Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

This really is a full service blog.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans got rid McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

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

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

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

It’s a doggy dog world.

When we show up, we win.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Self-Indulgent Snark Open Thread: Another Man Bitterly Disappointed by Friday’s News Cycle

Self-Indulgent Snark Open Thread: Another Man Bitterly Disappointed by Friday’s News Cycle

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Earned media was so easily available in 2016!


Reader Interactions

158Comments

  1. 1.

    SenyorDave

    I will vote for Bernie over Donald Trump or any other Republican, and if he gets into the race, Louis Farrakhan. Difficult to come up with anyone else.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    I’ll tell you how worried Republicans are: I emailed Rob Portman Wednesday night to demand he end the shutdown. I heard back from him less than 24 hours later. Usually it’s 4 to 6 weeks later that I get some canned response. This response had more than its fair share of canned, but he featured the bill he’s introducing to end all shutdowns. I’ll never vote for the prick, but I see this as a good thing.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    I feel no Wilmermentum. It ain’t 2016 and Wilmer ain’t the guy to knock Trump into the Potomac.

  5. 5.

    RobNYNY

    I’m sure the Independent Party will be glad to nominate him. The Democratic Party can make up its own mind.

  7. 7.

    germy

    Bernie Sanders is entering the 2020 race for president. His strategy will be to fall behind by millions of votes in the primary race while falsely claiming it’s all one big conspiracy against him, then drop out four months after he’s been eliminated. #Bernie2020 #NeverBernie— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) January 26, 2019

  8. 8.

    germy

    It won't be easy to take out Bernie Sanders, no matter how poorly he does in the primaries. He can stay on life support with $27 donations from his minions, and no one knows how to work free media – or has it in their pocket – like him. pic.twitter.com/x6ZTvijuuG— Hillary Warned Us (@HillaryWarnedUs) January 26, 2019

  9. 9.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @debbie: Just out of curiosity though, what does one of those no-shutdown thingies look like? If it’s “automatic indefinite CR if we can’t pass a budget”, I’m virulently against it. If it’s “nobody in Congress gets paid or fed if there’s no budget”, I might be interested.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    I’m going to repeat myself: it would be awfully easy to launder illegal foreign campaign contributions in increments of $27 because they’re below the threshold where the donors have to be individually reported to the FEC.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    @debbie: hmm One wonders what else the bill will say? Last time they said they were for it, they wanted deep cuts in spending. Nancy is going to introduce a bill also, and I assume Mitch won’t let it come to the floor for a vote.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Here’s that part of the email:

    To break the logjam, I have introduced legislation ( S. 108 ) with my colleague, Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), to establish a $25 billion trust fund to enhance border security, coupled with codifying protections for those individuals who, through no fault of their own, entered the United States illegally as children and are currently covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This is a fair and reasonable solution that will allow those in the DACA program to stay here and continue to contribute to our society while strengthening our border security to protect all Americans.

    I have also recently introduced legislation to end government shutdowns for good, and will continue to push to make that legislation the law of the land.

    My End Government Shutdowns Act ( S. 104 ) – which has been bipartisan in previous Congresses – would prevent the unnecessary disruptions resulting from the partial shutdown to federal employees, including our Customs and Border Patrol agents, and to citizens who depend on critical government services. Specifically, the Act would create an automatic continuing resolution (or “CR”) for any regular appropriations bill or existing CR if Congress fails to provide funding before the appropriations expire. To ensure that lawmakers continue working toward a solution to fund every individual appropriations bill, the bill would require that funding covered under the automatic continuing resolutions be reduced by 1 percent after 120 days, and an additional 1 percent every 90 days thereafter.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    Also, too, also, too:

    Tax returns, tax returns. Am I imagining the Dems put in rules requiring their candidates to release their tax returns? If I imagined it, can they adopt said rule?

  17. 17.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @germy:

    while falsely claiming it’s all one big conspiracy against him

    That requires getting a base of support in the first place. I don’t think he’ll get far enough. Too many grudges, too many other options for old idealists, and the new crop think of him as that pro-gun asshole who pretend he was their leader.

  18. 18.

    cmorenc

    As it becomes increasingly apparent during 2020 Democratic primaries that Bernie can’t overtake candidates ahead of him, will he choose to become a petulant saboteur of the more likely nominee(s), acidly accusing them of being sellouts not worthy of his backers’ votes? Of course, Russian / GOP colluding fuckery was primarily responsible for Clinton’s loss in 2016, but without Bernie harshly sabotaging Clinton from within to help alienate part of the potential democratic base from voting for her in the general election, especially in critical Midwestern states, the Russian / GOP effort would have likely fallen short of succeeding in engineering Trump’s narrow electoral college win.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

    Democrat Kamala Harris makes first SC stop since announcing 2020 presidential run
    BY MAAYAN SCHECHTER
    JANUARY 25, 2019 10:52 PM,

    COLUMBIA, SC
    The thousands of South Carolinians who helped propel Barack Obama to the White House in 2008 returned the welcome to U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris Friday night in her first S.C. visit since she declared a run for president in 2020.

    “We are all here because of those who came before us,” Harris said in her brief remarks Friday, surrounded by a sold-out crowd of 3,000, and their phones, at the Gamma Nu Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Pink Ice Gala in Columbia. “Our founders gave us the right charge. They said stand together, take care of each other and serve your country as leaders.“

    The California Democrat is no stranger to South Carolina.

    Ahead of the midterm elections last year, Harris stumped in Greenville County and Lower Richland, where she was treated to mentions of “madam president” and swallowed by the audience after her remarks hoping to get a photo with the senator.

    ………………………………

    State Rep. Chandra Dillard, D-Greenville, said she has not decided who she will vote for ahead of the state’s primary. But, she added, she is pleased so far with the senator’s policy positions.

    “She is just a delightful person, and I appreciate her journey,” said Dillard, an AKA chapter sister, who met Harris back in October. ”There’s a lot of people that can identify with her journey. She’s (got) an inspirational personality, and, Lord knows given the climate, we need inspiration. We need positivity and we need a can-do spirit.”

    Dillard said the excitement brewing around Harris draws close reminders to 2008.

    “She is going to have a sisterhood in all 50 states and abroad. We should be, and can be, the secret weapon.”

  21. 21.

    Jay Noble

    If he doesn’t go down to the county registrar’s office and OFFICIALLY change his registration to “Democrat”, no caucases or primaries or money. And that means his little (I) chnages to (D) in the media and Senate.

  23. 23.

    germy

    Sanders hadn’t been terribly interested in engaging the critics of his Kosovo vote in 1999, either:

    I served as a support person for a dozen or so Vermonters who sat-in in his Burlington office a couple weeks into that war. Not only did Sanders refuse to talk with us via telephone (unlike his Vermont counterparts in the Senate–Leahy and Jeffords), he had his staff call the local police to arrest those who refused to leave until Sanders spoke with them. The following week Sanders held a “town meeting” in Montpelier, VT., where he surrounded himself with sympathetic war supporters and one university professor who opposed the war and Bernie’s support for it. During the question and answer part of the meeting, Sanders yelled at two of the audience’s most vocal opponents to his position and told them to leave if they didn’t like what he had to say. They chose to remain and point out that Bernie’s style of democracy seemed awfully authoritarian.

    http://www.shakesville.com/2015/07/looking-for-bernie-part-4-turning-right.html

  24. 24.

    FelonyGovt

    It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think Wilmer’s time has come and gone. Certainly the women I know who were supporting him last time have quietly backed away as his misogynism becomes more apparent.

  25. 25.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    2 things.
    First, that was probably the intent in the first place. And why $27? Why not $24 or $35 or $50?
    Second there should be no reporting problem, donations are transactions anymore, and all of them have identification info, that concept can/should be used to keep track of who gave who what when politics is involved.

  26. 26.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @debbie: Automatic CR. So that’s just incentive to not pass an actual budget. Those 1 percent reductions are meaningless in my opinion. You could kick the ball downstream for two years (8 quarters) and only get an 8% penalty.

    No congressional wages, food, coffee or bathroom breaks without a budget.

  27. 27.

    Aleta

    Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO and Democrat, hasn’t announced but says if he does run for president he’ll run as an independent. His wealth is estimated at 3.3 billion.

    …
    …
    For the past year, Schultz has been investing in burnishing his image and strategizing by hiring a number of experienced consultants, most prominently Steve Schmidt, the 2008 campaign manager for John McCain. Schmidt has spent the past 10 years on a mea culpa tour for his hand in Sarah Palin’s selection as McCain’s running mate, which took him first to being an MSNBC contributor, then to leaving the Republican Party, and now to guiding this effort.

    Schultz wrote a book, For Love of Country, co-written with Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a former Washington Post reporter who’s been on staff with him for years and continues to be in his inner circle planning the run. Another book, From the Ground Up: A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America, is out January 28.

    Tina Podlodowski, the Washington State Democratic chair, blasted the idea of Schultz running as an independent in the press last week. She underscored her point on Friday in a fundraising email sent to donors, with the subject line “Howard Schultz could secure Trump’s re-election.”

    “This worst-case scenario keeps me up at night. I want to spend our resources fighting for Democrats up and down the ballot, not fending off Howard Schultz’s independent bid,” she wrote.

    Several top Washington State Democrats complained that Schultz was never an active ally on progressive causes. Podlodowski has said publicly she’d like to meet with him to discuss the presidential campaign, but so far has not heard from him or his aides, according to a state-party spokesperson.
    …

  28. 28.

    marklar

    Well, since Bernie isn’t a Democrat, will he be running as a Socialist, or as the founder of the Look At MeToo party?

  29. 29.

    delk

    Hillary treated him with kid gloves but you know she has more receipts than a big box store on Black Friday. Not very heartening news to guy that can only handle criticism with anger and huffily taking his ball home.

  30. 30.

    ThresherK

    @germy: Someone (maybe you) linked to part 2 of this 4 part piece earlier today and I’ve been immersed in it since.

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    @jacy:
    @FelonyGovt:
    BS. His initials are his policy.
    BS. His initials are his legacy.
    BS. His initials are his future.
    Old fart acts like old fart in public. News at ten.

  32. 32.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @germy: I hear all the Russian trolls are trying to change the narrative. Judging Wilmer by the company he keeps.

  35. 35.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Fuckem.

    Especially his “wimmin, POC and LGBT folks can wait their turn until after the Glorious Revolution” attitude.

    Ain’t nobody got time for that.

    And fuck Schultz too.

  36. 36.

    opiejeanne

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: And periodically haul them out and beat them before sending them back to work on the budget, like they used to do when choosing a Pope and the Cardinals weren’t quick enough.

  40. 40.

    Emerald

    @delk: Just last week Hillary said out loud that he had not supported her in the way she supported Obama when she lost the primaries, and said that his minions have never stopped harassing her supporters.

    Methinks the Lady has no more fucks to give where Wilmer is concerned. Hope she still has enough influence amongst the Dem leadership to at least force him to show his tax returns before he can run as a Dem.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    It was all but certain he was going to run when he started putting “Donald Trump is a racist” in his stump speech.

    Contrast his stance shortly after the 2016 election.

    “Some people think that the people who voted for Trump are racists and sexists and homophobes and deplorable folks. I don’t agree, because I’ve been there. Let me tell you something else some of you might not agree with, it wasn’t that Donald Trump won the election, it was that the Democratic Party lost the election,” Sanders said while speaking at an Our Revolution rally in Boston with fellow Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

  44. 44.

    Emerald

    @rikyrah: Yeah. Seems likely that Mitch McConnell’s shut-it-all-down approach has migrated to the House Rs.

    Wonder if Nancy SMASH can appoint the R members herself if the Rs refuse to do it. Has she got a rule lying around somewhere . . .

  46. 46.

    bk

    He just needs to go away. I still at am a loss as to the origin of the “Wilmer” nickname, though.

  47. 47.

    dmsilev

    @trollhattan: I seem to remember the same thing, but a quick search didn’t come up with anything (just a proposed California law which would require release of at least five years of returns to qualify for ballot access during the primary), so maybe it was wishful thinking.

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    @FelonyGovt:

    It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I think Wilmer’s time has come and gone. Certainly the women I know who were supporting him last time have quietly backed away as his misogynism becomes more apparent.

    Bernie is still the Once and Future Progressive Candidate of a number of progressive groups. But I think you are right that Sanders has lost a lot of his appeal among many mainstream folk.

  49. 49.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah: Is there a time limit on their ability to name members? Or do Rs plan to ignore this duty just as they ignored a SC nomination and judgeships.

  50. 50.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @bk:

    I still at am a loss as to the origin of the “Wilmer” nickname, though.

    For a long while, using the words ‘Bernie’ or ‘Sanders’ in a thread would draw in pro-Bernie trolls who would completely derail it. So people started calling him ‘Wilmer’ and never stopped, believing – apparently correctly – that the trolls were doing a word search for Sanders’ name. As far as I know, the name ‘Wilmer’ itself was chosen completely at random.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    @Emerald: I doubt that she can influence the election because if she went on the Sunday news shows, they would ask about emails.
    fuckem

    Also, hurry back efg cause I’m running low on f.ks.

  53. 53.

    JMG

    My guess is Bernie Sanders is a big fizzle in 2020. He has two big problems. It’s very hard to be the hot new item in your second race for the same office. And, more important, it’s not a two-person race. Democratic primary voters (not always the same thing as Democrats) who wanted an option to Hillary only had Sanders to vote for. There will be at least 10 options all the way past Super Tuesday. He will also face direct competition from Warren in New Hampshire, eliminating the favorite son effect he got there in 2016. I suppose he could win, but he feels awfully stale to me, and I do not have the same animus towards him some others here have. Just think his time has come and gone.
    PS: As a native Delawarean, it pains me to say this, but this goes quintuple for Biden, a lovable soul whose time came and went around 1987.

  54. 54.

    germy

    The name Wilmer is a German baby name. In German the meaning of the name Wilmer is: Resolute or famous.

    (found this after googling “wilmer”)

  56. 56.

    JPL

    @bk: If you type his name, the trolls appear. So Wilmer is just a cover name so we can read and type in peace without his assholes interfering

    or what frankensteinbeck said.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    Just got an email under the banner – democrats.com, from BS.
    I don’t think he will like my reply.
    I didn’t want my message to be misunderstood so I kept it simple.
    FUCK Bernie Sanders.

  60. 60.

    p.a.

    Be a shame if the transcripts just got leaked. I’m sure there are nat’l security implications possible, but sometimes things just ‘fall off the back of a truck…’

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    We really do need legislation preventing these pointless government shakedown antics, otherwise Fat Bastard will shut stuff down every month on Putin’s command until he either gets kicked out or imprisoned.

    Somebody counted >100 meetings between Trumpanzees and Russians. No doubt they were all about adopting poor orphans, right?

  62. 62.

    FelonyGovt

    I have one thing to thank Bernie for. I first discovered Balloon Juice in early 2016 after reading and enjoying a wonderfully snarky piece John Cole wrote about him and his supporters.

  63. 63.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of self-indulgent old men…

    Brian Schatz @ brianschatz
    The best thing that Howard Schultz can do for the country is invest in education, voting rights, civil rights, and climate advocacy. There is zero appetite for this, and there is an urgent need for the Democratic candidate to win in 2020.

    There’s talk of a Starbucks boycott if he goes through with it (Schutlz is no longer CEO but their stock makes up a considerable portion of his $3.3 BILLLION fortune, according to twitter dot com). I pretty much only get a starbucks cause they’re (edited god dammit) in all the grocery stores these days, but I’m ready to skip those.

  64. 64.

    Redshift

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Automatic CR. So that’s just incentive to not pass an actual budget.

    I am all in favor of automatic CRs; it’s a hell of a lot better than what we have now. Shutdowns have only ever been a tool for Republicans, because they’re the ones who don’t care about government actually functioning. It’s telling that the court ruling that triggered them was in the late 70s, and there were eight shutdowns during the Reagan Administration.

    Getting rid of them will push legislators to make deals, because most of them want to have accomplishments they can point to, not just let things coast. (The 1% thing is stupid; I’m betting Mark Warner’s version doesn’t have that.)

  65. 65.

    tobie

    @Baud: Frankly Elizabeth Warren did not cover herself in glory in headlining the Our Revolution event with Wilmer in Boston just after the 2016 election. I put her ahead of Gabbard in my list but I dislike the pitchfork populism she’s been promoting. Why the exclusive focus on taxes on individuals instead of on corporations and specific activities, like rapid fire stock trades? Guess it’s easier to demonize a person than an entity or practice.

  67. 67.

    James E Powell

    @trollhattan:

    I feel no Wilmermentum. It ain’t 2016 and Wilmer ain’t the guy to knock Trump into the Potomac.

    Almost nobody and certainly not Bernie himself will ever acknowledge that the promotion and fluffing he got in 2016 was entirely due to the fact that the press/media hate Hillary Clinton.

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    There’s talk of a Starbucks boycott if he goes through with it (Schutlz is no longer CEO but their stock makes up a considerable portion of his $3.3 BILLLION fortune, according to twitter dot com). I pretty much only get a starbucks cause they’re (edited god dammit) in all the grocery stores these days, but I’m ready to skip those

    I completely agree.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    WASHINGTON — President Trump met last week with a delegation of hard-right activists led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, listening quietly as members of the group denounced transgender people and women serving in the military before accusing White House aides of blocking Trump supporters from getting jobs in the administration, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events.

    …A central focus for Ms. Hair and Ms. Thomas was administration appointments that they wanted made, and that they accused the president’s aides of blocking. People familiar with the situation indicated that the people Ms. Hair and Ms. Thomas wanted hired were rejected for a range of reasons, and in at least one case, someone was offered a job and declined it because the position was not considered senior enough. Another complaint was that Ms. Thomas had not actually shared the full list of people to be hired, said those familiar with the meeting.

    Others attending the meeting included Frank Gaffney, the founder of the Center for Security Policy who has advocated curtailing immigration and has repeatedly denounced Muslims, and Rosemary Jenks, who works for the anti-immigration group NumbersUSA, according to the people familiar with the events.

    …One woman in the group argued that women should not serve in the military because they do not have the physical capacity that men do, according to the people familiar with the events.

  71. 71.

    germy

    @James E Powell:

    Almost nobody and certainly not Bernie himself will ever acknowledge that the promotion and fluffing he got in 2016 was entirely due to the fact that the press/media hate Hillary Clinton.

    And that the reason he was a sudden favorite on all the Sunday morning talk shows was his willingness to talk shit about the Democratic party.

    The villagers ate that stuff up. They had no interest in his actual ideas beyond that.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @tobie:

    Frankly Elizabeth Warren did not cover herself in glory in headlining the Our Revolution event with Wilmer in Boston just after the 2016 election. I put her ahead of Gabbard in my list but I dislike the pitchfork populism she’s been promoting. Why the exclusive focus on taxes on individuals instead of on corporations and specific activities, like rapid fire stock trades? Guess it’s easier to demonize a person than an entity or practice.

    This is just her initial salvo. And yeah, it’s easier to point out greedy individual bastards, like for instance, Trump and his cabinet of plutocrats.

    So, I don’t have a problem with this approach, and I am on record as not agreeing with a lot of Warren’s plan.

    If she attracts some of the attention from people who previously supported Sanders, more power to her. Extra points if she makes conservatives nervous.

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: Wilmer is also the name of the hired gun in The Maltese Falcon, played by Elishah (?) Cook, of whom the fat man says “I love you like a son, but if you lose a son you can get another.”

    Can’t believe I’m using my sporadic moments of stable Internet to post this.

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: WASHINGTON — President Trump met last week with a delegation of hard-right activists led by Ginni Thomas,

    so much for all that talk of trump having no patience for drunks

  77. 77.

    japa21

    I am tired of Sanders attempt at the nomination in 2016 being described as competitive. It really wasn’t and the only reason it wasn’t a complete rout is that HRC was nice.

    And I still blame him as a major factor in her defeat.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    WASHINGTON — President Trump met last week with a delegation of hard-right activists led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, listening quietly as members of the group denounced transgender people and women serving in the military before accusing White House aides of blocking Trump supporters from getting jobs in the administration, according to three people with direct knowledge of the events.

    …One woman in the group argued that women should not serve in the military because they do not have the physical capacity that men do, according to the people familiar with the events.

    I would call these people Deplorable, but that would almost be an insult to Deplorables.

    I love how all these people who babble about meritocracies expect an old fashioned “spoils system” to operate for their benefit.

    It’s ironic that these dopes don’t realize that Trump don’t care about them, and has already passed out goodies to his own cronies.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    Wonkette

    Given that it’s been over two goddamn years since a bunch of idiots came up with a completely bonkers theory about how Hillary Clinton and John Podesta were running a child sex ring through a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant, which they claimed had a sex dungeon in its non-existent basement. You would think they’d be over it by now, that they would have moved onto some other weird shit. But you would be wrong. So, so wrong.

    On Wednesday, someone tried to set fire to Comet Ping-Pong, the pizza restaurant at the center of all of this ridiculousness, the same restaurant where Edgar Maddison Welch showed up with an AR-15 military-style rifle, ready to investigate the non-existent dungeon. Police believe it was intentionally set.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Wilmer is also the name of the hired gun in The Maltese Falcon, played by Elishah (?) Cook, of whom the fat man says “I love you like a son, but if you lose a son you can get another.”

    Can’t believe I’m using my sporadic moments of stable Internet to post this.

    I didn’t realize that the name Wilmer might have been inspired by The Maltese Falcon. Great quote. Here’s another:

    Wilmer: Keep on riding me and they’re gonna be picking iron out of your liver.
    Spade: [laughs] The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:
    What can we — individually or collectively — do to undermine his campaign? Seeing him out early would be pleasing.

    I read that he will run as a Democrat as the Vermont Democratic party says he is a member? That alone will not satisfy the DNC rule as I read it?

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    Wilmer in 2018:

    [Wilmer] also said that he’ll pull the same maneuver that he did in his 2006 and 2012 Senate races: Running as a Democrat (nominee), declining the nomination when he wins and then running as an independent.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @sm*t cl*de:

    It turns put that that was a little joke that John Huston slipped past the censors, because Dashiell Hammett’s book makes it clear that “gunsel” in the gangster slang of the time meant something more like “rentboy.”

    But because the word started with “gun,” censors and audiences assumed it meant “hired gun” and Huston got away with it for DECADES. ?

  90. 90.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I actually like my current publisher, but I’d also like to say that publishing is a hell hole. Someone said more or less, if you know someone who wants to be a writer, the second thing is to buy them a copy of Strunk and White. The first thing is to kill them now while they’re still happy. Whoever said that was right.

    I’m going to pour myself a glass of wine, even if it is only 3:00.

  93. 93.

    gene108

    @trollhattan:

    Tax returns, tax returns. Am I imagining the Dems put in rules requiring their candidates to release their tax returns? If I imagined it, can they adopt said rule?

    Hopefully some state Democratic Party puts tax returns as a prerequisite for getting on the Dem ballot.

    I have heard it proposed, but I don’t know, if anyone had done it.

    I think once the first state does it, others will follow, like legalizing weed

  94. 94.

    MomSense

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    We are going to drag that waggy finger motherficker this time. No more patience or playing nice.

    We are all going to have to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to be vocal on social media.

  95. 95.

    Baud

    @Immanentize: I don’t know. The only campaign I have experience undermining is my own.

    Mostly, though, I think the best thing we can do is not let any bullshit stand unanswered.

    ETA: Or what MomSense says. Seriously, listen to her. On all matters.

  97. 97.

    JaySinWA

    While stopping the payroll of congress while the government is shut down makes a good sound byte, but I doubt it has any real teeth. For some mysterious and apparently unknowable (to our press) reason, most Senators and Congress people either are or soon become independently wealthy.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: Yes! And everything I said earlier about not criticizing the other candidates as you are trying to win the nomination?

    That does NOT include Wilmer, and that awful other woman I never heard of (Tulsi?) or any fucking millionaire thinks this could be their moment for more power.

    In the podcast I listened to last night about the organization called Protecting Democracy, they talked about needing to legislate a lot of the norms that we’ve blown through, and not just because of the damage that the dumpster currently residing in the white house has done / is doing. It’s because of someone just as authoritarian as Trump could be out there thinking he could be Trump 2.0 — just as awful but not incompetent. Very scary. That’s the first thing I thought of when I read about the big money guys who are throwing their collective hats in the ring.

    2020 is our moment to save democracy in the US, and no, I don’t feel like that is being too dramatic.

  102. 102.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    It’s ironic that these dopes don’t realize that Trump don’t care about them

    True that he doesn’t care about them personally, but A) he enjoys feeling like a king as people fight for positions serving him, and B) I bet he enjoys listening to them spew hate. One of the few things not directly about himself he can get into.

  103. 103.

    Mary G

    I’d like to put a tax of like a tenth of a cent on the total amount of every stock or bond transaction. Little people won’t feel a thing, but corporations and Romney and hedge funders will pay a goodly amount.

  106. 106.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: There are many very wealthy Congress people! Who do not need their congressional salaries.

    But also some who do–likely the very ones representing the kinds of people most harmed by govt shutdowns.

    So the 1st group would just not care and wouldn’t be negatively affected by salary cutoff!

  107. 107.

    marklar

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    Haven’t seen it, butI think he’s more of a useful idiot than an active asset.

    Bernie reminds me of the grandfather who tells his grandkids that he’s taking them to Disneyland, even though he is broke. When Gramps is called on it, rather than acknowledging he’s dishonest, his response is “well, they’ll never get to Disney if they don’t dream about it, and I’m helping them with the dream.”

  108. 108.

    chris

    @Mnemosyne: Balloon Juice– come for the snark, stay for the erudition. I did not know that and The Maltese Falcon is in my winter reading stack. I found it in a used book pile and wondered how it holds up over the 50 years since I last read it. Merriam Webster:

    History and Etymology for gunsel
    argot gunsel catamite, perhaps modification of Yiddish gendzl gosling

  110. 110.

    Baud

    NYT (int’l desk, so ok)

    The United States and the Taliban are closing in on a deal to end America’s longest war after six days of some of the most serious Afghan peace negotiations to date wrapped up on Saturday.

    The talks in Doha, Qatar, lasted much longer than planned and longer than any previous attempt to end the 17-year conflict, and both sides publicly reported progress — a rarity. The chief American negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, said on Twitter that the talks were “more productive than they have been in the past” and he hoped they would resume shortly.
    ……
    The basic outlines of the emerging deal have leaked out through Taliban sources. American officials have been tight-lipped by comparison, though Western diplomats tacitly confirmed those outlines.

    The Americans would promise to withdraw their 14,000 troops, and the Taliban would agree to never again allow their territory to be used by extremists like Al Qaeda, the terrorist network that staged the 2001 attacks on the United States from Afghanistan and set off the start of the war.

    Seems unenforceable, but I don’t care.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    I just read an excerpt of an article about Stacey Abrams in Essence. I like her very much.

    While she mulls over her next move, many have speculated that Abrams will run for the U.S. Senate in 2020. Still, the former Georgia House Minority Leader said she will only pursue another political office under three conditions.

    “I need it to be the right job, I need to be the right person, and it needs to be the right time,” Abrams told ESSENCE.

    “I do not want to run for office simply because an office is available,” she continued. “I do not want to run for office to have a title. I want to be the best person to do the work, and that’s what I’m going to look at.”

  114. 114.

    Ohio Mom

    @Baud: I’ve been to Comet Ping Pong — When Ohio Family went to DC for wedding in June 2017, I insisted we have a meal there.

    It is a dive of a neighborhood pizza place. Tacked onto the walls were letters local school children had written in support after the first go-round of unwarranted attention, decorated of course with crayon drawings.

    I’m sorry to hear they are still being harassed.

    @Aleta: I think we should all call Starbuck’s and Bloomberg’s 800 numbers and tell them No on their presidential ambitions. Sure, the operators won’t know what to do about the first few calls. They won’t have a script for an approved response.

    After enough calls though , the message will get past the operators and into the executive suites.

    Somebody with a twitter account who knows how to use twitter to spread ideas should take this cause up.

  115. 115.

    James E Powell

    @JMG:

    Democratic primary voters (not always the same thing as Democrats) who wanted an option to Hillary only had Sanders to vote for.

    Tommy Carcetti Martin O’Malley is still trying to figure out why no one noticed he was there.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: That’s why I said best/worst. I was mostly being silly, and I did not at all mean it as criticism.

  117. 117.

    FlipYrWhig

    I am thoroughly sick of Bernie Sanders, so I don’t particularly care about his future or reputation, but this is incredibly stupid for both. Wouldn’t it make far more sense for him to position himself as the kingmaker whose blessing the others pursue? There’s no way he can do as well as he did last time. And especially given everyone else in the field, he’s just going to expose himself as a mansplainy has-been. I can only think that he’s thinking “there needs to be a top-level man who appeals to working-class men, like I do,” which was dramatically oversold in 2016 and doesn’t seem to have much to do with the political tenor of 2019-20 or in any way related to what’s been successful lately in the places where Democrats are succeeding.

  119. 119.

    Mary G

    WaPo has the millionth story about Twitler the asshole:

    OSSINING, N.Y — They had spent years on the staff of Donald Trump’s golf club, winning employee-of-the-month awards and receiving glowing letters of recommendation.

    Some were trusted enough to hold the keys to Eric Trump’s weekend home. They were experienced enough to know that when Donald Trump ordered chicken wings they were to serve him two orders on one plate.

    But on Jan. 18, about a dozen employees at Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., were summoned, one by one, to talk with a human resources executive from Trump headquarters.

    During the meetings, they were fired because they are undocumented immigrants, according to interviews with the workers and their attorney. The fired workers are from Latin America.

    and

    Trump’s demand for border wall funding led to the government shutdown that ended Friday after nearly 35 days.

    In Westchester County, workers were told Trump’s company had just audited their immigration documents — the same ones they had submitted years earlier — and found them to be fake.

    “Unfortunately, this means the club must end its employment relationship with you today,” the Trump executive said, according to a recording that one worker made of her firing.

    “I started to cry,” said Gabriel Sedano, a former maintenance worker from Mexico who was among those fired. He had worked at the club since 2005. “I told them they needed to consider us. I had worked almost 15 years for them in this club, and I’d given the best of myself to this job.”

    “I’d never done anything wrong, only work and work,” he added. “They said they didn’t have any comments to make.”

    Eric Trump emailed a bullshit response. Turns none of Trump’s businesses use the e-Verify system to ensure employees are documented properly. What a evil family they are.

  120. 120.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @James E Powell: At my precinct’s Iowa caucus, voters split almost evenly between Clinton and Sanders. I think O’Malley had maybe 4 supporters, so he was declared non-viable. IMHO, Sanders won’t get nearly that much support this time. It will be more like 2008, when there were about a dozen candidates, most of whom slipped into oblivion a few days later, leaving only Obama, Clinton, and Edwards.

  127. 127.

    tobie

    @Aimai: In gymnastics terms, I’d rate that a 10–so eloquent, so profound, so convincing. In pitch it’s the perfect pitchfork response. Congrats.

  128. 128.

    Mary G

    @JPL: More from the article:

    The other former manager said the broader Trump Organization placed far more emphasis on finding cheap labor than it placed on rooting out undocumented workers. The former manager characterized the attitude at the club as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

    “It didn’t matter. They didn’t care [about immigration status],’ ” said the former manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve ties with current Trump executives. “It was, ‘Get the cheapest labor possible.’ ” The former manager said the assumption at the club was that immigration authorities were not likely to target golf clubs for mass raids.

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: You just know that Trump is so fucking stupid and clueless that he actually needed someone to tell him “you know, maybe it’s not a good idea for you to have all these undocumented people working for you while you are demonizing immigrants”.

    It just makes me want to smack him upside the head, and I am not a violent person. So when I momentarily paused and thought “smack him upside the head or push him over a cliff?” that doesn’t mean I would actually do it.

  133. 133.

    WaterGirl

    @Major Major Major Major: I’m going with “nope, that’s a bridge too far”. My guys don’t even like a ride in the car.

    I predict that once he figures out he is “home” in the new place, he might be pretty mad at you for being away for so long and messing everything up. But all with be forgiven and you guys will all be happy again shortly.

  134. 134.

    mad citizen

    Our 6 year old black cat Sammy Davis Jr. sends his best wishes to Samwise this afternoon.

  136. 136.

    TS (the original)

    @FlipYrWhig: Like trump, he got used to the life style – rallies of adoring fans – headlines everywhere – media following you around – and campaign money to be spent as you please – private planes top notch hotels – adoring staff. Nothing to do with policy, people or anyone – self gratification.

    Look at those who lost a major campaign and got on with their lives. The most obvious two are Al Gore and John Kerry. Sarah Palin is the most obvious who couldn’t let go, Wilmer is not far behind.

  138. 138.

    Eljai

    @Steve in the ATL: It’s only a little after 2 on the west coast, but I spent the morning at a meeting to elect Democratic delegates for my district and I feel I have earned it.

  139. 139.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @James E Powell: You are cordially invited to FOADIAF. Matin O’Malley accomplished more for his MD constituents than an asswipe like you could manage in a million lifetimes. And you can fuck right off with the Tommy Carcetti character assassination too.

  140. 140.

    Gex

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t see it mentioned nearly enough, but he kept putting off answering the FEC’s questions about funding concerns. Ultimately he never answered them.

    And wasn’t the story on the tax returns that Jane couldn’t find them? They’ve had a couple years to find those now, they better be able to provide them.

  142. 142.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Uncle Cosmo: FTR Fahrfawks locked up on me when I attempted to correct the typo in the spelling of former MD Governor Martin O’Malley’s name. The rest of the post stands as typed.

  143. 143.

    eemom

    Moreover — as I have wearily pointed out for more than two years to otherwise sentient people who insist that Bernie could have beaten trump — he has not a closet but a warehouse full of skeletons, none of which came out in 2016 because (1) HRC, unlike him, wasn’t a back stabbing asshole, and (2) the republicans were fucking PRAYING he’d be the candidate, at which time they would have released the avalanche and crushed him.

  144. 144.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Matin O’Malley accomplished more for his MD constituents than an asswipe like you could manage in a million lifetimes.

    Remind me again, how did he do in the Democratic Primaries?

  146. 146.

    FlipYrWhig

    @eemom: True re: scandals and past.

    Also, I know I’ve said this before but I expect that what would have happened is that Trump would have pounded the hell out of Sanders on defense/terrorism/crime/”keeping America safe” — as Bush the First did to Dukakis. People confident that Bernie woulda won tend to forget that it would have been a totally different election foregrounding totally different issues.

  147. 147.

    Citizen Alan

    @James E Powell:

    If Martin O’Malley had been smart, he’d have spent every second he was on stage bad-mouthing Wilmer and using all that oppo research that existed that Hillary was too classy to use. If he’d taken Wilmer out, HE could have been the anti-Hillary.

  149. 149.

    CaseyL

    I’m really sick of vanity candidates. Wilmer, Schultz, Bloomberg…even Uncle Joe, as much as I like him otherwise. They’re only running for the $$ (Wilmer) and/or the attention.

    If they had major issues they cared passionately about that weren’t being addressed by anyone else, that would be one thing. But that’s not the case here; they’re just after some validation/ego boo and it makes me want to slap them silly.

  150. 150.

    eemom

    @CaseyL:

    I really don’t think that’s true of Uncle Joe. I don’t think he should run, but I do believe he means well.

    As for the others, absofuckinlutely. They can all go fuck themselves.

  151. 151.

    James E Powell

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Really? You not only want to re-litigate 2016 but you want to argue for Martin O’Malley? I guess I missed his million lifetimes worth of accomplishments, but I don’t feel too bad. So did nearly everyone in Iowa.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: @eemom: I nearly wrote exactly what eemom wrote, but I got distracted trying to find the seattle meet up info that someone was looking for on the other thread.

  153. 153.

    Mary G

    @Major Major Major Major: Is his carrier seethrough? Forty years ago when I was young and poor I took an LA bus with my cat that my ex had confiscated from her abuser to a free spay/neuter clinic. Coming back an elementary school had let out and the bus was filled with kids who were looking at the gato and she preened and posed. Then when we got home, she came out, fell over, turned her head away from me for like three days, then she relented.

  154. 154.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl: We decided to have the meetup tonight and tomorrow to maximize people :)

    I’m not sure we ever settled on a venue for tonight, but we will be meeting on Sunday at 6:30 at the Indo Cafe.

    Hope that helps!

  155. 155.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    He’s such a dimwit. He leaks this when the news cycle is overwhelmed by Drumpf’s cave and the Stone arrest.

  156. 156.

    Fair Economist

    @tobie: Warren also wants to rewrite incorporation laws to put tight reins on corporations so, yes, she is proposing lots more than superwealthy taxes.

  157. 157.

    tobie

    @Fair Economist: I’m aware of her corporate responsibility act and I think that is a good step. I like that her thinking on healthcare has evolved so that she now sees a single-payer system as the end goal but recognizes that the transition to it will take time. I agree that we need to rethink our entire tax system from bottom up. It’s unfair that we have a flat, payroll tax but no tax on carried interest. Our corporate tax system has more holes than swiss cheese and that’s made it easy for large businesses to pass profits to shareholders rather than to invest in their workers (e.g., better wages, health and retirement benefits, etc.). That said, I think she’s been dishonest on trade, has avoided the issue of what jobs will look like in the future, and tends in her spoken remarks to pitch (greedy) fat cats against (virtuous) regular folk. Some find that appealing given the extraordinary income disparities in the US. I don’t. I was actually thinking of throwing a few bucks her way when she announced she was forming an exploratory committee as an acknowledgement of the value of her corporate responsibility bill. Then I heard her on TV repeating again and again that the system’s rigged against the little guy and, as a little guy (or, rather, gal) I was completely turned off.

  158. 158.

    Feckless

    Was Bernie in a leadership position when Democrats lost thousands of seats nationally? Will crying sexism change one ounce of the damage done during the last 30 years of political malpractice by corporate dems?

    I’m glad that Pelosi has found a spine, I hope it lasts.

    But don’t forget how we got here and who was in charge of the party when the trumpskys stole every branch of government state and federal.

    The energy mis-spent attacking Bernie with ad hominems is better left to the fundamentalists on the right. Bernie probably agrees with you 95% but you would divide the party out of pique when we most need unity. Let’s find commonality not sophomoric criticism.
    That said, Schumer sucks.

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