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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Afternoon Open Thread: The Duckies Are Alright

Afternoon Open Thread: The Duckies Are Alright

by | 82 Comments

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I heartily approve.  Senator Duckworth is an inspiration every day.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    Well they let Farenhold were a duckling onesie, but that was on the House of Representatives side.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    I hope Senator Duckworth brought some extra pacifiers. I can think of several of her colleagues who would benefit.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    Talk about alarming headlines**, I was thinking “what, now Colorado has had a spring tornado?!” Was worried about your ducks.

    ** Adam’s latenight blogpost title about the shooting war starting, although he did not make clear he was speaking of the American Revolution. To wit:

    To Arms, To Arms. The War Has Begun: The Midnight Riders

    A few readers woke up in shock, seeing that.

  7. 7.

    trollhattan

    I lost it the first time she used “Cadet Bone Spurs.” Bringing the A-game, you go, senator!

  8. 8.

    Yutsano

    @Adam L Silverman: Maybe it’s me but I see some subtle Farenthold shade there. Of course anyone named Duckworth would have jammies like that but it could also be a twofer.

  9. 9.

    LAO

    And, of course this —

    You have a sense of humor about your amputations, and have been known to wear a shirt that says, “Lucky for me, he’s an ass man.”
    Yep. [laughs]

    Which I’m obsessed with.
    You can Google it! You can get it online. It’s available online.

    Duckworth’s communications director interjects: “Please don’t.”

    Oh, I think she should! I’m proud of that shirt! You had the same reaction as my husband. You know, he’s thrown it away at least once, and I’ve pulled it back out of the garbage can and worn it. [laughs]

    From an interview with GQ.

    ETA: not sure how I f’ed up the block quoting

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    This is distinctly unfair. Men can not bring a baby onto the Senate floor, why should she? Just imagine. A man caring for a helpless infant. The outrage! The ridicule he’d face! The attack ads write themselves.

  13. 13.

    sukabi

    @Corner Stone: I know you’re snarking, but the bill was inclusive.

    I fully expect that some old, used up hack will grab a baby and drag it to the floor for disruption purposes when they’re faced with legislation they don’t approve of, ie actually weaponizing babies.?

  15. 15.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Elizabelle: Now I don’t remember if I posted about it, but 85 mph gusts on Tuesday and I had to put the ducks in their hutch, middle of the day, to protect them from falling tree limbs and flying furniture. I was an awful several hours. Almost lost my fence to a tree (just missed and landed in neighbors yard)

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    I wonder if we’re ever going to reach the point where we don’t have to appoint R’s to every “tough” position in government?

  22. 22.

    sukabi

    @LAO: there is a contingent of representatives that has demanded the DOJ prosecute drumpf’s ‘enemies’ …one of which is McCabe…Comey, Clinton, Lynch, Yeats and a couple others are on their list of ‘targets’…

  23. 23.

    LAO

    @Yutsano: If I understand this correctly, in order to “find” that McCabe lied, the IG would have to “find” that Comey was truthful. This is all very very strange.

  25. 25.

    Jay S

    @LAO: I am not sure why it is crazy, given the IG report allegations. Wouldn’t it be inconsistent to make those findings and not do the referral? The findings may well have been bogus, but not following up would make it less credible.

  27. 27.

    ruemara

    They’re gonna twist themselves into angry, incoherent knots to protect the GOP from consequences. If they retain enough power post Nov, there will be kangaroo courts.

  28. 28.

    Jay S

    @sukabi: From post article:

    The referral to the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office occurred some time ago, after the inspector general concluded McCabe had lied to investigators or his own boss, then-FBI Director James B. Comey, on four occasions, three of them under oath.

    This implies that the referral occurred before current public demand for attacking Trump’s enemies.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    @sukabi:

    demanded the DOJ prosecute drumpf’s ‘enemies’ …one of which is McCabe…Comey, Clinton, Lynch, Yeats and a couple others are on their list of ‘targets’…

    Well, to be fair, I have never been for poetry all that much either.

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    I quite forgot who McCabe is or why I should care. Looked him up and remembered, “Oh yeah, the guy who looks like Danvers from “Homicide.”

    Over here on Stage #3, can I get a “Dems in disarray!!!” headline please? [blame the ALL CAPS on politico]

    Senate Dems’ outside group raises eye-popping $22 million in first quarter

    The top Senate Democratic super PAC raised $22,236,533 in the first quarter of 2018, and they have $26 million on hand. THIS IS AN EXTRAORDINARILY STRONG HAUL for the outside group.

    — THE STUNNER: Many of these super PACs have a sister non-profit group, which doesn’t have to disclose its donors. SMP is not releasing that group’s fundraising totals. BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT: The Democratic super PAC alone outraised Senate Leadership Fund and all of its sister organizations. DEM SUPER PAC: $22 million. CONSTELLATION OF REPUBLICAN GROUPS: nearly $13.9 million. BUT, BUT, BUT the GOP groups have $34.4 million cash-on-hand.

    — JB PORSCHE, the president of SMP: “Our opportunities in the Senate improve with every passing month.”

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    @bcw:
    Heh. I’d be in for Pampers with Donny’s face printed on them. Wouldn’t scare the kid, since they’d face backward.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: I also received an email from a friend saying that he heard that DC is on edge about something that is going to happen this weekend. It could be nothing more than Trump spreading rumors to rile people up. That would be normal for him.

  39. 39.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: Christ on a Cracker! I cannot even how bad this is getting. I wonder if the IG has ever before referred an FBI agent for prosecution outside of letting mobsters kill enemies. Oh yeah, the IG didn’t refer then….

  40. 40.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: Can you imagine what that trial (if charges are brought) would look like? Star witness James Comey! This administration lacks any sort of strategic thinking. Mind boggling.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @TaMara (HFG): Holy shit. We had 75 mile winds here 5 years ago, just a few day after the big tree had fallen on my house, and I was terrified with those high winds. Not surprising since it was a straight line wind that had taken down my tree. Sorry you and the chickens had to go through that.

  44. 44.

    jackmac

    Maile is going to grow up with a great role model!

    And I’m proud to call her my senator / cool mom.

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: I await the trial. McCabe will definitely get his pension — that is what they are fighting about. Firing the guy the day before he retired is such a jerk move, that the public was solidly against it. Therefore, the Trumpians double down. Yes, the IG has independence, but he is still in the DOJ and works for Sessions. Everyone touched by this administration is turned into a steamy pile of post-thai pepper doodoo.

  47. 47.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: PS I was just trying to help out on a pending cert petition that raised a really interesting Rule 16 question in the 9th circuit. Does the first or second make defendanrts turn over planned impeachment material BEFORE the government witness takes the stand?

  54. 54.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: The Second Circuit does not require it but I note that 95% of the time the impeachment material comes from the governments disclosures.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    @eclare:

    The comments on that tweet were making me laugh, and not in a kind way. Because OMG WHY ISN’T THAT BABY IN DAYCARE WHERE SHE BELONGS?!?!

  57. 57.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: In the case, the material did come from the Government’s vast discovery, but once it was turned over, the Gov’t both decided not to call a bunch of witnesses AND narrowed the scope of one of the key witnesses to prevent questions on one aspect of the case (it was a big securities, willfulness case). The ninth has created a fiction that cross examination is part of the defense “case in chief.” Ferfuckssake. I am hot about it, but couldn’t get the amicus in support of grant completed soon enough to file (hard deadline in Rule 37 even though the government got an extension to file their reply)

  60. 60.

    germy

    Interesting thread:

    (For context: Freddie de Boer is being talked about again, so I'm being talked about again, because a strange man who wrote a literal essay about how he imagined dating me has told his fans I'm "obsessed" with him, so I have to hear from the creeper and his fans 7 years later.)— Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) April 19, 2018

  63. 63.

    LAO

    @Immanentize:

    that cross examination is part of the defense “case in chief.”

    That is outrageous. I am, however, afraid of the Supreme Court — I really don’t want this to become the rule I have to live with. Now, I’m hot about it too!

  64. 64.

    tobie

    @Immanentize: I continue to believe that IG Horowitz is willfully blind to the political nature of his charge. Republicans asked the DoJ to have the IG investigate the FBI’s handling of all matters related to Clinton not because they cared about HRC’s treatment but because they wanted to impugn the integrity of the FBI. Horowitz has more than complied. His willingness to excerpt the section of the report on McCabe from the larger, still unfinished report is a cherry atop the cake ordered by Congressional Republicans. Horowitz’s deafness to the political climate is like a German bureaucrat after 1933 saying, “I was just following orders.”

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: I’m sticking with the issue. I already did a fifty state study to prove the 9th is sorta violating accepted due process on the issue.

  66. 66.

    Immanentize

    @tobie: I don’t know — it’s kinda like Comey. There are procedures. He shouldn’t have released any aspect of an unfinished report. And the referral is just so odd, doncha think? Like someone asked above, referral for what? The IG only said that McCabe was not completely “forthcoming.” No crime there.

  67. 67.

    germy

    I agree with their statements on “decorum.” Not because I have a problem with babies at the workplace, but because I have issues with Duckworth potentially being able to weaponize that baby to affect legislative decision making. And I could see her doing that. https://t.co/kmc4D2dKrz— Richard Armande Mills (RAM) (@RAMRANTS) April 19, 2018

    FLASH FORWARD: AUGUST, 2018

    MITCH MCCONNELL: And thus, ladies and gentlemen, it is agreed that

    TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Not so fast, suckers!

    [TAMMY DUCKWORTH picks up her FOUR MONTH OLD BABY and begins firing it indiscriminately into the crowd]

    https://t.co/SG9OGyA1G4— Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) April 19, 2018

  68. 68.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: Good to hear.

    BTW, did the defendants seek En Banc Review? I know that the 2d Circuit rarely grants it but I thought that the 9th did. This sounds like a truly terrible decision.

  69. 69.

    LAO

    How exactly, did we wind up with a president this stupid. (The men referred to are Rosenstein and Mueller):

    "After the meeting, Trump told some of his closest advisers that it’s not the right time to remove either man since he’s not a target of the probe." https://t.co/fT8WP6PVpM— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 19, 2018

  70. 70.

    Yutsano

    Wow did everyone just disappear?

    EDIT: never mind. Was quite the posting lull however.

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: It’s based on a long standing 9th circuit holding — but this is a case where there was both preservation and the defendants could point to harm. The case is Ellison et al. v. US — Sup, Ct. 17-1134.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    Seems the media fluffing for Nikki Haley for…whatever, president? Great! has begun.

    In the span of 24 hours, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley has done what none of her colleagues in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet have before: successfully telegraphed to her boss that she will not quietly suffer his public humiliations.

    Haley was initially blamed by White House aides for creating confusion by speaking on national television about the administration’s plans to roll out new sanctions against Russia that the president ultimately decided to defer.

    But within hours of White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow’s statement Tuesday that Haley had fallen prey to “momentary confusion” and gotten “out ahead of the curve,” she’d exacted a public apology from her colleague. But that alone wasn’t enough for the former South Carolina governor, who issued a direct statement to make her point crystal clear: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

    The incident met with silence from the president and his loyalists but has only helped to burnish Haley’s image outside the White House.

    “She’s been a very forceful advocate and I would hope the administration really values that. She stood up for herself admirably, so hopefully that will end the story there,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Wednesday.

    While Trump favorites like Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have been careful always to air their disagreements with the president in private, Haley has at times charted her own path in public.

    See? Tough, Independent. Stands up to bullies. Telegenic (sorta). Pardon me while I look for the Maalox.

  75. 75.

    Immanentize

    @trollhattan: Her record was horrible in South Carolina. But if you stand next to Trump and don’t poop your pants or set your shirt on fire, you look pretty damn Presidential. Months ago I said that Haley might well be the first woman president. But she will get ruined by Trump yet. And talk of her being Presidential is just the thing to make Trump ruin her on purpose.

  77. 77.

    Yutsano

    @trollhattan: I made the mistake of reading the Castellanos column over there. I would laugh about how he wants the worst parts of Dolt45 to get integrated into a “respectable” fashion. It made me stabby.

  79. 79.

    TenguPhule

    @ruemara:

    If they retain enough power post Nov, there will be kangaroo courts.

    What makes you think they’ll even bother with show trials by then?

  82. 82.

    mitzimuffin

    The first thing she voted on was to approve a climate denier to head NASA. TY. NOT.

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