Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

We still have time to mess this up!

You can’t love your country only when you win.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

He really is that stupid.

I was promised a recession.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / A Woman's Place Is In The House / Hello, 911? Hello…I’d Like To Report A Murder

Hello, 911? Hello…I’d Like To Report A Murder

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I’m very much of the “what pisses off Republicans pleases me” crowd these days.  In that vein, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is my heroine:

It hasn’t sunk in yet for the political establishment — and by that I mean not just the electeds, but the whole infrastructure of consultants and wingnut welfare types and staffs and so on — and the elite political media ecosystem, that they are a day late and a dollar short in the face of those who simply don’t accept their asserted authority.

AOC and many more did not come to the arena to play.  She is no where near dumb enough to acquiesce to the pre-existing “rules”.  Those norms are intended both to constrain policy, but, as important, to channel political warfare into forms that favor incumbent power.

This is the one true lesson Donald Trump absorbed, and now others have learned:  don’t apologize. Attack.

Which is, of course, ever more vital when you are on the right side of history.

Image: Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 1890.

Reader Interactions

186Comments

  2. 2.

    Ken

    Also, as I just learned today*, Trump also used MF. On tape. At a rally. In front of women and children.

    * On Balloon Juice, of course. It’s where I get all my political news, just like Cracked is where I find out what’s going on in the world of science.

  3. 3.

    MattF

    It looks more like the lesson that Trump learned was “Don’t apologize, fantasize.” Women deal with this kind of fantasy-reaction all the time– I suspect AOC and her new sisters in Congress (including the Speaker) will lead the way in showing us how to deal.

    And I also suspect a lot of men won’t have the ability to see how the new women are doing it even though it’s sitting right in front of them. It’s a test, guys– all you have to do is open your eyes.

  4. 4.

    MagdaInBlack

    Almost seems like a plan (almost) that AOC draw fire/media attention while Leader Pelosi goes about setting things right. AOC enjoys the “game” and I enjoy watching her play.
    Just a thought.
    Good morning ✨

  7. 7.

    Chris

    Also, can I just say how much I’d love to live in a world where the worst thing about Trump was that he used bad language.

  9. 9.

    oldster

    Damn she’s good. My hero, too.

    Between her, Nancy, and Liz Warren, the Republicans are not going to know which way to turn.

    And Mitt Romney, that useless p. o. s. — I hope he dies from an overdose of smelling salts.

  10. 10.

    PsiFighter37

    Still would like to see what she actually accomplishes as a representative outside of clapbacks, but this is a good one.

  12. 12.

    Eljai

    Republican hypocrisy has been at a stunningly mind-blowing level for decades. I’m so happy to see AOC calling them out.

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    She worked as a bartender, in NYC. I suspect she can handle the give-and-take of DC pretty well.

  15. 15.

    Punchy

    AOC and many more did not come to the arena to play

    I think what you meant was “did not come…..to watch”. They did come to play. Play hardball, play by the new, Repub-established rules. This is going to give Chuck Toddler a DEFCON 1 level of The Vapors, and oooooooohhh to a be a fainting couch salesman in the DC Metro area…..but this new breed of Dems have watched how the Rs did it and now they feel it’s payback time. Bigly.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    It’s sad. Conservative fools, egged on by Fox News, stupidly believe that they can intimidate or harass AOC with increasingly stalker-like behavior.

    Instead, she keeps whipping their ass.

  18. 18.

    Jerzy Russian

    I am not sure I see a problem with using “motherfucker” to describe a man who has children (unless those kids are test tube babies). Maybe I am being too literal.

  20. 20.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Gin & Tonic:

    She worked as a bartender, in NYC.

    Wait, AOC has been inside a bar? That is an even bigger scandal right there. She should retroactively drop out of the race since she will never win with that kind of baggage.

  22. 22.

    PsiFighter37

    @Gin & Tonic: That’s silly. I’m well aware she hasn’t had any actual legislating power yet. That said, I will be more interested in seeing what she does with regards to her day job vs. spending time being a social media star. I wasn’t thrilled with her political instincts after she won the primary, and I still think she has the wrong priorities/focus.

  26. 26.

    West of the Rockies

    And let’s not forget that Cheney (while VP) told someone to Go F*** Yourself. Please, someone direct me to the nearest fainting couch. Where are my pearls?

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    Ok here’s a murder for you…two in fact. Two straight headlines from the Borowitz Report:

    PELOSI TO SPEED UP SHUTDOWN TALKS BY NEGOTIATING DIRECTLY WITH PUTIN

    also

    POLL: AMERICANS SAY TRUMPOV ACCOMPLISHING LITTE IN FINAL YEAR AS PRESIDENT

    ???????

  31. 31.

    Chip Daniels

    A lot of commentary seems to take the vein of posing this as the youngs vs the olds, like something out of Footloose.

    But remember, the olds here are the Woodstock generation, the Pepsi generation, the Saturday Night Fever generation. We smoked and cursed and did the sexytime like nobody’s business.

    Tom gets it right here, where the outrage is solely for the purpose of policing the behavior of women (brown women especially).

  33. 33.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Rules of civility are a very good thing… in conflicts where both sides are acting in good faith. Republicans haven’t been acting in good faith at least since McConnell announced he would let the nation burn rather than let a black man be reelected. Democrats really like good faith, and have been slow to catch up. We want to fix, not contribute to the destruction.

    But good faith ain’t returning any time soon. Also, women are pissed. Holy Hell, are women pissed. A rapist is on the supreme court, a proud sexual harasser is president, and the entire Republican Party defends this as their god-given right. Women are seeking power to an extent they never have before, ever, because this shit cannot stand. I’m less sure what the situation is among the non-white, because the media has trouble grasping non-whites exist exist as people.

  35. 35.

    A Ghost To Most

    Time for the “mean girls” to kick some doughy white male ass.

    P.S. Impeach the motherfuckers.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    @TaMara (HFG):

    Someone on AOC’s Twitter feed found it:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/funder/status/1081227097656475653

    I was worried that AOC wasn’t going to be a team player based on some of her early missteps, but once she was actually elected, she’s been pretty good. I still suspect that she had some people whispering in her ear that the “establishment Democrats” were going to somehow sabotage her getting elected, so she was pre-defensive that they were going to reject her. Once it became obvious that Pelosi and the rest of the leadership want her on their team, she chilled out a bit.

  38. 38.

    Nicole

    If there’s one big lesson that stuck from Clinton and 2016, it’s that it doesn’t matter if you do everything right; they’ll still give the job to a man who’s dumber and less qualified, so why waste your time being nice and speaking politely and protecting their sensitive male feelings? Call ’em out on it. And cuss if you want to.

    Good on AOC and Tlaib.

  41. 41.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Mnemosyne: He said it to Pat Leahy. The only “conventional” place I saw it in print verbatim was in The Economist, which does not shy away from the Anglo-Saxonisms.

  44. 44.

    hitchhiker

    they are a day late and a dollar short in the face of those who simply don’t accept their asserted authority.

    I so hope I live to see the day when this applies to “religious authorities.”

    We have been blandly allowing them to set the terms of every single debate for way too long. When someone with power finally says, in public, “Know what? I really don’t care what it says in your bible. And neither, based on most of your behavior, do you.” — I’ll know that my grandchildren have a chance.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I think that for that, you have to pay money.

    But once you’re president, you’re famous, and you can just make everybody do what you want.

  47. 47.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Gin & Tonic: Ditto, I think it’s Spencer Ackerman on twitter who keeps saying “I’ve told you time and time again do not pick a fight with a NYC Bartender, it won’t end well”

  48. 48.

    Jerzy Russian

    @West of the Rockies: Speaking of Pen!s Cheney, I recently saw the movie “Vice”, which tells the story about his rise to power. The movie was pretty good, although it will leave you with a seething rage and the urge to kick many (if not most) of the main characters in the nuts.

  51. 51.

    sukabi

    @Jerzy Russian: ha! When I was in high school (early 70’s) my dad, a very straight laced teacher, was outraged at the cussing and motherfucker in particular. He sat sputtering when I told him I didn’t see what the big deal was, that it seemed to me that a motherfucker was just a father and that therefore HE was also a motherfucker.

  52. 52.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TaMara (HFG):
    She’s a “street fighter.” I love she said “I got your back” : a variation of my 3 fave words of assurance (in my world) :
    “I got you.” said with a nod.
    ?

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    GOP lost entitlement to policing women’s behavior a long time ago.

    Next.

    — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 5, 2019

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

  58. 58.

    Sloane Ranger

    It’s been fun watching CNN. Both Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper tried to clutch their pearls but were quickly closed down by women panel members pointing out the hypocrisy of holding women to different standards than men.

  59. 59.

    Geoboy

    @Frankensteinbeck: Actually, the Republican’s haven’t been fact based since 1994, when serial adulterer Newt Gingrich become Speaker and one fo the first hings he did was decimate the ability of the House to do independent research.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Where do I sign up? I will normally curse and dance for free, but I can always use a little pocket change, aka walking around money.

  64. 64.

    RepubAnon

    @MagdaInBlack: Having a firebrand lead the attack while the leadership works in the background (without apologizing for the firebrand’s statements) is a long-established Republican practice. It’s been very successful for the Republicans – glad to see Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have started figuring out that in today’s world, it is no longer smart politics to apologize for statements seeking to fire up one’s core voters.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: Oh. My. God.

    P.S. “Lord, please make my enemies ridiculous.” At least one prayer was answered this year.

    edit to quote correctly.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    No Accident: How Bernie Sanders Needed a Culture of Misogyny to Compete in 2016
    Times Up for Bernie Sanders.

    After successfully playing the lovable old grandpa for nearly four years, karma caught up to the Vermont senator in a big way on Wednesday when The New York Times published a scathing article, chronicling months of neglect of both sexual harassment and equal pay during the 2016 presidential primary. To make matters worse, Sanders gave an interview to CNN Wednesday night where he stated he was a “little bit busy running around the country” to take seriously all the claims of his female staffers at the times of the alleged incidents. Sanders’ closest allies were forced to twist themselves into human pretzels to defend their messiah with Cenk Uygur bemoaning that the media never writes positive stories about Bernie, Walker Bragman insisting this is exactly the same as when Hillary Clinton fired a staffer for sexual harassment, and David Sirota going on radio silence for 18 hours and counting. From both Sanders and his team, there has been no denial of what happened but rather a half-hearted promise that systems will be put in place to do better next time.

    ……………………………..

    For whatever reason, the Sanders campaign didn’t feel the need to address these allegations during Carmona’s time on staff. But even more troubling than an individual like Carmona is the fact that other prominent female Sanders staffers were also subject to harassment. Take, for instance, the case of Lucy Flores. Flores was a Sanders darling, who worked on his staff before choosing to run for Congress in 2016. In fact, Flores was such a strong surrogate that Sanders made her one of only three candidates that he would fundraise for throughout the entire 2016 election cycle after he was shamed into doing so. Flores recently confessed to NPR that she was aware of allegations of misogyny during the campaign and that there was “essentially a cover up” in dealing with it. She left Our Revolution in May of 2018 after she felt they weren’t addressing the needs of the Latino community. Combine that that the experience of Sarah Slamen, Sanders’ Louisiana state director. Slamen rose to national prominence in 2013 when she was removed from the Texas state senate for forcefully speaking out against a proposed 20-week abortion ban so she had experience dealing with controlling men in politics. However, even Slamen took issue with the Sanders campaign’s treatment of women and she would go on to resign from Our Revolution when her concerns over sexist behavior would go unanswered. Slamen said of Sanders, “I don’t think he has the vehicle or the platform that emerged from this campaign” to deal with the misogyny and sexism that her and others were forced to deal with.

    The question now becomes who else was mistreated? Because if strong, powerful, independent women like Mendieta, Flores, and Slamen were on the receiving end of this type of behavior, what was it like for the more timid women who were scared to tell anyone what they saw, heard, or experienced? If people like Arturo Carmona could openly exist with a Harvey Weinstein-type reputation, how many other men on Sanders’ staff felt empowered to verbally and perhaps even physically abuse women? We’ve seen how complaints went unaddressed and we’ve seen how Bernie Sanders himself was allegedly unaware of what was going on. Why would a presidential campaign in the year 2016 think that any of this was okay?

    The answer to those questions resolves around the candidate himself. Bernie Sanders is no friend to women, he never has been. From his now-infamous rape essay to his voting against the Amber Alert system to his attempt to dump nuclear waste on the majority-Latino town of Sierra Blanca, Texas, Sanders had a distinguished track record of voting for policies that would not protect women or children. Combine all this with his abysmal track record on guns including voting against the Brady Bill five times, voting to allow guns on Amtrak trains, and voting in favor of the “Charleston loophole” and you’ll see a career Washington insider with an obvious record of voting against common sense legislation that would improve the lives of women. His horrific record of voting for pro-women legislation and his inability to point to one specific piece of legislation that he composed that would actually become law, initially left Sanders on the outside looking in of the 2016 presidential race. Combined with the fact that Sanders was going up against Hillary Clinton, who had a chance to become the first female president, it became obvious that Bernie Sanders had a woman problem and that he would have to make major adjustments if he were to be considered a serious contender for president of the United States.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    The situation is untenable

    I was going to entitle this piece “Impeach the Motherfucker Already”, but classy guy that I am I didn’t. However, we are now past the event horizon.

    Today, Traitor Donald Trump held a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the government shutdown. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the actual head of the Senate, was nowhere to be seen. Pelosi and Schumer came out of the meeting and told the assembled press that Trump averred that he’d shutter the government “for years” if it was necessary to get his wall.

    That, itself, was horrific enough. But then the traitor came out and had his own Rose Garden press conference. There was a lot of hurr-durr and lies. But this one thing stuck out to me: Trump said that he’d consider a “military version of eminent domain” to seize land along the border and build his wall.

    Let’s not mince words. What he’s considering is nothing short of martial law. The military cannot just seize property, short of there being a state of war.

    ……………………

    We can no longer go on like this. This country is being dismantled by a lunatic, aided and abetted by nihilists who see the progress this nation has made over the past 40 years as nothing short of their cultural and physical genocide. Trump is giving vent to their existential fears, and acting on them. He, like them, sees his life about to end, and can’t conceive that people would go on without him, holding his memory in nothing but scorn and derision. Thus why he won’t and can’t compromise with the Democrats. The wall is his last link to sanity. After that, it’s nothing but senescence and doltishness.

  73. 73.

    Immanentize

    @WaterGirl: @Aleta:
    I did put this up yesterday, from Guardians of the Galaxy, but it so perfectly describes this particular Republican problem:

    Gamora: I’m a warrior, an assassin. I don’t dance.

    Peter Quill: Really? Well, on my planet, we have a legend about people like you. It’s called Footloose. And in it, a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is.

    Gamora: …Who put the sticks up their butts?

  74. 74.

    Immanentize

    I kinda wish Manyakitty were here — she is an LCD Soundsystem fan (as am I). I have been feeling for a long time like, “I’m Losing my Edge” is my theme song. But I am really happy — overjoyed — to see young, strong, fun-loving women in power in this country.

  76. 76.

    cmorenc

    One problem with Trump comprehending the damage caused by the shutdown on ordinary people (aside from just his narcissism and taste for arrogant bullying) is that for decades, his uber-affluent lifestyle has been well-insulated from being tangibly affected or dependent (at least in ways he can perceive) on government services and resources. For but one example, he has for decades flown private jet and never had to stand in a TSA line at an airport and take his shoes and belt off and dump out the contents of his pockets into a tray.. He recreates at private golf courses, not camping in National Parks, and so on. Of course, this is compounded by his baseline lack of empathy for anything beyond his immediate family, but OTOH there’s nothing in his direct experience to break through the thick shells of his narcissism and comfortably insulated lifestyle. The only thing that would potentially get through to him viscerally is if he starts getting negative feedback from enough of his own base about unacceptably harsh impacts of the shutdown on them, instead of perceiving that they’re resolutely behind him, cheering him on.

  77. 77.

    WereBear

    Just finished a fine tweet by John Rogers who explains we are in the midst of a seismic shift which was accomplished without actual war.

    The rules have already changed.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah:
    I love how Wilmer’s response is basically, “We’ll do much better this time, believe me!”
    A. Don’t apologize
    B. Say some version of, “believe me.”

    Now where have we seen that philosophy before?

  80. 80.

    David Evans

    It’s a false comparison.

    A locker room is where men can go to be free of the nannying voices of women.

    A bar is where men can expect women to be subservient because the men are buying them drinks.

    See? Not the same thing at all.

  83. 83.

    The Midnight Lurker

    Okay… so I just Googled ‘Republicans dancing’.

    Now I know why they hate her.

  84. 84.

    James E Powell

    @PsiFighter37:

    Still would like to see what she actually accomplishes as a representative outside of clapbacks, but this is a good one.

    New congresspersons rarely lead on legislation. But at the very least AOC is changing mainstream political news coverage away from the All Trump All the Time program of the last three years. I think she is doing a very good job moving both the subjects and manner of political discussions. I’d like twenty more like her.

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I don’t think that’s quite right.
    She does see why she shouldn’t give a fuck what those old, entitled white assholes think.
    That’s an entirely better kettle of fish.

  86. 86.

    hueyplong

    Not articulate enough to describe the extent to which I enjoyed OAC’s tweet today.

    So I’ll just say

    This. Every day. Until half of Fox’s demographic checks out in a wave of apoplexy.

  87. 87.

    Juice Box

    I’m not a socialist, but it warms my elderly heart to see women exhibiting some toughness. Real women swear too.

  88. 88.

    ET

    Doing a little research related to Calvin Coolidge and found this. On January 17, 1925 he gave a speech to the the American Society of Newspaper Editors almost 100 years ago. The bolding is mine

    The relationship between governments and the press has always been recognized as a matter of large importance. Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press. It has always been realized, sometimes instinctively, oftentimes expressly, that truth and freedom are inseparable. An absolutism could never rest upon any thing save a perverted and distorted view of human relationships and upon false standards set up and maintained by force. It has always found it necessary to attempt to dominate the entire field of education and instruction. It has thrived on ignorance. While it has sought to train the minds of a few, it has been largely with the purpose of attempting to give them a superior facility for misleading the many. Men have been educated under absolutism, not that they might bear witness to the truth, but that they might be the more ingenious advocates and defenders of false standards and hollow pretenses. This has always been the method of privilege, the method of class and caste, the method of master and slave.

    When a community has sufficiently advanced so that its government begins to take on that of the nature of a republic, the processes of education become even more important, but the method is necessarily reversed. It is all the more necessary under a system of free government that the people should be enlightened, that they should be correctly informed, than it is under an absolute government that they should be ignorant. Under a republic the institutions of learning, while bound by the constitution and laws, are in no way subservient to the government. The principles which they enunciate do not depend for their authority upon whether they square with the wish of the ruling dynasty, but whether they square with the everlasting truth. Under these conditions the press, which had before been made an instrument for concealing or perverting the facts, must be made an instrument for their true representation and their sound and logical interpretation. From the position of a mere organ, constantly bound to servitude, public prints rise to a dignity, not only of independence, but of a great educational and enlightening factor. They attain new powers, which it is almost impossible to measure, and become charged with commensurate responsibilities.

    The public press under an autocracy is necessarily a true agency of propaganda. Under a free government it must be the very reverse. Propaganda seeks to present a part of the facts, to distort their relations, and to force conclusions which could not be drawn from a complete and candid survey of all the facts. It has been observed that propaganda seeks to close the mind, while education seeks to open it. This has become one of the dangers of the present day.

    The great difficulty in combating unfair propaganda, or even in recognizing it, arises from the fact that at the present time we confront so many new and technical problems that it is an enormous task to keep ourselves accurately informed concerning them. In this respect, you gentlemen of the press face the same perplexities that are encountered by legislators and government administrators. Whoever deals with current public questions is compelled to rely greatly upon the information and judgments of experts and specialists. Unfortunately, not all experts are to be trusted as entirely disinterested. Not all specialists are completely without guile.

    MORE

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Juice Box:
    I swear with the greatest of ease.
    I know women who out do me seemingly 10 to one.
    They are words, not swords or bullets. Or republican lawbreakers.

  90. 90.

    Mary G

    @James E Powell: I can’t express the joy and relief I felt this morning when I woke up and found morning threads about gun control legislation, CBC party, dogs, deflated Christmas decorations and AOC and Tlaib stealing the spotlight to read. There was no “Christ, what’s the asshole done now?” thread for almost 12 hours.

    I am hoping we have set up a virtuous circle where Twitler isn’t being talked about 24/7, which causes him to do ever more criminal, moronic, and insane things trying to draw attention back to himself, leaking approval all the way down. The good reviews of Elizabeth Warren’s campaign rollout must have him throwing things and screaming invective.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @WereBear: Link please, for the John Rogers thread. I would love to see it.

    Happy New Year! You reading anything good? I am working through Barbara Kingsolver’s “Unsheltered” rather slowly. It’s quite good, although preaching to the choir.

  93. 93.

    laura

    @James E Powell: New congresspersons rarely lead on legislation.
    I’m thrilled that she’s public policying in public by calling for confiscatory tax rates to wring the idle capital out of the soft hands of the Owners of America and back into the economy. I’m so down with that. So. Very. Down.
    Next…..

  98. 98.

    Mandalay

    @Mary G:

    There was no “Christ, what’s the asshole done now?” thread for almost 12 hours.

    Well said.

    BJ doesn’t need to react with a new OP for every dumb thing Trump says and does, just because the media does that. It’s getting really lazy, stale and boring. There’s a whole world out there beyond Trump.

    How about it OPs? See if you can go a whole week without a single post about Trump.

  99. 99.

    dimmsdale

    Sorry for the length of the comment, but: You know who else has lost entitlement to civility-police, language-police, and tone-police? Our pampered, entitled media whores. It seems to me that one of AOC’s inspiring traits is conveying the awareness that “you don’t have any entitlement or standing WHATSOEVER to critique anything about me. NEXT!” In former days I might have thought this a little unseemly from one so young and “inexperienced”, but these days the elite tut-tutters on the right, AND the center, and the godawful reporter and pundit class, have all lost any legitimacy they might have had, by virtue of diving all-in into a cesspool of corruption; fostering it, enabling it, normalizing it, “what-about-ing” it, and “both-sides-ing” it.

    I have developed a tremendous contempt for these tailored-suit guys (and gals) in the press and pundit class. They will never EVER confront Republican ratfuckers as vigorously as they confront young women of color. I’ll be watching carefully to see what other hints I can pick up from AOC about not letting self-infatuated gasbags take you down; and also to see if I can get AOC’s back (or SPW’s, or Gillibrand’s, or [insert lefty politican’s name here], by letting the entitled press lunkheads know that that false-equivalency shit don’t GO ‘round here no more.

    Frankly, I’d also like to see more accountability directed against the reporters who ask these inane questions, just ONE leftie politician saying something along the lines of “Before I answer your question about Ms Tlaib’s comment, have YOU spoken to Donald Trump, or any Republican, about all those F-bombs and MFs he dropped in the meeting with Pelosi? Have you? No? Why not? What’s stopping you? Tell you what, when you’re as confrontational with Republicans as you are with young women of color, THEN get back to me. NEXT!”

  102. 102.

    Brickley Paiste

    Yes, what this country needs now are some really pointed attacks on leftist politicians like Bernie Sanders.

    You all is some stupid motherfuckers.

  104. 104.

    TS (the original)

    @rikyrah:

    Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the actual head of the Senate, was nowhere to be seen

    trump’s equal in dissolving democracy – equally to blame for the shutdown – and one person who could ensure the government is back in business tomorrow – but both he and trump prefer to make people suffer.

  105. 105.

    Aleta

    Re: the article linked by @rikyrah:

    By Marissa Jenae Johnson, Aug 2016 (The Root)
    1 Year Later: BLM Protester Who Interrupted Bernie Sanders’ Rally Discusses the Moment and the Movement

    In the first few hours and days after our [Marissa Johnson and Mara Willaford] hostile takeover, there was bipartisan disdain for the action we took. Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and progressives, alike quickly condemned the action and wrote us off as foolish and uninformed girls. For nearly a week, there was little substantial political commentary around our action, with major news outlets describing it as simply “rude.”

    Beyond the stated assumptions that we took reckless action without intending the consequences were the attacks on our personal lives. In an effort to derail our message, white people (particularly white men) from all walks of life took to doxxing both me and Mara. They sent me hundreds upon hundreds of death and rape threats alone that first week, while photos from my personal Facebook page were used to accuse me of being an agent for Sarah Palin. Even my religious faith was dissected and ridiculed by those who were looking for any way to discredit us.

    I’ll never forget the group of men who chased me down the street calling me a “bitch” when they recognized me days after, or the fact that someone tweeted out my parents’ address, or the dozens of Reddit pages where, after declaring how fat I am, multiple men detailed how they would assault and rape me if they could. These threats and accusations knew no political party as people who threatened me online and in person ranged from the most ardent Sanders fan to the conservative pundits who said my parents should disown me.

    I’ll be honest and say that I was not prepared for this backlash. Though our action ended up being a great reveal of the racism in progressive spaces, I myself was unaware of the depths of this underlying white supremacy. I did not expect to have water bottles thrown at me by “socialists”—nor for progressives to call for my being tased by a police department that is still under federal consent decree.

  106. 106.

    PsiFighter37

    @James E Powell: Sure. But as someone who interned in my congresswoman’s office (Nita Lowey) back in the mid-2000s – there is a lot of work to be done. The most recent NY Magazine front-page article on AOC suggests she is not fully staffed by any stretch, nor are her existing staff members quite sure about how to learn the ropes (or where the ropes are). Constituent services is the first and foremost thing representatives have to be focused on. I remain very skeptical that this kind of weedwhacking is what AOC is actually interested in.

  108. 108.

    tokyokie

    Years ago, in the late and lamented British humor magazine Punch, I read a review of Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers that approached the film from the perspective that it was a two-hour advert for red floor coverings and wallpaper. Whereas other critics evaluated the film with the sort of soberness that should be employed when critiquing ART, the

    Punch

    review made its point much more saliently by refusing to accept the film with the level of seriousness it demanded. That taught me a couple of things. First, ridicule is always a proper response for dealing with self-importance. And secondly, and more importantly, allowing opponents to define the rules of argument means losing the argument at the outset.

    I’m ecstatic that AOC has already figured all of this out. And she didn’t even need to thumb through old copies of

    Punch

    in an archive somewhere.

  109. 109.

    germy

    White dudes at the @NRA imply they’d like to have sex with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – a 29-year-old woman of color and a CONGRESSWOMAN – but wouldn’t want to marry her.

    How is any lawmaker still taking money from this racist, misogynistic organization?

    pic.twitter.com/oWrq0WAgbh

    — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) January 5, 2019

  110. 110.

    Gex

    @Ken: They’re already saying that doesn’t count because he wasn’t President then. The issue now is not the swearing or doing it in front of children, but doing it as an elected official. Dear God they are so sad and pathetic.

    She is so deft at coming back at them. She’s really good. She is going to give them fits and I am so glad of it.

  111. 111.

    feebog

    I love the fact she is inside those Republican male heads and they can’t get her out. And while I think part of it is a generation gap, I also think the fact she is a single attractive woman of color who knows their shit really does stink drives them nuts.

  113. 113.

    TS (the original)

    @Brickley Paiste: Sanders might be the biggest threat in 2020 – the idiot may do a 3rd party/independent run for president – and give trump a real chance. He needs to be taken out of the running asap

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    @PsiFighter37:

    I remain very skeptical that this kind of weedwhacking is what AOC is actually interested in.

    Whatever. There are a bunch of congressional newbies. They all have to get up to speed. It is pointless, and plays the nut jobs’ game to focus on a single person.

    I wish them all well.

  115. 115.

    Elizabelle

    @Mandalay: I would find that refreshing.

    I am sick of all Trump all the time. Who wants to marinate in all this idiocy? A lot of the country does fine not examining each and every Trump or Republican outrage du jour in detail. And here, I am not speaking of the uninformed. I am speaking of those who are a little more discerning with what draws their attention.

    If you are on a campaign, or working on something important, you don’t have time for all this petty shit.

    Keep the big picture.

  116. 116.

    trollhattan

    @germy:

    How is any lawmaker still taking money from this racist, misogynistic organization?

    Objection: trick question!

  120. 120.

    germy

    It’s almost like Bill is caught in Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth:

    As a non-Democrat, I'm struck by how much the media seem obsessed by possible rifts among Democrats, narrow lines they'll have to walk, stray utterances of their backbenchers, etc, than by the rather more massive fact that we have a president and administration in total meltdown.
    — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 5, 2019

  122. 122.

    Barbara

    @Brickley Paiste: I am tempted to say something dripping with sarcasm but instead I will merely comment that Sanders’ response to the mistreatment of women in his campaign hovers somewhere between he had more important things to worry about to he can’t be bothered with disputes among the hired help. Women have heard this song a thousand times along with all the excuses for why powerful men shouldn’t be held accountable for rank sexism. Appealing to us to ignore the bad stuff in order to focus on a higher purpose is one of the most infuriating.

  123. 123.

    sukabi

    @TS (the original): I don’t think he’ll get the traction this go round as last. Warren has the same set of ideals with the bonus of actually having been a huge part of creating actual consumer protections. Plus she isn’t a shouty, pointy man that can’t be bothered to listen to anyone who isn’t in his cohort.

  124. 124.

    Chyron HR

    @Brickley Paiste:

    So does God need to send down another bird during the 2020 primaries to mark Bernie as the rightful ruler of the human race, or does the one from 2016 still count?

  125. 125.

    Brachiator

    @ET:

    Doing a little research related to Calvin Coolidge and found this. On January 17, 1925 he gave a speech to the the American Society of Newspaper Editors almost 100 years ago.

    That’s a long ass speech from Silent Cal. Good stuff.

  127. 127.

    germy

    Not sure why fmr Sen. McCaskill keeps going on TV to call me a “thing” and “shiny object,” but it’s pretty disappointing.

    McCaskill promised she’d “100% back Trump up” on his anti-immigrant rhetoric & lost. In MO, almost all progressive ballot issues won. https://t.co/53qKvnr8KG

    — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 29, 2018

  132. 132.

    zhena gogolia

    @Ken:

    It’s real, I saw a montage where somebody compiled all Trump’s swearing, it’s all as he’s standing on a dais in front of a public crowd, and it culminates in “mf.” I saw it in somebody’s tweet this morning but cannot remember where.

  137. 137.

    Yarrow

    I really can’t believe there is this much discussion about the word “motherfucker.” The world is changing. Tick tock, motherfuckers.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    @Brickley Paiste:

    So glad to see you is here again, Brickley Paste… heh.

    Yes, what this country needs now are some really pointed attacks on leftist politicians like Bernie Sanders.

    You all is some stupid motherfuckers.

    If you actually think Senator Sanders is leftist, you need to go away and study politics some. Sanders talks about being a leftist, but his actions are never in the least bit left leaning at all.

    Being a Russian stooge is not the same as being leftist, especially since Russia has abandoned socialism for a solid Nationalist Fascist state ruled by the world’s wealthiest autocrat. And that’s what Senator Sanders wants here, a Nationalist Fascist autocracy with himself at the helm.

    Hope you enjoy hanging around here at Balloon Juice, where you will be roundly mocked for your lack of knowledge and superficial political positions, you Russian troll! At least your English am better what many some Russian trolls can manage!

  140. 140.

    Chyron HR

    @J R in WV:

    Nope, sorry. “Lie back and think of Medicare For All” has joined “White lives are what really matter” and “NRA 4 EVER” as positions that are axiomatically leftist because Bernie holds them.

  141. 141.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Barbara:
    OT:

    I just wanted to thank you for your advice last night about investing. It helped tremendously and put me on the right track. : )

    I probably won’t do any investing in the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF or CDs for a few years though, since I don’t have a lot of dough for it to matter. I’m just going to try to save money in my savings until my career gets started in a year.

  143. 143.

    Bill Arnold

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    I’m just going to try to save money in my savings until my career gets started in a year.

    Another word of advice; put some cash savings someplace where you have to jump through hoops at least a little bit to spend it. e.g. no ATM/online access.

  144. 144.

    germy

    Pence holds White House meeting, but an end to shutdown seems unlikely

    The meeting included congressional aides, not the lawmakers whose sign-off would be needed for any deal. And Vice President Pence did not have President Trump’s blessing to float new or specific numbers, according to two Trump aides.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pence-and-white-house-officials-meet-with-congressional-aides-in-effort-to-end-shutdown/2019/01/05/7840bf4a-10fb-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html?utm_term=.64b8b2bbe602

  145. 145.

    Bill Arnold

    Medium-length backgrounder on Republican failures to seriously pursue border security. (And TBH, a Democratic poison pill added to some 2006 legislation.)
    Republicans Don’t Really Want to Secure the Border (Harry Cheadle Jan 4 2019)

    The GOP could have gotten money for border security and even built Trump’s wall if they were willing to deal with Democrats. But the party has instead embraced anti-immigration extremism.

  146. 146.

    BC in Illinois

    @J R in WV:

    I think we might listen to the Montpelier, Vermont, Times Argus on this. Their editorial about Sanders 2020 is entitled, “Dont Run”

    Bernie Sanders should not run for president. In fact, we beg him not to. . . .

    For us, this comes down to principle over ego. . . .

    Taken together — ego, electoral math, a tired message and a prickly media darling — Sanders is convincing himself that he’s the person who can win the White House in 2020. We are not convinced he should.

    I’m very convinced he shouldn’t.

  148. 148.

    Bill Arnold

    Arizona GOP chairman warns state Republicans they’re not allowed to criticize President Donald Trump – The letter was sent out to Arizona GOP officeholders — including newly-appointed U.S. Senator Martha McSally

    “However, while we are accepting of different viewpoints, it is essential that we stay true to our conservative values. And it is non-negotiable that we stand with our President.”

    Got it. It is forbidden to criticize “Dear Leader”.

  149. 149.

    Bill Arnold

    Chinese censorship factories:
    Learning China’s Forbidden History, So They Can Censor It – Thousands of low-wage workers in “censorship factories” trawl the online world for forbidden content, where even a photo of an empty chair could cause big trouble.
    (NYTimes, Li Yuan, Jan. 2, 2019)

    To overcome that, Mr. Yang and his colleagues developed a sophisticated training system. New hires start with weeklong “theory” training, during which senior employees teach them the sensitive information that they didn’t know before.
    “My office is next to the big training room,” Mr. Yang said. “I often hear the surprised sounds of ‘Ah, ah, ah.’”
    “They didn’t know things like June 4,” he added, referring to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. “They really didn’t know.”

  150. 150.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    Pence holds a meeting? What in the everloving fvck is that barely-a-mannequin excuse for a human supposed to accomplish?

  151. 151.

    sukabi

    @germy: it looks as though Pence is crawling out of the shadows to get HIS name in the news, in a “Hey, over here. Look at me. I CAN do something.” kind of way. Someone is preparing the public for the idea that at least the VP is trying to end this, even if the soon to be removed president won’t.

  155. 155.

    Mary G

    @Barbara:

    Women have heard this song a thousand times along with all the excuses for why powerful men shouldn’t be held accountable for rank sexism. Appealing to us to ignore the bad stuff in order to focus on a higher purpose is one of the most infuriating.

    Amen, sister. The “we shouldn’t criticize aspects of his behavior because he’s on our side about other things” is one of the worst “whataboutisms” I see from progressive men.

  157. 157.

    Brachiator

    @Bill Arnold:

    “However, while we are accepting of different viewpoints, it is essential that we stay true to our conservative values. And it is non-negotiable that we stand with our President.”

    Got it. It is forbidden to criticize “Dear Leader”.

    Orwell would love this. Conservative values are now synonymous with Donald Trump.

    The GOP is willing to go down with him. I’m happy to oblige them.

  159. 159.

    Steeplejack

    Scene from a vet’s examining room:

    The housecat: Mrawr!

    The vet: Does she talk a lot?

    Me: That’s all she ever says.

    The Vet: We call that “night howling.”

    Me: ?!

    The housecat: Mrawr!

    The housecat is fine. Follow-up visit after a toe-pad puncture on New Year’s Day.

  160. 160.

    Jerzy Russian

    @West of the Rockies: The movie was not at all sympathetic to any of the main characters. Cheney start off as a drunk who was kicked out of Yale for being a dick. HIs wife threatens to leave him unless he stops drinking, and the movie goes on from there.

  161. 161.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Brachiator:

    The GOP is willing to go down with him. I’m happy to oblige them.

    Too bad there’s a non-zero chance they’ll take the rest of us with them. I swear, they scare the shit out of me, especially the last two years.

  164. 164.

    Millard Filmore

    @WaterGirl:

    But once you’re president, you’re famous, and you can just make everybody do what you want. [*]

    [*] does not apply to darkie presidents, for them everything is executive overreach.

  165. 165.

    Spanky

    @Face:

    @Jerzy Russian: Isn’t “Pornfucker” a more apt moniker for this dirtbag?

    No, “daughterfucker”. Because Ivanka. And yeah, go ahead and make him deny it.

  167. 167.

    FelonyGovt

    I was happy to read (sorry, don’t have the link) that Nancy Smash asked if anyone would be making such a fuss about Tlaib’s remark “if she were a man”.

  168. 168.

    sukabi

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: more like in an account that has penalties for early withdrawals, or someplace where a sudden impulse isn’t easy to quench.
    …like your grandma’s safe, if your grandma likes to pretend she’s the banker and you’re an irresponsible money burner.

  169. 169.

    Bill Arnold

    @sukabi:

    more like in an account that has penalties for early withdrawals, or someplace where a sudden impulse isn’t easy to quench.

    Also, an account (or whatever) with no fees. (Such things exist.)

  170. 170.

    Fair Economist

    I thought pastehead was trolling from the right? Did he flip? So hard to keep up with the nonsense in the Trump presidency…

    Remember, if he’s working in a troll farm (very possible) he gets paid for everybody that replies to him.

  171. 171.

    WaterGirl

    @WereBear: I just googled john rodgers and twitter and don’t even know if i got the right guy, but I didn’t see anything like that.

    Link?

  174. 174.

    James E Powell

    @Mary G:

    The “we shouldn’t criticize aspects of his behavior because he’s on our side about other things” is one of the worst “whataboutisms” I see from progressive men.

    Exactly. It’s like the way the Democratic Party shamelessly tolerated and placated the racists in its ranks – covering them with euphemisms – for years until they were replaced by more openly racist Republicans.

    We can be and ought to be the party that says no to that shit.

  177. 177.

    Amir Khalid

    For what it’s worth, you can also hear Barack Obama say “motherfucker” — in the audiobook of Dreams From My Father. In that passage, he is quoting a drunken heckler at a community meeting.

  178. 178.

    WaterGirl

    @Steve in the ATL: Yeah, I had found the right one; I just typed the name wrong here. I suspect the thread being referred to was too far down in the list for me to find it before I ran out of patience.

  180. 180.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @sukabi: Dead thread, but for the folks like me who catch up on older threads after the fact….

    Online-only banks are good for this, and offer higher rates (up to 2.5%), since they don’t have the expenses of physical locations.

    CIT Bank and Ally Bank are two good ones — CIT doesn’t have ATMs cards, but you can do bank-to-bank transfers (six per month are free, there’s a small fee for additional transfers), wire transfer and get checks mailed. Ally is similar but also offers an ATM card and a checking account if needed. No-to-minimal fees for both.

    They’re good places to park rainy money, savings for a new card, money for property taxes, etc.

  181. 181.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: CDs are also good for that sort of thing. When you’ve got enough cash, you can “ladder” them for getting several with different durations, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, 2-year. Allows you to have some cash that can be accessed relatively quickly, but also take advantage of the higher rates offered for longer duration CD.

    BTW, if you do set up an additional bank account at a different bank (having it separately is a good way to remind yourself it’s not “everyday money”), one good thing to do is set up an auto-transfer of 5% of your take-home pay, to be done right after you get paid. So the first bill you pay is to yourself. Most of the time you can find ways to shave 5% off your living expenses, especially when that money isn’t in your regular account. Since it’s “deducted” immediately, it becomes out of sight, out of mind. If you can’t do 5%, do it with a smaller amount. It’s a good way to build savings, even is money is tight.

  182. 182.

    BrianM

    @Sister Golden Bear: Good advice in the BTW paragraph. However, I fear laddering may seem too complicated, given what Goku’s said. Just buying a bond fund is probably close enough.

    However, I wouldn’t bother with a bond fund. Like others mentioned in a previous thread, a fine approach is to (1) put six months of saving aside (as in your BTW), then (2) just pick a Vanguard Target Retirement fund to pay someone else to make and maintain a decent allocation between stocks and bonds, and between foreign and domestic.

  183. 183.

    Buford

    @Chip Daniels: exactly…it is about power, power over women….that is one of the republicans’ basic platform planks….the republicans are starting to panic…they sense their immediate danger, and their “fight or flight” instincts are kicking in….this seems to be the point of trump’s evangelical supporters…to control women…period…there is no other explanation that makes sense…the “Grand Old Party” is dead…gone…and the corpse is really starting to smell bad….what has replaced the “Grand Old Party” is truly corrupt, perverted, and should be spurned and rejected by everyone….

  184. 184.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    @Bill Arnold: I suggest a savings account at a credit union, where you would have to physically go there and withdraw dollars (or maybe a cashier’s check) to get money. And it would help if the credit union was at a modest distance so you couldn’t just stroll around the corner. You’d build up a bit of interest; and credit unions are a good thing in general. They are not there to make a profit, and often offer things like good used car loans, etc.

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