Biting my tongue SO damned hard:
We all take a dirt nap eventually. Some of us improve the world when we do.
Speaking of people in that category, Trump just straight-up tweeted out “intent to obstruct an investigation” this morning:
The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself…I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined…and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
Is there any way to interpret that other than, “I would have put someone in charge who would shut down the Mueller investigation”? If there is, I’m not seeing it.
I do get perverse satisfaction from Trump’s ongoing bullying of Sessions. Both are thoroughly terrible people, so a dynamic in which one of the assholes is perpetually enraged and the other serially humiliated is amusing, if one can put aside the alarming undermining of institutions that are part of the show.
I don’t think Sessions will ever quit — he enjoys oppressing the vulnerable too damned much — so Trump is stuck with him, and Sessions is stuck with Trump. May they inflict maximum legal and psychological damage on one another.
I missed the kerfluffle last night about Trump dis-inviting the Philadelphia Eagles to a White House celebration that takes place at 3 PM today. Apparently fewer than 10 players were going to show up, so he canceled in a huff? What a fucking baby.
I read that 1,000 fans were also invited, and since the orange fart cloud called it off at the last minute, they’re left in the lurch. Do you suppose they were pre-screened Trump supporters? If so, they’ll probably show up at the Eagles-less shindig to listen to the national anthem being played on continuous loop while everyone stands around with hand over heart, trying to remember the words. It’s all so stupid.
Anyway, I got nothing. Open thread!
Bex
It’s the Real Thing, Koch.
VeniceRiley
Are the KKKoch KKKids as KKKonservative as their parents?
Chyron HR
What a setlist:
1) National anthem (trad.)
2) America (Simon/Garfunkel)
3) America (Bernstien/Sondheim)
4) America (Simon/Garfunkel again, but as arranged by Yes)
jo6pac
Whatever, there will be someone just evil to take his place. Then again when he is dead it will make me Smile.
MomSense
Is David the one who looks like Stephen Colbert’s evil twin or is that the other one?
Elizabelle
Cruel person myself. When I hear that David Koch is retiring because of declining health: I am very GLAD to hear that. He spent his wealth ensuring others could not have the opportunities others born into “first world” economies have.
Fuck him, and I hope he hurts every minute until he kicks. And Charles too. Awful, awful people.
I still would like to see them up on illegal campaign contribution federal charges. Could happen, but maybe not.
Elizabelle
Reading that letter: I wonder if Charles kicked him out.
Jeffro
I’ll have to add DK’s final resting place to the list of stops on my Great Pee Tour in a few years. Y’all KNOW what the last stop will be, right? ;)
Speaking of being disrespectful, I sure hope that some merry pranksters are planning on showing up at the WH gates this afternoon, wearing Eagles jerseys and tossing pacifiers over the fence. (And way to go NFL owners for trying the appeasement route – how’d THAT work out for ya?)
Mnemosyne
As people were saying last night, I’m not sure if inviting fans from Philadelphia to an Iggles-less rally is going to go the way the Trumpistas think it will. Philly fans are … notorious, shall we say, for their impatience.
I went and voted in today’s CA primary. It was pretty well-attended for 8:30 am. My one protest vote was John Chiang for governor, which is pretty much the most middle-of-the-road Democratic centrist protest ever. But at least Chiang knows how to keep his pants zipped, unlike Newsom and Villaraigosa.
Brachiator
@VeniceRiley:
One of the nephews is a piece of work.
Here’s a link to the story
https://www.gq.com/story/wyatt-koch-billionaire-ridiculous-shirts
MattF
Bullying, bluster, bullshit. Pick any one. Or any two, or even all three. But those are your choices.
Patricia Kayden
@Chyron HR: What about the Russian national anthem? Or the one for White Supremacists?
I love how Trump thinks he can force NFL players to leave their lockers and stand for the National Anthem. He is no more a patriot than his Russian puppet masters. We see what he’s doing with this faux patriotism.
Elizabelle
LOL. The WaPost is screening comments on its David Koch retiring story.
I have NEVER seen that before.
gene108
Charles and David Koch are motherfucking trust fund babies. They inherited daddy and grandpa’s company. Neither earned everything for themselves.
They are evil, evil men. I hope Hell is real and they rot in it.
Fuck’em.
JPL
@Elizabelle: At least Trump made sure to protect his wealth.
Eljai
Speaking of the Kochs, I’ve always wondered how much of a ghoul one would have to be to spend one’s golden years trying to dismantle the social safety net. I mean, what’s the thought process? My days on Earth are numbered so I have to make sure I screw over as many people as possible before I go?
cain
one brother out of the fight, one more to go. Adelson doesn’t look that healthy either.. in about 5 years, most of these oligarchs will be out of the picture.
MattF
@Eljai: B.I.N.G.O.
Patricia Kayden
@cain: I assume they have family members who will continue their fight against poor Americans.
Doug R
@Chyron HR:
Don’t forget the theme from Team America World Police
JPL
Republican representative from PA
Yutsano
@Patricia Kayden: For every Robert there is a Rebekah. And she is just as much a true believer as her father.
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle: Lol! They should just close the comment section then. Koch is not a nice person so of course news of his illness is being met with glee. Oh well.
Nicole
Also… none of the Iggles knelt or stayed in the locker room this season. Fox News, desperate to justify Trump’s propaganda, found footage of Iggles players kneeling and ran it. Except they weren’t protesting; they were praying.
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/5/17429276/trump-nfl-eagles-protest-fox-news
Mnemosyne
@Chyron HR:
Yeah, I’m not sure about playing the Simon/Garfunkel or Bernstein/Sondheim numbers. Those names sound just a little too, you know, globalist, IFYKWIM (AITYD).
“God Bless America” would be played, though, since it’s stupidly bombastic and says “God.” Also worst song ever written “God Bless the USA.”
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: They’re letting Koch sock puppets through, though. Identical points in comments by different “commenters.” About how DKoch built hospitals and was so good for the environment.
MisterForkbeard
@Eljai: In the Koch’s case, it’s been something they’ve been doing since long before they officially hit their declining years. If you look back at their political activism, they’ve been pushing this shit since the late 80s and possibly earlier.
That makes it even worse. They’re pouring on the gas now because they can finally see their lifelong dream (the dismantling of support for the poor and open oligarchy) in reach, even if they won’t personally profit from it because they’ll be dead. They’re true believers in this awfulness.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: The nephew does belie the supposed myth of white genetic superiority. You get the feeling he’s never been told no before in his life?
Brachiator
Finally went through the 7500 names of candidates running for office in California and reading up on the state and local initiatives.
I’m definitely voting for John Chiang for governor, even though Gavin Newsom is the big front runner. I think Chiang is the better candidate. So I guess this is my protest vote. One of the other top tier candidates, Tony Villaraigosa, is as flawed as Newsom. We’ll see what happens in November. But damn, if Chiang could make it to the run off.
I’m voting for Eleni Kounalakis for Lt Governor. Formerly ambassador to Hungary during the Obama administration, with good credentials, it would be good to have a woman in the office and a potential future governor.
I’m leaning towards Dianne Feinstein over Kevin De Leon for Senate.
If I lived in San Francisco, I would totally vote for London Breed for mayor. Seems to be a good candidate, and that name is badass.
I didn’t realize that SF has a ranked voting system, so room for some political gamesmanship. From the Chronicle.
I got a postcard in the mail Monday saying my polling place had changed. A little last minute, but I think still close by. I hope this does not affect turnout.
catclub
Some people are like slinky’s, not very useful, but it gives you a smile to watch them fall down a staircase.
MisterForkbeard
@Brachiator: I think I voted for Newsom awhile back. Wasn’t happy about it, but he doesn’t really turn me off sufficiently either. His biggest problem to me is that he grandstands a lot, which is going to be annoying after having a steady hand at the tiller the last few years.
Did vote for De Leon, though. I like Feinstein more than a lot of other people, but I’d like to get some new blood and I don’t see De Leon as being too ridiculous, unlike a lot of Sanders-supported candidates.
The Moar You Know
Chucky’s next. Can’t come soon enough.
TenguPhule
Trump is gaslighting every fucking little thing. JFC.
trollhattan
@MisterForkbeard:
I present to you, the 1980 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate David Koch and their platform (courtesy of Wilmer, don’t hate me). Some highlights.
And so forth. A look at 2016’s shows far less strident language but essentially the thing remains intact.
gene108
@Eljai:
They are EVIL! When you depict Satan as being a charming man of class and taste, what you get in the real world are folks like Charles and David Koch. And yes, I do believe they are as evil or more evil than Satan.
They have net worths estimated at $40 billion each. They have enough money to secure their families for the next several decades, if not centuries. And yet they want to tilt the playing field to get more and more for themselves.
The only sad thing is both of them are probably in their early 80’s now. Whatever pain and suffering David is enduring, will not be enough. He’s lived a long time. He’s pillaged to his evil heart’s content. No one depending on him will be shocked an 80 year old man will die. Basically, he’s getting it too good for my tastes.
Chyron HR
@Patricia Kayden:
Gimmie gimmie chicken tendies
Be they crispy or from Wendy’s?
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Reagan, W Bush or Trump?
Chip Daniels
@MisterForkbeard:
Like Gollum gazing dreamily at his Preciousss as he falls into the pit of Mt. Doom.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Hey! There’s some food value to pop rocks!
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Probably because most of the comments are vulgar and accurate.
TenguPhule
@Eljai:
The world begins and ends with them. Fuck everyone else.
stinger
@Jeffro: For me the last stop would be Dick Cheney’s grave.
Chet Murthy
Wag said (on this blog) “If you can’t speak good of the dead, don’t say anything at all. He’s ill and dying? Good.”
Belafon
Maybe they’ll all clap the entire time.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: Bear in mind that the owner of WaPo is not only one of the real billionaires club (the one DJT is NOT in and never will be) but has publicly stated often that he shares the “libertarianism” (whatever the fuck that means, seems an uncontrollable urge to be a raging dick to everyone) of the Koch brothers. They’ll get only the best treatment from WaPo, only the very best, as their money entitles them to.
trollhattan
Donny’s creeping alliteration continues. What’s next?
Witch Hat Hunt Hoax
Which Witch Hat Hut Hoax
Witch Hat Hunt Hoax Halt
Where Witch There Witch Hunt Hoax
stinger
@Brachiator: I was thinking about those “shirts” just the other day, but couldn’t remember which loser scion of which uberwealthy family was the guilty party.
TenguPhule
@gene108:
Don’t libel Satan, who by all accounts is charming, tasteful and a man of his word.
Chet Murthy
@Brachiator: That nephew is a walking, talking advertisement for confiscatory inheritance taxation.
Ruckus
@cain:
This is part of the reason that the right is making such a push right now. A lot of their power is old hateful men with money. And a lot of them are going to die off in a rather short time.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
The shirts remind me of “Idocracy’s” vending machine clothes.
sdhays
The whole tweet is weird, although normal for Preznit Spanky, but this stuck out at me. He’s suggesting that Sessions was in on everything, but if that was truly the case, then I wonder if Sessions thinks he kept himself enough at arms length to avoid prosecution.
Eljai
@MisterForkbeard: I voted for De Leon too. I’m hoping he gets enough votes for second place, but if he doesn’t, I have no problem voting for DiFi in the general. It’d be sweet if we ended up with two Democrats winning the primary for governor, but if I have to vote for Newsom in the general, I’ll gladly do it. A Democrat, even a flawed one, can be persuaded to do the right thing when they’re pressured to do it. Republicans, on the other hand, are a lost cause.
trollhattan
I’ll say this for the Kochertarians, they’re prepared to winnow their own ranks in pursuit of their Kochadise.
Elizabelle
LOL. The NY Times is not allowing reader comments at all.
And article written by Jeremy Peters, who is one of their Republican whisperers.
LongHairedWeirdo
It should be extremely worrying that Trump can’t get it through his thick, numb, skull that “Sessions worked for the campaign, and therefore *must* recuse himself from an investigation into the campaign”. Anyone with *any* cognitive ability worthy of federal middle management (much less high elected office) would have known this long before now.
And you might think I’m saying “so, Trump is completely fecking stupid.” No, that’s not quite the point. I’m actually saying that Trump is aware of just how deep the corruption is in the GOP, he knows they’ll investigate the blazes out of any enemy, and cover for any useful loyalists. I’m not saying “he’s so stupid he doesn’t get it”, I’m saying:
He’s so stupid, he’s saying the quiet parts loud – that he expected the GOP to cover for him, even to the point of the AG overseeing an investigation he was personally involved in. He’s like “COME ON! You stole a Supreme Court nomination, you engaged law enforcement – not just Congressional investigations, but *law enforcement* – for political purposes, you play a scorched earth game without regard for the law or norms (so long as you can keep your base supporting you) and you won’t cover for *me* over a little thing like consorting with a powerful adversary?”
Herm. I guess I’m saying “I think it’s a confession of conspiracy to obstruct justice by much of the GOP.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MisterForkbeard:
I read it was because one of them almost died in a plane crash so they want to buy a legacy.
Mike in NC
Trump demonstrates on a daily basis that “patriotism” is indeed the last refuge of a treasonous mentally unfit scoundrel.
Noncarborundum
@Mnemosyne:
John Ashcroft would like a word with you on behalf of “Let the Eagle Soar.”
Elizabelle
LOL. A WaPost reader comment. To effect of
Even with the comment screening, the WaPost comments are 95-98% against, and a few valiant Koch and AFP sockpuppets out there.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: I’m guessing that’s one of the things that hasn’t changed since the 1980 platform, but I recall that being a big Biden deal back then. Seat belt laws were relatively new and there were still old cars out there that didn’t have them at all. So there was quite a bit of bitching about that.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Well, interesting. I was hoping D Koch would take down the Cheetoh before stepping aside. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44366737
Repatriated
@sdhays: I’d bet that the only thing keeping him out of the dock is a pledge to hang in as (recused) AG by any means necessary.
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
When snark is outlawed only outlaws will snark.
lollipopguild
@Chyron HR:For the third one, from West Side Story. just show the clip from U-tube. It’s amazing how well it stands up today and also shameful that something written in the 50’s should be so current still.
lollipopguild
@Noncarborundum: Lee Greenwood is on line one.
MattF
About the Sessions recusal… Ya think that lil’ Jeff had persuaded himself that Trump was innocent? Haha. Um, just wondering.
Chet Murthy
Oh, man, Josh Marshall with a doozie: Is Simona Mangiante Papadopoulous even Italian?
Enquiring minds want to know: is she George’s particularly inept handler?
Brachiator
@LongHairedWeirdo:
Trump does not see the “campaign.”
He sees that Sessions worked for Trump and so should be loyal to Trump.
Ksmiami
@gene108: I will bet they end up in hell if there is one- and I will bet one dollar like in trading places.
The only way to get over the scourge of the .001 percent is to tax all assets over 30 million at 70 percent or more
SiubhanDuinne
Just saw a news alert that McTurtle has cancelled the Senate’s August recess (and in an election year!) Mischief afoot!
MattF
@Ksmiami: I’ll choose ‘more’.
ETA: I see now you said ‘assets’, rather than ‘income’. Good A wealth tax is what we actually need.
TenguPhule
McConnell the Chickenfucker is keeping the Senate partially open during August in order to keep vulnerable Democrats from being able to campaign at home.
/Breaking at Wapo.
TenguPhule
Feels like a Friday news dumpster.
Mnemosyne
@Eljai:
If it comes down to Newsom vs Villaraigosa in the general, I might go for Antonio. I feel like being the mayor of a city of 3.8 million people would be better preparation for being governor than being the mayor of 885K people.
rikyrah
Damn straight.
Attorney General White Citizens Council WILL.NEVER.QUIT.
He is fulfilling ALLLLL of his White Supremacist fantasies.
SiubhanDuinne
@Chet Murthy:
Story is behind a TPM Prime paywall. Would you please summarise for those of us who don’t subscribe? Thanks!
rikyrah
June 15th is the date, folks.
Manafort has to answer about the witness tampering.
Cohen has to have all his papers reviewed by then.
June 15th is GONNA BE LIT!!
Brachiator
@TenguPhule:
Come now, gentlemen, we all remember that old hymn…
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste
I’ve been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man’s soul to waste
eric U.
@Eljai: I have never understood this either. Adleson dumped so much money on Gingrich that he could have voted a straight Democratic ballot, paid his taxes, and come out ahead. Same for the Kochs. Although it seems as if they are true believers in some sick, libertarian religion that somehow embraces the Republican’s dystopian police state.
If I were their age, I would have long ago gotten someone else to run the company and gone to enjoy as much of my ill-begotten wealth as possible.
MoxieM
couple thoughts on a rainy Western MA day: When the time comes, will they post a 24 hour armed guard at the grave to prevent the inevitable crowds coming to pee on it etc. ?
And, can we hope that, in addition to glee from oppressing and a high perch for his jack-booted actions, Sessions is nasty and vindictive enough to try and remain as long as he can manage, just to spite the *resident?
ruemara
@cain: Still enough time to bring down democracy.
rikyrah
OH WELL.
He’s such a crybaby.
I did get a chuckle out of the fact that less than 10 players were gonna be there…
BWA HA HA HA HA HA AH A
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
June 15th is my birthday. I hope Mueller gives me a very nice present that day. ?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Eljai:
Think of them as each having the vision of a Bond villain. Randolph and Mortimer Duke, unbound and unfunny.
Eljai
@Mnemosyne: You make a good point. I voted for John Chiang today, but after I voted I wondered if I should have voted for Villaraigosa to help get him to second place.
Chet Murthy
@SiubhanDuinne: Arrgh. Sorry sorry.
Josh notes that he knows a bit of Italian, and Mangiante didn’t sound Italian. She claims to have been born-and-raised around Naples. An Italian-American colleague also says “she doesn’t have an Italian accent”. Then it transpires that it’s pretty much an open secret that nobody thinks she’s Italian — Russian more likely. And I mean everybody, including law enforcement. Everybody.
Guess how Georgie and Simona met? She was workin’ for Mifsud, the (obviously) Russian agent-runner who’s gone to ground. Gee, d’ya think maybe Simona’s Georgie’s handler?
TenguPhule
@MoxieM:
We will sell tickets.
The Ancient Randonneur
David Corn boils down the Trump/Russia scandal to a simple and understandable point:
Read the whole piece. Here’s the final paragraph:
Emphasis added by me.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@The Moar You Know:
Seems mighty hypocritical of the WaPo as they have never (apparently) done this before on any other article. Have they screened comments for any other article/obit on their website before?
jl
Since open thread, I wonder if any Southern Californian political junkies can tell me what is really happening with the jungle primaries down there. The corporate media coverage tells me that the Democrats are in deep doo doo in some congressional districts because of the jungle primary. Too many Democrats! Fighting Democrats! But I check Issa’s district. and what do I see. I see far more GOP candidates than Dem. And in another district (sorry, I forgot which one) , I see that some of the Democratic candidates have withdrawn and are running PR campaigns to coordinate support for a like-minded candidate further up in the polls.
The jungle primary was an unfortunate glitch in an otherwise needed reform in redistricting and election procedures for CA. We need to get rid of it. But in the meantime, I have to wonder how much of the corporate media tut-tutting is GOP operative BS they are passing on, fraudulently as they often do, as news and their own analysis.
Mnemosyne
@Eljai:
I voted for Chiang, too, so it’s more that I’m musing what to do if it ends up with Newsom and Villaraigosa going head-to-head in the general.
If Newsom ends up facing some sacrificial lamb of a Republican, then I’ll vote for Newsom, obvs.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: That could backfire on McConnell. Maybe we can see that it does.
Flood those “vulnerable Democrats” districts with topnotch surrogates, getting the message out there.
And have the Parkland kids on bus tour out there in heavy rotation.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Tough choices. Antonio started out with all the goodwill in the world, then checked out and became a publicity hound and almost a do nothing mayor. LA Weekly and other publications got his work diaries, which detailed how much he was out of the office doing pointless public appearances and glad handing sessions.
However, I will absolutely give him credit for bringing groups together to settle one of the transit strikes. He’s got juice with the unions, but damn, he squandered a lot of opportunities during his time in office.
catclub
@SiubhanDuinne: It sure isn’t to pass a DACA bill. I guess more judges and confirmations.
opiejeanne
@TenguPhule: I was thinking Scalia.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Elizabelle:
I wouldn’t cry if somebody decided to curbstomp him on video so he didn’t go quietly or naturally. Same for his brother. Same for Shelly Adelson….
jl
@Mnemosyne: The guber primary in CA was the hardest choice for me. I really wanted to vote for Chiang or Easton. But, Villaraigosa is high enough to have a good chance at coming in second and freezing out GOPers. So, I did a strategic vote for him to help that happen. Would love to see no GOPers at the top of the ticket big races in CA for November.
I didn’t like it, but desperate measures for desperate times.
joel hanes
May Sheldon Adelson and Rupert Murdoch swiftly follow Charles Koch into the hereafter.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@eric U.:
A dystopian police state is the logical and practical result of libertarian ideology. The wealthy just have their own private armies of thugs who police the lands instead of a formal government doing it is all.
TenguPhule
We are so fucked economically, Part Doh!
Canada and Mexico are not going to comply with this bullshit.
TenguPhule
@opiejeanne:
Wouldn’t you start by pissing on Scalia’s grave?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wonder why he would do that? ACA repeal
2.03.0?Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@TenguPhule:
But multilateral negotiations are hard, and you never get to say “fuck you, pay me”.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Yes, for serious crimes like school shootings/murders. Or just blocked comments.
Kelly
@eric U.:
Running their money is what they enjoy. Power is a great drug.
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: They will all improve our world by leaving it.
rikyrah
Lord & Taylor to close storied flagship on Fifth Avenue
POSTED 1:49 PM, JUNE 5, 2018,
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Lord & Taylor is abandoning plans to keep a store in the Fifth Avenue flagship it is selling, as the chain’s owner closes more stores and focuses on online sales.
The announcement Tuesday comes about seven months after the company said it would sell the century-old building to office space sharing company WeWork. Hudson’s Bay Co. said then it would keep less than a quarter of the 11-story building for a Lord & Taylor store.
Hudson’s Bay, which also operates Saks Fifth Avenue and other stores, said it expects to close up to 10 of its nearly 50 Lord & Taylor stores through 2019.
Lord & Taylor was the first to create Christmas windows for entertainment, rather than for selling merchandise. It pioneered the animated window display in 1938.
jl
@TenguPhule: Triump’s approach is he logical end of the recent US strategy to focus on bilateral and regional deals. Not that I give Trump credit for any logic. For him, it’s just the latest jerk in his knee. Good to remember that there is an alternative to the unsatisfactory progress in recent US trade negotiations. Which is a return to true multilateral global trade negotiations, which were abandoned largely because the US walked away ten years ago.
However, that would require the feds to tell the multinational corporations, particularly pharma, finance, tech and big corporate agriculture and chemical, and fossil fuels that they can’t have everything on their wish list while giving up absolutely nothing.
Scuffletuffle
Dear David Koch,
Have a happy decline and death. I hope it’s painful, debilitating and extremely slow.
All the worst,
Scuffletuffle
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, I don’t think Mexico and Canada want to play anymore. Everybody knows Trump can’t be trusted; he’s too erratic. At this point, I think they and our EU allies just want to try to use their economic measures to crush “Trumpism” (really GOP ideology) as a political force.
Brachiator
@jl:
At this point, we can ignore the noise and see what the voting reveals.
BTW, you are right that in some districts multiple Republican candidates are running, but there was not good polling about the relative popularity of the candidates with Republican voters.
Also, we really suffer from the decline of the newspaper industry when it comes to political reporting. Even the old, right wing, OC Register would have provided better coverage than the stuff we are getting now.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
If you looked up “publicity hound” in the Who’s Who of California Politics, Villaraigosa and Newsom would be trying to elbow each other out of the picture, so I wouldn’t be able to decide on that basis, either. Ugh. This is why my protest vote was for Chiang.
frosty fred
@Kelly: Technically their money is merely ill-gotten; whether they themselves are ill-begotten is left as an exercise for the reader.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@eric U.: I think it’s an elder thing. Trump, Anderson the Kroch bothers all have enough wealth to party tell they die but are afraid the younger people will abandon them so they act up to get attention. That’s why it’s so important to these guys and their vile base to make “Liberals cry”.
HumboldtBlue
TBogg points us to Marcus Hayes at the Inquirer who mocks Pennsylvania Eagles fans who voted for Trump.
Fair Economist
@jl: I also voted strategically for Villaraigosa even though he is near the bottom of the serious Dem candidates IMO. Eastin was my favorite because she has the most specific and functional educational and housing plans.
Scotius
@Brachiator:
I don’t know. I’d rather have billionaires squandering their time and money making shirts or other knicknacks rather than trying to impoverish and immiserate a large portion of the US population.
Felony Govt (Formerly Old Broad in California)
@jl: I voted for Chiang but really considered voting for Villaraigosa (who I can’t stand, what a slime ball) to try to freeze out the Republican. We’ll see what happens.
My close friend is active politically in the 48th, Rohrabacher’s district. Another Republican is running against Rohrabacher and the two Dem front runners, Hans Keirstad and Harley Rouda, have been duking it out. There’s a lot of concern the two Republicans could wind up the survivors of the jungle primary. We’ll know tomorrow.
jl
@Fair Economist: We must have seen different polls. They ones I saw had Villaraigosa with best chance to come in second. Though I admit the polling results were on the edge of being too unstable to figure out.
A while ago, I would have figured that perhaps a really toxic GOPer would be good in a race because that would depress GOP turnout. But I think I understand now that is impossible. The GOP can cough up a dead bloated whale ready to explode on the beach and rain guts down for miles, and the GOP base will turn out eagerly to vote for that. Lock ’em out is the only safe choice.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@jl
The media needs it’s horse race narrative.
Scotius
@Jeffro:
That’s actually a tough one. Nixon and Reagan are buried in California while Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms are buried in the Carolinas, so you’re spoiled for choice.
Ruviana
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: They do. Can’t say for sure for obits but stories involving race, poverty, or lgbtq sometimes are. I’m not going to go back and check but I think some of the Roy Moore stuff was.
Jeffro
@TenguPhule: W or Trumpov, I haven’t decided yet. W’s already made a clean getaway, so at the moment he tops the list.
Jeffro
@stinger: Actually I may have to rethink this…that’s a very good choice.
The Moar You Know
@jl: And at least one of the Dem contenders in my (Issa’s) district is a stealth Republican running as a Dem (Paul Kerr). The jungle primary is a legit problem and if the CA Republicans had any organization left they’d run the table on every primary in the state. God knows the CA Dem party doesn’t have any organization or discipline. In addition to sheer numbers, we are not getting better candidates because of this process. Just ones with no experience, but money and ambition. Bad combo.
That Gavin Newsom is going to be the next governor of California should worry everyone.
JPL
@Scotius: Road trip!
trollhattan
@jl: @jl:
My abiding sense is Cox has enough late momentum to perhaps grab the silver ring and make it through to fall, which as you note would be a poor outcome in that it would bring out more Republicans than a two-Dem ticket. I’m not remotely Villaraigosa-curious and don’t foresee him significantly challenging Newsome, but one never knows what unseen skeletons Gavin may yet have in his tasteful closet.
Still pissed DiFi is in it; would have been nice to send new blood to Washington and Harris become our Senior Senator. Ah well.
Jeffro
@MoxieM:
They can try to guard it all they want, but for W, Trumpov, Cheney, and the Kochs, I’m going. to. prevail.
Brachiator
@Scotius:
Unfortunately, I think you may underestimate the amount of money that the Koch nephew has available to do crappy things.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@The Moar You Know:
Why is Gavin Newsom so bad?
Just One More Canuck
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it”
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule: @Ruviana:
Thanks! That makes a lot of sense and fits with what the paper is doing with this Koch story, I guess.
Jeffro
Hey admins/mods, are we gonna get a live video post going for this 3pm NO EAGULZ ALLOUD AT MY NASHUNAL ANTHEMZ!!! thingy that Orangemandias is having? Unlike most times…ok, almost all times…when he is speaking, I actually feel like watching him get all worked up and making an ass of himself. This could be an all-time award winner for pettiness, petulance, and sheer gibberish (and man is that saying something)
Just a thought =)
jl
@Just One More Canuck:
“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it”
That’s good. Is that yours, or should I say it’s a Mark Twain quote?
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
A couple of political analysts here claimed that Gavin Newsom was propping up the Cox campaign because he would prefer demolishing him in the November rather than going up against a fellow Democrat. Newsom’s critics pointed out that this could be bad for other Democrats if Cox on the ballot brought out more GOP voters.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
Not a fan of that theory and would want somebody to “Show me the money” since that’s the one meaningful way to do it.
My top concern for the future of California politics is bored billionaires and their pet propositions.
Just One More Canuck
@jl: Just about every good quote has been attributed to Mark Twain – like most of them, it didn’t originate with him. From quoteinvestigator.com
This saying has not been found in Twain’s writings, and it is not included in the TwainQuotes.com repository. Website editor Barbara Schmidt states that currently “there is no evidence that links Mark Twain to the funeral quote” Indeed, the basic joke was credited to Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar in 1884 and this ascription was mentioned in news reports for decades afterwards. During his long career, Hoar was a lawyer, a Massachusetts Supreme Court Judge, and an Attorney General of the United States.
trollhattan
Donny’s day keeps getting more better.
Mnemosyne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
He’s a publicity hound with zipper control problems. Unfortunately, so is his #2 Democratic competitor. ?♀️
jl
@Just One More Canuck: I’ll feign ignorance and attribute it to a Canuck.
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Trason Tribbles Trade Turduckens 11th Dimensional Chess Plan A was to “set” Canada and Mexico against each other,
Didn’t happen.
Plan B, a 5 year term, nope.
Plan C, bilateral, ain’t gonna happen.
jl
@Mnemosyne:
” He’s a publicity hound with zipper control problems. Unfortunately, so is his #2 Democratic competitor. ”
Surprisingly common ailment with young male ambitious politicians. Problem for us in CA is that we can and should do better. Problem nationally is that for GOPers it seems to get passed off as a feature, but for the Dems it is deemed a serious bug.
germy
@trollhattan: I don’t know much about this case. Would it lead to Apprentice outtakes being released? The ones so carefully hidden by the producer?
stinger
@Jeffro:
LOL
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
This is another reason why the Republicans and MSM keep trying to dig up Bill Clinton’s dead past — Trump has exactly the same kind of lawsuit pending against him that Bill did with the Paula Jones thing, and Trump is desperately trying to convince the courts that it’s different from Jones v Clinton because Reasons.
I just wish the “left” would stop chasing the shiny object marked “Clinton” every time the Republicans and MSM wave it it front of them.
jl
@Jay: Maybe if Trump gets wind of how badly his day of hate for some random champion football team over not much at all is playing, he’ll use his national anthem stunt this afternoon to declare war on both our neighbors, as a clever next step in his negotiation strategy.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
Well that sucks. Yeah, he seems like a liability. I only asked because I don’t live in CA and was too lazy to google him.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Ironically this is true. Jones was Bullshit, the suit against Trump isn’t.
Mandalay
In her press conference Sanders just point blank refused to discuss her incorrect statement that Trump did not dictate a pile of shit about the Russia meeting:
“I am not getting into a back and forth…”.
Utterly shameless.
ETA: She just added “I think most of you [i.e. WH press corpse] know I am an honest person…”
ETA And now she’s admonishing the press for openly laughing about a question on Sessions being emasculated.
catclub
@Jeffro:
pee-vail
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@germy:
Maybe? I just know that that producer is a true believer apparently. I wonder if he hasn’t destroyed the tapes by now.
Peale
@cain: unfortunately, the conservative oligarchs watched in horror as the Ford and Rockefeller “were taken over by liberals” and they’ve probably made sure that won’t jhappen.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mandalay:
Did the entire room erupt into laughter after she said that? Actually, probably not. The press corpse takes itself too seriously and is spineless.
NotMax
Hoping CA jackals will keep us apprised as to the Newman recall vote today.
NorthLeft12
WTF is wrong with the ultra rich? Why do they need to constantly have their ego stroked and have their lickspittle lackeys write these absurdly awful paeans about how humble, humourous, and deserving of all the greatness and wealth they squander that they are.
It really is pretty embarrassing. Don’t they see that? Or are they just so completely oblivious?
Mandalay
No idea what happened to our usually spineless press corpse today. They’re like a pack of rabid Rottweilers and poor Sarah is the rag doll.
Leave Sarah alooooooooooooooooooooooooone…..
Bex
Kate Spade has died. Apparently suicide. She made beautiful things.
jl
‘ are they just so completely oblivious? ‘
That ability to be so is a luxury. Might be an example of conspicuous consumption of a luxury most people long for.
trollhattan
McConnell just went with the summer recess noo-cue-lar option gambit.
Jeffro
@Mandalay: GOOD. Ridicule is too good for these crooks, but it’ll do for the short term…
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
Pretty easy to check Newsom ads against Chiang and other Dems vs ads against Cox. But what’s done is done.
Here’s a question about political advertising. I may be atypical, but podcasts have pretty much displaced terrestrial radio for me. I also don’t watch much regular TV. So about the only place I saw some political ads recently was while I was out having lunch or dinner at places with a tv on, or snippets of ads in news stories about the campaign. I listen to local news and public affairs programs on public radio station KPCC, and do reading in the run up to the election.
But I know that campaigns still spend big bucks on radio and tv advertising. But who are they reaching? Are these ads starting to lose their effectiveness?
Patricia Kayden
@Elizabelle:
TenguPhule
@trollhattan: Now would be a good time for the Deep State to arrange for McConnell to be run over by a bus. Repeatedly.
trollhattan
@NorthLeft12:
Once you have All the Money in the World and the grudging respect of your fellow billyunaires, for many the only thing left is to fuck with people until you’re dead, and simultaneously make sure your heirs continue your hobby post mortem. Which is why Bill Gates was such a surprise.
sherparick1
@gene108: They were born on home plate and thought that the fact that they worked hard at school and when they took over Daddy’s little oil company and made it a big company they had made everything on their own. They were also sort of mad, as most libertarians and conservatives are. By that they have unreal and false view of reality. The reality of the U.S. he grew up in and came of age in, the post WWII and New Deal created society of the 1950s and 60s, as much of the collective action of the Federal and activist State Governments from the wreckage the free market and laissez-faire had created in 1929-1933, to him and Ronald Reagan and other right wingers was the economic hell-scape of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. He sees the hell scape that Trump, McConnell and Ryan are creating, and sees it as “Freedom,” just as the slaveowners of the South saw owning slaves as the greatest of their “freedoms and rights.”
I am afraid that his right wing industrial infotainment complex, from the Cato Institute to George Mason University to Americans for Prosperity will go on without him.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule:
I’d like to see skid marks both behind and in front of the flattened remains.
Turtle really has gotten practically everything he sets his mind to, which really bugs the utter shit out of me.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
Bill Gates is not a Sadist who enjoys drinking the tears of poor people.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
I am torn between pissing on his grave or just digging up the remains and disposing of them at sea.
NotMax
re: the last minute ‘alternative event’
The Star Spangled Banner®, now a wholly owned product of the Trump Organization. Use without permission will be prosecuted to the full extent of the whatever we say the law is on any given day.
Mandalay
Well that press conference was a bit like the scene in Fargo with the wood chipper.
It will be interesting to see whether our press has finally grown a pair and decided to start doing their job, or will revert to being doormats at the next one.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@trollhattan:
@TenguPhule:
Didn’t Bill Gates come from a modest background? If so, that might explain why
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: You forgot the good stuff; the heavy charter school boosterism (he owned a stake in Edison for quite some time) – although Antonio is ten times worse on that score, getting for-real kickbacks from Apple and the charter boosters – the rampant and recurring substance abuse issues (booze and opioids), and it’s not a “zipper control” issue, the man is a full-on for real sex addict who has had no qualms about bedding the wives of every one of his friends and staff. He’s Trump with (maybe) less money and better hair. I lived in SF while he was mayor. I do not want this man having anything to do with running our state. He is bad news and will be an utter disaster.
Mnemosyne
@Bex:
One of my co-workers just told me. Very sad.
TenguPhule
This Infrastructure week is fucking awful.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Bill Gates did some shitty things to get his start in life. Surprisingly, after he got filthy stinking rich from the works of others he decided that it was time to turn over a new leaf.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@The Moar You Know:
Are so many people supporting him because of his name recognition?
Lymie
Sarah H-S is saying the iggles tried to reschedule as a political stunt, is that true, I thought drumpf did it.
jl
@TenguPhule: Maybe Trump figures when he issues a pardon for himself, it will get lost in the shuffle?
TenguPhule
Today’s Big Island Lava Coverage
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: I will say this: he’s really good. What he’s chosen to be really good at is horrifying, but he’s really good. I know seniority demands Schumer take the position, but he’s awful and we need somebody WAY better, someone who knows how to work the bejesus out of the rules, fuck over the opposition, and get shit done for the party when we eventually retake the chamber.
TenguPhule
@jl: That was yesterday. Today its “Pardons are a shiny new toy I’ve decided I will play with until I break it.”
People like Trump are why we can’t have nice things.
The Moar You Know
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Father was a multimillionaire corporate lawyer who got Bill into Harvard on a legacy admission. Not so modest.
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Good question, don’t know. A lot of folks moved mountains to bury the worst excesses of his past behavior in SF, and SF is a small city, so not many in the state would necessarily know about Gavin and his pill issues, for example.
Brachiator
Another story we should keep tracking is the mischief the Trump regime is causing in Europe.
Trump is fully plugged in to the global white supremacy movement.
Link
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/05/german-politicians-call-for-expulsion-of-trumps-berlin-envoy#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@The Moar You Know:
Whoops. Well, at least he decided to change later in life
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Big Island gets bigger.
Mnemosyne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Actually, Bill Gates Sr is also filthy rich, but he managed to raise his kids to go out and seek their own fortunes rather than expect to inherit the family business. IIRC Bill Jr is doing the same thing — his kids will inherit a (relatively) small amount and the bulk of his fortune is going towards the Gates Foundation.
My own dad noped out of working for his (horrible and narcissistic) father and I think it was probably the best decision he ever made.
HRA
My apologies if you have seen this lately. It really boggles the mind – my mind to be exact.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-says-he-has-been-treated-very-unfairly-by-people-who-wrote-constitution
Chet Murthy
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: My understanding is that in fact, he comes from a wealthy background. The (perhaps apocryphal) story is that he got his start with MSFT b/c his mom lived in the same neighborhood as Thomas J Watson Jr, and she said to him “maybe you could look into this business my son’s starting? do something with him?” Or something to that effect. At least that was the story told in the corridors at IBM.
Mnemosyne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Bill Gates seems to be one of those rare people who managed to gain empathy after he had kids. It’s not that common, but it happens. Once he had kids, he started to understand that maybe vaccinations and mosquito nets were more important for developing counties than computers.
Gin & Tonic
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
His father was a big-shot (for Seattle) corporate attorney, and Bill himself didn’t need to take out any loans to go to Harvard. So while he didn’t get as big a nest egg as Il Donaldo, I certainly wouldn’t call his upbringing “humble.”
MCA1
Imagining the scene of a few dozen pasty white fat guys in Eagles jerseys who decided to push on with their 5 hour round trip in the car to D.C., hanging out with their conman savior who plays the national anthem for them, is almost too much to bear. You just know Dotard will make some comment like “Look at you wonderful people. You stand up for our national anthem, don’t you? Don’t you? It’s a disgrace, these players. Some patriotism, hunh? You’re the real Americans, MAGA’ing.” And then they’ll cheer. They will wear the same jerseys as the players who represent them and won a championship for them while they cheered and belly-bumped each other and wasted 100 hours a year religiously following the team, and then stand around shitting on those same players when told to by der Trumpenfuhrer. And they won’t register the cognitive dissonance of it.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
An awful lot of people seem to see Chiang as the least baggage-encumbered choice. I’m not ruling out a top-two finish.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
I feel much the same about Antonio. But one of the two men will likely be the next governor. How do we choose between them?
Do we have Northern California voters vote for Antonio and Southern California voters vote for Gavin?
germy
@Mnemosyne: I could be wrong, but I thought his wife was the one with empathy, and Bill went along with the ride.
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
Gates was definitely upper middle -class. But, not a man who got 20 million from his father.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
I think his wife deserves a lot of credit too.
germy
So when Mr. Koch passes, surely he will be in a more exclusive afterlife, right?
I mean, he won’t be spending eternity with clerk typists and bricklayers, will he?
Mandalay
@NorthLeft12:
Not to disagree with your general sentiment, but the ultra rich aren’t automatically or inherently bad. Here’s a list of “the world’s wealthiest individuals” who have committed to give away at least half of their wealth when they die: https://givingpledge.org/
There are plenty of famous names in that list, some of whom I have (incorrectly) perceived as being irredeemable shitheads (e.g. Larry Ellison and Carl Icahn).
For me the greatest achievement of Bill Gates is not what he did at Microsoft, or the good deeds of the Bill Gates Foundation, but that he persuaded so many other filthy rich people to help make the world a better place.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
People who have dealt with him for the Gates Foundation say that he’s very knowledgeable and has spent a lot of time studying the various issues, so it’s not just her. She may have won him over to start with, but now he’s all in.
rikyrah
@trollhattan:
And, the Democrats need to remember ALLLL of this.
ALL of it, if they take back the Senate.
Calouste
@Chet Murthy: I read an interview with Gates years ago where he talked about his upbringing and explicitly recognized that he probably would not be where he is if his parents had been poorer. He mentioned that he went to a private school that was one of the few schools that had computers in those days, and that that gave him a headstart.
Unlike say Romney, who thinks that everyone can borrow 50 grand from their parents to start a business.
catclub
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
No. Not billionaire parents, but probably already top 1% – corporate lawyers. Private school, Harvard – dropped out, the common clay.
rikyrah
@Brachiator:
Throw the muthaphucka out, Germany. We really won’t care.
trollhattan
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Chairman Bill grew up in Seattle’s tony Laurelhurst neighborhood the child of successful parents and went to Lakeside Academy before heading off to Harvard, so didn’t know anything about economic anxiety as a kid.
His dad, Bill Sr. is a mensch who, as an example, is a staunch supporter of the estate tax and knows the dangers of plutocracy. Between the parents and Melinda, grown-up Bill Jr. came around, but he was a real shark in the bidnez world (not unusual, of course).
BruceFromOhio
Which would be fitting and perhaps even amusing if it didn’t take down the whole fucking country that I happen to live in along with them.
different-church-lady
@Mandalay:
She’s just not good at this, is she?
BruceFromOhio
@rikyrah: That would actually be kind of sweet.
pluky
@Chet Murthy: Okay, I officially give up. None of this stuff should possibly be real, BUT IT IS!!!!!!
Fair Economist
@jl: That is the same I saw. I voted for Villaraigosa as he had the best chance of blocking the Republican in spite of his flaws.
trollhattan
@catclub:
It’s said that mom is the one who arranged the IBM pitch meeting for DOS. Without that hookup I doubt Gates or Microsoft would have gotten anywhere. The “Sliding Doors” thing writ large.
Mike E
@MCA1: no these WH “Eagles fans” are crisis actors
BruceFromOhio
@Nicole: Oooh, I was aiming for the libtards and hit Jeebus instead! Sorry, Jeebus!
burnspbesq
@Felony Govt (Formerly Old Broad in California):
Probably not. Mail-in ballots are good if they are received by Friday, and there are zillions of them out there. It may be two weeks before we get official results in some races.
germy
germy
germy
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Being a whore for charter schools might be worse preparation than not being one.
Just saying.
I wouldn’t vote for Villaraigosa if he paid me to. But I’m not living in CA. Sure would hate to see CA put a charter school whore in charge, though.
Chet Murthy
@pluky:This Mangiante stuff is what makes one say “the scriptwriters were on some serious shrooms when they write this episode!”
Yeah. I. Just. Can’t.
Rand Careaga
@Eljai: I don’t care for either Newsom or Villaraigosa, but if we slice the Democratic pie too many ways in our ill-advised “jungle primary” scheme, Cox winds up on the ballot in November, and slightly gooses GOP turnout. I’m voting strategically, which means the former LA mayor for second-place.
Giancarlo
“I would have put someone in charge who would never have allowed a Mueller investigation to happen in the first place.”
Mueller was appointed by Rosenstein, and the only reason Rosenstein had the authority to launch the probe was because Sessions had recused himself from all things Russia-related. If Trump had nominated a different person for AG who did not recuse himself from Russia-related matters, it’s likely that person would never have appointed a special counsel, and Rosenstein wouldn’t have had the authority to appoint one because he only had that authority by virtue of Sessions’ recusal.
Mandalay
@different-church-lady:
Sanders usually gets away with it because she like to play the school mistress who is dealing with a bunch of worthless kids, and the press corps have allowed her to do that because they are largely worthless.
But today the kids wouldn’t roll over, and their humiliation was too obvious, and they started saying “Shut your fucking mouth you lying sack of shit!”. Well those weren’t the exact words, but it was definitely the sentiment. She just pushed them too far and it backfired, and then mob mentality kicked in quite nicely.
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
William Henry Gates II was a successful lawyer who had the money to send Bill to Harvard.
JPL
@Lymie: The iggles tried to change the date, but next week was out due to the fact that Trump will be out of town. At that point they were going to send a smaller group to be recognized.
Trump got pissed because a smaller group would embarrass him personally, and canceled.
The new explanation is a lie.
germy
WaPo
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
It’ll be Juneteenth ALL WEEK LONG!!
r€nato
LeBron says whoever wins the NBA Finals, nobody wants to go to the WH…
Humdog
@The Moar You Know: Where are you getting these accusations? I know about his friend/campaign manager cuckolding, but that there are continuing zipper and pill issues.
trollhattan
@r€nato:
A lot safer than predicting game 3. :-)
VeniceRiley
Newsom and Villaraigosa were the only ones on the air and Chiang only has himself to blame, because he’s be my first choice too.
Hoping to put a scare in Mimi Waters tonight with big turnout numbers on the D side
Mary G
@JPL: I’m not a huge fan of Chait at NY Mag, but his story is hilarious and contains an almost Betty Cracker level of insult vs. Twitler:
Three players plus the mascot, who would only come if he didn’t have to take off the costume mask and show his real face! LOL
Raven
I just got off the boat. Best day since Maui!
JPL
@Mary G: Very funny!
Gin & Tonic
@r€nato: Kinda presumptuous for LeBron to speak for the Warriors, don’t you think?
Frankensteinbeck
@NorthLeft12:
They don’t, inherently. Imagine that the rich are basically as varied as the rest of the population. Now think about what the rest of the population is like. The insane asshole rich have the reach to do damage that the shithead down the block who voted for Trump never could, or the guy in the restaurant who proudly declares how he never tips because tips make wait staff lazy.
@germy:
I am fine with this. The moment the leadership is vacant, they will all be at each other’s throats demanding the money be spent THEIR way. Thank goodness, it’s the only thing that has slowed down Citizens United.
HeleninEire
@Raven: Share your fish!
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Oh, absolutely. Gates married wisely, which I think some people didn’t expect.
Steve Jobs also married wisely, and that was part of him becoming less of an asshole.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan: There still was lot of hard work involved on Gates part which puts him in a different world than say Trump who just waited until dad died. That and Gates worked with programmers who aren’t exactly known for being good sycophants.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
I can still tell you that Jim McMahon was the quarterback for the 1984 Bears. And I’m not much of a sportsball fan anymore.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
See above about Newsom and charter schools. He ain’t much better. Which is why I voted for John Chiang.
The Lodger
@Frankensteinbeck:
So, episode 3 of War of the Sugar Daddies? That always turns out well.
(Episode 1 being the GOP nomination, episode 2 the Tax Bill)
bemused
Betty, I definitely don’t mind trump bullying Sessions. I just wish he would stick to bullying his own sewer of a WH.
I read the Vanity Fair piece on trump and how he wanted to have five kids so one would be guaranteed to turn out just like him. That blew my mind. I can’t even imagine the at the throat competition between trump and a trump clone kid. Neither would have been able to share the spotlight with each other each imagining he/she is the top dog.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Isn’t Gavin the Lt Gov?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
bemused
@The Lodger:
I didn’t read your comment until I sent mine. We’re thinking the same thing, at each other’s throats. That’s how they roll in trumpland.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mnemosyne: I also made first-ever protest vote for Chiang. Couldn’t stomach voting for either Newsom and Villaraigosa, and Republicans have no change for senator.
Brachiator
Immigrant persecution continues
But here is the kicker
Round up the undocumented to set an example, but make sure that the “economically anxious” are not affected too much.
From Yahoo news.
Mnemosyne
@VeniceRiley:
Newsom was scared enough of Chiang to run attack ads against him. Now I’m wondering what the polling was showing.
I voted for Grey Davis, so I am clearly on Team Boring Technocrat.
Shell
He looks alot like the rich kid who steals Pee-Wee’s bike.
trollhattan
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Agreed, it’s not like they stole somebody else’s toil and made it their own (Donny’s way) it’s simply the chain of effort and events that became Microsoft would likely have ended had that meeting not occurred. There were a LOT of tech startups back then, many of which had nerds as good as anybody else’s.
Yutsano
@TenguPhule:
Why would you do such a horrible thing to the ocean?
Ruckus
@eric U.:
That’s why you aren’t them. Their entire tiny, crappy lives revolve around being richer than anyone else. Being human never enters into it.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: USCIS has made it difficult for all manner of visa applications from short term visitor visas to long term business and student visas to GCs. There are several R bill in Congress that want to slash the GC numbers in half, and so on. This is the most anti-immigrant administration in the last 50 years.
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: SOP. I’ve personally witnessed two INS raids and know of a couple hundred in my local section of San Diego – my part of the county was ag land for a long time and it was a usual thing, part of business, from the 1970s to the mid 90s here. It has always been a felony to hire undocumented workers. I cannot recall one instance, ever, that a business owner or member of management was prosecuted, charged, or even spent a minute in handcuffs for it.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Which is why I didn’t vote for AV. One thing he did, was good. Everything else was a “Look at me!” exercise.
schrodingers_cat
@The Moar You Know: When they do go after employers for abusing workers on visas or the undocumented they slap the small fry with fines.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know:
Yep. It’s sad and ridiculous. I know some Southern California conservatives who favor reasonable immigration reform. But others, including some liberals, are vile hypocrites who hire undocumented immigrants even while complaining about illegal immigration and voting for anti-immigrant politicians.
VeniceRiley
@Mnemosyne: I met Grey Davis and he and his wife are super nice Oklahomans. I had brought an Okie with me to an event, and they were tickled to talk to someone from back home. I feel bad for what happened to him.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Yup. “Governor lite” in Sactown speak. We once had a RW wacko Lt. Gov. named Mike Curb who pulled some shenanigans while the actual governor was out of the state so the constitution(?) was altered to do away with that nonsense, which further watered down the job.
Newsome has been more engaged than the typical Lt. Gov FWIW.
lgerard
@Brachiator:
Clinton also had a program like this in the mid nineties, raiding a Nebraska meat processing plant and some agricultural companies in Georgia. He had to discontinue it because of complaints from congress, specifically republican congressmen.
Jack Kingston, of all people, had an Op Ed in the AJC criticizing it, pointing out how important these workers were to the local economy..
Steve in the ATL
@schrodingers_cat: friend’s nanny was here from South Africa on a work visa. Decided o take some classes here so she applied for a student visa. Her student visa was rejected, her work visa was rescinded, and she was denied reentry into the US.
MAGA.
lgerard
@The Moar You Know:
There was this guy
Robert Sneddon
@trollhattan: Back in the 90s and 00s it was raining money in the computer and IT biz. Microsoft had a bucket (several buckets), a lot of other companies were doing swan-dives in the rain off the balcony onto high-voltage wires (Apple Computer frex). MS has avoided doing enough stupid shit to keep going and be a great success in large part due to Bill Gates.
Ohio Mom
Bill Gates’s “good deeds” are highly overrated. Diane Ravitch has written at length about the damage he has done/continues to do to the public schools; a few years ago, Dissent magazine ripped apart his public health efforts. He is picking “winners” where he hasn’t the training and deep knowledge necessary to make wise choices.
He suffers from the same malady as the rest of them: he thinks that because he succeeded in one endeavor, he is an expert on everything.
True story: George Rieveschl, who was some sort of chemistry professor at the University of Cincinnati, was the inventor of Benadryl, and as you might expect, profited greatly from developing this medical breakthrough. When he was an old man, and I was a young community arts administrator, we served on the local arts council board at the same time. I was still a little wet behind the ears and was constantly gobsmacked by the ratio between how little he understood about the arts and how much he was fawned upon. It was a good lesson because one sees this dynamic repeated everywhere.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Moar You Know:
A legacy would mean Bill Gates Sr.(actually the II) went to Harvard, he did not. He’s an alum of the University of Washington(undergrad and Law School).
trollhattan
@Robert Sneddon:
True, and Apple is perhaps alive today because Gates invested at a time they were very vulnerable.
The critical Gates, Ballmer and IBM meeting was summer of 1980. Their key concession won was reserving the rights to market MS/DOS by not selling the exclusive rights for DOS to IBM.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan:
The Governor at the time was a guy named Jerry Brown.
moonbat
@Brachiator: Actually during the Obama administration the factory owners who hired undocumented workers were charged. I don’t know that any of them were ever led away in cuffs but they were charged and fined.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Mindless tribalism at its finest. Politics meets pro sports.
john fremont
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Libertarianism AKA Neo Feudalism
john fremont
@MCA1: Probably the same guys who swilled beer and trashed talk for years at the Old Vet stadium during the National Anthem.
SoupCatcher
As this looks like the California primary thread…
Just filling out my ballot now.
Zoe Lofgren running for re-election unopposed in US House District 19.
In a jungle primary.
To ape Nelson Muntz, “Haha!”
r€nato
@Gin & Tonic: do you really think LeBron doesn’t know the Warriors players?
And Steve Kerr has been somewhat vocal about his disgust with Trump.
r€nato
@Gin & Tonic: Steph Curry agrees with Bron. So I’d say that settles that, hmm?
No Drought No More
“We all take a dirt nap eventually. Some of us improve the world when we do”.
They’ll need to build an army base around Dick Cheney’s grave to stop future generations of Americans from pissing on it. If it comes to that, however, I propose the army corps of engineers be permitted to incorporate Cheney’s grave into the base’s septic system. In fact, the army should contract Halliburton to do the job for it- just for laughs, just for kicks, and to insure the men and women of the U.S. army never forget Cheney for the plot to war that killed and maimed so many honorable American soldiers.
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
Hells yes they are!!! That’s why people are trying to get successful candidates to stop using “campaign managers” who just want to buy ads, millions of dollars worth of ads they get a commission on, and use that money to do grassroots organizing!!
Hire actual staff to organize door-to-door visits, with real literature about policy and who has done and said what about issues. Don’t waste money on ads no one is going to see nor pay attention to…
Spend on organizing!! Not on stupid ads!
J R in WV
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Bill Gates (or his minions) stole the actual code for an operating system (CP/M) out of a dumpster, rewrote it a little bit with the services of a friend who got paid bupkis, and then sold that “new” OS to IBM. It was a long time ago, and I’m not saying Gates isn’t smart, but that’s the history.
The rest is history.
Plus rich corporate lawyer father… already mentioned.
Bishop Bag
@Mnemosyne: June 15th is my last day of work… I am retiring from Bishop Elementary School. Yay!
momus
Then again maybe Sessions knew better than most that there was collusion.
oaguabonita
Think Saruman and Grima Wormtongue at the end of LOTR:
I get the same perverse satisfaction.
oaguabonita
@Eljai: Another comment that makes me wonder why this site doesn’t have an uprate function to save me writing this.