Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Let me file that under fuck it.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Democrats are back in array!

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

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

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

He really is that stupid.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

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

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Cuckoos, Consuls and Courts

Cuckoos, Consuls and Courts

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Imagine what a bottomless pit of pure, pulsating neediness you’d have to be to compose this tweet:

I’m not a medical professional, but I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that a person who thanks himself in the third person using his formal title is unwell. I guess we’re lucky Trump doesn’t have any pets to appoint to high office.

On the other hand, a horse, cat, dog or hamster would be infinitely more intelligent than this person, who is deputy communications director for the Trump 2020 campaign:

Flounder here is as dumb as his boss, who also admitted on camera that the case his administration’s lawyers have argued before the court is a pack of lies and that the census question is a power grab, which is 100% obvious to everyone.

To recap, we know the Trump administration wants to insert a citizenship question into the census to bolster the electoral fortunes of “Republicans” and “non-Hispanic Whites,” to quote the dead GOP gerrymandering guru who came up with the idea in 2015. Two Trump administration officials have already perjured themselves about the rationale behind the question, which should be a massive scandal, only the POTUS and the pack of grift-mavens surrounding him do so many crimes that the people in charge who aren’t part of the criminal gang just shrug them off now.

The GOP-heisted SCOTUS gave the Trump administration a huge gift by calling the rationale behind the question “contrived” rather than a pack of lies to advance the cause of white supremacy, which is what it undeniably is. The highest court in the land also green-lighted outrageously obvious cheating at the state level, basically telling a dwindling demographic to knock themselves out in their efforts to impose perpetual minority rule.

But Trump and Flounder aren’t bright enough to keep their big fat mouths shut, and I guess that’s good news? There’s a chance the rubble they’ve made of an institutional guardrail may prevent them from driving us all over the cliff after all. Or not. Gahhhh! It’s crazy-making.

****

A related but separate topic: yesterday, Joe Biden said in an Iowa Starting Line interview that he’d consider nominating Merrick Garland to the SCOTUS again if Biden is elected president. That would be an irretrievably stupid move since Garland is in the bottom half of his 60s and was only nominated as a consensus candidate in a failed attempt to head off McConnell’s theft of the seat. The other side doesn’t give a flying fuck about “fair” — see Garland, Merrick — so a 40-year-old ideological clone of RBG is what we nominate next time.

Anyhoo, Biden caught a lot of flak for that, but I thought this was actually the more interesting tidbit from the conversation:

“I think we should have been a whole heck of a lot harder on [Mitch McConnell],” Biden said when asked if there was anything he and President Obama should have done differently on the Merrick Garland nomination.

“I have pretty good relationships on both sides of the aisle,” Biden explained of his efforts during the Garland fight. “I’d say, what are you doing, you’re setting a horrible precedent here. And the answer was, I know Joe, but if I go, I’m in a red state, if I go ahead and just call for a hearing, the Koch Brothers will drop five, ten million dollars on my race. That’s nothing about political courage, it’s a reality.”

It is about political courage, but does this next bit indicate that maybe Biden finally fucking gets what we’re up against?

Biden suggested reforming campaign finance laws to allow for public financing of campaigns to reduce partisanship in judicial nominating disputes. But until that happens, he argued Democrats just need to fight these battles with a Republican Senate just as hard as the other side does.

“The strategy would be to go out and actually beat them,” Biden said of what he’d do as president if McConnell continued blocking judicial appointments, adding Democrats successfully brought that fight in the 2018 midterms. “We took the fight to them [in 2018]. In that case, it was about health care. We got to take the fight to them. Part of this is persuasion, as well. And that’s why I’m not giving up on the South.”

Persuasion tapped out in 2010. But I hope Biden talks some more about what goes on in the Senate and makes that central to the campaign. They all should — we have a senator-heavy race, and that could be an advantage if they use their sausage-making knowledge to emphasize the fact that the Koch Bros. and similar oligarchs have GOP senators’ balls in their grip.

The only way we can really pull this plane out of its nosedive is to take on the Republicans at every level, not after a Democrat is president but starting now, during the campaign. People need to understand that.

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    Biden’s comments are so easy to top, it’s amazing – Kamala or Elizabeth or whomever just needs to use your words, Betty.

    “Sorry we tried a ‘Garland’ approach and it failed. Trying to appease folks like Mitch doesn’t work, and it’s not what our voters want. I’ll be nominating a 30-year-old RBG next time around.”

    “And while we’re on the subject of campaign finance…not only do we need public financing of campaigns, but we need to get back to highly progressive income taxes and capital gains taxes and corporate taxes. Not just to catch up on our infrastructure, give our teachers a raise, and give middle-class America a tax cut…but to dampen the influence of the powerful on our politics until Citizens United is overturned.”

  4. 4.

    Baud

    When I’m President, I’m nominating a unapologetically liberal fetus to the Supreme Court, since the Repblicans love them so much. Win-win.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    That would be an irretrievably stupid move since Garland is in the bottom half of his 60s and was only nominated as a consensus candidate in a failed attempt to head off McConnell’s theft of the seat.

    While I would like justice for Garland, I hope he’s not nominated for the reasons you mentioned. That said, I don’t mind Biden bringing up his name as a reminder of how a Supreme Court seat was stolen from us (and as a reminder of all the people who ignored the Supreme Court when it came time to support Hillary).

  7. 7.

    laura

    @Jeffro: confiscatory tax rates and estate taxes that wring the idle capital out of the soft hands and start using it for all manner of social and public goods.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    @Jeffro: Bonus points for the first Dem to add, after the “30-year-old RBG” remarks, “…and after my first two SCOTUS nominees, I’m more than happy to work with the GOP about establishing (via constitutional amendment) term limits for federal judges, so that we’re not in this increasing intense fight over lifetime judicial nominations”

  10. 10.

    Baud

    @Baud:

    Of course, if the Republicans still hold the Senate, Garland might be the best choice. Depends how the 2022 Senate map looks.

  11. 11.

    plato

    needy amin. joke.

    Trump said in his campaign that if I voted for Clinton, I would be stuck with a criminal president under constant federal investigation from day one.

    Turns out, he was right.

    I voted for Clinton and I’m stuck with a criminal president under federal investigation from day one.

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: Why? Mitch won’t take up a Dem nominee for SCOTUS, or if he did, said nominee would have to be to the right of Clarence Thomas.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The only way we can really pull this plane out of its nosedive is to take on the Republicans at every level,

    I think this is the key, more than what Biden says about the Obama years. All these grand plans and slogans the candidates are offering mostly mean nothing if McConnell is still majority leader, and the long term progressive project will face huge road blocks if e don’t do a lot better at the state level, but even more than in previous cycles all the focus seems to be at the top (and before some of the usual pedants feel the need to pick pointless, bad-faith fights: No, I don’t mean or think that the Presidency isn’t important, just that it’s not the only race that will determine the future).

    Besides the question of what Bullock or Hickenlooper should be doing, where we do have a decent (I think?) candidate for a tough seat, like in AZ, I don’t sense a lot attention from the internet left. Can Susan Collins’ opponent/s break through the wall of “I met her at a parade” and good constituent services in Maine? Iowa seems to have some strong Democrats, who’s the best one to take on Ernst, etc.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    I don’t know what Mitch will do if Garland were to replace Ginsburg or Breyer instead of Scalia.

    And having Mitch diss Garland a second time would be more politically powerful than having him diss a young lefty.

  16. 16.

    Jerzy Russian

    Maybe the President has some sort of multiple personality disorder, and all of the personalities are assholes?

  17. 17.

    JDM

    Mr. Biden, since you can work across the aisle so well, why isn’t Merrill Garland on the Supreme Court? Could it be, just possibly, that your approach is a bad one and your claim of being able to work with conservative congresspeople is bullshit.

    Sure, you were able to throw sand in the bus wheels of progress on integration, and you were able to force people to carry student debt even after bankruptcy, but obviously even moderate agenda items – like Merrick Garland – aren’t happening like you said they will.

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Baud:

    I don’t know what Mitch will do if Garland were to replace Ginsburg or Breyer instead of Scalia.

    He told us what he’d do: block it until a GrOPer is President. The man has neither shame nor cecency. His entire being is animated by only one idea: use every single plausible lever and method, to preserve GrOPer power.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Chetan Murthy: St McCain said the quiet part loud late in the 2016 campaign: The McConnell Senate was never going to approve any of President HRC’s nominees.

  24. 24.

    Fleeting Expletive

    There is no universe in which an executive order from a president outweighs a Federal Judge’s ruling, right? Right? You can’t executive order a citizenship question if courts say the census may not include it?
    Most days I wonder if I’ve been taking crazy pills.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MattF: @zhena gogolia: Seems to me that he’s getting worse. Rumor has it that he’s had a mini-stroke.

    the mysterious event that brought Mike Pence back from AF2 last week?

  27. 27.

    Immanentize

    @laura:

    [L]ooking at the usual result of enormous sums conferred upon legatees, the thoughtful man must shortly say, “I would as soon leave to my son a curse as the almighty dollar,” and admit to himself that it is not the welfare of the children, but family pride, which inspires these enormous legacies.

    Andrew Carnegie (from the Gospel of Wealth)

  28. 28.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Baud: Yep. I don’t see how it’s any more politically powerful tan Yertle’s explicit statement that he’d do anything, just anything, to ensure that Obama was a one-term president. That he would refuse to seat any of HRC’ s judicial picks.

    I take your statement to mean that you believe there is some limit past which the American people will not put up with Yertle’s shenanigans. And I disagree with you on that, believing that those who support GrOPers, have no such limit. None whatsoever.They’re nihilists, and you can’t argue with them, can’t shame them, can’t reach their “better natures”.

  29. 29.

    Immanentize

    @laura: Also:

    Men who continue hoarding great sums all their lives, the proper use of which for – public ends would work good to the community, should be made to feel that the community, in the form of the state, cannot thus be deprived of its proper share. By taxing estates heavily at death the state marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire’s unworthy life.

    I love this quote

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I take your statement to mean that you believe there is some limit past which the American people will not put up with Yertle’s shenanigans. 

    Then there’s nothing that can be done short of taking back the Senate.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Immanentize:

    The first generation makes the money, the second generation preserves is it, the third generation snowboards, and takes improv classes.

    –Jack Donaghy

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: I have a pet theory that a couple of close Senate races in (WI, PA) ’16 went R because tote-bagger types voted R because of the would-be high-minded notion of “a check on Hillary”

  35. 35.

    debbie

    I love that he has had to resort to thanking himself and calling himself “Mr. President.” I long for the day he calls himself “Prisoner 6453001.”

  36. 36.

    debbie

    @Jeffro:

    Also, “The past ways have led to what we have today. There’s no more urgent reason to go in a different direction, one with you as a supporter, not a candidate.”

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    @debbie: Or “your favorite president, me!” That’s a good one. About as clear a sign of IOKIYAR as it gets. The entire right-wing puke funnel would faint so hard if Obama or Hillz did that, even once…

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: That’s all right, Trump has established the principle that as long as you call them “Acting” you don’t need Senate approval.

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    I long for the day he calls himself “Prisoner 6453001.”

    What shall we call them after the charges, trials, sentencings, hangings and throwing their bodies into one of Hawaii’s lava lakes?

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken: Warren or Harris might have to have a bunch of Acting cabinet secretaries. (Hope not. Take the Senate too.)

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Networks need to stop reality tv shows.

    Never should’ve started the trash.

    Want mindless entertainment? Watch Tom and Jerry or Bigs and Daffy – seriously.

  51. 51.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I take your statement to mean that you believe there is some limit past which the American people will not put up with Yertle’s shenanigans. And I disagree with you on that, believing that those who support GrOPers, have no such limit. None whatsoever.They’re nihilists, and you can’t argue with them, can’t shame them, can’t reach their “better natures”.

    There are more people who don’t support the GOP than do. Americans aren’t special. There will eventually be a breaking point and then the GOP, like the morons that they are, will look around and wonder what went wrong

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    it’s as if CNN hired Daniel Dale to make up for having hired Chris Cillizza, but as far as i know CC still works there, and I’d make a wild guess that CC makes a lot more than Dale

    Fact check: Trump says he’s a ‘very honest guy’ while making multiple false claims
    By Daniel Dale, Holmes Lybrand, Kevin Liptak and Maegan Vazquez, CNN
    Washington (CNN)In a lengthy exchange with reporters on the White House South Lawn on Friday, President Donald Trump claimed that the outcome of the Mueller investigation shows “I’m a very honest guy.”
    Before and after that pronouncement, he made false claims about Barack Obama, NATO and tariffs.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    While other presidents have blamed their predecessors for various national ills — including Mr. Obama, who in his first term regularly pointed to former President George W. Bush — Mr. Trump takes it further than most.
    It is less common for presidents to take on predecessors who are more popular than they are; Mr. Obama was viewed favorably by 63 percent of those surveyed by Gallup last year, while Mr. Trump’s job approval rating is 41 percent.

    (NYT link, if Haberman tweets out that stat, The Beast will see it, and maybe Pence will be told to stay within fifty miles of DC)

  55. 55.

    Immanentize

    @Aleta: That band has it all! Long haired go-go girl, black drummer, tight-panted singer, obviously gay guitar player?

  56. 56.

    Chetan Murthy

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    There are more people who don’t support the GOP than do.

    And I hope we -do- retake the Senate. But I’m also sufficiently realist, that I *know* that if we do not, then Yertle. Will. Not. Budge. One. Inch. THAT is my point. Imagining that somehow, Yertle can be convinced to behave like a decent American, is a mug’s game. Either beat him [take the Senate], or prepare for more years of a cold war between the GrOPers and the rest of America. Or a hot one, if the GrOPers actually win.

  57. 57.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Thanks, Haberman, and the fact that Obama had to clean up a near-Depression his predecessor left him, while Drumpf inherited a good economy, so Obama had good reason to “blame his predecessor” but DJT doesn’t, doesn’t affect your bothsiderism?

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @zhena gogolia: her co-author is Peter Baker, who from what I’ve read and gleaned over the yers is much more an ideological conservative than most straight reporters

    his wife, Susan Glasser, once compared Obama’s announcement of Bin Laden’s death to Shrub’s flight suit pantomime, saying both ‘spiked the football too soon’, or something like that

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    How long should Obama had waited? Was there some risk that zombie Bin Ladin would have come back from the dead?

    It’s going to be so much worse for the next Democratic president. They’ll be treated as comparable to Trump.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Would you prefer our candidates say there’s no solution to McConnell as long as the Republicans control the Senate?

    I think I might prefer that.

  62. 62.

    MattF

    @zhena gogolia: Note that Arthur Laffer, Medal of Freedom winner, blamed the financial collapse of 2008 on Obama. Because when Wall Street realized that Obama was going to win the election, everyone panicked. Yes, really.

  64. 64.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Baud:

    It’s going to be so much worse for the next Democratic president. They’ll be treated as comparable to Trump.

    There must be some way we can get through to the media types that that’s a bs comparison, if they try it

  65. 65.

    tobie

    For pure political theater, I would like to see the next Democratic President nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Supreme Court. The right would have a collective heart attack and/or stroke out (always a good thing). I’d pay top dollar to see the look on Robert’s, Kavanaugh’s, Gorsuch’s, or Alito’s faces as she and Sotomayor whiplash them in oral arguments. A girl can dream…

  68. 68.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @MattF:
    I think that’s the same Laffer who recently asked an American Indian if they still brushed with primitive toothbrushes or something recently, right?

  69. 69.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: I think I might prefer that.

    I’d say now’s the time to try that as a message, see if it sparks more interest in down-ticket races. If I were the DSCC, I’d be sending out targeted facebook ads saying that a vote for Collins/Gardnerer/Ernst/McSally/Thillis is a vote for trump. And I’d remind the good folk at the DSCC that I speak with all the authority of some rando on the internet.

  70. 70.

    japa21

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: IIRC, and I like to think I always do (wishful thinking) Obama more often than not went after the GOP policies, not Bush himself. I doubt if he went after Bush directly more than a couple times at most.

  72. 72.

    Van Buren

    Shorter Joe: Mitch isn’t evil, it’s just politics. I can work with that fella, I’ve been an insider for decades.

  73. 73.

    tobie

    @Baud: No worries. I chose my nym because it’s a nickname but I didn’t realize at the time it’s gender indeterminate. But, yes, I go by ‘she.’ I now need to start making my signs: Hillary for Supreme Court Justice. My Trumpian neighbors will blow a gasket.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    For those following the bronze-medal match, England has had a goal disallowed against Sweden — from Ellen White, who also had a goal disallowed against the USA in the semifinal. Also like in the semifinal, it would have been an equaliser for 2-2.
    ETA: Coincidence? Or conspiracy?

  81. 81.

    Raven

    @Baud: Like I said, college and high school (in Illinois) and even the NFL have had them but no more. My question is if the players and fans care about this?

  82. 82.

    ema

    This LGM comment about the multipart citizenship question brings up an interesting (in a nightmarish sort of way) point. Is denaturalizing huge numbers of people, based primarily on race, but also the year they became citizens something that’s possible/legal?

  84. 84.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    This time it wasn’t offside, it was a handball detected in the VAR review.
    (Also, too: “offsides” is the term in the gridiron sport, but in the association code we say “offside”.

  88. 88.

    ema

    “denaturalizing huge numbers of people, based primarily on race, but also the year they became citizens”

  92. 92.

    Chris Johnson

    How do you know he means himself? Look up the title of the head of the Russian Federation sometime.

    Methinks it’s more about ‘saying the quiet part out loud’. Mr. President, indeed.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Twitter:

    Brian Fallon Verified account @brianefallon

    Brian Fallon Retweeted NYT Politics

    “An organic farmworker shouted ‘Kavanaugh!’ as the senator ran past.”Brian Fallon added,

    NYT Politics Verified account @nytpolitics

    Susan Collins, a Fixture in Maine, Has Twin Troubles: Trump and Kavanaugh https://nyti.ms/2NAkT72

    7:19 AM – 6 Jul 2019

    (via LOLGOP)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  95. 95.

    Mayur

    @tobie: @tobie: Hillary is too old. For proper effect it should be Chelsea. If Fembot First Daughter Ivanka can attend the G20, then an actually intelligent scion should be appropriate for SCOTUS.

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott: I didn’t know she hadn’t yet declared for re-election, but I’ll eat my hat if she doesn’t get in, unless her internal polls are really, really bad and the public ones haven’t caught up, as in that one trumpist who doesn’t like her signals trouble.

    She is “uncomfortable with his personal style” especially when “he has not treated women with proper respect.”

    Seems to me that’s a perfect set up for a tough question in a debate, “that’s how you define rape and sexual assault? A lack of respect?”, but I could see that backfiring as too mean

  98. 98.

    JDM

    @Baud:

    Jesus, I don’t like Biden but blaming him for Mitch’s actions is bullshit.

    This is a “fool me twice” situation. Okay, lets say Biden, the President of the Senate, was caught flat-footed and snowed completely by Mitch McConnell (who did this all by himself; no help from his fellow GOP senators*) and so gets no blame whatsoever for failing to do what he claims he can do. But now Biden is saying he will simply doing the same thing again (remember that thing about “the definition of insanity”?). Note that I didn’t actually blame Biden for the lack of Garland not being on the court, but Biden does claim that he can work with the people who prevented it. And that’s just stupid, and that’s what I’m saying about him.

    * this is, of course, not the case

  99. 99.

    Cacti

    Good to see the BJ brain trust is still fighting the real enemy.

    Joe Biden.

    Could you people be any further up your own asses?

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @JDM:

    I don’t like Biden’s messaging either. But absolutely no candidate is coming out and saying they won’t try to work with Republicans. So we’re talking about nuances here, not major metaphysical differences in approaches. I just want to keep things in perspective, which is something the Internet doesn’t seem to be very good at.

  102. 102.

    burnspbesq

    @Baud:

    But there is generations of case law under Section 706 of the Administrative Procedure Act that agency action is arbitrary and capricious if the agency considered factors that are unlawful to consider. Once the district court, on remand, finds as a fact that the question was motivated by racial animus (for which there is plenty of evidence) the Commerce Department will be well and truly fucked.

  103. 103.

    TriassicSands

    I’m not a medical professional, but I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that a person who thanks himself in the third person using his formal title is unwell.

    Or a professional athlete.

    Oh, and Happy Revo!utionary War Airports Day to everyone!

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @burnspbesq:

    Right. All I’m pointing out is that Trump hasn’t violated a court order yet. There simply going to keep litigating it, which they technically have an opening to do.

  106. 106.

    The Dangerman

    Hmmm. I’m thinking riches through Rip Van Winkle machine (Shark Tank, here I come)… 2021, please get here fast …

  107. 107.

    B.B.A.

    With all due respect, an RBG clone would be too far right for a Supreme Court appointment in this day and age. Sotomayor clone or bust!

  109. 109.

    jc

    This administration is just making crap up at this point, operating on the assumption that the whole country is as easily suckered as the Republican base. Trump only addresses his slavish fans, and the rest of us either have to take his insulting garbage in the chops, or tune out. It’s lose-lose for America.

  110. 110.

    B.B.A.

    Tiffany Caban has a law degree and it looks like she’s out of a job for now…

  111. 111.

    Martin

    @Baud: It’s not blaming Biden for Mitch. It’s about calling out Biden for not recognizing that his approach simply doesn’t work. Maybe it did 20 years ago, but even the ACA couldn’t get but a single Republican vote after all of the compromising done with Grassley.

    The federal government is where the California legislature was up until 2010 – complete hostage taking by the GOP. In case anyone wonders why CA bucked the national trend in 2016 and went way bluer, this is why. We’ve heard this song before and we know what it leads to. I can’t tell if Biden doesn’t realize that politics has changed that dramatically or if he so dependent on that part of his record that he needs to market around it despite how things have changed, but those of us who have seen this at the state level know that electing Biden won’t change GOP behavior. We need to be electing people that will ignore GOP behavior and simply do what they think is right, and not be afraid of Fox News or the NRA or whoever.

  115. 115.

    Mainmata

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: KS Senate seat is open since Pat Roberts is retiring. It would be tough but we now have a Democratic governor in KS (amazingly enough). Hickenlooper really should be going for the GOP Senate seat in CO not president. And Beto should go after the TX Senate seat (again). Although actually unseating McConnell would be difficult, he’s not terribly popular in KY. Tom Steyer really needs tto put his money into flipping the Senate.

  117. 117.

    Baud

    @Martin:

    Saying what won’t work is useless. No one knows what will work. I would love it if the country adopted California’s solution of not electing Republicans, but that has little to do with our presidential candidates.

  118. 118.

    Mike in NC

    It might actually be newsworthy if somebody discovered there was a day when the obtuse Fat Bastard wasn’t patting himself on the back for his lack of accomplishments.

  120. 120.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    “Judge Garland is a strong nominee with decades of experience on the bench.”

    ~ Senator Sanders (I-VT)

    I mean – geez. Even Wilmer thought it was a “strong” pick.

    The problem is the blogosphere wanted a woman or POC. So when that didn’t happen, they projected their disappointment against a liberal Chicago Jew, never recognizing it was a “strong” pick.

    Sad, really.

  121. 121.

    Martin

    @Cacti: I think the long term plan for electing more democrats is to fix elections and to simply focus on actually fixing shit. I know that’s a naive and a tangential strategy at best, but that’s what worked here. I think Warren is an amazing example of what that looks like. But I think a lot of the freshmen in Congress reflect that as well – that’s what O’Donnell has been highlighting about Katie Porter on his show.

    Just pass legislation that the general public recognizes. Don’t phase it in over 10 years like ACA did. It doesn’t need to be giant overarching stuff, just meaningful improvements to peoples lives. Make it easy to do taxes. Things that you probably can do by executive order, or that are sufficiently non-ideological that you can get them passed without a national fight. I know incrementalism is boring, but the polls are pretty clear – most voters just want their shit fixed, so focus on that for a while.

  122. 122.

    germy

    @Raven:

    July 13, 2018: Day’s husband admitted to hospital. (But who called the authorities??)
    July 17, 2018: police learn that Day was allegedly going to visit friends. (But who told them this??)
    July 26, 2018: Day’s car is found in the possession of an unidentified male and female.
    July 27, 2018: Day is officially listed as a Missing Person.
    August 8, 2018: police receive a report of a “bad smell” coming from Day’s home. Police investigate and report that “nothing smelled” in the area.
    April 4, 2019: police bring in a cadaver dog and locate Day’s body inside the home.

    It took them 8 months to bring in a cadaver dog.

    https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/dennis-day-mouseketeer-rip.848316/

  123. 123.

    Barry

    Biden: “I have pretty good relationships on both sides of the aisle,” Biden explained of his efforts during the Garland fight. “I’d say, what are you doing, you’re setting a horrible precedent here. And the answer was, I know Joe, but if I go, I’m in a red state, if I go ahead and just call for a hearing, the Koch Brothers will drop five, ten million dollars on my race. That’s nothing about political courage, it’s a reality.”

    In other words, if I’m hired for the higher position, I *will then do* what I failed to even try in my last job.

  124. 124.

    Cacti

    @Martin:

    You said:

    Just pass legislation that the general public recognizes. Don’t phase it in over 10 years like ACA did.

    Then you said:

    I know incrementalism is boring, but the polls are pretty clear – most voters just want their shit fixed, so focus on that for a while.

    So, do you support doing things incrementally or not?

  125. 125.

    germy

    Joe Biden’s candidacy and lead in the polls is based wholly on the myth that he can stand on stage, stare Donald Trump in the eyes and defeat the dotard in chief even though Kamala Harris tore Biden apart like a soggy, store-brand paper towel in the first Democratic debate.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Police on Friday arrested a man with an extensive criminal history in the death of Dennis Day, an original member of TV’s “The Mickey Mouse Club,” who vanished last summer under mysterious circumstances and whose remains were found nine months later inside his southern Oregon home.

    How does a person “vanish under mysterious circumstances” if they are later found at home?

    A sad story, though.

  129. 129.

    Anonymous

    @Baud:

    Jesus, I don’t like Biden but blaming him for Mitch’s actions is bullshit.

    No one is blaming Biden for Mitch’s actions. We’re telling you that Biden’s political philosophy is useless against McConnell and the Republicans. Anyone else has a better idea of how to fight McConnell and his fellow cultists.

    Because Biden’s idea of how to fight McConnell and the RWNJ cult is to have nice dinners with them and ask, beg them to pretty please stop killing people to maintain their fascist power.

    Won’t ever work!!! I want a president who won’t deign to sup with the monsters, ever! A president who calls them what they are, fascist monsters, racist killers, haters.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Well, for nine months the circumstances were mysterious.

    And then they found the body.

    It sounds a bit more that the original investigation was kinda stupid, but the news reporting is lazy and taking the initial police determination as definitive.

    I hope the current investigation is more competent.

    Here’s another recent story about a tragic screwup by authorities

    Chicago police incorrectly identified a nude man with facial injuries they found unresponsive in late April as Alfonso Bennett, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Circuit Court of Cook County. Officials at Mercy Hospital & Medical Center then told Bennett’s sisters the injured man was their brother.

    When the sisters saw the man in the hospital, they “continually and repeatedly expressed their serious doubts” that he was actually their brother, the lawsuit said. But hospital staff told them repeatedly that they just didn’t recognize him because of his facial injuries and because they were struggling to come to terms with a difficult situation, according to the suit.

    The hospital told them that he needed to be removed from life support, the lawsuit said.

    The sisters agreed, and the man they believed to be their brother was taken off life support. He died on May 23.

    But Bennett showed up as his sisters were planning his service, shocking them, the lawsuit said. The man who had recently passed away was later identified by his fingerprints as Elisha Brittman, 69, who is unrelated to the Bennett family.

    Maybe tragicomedy, since the “missing” relative is alive and kicking.

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/04/us/mistaken-identity-man-taken-off-life-support-lawsuit/index.html

  131. 131.

    Cacti

    @Anonymous:

    Anyone else has a better idea of how to fight McConnell and his fellow cultists.

    Cool. So what are these ideas?

    I keep hearing versions of the above, but then nobody can actually identify what anyone else’s superior ideas are.

  132. 132.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    it’s a tricky thing because Dems need the votes of the kind of squishes who like to hear about working across the aisle and compromise, whether the D candidate believes in it or not, and if McConnell controls the Senate, the President as of 2021 will have no choice but to figure out some way to work with him. The Constitution has no provisions for passion, balls, platinum coins or other One Weird Tricks.

  133. 133.

    Cacti

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Seems there are still a lot of believers in the Green Lantern theory of the presidency.

    There are two ways to get legislation moved. Elect enough Dems for a majority in both chambers, or get the other guys to vote yes for your ideas. I hear a lot of people say the second isn’t possible anymore. Fair enough. Then what’s the plan to accomplish the first?

  134. 134.

    mrmoshpotato

    @raven:

    I ask again, are these 3d place games seen as important?

    No, they actually aren’t. No winner of this game is going to win the championship game because neither team is playing in the championship game.

    Happy now? I just wanted to support our English jackals here who probably would’ve preferred 3rd place to 4th place. Jeez.

  135. 135.

    Brachiator

    @Anonymous:

    No one is blaming Biden for Mitch’s actions. We’re telling you that Biden’s political philosophy is useless against McConnell and the Republicans. Anyone else has a better idea of how to fight McConnell and his fellow cultists.

    The only real solution is for the Democrats to win the Senate as well as the House.

    Won’t ever work!!! I want a president who won’t deign to sup with the monsters, ever! A president who calls them what they are, fascist monsters, racist killers, haters.

    This is good for a blog post, useless in reality. The worse Republicans are still citizens, and you are not going to be able to take away their franchise.

    And unless the Democrats can get an iron clad super majority, some bipartisanship will be necessary. Or we just write off democracy.

    I don’t have a problem with Biden or any other Democrat talking softly, as long as they also recognize the need for that big stick. Give the GOP an opportunity to stop their bullshit. And then bash them when they misbehave.

  137. 137.

    jackmac

    @Raven: Actually, Illinois still offers third-place games in high school championship tournaments like boys and girls basketball, soccer, volleyball, water polo (but not lacrosse). The third place hardware still looks impressive in a school’s trophy case. @Raven:

  139. 139.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Betty Cracker: If Garland was female, would the blogosphere trashed the nomination? I don’t think so.

    As to age, The Notorious RBG was 60 years old when she was appointed. Nobody cared.

  142. 142.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: Since we tend to be fiercely partisan news junkies around here, I think it’s easy to forget how little most people pay attention to all this shit. That’s why I said toward the end of the post I hope Biden and the other senators in the primary will make taking back the Senate central to their own campaigns.

    Link this shitty, unpopular GOP majority to actions like the plutocrat giveaway “tax cut,” confirmation of corrupt cabinet members, appointment of unqualified federal judges like Mrs. Diaper Dave Vitter, etc. Emphasize that if you’re unhappy with the direction of the country (which most people are, despite really low unemployment), you can’t just throw the bum Trump out — his enablers need to go too.

  143. 143.

    JGabriel

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    As to age, The Notorious RBG was 60 years old when she was appointed. Nobody cared.

    Because the GOP hadn’t made it quite as obvious yet that they were willing to throw out all governing norms to capture and maintain all power for themselves.

    And Garland was already 63 when President Obama nominated him. Garland will be 68 by the time 2021 rolls around.

    Betty’s right. Garland was a pick intended to placate Republicans, because of both his age and his moderation. If the Senate had been in Democratic control, President Obama would have undoubtedly picked someone younger and more liberal. And probably a woman, like the rest of his SCOTUS nominees.

  144. 144.

    Betty Cracker

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I find the “identity politics” argument you’re using unconvincing because I recall a lot of angst about Kagan’s nomination — plenty of folks were worried she was too centrist. As for RBG, that confirmation took place more than 25 years ago, so it might as well have been ancient Rome. IIRC, RBG’s confirmation was near-unanimous. Different world.

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: it was an article of faith at Eschaton, once the PUMAs and the Naderites there joined forces some time in the spring of ’09, that Sotomayor was secretly anti-choice and proof that Obama was, too, because as everyone knows he was really a Republican and a misogynist

  146. 146.

    David Koch

    @JGabriel:he’s not a moderate. A study of decisions by political scientists found him to be as liberal as RBG (graph)

    Did Obama, the master campaigner of his generation, determine that it would be harder to demonize a white guy, with an impeccable record, including graduating first in his class at Harvard and clerking for liberal giant William Brennan then someone with a less stellar CV – yes.

    We don’t have to be as bad as the wingnuts as trash a person, in this case, falsely as a “moderate”, because it didn’t live up to our expectations as another ground breaking move.

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I take your statement to mean that you believe there is some limit past which the American people will not put up with Yertle’s shenanigans. And I disagree with you on that, believing that those who support GrOPers, have no such limit.

    And the vast majority of the non-GrOPer public thinks the problem is not Mitch McConnell in particular but “[bi]partisan gridlock.”

  148. 148.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Betty Cracker: That’s a good point. I will add that particular angst was falsely created by loonies Griftwald and Jane Hamsher, saying Kagan couldn’t be trusted because she had worked for the evil Clintons. We know how much griftwald hates Hillary.

    Hamsher actually said Kagen, the first female Solicitor General in history and the first female Dean of Harvard Law School, was “unqualified” because she had no judicial experience. Others, like myself, informed Hamsher that constitutional giants Earl Warren and John Marshall had no prior judicial experience before joining the court.

    Thank goodness they no longer have any currency in the Democratic blogosphere.

    That said, the main objections to Garland was gender and age. As I note in the above comment, studies show Garland was a near carbon copy of RBG.

  149. 149.

    J R in WV

    @tobie:

    I would like to see the next Democratic President nominate Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Supreme Court.

    Quoted for Truth!!

  152. 152.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    Greenwald’s Twitter feed seems to be all in Spanish these days. I enjoy it a lot more than I used to (I don’t speak Spanish).

    LOL

  153. 153.

    Betty Cracker

    @David Koch: Even better! I can at least order food and ask where’s the bathroom in Spanish. I don’t speak a word of Portuguese!

  154. 154.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Link this shitty, unpopular GOP majority to actions like the plutocrat giveaway “tax cut,” confirmation of corrupt cabinet members, appointment of unqualified federal judges like Mrs. Diaper Dave Vitter, etc. Emphasize that if you’re unhappy with the direction of the country (which most people are, despite really low unemployment), you can’t just throw the bum Trump out — his enablers need to go too.

    Maybe a dead thread, but…Yep.

    And also nail the GOP to their lies and failure over healthcare.

    Now, back to my holiday weekend and earthquake watch!

  155. 155.

    J R in WV

    @Cacti:

    Could you people be any further up your own asses?

    You post here pretty often, so you are describing yourself in this not-well-thought-out comment.

  156. 156.

    J R in WV

    @Brachiator:

    How does a person “vanish under mysterious circumstances” if they are later found at home?

    Because lots of cops are NOT detectives, they’re muscle who love to beat up people they see a chance to arrest, often for nothing.

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