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GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

In after Baud. Damn.

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

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Not all heroes wear capes.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Latest Victim of ETTD*

Repub Stupidity Open Thread: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Latest Victim of ETTD*

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*Everything Trump Touches Dies…

SFGate reports:

Republican U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is defending President Donald Trump’s comments that California isn’t doing a good enough job managing its forests.

McCarthy, of California, says he agrees with Trump that better forest management could mitigate California’s deadly and destructive wildfires. He’s commenting in response to a Trump tweet threatening to withhold California’s federal disaster funding…

Fire scientists say its climate change, not forest management, that’s the chief cause of more destructive wildfires.

Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also of California, had challenged McCarthy to condemn Trump’s comments.

Oh, right — this is the Genius Brain who courted Lord Smallgloves by gifting him hand-picked red & pink Starbursts.

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    Keith P.

    Should California just be able to go to federal court and say “This is unnecessarily vague, given that we don’t know what ‘something’ actually is.” (which of course will lead to Trump saying at a rally that he won’t give them any money until they elect Republicans in the next election)

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Keith P.: The official DOJ position, which has now been upheld by at least one Federal court, is that the President’s tweets, as well as his off the cuff remarks to impromptu press sprays and gaggles, do not reflect and are not official statements of US government policies.

  3. 3.

    Keith P.

    @Adam L Silverman: I guess they can just point to the Syria “pullout” for proof that his tweets are full of shit. But they could also bring up some rumored abortions with not-his-wife to back up their assertion that he doesn’t understand pullouts.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    McCarthy should ask Corey Stewart (no-VA) what it feels like to massage trumpov’s massive…ego…and then try to run for Congress.

    These lemmings, they just, well, they just jump. And what can you do?

  5. 5.

    The Dangerman

    …he even brought a little candy for everybody.

    “Here’s some leftover Christmas Candy, now I’d like 5 Billion?”

  6. 6.

    H.E.Wolf

    SFGate misspelled “Minority Leader” in the body of their online article. (They got it right in their photo caption.)

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    Republican U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is defending President Donald Trump’s comments that California isn’t doing a good enough job managing its forests.

    Last I checked, he is minority leader.

  8. 8.

    danielx

    I can hear the neurons in Trump’s brain soggily colliding every so often during a discussion with McCarthy, finally coalescing around the thoughts “you’re a Minority Leader – since you are in the minority you’re a loser – you’re useless to me – and I don’t like minorities anyway”.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: which is kind of mind-boggling, if you think about it…DOJ and the courts have openly stated that the president’s* tweets and what not are just, well, trumpian BS? The guy is only (technically, but still) the head of the Executive Branch(!)

    “Ehh…he’s just tweeting again…no need to follow up on that. What could go wrong?”

    I’m understanding more and more why Hamilton was ok with Jefferson over Burr…

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    @danielx: McCarthy has never been known to be particularly bright. He also has a hard time keeping his mouth shut and his foot out of it.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    He’s picked another winner!

    I tried (as did Blumenthal) to get meeting w/AG nominee Barr and was told he couldn’t meet until AFTER the hearing. The reason given? The shutdown. Yet shutdown didn’t stop him from other mtgs. This is a 1st for me w/any nominee as a member of judiciary. #Uncool #BadSign— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) January 10, 2019

    Amy is growing on me.

  15. 15.

    danielx

    @Jeffro:

    DOJ and the courts have openly stated that the president’s* tweets and what not are just, well, trumpian BS?

    To give them *cough* due justice, there has never been a situation in which a president’s public statements were open to question on an hourly basis, most especially when that president makes a public statement and then denies ever having made it. Or when he contradicts himself on a daily basis, or….oh, fuckit.

  16. 16.

    plato

    Traitorous thugs like mccarthy and nunes seem to be well ensconced in their districts. No way they will mend their ways given their voters’ stupidity.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: McCarthy kicked off the “no leaks, we’re family” discussion with Ryan, also, too:

    “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

    House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

    Before the conversation, McCarthy and Ryan had emerged from separate talks at the Capitol with Ukrainian Prime Minister Vladi­mir Groysman, who had described a Kremlin tactic of financing populist politicians to undercut Eastern European democratic institutions.

    News had just broken the day before in The Washington Post that Russian government hackers had penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, prompting McCarthy to shift the conversation from Russian meddling in Europe to events closer to home.

    Some of the lawmakers laughed at McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”

    Ryan instructed his Republican lieutenants to keep the conversation private, saying: “No leaks. . . . This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

    The remarks remained secret for nearly a year.

    They’re all in it together. And we’ve known it for a long time…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Hee hee! Great minds think alike… and ours, too.

    I sent a polite note to SFGate’s newsroom, thanking CA voters for making Rep. McCarthy the minority leader and asking that SFGate correct the error.

  22. 22.

    Mary G

    Oh, this won’t end well:

    EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of school districts have moved to arm school staff, some in secret after Parkland, a VICE News investigation has found https://t.co/DaqSa07QbC— VICE News (@vicenews) January 9, 2019

    Some kid will set off a firecracker in the hall and the home ec teacher rushing in from one side will kill the football coach rushing in from the other.

  23. 23.

    FelonyGovt

    If they cut FEMA funding to California we should refuse to send the federal government any more tax money. This is beyond despicable.

  26. 26.

    Adam L Silverman

    @FelonyGovt: I made that suggestion last year in regards to the changes in the tax bill regarding no longer being able to deduct state and local income taxes.

  28. 28.

    Mary G

    I’ve never been able to get into the GOS, but this just seems insane:

    The @DailyKos community bought 25,000 roses for @SpeakerPelosi, and I had the honor of delivering about 7,000 of them. The other 18,000 were donated by the Speaker to Walter Reed hospital, will be delivered tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/tzOIosnA88— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) January 9, 2019

    Woman who works to get voters the proper ID so they can participate in democracy:

    I did some quick math. A dozen roses is about $100 so this cost about $208,000. I could have gotten 5,208 IDs for that.— kat calvin (@KatCalvinLA) January 10, 2019

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: yeah, I found that weird. Plant trees, buy solar panels, set up a dedicated fund for the flippable seat in the next round…. Roses?
    ETA: Even better

    I did some quick math. A dozen roses is about $100 so this cost about $208,000. I could have gotten 5,208 IDs for that.— kat calvin (@KatCalvinLA) January 10, 2019

    weird weird weird

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    Thanks for all the suggestions on the what to do for this trip to LA guys.

    Rest assured I read them all, and NO ONE is in a pie filter ;-)

    I’ve just been really busy doing some other things.

    Anyway…a tentative schedule.

    We arrive Friday like 11:30pm…last flight out…hopefully no delays or issues. I’ve rented a car for the entire trip and the hotel I booked is one of those motor motels, has good rates and reviews on Trip Advisor, plus parking is included, might have some trouble since we’re arrving so late, but at least I won’t have to pay for daily parking at hotel and wherever we end up.

    On Saturday, gonna drive and park at Hollywood and Highland center for the day ($17 all day is says on the website). We’re gonna either try for a 1/2 day guided tour (if I can find a good one) or a good hop on/hop off thing…and then probably Universal City Walk for dinner? Then back to the hotel. Sunday is the Grammy tribute
    at the Shrine, doors open at 4:30 so I figured we go to the Grammy museum on this day eat somwhere round here, then head back to hotel to get ready for the Grammy tribute.

    It’s being filmed “LIVE” for television, so IDK, but I guess it will likely be longer than the usual concert since it’s being filmed?

    Then ealry Monday, we’ll be heading back to NOLA.

    Again, thanks for all the suggestions…I’m really appreciate it

  32. 32.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Mary G: This is pretty wildly off. I can check 1800flowers and get a dozen roses for $35. And that’s not buying in bulk.

    I’d expect this probably cost a lot less than $200k. Probably less than a third.

    EDIT: Agree that the money could have been used for something more useful, but this is a lovely gesture and the average DailyKOS user probably contributed a miniscule amount of money.

    EDIT THE 2ND: My wife tells me it’s like… $10 for a dozen at Costco.

  34. 34.

    The Pale Scot

    @Adam L Silverman: Yo Adam, can your C.Drums friends recommend a Burn’s Supper that isn’t all pasty old Brits in their suds?

    “Deep in heart-wrung tears I’ll pledge thee,
    Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee.”

  38. 38.

    jl

    I don’t understand why the national media can’t get away from the battle of the soundbites, especially when there are hard facts that can be cited in same time as the soundbites. For example,
    The state of California owns and manages less than 5% of its forests. The federal government owns and manages about 2/3ds of the state’s forests. Funds for federal management have been cut, some of the cuts are by the Trump/GOP. California has actually been chipping in the compensate for cuts in federal spending on forests. The deadly and destructive fires this year did not start on or burn through state managed forests.

    Has anyone heard the national media report these simple facts? I’m curious.

  40. 40.

    Fair Economist

    @MisterForkbeard: I saw the Roses for Pelosi campaign and the price was $3 a stem, almost exactly your price. So the total is about $75,000 – a good chunk of change but excusable every few years.

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    @MisterForkbeard:

    EDIT THE 2ND: My wife tells me it’s like… $10 for a dozen at Costco.

    And Market Basket (local grocery chain). And Walmart. And BJs. And (probably) Shaw’s (another local grocery chain). And so on …

    @Another Scott:

    kat apparently hasn’t bought roses recently…

    Or is innumerate. Or just fucking stupid.

  46. 46.

    namekarB

    @jl: The U.S Forest Service needs to better manage the trees on both BLM and in National Forests in California. Oh wait, all those forest service employees are not getting paid because of the shut down

  49. 49.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And they throw in the 35 gallon drum of tartar sauce!

    That’s an amazing price — imagine how many teeth have to be scraped to get that much tartar. Although I guess that’s better than a 35-gallon drum of Tatars.

    ETA: Yeah, I know it can be spelt both ways.

  52. 52.

    SFAW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    It seems that you’re assuming competence from the national media.

    It seems that you’re assuming that the national media is trying to practice real journalism. Were that the case, we’d be talking about President Clinton. But they are quite competent at their actual mission.

  54. 54.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @lamh36: you can go for a Warner brothers studio tour if you want to go to Pasadena, I think. The Big Bang Theory is taped there and you can see the set or maybe even a taping if you go on Friday

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trollhattan: the MoC for Paradise CA is a Republican, Doug LaMalfa

    Rep. Doug LaMalfa @ RepLaMalfa
    Here is my statement in response to the President’s tweet threatening to withdraw FEMA funding from California. “The President has seen first-hand our fire-ravaged areas in Northern California. He made the promise to help, and I expect him to keep it.”

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: I stopped watching about halfway through last year.

    Given the show’s preoccupation with Bob Newhart I expect the final episode will be the opening part of the first episode where Sheldon and Leonard are standing in the hallway contemplating introducing themselves to their new neighbor Penny. The entire run of the show, every episode, was simply Leonard imagining a life for himself with Penny.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “He made the promise to help, and I expect him to keep it.”

    “I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger border wall today.”

    and then on Wednesday
    “I never said I’d give CA any FEMA money.”

  61. 61.

    The Pale Scot

    @Adam L Silverman: A while ago you mentioned a band I think was named Celtic Drums, you said you did doorman duty for them, I;m sure I could be remembering wrong. I live in Pinellas, it’s all tourists here

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SFAW: I grew up in the south, so here it’s: taaahtar sauce. It’s served with a mess of fried srimps!

  64. 64.

    sukabi

    @Mary G: they might have been grocery store roses, so might have been significantly cheaper, $10 – $30 / dozen if not red valentines roses…

    Still very unusual way to spend solicited $$ when there are a bunch of better ways to use that $$ to honor her.

  66. 66.

    piratedan

    @lamh36: unsure if they’re still open, but Ameoba records on Hollywood and Vine is a great way to find that missing item in your vinyl or CD collection if you’re musically inclined….

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @The Pale Scot: Shot me an email with exactly what you’re looking for so I can reply, and then I’ll check with my friend tomorrow and see what he recommends.

  68. 68.

    lamh36

    @JoeyJoeJoe: I was thinking bout the Warner Bros tour as well, but it would have to be on Saturday since it’s the only full day we have, plus the weather may not permit, esp if it rains. i did the WB tour when I last went solo and it’s an open cart so… rain would be a factor

  69. 69.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I still wouldn’t trust Barr as far as I could throw him, but I bet this will get under trump’s orange crust

    Steven Dennis @ StevenTDennis
    William Barr and Robert Mueller have been friends for decades; Their wives attend Bible study together; Mueller has attended Barr’s daughters’ weddings, per Lindsey Graham after his conversation with Barr.
    @ DaviSusan
    “I didn’t know that they were that close personally,” Graham said.
    Susan Glasser Retweeted Susan Davis
    Did Trump?

  70. 70.

    lamh36

    @Adam L Silverman: I stopped watching it a while after the 2nd or 3rd season with Amy Farrah Fowler and only now catch it in reruns on sydication, but I do watch a clip or two if I’m just randomly surfing the net for something

  72. 72.

    Aleta

    (The Hill) The head of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) on Wednesday blasted President Trump over his threat to stop sending federal funding to California to fight forest fires.

    “This is yet another unimaginable attack on the dedicated professionals who put everything on the line, including their own homes, to protect their neighborhoods,” General President Harold Schaitberger, who leads the union that represents full-time firefighters and emergency medical services personnel in the U.S. and Canada, said in a statement.

    “While our president is tweeting on the sidelines in DC, our fellow Americans 3,000 miles to the west are mourning loved ones, entire communities have been wiped off the map and thousands of people are still trying to figure out where they are going to call home,” he said.

  76. 76.

    randy khan

    @Mary G: @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    For what it’s worth, they probably got them wholesale, and this time of year they’re a lot cheaper than $100/dozen (a quick search found them for about 1/3 of that retail), so that number is off by a lot. Also, I’m pretty confident that DKos did it as a fundraiser, so most of the money probably wasn’t for the roses.

    Also too, it’s a nice gesture to Pelosi. We shouldn’t not do nice things.

  78. 78.

    peach flavored shampoo

    Last I checked, he is minority leader.

    No, no he’s not. He hates minorities, and would throw them all out of his district if he could.

  79. 79.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @sukabi: amazing he can find the time in between presidentin’ and having family dinners with Melanie and Duke

  80. 80.

    The Pale Scot

    @Adam L Silverman: According to Conudrum they’re playing at Jack’s grill on 01/26, a Sat. On Jack’s site Burn’s supper is the 20th, a Sunday. Maybe it’s a decoy for the tourists. I’ll pop in and see it’s just down the road. I’ve been to some Burn’s Suppers in NYC, saw some Shakespearean MoFos laying it down tight with elocution and timing.

  82. 82.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Adam L Silverman: Ugh. I can’t stand that show – as a fairly big nerd at some points of my life, it almost always felt like they were making fun of rather than celebrating geekdom.

    When most of the comedy comes from taking the most awful stereotypes of a subculture and then making them more obnoxious so they create ‘sitcom’ moments, it just rubs me the wrong way. But then, I haven’t enjoyed sitcoms in about 20 years. Maybe I’ve just moved past the format.

  85. 85.

    Face

    A dozen roses is about $100

    No it doesn’t. This is ridiculous. A dozen roses outside of Valentine’s and Mother’s Days are about $15.

    Still a waste of $$, I agree.

    ETA: I see I’m about the 8th person to note this BS

  88. 88.

    chopper

    dude the motherfucking camp fire started in federal land! like as in forest land that is managed by trump’s administration!

    motherfuckers!

  89. 89.

    hilts

    @sukabi:

    I look forward to Trump leaving the White House prematurely either in handcuffs or in a straitjacket. Also hope to see an indictment for Don Jr. or Jared.

  90. 90.

    Aleta

    I heard that work on scheduled space projects is stopping. There are windows for launches and if those are missed, they may have to wait another 3 years or so. A lot of research is coming to a halt. But Raw Story says the admin is going ahead with public meetings and signing leases to start drilling in the Arctic.

  91. 91.

    Sebastian

    @hilts:

    I think we all want to see Don Jr smug mug hauled into jail. Jared too. Ivanka too, she is the most dangerous of the bunch.

    But most I want to see Flynn Jr in jail but alas that’s unlikely to happen.

    Edit for typos and addon:
    I want to see Melania the Idiot rot in jail. The rest? Have them all hang on lampposts by the thousands so the message echos through the ages. Fat chance that’ll happen though.

  96. 96.

    sukabi

    @hilts: me too!

    Here’s my wish list:
    Drumpf
    Don Jr.
    Ivanka
    KellyAnne
    Mercers
    S. Miller
    Kirsten Nielsen (sp)
    Pence
    Guiliani

  98. 98.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @jl:

    There is no truth in news, there is no news in truth. That saying rings a bell.

    Wasn’t it Keats who said:

    News is truthy, truthy news.
    That is how ye catapult the propaganda on earth,
    and all ye need to know.

    (Or some like that; prolly shoulda googled it to be sure.)

  103. 103.

    piratedan

    some speculation that I am seeing thrown around at a couple of other places that I read and twitter feeds of people supposedly in the know could mean that this is our collective remake of All The President’s Men in that there are two pieces of information that seem plausible but aren’t confirmed in actual reporting (at least not yet)… so I don’t know just how accurate this is but based on what we’ve seen so far, hell I have a hard time NOT believing it….

    item #1 – What Manafort and Gates turned over to the Russians wasn’t just Trump internal polling data but also GOP voter registration data, looping in Priebus and the entire GOP party hierarchy into the mix of collusion/corruption and allowing social media micro-targeting of attack ads and voter registration data. So it’s possible that if the actual database was in their hands, it’s entirely possible to put together a hack of likely GOP voters into casting votes for GOP candidates, regardless of those people even showing up at the polls because who would know? Nothing to see here, move along….

    Item #2 – Betsy DeVos owns Spectrum Health which provides health care in some key Midwestern states… is it possible that DeVos shared health care data with these same people (Cambridge Analytica) to target opioid users/addicts with targeted disinformation thru social media to vote how they wanted them to vote? Considering the sophistication of the attacks is it possible that these folks targeted those of us most susceptible to being influenced in this fashion? If so, this would be an extreme breach of both patient confidentiality and HIPAA (and probably six other ways of illegal but it seems that nothing is beyond these guys and look at the payoff)

    THIS thread that starts with a Steve Schmidt tweet is downright scary…. Adam says that we’re through the looking glass, and perhaps we are after all…

    https://twitter.com/SteveSchmidtSES/status/1083038812639510533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1083038812639510533&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Flittlegreenfootballs.com%2Farticle%2F48735_Prog-Acoustic_Excellence-_Punc

  104. 104.

    Fair Economist

    @piratedan:

    What Manafort and Gates turned over to the Russians wasn’t just Trump internal polling data but also GOP voter registration data

    Hillary said there had to be Americans helping with the messages and targeting, and she’s been pretty accurate about what they were doing.

    Betsy DeVos is as crooked as they come. One of her organizations has been trafficking the kidnapped Central American children.

  106. 106.

    Martin

    A) California will sue over the FEMA funding. And win.
    B) Roses in CA are cheap. We grow them here by the acre, year round. It really is one of the most impressive things about moving to California is driving around and just seeing the scale of agriculture here. 60% of the roses grown in the US come from CA.

    I have a friend who decorates high-end homes. This time of year medium stem roses will run you $.50 a stem – I only know this because she did up a christmas tree for someone and used roses in place of the ornaments. I expected it to be outrageously expensive, but she said it was really cheap because roses are so cheap this time of year here. You guys don’t think they’re dropping a quarter million dollars on a rose parade float, do you? We do the damn parade because we grow an ungodly amount of flowers here.

    But because they don’t travel so well, prices go up quite a bit as you head away from CA. I doubt you can consistently buy them for less than double that price in places like New England at this time of year. So it’s hard to compare prices because it does vary quite a bit.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    It may be too late at night for you to see this, but if you’re going to be in the Hollywood & Highland area, the wax museums are cheesy but unexpectedly fun because they let you get right next to the statues and pose with them. There are at least three all within a block or two of each other, so grab the coupons from the guys on the sidewalk in front of the mall and compare them to see which place has the best deal that day.

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    Oh, and we probably told you this last time, but on Hollywood Blvd you have to pay the costumed characters in order to pose with them. In fact, just assume that anyone unusual on Hollywood Blvd that you want to take a photo of or with expects to be paid. It will save you a whole lot of trouble.

  111. 111.

    sm*t cl*de

    @M. Bouffant:
    I was in LA at the beginning of November and scored some long-sought-after DVDs at Amoeba.
    Between that, the art museums, and the Museum of Jurassic Technology, I managed to fill in the time.

  113. 113.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Last I checked, he is minority leader.

    That was the first thing that came to my mind as well! Clearly SFgate.com is living in the past. (ETA: I looked, and it’s an AP story. That’s even worse – they *really* shouldn’t be bungling stuff like that!) He’s been in the minority for the past week, thank the Lord.

  114. 114.

    Nicole

    @Mary G: The Daily Kos has my email address so I get there daily bulletin m, and I remember last week getting the request to donate to send roses to her office. It seemed like a monumental waste of money, and kind of sexist too. Women like flowers! Ugh.

  115. 115.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @MisterForkbeard: TBBT reminds me of All In The Family in (what I perceive to be) audience reactions.

    AITF spozedly “brought us all back together” back in the days. Sure enough, in homes across the nation, it brought the whole bickering fambly together – to sit down & watch AITF. And though we all laughed at more or less the same time, we were laughing at different things: Us DFHs were thinking, Listen to that asshole Archie! Whadda moron! while our parents were thinking, You tell ’em, Arch!

    Similar thing with Beeg Beng. Those of us who knew STEM wonks in the day (hell, those of us who were STEM-wonks-in-the-day) chuckle at how well the writers nail the subsubculture – while the vast majority of viewers guffaws at lookit-them-thar-geenyusses-that-gots-no-common-sense! I’m halfway willing to cut ’em (ETA: the writers, not the knuckledragging mouthbreathing audience!) a break on this…but then I reflect that the fundamental story arc since episode 1 has been Leonard’s near-desperate desire to achieve “normalcy” as typified by his dogged pursuit (& eventual capture) of well-meaning-but-ditzy corn-fed-Nebraskan Penny….

    Nevertheless, I persist in laughing. And I guess that’s something. All too few things to laugh healthily & heartily at in Trumpolini’s Murrka.

  116. 116.

    bemused

    @trollhattan:

    I remember when Kevin was one of the Young Guns along with Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor who were going to be a new breed of young conservatives/tea partiers. Heh.

  118. 118.

    Chief Oskhosh

    @randy khan:

    Also too, it’s a nice gesture to Pelosi. We shouldn’t not do nice things.

    There’s that, and totally agreed.

    The “left” just crushed the barbarians in the midterms. A celebratory lap and a high five to our new Speaker is A-OK with me. If she likes roses and likes giving them to people in the hospital — even better.

    As to the funders of the high five roses, it may be useful to recall that dKos arrived to the fight early, grew, and continues to thrive. I don’t see Cole being invited to Nancy Smash’s office for photo ops (although who knows – if he ever finds that jar of mustard…). I don’t see BJ polls popping up on my TV. Nothing against Cole or mustard or polls or the rest of this community — I understand that BJ is a totally different entity, and its members are way too smart and pure and logical and have better pets than to be Followers of the Great Orange Satan — but let’s let’s recognize success. dKos is big, it has a spectrum of voices (some just in the heads of the members!), and compared to other such communities, for better or worse, it gets listened to by elected officials. If it’s roses dey wants, it’s roses dey gets!

    Still — roses?! Sheesh!

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Uncle Cosmo: The few times I’ve tried to watch TBBT, the thing that puts me off is just that all the characters seem really mean to each other. Maybe there’s some core of affection I’m missing.

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