Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Second rate reporter says what?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

I was promised a recession.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

This really is a full service blog.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

I really should read my own blog.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Excellent Read: Mitch McConnell Is Cartoonishly Evil

Excellent Read: Mitch McConnell Is Cartoonishly Evil

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He’s turned his party into a purely parasitic organism — which is, apparently, just what the “true” GOP wants. Michael A. Cohen, in the NRYBDaily, “Mitch McConnell, Republican Nihilist”:

… [I]f there is one defining characteristic of McConnell’s more than three decades in national politics, it is the prizing of political expediency over integrity, ideology, and any other impulse that should define public service in a representative democracy. For McConnell, as for the president whom he has repeatedly enabled, winning is the only thing that matters. All other considerations are secondary to that goal.

Writing for the Review last fall, the American historian Christopher R. Browning said of the Senate majority leader, “if the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell.” In Browning’s view, McConnell is not dissimilar from the German conservative politicians, who in the 1930s brought Adolf Hitler to power, “thinking that they could ultimately control [him] while enjoying the benefits of his popular support.” With Hitler as Chancellor, the conservatives saw their fulsome policy agenda enacted: rearmament, suspension of civil liberties, the outlawing of the Communist Party, and the abolition of labor unions, among other moves. But as they would later find out, controlling the monster they put in power would be something else altogether.

Over the past two years, McConnell has made a similar pact with the devil (albeit a lesser fiend). He helped Trump pass a huge tax cut that disproportionately benefits the wealthy and he’s rubber-stamped Trump’s conservative picks for the federal judiciary, all the while looking the other way at Trump’s assaults on democratic norms and his authoritarian impulses.

Indeed, as alarming as Browning’s comparison might seem, it doesn’t quite do justice to the malign impact that Mitch McConnell has had on modern American politics. No politician has done more to weaken American democracy and undermine the nation’s most basic norms than McConnell. Nor is any politician more responsible for Trump’s rise to power. All of it has been in pursuit of the narrowest, most parochial goals.

What separates McConnell from other destructive political actors, such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and his fellow congressional Republican revolutionaries, or President George W. Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, is that McConnell’s political actions are unmoored from ideology and policy. For McConnell, politics is fundamentally about accruing political power for the sole purpose of accruing more political power…

McConnell’s obstructionism on spending bills, unemployment insurance, assistance to state government, even veteran’s benefits, undermined the recovery from the Great Recession, and purposely so. The worse the economy was doing, the more likely voters would blame the party in power—namely, the Democrats. As MacGillis pungently puts it, McConnell’s nihilistic strategy was to “wait out America’s hopefulness [about an Obama presidency] in a dire moment for the country until it curdles to disillusionment.” The more Washington looked dysfunctional, the more it played into McConnell’s hands…

Perhaps the most telling quote from McConnell’s recent interview with the Times was when he was asked about Christopher Browning’s comparison of him to the old conservatives of Weimar Germany:

I think to expect Republican elected officials not to try to achieve as much as they possibly can, that they’ve always been for, out of pique over presidential behavior, is nonsense… He got elected… So critics like that expect us all to just join them in a huff and do nothing? Really? I think my responsibility as the majority leader of the Senate, in a Republican administration, is to achieve as much as I can for the American people along the lines that I’ve believed in my entire life.

But what beliefs? A formerly moderate, pro-civil rights, pro-abortion rights, reform-minded politician has enabled a president who not only has set back race relations, but has also packed the Supreme Court with conservative, pro-life judges. A senator who once railed against budget deficits and alleged foreign policy weakness in Democratic presidents has advanced a trillion-dollar deficit and a president who appears to be compromised by a foreign power. An institutionalist who has sought to protect the Congress’s prerogatives as a co-equal branch of government has allowed Trump to chip away at them with barely a demurral…

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  3. 3.

    Raven Onthill

    The good thing is that the Republican Party is headed for the junk heap of history. The bad thing is they seem to be taking the rest of us along for the ride.

    “For McConnell, politics is fundamentally about accruing political power for the sole purpose of accruing more political power…”

    “We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power […] Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” – Orwell

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    He has everyone who shows up at his office in the capitol to protest arrested. This is his longstanding procedure.

  9. 9.

    FlipYrWhig

    It’s been 30+ years since I took US History but am I close to correct if I say McConnell reminds me of John C. Calhoun?

  10. 10.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Trump is toast, we need to begin to focus on this MOFO, we can’t begin to repair the damage done until this soulless cretin is removed from office, preferably in an orange jumpsuit.

  12. 12.

    hilts

    The NYRB piece on McConnell totally nailed it

    Meanwhile, Rep Matt Gaetz turns up the sleaze to 11:

    Hey @MichaelCohen212 – Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/online/rep-gaetz-threatens-michael-cohen-with-info-on-alleged-affair-tonight-a-good-time-to-talk-to-your-wife

  14. 14.

    Martin

    @hilts: That’s not sleaze – that’s threatening a witness. There’s absolutely no reason to do that on Twittere. If he wanted to impeach this witness, he could have had anyone on tomorrows committee hearing pose this as a question to him under oath.

    Any other person would go to jail for that.

  20. 20.

    Kent

    Honestly I don’t think McConnell is uniquely evil. Any more than Trump is. To go down that road lets the rest of the GOP off the hook. They are nothing more than a reflection of the modern GOP. Who here thinks that we would now have a functioning Senate and progressive centrist presidency and lots of moderate judges if not for McConnell and Trump?

    Take McConnell out of the picture and the GOP is still every bit as venal, corrupt, and vile. It might take a bit of time for the next GOP Majority Leader to get up to speed in terms of Machiavelian obstructionism. But I’m sure Ted Cruz or Tom Cotton or whomever is the next young GOP leader is up to the task of standing in the way of all that is good and decent in this country.

  21. 21.

    Roger Moore

    @Martin:

    If he wanted to impeach this witness, he could have had anyone on tomorrows committee hearing pose this as a question to him under oath.

    He doesn’t want to impeach the witness; he wants to intimidate him into refusing to testify.

  23. 23.

    waspuppet

    Perhaps the most telling quote from McConnell’s recent interview with the Times was when he was asked about Christopher Browning’s comparison of him to the old conservatives of Weimar Germany:

    I think to expect Republican elected officials not to try to achieve as much as they possibly can, that they’ve always been for, out of pique over presidential behavior, is nonsense… He got elected… So critics like that expect us all to just join them in a huff and do nothing? Really? I think my responsibility as the majority leader of the Senate, in a Republican administration, is to achieve as much as I can for the American people along the lines that I’ve believed in my entire life.

    So in other words he agreed wholeheartedly. You’d think he’d raise an eyebrow about any analogy that compares Trump with Hitler, but he’s good with that.

  25. 25.

    cmorenc

    Over the past two years, McConnell has made a similar pact with the devil (albeit a lesser fiend)

    …only in the sense that Trump is much more similar to Mussolini in a business suit than to Hitler, including degree of competence.

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    I feel like I’ve been waiting for this thread all. effin’. day. Yes…NC election fraud by a Republican is…the fault of the Democrats.

    Can we just take Mitch out back of the shed and square this for good? This is ridiculous. The GOP used to be so much better at pretending they were about things other than cruelty and corruption.

  29. 29.

    germy

    @Adam L Silverman: The way they talk on twitter, they sound more like a criminal organization than a political party.

    I know I’m not the first to notice this. But the beltway press seems determined not to notice.

  30. 30.

    kindness

    Republicans act out as they have because they don’t fear A) Crazy Democrats going with guns B) Congressional Democrats continuing to act as if comity still existed. If Democrats just once (no not go after them with guns although tarring & feathering would be a plus) come down on reprehensible Republican actions like they should, they might just get a hearty run of applause from the citizenry. But Democrats don’t and Republicans keep showing us they will.

    2020 elections can’t come quick enough.

  31. 31.

    cmorenc

    @FlipYrWhig:

    It’s been 30+ years since I took US History but am I close to correct if I say McConnell reminds me of John C. Calhoun?

    Not quite – John C. Calhoun at least had a perverted sense of bona fide honor, albeit in service to a perverted cause, whereas McConnell has no integrity, even to a wrongful larger ideological cause. That’s also BTW the difference between Robert E. Lee and Benedict Arnold, granted that both of the latter were traitors to the United States.

  34. 34.

    bemused

    The largest lake in Minneapolis, Lake Calhoun, has been changed to Bde Maka Ska. Some in the area were not happy about the name change.

  35. 35.

    VeniceRiley

    Jacob Whol just got himself permanently banned from Twitter for setting up fake accounts for the purpose of ratf*ckery. So that’s some good news for today

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    @germy:

    The way [the GOP] talk[s] on twitter, they sound more like a criminal organization than a political party.

    And frankly, a badly-written TV version of a criminal organization at that. They’re just dumb and lazy and they have little if any impulse control. Keep tweeting, trumpublicans!

  41. 41.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kent: I think you have a point. It feels mainly that McConnell, Trump and the rest of the Republicans are like what they said about Reagan, sleepwalking threw history. They squander their chance for greatness on the most petty and pathetic of things.

  44. 44.

    joel hanes

    @Kent:

    In a way, this is a good thing.

    Woke young Methodists will have a new denomination to
    which they can wholeheatedly belong, and which will
    do much good in the world, as Methodists have sometimes done.

    Tired old bigots will keep the “United Methodist” brand,
    (now something of an oxymoron)
    and watch everyone decent go the other way.

  45. 45.

    Yarrow

    @Kent:

    But I’m sure Ted Cruz or Tom Cotton or whomever is the next young GOP leader is up to the task of standing in the way of all that is good and decent in this country

    Ted Cruz was in with the Mercers and Cambridge Analytica before Trump was. He’s as dirty as any of them.

  47. 47.

    joel hanes

    @eemom:

    So’s his wife.

    You misspelled “beard”. Hope this helps.

    I’d love to see a grand jury look into the shipping company run by Elaine Chao’s extended family.

  51. 51.

    joel hanes

    @hueyplong:

    As far as I know, it hasn’t yet formed, but there are a bunch of liberal congregations that used to be United Methodist and will now need to form a new umbrella organization.

    Be interesting to see if there are subsequent changes to the tenets after they no longer need to keep the bigots from revolting.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @chris: As opposed to the one against Wohl for assaulting a 14 year old girl at his high school when he was 18 that his dad covered up?

  56. 56.

    japa21

    @bemused: According to the article, this move was not driven by the American churches that are part of the denomination. Foreign churches, particularly those in Africa were the driving force. Interesting is that one of the factors is that they feel competition from Islam and feel they have to match, apparently some of the more radical values.

    The American churches will probably lead the splintering away.

  59. 59.

    Kent

    @Yarrow:

    Ted Cruz was in with the Mercers and Cambridge Analytica before Trump was. He’s as dirty as any of them.

    My point exactly. Whoever is ambitious and smart enough to replace McConnell as GOP Majority Leader will be equally evil. It goes with the position. It’s not like there is some Eisenhower Republican party out there waiting to blossom if only we can get past McConnell and Trump.

  61. 61.

    Yarrow

    So here’s something I didn’t quite pick up on in 2017:

    China has granted preliminary approval for 38 new Trump trademarks, paving the way for Donald Trump and his family to potentially develop a host of branded businesses from hotels to insurance to bodyguard and escort services, public documents show.
    …
    The trademarks cover businesses including branded spas, massage parlors, golf clubs, hotels, insurance, finance and real estate companies, retail shops, restaurants, bars, and bodyguard and escort services

    Spas, massage parlors, escort services. Creepy.

    And from January of this year:

    The Jupiter Police Foundation will hold its inaugural gala in March at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, a decision that the foundation said is “not political” but a choice that an ethics watchdog called problematic.
    …
    A source familiar with the gala said Trump National isn’t making the police foundation pay the gala’s full cost.

    Jupiter, FL is where the massage parlor that Robert Kraft patronized is located. Sure seems like the police there have a cozy relationship with Trump.

  63. 63.

    Kent

    @joel hanes:

    @Kent:

    In a way, this is a good thing.

    Woke young Methodists will have a new denomination to
    which they can wholeheatedly belong, and which will
    do much good in the world, as Methodists have sometimes done.

    Tired old bigots will keep the “United Methodist” brand,
    (now something of an oxymoron)
    and watch everyone decent go the other way.

    This is happening to all the mainstream denominations. I grew up in the Mennonite Church. It has been emploding over the past couple years over exactly the same issue. Mainly because all the old churches full of old people are in old rural areas (Trump country) and all the new churches with younger members are in big cities. My parents are still active. I just follow as a spectator.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @Kent:

    I knew they would. They accused a minister of heresy and expelled him because he sat on stage with other religious leaders at a memorial service held at Yankee Stadium after 9/11. They said his sitting with them was proof he believed other religions were legitimate.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @chris: Most people don’t because his dad allegedly covered the whole thing up. It isn’t clear if it happened or didn’t. Just allegations. It has also been plausibly suggested that the hedge fund scam that got him a lifetime ban from trading was actually his dad’s who set it up with his son as the front.

  68. 68.

    BC in Illinois

    And in other news . . . the vote on overturning the Trump Emergency declaration is underway.

    So far one Republican in favor of it.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    Cohen’s testimony might be good, though. He doesn’t have anything to lose anymore, besides, I guess, one of these thugs physically harming him or something and they’re certainly freaking out about his public appearance.

    @GarrettHaake
    28m28 minutes ago
    More
    Intel committee vice chair Sen. @MarkWarner just dropped a cryptic bomb on the press corps. Stops at the mics and said he said for two years the Russia investigation is most important thing he will do in congress, after today still believes it, then walks off. What??

    Wonder what he told them?

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kent:

    Honestly I don’t think McConnell is uniquely evil.

    McConnell is uniquely evil. McConnell was patient zero of insane obstructionism in the Obama days. He declared it, he enforced it, and every Republican in congress followed along until they forgot how to do anything else. Even for insane Republicans, blocking Garland was an outrageous idea. Senate Republicans signal all sorts of things they’re willing to vote for or about, until McConnell cracks the whip, and his way is always worse. He is so evil he barely passed his tax cuts and failed to repeal Obamacare, the two things his caucus wanted most, because he was so fucking determined to pack both with hideous poison pills to hurt as many people as possible. McConnell caused the shutdown, and it ended when he told Trump to shut up and sign.

    McConnell is an old Kentucky aristocrat. A black man was elected president, became his personal boss, and he will burn the country to the fucking ground in vengeance.

  72. 72.

    dmsilev

    @germy: Why would anyone want to go to the trouble of ratf*cking Schultz? Even for someone like Wohl, that’s impressively stupid.

  73. 73.

    clay

    @Kent: As a Methodist who almost became a minister, let me just say… fuckin’ hell.

    Weirdly (or maybe not so weirdly), the Church leadership is more liberal than the rank-and-file on this issue. I know some of that leadership, and I know they’re heartbroken over this.

  74. 74.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @kindness:

    If Democrats just once (no not go after them with guns although tarring & feathering would be a plus) come down on reprehensible Republican actions like they should

    …how, exactly, would we do this?

  75. 75.

    Gelfling 545

    @Roger Moore: Fat lot of good that will do now. He’s already blabbed his supposed blackmail information all over twitter. And if there were affairs I expect the wife was not entirely unaware because there’s almost always suspicions.

  77. 77.

    Jay

    “Thousands of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment of migrant children in U.S. government-funded shelters were made over the past four years, including many directed against adult staff members, according to federal data released Tuesday.

    The cases include allegations of inappropriate touching, staff members allegedly watching minors while they bathed and showing pornographic videos to minors. Some of the allegations included inappropriate conduct by minors in shelters against other minors, as well as by staff members.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/migrant-children-us-sexual-abuse-1.5034648

  78. 78.

    chris

    @Adam L Silverman: My brain hurts trying to reconcile being smart enough to be a teenage fund manager with be all the rest of the dumb shit Wohl has done. Brain also backs away from images of him and Laura Loony.

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @Kent:

    Honestly I don’t think McConnell is uniquely evil. Any more than Trump is. To go down that road lets the rest of the GOP off the hook. They are nothing more than a reflection of the modern GOP. Who here thinks that we would now have a functioning Senate and progressive centrist presidency and lots of moderate judges if not for McConnell and Trump?

    It’s true that the whole party is responsible, but there are different levels of responsibility. A back bencher has less responsibility than a party leader does, because the party leader sets policy. There was nothing inevitable about the Senate Republicans choosing massive obstruction as a policy; it was a deliberate choice by the Republican leadership. If McConnell had chosen the path of a traditional opposition party- negotiating to incorporate minority ideas into majority legislation, voting against policies they disliked, asking difficult but legitimate questions of nominees in an attempt to discredit them, etc.- the rest of the party probably would have gone along. Instead, McConnell chose and enforced a policy of massive, unprecedented obstruction. Yes, the rest of the party deserves blame for leaving him in charge, but as the leader he deserves the largest share of the blame.

  81. 81.

    Adam L Silverman

    @chris: Him, Loomer, and that Ali guy are like Tweetle Dumb, Tweetle Dumber, and Tweetle Dumbest! During their fact finding junket, they’ve been promoting, across all their social media platforms, that Minneapolis-St. Paul is now a jihadist occupied territory. This included posting pictures of “graffiti” that supposedly depicted ISIS slogans. It didn’t. Instead it was an attempt by a non-Arabic speaker using a sharpie to write the shahada, the Muslim statement of faith, on a wall near a mural. Unfortunately these morons actually mixed it up and posted a picture that showed (I’m transliterating here) “wa Allah rasul Muhammad”, which translates as G-d is the messenger of Muhammad. I’m sure this was news to not only Muslims everywhere, but to Prophet Muhammad! They couldn’t even get “la illah Allah illah wa Muhammad rasul Allah”/there is no G-d but G-d and Muhammad is his messenger right.

  83. 83.

    Jay

    @bemused: @bemused:

    We’ve had issues with renamings here.

    It’s not all about the racism. Some people have an issue with a place they have called one thing all their lives, something else. Mountains, lakes, rivers, creeks, roads. Some people have issues with the new name not being “easy” like Bob White Trail becoming Septewemeuk Carrier Trail.

    They ususally get over it after a few decades.

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @clay:

    His name is David Benke. Here’s the Wiki page for a start.

    I first heard about him while watching the very excellent Frontline episode, “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero.” From the transcript:

    Reverend DAVID BENKE, Lutheran Minister: The Yankee Stadium day was a pivotal day in my entire life. It was a day when everything that I had stood for as a human being, as well as a person of faith, was going to be on the line.

    [Memorial service]

    So take the hand of one next to you now and join me in prayer on this field of dreams turned into God’s house of prayer.

    We were in the middle of a very emotional, highly-charged event. There was a sense of people wanting to release these profound emotions that had just been harbored in them because they didn’t know whether their husbands were going to be found, or their wives. They were still waiting for word from the rescue workers. They were still calling everybody “missing” at that time. They just came for some comfort, some- something to hang onto. Even though, you know, we all had questions about “Where was God,” my prayer was, “You have to be our tower of strength, God. You cannot desert us at this moment.” And that’s how the prayer led off.

    [Memorial service]

    Oh Lord, our God, we’re leaning on you today.

    When I shared the podium with representatives of all the major faiths and prayed, that prayer became the center of a major controversy. The very next day, I began to get messages filled with hate. They were messages not from people outside of my tradition, but from within my tradition. And they were messages that nailed me to the floor, frankly, emotionally. They just said, “You were wrong to be there. You never should have gone to Yankee Stadium. You are a heretic. You have dishonored your faith.” One man said genuine terrorism was me. He said, “Planes crash and people die. Nothing big about that.” Genuine terrorism was me giving that prayer.

    I just want to say that I have not gotten over that and I can’t get through that because I lived through the real terrorists driving the planes into the real buildings and I’ve talked to people whose loved ones were murdered. And for me to be put in that same category is just not tolerable to me. I can’t take it. I can’t bear up under it. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

    Within two months, a number of those people put together a petition and filed charges of heresy, saying that I am not part of the Christian church because of what I did on that day and should not be part of my denomination anymore, should not be allowed to preach, should have my collar removed. The people who brought the charges against me are clergymen from my denomination. And their belief is that the doctrine of the church does not allow a Christian to stand at the same podium with someone of another faith, or everybody’s going to get the idea that all religions are equal. And we have made absolute claims, exclusive claims about our faith.

    If religion leads people to make these kinds of accusations at exactly the worst moment in American history, perhaps, then what’s underneath religion? Is religion really part of a lust for power and control in people’s lives? Is it a desire for absolute security so strong that people cannot see the need to reach out and help? If that’s true, then I’ve got a lot of wrestling to do with my own religion.

  86. 86.

    Kathleen

    @japa21: A coworker’s daughter is a Methodist minister in Atlanta who is very supportive of gay rights. She’s been worried about the outcome of the conference. I wonder what she will do. She sounds like a lovely, compassionate person.

  87. 87.

    BC in Illinois

    @clay:

    It was the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod that considered charges against their Atlantic District President for participating in the Yankee Stadium service. He was not disciplined, was re-elected, but there were many who were unhappy about it. (There has been a change in leadership since that time; it’s not likely that the present leadership would still allow it.)

  89. 89.

    BC in Illinois

    And in the House of Representatives, the resolution to dis-allow the Trump Emergency has passed, 245 – 182. Thirteen Republicans voted against Trump.

    Now the Senate has two weeks or so.

  92. 92.

    Original Lee

    @Kent: Yes. Very sad. Although everything that was voted on today might be invalidated because of voting irregularities and unconstitutionality (church constitution). This happened in 2012 so not unlikely.

  94. 94.

    Steve in the ATL

    @BC in Illinois: what’s the difference between Missouri Synod Lutherans and southern Baptists? Just whether they bring lutefisk or shrimp and grits to the picnic?

  95. 95.

    Gelfling 545

    @debbie: Wow. Back when I was a churchgoer our ELCA congregation used to rotate services with the nearby UMC and Presbyterian congregations to save on heating bills during the winter. We had a lot of joint orojects.

  99. 99.

    Tenar Arha

    @Roger Moore: Yep.

    @Kent: McConnell is truly the logical (and quite evil) endpoint of the pragmatists who were leaders in the GOP, who over 2 generations decided that the dog whistles of the Southern Strategy & the kowtowing to the Moral Majority were a reasonable trade for “smaller government.” With the understanding that that “small government” was intended to undo parts of the CRA, the VRA, equal rights, and the New Deal so that white evangelical children didn’t have to go to schools with children of different races or creeds. Now all that remains are only a few of these opportunists who were nimble & amoral enough to survive, surrounded by mostly the propagandized and the true believers.

  101. 101.

    Gelfling 545

    @BC in Illinois: The Missouri Synod are not even in communion with other Lutheran “brands”. Think 1950{s Roman Catholic type of thing. (Although certain individual congregations have been known to quietly ignore this )

  107. 107.

    geg6

    @joel hanes:

    My cousin, with whom I am close and who just moved back to Western PA from Minnesota, is a retired Methodist minister in a same sex marriage. I haven’t talked to her about this yet, but I’m sure she’s angry and heartbroken over this.

  109. 109.

    japa21

    OT but Chicago is expecting a record low turnout for today’s primary. Record low currently is 33%. Now expecting 30-32%.

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: I was baptized in an Evangelical Lutheran church, so obviously that particular branch of Lutheranism is superior.

  114. 114.

    Nicole

    I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: we desperately need someone to do a Mayer-Farrow on McConnell. Preferably Mayer and Farrow, but I’m not picky.

  116. 116.

    chris

    A little bit of good news. I know some of you sent cards to the 100 year old veteran who wanted 100 cards for his birthday. You weren’t the only people who stepped up, word went out over social media and… Here he is with his 3000 cards.

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    At the request of my fellow jackals, I recently came up with a translation for “the leopards eating faces party”: die Gesichterfressendeleopardenpartei. It is a fitting name for a party fallen into corruption and malice against the nation it purports to serve. If anyone wants to use it, feel free.

  124. 124.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Adam L Silverman: @kindness:

    If Democrats just once (no not go after them with guns although tarring & feathering would be a plus) come down on reprehensible Republican actions like they should, they might just get a hearty run of applause from the citizenry. But Democrats don’t and Republicans keep showing us they will.

    A guy already tried that back in 2017. It didn’t faze them in the slightest. Scalise was grievously wounded and spent weeks in rehab IIRC. He still supports the Second Amendment absolutist definition.

  129. 129.

    TriassicSands

    @Kent:

    Trump is unique — not in the sense of being evil, but in bringing together an extraordinary combination of negative traits, stupidity, ignorance, racism, narcissism, personality disorders, dishonesty, and, yes, stupidity. Stupidity deserves to be mentioned twice. There has never been anyone in American politics with so many flaws, each of which taken alone should be disqualifying, that has been able to command such a loyal and subservient following.

    McConnell is a rare combination of disgusting qualities, most of which do not belong in a theoretically democratic system. I agree that the other Senate Republicans are little better than McConnell, but his brazenness is what sets him apart. Like Clarence Thomas, McConnell simply doesn’t care about appearances. Both have agendas and neither will allow PR or societal or institutional norms to get in the way. Other Republicans, who might take over for McConnell, are probably more like Chief Justice and Chief Hypocrite John Roberts. They would pay more attention to niceties, and might even occasionally make a gesture in the direction of non-partisanship, but in the end they would come down in much the same place as McConnell (and Roberts). With McConnell it is more a matter of degree than one of kind.

    Trump, however, is truly one of a kind. A POS like no other. And really, really stupid.

  134. 134.

    ruemara

    So Bernistas are doxxing the student that asked Bernie about sexual harassment last night because she also interns at a think tank. They are also reviewing anyone who they felt asked a question that wasn’t flattering and are angry that Democratic party members were allowed to “rig” the CNN townhall to torpedo Bernie with this questions as he… runs to be the Democratic Party nominee.

  138. 138.

    Kent

    @TriassicSands:

    @Kent:

    Trump is unique — not in the sense of being evil, but in bringing together an extraordinary combination of negative traits, stupidity, ignorance, racism, narcissism, personality disorders, dishonesty, and, yes, stupidity. Stupidity deserves to be mentioned twice. There has never been anyone in American politics with so many flaws, each of which taken alone should be disqualifying, that has been able to command such a loyal and subservient following.

    McConnell is a rare combination of disgusting qualities, most of which do not belong in a theoretically democratic system. I agree that the other Senate Republicans are little better than McConnell, but his brazenness is what sets him apart. Like Clarence Thomas, McConnell simply doesn’t care about appearances. Both have agendas and neither will allow PR or societal or institutional norms to get in the way. Other Republicans, who might take over for McConnell, are probably more like Chief Justice and Chief Hypocrite John Roberts. They would pay more attention to niceties, and might even occasionally make a gesture in the direction of non-partisanship, but in the end they would come down in much the same place as McConnell (and Roberts). With McConnell it is more a matter of degree than one of kind.

    Trump, however, is truly one of a kind. A POS like no other. And really, really stupid.

    Trump is his own brand of evil and stupid. There is no doubt. But it is easy to forget how absolutely horrible GW Bush was. Top to bottom from cabinet appointees to supreme court appointees I’m not sure there is that much difference. And Trump has yet to start a war. But we still have 2 more years.

    I have a hard time believing that the Federal Government would have been much different under a President Cruz. The main difference perhaps, is that Cruz would have installed a more competent grade of evil into the Cabinet and executive branch who could well have been more effectively worse with less scandal. I shudder to think, for example, what President Cruz’s secretary of education or head of the EPA would have looked like. The sheer level of incompetence has saved us from worse in many ways.

    There are a lot of GOP-leaning folks in my extended family who lean to your way of thinking. They think if we just get rid of Trump we’ll be back to the party of Eisenhower and Lincoln. I view Trump and McConnell as symptoms as much as they are actors They are the party. And they are all horrible.

    At least with McConnell you know where you stand. A prettier GOP figurehead for the last 10 years would have produced pretty much the exact same result. Giving us bipartisanship for the media to fawn over, only on stuff that really doesn’t matter.

  141. 141.

    Matt

    @japa21: “Foreign churches” also happen to be heavily funded by anti-gay American wingnuts.

    Anybody want to start a pool on how many of the “yes” votes in favor of the “Traditional Plan” have raped at least one parishioner? I’d guess 75%.

  142. 142.

    Ksmiami

    @kindness: they need to be hounded, shamed, reviled etc every moment, every time they try to even take a leak. I want Mitch to hate his life so much, he ends it himself.

  144. 144.

    Gelfling 545

    @clay: I don’t know. Luther was a pretty good popular musician and set a good table, I hear. Also, judging from his Tafelbild, he had a wide range of interests.

  146. 146.

    TriassicSands

    @Kent:

    But it is easy to forget how absolutely horrible GW Bush was.

    I never forget, not for a second. When people talk about being nostalgic for Bush I cringe. I do believe that Trump is worse. He is a true neo-fascist. Comparisons with the Hitler of the late twenties and early thirties are reasonable.

    I think you are right about the dangers of a “more competently evil” Cruz administration. I try to constantly remind people that the long-term problem is the Republican Party, its wealthy backers, and profoundly undemocratic voters.
    “Never Trumpers” like Jennifer Rubin attract favorable comments and support from lefties because of her complete disgust with Trump. However, it seems to me that she longs for the GOP of 2015 — the pre-Trump Republican Party that was already a thoroughly corrupt, racist, undemocratic mob of hateful greedheads committed to shredding our anemic social safety net and further enriching the already super-wealthy.

    There are a lot of GOP-leaning folks in my extended family who lean to your way of thinking. They think if we just get rid of Trump we’ll be back to the party of Eisenhower and Lincoln.

    It’s hard to imagine a more complete misreading/misunderstanding of my take on Trump. I wrote the previous paragraph before I read the text of yours I quoted immediately above. There is no Party of Eisenhower*. That died when Nixon inherited the leadership of the GOP. The fact that I view Trump as unique is simply a commentary on him as an individual, not on his role as the central problem. The central problem is first a party that could and would nominate him; second a country that would elect him; and third a party and base that would continue to support and enable a thoroughly incompetent fascistic thug.

    How bad is the problem? If Trump died tomorrow, his successor could be even worse, Worse in ways dependent on Pence’s own pathogies, which are his own — some much like Trump’s, some quite different — but still antithetical to a free, secular, just system of government.

    *It’s not even worth entertaining the idea of the Party of Lincoln and the modern or current GOP together. They share nothing but a name.

  148. 148.

    TriassicSands

    @Kent:

    At least with McConnell you know where you stand. A prettier GOP figurehead for the last 10 years would have produced pretty much the exact same result.

    I agree with the first sentence but not the second. For example, I doubt if any other GOP Senate Majority Leader, without the benefit of McConnell’s example, would have denied Merrick Garland a vote. Now that they have seen that it is possible to ignore the Constitution and long-standing norms and suffer no consequences I would expect any successor to McConnell to do the same. The worst thing about McConnell may be what he has taught his fellow thugs.

  149. 149.

    The Pale Scot

    The Best Religious Joke

    Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!”

    He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

    He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too!

    Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too!

    Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too!

    Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too!

    Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”

    He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!

    Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”

    He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

    Emo Philips

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    @germy:

    The way they talk on twitter, they sound more like a criminal organization than a political party.

    This is why a lot of people have no respect for politicians. So many of them have been crooks. The current republican party is just the clown car of crooks. Which is of course why some don’t like clowns.

  152. 152.

    mad citizen

    I’m sending my birthday cards tomorrow to Mr. Cuba (March 2) and Mr Troxel in Oklahoma (both Adam posts–thanks!) (April 17 birthday). Just addressed and stamped them.

  154. 154.

    The Pale Scot

    @Amir Khalid:

    Gesichterfressendeleopardenpartei.

    Could you provide an audio file for pronunciation :)

    Yea yea, I know, it’s pronounced the way it’s spelled

  157. 157.

    Sebastian

    @Amir Khalid:

    Not bad but German rarely if never uses verbs in concataned nouns. It has to be

    Gesichtfresserleopardenpartei

    Faceeaterleopardsparty instead of faceeatingleopardsparty. Otherwise, excellent work!

  158. 158.

    sherparick

    @Raven Onthill: Technically, it is the character “O’Brien” in Orwell’s 1984. Another great O’Brien quote is the following: “Always, Winston, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.” I think McConnell was engaging in a bit of this with his speech yesterday using the Republican vote stealing scheme in North Carolina to defend the laws designed to suppress the vote of poor and minority voters. The McConnell is the essence of O’Brien. http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/02/real-election-theft-justifies-attempts-stop-imaginary-voter-fraud

    P.S. Orwell, like all of us, was only human and he suffered from the most popular and common prejudice of the English elite, contempt and prejudice against the Irish. Although not without cause (he had particularly idiotic Anglo-Irish Aristocrat as a boss in WWII has snob probably did not help), the Irish surname for his villain in “1984.” But it also inspired nice bits like this, written 75 years ago but just as appropriate nowas as then:

    “I must say I believe, or fear, that taking the world as a whole these things [totalitarianism, leader-worship] are on the increase. Hitler, no doubt, will soon disappear, but only at the expense of strengthening (a) Stalin, (b) the Anglo-American millionaires and (c) all sorts of petty fuhrers of the type of de Gaulle. All the national movements everywhere, even those that originate in resistance to German domination, seem to take non-democratic forms, to group themselves round some superhuman fuhrer (Hitler, Stalin, Salazar, Franco, Gandhi, De Valera are all varying examples) and to adopt the theory that the end justifies the means. Everywhere the world movement seems to be in the direction of centralised economies which can be made to ‘work’ in an economic sense but which are not democratically organised and which tend to establish a caste system. With this go the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer. Already history has in a sense ceased to exist, i.e. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered as soon as military necessity ceases to keep people up to the mark. Hitler can say that the Jews started the war, and if he survives that will become official history.”

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