I’m not saying it’s a good idea but the anti-Trump base seems pretty exercised so maybe Congress should just impeach him as a goodwill gesture and this polarizing issue behind us. https://t.co/xLHGjPKCi4
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 23, 2018
Trump tweets about the “witch hunt”
May 2017: 3 times
June 2017: 5 times
July 2017: 6 times
Oct 2017: 1 time
Dec 2017: 2 times
Jan 2018: 1 time
Feb 2018: 3 times
March 2018: 2 times
April 2018: 9 times
May 2018: 20 times
June 2018: 22 times— David P Gelles (@gelles) June 23, 2018
“Um Boss, you know Nixon used to always use the phrase Witch hunt.”
“So.”
“Well, you may want to stay away from comparisons to Nixon.”
“This Nixon, Roger says he was treated very unfairly, very unfairly.”
“Um, I guess but…” https://t.co/fK63bKybAa— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) June 23, 2018
Remember when?…
In all seriousness, was there a single article written in 2010 about how most Obama voters still liked Obama? I feel like if you pitched that you’d be laughed at.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 23, 2018
debbie
Including this morning, he’s up to 23 times. Shriekingly hysterical.
zhena gogolia
Yglesias is absolutely right.
Jager
Radio silence from my trumpista friends and family.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
well, trump better watch his ass, cause Jeff Flake has just about had it, he might just do something, I tell ya!
tariffs… wow
MattF
Witches, huh? Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: Jeremy Peters is getting slapped around pretty good, and blocking people who are mocking him, in violation of NYT policy.
I’d bet a dollar he’ll have retreated to Fox or the Weekly Standard within a year
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Right after Suzy Q Collins does something decisive.
BTW I see Weasel Face is campaigning for Heller in NV. I thought Heller was toast even before the last election.
Juice Box
@Jager: Do you get the feeling that they are hiding from you? I do. I would so enjoy rubbing a few noses in the mess.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The weird thing is, he isn’t blocking abusive trolls… he’s blocking people asking good faith questions about the “average voters” he quotes who invariably turn out to be top-level GOP activists.
jacy
I think the phrase “Soft Civil War” is as close as I’ve seen to where we are.
Villago Delenda Est
@efgoldman: “Weasel Face”? You’re going to have to be more specific, although I believe you’re referring to that sniveling little shit Uday.
Patricia Kayden
It’s amazing that Trump has gotten away with blatantly trying to interfere with the Mueller investigation by repeatedly commenting about it and attacking the FBI. No other admin would get away with this outlandish behavior. He has already diminished the office of the Presidency to a shocking degree.
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
My creativity fell out of my brain with all the time in the hospital. It’s the asshole in chief
debbie
They seem to have forgotten their outrage over SHS not being served at the Red Hen.
dm
First Steve Schmidt, and now George Fwill have come out and said “the only way to fix the Republican Party is to vote for Democrats”. Mind you, I’m not too keen on their goal (I’m more at the “delenda est” end of things myself), but I’m all in on the method.
Mai naem mobile
@Villago Delenda Est: if Weasel Face is Junior then he’s only doing it to grift some money from the campaigns or shake down some casino execs.
There was a female USAG who’s on MSNBC often (can’t remember her name) who says that what’s freaking out Trumpov’s team is that Muellers team is not leaking at all which is a sign that Muellers got an overwhelmingly good case. Gawd, I desperately hope she’s right.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fascinating what is a bridge too far for a “reasonable conservative”.
Concentration camps and stealing children: “troubling”
Tariffs on bourbon and soy beans: “I’m going to force Congress to intervene! Maybe!”
Jager
@Juice Box:
I think a few of them are hiding, some are incredibly embarrassed.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
That’s not weird at all, because those are the last people he wants to draw attention to. He doesn’t want anyone asking why it is that all of the “average voters” he highlights just happen to have ties to the Republican Party, because then someone might ask who is putting him in contact with these “average voters.”
cmorenc
@efgoldman:
Susan Collins is the ultimate concern troll for decency.
germy
@dm:
I didn’t know Will was advocating voting for Democrats. I thought he switched from “republican” to “unaffiliated”. I thought he was advocating voting libertarian or something…
germy
@Mnemosyne:
He’s either being played or he’s playing us.
Either way, not a good look for a journalist.
Fair Economist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wish Flake had picked a better hill to die on than tariffs but if* he actually puts the brakes on Trump I’ll be happy.
*Yes I know there are at least a half a dozen times Flake flaked on opposing Trump and none where he did anything more that a speech.
TriassicSands
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, that Jeff Flake is a real profile in courage. Between Flake and Corker we have almost .0091% of an actual courageous politician.*
* Politician: not to be confused with an actual average human being who is many times more courageous than an average politician and on a different spectrum altogether from a Republican politician. Recent indications are that Republicans are evolving into a new species of invertebrate with similarities to the slug, leech, and guinea worm as well as some viruses. Similarities with other parasitic and infectious organisms cannot be ruled out. This isn’t to suggest that Republican politicians aren’t human. They’re still human, it’s their behavior that resembles that of certain other species.
GregB
I think we can assume the upcoming NATO and then Putin meeting will finish off our post war alliances.
Ken
@debbie: That’s because they have the same attention span as Trump.
cmorenc
@germy:
If you read the entirety of Will’s column where he *does* advocate voting for democrats (and for them to elect enough to control the House of Representatives) – he explicitly says that he is depending on the Senate to stay in GOP control in order to neutralize the democratic-controlled house from actually getting any traction with substantive legislation. His goal seems to be to depend on a momentary democratic-controlled house to help check the despicable nastiness of Trump and his Tea-Party supporters in the House, at least long enough for more respectable, reasonable conservatives to regain control of the party, the house, and the Presidency (somehow, at some unspecified point in the future). Here’s the link to the relevant Will column in the WaPost.
sdhays
@germy: If he was played, then I think he’d be fired. That level of unintentional rank incompetence can’t be tolerated. As long as the story fits the “correct” narrative, the details don’t matter. And that’s coming from the man at the top.
dm
@germy: You could be right, I may have read too much into his call for a Democrat-controlled Congress:
Still, the easiest way to achieve that is to vote for it, not just refraining from voting against it.
Redshift
The initial motivation for these was obviously that journalists found it as unbelievable as most of us did that so many people voted for Trump, whereas no one found it hard to believe that people liked Obama. But continuing to do them is just ridiculous; the only reason to be mystified now is if you *still* refuse to believe that racism and white grievance are at work.
Cameron Ramey
@dm: In order to save the republican party we must destroy it.
Spanky
@germy: Not clear What, exactly, Georgie is advocating, except voting just enough Republicans out to gum up the works:
So, as usual, fuck George Will.
No Drought No More
The republican party belittles the Constitutional mechanism of impeachment in 2018 for good reason, having had previously (and successfully) defied it over the course of successive generations. The democratic party was complicit in their subversive activity, too. Successive generations of their representatives irresponsibly turned a blind eye to the exponential challenges of a increasingly radicalized GOP to Constitutional law and norms. Bush-Cheney were held no more accountable for their plot to war than Reagan was held accountable for the Iran-Contra plot. To be sure Bill Clinton proved himself, at best, a great fool for his sexual appetite; but his impeachment charade was nothing less than a calculated act to further reduce American’s belief in Constitutional accountability, this time by reducing it to farce.
Suffice to say, the fly in that ointment for republicans is that treason is no laughing matter. Not the year treason was committed by Benedict Arnold; not in 1860; not in 2018; not ever. There is no way the contemptible sonsofbitches of that benighted party can ridicule and belittle their way out of it, either. Americans will hold them to account for their treachery, come hell or high water- and there’s nothing any republican can do about it.
Jager
MY RWNJ brother in law, who has had the shit beaten out of him verbally for at least 15 years at every family get together, has stopped showing up. He and my sister were on vacation a week ago, he pulled up in the driveway oft my younger sister’s house, dropped his wife off and drove away. It’s to the point where his daughters from his first marriage don’t even speak to him anymore. Years ago he and my sister stayed with Mrs J. and I We caught him listening to Rush on the patio, I turned the radio off and told him if he wanted to listen to the fat bastard he could sit in his rental car in the driveway. He did. He hasn’t been in my house since, it’s much nicer to just have my sis show up by herself.
Spanky
@GregB: Hopefully our European NATO allies will have loaded up on Starbursts before meeting the Americans. Merkel was caught empty-handed last time.
Villago Delenda Est
@dm: Will will always be Rethug slime. This is why all of our current never-Trump allies cannot be trusted long term. It’s like making a deal with Stalin to stop Hitler.
sdhays
@dm: “reduced to minorities“seems to suggest that he thinks Schumer should be Senate Majority Leader too…
Redshift
@germy:
Before he blocked Drezner (I think), his response to having it Drezner’s pointing out that his “regular old Trump supporter” had co-founded a right-wing PAC was to say he didn’t understand the difference between libertarians and “right wing,” which suggests he knew and left it out of the article.
Villago Delenda Est
@sdhays: By that you mean “Pinch” or whatever his fucking nickname is, I take it? Baquet is just a middleman.
Gtrue
With Trumps approval so low, maybe the only “average” Trump voter that the NYTimes CAN interview IS a die hard RWNJ activist…you know, with the other “non-average” supporters being a well spoken Nazi or a non-communicative idiot.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshift: Libertarians in general seem to lean toward white nationalism; their notions of “freedom for all” excludes the melanin enhanced help.
BC in Illinois
Overview:
May ’17 – March ’18 average of 2 7/8 times per month
Raid on Michael Cohen office- April 9, 2018
April 2018: 9 times
May 2018: 20 times
June 2018: 22 times
and June is not yet over.
Redshift
@dm: This is pretty much emblematic of why I never had much respect for Will (and still don’t.) He claims to be horrified by the GOP’s actions, and wants them to lose their majorities, and he can’t even come out and say that in so many words, much less do the most effective thing he could to achieve it, which is use his considerable platform to tell people to vote for Democrats.
tobie
@Spanky: Angela Merkel is fighting for her political survival right now and if the German economy tanks because of Trump’s tariffs on German autos, she will be blamed. In spite of a booming economy, populism has taken root here. No doubt Putin’s minions have been busy on social media fueling this trend. It’s worrisome. Merkel is Europe’s last defense against the rising tide of fascism. If she falls, I don’t know what will happen on the continent.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
I’m going to argue a bit with that assertion that republican politicians are human. I say we cut them open to check, count their rings, because while they look almost human, their words and actions cast a lot of doubt. And by the way what are you doing, slandering slugs, leeches, and guinea worms? They have their place in the world, even if we aren’t exactly sure what or why.
Mike R
My brain must be broken, looking at the pictures of Nixon and the orange one, Nixon looked the least offensive. The cheeto in chief is one repulsive creature.
The Ancient Randonneur
Remember all the conservatives outrage at the Virginia bakery owner who refused to serve VP Biden because Pres Obama said something the owner didn’t like? Remember when VP Biden used his official government Twitter account to call the guy out? No? Probably because they cheered the guy on and Joe Biden is too classy to publicly call out a small business owner on social media.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Considering “wiccans” is on the enemies list that’s a bit ironic of Trump calling it a witch hunt. Who would thought it’s no fun being the target of mob hate because no one will defend you because your such of vile excuse for a human being?
Still waiting for Trump’s child brothel in NYC to come up.
BruceJ
@Patricia Kayden: That’s the point. His entire presidnecy has been staged to be a wrecking ball aimed at the federal government. Breaking it entirely is a required step towards a fascist dictatorship.
Jeffro
@Redshift: yeah I totally agree with you . Something in will’s make up just won’t let him speak clearly, throw in with Democrats even with the Republic at stake, or recognize that the GOP is gone – it is the party of Trump and Trumpism.
I appreciated Steve Schmidt’s recent take, though: “it’s a two party system, and Trump must be stopped, so it’s imperative that we few sane Republicans vote Dem”, full stop. (You hearing this, ‘independents’?)
And for those in the media like even Steven freaking Pearlstein today, Who claim to be caught between the Trump tea party and the liberal Democrats (as if they are SO far left), I would just ask, “ can you picture a republican party any further to the right, or any more stupid/hateful, then the current GOP? No? Exactly. Now can you picture a democratic party any further to the left ? Can you picture one more reactionary than the current one ? You can? GOOD! That was my point.”
Platonailedit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, come on. He is just being true to his name.
sdhays
@Villago Delenda Est: Baquet is the one who is responsible for journalistic quality. But, of course, he was chosen by his boss, so this is what they all want.
Redshift
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s not a coincidence. The entire basis of libertarianism is that only government power restricts “freedom.” Anymore who decides that more powerful people coercing the less powerful isn’t against their “liberty” principles is okay with white supremacy regardless of whether they intended to be.
Ruckus
@Mike R:
Did you live through Nixon? He was a repulsive figure. Smarter in a lot of ways than drumpf, but then that bar is so low it’s below the topsoil. And he was actually just as repulsive in the end, but of course drumpf was/is always repulsive. Has been for 70 yrs. I’ll give him the first 2 yrs, after all he hadn’t learned not to shit in his pants. Oh wait.
Schlemazel
@germy:
I am really OK with goppers staying home on election day or voting for some paste-eating libertarian/natural law/lemon party candidate. I would be OK with any Dem winning a seat with only 40% of the vote just to make this shit slow down & maybe stop.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
He was never fit to be president or a candidate for any public office. The GOP leadership knew this as soon as he jumped into the primaries.
He is performing exactly per expectations, erratically and incompetently.
The dramatic increase in “witch hunt” Tweets is telling. His rage and exasperation is increasing. He needs rallies and executive order ceremonies like an angry ill behaved toddler needs a cookie as a distraction.
The best thing that could happen is for the midterms to deliver Trump a major defeat and return Congress to the Democrats. This would rattle him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Patricia Kayden:
That may not be a bad thing. Obama big complaint was how Congress dumped it’s job on the Presidency.
Redshift
@Jeffro: People who are still clinging to “the extremes of both parties” or “the problem is polarization” just drive me nuts. Republicans galloping to the right is how the parties got so far apart, and Republicans demonizing anyone who disagrees with them is how we got so “polarized,” but those who respond by blaming both sides are aiding and abetting.
If your roommate sets your house on fire and you respond by saying “the problem is the fire, we should work together to solve it,” it’s your fault you keep ending up with ashes.
NorthLeft12
I have to believe that the fascination with the Trump supporters has more than a passing similarity to a carnival sideshow.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I lived through Nixon and heartily celebrated his resignation. Trump is a thousand times worse. Nixon was smart. Trump is not. Nixon was a capable and knowledgeable politician. He actually understood foreign policy.
Trump is a dope.
Nixon actually helped get some anti-poverty programs passed. Trump hates poor and non-white people.
They both have demons and resentments. Nixon tried to control his and ultimately failed. Trump has always given his demons free rein.
I hadn’t considered this last thing before: Nixon was born into a what, middle class Quaker family. He had won a scholarship to Harvard but could not afford it. Had Nixon been born rich, he might have become a Trump, or worse.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Congress was doing that a long time before Obama. They took on the task of confirming executive branch jobs and have taken that to ridiculous levels. And yet they abdicate many of their powers to the executive. It’s like a lot of them want the job for the title alone, but actual work and effort is a bridge way too far.
Mike in NC
Currently reading “Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump” by David Neiwert. Good, scary stuff.
Redshift
@Schlemazel:
I am, too, but no Republican should get more than a golf clap of praise for advocating that.
NorthLeft12
The media seems to be stuck in a cycle;
1. Donald does/says something racist/idiotic/incompetent/cruel/ignorant.
2. MSM sends out reporters to talk with Republican supporters.
3. Republicans confirm that they are still behind their leader and are angry and upset with “unfair criticism”. Say Trump is doing a great job.
4. Go back to 1.
sdhays
@Ruckus: Blaming Congress isn’t fair. The problem is Republican Congresses. The Democratic Congress was much more assertive, under both W and Obama.
ETA: The Obama Republican Congresses were “assertive”, but not in a way which took their actual Constitutional responsibilities seriously.
NorthLeft12
@Brachiator: The treatment of Nixon versus what is currently happening with Trump just show how far that standards of US governance, justice, and media responsibility have sunk.
NorthLeft12
@The Ancient Randonneur: That is exactly what happened.
The hypocrisy of conservatives [yes all of them] knows no bounds.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Yes.
Comparing the two is a fools game. Both are shit, the second is just the worst case of diarrhea ever. Both are vomit, the first is when it just comes up your throat a bit, the second is multiple runs of projectile vomiting. Not a pretty picture but I’ve had both experiences and that small bit of gaging is absolutely nothing compared to projectile vomiting. NOTHING. One is annoying, the other is watching your life, in bright green, all spread before you. The color has changed, everything else is the same, including the clean up that will be required.
JPL
@BC in Illinois: Cohen scared him, but Trump is preparing his defense for not testifying. He promised he would unlike Hillary who wasn’t under oath, he would and would do so under oath. I know if you lie to a federal official, it doesn’t matter if you’re under oath or not.
TriassicSands
@Ruckus:
My apologies to slugs, leeches, and guinea worms. They were used for comparative purposes. The slugs to indicate organisms that are so slow they can barely get anything done and their response time is measured in decades. They also seem to act on instinct and lack the capacity to learn — though admittedly, the average slug is far more intelligent than the average Republican. The leeches represent the Republicans’ need to bleed this country dry of its life blood — in this case compassion, decency, and democracy. And the guinea worms represent organisms that are simply horrific and nauseating.
As for the humanity of Republicans, I’ll reserve judgment until such time as DNA evidence reveals they have evolved into an entirely new species. For now, I’m simply assuming that they occupy a niche on the far reaches of humanity with behavior that mimics that of the worst that humans have to offer. Sadly, there is increasingly less evidence that Republicans continue to be what we would normally consider sentient beings. Admittedly, their behavior looks more and more like that of a lethal virus. Lacking the capacity for rational thought and action, they have simply infected the US with a virus that will prove fatal if we don’t find a way to snuff it out very soon.
B.B.A.
@JPL: Who’d he promise? He can just deny ever saying it. Just like he says the Access Hollywood tape is fake now. “You just tell them and they believe you.”
Brachiator
@tobie:
Yep
You nailed it. Merkel’s interior minister is a member of her coalition partner party. He is anti-immigrant and trying to force concessions in exchange for supporting Merkel on the EU and other attempts to keep the German economy stable.
This is one of the weakness of coalitions in a parliamentary system. You can’t fire your partners if they turn against you.
TriassicSands
@Ruckus:
In addition, if we decide Republicans are no longer human, we absolve them of responsibility for their despicable actions. That is something they don’t deserve.
Omnes Omnibus
@TriassicSands: It is also the kind of othering that the GOP is doing to immigrants. They are humans – just really shitty ones.
B.B.A.
@TriassicSands: But it also means we can just shoot them without a trial, so…
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TriassicSands:
I’m beginning to question their humanity and yet still hold them responsible for their actions. Is that a tenable position or just doublethink on my part?
NotMax
@Brachiator
Yup.
When it comes to suckitude, Nixon was a whirlpool whereas Dolt 45 is a black hole.
Ruckus
@sdhays:
You are right, but do remember that enough of the changes were bipartisan or at least passed with bipartisan votes or procedural changes. We may not be as guilty but we are not perfect either. How many of drumpf’s appointments have received dem votes? The number is more than none.
The work still has to be done, even if done very badly. The country hasn’t stopped existing, the people still need certain things to happen. That they aren’t being done well is still in some ways better than not being done at all. OK that doesn’t apply to the immigration situation. But other than not stopping it, what did/does congress have to do with the situation? This is all on drumpf and his minions.
It would be far better if we actually had a realistic congress of course, but given that half our population seems to be massively racist/stupid/assholes who can’t understand the simple concepts of money, humanity or reality, what do you expect?
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
He would never have been as stupid as Trump.
westyny
@Jager: Awesome.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
I see we are in pretty good agreement.
That is exactly what I thought you meant but really what can you compare the current republican party to? Up thread I’ve compared it’s leader and by association the entire party to diarrhea or projectile vomiting, but I’ve had both and while they both were less than fun, neither was trying to kill me, actually they were trying to do the opposite, in their own way they were trying to help me resolve issues. So in that regard diarrhea and projectile vomiting are better than the republican party. Some here say that it hasn’t always been that way but I disagree, conservatives have been better at hiding their desires but their desires haven’t changed in my lifetime.
Mnemosyne
@Mike in NC:
Neiwert has been warning about pseudofascism potentially turning into full-blown fascism since at least 2003, so he knows what he’s talking about.
sdhays
@Brachiator: It’s not really a problem with coalition governments, but with parliamentary systems. Theresa May’s troublesome Cabinet members aren’t there because of she has a minority government; the problem is that her party is bitterly divided over Brexit, which is reflected in the country at large. The flip side of that is that even though millions more people voted against him and polls suggest that unusually large numbers of his party members disagree with him on major policy initiatives, the Trump Administration is stocked with Trump loyalists, so divisions are squashed.
The fundamental problem is that Merkel’s refugee policy is pretty unpopular – I think I read 57% think it should be curtailed in some fashion.
Brachiator
@Spanky:
Maybe not.
Will is not quite there yet, but he is starting to see that the problem is not just Republicans vs Democrats, but saving democracy.
The new wild cards are open racists running for office as Republicans and ignorant pro-Trump Republican candidates. These are not just Tea Party types, but fools who will support Trump no matter what.
So, it is not just a matter of hoping that Republicans stay home during the midterm elections. Republicans need to come out and defeat Trump candidates in safe GOP districts.
And Republicans need to hold their noses and vote for Democrats in competitive races.
Will does not quite understand that his fantasies about principled conservatism died a long time ago. But he is closer to admitting the danger that Trump represents than most other conservative pundits.
WereBear
@cmorenc: My world makes sense again. George Will is still a whiny jerk. Thank you.
sukabi
@Spanky: you’d think that the “so called” journalists would have been able to identify the problem…both parties are deplorable? THEN STOP GIVING LEGITIMACY TO THE PARTY THAT IS ACTIVELY WORKING TO DESTROY THE GOVERNMENT.
Will is a fuckwit.
Ruckus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Yes.
The are still humans. Even drumpf. Deeply flawed humans but yes human. We do not want to sink to their level, ever. It is both a positive and a negative place to be in. If we emulate them, we are them. If we act better than them we risk losing to their power of stupidity and hate, two strong human traits that need to be excised, but never will be. Such is the saga of humanity and numbers.
Think to the Marshall Plan after WWII. We’d just won a horrible war. Not that all wars aren’t horrible but this one was costly and ended up with a terrible weapon that has caused far more damage to our humanity than it did as a weapon. And it was a horrible weapon. But we showed our humanity, even as we’d had internment camps and racism in our military that rivaled our civilian world. Many thought that we shouldn’t have done the recovery that we did. But look at the last 75 yrs, is the world a better place?
moonbat
I take it as a given that the Washington DC press is hardwired to give Republicans the benefit of the doubt and have been since Reagan. BUT I think what we and the press are really grappling with here is the big myth of all Americans being, at heart, good honest people. Hence all the “How to reason with your crazy Uncle Bill who voted for Trump” articles we keep seeing in social media and the press. As though if you say the right magic combination of words in the right tone, Uncle Bill will vote Democrat next time. But we are kidding ourselves.
I think it would do something scary to a lot of peoples’ self image and the image of the nation as a whole to have to sit down and admit that a good 27 percent of the people in this country have their identities built on the notion that they are by default better than other people — that they will never give up that notion no matter how nicely you phrase the reasoned arguments or facts of the matter. They NEED to feel that they, by virtue of their whiteness, gender, wealth are better. And persuading someone to give up that imagined status is a waste of time. Germany had to face up to that about themselves as a nation, but only after the freakin’ Holocaust shoved it in their faces and the face of the rest of the world. I would hope, since we now know how this played out in the 1930s and 40s that we can face up to this in our nation’s makeup without having a holocaust first.
We need to acknowledge this, marginalize these people, and move on for the survival of the nation and for the good of the rest of the world. Checking with Trump voters after every new administration outrage to see if NOW they see the light is ridiculous. These are not good, honest people. They are racist, sexist, and classist. They are, in a word, ‘deplorable’ and we need to stop giving a megaphone to their voices.
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
The Senate is basically compelled by the Constitution to confirm Presidential appointments from Ambassadors to Cabinet Officials… it isn’t something that was just made up on the spur of the moment. It’s a limitation of the power of the President, and sometimes it keeps obviously incompetent wurms out of the halls of power. Just not recently.
frosty fred
@moonbat:
I have linked to this before.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
Do you honestly think they’ll do that? The Republicans are going to have to be out voted for many years to come. I would like to think that Republicans would come to their senses this fall, but I doubt that’s going to happen.
Brachiator
@sdhays:
Theresa May might not be prime minister had she not joined a coalition with the conservative Northern Ireland party, the DUP. This has turned out to be a catastrophe since the DUP refuses any sensible border agreement between Northern Ireland and Ireland, adding to all the other foolishness over BREXIT.
I think that the Conservative Party is less divided over BREXIT than you suggest. But some of them realize that it is stupid, but don’t know a way of backing out of it without handing the government over to the Labour Party after the inevitable political backlash.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
The only thing principled conservatism was about was that they knew not to say the bad parts out loud. Their issues are still the same, they just forgot their principle, which was shut the fuck up. drumpf won because he’s not a principled conservative, he never understood the rule in the first place. Along with all manner of other things he doesn’t understand.
And what do you know, it’s the bad parts the rabble wanted to hear.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
There is no such thing as out voting a Republican in a safe Republican district.
I don’t know what Republicans will do. But too many people want to insist that all Republicans are the same. This is not true. Trump had a base among voters, but he is now trying to formally bring into elected office ignorant fools who will push out all other Republicans. If these people get dug in, it will be harder to repair the damage that Trump has caused.
sukabi
@J R in WV: advice and consent doesn’t give blind, blanket approval over any and all presidential appointments. Republicans have abdicated their duty to defend and uphold the constitution and have ceded their power to this president.
A Ghost To Most
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
They are alt-human. They have chosen to shed their humanity.
Calouste
@Brachiator:
You can actually. Most notably in Germany in 1982, the FDP who were the junior coalition partner fired the SPD and formed a new coalition with the CDU/CSU.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
But are their enough safe Republican districts to retain control of the House indefinitely?
TriassicSands
@Ruckus:
Honestly, I think the best comparison is with the nascent Nazi Party. I know what kind of reception that gets in polite society, but I think we ignore where the current Republican thinking could lead at our extreme peri!. Before Trump most of maintream America would have denied that someone like Trump could be nominated, let alone elected. Then, the expectation was that the GOP would control Trump, and we’ve seen how well that has worked out. The next two elections will tell us a lot about where we are headed, but there is no denying that millions of Americans are lined up and ready to be “good Germans.”
@Omnes Omnibus:
I agree. I just don’t think “really shitty” is quite adequate to describe their awfulness and the danger they pose. When I look at Trump, I see the bottom of the barrel. In another country, I could see Trump ordering summary executions and mass incarceration of political enemies. I doubt think there is anything Trump wouldn’t do to garner support and adulation from worshipful cult members.
germy
“You gotta be selfish. It’s a terrible thing.”
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Trump is not just saying bad parts out loud. He and his cabinet and advisors have made cruelty and bigotry official government policy. And with the complicity of a GOP dominated Congress, they are shredding democracy.
Some conservatives don’t understand that even they might not be safe under such a capricious regime.
cmorenc
@WereBear:
Yes, but at least momentarily, whiny jerk George Will is helping put some wind in the sails in the right direction, even though he would rather the ship ultimately wind up in an undesirable destination.
Omnes Omnibus
@TriassicSands: Does “unbelievably shitty” work better?
sukabi
@NotMax: Black hole?
debbie
@Brachiator:
They glorify their cruelty as being what makes America great.
Bill Arnold
Dang. DJ Trump just (6 hours ago) told the Democrats to SUBMIT:
I have no idea. Is that just stupid, or is it a prod to do some counterproductive action, or what???
Brachiator
@germy:
You have to be a special kind of fool to believe crap like this. I’ve heard other people say this as well.
In every case, the person saying this is insulated from the pain Trump is causing others, and convinced that they will never be affected.
Jack the Second
Has “populism” always meant “racism/nationalism”?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jack the Second: It has always been a danger. I have never been comfortable with the populism that many on the left have asked for. Too often, it is ugly.
cain
@sdhays:
It might be better to do that. I’ve heard all kinds of things going on there. A lot of the refugees are not prepared to live in a western country it seems? I don’t know. But chaos is definitely going to be a political albatross around her neck regardless whether it is the right thing to do or not.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Brachiator:
Not that everything would turn out all roses, but we have at least one thing going for us that Nazi Germany never had: deep political polarization. Why is that a good thing? Trump and the GOP have tens of millions (perhaps even a hundred million?) of opponents that hate their guts and won’t go quietly into that good night. I think we’re beginning to see the beginnings of this. People are waking up and seeing where this could all end.
Bess
RawStory
B.B.A.
@cain: The West is responsible for the wars that displaced them. It is our duty to take them in, no matter the cost to us.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Exactly.
Once they learned that they could say the bad parts out loud they figured they could get away doing the bad parts. So far they are right. But the bad parts have always been the same. It didn’t always seem so to those of us on the other side, because the higher ups on the conservative side of the aisle didn’t say the loud parts, out loud. And not saying them out loud kept a lot in the background, out of sight, out of mind. Right now out loud is the only thing they know and they have decades of holding their mouths shut and not saying the stupid shit out loud. drumpf, being a stupid shit who’s never learned not to say the shit out loud and who is that bad seed of an uncle, the one never left alone with kids at the family gatherings or allowed to drink at parties because he gets even worse than normal, isn’t just saying the stupid shit out loud, he shouting it from the podium with the spot light.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Right, Germany wasn’t set up with Nazis vs. Socialists and Communists.
Brachiator
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Don’t know. Remember that gerrymandering and voter suppression are ongoing GOP projects.
Note that I am not saying that Republicans are all powerful. But Republicans also have to decide whether they will simply submit to Trump or create their own resistance movement.
Here’s a quick example. Libertarians love to blubber about the evil government and eminent domain. But here comes Trump talking about taking land to build his wall. It’s funny watching conservatives fall all over themselves trying to pretend that Trump is not stomping over their “sincerely held” beliefs. What do they do about it?
germy
@Brachiator:
Of course. David is a very wealthy man who, according to the interview, doesn’t like leaving his mansion.
The world could explode, and as long as he could get groceries delivered, he’d be fine.
EDIT:
I seem to recall a few years back, David Lynch hosting (or appearing onstage with) a man he praised highly. The man proceeded to stand up and launch a speech that sounded like it came from Hitler, with Lynch sitting and smiling uncomprehendingly through the whole thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@B.B.A.: The West is an entity? I agree that countries should take in as many refugees as they can, but how is Germany responsible for Syria’s refugee crisis.
@cain: Where should the refugees go?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus:
Germany also didn’t have as strong a democratic tradition that we have. Or the large amount of land to physically control that we do. Or the 2nd amendment. The government isn’t as centralized as Germany’s was I believe. The armed forces are currently stretched thin across the globe as well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshift: The ultimate expression of this is Newt Gingrich complaining about “incivility” towards Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Newt personally put this show on the road in the early 90’s.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Moving the goalposts.
ETA: I am willing to discuss/argue the Weimar vs USA comparison all day, but please stay on topic.
Ladyraxterinok
@tobie: Until recently Germans were very sensitive to anything reminding themselves and the world of their past. Looks like fear of non-European immigrants and of Muslims overrides everthing else.
Our world is reversing the historical deveolpement of society – start with self, then family, then clan, tben tribe, then country/nation , then world. (This is what I remember from a few lectures yrs ago.)
This regression has (publically) moved disturbingly quickly. How soon do we reach family alone. (Seems T is somewhere between me/myself/and I and family.)
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus:
No it’s not. How is it moving the goalposts? I’m supporting my argument.
ETA: You brought up the divide between socialists and communists vs fascists in Germany as a rebuttal to my argument that the USA would not end up exactly like Nazi Germany. I responded by pointing out all of the differences between 1930s Germany and America today to show that it won’t be the same situation.
TriassicSands
@Omnes Omnibus: I
Better, but we might need the King of Hyperbole (hint: he’s the president) to come up with enough superlatives strung together to do their awfulness justice.
Mike in DC
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
To me, “coming to their senses” means abandoning the culture/race war, embracing diversity for real, and taking at least token steps to address real income inequality. When will that happen? My best guess: about 10-20 years past the point where gerrymandering and various kinds of vot suppression begin to lose effectiveness. So, probably some time in the 2040s. We’re going to be dealing with the race-baiting bs until then.
Villago Delenda Est
@A Ghost To Most: The positive aspects of their humanity. They’re fully embraced all the negative aspects, the ones that make them superb concentration camp guards.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: You claimed deep polarization. I pointed out the same in Weimar Germany and you added things.
tobie
@sdhays:
Germany closed its borders some time ago. What people are complaining about is Merkel’s decision to take in close to one million Syrian refugees in 2014/2015. The country isn’t taking in refugees right now.
@cain: I haven’t heard that refugees have had a difficult adjustment to life in Germany. There was one incident on New Years Eve in Cologne in 2016. The ultra-right is now trying to make hay of the murder of a 15-year-old girl by her Syrian refugee boyfriend. Apparently he went berserk when she left him for another boy. But this is just one isolated incident that the right is using for propaganda in Germany. I can’t think of any other crimes done by Syrian refugees.
TriassicSands
@Omnes Omnibus:
Impossibly shitty might be in the ballpark — but still inadequate.
Let’s see, really, unbelievably, impossibly shitty. Getting warmer.
Of course, if we left it to Trump, he’d immediately dehumanize them and that would go against what we’re trying to do.
Mike R
@Ruckus: Sure did almost got a second vacation in SE asia under his leadership. Benevolent First Sargent sent on a med cruise instead.
Josie
@Villago Delenda Est: No kidding. Being lectured by Newt on civility is the height of irony.
Brachiator
@germy:
I tremendously respect Lynch as a director. But he seems to be a stereotypical “artiste” who is peculiar and untrustworthy as a human being.
Omnes Omnibus
@TriassicSands: I have no more adverbs. You know what I mean.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Omnes Omnibus:
I suppose I should have included those things in my first comment.
tobie
@Ladyraxterinok: We really do seem to be moving backward in terms of the political order. My husband thinks Putin has played a huge role in this phenomenon. This could be the case. I just don’t know given that the phenomenon is global.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: If you wanted them as a part of your argument, then yes.
TriassicSands
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yep. It’s probably hopeless. Which is a reasonable description of the Republicans.
Omnes Omnibus
@TriassicSands: Infinitely shitty? Can we agree on that?
Doug R
@Brachiator:
Democratic Senator from Alabama says WHAT?
Ladyraxterinok
@tobie: Also note T’s ambassador to Germany who is publically supporting RW people/parties in Europe. He invited RW head of Austria to dinner when that leader was on visit to Berlin. Trump is blatantly working to take down democracy here and everywhere else.
Doug R
@germy:
Showing a bit of white privilege are we, David Lynch?
JPL
@Bess: If true, Mueller will be gone sooner rather than later, and the repubs will say it’s unfortunate. It would take someone like Warner to spill the beans and risk imprisonment for it to stop. imo
Omnes Omnibus
@JPL: Warner has privilege for whatever he says on the Senate floor.
MoCA Ace
@TriassicSands:
I would much rather have guinea worms than Republicans!
Ladyraxterinok
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: I discovered Niewert and tbogg around 2000 when they were posting at Salon’s Table Talk.
Brachiator
@Doug R:
Obviously I was talking about House Congressional districts.
Or are you referring to a former Democratic Senator who ran for the House?
Omnes Omnibus
@Ladyraxterinok: Table Talk was interesting, wasn’t it? I don’t recall Niewert from there, but I do remember real time interactions with Tbogg.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve been mulling over a theory of why this time things will be different. Maybe I’m wrong. I’d appreciate your feedback (as crushing as necessary ;-):
True, Hitler had deep opposition. He rounded ’em up and killed ’em off. But that wasn’t the root of the Nazi regime; the root of the Nazi regime was killing off racial undesirables. [And sure, he did it a-go-go in the conquered lands, but setting that aside.] In Germany that was the Jews. Thing is, Germany had 3% Jews. This is very, very different from America, where the non-Hispanic White population is 62%. [I’m exaggerating — the White+Hispanic population is 77%.] By any measure, there are too many for them to kill us off without inciting a fratricidal civil. war. And the fighting will necessarily involve the destruction of technological infrastructure, which is all very, very fragile. I strongly doubt that the carrying capacity of the USA without that infrastructure to support even -agriculture- is going to be 200m people, not to speak of 300m [but hey, all us brown people will be dead, so 200m should be what’s left *grin* *grimace*]
I’m not assuming anything about what the white population does or does not do. True, I think that many white people will stand up. But it’s not necessary for that to happen, for America as a modern economy to be destroyed.
So: what did Thomas Piketty write? That the only way that capital accumulation by the rich class ever is reversed, in modern times, is via war. I think the rich know this. And at some point, they’ll put a stop to all this madness, b/c they understand that they don’t want their “stuff” destroyed.
America is a technologically-dependent, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial country. Once that goes far enough, you can’t undo it, without destroying it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@cmorenc: Yep, and he actually said in that column that any Democrats would of course as we all know be a “basket of deplorables”. Seems to me I’ve heard that phrase somewhere, but where?
But he feels it’s a necessary evil to put those terrible Democrats in there for “gumming up the works”. Till the REAL Republicans can come back and put things right. Because there’s so much evidence they exist and are still part of the party.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: I think that the number of people who actively support what you call out of here is fairly small, It is just in power now because a lot of things failed. Me, I think we take a shitload of power back in November and first stop the harm and then start working on fixing.
Ladyraxterinok
@moonbat: I had to face this before the election. One of my brothers just flat out said ‘I’m racist and proud to admit it.’ It had been pretty obvious for decades, but at this time he proudly acknowledges it. My other brother was in Vietnam and is permanently anti democratic party because of what he perceives as their/our actions re that war. I learned this during the FL mess of 2000, but didn’t try to discover what specific crimes he believes the dems had commited.
J R in WV
Foolish Doug, he was telling you that in a world where a Democratic candidate could win a Senate seat from Alabama, no race is a cure thing for the Republicans, especially with little children in concentration camps today. They could hardly have found a better issue to stop themselves with than punishing little cute babies.
The Republicans are truly moronic evildoers who can’t tell which things they might do are the worst for their cause, as they have no scope of morality whatsoever. Everything they consider doing seems all good to them, regardless of the evil contained in it to the real world.
My nym and email is gone here now!
JPL
@J R in WV: I had to reenter my name and email, and then hit the remember me button. So far so good.
Kay
Compare/contrast:
Yet ALL of the political media coverage at the time was focused on the unpopularity of Obamacare while Trump’s more unpopular law is portrayed as a “win”.
‘Tis a mystery. We just don’t get good political reporting. It has nothing to do with facts or even polling so it’s not based on public opinion- it’s some strange, arbitrary ranking system that has nothing to do with anything. They just say what they say.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes, I’m 100% with you. And I view political contributions in this cycle (and next) as insurance premiums on not becoming a refugee. I don’t have a second citizenship, and nor does anybody in my family. But as a brown person, I think about it. And so, I think about what I’d do, if the worst came. No, I don’t think it will, for the reasons you state: I think most Americans want to live in this multi-cultural country, eat good tacos, cheer on Brazil’s team, and find Idris Elba hot hott hotttt. Every Dem win in a red-state special election reinforces that belief.
I was just “speculatin’ on a hypothesis”. [_Miller’s Crossing_ reference — gay gangsters … *damn*]
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: Listen, you bastard, I am not cheering for Brazil. Nope, you can’t make me. But I do agree that people should be free to do so, even if they are wrong.
#France, and fallback #Belgium.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: AAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Dude, I don’t even watch sports. But all that said, wasn’t that last NBA finals a hoot? Lebron … it’s, like, a greek tragedy or some such. Greek b/c I hear that part of why the Cavs weren’t so hot, is that he demanded to get paid a ton. Made it hard to hire talent w/o breaching the salary cap. In his defense, I heard that one other time when he acquiesced in a lower salary, the owners took the money and ran, didn’t hire better a team with it.
So: greek tragedy. I didn’t watch the games, but read about ’em in the Guardian.
[And just as a reminder: I live in SF. So I -really- don’t give a shit about spectator sports.]
Brachiator
@Chet Murthy:
I am not sure about this. Also, I don’t think that “the rich” are a monolithic group with the same goals.
It’s strange. Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers seem to be happy with all the chaos going down and continue to encourage it. Some of these plutocrats seem to think that they will prosper under an increasingly unhinged Trump regime.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus:
OK, I gotta poke that critter with a stick. A long stick. A loooong stick.
Uh …. I don’t follow soccer, but aren’t Brazil like, y’know, the world kings of Soccer? I thought that was a well-established fact? No? I mean, every now and then they lose, but that’s a fluke, not a pattern?
sdhays
@Brachiator: Certainly, the DUP doesn’t help (and I can’t quite wrap my mind around how self-destructive the people who voted for those asses in the DUP are – as quiet as Northern Ireland is now, The Troubles are not at all in the distant past and it seems their dream is to restart them; anyone voting for Brexit in Northern Ireland is completely out of their freaking mind). But regardless of that, there are Cabinet ministers who are full-on hard-Brexiters like Boris Johnson and others who think Brexit is insanity and desperately want to do the bare-minimum to respect the outcome of the referendum while keeping as much of the current status-quo in place like Phillip Hammond.
May has the power to dismiss either of them, but they have constituencies in the party which make them powerful independent of their position in the Cabinet.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: They have won a number of times. But so have the Yankees in their sport.
#France, and fallback #Belgium.
Jeffro
@Redshift:
Amen and amen.
Folks who talk about extremes need to tell me: What, exactly, is so extreme about the modern Democratic party? Are they confiscating estates or setting maximum incomes? Are they mandating we all eat granola and spritz on patchouli every day? Are we all required to read the deep thoughts of Che Guevara or something? I must have missed a memo. Today’s Dems as a whole are no more ‘left’ than George Bush the elder or Nixon, policy-wise.
Somewhat related: I’m sketching out an op-ed/letter to the editor about how all Democrats seem to be held to account for any left-wing ‘offense’ anywhere, while Republicans skate for right-wing behavior everywhere. The media abets this to a ridiculous degree. It has to end, and that means we start by pounding on the media about it. If some professor at Podunk U takes “political correctness” a degree too far, that’s not on me…not unless all GOP voters everywhere bear the burden of backing a pedophile in the AL Senate race. Same standards. Wait…#SameStandards…that’ll do!
Jeffro
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Yes, they will have to be out-voted for many years to come.
No, Republicans will not be coming to their senses this fall.
85-90% of them will support Dear Leader, while 10% will hold their nose and vote with/for Dems. That is pretty significant, because the 85-90% are of a shrinking pool willing to call themselves “Republicans”. That’s why they top out at 27% of the country. If we can get 10% of the GOP to defect and win a majority of “independents”, we will swamp them.
Chet Murthy
@Brachiator: Re: Piketty, he’s marshalled a lot of evidence that that’s the case (“r>g” except when wars destroy capital big-time).
Re: Koch/Murdoch/Mercer, you’re right. Mancur Olson has this thesis about “mobile” vs “stationary” bandits. Basically, that mobile bandits cause peasantry to not invest in immovable things (e.g. sowing crops) b/c the bandits come along and take it (e.g. at harvest time). Whereas stationary bandits take their percentage, but allow peasants to invest. So stationary bandits prosper over mobile ones. Victor Davis Hanson [spit, spit, spit] makes related claims about agriculture — stuff about fire-resistance of grape vines (? olive trees? I forget) in Greece. And it’s been argued that the reason places like Italy, Britain, and Japan enjoyed high degrees of cultivation of truly marginal land, where Germany was largely pastoral, is that the German plain is just too easy for mobile bandits to sweep thru. If you’re a herder, and you hear about bandits comin’, you can just gather up your herd and move away.
OK, so that was a meander. Back to the Kochs [spit]. Nobody said all billionaire were sane. Some aren’t. But overall, they have to act sanely (not decently — sanely) in order to perpetuate their fortunes. Even if they’re incapable of acting sanely in the long-term, in the *short-term* they must act sanely. B/c in the short term they can see the effects of their actions.
An example: someone pointed out that, unlike during the First Internet Boom, tech today *is* the stock market. And given that America still refuses to invest in educating its young, we have to hoover up basically as much of the educated talent of the rest of the world, as we can afford to. If the pogroms come, how’s that going to work? I spent 14mo at Google: the place is *incredibly* diverse. [No, it’s not diverse when it comes to under-represented minorities, and this is still a problem.] Asians and dark-skinned people like me *everywhere*. Over half the workforce, last I checked. How’s it going to work, when Google employees can’t travel for work (that’s already happened), or get harassed by ICE, or start getting killed? No, the sane billionaires know where their interests lie.
A Ghost To Most
Nazis.
Jeffro
@Bess:
I’m telling y’all, it’s going to be hundreds of indictments against dozens of people, dropped all at once. Including Don Jr. and Jared.
Peale
@sdhays: yep. I wish it weren’t so, but probably EU is done as a destination for refugees or other immigrants if it wants to maintain other institutions. Not certain it will survive longer anyway. With the UK out, Italy off the Euro, authoritarian regimes in Hungary, Poland…and still no common development policy I can see the EU falling apart rather quickly. It seems like even the winners have convinced themselves that they are losing out to someone…
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
???
The Kochs – well, Charles, that is, since he axed David – are actively working against Trumpov’s tariffs now and are withholding support from RWNJ loons like Corey Stewart. They’re probably quite happy with their tax cuts and the deregulation/non-enforcement going on, but I don’t think they’re happy with the stuff that affects/could affect their bottom line.
Brachiator
@Kay:
I think the coverage was quite good. It noted that a lot of foolish people loved the Affordable Care Act but hated Obamacare, and were stupidly voting against their own interests.
There was also good coverage of the inability of Republicans to repeal Obamacare.
There was also good coverage of angry Town Hall meetings and politicians running away from constituents who wanted to talk about health care.
Coverage of Trump’s tax plan noted his legislative victory, but the vast majority of stories clearly laid out how it was a bonanza for the wealthy that would not do much for the economy or for the middle class or the working poor.
And in many ways, whether people support or oppose the new tax law says little about whether they understand its implications.
But I’ve seen a number of stories where people note that the tax law hasn’t increased their paychecks. The Trump true believers have faith in him anyway despite not seeing any tangible benefit.
TriassicSands
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
It’s completely understandable.
Burnspbesq
@Mai naem mobile:
The lack of leaks from Mueller’s shop can be fully explained by those folks taking their legal and ethical obligations seriously—which neither the Trumps nor the media can’t get their heads around.
TriassicSands
@MoCA Ace: ii
I don’t blame you. It’s easier to get rid of guinea worms.
debbie
@A Ghost To Most:
He needs to be reminded that people weren’t being “baked” until years into the Nazi regime. Though I’d bet he already knows that. ??
Citizen Alan
@Doug R:
1. He said District, as in Congressional. Gerrymandering doesn’t work at the statewide level.
2. And even then, it took the Republicans running a goddamn pedophile for the Democrat to even have a chance.
TriassicSands
@Omnes Omnibus:
Infinitely to the googolplex squared. We’re in the ballpark, but sort of back at “unbelievably.” Damn, this is hard.
debbie
@germy:
David Lynch has been an asshole for many, many years.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
Yep. You are right about this. I oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy.
The Kochs and other plutocrats are so diversified that it’s tough to say where their bottom line is.
Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News, which steadfastly supports Trump and right wing idiocy. And whatever craziness goes on, Murdoch is still going to pocket $71 billion from the sale of entertainment assets to Disney.
The Kochs and others appear to be happy with the near shutdown of government agencies by incompetent or venal Trump appointees, and the erosion of civil liberties under DOJ and ICE.
The Chamber of Commerce wing of the GOP loved cheap immigrant labor, but sit back and watch Trump run amok.
And the plutocrats have yet to send a note to their lapdogs, the GOP leadership directing them to put a muzzle on Trump.
burnspbesq
@Kay:
A surprising number of people have sufficient arithmetic skills to compare their current take-home pay to last year’s.
dww44
@Brachiator: I don’t care about rattling DT. Delivering a resounding defeat to the GOP is the firststep towards reclaiming our country and our democracy and to begin repairing the damage that Trump has done to our image and to the world order. The rest of the sane world does think we’ve collectively lost our marbles! Thanks GOP.
BoDiddleySquat
@germy:
It’s more like the headline editor is advocating that. George Fucking Will’s column is more along the lines of “Don’t vote Republican!” But then he calls Democrats, ALL Democrats “Deplorables.” I am not making that up.
Rand Careaga
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I’m put in mind of C.V. Wedgwood’s tart observation about relations between the “legislature” and the “executive” in the Holy Roman Empire during the early seventeenth century:
debbie
@Kay:
Re: tax cuts. Just wait til they find out the standard deduction really isn’t doubling because they stripped away exemptions and the 65+ deduction.
dww44
@Redshift: There was an unexpected and stark Screen Gif during the CBS Sunday Morning magazine show today. It was posted towards the end of the 1 1/2 hour program just before an ad during that portion where there are lots of back to back ads.
“According to the Census Bureau, deaths among White Americans now exceed births of same in more than 1/2 of the states”
That may not be the exact text, but it’s pretty close and it went away so fast I think I missed the last bit of it. It was almost as if someone sneaked that in.
Fair Economist
@B.B.A.:
Morally, yes, but if the cost is that Russia will use the resulting political trouble to destroy the West that is very much not worth it. The lynchpin of the complete (Hungary, Poland) or partial (UK, US, Itally) takeover by neofascists has been anti-immigrant propaganda. Now it’s being turned on Germany. Would we really be better off if Merkel tries to hold the line and gets the boot for a CSU-AFP coalition?
Brachiator
@Chet Murthy:
I’ve downloaded a lot of his work, but just have not had time to really go through it. But my spidey sense bristles at many of his observations and conclusions.
I think that some rich people find ways to keep their loot even during war. German and Japanese industrialists, for example.
You make a lot of great points, and I have to go for a while and cannot do them all justice.
One thing, though. Racist Trump advisors hate non-white people, even brainy Google types and don’t give a shit what happens to them. Trump supporters include the worst educated and people who think that all you need in life is a working understanding of the Bible. They hate what they perceive to be a distant educated elite, but don’t have a coherent idea of an alternative.
Loved your reference of Victor Hanson. He is wrong about so much. Tough to subdue ancient and medieval Britain, Japan, or even Greece and Italy without a navy. But easier to rampage through Germany with an army or horde.
Anyway, great note, lots of stuff to think about, that hopefully will come up later. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
Brachiator
@debbie:
The additional standard deduction for the elderly and the blind is not changed.
But yeah, the elimination of personal exemptions may hit a lot of taxpayers as will the elimination or reduction of many itemized deductions.
Ruckus
@Mike R:
So, was asswipe number one better or worse than asswipe number two?
I think it depends on your perspective more than anything. #1 got a lot of people killed with his lying end the war bullshit, #2 is going to get a lot of people killed with his racism is OK bullshit. I notice that bullshit is a common theme between asswipes.
Immanentize
@dww44: I heard a thing last week on NPR about this. They didn’t talk about the “1/2 of states” part, I don’t think, but it was basically — whites are dying faster than they are having babies which is expected to accelerate the browning of the US.
Pangloss
27%
https://twitter.com/QuinnipiacPoll/status/1008801403333238784
sukabi
@Jeffro: Nunes, Ryan, McConnell and Pence had better be included in the bracelets and bars brigade…otherwise we’re still in trouble.
Obdurodon
@Jager: I’ve been noticing the same thing. Formerly loud Trump-loving relatives (I have no Trump-loving friends that I know of) have pretty much all gone silent. One of them has moaned a few times about how “both sides” have lost their civility, but nothing directly about Trump or his allies, his opponents, or his policies. No expressed glee at alienating our allies. No celebration of his great diplomatic victory in North Korea. Just crickets. They’re all giving us some time to forget, before they start claiming they never *really* supported him. Like him, they’re cowards.
sdhays
The comment link at the top is broken – now goes to Twitter.
debbie
@Brachiator:
I read the joint statement and yes it was removed when Congress passed the tax cuts.
Doug R
@Obdurodon: In a few decades, we’ll find nobody ever voted for him.
Wild Cat
@Brachiator: No suprise. “Wild at Heart” is racist to the core and “Eraserhead” reflects the time Lynch had to live among the Blahs in Philly. I do like many of his films, but he’s a sick mofo.
Pangloss
@dww44: New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/us/white-minority-population.html
MoCA Ace
@Brachiator:
It’s like stock market bubbles. Plutocrats will stick with Republicans until they perceive that trump’s actions outweigh the benefits of tax cuts and further deregulation… however, like investors they all think the “good times” will last just a little longer and they are smart enough to get out before the fall. Most will be too late and find their dicks in the grinder before they oppose trump and try to reanimate the long dead “moderate” Republicans.
Lets hope the Dems are smart enough to throw them an anchor instead of a life preserver as they are wont to do “for the good of the country”. Personally I am not hopeful.
debbie
@debbie:
This is the document I was referring to. If changes were made later, I apologize for any error.
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
True. I’m surprised there aren’t more Democratic ‘pitches’ to CEOs of companies big and small: you think this won’t hurt your business? Your employees? Your retirement?
Problem is, it’s very hard for them to act collectively against Trumpov (same with Congress) – individually they will get singled out/picked off/made an example of.
Jeffro
@Pangloss: It is second only to the sun rising in the east every morning in its reliability. Friends and family think it’s funny when I tell them about the “Crazification Factor”…and then the stories and polls and evidence rolls in…they don’t think it’s all that funny anymore.
JPL
@Immanentize: Andrew Sullivan will be preaching how important it is for the young whites to have families.
Yes I know, but he preached about legal immigration, although when they were reviewing his status, he had a simple charge of possession.
henqiguai
Jeffro
@sukabi: I hope so too. Nunes most especially would be in the cross hairs for both conspiracy against the United States and abetting. The others will (unfortunately) likely skate. The foolish optimist in me wants to think they’ll never hold a respectable job again after everything comes out, but history tells me otherwise.
rikyrah
Sherrilyn Ifill
Verified account @Sifill_LDF
Sherrilyn Ifill Retweeted Sherrilyn Ifill
Do not think for one minute that this disdain for due process will be ltd to the immig context. This President has already shown contempt for the rule of law & has worked hard to make his followers share this disdain. This may be the most dangerous stmt made by this President.
https://twitter.com/Sifill_LDF/status/1010997222736003073?
Immanentize!
@JPL: The fact that Andrew was admitted to the country and then granted citizenship — when he was — has always suggested that ol’ Sully might not be entirely honest about his HIV status. Or, at the very least, he was the beneficiary of white anglo-saxon privilege pulling beyond, way beyond, the norm. It may be an awful thing I am saying, but he seemed only to discuss it when he was being (rightly) attacked. I lost friends, colleagues and client in the plague when I was in Miami in the late ’80’s. Then again, as rikyrah often says, the curve for white men is real. But, I was only a casual observer of that whole experience, so forgive me if my spidey sense is off.
Am I a very bad person?
Immanentize
I had a comment eaten because I updated by email. Beware. Now is not the time to make changes….. My comment:
Immanentize
@rikyrah: This is the nub of the rule o’ law. Due process is not all it’s cracked up to be, or could be. But it is certainly all we have.
Immanentize
@JPL: comment 205 is to you….
JPL
@Immanentize: lol I’m suggesting that a gay man is going to write a column on the importance of childbirth for young white families. What would that make me? I’ll accept congrats when he does though.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
Immanentize
@JPL:
A member of teh Catholic clergy?
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
You are NOT a bad person. Not even a suspicious person. Makes sense. When he immigrated, we were in the bad old days of HIV. You aren’t the only one over the years who has wondered how his immigration status went all the way through to a citizenship ceremony.
Uh huh
Uh huh
A lot of the reason why he always got on my nerves and deserved nothing but contempt….
this muthaphuckin’ azz had HIV, but never had to negotiate the American Healthcare system with it..
And then, had the nerve to promote that Betsy McCaughy bish during the Clinton Years, when Hillary was trying to do Healthcare.
Oh yeah, Ain’t nobody forgotten Andrew.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
What do you folks think of protesters protesting on a street in a city and blocking traffic?
Mary G
More fuckery:
JPL
@Immanentize: lol but just no.
PPCLI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@Fair Economist:
I don’t want to get my hopes up too much, but I’m less pessimistic than usual about Flake taking a stand on this. He isn’t running for re-election, which means that he has to be thinking about that sweet, sweet lobbyist/thinktank cash that will come his way when he leaves. But that serves up the Core Problem: how to avoid complete submission to a despicable, human being that drains the life and self-respect from everything he touches, without closing off the spigot to the trough. But those tariffs have the potential to cost the Koch brothers and others like them an awful lot of money. They are no doubt beginning to realize Trump is actually deranged, and not just playing. So it’s an opening for Flack to both play the moral, country-over-party hero, and still make sure his future will contain many satchels of Krugerrands slipped to him under the table.
That’s my guess as to why he might be taking a stand on this specific point, rather on any of the others that have presented themselves.
Omnes Omnibus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I have no issue with it.
JPL
This can’t be true.. ugh
https://twitter.com/columlynch/status/1011038260108251136
Matt McIrvin
@Gtrue: I’m repeating myself, but Trump’s support isn’t that low. It’s been inching upward and is somewhere in the low forties. Basically nearly all Republicans approve of the guy and all of the evil stuff he does, just as if he were George W. Bush around mid-administration.
Matt McIrvin
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Non-violence doesn’t mean you can’t cause any trouble. Sometimes you have to.
Suzanne
Jeff Flake is a spineless POS. Whatever. He’ll go back to Mesa, aka HELL, and we’ll be free of him.
So Kyrsten Sinema is polling ahead of Ward, McSally, and Arpaio. I would be happier about that if she was much of an improvement.
SIGH.
Please remind me that more Democrats leads to better Democrats.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro:
You’re looking in the wrong direction.
It’s hard for us to remember, now, how extremely racist and sexist and homophobic and transphobic even most liberals were 20 or 30 years ago. Hell, even 10 years ago seems like a different world in some ways. If you look at polling on cultural hot-button issues like whether people think African-Americans are still subject to discrimination and police brutality, or whether you think immigration is on balance good or bad, or whether people should be able to marry people of the same sex, you see these gigantic liberal opinion shifts over just the past couple of decades, and most of the shift is typically among people identifying as Democrats. In some cases, the Republicans went the other way; in other cases, they just stayed more or less the same or even liberalized a little. But there was a huge change among Democrats.
When people talk about how the Democrats got unbearably extreme, they’re not talking about taxation or redistribution or the seizure of the means of production. They’re talking about that stuff. Race, sex, religion. These positions that seem unremarkable to us now are wildly extreme by the standards of, say, Democrats in 1990. That’s why Thomas Frank is so convinced that’s what ruined us. He’s wrong–if we didn’t do that we’d have just run into a different kind of trouble, because the society is really changing. But it’s a source of reaction and resistance.
Matt McIrvin
@Doug R: Either that, or in a few decades we’ll find nobody ever voted against him.
Matt McIrvin
@Jack the Second: It’s usually been a major component.
sheila in nc
@Suzanne:
She may not be an improvement, but getting rid of McTurtle’s leadership sure is.
Honus
@Brachiator: David Lynch was also a big admirer of Ronald Reagan. Nuff said
Suzanne
@sheila in nc: True statement.