts on constitutional grounds; it was revoked by a conservative FCC on claimed constitutional grounds, but they weren’t judges.

    The justification for it was always that broadcast spectrum was a limited public resource, and that getting a license to use part of it therefore carried public obligations. I don’t think it would be constitutionally possible to apply it to cable news or Internet streaming, where the argument that people are using a finite government-licensed commons doesn’t apply. On the other hand, talk radio and broadcast TV are still significant channels for right-wing propaganda, especially since older people listen to them.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin: It was interesting. The conversation started around vaccinations. I noted that the anti-vaxers were all a bunch of fruitcakes endangering lives and that there had been a # of measles outbreaks, notably in some wealthier areas. She went to “parents have the right to do whatever they want with their children”. When I asked if children were property that they could do anything they feel like with, she jumped onto the illegal aliens shark. I was so taken aback I didn’t even think to ask how it was that the well to do children of Orange County were mingling with illegal aliens.

  69. 69.

    cosima

    I wonder if this is the new thing that RW folk are trying: yesterday on my daughter’s FB page she posted something about not excusing folk for voting for the orange fart cloud. A post sharing an article saying that actually ‘good’ or ‘nice’ people did not vote for him — if you voted for him you cannot be a good or nice person, no matter what you used to justify it, which has been my position all along, and why it was my watershed moment with friends — if you voted for &/or support(ed) him I am done with you. So anyway, RW troll friend comes into the thread/post to say that if you support democracy you support voting, supporting voting means supporting voters who vote, including the voters who vote for vile candidates, ergo you are actually a vile candidate supporter yourself! So, apparently we are all orange fart cloud supporters because we support democracy/voting.

    I have an appointment schedule to do some tests on my heart (residual things going on with my heart from a while back when I mentioned I was not well…), and that f*cking thread was not good for me &/or my bp. So I messaged my daughter to tell her to block that waste of space.

    Now I must walk the dog & run errands.

  71. 71.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Gin & Tonic:

    He joined Bear Stearns as chief economist in 1987, but was fired and entered rehab in 1995 for a $100,000 a month cocaine habit. (link)

    .

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara:

    Libel and defamation are still actionable.

    I’m not talking about libel or defamation. I’m talking about the simple telling of lies, not about people with the intent of harming, but in contravention of simple known facts. It’s how creationism survives. It’s how climate change denial propagates. It’s how the anti-vaxers continue their crusade. It’s how trump got into the White House.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The school decided to allow it, which was smart. The two (girl) organizers are good students. It probably didn’t make sense to shut them down. They give good students quite a bit of agency by the time they’re seniors. They put together their own schedules, have part time jobs, sign in and out. It used to be an official designation- TRUST program- but now it’s just all the students who have completed most of the requirements to graduate and would be bored or unhappy if they were over-supervised.

  76. 76.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’d prefer the UK system on that. Some egregious liars have found themselves caught up in it, particularly in holocaust denial.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin: The Fairness Doctrine is dead and cable news and the internet have buried it. Even if one was able to resurrect it, it would have no real world impact because anyone negatively affected by it would just move and their fans would follow.

  79. 79.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I got heartened looking at the kids. At some elementary school, the 11 year olds had prepared a press packet.

    A PRESS PACKET!!

    I am going to try and find the tweet.

  81. 81.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    A $100,000 per month blow habit should generally see him never getting a sensitive job in serious economics ever again, regardless of sobriety.

    It’s also an indicator that tax rates are way too low.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I saw it. It was adorable. They have that uneven printing. My son was showing me Twitter pics last night. We want to call that single protester in NJ. He was alone! He needs to transfer out of that school immediately.

  85. 85.

    CarolDuhart2

    Support whatever liberal alternatives that are out there like WCPT, Pacifica, Free Speechso they can grow into an alternative messaging system. Now those are the only liberal non-internet outlets I know, but this applies to any other liberal outlet I haven’t heard about yet. Instead of tying up years in litigation trying to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, work on acquiring some low-power radio stations, dead AM radio stations, and streaming ones on the internet.

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    While there are plenty of haters in the new generation as well, I think what changed is that Reagan’s law that you have to pretend everyone is reasonable and nobody is racist died. They’ve never lived in that world and don’t give a shit about it. When the pundits and politicians try to dissimilate and pretend conservatives have a point, they just call bullshit. Similarly, their haters aren’t afraid to be Nazis.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I wish there was a way to sue people for propagating lies that actively harm people, something along the lines of the tobacco lawsuits and settlements. The fact that people far more knowledgeable about the law than I haven’t done so, tells me it’s not that simple and I am curious as to why.

    ETA 4 clarity

  90. 90.

    GregB

    @evodevo:

    These times have swept a lot of opinion offerers into the gutter.

    Naked Capitalism is ruined. Zero Hedge is a bed of actual Nazis, the open racism in the comments section was grotesque. The Nation is pack of Putin stroking stooges. Anti-War and specifically Justin Raimondo are lying hacks and Trump apologizing fascists. Greenwald a sanctimonious whatabouter who is never, ever wrong.

  91. 91.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud: Corbyn’s been the predictable Russian stooge. We can’t possibly know if it was the Russians who put the hit on Skripal.

  92. 92.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @MJS: Well I’m not an “authority” but I was alive then, though only a kid in the 60s. College deferment was definitely a thing. Led to a big increase in the popularity of college and grad school as I recall.

    The draft ended when I was 16.

  96. 96.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    this is why good God fearing Americans (the ‘white’ part did not have to be said) like her son and family are fleeing California.

    That’s fantastic. As long as the wingnuts don’t find their way to Maryland, I’m good with them leaving California in droves. There’s a reason why Republicans will probably never again control the California legislature.

  99. 99.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was at the tail end of eligibility, at the time of the lottery. Student deferment is a possibility, sure, but the actual facts are not mentioned anywhere that I can find.

  100. 100.

    Ken

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    “This is the most toxic working environment on the planet,” one White House official explained. “There’s no leadership, no trust, no direction

    See, Trump’s been wildly successful at reversing Obama’s policies. Especially “don’t do stupid stuff.”

    and this point there’s very little hope.

    Still some work to do, then.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    From your Axios link:

    Swan has learned that it’s not just Johnny McEntee — the president’s trusted body man — who’s been pushed out for security clearance issues in recent days.

    The same thing happened last week to an aide to the First Lady. He was escorted from the premises and his former colleagues don’t know what the security clearance issue was that forced him out.

    I have no idea how many WH staffers are still working there on temporary or pending clearances, but it must be in the dozens or scores. They must know how vulnerable they are to the same ignominious ouster. I guess it’s human nature to think “It’ll never happen to me,” but you’d think a fair number would get a clue, submit their resignations, and leave with a little scrap of dignity on their own terms.

  103. 103.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: Not just his voting record. Wayne LaPierre very explicitly endorsed him over an incumbent Republican Congressman when he first ran and won.

  105. 105.

    Tom Levenson

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m thinking student deferments. Might explain the aborted masters degree as well.

    ETA: I see many others have had the same thought.

  107. 107.

    Gin & Tonic

    @SiubhanDuinne: They’re working for Trump. If they have a scrap of dignity to begin with it’s smaller than the piece of lint in my pants pocket.

  110. 110.

    germy

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Not just his voting record. Wayne LaPierre very explicitly endorsed him over an incumbent Republican Congressman when he first ran and won.

    “In Vermont, we use guns for HUNTING. Not like those schvartzes in Chicago!”

  113. 113.

    JR

    @Baud: the Atlantic was and always has been typical Bennett bullshit. He did give Coates and Fallows a platform so that’s not nothing. They have a few other decent liberal writers but they aren’t especially captivating. And the website redesign a few years back was garbage.

  114. 114.

    TS

    GOP considers Recount , Lawsuit in special house race

    Republicans eyed a recount and a lawsuit over perceived irregularities in a closely watched U.S. House race in Pennsylvania where Democrat Conor Lamb clung to a slender lead in the longtime GOP stronghold friendly to President Donald Trump.

    They NEVER accept they were defeated. To the GOP they are always the winners – and even if the SCOTUS rules against them the solution is to fill the Court with partisan judges. This is no democracy.

  117. 117.

    Patricia Kayden

    @TS: Why are they suing? I thought they were okay with Lamb because he hates Pelosi, is pro-gun and anti-choice. Or so Paul Ryan said yesterday.

  119. 119.

    Chyron HR

    @Baud:

    The renewed debate about gun violence
    06/18/2015 07:30 PM EDT

    But this time it’s really gonna happen because the kids, right? :/

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, jackals.

    I drink my coffee smiling that (1) Conor Lamb is congresscritter-elect Conor Lamb and (2) our very smart and committed high schoolers and grade schoolers turned out yesterday and roared.

    Fuck Trump. Limited episode reality show crime drama.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck: I didn’t click through. What did he say?

    FWIW, I’m not going to adopt the lefty practice of criticizing politicians who do the right thing too late or for political reasons.

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Hello bud. I’m good. Waking slowly.

    On the hunt for an apartment, and saw a few I liked yesterday. Gonna take a 6 month lease, and then maybe roam again.

  127. 127.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:
    Suddenly Sanders, who has been anti-gun control his whole political career, is praising the kids for taking the lead on this position and saying they deserve to not have to face these dangers. It isn’t a change of course, it’s pretending he’s in the vanguard of anything the new political generation wants, so he can ratfuck us with them. That slimy, contemptible asshole.

    If he had any history of merely joining the party late, I’d go with what you’re saying, but his only history is of telling idealists that while Republicans are bad, Democrats are the ones really denying them their birthright. Or if he came out and said he was wrong before and is changing his mind.

  128. 128.

    ewrunning

    To paraohrase what Colbert said about W’s crew, this administration is soaring, not sinking. They’re nott rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. They’re rearranging deck chairs on the Hindenberg.

  130. 130.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yes! And thinking on checking in with a friend in Florida and seeing if she wants to tag-team to register new voters. Haven’t checked the rules, but sometimes states insist those doing the work or handling the paperwork be a resident.

  131. 131.

    Amir Khalid

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Dear God. Trump seems to think that he can brag in public about lying to a foreign national leader and they won’t learn about it. Trudeau actually caught him lying at the meeting, and Trump still thinks he put one over on Trudeau. Trump is appallingly stupid.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck: I get depressed because my social-media friends who talk about politics include so many people with a reflexive contrarian need to rail at Democrats and “shitlibs” from the left, sometimes to the point of railing at anyone who even suggests keeping our eyes on the prize. Even the ones who are totally on board with beating Trump first have to mollify *their* more radicalized friends with apologetic asides about how, yes, the DNC screwed Bernie over, but it doesn’t mean the parties are exactly the same. And it really feels like we’re all preparing to assist in our own ratfucking again.

    I have to remind myself that that’s not the majority of what’s happening on the ground.

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Even now, mainstream reporters deny Drumpf and Putin are in cahoots.

    Josh Marshall summed it up pretty well: Trumpov’s Dangerous Alliance Threatens Every One Of Us

    The key danger we currently face is not Russia itself. It is the success of the 2016 campaign. I’m not talking about the fact that President Trump won the election. We don’t know the impact of the disruption campaign and in any case, that fact is in the past. I’m talking about the fact that Russia and Vladimir Putin clearly exercise some control over Donald Trump. Now. I know that is a dramatic accusation. Perhaps to some, it will appear hyperbolic. But after a year I think there’s no longer any way to doubt that this is true. On every front, he resists taking punitive measures against Russia, even when mandated to do so by US laws. He goes to great lengths never to criticize Russia. In the exceedingly rare cases in which he does, it is in prepared statements written for him by others. In other words, when it’s not really him. He finds himself spilling highly classified intelligence to top Russian government officials. He seeks out private meetings with Vladimir Putin where no other Americans are present. The latest instance with this chemical weapons assassination attempt in the UK is just the latest example. Some members of the administration have been outspoken. But President Trump has done his very best to keep his criticism to an absolute minimum, always leaving open the possibility that others are involved. It’s just like he does when he’s asked about Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign.

    I don’t know why this is. Does Vladimir Putin have something on Trump? Is there money involved? Is it simply that in the nature of things Putin can expose the collusion that took place during the 2016 campaign. Perhaps it’s just an on-going arrangement freely engage in on both sides. Of course, we can speculate that President Trump simply has a profound admiration and attraction to Putin which makes any criticism impossible. But that would if anything be worse than kompromat and bribes. Something is clearly wrong, very wrong. The President is not able to act in America’s interest with regard to Russia. And that unexplained subservience sends shockwaves across numerous critical US alliances, particularly in Europe.

  135. 135.

    raven

    @Gin & Tonic: Money talks and bullshit walks, butterfly.
    eta “According to The Times, Kudlow avoided the Vietnam War draft because he had asthma.”

  136. 136.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: At some point, we will need to come to terms with the fact that we will have to treat the Joe Liebermans of the left like we treated Joe Lieberman.

  137. 137.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:
    No. Whatever’s driving this wave, it sure ain’t Sandersites. He’s a parasite bleeding the Democratic Party. I thought at least he might be an honest one, trying to help and doing it badly. This is the last straw. He is at best an ego-driven grifting tick, and I’m completely open to ‘In the pay of the Russians.’

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @GregB: I think the opposition to George W. Bush, his wars and his economic incompetence brought together an alliance of convenience that was not particularly ideologically unified–it got lazily identified as “left”, but along with the left, it actually included a lot of people who weren’t left at all: paleocon isolationist types, some Buchananites whose opposition to neocons was based on a creepy antisemitism just under the surface, and the crypto-geek boys who mostly hated the NSA, and conspiracy people who mostly hated the “banksters” running everything, and a chunk of libertarians and cranks of various sorts who happened to be right like a stopped clock twice a day. Once the situation changed, during the Obama years, that loose coalition started to fly apart, because a lot of these people despised Obama. Trump completely exploded it; a bunch of those people like Trump or at least don’t particularly object to him.

    And that’s probably always how it is, when an awful political situation brings disparate people together. The never-Trumper neocons and moderates on our team now are going to disappoint us too sooner or later, if they haven’t already. It’s the nature of coalitions.

  140. 140.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @raven:
    I don’t blame anyone for avoiding the military. I do blame them for being hypocrites about it, acting like they’re tough warriors and hawking wars they were too scared to fight.

  141. 141.

    PPCLI

    What’s amazing about the cartoon showing the sewage treatment is just how much stuff had to be left out to fit into a square. Like, does anybody talk about the $25 million fraud settlement against Trump University anymore? For any other president it would be a scandal that stained them and their administration forever. With this one it doesn’t make even the “worst 100 things” list.

  142. 142.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Schlemazel: They might be trolling Trump on that one. Yesterday Trump was claiming Lamb won because Lamb was copying Trump’s style. So following Trump’s own logic, that makes Trump a democrat,…

  143. 143.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s a fair observation. It also suggests that none of us should get too invested in any one voice, however powerful that voice may be for a particular time or on a particular issue. Times and circumstances change.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Also, note that the “most Democrats are completely fucking useless” attitude I was complaining about further up was a fairly sensible one to have during the early George W. Bush era (maybe the first year or two after 9/11).

  146. 146.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, but that was 15 years ago. And even in that era, did a single Dem vote for Bush’s tax cuts? I recall it passing on Cheney’s tie breaker.

    In any event, we criticize conservatives for living in the past. We shouldn’t fall into the same trap.

  147. 147.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: The sad fact is, since then, the left has actually been successful in moving Dems to the left. But they continue to throw their progress in the garbage.

  149. 149.

    Yarrow

    Love all the cartoons. Thanks for highlighting them, AL. I particularly love the Trumptanic one. Could not be moe true.

  153. 153.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Another big terrifying war could still shuffle the deck again. Precisely how, it’s hard to say.

    Also, of course, a blue wave will bring in a bunch of Conor-Lamb-like moderate Democrats, as we were discussing in some earlier threads.

  154. 154.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Frankensteinbeck: I don’t blame anyone for avoiding the draft either. I was on the cusp of some hard choices myself. I was just curious, since I didn’t see anything mentioned until what raven posted (although I don’t think it’s medically advisable for an asthma sufferer to be doing $10k/mo of nose candy, but that’s a separate story.)

  155. 155.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: Cable uses the public airwaves, too (up to and down from satellites). The Internet does as well in many locations (DirectPC, Google’s balloon internet, etc.) – plus there’s the ubiquitous WiFi radio bands and cellular radio that are used for streaming. If the SCOTUS can legitimately drive modern government through the Commerce Clause, then the FCC can reasonably regulate Cable and the Internet.

    There just has to be the will to do so.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  156. 156.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Corbyn put out a statement that was only slightly less equivocal than Trump’s, to the effect of “this was really bad but we should be measured in how we respond until we have all the evidence.”

  157. 157.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    The sad fact is, since then, the left has actually been successful in moving Dems to the left.

    No, they haven’t. The Dems have moved to the left under their/our own power. After seeing them try to claim credit for positions Obama and Hillary already had, I will not give them an ounce for influencing anyone.

  158. 158.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck: There’s no such thing as “own power.”. Parties respond to the whole of the people. I could just as easily have said the GOP’s lurch right moved the Dems to the left.

    My basic point, however, is the Dems were moving to the left, and the Left decided to fight the coalition instead of leading the coalition, and that has helped bring us to where we are today.

  159. 159.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    I could just as easily have said the GOP’s lurch right moved the Dems to the left.

    I think there’s a lot of truth to this. The more the Right reveals how horrible they are, the fewer Dems are willing to consider their positions.

  160. 160.

    stinger

    @debbie:

    I think we can only wait for the RWNJ audience to age out and die. Those students yesterday showed they possess far better critical thinking skills.

    The RWNJ age cohort also includes people who protested and worked on behalf of civil rights and against the Vietnam war. A few people fit in both groups, over time.

    It isn’t a generational thing. Today’s teenage cohort includes pre- or proto-skinheads and future RWNJ, and some youthful people of liberal bent will grow conservative as they grow older. It’s like blaming “boomers” for all society’s ills without crediting them for society’s progress, or acknowledging the variety of political thought that exists across the “boomer” population.

  162. 162.

    Lapassionara

    @Matt McIrvin: I think I need a vocabulary lesson to discuss current politics. The young people throw out terms like “elites,” “neo-liberal,” and “progressive,” and I am not sure I grasp the full significance of what they are saying.

    From where I sit, the country is faced with an existential crisis. We need all hands on deck. We don’t need to be firing inside the tent right now.

  163. 163.

    schrodingers_cat

    @GregB: Obama’s years in office were clarifying, we too have the same problem as Rs on our side. All these opinion writers on the left hated President O and then HRC when she ran in 2016. Coincidence? I think not.

  164. 164.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @stinger:
    Every age group has a variation, and every age group has a lean. I personally don’t think we’re waiting for the older voters to die off, we’re waiting for newer, browner voters to replace them. Let’s face it, the strongest trends in our politics are ‘white vs everyone else.’

  166. 166.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: A Fairness Doctrine for the Internet would be a bad, bad idea. Do we want them to regulate equal time on controversial issues for this blog? And the scarcity argument doesn’t really work there.

  167. 167.

    different-church-lady

    @GregB: Basically everyone who ever got frequently cut-and-pasted at Daily Kos during the Obama years.

  169. 169.

    rikyrah

    Blood, Fraud and Money Led to Theranos CEO’s Fall From Grace
    Bloomberg
    Matt Robinson and Rebecca Spalding

    Elizabeth Holmes raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors on the promise that her medical-testing startup Theranos Inc. would change medicine with a single drop of blood. On Wednesday, securities regulators called her a fraud and forced her to give up the company she built.

    The lawsuit and settlement announced Wednesday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailed how Holmes and her chief deputy lied for years about their technology, snookered the media, and used the publicity to get investors to hand more than $700 million to keep the closely held company afloat.

  170. 170.

    Aleta

    @Frankensteinbeck: He’s kind of in a pickle, isn’t he. Last time he developed a dependence on the appearance of groundswell. (Understandably.) Also, ‘the youth’ are how his campaign structured much of its importance. Suddenly even younger youth have taken charge, and they’re out in front of him.

    All for the good, I hope. I sincerely hope he will also recognize and listen to the activists and organizers of @MomsDemand; and will help keep their voices in front, even where his opinions differ.

    eta I think that will be a tell for me.

  171. 171.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m not arguing for a new “Fairness Doctrine” implementation. More of a “Operating in the Public Interest” implementation. Companies that spread lies, come just short of incitement to violence, etc., etc., shouldn’t have monopoly access to the public airwaves.

    But, yeah, the details matter.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  172. 172.

    joel hanes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    [ how did Kudlow avoid the draft in 1965 ]

    Probably by going to college.
    Until 1969 or so, college students were routinely exempted from conscription: as long as you continued to go to school, you were safe.

    After one reached 26 years old, the military lost interest, so a large number of lengthy masters degree programs were pursued in the ’60s. I think some of Cheney’s deferments were of this nature.

    Or it could have been connections : before the draft birthday lottery, draft boards exercised wide and largely unaccountable discretion over who was drafted. The Donald’s “bone spurs” would not have saved the son of a poor man.

  173. 173.

    J R in WV

    @Schlemazel:

    Given that most of this garbage is no longer transmitted over the public airwaves

    It IS transmitted over the public airwaves, up to the orbiting satellites – and then they use publicly granted rights to place poles and run wiring for cable systems. There is no legal or constitutional barrier to regulating truth and fairness on our national video media or the Internet.

  175. 175.

    J R in WV

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I went to college in 1968 and had a student deferment once I turned 18. But in 1969 they killed college deferments and created a birthday lottery, the lower the number picked for your specific birthday, the sooner you would be drafted.

    My number was a two digit number, I forget if it was 72 or 27, but that didn’t matter, I got a notice to report for a draft physical in Feb, 1969, physical to be in mid March. I joined the USN on March 1 or 2. I dunno when they ended the draft, but making it impossible for well-to-do families to shield their sons by keeping them in school ended it pretty quickly. It wouldn’t do to have wealthy families contributing to the war effort with blood, not at all! Because it was NOT an existential war, as WW II was.

  176. 176.

    Neldob

    We need the fairnes doctrine. In some places, with the consolidation of media, it’s almost impossible to hear any reality. So I’m told by trustworthy travellers who travel there.

  177. 177.

    lurker dean

    so it seems like the treasury dept issued some sanctions on a few russian entities and individuals. look forward to hear from adam and cheryl on this. i suspect these sanctions are fairly weak, but i haven’t seen details.

  178. 178.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah: a hundred million dollar real estate deal Jared Kushner’s family company did

    I’m burning up about Kushner and Ivanka, who has also broken her promise to separate from business interests. They pretend to take trips for diplomacy and panel discussions so they can get worldwide press. They waste space in our media with their ‘curated’ lies about how busy and caring and competent they are. They force real leaders to sacrifice time so they can be photographed in bogus meetings. Not to mention the taxpayer money they burn.

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