Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

He really is that stupid.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A consequence of cucumbers

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

T R E 4 5 O N

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Excellent Arguments

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Especially for Betty, Adam, and the other FL jackals…

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115Comments

  5. 5.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Calling Beto O’Rourke’s $38 million dollar fundraising quarter a “record” doesn’t quite do that total justice: O’Rourke, who is challenging Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, raised 30 percent more from July to October of this year than Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown has raised in all six years of his re-election campaign, and more than Jeb Bush raised for the entirety of his 2016 presidential run.

    Beto is shaping up to be a very attractive contender for 2020.

  8. 8.

    MazeDancer

    Apparently, there is a National PostCard Stamp Shortage.

    No joke. Got two emails in a row last night. First said PostCard Writer went to P,O. and they had no PostCard Stamps. National Shortage. Second email said Amazon sells them. And they do!

    Got a fresh batch of Harley Rouda addresses with your name on ’em. These are “Undecideds” – hard to believe – so you can use your powers of persuasion to help rid the world of Comrade Rohrabacher. You know you want to help do that.

    PostCardPatriots.com

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Trump administration is moving to restrict the release of information about its decisions on endangered species, according to a confidential internal document obtained by the Guardian.

    It comes as wildlife advocates and scientists accuse the government of attempting to weaken protections for wildlife, including wolves, grizzly bears and sage grouse, while boosting domestic energy production and mining in crucial animal habitat.

    In a private September guidance sent to offices around the country, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, or FWS, recommended that employees with its Ecological Services program – which administers the Endangered Species Act – take a less transparent approach when responding to certain Freedom of Information Act requests from the public.

    The guidance contains a list of records that “should be considered for withholding in full or in part” from the public, including draft versions of policies and rules; internal Power Point presentations and webinars; deliberative email communications and meeting notes; and others.

    Such records should be carefully reviewed and possibly withheld, the guidance suggests, if they might hamper the defense of the government’s decisions in certain court cases and cause “foreseeable harm” to the federal government by sowing “public confusion” or subjecting officials to public scrutiny and thereby creating a “chilling effect” on internal decision making processes.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @MazeDancer: Thank you for telling me about Amazon for post card stamps. Gonna fire up the calculator once I mainline some coffee and figure out the best deal.

    @OzarkHillbilly: All the best to you, blechmeister. Hope the funeral turns out to be a good reunion opportunity.

    Good morning, jackals.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    Randy Ludlow
    ‏Verified account
    @RandyLudlow
    17h17 hours ago
    More Randy Ludlow Retweeted FiveThirtyEight
    Silver and crew rate Ohio a toss-up, but forecast for moment that @MikeDeWine will beat @RichCordray by 1.3 percent. #OHGov

    It all comes down the turnout! :)

    The Ohio governor’s race is an odd island of normalcy in Trumpworld. It’s a standard-issue Democrat versus a generic Republican. They seem to spend 90% of their time fighting over preexisting condition coverage and the Ohio ECOT scandal.

    It’s kind of a throwback. It could be 1993.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost on a very moving obituary to Madelyn Ellen Linsenmeir of Vermont, who got addicted to opioids in high school and could never get past them. All her talent, and her family’s love and support, could never break the addiction’s hold.

    ‘Her addiction stalked her and stole her’: Heartbreaking obituary details ‘darkness’ of opioids

    Here’s the obituary itself, very loving and stringently honest, as reprinted in a Vermont indie paper.

    From the WaPost story, which provides links:

    After Linsenmeir’s obituary was published — gaining widespread media attention — a police chief in her hometown said he had “a problem” with it.

    “My problem with it is that it’s a much better obituary than the rest of us deserve,” Burlington (Vt.) police Chief Brandon del Pozo wrote Wednesday on Facebook, according to the Burlington Free Press.

    “Why did it take a grieving relative with a good literary sense to get people to pay attention for a moment and shed a tear when nearly a quarter of a million people have already died in the same way as Maddie as this epidemic grew?”

    Del Pozo said many others like Linsenmeir have died as a result of opioid addictions.

    “Maddie’s gone. She can’t feel your sorrow,” he wrote. “But others are next. Some aren’t beautiful. Others look nothing like you. Some are like Maddie’s twin, and have little children too. They are all human beings, and they need our help. Go. Get to work. We still need to earn the feelings her obituary inspired in us. We should have felt them years ago.”

  22. 22.

    danielx

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Such records should be carefully reviewed and possibly withheld, the guidance suggests, if they might hamper the defense of the government’s decisions in certain court cases and cause “foreseeable harm” to the federal government by sowing “public confusion” or subjecting officials to public scrutiny and thereby creating a “chilling effect” on internal decision making processes.

    Subjecting officials to public scrutiny? Well, can’t have that. How are they supposed to get on with helping the mineral extraction companies plunder the landscape with those pesky members of the public looking over their shoulders?

  24. 24.

    Aleta

    From: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/10/18/the-khashoggi-killing-americas-part-in-a-saudi-horror/
    1/2

    During my reporting in the Kingdom after the Arab Spring, I learned first hand what the unshakeable US–Saudi partnership meant for Saudi Arabia’s own citizens. At the time, the Obama administration* (see 2/2) had given support to popular revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, and many Saudis I met hoped that their own, far more modest reform efforts would win support, too.

    In Riyadh, Mohammad al-Qahtani, the economics professor, told me about the pioneering human rights organization he had co-founded and his efforts to document a series of little-noted protests that had taken place—and been speedily quashed—inside the Kingdom. When I asked if he feared arrest, he said not.

    “My organization is well known. If they do anything, word will get out in the US and the international community and they will be embarrassed,” he said. A few weeks after I met him, he was charged with sedition; in March 2013, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

    In Jeddah, I met the young human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair, who, bridling at the lack of political space in the Kingdom, had imaginatively launched an informal weekly discussion group in his own home. Constantly harassed by the authorities, he was already banned from travel abroad. But he had recently published an article in The Washington Post about his efforts and he assumed the US State Department would intervene if he were detained. In 2014, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

    At the time, Jamal Khashoggi did not face trouble with the authorities. On the contrary, he knew many Saudi officials and senior members of the royal family. But he, too, longed to see the monarchy embrace greater openness, and he was particularly excited about Al Arab, a private Arabic-language news channel he was planning in Bahrain with backing from Prince Alwaleed. As he described it, the station would aim to provide a quality alternative to Al Jazeera, offering hard-hitting Western-style news journalism and open debate. It would also draw on an innovative partnership with Bloomberg news.

    When the station launched in February 2015, however, it was shut down almost immediately by the Bahraini government for airing the views of an opposition figure.  The US government made no move to protest the silencing of this bold, Saudi-run liberal media venture.

    Shortly after I met al-Qahtani and al-Khair, I asked President Obama’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, James B. Smith, if the US could help men like them. He explained that human rights were not one of the pillars of the US–Saudi relationship. The ambassador was not being controversial.

  25. 25.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    trump, cutting taxes for the rich, raising prices for the rest of us.

    Not sure I see the problem. I mean, if it hurts those poor people, or the middle-class, they probably deserved it anyway, right?

    I tells ya, if the Traitor-in-Chief EVER had to play by the same rules as the 99 percent, I’d hear his puling from all the way over here.

  26. 26.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: (cont)
    2/2

    Since its legendary enshrining by President Franklin Roosevelt and King Abdul Aziz more than seventy years ago, the terms of the unlikely Washington–Riyadh alliance have been clear: in exchange for unfettered access to Saudi oil, the world’s leading advanced democracy would guarantee the security of the world’s most hidebound monarchy. Almost nothing else mattered.

    In earlier decades, however, Washington was not shy about using the alliance to promote liberalization. Through the mid-1960s, successive US administrations pushed the monarchy to make modernizing reforms, and in 1962, President Kennedy persuaded the Kingdom to abolish slavery.
    …
    All this came to an end with the specter of Arab nationalism and then the 1973 oil embargo. The US needed a reliable partner in Riyadh, regardless of its political coloration. And with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Saudis’ ultraconservative religious establishment became a convenient engine for the US-backed mujahideen.

    Paradoxically, the Saudis proved equally indispensable in counterterrorism efforts after September 11, since it was on their soil that extremists like Osama bin Laden had germinated and the US needed Saudi cooperation to hunt them down. At the same time, the monarchy provided a formidable bulwark against Iran, as well as an almost bottomless market for the US defense industry. In return for all that, Washington was more than willing to look the other way when it came to human rights abuses and a political ice age inside the Kingdom.

    At least since the Arab Spring, however, the extraordinary price of this Faustian bargain has been hard to ignore.

    * It was during the Obama years that MBS and his father, King Salman, ascended to power—and were assiduously courted by the new US president. According to a Congressional Research Service study, between 2010 and 2015 the US concluded a record $111 billion in arms deals with the Kingdom, notwithstanding a Saudi crackdown on peaceful protesters in neighboring Bahrain and a Saudi-backed military coup against Egypt’s first democratically-elected government. 

    Nor did President Obama flinch when MBS launched the disastrous Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen in March 2015, apparently without consulting the White House. Sustained by US arms sales, the brutal Saudi-led offensive has killed tens of thousands of civilians and pushed millions of children to the brink of starvation, creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. In August, UN investigators issued a report accusing the Saudis and other parties in the conflict of possible war crimes. Even as the UN findings were coming out, the Republican-led Senate rejected a measure to cut off US military support in next year’s defense appropriations bill.

  29. 29.

    MomSense

    @Elizabelle:

    Locally we are dealing with the hellscape that is trying to keep people alive while we wait for a bed to open up at an inpatient treatment center. The ED can only shuffle people around for so long.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I hear Trump is considering a pardon for MBS.

    Pardon for what? Not preventing Khashoggi’s likely suicide? How is MbS responsible for that?

    Were there any actual wrongdoing, I feel confident that Graham, Collins, Flake, and Corker would be all over that “like a cheap suit.”

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    It’s amazing to watch the media fall yet again for the notion that the GOP Congress will stand up to Trump.

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    GOP leaders are either incredibly confident or incredibly stupid. They are trying to hand the November election to the Democrats on a silver platter. The Democrats should be grateful and accept.

    The GOP is openly declaring their intentions to repeal Obamacare and to slash Medicare. With Obamacare the Republicans insist that they would retain rules which protect pre-existing conditions, but all the proposals actually put on the table would eliminate these protections. McConnell is on record as saying that budget deficits can only be fixed by extending tax cuts for the rich and cutting deeply into entitlements.

    Voters have a pretty clear choice. And Democrats need to drive this message home.

    ETA. Posting fast on my commute. There is a Politico story about a GOP congresswoman with a disabled child who still is a right wing true believer. She avoids the issue of pre-existing conditions and seems to believe that the magical free market will bring an answer. If she didn’t have government health insurance she would be in a deep jam. Sad.

  35. 35.

    Ken

    @SFAW: I’m 90% sure Baud was making a joke.

    Unfortunately it’s Trump, so there’s an outside chance he thinks he could pardon MBS.

  37. 37.

    Aleta

    Ethan Grey @_EthanGrey
    1/3

    1. I’ve voted for Democratic candidates ever since I first voted in 2008. Before every major election, I like to talk about why voting for third parties in the United States doesn’t make sense, tactically or morally. This may be truer now than ever. THREAD.

    2. There are two major considerations for this discussion: the nature of our voting system in which we exercise our right to vote and the moral dilemmas of the era in which we are living.

    3. To the former, elections in the United States are determined by first-past-the-post voting systems. In Congressional districts, your candidate needs a plurality of votes to win the district. The losers are afforded no representation.

    4. We do not have proportional representation system where if you achieve some % of the vote, you are allocated that % of the available representation.

    5. So what are the major effects of first-past-the-post voting? Well, the major incentive is to achieve the most votes, otherwise you achieve no representation. One way to do that is by forging alliances with other groups to increase the size of your party.

    6. This is why neoconservatives, fiscal conservatives, and social conservatives come together under the Republican Party, and this is why liberals and more moderate voters come together under the Democratic Party.

    7. If any single one of these intra-party factions tried to go it alone as its own political party, they increase their risk of failing to achieve a plurality of the vote AND also increase the risk of a major political party failing to achieve of plurality of the vote.

    8. This is ultimately why the two-party system exists, and the aforementioned societal trend is heavily reinforced by the fact that the Presidency is decided by the electoral college; electors in each state are appointed by winner-take-all, first-past-the-post voting systems.

  38. 38.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    I’m 90% sure Baud was making a joke.

    I was 100 percent sure. Not only that, I’m almost 100 percent sure I was making a joke, too.

    Or do you think that I think any of the Rethug luminaries I mentioned would do a single fucking thing to hold the Traitor-in-Chief in check? They’re all traitors, “even the moderate” Susan Collins. And you know what efgoldman sez.

  39. 39.

    Aleta

    Ethan Grey @_EthanGrey
    2/3

    9. The other major consequence of first-past-the-post voting? A vote for one party cancels out the vote of another party. Voters factor in how others will vote. They may prefer one candidate, but will vote for another candidate that is likelier to win.

    10. So when we said that voting for Jill Stein increased the likelihood that Donald Trump would win when you could have voted for Hillary Clinton, that was just us stating a reality that is a byproduct of our voting system.

    11. And what was achieved by Jill Stein voters in terms of advancing their own political power in our institutions? Absolutely nothing. They achieved no representation, they are unable to influence governance, and they have no power to change lives for the better.

    12. Now third party voters will be quick to point out “It’s my right to vote the way I choose!” And yeah, this is true. Just like you have freedom of speech and can do what you want with that as well. That doesn’t mean what you’re doing with either is guaranteed to be smart.

    13. So those are the pragmatic considerations with respect to first-past-the-post voting in the United States.

  40. 40.

    Aleta

    Ethan Grey @_EthanGrey
    3/3

    We now have to factor in the moral considerations, which quite frankly might be graver than they’ve ever been in recent memory.

    14. Voting anything other than Democratic in the 2018 midterm elections not only increases the likelihood that Republicans win, it risks providing no check on an administration committed to racist terror, enshrining patriarchy, oligarchic control, and authoritarian rule.

    15. The popular rebuttal to this observation will be: “I’m voting my conscience!” Yeah… in 2016, you voted in a way that did not yield you any institutional representation, did not change your life or the lives of others for the better, and actually risked making things worse.

    16. Tell the person who qualified for the Medicaid expansion thanks to the Affordable Care Act that Republicans seek to tear apart all about how you were voting your conscience.
    17. Tell the woman whose reproductive autonomy is at risk due to the very real possibility that Trump’s SCOTUS nominee will be confirmed all about how you were voting your conscience.

    18. Tell seniors and people counting on future support from Social Security and Medicare now facing the prospect of those programs being gutted all about how you were voting your conscience.
    19. Tell transgender individuals in the U.S. military (and transgender individuals in general) all about how you were voting your conscience.

    20. Tell DREAMers all about how you were voting your conscience.
    21. Tell minority voters whose voting rights have come under repeated attack all about how you were voting your conscience.

    22. The reality is that you weren’t thinking about any of them when you were telling us you were “voting [your] conscience” because you were voting based on something COSPLAYING as a conscience: ignorance of our voting system, misguided resentment, or very likely both.

    23. You have agency, and in 2018, you are under the highest onus to get this right. If Democrats don’t retake at least one house of Congress, it’s very likely that will constitute a point of no return when it comes to our ability to reverse this descent into authoritarian rule.

    24. I know this tweet series is harsh, and I get that it will provoke knee-jerk defensiveness in some, but I can assure you the consequences of not being a vigilant voter this year will be 1000x harsher. Some of you who didn’t listen to us in 2016 really need to listen to us now.

    25. Democrats in power will be the most viable way to check this administration. And if you feel elected Democrats aren’t sufficiently representing the base of our party on this or other issues, the answer to that is beating them in primary elections, not third party voting.

    26. Don’t construe any of this as a defense of the voting systems we have in place right now, but rather, an urgent reminder to understand the voting systems we have right now and factor those realities into our moral considerations, which are more serious than ever.

    27. I appreciate the system in which we vote, I appreciate the enormous stakes in this election, & I appreciate that my vote ISN’T JUST ABOUT ME. I want to shield vulnerable people from this administration’s cruelty, and that’s why I am eagerly voting Democratic in 2018.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW:

    I’m almost 100 percent sure I was making a joke, too.

    When it comes to you, I’m not sure about anything.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    It’s amazing to watch the media fall yet again for the notion that the GOP Congress will stand up to Trump.

    If I thought it would do any good, I’d consider sending a Lucy-and-the-football picture to the various publishers and news division heads. But I would only do that if I thought they were actual journalistic organizations. Well, the WaPo is better than most, but they’re still not the WaPo of Kay Graham.

  46. 46.

    Ken

    @SFAW:

    Not only that, I’m almost 100 percent sure I was making a joke, too.

    That makes three of us. Though in my case it was less a joke, and more an opportunity to take a swipe at Trump for his ongoing inability to distinguish the office of President from that of God-Emperor of Dune.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: Free market, baby.

    I wish you well and hope a bed opens speedily. Situation like that killed the son of a Virginia state senator a few years back. One tragedy was that it turned out there had been a bed available, but there was not sufficient reporting structure in place for them to find it in time. And this was for a state senator and his party’s gubernatorial nominee (Democrat, Creigh Deeds; his son stabbed him multiple times before shooting himself). He could not get the system to work at a crucial time, with all his knowledge and contacts.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    9

    Zombiz LovaBrainsy ?‍♂️ ?‍♂️
    ‏Verified account
    @kombiz
    19m19 minutes ago
    More
    Just ran across a pro-Saudi Arabia “think tank” run by a former anti-muslim right-wing blogger who thought the kid in Houston built a bomb when he built a clock. –

    There should be a crawl underneath every cable guest listing who pays them. This is doable and it’s really essential information for viewers.

    It would also be fascinating. I might start watching again to see that. Ed Rendell alone would be worth an hour of cable watching.

  50. 50.

    MomSense

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s also a game of hot potato with social workers and family members worrying about the poor potato while all the agencies and providers try not to catch it.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: Thanx for that site. I found this jewel while exploring it: At Current Rates Of Use World Could Run Out Of Thoughts And Prayers By As Early As 2019

    A worldwide shortage of thoughts and prayers may leave us with no choice but to actually do something by as early as January 2019, researchers are warning, after a recent study revealed the popular refrain is now fueling 93% of governmental inaction globally. And we are running out.

    Dr. Tim Freely, a leading expert in thinking and praying, and author of the book Act Now Or Forever Wring Your Hands, explains:

    “The trouble is that back in the 50’s, when they first started using this phrase as a catch-all for ‘I’m not motivated to actually do something here but feel obligated to open and close my mouth in some fashion or other,’ politicians and community leaders had no idea how much they’d be relying on this platitude by the time the 21st century rolled around. And now we’re just plain running out. Of thoughts. Of prayers. And of patience.”

    Freely isn’t alone in sounding the alarm. The Global School for Total Ineffectiveness has said that not only are the current consumption rates of thoughts and prayers at unsustainable levels, but that we are also extremely low on condolences and general declarations of unity in these difficult times.

    ETA unless somebody discovers frackable reserves

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    I hope a few Democrats are running on McConnell’s promise to repeal the ACA and hack entitlement programs. McConnell is telling us exactly what he will do if the Senate remains in the hands of Republicans. Even Republican voters should be alarmed.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    This is good work about the sleazy Trump family. If you thought Ivanka was somehow not involved, think again. She lies and cheats as much or more than her father.

    But an eight-month investigation by ProPublica and WNYC reveals that the post-millennium Trump business model is different from what has been previously reported. The Trumps were typically way more than mere licensors or bystanders in their often-troubled deals. They were deeply involved in these projects. They helped mislead investors and buyers — and they profited handsomely from it.

    I think criminal justice reform is coming in this country and I suggest we reallocate resources from arresting exclusively poor people to prosecuting white collar crime. I think law enforcement will like this. They’ll be working in much better neighborhoods. Less muscle, more brains. We can retrain them in forensic accounting. They won’t need a tank and a battering ram- they can use a calculator.

    Our rich people are on a crime spree and this has apparently been running unchecked for 30 years. Lock ’em up.

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    @OzarkHillbilly: They talk about fire, but discovering ice as a painkiller, cold water for fever and burns, ice for swelling … also miraculous I think. (Without ice would we even have touring older guitarists and banjo players?)

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    Facebook is fucking up again. FTF NYTimes: In Virginia House Race, Anonymous Attack Ads Pop Up on Facebook

    Rabid person bought advertising space to run nasty, nasty lying stuff, anonymously, about Democratic Northern Virginia congressional candidate Jennifer Wexton, who is leading her Tea Partying incumbent opponent, Barbara Comstock. It’s so bad, Comstock’s campaign disavows any knowledge of it.

    Ad features photos of Nazis and brownshirts and language like THEY ARE EVIL THEY HATE AMERICA THEY HATE YOU. Because it’s Democrats that support Nazis and have been marching with tiki torches. Not.

    The person or group behind the ads is known to Facebook, but a mystery to the public. The funding disclaimer attached to the ads reads, simply, “Paid for by a freedom loving American Citizen exercising my natural law right, protected by the 1st Amendment and protected by the 2nd Amendment.” There is no other identifying information on the page.

    ….Since 2016, when Facebook ads were used to spread disinformation and Russian propaganda ahead of the presidential election, the social network has clamped down on political advertisers. Users trying to buy political ads on Facebook are required to verify their identities, including proving that they have a mailing address in the United States. And all political ads are required to carry a “paid for by” disclaimer, detailing which person or organization purchased them.

    But the owner of “Wacky Wexton Not” was able to remain anonymous by taking advantage of a loophole in Facebook’s policy. Once authorized to pay for political ads, buyers are able to fill the “paid for by” field with whatever text they want, even if it does not match the name of a Facebook user or page, and even if it is not an organization registered with the Federal Election Commission. Facebook does not reveal the identity of authorized ad buyers, or allow users to get more information about them.

    A Facebook spokesman, Andy Stone, said that the ads on “Wacky Wexton Not” were allowed under the company’s current policies, but that the company was working on improving the disclosure feature. He said Facebook did not disclose the identity of the people authorized to buy political ads in order to protect those users’ privacy.

    “One of the important aspects of the ad archive is the meaningful transparency it provides,” Mr. Stone said. “Now political and issue ads that run on Facebook are available and open for public scrutiny so that voters, journalists and researchers can all ask questions about who is behind those ads.”

    And, of course, a troll Facebook page that had 40 page views will now get hundreds of thousands, care of coverage by the NY Times.

    This is a mess. Facebook should suspend that account immediately, close its loophole, and be responsible to truthful outreach to voters. Be better, fucking Facebook.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    They won’t need a tank and a battering ram- they can use a calculator.

    But where is the fun in that? They want to take names and kick some ass.

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    That makes three of us.

    OK, missed that. Sorry.

    Though in my case it was less a joke, and more an opportunity to take a swipe at Trump for his ongoing inability to distinguish the office of President from that of God-Emperor of Dune.

    Maybe. In that context, I see the Traitor-in-Chief as being an amalgam of Baron Harkonnen (more for being a fat shit) and Shaddam (with his daughter the Princess being a consort, but Muad’Dib telling her to “fuck off, your entire family is corrupt.” Although in fairness to Irulan, I’m not aware of her being as corrupt as her father.But it’s been about 40 years since I read Dune)

    Be that as it may: a reasonable subject for debate: “Resolved: The Shitgibbon Maladministration is so bad, that the movie Dune deserves to win every Oscar, for all time, by comparison.”

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW:

    Although in fairness to Irulan, I’m not aware of her being as corrupt as her father.

    Trapped in a loveless but politically expedient marriage, she spent her years writing books about the man she married but never knew.

  60. 60.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Amen. I hope Elizabeth Warren does run for president. Even if she doesn’t win the nomination, she has a great message on the culture of corruption and corporate wilding — not just vague disapproval but solid ideas in the form of proposed legislation that could begin to address this enormous problem. If nothing else, she could get all the other candidates on board with it.

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker: I am with Elizabeth Warren. She connects with people, and she’s solid and competent; that’s important. Even EW for VP.

    I like Kamala Harris a lot, too.

  63. 63.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Bernie Sanders has a problem as he decides whether to run in 2020: Many of his former staffers are looking elsewhere.

    With the Vermont senator kicking off a nine-state tour on Friday with stops in Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada and California

    Hmmm…. Iowa, SC, Nevada, and Cali. What a coincidence, they all just happened to be early primary states.

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Trapped in a loveless but politically expedient marriage, she spent her years writing books about the man she married but never knew.

    Your prose flows like a fine whine, approaching the level of quality achieved — tho’ many have tried — by only Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings.

  65. 65.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    It’s amazing to watch the media fall yet again for the notion that the GOP Congress will stand up to Trump

    Just like too many voters believing that GOP members of congress will vote FOR healthcare and won’t kill medicare and SS.

  69. 69.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban endorsed Joe Manchin in an advertisement released Wednesday supporting the Democratic incumbent.

    “Joe and I grew up together in West Virginia, and he never forgets where he came from,” said Saban, a Fairmont native.

    “I don’t have a better friend or know a better person than Joe Manchin.”

    Wow.. First Taylor and now “Roll Tide” jumps into the arena.

  71. 71.

    Patricia Kayden

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Yes, even if Beto loses against Ted, he has run a commendable, passionate campaign. I’d vote for him if he ran against Trump in a heartbeat. He has the youthfulness and zeal that could take him very far.

  72. 72.

    Butter Emails!!!

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Beto is shaping up to be a very attractive contender for 2020.

    Only if he loses. You can’t seriously suggest that someone who ran on with the slogan “Beto for Texas” should give Texans the middle finger and run for higher office immediately after being elected Senator in a state where in the event he actually won the Presidency, a Republican would be his replacement.

  73. 73.

    MazeDancer

    @Aleta:

    There’s no such thing as not voting.
    (quote from someone somewhere, x many times)

    Stealing that, turning into a new PostCard design. And thank you.

    We have True Blue Dem addresses for Antonio Delgado’s race where you can use every wild and out there design on the site. PostCardPatriots.com/gallery (And soon to include above line, too.)

    You know you want to send some “STOP THE MADNESS” PostCards. You know you do.

  74. 74.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: Like my friend likes to say that in America it is suit-boot walli corruption (corruption wearing fancy suits and shoes, since India is tropical unless you are a fancy big shot, people tend to stick to sandals). Her synonym for corruption in high places, unlike say the cop on the beat who takes a bribe or two to make ends meet.

  75. 75.

    Elizabelle

    @MazeDancer: I just bought 200 stamps. Will be in touch with you, although want to check in with Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign first.

    Love the idea of sitting down with some postcards!

    Thank you for putting this together.

  77. 77.

    Aleta

    How Republicans view support for addicts and prisoners:
    https://ideastations.org/radio/news/brat-hears-addicts-chesterfield-county-jail

    Republican Congressman Dave Brat visited Chesterfied County Jail today (10/17) to hear from incarcerated drug addicts. Many inmates told Brat, who is up for re-election next month, that they wanted more resources as well as changes to sentencing guidelines.

    Brat offered encouragement and said he was on board with some reform, but pushed for the inmates to find support systems, distractions, and employment. “You have to find some substitute for drugs–get exercise, or academics, reading books, going to the Bible,” he said.

    The inmates said the punitive damage inflicted by court fines, misdemeanor arrests, and the stigma of their position made recovery that much more difficult. … Inmates said they’d received punishment rather than help from the government at crucial moments.
    …
    After one inmate described the difficulties she would face after release in finding work and stability … Brat turned the conversation back to his campaign against Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

    “You think you’re having a hard time–I’ve got $5 million worth of negative ads coming at me,” he said. “How do you think I’m feeling? Nothing’s easy. For anybody.”
    “You think I’m a congressman, ‘Oh, life’s easy, this guy’s off having steaks every day.’” he said. “Baloney. I’ve got a five year-old daughter, she’s got to deal with that crap on TV every day.”
    “So it’s tough,” he continued. “No one out there’s got some easy life. Right?”

    “And you’ve got it harder,” he acknowledged. “I’m not dismissing that. You’ve got some fierce, real anxiety with coming up with a job or whatever. And what you’ve got to find is a support system.”

    In an interview after the event, Brat said it was difficult to make a blanket statement on whether the felons in the room should be allowed to vote. “It depends,” he said. “That’s the long answer for a lot of this stuff. For what? That’s why it’s more complex.”

  79. 79.

    Kent

    Something I haven’t seen covered anywhere in the media is the increased rebuilding costs for Hurricanes Michael and Florence as a direct result of Trump’s Tarrifs on steel and lumber. Every homeowner in the Florida Gulf Coast who needs plywood or 2x4s or rebar to rebuild their homes and repair flood damage are going to be paying 25% or more additional cost for their building materials as a result of these “Trump Taxes”.

    Nelson and Gillum and every other Dem politician in the path of these hurricanes should be screaming about these “Trump Taxes” and how they are affecting their constituents at the exact moment when they are most down. Seems an absolute no brainer and shifts the discussion against them most effectively. The ads just write themselves:

    “Under Trump billionaires are pocketing hundreds of millions in tax breaks they don’t need while ordinary homeowners and middle class Floridians are paying huge increased taxes on all the materials they need to rebuild after this huge disaster”

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @Aleta:

    What a whiny, self-absorbed, candy-assed prick. Negative ads coming your way? Waah waah waah

    Or, as the kids say: Christ, what an asshole!

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: If they don’t stand up against this, it will be shocking in the same way that even the massacre of those young kids in Newtown couldn’t budge the pro-gun people.

  83. 83.

    catclub

    @rikyrah:

    One cannot just disappear a journalist and expect to get away with it. And the fact that the Saudis were naive enough to think that the Istanbul consulate wasn’t bugged beggars belief. They carried out this barbarous act under the illusion of impunity. But even in our tumultuous world, where old verities are being challenged daily, some standards still apply.

    From the article you linked to.

    I see a couple of problems. They will get away with it. No standards ever really applied. They have oil and money.

    I hear no words of condemnation from Europe, or Japan, or India, of course not from Russia or China. And even if there WERE words of condemnation, so what? SA still has oil and money. They can do whatever they like. I would say that the outrage over disappearing a journalist is much more than the invisible outrage over their ongoing war crimes in Yemen.

    The only difference is slightly less outrage from the present US administration. But would the US embargo SA oil? Would the US under Obama or Hillary cut off weapons used in Yemen? I have my doubts.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    A shout out to Congressman Beto O’Rourke, for proposing some humane immigration treatment for immigrant spouses and dependents of U.S. military members. To Mazie Hirono and Vicente Gonzalez too! And to Republicans Roy Blunt and Don Young, kudos for your support.

    Article from March 2018, in The Military Times, which has been doing some stellar reporting on immigration issues facing service members: Military Times’ Sailor of the Year’s wife reveals she fears deportation

    … There are at least three bills under consideration in Congress that could help military spouses, dependents and even veterans themselves who have been deported or face a future deportation.

    The first is H.R. 1036, the “American Families United Act,” sponsored by Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, which would enable immigration enforcement on a case-by-case basis to allow military spouses, dependents and other categories of immigrants to remain in the U.S.

    The second is “Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2018,” sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, which would ease some of the immigration restrictions for international adoptees.

    The third is H.R. 3429, “Repatriate Our Patriots Act,” sponsored by Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and O’Rourke. That bill would allow certain honorably discharged veterans who have been deported to come home.

    Neither House bill has been granted a committee hearing in Congress, and the Senate bill was just reintroduced this week after it did not gain traction last session. Instead, individual congressional offices are lobbying for individual families in jeopardy to see if there’s a chance for relief.

  87. 87.

    MazeDancer

    @Elizabelle:

    If you can get PostCard addresses out of the Heitkamp campaign, I am perfectly willing to risk crashing PostCardPatriots.com in distributing them.

    Everybody wants to write for Heidi.

    I’m almost up to lying to NationBuilder.com and getting the list for free there. But building on a lie isn’t the way to go. I think.

    But if anyone out there can legit ask for a list of North Dakota voters, please share. Immediately.

  88. 88.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: They are Rs themselves or R enablers for the sake of their career or peer group pressure. There are some exceptions to this, but that is the Beltway media culture by and large, Rs are never wrong, they can only be wronged. Bipartisanship is Ds doing what Rs want. Both sides do it by Ds are worse and so on.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s not a reason to support him, but it sure is a nice bonus!

    Part of it, though, is that he seems like a really good guy, through and through. Did you see the short video of him petting the bunny? The bunny was shaking with fear but stopped as soon as Beto started petting him. Beto gave him the forehead to forehead thing that I do with my kitties, and then looked up and looked the bunny’s human right in the eye and said: “This is exactly what I needed today.”

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    @Aleta: Article’s been lightly edited since you excerpted. Brat’s daughter is in high school; he does not have a five-year old. Wonder how that ended up in the article, which was a good one otherwise.

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    Fareed Zakaria is on Stay Tuned with Preet this week. I used to like Fareed Zakaria, but at some point in the last 2 or 3 years I have come to viscerally dislike him and have lumped him into the set of “journalists” that I do not like or trust.

    The trouble is, I can’t recall what happened or how I ended up moving him to that list. If anyone knows of an incident that could shed some light on this for me, I would appreciate hearing it. Before I listen to the podcast, I’d like to sort this out. thanks.

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @Ruckus:

    It helps if you look at SFAW’s comments as always being a joke but that some of them may be aren’t rather than the other way round.

    Well, not ALWAYS a joke. [Although I expect many of the attempted jokes engender the response “Christ, what an asshole.”] But I think Ozark knows how (un)serious I am when I’m busting his stones.

    As do I, when he busts mine. I think.

  96. 96.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    If they don’t stand up against this, it will be shocking in the same way that even the massacre of those young kids in Newtown couldn’t budge the pro-gun people.

    Unfortunately, I have a much more cynical view of the GOP and their electorate than you do. I don’t think I was always that way, at least not to this degree.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    Headline and blurb on the front page of the WaPost website:

    In N.C., hurricanes did what scientists could not: Convince Republicans that climate change is real

    A poll shows that 37 percent of Republicans in the state believe global warming is “very likely” to negatively impact North Carolina coastal communities in the next 50 years. That is nearly triple the percentage of Republicans who felt that way one year ago.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    15h15 hours ago
    More Jon Favreau Retweeted Topher Spiro
    “Let’s get this fucking thing done!” – said establishment GOP favorite @MarthaMcSally of repealing Obamacare
    At a debate this week, she said “We can’t go back to where we were before Obamacare, where people were one diagnosis away from going bankrupt.”
    Martha McSally is a liar.

    @TopherSpiro
    15h15 hours ago
    More
    Here was the scene right before Republicans voted to repeal health care for 23 million Americans. They played the “Rocky” theme song. “Let’s get this fucking thing done!” They were amped up.

    More
    Opinion of #Obamacare
    53% Favorable
    42% Unfavorable
    5% Can’t Rate

    They’re all liars. How many of them were at the ridiculous rally where they played the theme from Rocky?

    Maybe we could find some adults to hire? You-all paid for the Rocky Rally. They did that instead of working.

  106. 106.

    Ruckus

    @SFAW:
    Dark humor done right is always dark. Very few can pull that off. I don’t think either of us can, try as we might.

  107. 107.

    sukabi

    @SFAW: there’s the problem. At this point you should be considering that they aren’t “falling” for anything, they are actively, purposefully promoting and backhandedly endorsing all the facist tendencies / policies spewing forth.

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @sukabi:

    No argument from me. It raises the question(s): Are they doing it that way because they want to? Or out of fear? [The “they” in this case applies more to the rank-and-file than to management. We know, for example, that Pinch and Pinche Sulzberger hate(d) All Things Clinton, which led to the FTFTFNYT becoming what they are. The Boston Glob hasn’t been liberal since John Henry took over. But they’re not the people that the electorate sees or hears from.]

  109. 109.

    SFAW

    @Groucho48:

    It was his own personal Vietnam.

    Lucky for him it was here. Had he been over there, well … “Daddy, what does ‘fragging’ mean?”

  110. 110.

    The Pale Scot

    @Kay:

    I suggest we reallocate resources from arresting exclusively poor people to prosecuting white collar crime.

    I suggest we we institute flogging for white collar crime, one stroke per dollar sounds fair

  111. 111.

    Bostonian

    @SFAW: I think the poppa’s nickname was Punch, and the kid is pinch, but yeah let’s call them both pinche.

    The NYT is a rag that pisses me off more than the Glob. The Glob follows the crowd most of the time, includes a few token right-wingtards on the op-eds, and comes out with a really good investigation every once in a while. The Times mostly does a good job of news, to pretend it’s still a paper of record, and then again and again comes out with a whopper straight from the horse’s ass, pure unadulterated psy-ops or ratfucking pretending to be journalism. No goddamn shame.

  113. 113.

    SFAW

    @Bostonian:

    I think the poppa’s nickname was Punch, and the kid is pinch, but yeah let’s call them both pinche.

    “Punch” Sulzberger was publisher from 1963 until 1992. My recollection is/was that Punch was a pretty good man, and the Times was a top-notch newspaper (unlike the FTFTFNYT) during those years, although I have to confess that I didn’t pay attention to the goings-on as much as I do now.

    In 1992, his son “Pinch” became publisher. Interestingly enough, the FTFNYT started going after the Clintons. Hmm, what a coincidence. “Pinch” retired at the end of last year, I believe. I had hoped that his son would turn out to be “Punch Jr.” instead of “Pinch Jr.” I was quickly disabused of that notion, and so I decided that “Pinche” (i.e., a Spanish word/adjective) was a more appropriate nickname.

  114. 114.

    MazeDancer

    @Ceci7:

    You are a Champion and a Patriot!!

    It may have worked!

    Heard back from Lauren. Said she “Would love to send you names”

    They’re working on their guidelines. Being a campaign, that could take days.

    Refreshing email every 20 secs, even though it refreshes itself, standing by to receive.

  115. 115.

    SFAW

    @Bostonian:

    One follow-up re: the Glob:
    I like Scot Lehigh — who, by my estimation, is pretty centrist (but not a Brooksian bullshit “centrist”) — but when he’s the closest thing to a liberal they have, the right-wingers are no longer “token.” And don’t get me started on The Always Clueless Joan Vennochi. She’s not quite as misogynistic as the run-of-the-mill Rethug, but she sure does hate her some strong, accomplished women. I first noticed that when Shannon O’Brien ran for Governor; TACJV has pretty much kept her streak going through Senator Professor Warren and Hillary, among others.

    Yes, they have some really good investigative reporters and reporting — but so does the FTFTFNYT (when they want to).

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