Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

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

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

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Republicans do not trust women.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

We will not go back.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Same As It Ever Was

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Same As It Ever Was

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Definitely *not* the kind of news Addison Mitchell McConnell was hoping for…

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134Comments

  1. 1.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    McConnell looked miserable. I do wonder if Pelosi really broke him, combined with Trump humiliating him during the shutdown.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Abrams wad great, except for the lighting on the chorus behind her.

    Does anyone have a video link to the Dem response Spanish? I couldn’t find it this morning.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    I posted this below, but wanted to share it again. After SOTU Sean Spicer had an interview with Eric Bolling of Blaze TV.
    He shared his insightful insights, and other pearls of wisdom. Don’t let your friends do taped interviews when they are apparently intoxicated. Hollywood Reporter has the story.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Repost

    Song of Parkland often quietly, yet powerfully, observes healing in process. “Being in drama every day, working on a show, gives us a sense of normalcy. It’s almost a sense of strength,” said student Dylan Redshaw during one of the group meetings. Though accompanied by cameras, the students hardly seem watched; much of Song of Parkland is kids being kids, alternately goofing off and getting serious, depending on the moment.

    “Kids are incredible. They’re smart, they’re eloquent, they’re goofy, they’re emotional, they’re irrational, they’re brilliant, they’re inspiring,” said Schatz. “My intention was to let them be themselves, and I think the documentary shows them in their natural state. I don’t think anybody was performing for the camera; they were performing their production, but they were being themselves.

    “What I witnessed is that it was like getting back to the business of school, getting back to the business of production, and being who you always were to each other,” Schatz added. Part of that process was a songwriting project, in which students processed their emotions through original compositions. The film unspools a couple of those originals, recorded by studio artists, over moving images of grief and healing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas. “If there’s one thing I’ve been taught, it’s that we should make a sound,” one sings. “Fill the void with flowers, it’ll make a meadow – even in the darkest times, beautiful things can grow.

    “I think it was important for our kids to tell a story, and to tell their story,” said Herzfeld of Song of Parkland’s quiet, understated frame, “because when all the craziness was going on around them, there’s a whole population of kids that needed to be heard.”

    Song of Parkland airs 7 February at 7pm on HBO

  6. 6.

    J R in WV

    n our poll with Morning Consult, 56 percent of voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 44 percent who “strongly disapprove,” roughly twice the 23 percent who “strongly approve”

    So! Trump has fallen below the 27% crazifacation factor~!!!~

    Amazing that he was able to do that…

    It’s 4:26 am here on the mountain, coals glowing in the wood stove, wind growling around the corners of the house, Mexico city lights glowing in the near distance to the south. I’ll go back to bed in a minute, just taking a look to see how the Fucked State of our Union went over.

    Some MSM folks evidently appear to believe it went well? Imagine that… I didn’t watch, but from the blog posts and such, I got the impression it was a dog of a presentation. With a 23% strong approval rating, looks like some Americans have noticed that THEY are the ones singled out for being screwed by Trump and McConnell..!! Imagine that, people watching themselves being screwed finally noticed!

  7. 7.

    p.a.

    @JPL:

    …After SOTU Sean Spicer had an interview with Eric Bolling…Don’t let your friends do taped interviews when they are apparently intoxicated. Hollywood Reporter has the story.

    Spicer had been playing the ‘drink a shot at every Trump lie and smear’ game.

  8. 8.

    Immanentize

    Whole speech will be forgotten by tomorrow after a few President tweets. Democratic Congresswomen in white will be remembered and discussed at next year’s SOTU. Nancy’s “fuck you clap” will live on for years.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    An Alabama police officer will not face charges for killing a man he mistook for the gunman in a mall shooting, the state attorney general announced on Tuesday. The announcement drew outrage from the dead man’s family, who said the officer jumped to conclusions when he saw a young black man with a gun. The officer shot 21-year-old Emantic “EJ” Bradford Jr while responding to an earlier shooting on Thanksgiving night at a mall in Hoover, Alabama.

    The Alabama attorney general, Steve Marshall, said his investigation concluded “the officer did not commit a crime” and that he would not present the case to a grand jury. Marshall said he considered the matter closed. The officer-involved shooting sparked weeks of protests. The decision by Marshall reignited calls for demonstrations.

    A 26-page report released by Marshall’s office said the officer mistakenly believed Bradford fired the earlier shots. But the report also said the Hoover officer, whose name has not been released, was justified in shooting him because of the threat he posed. The report said the officer saw Bradford running toward the scene with a gun and believed he was trying to kill the wounded shooting victim or harm others. The victim was actually Bradford’s friend, with whom he had been at the mall.

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    Headline @ Today’s NYT Op-Ed Page:

    Thomas L. Friedman: What if Trump Could Explain as Well as He Inflames?

    I don’t know, oh great and glorious Moustache of Understanding.

    What if I won the Powerball lottery today?

    What if cats could speak and dogs could play chess?

    What if buts-and-ands were pots and pans, and pigs could fly, and horses were wishes?

    What if The New York Times hired new competent political analysts instead of holding onto tired hacks who have grown too lazy and complacent to do anything but outsource their political analysis to taxi drivers and flights of what-if fantasizing?

    What then, Tom, what then?

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Survivors of a wildfire that obliterated an entire California town have been told they cannot continue to camp on their burnt-out lots and must leave. Officials in Paradise, which was swept by a blaze that killed at least 86 in November, passed an ordinance on Monday that will make it illegal for residents to live on property that hasn’t been cleared of burned debris. Crews began cleaning up the remnants of more than 14,000 destroyed homes last week, and the process could take at least a year. More than 100 residents who returned to the town in December and January will have to relocate.

    “If there was any other place to go, we would be there,” said Anastasia Skinner, a mother of four. After their home burnt down, she bought an RV with her husband on the understanding that they’d be able to continue to live in Paradise. “They said we could come back – that’s why we bought the RV. Now we have to spend more money we don’t have,” Skinner said. “I didn’t think it was possible for them to kick us off our own land.”

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) recently warned the town that if it allowed people to live on properties that hadn’t been cleared of debris and hazardous material it could lose the $1.7bn allocated toward cleanup costs. Fema said its decision to fund the cleanup was based on a warning from the Butte county health department over the potential for widespread toxic exposures and threats to public health.

    “It was a terrible position to be put in,” said Jody Jones, the town’s mayor. “We can’t give up billions of dollars in cleanup money or our town will look like a warzone for 20 years.”

    At a public meeting on Monday, frustrated and sometimes teary-eyed residents questioned and criticized town leadership about the plan. Some said they would refuse to leave, and would face fines. The mayor said the town was not trying to criminalize people for living on their own properties, and is working to find a place for residents to take their RVs and trailers. They hope to prioritize cleaning their lots first so they can return as quickly as possible. The town’s police chief, Eric Reinbold, said his department has no plans to participate in enforcement related to the new ordinance.

    The town had no choice, said councilman Michael Zuccolillo. “I felt like we had a financial gun to our heads.”

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    @JGabriel:
    Thomas Friedman’s premise is painfully thin. Trump isn’t failing to explain his ideas; he fails at having ideas in the first place.

  22. 22.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @JGabriel:

    Friedman writes like he’s baked, which is an affront to alla people who derive artistry and brilliance and enlightenment while baked.

    Friedman finds only muddled thinking and convoluted tortured prose. Oh, and his lint-filled navel. Which he finds endlessly fascinating, and, more’s the pity, wishes to share withal.

    Waste. Of. Space.

  24. 24.

    JGabriel

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    Friedman writes like he’s baked, which is an affront to alla people who derive artistry and brilliance and enlightenment while baked.

    Friedman finds only muddled thinking and convoluted tortured prose.

    @Amir Khalid:

    Thomas Friedman’s premise is painfully thin. Trump isn’t failing to explain his ideas; he fails at having ideas in the first place.

    Yep. The column itself is somewhat better than the title would lead you to believe, but that’s not saying much. I mean, it’d almost have to be.

    It’s still littered with enough what-if-ery and unchallenged right-wing assumptions that my critique stands.

  26. 26.

    JGabriel

    The Guardian via OzarkHillbilly:

    Survivors of a wildfire that obliterated an entire California town have been told they cannot continue to camp on their burnt-out lots and must leave. …

    … The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) recently warned the town that if it allowed people to live on properties that hadn’t been cleared of debris and hazardous material it could lose the $1.7bn allocated toward cleanup costs. Fema said its decision to fund the cleanup was based on a warning from the Butte county health department over the potential for widespread toxic exposures and threats to public health.

    “It was a terrible position to be put in,” said Jody Jones, the town’s mayor. “We can’t give up billions of dollars in cleanup money or our town will look like a warzone for 20 years.”…

    … The town had no choice, said councilman Michael Zuccolillo. “I felt like we had a financial gun to our heads.”

    That does seem to be the Trump administration’s modus operandi, Councilman Zuccolillo.

    ——

    Edited to Add:

    Is The Guardian the only non-local publication reporting on this story? If so, it’s disappointing that American media isn’t covering it.

  30. 30.

    hueyplong

    Isn’t 23% within the standard 4% margin of error of the iron line of 27%?

    Might be true that a mass cable outtage cutting the faithful off from their FoxNews IV is what it will take to dip below the crazification line beyond any margin of statistical error.

  31. 31.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    re: the new boogeyman (“oooh-scaaary!”) socialism

    My first reaction is, ya, good, gimme some a that! Not sure the socialism card is got the same Reagan-era stroke it once did in frightening the children and the horses, but would like to see Dems do, at minimum, two things:

    1. not run away from the charge but rather define it on their terms and embrace it, and
    2. counter it effectively.

    Am hoping some higher-ups have been doing a bit of thinking about this, cuz it’s evident “oooh-scary!-socialism!” is the new bete noir that’s gonna get hauled out to galvanize the rubes into slandering the Dems as “unAmerican”.

    Me, I got no great insights on this ‘cept, maybe:

    If you stipulate the old saw that a government is just a big fucking insurance company with a military, I would argue (and have with more’n one Trumpster up here) that if you can name me, writ large, a more socialistic institution than the United States military, I’d like to hear it.

    Unless you wanna talk about social security. Or Medicare. Both of which, last I checked, are over-fucking-whelmingly popular. We *already got* us some socialism in these here United States. That ship done already sailt.

    What Dems should be proposing, and are, thankfully, is an unapologetic push toward are more just and equitable representation of the socialism we already have. Where rich folks patriotically OWE something to a country (besides selfish “don’t-touch-my-shit!” bitching) that makes their extravagant wealth possible.

  32. 32.

    Bobby Thomson

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: no special response required. Ask Steve Schmidt and Matt Rhoades how well running on “My opponent is socialist!” works. All they did was dilute the term and convince a large chunk of younger Americans that socialism is, if not a good thing, nothing to be feared.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    Bringing this up from downstairs. Thought that was the morning thread.

    Hoocudanode?

    Canadian case is another warning about the murky world of cryptocurrency
    [snip]
    …according to documents prepared for the court hearing, suddenly it turns out that a company widely seen as Canada’s biggest cryptocurrency trader, a company that described itself as a “leading bitcoin exchange” was really just a guy with a computer. Source

    So much winning.

    General Motors began involuntary layoffs on Monday in Detroit, with about 4,300 white-collar workers among those affected across North America.
    [snip]
    The company said last October that it would offer buyouts to 18,000 workers with more than 12 years with the company across its North American operations as part of cost-cutting efforts.

    GM Canada spokesperson Jennifer Wright declined to say how many jobs were eliminated or how many people may be laid off, sending a statement that read, “We expect to have a modest number of other salaried reductions completed shortly.”

    GM has a broader plan that will see three North American assembly plants and two component factories close by the end of 2019. Source

    In other news,

    When Dr. Jorge Chavarro’s team started investigating marijuana’s effects on sperm, they had every reason to believe weed would prove detrimental to “testicular function,” because other studies had said it to be so.

    Instead, they found the opposite. Source

  35. 35.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Fair enough. You’re talking aught-eight Obama-McCain, right? If ya, I take your point.

    But:

    Guess I’ma saying you can transform an issue from one that is argued from a defensive crouch into one that is proudly advanced as an affirmative good. Which helps in stretching the Overton Window and thereby expanding what’s possible.

    Like to see the nation not haveta be beholden to the most progressive world imaginable to the likes of Joe Lieberman or Max Baucus.

  42. 42.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @schrodingers_cat: Why would I punish myself like that? This is why I come to Balloon Juice, so that others can punish themselves on my behalf. ;)

    Didn’t watch the orange squatter in the WH either. Not enough money or chocolate in the world….

    Also too, good morning!

  45. 45.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Baud: Aquí está, amigo. It begins at 2:07. There’s some microcephalic clown performing for the first two hours.

    I haven’t listened to it yet either, going to check it out this morning.

    As always, just listening to the reporters for a couple of minutes reinforces my resolution to listen to more Spanish TV to increase my listening comprehension, but they talk so damn fast!

  48. 48.

    JMG

    The whole purpose of the “socialism” charge is to try and convince the real base of Trump’s voters, the affluent but not wealthy, that proposals to tax the rich are aimed at THEM, that raising rates on hedge fund partners and NFL owners is the same thing as raising them on retired dentists in the Villages, auto dealers in Midwestern suburbs and farmers who’re land rich if not cash rich. Since these worthies identify with the super rich as role models, it’s an easy sell.

  52. 52.

    ET

    Question for the horde…… I didn’t watch the SOTU but I never watch them even when I like the president, so I can’t comment. I know the speech was for his base out in ‘Murica but did tRump give Republicans in Congress what they needed to stick with him openly or at least passively?

    I ask because it seems a lot of people keep referring to the Watergate comment from Nixon and how less than a year later he was gone (because Republicans in Congress finally jumped off the sinking ship) and wondered did tRump give them something they can (try) to spin into a Great speech or are behind the scenes are they grinding their teeth and secretly thinking about an off-ramp or at least wondering if keeping quite and invisible is the best route for their own personal survival. Did it make them happy and glad they were sticking with him or did it make them sigh and wish he cold act like a normal person for 2 hours? Did it make them feel he had finally! grown into the presidency or did did they wonder why it hadn’t?

  55. 55.

    Kay

    Liz Cheney
    ‏Verified account
    @Liz_Cheney
    Follow Follow @Liz_Cheney
    More
    Things my Democrat women colleagues wouldn’t clap for at #StateOfTheUnion2019 tonight: America, freedom, free enterprise, law enforcement heroes, record low unemployment for women & minorities, the right of babies to live. Things they did clap for: themselves.

    It must suck to be the minority party in the House. Especially for a Cheney! They’re like royalty. Why, at one time both she and her husband had appointed (nepotism) positions in the Bush Administration. It’s a real come down.

    Let’s keep her in a minority, sniping bitterly at the majority.

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @ET:
    To answer that, you only needed to watch McConnell who was tres miserable throughout and made no effort to hide his horror.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @ET:

    but did tRump give Republicans in Congress what they needed to stick with him openly or at least passively?

    Is this even a question? They’ve completely abdicated any role they had. They back him on everything, just as they have done, lockstep, since the day he took office.

    This isn’t going to happen. There is never going to be practical or effective opposition to Trump in the GOP. They’re simply not up to that. They don’t have the necessary qualities and skills to achieve that. Maybe they did in the Watergate era! They don’t now.

  58. 58.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    Anyone ever see a film callt Make Way for Tomorrow?

    Leo McCarey, ’37, same year as The Awful Truth (screwball comedy that made Carey Grant Carey Grant). McCarey won best director at the Oscars that year for The Awful Truth n he sez some like: “Thanks, guys, but you gimme the award for the wrong movie.”

    It’s a little marvel of a film, about aging parents and what to do and adult-child guilt and two seniors still very much in love. The amazing thing, to me, is McCarey allows the viewer to see and understand everyone’s position, as complicated and anguished as it is.

    It’s a beautiful, heart-wrenching film.

  59. 59.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: She really owned the libs with that one!

    The bitter Fox news woman commentator schtick has I think run its course. I know there will always be an audience for such disingenuous stuff, but I think that audience is dying off.

  61. 61.

    Kraux Pas

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    the officer jumped to conclusions when he saw a young black man with a gun. The officer shot 21-year-old Emantic “EJ” Bradford Jr while responding to an earlier shooting on Thanksgiving night at a mall in Hoover, Alabama.

    In fairness to the officer, these arbitrary mass shootings are always literally never perpetrated by black men.

  62. 62.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Immanentize:

    Nancy’s “fuck you clap” will live on for years.

    Wait, what? For those of us who don’t want to scrol through 2 hours of video of him, what was that clap?

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Trump and Holocast survivor was because Socialism = Nazis in the derptastic, pig ignorant world of the Conservative. Goodwins law and all that.

  65. 65.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @schrodingers_cat:

    He always looks constipated.

    Yes.

    And the alternating evil oval of his gob as he pauses meaninglessly followed as day follows night by the feral baring of his chompers and the rattling of his wattles makes watching him as excruciating as listening to him.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    The further out from the galactic center the more prominently warped things get.

    Look where we happened to end up taking up residence.

    Just sayin’.

    ;)

  72. 72.

    But her emails!!!

    @Kay:
    “Babies” only have the right to live so long as Liz doesn’t have to pay to secure that right. A fetus with a medical condition that will result in a torturous few days of existence while extreme medical efforts bankrupt the parents must be born. A fetus with a correctable defect, but no insurance. Well, it needs to be sacrificed on the alter of “fuck you lazy moochers, I’m not paying for it.”

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    The further out from the galactic center the more prominently warped things get.

    Hmmmmmm…. I wonder if that explains the GOP?

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning. I am a happy girl, with not having listened to one word out of Trump’s mouth last night. Just looked in from time to time at the visuals, and spun my soundtrack of youtube songs in the background.

    Only way to get through this fucker’s stolen term. And resist, resist, resist. Encourage those who will return us to kindness, respect, modernity. and balance.

  77. 77.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @NotMax:

    Ya, apparently McCarey hadda fight with Adolph Zukor to keep that ending; Zukor, naturally, wanted an uncomplicated happy ending.

    Dunno why, but that lil aside put me to mind of a Bloom County strip when Steve is an astronaut tryn’ta describe the wonder of the earth when viewed from outer space and sounds some like Tom Friedman doin it, to which Opus opines wistfully that maybe one day they’ll send up a poet.

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    @JGabriel: Tom’s a fucking idiot. I was more on-the-ball back when I was a college freshman staying up too late and pondering whether the whole universe was really just an atom of dust under a giant’s fingernail.

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    Also in today’s NYT: Thomas Edsall asks the burning question, “What Does Tucker Carlson Know that the Republican Party Doesn’t?”

    (Carlson quotes in italics):

    Carlson, who is in a ratings race with both his Fox colleague Sean Hannity and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, argued that many conservatives have scant understanding of the adversity faced by members of the working and lower middle class in America:

    The idea that families are being crushed by market forces seems never to occur to them. They refuse to consider it. Questioning markets feels like apostasy. Both sides miss the obvious point: Culture and economics are inseparably intertwined. Certain economic systems allow families to thrive. Thriving families make market economies possible.

    Carlson pointed specifically to problems faced by rural white America, the crucial base of Republican voters: “Stunning out of wedlock birthrates. High male unemployment. A terrifying drug epidemic.” How, Carlson asked, “did this happen?”

    You’d think our ruling class would be interested in knowing the answer. But mostly they’re not. They don’t have to be interested. It’s easier to import foreign labor to take the place of native-born Americans who are slipping behind.

    Despite this failing of conservatism, Carlson contended that only the Republican Party can lead the country back to salvation:

    There’s no option at this point. But first, Republican leaders will have to acknowledge that market capitalism is not a religion. Market capitalism is a tool, like a staple gun or a toaster. You’d have to be a fool to worship it. Our system was created by human beings for the benefit of human beings. We do not exist to serve markets. Just the opposite. Any economic system that weakens and destroys families is not worth having. A system like that is the enemy of a healthy society.

    Edsall’s answer: “Well, you know, it’s kinda complicated…Tucker seems to be on to something…and hey, here are all these fine ‘center-right’ folks* I’d like you to consider as the country searches for solutions…blah, blah, blah”

    My answer: “Tucker knows that trumpublicans better keep pretending to sympathize with downtrodden working-class whites, or they’re toast”

    I think history will show I’m a little more on point than ol’ Thomas, but who knows?

    *one of whom is Oren Cass, who sounds like a thinly-veiled hippie puncher and immigrant hater, yet is somehow a “moderate center-right” figure. Well these days, I guess the ‘veil’ = ‘moderate’? Ugh.

  93. 93.

    Immanentize

    @Jeffro:
    I’ve lived so long that I remember when talking about “class” was a political capital offense. In fact, Republicans thought that discussions of inequalities was:
    Class War! Class War!!!

  94. 94.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I just watched Kamala Harris’s pre-SOTU and Stacey Abrams’s post-SOTU speeches. Both were very good, although I thought Kamala’s was better. More substance, imho, although I suppose they fulfill different purposes. Stacey resoundingly beat the curse of the rebuttal and I hope she wins the major public office she deserves. In the meantime, Kamala keeps going up in my favorability factor. There’s a weird delay in the Kamala video: speech doesn’t start until about 1:52.

  96. 96.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Busted:

    Tulsi Gabbard formally launched her campaign for president on Saturday and, according to an Instagram post from her campaign, more than 3,500 people tuned in at watch parties around the country, including in deep-red pockets of Texas and North Dakota.

    But for a map purportedly showing the locations of Gabbard supporters, some groups of pins look awfully suspicious, as if particular images of clusters were roughly copy-and-pasted in locations across the map.

    The Gabbard campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the map’s production, or to a request to provide a list of where watch parties occurred.

    Mother Jones highlights one type of cluster but I have spotted 2 other suspiciously repeating clusters. I suppose it’s possible that one of them is the result of software language/algorithm whatever, but the one highlighted by MJ is rather undeniable.

  97. 97.

    Kraux Pas

    @Jeffro:

    Well these days, I guess the ‘veil’ = ‘moderate’? Ugh.

    Making an effort to insert plausible deniability into their racism has been the Republicans’ only effort to moderate for years. I loved the parts of this article lamenting that we have non-citizens on welfare (no mention of the duration or proportion of citizens on it or which programs or any context whatsoever) but we have hundreds of thousands of homeless American citizens.

    “Why don’t we take care of Americans first?”

    Gee, maybe because Republicans keep pointing at immigrants on other people supposedly on the dole as an excuse to not provide help to people who need it; people who are homeless, struggling workers, people with chronic or undetected health issues, people who could benefit from more eduction…

  98. 98.

    sdhays

    @Immanentize: The awkward way he handles unexpected things, particularly ones that are at least somewhat detrimental to him, is the closest thing to an endearing quality he has.

  99. 99.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: I almost love Nancy’s “fuck you” clap as much as I love the image of Jump! You Fuckers! I think her clap will resonate for a long, long time.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: I saw a piece on that TC monologue the other day, it was all empty platitudes as since then he has directly contradicted several things he said in that episode.

    My answer: “Tucker knows that trumpublicans better keep pretending to sympathize with downtrodden working-class whites, or they’re toast”

    Dingdingdingding! We have a winner.

  102. 102.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: I like Harris, but I wish she hadn’t given a SOTU-related speech. All Democrats should have let Abrams have the night. Of course Sanders gave his own rebuttal, but he’s not a Democrat.

  105. 105.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Sock-puppet candidate, sock-puppet campaign.

    It’s the heart-warming story of the mystifying candidate no one asked for, serving the imaginary citizens who don’t exist. Truly a story for our times. Get the NYT onnit, STAT!

  107. 107.

    Punchy

    I want someone in the media to start asking Lindsay Graham every single day about the wall. About his stated desire to see DJT use Emergency Powers (TM) when McTurtle has said otherwise. How he said “no wall” meant “no more Pres. Trump”….

    I mean, for about 3 weeks, Graham was a insufferable shithead saying all sorts of threatening and ridiculous shit tied to this stupid wall. Why does he get to skate and everyone just act like he never said those things? Doesn’t he have to be accountable for his bullshit?

  108. 108.

    Fair Economist

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Tulsi Gabbard formally launched her campaign for president on Saturday and, according to an Instagram post from her campaign, more than 3,500 people tuned in at watch parties around the country, including in deep-red pockets of Texas and North Dakota.

    I find this rather plausible. Deep red areas are where the r*tf**ker Republican trying to mess up the Democratic nomination congregate. That’s why deep Red states supported Hillary in 2008 and then Bernie in 2016. That’s going to be Gabbard’s base.

  110. 110.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Fair Economist: Go look at the map her campaign posted. I could easily envision 3500 watch parties, most of which consisted of 1 or 2 people. The phrase is meaningless. The map they put out is even worse. Again, there maybe a software thingamabob causing one type of cluster to repeat as it does, but it’s mighty suspicious when there are 3 types.

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: I know. I cannot read them without smelling a tinge of urine and flopsweat in the background.

    Edsall did have one good column recently. One. He was not so dismal.

    I think Edsall exists to depress Democrats. He is not homed at the FTF NY Times by accident.

  113. 113.

    Kraux Pas

    @Punchy:

    I mean, for about 3 weeks, Graham was a insufferable shithead saying all sorts of threatening and ridiculous shit tied to this stupid wall. Why does he get to skate and everyone just act like he never said those things?

    Because few people follow politics very closely and our media is terrible at providing context or following a story in a coherent way long-term.

    Doesn’t he have to be accountable for his bullshit?

    Not in the current media environment, no.

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    @schrodingers_cat: Eh, I agree for the most part, but occasionally he’ll throw out something insightful. And as he is a non-trumpist Republican who often points out where the GOP is going off the rails/vulnerable, I find that…useful ;)

    @Elizabelle: Maybe (re: existing to depress Ds). More like he exists to run cover for the Rs, to continue the facade that a significant % of the GOP is somehow “principled” or “conservative” or even “rational”.

  115. 115.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Betty Cracker: I wonder if it was a coordinated Dem strategy or if Harris did this on her own. I liked the way Harris said “watch for this…, watch for this…” in preparation for the SOTU. A pre-rebuttal of the garbage T was going to spew. Using actual facts and logic, imagine! Stacey held her own and I suspect a lot more people watched her than the Harris speech.

  116. 116.

    Kraux Pas

    I only found out about the Kamala Harris video today and can’t find video. Anyone able to point me the right way?

  121. 121.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Gin & Tonic: Still going! We leave early June – first Sweden, then visiting friends in Denmark. I still have an unplanned week at the end. Perhaps Norway? Pining for the fjords and all. Thank you for asking, btw. :)

  124. 124.

    ruemara

    I can’t describe the level of anger hearing that man speak inspires in me. I cannot believe this fucker is president and I hope the whole lot dies screaming.

  126. 126.

    Gin & Tonic

    @O. Felix Culpa: The fjords are indeed wonderful. We took the train from Oslo to Bergen, which is amazing in its own right (the train ride, I mean) then took an all-day boat ride into the Sognefjord. We also took two days to drive the coast highway south from Bergen to Stavanger, which involves, I think, a half-dozen tunnels and two ferry rides. One of the tunnels is about 8 km in length, which is really impressive. The funny thing is that everyone we talked to in Stockholm and in Oslo, when we mentioned our plans, said basically “oh, it’ll be raining all the time.” Blue sky every single day (and in mid-May, it was light until well past 10:00 pm in Bergen.) Dumb luck, I guess. Had a really great time, but be warned that Scandinavia is very expensive.

  127. 127.

    The Moar You Know

    I completely missed President Anusmouth’s performance last night, get up today to listen to the BBC World Service and what’s on? President Anusmouth.

    Give me a break. It’s bad enough that he’s here. Can’t I just ignore him until he dies/is removed/is arrested/loses?

  128. 128.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It’s a horrifyingly entertaining film

    That is a good summary. I was (sort of) dragged in to see the film myself, but like you I was entertained and horrified.

  129. 129.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks for the tips! I’ve been considering that train and boat ride, plus a little hiking in the region. I just need to give myself enough time to get back to Copenhagen for my return flight. I’m saving my pennies (well, not really) in anticipation of the high cost of Scandinavia. Most of my travel is low-budget, so this will be a splurge outing.

  130. 130.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @The Midnight Lurker: Is that what a “Dad joke” is? That’s the kind of stuff I used to think was endlessly amusing in Highlights magazine when I was a kid. So does it become a Dad joke when you’re 40 years old and you’ve been waiting to tell this joke since you were 8?

  131. 131.

    West of the Rockies

    @Baud:

    I was kind of hoping the chorus would end with the humming from Coolio’s excellent Gangsters’ Paradise.

  133. 133.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @O. Felix Culpa: One way I found to save in Scandinavia is a slight alteration in eating habits. If a hotel provides a substantial breakfast buffet, pig out – I used to have 4-course breakfasts in Norway. Check your tourist guides for restaurants offering lunch specials (usually much cheaper than supper), target a few in the area where you’ll be touring, get there just before the specials end (usually 3 PM) & have a late lunch. In the evening, instead of a full sit-down meal, have a light snack (pizza by the slice, take-out pasta or Oriental, etc.). Probably healthier for you as well.

    Remember that anything alcoholic will be horrifically expensive, & avoid if at all possible. The only decent place I found for drinks was the Viking Line overnight cruises between Stockholm & Helsinki (also to Turku, also offered by Silja Line last time I was over there) which (last I looked) offered top-flight buffet meals & duty free shopping (owing to a quirk in EU regs).

    All this was quite some time ago, so check this advice out on travel sites before you go. Have fun!

  134. 134.

    MCA1

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: I don’t think Democrats need to just embrace the label of “socialism” (or that it could work – the word’s been turned into an epithet and a synonym for “communism”). I do totally agree that the Overton Window needs to be moved, though, so I’m all in favor of giving AOC and Warren megaphones to start driving the conversation. “Economic justice” is a phrase I’d like to see more of.

    Some coordinated talking points and consistency from Democrats would be helpful, too. If I were chief strategist, I’d tell Dems to start preemptively combating the “socialism” charge when they’re talking about their tax proposal or Medicare expansion or whatever it is, to help inoculate against it. “The GOP is going to whine about how this is ‘socialism’ [say it in a mock scary voice or something to belittle the idea, even] but they’re just fearmongering because they blindly worship unregulated capitalism without any regard to how it treats the 99% of the population that’s not their donor base. This isn’t socialism. We’re not talking about government control over the means of production. We just want a more just capitalism. Ask the people in Appalachia how our unregulated late-stage capitalism is working for them. How are things going for the working class in rural Wisconsin these days? That doctor in Denver who’s making really good money but paying twice the effective tax rate as the hedge fund guy who pulls in $5M a year – does he think that’s fair? Our economic system is failing half the country and we’ve allowed 1% of the population to gobble up almost half of our aggregate wealth. What kind of society stands for that?”

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