Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

This blog will pay for itself.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Everybody saw this coming.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

This fight is for everything.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / A Woman's Place Is In The House / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Stuff That Doesn’t Sukk

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Stuff That Doesn’t Sukk

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Per the Washington Post:

The likenesses of music legend Johnny Cash and civil rights icon Daisy Lee Gatson Bates will appear in the hallways of the U.S. Capitol in marble form, replacing two figures from the Civil War.

Last week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) signed a measure to swap out the statues of individuals from the 19th century for more modern representations of the state.

The current statues of Uriah Milton Rose, an attorney who sided with the Confederacy, and James P. Clarke, a governor of the state who held racist beliefs, are not being removed because of their controversial past, but rather because of a decision by the state “to update the statues with representatives of our more recent history,” Hutchinson said in a weekly address. The statues of Rose and Clarke have been in the Capitol for nearly 100 years, he said…

Cash, the esteemed country music artist with crossover appeal, hailed from Arkansas. Some state lawmakers were opposed to using Cash to represent the state in Washington because of his troubled past, according to the Arkansas Times.

“Mr. Cash is a great musician . . . but the drugs, the alcohol, the women, that kind of thing . . . no, I can’t hold him up to my children as a model,” state Rep. Doug House (R) said.

But eventually the measure passed.

Bates played an integral role in the desegregation of schools in Arkansas, including guiding the African American children known as the Little Rock Nine as they attempted to enroll in an all-white school.

“The history of the civil rights struggle in Arkansas is an essential part of our story that says much about courage and who we are as a state. Daisy Bates was a key person in that story. She continues to inspire us,” Hutchinson said…

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    Go Hillary. She’s a great voice and I am pleased that she continues using her platform for good.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “Mr. Cash is a great musician . . . but the drugs, the alcohol, the women, that kind of thing . . . no, I can’t hold him up to my children as a model,” state Rep. Doug House (R) said.

    Huh, and here I thought Johnny Cash died at the ripe old age of 71, not at 34. In the age of trump, this statement says all you need to know about state Rep. doug house (r). What a pos.

  3. 3.

    ola azul

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Peeps do so love to be performatively aggrieved, don’t they?

    Anyone who attempts to kneecap art or artists by denuding it to a (hypocritical, abritrary) political/moral agenda is both a kulturkampfing apparatchik pos *and* a person neither understands nor appreciates art.

    The tell arrives when this douche plays mumbledy-peg with Trump’s peccadilloes. Those, clearly, can be forgiven in light of the higher objective of Muslim-bashing, whore-shaming and tax cuts. You know, true Republican artistry.

    His mother must be so proud to’ve raised such an earnest wingnut cypher.

  8. 8.

    JGabriel

    Cash, the esteemed country music artist with crossover appeal, hailed from Arkansas. Some state lawmakers were opposed to using Cash to represent the state in Washington because of his troubled past, according to the Arkansas Times.

    “Mr. Cash is a great musician . . . but the drugs, the alcohol, the women, that kind of thing . . . no, I can’t hold him up to my children as a model,” state Rep. Doug House (R) said.

    It’s like he doesn’t even remember who he voted for in 2016 – or who the leader of his party is now.

  9. 9.

    raven

    I spend time on a Georgia football blog and about once a week the dude puts up a “playpen” for people to engage in political discussion. It quickly turns into a screaming match among the same six or seven people. Two of these guys are serious RWNJ’s and obvious vets because of their handles. Yesterday I asked them how in the fuck they could support a draft dodging punk like Trump? Both said they thought he was a punk and a coward but loved the way he fucks with liberals and he was better than the alternatives. I had always thought this was the deal but it was good to have it confirmed.

  10. 10.

    JGabriel

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’m just surprised the asshole didn’t bring up all the time Cash spent in prison.

    Probably wanted to avoid comparisons with all the previously and presently imprisoned Trump associates.

    If so, he failed.

  12. 12.

    JGabriel

    @raven:

    Yesterday I asked them how in the fuck they could support a draft dodging punk like Trump? Both said they thought he was a punk and a coward but loved the way he fucks with liberals …

    Well, if Trump voters wanted to piss off liberals, they succeeded. I suspect a lot of them are going to regret that.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    How the Irish backstop emerged as May’s Brexit nemesis

    The roots of the UK’s political and constitutional crisis spread far and wide: decades of anti-EU propaganda, a Tory party civil war, a reckless Cameron gamble, a dogged, blinkered successor, a divided Labour party. And with a starring role, the backstop. A term once confined to rounders and baseball, it refers to an insurance policy to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the event of the UK’s no-deal departure. The Irish government persuaded the EU to make the backstop a condition of the UK’s withdrawal.
    ………………………..
    Both sides agree that Dublin outplayed its former colonial master. While London dithered in the referendum aftermath, the Irish nimbly forged an alliance of all 27 member states.

    “I pay tribute to the Irish government and Ireland the way that … you know … people in Dublin really saw the issues a long way out, much more clearly, perhaps than people in London did,” a rueful Boris Johnson, the former British foreign secretary, admitted in January during a visit to Dublin.
    ……………………
    The Irish discounted Downing Street promises to keep the border as frictionless as possible, viewing the British as “slippery”, saying the right things but not necessarily delivering, said a source close to the talks. “They had decades of experience of negotiations with the British over Northern Ireland and knew what they would be like.”

    More at the link, a pretty good overview of how the Irish made their priorities the EU’s priorities and outmaneuvered London.

    After the Anglo-Irish war in 1921 Dublin’s envoys bowed to British pressure and agreed to partition, creating a 310-mile border. Ireland’s ensuing civil war claimed the life of its chief negotiator, Michael Collins, but David Lloyd George claimed to have solved the Irish question.

    Almost a century later, another British premier is tangled in a deal involving that same border. It has sundered her party and parliament. Her pleas to reopen the agreement have failed.

    It is a great feat for Irish diplomacy. But Dublin is not celebrating. Unless the UK ratifies the withdrawal deal or cancels Brexit it may yet crash out of the EU with no deal, wreaking havoc on both sides of the Irish border and rendering the backstop a hollow victory. The Irish pay history some heed. They do not claim to have solved the British question.

    Indeed.

  20. 20.

    satby

    @JGabriel: they won’t regret shit. If liberals win they’ll accept the better quality of life stuff that goes along with a liberal government as their rights and dues plus they then get the chance to grab those goodies while simultaneously moaning about evil libs “giving away their hard earned money”.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: When I come home I am met by 2 dogs being wagged by their tails, yelping with pure joy at my return and a cat who stares at me from atop the stairs with a look that says, “What, you again?”

  23. 23.

    ola azul

    @raven:

    … Yesterday I asked them how in the fuck they could support a draft-dodging punk like Trump? Both said they thought he was a punk and a coward but loved the way he fucks with liberals, and he was better than the alternatives. I had always thought this was the deal, but it was good to have it confirmed.

    Seen this reax, too. Had many a in-person disagreement up here in the hinterlands with just sucha self-satisfied dullard clod, many who are armed and/or who have access to stockpiles (try’n follow Oscar Wilde’s advice: ask questions and make it funny, lest they kill you. So far, so good!)

    For me, your observation splains ever’thing a body ever needed to know about the animating force of reactionary “conservatism,” its true fount and its vivifying feature, its “clubfoot soldiers”.

    It ain’t about ideology. It ain’t about patriotism. At bottom, it’s about schadenfreude: taking pleasure in the pain of one’s perceived “enemies”. If yer getting that pwn the libs rush, literally every-fucking-thing is forgiven.

    It’d be sad if it weren’t so dangerous.

  25. 25.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    a cat who stares at me from atop the stairs with a look that says, “What, you again?”

    Our cat is just the opposite. When I return home (or when my wife returns home) the cat goes nuts. Runs around excitedly, then flops down right in front of us and writhes around on the floor for belly rubs and back scratches. Loud purring.

  26. 26.

    WereBear

    @JGabriel: Well, if Trump voters wanted to piss off liberals, they succeeded. I suspect a lot of them are going to regret that.

    You are mistaken, because that’s their problem: they regret nothing.

    The only thing that warms their shriveled little hearts is liberal suffering, so they will stand in the muck and fight for bread as long as liberals don’t have a pit at all.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: I really wouldn’t pay it any heed if it weren’t for the fact that I’M THE ONE WHO FEEDS HER! She fawns all over my wife, snuggles up on her lap, nuzzles her incessantly (which my wife complains, “I do NOT want your scent on me!”) and MY WIFE NEVER EVEN FEEDS HER.

    ETA: nothing as painful as unrequited… well I wouldn’t call it love but whatever it, is it’s unrequited.

  28. 28.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly: They’re all mysterious little critters, I’ll give them that.

    —–

    And speaking of mysterious: Anyone else seeing a gray horizontal band on the top of the balloonjuice page?

  30. 30.

    WereBear

    @Patricia Kayden: My take is that it reflects how people who get dogs are doing well enough to afford the resources put into a dog.

    Dogs are bigger payoffs in terms of big showy devotion, but they are considerably more resource intensive from the walks, the training, the larger food requirements, etc. Cats are more self-maintenance, especially in something like my setup, with indoor only cats and automatic litter devices.

    Sadly, people with dogs are happier because they feel settled enough to have a dog, with the housing, need for walks, and upkeep being something that is a marker of relative wealth.

  32. 32.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: @satby: Lol. Yeah cats can be pretty aloof and independent but I take such surveys with a huge grain of salt. I’m tempted to adopt a cat when I move into a new house this Summer. I grew up with cats and they were adorable. I miss the purring.

  33. 33.

    Immanentize

    In my talk today, I wonder aloud whether Trump Co.’s nuclear strategy can be summed up as “pwn the libs”

    Nice world we had, once.

  35. 35.

    Patricia Kayden

    @WereBear: That could be true. I have two big dogs (Boxer and a mixed Boxer) and it’s like having children with all that I have to do for them. Between healthcare, food and walks, you have to invest quite a lot of resources and time when you own dogs.

  36. 36.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: @satby: @Patricia Kayden:
    Last night I dreamt I found a litter of strays in my yard and planned on adopting two, but then a bull that was loose started following me back to the house. But he seemed like a mild mannered bull, although I was not adopting him.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In the comments after the graph I think Birnbaum gets pretty close:

    I personally have a cat instead of a dog right now because cats are self-sufficient. I think the busier someone is with work or whatever, the more likely they may be to have a cat instead of a dog. That “too busy” lifestyle may in itself play into the less happy aspect.

  47. 47.

    ola azul

    @Baud:

    Correct. I should have said due to all of your morals. I will fuck their shit up.

    Baud 2020: I Will Fuck Their Shit Up!

    Pithy. Timely. Direct.

    (I’d vote for that.)

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Barr is a gross hack.

    It’s negative for Trump, though. Most people think he’s a liar and that’s without the report. Whatever else it is, it’s more negative information on a president most people already dislike. “Now that I know exactly how many times his campaign met with various crooks, I feel much better about him”. That’s not going to happen. They’re not using the legal standard. They’re using the “bad people” standard, which they’re allowed to use and should use.

  63. 63.

    Spanky

    @rikyrah: It pleases me that Bernie is showing who he really is so early in the cycle. He’ll go down in flames, but that won’t stop the msm from sticking a camera in his face so he can keep working on the Divide and Conquer strategy. I’m absolutely convinced that he thinks that if he can’t be President, then Trump should. Wouldn’t be surprised if money is helping that conviction, too.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: So much for an independent DoJ. It has occurred to me that as in the state of Misery (and most others I would presume) the Attorney General of the US should be an elected position, but that will never happen.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    southpaw
    ‏@nycsouthpaw
    9h9 hours ago
    More southpaw Retweeted Peter Baker
    AG Barr had the opportunity to be forthright about these reported talks at his appearances on the Hill last week; instead, any questions concerning whether DOJ had briefed the WH were instantly met with stonewalling.

    The attorney general hides information from the public to protect the Trump Administration. Even when he’s asked directly about conduct he is currently engaging in (helping the White House to prepare a “rebuttal”) he refuses to answer. He doesn’t answer because he knows the conduct is wrong, and he wants to hide it as long as he can.

    He’s acting as Donald Trump’s lawyer, and he’s the attorney general. It should terrify people. Think how Trump will use Barr’s enormous police power. Imagine how it will be used in the 2020 election, against Trump’s political opponents.

  69. 69.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: True. Let’s not forget the fit that Rightwingers threw because President Clinton spoke with AG Lynch on the tarmac. Now they’re cool with what Barr is doing to protect Trump.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh ?

    Sludge (@Sludge) Tweeted:
    After City Incentives, South Bend Real Estate Executives Donate to Mayor Pete’s Presidential Campaign https://t.co/XkxGWV38sc https://t.co/CbRyNkvfkY https://twitter.com/Sludge/status/1118514312233082880?s=17

    Bianca Delarosa can’t think up a clever handle (@Bravewriting) Tweeted:
    Oh.

    I better not say what I think about this, so I’ll keep my black mouth shut for the sake of the “unity” that depends on Blac women suffering in silence. https://t.co/wJPkah3Fuc https://twitter.com/Bravewriting/status/1118519541955325953?s=17

    skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
    @Bravewriting Speak, sis. #MayoPete has a track record of dissing us as a community and firing or not hiring Black and Brown folks at City Hall. There are fewer of us in high-ranking positions after his 8 years mayor than when he began. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1118750480283336704?s=17

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It is funny in a sad way, though. Jeff Sessions with his far Right religious zeal, who Trump patronized because he didn’t go to the “right” schools and has a southern accent, was a more ethical AG than Barr, who is a fancy lawyer and “respected” by all the right people.

    Sessions refused to protect Trump in that role- Barr eagerly went along. Sessions was actually the high point as to quality. They had to get rid of Sessions and hire someone with lower ethical standards.

  77. 77.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    As I recall, Adam has said that one of the central Trump principles is “Donald Trump Will Be Treated Fairly or Else.” As I read twitter comments from Sanders supporters about the CAP article, it seems to me that’s Sanders’ central principle too. Or at least the central principle of his followers. He will be treated fairly (in which case he will, of course, win the nomination and the general election) or else he will burn the D party down.

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay:

    Think how Trump will use Barr’s enormous police power. Imagine how it will be used in the 2020 election, against Trump’s political opponents.

    Imagining that literally keeps me up at night sometimes. Trump has been ranting about how the FBI should “investigate the investigators,” and Barr is making noises about doing that. It’s a convenient excuse to remove non-Trump loyalists from the top ranks in the FBI. Then there will be no one left to sound the alarm or put countermeasures in place when Russia and other countries interfere in the election again.

  81. 81.

    Spanky

    @Kay:

    They had to get rid of Sessions and hire someone with lower ethical standards.

    Which is what you were saying all along. “This is the best they’ve got! The next [#CabinetSec’y] will only be worse!”

    Well, thanks a lot, Casandra! :^)

    And BTW, I’m too stupid to be terrified, but it does piss me off. And I’m sure I’m not the only one. This country has to thread an every-shrinking needle to avoid general violence. Dunno whether we can manage it. History is against us.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think it’s a given there will be politically motivated law enforcement actions around the Democratic candidate in 2020. I say this because there was politically motivated law enforcement interference in the 2016 election, the FBI working for Trump by planting news stories. It’s already happened. Comey I don’t think was politically motivated. He’s just a hugely egotistical moron.

    So we’ll have to watch for that. The idea that Trump won’t use these DOJ hacks to harm his political opponents is nuts- of course he will. I would bet my house on it. They have no integrity (that’s why they were hired) so they will of course all go along.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump got rid of Sessions because Sessions recused. They went looking for someone who wouldn’t adhere to those ethical standards, and they found Barr, who actually auditioned publicly for the job of “AG with no integrity- team player!”

    He’s already pro-actively defending Trump, which is an ethical breach. It’s just a short trip from there to “harming Trump’s opponents”. He’ll make the trip. He’s halfway there.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: ergo any loss is the result of the rules being rigged against them or evidence of voter fraud, while expunging voter rolls, reduction of poll hours/machines/polling places in poorer neighborhoods is just good govt.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Comey should be so proud. It’s now standard practice, I guess, to go out and spin the results of an investigation.

    All because Comey refused to stay within the lines and simply do a competent job. He was too special for that. He had to invent a different, more consequential job and then do it poorly. He did profound damage and it keeps accumulating. We’re going to pay and pay for his arrogance and stupidity.

  93. 93.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Facebook teams with rightwing Daily Caller in factchecking program

    Facebook’s controversial factchecking program is partnering with the Daily Caller, a rightwing website that has pushed misinformation and is known for pro-Trump content. The social network said Wednesday it had added CheckYourFact.com, which is part of the Daily Caller, as one of its US media partners in an initiative that has faced growing backlash from journalists and internal problems. The collaboration was first reported by Axios.

    Factcheckers in the program are tasked with debunking potential false stories on Facebook to help stop their spread, but some journalists have said the effort hasn’t been effective, and one of its major American partners, Snopes.com, cut ties earlier this year.

  94. 94.

    JPL

    @Kay: What about Rosenstein? Supposedly he went from wanting to wear a wire when meeting with trump, to now siding with Barr.

  96. 96.

    Denali

    @Kay,

    I wish I didn’t have so much faith in what you have to say. We were counting on the Mueller report, and Trump found someone willing to conceal his conclusions in the public eye.
    Our democracy is broken.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    US bitcoin trader may face death penalty in Thailand over ‘sea home’

    Elwartowski and Supranee are pioneers of the “seasteading” movement, which envisages building homes and floating cities in seas outside of national jurisdictions, which are therefore not subject to the laws and taxes of any country.

    Elwartowski, who worked as a software engineer for the US military in Afghanistan, Germany and South Korea before accumulating his wealth through investing in cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is part of Ocean Builders, a community of entrepreneurs who aim to build seasteading communities.

    He and Supranee were the first volunteers to live on one of the floating structures and in February said he was drawn to the community as a place where “freedom-loving people can all gather together and actually be free together”.

    List of items needed for next Seastead to be successful:
    #1: a NAVY.

  101. 101.

    mali muso

    So yesterday, I received a notification that our application for consideration for Express Entry to Canada had made the score cutoff and we are invited to apply for Permanent Residency. It’s actually a fair bit of hoops to jump through; we spent the fall registering for and taking language tests, having our US transcripts evaluated for Canadian equivalency, etc. and now there are background checks, fees, and other bureaucratic stuff. But it also feels good to have something concrete as a backup plan. Before I get dumped on for bailing on the US, let me just note that this is more of making sure I make a safety net/insurance policy for my family just in case. Anyways, it’s a mixed feeling. Happy to have made the cut to get the invite and have the opportunity and sad that it feels like it’s necessary to do.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The early Twitter primary doesn’t give me much hope that our people won’t fall for it again.

    It’s funny because I feel like I’m out of step with that. I’m going to run as a delegate to the convention, which means I pick a candidate and run in “their” caucus, for my congressional district. That candidate’s supporters then elect me as the delegate. You know, maybe they do :)

    Anyway, there’s a strategic advantage to running as the less popular candidate’s delegate, because I then get ALL of those person’s votes, where the more popular candidates supporters will split their votes among several prospective delegates. That’s how I won the Obama caucus- I was unopposed because Clinton was so dominant at that point in ’08.

    THIS time I plan to run as a delegate for the candidate who is the majority choice in the county Dem Party, because I find I’m fine with all of these people, with the exception of Bernie and I don’t like Biden as a candidate. The rest I’ll take any of them.

    But if I stick to this I could end up a Bernie delegate- really not, because a Berniac would beat me, but that’s the scenario I’m looking at- I’m fine with the whole non-Bernie field. I just don’t dislike any of them.

  103. 103.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    Just think. How different it would be If the first two contests, Iowa and New Hampshire, were not older white aggrieved person States. That is Bernie’s only path to winning the nomination — get early traction and publicity from the shouty cranky crowd.

    But he will get crushed on Super Tuesday — again.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    We poll the county party- with paper- they fill out a slip and we count the slips- the people who come to the meetings and the officers, so I’ll see who they’re backing.

    There’s one person who always writes in “Gore” :)

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    He’s acting as Donald Trump’s lawyer, and he’s the attorney general. It should terrify people. Think how Trump will use Barr’s enormous police power. Imagine how it will be used in the 2020 election, against Trump’s political opponents.

    You aren’t wrong, Kay.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Sessions refused to protect Trump in that role- Barr eagerly went along. Sessions was actually the high point as to quality. They had to get rid of Sessions and hire someone with lower ethical standards.

    Bet you never thought you’d write that about the KKKeebler Elf.

  113. 113.

    Steve in the ATL

    @rikyrah: no kidding! But as has been noted here many times, as bad as his initial hires are, the replacements are always worse.

  116. 116.

    schrodingers_cat

    @NotMax: Twitter is better than FaceBorg. You can read Twitter feeds without having an account. FB is a walled garden.
    If you follow a bunch of subject matter experts and journalists, that gives you a quick gist of the happenings and the news that you are interested in. It keeps me well informed on the happenings with Orange, immigration and politics in India. It takes less than half an hour a day to scan all that news. If I am interested in an indepth analysis I can always follow the links to the longer stories. Twitter is great for a good overview. Also a Twitter feed of a journalist is a good preview of their hacktitude or the lack there of.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    @schrodingers_cat

    You can read Twitter feeds without having an account.

    No, no I cannot. Without adjusting my browser settings to give up more access to information about me than I am willing to provide all I see is a blank screen.

  118. 118.

    JustRuss

    “Mr. Cash is a great musician . . . but the drugs, the alcohol, the women, that kind of thing

    Did Cash have a reputation as womanizer? He was no saint, but I don’t recall that being part of his persona. Unlike a certain commander-in-chief…

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