I apologize for the hiatus in posts on the Mueller Report. I’ve just been through a very busy patch, and I think my schedule is now opening up.
You might want to click on the topic below.
The Lawfare group has produced a podcast – the first in a series – about the report. It can be found here. Might be worth listening to before tomorrow afternoon.
Open thread!
Yutsano
I’ve seen a few crib videos out there about it. It’s not exactly an easy thing to sum up.
But at least it’s a best seller. So at least the junkies are getting hits.
Ten Bears
The Insider rearranged it into a graphic … embellishment.
Elizabelle
Putting in a Lawfare recap, too: Mueller on Trump: Everything the Special Counsel’s Report Says the President Did, Said or Knew
I have not read much of anything on the Mueller Report; have depended on osmosis here and through newspaper reading.
Looking forward to tomorrow morning. I hope it is, and is perceived, as the beginning of the end.
germy
Waiting for Godot/Guffman
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Josh Marshall has a good point about how the committee is doing this all wrong. I wish it were otherwise, but he’s right. All of the members are going to be asking questions of him. They should have an expert asking–or rather two experts one from each side. Instead, we’re going to be treated to all the members taking their turns to either bask in the light of Mueller (the Democrats) or spinning all kinds of nutso conspiracies (Republicans).
I’m really troubled by how badly the Democrats are handling this whole thing. Too few of them seem to me–as far as I can see–to understand the threat to the country Donald Tяump and the Republicans truly are.
Too many of them seem to think that the old ways of comity and reasonable compromise are still in play–or at least maybe could be once again once Tяump is gone.
That isn’t going to happen. The Republican Party is now a fully fascist operation. Donald Tяump himself is a fascist. He’s obviously a problem, but I think too many Democrats make the mistake of still seeing him as some kind of freak happening, the political equivalent of–well, shit, I don’t even have a metaphor here.
But Tяump, however execrable he may be, is not the root of the problem. He’s the immediate problem, it’s true, but as people love to say, he’s a symptom, not the sickness. I’ve said before, this was inevitable. Not this specific this, but some this like this. If it hadn’t been Tяump, it was bound to be some repellent, lowlife, fascist grifter or other.
The kind of comity-and-reasonable-compromise shit that worked fairly well for most of our history, when both parties had their freaks and their fascists, and both had decent, conscientious liberals among them, those days are gone.
The Republicans have given up on democracy. We need to just say it, over and over and over again, until it sinks in with the great swath of people who don’t follow this day by day as we do.
I think, too, that far too many Democrats just kind of trust our political institutions are going to weather this, and we’ll come out on the other side all right, carried more or less by the momentum of our history, and then we can just pick up and carry on as before.
This is inexcusably naïve. The Republican Party has been poisoning our democracy for 40 or 50 years now. We got lucky for a long time that the symptoms stayed reasonably mild, mild enough to more or less ignore.
We’re beyond that now though. The symptoms have spread, and to confuse the metaphor somewhat, they’ve begun to metastasize.
Luckily, we still have time. This isn’t a foregone thing. But if we’re going to beat this movement, we have to get our shit together. Or more precisely, elected Democrats have to wake the fuck up. We’re at war here, even if it’s still, for the time being, a cold one.
We’re lucky that as bad as things have gotten, the shooting hasn’t started yet. If we want to forestall the shooting for the long haul, we have to take the war we’re already in seriously. A good first step would be for elected Democrats to see how far things have already gone.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Hopefully this helps
CCL
Belated thank you, Cheryl. Your Mueller report “book club” posts got me reading it and I am now well into Volume II. As others has said, it’s terrifying and in no way does it “exonerates” the **.
mozzerb
Open thread? While this is still up, you might find it amusing while waiting (and I see the blogmeister has already retweeted it):
How to submit your resignation
Cheryl Rofer
@Elizabelle: Thanks! I got the idea that it would be in the afternoon, but his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee starts at 8:30 am Eastern time tomorrow. Then he goes to the Senate after lunch.
Brachiator
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
What do you want the Democrats to actually do?
What questions would you want the experts to ask?
Apart from possibly getting more info about the investigation into the Congressional record, what is the point of this appearance?
Yutsano
@Brachiator: The Democrats are already coordinating their questions. They’re already rehearsing for the big show tomorrow. I don’t really see what good one or two questioners will do here.
NotMax
Greetings and salutations from overcast and humid NY. What should havs been a 13 hour point-to-point trip took (ready for it?) 18 hours.
zhena gogolia
I’ve slacked off — it’s too depressing. Maybe this will inspire me to start up again. It’s not that the Trollope novel I started is all that thrilling.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
preternaturally sober-sided Chuck Rosenberg calling for an impeachment inquiry, specifically to enforce the subpoenas of McGahn and his note-taking aide
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Brachiator:
I’d like them to run these things more like how the Watergate hearings ran.
For many of the sessions, the committee members didn’t open their mouths. They had committee staff, and sometimes outside lawyers who were experts in whatever the subject for that particular hearing was do the asking.
I hope I’m wrong, but this looks like it could be a disaster. Every five minutes, there’ll be a new questioner. That means that every five minutes, we lose the thread. And while some members are good questioners, some suck at it.
Like anything else, it’s a skill. And instead people who don’t know how to do it effectively are going to waste time that I don’t think we can afford to lose.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Brachiator:
As for what to ask, I don’t know. I’m not an expert. That’s why I want expert questioners there to do the asking.
MisterForkbeard
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I’m hopeful that the Dem questioners can get their shit together and do this properly – the fact that they’re coordinating and rehearsing is a good sign. But I agree with you – ideally they’d have some kind of counsel or experienced person taking the lead on this rather than giving everybody a chance to shine.
Brachiator
@Yutsano:
Having staff, experts, trained attorneys provides more focus.
But as I noted, I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish.
schrodingers_cat
I am fucking tired of this non stop shitting on the Ds. Whatever the Ds are doing they are doing it wrong said with 100% certainty. I have no idea as to what this fucking pessimism about everything achieves. When was the last time you held elected office? That you are now such an expert about the right course of action for the speaker of the house or a congressional representative.
MJS
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Practicing attorneys (not attorneys turned politicians) know what to ask, and how to ask, for maximum effect, so I tend to agree with you, but I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the questioning I’ve seen lately from Senators (especially Harris) and Reps (AOC and Porter). As long as they’re coordinating their questions, I think it will be okay, and the Republicans can do nothing but make absolute fools of themselves.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
Come sit by me.
Baud
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Bad comparison. Watergate was a series of hearings, and the Republicans then weren’t obstructionists.
@schrodingers_cat:
Agree. I’m toying with taking a break. It’s like 2016 mentality all over again.
Neldob
There’s a play called “The Investigation: a Search for the truth in 10 acts” made from quotes from the Mueller Report. Its really good. Has Annette Benning and Kevin Kline among other luminaries.
zhena gogolia
@Neldob:
I think reading the Mueller Report is better. I tried to watch that, and I felt it was making Trump too much of a charismatic hero. Lithgow just can’t help himself.
MisterForkbeard
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. Last night’s piling on about the debt agreement was immensely frustrating for the same reason. There’s a TON of assumptions that went into all of it, and no one was really willing to admit that Dems have a lot less leverage on the debt ceiling because we’re NOT nihilistic power hungry assholes who are willing to destroy the country in order to save it. And because we’re not, the press blames US for the things Republicans do. If the Democrats could have (but did not) stop huge amounts of suffering by allowing Republicans to only cause a lot of suffering, then the Democrats are to blame for all the damage.
Even in the event that we held a hostage, we’d get blamed for it rather than the Republicans. Because that’s how this works – only Democrats have agency. The agreement last night was the smart play.
That said, I do really wish the Dems had a single questioner here or didn’t do this in 5-minute chunks. They’re going to have a hard time getting a good soundbite out of Mueller, who doesn’t even want to be there. And at this point, all we’re going to get is a good soundbite or at most something that makes clear that Trump wasn’t ‘exonerated’ but Mueller was basically referring all prosecution to Congress.
patrick II
3 Things
1. Democrats in the House seem to want run a kitchen table issues campaign. To that end they have been passing numerous bills that will be buried in the Senate. Who even knows what they are? meanwhile Donald subverts democracy and too many Dems don’t believe enough in the power of the words of democratic ideals to make it a fight.
2. They are abdicating their responsibility in the hope Mueller will save them. He won’t.
3. Mueller looked very nervous at his last press conference. I don’t think he is comfortable being the Saviour of democracy. It seems outside of even a decent man who is a Republican to rebel against perceived authority.
Barbara
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Can you tell me what benefit there is to declaring defeat before the battle is actually fought? Because I am having an increasingly hard time with armchair generals and their preemptive conclusions.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat: @zhena gogolia:
And me.
Elizabelle
@patrick II:
Bullshit. You come at Trump, you don’t miss. No one is sitting around not doing anything. You have no idea what is going on within committees and what Democratic politicians are saying to each other. Please do not take all of them for the mere careerists that they are falsely depicted as being.
@schrodingers_cat: Applause. Well said.
People: don’t adopt media talking points, even from those you perceive as friendly. You can see the framing on some of these comments about how stupid and ineffectual the Democrats are from space.
oatler.
Is Louoie Gohmert going to be involved?
Barbara
@zhena gogolia: yeah, you can both sit by me as well.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Criticism is not the same as pessimism, although I know that some people want to see it that way.
I don’t believe in pessimism or despair. I fear no evil. And I will cheer what I think is right and dump on what I think is stupid. And ignore what I don’t care about.
As always, your mileage may vary.
You’re right. If we dare criticize the Democrats, we should go back where we came from. In my case, I am going from the kitchen to the living room.
Jay
@mozzerb:
Yup, daaaam,
Jared O’Mara is the mysoginistic homophobic Independent MP for Sheffield Hallam and his Comms Director used Jared’s own twitter account to quit and roast the vile slug.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
I used to support an impeachment vote but on Pelosi’s timetable. I’m coming around to opposing it altogether. I’m convinced even a positive vote out of the house will be deemed not good enough for some reason (maybe they impeach for the wrong reasons). Maybe just write the whole thing off and pursue the kitchen table route.
laura
Is it wrong of me to hope that a fresh load of jeff Epstein sludge is released tomorrow at the midpoint of the Meuller interview? Because I’m hoping and expecting that the ham head is implicated based on what’s currently known.
Mary G
@schrodingers_cat: ?????
Elizabelle
@laura: That would not be helpful. Our media cannot multitask.
What? There was a Mueller hearing?
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: How are they going to enforce the testimony. If they don’t go, trump will just immediately pardon them. Barr has already decided that the rule of law doesn’t apply to them.
Mary G
@Jay: Later he said that the slime couldn’t access the Twitter account because it’s authenticated by the quitter’s phone, which he took with him.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I think we need to watch this play out.
One of the themes floating around is that Trump and Company/Cabinet are untouchable, because they will not bend to the rule of law.
They may be sadly mistaken.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@oatler.: Louie Goehmert, Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz, and two more whose stupidity isn’t legendary only because they’re overshadowed by those Three Mook-skeeters: Ken Buck and Debbie Lesko
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Barbara:
Well, I’m nőt declaring defeat. But I do think too few Democrats truly understand how much things have changed over the last 40 years, even as they lived through them.
But really, we’re six months into this Congress, going on seven, and Congresses only last two years. And we really haven’t made much headway on any of these investigations. We’re running out of time.
I think we need to be hassling our senators and representatives, those of us who have Democrats representing us, and making it clear what we believe the stakes are.
Politicians listen to constituents. I think we need to be leaning on them, and impressing just what we believe the danger is.
In six months, we’ll be well into the presidential campaign, and most everything else is going to grind down to a dead stop.
I think we need to run next year on the threat, the–and I hate this word but it fits–existential threat that Trump and the Republican Party pose to this country and our democratic systems and way of life.
To do that, we have to have laid an awful lot of the groundwork going in. We won’t have the time to lay out the case. The job next year will be to pound over and over and over on the points that most Americans will have already taken in and digested.
That means we need to make the case now. People need to be taking in the whole case now. For most of us, it will be more or less like taking it in through osmosis.
We need to be permeating the political atmosphere with the case we want to make, and we’re already behind schedule. We need to begin making up time, and, boy, I mean like now.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat: @zhena gogolia:
Tell that to these folks.
As I said last night at greater length, your “so fucking tired” crap does not make you the voice of reason.
Also, just who the fuck are YOU to tell others not to call out what we perceive as an abdication of responsibility and betrayal of trust?
Another Scott
Repost: Mueller Strategy Memo / 6 page Cheat Sheet for Democrats released today.
I don’t think Wednesday is going to be a bust, but we’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Public service reminder: for those watching on TV: make sure your remote’s battery is strong, so that you can hit mute as soon as you may require, once subjected to Goehmert, Jordan, Gaetz.
While it’s interesting to watch how they attempt to sling monkey poo (oh, wait, it’s their own) and cast aspersions and outright lie, it can be rather terrible to see it in real time. They are there to harsh your mellow, and to break any momentum any Democrat might build with a questioning segment.
Although, it will be fun to see how Mueller formulates his responses to these fine members of the Republican party, as comprised in 2019.
Josie
@MagdaInBlack:
Count me in as well.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Welcome to America!
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Elizabelle:
I think it’s safe to say that Göehmert will be casting aspersions on his own asparagus.
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: You have said your piece and I have said mine. We will see who is right, won’t we. Who the fuck am I, I am just a Balloon Juice commenter and voter who has an opinion.
FWIW I don’t necessarily approve or disprove of what the House leadership is doing but Nancy Pelosi has earned my trust and I have more faith in her than the screaming hordes bashing her social media or the blogs. YMMV.
ETA: I myself would prefer a more combative approach to the current one but I think there are more deserving candidates of my ire than NP.
laura
@Elizabelle: you’ve got a much cooler disposition than I do! I’m at a constant rage-boil these days and I want him gone/stopped/jailed/disgraced/sued to penury/investigated by every publication including the penny saver.
Yutsano
@NotMax: @Another Scott: Wait…did the monarchy get restored and no one told me?
Another Scott
@patrick II: It is trivially easy to find out what the Democrats in the House have done. Nancy tells us every day.
Here’s a summary graphic of the first 200 days.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Indeed. I am loving your use of umlauts with your o’s.
I think most Democratic congresspeople are well aware of the threat Trump and Republicans pose. Many ran specifically to help recover the country from Trump and his ilk. The public at large: some get it, some resist the idea, some aren’t paying attention and either will later, or may never tune in.
Given how much Trump and GOP are downplaying anything significant coming out of tomorrow’s testimony, I think they are blowing squid ink there.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Robert Reich making the case for impeachment
https://youtu.be/7FpTrkSN-xc
I heartily endorse Reich’s conclusions. But if the Democrats decide not to pursue impeachment, we just move on and work as hard as possible to defeat Trump.
Jay
@Mary G:
Yup, Gareth Arnold, ( the Comms director who quit after only 8 weeks) is blowing it up on twitter.
https://mobile.twitter.com/garetharnolduk
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Reich found the socialist Jesus during President Obama’s administration but not when he was in Bill Clinton’s cabinet, that saw the expansion of neo-liberal policies and a roll back of the New Deal regulatory regime.
Elizabelle
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): You probably saw this in the WaPost a few days ago.
Op ed by Kathleen Vohs, marketing (!) prof at UMinnesota: The psychological phenomenon that blinds Trump supporters to his racism. People sometimes do mental gymnastics to preserve their preferred view of reality.
Spoiler: It’s “cognitive dissonance.” Juicers knew about it going in. But we, as the public, need to see more and more of these articles. Repetition, repetition, repetition. It’s how Fox beats its message into consciousness (or just below).
Bonus: Article’s illustrated with a video clip of Lindsey Graham, plugged in just after this paragraph:
Take it away, Lindsey.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
The line between faith and cultism is has gone from thin to vanished with you and your crowd, but that’s your choice and you are welcome to it. Follow your goddess right along to her next tea party with Maureen Dowd, and gaze upon the wonder of your well-earned trust pissing on her junior colleagues while the rest of the world burns.
And yeah, by all means keep calling everyone who disagrees with you a “screaming horde.” That’ll get the party unity message across.
Miss Bianca
When I went to my regular library last night they had a copy of the Mueller Report on the front desk. I should have grabbed it right then and there. But I was too freaked out by the big red-letter announcement on the front cover: “FORWARD BY ALAN DERSHOWITZ”. Honestly, I spit up in my mouth a little, knowing I wouldn’t be able to resist reading *that* part as well.
Elizabelle
@Miss Bianca: Yeah, little did whoever put out that edition realize how quickly Dersh was going to end up even less reliable. Assuming it’s not the WaPost version?
Points to him, though, that our second thought WRT AD is his perfect sex life, or whatever he was trying to assure us of. And him in underpants ….
Ugh. I am spitting up too.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, I’m with you. Jesus, enough already.
Another Scott
In other news, GovExec:
They lie about everything. We have to fight them every single day.
And we [have to] vote them out. And that means sticking together as a party and doing everything we can to increase our majorities everywhere.
Eyes on the prize.
Cheers,
Scott.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: I was already basically ready to let Pelosi figure it out and let the chips fall where they may. That said, I’m starting to lose patience with her approach. I KNOW that impeachment will just fail in the Senate and could fail in the House, but it bugs me that Pelosi has been making more of an effort to shut it down rather than prepare members and the public. I even know why she’s doing it, but we really are getting to the point where people will believe that the Democrats just don’t care about Trump.
Now, that’s not true and they’ve overall done a good job of stymying Trump, as much as they can. But they need some kind of dramatic action or people won’t believe that the Dems are acting in good faith. They need to be louder about what they’re doing.
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
Yup, “screaming hordes” sure is an interesting choice of phrase for someone who purports to preach against racism.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
I agree. Time to pivot to the absolute fecklessness (as opposed to the unmitigated evil) of the Rethuglicans. I just heard it reported that Trump’s threats about deporting millions of (in his words) illegals turned into ICE’s apprehension of 35 immigrants. Thirty-five too many, obviously, but what a joke this clown has become.
schrodingers_cat
@eemom: NP is not my goddess, she is not my enemy either. I won’t bash either her or the squad. Whatever my differences with other elected Ds are they are minor compared to those with the Rs.
Another Scott
@MisterForkbeard: Politics is slow. Changing public opinion takes time. Expect more to start happening in early September once they return from recess. The hearings tomorrow are part of the process, not the end of the process.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
@Miss Bianca:
The Dersh version’s prices have been slashed, because people are trashing Dersh in the reviews and pointing out that the actual report, more than 300 pages, is available, for free, online, in multiple formats.
So, no need to give Dersh a dollar.
Bill Arnold
@debbie:
A high deportation count was not the goal. The fear that it caused in immigrant communities (and on the other side of the border) was one of the goals, along with exciting the viler parts of DJT’s base.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: The NP bashing is a coordinated Twitter campaign, NP is being called Neville Chamberlain for the deal to get rid of sequestration which was a disaster for scientific research among other things.
debbie
@Bill Arnold:
I don’t think even that succeeded. The element of surprise is gone. I doubt people are as scared as Trump and Miller want them to be.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Reich is correct, in my view, about impeachment. There’s a lot of other stuff that I disagree with him about. He makes a brief and good case for impeachment.
@Another Scott:
Changing public opinion is irrelevant to whether Trump should be impeached. It’s just a weird rationalization that some people seize on to justify delay.
Bill Arnold
@debbie:
And this is a very good thing. :-)
prostratedragon
@Elizabelle: Assuming it’s not the WaPost version?
It is not. The Post edition introduction is by two of its reporters.
Jay
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
Wonder if he details his massages in his forward? //
Jay
@debbie:
@Bill Arnold:
Nope, immigrant/refugee communities are terrified,
But in many places local communities are standing up for their neighbors with ICE “blocking”, sanctuary, alerts, food, money, bail, legal aid.
MisterForkbeard
@eemom: It’s sad, but screaming “I’m not the cultist YOU’RE THE CULTIST AND PELOSI IS LITERALLY PEEING ON PEOPLE” probably isn’t going to convince anyone you know what you’re doing.
Bill Arnold
@Brachiator:
I”ll be watching moves for several in-session weeks after the long-awaited Mueller testimony. There are hints that it will be used to drum up more support for impeachment. The August recess will be interesting; I hope they (Dems) have a plan for the time.
delk
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you!
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
That’s worse than a Catch 22. But typical Trump. His racist agenda will continue until he is voted out of office.
Elizabelle
Let’s put Fox News on the ropes.
WaPost: Fox News helped radicalize domestic terrorist Cesar Sayoc, say his lawyers
He’s the moron outta Florida who mailed pipe bombs to the Clintons, and George Soros, and Biden, and a bunch of Democratic targets. (Kamala Harris!)
ETA: This is an “opinion” piece by Erik Wemple, although it is pretty damn factual.
MisterForkbeard
@Another Scott: Oh, I get it. But they really do need to take an opportunity to make some waves. Even things like officially reprimanding Trump for racism or putting Barr and Ross under contempt aren’t getting any air time and aren’t buying them anyone’s favor. Those things are important, but what people want is for Trump or his lackeys to get actually, visibly hurt in a way that they care about. If people can write something off as a “strongly worded letter” then they’re not going to be impressed by it.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
No, the WaPo version has no hint of Dershowitz. It’s the one to get.
Jay
debbie
@Jay:
Yes, I even heard of neighbors surrounding a house somewhere in Missouri, preventing ICE from entering the house.
zhena gogolia
@MisterForkbeard:
“People” need to wake up and realize we’re in a struggle with fascism and every single person is responsible. If you’re shitting on the anti-fascists you’re responsible for that too. Everything you do has to be directed against the enemy.
LuciaMia
Isnt that what theyve always done? Everybodys gotta have their little face time in front of the cameras. “Look at meeee, America!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
honest to god, if I were to write hate-fueled fan-fiction about Wilmer, i wouldn’t have come up with this
MisterForkbeard
@zhena gogolia: I can agree with that.
trollhattan
@Jay:
Modesto, huh? Let’s ponder how the Trumpsters should fare with their little white pride shindig.
Hispanic population: 38.6%
I’m thinking it’ll be great! The irony of holding it in Graceada Park is not lost.
James E Powell
When the House Democrats don’t go after Trump in a loud, aggressive manner, it not only demoralizes a large part of our base, it sends a very strong message to that great mass of low-information voters that “even the Democrats agree that Trump did nothing wrong.” We need the first group to be on fire and the second to be leaning our way in order to win in 2020. Not sure how the Democratic leadership and especially the Democratic presidential campaigns see it, but it frightens me.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Jay
@trollhattan:
The purpose of these “shindigs”, is to draw out the community in counterprotest, terrorize others, engage in street violence and terrorism, see how much support they get from local Police,
Then use any footage of violence to recruit and radicalize people on social media by portaying themselves as both “victims attacked by Evil Antifia” for defending “freeze peach and normies” from the radical gay agenda, and as “victorious hero’s” for the same reasons.
Then they will shitpost and incite in the hopes that one of their “red pilled” followers online will commit a mass murder.
joel hanes
@James E Powell:
We need the first group to be on fire and the second to be leaning our way in order to win in 2020
We do indeed.
And when do we need those things?
Not today, when 80% of the voters are completely disengaged from politics — we need the crescendo at about this time next year, or a little later, because much of the electorate has a very short memory and an even shorter attention span.
Cheryl Rofer
I find it strange that people attack other people for attacking the people they think shouldn’t be attacked.
It’s tiresome to read and, yes, divisive. Exaggerated as well, because part of what is being called “attacking” is legitimate criticism. We don’t have a single leader who has a single plan that is unanimously approved, and we’re not going to. Complaining that others are criticizing (or even attacking) is not productive.
If you believe that the only thing that should be done is to attack/criticize Trump and the Republicans, show us how to do it! Enough of this meta stuff.
And yes, I’ve gone to the meta meta.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
We’ll track you down and tell you you’re doing it wrong.
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
How do you prove this? How do you measure this? We’re not even in primary season yet. Do you expect people to be marching in the streets every day?
I don’t believe that there is any such thing as low information voters. There may be political junkies and ordinary people, but that’s about it.
Anyway, l come across a lot of people who dislike Trump and can’t wait to get rid of him. I can see the need for voter registration and making sure that people can get out to vote. And whatever it takes to get strong primary participation where possible.
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
But not to the meta meta meta
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
Continual criticism is pessimism by definition.
Cheryl Rofer
@Cheryl Rofer: Here are some examples of what might be done instead of attacking those who are attacking…etc.
– Let’s mount a campaign against [choose Trump indecency/law violation/incompetence]. Here’s how we might focus attention on how this hurts the average voter.
– We have, already, fund drives for various candidates.
– Here’s how we can bring home [choose Democratic policy being voted on in the House, never to see the Senate].
We do need to think out how to make Trump’s failures and positive policies more obvious. Ideas welcome.
Uncle Cosmo
@Miss Bianca: Less being more, I paid extra for (I think it was) the WaPo version that didn’t have Derpowitz’s despicable BS as a foreword.
eemom
@Brachiator: @James E Powell:
Thanks to both of you for being actual voices of reason.
I don’t have the patience to reason with the head up the ass crowd, so I’m a screaming drunk psycho they can make fun of. Don’t give a shit, but I’m glad y’all are around to reveal their fatuous credulity for what it is.
Cheryl Rofer
@Brachiator:
It may be. I’ve lost track.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The Clinton Machine is everywhere.
Dan B
@NotMax: L Viewing the flash flooding videos from NYC and Brooklyn yesterday I thought your trip from La Guardia to your destination would take 18 hours.
Jay
eemom
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yeah, I had to read that twice before I figured out that you were sort of agreeing with me. (I think.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: He only served during Clinton’s first term, he wrote “Locked in the Cabinet” during Clinton’s second term.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You need a better dictionary
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott:
This is true, it also applies to Congresscritters minds.
J R in WV
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I think the next 12 months will lay the foundation for the actual Presidential campaign. No one wants another Republican candidate, Trump has spent the last 4 years chipping away at the American way of life, and deserves to reap the fruits of that labor.
I hope that the House holds impeachment hearings from sometime this winter until at least next summer or early fall. Hopefully someone is working on building this effort to a crescendo crashing about Trump’s head in the month or 6 weeks before the election. Someone named Pelosi… or perhaps Adam Schiff, or… whoever leads the House Impeachment Committee.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
You said it…
it is a shame people don’t rise to your rhetorical level when you start talking about how people are going to break their spines bending over backwards to suck Pelosi’s dick.
But then, we couldn’t all go to Hollywood Upstairs Lawyer School
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: I think you may need one.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nope. I’m fine.
Captain C
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
That ship sailed, at latest, in 1994, a full quarter-century ago, with Newt Gingrich and his list of horrible things to call Democrats (and his Contract On America). Maybe once we have a functional conservative party and the Trump-Tea Party-W Bush-Gingrich wing of the party is scattered to the wind, but not until then.
Captain C
@schrodingers_cat:
To be fair, the Democrats haven’t found a way to build a B Ark and trick all the deplorables into boarding it and leaving the Solar System forever. Other than that, though, I’m on the same page with you.
Barbara
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I used to focus more intently on political strategy and messaging, and then I took a close look at presidential election data for 1992, and I realized how so much of what leads to electoral success has nothing to do with day to day things like this budget deal or that hearing. It is an incredibly long slog that needs to focus principally on ideas and not tactics. This constant obsession with whether Pelosi’s microdecisions reflected the best deal that could be gotten is largely fruitless and becomes deeply dispiriting as it soaks up energy that could be deployed more effectively.
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: Aren’t you a fan of the elder Bush who gave Barr his first chance at becoming AG to sweep Iran Contra under a rug?
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: they thinkbthat’s going to fly as a fucking defense? Hell, who knows anymore. It’s Florida, right? Anything could happen.
Miss Bianca
@Cheryl Rofer: I like this approach.
Dan B
@Cheryl Rofer: Good points about motivating support for push back on the GOP, and maintaining democracy. I believe a lot of the anxiety and frustration with Pelosi / Schumer, etc. is that we’ve relied upon the status quo to maintain a modicum of progress. The GOP has succeeded in destroying that and is on the way to a neo-imperium.
Cesar Chavez’s organizer believes that there are not enough progressive organizations that individuals can influence at the local level and/or progressive participation in local politics. Unions used to provide that but their influence is minor. Last year he felt that Indivisible might provide a model. I’m not sure it still is effective but I’d like to see them at Town Halls and Senator’s offices in August with a consistent set of messages: ramp up investigations or impeachments of Barr and others, if not Trump, cease the torture of kids and families.
We also need to pressure the MSM.
When we agree on effective strategies and get moving the anxiety will have a channel. Deciding on a limited number of strategies will be key.
Cheryl Rofer
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, that’s about as divisive as anything you criticize. Yes, people are all evil or all good. Yes, something that happened 30 years ago is essential fighting today.
Can you please turn to the positive? What would you like to see done?
Cheryl Rofer
@Dan B: All these are good ideas. For a variety of reasons, the Democrats have let a lot of things slide over the past 40 years. The Republicans have been creeping toward fascism during that time, and too often the Democrats went along with them or just stood back. Or were overwhelmed.
Now we’ve got to build some structures back. Or build new ones to deal with a threat that has seemed far-fetched for too long. Much of my criticism of Democratic leadership is because I don’t see them doing that. So we’ve got to do it. And we’ll disagree along the way. But we’ve got a big tent and will need a multitude of tactics.
Cheryl Rofer
Last night there was a lot of weeping and wailing over the budget deal, but some Republicans are also weeping and wailing.
What we need to say is
YES, IT’S TERRIBLE FOR THE REPUBLICANS! HAHA, WE WON! LOSERS!
schrodingers_cat
@Cheryl Rofer: Well the past is haunting our present AG Barr is acting like T’s personal lawyer. Why not direct some of the fury directed at NP at him. I am pretty positive, I applied for citizenship one day before Orange became the President. I have worked with local Ds and helped with local and statewide races.
FWIW I don’t think anyone is all bad or all good. I was just trying to point out that nobody’s judgment is infallible. Including myself. I had a far rosier view of Rs than I have now. I was wrong.
ETA: That they did not like immigrants or other minorities was fairly obvious. So I was never R sympathetic but I didn’t think they would openly support treason.
James E Powell
@eemom:
I could be wrong, but I believe that’s the first time in my 64+ years that anyone referred to me as the voice of reason.
You must have me confused with someone else.
eemom
@James E Powell:
As one of my old bosses used to say, in the land of the blind the one eyed are king.
Cheryl Rofer
@schrodingers_cat: It’s cool that you’ve joined us. It’s a scary time now.
There is certainly a bizarre web connecting a great number of unpleasant people. Barr’s father hired Jeffrey Epstein to teach adolescent girls math and science? And Epstein alone seems to be a major node point. But there’s a lot we still don’t know. For example, Epstein really wanted to suck up to scientists and college professors. I doubt that all of them, or even most of them, were involved in his pedophilia. But some were. So much to find out there.
Likewise, there are different degrees of political culpability for coming to the present situation. I wasn’t pleased with a lot of the changes under Regan – removing regulation, for example. But Reagan almost outlawed nuclear weapons with Gorbachev and certainly got things moving in the right direction. Likewise, it’s hard to think of someone who could have done a better job of managing the US response to the breakup of the Soviet Union than GHW Bush. And yes, he was part of Iran-Contra. People aren’t just one thing or another.
We need to stick together through this. There are ways to do that and still disagree on smaller points, like tactics.
Another Scott
ICYMI, Evan Hurst at Wonkette – It’s Manafort.
It’s always been Manafort.:
My spidey-sense was on fire as soon as Manafort joined Donnie’s campaign. Nobody works for “free” in a position like that. Least of all a mercenary like Manafort.
Cheers,
Scott.