You hear a lot of talk these days about how there’s a constitutional crisis looming because of this or that thing that Trump has done or may do. I agree with a lot of that talk. But it’s wrong to think that it’s specifically a Trump thing — we will continue to have such crises as long as Republicans have any influence over our government. LG&M (via) on what would be happening if Hillary were prez and Rs controlled Congress:
The SCOTUS would still have only eight members. This would be perceived by the political and media elites as a genuine constitutional crisis.
More generally, Republican legislative intransigence would be close to total. Some sort of debt crisis would almost certainly have been triggered by the legislature’s refusal to raise the debt limit. Financial markets would be crashing as a result. This would also be considered a constitutional crisis by elites.
It’s not Trump who refused to hold elections in Wisconsin or who is threatening to impeach the judiciary in Pennsylvania either. Today’s Republican party, as a whole, has no respect for the constitution or for democratic norms. None. They’ll get away with whatever they can.
That’s why we need to win everywhere. Give to the Balloon Juice fund that is split equally among all eventual Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.
Yutsano
Dolt45 is just the natural result of 40+ years of Republicans letting their crazy leak further and further in. The only way to get a true conservative party is to have Republicans lose. And keep losing.
Jeffro
Remember, we have already gotten reports that Trumpov plans to go with 110% culture war (bashing brown folks, bashing the media) from here on out. He’s got nothing left to run on but purely stoking his base and ranting. It’s his brand, after all…
Despite that, I still think this piece is mis-titled: “Welcome to the Branding Presidency”
It’s not “welcome to the branding presidency” – he has always been about his stupid, worthless, scummy brand – white trash’s idea of what “rich” looks like. What it is, is, “Welcome to the Beginning of the End”.
MattF
I do think that Trump’s lying is very much a part of this pattern– Whatever lie, however blatant, however evidence-free– if he can get away with it, that’s fine, and very much in accord with the Republican repertoire for public policy and debate. And if a few libruls make a fuss, so much the better.
TenguPhule
Trap is the only option.
The Moar You Know
@Yutsano: Someone once asked me what my problem was with conservatives. Don’t have one, I said. I have a problem with Republicans. They didn’t understand. I explained what traditional conservatism was, with an emphasis on the traditional conservative respect for laws and institutions and the government.
They had to agree, that wasn’t Republicans.
That was back during the Bush years, when the GOP still at least adhered to a pretense of working within laws and government. That party no longer exists. They’re out to steal it all and don’t have a problem admitting that.
Yarrow
Every Democrat needs to be saying something like, “Republicans have control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency. If Republicans wanted to fix these problems they could. They aren’t. Republicans are the problem.”
And, to people who are upset about Trump’s presidency but maybe aren’t fully against Republicans, “Republicans could do something about Trump since they control Congress. They aren’t. Why aren’t Republicans doing something about him?”
sherparick
This is also true for the corporate, business, and right wing media elite (about 200 families really, with expect over a Trillion dollars in wealth who are the engine and dominate opinion section of the Republican Party). They believe there should be an oligarchy or an “Ayn Rand” business aristocracy with, as Trump would say, the best “genes” who run the country for the benefit of that 200.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow:
Could have shortened it down to a T-shirt right there.
Jeffro
@Yarrow: I agree, but Dems should be adding “…if Republicans wanted to stop Trumpov’s abuses of our country and his grifting, they could. They aren’t. They’re putting party ahead of country.”
The more we focus on Trumpov as an abuser and a corrupt grifter, the better. Even his supporters know that’s what he is.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
His supporters are fucking nuts and don’t believe that.
They think we’re lying when we tell them he’s a crook.
I wish I was joking.
? Martin
Gotta admit, it worked pretty well for East Germany.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
I dunno, has anyone checked to see if Trump has been placing large orders for iron rods and coal?
TenguPhule
@? Martin:
I’m rather concerned about how all the guns seem to be facing inwards.
? Martin
@TenguPhule:
His supporters are white supremacists, a group that has always been at peace with stealing (money, rights, etc.) from the undeserving. Trump is very much on-brand here.
? Martin
@TenguPhule: We’ve got enough guns to face both ways. I mean, so long as everyone has a gun, we’re all good, dog.
Hungry Joe
The Constitution is words on paper; unless people take it seriously, and conform to comity, common sense, and common decency, it is meaningless. The GOP figured out that they could ignore all that, do whatever the hell they want, and get away with it. The result will be the implosion of the country and collapse of democracy, but those are medium-/long-term consequences; in the short run, they’re making out like the bandits they are.
The 2018 midterms may be the most important election in U.S. history.* If we don’t take back the House, and take it back convincingly, it could be Game Over: After two more years of their running the show into the ground, they may have 1) rigged the system beyond our ever regaining control, and/or 2) done so much irreparable damage that implosion and collapse are inevitable.
* I believe I said that about 2016. Probably 2008, too. Five’ll get you ten I’ll say it about 2020. The weird thing is every time I might have been. and will be, right.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: I wish this wasn’t true but it is. My own mother – not senile nor stupid – thinks he’s the first honest president since Eisenhower. Her exact words.
Call Trump a crook, and those who support him will never listen to you again. I don’t know how you fix that. Because he is one.
dmsilev
@The Moar You Know: Have you asked her about the Trump University settlement for $$$ because of fraud?
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
It’s less that they think he’s not a crook and more that they think that all politicians are crooks, so Trump is at least a crook who’s on their side.
That’s what the whole “Crooked Hillary” thing was about — convincing voters that it didn’t matter who they voted for because both parties are equally dishonest. Fox News viewers will tell you that Obama was just as dishonest as Trump, probably more so, but only Fox was reporting on it.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
I’m in favor of deportation at this point.
Them, not us.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
I think you’re wrong here. His base feels more like a cult of personality, they literally refuse to believe he is a crook, evil and stupid. Their excuses for his behavior are beyond any fig leaf of rationality at this point.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
And it worked. Still does, despite the 500-day dumpster fire.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Moar You Know: I know it’s pointless to argue with people like this, especially a close relative, but I often wonder how they rationalize the tax return thing. Do they really think he’s being modest about the awesome success and honest and for true billions they would expose?
@Mnemosyne: he’s trying out a nickname for Obama today “cheating Obama”. Always struck me that he was fairly cautious with the Os during the campaign, especially MRO.
waspuppet
@The Moar You Know:
Coupla weeks ago I was condescendingly told on Twitter that Chinese tariffs on American goods amount to nothing, because we don’t export anything to China, didn’t I know that, nice try libtard.
I replied with links showing that China is our third-biggest export customer.
He replied that if all trade between both countries stopped we’d “come out ahead” because we have a trade deficit with China and that means we’re “losing money” to them that’s simple math you stupid libtard.
I asked him whether he knew that people import and export things other than finished goods, that people import materials and make money and employ people by selling the stuff they make from it.
No response. Charlie Pierce calls it weaponized stupid. That’s what we’re up against.
Also too:
True.
Not true, particularly our media elites. They’d consider it an interesting Capitol Hill battle.
eclare
@Jeffro: Still think Dems should run on Republicans want to take your health care away. Simple, several examples from last summer, and even the Trumpov nuts understand the concept of dying, and probably don’t want that for themselves.
No Drought No More
So, Putin commanded Trump to militarize within our border. Were His Master’s Voice (Putin) better attuned to the nuances of American fascism, Trump might instead have been ordered to follow Cheney’s lead when New Orleans drowned, and Eric Prince and his Blackwater mercenaries were injected into America’s bloodstream. It was only their shakedown cruise- paid for by the American taxpayer- and a harbinger of private police state in the making. Why not militarize the border, and then privatize it?
Those people won’t stop. They must be stopped. The time is NOW, TODAY, for congressional democrats to challenge Trump (et.al) for what he (and they) are, and to do so in explicit terms. Either that, or make room for other democrats prepared too defend their oaths of office.
The Moar You Know
@dmsilev: No, because I don’t want a civil war with my 73 year old mother, and it won’t matter. She knows about all that shit – total news junkie. Trump U. especially because that was local. And she thinks it’s all “fake news”.
“Fake news” was a stroke of motherfucking genius. Doesn’t matter what you throw out there, doesn’t matter what is confirmed, who goes to jail, wouldn’t even matter if you posted video of Trump fucking Ivanka on the Oval Office desk, the Trump cult will just say “fake news” and keep on.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They don’t care. Next!
Really is that simple, sadly.
eclare
@Mnemosyne: Bingo.
different-church-lady
TenguPhule
@eclare:
Understanding of cause and effect not in evidence.
eclare
@TenguPhule: That is a valid argument.
trollhattan
Pruitt pulls into the lead as worst, most-dangerous cabinet member? Not so fast, counters Zinke!
The Moar You Know
@eclare: When a Republican hears this, they hear “Republicans want to take away health care from black rapists and disease-ridden Mexicans”, and they are totally on board with that. They do not think they benefit from ACA at all, even though quite a few of them do.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
It’s not enough. We can’t focus exclusively, or even predominantly, on Trump. We have to make it clear that everything Trump is doing is just fine with the Republican party. This is not one guy running roughshod. This is a party that has always wanted to do that and finally has its chance.
eclare
@The Moar You Know: Some of them realized that they benefited last summer, there were several packed and loud town halls. I have no doubt most Republicans think along your lines, but…oh yeah, Kentucky and the vote for governor. Damn.
FlipYrWhig
@The Moar You Know: They think Obamacare was welfare for black and brown people and that hardworking white people got screwed into paying for it which is why premiums go up. They will always think this.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@The Moar You Know:
My 68 year old aunt brought up Clinton’s “deplorables” comment when I criticized Trump. It doesn’t matter to these people what Trump does or says. It’s always someone else’s fault.
ruemara
The failure of institutions, moderates and liberals to acknowledge that we’re more than half gone towards fascism is why there’s a crisis. Trump is merely a symptom.
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Do extend my heartiest wish for her to GFH. The fits, Auntie.
The Moar You Know
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: That one fucking hurt. They are bitter as fuck to this day over it, largely because it was obviously true.
Chyron HR
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
“You voted for the nazis, gam-gam. You ARE deplorable.”
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
And his Radiation therapy promises to be terminal.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@ruemara:
I think people are starting to wake up to this, despite some discouraging anecdotes of mine.
The Moar You Know
@ruemara: I agree wholeheartedly. People focus on Trump. I don’t. It took a lot of people to put him where he is and to keep him there. Those people want a society that doesn’t look one whit different than the Third Reich. Those people are the problem. And there’s a voting majority of them.
I freely admit that this is a problem that I have no idea how to solve save by running away from it, which I am really not in a position to do.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@No Drought No More:
Because as far as I know, using the military as border police on our own soil violates the Posse Comitatus Act blatantly.
Mike in NC
Just got a news alert that Trump wants to fortify the Mexican border. I guess the lucky, bored to tears troops will camp out in pup tents. He could issue them all with picks and shovels and order them to get to work. That was Stalin’s idea of a public works project, using slave labor.
waspuppet
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
The MSD kids were back in school two weeks after 17 of their classmates and teachers were shot dead in front of them. Six weeks afterward, they’d organized a rally for 800,000 people in Washington in which millions more participated nationwide.
Trumpites got called deplorable almost two years ago and they still moan about it every single day.
@The Moar You Know:
Among the many ways Trump acts like a domestic abuser, and among the many things we have to keep from disappearing down the memory hole, is the fact that he and his henchmen did not invent the concept of, or even the phrase, “fake news.” That was being used commonly before the election, to refer to Central and Eastern European troll farms churning out obviously false “stories” specifically intended to damage Hillary Clinton and promote Trump. He knew, probably instinctively because there’s no evidence he ever actually thinks about anything, that when someone accuses you of something you accuse them of the same thing.
Whenever I suggested to my first wife that maybe she owed me, or someone, an apology, within 15 minutes I was being informed that I, or that other person, actually owed her an apology. I recognize this pattern.
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
Technically its a minority that uses cheating and geography to achieve victory, but close enough to parity with the rest of us sane voters that its still too large for comfort.
And we also have all those non-voting/third party mooches to worry about.
Steeplejack
@Jeffro:
That piece is now (more accurately) titled “President Trump Is Acting Unhinged Because That’s All He Can Do” on the Post website.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@The Moar You Know:
One of the sad things of the modern age is that you can’t simply run away anymore and haven’t been able to since some time last century. Technology has allowed superpowers to arise and their reach is global. Nowhere is truly safe.
This reminds of this quote:
Born too late to explore earth, born too early to explore space.
ruemara
@TenguPhule:
Fucking nitwits who often complain the most and act like not voting is the principled reaction.
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I await the revolution with an attitude based on experience.
JMG
I am sorry for you that have loved ones lost to the Trump cult. But they are not a “voting majority” unless all you count is white people, just as they do.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I’m going to say something unpopular – there comes a set of diminishing returns with mass nonviolent protests.
My theory is that the real value in nonviolent protests only comes about due to fear of violence.
If you look at old violent labor strikes, ultimately, management was finally willing to bend. Later, the implicit threats that things could go to violence led to positive results in labor negotiations.
I think we’re in that phase.
CaseyL
Here’s the thing: the US is already done as a constitutional republic, because the Senate is moving federal judicial nominees through the system as fast as it can, and every one of them is chosen specifically to turn back the last century of human rights legislation. That’s already baked in.
Doesn’t matter if the Dems take the House in 2018, because the House has nothing to do with judicial nominations, nor with Cabinet appointments. A Democratic House can’t actually do much except for impeachment – and even then, that’s only half the job. The Senate has to convict, and I don’t see that happening if the GOP retains 40 seats there.
I repeat: The worst of the damage is already done, and not un-doable.
This being the case, I wonder if the best outcome is an end to the US as a political entity. The coasts, esp. the West Coast, are self-sufficient and generally still liberal in terms of human rights and economic equity. They’ll suffer pretty bad during a splintering of the country, but be able to come back and maybe be better off if the outcome is independence from the rest of the states.
That leaves the South and the Inland states. I have no idea what happens to them. Probably nothing good. They’ll probably become places you don’t want to be if you’re anything but a RWNJ/White Supremacist/asshole. People who aren’t those things will leave if they can, and allow those regions to sink back into antebellum savagery.
Epochal history happens, you know? And sometimes it happens really hard.
ETA: BJers who live anywhere but the coasts: If you think I’m telling you to get out, I am. Get out now, while you still can. (I’d go further and say get out of the country if you can, but most of us here on BJ are too old to emigrate.)
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
When will they have time to practice for his parade, then?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@ruemara:
I’m not talking about a revolution, I’m talking about special election victories and mass protests making a mark.
George Spiggott
@The Moar You Know:
I’m sure glad the Parkland teens don’t have the same attitude.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Roger Moore:
Marching back and forth in the heat in full gear while chanting MAGA.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Trump will order them to trespass on Mexico’s land to enforce the border. Problem solved.
ruemara
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: So am I. It would be revolutionary for people who claim to be on my side, showed up at the polls regularly, in full and consistently.
@CaseyL:
FTFY
rikyrah
@The Moar You Know:
I don’t give a PHUCK about them listening to me. I want to be there when he’s taken away in handcuffs. I will smile in their faces, in between eating my Talenti.
Their vote for him shows THEIR lack of character.
And, they will never live it down.
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I think we passed that phase in 2000.
Our unions are no longer the kneecappers of yore. Everyone remembers King, few appreciate Malcolm X.
The Moar You Know
@George Spiggott: I am as well. Hopefully they can see their way to a solution. I can’t – which is my limitation.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
With “shoot to kill” orders, about half of which will be enthusiastically honored.
Litlebritdifrnt
It is driving me nuts (and I know it shouldn’t) that Donny Dollhands can go on twitter and lie about Amazon and USPS and despite everyone pushing back that it an absolute lie it just sits out there, with all of his followers screaming “privatize the USPS” (clearly unconstitutional) and clearly against the “free market” mantra of the GOP. WTF? We have clearly gone into Twilight Zone territory at this point.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@The Moar You Know:
They really are bitter.
@CaseyL:
Not quite. Can’t those judges be removed? And besides, not that I advocate it, but those judges are just as human as the rest of us.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack: I like it – more accurate AND more likely to tweak him for his impotence.
Btw to all commenters above who corrected my thoughts about labeling Trumpov as an abuser and grifter: I get it that his supporters will never see the truth of that. I’m thinking more of the mushy middle, the low-info voters, the ‘both sides’ folks. Anything to get them to move off that fence and join the fight.
I think eclare back at #25 said to make “Republicans are stealing your health care” a rallying point, and it’s a good one. Trumpov’s just the ringleader of a gang of thieves and looters with no regards for anyone but themselves – “smash and grab Republicans” (but I repeat myself).
CaseyL
@ruemara: I was going to add “too poor” but ran out of editing time.
Hey, if I ever win one of those massive PowerBall/Mega thingies, I can take a few of you with me to Canada :)
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: The point at which we would need to remove judges extrajudicially is the point of no return.
Litlebritdifrnt
@ruemara:
Luckily I was not, I said to my boss “You have to live with it, I don’t I have a passport and a place to live”. He didn’t believe me at the time, he thought I was just being silly, well guess what, on April 29, 2017 he realised I wasn’t.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@CaseyL:
So I guess we should just resign ourselves to perpetual GOP rule then and slit our wrists?
CaseyL
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: No. I didn’t say that.
Fighting is good, we fight while we can.
But Trump is the metastasis, not the origin of the disease. Trump couldn’t have succeeded if the institutions intended to prevent someone like him from attaining power hadn’t already been riddled with rot from the foundation outward. Getting rid of Trump is like getting rid of the biggest, most invasive tumor: there’s still the rest of the cancer to deal with.
rikyrah
@Jeffro:
You mean the ones that are embarrassed that they voted for him…yeah, they don’t need to join the fight. They can stop voting for all I care.
ruemara
@Litlebritdifrnt: I have to get my updated Jamaican passport this year. If we fuck up and lose the 2018 elections, I’m fairly sure my green card renewal will not be going well, so I want all my ducks in a row. I can get a UK, Canada visa alright and I’ve been reviewing NZ. We shall see.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Only by impeachment, legally.
Good luck with that.
eclare
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Yeah, I could do with less of that. I am 49 years old and live in a very blue city in, yes, a red state. How exactly do I pick up and move to the coast? I am three years away from my house being paid off…how big of a cardboard box could I afford in CA or MA or NY with what I could sell my house for?
TenguPhule
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Worse.
We’re in the Outer Limits.
PJ
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Mass non-violent protests worked in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. They worked in the civil rights movement in the South in the late 1950s and early 60s. Violent protests in the US in the last 50-odd years have only garnered more violence (and burned out neighborhoods.)
The Moar You Know
@Litlebritdifrnt: The USPS was privatized in 1974.
Not kidding, look it up. And yeah, by my lights that was clearly unconstitutional, but the president, Congress, courts and public disagreed.
CaseyL
@eclare:
You’re 49? I’d give an important body part to be 49 again. I’d enroll in a trade school to learn something that’s useful anywhere and start shopping other countries.
Your house is almost paid off? I’d give an important body part for that, too. You don’t have to move to CA, NY or MA. There’s OR, WA, NJ, Western PA, DE, ME… lots of places you can buy a decent house with what you realize from selling yours.
ruemara
@eclare: Unfortunately, the solution is the hard one. Stay & fight. Coastal elites need to come in and help fight and change the demographic. It’s not run away, it’s stay and fight. Running away caused this.
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: That seems to be the consensus on this thread.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@PJ:
That’s because those violent protests primarily involved minorities who could be easily dealt with by authorities. Imagine if more people joined in. The situation would have to pretty bad for that to happen though.
eclare
@CaseyL: I lived and worked abroad when I was younger, I think you underestimate the hoops you need to go through to get a job of any sort abroad. As for the other states you listed, maybe places in PA and DE would be affordable, the rest would not. And ME, with LePage, is certainly no liberal paradise. I will stay here and fight.
Jay
Geeze people, it’s only Tuesday, after a long weekend,
One of Treason Tribble’s Minions is going to jail, then deported, then getting his lawyerism ripped out,
Rosenstien “memo’d” the fuck out of Manifort, and there’s lots more memo’s,
The kids are allright,
So quit with the suicidal despair,
Have a puppy:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xM8SV9jOYEQ
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@CaseyL:
But isn’t Western PA apart of the interior states that are going to fall to anarchy and fascism in the New World Order?
CaseyL
@ruemara: I thought about that, moving to a red or reddish state. I’d be in favor of that But it has to be coordinated in large numbers.
I looked at vote counts – not in places like Kansas, but in purplish states like Wisconsin and Texas. I looked at vote counts in my own state, in Eastern Washington (which is as red as Western WA is blue). “A few” people moving there won’t have enough impact. We’d need hundreds, maybe thousands of people, and pretty damn fast.
eclare
@ruemara: We agree!
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
The Constitution says Congress has the power “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”, but that power is clearly purely discretionary. For example, the same section of the Constitution grants Congress the power to “grant letters of Marque and Reprisal”, but nobody thinks it’s unconstitutional for them to have abandoned the practice. Congress has the power to borrow money, but it wouldn’t be unconstitutional if they paid off the debt and stopped borrowing. Also, the section of the Constitution granting Congress the power to establish post offices doesn’t demand those post offices be owned by the federal government; there’s nothing obviously unconstitutional about Congress establishing the post office as a federally chartered private business.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The DOW has an interesting graphic this afternoon – and by graphic, I mean that there’s an increase that makes no sense outside of representing massive sovereign effort to shore up a major weakness.
TenguPhule
@PJ:
Actually there was effective use of self-defense and the threat of violent retaliation against KKK by those facing attack.
Also, effective non-violence needs training.
CaseyL
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: My understanding is that Western and Eastern PA are all right; it’s the middle of the state that’s the problem.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@CaseyL:
In Kentucky, you could achieve some critical mass by adding about 3000 blue inclined families to Lexington and 2000 or so each to Paducah, Owensboro and Bowling Green. Added to the reliably blue Louisville cohort, you’d have a state that would resemble Maryland.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
I hate to say it, but it also requires arrests and an implicit threat of a choice – “you can have our nonviolent ways in which you’ll go through life unmolested, but if you reject us, the storm is coming”.
CaseyL
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I would absolutely be interested in that. I’m close to retiring, Kentucky is lovely, and SFAIK housing prices there aren’t insane. Plus i love horses.
I could see organizing something like that. How would we do it? “Make The Bluegrass State *Really* Blue!” Talk about the scenery, the housing… is this doable, do you think?
Mary G
The FTFNYT is having its own little civil war, according to Vanity Fair:
The managing editor pretty much says, GFY, young people, but still, it’s good to see they have some internal pressure against some of the godawful things they’ve printed.
rikyrah
Emma GonzálezVerified [email protected]
The people with the power to make changes keep making the wrong changes; no matter how much we tell them to listen to us there will always be a backpack manufacturer saying, “Hey they need clear backpacks, we got you covered,”…
…or a Barricade Renter saying “Hey do you need any extra fences that will create the illusion of safety but are easily jumpable and make all the students feel like a combination of prisoners and livestock?”…
…When people pay money for these modifications on our school (the only one in the county being altered btw) that means Someone Is Getting Paid and I am Sick and Tired of us being treated like prize pigs.
GregB
I think something needs to be done to short circuit the Trump propaganda mill.
I don’t know what or how, but millions need to tune out of certain patforms and outlets and create new ones or something.
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Plus I don’t think anyone on our side is interested in getting murdered by the other side as a means of rallying the cause.
Civilization requires rules.
Republicans don’t believe in rules other then abusing them.
schrodingers_cat
@GregB: Its happening, there are many people who are getting involved in politics, joining their local D party. Making their voices heard, marching, calling their reps etc. I am one and I know that I am not alone. I personally know 6 other women besides me, ages 30 to 65.
The Moar You Know
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You are correct. That end of day massive jump makes no sense at all. I can’t go look at what caused it but would dearly like to find out.
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Despair and apathy is exactly what our opponents the Rs (Russians and Republicans) want.
Frank Wilhoit
@Yutsano: “…The only way to get a true conservative party is to have Republicans lose….”
No, the Republican Party is a true conservative party. Conservatism is the problem, because the only thing that can be conserved is privilege, and the only way to conserve it is to construct a system of two-tier citizenship. That, in turn, is fatal to [lower-case-]republican institutions, because they can only be defined and operated in terms of equality before the law. Therefore, conservatism always has to be [lower-case-]democratic, i.e. the tyranny of the majority, or else imposed by violence.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@CaseyL:
The main problem with retiring to Kentucky is the existence of winter. It sucks ass, and isn’t generally mild.
On the other parts, there are tradeoffs – Paducah and Owensboro are far, far off the beaten path in terms of getting to other places by road or by air. Louisville suffers worse in winter and is plagued by weird air routes (we have some shabby Caribbean flights, a few Florida flights and a couple of New York flights, everything else goes to ATL, ORD, DTW or MSP first. Lexington has serious race fractures and is just an oversized college town with even worse flights than Louisville. Northern Kentucky has psycho weird racist white people catholics who act like Calvinists, plus hyper-Calvinist Protestants, all of whom live in McMansions in the landing pattern of CVG (a pretty good airport) and across the river from that giant collapsing Potemkin village called Cincinnati.
Bowling Green could be OK – 45 min from Nashville airport, milder climate, college town.
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
But what about the massacere?
Lapassionara
I think everyone on Medicare needs to be reminded, early and often, that a vote for the Republican Tax Bill was a vote to take $50 billion a year out of Medicare. I don’t care that they later waived “the rule.” When they voted, they knew they were voting to take $50 billion a year out of Medicare.
Also, we need more stories like the one I saw this morning, about the Midwestern farmer who is going to lose a bunch of money because of the retaliatory tariffs China is putting on US agriculture products. Trump’s trade policies will hurt his base, and only the most ignorant and racist will support him when they see how those policies affect their bottom line.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@The Moar You Know:
It was 20 points off yesterday’s close and headed further down, then took a really sharp upturn against the trend. Further, looks like the VIX reversed course.
If I was conspiratorially minded, I’d say that a lot of that wealth inequality just got poured back into the market to make conservatives not look so bad in terms of policy or governance.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
I think we should designate the courthouse fountain there as the official massacre monument – the water in it is dyed blue, like water from a blue urinal/toilet cake.
The symbolism would be unmistakeable.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
I like how you think.
CaseyL
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Thanks for the insider info! College towns are generally better places to live, in terms of infrasructure and support systems.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: I don’t understand the attention paid to delusional T voters in the media in general and over here too. We know what they stand for, they showed us.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s sick-making. The MAJORITY in this country get ignored.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
I have no interest in talking with them. I want trump and his whole corrupt administration, family, and political operatives in prison. I’d like to see come GOP members of Congress with them behind bars.
The people who voted for him will never be forgiven.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: They matter, because they voted for the R party, are the right gender, and color, and religion and live in the so called heartland. Rest of us are just chopped liver. Even if we live in towns that predate the formation of the United States, their America is the “real America”.
raven
This will make the big time news:
schrodingers_cat
Why has the media not done stories like why can’t Rs win in the northeast and California. I also see the stories asking the President to be bipartisan have disappeared from the media.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
A large part of the “game” many MSM “pundit’s” play, is claiming “the middle”. As a result, they have to “normalize” the Deplorables to stake out the “new middle”, which is now found somewhere between the batshit crazy RWNJ’s, and the center.
schrodingers_cat
@Jay: I am not playing their game.
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Strife sells eyeballs.
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
I’m shocked, shocked to see gambling in this establishment.
Wall Street is not supposed to be gambling, but it is. The house has the odds in their favor and always will. You can make money but most of the trading has nothing to do with the concept of raising capital.
Chyron HR
@raven:
“My only wish is that one of the schizophrenic kids stood up and had been like, ‘Now YOU know. Now YOU know what it is like to live in my brain.'”
SiubhanDuinne
Active shooter situation at YouTube HQ in San Bruno, CA, according to CNN.
Ruckus
@Frank Wilhoit:
Thank You!
I’ve been pounding this point for a while. Being less or more liberal is not the same as being conservative. True conservatives have sold a bill of goods to half this country, first that most of those voters are conservative in the first place, and second that being a true conservative will be good for them. It has driven half this country to vote for people and concepts that fuck them. Constantly.
Lapassionara
@raven: hmmm. Interesting song choice for a prank.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m watching their game.
It’s why I never bothered to parse Nazi’s into their little cliques, and just call them all Nazi’s, The Bell Curve afficionado’s are all racist bigots to me, and anyone who cite’s The Moustache of Understanding is a moron.
TenguPhule
@SiubhanDuinne:
Peak Irony?
raven
@Lapassionara: Parents are laughing their asses off on social media.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
I don’t think this is quite right. Republicans believe in rules; they just believe in the old, culturally derived rules rather than the formal written law. You know the rules: whites are in charge, women are barefoot and pregnant, children are obedient, etc. This is the “order” they talk about when they praise law and order: the social order they believe was handed down by God. The purpose of the law is to enforce that social order. Laws that preserve that God-given social order must also be God-given and have to be obeyed. Laws that go counter to that social order are going against God and may be ignored by any God-fearing man who’s standing up for the true, God-given law.
rikyrah
The Kentucky GOP just rammed through a bill that includes $80 million in corporate tax cuts, but taxes Kentuckians for car repairs and trips to the vet. Don’t ever tell me again that the GOP is fighting for average Americans. https://t.co/pXCHqiL4pG
— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) April 3, 2018
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SiubhanDuinne:
Why the fuck it’s never at NRA HQ, the RNC, CPAC or the Faith and Family Coalition convention, I’ll never know.
Repatriated
@PJ: The point of mass demonstrations is that if a million people are committed enough to show up on the National Mall at a designated date and time, they can also show up at polling places at a particular Tuesday in November.
It’s a demonstration of political will.
There might also be an implicit threat to turn violent, but that is neither present yet nor is it necessary at this point. And it’s probably unwise to incite it now, as well.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: They keep voting R, its their own damned fault.
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Mandatory weapons bans at all of those.
SgrAstar
@rikyrah: oooh rikyrah, you said Talenti. The magic word that fixes so much. Black Rasberry Chocolate Chip. Be still, my beating heart. :)
Mary G
Infrastructure year!
raven
Nicole Wallace just reported that the shooter was shot but they don’t know if he was injured!!!!!
PJ
@raven: It was only a matter of time before Tom Jones was used as weapon of terror.
TenguPhule
@raven: Body armor, sounds like.
raven
@TenguPhule: Dumbass more like it.
clay
@raven: At our school, the sophomore class president got in some serious trouble for an April Fools’ prank he pulled over the weekend:
-For background, during pep rallies, the four classes compete against each other to see who has the most ‘pep’. They do this by arranging elaborate entrances, having unified cheers and dances, coordinating outfits, etc. The sophomores won the pep rally last week.
-The sophomore prez decided to take an e-mail he had received from the Student Activities Director, alter it to say that the sophomores were disqualified from their victory for [whatever].
-He posted this doctored e-mail to Instagram (that, remember, he himself had doctored), and captioned it with “What the fuck is this fucking bullshit” or some such.
-The sophomores flipped out, so… ha ha?
Anyway, he got called onto the carpet for a) doctoring a school document (the administrator’s e-mail), and b) profanity. The first charge is the more serious one, because that could be a Class III Referral. I think they’re trying to go easy on him because he’s usually a pretty good kid, but man what a dumb idea. I’m not even sure what the point of the “prank” was.
CaseyL
@rikyrah: Wha-? What did they do, impose or increase the sales tax on those things?
Jay
” I’m not even sure what the point of the “prank” was.”
Triggering outrage and anger in people is what passes for “humour” in a certain subset of ‘Merkin’s these days.
Frank Wilhoit
@Roger Moore: This is still not quite right. Conservatives believe in rules/laws, but their application must be distinct as between two tiers of citizenship. There must be in-groups whom the laws protect but do not bind, and out-groups whom the laws bind but do not protect. This is why, as I explained above, conservatism is inherently tyrannical. There is no such thing as “respectable” conservatism.
Citizen Alan
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I am very blessed by the fact that no one in my immediate family that I know of is a trump supporter. I have one somewhat distant relative, my sister’s brother-in-law, who I occasionally see at family gatherings who is. After I told him to his face that he deserves the hell he’s going to burn in for voting for shitgibbon, the rest of our family has worked fairly hard to make sure we’re never in the same room together. I have no problem with that solution. If the majority of my family were Trump trash, I imagine I would cut them out of my life completely without the tiniest regret. Got no time for traitors even among my own kin.
Roger Moore
@Frank Wilhoit:
I think we’re on the same page, but emphasizing different points. I understand that the rules apply differently to different people, though I think society is broken down along so many different lines of race, gender, wealth, religion, etc. that there are far more than two tiers of citizenship. My big point was that the rules don’t just respect the stratification of society; they create and enforce it.
cokane
well said, Doug. Trump is awful. But he’s also sucking up too much of folks’ attention. This problem is going to persist long after his administration is over.