So much that is wrong with our government comes down to people not doing their fucking jobs. They have jobs with clearly defined responsibilities, but they either don’t understand what their role is or they think it’s too small for a person of their eminence, and so instead of doing their actual jobs, they appoint themselves Guardians of the Republican and go on to fuck everything up.
Exhibit A is James Comey, who was so obsessed with his image as the Last Honest Man that he threw out the clearly defined procedures that were in place to ensure that FBI investigations didn’t interfere with elections and inserted himself into the 2016 race to disastrous effect. Thanks, Big Jim!
On the high end of the teeter-totter, Lil’ Marco offered himself up as Exhibit B yesterday with this deeply stupid tweet, which I am convinced represents the sentiments not only of himself but of all the craven fuckwits in the GOP who are kowtowing to Trump:
Many Republicans won’t criticize Trump even when they don’t agree with him b/c it means siding with a media that nevers cuts him a break,turns even little things he does into an act of evil,are also unfair to them & in the end will still attack you anyway https://t.co/jv3A18ka4V
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 27, 2018
Like Comey, Rubio has lost sight of what his job is, and there’s really no excuse for that since it is clearly defined in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, right under the goddamned preamble. As a member of the legislative branch, under the separation of powers concept, Rubio and his colleagues are to serve as checks and balances on the other branches of government, which comprise the executive and judicial branches, not the fucking media.
I told him as much yesterday when I responded to his dumb tweet. But did he listen to his constituent? Noooo! Here he is doubling down yet again this morning:
As expected,the reaction of the “usual suspects” to this tweet yesterday either proved my point or missed it. Many in the media & Trump bashers are not self aware enough to realize how biased & dishonest a very large % of GOP voters & officeholders view them & the impact it has https://t.co/4Nnlh6OxoV
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 28, 2018
Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, he’s saying that legislators are embracing the words and deeds of a president they don’t agree with because the media and political opposition are mean. It’s the senatorial equivalent of the “shrill liberals made me racist” defense Trump’s asshole supporters have been deploying lately.
Rubio went on to triple and quadruple down because, like many stupid people, once he fixates on an idea, he clings to it like a piece of gum on a dainty little ankle-high boot. It’s not Rubio’s job to police the press, but by Grabthar’s Hammer, it’s a lot easier than doing his ACTUAL fucking job.
Maybe the Democrats can incorporate “put people back to work” into their messaging for the upcoming elections. Not for unemployed voters — for the all-too-employed shit-stains like Rubio who simply refuse to do the jobs they already have.
Spanky
It’s not that they don’t know what their jobs are supposed to be, it’s that they’ve decided that it’s more important to pursue a party-over-country agenda at any cost. That includes keeping the 4th estate at heel.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
Marco, doesn’t licking Trump’s ass taste terrible? He’s not going to do you any favors, so stop condoning evil.
What an asshole.
Brooklyn Dodger
Thank you for confirming my decision to start my day checking out BJ – heck yeah, lady!
Betty Cracker
@Spanky: That occurred to me, but Rubio isn’t bright enough to employ subterfuge here. He’s straight-up telling us that he and his colleagues aren’t doing their actual jobs because meanies.
Yarrow
Rubio’s job is to do what his owners tell him to do. He’s doing that job. The other job, the one he’s elected to do? No, that’s not his real job.
LAO
O/T Any of the New York jackals going to the protest in Foley Square Saturday?
MomSense
I think we need to review their job descriptions first. I have a feeling Rubio’s description doesn’t share much in common with ours.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker: Yarrow at 5 filled in the missing link, and reconciles our two POVs. . We can surely all agree that Marco isn’t the sharpest tool on the Christmas tree. He just does what his bosses tell him.
Nora
The whole problem with the Congress is that none of the Republicans has any interest in doing his or her fucking job. Every single one of them is into posturing and pretending to be important, but when it comes to the actual JOB of the legislature — that whole passing legislation and acting as checks and balances — they just can’t be bothered. If you or I were that bad at our jobs, we would have been fired long ago.
Michael Bersin
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r-the Chinese are spying on us through our toasters), representing Missouri’s 4th Congressional District, was so proud of her astroturf friend of senior citizens award yesterday:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): another astroturf award
From the “60 Plus Association”, a group funded by right wingnut billionaires who want to do away with Social Security and Medicare. They appear to believe in “the Constitutional right of every citizen to live in dignity and thrive in a democratic society, free from government reliance.” In other news it appears that a dry generic pet food diet is beneficial to the health of our elderly citizens.
A Ghost To Most
The Christian fascist takeover continues with renewed vigor.
danielx
Yesterday was a bad, bad day….and there will be more to come. It’s a real temptation to just say fuckitall, sit on the back porch, sip margaritas and read Patrick O’Brian novels until November. But sometimes you have to dig in and struggle even when it seems futile.
CarolDuhart2
Christina Agulera’s song, “Fighter” is what comes to mind right now.
Folks, when it comes to the Republican Party, we are dealing with a cult. L Ron Trump. Part of it is the cult-like devotion to Trump by the Evangelicals who think he’s their “King Cyrus” who will liberate them by bringing the Temple to Jersualem, abolishing abortion, and somehow creating a landing strip for “Rapture Jesus” to appear. Another part is that a lot of the civic muscles have atrophied in the Republican Party. The Fundies are used to listening to million dollar preachers for guidance, talk show hosts for guidance, and not to each other. Forgotten also is that Bush, pers and fil, have been so dominant that few began to think of themselves as leadership material.
Spanky
@danielx: I read about 8 O’Brian novels before I got bored with the same old formula, so I guess my only other option is to fight.
Jager
I just found out one of my cousins drove 155 miles each way to go to trumps rally in Fargo…my sister, who seldom uses “bad” words, said “What the fuck is the matter with Paul?”
Spanky
@Jager: Paul is in the thrall of a cult. And it’s not going to end well.
dm
I’ve been thinking that whenever you put up a tweet like this you should put an ActBlue link to fund his opponent. I guess Rubio is not up for re-election for a while, but Florida does have a Senate election coming up.
"但她的电子邮件!", fka Le Comte de Monte Cristo
For any who wonder, my name is now “But Her Emails” in Mandarin (if that’s OK with the Powers That Be). Mandarin is soon to be the international language of finance, commerce and diplomacy, as European and North American governments slide into a period of fascist racism and oligarchy.
Africa will manage to avoid most of it, as will South America outside of Venezuela. India and Australia are question marks. We have to count on wisdom (with a fair bit of luck) from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.
If I believed in God anymore, I’d ask It to help us all.
Spanky
Apparently Captain Obvious is now writing headlines for CNN:
I’m not even gonna click on that.
Spanky
While I was over there, I did click on one CNN article:
So much winning!
schrodingers_cat
@CarolDuhart2: Fuck no. Zoroastrians (Parsis) are far more community minded than the Orange One in the WH. I am sure Cyrus had some real achievements under his belt.
BTW I saw Tom Nichols (Balloon Juice favorite Never T Republican) lecturing about civility in the Wash Post.
RedDirtGirl
@LAO: I’ll be there! Wanna meet up and go together?
lowtechcyclist
I don’t expect anything more from L’il Marco than doing what he’s told by the GOP elites.
His open admission that he’s not going to do what he purports to believe is right because of what the Big Bad Media is like, though – Marco, we all knew you didn’t have a backbone. We didn’t expect you to publicly admit it.
Dorothy Winsor
@Jager: Bizarrely enough, I find your cousin’s long drive comforting. It means the crowds have to come from miles away. There aren’t enough people in one place to create them.
I remind myself often that we are the majority. HRC got more votes. Polls show D positions are held by the majority, often by wide margins.
schrodingers_cat
@Dorothy Winsor: We are the majority. We stand for justice. We will prevail.
Don’t let the prestige media stenos tell you otherwise. Ignore their advice, they (most of them) are not our friends.
Yarrow
@Dorothy Winsor: Well, it is North Dakota. There aren’t that many people there to begin with.
RedDirtGirl
Given that they all think that the 9 scariest words in the english language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” it’s not that surprising, although you wonder why they want to be part of something they hate so much…Oh, right. Power and money. Never mind.
LAO
@RedDirtGirl: yes. That would be great. (I sent you an email about an hour ago). Lol.
RedDirtGirl
@LAO: Just wrote you back. See you there. maybe we can get a green balloon contingent…
CarolDuhart2
@schrodingers_cat: This is about the 70 year exile from Jerusalem in the Bible they believe they are now living in. According to the story, Cyrus and his successors liberated Jews to live more freely in the Empire. The fact that he was pagan didn’t matter to them (and that Trump is a crook and totally does not live or even try to live a Christian life doesn’t matter to the Trumpies).
This is the last stages of #RaptureAnxiety having a grip on them. For 50 years they have been waiting for Jesus to somehow lift them up into the clouds (and presumably away from all those hippies and others). Nothing has happened, of course (or will). So now they are at the stage where they are trying to make it happen. After all, instead of being lifted up, they are dying. And they want to punish us along the way for not believing in that stuff,
SFAW
As better persons than I have said: Christ, what an asshole.
danielx
@RedDirtGirl:
Got that right. For all the professed hatred of Sodom on the Potomac, there sure seem to be a lot of wingnuts who can’t wait to get there.
matryoshka
@Michael Bersin: She is my rep. I loathe her, and I dread my “dignified” future living in a tent and gigging frogs from a polluted creek so that she and her friends can play with the money I contributed to Social Security. Like many, I’ll have nothing left but rage.
SFAW
@CarolDuhart2:
I wish those motherfuckers would prep for it by practicing on themselves. Drinking antifreeze, running in front of a speeding Kenworth, blowing their own “brains” out, whatever — I ain’t picky.
It would be a two-fer: they get to Heaven sooner, and the world is a better place.
I hate those motherfuckers so much. It’s depressing.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: I wasted my time reading that Nichols piece for some reason. Two minutes of my life I will never get back. I’m in favor of forming temporary alliances with Never Trump Republicans in specific circumstances to fight our common enemy, but it’s foolish as hell to heed their prescriptions for how Democrats should behave. They do not have our best interests at heart, to state the flamingly obvious!
LAO
@RedDirtGirl: that would be good!
Heidi Mom
I wonder if Mueller will take guidance from Comey’s calamitous example and do the opposite — refuse to let political events influence his actions in any way, shape, or form? Then again, he probably decided to do that before the investigation even began. Mueller is who Comey wants/wanted to be.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Just reading the headline sent my BP to the stratosphere. You are a braver soul than I am.
J R in WV
And don’t forget, Trump’s rally in South Carolina was held in a High School GYM!!!\
So it would look like a great crowd with only a few hundred fanatics. He lies with every breath he takes.
My position on Trump’s appointments is that when Trump is shown to be a puppet of Putin in a court of law, all the traitor’s appointments must be null and void – cabinet, courts at all levels, everything he signed, the Orders and the Laws are null and void, because he was not a legitimate president of our nation, he was a treasonous puppet.
They should have the choice of stepping aside quietly or being dragged out and tarred and feathered. And I do mean with hot tar. Not decided on what kid of feathers yet, will accept suggestions from the audience.
rikyrah
Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) Tweeted:
An ICE whistleblower who resigned because his administration superiors told him to lie to the public had his CBS News interview interrupted by government agents https://t.co/y6YJWcpGPL https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/1012310101351333888?s=17
VOR
@Dorothy Winsor:
People go from Trump rally to Trump rally. Here is a field piece from Samantha Bee at Full Frontal where they run into the same guy at more than one Trump rally. He proudly says it is his 30th (!!!) Trump rally.
Spanky
As a salve for everyone’s blood pressure, there’s new info coming out of old Cassini data. Per the WaPo:
Ruckus
@Michael Bersin:
How you gunna pay for that dry dog food?
With those fucking imaginary bitcoin that you can find behind the dumpster outside the local liquor store?
Those rich fuckers don’t want to pay their end of SS and Medicare. That’s what 7 1/2% of your paycheck so that you can have just less than enough to live on after working for 50 or more years…… To them that’s stolen money that they can use to stuff their bank accounts and make themselves richer so they can live the higher life and give anything left over to their kids so they too can grow up to be more drumpf’s of the world. BTW they have to grow up to be drumpf’s of the world because they are much too much of entitled assholes and dumbshits, just like their parents.
SiubhanDuinne
Especially for the Canuckistani jackals:
Also heard a rumor that the Mayor of Ottawa has declined the American Ambassador’s invitation to the annual July 4th bash. That never happens!!
Jager
@Yarrow:
My good BIL (married to my sister who seldom uses bad words) brokers agricultural products all over the world, good BIL maintains that farmers like cousin Paul have no idea how badly they are going to take in the ass over the next few years. He was telling me about a small group of corn growers he reps from Nebraska just took a kick in the ass from a Mexican buyer who cancelled a 20 million 3 year contract for corn. Good BIL is on the front lines and he says it isn’t pretty out there.
SFAW
@VOR:
I call bullshit. He can’t count that high. He MIGHT be able to count to ten-and-a-quarter without taking off his shoes, and if he can find the string. But outside of that? Forget it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
like when he decided during the primary, when calling trump a liar and a conman unfit for the White House didn’t take with those same voters he’s now making excuses for, he spent a week trying to make the size of trump’s willie into a campaign issue
CarolDuhart2
@Heidi Mom: And he could easily do that. The convention was for people running for office. None of his likely targets (so far) are running for office. As I pointed out, Manafort’s second trial is in September. Assuming a normal pace, jury selection and first testimony is going to be in October, with a verdict possible in November. Manafort isn’t running for anything. Also Manafort is barely known about outside the political junkie crowd, so they aren’t worried about getting a jury. So there isn’t even a reason to delay much.
rikyrah
@Jager:
MAGA, bytches!
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah:
Well, this is escalating quickly, isnt it?
SFAW
Note to Alain:
The comments “counter” on the Front Page does not appear to be updating. For example: this post had 45 or so comments, but the FP posting says there are 17 (which I think was how many there were when I first read Betty’s post (then left the site, then came back).
CaseyL
I’ve marched quite a bunch since Dolt45 took office, and signed up to go to the local march Saturday, but I’m not at all sure marches matter. They’re mostly happening in blue cities and blue states. They’ll give us an opportunity to show our resolve and anger, but I don’t want or need that. I need concrete actions that (in this case) stop the theft and imprisonment of children, and that’s not going to happen.
Someone please tell me: what will the marches accomplish?
Yarrow
@Jager: We’re all going to suffer because of these policies. All of us.
And FUCK, why won’t the site remember my nym and email? Yes, the box is checked. Can Alain please give us an update on where things stand? I have the impression he and John think it’s all fixed now. It’s not fixed.I can’t even reload the front page to see new posts. The only way I new there was one is the grey arrow box showed up on this post.
rikyrah
Democrats face Day 1 of winnable fight for Supreme Court’s future
Rachel Maddow outlines the position Democrats are in and what it will take for them to block Donald Trump’s next Supreme Court pick, noting the feasibility of a four-month plan to make it through the election.
Platonailedit
Lies. Distortion. Diversion. It has been the rethugs tactics for decades.
rikyrah
Democrats aim to hold Trump to McConnell’s Garland standard
Senator Chris Murphy talks with Rachel Maddow about the Democratic strategy to block Donald Trump’s next Supreme Court pick until at least after the midterm elections.
VOR
@SFAW: It was the 3rd time Bee’s person ran into him: a rally in 2016, the Inauguration in 2017, and now a rally in 2018. He might be exaggerating the number, but I have little doubt there are a lot of repeat visitors to Trump’s events. Lot of angry old white people with plenty of free time on their hands. The video has one woman saying they watch 10-12 hours of Fox News a day.
rikyrah
Kennedy sacrificing legacy to Trump surprises court watchers
Dahlia Lithwick, legal correspondent and senior editor for Slate, talks with Rachel Maddow about Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement from the Supreme Court and the civil rights at stake for Americans if Democrats are not able to block Donald Trump’s next pick.
tobie
@rikyrah: That’s a total brownshirt maneuver. I hope CBS filmed these thugs trying to intimidate a witness. By the way–I recall hearing that the Red Hen had to close temporarily because of threats. Doubt the media will draw attention to this and the categorical difference between politely asking someone to leave a restaurant and threatening to destroy an establishment.
rikyrah
Trump SCOTUS threat to abortion rights prompts wave of organizing
Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Americans are already organizing to protect abortion and reproductive rights in the face of Donald Trump’s likely replacement for the retiring Justice Kennedy.
rikyrah
Judge to Trump: Give the children back!
Rachel Maddow reports on a federal judge who has ordered the Trump administration to reunite the children taken at the border from their parents, giving Trump 30 days to do so, 14 days for children under five.
rikyrah
It’s very simple: Trump doesn’t get another Supreme Court pick until the investigation of his alleged treachery against the U.S. is complete.
No man suspected of conspiring with America’s enemies should be given a second stolen SCOTUS seat until he’s been exonerated.
Full stop. https://t.co/t4AEWf54TY
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) June 27, 2018
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: Marches are morale building for some people, reminding them they are not alone; they can be community building events because people meet up with acquaintances and make new ones.
Sometimes they are featured on the news, so they serve as publicity. Groups trying to get petitions signed to get issues in the ballot have a lot of potential signees in one place.
For me, they get some more weight-bearing exercise into my day, which is good for my old bones.
Not much of a list, is it? The ballot box, for all its weaknesses, remains our most powerful tool.
CarolDuhart2
@CarolDuhart2: So where does Trump fit in? Trump promised a Temple in Jerusalem, an end to abortion and so much more. Trump is their white savior who will also make their dream of a pre-1964 Christian America come true. The kerfuffle about the moving of the Embassy was about it being a step towards that Temple and Jesus’s return. Now you might be thinking, if I truly believe that Jesus is coming to lift me up into the skies, why worry about a big building in Jerusalem, or who runs the government?
American Fundamentalist Christianity is a mish-mash of Confederate resentment, class anxiety, fears of getting old and being left behind, and eschatology. So none of the parts fit together very well.
Think of a Christianity that had to do two things for about 300 years-a)justify the misery and oppression of slavery, and b) somehow skip the parts of the New (and old Testament) that dictated humane and compassionate treatment of everybody, including strangers.
PPCLI
I want to pick up on a conversation from an earlier, now moribund thread, so make a comment about how we should insist on framing the discussion of the court and Roe. Sorry for a pedantic, longish post, but this is desperately important and I despair of how much better at ruthless, consistent, effective messaging the Republicans are. Some proposed rules for fighting back:
Rule number 1: do not wrestle with hypotheticals when concrete facts make your point. Reassert the facts. Illustration from the earlier thread:
Comment by JPL:
My pet peeve is that MSM is talking about banning abortion. All the court can do is ban safe abortion, unless they want to imprison females.
The court can also revisit public education for children of undocumented immigrants.\\
Reply by Kay:
They took an 8 month old away from his mother to punish her for the equivalent of a misdemeanor. You really think they won’t prosecute women for abortion, which they describe as “murder”?
Sessions will hold a press conference and announce it proudly. Sessions and Kelly bragged about the child separation policy and Stephen Miller assured Trump it would have “90%” support with Trump’s base.
They’re big on punishment, the crueler the better. It’s how they measure their own power.
End reply by Kay.
I agree 100% with Kay’s response, but I want to apply rule 1: don’t wrestle with hypotheticals when there are facts. THEY HAVE ALREADY STARTED THROWING WOMEN IN JAIL FOR ABORTION. Two examples from Mike Pence’s Indiana (the first happened just before Pence became governor, the second during his term). a) Bei Bei Shuai, a pregnant woman, attempted suicide by taking poison and survived, but the fetus died. She was charged with murder and spent 435 days in jail before she accepted a plea to a lesser sentence in order to be released for time served. Purvi Patel took RU-486 (purchased from outside the US) and miscarried the 24/25 week fetus. She was charged with “feticide” under a statute originally passed to protect pregnant women from domestic abusers, etc, and “neglect of a dependent” and sentenced to 20 years. Mike Pence was governor at the time, and clearly was 100% in favor.
This is happening often, these are just two cases that are particularly relevant because of the connection with Pence. So we don’t have to ask if RWNJ’s might want to throw women in jail for abortions. They are already doing that. They will just do it more widely and openly if Roe is overturned.
Ohio Mom
@VOR: Hah! They’re like the Dead Heads without the tie dye and dope. (They’re already addled, don’t need any mind-altering.)
Waldo
Remember in that debate when Li’l Marco made a reference to the size of Trump’s dick? Well, now he can comment on the taste, too.
Spanky
@CaseyL:
It’s practice. It gets (or should get)) people out into the streets.
And it will matter. Probably sooner than later.
The whole world’s watching.
Oklahomo
@schrodingers_cat: Tom Nichols, the expert who markets expertise but doesn’t agree with climate experts?
kindness
Florida. What can we do to make the poor vote in Florida?
raven
@Ohio Mom: watch it
schrodingers_cat
Some comments have vanished. Something is screwed up about the comment section
The Ancient Randonneur
@Jager: I’ve been reading the Des Moines Register and the Omaha World Herald the past couple of months and they’ve been front paging stories that indicate a bit of awareness, but what’s coming is going to be seismic in comparison. With many of them working on tight margins and being highly leverage we can expect some serious blood letting. My wish for all of those Trump voting farmers is that they live in interesting times.
CarolDuhart2
@kindness: Church outreach both in civics education and registration.
Yarrow
@VOR: Maybe there could be some sort of covert action to go into people’s houses, set parental controls on TVs and put Fox News on the Do Not Allow list.
schrodingers_cat
@Oklahomo: I don’t know much about this person, other than his being quoted on FP here.
japa21
Two things. I recommend everyone read the full column from one of my favorite Sun Times columnists. This is from is blog, not the newspaper. http://www.everygoddamnday.com/2018/06/this-is-nothing-new.html
Although it is primarily about the ruling on unions yesterday, the closing paragraphs applies to everything currently going on.
Dorothy Winsor
@SFAW: This has been a problem for a couple of days. Alain is on it.
Someone kindly helped me by pointing out that I need to do a “really, really mean it” refresh, which on Edge is control-F5.
The Ancient Randonneur
@Ohio Mom: Yep. Following the Hateful Head around is a thing.
CarolDuhart2
@Spanky: Marches are a form of communication. It allows like-minded people to meet, to make the local news (more people watch local news than anything else). Also local officials do pay attention and things can happen locally in response.
Obdurodon
I agree with the “just do your fucking job” sentiment. OTOH, I don’t quite feel like it’s quite a congresscritter’s job to watch over the presidency. The checks and balances are built into the *system*. If Rubio and others would just do their job of making policy based on some combination of objectivity, foresight, and consideration of constituents’ will, then that’s a sufficient check on the president. They shouldn’t always have one eye on the media *or* on the tantrum-prone president. They should have both eyes on doing what’s right within their own domain.
Where I’m more concerned with “just do your fucking job” is the executive branch. The cabinet has been packed with people who were hired to do the exact opposite of what their job entails. OK, maybe that’s no more true of defense than it has always been, but we have an education department determined to instill ignorance and bias, an interior department determined to rape the environment, a state department exhibiting precious little statesmanship, a justice department perpetuating injustice, etc. There’s room for the people voting on confirmations to disagree about how best to achieve a given department’s aims, but to confirm an appointee who is clearly opposed to those aims is an act of malfeasance. Even with Trump himself in power, the federal government would be vastly better able to perform its functions if his entire cabinet got sucked into the void. Better headless than these heads.
Leto
@CarolDuhart2: I think you meant, Raptor Jesus.
(Just a bit of levity here.)
Edit: @J R in WV: Dinosaur feathers just for the extra cruelty to the young earthers.
JWL
At the conclusion of the Berlin Airlift, an admirer asked George Marshall how he had managed to stay so calm throughout the crisis. he replied, “I’ve seen worse”. This country has seen worse than Trump, too. Even, as seems quite likely,if he indeed stands convicted of being a Russian operative. Even then.
So, even as republicans celebrate the profoundly un-American decisions taken this week by the Supreme Court, I will continue to take tremendous comfort in watching him crumble and crack publicly, . Note the time of his tweet this morning. It’s like I’ve said before: Trump is consumed with a terror of going to prison morning, noon, and night. And every hour of every day draws him closer and closer to being exposed and disgraced. Is this a great country, or what?
Also: I’d like to ask Joe Biden just who he was trying to impress by his joint press release with GW Bush. It appears Joe will never admit publicly that Americans were stampeded with big lies into waging the War in Iraq, and shame on him for it, too. I’ll never understand how democrats like him that supported the Bush-Cheney plot can sleep at night, especially in light of the path this country has taken over the past 15 years. They shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility for the fact that Bush-Cheney, Trump, and the republican party have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in 2018. They continue to turn a blind eye to that betrayal as though it never happened, and their silence about what went wrong remains despicable.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Do you know anything about this Miami Congressman, who was behind one of the terrible R immigration bills.
scuffletuffle
@J R in WV: Faux, with glitter…lots of glitter
Mai naem mobile
So can I sound like a Republican for a minute – GDP growth for the 1st quarter had to be revised down to 2.0 percent. And jobless claims went up by 9K this week. Yay,yay,yay GDP is only 2.0 percent and jobless claims went up. We’re number one yay,yay,yay.
Bex
@japa21: Thanks for the Neil Steinberg (everygoddamday) quote. I am a reader of his blog and an infrequent commenter. Have you read his bookYou Were Never in Chicago?
JPL
@LAO: You need a larger group, because I think 99 red balloons would work just fine.
PPCLI
@PPCLI: And I also propose Rule #2: If a Republican has said they want something, make them own it. They have said over and over again, on camera or on tape in many cases, that they want Roe gone. So they want Roe gone. That has to be the baseline. If they start to weasel and obfuscate, just point out what they said.
In particular, Trump is on tape saying that his SC picks will make Roe a thing of the past. He has also, famously said that in the system he envisions, women who get abortions will have to be punished. HE SAID IT. ON TAPE. Immediately afterwards, the forced-birth contingent scrambled to tell him what a political disaster that stance would be and he dropped it. But is there any doubt, that he meant it? As Kay rightly pointed out, there has never been a president more instinctively punitive and driven by an urge to cause pain to anyone he regards as “an enemy” and anyone that the people he regards as enemies care about. So the baseline assumption must be that he actually plans to do this. Make them own it. He skated on that one far too quickly.
The RWNJs viscerally understand the force of this rule. A go-to strategy is to just repeat short phrases, usually though not always taken out of context and distorted. They based an entire nominating convention for Romney around the phrase “You didn’t build that” which they repeated at every opportunity. [The fact that by “that”, Obama meant things like the roads in front of a business and the sewers that serve it, etc. and not the business itself didn’t matter.] The Republican anti-ACA bill was pushed through in a recklessly fast last minute secret midnight rush? Response: “Remember `pass the bill so we can see what’s in it’ libtard?” Trump lies every time he opens his mouth. Response: “Remember `you can keep your doctor’, libtard?” [OK, sometimes the response is also “Trump has never lied about anything”. But there is no way we can compete with the Republicans when it comes to gaslighting.]
We need to use Trump’s “there will have to be some punishment” like that. The RWNJ’s use this tactic because it is effective. Don’t let Trump skate on this one.
The Pale Scot
@Dorothy Winsor: Uh, I believe “Dakota” is Sioux for “Not enough People” I’ve been to Dead shows that had more people there than N.Dakota contains
Yes I know the tribe prefers to called the Dakota, but the joke won’t work otherwise.
Mai naem mobile
I think the Dems should just make shit up about the USSC nominee. That’s what the GOP does. Just make shit up to eat up time. Hopefully have one nominee withdraw. If they start the hearings in mid September and Mueller comes down with some indictments the Dems might luck out. It’s a very long shot.
Jager
@The Ancient Randonneur:
I have a hard time figuring cousin Paul out, he’s a 4th generation farmer, his dad was a regional VP of the NFO and protested his ass off during the Nixon administration, At a meeting with Nixon Ag Secretary Earl Butz, Gary interrupted Butz by saying, “When’s the last time you were on a fucking family farm?” Paul’s Mom is a retired school teacher, who during her 30 year career watched the student body become 12% brown and is close friends with the Hispanic families in the area. Their farm has 3 Hispanic families living there and working for them, they have been there so long there are great grandchildren running around. Paul is a college educated farmer, he’s tech savvy, works hard but he can’t plow a straight furrow anymore.
randy khan
The myopia that leads Rubio to say that the media never cut Trump a break is hilarious. Many in the media would like nothing better than to have a normal Presidency that would allow them to cover his ups and downs in a normal way, which would include plenty of positive coverage. The evidence of that is that Trump actually does get positive coverage for almost anything that isn’t a total disaster, like his big speech to Congress last year, and the passage of the tax cut (well, it’s a disaster for other reasons, but it was something he wanted and got).
And Rubio, of all people, should know that Trump benefitted from a huge amount of uncritical coverage during the Presidential campaign. It’s one of the many reasons it’s Trump in the White House and not Rubio.
SFAW
@Dorothy Winsor:
Thanks, I haven’t been here much in the last few days, so was unaware. Well, more unaware than usual. And, it appears to have fixed itself (i.e., meaning Alain fixed it), and I didn’t even have to promise I “really, really, no backsies” meant it when I refreshed.
chris
@SiubhanDuinne: “the Mayor of Ottawa has declined the American Ambassador’s invitation to the annual July 4th bash.”
CBC reported it yesterday. My kinda mayor.
(Blockquote not working for me.)
Mike in NC
Rubio’s “job” is to do whatever a couple of right wing Florida billionaires tell him to do.
CarolDuhart2
@Jager: It’s about his manhood and its diminishment by both change and time. Trump’s appeal is to that and to punish “that woman” for daring to run for President.`
SFAW
@randy khan:
Of course, the main reason is that Rubio was too much of a pu$$y to call him Littledick, and then too much of a pu$$y to shout “he’s lying, as usual” when Littledick said “Believe me, I have NO problem in that department.”
He could also have started on Shitgibbon’s alleged BMI of 29. Fat-shaming is out, but going after Littledick because he has the figurative balls to say he’s in good shape invites fat jokes.
You listening, Marco, you dumb motherfucker? Having ME running your stupid fucking campaign would have served you better. Now quit aspiring to be as much of a liar as your man-crush, and act like a fucking American, you pinche pendejo.
eclare
@Mai naem mobile: Something about pig-fucking comes to mind…and I know, fuck LBJ
zhena gogolia
I’m about to unsubscribe from all Democratic mailing lists. They just rub it in whenever anything bad happens and use it to ask me for more money. It only increases the anxiety and despair. And the money feels as if it’s going into a black hole of ineffectuality.
James E Powell
@The Ancient Randonneur:
On my better days, I wish that they suffer economic ruin and chronic gastro-intestinal agony. On my bad days . . . I get pretty bad.
MomSense
@Spanky:
That’s good news since we are rapidly exhausting the resources on our planet.
Brachiator
I love how Rubio, like so, so many others, falls into the bullshit excuse of demonizing the media. So, he and other Republicans aren’t fools and assholes because “the media made us do it.”
It’s lazy and stupid. And, in Rubio’s case, also a big ass lie, since Republicans typically live the empty calorie scraps of Fox News, which kisses Trump’s ass 24/7, and so never here a negative word uttered against Trump.
khead
@Jager:
Cousin Paul has enough economic security to allow him to drive around and be economically anxious.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@CarolDuhart2: Trump’s pure Reagen nostigala, they see history replaying Nixon, Carter, Reagen. Worth noting these Evangelicals are very literal minded, don’t really believe as their actions show (as a Zorastian friend of mind pointed, they have a dead god) what the Evangelicals really believe the Bible plays out as a kind of LARP.
That LARP is “Dispensationism” which is something the Evangelicals put and pasted out of the Bible.
So never mind Donald Trump the cowardly, lying libertine is utterly hilarious in the role as savior, he has the Savior character sheet, never mind Obama is the American dream triumphant, child of an immigrant becoming president on raw talent – Obama is the false king because that’s the character sheet.
James E Powell
@JWL:
I agree with you about Biden and every other Democrat who failed to oppose Bush/Cheney and further failed to expose the whole thing as a fraud once they took power. And this isn’t just hindsight. Many of us knew the “looking forward not backward” was the wrong move and screamed about it at the time. We were told to shut up and celebrate the big win.
But it may be too much to expect the nation’s politicians to examine or criticize its military actions in an era where Our Brave Troops are the subject of almost constant public worship. I mean, the nation has never even faced the fact that the whole Vietnam nightmare was a bad idea. See, e.g., Ken Burns recent documentary in which he claims that the war was “begun in good faith” by “decent people” and the classic “mistakes were made.” This is all bullshit and pernicious bullshit, but an empire cannot sustain itself without such bullshit.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Sean Patrick Maloney was just on bitching about how the Democrats got “rolled” on Merrick Garland. I don’t know what the fuck he thinks Democrats could have done in 2016 to make Republicans vote on Garland. They had 54 senators and Democrats had 46. 46 is fewer than 54. I get that he’s worried that whatever slug Trump pulls out from some rotting log to sit on the Court might upend marriage equality, and that could put his marriage at risk. I get that. But what the fuck was Reid going to do? Hold Republicans at gunpoint until they voted to confirm Garland? Shit like this doesn’t do anybody any good.
Peale
@PPCLI: Yep. “Your miscarriage will be investigated by the police” is a good emotional and very rational appeal and supported by the facts. That’s what happened in one of these cases.
I think that hits home. Not the “murder charges” its that in order to get to that part, mysterious “miscarriages” will need an inquiry by someone who could charge you with a crime. A lot of women and families experience the trauma of a miscarriage. Do you really want to answer questions about why it happened to a stranger?
Kay
I laughed because it’s true. They literally didn’t have time to publish their opinions about how the Lefty who won in NYC was good for Trump before they replaced it with another “good for Trump” story :)
James E Powell
@zhena gogolia:
I’ve been feeling that way about most things for years. I don’t know what to do about it because I know that campaigns need money, but I can never be sure I’m not a sap.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
On an unrelated, random point, why does Jim Jordan (Asshole, Ohio) talk so fucking fast? He sounds like he’s tripping over his own tongue. Also, he yells too much, breaks in when other people are talking, and he always looks sweaty and unshaven.
Quinerly
Is anyone else watching Rep Jim Jordan browbeating Rosenstein. Must see television. Here’s a Twitter thread describing it. https://mobile.twitter.com/NatashaBertrand?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Dorothy Winsor
I’m listening to MSNBC from last night and I’m increasingly annoyed by media types saying how “interesting” and “fascinating” it will be to watch the SCOTUS fight. Can they indicate any more clearly that they feel insulated from any results of the fight?
Quinerly
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): you and I must be watching the same thing.Jim Jordan is an ASSHOLE. I think the Russians have something on him. I’m not normally prone to that kind of thinking.
schrodingers_cat
Gloating by the MSM about this Supreme court vacancy is most unseemly.
Peale
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Yep. Scalia died unexpectedly. Had he died in 2014 before the election, maybe democrats would have been motivated to vote. But I doubt it. At any time, one of the judges could have kicked the bucket. But it really is on the Democratic voters. I know we’re not supposed to point that out and instead blame inept leadership and economic anxiety. But the truth is Obama was always popular with Democrats when polled. They just never felt the need to give him a Congress. They just liked him. I know voters don’t want to blame themselves and if we make them feel to bad about it, they’ll just pout away. You want a judge? Vote in 2014.
B.B.A.
Schumer is promising Republicans he’ll keep the filibuster. Oh, for fuck’s sake. It might be a ruse, but I don’t think Chuck is nearly reptilian enough to try it let alone pull it off.
Kay
@Mai naem mobile:
I do too. If there aren’t any consequences for the Trump Administrations lies then at least let’s even it up with a set of lies about Trump people. It’s not good but one-side having full lying privileges makes it both bad and unfair.
Do one for one. Trump tells a lie, counter with a lie. He has something like 1500 in the past 3 months and that’s not even counting Sessions and Sanders and Kelly. We’re already completely unmoored from reality. If they get to write fiction I want to, too.
RedDirtGirl
@tobie: This! Civility, my ass!
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Serious question. Have you sent a note to any of the party organizations outlining what kind of outreach would be most effective for you?
I think by now, these organizations should be able to customize messages to some degree, especially if their standard “call to arms” antagonizes some people.
Kay
Another clown who was treated as serious by media. Trey Gowdy wants prosecutors to stop investigating because it’s divisive.
Guffaw. Imagine an ordinary criminal suspect saying this. “It’s so HURTFUL, you doing all this..investigating”
They think they’re above the law, and maybe they are! Hell, we would never know if they were. We don’t know shit about anything that’s really going on with these investigations.
ruemara
@CaseyL: White people feel all good & they scream a lot. That seems to be it. Now, if they were marching on their republican senators & congresspeople – during the work week. That could do some good. If they were having strikes left & right, that could do some good. But otherwise, it’s performative with a side order of I’m on the good side.I was going to attend, but since the people I know most hungry to attend STILLL AREN’T REGISTERED TO VOTE, I think I’ll go to the movies or go take a walk.
B.B.A.
In other news, the perpetrator of the Benghazi attacks was sentenced to 22 years in prison, in yet another pathetic attempt to distract us from Benghazi.
SiubhanDuinne
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I wish a motherfucker would book him for a Hardball interview with Tweety. Must-Avoid TV.
Jager
@khead:
Their farm is a consolidation of what had been 8 family farms at one time, that’s the case in most of the ag states. (ND is now an “urban” state.) There are 970 farms in the county where their farm is located, ag income in the county is just under a half a billion dollars a year. The population of the county is 70,000. The median net income per farm is $171,000. I’ve heard that their “family farm” income is well north of 700k and everything is paid for and has been for years and years. Paul’s dad has worked his ass off for the past 40 years to build an incredible operation. I have another cousin who married a “farm” and has turned out to be an incredible asshole as well. My dad grew up on a farm and turned his back on it to become a car dealer…Dad walked off the farm and I walked out the door of the car store, don’t know what that says about us, must mean something, right?
Kay
@Mai naem mobile:
Donald Trump spread the lie that Obama wasn’t a citizen and Clinton was a child trafficker.
We could really say just about anything regarding his SCOTUS pick and stay well above that standard.
Yarrow
@Quinerly: He’s admitted he’s discussed the Mueller investigation with the White House. A smart person would know that is dangerous territory. Either he’s really dumb or has something he’s desperate to keep hidden or both.
The Pale Scot
@Jager: From commodity and supply chain disruptions, along with the coming of a hard Brexit, I’m getting a really bad feeling about next spring 4/29. There’s a another George Soros getting ready to hammer the Pound. If this tariff war maintains momentum, there’s going to be silos filled with previously China destined ag products that doesn’t have a shipping contract in place to send it somewhere else. These things don’t get done overnight.
H.E.Wolf
@CaseyL:
I agree with Ohio Mom, Spanky, CarolDuhart2, and anyone else who’s chimed in.
Marches are in the “every little bit helps” category… and they have been known to effect regime change (see Velvet Revolution, etc.)
Some folks respond to, and resonate to, the visual/tangible experience of joining a group of people marching to express their opinions. Let’s energize the people in our camp who are energized by marches!
Remember the Women’s Marches of January 2017? People marched EVERYWHERE, not just in “blue” locales… and the tiny marches were just as inspiring as the huge ones. Maybe more so.
“Being seen” — being seen to speak up — is a very powerful expression of what it means to be part of a democracy. Marches are one way of doing that.
Also, it’s a full moon right now. Seems to me that there’s often an increase in high-running emotions around the time of the full moon. I’m making sure to find something that grounds me (in my case, it’s volunteering on GOTV projects) while the emotional wave peaks and then passes. No sense in blowing out my cathode ray tubes. :)
ruemara
@Peale: Sit by me. I’m sick of democratic voters looking anywhere but a mirror. It was too easy to convince folks to not vote.
Mai naem mobile
@Kay: photoshop pics like they did with Franken. If Franken couldn’t be Senator then surely somebody can’t be a SC Justice.
Jager
The ND county I grew up in has a population of 70,000. There are 970 farms in the county with maybe 4,000 people living on the land. The farmer produce a half a billion dollars a year in farm products. The median net farm income in the county is 171k. That’s higher than Greenwich fucking Connecticut!
SiubhanDuinne
@H.E.Wolf:
Very much off-topic, but you made a comment several weeks ago that made me think you are a fan of Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night in particular. I am too, and just wanted to acknowledge the connection.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
No, I just spent my discretionary time calling my two Dem senators (you can’t get through to McConnell’s office) and having some 20-year-old blandly say they’ll pass on my unhinged rants to the senators. They don’t get it, even though they’re sitting right there in Washington DC.
Yarrow
@ruemara:
Who are these morons? People who don’t vote are voluntarily giving up their rights. So stupid.
Honestly, I think we need to start emphasizing the responsibilities of being a citizen. Voting is a responsibility. Non-voters are being irresponsible citizens. Not living up to their responsibilities as citizens.
ruemara
@Yarrow: Because they want to yell, scream, be angry, threaten violence, but both sides are the same and they don’t want to vote for oligarchs. I’m fucking sick of the left.
The Pale Scot
@Peale:
Already happening;
Walgreens pharmacist refuses to fill woman’s prescription to induce a miscarriage
H.E.Wolf
@ruemara:
Ooooh yes, I’m with you on the “not yet registered to vote” fools. [all the expletives go here] I’m ashamed for those folks.
As it happens, I’m skipping the June 30 rallies and doing 2 other things that day: (1) adding a bunch more volunteers to the “active” category; (2) a continuing ed class that will restore my soul with hard work at something I love.
Oh, and (3) sending tsunami-sized waves of support to any jackals who need it. We will get through this with one another’s help, and we will prevail.
The Pale Scot
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Meth..
SATSQ
chris
About marches and demonstrations:
Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco
Every little bit helps.
H.E.Wolf
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes. :-) Delighted to share that connection with you!
Jager
@khead:
The median farm income in Paul’s county is 171k, higher than Greenwich fucking Connecticut! 970 farms producing over a half a billion dollars in gross farm income. The county has a population of 70,000…hardly any farmers at all really, but they sure as hell have plenty of money. Alway’s have really, my grandparents farm was netting 20-30k a year in the 50’s, I’ve seen grandma’s meticulous books
Mnemosyne
I’m going to the LA march on Saturday with Ruckus and James Powell but, since this is LA, us wypipo will probably be in the minority among the crowds of pissed-off Latinos. We have some of the largest pro-immigration marches in the country, and I think a ton of those people are going to turn out.
Mike R
@ruemara: amen
Kelly
William H Seward as quoted by Abraham Lincoln page 479 of “Grant” by Ron Chernow
This was said just as the Civil War was drawing to an end. The good guys won. The good guys will win again. The bad guys will never stop. The good guys have to keep plugging away. It just like you’ll never pull the last weed in you garden.
Steve in the STL
@Yarrow:
Jill Stein supporters
sgrAstar
@Spanky:
What a dumbfounding comment. You prolly don’t like Jane Austen, either. SAD.
Steve in the STL
@B.B.A.: whatever. NFW we flip the Senate this cycle. We’ll be lucky not to lose a few seats. Check back in two years.
SiubhanDuinne
@H.E.Wolf:
Thanks, and likewise! (And we’re not alone here.)
Miss Bianca
@danielx:
Sounds awesome to me!
But we can also email or call our congress critters from that back porch, margaritas and POB in hand, and demand that they, as Betty C puts it, “do their fucking jobs!”
bluefoot
@CaseyL: it shows people elsewhere we’re not lying down for this. This includes people who also believe in equality and justice in red states or other places where there aren’t protests. It includes the people in government. It also ilcides people not in the US. People I know in the EU have repeatedly told me how reassured they are seeing us protest – not just to know the Americanpeople aren’t crazy but also because it gives them strength to fight the same fight where they are.
Targeted protests also can involve direct action.
It all helps. All of it.
B.B.A.
@Mai naem mobile: The picture was real, and Al admitted it.
Everyone’s got a skeleton or twelve in their closets. A real scandal is much more damaging than any fake one could ever be. Now let’s see if anyone at Planned Parenthood wants to commit a HIPAA violation and leak the number of abortions that the nominee paid for…
Misterpuff
We (all Dems and lovers of representative democracy) need to have a comprehensive approach to resist Drumpf on SCOTUS picks.
Of course, the Senate minority must do everything to deter and slow walk The Turtles Parliamentary Coup.
Of course, the American People must try to influence the Unicorn Moderate Republicans,
Of course, The People will need to show the country we do not want a reactionary SCOTUS.
But we need to do more: We know the “List” the Furor is using to pick (probably blindfolded) Kennedy’s successor.
We need to crowd source the opposition research (You know the Village won’t do it)and get every piece of mud out there on these (old white or worse young white) guys.
Lets go Roger Stone on their ass.
Mnemosyne
@B.B.A.:
The picture was real, but misleading — it was a staged gag photo that pissed Tweeden off later because she was asleep when it was taken. Franken was not actually caught in the act of molesting her. ?
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: We are DLS fans. We are legion. : )
sgrAstar
@zhena gogolia: please reconsider. We’re not gonna win unless we raise a lot of $. I make a monthly contribution to ActBlue and let them figure out how to allocate it. The emails I subsequently receive from different campaigns are the measure of what my money is doing. Providing financial support is just critical! ✊️
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Yup, I knew you were one of many DLS jackals!
Heidi Mom
@JWL: Not only have we seen worse, but we’ve held a presidential election in the midst of it. Lincoln believed he was going to lose in 1864, believed it so much that he urged Frederick Douglass to do everything he could to get as many enslaved people out of the South as possible before his successor-to-be entered into a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. Then Sherman took Atlanta, Union soldiers went home and voted by a large margin for their Commander in Chief, and the Union was saved.
Mai naem mobile
@B.B.A.: it was real but it was also changed. There were time dates that were not consistent. You can go look it up.
zhena gogolia
@sgrAstar:
I’m not going to stop providing financial support.
rikyrah
@H.E.Wolf:
I agree. It wasn’t the several hundred thousand that impressed the most in a blue state…it’s the little town, in God Knows Where Red State, where there are maybe 1,500 people in the whole town and 750 show up to march. by themselves, the 750 is just 750…but, they also saw the other 750’s littered in Red States across the country…keeps them pumped.
The Truffle
@rikyrah: If all else fails, we could invite these people to relocate to Blue State-topia. We could swap! Long Island has its share of Trumperdinks that whine about liberals and would be happier in red America.
Michael Bersin
@matryoshka:
Interestingly, Vicky Hartzler (r) doesn’t do open public town halls anymore. In the past, every time she did one she got badly burned because she made the mistake of opening her mouth and speaking.
The great Charles P. Pierce picked up on this in 2012:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): the black helicopters will be dropping microchip infested toasters on us
And has used the label (r-the Chinese are spying on us through our toasters) when discussing Vicky Hartzler ever since.
Michael Bersin
@Ruckus:
Sadly, the dumpsters are already picked over for food and spare change.
I recommend investing in pitchfork and torch futures. Definitely growth industries.
Ksmiami
@PPCLI: then we kill them first. Sorry this so called government no longer has the majority consent of the governed. That’s when things fall apart
Ksmiami
@Heidi Mom: not sure it was worth it- next time, let them go. The Confederacy has been nothing but trouble even after 1865. I think a partition (despite how dangerous it could be) of red v blue states would be better in the long run.