One of the few amusements the Trump Error affords is reading accounts of awful people getting dressed down by an even more awful person. From Greg Sargent at The Post:
The New York Times reports that Trump erupted in a rage at Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other Cabinet members over the alleged failure to make “progress towards sealing the border.” According to the Times, Trump also raged about the “continued failure of his administration to find a way to build a wall along the southern border.”
The Post adds more reporting, noting that Trump’s “blowup lasted more than 30 minutes.” His face “reddened” as he railed that Nielsen must “close down” the border and shouted: “We need to shut it down. We’re closed.”
Other outlets reported that Nielsen, who tried to explain the complexity of the border situation but was shouted down, “almost resigned” over Trump’s tirade, composing but not handing in a resignation letter.
Gary Cohn allegedly wrote but didn’t submit a resignation letter after Trump defended Nazis in Charlottesville. I guess the unsubmitted resignation letter is the cabinet/adviser version of “Ivanka privately opposes.”
In The Post, Sargent points out Paul Ryan’s towering hypocrisy on the immigration issue:
Vulnerable Republicans in the House are pushing a discharge petition that would force a vote on immigration bills, including two measures that would grant the dreamers legal status, one of them packaged with fortifications to border security. Seventeen Republicans have signed the petition, meaning that if organizers can get eight more, it would pass, since Dems will support it — forcing a full House vote on whether the dreamers will be protected or remain in limbo.
Ryan is trying to stop this from happening. He justifies this by claiming that there’s no sense in voting on measures protecting the dreamers that Trump would veto. As Ryan put it: “We actually would like to solve this problem, and that is why I think it’s important for us to come up with a solution that the president can support.”
But this is utter nonsense, because there isn’t any deal that Trump is willing to support that can pass Congress… Ryan is trying to prevent a vote to protect the dreamers precisely because such a measure could pass the House… A deal protecting the dreamers in exchange for border security would probably pass the House by a comfortable margin, and it might pass the Senate — after all, passage in the House would bring tremendous pressure on moderate Republican senators — especially if the White House didn’t actively lobby against it.
But Trump will not accept any deal to protect the dreamers, even though it could very likely pass both chambers, unless it also contains deep cuts to legal immigration. So if the House passed it, the White House would lobby the Senate against it, and if that failed, Trump would then have to veto it. Either of those would look horrible, because after House passage, suddenly protections for the dreamers would appear in reach. This is the spectacle that Ryan is trying to avert — all to protect Trump from having his true priorities revealed in all their ugly glory.
Ryan no longer has to worry about reelection or hanging onto the speaker’s gavel, but he’s willing to hold a fig leaf over Trump’s ugly bits. Why? Because the Republican Party hopes to stock the courts with more fanatics, enable corporations to pollute and despoil without regulatory oversight and slash programs and policies that benefit the vulnerable, and while Trump is a big, fat, embarrassing, racist baby-man, he’ll happily sign that shit if they call it a “win” for him.
Oh well. At least we won’t be subjected to paeans about Ryan’s wonkishness, fiscal rectitude and principled conservatism much longer since he’s gonna cut and run after this term expires. That day can’t come soon enough.
rikyrah
Bullshyt.
That unqualified heifer, who killed people during Katrina, no more almost resigned than John Kelly or Sean Spicer.
Barbara
I no longer know what the percentages are, but a lot of people who are in the U.S. without legal status flew here legally and didn’t go back. This isn’t a hard concept.
Jeffro
Jennifer Rubin really let Ryan and Kelly have it today over this, too.
Ferdinand
In other news, I admit to being on pins and needles for today’s Friday news drops. Mr. Avenatti (may he live long and prosper) tweeted this about 30 minutes ago:
“Let this serve as formal notice – there is significantly more evidence and facts to come relating to Mr. Cohen’s dealings and Mr. Trump’s knowledge and involvement. You can come clean now or wait to be outed. Your choice. We have only just begun…#Basta”
I also confess to being clueless what #Basta refers to. He uses it regularly.
Betty Cracker
@Ferdinand: I think it means “enough” in Italian.
SenyorDave
@rikyrah: Exactly. I’m tired of reading about these “people of principle” who are so outraged they almost quit, until they start thinking about the money or power they have. Here’s an example of somebody with real principles (from Reuter,s Jan 18, 2018):
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley, a career diplomat and former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, has resigned, saying he no longer felt able to serve President Donald Trump.
Yarrow
Also, Ryan a traitor and if he doesn’t go along with what his owners want they’ll release what they have on him and his life will be over. He knows this.
rachel
At least we won’t be subjected to paeans about Ryan’s wonkishness, fiscal rectitude and principled conservatism much longer since he’s gonna cut and run after this term expires.
Really? I think his no longer being in office may just make them think more fondly of him.
schrodingers_cat
I don’t buy the resignation bit. T has taken away the plausible deniability of the I am not a racist wing of the R party (translation: I am a fucking racist, but I don’t like to be called on it)
JPL
@Ferdinand: He needs to stop with the tease and just release the info. Basta is basta, assuming Betty’s translation is correct.
Corner Stone
I always wonder how these “almost resignations” continue to be leaked. This is like what, 5 or 6 high profile members of the admin who have been so troubled by something that they almost felt like doing something about it?
“Dear Diary, today that mean old mister trump said some really awful things at me. And it was in front of others, two! I thought real hard about being a fully grown person but then realized no one would ever hire me again anyway. So then I had pb&j for lunch with some choc milk and decided to feel better!”
Yarrow
@Ferdinand:
People are skeptical of John Schindler but he tweeted this today:
Would be nice if it’s true! We haven’t had a good, solid Friday news dump in awhile.
Yarrow
@JPL: Disagree. He’s playing Trump’s media game better than Trump. The tease is part of it. Avenatti is doing a fantastic job of representing his client.
Ferdinand
I really can’t see a path forward for the Donald if public evidence emerges that the shady money to Cohen was funneled to Donald, or other Donald-centric payoffs. Right? While it might take months to play out, that feels like the boss battle deathblow where we’re certain he’ll bleed out as long as we hold on long enough.
As savvy as I’ve worked to be following this nightmare tale for two years, I confess I didn’t see the twist coming that all the seedy “back channels” to foreign oligarchs that we freaked out about a year ago, and that got so much rolling with Flynn’s Russian meetings, look likely to turn out to have little to do with plots by foreign powers to seek specific acts by the DT administration. Instad they seem likely to have been about asking for “favor” in exchange for immediate cold hard cash.
I’ve definitely shifted fully in to Josh Marshall’s camp of “everything is explained by the fact that Trump is broke, and will say and do anything for money.” In the end, it really is just that base and venal. That’s the twist for me, I suppose, the fact that such harm can flow from such shallowness. The banality of evil.
dmsilev
My, you’re an optimist. He’ll be a guest of the Serious Beltway Media shows for the next 50 or so years.
Immanentize
Reading about Trump going into a 30 minute rage, red faced, shouting, made me remember:
When I was a full time trial attorney defending various citizens (and non!) charged with acts of mis- or malfeasance, my friend and I came up with the concept of “coronary contempt.” If you can outrage the judge so much that s/he will have a heart attack on the bench, you probably will not be help in contempt and sent to jail.
A useful idea for Whitehouse staff?
Corner Stone
@JPL: Agreed. Tired of all the “through a glass, darkly” nonsense. Either announce what you’ve got or at least announce when you’ll be announcing the dirt.
cintibud
HELP PLEASE!
I posted a long comment in the last thread about prescription drugs a couple hours ago that went into moderation and I’ve received no response to my request for help there. I just tried posting it again but it still went into moderation. I assume the problem is that I mention a specific prescription drug in a post about prescription drugs. Could someone please release one of my two posts in that thread please?
Corner Stone
@Ferdinand:
You’re talking about a man who told his caceeknow manager to stop donating a $1000 to a local chairty for goodwill purposes. There is no way Cohen made money off Trump that didn’t end up all or most in Trump’s pockets.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: “basta” is sort of a combination of, as you say, “enough” and (when my friends parents yelled it) “stop!” “I’ve had enough!” “Stop your foolishness.” That sorta thing.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Ferdinand: I have a serious question to all the lawyer commenters. How pissed off must the judge be in Cohen’s New York case that he failed to disclose that through his shell LLC his clients were more than Trump, the other guy and Hannity, but also ATT&T, Novartis and the Korean company. Is she just going to shrug it off or is she going to hold Cohen and his attorney in contempt for not disclosing that? She specifically asked Cohen to name all his clients. In a filing I just read today Cohen’s attorney is claiming that Avenatti should not be granted Pro Hac Vice status because he should first disclose where he got the info from. In the filing Cohen’s lawyer states the following “The details of when Mr. Cohen was paid by these business clients ” So he (and his lawyer) LIED to the court about his clients. From what I remember about Judges they really, really hate being lied to. Any insight would be appreciated.
Mary G
Yeah, Zombie Ryan won’t die. I can see him working for Fox or even a real network, because he has a face for TV and a good line of patter. Probably won’t pay well enough, though. He’ll write a bestselling book about how much it pained him to have to go along with Twitler and run for president to redeem the Republican party in the worst case scenario.
Immanentize
@Ferdinand:
That is called “bribery.” It’s in the constitution under “impeachment.”
Ferdinand
@JPL: I agree, I am impatient with the teasing. But in his defense, Avenatti seems to be playing a dangerous game, perhaps modelling how public investigations need to be styled in the 21st century. Mueller has all of this, of course, but Mueller cannot seem to be swayed by the court of public opinion. Avenatti by contrast can seek and capture and coordinate media moments, an ideal complement to what we all hope is the thorough Special Counsel work being done. Avenatti led off the week, and countered the likely timed take out of Schneiderman, but turning all talk to the payouts to Cohen. He’s given the mainstream media a week to catch up, source, and interview those who paid. He’s given the administration, including Sarah Sanders, time to deny this is connected to Trump in any way, and is entirely a private matter. He’s said all along that he has more. He’s already tweeted today and shown he has emails between Cohen and Stormy’s first shady lawyer who negotiated the sketchy NDA.
So, I’m guessing the way his strategy is playing out that he won’t sit out a weekend news cycle, because events are moving too fast now. I’m hoping he’ll drop proof – emails, bank documents – that the money that went in to Cohen’s slush account (that paid Stormy, and took in all the bribes) also paid out that money directly to Donald, or spent it on Donald’s behalf with Donald’s knowledge.
If so, then I think we’re definitely past “tick tock” and in to (thinking on Dr. Strange and Infinity War) the Endgame. Time to put on our angry faces.
Manyakitty
@Ferdinand: John Schindler has been teasing about a big news dump today, too. I take him with several pounds of salt, but he hasn’t been this specific in quite a while.
Immanentize
@Litlebritdifrnt: Simply put, it is not clear that people paying him were law clients. Claiming that AT$T was a legal client would perhaps cause more problems than saying he was a consultant or advisor (not a lawyer) to those companies. Now, whether he was an unregistered lobbyist….
Cacti
Well, we do live in the age of the participation trophy.
I guess almost taking a stand is what passes for good character these days.
Yarrow
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Cohen did not say “the other guy” (Broidy) was his client. He’s not. Avenatti pointed this out. The media is stupid and assumed Broidy was his client. Cohen did not state that in court.
Manyakitty
@Yarrow: This is what I get for commenting without reading the whole thread first…
James Powell
Are we sure about that? The press/media created Paul Ryan, Principled Man of Principles & Budgetary Genius Who Only Cares About the Debt. They aren’t going to give him up.
I expect he will be the go-to guy for all The Shows when they need a guest to talk about cutting Social Security & Medicare. His own relationship to deficits and debt will never be mentioned. Eventually, he will chair the next incarnation of the Simpson Bowles group. He will complain on The Shows that Obama ruined everything by failing to implement its recommendations. His own response to Simpson Bowles will never be mentioned.
indycat32
@Litlebritdifrnt: I’m not a lawyer but I think the difference is “business client” vs. “lawyer-client”. The judge was asking who he represented as a lawyer
Wumpus
@Litlebritdifrnt
The judge asked for a list of Cohen’s *legal* clients. AT&T etc. were business consulting clients; Cohen wasn’t giving them legal advice (or business consulting either, it turns out. But the point is he wasn’t pretending to be their lawyer.
Manyakitty
@Yarrow: Plus, I think he is trying to strew some bread crumbs for our lazy MSM.
Manyakitty
@Ferdinand: Not just broke, but petty and penny-ante.
germy
I checked the replies to Avenatti’s tweet and saw this:
Immanentize
@Yarrow: This is one of the most critical details because it means communications between Cohen and Broidy that were seized in the wiretaps and searches will not be privileged as attorney/client material. What’s that you always say?
And, if in fact Broidy was not the father of the playmate mini-me, I suspect that he will be chatting with the Feds to save his otherwise seemingly normal family life.
Major Major Major Major
@Barbara:
I believe the president is married to one.
Edit: Or was the issue that she worked on a tourist visa? I forget
James Powell
@Jeffro:
I wonder if there was a time when Jennifer Rubin believed she was an important voice for Republicans. Or maybe she knew the whole time that she was just a tool that would be discarded and ignored the minute she was no longer useful.
Frankensteinbeck
What strikes me about this article is how incredibly racist Trump is. It’s not out of line with what we know of him, but here is a guy who not only wants to end immigration from Latin America, but spent half an hour raging about it at a meeting. He is seriously, seriously emotionally invested in hating brown people.
@Mary G:
I don’t think this is true. The book part, maybe. He might get someone to ghostwrite it. The thing is, Ryan being telegenic is like him being a wonk, a carefully media managed fabrication. Actually give him air time, and he says the most godawful shit without realizing what an ignorant, poor-hating ass he is. And frankly, he ain’t bright. He’s had his whole life handed to him on a silver platter by friends.
Yarrow
@Manyakitty: Great minds…
@Manyakitty: I think he’s doing his best by his client and if that means playing the dumb media to give them places to look, then that’s what he’s going to do. He’s sharp and sees how this game is played and is playing all of them like a fiddle. It’s fantastic to watch.
@Immanentize: Yep. Everyone will talk to the Feds to save their skin because it’s pretty obvious even to the dumbest of them that Trump’s loyalty only goes one way.
Cacti
@Major Major Major Major:
Worked on a tourist visa.
There’s also the possibility that she fraudulently listed herself as a university graduate in her immigration paperwork.
eschneider
@Immanentize: I’ve literally done that to two bosses over the years.
sukabi
@Yarrow: such a dilemma it’s hard to choose…evil or squeezed?
I think that whatever is being held over Ryan has to be out of the ordinary even for a Republican…
Litlebritdifrnt
@Immanentize: My mistake I assumed that when a lawyer receives money from someone they are then deemed a “client”, and therefore covered under the attorney-client privilege doctrine. As you say though how Cohen can claim that they were not clients but he was being paid to be an “advisor” would put him squarely in the “lobbyist” category in which case he is fucked because he is not registered as such, putting them in the “client” category (which his lawyer did) would mean that he did not disclose that fact to the Judge which means he is also fucked, because he (and his lawyer) lied to the judge. This is not going to end well.
Corner Stone
@Yarrow: If he’s referring to all the bad news he’s putting out about our Amb to Germany, Grenell, then the WH won’t have a bad 15 minutes. Much less a bad whole day.
Major Major Major Major
@Cacti: I try not to clutter my mind with such things, you see.
Manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: She worked on a tourist visa.
Humdog
Where are the Kochs? They want increased immigration, but maybe not citizenship, so they will have an exploitable workforce. Are all the biz concerns willing to subordinate themselves to the racists of the party?
I hate playing oligarch wars, but here we are thanks to 63million shitheads.
catclub
@Ferdinand:
I wish I shared your optimism. The Virginia governor who (McDonnell) got away with getting bribes because they were not for a specific
quid pro quo government action, paved the way. Paying for access is not actually illegal. If I know it, so will the lawyers.
Vor
@Cacti: and of course her parents were the beneficiaries of chain migration.iOKIYAR.
Adam L Silverman
@Barbara: Yep, unauthorized overstay numbers are much larger than what is coming across the southern border.
Steve in the ATL
@Litlebritdifrnt: Broidy wasn’t a client. It was trump, the trump organization, ave Sean hannity.
Snarki, child of Loki
Trump’s reaction to having his veto overridden would be EPIC.
Do it.
Adam L Silverman
Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows are going to be so much better as leaders of the GOP House caucus.
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: I would just like a good, old fashioned Friday news dump. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
sukabi
@Yarrow: really? It feels like EVERY FUCKING DAY IS A FRIDAY NEWS DUMP.
But if he’s right, it would have to be something extraordinarily bad for drumpf
Manyakitty
@Yarrow: Right? I watched him on Rachel the other night and when he launched into his explanation, then punctuated it with, “Now why does that matter?” or something, I felt the presence of a masterful litigator. He is sharp AF, and, I suspect, a total nerd about the law.
Yarrow
@Litlebritdifrnt: Which is why Cohen’s best move is to flip on Trump, if that offer is even on the table. He’s totally fucked.
sdhays
@Corner Stone: Your comment reminds me of a rather sad and almost humanizing story from 2016 about how Eric had an actual charity focused on real charitable work (rather than grifting) and was using Trump properties as free venues. When old man Spanky found out, he flipped and made sure that never happened again – charity events paid the same as anybody else, even if the charity was run by his son.
So, yeah. The money went to Donny Small-hands.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: As much as I appreciate her doing so, so what? These guys didn’t read WaPo before she’d had enough, they’re not reading it now. They read the Hill, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, and the Washington Free Beacon, in addition to Drudge, Dim Jim, Trumpbart, and Gentry Breitbart (the Federalist). It’s a closed ecosystem that just sling shots the same crap around and around and around.
Manyakitty
@Vor: @Cacti: Don’t forget that anchor baby!
Manyakitty
@sdhays: Was it about his wife and the animal charity?
cckids
@rikyrah:
Oh, I believe she wrote a letter of resignation. Because she was publicly humiliated by Trump, not because of his awful, inhumane ideas about immigration. THOSE are the reason she stayed, and will eat another helping of shit next time.
Immanentize
@eschneider: I don’t know whether to be horrified or applaud your powers! But, I guess it’s not binary. :-)
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: Its an attempt at devaluing strain. The President is a toxic leader and boss. He also seems to be passive aggressive, or, perhaps, aggressively passive. So the people that have either chosen to work for him, or have been assigned (the detailees on the National Security Staff), have to come up with a way to devalue the strain that results from the situation. Venting to people, including friends and subordinates, and making it okay that they can leak about it, that one is prepared to resign because of all the crap they’re taking is one way to do it. I’m not sure why Nielsen or those around her thinks this makes her look good as it wasn’t a threat to resign on principle, but to resign because the boss treated her terribly.
sdhays
@Manyakitty: No, I don’t think so. As I recall, it was when he was fresh out of college and may not have even been married yet. It involved golf tournament charity events.
Yarrow
@Manyakitty: I know! I get that people want him to say what he has, but the tease, the dragging it out, the showing up on many cable news shows, the trolling of Fox—it’s all brilliant. He’s so sharp and he’s doing a fantastic job for his client. I love what he’s doing. I’m fine watching it play out rather than insisting he put up or shut up. That’s the exact wrong strategy for his client in this situation.
Dev Null
@Immanentize: Scott Lemieux here:
Quid Pro Cohen
quotes Jonathan Martin of FTF Vichy Times saying in effect “HRC woulda been worse”.
I guess that means “nothing to see here, folks, just move along”.
Or sumpthin’.
The Vichy Times just can’t let go of Hillary. She’s catnip to them.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
You wanna tell me again that it’s not about White Supremacy?
…………..
Michigan Republicans wrote a bill that imposes Medicaid work requirements on mostly black cities but exempts mostly white suburbs and rural areas. https://t.co/6KvpGaTXv2
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 11, 2018
Cheap Jim, formerly known as Cheap Jim
@Adam L Silverman: Anyway, so what if anyone did read her. I’m old enough to remember Rubin blaming Anders Breivik’s atrocities on wholly imaginary Norwegian jihadists. She’s a fabulist at best, and possibly a slimeball.
Frankensteinbeck
@Humdog:
The Kochs are racist as all holy Hell. Just as Trump is the platonic ideal of the mouth-breathing, Your Racist Uncle conservative voter, the Kochs are the platonic ideal of Libertarians. They are extremely socially conservative with maybe a couple of exceptions, but they know saying it makes them sound like stupid bigots, so instead they tell everyone it’s all about small government. When you see who they actually vote for (or told the Teabaggers to vote for) it was Christianist loons.
So, the answer is, ‘They would prefer a caste system to ethnic cleansing, but they’re not going to get all that incensed about which they get.’
Yarrow
@sukabi: I like the Friday afternoon news dumps because he’s on his way to his weekend place and wants to play golf all weekend and it messes that up. He doesn’t want to work on the weekend and his crisis people can’t do it for him. They’re my favorite for that reason.
@sdhays: I remember that story. It was kind of sad. He’s such an awful person.
Immanentize
@Dev Null: I got into a small email back and forth with Martin pre-Twitter. The guy has no center. Nor do the Time’s political reporters. It is so odd considering it seems pretty clear which side history will line up on?
Mary G
@Frankensteinbeck: Dense Pence is one heartbeat away from being president.
Chris T.
Well, yes, but it’s an extremely tiny fig leaf, very easy to hold…
Doug R
@Major Major Major Major: melania came here on a swimsuit modelling visa, just like Einstein.
rikyrah
@Ferdinand:
HE. HAS.NO.PHUCKS.TO.GIVE.
I admit too…have no idea what Basta means..
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: I meant to amend that diary entry but had a distraction. Should be:
“and decided to feel better by ripping a few brown babies out of their mother’s arms and sending them 3000 miles apart!”
Manyakitty
@sdhays: Almost enough to make me feel bad for him. Almost.
@Yarrow: I’m good with him. :-)
Dev Null
NPR on the FBI on Vekselberg:
FBI warned of Russian intel links to Vekselberg
EDIT: h/t PoliticalWire (Taegan Goddard)
Humdog
I appreciate Jen Rubin because she was a koolaid drinker who saw through the bullshit eventually. It gives me hope that others can turn away from the toxic path and see things clearly. I don’t trust her as an ally, but as an example of what could be possible. I need to look for glimmers of hope to keep from despair myself. I believe Jen realizes where her party went astray and is horrified at what she supported. And she is standing up against her former friends, which cannot be easy and must be rather lonely. What can I say, as a liberal I suffer from overdeveloped empathy.
TenguPhule
Not all Fig Leaves.
Kay
This deserves WAY more attention. The US Right is aligned with the Russian Right on policy.
Put aside all the “collusion” stuff. The reason this alliance came to be is these people are allied on policy.
I was reading a piece about Putin’s effort to re-legalize domestic violence in Russia. They sound EXACTLY like social conservatives in the 1980’s and 1990’s- it’s all about the “decline of the traditional family”. This isn’t some cloak and dagger subversion of True Conservatives. Russian conservatives recognized (rightly) that the two groups share goals.
On guns. On women’s roles. On immigration. Whatever Trump did or didn’t do secretly mainstream Right wing groups in the US were forming a relationship with Russia based on shared conservative ideas about policy.
It’s amazing to me that with our huge pundit industry there hasn’t been more discussion of this.
“I really do think the Russians are looking at being able to reach out to the right … to say, ‘Hey, you know Russians actually share a lot of the same values,’ ” said Hall, whose 30-year career in the CIA concluded in 2015.
Humdog
@Chris T.: not a fig leaf, but a mere pine needle!
MJS
@Yarrow: I like Avenatti too but damn it, I took the afternoon off to get yard work done before a weekend of rain! I can’t be spending my time looking at my phone every two minutes! Basta! Out with it!
gene108
The amount of legislation that could have passed in the last 7 years that went to die in the House because Boehner and Ryan refuse to allow a vote in it is staggering.
Immigration reform passed the Senate, and would have passed the House, Boehner brought it up for a vote, but he killed it.
The cynical bad faith cowardice of Republican Congressional leadership is one of the most underreported stories of our times.
Mary G
@Kay: Russians also share racism as well.
rikyrah
I think some of the reasons why some of the journalists have their panties in a bunch about Avenatti is…
1. He has no phucks left to give
2. He approaches Dolt45 EXACTLY the way the MSM should have been all this time
3. He’s getting the shyt that THEY, if they were actually investigating, should have gotten
We had that story back when that got out about Dolt45 asking Willard
HOW TO MONETIZE THE PRESIDENCY
And, NONE of these MSM Muthaphuckas thought..
” Hmmmmm, maybe I should investigate that?’
There’s STILL at least 25 MILLION MISSING FROM THE INAUGURATION
NOBODY but USA Today and Maddow even consistently asked ,
“Hey, what the phuck did you do with the $100+ million you took in for the Inauguration?’
We got that report of the ‘ friend’ of Melania that got TWENTY-FIVE/TWENTY-SIX MILLION of the Inauguration Monies, and NOBODY, besides USA Today and Maddow have asked WHY?
They are mad because Avenatti is doing the job THEY should have been doing all along.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Our pundit industry has been working their asses off at least since the 80s to pretend conservative policy is not driven by racism or sexism. These are exactly the goals they’d rather sweep under the rug while they talk about ‘economic anxiety’ and ‘fiscal discipline.’
Corner Stone
@Yarrow:
It’s not so much that I want him to put up or shut up, but rather I’m just exhausted by the seemingly endless dark teases by “insiders” who, if they are to be believed, are trying to lead the media horse to water. To extend that bad analogy, it is tiring because the media never seem to pick up on whatever the “insiders” are teasing out. So why can’t they JUST FUCKING TELL US WHAT THEY GD KNOW?!? JUST SAY IT OUT LOUD LIKE BELLA DID WHEN SHE CALLED EDWARD A VAMPIRE FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!
Manyakitty
@rikyrah: Hey, it’s no fun to face proof that you’re lazy and complicit. //s
TenguPhule
@Barbara:
Remember who we’re talking about here.
The common clay of the west.
Adam L Silverman
@Litlebritdifrnt: @Immanentize: My understanding is that he had to disclose clients he was doing legal work for, not quasi-lobbying. What has gotten lost in the shuffle on this is that he did not name Elliot Broidy as one of those legal clients, which reinforces Paul Campos’s theory that Cohen didn’t do a deal and NDA to cover up an affair and subsequent abortion that Broidy was involved in, but rather that Broidy paid Cohen to do so to cover this up for the President.
Steeplejack (phone)
@James Powell:
If and when—and it’s a big if—the Republicans ever get back to partial sanity and semi-respectability, Rubin will go scuttling back to them. She is a useful ally in her white-hot hatred of all things Trump, but please notice how often she says anything positive about any Democrat or Democratic policy. (Hint: close to zero.) She is squarely in the “enemy of my enemy” camp, nothing more.
Manyakitty
@TenguPhule: They need an “Authentic Frontier Gibberish (TM)” translator.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Correct. The three clients listed were the President, the Trump Organization, and Hannity.
Kay
Recall that Russian interference in the election wasn’t just to benefit Trump. It was to benefit far Right Republicans in Congress.
This is a policy agenda. All the rest of the shit- the money laundering and the other crimes- that was all means to that end.
We know it because it was offered EXCLUSIVELY to conservatives. If it were just broad-based corruption or capture they would have helped both sides. Democrats aren’t immune to corruption. There would be plenty of Democrats who would gladly climb on board for election intererence on their behalf. But Russians didn’t offer. Because it’s ideological.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Implies heart not in evidence.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
I almost dated Elizabeth Hurley. Almost.
J R in WV
@Snarki, child of Loki:
This. I want to see this on TV, it will be the only time I ever deliberately watch that rat bastard on TV.
On another topic… headline on Google News “Farmers market for pot opens in Las Vegas“!
The vendors sell out of their auto trunks, for that old timey underground feeling…..
hilarious.
Yarrow
@Kay: I posted that article at the end of the morning thread. You missed the best part–Sarah Palin’s involved!
She can see Russia inside her email and maybe inside her office!
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
She was working here before she got her visa. Allegedly.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: She entered on a tourist visa and then did work on it before she received a work visa.
Corner Stone
@Chris T.:
True. But think of the soul-less monster one would have to be to voluntarily get that close to Trump’s junk. Seemingly day in and day out.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: Does she know this?
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Magic 8-ball says “unclear.” You know that Liz, terrible memory.
Brachiator
Jesus H Christ. Are these stories trying to get sympathy for Trump officials? Are we supposed to see it as evidence of Trump’s impatient fury at not being able to get his way?
To be blunt, this is like reading a story about some hapless Nazi official being blasted because she wasn’t getting Jews loaded fast enough onto trains headed to concentration camps.
And this…
People, mainly white people, are in furious denial. A post here yesterday or early morning quoted a Twitter message that showed how John Kelly is on the exact same racist, nativist page as chief architect of Trump’s racist agenda, Stephen Miller.
Latinos are inferior people who cannot be assimilated into America. They are poor, speak Spanish and stupid. They must be kept out and those who are here must be rounded up and sent home.
I have not seen a news story anywhere which notes how the new tax law officially makes undocumented people who file federal taxes into a lower caste, stripping them of the child tax credit. This is an attempt to oppress them financially, and perhaps get them to self deport.
And of course, Africans and Haitians are from shithole countries. Nothing more to be said here.
The dilemma of the Dreamers seems to have really captured the imagination of a lot of people. What’s happening to them is sad and unfair. But Ryan is not trying to deflect attention from Trump’s racist agenda. It has always been clearly and openly on display.
ETA. Not only is the child tax credit stripped away from undocumented workers, perhaps to discourage them from breeding, it is expanded to be available to taxpayers earning up to $400,000 because, you know, rich people really deserve it more.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Can you say conspiracy?
rikyrah
I love that the Parkland kids have no chill.
Oliver North – they don’t give a phuck.
Still taking it to them :)
rikyrah
This is HUGE! Michael Cohen and Donald Trump apparently were behind the release of information concerning the allegations against Eric Schneiderman, the AG who was forced to resign while investigating none other than Cohen and Trump! https://t.co/rO7y2T89Jg
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 11, 2018
Gelfling 545
@Ferdinand: When I studied Italian for a year in college and we had dictation exercises the professor used to end them with basta. It,IIRC, means enough and can signify “The End “
HeleninEire
@rikyrah: “That unqualified heifer”
I think I love you.
Yarrow
@Corner Stone: I see the Rick Wilson types who allude to SOMETHING BIG THAT THEY KNOW but won’t tell anyone what it is as different from Avenatti who is actively working for his client. He’s playing the media and using them as a strategy against Trump. Plus, he does show what he has and, as manyakitty said, he’s leaving some breadcrumbs for the media to investigate. The media then goes and looks where he sent them and then they find things. It’s really amazing to watch. I love it.
I can see being tired of the Rick Wilsons who hint, hint, hint but never really reveal but I’m not at all tired of watching Avenatti work. I think he’s masterful at what he’s doing.
rikyrah
@Kay:
But, policy IS collusion, Kay.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: It’s about ethics in gaming journalism.//
Adam L Silverman
@Cheap Jim, formerly known as Cheap Jim: That was my point. She’s an opinion columnist. While it might be important to take their temperature when considering how a policy will get covered in the press, you shouldn’t be making decisions based on what opinion columnists are writing. Even when you agree with them.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Jesus tested, Mother approved!
Immanentize
@Brachiator:
Forget Godwin’s Law — This is good.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
They all seem intent on going with the “I was only following orders” defense.
Ideally this will work just as well as it did the last time it was tried in international court.
Ol'Froth
I recently had the opportunity to talk to a federal official who works along the border (Rio Grande area) who told me one of the issues is local landowner cooperation. There are lots of homes along the river, along with businesses such as bars and restaurants who don’t want a wall impeding the view. Ranchers also cite the need for their livestock to access the river for water, and along one section, there’s a wildlife preserve that straddles the border, with some endangered or threatened species that require the ability to cross the river for sustainability. Bottom line, there are reasons aside from cost why a wall is wildly impractical along much of the border.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Money has corrupted the whole process.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah: That PDF is the worst case of a bad “Find and Replace” example I think I have ever seen. Mr. Gleason needs to hire someone to fill out his templates for him.
BTW, neither of the Krassenstein brothers are exactly reliable narrators so I would take some salt with everything they post.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
In the original…not even in the Amendments.
Dev Null
@Immanentize: “what side history will line up on?”
Well, I’m betting on a nuclear holocaust. If I’m right there won’t be a side of history to line up on, so hey … no problem! There won’t even be an entree of history! Problem solved!
That said, I must be missing your point. I think you’re saying that of course FTF Vichy Times will be on the wrong side of history… but before the Vichy Times was the Vichy Times, it was sometimes on the right side of history, e.g. when it printed the Pentagon Papers, so … “a miracle occurs”? Sorry … just not getting it.
But then I must not understand politics or political reporting either, because (with high probability) HRC won’t run for office again, so WTF Jonathan Martin?
Why are Republicans talking about HRC? Why is FTF Vichy Times still sneering at HRC?
She’s not a player going forward. Why do either Republicans or Vichy Times reporters think they’re scoring points taking pot shots at HRC?
Srsly, I don’t get it. And yeah, I know Republicans dun got nuthin’ … but Vichy Times reporters? What is wrong with these people?!?
Jonathan Martin excuses Mr. Drain the Swamp because HRC woulda been worse?
That’s worse than “no center”, it’s moronic, ethically bankrupt, and politically vacuous.
[/rant]
Sorry, I realize I grabbed your point and ran away with it…
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Conspiracy.
Trump is fucking up American English. Let’s stop helping him do it.
James Powell
@Brachiator:
Or perhaps they are happy with it, but don’t want everyone to know.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
THEY.ARE.NOT.STUPID.
They are unwilling to GO THERE!
Adam L Silverman
@Dev Null: Not surprising at all.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: I’ve only been writing about this here for over 2 years.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Can we here you now?
Immanentize
@Dev Null: Just a demographic point, I think most people alive today in the US were born after the publication of the pentagon papers. And as my Dad used to say, “What have you done for me lately?”
As for Hillary, I have my own theory — the media knows it was complicit in Hillary’s loss and Trump’s win much the same way Comey was — they thought she would win so they went after her with bullshit while ignoring the Clown who would be King. But they were wrong. So wrong. So they continue to justify their bad journalism choices by crazy talk like, “HRC would have been worse.” Otherwise, they understand they really should self-deport.
VeniceRiley
@rikyrah: Out of the frying pan, into Underwood’s fire.
ARoomWithAMoose
@Yarrow:
Cohen is looking at a lot of personal jeopardy. Flipping on the (many instances of) money laundering (criminal) doesn’t get him out of the way of the Stormy civil suit. Flipping on someone about the emerging bribery/pay for access stuff doesn’t make the other potential problems go away. Avenatti knows this, and Cohen probably can no longer see a way clear personally (the obvious thing to have done months ago was to settle with Stormy to make that go away, since they keep stepping on their own dicks there with inconsistent stories in public and to judges). Trump just figures it’s someone else’s problem/fault, and in any case (shades of Peter Griffin reasoning), if he got a lawyer to do it, it must’ve magically been made legal.
Dev Null
@Adam L Silverman: “Not surprising”
Agreed, posting as Yet More Evidence should anyone have missed it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dev Null:
Hate.
germy
Yarrow
@ARoomWithAMoose: He sure is! Cohen is truly fucked. That’s why I think he’ll flip on Trump because even if it won’t save him from everything it’s better than nothing.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
I have a hunch it went down something like this, with the Parkland kids.
“Hey, NRA has a new president. His name is Oliver West, or something.”
“Who?”
“Oops, sorry, Oliver North.”
“Never heard of him, let’s google. [pause] Oh man, he’s a convicted gunrunner for Reagan. Got his sentence overturned and went to work for Fox. Sounds like business as usual at the NRA.”
“Let’s get back to work.”
“Word.”
germy
@Yarrow:
He’ll develop a serious doorknob phobia if he does.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
I don’t see how Joe Lieberman would have been a less bad running mate, or a less bad VP, than Sarah Palin.
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
I detest Joe Lieberman, but he would not have been half as embarrassing on the campaign trail as Sarah Palin. She was so bad the media couldn’t cover for her, and they clearly wanted to. Lieberman they would have polished as the ultimate avatar of pure, noble bipartisanship, where Republicans and Democrats come together to admit Republicans are right about everything. Probably wouldn’t have flipped the election, but definitely a better running mate than Palin.
catclub
@germy: how could McCain be a two faced liar when he was also a POW? Which you may not have known.
Dev Null
@Immanentize:
I’m too lazy to round up the numbers, but sure, “people older than 45” vs “people younger than 45”. Seems right.
uh, Judy Miller and mobile weapons labs? [/snark]
Seems my reading of “side of history” was what you intended. wrt “lately” I take your point. [takes point]
Oh, OK, yeah … uh, no.
There’s an alternative that actually makes sense: our Failed Press Corpse could just STFU about HRC, no? I realize that this is a radical concept, but Our Failed Press Corpse could actually focus on what matters, which is to say, “not HRC”. Do journalism, even.
Nah, what am I thinking?!?
I mean, srsly, FTF Vichy Times has maintained a very discreet silence about their role facilitating America’s Excellent Mesopotamian Adventure, Fk Yeah! … rather than pushing the Adventure as The Tough but Necessary Choice™, see, “because mobile weapons labs so shut up already”.
“Mobile weapons labs” seeming to me to be a similar failure to exercise due diligence.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: Oliver North is currently calling for their deaths by proxy.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Well, certainly as malicious as Palin, but not as stupid. Perhaps worse than Palin, as less stupid plus just as evil, am I doing that right? That makes him better from the Republican point of view, won’t it? More able to do the evil things that make up their agenda…/
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
As I remember, McCain did prefer Lieberman, his BFF at the time, but the party didn’t want him. Lieberman didn’t help Al Gore much as his running mate, either.
Amir Khalid
@J R in WV:
Okay, I’m confused now.
? Martin
@rikyrah:
It’s always been about white supremacy. The 2nd amendment is the keep white people armed amendment.
And I’m really impressed with the Parkland kids. They know we failed them, and now we feel we have the right to criticize their motives and efforts? Yeah, right. They’re moving on from us.
catclub
@Amir Khalid:
yep.
If McCain picked Lieberman, the right wing revolts.
aimai
@rikyrah: Basta is italian for “enough.” It seems to be AVenatti’s way of putting all his “Money talks/bullshit walks” posts in one place.
schrodingers_cat
@Amir Khalid: Lieberman made Darth Cheney look cuddly at their VP debate. He was an own goal by the Gore campaign.
rikyrah
Take it to them, Parkland kids
https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/994980600590274561?s=19
Immanentize
@catclub:
In part, you know, because Joooo! Ok for Democrats, but not Republicans.
Brachiator
@James Powell:
That, too. But I see a lot of liberals who limit their outrage to the treatment of Dreamers, but who refuse to follow the trail further. They even are weird about Trump. They will acknowledge that he may be racist, but downplay the racism in his immigration policy.
Or they will go on and on about Nixon’s Southern Strategy, but limit discussion to voting rights.
So, it goes perversely deeper than accepting the Trump racist agenda. Some of these people have cut themselves off from their racist friends and family. But for some reason, they cannot deal with Trump’s efforts to create an openly racist federal government built on a racist, nativist immigration system.
sukabi
@Yarrow: Sure there’s that…I miss the days where the week was relatively benign and scandal free and the Friday news dumps amounted to “omg, the Obama’s did a terrorist fist bump. Or FLOTUS is making me eat my veggies.”
Waiting for indictments or a massive stroke is stressful!
Uncle Cosmo
@Yarrow: Better than an “accidental fall” out of an umpteenth-storey window?
What depresses me is all this talk about “flipping.” Not gonna happen. The only way we’ll know someone was even close to flipping is when they (or one of their loved ones) dies under suspicious but ultimately unresolvable circumstances. Vlad the Paler hasn’t had anyone (that we know of) whacked in CONUS yet, but I doubt that’d stop him if necessary to preserve his prime asset as POTUS. (Hell, from his POV the best thing would be for some loved one of one of the targets to die of entirely natural causes – everyone would assume he somehow arranged it & be even less likely to talk.)
? Martin
@Immanentize:
That’s about right for whites, but not the general population. Most people alive today in the US are younger than Raiders of the Lost Ark and Thriller. Knock a few more years off of that for states like California. You’re almost 10 years off. IOW, the median age for Americans is the start of the millennials. Everyone older than millennials is in the declining share.
Immigration is why people get this so wrong. They are way younger than the average american. Average age for Hispanics is 27, over 15 years younger than whites.
If anyone wanted to know why Trump is currently president, there you go.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub:
How could you tell? They’ve been in near permanent revolt about something for going on 60 years at least.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: it’s a grammar thing…just a change of context makes it accurate then and now…
“The rightwing is revolting.”
Immanentize
@? Martin: wow, Thriller. 1982. This median age thing is so interesting. In 1980, it was 30 y.o. In 2015 (last data I could find quickly) it was 37.8. Friggin boomers ruining everything.
Mary G
@rikyrah: @trollhattan: I followed a bunch of them on Twitter during their initial claim to fame, and was about to unfollow some because it seemed like they had, perfectly naturally, turned their attention to things like prom, AP exams, and most annoyingly, love of Taylor Swift and somebody named Kelsea Ballerina (not her actual name). But the new trolling of Oliver North, who has decided to equate the NRA with the civil rights movement, with himself as MLK, and the Parkland kids and Shannon Watts of Moms Demand playing the part of the state troopers with the salivating dogs and firehoses, is awesome.
Dev Null
@Frankensteinbeck:
Color me stoopid, but it seems to me that hate has a specific function in politics: to sway voters away from the hated individual (or hated group, or group that the hated individual is associated with.) The problem with hating on Hillary at this point is that there’s no longer a linkage between her and, well, anything that matters to anyone. She’s nearly invisible, as most post-politicians are.
If Republicans say “get out there and vote or Hillary will take away your guns and [fill in your particular nightmare]” their voters will likely say, “hunh? Who is Hillary?”
(OK, I’m exaggerating, but probably not by much.)
The press’ hatred seems to me to be even less understandable. OK, so they hate HRC. (At least FTF Vichy Times hates the Clintons … they always have, dating back to William Jefferson’s first days in national politics.) The hatred seems irrational, but so what?
Nonetheless, accepting that the Vichy Times hates the Clintons, why do they keep going back to the Clintons? HRC is at this time the opposite of “news”. She’s anti-news.
The press and James Comey (hi, Mr. Comey!) dug her political grave, dispatched her, and buried her. Hatred explains that. (With help from Russia, natch.)
But hatred doesn’t explain why the Vichy Times feels the need to keep digging up her political corpse. The WaPost doesn’t go there …
? Martin
@Brachiator:
Yeah, in California 26% of K-12 students are white, vs 52% latino. We’ve assimilated 14 million latinos – a few million more than the entire population of Illinois. We’re the 5th largest economy in the world, faster growing economy than the rest of the country, vastly fewer opioid deaths than the rest of the country, better health outcomes than the country, less gun violence than the rest of the country.
Someone needs to airdrop John Kelly into LA to see how hard it is for ‘rural’ latinos to assimilate.
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
That’s OK, most of us are confused now. Want Mueller to pounce, soonest!!!
I see where the Royal segment of your surprisingly democratic monarchy is gonna do something political for the first time in a long time! Congrats, what a surprise!
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone:
LMAO!
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Ronan Farrow denied it. I believe him. The Krassensteins aren’t the most credible sources, IMO.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dev Null:
Nope. It can, but as often as not, it doesn’t. Hate is its own reward, and people not only will eagerly pursue it for no purpose, they will eagerly pursue it while hurting themselves in the process. This is not rare, and it’s certainly not limited to the voting base. We don’t live in a meritocracy, and you sure as Hell don’t have to be smarter or more logical to have corporate, political, or journalistic power. They hate Hillary, so they bash her. Eventually they’ll forget her and move on, but they really, really, REALLY hate Hillary and it won’t be soon.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
What about the ones who haven’t cut themselves off, and just want to be in denial about how their family’s votes impacted millions of Americans, and how they have absolutely no problem with the vileness of this Administration.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
The levels of denial are tremendous.
But that is part of the problem. It’s not always easy to separate those who have no problem with this administration and those who say they hate it, but cannot quite acknowledge the harm it seeks to do.
Ruckus
@Kay:
I’ve been banging the drum that conservatives the world over are all the same and have been for centuries.
They don’t want freedom for anyone who doesn’t look, sound or have the same religious ideals as them and is willing to do anything to make sure that the only monetary winners are conservatives. Freedom to conservatives is the freedom to control in every way anyone they see as inferior to them. Live and let live? Not on your life. Swim in the sea with all the other fish? They’d rather swim in a crowded, filthy pool with only their own kind that have clean water and have to possibly be exposed to anything not like them. Even if that means their own end, they don’t care, as long as they go last.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman: You can tell it when they do not show up to vote in the usual numbers. McCain’s drubbing by Obama would have been Worse.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
Move fun with demographics…
Link
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/07/biggest-share-of-whites-in-u-s-are-boomers-but-for-minority-groups-its-millennials-or-younger/
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
Those pundits say/do what they do because they agree with the conservative policies. It really is as simple as that. It isn’t because they are lazy, although they may be. This is the world they want. They stay where they are because they like what they write/talk about and want even more.
We shouldn’t try to make excuses for them, they are conservative assholes, simple as that. The more excuses that we make the more cover that they have. Rip off that band aid, call them for what they are. If they don’t like it they can change, if they like it they will continue to do what they are doing. We get the media we pay for, if we continue to pay for their crap, we will continue to get crap.
Ruckus
@Kay:
This.
Because it is ideological.
Conservatives are conservatives, around the world.
trnc
How many times did the House vote to dismantle Obamacare while Obama was president?
Aleta
Huff Post article also describes violent abuse by candidate Porter’s former husband, and gives example of slime from an apparent donor of $2,000 to Dave Min’s campaign.
The primary is a top-two primary. From Ballotpedia: “A top-two primary is a type of primary election in which all candidates are listed on the same primary ballot. The top two vote-getters, regardless of their partisan affiliations, advance to the general election. Consequently, it is possible for two candidates belonging to the same political party to win in a top-two primary and face off in the general election.”
Ruckus
@Dev Null:
2010 census, very rounded numbers
0-44 186 million
over 45 120 million
Dev Null
@Frankensteinbeck:
Fair enough. I should have said something like “a rational political actor will weaponize hatred for political ends whether or not the actor experiences that hatred him-or-her-self.”
I would guess that the Republican leadership has never wasted energy demonizing Hillary in their own minds; rather they realized early on that she could be demonized for political ends, so rationally set about demonizing her, and succeeded brilliantly.
But then why continue to demonize Hillary, if (as I believe) there’s no longer utility in doing so?
I dunno. Maybe, as you argue, I’m wrong, and Republicans really do hate them some Hillary.
But it seems to me more likely that they’re lost. They’ve invested for two decades in Operation Hillary … and now find themselves with nothing to slip into the vast empty hole in their demonology left by Hillary’s metamorphosis into post-politician. If the Republican Party thrives on outrage, and if outrage fatigues, with the consequence that to be effective the Republican Party must always be turning up the gain …
… then perhaps many Republicans are still in Kübler-Ross’ denial of loss stage. It can’t be easy to accept that one of your favorite demons – one of your most profitable demons – has gone away, never to return.
As for the press, I could accept your argument were we talking about individuals …
… but that’s a difficult argument to swallow when it’s applied to a collection of hundreds of individuals. The Vichy Times, I mean. Maybe it’s a cultural thing.
__________________________
The problem I have with “hate” as an explanation is that it’s both facile and an end-point. When you posit that there’s nothing beyond irrational self-damaging hatred – “hatred Just Is™” – you are saying “there’s no reason to look for anything else, because there is nothing else.”
That doesn’t mean that you’re wrong – perhaps hatred really is all there is – but it does mean that if there’s something motivating the hatred (*cough*eg weaponization*cough*), you’ll never learn that motivation. And that’s to your disadvantage.
Color me paranoid, but I think it’s worth trying to look behind the curtain.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Hard for anyone to actually like JL.
He’s trying to be all things to all people, in a binary system that wants/demands one or the other.
It doesn’t work. It didn’t work with Gore or McCain. Take those 16 or so people running in the 2016 republican primary. They wanted to be president of the US so tried to appeal to their side without scaring the dem side too much. The republicans went for the one guy who gave them everything they wanted.
Ruckus
@Dev Null:
She moved to NY and became Senator. I don’t believe that she was the FTFNYT choice. She’s a carpet bagger in reverse. She’s not one of them. And yet she was their senator and a first lady and SoS. Politically she kicked their ass.
Citizen Alan
@Frankensteinbeck:
As awful as Sarah Palin was, I don’t think McCain’s VP choice was the final straw. It was his utterly inept and vacillating response to the financial crisis that made people decide he had no business being president at that juncture. If anything, picking Lieberman might have been worse for him because his support among the base might have collapsed with a Jewish Democrat on the ticket.
mai naem mobile
@Yarrow: if that abortion was Dolt45’s he will lose support among different groups and I am not just talking evangelicals. Abortion is a big single issue vote getter. Bigger than gays for sure and possibly guns.
Citizen Alan
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, I’ve said for 18 years now that Gore would have won easily with Bill Nelson of Florida as his running mate. But no, he inexplicably had to give a FU to Clinton by picking Holy Joe. And we all paid the price and still are.
Citizen Alan
@mai naem mobile:
I promise you they really don’t care. Every abortion provider in this country can tell you stories about women they recognize from the Operation Rescue picket lines sneaking in for abortions. And then going back out to the picket lines. Because their abortions were for good reasons unlike all those other slutty sluts.
Brachiator
@mai naem mobile:
Not sure that this would happen, but I would love to see it put to the test.
I will also bet you that Trump had gay sex during the 70s and 80s.
Dev Null
@Ruckus:
Right, thanks… about what I expected from a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
I’m frequently surprised how close you can get to the right answer with grossly inaccurate approximations and simple arithmetic (math-averse and/or pedantic-averse, stop reading here).
In this case:
… assume everyone lives to exactly age 76 [1];
… assume that each age cohort (ie 0-1, 1-2, … , 75-76) is equally populated [2];
then half the population is in the 0-37 cohort, with the other half in the 38-76 cohort. If half the population is in the 0-37 cohort, then quite a bit more than half the population will be in the 0-45 cohort. [3]
I didn’t reason this through in detail when I accepted Immanentize’s assertion … the conclusion just “felt right”.
Apologies if this strikes you as bloviating and/or self-regarding …
[1] More or less an actuarial lifespan, if such a concept exists. I didn’t look this up either, it’s just a convenient cutoff. Alternatively, lump all The Really Olds (76-∞) in the 75-76 cohort.
[2] definitely not true for three reasons (at least): immigration, baby boom-bust cycles, and “premature” mortality (ie deaths before 76). This assumption overweights the “above 45” group, but that’s OK because The Youngs win even when The Olds are overweighted.
[3] The cutoff is actually 47, not 45, because the Pentagon Papers were published in 1971 (I finally looked this up)… so the proportions are skewed even more towards The Young. I had picked 45 because I was lazy and because I wanted a multiple of 5.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Dev Null:
Go threw American politics, it doesn’t turn out well in end like with Woodrow Wilson. Hate begets hate to the Republicans blocked the League of Nations out of pure spite for Wilson. But I suppose humiliation blacks was well worth a Second World War.
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
Kelly would injure himself trying to eat a tamale and demand that deportations begin immediately. ?
Adam had said before that Kelly’s opinions about Latinos were formed while Kelly was the general in charge for Latin America. Apparently no one realized until 2016 that the opinion that Kelly formed while he was there was that they were all horrible mud people. ?
Dev Null
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I apologize for my stooopidity, but I don’t understand what you are saying / asking.
CarolDuhart2
There really is a vacuum isn’t it? HIllary’s gone, Obama’s off doing whatever. Nancy Pelosi elicits a “who” across the populace-most people don’t really know who she is and fewer even care about the minorityhouse leader. Nobody else is big enough or lasts long enough to care about.
Dev Null
@Ruckus: Context? I get the words, but …