There are smart people I respect who have different views on the effect of Romney’s wanking (this this and this). They’re mostly negative because, well, fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Romney’s gotta verbally masturbate until the day he dies.
That said, as Trump decompensates, a few other brave Republican voices will be raised in a holy chorus which will lead to precisely nothing. Each of them will get the same treatment from the press – dutiful stenography, mild veneration, and the hope that Trump will take it up and tweet about it so they can report on the tinkle match.
Perhaps one or two members of the press could also be bothered to ask the obvious followup: “What are you going to do about it?” If the answer is nothing, just include that in the story (at least) or the headline (at best). “Romney Complains about Trump; Proposes No Solution” or “Sasse’s Trump Sass Not Reflected in any Votes”. It doesn’t seem that hard, though in practice it’s clearly impossible.
schrodingers_cat
Mitt should have taken up knitting sweaters for his grandchildren, instead. Isn’t that the advice HRC got from our “liberal” MSM
trnc
It is sometimes difficult to tell whether any given villager just doesn’t think enough to get to that followup question, or instead studiously avoid it so they don’t have to face the unpleasantness of going to the back of the tire swing line.
kindness
I think the reviews of Mitt being Senator Flake 2.0 are accurate.
p.a
@trnc: 70% of them option 1, 30% option 2. That’s giving them the benefit of the doubt.
MattF
It’s clear that Mitt Romney ardently believes that Mitt Romney is the answer to all these questions. In so far as anyone who is not Mitt Romney doubts the truth of that assertion, Mitt Romney is disappointed in that person.
Adam L Silverman
Take it from Abby Huntsman, the daughter of former Utah governor and current US Ambassador Huntsman (also previously a US ambassador appointed by President Obama), on Romney. The Huntsman’s are the real deal in Utah politics, unlike the Romneys.
hells littlest angel
To be sure, Mitt Romney is a sanctimonious twit, and always has been. But his posturing is just the sort of thing you would expect to see as Trump’s support begins to collapse. So fuck off, Romney — and also, welcome to the resistance, Romney.
sukabi
It would be instructive to see which of the self-proclaimed journalists (besides greenwald) were on that email chain that was passed around prior to the 2016 election that were smearing / spiking Eichenwalds(sp?) article on trump russia connections. Coordinating / conspiring to kill a legitimate nation impacting story seems like a BFD to me.
hells littlest angel
@Adam L Silverman: Please. The difference between Huntsman and Romney is the difference between artificial vanilla and artificial French vanilla.
jl
I prefer
” the fish gotta swim, and the little bird flies, and Romney’s gotta verbally masturbate often as he dyes.”
In honor of Mitt’s hair color.
I don’t think we can tell much of anything from Romney’s mild rebuke to Trump and Trumpism Might mean he’s testing waters to be the anti-Trump who will slay the demon, or might mean he just wants to position himself for media spots as a carnsarned moderate GOPer (Ryan ain’t around anymore and the media needs a new hero. they can’t rely on Graham for that anymore), or maybe he just needs to puff his credibility as carnsarned about the vulgar hateful Trump to placate Mormon voters back in Utah.
We’ll see. I won’t hope for much from Mitt in the mean time. I just heard clips of Trump’s deranged and fantastical press appearance today. If Mitt means business, we should hear at least a squeak from him about the mass of lies, delusions and frauds Trump emitted today. Hard to tell where Trump’s ignorance, stupidity and dishonesty started and left off in his ravings today.
Baud
Wasn’t Romney’s main critique that Trump didn’t respect the office? Not much you can do about that. Even I don’t think that’s an impeachable offense.
Adam L Silverman
@hells littlest angel: What about the artificial Bourbon vanilla?
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
I can’t stand Meghan McCain interrupting everyone.
piratedan
Mitt Romney is a Republican who supports GOP Policy. Trump is a GOP politician who inhabits the WH signing off on GOP policy. The only thing that separates Trump and Romney is that Romney is not a fucking buffoon, he’s still a racist, sexist asshole who would sign off on all of the same evil twisted shit, but he would simply have a patina of civility as a cover and perhaps he wouldn’t mumble as much with Putin’s cock in his mouth… that’s about it.
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: Neither can anyone else.
Heywood J.
You know, as completely loathsome as Clownstick is, Willard sure gives him a solid run for the money with his sanctimonious bullshit. Like Clownstick, he just refuses to fucking go away and play Scrooge McDuck with his precious pelf.
He’s picking up right where that dipshit Flake left off. He’s fine with what’s happening, he just doesn’t like how it’s done, he has issues with tone and style. What a useless turd he is. I hope his grandkids blow their inheritances on hookers and coke.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
She’s like the worst mansplainer without being a man.
hells littlest angel
@Adam L Silverman: I’m pretty sure that bourbon is grounds for shunning in Utah.
Marcopolo
@schrodingers_cat: Speaking of HRC, this is making the rounds today & I think it is pretty great.
I DON’T HATE WOMEN CANDIDATES — I JUST HATED HILLARY AND COINCIDENTALLY I’M STARTING TO HATE ELIZABETH WARREN
Apologies if it has already been posted 10 times.
zhena gogolia
I’m seeing some cogent and pithy summaries of one Willard Romney here (piratedan and Heywood J.) that I wish could make it onto the front pages.
jl
@hells littlest angel: I think Huntsman said once that his wife and daughters would give him such shit if he said stupid and hateful stuff during the debates, so he had to be careful what he said. Didn’t stop him from paying tribute to the current depraved GOP when he needed to. Just as long as he didn’t have to orally assert horrible garbage in public, Huntsman was OK with it.
So, yeah, not a whole lot of difference. I think Huntsman has a more credible moderate record than Romney does, since, IIRC, Romney was more or less forced into RomneyCare by the MA leg.
SFAW
You’re kidding, right? They’re too busy coming up with variations of “Why is Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren so darn unlikable?” and “Is Elizabeth Warren just Hitlary redux, but more [fill in the blank]?”
ETA: As marcopolo’s link highlights.
randy khan
I’m all in favor of people like Romney decrying Trump, but on the whole it’s meaningless while they still do his bidding. And on things like the shutdown, Romney actually is powerless, since McConnell is the one cracking the whip in the Senate. (It is interesting to consider whether the shutdown eventually could lead to at least a mini-rebellion against McC if he doesn’t read the politics of the issue right, but that’s a whole different question than whether Romney is going to have the courage of his so-called convictions.)
Brachiator
Here’s part of the WaPo editorial for December 22:
Adam L Silverman
@zhena gogolia: The simple reality is what I wrote last night. Romney will vote over 90% of the time with the President and over 95% with McConnell. He’ll vote for every judge or political appointee no matter how unqualified or regardless of disqualifying information. All of this was about working the refs – the reporters who cover politics – to establish himself as a sage voice of wisdom and a Republican elder statesman regardless of being a freshman junior senator. He will not primary the President. This is all about creating a conceptual framework of who Senator Mitt Romney is and will be regardless of the actual reality of his actions. I understand why NeverTrump Republicans and conservatives are so desperate that they take this at face value, even if they’re smart enough to know better, as well as why news media that focuses on politics will fall for it, because they always do. But the simple reality is that for Romney to actually take a stand would require Romney to have courage. And that’s one thing that he does not have.
Marcopolo
@piratedan: I emphatically second this opinion.
And in reference to Adam’s comment above re the Huntsman’s I second Hells Littlest Angel’s take @ 9.
My first thread of the day & you folks have already improved my mood a hundredfold.
The Moar You Know
All the right words coming out of Mitt’s mouth doesn’t change that he’s been a happy member of the party for decades that, INEVITABLY, was going to bring us a Donald Trump. Policies and all.
And as far as talking about sons of bitches goes, what Trump did to eke out a shitty, morally bankrupt living pales in comparison to the lives, businesses, and economy that Mittens Romney has destroyed. When you cut through the bullshit, that Trump can’t use his indoor voice is really the only thing the “Never Trump” set has a problem with.
Wyatt Derp
@piratedan: Exactly Pirate Dan. Both Romney and Trump believe their simple existence in the WH will solve all problems. Romney is just a younger better looking version who speaks in complete sentences and doesn’t (probably) screw porn stars.
Miss Bianca
@Marcopolo: Perfect. That’s up there with Alexandra Petri. I particularly liked this bit, given the tone of some of the nascent Warren trollery on this yere blog:
All we needed was a slam about her age, and I could have filled out the whole misogynist bingo card!
Heywood J.
I have a little bit of hate set aside for the lapdog corporate mediots, too. It’s all a big routine with these assholes — someone makes a big stink like they’re going to buck the party line, not by actually doing anything, but by plopping out a big wet turd on the FTFNYT’s op-ed page about how disappointed he is in the tone. I mean, don’t they keep MoDo and Bobo around to do that kind of heavy lifting?
But now the mediots have something to take up the next news cycle or two. Oooh, Willardton Bulworth Rmoney the Third is tugging on Superman’s cape! Trouble in paradise? As if Rmoney hadn’t shown himself as a lily-livered dickweed long ago.
The corporate media is nothing more than Lucy Van Pelt with the football. Their deepest fear is having to go out and ply an honest trade.
Marcopolo
@Adam L Silverman:This is a case where the acorn fell about a continent or more away from the tree. Mitt’s dad George was a real mensch when the time came to put up or shut up.
Brachiator
@Wyatt Derp:
I didn’t realize that it’s only one year between them. Trump is 72, Mittbot is 71.
I agree with your larger point. Romney is saying “I would do the same evil shit as Trump, but I would just have more character as I was doing it.”
Heywood J.
Couldn’t edit the last comment, but it bears repeating — we have scumbags like Trump and Romney in power because of, not in spite of, our vaunted free press, because their priorities are horserace coverage and access and both-sider panel shows.
Mike in NC
Mitt Rmoney is probably thinking more about the White Horse Prophesy now that he has gotten back into politics. If he decides Trump can’t win in 2020, there could be a nasty primary fight (rooting for injuries). That’s assuming Fat Bastard manages to remain in office.
Heywood J.
Tried a couple times to edit the last comment, but either the function or the browser tab (Firefox) is weirding out, but it bears repeating — we have scumbags like Trump and Romney in power because of, not in spite of, our vaunted free press, because their priorities are horserace coverage and access and both-sider panel shows. There are a few exceptions, but most of them are just terrible.
Adam L Silverman
@Marcopolo: He was.
Cheryl Rofer
Read the thread.
Hildebrand
@Miss Bianca: I was gobsmacked whilst reading an earlier post today – some folks were summarily dismissing every single woman who is contemplating a run. Every. Single. One.
Unreal.
jl
@Heywood J.: What if Mitt did actually do something, like cross the aisle on some important issue? Will he ever come even close to crossing McConnell? Then the corporate media would be fascinated by the vibrant clash of titans in the GOP, and the drama would be thrilling. Three or four Democrats have a disagreement about the House rules that will disappear in a day or three, and it’s Dems in Disarray!!??
My private pet hunch about this is that part of it is psychological. The national GOP political world is a ruthless corporate hack world. That is the world of many bigshots in corporate media. The media being ‘wired for the GOP’ goes right down into their lizard brain stems of how the capitalist money and power god, in his righteous vengeance, decreed that the world should work. But that is just my guess. As in King Lear, filths savor their own.
Let’s see what Willard does. Don’t hope for much. We need a special word for Mitt’s bullshit. BullMitt? Does that work? Bullshmitt? BullMitt bullshmitt?
rikyrah
I don’t give a shyt about this. This is GOP on GOP violence.
Willard Romney doesn’t differ one phucking iota from Dolt45 in terms of policy. He just thinks that it should be talked about in ‘ quiet rooms’ (Remember?)
But, policy-wise?
Nope.
Not a phucking nanometer of difference between them.
Willard would have the same policies, except for that he would have come up with better excuses for them.
From immigration on down.
2 kids died? Willard would have said that they should have ‘self-deported’.
He would have picked ALL the same judges.
ALL of the same horrendous policies.
What pisses me off about Willard is the phuckers who told Hillary that she should knit…and have no problem with Willard’s 2-time losing azz being in the Senate.
The MSM laps this shyt up because they are PHUCKING DESPERATE. …they have longed to normalize Dolt45. They want someone like Willard to elevate, so that they can pretend that there are ‘ principled Republicans’, when we know that’s a phucking fairy tale.
jl
@rikyrah: Mitt’s operation would show a profit for the right people, rather than incompetent bankruptcy for everyone.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: An impeachable offense is whatever the House decides it is.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
I was going to mention the Alexandra Petri column, but for once in my benighted life I decided to scroll through the comments first to see if anyone else was aware of it. The two pieces make nice, complementary, back-to-back reading.
swiftfox
MM – Best political commenter at BJ. Wish we’d hear more than twice monthly.
Brachiator
@jl:
Romney wrote that he agrees with Trump’s policies and looks forward to working with McConnell.
At best, Mitt just promises to “speak out” against bad policies.
A very weak declaration of independence.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
Not likely. Republicans are already trying to figure out if they can cancel the primary in some states and just give their delegates to Trump. The more likely a serious challenge looks, the more the establishment will work to protect Trump from it. The cult leader must not be challenged.
Marcopolo
@jl: Well, he just told Jake Tapper he’s got no problems w/ the way Trump is handling the shutdown. Flakier than Flake was a comment I read.
The Moar You Know
I love one part of the tweet Trump shat out after hearing about RMoney’s disrespect:
“I won big, and he didn’t.”
I would like Mitt to be reminded that he lost for the rest of his life, while he warms a chair in the Senate as Utah’s white welfare hire.
Cheryl Rofer
This is good.
chris
@rikyrah:
3-time loser. He lost his senate bid from Massachesetts in 1994. Afterwards he said he wouldn’t run again unless he knew he could win. Haha.
JR
@sukabi: Do you have a link to this? Never heard of this before (but not surprised).
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in NC:
Some days I just want Trump the fuck out of the White House and the fuck out of my life forever, as soon as fucking possible. Other days, I yearn for a bloody, injury-laden GOP 2020 primary battle. Either way, am laying in extra stores of popcorn.
Miss Bianca
@Cheryl Rofer: “He’s not the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with – if he drank beer.”
Miss Bianca
@Hildebrand: You can’t even point it out to these people – they’re not self-aware enough to cop to their own sexist BS. The only real rhetorical weapon they deserve is withering sarcasm.
zhena gogolia
@Cheryl Rofer:
Who is that a-hole reporter screaming about how it’s a “non-starter”?
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Meghan McCain is the fucking WORST! I keep hoping Behar snaps one day and lobs her cute ceramic mug at McCain’s head.
Regarding Mittens, to paraphrase someone on Twitter, he’s the Ben Sasse of Jeff Flakes.
Mary G
@Cheryl Rofer: Chuck is getting a little butthurt by Nancy getting the attention. He needs to STFU except to say “I agree with Nancy.”
tobie
@jl: I don’t know if you’re still on this thread but here’s a link to the German budget, 2019-2022. This may answer some of your questions. You’re an economist so I’m sure this kind of document is super interesting!
sukabi
@JR: rikyrah(sp?) posted a link to it the other day, think it was in Eichenwalds’ twitter feed…you might be able google for it. Can’t remember which thread. Sorry.
Mary G
Mittens wants the press to like him like they liked John McCain, but he hasn’t got the balls to do something like vote against repeal of the ACA like McCain did. If he even hints at a primary challenge, Twitler will tweet and sic his howling monkeys of the base and Fox News on Mitt, who will fold like wet cardboard.
The Moar You Know
@Cheryl Rofer: That was good. Schumer still terrifies me – I have the feeling the guy would sign off on anything if he thought it made him look bothsidery – but he really does know how to stay on message, and he is.
Miss Bianca
@Brachiator:
ooh, Mitt’s gonna SPEAK OUT, everybody! Stand back! He’s not gonna take any other action, mind, but Flake and Corker are coaching him on how to furrow his brow in concern! And really, how could you ask for anything more of him, you libtard monsters?!
jl
@tobie: Thanks. Much appreciated. I will read it and follow links to try to see what kind of PayGo rules are in Germany.
And, yes, as an economist, the first paragraph hooked me. Thrilling stuff.
I blew a few hours reading with fascination about the French versus German corporate co-determination system over the weekend, so I hope you warn these dang kids these days about economics does to a person.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mary G: The way I read the sharing of the spotlight is that each had their talking points. All three speaking indicate unity. And Schumer was trying to shut down that reporter who was screaming at them. That’s a little easier for a man to do.
Mary G
Whoopsie! Not going to be a good day in the markets tomorrow:
Cheryl Rofer
@zhena gogolia: I don’t know who it was, but they handled her very nicely. Either she’s from a rightwing rag or isn’t smart enough to recognize what they’re doing.
Marcopolo
@Hildebrand: This is my first thread here today. Can you point me to where these comments were? I’m a sucker for dumbassery comments.
Also, and before I head back into the meatspace, since Warren made her announcement she has pretty much nailed everything she needs to—today she announced the guy who ran Sanders Iowa caucus effort was joining her team along w/ Abby Finkelmayer’s campaign manager. I am not in anyone’s “camp” at my but Warren is impressing the shit out of me.
Jeff
Mitt wouldn’t launch our nukes in a juvenile fit the way trump could at any moment. Policy? He is just another republiscum
sukabi
@JR: here’s the link to Eichenwalds twitter feed.
sukabi
@Brachiator: not more ‘character’ just less vulgarity.
zhena gogolia
@Mary G:
I also love Hoyer telling her to speak louder.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I would love to impeach Trump for being an asshole.
tobie
@jl: Well, it sounds like economics keeps you out of trouble. My partner often tries to explain to me the beauty of relatively simple mathematics like Kroneckers Jugendtraum and my eyes just glaze over. We all have such strange preoccupations!
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Heh, wasn’t sure who that was. Heard a snippet on MSNBC in the car, but apart from recognising NANCY SMASH’s and Shuck Choomer’s voices, didn’t know who the others were. And I was manouevering some tricky left turns at the time, so not paying close attention to the radio.
Kathleen
@JR: Here you go:
https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1080304913144532992
?BillinGlendaleCA
@tobie:
No, it’s quite the opposite. I studied the Dismal Science back in my lost youth, I got better.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
A Republican doing other than praising Dear Leader is still an amazing shift, even if it’s just
at the end of the day.
It does seem like the Mormons aren’t wild about Trumpism though.
Villago Delenda Est
My nym, again and again.
Wipe them out. All of them.
MomSense
Hello from the Augusta Civic Center. I’m crammed in with a bunch of happy Mainers here to celebrate the inauguration of our new and much improved Governor.
The Sousa has begun so the ceremony is imminent!
Baud
@MomSense: So happy for you.
tobie
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I think this blog has room for economists and recovering economists ;-) Heck, there’s space for both cat and dog owners.
MomSense
@Baud:
???
Fair Economist
@SiubhanDuinne: Mittens vs. Trump won’t be a drawn out bloody primary battle. Republicans will overwhelmingly support the out, openly evil racist. Mittens will be whimpering like a dog strapped to a car roof by the second primary at the latest.
Fair Economist
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yeah, a Republican criticizing Trump is like a dog walking on two legs – rare and astonishing, but it won’t get anything done.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Adam L Silverman: Worth keeping in mind that politicians are by nature opportunists. It’s quite possible for Trump to go down in flames and Mittens is positioning himself to be the corporate tool a conservative can trust in 2020. Looking at 2020 a certain way, 2020 with Trump out of the way and the Dems aren’t showing another Obama in the wings and Mittens didn’t do that bad against the real Obama so Romeny can dare to dream.
rikyrah
Ken Olin (@kenolin1) Tweeted:
pel•os•ied
verb
pel•os•i pel•os•ing pel•os•is
transitive verb:
to attack, strike, or fell with or as if with a pelosi
Examples:
He went down as if he’d been pelosied.
#Pelosied
https://twitter.com/kenolin1/status/1080570330584887304?s=17
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Baud:
Trump’s terrible fashion sense could be cited as an impeachable offense if you had the votes in the Senate to convict. It’s a political process, not a legal one. That said, there are very bad impeachable offenses that Trump has committed and the R Senate won’t (currently) convict.
Gravenstone
@Hildebrand: the question is how much of that response is learned helplessness assuming any woman will be ‘Hillaryed’, and how much is ingrained misogyny?
Hildebrand
@Marcopolo: An early morning thread was chock-full of the stupid. https://balloon-juice.com/2019/01/01/open-thread-elizabeth-warren-for-presidential-candidate/
?BillinGlendaleCA
@tobie: I still give the cat folk a side-eye, I’m firmly on team dog.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: @JR: @sukabi: Seek and ye shall find. Ask and ye shall receive.
Ladyraxterinok
@jl: German co-determination–Is that where companies over a certain size are REQUIRED BY LAW to have representatives from their workforce on their Boards of Directors? This means that companies cannot close plants, move them, etc without worker agreement?
In the 80s I talked to a company official whose company was considering some joint ventures with a compatible German company.
IIRC the US company was really worried about the role the company workers had in the German company’s decision making.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The House decides what is an impeachable offence, the Senate decides if the officeholder should be removed from office. An officeholder is still impeached even if not removed from office by the Senate.
rikyrah
Thread about the road of lies from the Dolt45 campaign/White House about Russia
https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1079286495612030977
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: ? I did manage to find it for myself and post a link, but ok thanks.?
Gravenstone
@Mary G: Dear Chuck, let her be the lightning rod. She excels at it and how to turn that energy back on her attackers.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks for this. It is an illuminating thread.
Chyron HR
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
But the desire for a “real” Republican to take over (and continue all the same policies but without the deranged Tweeting) is limited entirely to the party leadership and the media. In the event that Trump crashes and burns before 2020, the Never Trumpers are going to be viewed as Judases by the GOP’s ignorant, unwashed rank and file.
Suzanne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Trumpism is a bit straightforwardly contentious for the world’s most passive-aggressive people.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: I was getting caught up, and since the threads are in the order they are posted by time, I hadn’t gotten that far until after I replied.
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Wow that clip was longer than expected. Also, f*** Meghan McCain for her stupid ‘authenticity should go for Democrats too’ nonsense. We’re PAINFULLY authentic, usually wonkily so. Here’s hoping that her sell-by date was back in 2018
Ladyraxterinok
@tobie: The cool thing about the higher realms of mathematics and theoretical physics–if you’re good at it, you can lose yourself in it and escape from the real world for long periods of time.
My ex is a theoretical physicist, and I observed this feature in him and his colleaguesl
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: I’m actually a made in Taiwan replica. I have Mego Corporation stamped on my tuchas and only 10 points of articulation.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chyron HR:
That ignorant Base will do what ever the talking heads on Wingnut media say. If Trump pulls a Nixon and bails,and Mittens is the GOP nominee in 2020 the base will have Mitt Mania. Easy enough sale to the wingtards “vote for the white guy Obama stole from” kind of nonsense.
Hildebrand
@Gravenstone: I am utterly sick and tired of shitty people with their sick desire to treat women like second-class citizens/humans. My wife has to put up with so much misogynistic bullshit on a daily basis in her job it is galling. It blows my mind how these people don’t get slapped on daily basis (she can’t smack them, she is a pastor – satisfying yes, but not exactly cricket).
I look forward to the day when its people ostensibly on our side that could pull their fucking heads out.
sukabi
@Jeffro: it would be nice if the other View ladies would tape her mouth shut. She adds NOTHING to any conversation. She’s a talentless, know nothing that happened to be the daughter of the media’s favorite Senator.
James E Powell
Now that Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer have spoken, every elected Democrat – and that includes current press/media favorite AOC – ought to be out there repeating the exact same message. I’m sure some might disagree, but that’s what Republicans do and it seems to work pretty well for them.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: ??
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: It was okay but too long-winded, too tame for my taste.
“We intend to re-pass everything the Republican-led Senate has already passed, unanimously. What has changed? I’ll tell you: the president* is desperate and is clawing for leverage to back up his little toddler tantrum, which is grounded in fantasy. 5th century walls don’t make for 21st century solutions. So he’s taking hostages and hurting the family budgets of over 800k federal workers. That has an impact on our economy too, by the way.
So…pass the bills, fund the government, put people back to work, and then have your little toddler tantrum. Happy to talk about your ‘beaded curtain’ anytime you’re ready to quit hurting American families, mr president*”
trnc
@The Moar You Know:
I’d say the jury is still out on that (almost literally). Romney’s evil was more out in the open because vulture capitalism is largely acceptable, whereas Individual 1 as a citizen probably committed numerous crimes in the dark of night that had a significant impact on people’s lives. Some businesses closed because he didn’t pay for work performed, and people on the wrong side of money laundering operations die. When you factor in using official power in a way that results in thousand of kids never seeing their families again because the family legally asked for asylum, the pendulum swings pretty hard toward Donnie 2 Scoops.
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: Megan McCain is incredibly stupid.
@zhena gogolia:
Ditto. She is such a transparent tool.
Jeffro
@sukabi: Ditto x 100. She’s the View equivalent of these clowns that clutter up the WaPo op-ed page, only she doesn’t even have to write anything…just show up and play the role of the token millennial GOP-er without having to answer for any of the Republicans’ hurtful, hateful nonsense. Just trading in on her dad’s name, day after day…
Gex
@zhena gogolia: Seriously.
Press: “But why won’t you negotiate with this terrorist?”
Apparently that person wants a government where the president dictates all legislation under threat of shutting down the government.
sukabi
@Gex: more like “why do you oppose my king?”
Assholes need an intensive course in how our government is actually supposed to work, instead of swallowing every piece of bullshit dropped by their favorite republican.
Chris Johnson
@Hildebrand: Fuck that. I really like Warren, and am prepared to hear out other women seeking to run though so far none have impressed the way Warren has with her ability to formulate and enact sensible and aggressive policy.
tobie
@Ladyraxterinok: I hear you. Mathematicians and physicists can escape into a beautiful mathematical space and, if they want a break from that, they can escape into music, painting, or fiction. I wish I knew what it felt like to get lost in numbers and/or geometric figures. Maybe DougJ will find just the song for this in a future post. Where has he been of late?
GxB
@zhena gogolia:
McCain-splain
SiubhanDuinne
@tobie:
“Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare….”
One of my favourite-ever lines of poetry.
tobie
@SiubhanDuinne: Nice! I’ll find an occasion soon to drop this quote in a conversation. Thanks.
jl
@Marcopolo: So, Mitt has no problem with a government shutdown over a Trump policy that manages to be both complete nonsense and dishonest, and that started as a Trump rally stunt to get more cheers from the crowd, and that Trump’s ex COS Kelly admits is not what Trump is demanding. Not very promising start to Mitt’s principled opposition.
@Ladyraxterinok: Yes. Turns out German worker representation on corporate boards much stronger than French. Mainly, from what I can tell, because French put in writing exactly where worker voice is supposed to legally end. Germans don’t. So, in Germany management has to watch out when playing games under the guise of ‘purely operational management decisions’ that they can tell the workers to butt out of.
artem1s
We’re getting into serious Operation Valkyre territory here. A bunch of aggrandizing asshats who are desperate to get rid of the mad hatter at the top of the party because he makes them all look bad. When the real American’s arrive they are going to start putting people up against a wall and they trying so hard to distance themselves from this clusterfuck. Not a one of them has the guts to actual take the risk of dying in the effort to get rid of Herr Trumpler. They are too busy fighting over what little scraps will be left once Der Furhair ruins the country.
Mitt is just another coward too scared to face up to a demented old man who can’t even walk 100 feet in the rain without assistance. They are pathetic.